Vlad's fury at Jack proved to be far more serious than one day's anger at an unfortunate event. From that moment on, at Vlad's request, Jack was not allowed to visit him. He wasn't allowed to write letters to him. Vlad absolutely refused to speak with him. Jack tried getting around the hospital's new rules concerning him. He tried disguises (often these involved overcoats, fedoras, and fake moustaches – they didn't work). He tried sneaking in through the window (as Vlad was up on the fourth floor and Jack's grappling guns and flight simulation devices were either still blueprints or unable to work, that option was also cut off to him). He even tried breaking into the hospital late at night through the roof one time (he set off an alarm and had to make a break for it). But none of it mattered to Vlad. This whole mess was Jack's fault. He was stuck in his hospital bed, and the way things were going, he was going to be there for a long time. As far as Vlad was concerned, any friendship he'd ever had with Jack was dead and buried – for good.
The doctors Vlad had working on him tried to be cheerful and optimistic, but only an idiot would consider his situation one worth being happy about it. The doctors were completely clueless as to how to treat spectral diseases, and they knew it. They did try – oh, did they try. They scanned him with radiation detectors, lest this be some kind of radiation rather than spectral energy (of course, it was spectral, so that did nothing). They took blood samples and carefully analysed them, seeing if there was any mutation or infection. They looked over his acne extensively every day and took samples of that, trying to see why they were so unnatural. Optometrists were brought in to examine his eyes and see why they had changed shades. Extensive tests were run at least once a week, Vlad was taken downstairs to work out every day to see if his strength was weakening from the contamination, his temperature was constantly checked – everything possible was done. But it all amounted to nothing. All they got out of his blood was that his plasma was now a yellow-green colour and that the molecular structure of his blood cells had been slightly altered to be more sensitive to certain energy wavelengths (of which they were unable to produce with any of their technology). His strength did not weaken. The optometrists couldn't figure out what was wrong with his eyes. His temperature was always a few degrees below normal, but didn't affect his health at all. The tests on his acne revealed no clues as to their abnormal status. Vlad would have helped, but he didn't know a thing about ecto-acne – as he had told Jack, it was his crazy theory, which he had not clued anyone into, and due to Vlad's hesitancy to theorise without more information and his lack of supplies in the hospital, he had little knowledge that would have proven useful.
The few classmates who had befriended him over the years came to visit once and a while, always bringing with them news on what was going on back in college. One piece of news guaranteed that Vlad couldn't get access to anything that would have helped him; in light of his accident, the university had confiscated all of Jack, Vlad, and Maddie's files concerning anything to do with ghost weaponry, design, and theory. Jack had put up a fight, of course, and Maddie had a few things to say about that decision herself. But it had all been taken away. The Proto-Portal itself had been dismantled. A few people had suggested that Vlad ask Jack for help anyway – he had committed all his theories to memory and managed to hide a few files from the university. But Vlad refused. Much as he wanted to get well again, asking Jack for help just wasn't something he was willing to do. Jack would take it as a sign that all was forgotten, and most of Jack's "help" only made things worse. He wouldn't do it.
According to what his visitors told him, life went on at college as it usually did. The testing month had come and gone, with Vlad missing it – he had been predicted to be one of the top students on several of those tests. For the most part, the long-term consequences of his condition had excused him from work, but once and a while someone would bring by some notes or papers from a teacher. He was glad for these – it was at least some relief from the new and unpleasant routine his day-to-day life had. The one (semi) friend he had that had some sort of social status – Harriet Chin – occasionally let him in on some notes on how the social hierarchy was working. Before, Vlad hadn't really cared about that. In fact, he still didn't care. But Harriet loved to talk and report on people, and Vlad made an easy audience ('Well,' he thought, 'that explains why her major is journalism.')
The visits he had were touching, but they didn't cheer him up. The one person he really wanted to see, the one person who could make him feel better – Maddie – hadn't come to see him yet. As far as he knew, the only time she'd come to the hospital was the day of the accident. Vlad blamed Jack for this too. He had convinced himself that after their fight, Jack had gone to Maddie for advice and, as was typical of his bumbling self, he had distorted, forgotten, or exaggerated the entire conversation. He had convinced himself that Jack had made him look like a horrible roaring lunatic. And he had convinced himself that because of Jack's idiocy, Maddie was not going to come and see him again. So convinced himself, had he of this fact, that he did not even make inquiries about it when friends came to visit him. As far as he was now concerned, after what Jack's idiocy did to him, there was no limits to what else it could do. And more likely than not, Jack had distorted the story so much that trying to get the truth through to anyone – even someone as intelligent as Maddie – would be impossible. There was no way he was going to see her again. And so he sat up in his hospital bed, going through every day with his routine, making no progress with his ecto-acne problem, and feeling sorry for himself.
On the last day before summer break, everyone who had been visiting him stopped by to see him before heading home. They had all packed over the week before, and had their entire vacations planned out. Some of them shared these plans with Vlad, promising to bring him back something and visit him as soon as they got back. Harriet went into a vivid explanation of how her trip would count as a special project for her senior journalism class – she was going on a cross-country trip, interviewing people about the country about their opinions on the controversy being caused by such movies as Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom and Gremlins. Vlad listened to all their stories, though he wished he could tune them out. He didn't tell them, but hearing about all that they had planned for their summers only made him feel worse.
The hospital had offered him the option of transferring to one near his home if he wanted to go back for the summer. But Vlad had no desire to do so. He had come from a small town in northern Wisconsin from a small family. Though they had aspired to a higher class life, he and his family were in the lower middle-class range, their highest social connection being their novelist friend – and she herself wasn't the most successful. There was nothing of interest there and, since his parents had passed away, Vlad felt no ties to the place. His home between the time his parents died and his admittance into college was a ramshackle apartment room that was barely fit for anyone to live in, let alone a poor teenager who had had to sell his old home for financial aid. He also wasn't eager to make any journey looking like he did. And as a practical matter, he couldn't afford any trips. His parents had provided him with an insurance plan that was paying for his hospital fees, but now that he was out of commission from lessons, he didn't have his scholarship money any more. Any kind of trip would have been out of his league. The cold, hard reality of that fact made it even more difficult to swallow.
As they day went on, people began heading out for home, with no new visitors coming in. News had got in through Harriet ('who else?' Vlad thought) that Jack had made one last attempt to sneak in and visit Vlad before heading home, but had again been caught. Jack's humiliation did nothing to lighten Vlad's mood. As evening came up and as Vlad was preparing to give up for the day and turn in, a knock came at the door.
"It's open," Vlad said in monotone, not even bothering to turn and look at the door. He was really worn out. The door opened, and the figure walked into the room. They took the chair by the dresser, moved it up towards Vlad's bed, and sat down on it. Vlad finally turned to look at his visitor. His eyes nearly popped out of their sockets, he felt himself shoot straight up in bed, and a huge, dumb grin not unlike Jack's shot across his face.
"Maddie!" he cried, "At last you've come to visit me! Oh, what's kept you, my dear? I was beginning to worry that –" he stopped, his grin fading away. Maddie's expression had a small smile, but her eyes were nervous, wide-open, and deadly serious.
"Hello, Jack," she said weakly, trying to make her smile more warm. It didn't work.
"Something troubling you, Maddie?" Vlad asked.
Maddie shook her head. "No, Vlad," she sighed, "I'm fine," it was clear that she wasn't fine, but it was also clear that she didn't want to talk about it…yet.
"So," she managed to get her smile friendly at last, "how are things going here?"
"Horrible," Vlad scowled, "My doctors wouldn't know anything of a spectral nature if it slapped them in the face, I'm always cold, I still have these blasted bandages all over my face, and I can't solve anything thanks to the school's confiscation of our research! And for all of this I have Jack to thank! Thank you very much, Jack!" he shouted, sarcasm now flowing up into his voice, "Thank you very much!"
"Vlad," Maddie sighed, "that's kind of what I wanted to talk to you about," Vlad's shoulders slumped.
"Must we?" he moaned.
"Vlad, you two have been friends for years," Maddie said in a very astute, matter-of-fact way, "you can't just ignore him over an accident, even if it was rather…significantly scarring. Jack really is sorry."
"Yes," Vlad's eyes narrowed, "Well, 'sorry' doesn't repair the damage or bring back my life!"
"Come on, Vlad," Maddie stared him right in the eye, "one accident in the lab isn't going to ruin your life…"
"Maddie, look around you!" Vlad yelled, throwing his arms up above his head, "I'm in the hospital, I'm subjected to tests, workouts and routines every day, my face is wrapped up like a mummy, my hair's like someone half my age, I've missed the rest of the school year, and I can't see y…" he caught himself. He wanted to say it – oh, how he wanted to say it – but he couldn't. He chickened out, "…Your Camper and Mine. It's my favourite TV show," he laughed nervously. Maddie sighed yet again.
"Vlad, you can catch up on all of that once you're out of here! They'll have to find a cure sometime! You and Jack are like brothers! You can't let something like this ruin your friendship."
"No?" Vlad raised an eyebrow, "Then let me add to the reasons! He's a bumbling moron, he constantly ruined all of our inventions, the backwash incident, and now that I'm stuck in here, he's free to steal y…" he caught himself again.
'Say it,' he thought in his head, 'Say it!' but he couldn't.
"…Yams," he threw out his lame excuse, "he's free to steal all of the yams in our refrigerator. They're my favourite fruit."
"Vlad," Maddie said, her voice a bit more annoyed than before, "you let all that stuff slide before, and it's ridiculous to use them to justify your behaviour now!"
"Well maybe this little accident was the breaking point I needed to see just how much of an idiot Jack truly is! As far as I'm concerned, he and I are through – forever!" the entire room seemed to shake at his final scream. It was only a few moments too late that Vlad realised just how forcefully he yelled, how he was now out of bed and looming over Maddie, and how she had scooted back in the chair and that her face now held a look of shock, fear, and something bordering on disgust.
"Oh…" Vlad quickly sat back down again, trying to undo the shock, "I'm sorry, Maddie, I…"
"Yeah," she quickly interrupted, "Look…I'm gonna go. I'm leaving early tomorrow to visit my sister in Arkansas and I made plans for tonight already," as she said this she got up out of the chair and pushed it back against the wall. Vlad was beating himself up in his head for blowing it, but he had to try and get her to stay a bit longer.
"Do you have to leave so soon?" he pleaded, "What do you have plans for tonight anyway?" Maddie paused for a moment. Then…
"Jack and I are going out for dinner," Vlad let his expression contain itself to that of mild shock, but a house full of fireworks seemed to go off in his mind, "I'll…I'll see you later. Goodbye, Vlad," she opened the door and walked out. Vlad stared after her for several minutes, his expression not changing and the fireworks not ceasing their crazy dance around his mind. Finally, it all snapped. He didn't fully realise it, but it all came crashing down. A single firework from his mind jumped down his spine and through his nerves, sending his legs into a furious shake. The very next firework did the same to his torso. A third firework had his arms trembling in fury. And his face slipped underneath the bandages into the most horrible grimace he had ever worn in his life.
"Out…with…Jack?!" he hissed, "Out…with…JACK!!!!" his voice again shook the room, and his left hand went flying up into a fist an collided hard against the wall above his bed, sending a shockwave throughout his room and leaving several cracks in the plaster. He had slammed his eyes shut in his rage, hissing his breaths through clenched teeth and tearing at his covers with his right hand. His eyes being closed, and his fury blinding him to all but the knowledge that Maddie was out with Jack, he couldn't have noticed that his body was now outlined in a haunting, ghostly glow.