A/W: I own nothing
This Chapter was so long. One of the longest ones that I've done in a while. Good new is that the next chapters not as long. Bad news no idea when I'll get to work on it. So I pretty sure you guys are wondering what I'm doing with all the bank chapters and me updating . . . or maybe not but LilNecro PM me and told me that she had major writers block and no longer wished to continue my story. I'm still leaving this story as 'Completed' for the time being because I'm really sure where I'm going with the updates. I work on them when I get the time but I have a ton of other things I have to do now-a-days. I'm so glad summer almost here. Maybe when I'm on summer vacation and I don't have to work, I can sit down and work out whatever I'm going to do with this story. Anyways let me know what you guys think. Should I just continue the story my-self? Put up for Readoption? Or leave it like it is? I think I know what your answers will be but I'll just have to see how everything goes.
SPROV
"Shouldn't we wait for Aunt Lauren and Derek." Chloe said glancing at the door of our hotel room. I shrugged and glanced at Dad. He look at his watch. "It should be much longer now." "In other words," Tori said. "Read Simon." I ignored her and looked Dad who just shrugged in response. Then sighed as I turned to the right page.
I stepped cautiously from the media room, expecting to find Derek lurking around the corner waiting to pounce. The rumble of his voice made me jump, but it came from the dining room, where he was asking Mrs. Talbot when Dr. Gill would be ready to see him. I hurried into class. They weren't done with math yet, and Ms. Wang waved for me to take a seat next to the door.
"I wonder if that tutor was even licensed to teach." Dad said. "Doubt it," Tori said.
When the lesson finally ended, Derek lumbered in. I struggled to ignore him. Rae waved me to the desk beside hers. I bolted for it. Derek never even look my way, just took his regular seat beside Simon, their heads and voices lowering as they talked. Simon laughed.
"Huh?" I said. "I don't even remember what we were talking about." Tori smirked, "That's says a lot doesn't it." I mumble something under my breath that had Tori glaring, Chloe looking amused, along with Dad who was trying to give me a stern look.
I strained to hear what Derek was saying. Was he telling Simon about his "joke"? Or was I getting paranoid?
"Derek wouldn't do that. He didn't even tell me tell me about what he was planing." I reassured her. She looked down ashamed, "I know that now." She look back up towards me. "To be fair though, I didn't really know you guys then."
After English, school was done for the day. Derek disappeared with Simon, and I fallowed Rae to the dining room, where we did our homework. I could barely finish a page on sentence diagramming. It was like deciphering a foreign language. I was seeing ghosts. Real ghost. Maybe it would be different for someone who already believed in ghosts. I didn't.
"Now I do," Chloe said. "I would have been in big trouble a couple months ago if I hadn't came to terms with seeing ghosts." Tori scoffed but said nothing.
My religious training was limited to sporadic church and Bible school visits with friends, and one brief stint at a private Christian school when my dad hadn't been able to get me into a public school.
Tori made a strangled sound and we all glanced at her. "What?" She snapped and glanced away crossing her arms.
But I believed in God and in an afterlife the same way I believed in solar systems I'd never seen-that matter-of-fact acceptance that they existed even if I'd never thought much about the specifics. If ghosts existed, did that mean there was no heaven? Were we all doomed to walk the earth forever as shades, hoping to find someone who could see or hear us and . . . ?
"And what?" Tori asked. "Well, if you'd let me read." WACK! "Hey," I whinnied. "Tori." My Dad said in a warning voice. "What?" She said and gave him an innocent look.
And what?
"Ha!" I smirked, "You think like Chloe." "Hey," Chloe replied with a smile pout.
What did the ghosts want from me? I thought of the voice in the basement. I knew what that one wanted-a door opened. So this spirit had been wandering for years, finally finds someone who can hear hi and his earth-shattering request is "Hey, could you open that door for me?"
"It's got to be more then that." Dad muttered to himself. I wondered if all ghosts need such basic things from the people that could see them. Then again, how would I know.
What about Liz? I must have dreamed that. Anything else . . . I couldn't wrap my head around it. But one thing was certain. I needed to know more, and if the pills were stopping me from seeing and hearing the ghosts clearly, then I had to stop taking them.
"Like they'll let you." Tori said in a matter-of-fact voice.
"It's not going to happen to you." I turned from the living room window as Rae walked in. "What happened to Liz, getting transferred, that won't happen to you." She sat on the couch. "That's what you're worried about, right? Why haven't you said ten words all day?" "Sorry. I'm just . . ." "Freaked out."
"That's an understatement." Chloe said. "I was way past freaked out." I smiled at her. "Oh, come on were not really that scary of a bunch are we?" She rolled her eyes. "Oh yeah, you guys are so terrifying." I laughed. Tori scoffed and the corners of Dads mouth twitched upward.
I nodded. This was true, even if it wasn't about what she thought. I sat in one of the rocking chairs. "Like I said last night, Chloe, there's a trick to getting out of here." She lowered her voice. "Whatever you think? About their labels? Just nod and smile. Say 'Yes, Dr. Gill. Whatever you say Dr. Gill. I just want to get better, Dr. Gill.' Do that, and you'll be following Peter out the front door any day now. We both will. Then I'll send you a bill for my advice."
Tori looked appalled. "That's not half bad advise." She paled, "No one ever mention that I ever said that." "Sure," Chloe said with an amused grin. "I'll be sure to tell Rae your exact words next time I see her." I shifted a snicker while Tori sent a glare towards Chloe.
I struggled to smile. From what I'd seen so far, Rae was a model patient. So why was she still here? "How long is the average stay?" I asked. She reclined on the sofa. "A couple months, I think." "M-months?" "Peter was here about that long. Tori a bit more. Derek and Simon, about three months." "Three months?" "I think so. But I could be wrong. Before you, Liz and I were newbies. Three weeks for each of us, me a few days more than her."
"You know," I said, "I wonder what the average stay at Lyle House was anyways." "I'd say probably two, or maybe three." Chloe said. "Two, or three what?" She shrugged, "Maybe four." "Four what?" I asked again. "Weeks? Months?" Dad nodded, "That sounds about right." Tori sighed, "Will you just read."
"I-I was told I'd only be here for two weeks." She shrugged. "I guess it's different for you then, lucky girl." "Or did they mean two weeks was the minimum?" She stretched her foot to nudge my knee. "Don't look so glum. The company's good, isn't it?" I managed a smile. "Some of it." "No kidding, huh?" With Peter and Liz gone, we're stuck with Frankenstein and the divas.
Tori's eyes narrowed to slits. Lips curling into a frown. "Someone should have a good look in the mirror." She snapped, crossing her arms.
Speaking of which, Queen Victoria is up and about . . . relatively speaking." "Hmm?" She lowered her voice another notch. "She's stuffed full of meds and totally out of it." I must have looked alarmed because she hurried on. "Oh, that's not normal. They don't do it to anyone but Tori, and she wants it. She's the pill princess. If she doesn't get hers on time, she asks for them. Once, on the weekend, they ran out and had to page Dr. Gill for a refill and whoa boy-" She shook her head.
"I remember that," I said. "Why did you want your meds that bad anyways?" Tori just shrugged, glancing away. "It was just better because I didn't have to think about things." I frowned at her and out of the corner of my eye I saw Dad giver her a remorseful look.
"Tori ran to our room, locked the door, and wouldn't come out until someone brought her the medication. Then she tattled to her mom and there was this huge uproar. Her mom's connected to the people who run Lyle House. Anyways, she's totally doped up today, so she shouldn't give us any trouble." When Mrs. Talbot rounded us up for dinner, I realized I hadn't told Rae about taking her advice and looking up the dead janitor.
"Who would have know I'd actually look it up." Chloe said. "Who knew you would have actually found the guy." I told her. She nodded then shuttered. "If I never have to another ghost like that then it'll still be too soon."
Tori joined us for dinner-in body, at least. She spent the meal practicing for a role in the next zombie movie, expressionless, methodically moving fork to mouth, sometimes even with food on it. I was torn between feeling sorry for her and just being creeped out. I wasn't the only one left uncertain. Rae tensed with every mouthful. as if waiting for 'old Tori' to leap out and jab her about her eating. Simon gamely tried to carry on a conversation with me and tentatively slanted questions Tori's way, as if afraid she was just playing possum, looking for sympathy.
"I don't need anybody's sympathy." Tori said stiffly.
After that endless meal, we all fled, gratefully, to our chores-Rae and I on dinner cleanup, the guys on garbage and recycling detail. Later Rae had a project to work on, and Ms. Wang hand warned the nurses that she wanted Rae to do it without help. So after telling Miss Van Dop that I'd be right back, I headed to my room for my iPod. When I opened the door, I found a folded note on the floor.
Chloe,
We need to talk. Meet me in the laundry room at 7:15.
Simon
"I don't remember writing that." I told her. "Yeah, well you didn't." She said and I gave her a puzzled look. She wave a toward the writing pad in my hand and said, "You'll see."
I folded the note into quarters. Had Derek put Simon up to this when I didn't freak out over him calling me a necromancer? Did he hope I might give a more gratifying response to his brother? Or did Simon want to resume our discussion from the kitchen, when they'd asked about Liz? Maybe I wasn't the only one worried about her. I went down stairs just past seven, and used the extra time to ghost hunt, prowling the laundry room, listing and looking. The one time I wanted to see or hear a ghost, I didn't.
Chloe rolled her eyes. "Isn't that always the case." "Uh, hello we wouldn't know." Tori said giving Chloe a are you kidding me kind of look. Chloe just blushed and stammered something under her breath.
Could I contact it? Or was it a one-way street, and did I have to wait until one chose to speak to me? I wanted to test that by calling out, but Derek had already caught me talking to myself. I wasn't taking that risk with Simon.
I smiled and placed a hand over my heart. "Oh, I feel so honored Chloe." She smacked my arm lightly. "Cut it out." "Yes please," Tori mummed under her breath and I scowled at her.
So I just wandered, my mind automatically sliding behind a camera lens. ". . . here . . ." a voice whispered, so soft and dry it sounded like the wind through long grass. ". . . talk to . . ." A shadow loomed over my shoulder. I braced myself to see a vision of horror as I looked up into . . . Derek's face.
I cracked up; doubling over and clutching my stomach. Dad tried to muffle his chuckling with his hand and Tori looked at us as if we'd suggested that we use her favorite shirt as a tablecloth. Chloe's face was tinted pink. "I don't get." Tori said. I shook my head. "It's just the way she decried seeing Derek." I started laughing again.
"You always this jumpy?" he said. "Wh-where did you come from?" "Upstairs." "I'm waiting for some-" I stopped and studied his expression. "It's you, isn't it? You had Simon send-" "Simon didn't send anything. I knew you wouldn't come for me. But Simon?"
"Not cool D, not cool." I said shacking my head.
He glanced at his watch. "For Simon you're early. So did you look it up?" So that's what this was about. "You mean that word? Nec-" I pursed my lips, testing it. "Necromancer? Is that how you say it?" He waved the pronunciation off. Unimportant. He leaned against the wall, trying for casual, uninterested maybe.
"As if Frankenstein could act casual, let alone try to." "Tori why don't we try to keep the name calling at a minimum." Dad said, while I just glared.
His Flexing fingers betrayed his eagerness to hear my answer. To see my reaction. "Did you look it up?" he asked again. "I did. And, well, I don't quite know what to say." He rubbed his hands against his jeans, as if drying them. "Okay. So, you searched for it and . . ." "It wasn't what I expected." He brushed his jeans again, then closed his hands. Crossed his arms. Uncrossed them. I looked around, drawing it out, making him rock forward, almost bouncing with impatience.
"That sounds like Derek alright." Dad said with a light chuckle and a shack of his head.
"So . . ." he said. "Well, I have to admit. . ." I took a deep breath. "I'm not really into computer games." His eyes closed to slits, face screwed up. "Computer games?" "Video games? RPGs? I've played some, but not the kind you're talking about." He looked at me, wary, as if suspecting I really did belong in a home for crazy kids. "But if you guys are into them?" I flashed a bright smile. "Then I'm certainly willing to give them a shot." "Them?" "The games. Role playing, right? But I don't think the necromancer is for me, though I do appreciate the suggestion."
Tori started to laugh and then cover it up with a chough. "What?" She shook her head and turned towards Chloe. "I cant say that I'm actually surprised. Good plan, wrong person. He'll catch on easily." But Chloe just shook her head and smile weakly. Oh, I thought catching on.
"Suggestion. . . " he said slowly. "That I play a necromancer? That's why you had me look it up, right?" His lips parted, eyes rounding as he understood. "No, I didn't mean-" "I suppose it could be cool, playing a character who can raise the dead, but it's just, you know, not really me. A little too dark. Too emo, you know? I'd rather play a magician."
"A magician hu?" I said. Wiggling my eyebrows at Chloe, who roller her eyes in response.
"I wasn't-" "So I don't have to be a necromancer? Thanks. I really do appreciate you taking the time to make me feel welcome. It's so sweet." As I fixed him with a sugary smile, he finally realized I was having him on. His face darkened. "I wasn't inviting you to a game, Chloe." "No?" I widened my eyes.
"Oh man, D's no going to like that at all." I said. "He hates it when people mess with him. He always comes to the collusion that it's some kind of joke." "Though it sort of is." Tori said and Chloe looked down at her lap guiltily.
"Then why would you send me to those sites about necromancers? Show me a picture of madmen raising armies of rotting zombies? Is that how you get your kicks, Derek? Scaring the new kids? Well, you've had your fun, and if you corner me again or lure me into the basement-" "Lure you? I was trying to talk to you." "No." I lifted my gaze to him. "You were trying to scare me. Do it again and I'll tell the nurses."
"I sound like a brat." Chloe said shaking her head then putting her face in her hands. Tori muttered some comment and my Dad gave her a disproving look.
When I scripted the lines in my head, they'd been strong and defiant-the new girl standing up to the bully. But when I said them I felt like a spoiled brat threating to tattle. Derek's eyes hardened into shards of green glass and his face twisted into something not quite human, filling with a rage that made me stumble back out of it's path and bolt for the stairs.
"Not the stairs." I faked a gasp. Tori hit me with an empty chip bag. Chloe looked as if she hadn't heard me at all.
He grabbed for me,
I paused, glancing at Chloe who sat with her knees up to chest, pale. Then I reread the first part of the sentence.
He grabbed for me, fingers clamping around my forearm. He yanked so hard I yelped, shoulder wrenching as I sailed off my feet. He let go and I crashed to the floor. For a moment, I just lay there, crumpled in a heap, cradling my arm and blinking hard, unable to believe what had just happened. Then his shadow fell across me, and I scrambled to my feet.
"Okay I know it sounds bad . . ." Chloe started. "Bad?" Tori said, then gave a bark of a laugh. "Sure because people just get casually thrown across the room all the time." "Derek would never do something like that on purpose." I defended. "He doesn't even know his own strength." I glanced at Dad for help but he just looked uncertain and I knew that he would be having a talk with Derek one he'd gotten back. "Can we just continue?" Chloe asked. "I think that would be best." Dad said, "We can discuss this later."
He reached for me. "Chloe, I-" I staggered back before he could touch me. He said something. I didn't hear it. Didn't look at him. Just ran for the stairs. I didn't stop until I was in my room. Then I sat cross-legged on my bed, gulping oxygen. My shoulder burned. When I rolled up my sleeve, I saw a red mark for each one of his fingers. I stared at them. No one had ever hurt me before. My parents had never struck me. Never spanked me or even threatened to. I wasn't the kind of girl who got into fistfights or catfights. Sure, I'd been pushed, jostled, elbowed . . . but grabbed and thrown across a room?
"Ironic isn't it?" Tori said to no one in particular.
I yanked down my sleeve. Was I surprised? Derek had made me nervous from that first encounter in the pantry. When I realized he'd sent the note, I should have gone upstairs. If he'd tried to stop me, I should have screamed. But no, I had to be cool. Be clever. Bait him. Yet I had no proof except marks on my that were already fading. Even if I still had them when I showed the nurses, Derek could just say that I'd lured him into the basement and flipped out, and he'd had to grab my arm to restrain me. After all, I was a diagnosed schizophrenic. Hallucinations and paranoia went with the territory.
Chloe nodded her head as if agreeing with her self.
I had to handle this myself. I should handle this myself. I'd led the proverbial sheltered life. I'd always known that meant I lacked the life experience I'd need to be a screenwriter. Here was my chance to start getting it. I'd handle this. But to handle it, I needed to know exactly what I was up against. I took Rae aside. "Do you still want to see Simon and Derek's files?" I asked. She nodded. "Then I'll help you get them. Tonight."
"Who wants to read next?" I asked hold out the writing pad. "Maybe we should wait and discuss-" Dad started but was cut off by the door opening. Chloe's Aunt came through carrying a arm full of take out boxes. Derek trailing behind her with arm loads of shopping bags. "Who's hungry?" She called and I practically jumped off the bed; not even realizing how hungry I was until now.
R&R
