"Are You Alright?" is this sweet little song by Lucinda Williams, that fits the chapter because someone does get hurt and someone does ask, "Are you alright?"
Chapter X: Are You Alright?
"I'm not sure I like this anymore," Lauren told Emily as they shut the door behind them. "I heard…I heard that they were planning to switch Sayen for Varda."
Emily frowned. "What gives anyone the right to say one life is worth less than another?"
Lauren was silent at first, but then she said, "I think that's why they did it. Sayen is more emotional. Varda's emotional too, but she doesn't let what she feels trump her logic." She frowned, "Sort of like the two of us girls."
"You'll go into the field of science and make millions and be like Callia, strong and smart," Emily said, looking up from her crouch against the wall.
"And you'll be the ghostbuster who has a loving family and not much else," Lauren looked down from her lean against the same wall.
"I guess it depends on what you want," Emily said. "Hey, look!" she pointed. "It's a shooting star!"
Lauren looked at it. "Yeah," she mumbled. "A shooting star."
Another Tardis was landing.
"Sayen!" Varda burst into the room. "Sayen, he's got me!" Varda screamed as bony hands grabbed her shoulders and thrust her back out into the inky chasm of space between universes.
"Varda!" Sayen got up from her bed and ran across her home, back in Silver Springs. "Varda, I don't know how to get to you!" She heard a faint voice in the back of her head, snickering about how cheesy this dream was. But when Varda sprouted fangs and black wings, the voice shut up.
Silence truly is golden, sometimes.
Sayen savored the thought as she awoke in her hospital bed, Callia beside her, looking worried.
"I couldn't find her," Callia said immediately, turning away from the window to her."
"And you won't," Sayen said, "because she's caught between universes right now. But don't worry," she added quickly, seeing Callia's panicked face, "I know how to get there."
"You're vampires who don't die unless you get ripped apart and the pieces are burned, am I right?" Sayen asked.
"Yes," Carlisle said, tone suggesting that he was afraid of what she was asking for.
"I need you to help me. I don't know if I can do this, but the prophecy calls for you," Sayen took out her phone, upgraded courtesy of Bela, and called Callia in another universe so Belinda could come pick the vampires up. When the blue box just appeared, the vampires stared. Sayen opened the door with a roll of her eyes. "Guys, please, you're vampires. To other humans, you don't exist. And I'm an alien from another planet. I'm not supposed to be here either. Except I accidentally brought a person back to life, so I am. Any questions, or are you going to help me save the universes now?"
"What else does the paradigm tell us?" Sayen asked.
"It's not working now. I don't have control of it, so it doesn't have to answer me anymore," Bela growled.
"What do we do?" Callia asked.
"For starters, we can find the alien that's been terrorizing Seattle," said Ben.
"I thought that was a vampire," Edward frowned.
"Well, it isn't," Ben said. "I've studied it a little bit. It feeds off orgasmic energy by doing, well, you-know-what with virgins."
"So what? We send Calix to fight this guy and we go out for pizza," Mara shrugged.
"Um, Mara, I'm still a virgin. I know it sounds silly, but-"
"I don't think it sounds silly at all. I think it's kinda cute," Mara looked up to find Calix threatening her with her own sword. "But it's nothing that I'll ever mention again," she added quickly.
The humans from our reality (yours, dear reader) were collapsed on the ground, laughing.
"Allow me to rephrase: what do we do to control the Paradigm?" Emily asked, wheezing.
"We can gain temporary control if we find the codes to freeze it for a while," Bela said.
"The codes to freeze the Paradigm for two minutes are scattered around Belinda's interior," Ginny said.
"How do you know what's going on? I never know what's going on," Sayen said. When she looked at her, there was a jolt of electricity.
"Well, you weren't here from midnight to 6 researching it," Ginny turned away so she wouldn't feel that electricity again. Lauren and Yadid blushed, and that didn't escape Andres's notice.
"Was he the first?" Andres asked, motioning for Yadid to leave the room and shut the door.
"And the only," Lauren replied. Sayen winked. Lauren got the joke.
"He's older than you by almost two decades!"
"Does age matter?"
"And everything he does will be publicized. I wish you could show more judgment," Andres sounded jealous, and he hated it.
"Andres, I—he wasn't like this before."
"Are you in love with him?"
"I think I am."
"Were you careful?"
"Andy-"
"Don't you 'Andy' me! You won't get out of this. You had sex with a man you didn't see fit to tell me that you were dating!" he froze here.
"And why do you care?" Lauren looked triumphant. "I only said what I said to make you jealous, which, by the way, behold my success."
"Oh," Andres looked down. "I guess I'll be leaving then."
"Oh, no you don't," Callia dragged him back. "We need every available person to cover every section of Belinda to find those codes, pronto!"
"She expects us to do the work while she just directs us like we're her slaves. Who does she think she is, a CSI?" Emily muttered.
"It could be worse," Yadid said. "We could be in the boiler room. It's so hot and stuffy in there."
"Yeah," Emily laughed. "Poor Sayen. Callia should really be nicer to her." She fell silent for a long time, flipping the mattress over.
"What's eating you?" Yadid asked.
"Why did Lauren pick you to get Andres jealous? Is there something going on between the two of you?" Emily tried to keep her tone light and teasing, but failed miserably.
"Lauren and I are friends, that's all," Yadid said firmly.
"Okay," Emily nodded. She reached to put the mattress back on the bed the same time that Yadid was doing the same. Their hands brushed and a jolt of electricity to rival the one between Henry and Sayen ran through both of them.
"Let me help," Yadid said, not taking his eyes of her. Wordlessly, they put the mattress back on the bed. When it was on, Emily sat on it and patted an area for Yadid to sit on. He did, and they started kissing.
For what seemed like the billionth time, Bela took off his jacket and fanned himself.
"Why don't you just keep it off?" Sayen asked, irritated.
Bela shot her a dirty look, but kept scraping the rust off the pipes. Then his scraper hit something, and he blew the layer of dust off so he could read what it was. "Sayen, I've found the codes!"
"Great. Where? Show me," Sayen demanded.
"Oh, but I can't get to them. I put in a security thing for it because I was afraid someone might steal it," Bela looked downcast.
"Callia said you have a blue thing that can open up locks. Why don't you use that?" Sayen asked.
Excitedly, Bela took out his sonic screwdriver to melt the metal pipe. He opened up a huge hole and managed to get the piece of paper with the instructions on it, but he forgot the trap he had set up in case someone got the instructions without inputting the password into the computer. The pipe rumbled, then a wave liquid splashed over the two of them. Sayen screamed and Bela just blacked out.
The only thing Sayen was aware of was that her entire body was sticky and stiff. She couldn't seem to move without moving the sheets along with her. It was very irritating. "Callia!" she called.
The person with its head on her belly raised its head. "Are you awake?" Ginny sounded relieved. Sayen's heart constricted.
"I'm fine," she said. "I feel great. I feel like I'm gonna die. What the heck happened?"
"You were drenched in acid," Ginny said. There was a hint of tears in her voice, which weren't visible in the darkness.
"I'm alive. It's all okay," Sayen said, patting Ginny's hair.
"I thought you died," Ginny said. Her breath brushed across Sayen's face. Sayen realized just how little time they had actually spent together and jammed her lips to Ginny's without a second thought. Ginny spent a peaceful night with her head on Sayen's chest.
She didn't know where she was, but it wasn't anywhere she had ever been before. Everything was so amazingly bright that she should be blind, but she saw perfectly. She saw, with exceptional clarity, the man standing on the rock, a look of shock and pain that blinded her more than the light could ever hope to, and everything motherly in her ran forward to try to assuage his pain. She didn't worry about him seeing her, so she wasn't too shocked when he saw her, but she was confused about the look of shock on his face.
"Who are you?" he asked. "How did you survive?"
"You survived too," she saw his body. The clothes on this man were the same as the clothes on Bela before he was covered in acid, and they looked like they were.
"Go see a therapist, okay? That was probably traumatic," Sayen meant the acid shower, but the genuine worry in her voice could've fitted any situation. The man simply nodded as he entered the blue box and left a very confused Sayen to stand there, hearing the last strains of a song she only just realized she was singing.
"That was a beautiful song," Luna said when Sayen was awake again. "What was it? Three months and I'm still sober? Were you ever an alcoholic? You don't have to be ashamed, you know."
"I've never drank before, except brandy, and that was during a toast," Sayen said. She patted her bottle of Ritalin inside her pocket. It was the secret to her weight loss, her hyperactivity, the occasional tranquility when she truly had ADHD. Varda had prescribed it, and now Sayen realized just how much she missed her friend. She knew beyond a doubt that whatever she had with Henry would have to go.
"Luna, can you tell me how far along we are with the Para-dig-um?" Sayen asked. Ginny and Hermione were lying in a heap on a nearby sofa chair, stirring when they heard "Paradigm."
"Bela found some prophecy about the outcome," Luna said.
"Okay, so where's Varda?" Sayen asked.
"Why ask Luna when I don't even know the answer?" Hermione asked.
"She was put in Ravenclaw for a reason," Sayen explained like Lockhart might have explained and looked at Luna so that the girl was either sure she had Sayen's complete attention or was getting scared.
"She's with Freya," Luna said calmly. Callia appeared beside her in an instant, breathless.
"Freya? Did you say Freya? Where is Freya, my darling?" Callia bent down and asked, tears streaming unabashedly out of her eyes.
Did she say, "darling?" You bet she did! And if anyone's wondering why Sayen's been having sex with everything that moves, it's not because she's channeling Captain Jack. She was sexually abused by her adoptive parents, Samantha Silver and Ezra Lowenstein, and people who've been sexually abused as children tend to be more promiscuous. I am very close with a foster family where several girls follow this pattern. I know boys who have been abused too, but they are less likely to speak to me if they have, leaving me with no information about boys. So I will leave this message with you readers:
Sexual abuse MUST end. Please, if you or someone you know is being abused, please call Child Protective Services!