Chapter 23:

I don't own anything!

I got two reviews last chapter; it'd be greatly appreciated if you reviewed, if you read. Thank you. I won't update as (relatively) frequently as I'm trying to get back to, otherwise.

Claire's POV:

The phone rings, startling me from the stupor I was in with such a jolt it feels as if I'm having a heart attack. Nothing seems to be coming back to me from last night other than the fact that I am ridiculously tired, something which would worry me more if I had the time to think about it. Same as to why I can't actually remember anything from the past day or two, other than going to see Oliver…strange, but I don't have time to mull it over now.

Just before the call cuts out, I pick up the phone and answer it with an extremely groggy tone. In all honesty, I don't care who is on the phone – I'm knackered and Michael is meant to be coming home in the next few days, so I don't want to be like Miss Cranky because I've not had any sleep…or maybe I have, I can't remember.

There isn't a response for a second or two and I begin to hope that it's a prank call so that I can go back to sleep. Unfortunately, it isn't.

"Claire, there has been some sort of disaster at the Morganville Primary and Secondary schools," naturally, it's Oliver on the other end of the phone, the words grasping my attention as much as possible to be done. But, gone is the usual calm and bored sounding tone he has when he speaks to me; he sounds strangely…gleeful. It's not something I would usually link towards Oliver and his emotions, which is what I presume jerks me further into consciousness. That or simply the fact that it's Oliver on the phone has done this; after all, he's my 'Protector' and, so far, the only times he has called me have brought bad news.

And then there's the issue of there being something wrong with the schools in Morganville – what could have gone on?

"Amelie has requested, and I have granted this request, that you are to head there and to try and piece together the events that have occurred. You have reprieve from your lessons for the next few days until you have scoured both buildings for anything that could possibly assist. Do you understand?" he continues, asking me a question at the end as his voice seems to change slightly, almost as if he's realising how he sounds.

But whatever's gone on must be bad if Amelie wants me to get involved. Since I didn't sign with her – and I suppose that's knocked the ego of a vampire – she's pissed with me…but this request has shown that there must be a great need for extra help to sort this out. And it's to do with children…somehow, it wakes me up further and I actually sit up before responding.

"Uh…sure?" I can't bring myself to form an entire sentence, not awake enough for that, but each passing second brings more clarity to my thoughts. What if it's like the bomb? What if there's schools destroyed, innocent children murdered?

I half zone out for the rest of the time he speaks, hearing that I have to complete investigations till about eight pm as I have to keep up with English Lit for some reason, before I decide to take the plunge and ask to do something for me. I've been alone for so long – I need someone who I can talk to. Shane's disappeared because otherwise Amelie would have had him killed; I still don't know when Michael will be home; Eve is currently continuing to be unconscious in the hospital, so I can't talk to her – or at least get a response. I can go talk to her though.

"I got it, Oliver," I say to him, trying to make myself sound as strong and confident as I can before then requesting to go see Eve. It's the only way I can perhaps get him to agree to letting me go, to have a core of steel as I request for something when I'm supposed to be doing something for the Founder…but I don't care. He's probably not going to let me go anyway because this is Oliver and since when does he let me do something I want to do?

But, to my partial amazement, he agrees to let me visit Eve for an hour…even though it's only actually about thirty minutes since that's how long it will take me to get over there, but it's still better than nothing!

Even though I talk through the rest of the conversation, I can't actually focus on anything other than the fact that this day is just going to be so emotionally draining; however, the first part, at least, has me almost excited; Oliver may not be concerned for when Michael is returning, but the fact that I have a chance to actually speak to Eve. She may be unable to respond, but I can just have a few minutes of near normality to talk to my friend about everything that's going on.

He hangs up and I look at the clock – I have to be leaving the hospital to head for the school in fifty seven minutes and I'm not even dressed yet. But I jump out of bed, no longer tired it seems, unless it's simply the adrenaline coursing through me that mimics a lack of sleep deprivation. I don't know, but something I do know is that I'm ready to run to the hospital within three and a half minutes flat, an absolute mess but not caring because I've managed to nab myself time to go see Eve when I normally don't have the chance to.

It doesn't feel like she's only been in here less than three weeks; it really doesn't. and it really doesn't feel like there's anything wrong with the schools; outside, the day is bright and sunny, the usual lack of people around Morganville not making the town seem empty…because it always does.

.

Within fifteen minutes, I'm in the hospital and running down to Eve's room, noting an extremely busy A&E but not bothering to pay attention to who is in there because Eve is more important at the minute. I know I should be thinking about what Amelie wants me to do – what has happened that she wants me to investigate – but I can't because this is the one time recently that I've had a chance to be remotely happy.

It's sad that my happiest time of the minute is visiting a person who is most likely never going to wake up again, but that's what's going on in Morganville.

"Hey, Eve," I say as I sit down next to the girl who's basically been neglected for the past few days. Nobody has been able to see her because of so much happening – I don't know if we'd have actually left if the bomb hadn't have gone off, but that's life for you. "How are you?"

I wait an appropriate amount of time for her to have possibly have replied as I pick up her hand and squeeze it gently. Her skin is almost the same temperature as a vampire's, icy and entirely non-Eve because there's not a hint of her black nail varnish on her fingertips whatsoever. Just that tells me Eve isn't here with us at the minute…

I chatter away to her for another half an hour, one eye always on the clock as I wait for the time to come that means I have to go face the horrors of whatever Oliver has signed me up for, down to Amelie's request. It will be horrific, I'm positive, especially if I've been allowed something to hopefully cheer me up slightly before I go. Unless, perhaps, it's really mundane and then…no, it won't be because Oliver used the word disaster. The last time he used disaster, it was in terms of the bomb – and that was a massive disaster.

"Bye, Eve," I murmur as I press my lips to her cheek, the sheen and utter perfection of her skin another indicator to her lack of being conscious – it's like polished marble, utterly perfect, which just isn't Eve. She's the slapdash one of the four of us – well, the most – the one who is never, ever perfect but she's better that way.

Now, she's just like a stranger.

One minute before the end of my hour, I close the door softly behind me on my way out of Eve's room, wishing I could stay with her at the same time as wanting to get as far away from her as possible. She's not the Eve I know and love…and she's got to stay here, whilst I go to find out what I have to do, what's happened down at the schools.

~x~

Before I even get onto the street where the schools are, I know it's bad. There are police cars everywhere, ambulances, children screaming and running around as they try to find one another; parents are yelling for their children to come, trying to get over this barrier I can see just in front of me.

And, in front of that, I can just about see lines and lines of white sheets on the floor, lumps beneath them that I can only presume are bodies…oh god, what's happened?

Slowly, I advance towards the barrier, dodging the weeping mothers and fathers I can see around – and now I understand what's happened. I don't know how but somehow there are dozens, if not more, children dead.

And I presume Amelie wants me to find out what's happened.

"Excuse me, miss, but you can't get through here," one of the police officers on the barrier stops me, evidently having had a lot of people try to get through. I can see the tension on his face, be able to infer that there's things beyond here that I really don't want to see.

"Oliver sent me," I whisper this, trying not to make it obvious to everyone that I'm under the protection of a vampire that's hated by the majority of the towns people. But, as to confirm my story, I lift my left arm to show the bracelet encasing my wrist to show the man whose eyes instantly widen as he takes in the colour. It's bronze, the colour of Oliver's Protection and I guess it's obvious that only those who have potential or worth are signed by Oliver…and then I've been sent out here.

His expression becomes much more grim after less than a second, pulling the barrier ever so slightly open so I can slip through before he places it back where it was before. However, before I can move away, he grabs my arm.

"Be careful in there, kid," I can just about hear this over the suddenly louder screaming – another body has been brought out. "You're young and…what's in there is enough to drive the best of us mad," he continues, shaking his head slowly.

"I know," I duck my head, knowing that whatever has gone on in here I don't want to be privy to – but I have to. "Thanks for the warning. I'll see you in a bit?" I'm not sure why I say this; perhaps it's simply to feel as if we've a connection through this horrific event, yet he nods anyway before returning to his post as he lets go of my arm.

As I walk slowly towards the building, I wonder who is in charge. Richard Morrell is dead, as is Hannah Moses, both killed in the bomb, and I can't help but wonder if the same person is behind the bomb and this attack, whatever it is. It seems a little coincidental that two major disasters would both be occurring at the same time; however, if this is natural, it could just be coincidence. Yet I'm not going to find out until I'm in there.

Someone looks at me funnily for a minute as I approach the door to the primary school, yet they soon move to the side and let me into the halls without a word – I suppose they know who I am.

And then it hits me.

I thought it is bad outside; it's one hundred thousand times worse inside, screaming, crying, paramedics trying to treat the tiniest of children…defibrillators are everywhere, bags of oxygen, gas masks – there's everything that I can see would be used in a treatment for a gas attack…the school has been gassed.

Almost falling over, I stagger through the stacks of children, past those who have been deemed clinically dead and are waiting to be moved to a position of respect, past those grieving on the floor, past those unable to go any further perhaps for both physical and mental reasons.

When you think about the fact that these are children up to about a maximum of eleven, it sickens you even more.

As I approach the main hall, I stop and take a huge breath, knowing I'm not going to be able to deal with what's inside, yet I have to. I need to find out what's happened, since that's the job I've been given to do.

So I open the door.

And face chaos.

There's even more going on inside here, if possible, and I instantly shove myself against the wall to allow someone to be wheeled out of the hall in a panic to get them to the hospital. It seems as if it's emptier in here than outside, yet there's even more bodies.

But they're silent.

Dead.

"…Help…me…" a voice so quiet I think I imagine it at first comes from the floor near to my feet and I jump backwards in horror to find the smallest girl down there. She…she's almost underneath a huge table, her face pale and drawn as she fights to breathe.

And she looks about six.

"HELP!" I scream, falling to my knees to pull her into my arms without thinking about it, not caring what's killing her because she's dying. She coughs and I rub her back, trying to be as gentle as I can as I call for help, call for someone to come and help her.

But nobody comes.

"Ok, sweetie, what's your name?" I ask the girl as softly as I can, narrowing my eyes as I look at her legs to see she's caught it somehow under the table. She's trapped here, trapped and has no way of getting out with just me here.

"Dani," she murmurs as loudly as she can, her voice still barely audible to me.

The hall is empty now – of the living, at least. There's me and Dani left; everyone else is on their way back from taking others out…and it's deathly silent.

"My name's Claire," I continue, taking Dani's hand and squeezing it gently, feeling as the warmth slides from her hands as I even sit here. As each second passes, she struggles to breathe more and more, her eyelids fluttering to be near shut. "Do you know what happened?" I press to keep her awake, keep her fighting even though her lungs must be collapsing from the inside.

The doors are open and the gas has evidently dissapitated enough for it to be safe in here, yet there is a tickle in the back of my throat that I ignore as I blink back tears for this little girl.

"There…sitting here…" she manages to say, lifting her other hand to show a place across the room. "People…fell…it hurts!" she screams the last word, sounding as if the agony she is in is indescribable…which I suppose it is.

"I know, Dani, I know," I murmur softly, trying to stem the tears flowing from my eyes to be strong for her. "You'll get out, I promise," I say anything to keep her fighting here with me – she's six and has lasted longer than most of the others.

Finally people sound as if they're returning and I call for them, call for them to come and help this little girl.

But it's too late.

Her eyes close and no matter how much I try and revive her, no matter how many times I call her name, she's gone.

I couldn't do enough to save her.

Wrenching myself away from her as the paramedics take her body outside, I let the tears fall as I am once again left alone – yet this time, there's not even the dead in here. I'm entirely alone, left to figure out what has caused this monstrosity to occur in here and the other school – as there must have been the same reaction in the secondary school as to here as well. So I wipe my eyes furiously and try to compose myself enough to search, enough to do it for Dani, the girl who died because I didn't have a way to save her. It's for her that I'm doing this, not anyone else/

And so I begin.

~x~

Seven thirty in the evening rolls around and I'm almost finished writing a preliminary report for Oliver. I know what's happened – they've died from the gas exposure to their bodies. There's one hundred and four casualties across the entire school, including staff, and forty seven others in critical care – they're not expected to make it, but we can't tell the parents that.

Everything is wrong. Everything has happened and nobody knows how or why or anything about the way that it's happened – we've had sniffer dogs in to try and find the source (led by me, since I'm in charge of this) and they led me to this empty vent which I suppose is where it initiated from, but there's no sign of anything that indicates foul play.

In all honesty, this report has almost nothing in it, nothing substantial whatsoever because there's nothing that I can know that he can't find out. But I have my suspicions about this, suspicions about why this has happened now.

Someone is playing games in Morganville. Someone is playing games and destroying everybody's lives.

I am going to find that someone.

So, this chapter seriously took me more than a week to write. It just wouldn't work.

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Vicky xx