Chapter Seven: Whats Happening To Me?
WARNING: Well, guys...you've pretty much caught on, right? This story is a slash story (male/male) and will take a turn for gay epicness in the future. This story will slowly approach the 'M' rating I promised everyone.
XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOX
Over the next few weeks or so, Ethan's condition got progressively...worse.
The good news is, that 'the shower incident' was the first and last of the excruciating visions...the bad news? The waking visions were replaced immediately by horrible night terrors. Jane had woken up one night to Ethan shouting in his sleep, and found him tossing and turning in his bed. It was amazing how his parents didn't wake up.
Ethan knew Jane wasn't stupid. She knew something was wrong with him, even if he was trying to convince himself that there wasn't. From then on, he made a serious attempt to stop himself from reacting so violently to the night terrors. When they occurred, Ethan knew he was dreaming...the problem was, it felt so real, and it was utterly terrifying. And there wasn't a thing he could do to wake himself up. So, he just had to try his best to stop struggling in his sleep, especially on the nights he stayed over at Benny and Grandma's house. He didn't want to put any more weight on their shoulders than there already was.
There had been changes in his eating and sleeping patterns as well. One minute he could be absolutely starving, and the next he could be throwing it all up. It didn't happen everyday, of course, but it happened often enough over the weeks to worry the Weir's. What worried them also was the fact that Ethan appeared to be developing insomnia.
They had taken its toll on him.
And now, the young Seer was currently sitting in the elderly nurse's office, trying to keep himself from falling asleep in one of her chairs.
"I'm not quite sure what else to tell you hon." She said, handing him an empty cup with tylenol and gestured to the sink. "Have you told your parents about this?"
"I don't think it's anything serious." Ethan lied through his teeth as he got water from the tap and swallowed down the painkillers. "I think it's just the flu, or something."
"Could be." The nurse mumbled, scribbling something down on a piece of paper. "I'm sending you home, sweetie. There's no way your making it through the rest of today."
"Okay." Ethan replied simply. In truth, he didn't quite think he could make it through the rest of the day...he was just so tired. And hungry...but he felt sick to his stomach at the same time, and had a massive headache, along with some muscle aches. It had been going on for about two weeks now.
And then of course, there were the dreams..
"I'm going to give you this." The nurse handed him a box of Tylenol, and a roll of antacids with a note. "The paper is for your parents." She explained. "I really don't know what to make of your illness Mr. Morgan, but if you keep feeling like this for more than a day or so, I strongly suggest you see a doctor." With a sympathetic look, she dismissed him, asking him if he thought he needed a ride home.
Declining from the offer, Ethan made his way out of the school, having already got his books and such from his locker and assignments from his classes. The very second he 'woke up' that morning, he knew he wasn't going to make it through the school day.
Great. Now he'd have to explain to a scolding grandma and a frantic Benny why he'd left school early. Benny would surely check up with the nurse once he'd discovered that his best friend was missing from their next class. Then, he'd call grandma, who'd call him, and end up squeezing the truth out of him. He could see it now..
Walking home, he decided to sit down and rest at a bench...he really was tired. Part of him was afraid he'd fall asleep right there on the bench, but he sat down anyway and decided to quickly skim over the note that the nurse had given to him. Scoffing, and feeling slightly regretful, he crumpled up the paper and threw it lazily onto the sidewalk next to him. Ethan wasn't one to litter, but at that moment, he just didn't have the energy to care.
He'd barely made it a block from the school, and he'd had to take a rest. How was he going to make it another four?
"Ugh." He groaned, leaning his head back against the hard wooden bench. After a minute or two of listening to the birds chirping and feeling the sun on his face, Ethan began to feel some of the tension leave his body...and soon after fell asleep.
Snarling and thunder meet Ethan's ears as incredible pain takes over his body. He couldn't see...the night was so dark...no stars. He lets out a chocked scream as a new wave of agony over him, and squeezes his eyes closed. The pressure on his body is gone now, relieving a fraction of the pain and allows him to think. Shouldn't he at least be calling for help? Oh yeah...who was around to hear him? His warm brown eyes suddenly snap open, and with the little strength he had, he raised his head slightly to look at his surroundings.
Benny.
'He's out here somewhere!' Ethan mentally screamed at himself. 'Oh god, Benny...please stay away. Please don't come looking for me..' He once again caught sight of the spiky figure, and flicked as he heard it let lose a guttural growl, looming over him. The Seer flinched as the monster let out its loudest howl yet, and pounced at him from a mere few feet away.
Ethan jerked in his sleep, but didn't wake. His hands raised slightly to defend himself with a strength he didn't have in his dream. His arms soon dropped back down at his sides, to the hard wood of the bench.
Something large and white streaked over Ethan's head, crashing hard and loud into the airborne monster. Both figures stumbled backwards, and suddenly Ethan began to SEE again. Before, all he could see was the blackness...but now, he could just make out the surrounding trees, and the bright moon shining in the sky despite the coulda and rain.
He glanced over to his left, now more than ever feeling the energy drain from his body. The two figures stood a few meters away, snarling at each other. They didn't seem to be fighting..not anymore. More like, they were sizing each other up, which wouldn't normally strike Ethan as weird. Except, he felt like they were having some sort of silent conflict as well, and not only that...a third figure was approaching him.
Hurrying towards him from almost directly behind the white monster, was a woman. As she got closer, Ethan began to make out some details with what was left of his consciousness. The first thing that struck him was her hair...really dark hair that almost blended in with the night. Buzzed short in one side, and spiked up in the other, what was even stranger was the tiny sparks that emitted from those spikes. They seemed to only get brighter as she came closer to kneel beside him.
"Do me a favor and don't be beyond my help." She said, anxiety lacing her voice.
"I'm hallucinating.." Ethan mumbled.
"You're loosing blood." The woman replied, and lied a hand down on Ethan's chest, drawing a pained cry from the boy. "Sorry!" She exclaimed to the boy. Then, she began to whisper foreign words that sounded oddly familiar. Latin, maybe? Magic..
"Benny!" Ethan remembered out loud. "Where's Benny?!"
"Shh." She shushed him, her hands now hovering over his shaking form, covered in blood. "Katee!" She turned and shouted behind her, over to the two monsters now in a full on fight with each other. "I need you! I can't help him!"
'Katee..' Ethan thought warily. 'It has a name..'
The red, spiky monster whipped it's head around, and let out a feral sound, beginning to turn around. The woman kneeling beside Ethan immediately got into a protective stance in front of him, looking ready to pounce, herself. The red monster began to bound towards them, making it a couple feet before once again being intercepted by the white.
'Why's it defending us?' Ethan thought groggily. 'Is it even defending me? Or just the woman in black? Do they want to kill me too?' He groaned.
"He's dying." The woman once again yelled over to the monsters. "He needs to be bitten! Like, soon!"
The white thing first knocked the other off balance, and then sprang, teeth flashing, to bite harshly on it's tail. The red howled in pain before turning back around to stand on all fours, using one huge paw to bat the other's head away. Then, it sprang at the white, clamping its jaws down brutally on its shoulder.
"Get away from her!" The woman with the spikes snarled, though she didn't leave her spot next to Ethan. "Leave!" She pulled a rather large hunting knife from her boot, and dropping into a low crouch, the knife held ready in front of her.
The white stumbled back with a pained yelp, followed by a series of whimpers. The red then bit down on its hind leg on the opposite side and turned towards Ethan and the mystery woman. It stalked towards them, slowly at first, and then running, knocking the woman with the knife away. She flew at least twenty feet into a tree..but not before she managed to lodge the knife into the monsters side.
Letting out a snarl of agony, it reached -actually reached to its side- and pulled out the now scarlet knife. It gave a ferocious growl, and threw it with quite a bit of accuracy into a tree next to the woman's head. Ethan felt his weak body shake a little more as the beast trained its toxic green eyes on him. What kind of monster could just pull a huge knife out of its side and be ready for more?
'This one..' Ethan thought just as the thing jumped on him, biting his shoulder.
As he screamed. Ethan swore something broke. The pain was like never before...nothing the monster did previously could compare to this. It spread from his shoulder down into his cheat and throughout the rest of his body. It was hot! It was burning! It hurt so much! Death had to be better than this..
'Benny.' Ethan thought, no longer having the power to scream. 'I won't make it back. I'm never going to see him again.' He barely had the will to open his eyes, watching as the beast ran away, feeling vaguely surprised when lightning bolt after lightning bolt just started striking the ground around it. A few struck it, slowing it down a little, but it was soon out of view into the deeper forest. Not long after, the white monster rose from the ground and took chase, still limping heavily.
"Are you okay!?" The woman asked frantically, coming back to Ethan's side. She knelt down and began inspecting the wound next to him. "Of course you're not okay...I know this is overwhelming, but I need you to stay awake." She pulled off her jacket and bunched it up under Ethan's head, creating a makeshift pillow.
"I'm going to die, aren't I?" Ethan asked. The pain was fading now...was that bad? Was he about to die?
"No! No, you're fine." Her fingers were shaky as she took the rips in his shirt and tore them open more to inspect the wounds on his stomach. "That son of a bitch bit you. You're going to live, you're gonna be fine." Muttering in Latin, she held her fingers over the nasty gashes in Ethan's sides and stomach. Ethan watched as small sparks of blue dropped from her fingers onto his broken body.
The pain was surely leaving now. He could feel every beat of his heart, getting stronger. Was she doing this? Ethan felt like he was slowly resurfacing from a blackened sea, feeling the worst of the dizziness leave his mind. He knew one thing for sure...whatever had happened to him..whatever damage had been done, was being repaired. He was healing..just like that.
"Who are you?" Ethan suddenly found himself asking. "What are you?" Was she doing this? He'd been dying just mere seconds ago. The woman looked at him, still dropping sparks into his body, suddenly alive with energy, and smiled ruefully.
"My name is Tasha." She replied. Electricity, the same color as her shocking eyes, now ran freely through the tall spikes that was her hair. "I'm a sorceress."
Ethan came to with a gasp, arms flailing and almost falling off the bench. "Damnit!" He sighed heavily. He needed to stop falling asleep at random places...
'That was the longest so far.' Ethan thought, thinking back to when he'd had his other dreams...but those were only glimpses. This one was more like ten minutes or so. He began to panic as he scrambled to grab a pencil and paper tablet out of his backpack. 'I can't forget this! I need to remember..' He began jotting down the dream as fast as he could, knowing that normally, he would wake up from a dream just forget it soon after. Then again, these weren't normal dreams...these were memories.
Strangely, it didn't freak him out as much as he thought it would.
'There were two monsters.' Ethan's thoughts strayed from what he was writing. 'A white one too. And there was that woman again! The one with lightning in her hair!' He began doodling on a few other pages, quickly sketching out what he remembered about the monsters, and the woman. When he was finished, sweating from the mild effort -he still felt like utter crap- he thought the sketches actually looked really good.
Glancing at the streets, he scowled, knowing he's still have to endure the few painful blocks to his house. His head throbbed...his body ached. Even his MIND hurt, especially after the dream. Other than that..as he remembered the monsters, one word in particular came to mind...he tried to ignore it. He didn't want to think about it...did he even want to remember?
Sighing, he forced himself to get up and start walking again.
"Hey!" Someone greeted from behind him. Ethan turned warily as a car pulled up to the sidewalk. The man in the car was unfamiliar..but at the same time, Ethan felt certain he'd seen him before. He ignored this, and only continued his sluggish walk, taking small, slow steps.
"Hey." He greeted with no enthusiasm. "What's up?" He asked, not knowing what else to say.
"Not much, just taking a ride through town." The man glanced up at him through thickly tinted sunglasses. "Need some help? A ride anywhere?"
"Umm...sure." Ethan decided, going with his gut and walked around the car to the passengers side. As he got in, he couldn't help but notice the stranger studying him intently, and flinch he gave when Ethan sat down. As the car started moving, Ethan felt a calm feeling wash over him, and almost felt like he could just fall asleep again, right there in the strangers car.
'Nuh-uh.' He thought warily. 'So not going to happen.' He struggled to keep himself awake.
"Where we going, bud?" The man asked as he drove slowly through the near empty streets. The sunlight shining through the windshield nearly reflected off of the man's blonde hair.
"Umm...it's only about three blocks away." Ethan nodded and began to direct the man, who kept quiet and just drove for a minute or two.
"So, what happened?" The man asked as he continued slowly to their destination. "You look rough, dude." Ethan gave a tiny smile.
"Nothing. Just feeling really sick."
"I hope it gets better." They pulled into Ethan's driveway. As Ethan began to get out of the car, he did begin to feel a little better. The haze that recently clouded his mind lifted some, and he didn't feel as worn down.
"Thanks for the ride." Ethan gave a small smile. "I appreciate it."
"Anytime." The blonde smiled, and pulled out of the driveway, leaving Ethan to gather his thoughts and unlock an empty house. 'What just happened?' He asked himself. 'I just accepted a ride from a total stranger...I could've been mugged.' He entered the house, throwing his backpack to the floor, giving a painful wince. 'Or worse..'
As he plopped down on his couch, Ethan sighed, and tried to watch TV for a while, but quickly got bored. After a while, he also got tired, but restless at the same time. He'd only slept two hours the night before, but he also felt as though electricity was just BUZZING under his skin. He tried to ignore this the best he could, and instead tried to sleep.
As Ethan was drifting off, he heard something in the back of him, and assuming it was the Ac, lazily opened his eyes and shifted his position uncomfortably. He tried to find a comfortable spot, tried to shake off the suddenly energetic feeling, and was dozing off again...until he heard the noise, again. And it sounded like a person whispering...right in back of him!
'Ethan.'
Ethan shot up from the couch, whipping around to see the intruder. As his eyes met nothing but the empty room, his eyebrows furrowed in confusion.
'Run.' There was that voice again, only this time Ethan realized it wasn't in the room with him. It was in his head...which kind of freaked him out more.
"What?" Ethan asked into the empty room, and began walking around the living room, to the entryway. Even though he was pretty sure he'd heard what the voice told him, he wanted to be sure that he'd actually heard something, and wasn't going crazy.
"Ethan?" A loud voice asked from behind him, and Ethan gave a shriek of terror -in a very manly way- and jumped away from the hand that grasped his shoulder. Turning around, his feet tangled and he fell to the floor, hitting his shoulder on the sharp edge of a table in the process.
"Dad!" Ethan exclaimed, surprise and irritation in his voice. "Don't..do that!" He whined as he rested his now throbbing head on the linoleum.
"Ethan?" His dad asked again, eyebrows furrowed. "You okay?" Ethan accepted the helping hand, and stood up with a wince. "Why are you home?"
"Huh?" Ethan asked, trying to find his balance, as he clung to his dads strong arm.
"Why aren't you at school?" His dad asked, setting down a rather large plastic bag at the door. "You okay?" Ross repeated, gazing now worriedly at his son.
"Yeah, uh..I'm fine." Ethan gave a small grin. "Just didn't feel so good in school today. The nurse sent me home." For a few seconds, his dad said nothing, only studied his son's face, and then finally placed a hand on his forehead.
"Maybe you should head up to bed, E." His dad said, with a sigh as he entered the kitchen. "You feel hot." He began rummaging around in the cupboards. "You're looking kind of pale too." He added. "What's the matter? You catching something?"
"I don't think it's anything to worry about." Ethan shrugged and accepted the painkillers from his dad. "Probably just a head cold." He gave a weak smile, and tried not to think about the strange whispers in his head.
"Well, you're mom'll be home around six." Ross grasped Ethan's shoulder and gave it a shake. "Get some rest."
"Will do, dad." Ethan began making his way up the stairs.
'Run.' There was the voice again! The teen froze, half way up the stairs, and listened. The voice hadn't sounded threatening, more like a soft whisper of encouragement. After a second, he continued up, listening as the voices got stronger, and he was able to tell that there were two voices, one female, and one male.
'Lift some weights.' The soft, male voice. 'Do some push ups.'
'Sit ups.' A strained, female voice.
'Best to run.'
'Just run, you'll need it.'
'It'll make you better.'
Ethan closed his door, and sat down on the bed, listening for more. He'd heard them before! He couldn't match people to the voices, but at the same time, there was no question about wether he's heard them before. But where? Furrowing his eyebrows, he listened for more, but no voices came. After a few minutes, he gave up listening, and focused on what the voices had said.
Work out tips? What the heck?
"Why?" Ethan asked aloud to his room. 'Why do they want me to work out?' He wondered. 'To tire me out?' He got up and slowly walked over to his window, gazing out into the forest. 'So they can strike?' Suddenly, he thought of the weights his uncle had given him for his birthday last year, that they kept stored in the garage. 'Am I actually considering this? I have the upper arm strength of a gerbil.' He thought glumly, and bit his lip as he glanced down at the grass, two stories below. 'My dad told me to go to sleep.'
Ethan slowly opened his window, and sighed as cool, clean air washed over him. From the window, he could see Benny's house, next door, and a good section of their back yards. Separating the two houses was a large oak tree, some bushes, and grandma's garden a little farther away. He sighed.
XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOX
About ten minutes later, Ethan stood at the entryway of his storage garage, and was opening it slowly, trying to keep quiet. He'd had to sneak past his dad watching TV, and into the laundry room where he could sneak out the back door. Now, he was looking with distaste at the collection of weights that he'd never used. They had just collected dust for the past nine months.
'This is going to give me nothing but aching muscles.' Ethan complained to himself, but began dusting off the fifteen pound weights anyway. He wanted to start out with one of the lightest...just in case he suddenly got too weak to lift anything (it had happened a lot in the past week) and he was curious about the voices, and why they were telling him to do these things.
Surprisingly, over the next twenty minutes or so, Ethan discovered that after a few minutes of the fifteen-pounders, that the soreness in his arms began to be less noticeable. The weights quickly became too easy to lift, and he began lifting the twenty pounders on each an arm. Though this struck him as strange, Ethan decided to just go with it, and instead concentrated on the feeling of his muscles relaxing and contracting, working the soreness away. He soon moved to the much larger weights that required two hands, and within an hour of it all, he was left sweaty, and feeling a lot better than he did when he'd first came into the garage.
'The voice was right.' He suddenly realized. 'It did make me better.' He grinned, and began to head out of the garage, just before his cellphone buzzed.
'Ethan? You okay?' -Benny
Signing, Ethan quickly typed back. 'Just fine. Feeling a lot better actually.' This wasn't a lie. 'Where are you?' He sent the message, preparing to sneak back into the house, and a minute later his phone buzzed again.
'Between 6th and 7th hour. You sure you're okay?' -Benny
'Yeah, I'm good. Maybe after school we could do something. Get to class.' Ethan smiled as he slowly made his way through the laundry room, and up the stairs.
'Fiiiine. See you in an hour.' -Benny
Ethan entered his room, and sent back a simple smiley face as he began to get his clothes out for a shower. As he headed into the bathroom, he was surprised to hear his phone buzz again.
'What's up?' The message was from Sarah, and Ethan's eyebrows drew together. Wasn't she supposed to be in class?
'Aren't you supposed to be in class?' Ethan asked honestly, and waited for a second for his phone to buzz back.
'My last hour is a free period since I'm a senior and Mr. Greene's out for the day. Wanna hang out?' -Sarah
'Where's Erika? I'm still in class.' Ethan lied, seeing wether she'd call him out on it or not. Ethan didn't want to admit it, but over the past couple months or so, his interest in Sarah had been waning.
'You liar, and gone with some loser jock. You okay over there? Need anything?' -Sarah.
'Why is she being so...willing to talk to me?' Ethan asked himself, and wondered what she wanted from him. She rarely just texted him out of nowhere. Ethan took his time starting the shower and adjusting the water temp before replying, and felt surprised when he realized he actually felt kind of annoyed by Sarah.
'It's okay, I'm fine.' Ethan typed back. 'Actually, I was going to hang with Benny later. Wanna come over?' Half hoping she'd say no, Ethan but his lip and reluctantly sent the text. Sarah was one of his friends, after all, even if he didn't exactly have a huge crush in her anymore...and she'd made it pretty clear she didn't like him as anything more than a friend.
'Sure! (: You forgot your History book in Mr. G's class btw, I'll bring it over to you.' -Sarah
Oh. That was why.
'Thanks, see you soon.' Ethan tried to end the conversation and sighed, turning his phone off as he slipped off his clothes and began to run the water.
Around twenty minutes later, Ethan was feeling clean and refreshed, and lying on his bed, staring up at the ceiling. Since the surprisingly relaxing workout and shower, he was feeling perfectly content, and found his eyelids getting heavier and heavier for each passing minute. Just sitting there, dozing on and off, Ethan was perfectly content, and he was just on the edge of total sleep. That is, until he heard a knock at his door.
"Ethan?" He heard a soft feminine voice ask, and he opened his eyes to see Sarah standing in his doorway. "You asleep?" She whispered, and Ethan found himself smiling.
"Not anymore." He replied with a chuckle, and instead of politely sitting up, he just scooted over in the bed, unwilling to give up the comfort his bed gave him. "What's up?"
"Nothing, I just brought over you're text book." Sarah replied, setting the book down on his computer table. "You look comfy." She commented, smiling and sitting at the edge of his bed.
"I was." Ethan said, sighing, and then glaring playfully at the brunette. "Until someone came and woke me up." Sarah gave him a mock-dirty look and then laughed, lying down next to him.
"Whatever, Morgan." She grinned. "So, what're you gonna do for Benny's birthday?" Sarah asked suddenly, as her phone buzzed with a text.
"To be honest, I really don't know." As Sarah pulled her phone out of her pocket to text a reply, Ethan became suddenly surprised at himself. Well, it was a pleasant sort of surprise...he'd never been so close to her without his stomach doing little flips and heart doing weird things. Of course, most of those feelings he'd gotten for her had faded away in the last two months or so. Still, she'd never been so willingly close to him before...
"Well, we gotta think of something." Sarah said, sighing and then smiling over at Ethan, his face only a few inches away. "It's not everyday a dork turns seventeen."
"I know!" Ethan exclaimed. "I just can't figure out what to get him! I need to do some serious shopping before Saturday." Ethan rubbed his eyes. "I know he'd want to go to the arcade or somewhere...and as hard as he tries, I know Benny doesn't really like a party with a whole lot of stuck up kids who don't care about him."
"It makes you lonely after a while." Sarah agreed. "And hey, what's up with you, Ethan? You've seemed like...really sick lately, and really ." She gave a concerned glance. "Even Erika's noticing."
"I dunno." Ethan shrugged half heartedly. "Maybe it was just a head cold that lasted a really long time."
"Don't give me that, Ethan." Sarah rolled her eyes. "Seriously, if something like this happens again, I want you to go in for it." She said, referring to the hospital. "If you're sick for a whole month with a head cold, it's not normal...you might be a monster-fighting, vampire slaying, super geek, but you're still human." Ethan found himself smiling, and Sarah laughed before her voice became scolding again. "We're really worried about you. Especially Benny."
"No one has anything to worry about." Ethan tried to convince her. "I really am doing fine." The vampire didn't look all that convinced. "Really!" Ethan insisted. "I was feeling really sick when I came home, I'll admit, but ever since, I feel great." He stretched out his arms above him, and gave an over-the-top grin to prove his point.
"Okay." Sarah replied, still not convinced, but seemingly decided that the young Seer was telling her the truth. "Anyway, I wish I could stay longer, but I sort of have a date tonight." She said rather hesitantly, probably knowing Ethan still liked her, and not wanting to hurt him.
"Who with?" Ethan asked, genuinely curious. He silently hoped it wasn't one of those jerk jocks that had often bullied Benny and himself. Other than that, Ethan wished it wouldn't be a jock, because they tended to be obnoxious jerks, and he didn't want to see Sarah hurt anytime soon.
"A new student named Danny." Sarah answered, smiling. "And before you say anything, yes he is a football jock, and no, he isn't a jerk. He actually seems pretty nice."
"Awesome." Ethan said, snuggling into the bed he realized he had all to himself again. "So, what do you think we should do about Benny? And by the way, do you have the time?" He asked, knowing fully well he could've just rolled over to look at the clock behind him, and wondering when Benny was going to arrive.
"It's around four." Sarah answered, glancing down at her phone screen. "And I don't know yet, but we're going to have to meet up with Grandma Weir sometime and organize the whole thing." Sarah smiled. "I haven't bought anything for him yet either, and we only have a few days-"
"A few days for what?" Benny asks as he enters the room, and Ethan notices right away that he's a little uncomfortable.
"Speak of the devil." Ethan says and smiles at Benny, who gives him a grimace in return.
"So, I'll see you guys later." Sarah breaks the beginning of an awkward silence, and rushes past Benny with a smile and out the door. As soon as she's left the room, Benny closes the door with a soft click and as Benny forces a smile at Ethan, he can tell his best friend's trying to cover up the tension he's feeling.
"What's up?" Ethan asks as he sits up in bed, leaning against the headboard.
"'What's up' yourself, E." Benny said, throwing down his backpack next to Ethan's closet. "How come you checked out early today?" He asked, concern lacing his voice.
"Just wasn't feeling good, Benny." Ethan said, trying to reassure him. "But I'm feeling a lot better now!" He continued, and Benny grimaced.
"Well, you do look better that earlier this week, E." Benny said hesitantly, and sat on the edge of his bed, much like Sarah had done. For a second, Ethan contemplated wether or not to tell his best friend about the strange voices he'd heard, but quickly dismissed that thought. The advice he'd been given helped...and if it made him better, who was he to interfere?
"Wanna do something later?" Ethan asked, taking Benny by surprise.
"Um...sure E." Benny replied slowly. "As long as you're sure everything's alright."
"I'm sure, Ben." Ethan replied, getting up and stretching his arms high above his head. "I don't know what it is...but I felt awful earlier, and then I came home and..rested for a while and now I'm feeling great!" He'd almost slipped...and while he wasn't being totally truthful, he did take a rest, and he really was feeling better.
"If you say so." Benny looked skeptical, but smiled nonetheless. "Actually, E, I forgot to tell you. Grandma told me to tell you that there's someone over at the house who wants to meet you." His smile was gone now, replaced with a grimace. "One of Senna's friends. The one she was talking about the last time we went out for lunch together."
"The one Cody doesn't like?"
"Tyson." Benny nodded, rolling his eyes. "I don't like them, E." He said, sort of hesitantly. "I don't have a good feeling about this."
"What do you mean?"
"I don't know..." Benny frowned thoughtfully. "I guess...I don't know." He shifted uncomfortably. "They just..give me this feeling whenever their around, sometimes. Like, something bad might happen. Now, especially Tyson. I really don't like him."
"I don't know what to say Benny." Ethan face a sheepish look. "I've never really felt anything like that around Cody or Senna...I mean, Grandma seems to trust them, right? How bad can they be?" Benny gave sort of a sad look before getting up from his spot on the bed.
"I guess so. I don't know, it's just weird." He grabbed his backpack. "You coming, dude? Grandma said after the meet and greet with Tyson, we're going to visit this mystical spot a few hours away. She said she talked to your parents and their willing to let you come with us." At this, Benny smiled. "Just you, me, and Grandma."
"And the others are gonna stay at your house?" Ethan asked, disbelieving.
"Nah, I guess they have their own stuff to do."
"Anything else Grandma said?" Ethan asked, rolling his eyes, but grinning.
"I don't think so." Benny smiled. "Come on, the sooner we get there, the sooner we get to leave."
XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOX
"You know, we can just make a run for it." Benny scowled as they got to his front porch, and sat on the steps. Ethan sat next to him, and leant against one of the supporting beams.
"Well, we can't avoid them forever." He sighed. "And like you said, the sooner we get this over with, the sooner we can take off with grandma to that priestess convention, holy place or whatever."
"It's a few hours away." Benny said thoughtfully, wondering if Ethan would take his chance to sleep for a while before they got there. Reassuring as he was, Benny couldn't help but doubt that Ethan would just suddenly get better in a matter of hours...well, it had happened before..but Benny couldn't help but worry. Maybe it was just the feeling that Ethan wasn't telling him something that threw him off. They told each other everything, didn't they?
"We'll just have to find something to do...we could bring out Nintendo's." Ethan said, breaking Benny out of his thoughts. "That or we could bring the portable DVD player and a season of The Bloodsucker Diaries."
"Or we could sleep." Benny said, silently agreeing with Ethan but deciding to give his thoughts a shot. His tone held a hint of suggestion and Ethan scowled at him, opening his mouth to say something, but not getting the chance to as the door swung open.
"Come on, boys! You've been out here long enough, haven't you?" Senna asked, smiling as she stepped out on the porch. "I promise, he's not as bad as some people might make him out to be."
"Oh yes he is!" Cody sang as he walked past the door.
"Can it, Cody." Senna rolled her eyes and gestured them in as the boys slowly rose and followed her into the house.
'Funny how I'm uncomfortable even entering my own home!' Benny thought bitterly. 'Why can't they just be gone already?' As the trio entered into the living room, the young spellmaster's eyes narrowed as he for the second time that day, caught sight of a rather broad man sitting on one of Grandma's chairs. He was of average height by the looks of it, with a broad torso that still managed to look lean, hair a deep caramel color and blue eyes. Something that Benny noticed right away was that he was dressed in dark colors, and in a way reminded him of Cody. Still, this man in front of him also seemed to be Cody's polar opposite. In a second, Benny went from disliking Cody to having a preference toward him.
"Hey." The man's smile was friendly enough, but didn't make Benny like him any more. "I'm Tyson Brent." He stood from his chair and walked over to them with a hand held out. Benny's felt his insides shake with some foreign hostility as he clasped hands with Ethan.
"Ethan Morgan." Ethan said with a nod, and then tilted his head towards where Benny stood next to him. "You probably already know, this is my best friend Benny."
'Thanks, dude.' Benny thought. 'I didn't want to have to speak to this jerk-wad any more than necessary.' Then, the teen just nodded and gave a very tight quirk of his lips as the man smiled at him.
"You're Evelyn's grandson." He said and nodded. "I saw you earlier today, but we didn't get to say much did we?" It was Benny's turn to shake his hand, and Benny once again wondered why Senna even considered bringing him to his house.
"Sorry about that, I had some errands to run before I came home from school." Benny replied, not exactly lying. He'd come home for maybe a minute before departing for Ethan's house.
"It's cool." Tyson smiled and walked into the kitchen. Sharing a wide-eyed look, a reluctant Ethan and Benny followed him. As they entered the kitchen, they were greeted by Grandma, who was boiling something in a rather large caldron, Cody, looking a bit more disheveled than usual, and Senna, reading something's in the newspaper.
"Care for tea, anyone?" Cody asked glumly, holding up a rather feminine looking tea cup. "Specialty of Granny Weir."
"Hush, Cody." Grandma said, adding some kind of purple plant to the boiling liquid. Tyson seemed to have lost all interest in conversation as he held a laptop on his hands, scrolling through some website with the pad mouse.
"Oh boys?" Grandma asked from her station across the room. "As it turns out, my meeting is going to take just a little longer, and I've arranged for us all to stay in town for a few days instead of a few hours." She smiled and shrugged. "If you're up to it. I've already got the school work for you two, so you don't miss out on anything." The boys shared a look.
"Sure, Grandma." Ethan smiled. "It would actually be great to get out for a while.
"And we even get to do schoolwork while we're there?" Benny asked in mock excitement, making Grandma roll her eyes. Ethan only smirked.
"What's wrong with you?" Ethan asked as he sat opposite of Cody at the large table, Benny taking a seat next to him.
"Oh nothing." Cody answered sarcastically. "Except a really strong mental block!" His eyes were glazed-over, and his hands shook slightly. "No energy sensitivity, no tracking skills..." He took a sip out of his cup, sounding absolutely miserable. "Not even weather prediction."
"Calm down Cody, I'm sure it's just a bad day for you." Tyson said, setting down the laptop and grabbing some plastic tray out of the fridge.
"Yeah." Cody agreed softly. "You'd know all about bad days, wouldn't you?" Perhaps too low for the man to hear, as Tyson didn't give any indication of hearing him. He grabbed a fork from the silverware drawer and began eating something suspiciously similar to sushi.
"Wanna take him up to the guest room?" Benny whispered, catching Ethan off guard by the looks of it.
"Uh, yeah." Ethan replied. "He doesn't look to good." Then to Cody, he asked a little louder. "Hey Cody, Benny and I found something at an antique stop earlier and we think you'd really like to see it." Wow. Benny raised his eyebrows, but nodded along, silently impressed with How smoothly Ethan's lie came across.
'Hope he doesn't make a habit of it.' Benny thought as he began to get up from his seat. "Yeah, I brought it up to my room earlier." Benny gave a minuscule smile.
"But you haven't gotten the chance to get to know Tyson yet." Cody replied, still dazed, earning a strange look from Senna and a mutual look from Tyson. Ethan got up, crossing the table to tug gently at Cody's arm.
"I'm sure we'll have all the time in the world to talk later." Ethan helped Cody out of his chair. As the boys journeyed upstairs to the guest room, Cody made a confused face.
"I thought we were going to the thrift store." He asked. Ethan and Benny shared a look as they sat him down on the guest bed. Benny decided to get this over with. He didn't like being in this room...it still brought up painful memories.
"No, Cody, we think you should just get some rest for a while." Benny said, going over to the window and opening it half way. "You look pretty out of it today."
"I feel pretty out of it." Cody replied glumly, already lying back on the bed. Only then did Benny actually notice that under the overcoat, he was wearing a plain white shirt and black sweat pants. Sleepwear, by the looks of it. "This isn't where I sleep." He continued drowsily.
"Grandma won't mind." Ethan answered. "Just...sleep it off."
"You guys are leaving soon." Cody mumbled as he drifted off. 'Jeez.' Benny thought, almost sympathetically. 'Does he really feel that drained?'
"Yeah, me and E gotta go pack." Benny nodded to Ethan and the two boys left the room. "We'll wake you before we leave." Benny said to Cody's near-sleeping form as he closed the door.
"Sheesh." Ethan said, giving Benny a wide-eyed look. "I didn't think having psychic's block would be that...draining." He said as they entered Benny's room.
"I was just thinking the same thing." Benny said, crossing the room to his closet where he grabbed a suitcase and duffel bag. "I told you Tyson was trouble. Cody's my new favorite." This was true enough...he still didn't particularly like Cody, but compared to Tyson? No question.
"I didn't believe you before." Ethan said, flopping down on Benny's bed. "But meeting him, I get what you meant about the weird feeling." Ethan's eyes followed him around the room. "I still need to go home and pack before we leave."
"I think I need to wash a few things..." Benny said, trailing off.
"I'll wait."
"I don't like this, E...I mean, I love that we're finally getting away from all of this for a few days, but..." Benny made a face, sitting down next to Ethan on his bed. "I don't like coming home to a house full of strangers." He bit his lip. "It just doesn't feel right...and I know Grandma says they're fine, and she wouldn't let them sty here if they weren't, but...I don't know."
"Maybe you could just stay at my place until they leave." Ethan said after a moment of thought. "I wouldn't exactly be all that comfortable either."
"Thanks, E." Benny said, smiling a little before getting up and continuing to pack various items. "At least we're leaving soon. Getting away from all this weirdness for a few days."
"At least there'd that." Ethan agreed, smiling. "Think they'll have a pool?"
"I hope so." Benny grinned back. "If not, Grandma told me about this lake that's nearby...totally safe for swimmers and canoes. Make sure and pack you're swim trunks." Benny came across his own, throwing them messily into the duffel bag. Ethan then got up, gathering the dirty clothes that littered the floor and throwing them into an almost empty hamper in the corner.
"Come on, I'll help with your laundry." Ethan grabbed the hamper, exiting the room. "The faster we get you packed, the faster we can leave...and get something to eat, I'm hungry!"
"I think Tyson had sushi earlier." Benny laughed as Ethan wrinkles his nose.
"I hate sushi, and I'm not eating while we wash you're dirty underwear! Ew." Benny just rolled his eyes with a small smile.
"Shut up, E."
AN: GRRRRRRRRR! Guy's, I seriously don't know about this chapter, especially the ending...and sorry for any mistakes. But HEX YEAH, I think this is the longest one yet! I know this chappie was also kind of slow and boring, and maybe it even skipped around a little, and there were things that didn't quite make sense...but I swear, everything will get a lot more clear as the chapters go on. This is part of the story, and without it, everything would just be MORE confusing. Remember now, we're figuring things out as Ethan figures them out. (x be patient, loves. BIG thanks to those who actually review! I read them! I recognize you! XP Even if I don't send a reply back. If you ever want a mention or reply or something, just ask. Okay, this AN is long enough..(Holy Shit, dudes, over EIGHT THOUSAND words!)
Review's are love!