Chapter 36: If thine is the glory, then mine must be
The last days had been good. No sudden vomiting, no strong fever, barely a hint of nausea yesterday.
Low ectoplasmic contamination, as Ziad told him – in other words, his ectoplasm wasn't doing anything weird and dangerous, present but mostly inactive.
His nightly training with intangibility was going well, too.
Vlad was slowly but confidently coming to the conclusion that using his powers – not overusing them, not ignoring them – in reasonable amounts reduced the risks of everything going to hell. If he didn't force it, if he went to sleep when he started faltering in his training, if he didn't try to do too much...
it helped that intangibility didn't always call for him to turn
that he had no ear tips to cut off
no eyes to pierce
no fangs to tear out
Then he was less likely to get sicker.
The fevers and blood vomiting – and sometimes, sometimes, his powers malfunctioning and doing something that shouldn't happen to a human being like having your lungs hanging out of your body – mostly happened when Vlad tried to do too much, now.
It meant being more patient with his training, but if that implied less time spent in pain – wasted, lost as he'd bend over and retch and lose track of time and his own thoughts – it was worth it.
Besides, spending hours in agony in a soiled bed wasn't only horrible, it was also the exact opposite of productive. In the end, Vlad might be gaining more time by being patient.
It also allowed him to read during the day, to work on his economy textbook.
Once, Vlad found himself wondering with a slow aching heavy heart how Maddie and Jack they hadn't tried to contact him not once he couldn't know had no idea only that they didn't care enough were doing. If they'd completed their master's in ectology – the field had only recently been recognized by the scientific world, a lot of people still mocked them but that had been alright because they hadn't been alone and now now now Vlad wasn't mocked anymore everyone here in the clinic knew that ghosts were real except he was alone and at least halfway to dead, and there were only three universities in the world that offered to graduate in it, they'd been Madison's first ectology students. If Jack had gotten a job dangerous can't be trusted with anything sensitive clumsy reckless an accident waiting to happen. If Maddie had gone on for a doctorate.
The proto-portal Jack not even looking not a warning nothing and then had been almost two years ago. If everything had gone as expected but it hadn't had it or Vlad wouldn't be stuck here with no prospects for the future and ectoplasm pooling in his blood Jack and Maddie he'd killed Vlad but she'd tried to stop him at least had graduated with their master a few months ago.
and here was Vlad struggling to even keep up with a correspondence course bloodying his notes doing what he could when he could when he wasn't
There weren't many opportunities for ectologists, not yet. Being ghost experts could actually work – but most of the field was still centered around the occult and seen as a joke by a lot of people. It hadn't yet gone technological.
That was why they'd planned to create their own opportunities, back before...
before
But to continue for a doctorate, Maddie would need financing, and that meant convincing someone to give her money as she went on about ghosts and ectoplasm as a scientific goal.
Maddie was slightly better at making it sound real than Jack, but to be honest... Vlad had been the most grounded out of them three. Making convincing arguments should have been his job, just like making sure their business around the ecto-converters stayed afloat should have been his responsibility.
If Jack and Maddie couldn't stop long enough to sound sane and convince anyone...
it wouldn't only be Vlad's life that fell apart with Jack's irresponsibility
Then again, Bianco and his organization had been looking on their experiments, even back before Vlad even knew of their existence. They'd wished to expand from the occult and into science. Maybe... Maybe Jack and Maddie could make things for the organization, at least until they had enough money to stand on their own, maybe Bianco would or had already reached out to them.
if Jack didn't make it all explode in someone's face without looking first
...The director hadn't said anything, though. Vlad felt he might have been told, had this happened.
When if he gets out of the clinic, then...
Vlad will...
When he gets out, when he's better but it wasn't time yet yes he had been getting better yes things weren't as bad but not good enough when...
It wasn't yet the case.
For now, what Vlad could do... What he could do was sneak out of his room and get a good look at his medical file. He had become confident enough in his intangibility to risk it.
So, tonight.
Tonight was a future Vlad could rely on, at least.