Trail 51: Bad News And A New Resolve

--- Jon ---

“I’m… I’m sorry… can you… can you walk me through this one more time?” He asked the nurse.

“Of course.” The woman in scrubs nodded. “Based on what we can tell your mother is stable and healing, but given the Deviant nature of her ailment it's likely to be some time before she can wake up.”

“I… I see…” He swallowed, his eyes drifting to his Ma looking so fragile as she laid in her hospital bed. “Is there… Is there any idea how long she’ll be… asleep for?”

Asleep wasn’t the right word, it made the whole thing seem so (fake) but it was also the only word he could muster to describe his Ma, as all the others were so much worse.

“Given how… similar cases usually go, probably another two weeks.” The nurse answered, likely referring to anyone else who’d been attacked by the Creeps of the Haunt in years prior.

“Is there… Is there someone you want me to call?” The nurse asked him after a moment. “You’re a bit young to be dealing with this.”

He shook his head. “No, I’ll… I just… I need a minute…”

The nurse opened her mouth to say something before pausing as her pager went off. “I’m sorry, I need to deal with this.”

“It’s, it’s fine.” He waved her off weakly, before collapsing in a nearby chair once he was alone.

He wasn’t sure how long he was sitting there with his head in his hands and his eyes on the tile floor, his mind unable to think about anything other than how (I failed to help Ma…) but eventually a pair of sneakers trudged into his line of sight before tapping his boots.

“You holdin’ up, kiddo?”

He looked up and found a woman with golden eyes who looked like she couldn’t be more than forty, despite being nearly double that, the only sign of her real age a head of voluminous gray hair tied back in a ponytail.

“Miss Edna.” He smiled, a flicker of hope rekindling in his chest. “My Ma she’s… the creeps I killed, they weren’t enough and I… can you… can you help my Ma?”

The closest thing he had to a second parent let out a tired sigh before taking a seat next to him. “Was hopin’ we could hold off on the bad news for a minute, but… If she’s like anyone else who’s been bitten by these Creeps the poison has bonded with her system in a way that she needs to just… sleep it off if we want her to get better.”

“But you, with everything you know about magic can’t you… can’t you make her better?” He asked, suddenly feeling colder.

Miss Edna put a hand on his shoulder and gave it a soft squeeze. “There are ways we could wake her up now, but doing so could cause scarring to her system that would easily shave a decade off her life expectancy. I’m sure we can agree that a week or two of sleep is better than that.”

He blinked, feeling his eyes begin to tear up.

His second parent slid her hand around his neck and pulled him in for a side hug as she began running her hands through his hair. “Shh… It’s going to be alright kiddo. This might not be what you want to hear, but it will be alright. And I promise until your Ma wakes up I’ll be right here where you need me.”

Scene Consequences

-Grown a bit closer to Miss Edna.

-Miss Edna is now staying with Jon until his Ma is healed.

---

After a while of waiting at the hospital with his Ma and Miss Edna, the still conscious of the two told him that waiting around the hospital all day wouldn’t accomplish anything and managed to drag him away before taking him back home to his apartment. Where he found himself sitting on the living room couch while running a hand through a depressed Brutus’s fur, while Pix fluttered about worriedly and Miss Edna started cooking in the kitchen since it was nearing lunch and he’d skipped breakfast to go to the hospital.

A faint ringing drew his attention to his phone tossed haphazardly onto the living room table, and while he didn’t really feel up to dealing with whoever was calling him after his disappointing trip to the hospital he still found himself checking to see who it was.

(Ying?) He read before letting his eyes drift towards Miss Edna moving around in the kitchen. (...)

Figuring that ignoring her calls, and he knew it would be call-s if she was calling while they were both supposed to be in school. But knowing that ignoring them would just draw more worry from Miss Edna with each one declined, he let out a sigh and answered the phone with more cheer than he could feel. “Hey, Ying what’s up?”

“Are you, alright?” Ying asked before anything else.

“I’m fine…” (Though I can’t say the same about my Ma…) “Why do you ask?”

“Because I just discovered the police station in your neighborhood was overrun by Creeps last night.” Ying answered, sounding less than pleased with this fact.

“Yeah, it was.” He admitted, letting his head fall back. “Only had to deal with two Creeps getting inside, the cops took care of the rest.” (Or Ma did at least…) (Should’ve slaughtered them all myself!) “I cleared the ones outside the station.” He added, whether to tell Ying or himself he wasn’t sure.

“I see…” Ying sighed, sounding frustrated. “I suppose it was too much to ask them just to ignore you during an invasion.”

“I guess it was…” He agreed, not really caring how many were sent after him. (But they shouldn’t have touched my mother!)

“Well, I’m glad you’re alright at least.”

“Yeah…” (I’m not.)

“Do you think there will be any more issues before this Haunt ends?” Ying asked him after a moment. “I mean you said it’s supposed to last a couple more weeks, are you going to need any… help?”

Pix flew up to him and gave him a concerned look before sitting on his shoulder and giving him a hug.

“I think I’ll be alright.” He smiled softly as he ran a finger between (his little light)’s antenna. “I’ve made it through worse and came back better than before.”

“That’s… good.” Ying told him, though it sounded like she was frustrated by something. “Just if you need an extra pair of claws give me a call, alright?”

“Sure thing.” He promised, flexing his fingers as he briefly imagened claws at the end of them. “If I need another set I’ll give you a ring.”

“Thank you.” Ying sighed, sounding relieved. “If you need any help I have no problem sneaking out to aid you. Oh, I need to get off, lunch is almost over here. Hopefully, I’ll talk to you soon.”

“Mm-hmm, talk to you later.” He nodded, even if she couldn’t see him.

Miss Edna stuck her head out from the kitchen. “Who was that?”

“Just Ying.” He told her. “She apparently heard about the police station -some how- and was calling to check in.”

Miss Edna blinked before nodding. “Oh, right, she lives in this city too doesn’t she? I’ll have to remember to check in on her when I get a minute. Make sure she’s handling the whole [Dragon] thing well enough, I know I nearly lost it when I started some of my more… birdy tendencies.”

“Is that why you collect all the baubles?” He asked, remembering just how many trinkets were covering Miss Edna’s shop and home.

“Don’t bad mouth my shinies.”

Scene Consequences

-Grown a bit closer to Ying.

---

Later in the day and half-way through dinner there was a knock at the front door, and once more he found that he really didn’t feel like getting up to deal with it, but when he saw Miss Edna getting ready to get up to answer the door, he got up from his chair to do it first.

Not bothering to check the peephole he opened the door and found Ms. Valentine with Kenneth on her hip. “Oh, hello Jon, uh, is your mom home today?”

Not feeling up to grimacing, he simply shook his head. “Uh, no, no she’s not…”

“Oh, uh, any idea when she’ll be home?” Ms. Valentine asked. “There’s something I need to ask her, but I know she keeps weird hours with the whole cop thing.”

“Shes um… she’s not…” He swallowed and forced himself to tell her. “She’s in the hospital.”

“Oh, no! What happened? Are, are you alright? Is, is she going to be okay?”

Ms. Valentine stumbled through several more half questions before he finally worked up the nerve to speak. “There was… an incident on Halloween… she’ll live but they said since it was… Deviant related, it'll take a few days for her to wake up.”

Little Kenneth began to fuss in his mother’s arms as he realized there was something wrong with the conversation the two of them were having. (Just like there’s a lot wrong with this whole situation.)

“Shh, honey it’s alright.” Ms. Valentine tried to soothe the little one before turning back to him. “That’s… terrible but they, they said she would wake up though, right?”

“Mm-hmm.” He nodded, not wanting to contemplate what he’d do if she didn’t. (Make her better.)

The fingers holding the door open, began to claw and scrape at the wood out of sight.

“Wait, are you going to be okay by yourself?” Ms. Valentine frowned.

“Yeah, I’m… I take care of things enough that I’ll be alright by myself.” He lied, before shaking his head. “That said, I uh, I called some… family stuff if I need it.”

“Alright…” Ms. Valentine told him, still sounding concerned. “Just… if you need anything you let me know. You and your mom have done so much for me and Kenneth that I wouldn’t feel right hanging you out to dry like that.”

“It’s fine.” He assured her. “I’ll be fine… I just… have to wait for her to get better.” (If she gets better.)

Scene Consequences

-The neighbors are aware Ma is in the hospital.

---

Sitting alone in his room at night he couldn’t help but lay there and wonder if things would’ve been different if he’d actually been prepared for a fight prior to rushing off from the police station on Halloween.

He still would’ve done it but… (I could’ve been better prepared…)

He’d been aware for weeks that there was a Demon in the city, that the Creeps were invading, that Halloween was going to be the worst of it, (and yet…)

Beyond picking off a few Creeps what had he actually done to prepare for fighting them? Enchant his axe? Summon Noctis?

Given how he’d technically been working on those things before finding out about the Haunt he didn’t consider that nearly enough. (I mean I didn’t even have any Spell Scripts prepared for healing or… anything…)

His eyes drifted towards his book case and he couldn’t help but scoff. (For Cheshire’s sake I didn’t even crack open the books DeSade…)

He paused before rolling out of his bed and making his way over to where he’d stashed DeSade’s books before shifting through them until he found one titled, ‘Demonic Details, An Introduction to Demonology.’

DeSade had given him more advanced books on the topic than this one, he was sure, but at the same time he knew next to nothing about Demons beyond what he’d picked up through osmosis around the Devil of Blackwell and the Southside Coven. (I need to start somewhere…)

Opening the cover he found a series of documentary notes written, informing him that the original book had been written in French in 1795 and then translated to English in 1842 and reprinted in 1983, as well as a number of other notes that were meant to help the studier double check the context and information within.

Figuring this wasn’t really relevant to what he wanted at the moment, he instead flipped through a few pages before stopping on what he believed to be the book's introduction.

(‘Throughout human history, whenever there is misfortune cast upon humanity be it war, plague, and death, or simply our fear of unknown darkness lurking in the world around us. We have attributed these negative phenomena to the entities we identify as Demons.

It is in irony that this very attribution is the source of their power, and thus the threat they pose to us.

But despite what many would believe, not every entity that we call a ‘demon’ is truly a ‘Demon’, though this mistake of identity is just as easily handed out in ignorance as the power we have granted these Demons over us.

Despite the… taboo nature that many religions would place upon our field of study, the ultimate purpose of Demonology is not simply to barter our souls and enslave ourselves to these entities in the pursuit of power as so many would tell, but rather to dissect and study them to the best of our mental and magical ability. To rid ourselves of the ignorance that renders us beneath the boot of these powerful entities and allow humanity to truly stand against them after so many centuries of oppression.

Should this happen to force a Demon into servitude of the man they would rather devour, then that is simply doing unto them as they would do to us and does nothing to dismiss the true goal of this field of study.’

Makes sense given the age of the original book and the fact that so many people find Demons terrifying.) He couldn’t help but laugh at the idea, after all (Demons are just more prey to be slaughtered.)

For some reason Pix gave him a sad chirp before sitting on his shoulder and giving him a hug as he wiped the blood from beneath his nose and continued to read.

-Thanks to DeSade’s books gained 2XP to Demonology instead of 1.

-Due to recent events Trait Triggered: Insane Beast or Mad Man, Still A Hunter

--For studying recent prey gained 1 additional XP to Demonology.

---Currently: Lv. 3 (3/8)