Paying attention is important. Take nothing for granted and nothing will surprise you! It's a nice theory at least... in practice though?... Events unfold including but not limited to: Hannah being carried awkwardly, John staring awkwardly, And multiple floors are going to need cleaning!

 

“You done in there yet Han? It’s getting kinda late.”

‘Am I done in here yet?’
...I honestly don’t know at this point...

I had a bit of a ‘mini-freakout’ over the whole ‘lightning mage’ thing at first but eventually I calmed down, more out of self-preservation than anything else.

Considering how many times I got static shocks off of things because my body apparently develops a charge every time I get angry now, which bloody HURTS by the way, the fact that I’ve managed to actually look for some clothes to cover up my ruined protective suit is pretty impressive in my opinion John-boy!

I’ve got quite a few questions to be asking him when I get out of here though, that’s for sure.
...Maybe that’s a good thing to focus on for now?...

“I think I’m done John-boy. I’m coming out, no laughing, okay?”

The main question on my mind at the moment is something along the lines of ‘Why has he got so many eclectic pieces of women’s clothing in his mansion?’... although, considering they all looked like they could fit me perfectly, I’m guessing the answer to that one is going to be kinda obvious in the end sadly.
...Stupid Arista...

“My options were limited so I made the best of things, but I know it looks stupid so don’t you dare laugh, okay?”
He didn’t answer, annoyingly.

In the end I just screwed up my courage, straightened my back with as much dignity as possible and eased the door open carefully with my new sleeves tucked over my palms to prevent yet another static shock from happening, something which I’m becoming frustratingly used to receiving already at this point.

As I slid my way out of the door I came face-to-face with John who’d apparently decided to change clothes too judging by the dark, tailored suit he’s wearing with a matching black shirt and thin white tie underneath it he’s wearing which looks vaguely ‘retro’ to my inexperienced eye.

I’m by no means an expert on men’s fashion but if he actually bought that suit this side of the last handful of decades then I’d be surprised honestly.

At first his face was set in a wide smirking-grin of anticipation but when I finally cleared the doorway his smirk slowly fell away to be replaced by a rather unnervingly softer look that almost bordered on ‘fond approval’ more than anything else.

I found myself nervously shifting from foot to foot in the little kitten-heels I found at the bottom of the right-hand wardrobe of the apparent bedroom that I locked myself into earlier.

Seeing as I was hunting for clothes that looked more like actual ‘clothing’ instead of a ‘costume’ due to how out-of-date it all seemed to be, it kinda feels like I didn’t do too badly if I’m being objective about things.

There wasn’t exactly much to work with that wasn’t ‘costume worthy’ and I made the best of what I had at least!

I could have done without the skin-tight brown leather horse-riding pants, but considering they were the only thing that could be considered ‘not a full-on Victorian or worse’ skirt on offer, they were an instant ‘yes’ sadly.

The fact that the leather gave me more than a little bit of a wedgy in general meant I had to add something on top of them for my own embarrassment sake if nothing else, just so I didn’t feel too exposed.
The least ‘Victorian’ looking item on offer was sadly a little yellow ‘Ra-Ra’ skirt which I’m pretty sure I remember seeing someone wearing in a movie from the Eighties at some point.
It was obviously not optimal or my first choice in the slightest, but beggars can’t be choosers and it was better than nothing in the end...

Added to that was a frankly kinda embarrassing, lacy white ‘bodice’ I stole from the top half of a massive white ball-gown hanging up in the second wardrobe.
It would have been possibly worse than the leather pants honestly, if it wasn’t for the skin-tight layer of my ruined black ‘wetsuit’ I have underneath it and a long, open frock coat in a dusty shade of off-brown I found a few hangers over from it to go on top, of course.

The coat practically goes down to my ankles with an almost fanned out ‘skirt’ like effect that puffs out almost unnaturally well in a wide bell around me from a point just below the rather tight waistline allowed by its built-in belt.

At first I left the belt undone which let the coat settle a bit better but I ended up using it eventually just to keep the whole thing from flapping open too widely as I moved more than anything.
I think with everything added together it kind of works in making a somewhat serviceable mix-and-match outfit at least.
One which looks sort of okay to me in the mirror but would definitely be considered on the ‘weird’ side of fashion in general back in Klamath falls but-
“...beautiful...”
-Huh?

My eyes cut up sharply to stare into John’s admiring ones as he scanned me up and down a few times almost hungrily.

From the tips of my little heels to the high-neck of my dark under-suit, from the wide ‘bell’ bottom of my over-coat to the partly hidden but still figure hugging ruffles from my ‘borrowed’ bodice and back again.

I shifted my weight awkwardly and coughed to try and break his concentration but sadly he seemed to be far too deep into his dazed staring to be of any use at this point.

“It’s the best I could manage with what you had John-boy, quit staring already... why do you even HAVE all these clothes anyway?... Please tell me I’m not stealing Arista’s stuff; that would just be creepy at this point...”
It’s bad enough I stole all her magical knowledge already!

Don’t get me wrong, the bitch totally deserved it... but the more I think on it all the more uneasy I feel over taking so much from her without any form of recourse from the whole thing?

Mages don’t really believe in ‘Karma’ generally, and even if they did I guess her magical knowledge would be the least she could give me in exchange for the crap she pulled, but we believe in the ‘Powers’ and if you believe the old myths about them then they might as well BE ‘Karma’ incarnate for the amount of times they’ve supposedly ‘taken revenge’ on those who have abused their powers too much in general so-

=====

“Sorry Han, didn’t mean to make you feel awkward, you’re just... the look suits you, I guess?...”
My eyebrow perked up suspiciously at him and he shrugged slightly in response before smirking his usual ‘devil-may-care’ grin at me as if dismissing everything he’d said moments ago, an idea I’m more than willing to go along with considering how weird this whole situation is getting sadly.
“If you’re ready, you can go first and I’ll meet you at the Klamath Falls waypoint?”

Rather than give him a direct answer and chance having to spend any more time standing in this quiet hallway with him awkwardly like this, I shot him a quick nod before dipping slightly into my lines for the first time since my core shattered so I could reach my warping ‘senses’ and get out of here.

It barely took a second or so for me to pick up the right ‘taste’ combination for Klamath Falls surprisingly and much to my relief no problems decided to appear out of nowhere either.

Apparently even my warping senses are working better now that I’m free of the dead-weight put on my ‘true’ Locus point core by Arista and her stupid game of ‘Let’s add more cores to Hannah and see what happens!’.

If anything, I felt a bit put off by just how easy it felt to navigate to my lines now?
There was none of the ‘pushback’, none of the concentration needed to maintain the connection that I’m so used to having be present at all for some reason.
I only needed to just about ‘touch’ the surface of my lines before my magic surged up to meet me like the ‘bottled thunderstorm’ equivalent of an over-excited puppy.

My magic rolled and flipped happily in my chest to such a stupid degree that I didn’t even need to reach my lines directly before my senses kicked in at full power, as if my magic could tell what I wanted already and was only too eager to help.

With one more quick glance over at John I felt the waypoint beacon pulse in response to my probe, showing that it was clear for me to go through and I dropped into warp so smoothly, practically without effort at all as I found myself whizzing across the globe as a scattered bundle of atoms in a bubble of my own magic, surrounded by the familiar blue haze of warp space.

======

The world reformed around me at last and naturally the first thing I did was collapse forward with a sickened groan as my stomach rebelled against the newly rediscovered idea of me existing in ‘reality’ on general principle alone.

“Miss, you need to move out the way, I have another warp request coming in already?”
From my hunched over position on the floor I slowly twisted my head around to glare at the stupid guard guy on duty.
It wasn’t intentional but I could feel sparks of electricity welling up across my skin as my hair stood on end from the static build up that came with them, much to my continuing annoyance.

“Don’t make me zap you random guard-guy, I’m not in the mood. It’s only John, the bastard can wait considering he forgot to remind me that we’d be warping here from bloody ENGLAND of all places!”

The poor guard took several steps back from me as my glare intensified in the few seconds I could hold it before my eyes started wincing down again into pained little slits and my stomach once more disagreed heartily with the idea of me speaking right about now.

That was probably a wise move on his part in hindsight because, after a few deep huffs to prepare myself I climbed back to my feet only to have my magic flare up in yet more arcing lines of electrical fury as I practically fell forward moments later in my best attempt to get clear of the waypoint’s landing zone as requested.

My shoulder slammed into the doorway which acted as more of a crutch for me than anything else as I clung to it for dear life and waited with my eyes closed for the tell-tale disturbance of cold air that should follow John’s arrival in good old Klamath at last.

Luckily I didn’t have to wait long and he appeared behind me with a slight stagger, followed by a rather loud huff of breath that I’m pretty sure was meant to signify the journey had left him at least slightly winded... although maybe that’s just wishful thinking on my part at this point...

“You okay there Han?”
Slowly I leaned more of my chest against the doorframe so I could pull my head and shoulders back slightly and turn to shoot him a highly un-amused glare in response to that stupid-bloody-question!
“Oh... right, still got that whole ‘motion sickness’ thing going on, huh?”

Yes John-boy, thank you for noticing, isn’t it just delightful?!
How about you come over here so I can kick you in the balls and we’ll both suffer through mind-numbing degrees of nausea together, huh?

“Why don’t you just blast your golden ma-... oh, right, no diversion at the moment...”
Yes, also a fantastically well-made point John-boy, yet again let me extend my offer to personally help you understand just how sick warping across the bloody GLOBE makes me feel when just going a few miles leaves my stomach swirling on a good day!

“Is she going to be okay?”
I barely managed to restrain myself from letting off another pained groan when the stupid MPA trooper on guard duty decided to chip in to this whole comedy of errors again with an almost annoyingly worried tone to his stupid voice.

“Sorry about her, she’ll be fine soon enough; she’s just a bit grouchy today.”

Don’t think I can’t feel that knowing look you just shot him John-boy you ASSHOLE!
Don’t you DARE use a currently non-existent period as an excuse to another guy for why I’m nauseous, rightfully angry at you and being ‘grouchy’ in the slightest!

“I hope you feel better soon Miss, have a good day, okay?”
Powers damn it; he actually bought it!
Bloody... bloody... MEN!

“Come on Han, let’s get you some fresh air and somewhere away from the innocent people you could harm where you can sit down in peace for a bit, shall we?”
Without prompting at all John loped his way over to me and threw an arm around my waist with his head tucking under my elbow so he could support me better as he eased me away from my nice supporting wall and we slowly started progressing through the motel hallways outside the waypoint room in an awkward three-legged shuffle.

“You tell someone I’m on my period ONE more time John-boy, rightly or wrongly, and I’ll kill you where you stand, understood?”

He’s laughing at me! The stupid bastards LAUGHING at me?!
I can FEEL it, I can feel his stupid shoulders shaking through his stupid suit as he walks my stupid wobbly-ass through these stupid halls with the utmost calm, as if we’re discussing nothing more important than the stupid weather!

“...I hate warping...”

Don’t pat my hair ‘consolingly’ John-boy or I’ll bite your fingers off!
Focus on getting us somewhere that I can puke without being seen you stupid asshole!

======

We took another right-turn along yet another street and a truck whipped by so quickly that I actually staggered back slightly.
My head rose for the first time since we left the motel to scan our surroundings before dipping back down again with a depressingly self-pitying groan of defeat.

ENGLAND?! We warped here from bloody ENGLAND of all places!
On top of that, I’d already let John warp me around twice in the last few hours too; once to Death Valley somewhere and then onwards to his little ‘mansion’ as well.

Third times apparently ‘the charm’ because all that warping seems to have finally caught up with me this time, to a stupidly horrible degree, that’s worse than I can remember having from just a normal warp in a long-long time.

Considering most mages don’t even think cross-continental warping is physically possible and I’ve got a well-documented history of problems like this when traveling by ‘Magical atom bubble’ airlines, I’m kinda amazed I’ve not puked yet honestly?!

“Where are we-”
I paused to suppress a burp that felt like I REALLY didn’t want to let it out at this point and we took a few more steps forward up the street before I could continue on.
“-going exactly?”

“No worries Han, we’re almost there. You can grab a seat and I’ll see if there’s anything to hand that might help you at all.”
Part of me wanted to call him out on how evasive that answer was in general but a much larger part of me just didn’t want to chance opening my mouth to speak again considering how much ‘success’ I’ve had on that front recently.
“Almost there Han, lean over slightly for a sec’ so I can get the door open, okay?”

It apparently took a bit of juggling for him to reposition me without letting me fall, like I SO wanted to right now, but eventually John got things sorted and the apparent ‘door’ on my right swung open with an unexpectedly loud bell-ring that made my already upset stomach roll once more in a horrible mix of guilt, fear and just straight up nausea in general.

“E-Edith’s shop, John?... Why are we at Edith’s sh-shop?”

I had to work pretty hard to get the words out at this point, not helped at all by the sudden stutter that formed up just at the thought of Edith and... and the shop I’ve been avoiding even THINKING about over the last few months through sheer willpower alone because with it comes the knowledge that I’ll have to face the remaining occupants of said shop again one day, no matter how unready I feel about that concept.

“We need to go-”

My legs buckled and my arms twitched heavily as it all became too much for my poor abused stomach at long last.
In a startlingly well lined up shot which really put the ‘projectile’ in... well?... either way my stomach emptied pretty damn quick, leaving a rather disgusting puddle on practically the same spot I once left a distinctly similar sized puddle on this same floor, after Edith got through bashing my brains in due to supposedly ‘Bad Juju’ the first time we met an-

“Well... I’d love to say I didn’t see that coming but...”
...Oh, just shut up John!...
“Come on, slide onto this stool here, at least you missed your clothes for once.”

My butt hit a soft cushioned surface which I’m at least partly sure has usually been home to one of the two male Sibs behind the front counter pretty much every time I’ve been here in the last few years; an idea that was given further credence when I collapsed forward and found my head resting on a nice cool wooden surface which I’m almost completely convinced is the same counter top I’m thinking of too.

“Fena! Fena, you in here? I need you’re mop-”
He paused for a moment to consider things apparently before continuing on again
“-possibly you’re golem to do the cleaning too... I brought Hannah with me?”

Don’t make it sound like I’m some kind of treat you’ll offer her if she plays nice John, I feel bad enough about this mess as it is, ya insensitive jerk!

Yet again I fell short of actually voicing those thoughts, more out of self-preservation than anything else because words are at a premium at the moment sadly, but it didn’t matter anyway because after a long pause of waiting there was no response from Fena in the slightest.

We both stood there... well, I sat but you know what I mean?... ‘stood’ there in awkward silence for far longer than strictly necessary before anything changed on that front too.

I get the feeling John REALLY didn’t want to be the one cleaning up after me, despite the fact it was his ill-advised suggestion of us warping home that was the main culprit behind the puddle I left on the thankfully empty shop floor when we got here a minute ago.

Judging by the long relived breath he let out when the door to my left opened up to let someone big and heavy sounding out of it, along with a clanging slosh that I’m pretty sure denotes some kind of ‘water bucket’ being along for the ride as well that feeling was probably pretty close to the truth too.

“Hey Lurch, ‘clean up on aisle three’ pronto, huh big guy?”
The poor Golem grunted at John, completely ignoring his attempt at humor or friendly banter like... well, like an emotionless Golem would I guess?...
...Big surprise there...
“Is Fena out getting fresh stock or something?”

I was tempted to look up slightly and watch the, honestly painful sounding, attempt John was making at ‘talking’ to Lurch for some Powers-known reason.
In the end I settled for listening along happily as a bucket hit the floor followed by a splash and ‘slap’ of a mop hitting the same floor moments later with the practically silent Golem going to work cleaning up my mess without comment, naturally.

“Powers, what the hell’s wrong with me, I’m talking to a fucking Golem...”
Well done! Finally realising your mistake there John-boy?
What do you do for an encore?
“Right... Han, stay were you are, I’m gonna go check their medicine cabinet to see if they have any stomach-settling potions in stock.”

Oh, that’s what you do for an encore?
Tell me, the person only being held up by the fact that I’m collapsed onto a big heavy desk, to not go anywhere so you can try and find something to stop me puking again...

Bravo! Definitely not worth the price of admission but bravo anyway for trying at least!
...Stupid John...

======

“Okay, I think I’ve found som... uh, you okay there Han?”
In response I groaned dramatically with a ‘negative’ tone hopefully very present in my voice.

Apparently whoever programmed Lurch-
...I’m thinking Edith, the little Yoda would find the whole idea HILARIOUS after all...
-programmed him not only to do simple tasks like ‘stand and look menacing to stop people stealing if no-one else is around’ or ‘clean up if someone pukes on our floor’ but also for some Powers-known reason decided to program him with a ‘comfort people if they are feeling sick’ setting too?

The moment the floor was shiningly clean again Lurch left with his bucket and mop for a few minutes before returning with his usual lumbering lack of grace.

I’d almost decided to give speaking another go, or at least moving in general at the time and probably would have done just that if the big guy hadn’t swooped in with a surprising amount of speed to lift me up into his arms for what I can only describe as a very one-sided ‘cuddle’ involving him holding me to his chest like a baby as he rocks me backwards and forwards with that same emotionlessly blank look on his face that he always has, without showing any signs of ‘stopping’ any time in the near future at all.

...It’s actually kind of comfortable and nice really-...
-BUT THAT’S NOT THE BLOODY POINT!

I swear to the Powers John, either find a way to get him to put me down or you’re both SO dead!
ARISTA levels of dead; dancing on your ashes before peeing on them with my now non-existent equipment built for doing exactly that, levels of dead!

Don’t pretend you don’t know what I’m thinking John.
This is so unfair, I’m ill and this is just downright EMBARRASSING!

Hurry the hell up in getting me down NOW you useless asshole!

“Lurch, buddy, I think Hannah’s ready to go back onto a chair now big guy. I’ve got medicine for her, see? Look, nummy stomach-relief potion, see?”

...He’s seriously baby-talking to a seven-foot tall Golem-...
-and even worse it’s WORKING, damn it!

“That’s it big guy, just settle her down on this chair right here and I’ll help her feel better, okay?”

With much more care and gentle movements than I’d ever thought possibly from a Golem, let alone Fena’s often rather blunt pet Golem Lurch, he shifted me in his arms slightly and eased me down into the overly soft single-seated sofa that I’m pretty sure they only keep near the bookshelves for those few days when Fena feels like ‘veg-ing out’ and reading all day instead of doing any actual work at all.

Not that I’m complaining or anything, soft, gentle and slow are all things I can totally get behind at the moment considering the state of my still rolling, if slightly improved, stomach right about now.

The moment his arms were free from underneath me Lurch straightened up to his full height and turned around to go back upstairs through the little side door by the front counter as if none of the last five minutes had ever happened in the slightest.

...Sometimes I envy Golems for their goldfish like memories...
Not to mention their ability to not really know what the hell’s going on, yet still get things sorted due to a certain lack of that key ‘sentience’ which lets us mere Humans suffer through things with blushes and cringing facial expressions most of the time...

“I’ll go grab a spoon, you’re not allergic to Belladonna are you?”
John’s words and sudden burst of action as he moved over to check a draw tucked away down the side of a nearby counter-top threw me for a moment but it wasn’t long before I was jumping back on the conversation train and ready to answer him, despite my slightly muddled thoughts at the moment.

...I blame all that rocking by Lurch...

“Why would a stomach-relieving potion have Belladonna in it?”
He almost seemed to ignore me at first as he kept searching the draws for something even vaguely ‘spoon-like’, before straightening up again and offering me a slightly distracted shrug in response.

“Pretty sure it’s there to help re-balance your equilibrium or something, you’re pupils will probably dilate more, at least that’s what girls used to use it for in the old days... apparently wide, drugged-out looking big pupils are sometimes considered ‘cute’ by some people, along with arsenic-enriched smooth hair and lead-covered complexions...”
Thanks for the history lesson John-boy but really not helping here!
“...Sorry, you’ve kind of thrown me by getting this ill all of a sudden Han. I had this whole plan for how things would go when we got back and now we’re sitting here trying to ignore the fact you just got rocked to sleep by a glorified magical version of the Terminator so-”

My hand shot up, practically on its own accord, to give him a nice healthy ‘one-finger salute’ for that one, although after a few seconds of holding it I let my hand drop down again with a heavy sigh when it became obvious that all I was doing was amusing the smug-bastard even more, despite my best intentions.

“...I hate warping...”

======

“Feeling any better?”

My head jerked slightly at John’s sudden question which managed to pull me out of the rather interesting book on crafting your own magical symbols and languages, entitled ‘Languages be simple stupid’, either as a joke by the author or more worryingly because Edith decided to ghost-write it somehow at some point in time, I’d assume.

“Yeah, a bit, the words on the page have stopped changing sizes or blurring every few seconds and I haven’t had to hold back a dangerous burp in the last hour or so at least-”
John nodded along with my words distractedly as his eyes drifted over to the shop-front with a mild frown which kinda annoyed me just on general principle of being rude more than anything else.
“-I’m sorry, am I keeping you from something important John-boy?”

The question came out slightly colder then I’d intended, although it had the effect I’d been hoping for at least as his head snapped back around to stare at me with an apologetic look on his face that I probably found more gratifying then is strictly appropriate in all honesty.

“Sorry Han, I was hoping to get you home before sunset, it’s a full moon tonight which is bad enough but ever since you’re little trip to the crater-within-a-crater formerly known as ‘Wizard Island’ un-dead and parasitic activity has been on the rise for some Powers-known reason... I’m sure the Hub would be on full alert about it and have it all under control by now, if they weren’t in such a mess right now due to massive-loss of management, naturally.”

Ah... well, not much I can say to that really?
...He just wants to protect us...
He just wants to protect me I guess so I can’t be THAT mad at his distraction but it’s still rude to so blatantly not be paying attention like that after asking someone a direct question, even if it isn’t vitally important or worth arguing over, given the circumstances.

“Any word on Fena?”
John’s eyebrow twitched up slightly at my kinda obvious topic change, although thankfully he didn’t say anything about it at least.
“It’s unusual for her to leave the shop most of the time and the male Sib’s aren’t here either so I figured something must be going on, right?”

Slowly he shrugged and shot a cautious glance over at the door leading upstairs.
A move which I’m pretty sure he didn’t intend to do considering how sharply he turned his eyes away from it a moment later, only to settle on my curious gaze with worry obvious on his face now.

“What aren’t you telling me John-boy?”
His mouth opened as if to answer me before almost snapping shut instantly afterwards as he reconsidered what he was about to say.
“John?”

His face took on a decidedly ‘guilty’ look for a few seconds before he finally seemed to build up the courage to speak again at last.

“Fena’s upstairs an-”

“Well why didn’t you say so sooner? I’m here now and, as much as I’m dreading it, I’m sure she could use the company after-”
As I was speaking I slid the book onto Fena’s little side-table and stood up, making my way over to the doorway leading upstairs so I could go check on her considering how silent she’s been for the last few hours, only for John to step forward.
Without a word he planted himself right between me and the bloody door with a surprisingly determined look on his face for some reason.
“-what are you doing? Stop being an idiot John, let me past for Powers sa-”

I tried to barge my way past him while sliding under his outstretched arm but I found myself blocked by his awkwardly raised knee instead at the last minute.
The move caught me completely off-guard and I ended up staggering back a few steps as my eyes focused back on John’s, not really worried looking but definitely flustered, face.

“Sorry Han, you REALLY don’t want to go up there right now.”
Of all the stupid-
...-as if he can really stop me if I want to get past him....
Fena’s my friend and if she needs help then I’ll damn well be there for her!

My eyes scanned John’s position for a few seconds, weighing him as an opponent and finding him more than a little wanting considering his need to both defend himself and stop me from getting past at the same time.

With a nod to myself and a slight bounce on my toes I launched towards him in a text-book tackle maneuver which had him flinching and shifting his body into position for an equally text-book counter move that would have sent me crashing back on my ass easily if I’d actually been going for a tackle in the first place.

John’s foot slid forwards to hook mine and with a twist I threw my body weight off-center, falling into a forward roll which neatly skipped past his leg while also having the advantage of both knocking him sideways as I went and letting me pull myself back to my feet behind him in a pose that was just perfect for sprinting as John practically collapsed into the doorjamb, giving me those few vital seconds I needed to start moving without him.

“Hannah, DON’T-”
John’s last attempt at getting me to stop fell on deaf ears and trailed quickly into a string of swearing as I sprinted up the stairs into the ‘secret sanctuary’ of the second-floor, where even I’ve never dared venture into before.

By the time I reached the top of the stairs I was actually laughing as I heard John’s stumbling steps close on my heels in his delayed attempt to give chase.

My magic practically sung in my chest, tiny wisps of it trailing behind me in an almost invisible trail of sparks which somehow seemed to boost my speed just ever so slightly and help to keep me those few precious steps ahead of John as we reached flat-ground again and I shot off down the main hallway at the top of the stairs.

My laughter faded as I almost giddily started calling out for Fena, my eyes swinging from side-to-side as I checked each room for her presence while John kept chasing me despite obviously having lost this one for once.

Finally we reached nearly the end of the Hallway and from an open door on my right Lurch loomed out of the shadows with an expression which, if he had such emotions, I could only attribute to ‘long-suffering bewilderment’ of some kind.

It didn’t matter anyway because where there’s a Lurch there must be a Fena!
With one more happy giggle to myself I grabbed the doorframe next to Lurch’s slow-moving form and pulled myself violently around it as I slipped past his massive body with ease... only to screech to a halt moments later, the giggle dying on my lips at the sight that greeted me.

Sitting in what I can only describe as a ‘throne’ of half-eaten, partly rotten animal parts, her eye’s glazed over and blood practically coating her from head to foot as she waved her hands in the air like some kind of twisted mix between what a Normal would expect to see from a so-called ‘mystic’ and a drug addict on a particularly ‘far out’ trip, was Fena.

Dark hair matted and plastered to her skin through a seemingly impossible amount of blood and a horrible, unnaturally-wide looking compared to her usual tight-lipped smiles, grin on her face with one noticeable addition which made my blood run cold in fear.
...She’s got fangs?...

Small but sharp looking fangs, fangs that I know all too well from years of repressed-trauma induced nightmares about ‘Vlad’ sinking his own much larger ones into my poor neck as he gloated over me in the worst possible ways.

“...Vampire?...”

The word just seemed to slip out and the moment that it did I wished with everything I had that I could have held it in because as that one simple word left my lips Fena’s head snapped down to stare directly at me with wide, over-blown pupils that spoke only of the madness and insanity within her now un-dead form.

Something loud, which I can only assume is John, slammed heavily into something else, which I think can safely be assumed to be Lurch, behind me but that all meant nothing as I stared broken-heartedly at one of my oldest friends as she pulled herself slowly up to a standing position from her ‘throne’ with a horrible, wet squelch.

“Al...”
Oh shit!
“...Al?...”

She repeated my old name as if even she couldn’t comprehend she’d said it in such a rough, broken tone of voice the first time, which still left me frozen in front of her from fear that’s only partly due to my bad past experiences with the un-dead in general.

Slowly she took one uneasy step towards me and with a squeak I staggered back away from her automatically in response.

My eye’s turned frantically to the side for just the briefest of moments as I tried to see if I had any backup coming or at the very least something nearby that could be used as a weapon to defend myself with, but that was all she needed because in that brief moment of distraction she just MOVED!

A sharp gasp of air left my lungs as her body catapulted across the room, slamming into mine so hard that it sent us both tumbling to the ground in an almost ‘hug-like’ tangle of limbs.

The world seemed to slow down as she eased herself up my slightly smaller frame until her cheek was resting next to mine and all I could do was shudder as her mouth opened wide letting a blast of cold breath ghost over my soon to be bitten neck.

“AL! You’re alive?!”
...uh, what?...
“You’re alive! You’re alive! You’re alive! John said you were alive but I didn’t believe him and he said you were hiding and I said that’s not like you at all and he said that you were upset and I said he was definitely lying then but I was wrong and your alive and that’s so AWESOME!!”

Some small detached part of my mind noted that the running mangle of words punctuated by the dreaded ‘and’ coming out of her mouth is probably how human-beings in general would speak if we didn’t have that pesky need to take a ‘breath’ every-so-often, meanwhile the rest of me was kind of locked-up, frozen in an odd state of mixed confusion, horror, fascination and above all else relief.

The blood, the body parts, the dark room and the fangs are all terrifying for more than one reason or another in their own right.

Added to that you have the fact that Fena, Goth-wannabe and usually pleasant if not a little emotionally stilted resident of the shop, is now babbling away like some kind of ‘high-school cheerleader’ on a caffeine high directly into my ear.

She’s speaking so fast that I not only KNOW she doesn’t need to breath for certain by now, but can also barely make out any of the words she’s saying and you get one rather confused, mildly terrified Hannah I’m sorry to report.

I think it’s fair to say that my reaction of abject fear is not, as suggested by John’s surprised laughter, amusing, but entirely appropriate and the ‘right’ reaction for me to be having right about bloody-now!
...Speaking of bloody...

Eww, she’s getting animal blood all over me!
...At least I hope it’s animal blood?...

“Fena let me up for Powers-sake, your heavy, and covered in blood!”
Hurricane Fena stopped her loud attack on the English language at my yell.
Her head snapping up from my neck to fix me with an oddly unfocused look that was practically unreadable for the few moments it lasted before it disappeared into a wide, fang filled grin instead.

All I could do was let out a frightened ‘eep!’ as her head came down towards me again, mouth wide, as she proceeded to start LICKING the blood that had been spread over my face where we’d made contact off of me as a sound that I can only call a ‘flirty giggle’ rumbled in her chest... as terrifying as that concept seems to be when it now involves Fena, Vampires and at least several cows worth of blood!

“John! Get her off of me, NOW!”

“Hold on, I’m trying to get this for posterity, smile for the camera-”
The distinctively fake ‘shutter’ sound-effect of John’s phone going off followed that trailing statement as he moved closer to us, although Fena didn’t seem to be paying attention at all considering she’d found an apparently really tasty spot of blood near my chin and was practically lapping it up like an over-enthusiastic dog.

“I swear to the Powers John, if you don’t put your phone down and help me RIGHT now, I’m gonna make you WISH you were part of Fena’s Throne-of-forgotten-farm-animals!”

GAH, not my ear!
Stop licking my damn-ear Fena, I’m ticklish an-

Aah-Hahaha! No!

======

“Feeling better?”

“I wish you’d stop asking me that today, it’s like, your jinxing me or something?... And yes, for your information, I am feeling much better now that I’ve had a shower and I’m away from Fena’s... licking...”

A shudder ran down my spine as memories of her uncharacteristically ‘enthusiastic’ greeting, which John took great joy in capturing from all angles before finally helping me get free from at last and sending her off with Lurch to somewhere else as he directed me towards a nearby bathroom to clear myself up as well.

My new outfit, the one I put so much time into making ‘not terrible’ and John called ‘beautiful’ is RUINED now too!

I ended up having to slip out of the bathroom in just a towel and make a few mad dashes from room-to-room until I found one with clothing inside which, while too big for my annoyingly small Arista-shaped body, were at least designed for a human female and somewhat ‘not ancient’ looking.

To be honest, if it wasn’t for the high-necked remnants of my protective suit I’ve still got on, remnants that are hiding any hint of a ‘cleavage’ I could offer, smallish as it may be, I’d probably still be standing in some random bedroom upstairs trying to find something at this point, because even WITH it on I feel wholly under-dressed!

Whoever owned these clothes before me, my money’s on Fena obviously, must have been VERY comfortable with their body in general and sexuality as a whole because the ‘best’ I could put together from it all which wouldn’t leave me practically more exposed then a bloody-bikini turned out to be this dark blue, velvet looking ‘corset’ thing that buckles its way up my stomach before leaving a nice big window on my chest as it loops around my arm-pits on either side to join what I can only call a ‘spiked collar-style halter neck’ shape around my throat.

The skirt I found to go with it is at least floor-length... mostly... while the back and sides are practically floating around my ankles, the front is cut so high up that it’s practically a mini-skirt at its peak!

I couldn’t find any shoes to fit me so I’m walking around bare-foot until my shoes dry out too.
Bare-feet don’t bother me much but it IS kinda awkward due to the skirt’s back dragging behind me, because it was obviously cut for someone a few inches taller than me in heels, while also being rather chilly too for more than obvious reasons.

Whole outfit’s horrible, tight in the wrong places while loose in equally wrong places and it makes me look like some kind of Gothic bride-to-be in all honesty but I really must reiterate that this was the BEST of what I had to work with, some of the other clothes on offer just... I’m never going to be able to look at Fena the same way again, let’s put it that way!
...It really doesn’t help that John’s staring at us so much...

I suppose I could conjure something up to last me for now but I’d feel a lot better with doing that sort of more intensive magic AFTER I’ve had a chance to ensure my new core hasn’t got some horrible flaw in it that is going to rip me apart the first time I actually try to cast something more complicated than a mild warming-charm on myself at the very least.
...He’s still staring at us...

“Oi! Stop staring John, it’s rude!”

Before he could do much more then flinch and glance up at my face guiltily in response there was a rather loud crash behind us, followed by a fast-moving object that appeared to be some form of walking black bedspread, which moved out of the door leading to the dreaded ‘upstairs’ and mercilessly attacked the little coffee maker at the other side of the room with lots of bangs, crashes and moans while we watched on in confusion.

Finally Lurch ducked his way past the doorway and moved over to take a now slightly damaged mug away from the poor coffee deprived floating-bedspread-of-doom who proceeded to grunt in thanks before collapsing sideways with more grace then I think is strictly fair onto one of the nearby tables, finishing the whole thing off by curling into a little ball and groaning to herself pitifully once more with no obvious plans to stop doing so at this exact moment either.

I shot John a curious look and he mouthed the words ‘sobriety potion’ to me, looking far too amused for everyone’s sake sadly.

Just what we all need right now!
A Vampire Fena with a hangover, how can this POSSIBLY go wrong?!