AnimeCon Harem 14: Life of Brian pt 2 (Patreon)

   “He’s back from CT scan, and it’s not as bad as it looked going in,” Officer Judy assured them. “He has an orbital fracture on the left side of his skull just beside his eye, but it didn’t look like there were any ruptures or serious damage to the actual eye. There was a little bit of bleeding there, and there was a whole lot of swelling. There doesn’t appear to be any bleeding on the brain, or any bad indications there—that was our major concern. Definite concussion, pretty severe contusions, broken nose obviously, and he’ll have a lot of bruising. He’s not conscious right now, and they’ll be keeping him under close observation until swelling has gone down enough, just in case there’s any complications, or seizures, or anything of that sort.”

   Emily found it hard to breathe. Her eyes were watering involuntarily and even with the policewoman presenting the news in as nice a way as possible every bit of it felt like a punch to the gut. None of the circumstances had quite felt real until just now. They’d gone from talking about magic and relationships and the future to this, and all of the sudden hard reality felt like it was kicking her in the teeth. Brian was seriously hurt.

   Her crossed arms squeezed more tightly around herself in the extra volume of Brian’s borrowed hoodie, she shifted on her feet, and finally turned in distress towards Kelly, Stephanie, and Christine. Christine wore a vacant, shell-shocked look, Kelly’s eyes were wet and she was visibly gritting her teeth. Stephanie had burst into tears and was openly crying—Officer Judy gave them a minute to process everything before continuing on.

   “CT scan was our priority for severe head trauma—he’s in line for one more x-ray right now,” Officer Judy said. “Think we’re looking at a broken right wrist, broken ribs in there on the left side. That was about what we expected considering the circumstances, but things don’t look too bad. No punctured lungs, no spinal problems they could see. Airways, breathing, circulation are all fine and looking good. He does not appear to be in significant danger, but he will be staying in the trauma ward until Doctor Maynard says otherwise. That will mean single visitors only, one at a time, and I would prefer we hold off on any visitors back there, until he’s awake and alert enough for me to interview him.

   “He was involved in a significant crime, but right now he is not under arrest, or suspicion, or anything like that—he’s not going to come to and find himself in handcuffs. At this time I’d just like to go through some simple questions about whatever he might remember—which, with a concussion might not even be much of anything—and, that’s it. I’m not the bad guy, I’m not accusing him of anything, he isn’t in trouble right now, and our concern is just to better understand what happened, and facilitate his recovery. Emily Rivera?”

   “Y-yes?” Emily blurted out in a shocked daze, wiping her face.

   “You were listed as his emergency contact,” Officer Judy elaborated, passing her a packet of information. “He will not be up or about for some time. If you’re willing, you can remain our point of contact for this, and I’ll be reaching you via that same listed number if there’s any reason to do so. I can provide copies of his paperwork and so on and so forth as they come in. If there’s someone else—parents or et cetera—that you feel would be more appropriate, if you can give me their information now instead, I would greatly appreciate it.”

   “No, no—I can handle it,” Emily’s anxious expression grew more resolute.

   “Okay, then,” Officer Judy nodded pausing to regard Emily with a long look. “So—again, he may not be up and about for some while. I know this is a very stressful time right now, but several things I’d like to tell you from experience; even if his insurance program is through his employer, an employer would likely not be notified until billing. You would want to go ahead and contact his workplace and let them know about the situation so they don’t write him off as a no-show or fire him. Likewise, if he’s in school and attending courses anywhere, you’ll want to notify them about his reason for absence to save him a whole bunch of headache down the line.

   “If he has any other immediate responsibilities that you can think of, like pets at home that might need to be fed, watered, or walked, or anything like that—you would want to go about arranging all that for him in the meantime while he’s here in the trauma ward. I doubt he left anything urgent like ovens on or water running at home, but if you do have access—or know someone that does—he would maybe appreciate someone collecting his mail or any packages for him, and he probably does not want to come home after recovery to a kitchen full of rotting, spoiled food or anything like that.”

   “I’m,” Emily choked back a sob. “Yeah. I can, yeah, I can take care of all that. Yeah.”

   *     *     *

   “What are we going to do?” Emily asked. “About—about everything. What do we do. I’m—I really want to help us sort all of this shit out, but well, I’m already getting like, tunnel vision here. Need to—I need to get a hold of Brian’s work. Make for sure they don’t fire him or anything. Have all of this paperwork stuff, it’s like a doctor’s note I guess?”

   “I don’t want to leave Brian,” Stephanie said with determination.

   “We have to,” Kelly said through gritted teeth. “Creeps are coming. Creeps are coming soon. We can’t be here whenever they show up. Getting Brian on his feet and clearing out of here before then needs to be our priority.”

   “Healer peoples,” Emily grunted. “Get them on the line, and uh, on the way or whatever soon as possible? Then, we can just grab Brian and bail and be done with all this.”

   “That was—it was—” Kelly paused, frowning. “I—you’re right. That needs to be the priority. I’ll make a call now. But, there’s… if they know creeps are inbound, they might not show. If they’re here and get fucked over by creeps, then we’ve—then we’ve just made even more enemies. There’s also Chloe, here. If they get here and she’s around—with what she is right now, she might be a problem. For us. For everyone.”

   The three girls turned to look at Christine, who shrank back from their gaze uneasily.

   “Okay. So; heal Brian, GTFO before creeps arrive, and uhhh—we need to figure out what to do with her. Chloe, Christine, whatever and whoever you are right now—are you with us? Are you in, or are you out?”

   “I—” Christine froze, giving them a helpless expression. “I honestly have no idea what’s going on. With all of this.”

   “Steph?” Emily pressed. “Can you tell us anything about her, either way? With your empathy sense stuff. Like, even if she’s blocked off or whatever—just like, do you get any gut instincts or anything? I just, no offense but she was Chloe and actively fucking us over, so my call is just gonna be to never ever trust her.”

   “Whether or not we can trust her now, fixing her is going to be… a process,” Kelly frowned. “It’s not gonna be fast or easy, it’s not something a healer can help with except towards the very end, and it’s not gonna be fun. For anyone. It’s not going to be safe. It’s actually going to be really goddamned dangerous.”

   “Then, my vote is, she’s out,” Emily crossed her arms. “Sorry. We have enough to deal with, even if she’s not Chloe anymore, she was Chloe to us for all that time and did enough fucking damage. Sorry.”

   “I… I can’t sense her at all,” Stephanie winced. “Chloe? Or, ah, Christine. Do you mind if I get closer and try?”

   “Try what?” Christine asked, on edge.

   “I think,” Kelly paused. “That we should give Christine lots of personal space and not get too close? No offense or anything, but just stepping up and tempting fate just seems—yeah, dumb?”

   “I’d like to try,” Stephanie said. “May I?”

   “Try what?” Christine demanded.

   “Empathy test,” Emily huffed. “To see if you’re with us, or not. My vote? She’s out.”

   “I think I have to vote out too,” Kelly admitted. “For now, at least. We have too much on our plate right now, she’s a huge liability to all of us, and—and she’s just going to get worse and worse the longer she goes without feeding. More and more dangerous.”

   “That’s two out of three,” Emily gave Christine an apologetic shrug. “Majority says you’re now on your own.”

   “Stop it,” Stephanie frowned at Emily before turning towards Christine. “Christine. I’d like to try to read your emotions. I want to just step close enough to press my forehead against yours, and we’ll see if that’s enough for me to… to get a sense of you.”

   “S’not gonna work,” Emily shook her head. “You’d probably have to kiss her, and—”

   “You’re not kissing her,” Kelly firmly refused. “Not while she’s any stage of vampire whatever. Flat-out no; not happening, not a chance. We can’t risk Stephanie turning, too. End of story.”

   “Shit, you’re right,” Emily grimaced. “If she can—”

   “May I?” Stephanie asked again, ignoring Kelly and Emily. “I’d like to use my um, my weeaboo magic on you. Or, at least try to.”

   “I guess… go for it?” Christine threw up her hands in consternation and disbelief. “I don’t know what I’m even supposed to say to that?”

   “You’re not gonna like, go blood-crazy and bite her?” Emily asked. “If she gets too close. Don’t look at me like that, it’s a super common movie trope thing.”

   “You’re under control?” Kelly pressed. “Like, you absolutely have any weird urges under control?”

   “I’m under fucking control,” Christine growled. “Just—do your thing or whatever.”

   “Okay,” Stephanie took a deep breath. “Here goes.”

   Kelly and Emily both tensed as they watched the pink-haired girl approach Christine and then gently touch foreheads with her. Emily found herself increasingly upset by the prospect of Stephanie ‘vouching’ for Christine at all—Emily couldn’t and wouldn’t simply let bygones be bygones and accept that Chloe has turned over a new leaf. There was too much bad blood between them.

   “There’s,” Stephanie sounded frustrated. “Nothing. Nothing at all. I can’t sense anything.”

   “Then, that settles it,” Emily blurted out. “Sorry. We can’t trust you, that’s that.”

   “Kelly,” Stephanie turned and stared. “You said in the future Christine’s charm effect was a mirror, that it—that it reflected our powers. That we couldn’t affect her.”

   “Yeah,” Kelly shrugged. “I guess it’s the same for her now, even though she’s on the blood magic thing instead. You’re not going to be able to suss out how she feels about anything.”

   “Then,” Stephanie slowly took a step back from Christine. “Then, she’s with us.”

   “No,” Emily made a face. “You can’t be serious.”

   “She’s dangerous, and we don’t have time to deal with all of that,” Kelly shook her head. “Stephanie—in that other timeline where we trapped Rebecca and finally got her cold turkey off of the blood shit and onto the charm stuff with us, we had Brian for that. We don’t have Brian right now. We can’t fix her without Brian.”

   “I understand that,” Stephanie nodded. “But. My question then, is—can creeps mind control Christine?”

   “Creeps—um,” Kelly hesitated as she processed that. “They… actually, if her mirror thing is really working, then… no? I don’t think so. Fuck, you’re right—we can use her.”

   “Can the creeps physically overpower Christine?” Stephanie asked.

   “They—no,” Kelly stared at Christine. “They can’t. Not now.”

   “Then,” Stephanie took a deep breath. “We need her. We need her to stay with Brian, when none of the rest of us can. She’s, ah, she’s the only one we can trust to protect him.”

   “No!” Emily cried out. “Are you out of your mind?!”

   “Creeps, what creeps,” Christine hedged. “What are you talking about?”

   “That’s also… maybe too big a leap of faith,” Kelly winced at the idea. “When we—”

   “She needs to atone and to, to prove herself, I think,” Stephanie said. “If there will ever be any chance of Emily trusting her. This is something we don’t have any other way of dealing with. She’s not Chloe. But, at the same time we—none of us, including herself, maybe—know Christine, really. She is tied to our group right now, even if she’s on the other path that we aren’t. I think we’re responsible for taking her off of that path, you say we need Brian to do that, and, well—Kelly, we can’t help her if they take Brian away.”

   “I… still don’t like it,” Kelly shook her head. “Leaving her alone with Brian at all just isn’t any kind of good idea. If she loses control and feeds on him—then that’s that. He could die.”

   “I-I’m not going to feed on anybody!” Christine looked like she was going to be sick.

   “Fuck,” Emily scowled. “I hate this. Let’s get healer peoples here, we heal Brian and bug out before creeps show. Deal with the Chloe shit after that.”

   “Can we get Brian healed before creeps show up?” Stephanie turned to Kelly.

   “I—I don’t know,” Kelly answered honestly. “I don’t have a ton of confidence in it, no.”

   “You were all making it sound like it was possible,” Emily accused.

   “It is possible, anything’s possible, everything’s possible!” Kelly retorted. “Possible doesn’t mean likely. Lot of our theories and planning shit just don’t wind up working out when we try them, okay? I can’t guarantee that we can persuade them here, get Brian healed, and get all of us out safely before creeps show. If creeps show, we’re toast—you, me, Stephanie, we’re toast. Christine, though, Christine might be okay.”

   “Okay okay okay,” Emily felt herself starting to cry again. “Fine. Whatever. What are we doing? We need to decide what we’re fucking doing. You’re the one who knows everything, so—I guess that means you’re in charge.”

   “I… can’t be in charge,” Kelly shook her head. “I’ve already fucked this all up enough. Stephanie’s in charge.”

   “Stephanie?!” Emily through her tears gave Kelly an exasperated look.

   “Yeah. Yes,” Kelly nodded with conviction. “She’s the best one to be in charge, to, to trust with everything. It has to be Stephanie calling the shots.”

   “Stephanie?” Emily turned to ask Stephanie what she thought of that idea.

   “Just—okay. I need a moment to think,” Stephanie said, her expression turning grave.

/// Think I'm through the worst of it here, this was the last extremely cold day (6 degrees F) for a long while here. Looking forward to everything getting back to normal!