Downward Spiral
Nov. 17th, 2009 03:45 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
contract_starAuthor: ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
quirkypeanutblu
Character/Fandom: Hei/Darker than BLACK
Prompt: 009: Ill (from the 100 Prompts Challenge)
Word Count: 2,553
Summary: The symptoms of VS81 get worse as Hei and his team search for a cure.
Author’s Notes: Blood.
He wakes up to find the pillow drenched in blood. Blood has dried around his nose, on his cheek and in his hair; it’s a familiar and entirely unpleasant sensation.
What’s most worrying is that the nosebleed didn’t even wake him up.
He sits up slowly, and there, of course, is the wave of dizziness. At least it has a legitimate, obvious source this time. Dizziness has been one of the recurring symptoms, that and the migraines. The nosebleed is a new one.
Hei doesn’t share a room, and he doesn’t think he has ever been more grateful for that fact. Once he can stand, he strips the pillowcase off, but the blood has soaked into the pillow itself. He’ll have to get rid of them both. He pulls the sheets off of the bed and wraps them around the blood-soaked pillow and pillowcase; this way he can make the excuse that he’s just doing laundry.
He dresses and heads across the hall to the nearest bathroom, still a little shaky on his feet. He lets the water run and cleans off his face and picks the worst of it out of his hair. Then he leans on the sink and looks up into the mirror. His reflection looks pale. He’s starting to even look ill. He’s not going to be able to keep this from his team for much longer.
His eyes lid a little as he studies his reflection. Migraines, dizzy spells, sensation loss, weakness in the extremities, nosebleeds. They’ve been getting more frequent, more drastic, more intense. These aren’t side effects. They’re not even symptoms anymore.
He’s dying.
The realization settles over him like a cold blanket. He doesn’t need a doctor or a psychic to tell him. He doesn’t need McCoy’s tests. He just knows. He thinks he must have known for awhile now.
He feels heavy. His gaze drops from the mirror to his hands gripping the edge of the sink. Hei always thought he would die in a fight somewhere. A violent end to a violent life. He didn’t expect to die like this, slowly, bit by bit.
“No.” He looks back up at the mirror, his expression stony. “I’m not dead yet.”
If PANDORA had taken the time to invent VS81, they had taken the time to develop a counterdrug. It was just a matter of finding it. Hei had a hard enough time giving up; he wasn’t about to do it now. It was illogical—and stupid—to give up when a cure could still be out there.
Dying just meant they had to work faster.
Hei returns to his room and gathers up the pile of sheets. He carries them on down to the basement and shoves the sheets into the washing machine.
The pillow and its case go straight into the incinerator.
-------
Hei finds Yun on the roof of the EPR building, going through her Tai Chi sets. The wind is strong and clouds were rolling in from over the ocean. Yun’s face is content despite the bitter wind and cold, her eyes almost closed. She is one of the few EPR members that Hei has actually established a rapport with; she is also the only Chinese person in the core group. Hei watches her move through the sets for a moment in silence before stepping forward.
“Yun. I need to speak to you.”
Her face doesn’t change and she doesn’t stop her movements.
“You’re heading up the EPR’s investigation into VS81,” Hei continues when she doesn’t respond. “I hear there’s even a mole inside PANDORA. I need to know what you’ve found.”
“Very little,” she says, her movements still fluid. “You need to be patient, Hei.”
“I’m running out of time,” he says rather sharply. “The Constellation is losing clients more and more frequently.”
“Information is delicate. You can’t rush these things.” She looks over at him finally. “Come join me.”
“…I don’t know Tai Chi.”
“That’s fine. Just come over here and match my movements.”
Yun has proved herself to be rather tight-fisted with her information in the past, even amongst the other core members. Hei sighs a little to himself. Best to appease her, even if it’s only for a tidbit of information.
He walks closer and falls in beside her, feeling a little awkward. He has never taken any sort of martial arts; they only ever taught him general self-defense in South America, enough to stay alive.
Yun sweeps her right arm backward, then brings it back up and around. She takes a step back and pushes forward with her left arm. Hei clumsily tries to move with her.
“’Step Back to Drive Away Monkey’,” she says over a sudden gust of wind. Hei sways a little, but Yun remains controlled and precise. “Before I became a Contractor, I would practice Tai Chi every day with my father. He was a master; even competed. I don’t really know why I still do it. It’s lost a lot of its meaning. ‘Left Grasp the Bird’s Tail.’”
She makes a slightly more complicated movement with her hands and then makes a reach forward with both of them, one over the other. Hei follows. She watches him out of the corner of her eye.
“You’re too rigid,” she says, and her lips twitch a little. “Impatient.”
“I didn’t come here to learn Tai Chi,” he grumbles.
“Tai Chi is about precision and control,” Yun says, making the same slow movement in the opposite direction. “’Right Grasp the Bird’s Tail.’ It’s about disciplining yourself internally as well as externally. Maybe that’s all the meaning it has for me anymore. Exercise; precision and discipline.”
She shifts her weight to the side, bringing one arm up and forming a loose sort of fist, her other arm stretching outward.
“’Single Whip.’ Lower your hand a little, Hei.” She falls silent for a moment, watching as Hei tries to match her. “Everything we’ve learned about VS81 indicates that it’s the same, you could say. Precision in targeting whatever it is that makes us Contractors. Disciplining our bodies; making us into Regressors. But it’s harsh and clumsy.”
She chuckles, looking over at him as she shifts into the next movement. “Not unlike you right now.”
He makes an indiscriminate sound.
“Side effects have been appearing in those injected. Weakness, dizziness, fainting. One man has died.”
Hei doesn’t answer, trying to focus on the movements and not think about all that blood on the pillow.
“You’ve been injected, haven’t you?”
He stops short, forgetting himself and turning to stare at her. It takes him a moment to get his expression back under control. She smiles a little.
“Your Doll told me,” she explains. “Rather…she said you were sick. I think she’s worried. Keep moving, Hei. The set isn’t finished. ‘Step Up to Pat Horse.’” She turns her body and raises one leg so that her toe is resting on the ground, bringing her hand down in the same movement. Hei stares at her a moment longer before continuing to move.
“I haven’t told anyone, and I don’t think your Doll has, either. She said you were sick; and you come to me and impatiently ask about VS81. It’s a simple deduction. You should exercise better caution. ‘Right Heel Kick.’”
“Are you going to help me or not?” Hei growls, trying to follow the next movement.
“There is very little I can do. You’re right about my mole. She’s currently within PANDORA, working for the department that is continuing research on anti-Gate particles. When the sunspots return, the Syndicate will make its move again, and so shall we.” She was silent a moment, shifting smoothly into the next movement, this time without announcing it. “Did you know? Some people believe that Tai Chi can help a person to control the flow of their chi. I wonder if maybe our abilities come from the manipulation of chi.” Her voice takes on a teasing tone. “If that were true, maybe Tai Chi is just what you need, Hei.”
Hei can’t help a bit of a grumble. He’s had enough of this; he stops and takes a step back, letting his hands fall to his sides and turning back toward the door.
“There is one thing I can tell you,” Yun says, not even pausing in her movements. She watches Hei. “Very few people have been injected with both doses. Separate, the two are useless. Getting a sample of only one will do you nothing. Both are required. The first dose lingers in the body; we don’t know for how long. You can acquire a sample from anyone who has been injected with only the first dose.”
Hei frowns a little. In that case, they already have a sample. The antidotes Aza made…he couldn’t have made them without a sample of some kind. And there’s Dr. McCoy, as well.
“All of the attacks thus far have been in Tokyo, along your Constellation path,” Yun continues as she ducks into a low movement, as if pushing something along the ground. “Both for the first and the second. And think of this, Hei. The PANDORA operatives doing this have successfully been able to catch Contractors not once, but twice, no matter how many safehouses you use. The attacks are random when it is the first dose. They are anything but when it is the second. No one has been injected with only the second dose yet, Hei, not even by accident. What do you think that means?”
Hei is silent, his frown deepening. Another gust of wind comes up, sharp and bitterly cold.
“They’re tracking them,” he says. “Somehow they’re able to track who has been injected with the first dose.”
“Something written into the chemical code itself, perhaps.” Yun shifts her stance again, turning slowly to face Hei. “A client injected with the first dose…it would be irresistible bait, wouldn’t it?”
Yun brings her feet back together and lets her arms drop slowly to her sides. The set is finished. She nods to Hei slowly.
“I hope you’ll join me for Tai Chi again, Hei,” she says. “Soon.”
-------
Hei points to a spot on the street map of Tokyo that he had spread out across the table.
“This is our Shibuya safehouse,” he says. “Currently we have three Constellation members there and two clients. One client, a girl named Mouse, was caught last week and injected with the first dose of VS81. They will likely be back to give her the second dose in the next few days.”
The whole team has positioned themselves around the table, heads lowered, faces serious. This is the first possible break they’d had in the VS81 investigation. The tension in the room is thick. Yin and Ruben are the only ones not at the table; they are sitting over in the living room, no doubt listening to the discussion.
“So far they’ve been catching dose one Contractors without fail. Therefore Mouse will be one of their primary targets. She’s also the only dose one Contractor we have as a client right now. This may be our only chance to get a sample of both doses.”
“How many people can we spare?” Azure asks.
“Two Constellation members are coming down from Akita; we also have someone coming from Nara. Aside from that, we’re the only ones. The EPR can’t spare anyone.”
“A handful of Contractors against PANDORA agents with drugs that can turn us into Regressors,” Hong says, frowning and taking a step back from the table. “Don’t like those odds much.”
“No,” Hei agrees. “But we have no choice.”
“What about the information your scientist contact found?” Hong asks with a dubious look.
“It’s not enough. The sample was taken from someone already injected with both doses.”
Hong heaves a sigh and rubs the back of his head. “I don’t like this.”
“What are we supposed to do with the samples?” Bindy asks. “It’s not like we or the EPR have easy access to a lab.”
“That’s where Ladon is going to come in,” Hei says. Ladon and McCoy, probably, but no sense in confusing his team. “He has connections.”
“We still don’t know what those connections even are…”
“We don’t have to. I get the feeling he’ll come through for us. Right, Hei?” Azure flashes a grin at him.
Hei clears his throat. “Of course he will. It’s to his advantage to help us.” One way or another.
“Alright, then. So all we have to do is get these samples?”
“Exactly.” Hei nods. “Hong, I want you to take TN-145 and Azure and go to Shibuya. There you’ll meet with the other Constellation members and explain the situation to Mouse. You’ll wait in Shibuya until PANDORA comes; kill the agents if you have to, but I want a viable sample of that dose, intact.”
“Can do,” Azure says.
“What about the rest of us? Shouldn’t we all go?”
“We need people here. The rest of you don’t have abilities conducive to assassination and ambush. And Yin and I can’t be seen in Tokyo.”
“But I should—”
Hei cuts Verde off. “We don’t know what effect VS81 would have on a Moratorium. I’d rather not find out.” He looks over at her. “It’s not a risk we can take.”
Verde sighs a little, but she nods. “I understand.”
“Sounds like a plan, then,” Azure says, her eyes flicking briefly in Verde’s direction. “When do we move out?”
“Tonight. Collect what you think you’ll need. This might take awhile.”
It’s then, from out of nowhere, that Hei feels the migraine coming on. He takes a step back from the table, keeping his expression blank.
“You two can discuss details of the mission,” he says. “The rest of you get back to work. If necessary, Hong will return and bring the rest of us to Tokyo. We need that sample.”
Azure leans toward TN-145 and starts talking about tactics and methods. Hong and Bindy start complaining to each other, while Verde just settles back and listens in. No one bothers Hei as he slips out of the room.
He’s halfway up the stairs when he feels someone grab his wrist. He turns and looks back to see Yin.
“You’re sick.”
“I know,” he says, then sighs and looks away. “It’s just a migraine. It’ll pass.”
“Hei…”
“Don’t worry. Once we get a hold of VS81, we’ll be able to make an antidote. I’ll get better.”
Yin frowns a little and gives his hand a squeeze.
“You don’t see me anymore.”
“What?”
“When I track you. You don’t see me.”
With a sinking feeling, Hei realizes what she’s talking about. Her specter. He hasn’t seen a single surveillance specter since losing his powers. It only serves to drive what happened even further home.
“…I’ll get better.”
Yin is silent a moment, staring at a spot on Hei’s chest. Then she nods.
“Please.”
She lets him go. Hei can feel the migraine bearing down on him, the pressure increasing. It’s like waiting for a tidal wave. He continues on up the stairs without another word.
He makes it to his room and manages to draw all the shades before the migraine hits. Then he crawls into bed and curls up, already gritting his teeth as the pain overtakes him.
quirkypeanutbluCharacter/Fandom: Hei/Darker than BLACK
Prompt: 009: Ill (from the 100 Prompts Challenge)
Word Count: 2,553
Summary: The symptoms of VS81 get worse as Hei and his team search for a cure.
Author’s Notes: Blood.
He wakes up to find the pillow drenched in blood. Blood has dried around his nose, on his cheek and in his hair; it’s a familiar and entirely unpleasant sensation.
What’s most worrying is that the nosebleed didn’t even wake him up.
He sits up slowly, and there, of course, is the wave of dizziness. At least it has a legitimate, obvious source this time. Dizziness has been one of the recurring symptoms, that and the migraines. The nosebleed is a new one.
Hei doesn’t share a room, and he doesn’t think he has ever been more grateful for that fact. Once he can stand, he strips the pillowcase off, but the blood has soaked into the pillow itself. He’ll have to get rid of them both. He pulls the sheets off of the bed and wraps them around the blood-soaked pillow and pillowcase; this way he can make the excuse that he’s just doing laundry.
He dresses and heads across the hall to the nearest bathroom, still a little shaky on his feet. He lets the water run and cleans off his face and picks the worst of it out of his hair. Then he leans on the sink and looks up into the mirror. His reflection looks pale. He’s starting to even look ill. He’s not going to be able to keep this from his team for much longer.
His eyes lid a little as he studies his reflection. Migraines, dizzy spells, sensation loss, weakness in the extremities, nosebleeds. They’ve been getting more frequent, more drastic, more intense. These aren’t side effects. They’re not even symptoms anymore.
He’s dying.
The realization settles over him like a cold blanket. He doesn’t need a doctor or a psychic to tell him. He doesn’t need McCoy’s tests. He just knows. He thinks he must have known for awhile now.
He feels heavy. His gaze drops from the mirror to his hands gripping the edge of the sink. Hei always thought he would die in a fight somewhere. A violent end to a violent life. He didn’t expect to die like this, slowly, bit by bit.
“No.” He looks back up at the mirror, his expression stony. “I’m not dead yet.”
If PANDORA had taken the time to invent VS81, they had taken the time to develop a counterdrug. It was just a matter of finding it. Hei had a hard enough time giving up; he wasn’t about to do it now. It was illogical—and stupid—to give up when a cure could still be out there.
Dying just meant they had to work faster.
Hei returns to his room and gathers up the pile of sheets. He carries them on down to the basement and shoves the sheets into the washing machine.
The pillow and its case go straight into the incinerator.
-------
Hei finds Yun on the roof of the EPR building, going through her Tai Chi sets. The wind is strong and clouds were rolling in from over the ocean. Yun’s face is content despite the bitter wind and cold, her eyes almost closed. She is one of the few EPR members that Hei has actually established a rapport with; she is also the only Chinese person in the core group. Hei watches her move through the sets for a moment in silence before stepping forward.
“Yun. I need to speak to you.”
Her face doesn’t change and she doesn’t stop her movements.
“You’re heading up the EPR’s investigation into VS81,” Hei continues when she doesn’t respond. “I hear there’s even a mole inside PANDORA. I need to know what you’ve found.”
“Very little,” she says, her movements still fluid. “You need to be patient, Hei.”
“I’m running out of time,” he says rather sharply. “The Constellation is losing clients more and more frequently.”
“Information is delicate. You can’t rush these things.” She looks over at him finally. “Come join me.”
“…I don’t know Tai Chi.”
“That’s fine. Just come over here and match my movements.”
Yun has proved herself to be rather tight-fisted with her information in the past, even amongst the other core members. Hei sighs a little to himself. Best to appease her, even if it’s only for a tidbit of information.
He walks closer and falls in beside her, feeling a little awkward. He has never taken any sort of martial arts; they only ever taught him general self-defense in South America, enough to stay alive.
Yun sweeps her right arm backward, then brings it back up and around. She takes a step back and pushes forward with her left arm. Hei clumsily tries to move with her.
“’Step Back to Drive Away Monkey’,” she says over a sudden gust of wind. Hei sways a little, but Yun remains controlled and precise. “Before I became a Contractor, I would practice Tai Chi every day with my father. He was a master; even competed. I don’t really know why I still do it. It’s lost a lot of its meaning. ‘Left Grasp the Bird’s Tail.’”
She makes a slightly more complicated movement with her hands and then makes a reach forward with both of them, one over the other. Hei follows. She watches him out of the corner of her eye.
“You’re too rigid,” she says, and her lips twitch a little. “Impatient.”
“I didn’t come here to learn Tai Chi,” he grumbles.
“Tai Chi is about precision and control,” Yun says, making the same slow movement in the opposite direction. “’Right Grasp the Bird’s Tail.’ It’s about disciplining yourself internally as well as externally. Maybe that’s all the meaning it has for me anymore. Exercise; precision and discipline.”
She shifts her weight to the side, bringing one arm up and forming a loose sort of fist, her other arm stretching outward.
“’Single Whip.’ Lower your hand a little, Hei.” She falls silent for a moment, watching as Hei tries to match her. “Everything we’ve learned about VS81 indicates that it’s the same, you could say. Precision in targeting whatever it is that makes us Contractors. Disciplining our bodies; making us into Regressors. But it’s harsh and clumsy.”
She chuckles, looking over at him as she shifts into the next movement. “Not unlike you right now.”
He makes an indiscriminate sound.
“Side effects have been appearing in those injected. Weakness, dizziness, fainting. One man has died.”
Hei doesn’t answer, trying to focus on the movements and not think about all that blood on the pillow.
“You’ve been injected, haven’t you?”
He stops short, forgetting himself and turning to stare at her. It takes him a moment to get his expression back under control. She smiles a little.
“Your Doll told me,” she explains. “Rather…she said you were sick. I think she’s worried. Keep moving, Hei. The set isn’t finished. ‘Step Up to Pat Horse.’” She turns her body and raises one leg so that her toe is resting on the ground, bringing her hand down in the same movement. Hei stares at her a moment longer before continuing to move.
“I haven’t told anyone, and I don’t think your Doll has, either. She said you were sick; and you come to me and impatiently ask about VS81. It’s a simple deduction. You should exercise better caution. ‘Right Heel Kick.’”
“Are you going to help me or not?” Hei growls, trying to follow the next movement.
“There is very little I can do. You’re right about my mole. She’s currently within PANDORA, working for the department that is continuing research on anti-Gate particles. When the sunspots return, the Syndicate will make its move again, and so shall we.” She was silent a moment, shifting smoothly into the next movement, this time without announcing it. “Did you know? Some people believe that Tai Chi can help a person to control the flow of their chi. I wonder if maybe our abilities come from the manipulation of chi.” Her voice takes on a teasing tone. “If that were true, maybe Tai Chi is just what you need, Hei.”
Hei can’t help a bit of a grumble. He’s had enough of this; he stops and takes a step back, letting his hands fall to his sides and turning back toward the door.
“There is one thing I can tell you,” Yun says, not even pausing in her movements. She watches Hei. “Very few people have been injected with both doses. Separate, the two are useless. Getting a sample of only one will do you nothing. Both are required. The first dose lingers in the body; we don’t know for how long. You can acquire a sample from anyone who has been injected with only the first dose.”
Hei frowns a little. In that case, they already have a sample. The antidotes Aza made…he couldn’t have made them without a sample of some kind. And there’s Dr. McCoy, as well.
“All of the attacks thus far have been in Tokyo, along your Constellation path,” Yun continues as she ducks into a low movement, as if pushing something along the ground. “Both for the first and the second. And think of this, Hei. The PANDORA operatives doing this have successfully been able to catch Contractors not once, but twice, no matter how many safehouses you use. The attacks are random when it is the first dose. They are anything but when it is the second. No one has been injected with only the second dose yet, Hei, not even by accident. What do you think that means?”
Hei is silent, his frown deepening. Another gust of wind comes up, sharp and bitterly cold.
“They’re tracking them,” he says. “Somehow they’re able to track who has been injected with the first dose.”
“Something written into the chemical code itself, perhaps.” Yun shifts her stance again, turning slowly to face Hei. “A client injected with the first dose…it would be irresistible bait, wouldn’t it?”
Yun brings her feet back together and lets her arms drop slowly to her sides. The set is finished. She nods to Hei slowly.
“I hope you’ll join me for Tai Chi again, Hei,” she says. “Soon.”
-------
Hei points to a spot on the street map of Tokyo that he had spread out across the table.
“This is our Shibuya safehouse,” he says. “Currently we have three Constellation members there and two clients. One client, a girl named Mouse, was caught last week and injected with the first dose of VS81. They will likely be back to give her the second dose in the next few days.”
The whole team has positioned themselves around the table, heads lowered, faces serious. This is the first possible break they’d had in the VS81 investigation. The tension in the room is thick. Yin and Ruben are the only ones not at the table; they are sitting over in the living room, no doubt listening to the discussion.
“So far they’ve been catching dose one Contractors without fail. Therefore Mouse will be one of their primary targets. She’s also the only dose one Contractor we have as a client right now. This may be our only chance to get a sample of both doses.”
“How many people can we spare?” Azure asks.
“Two Constellation members are coming down from Akita; we also have someone coming from Nara. Aside from that, we’re the only ones. The EPR can’t spare anyone.”
“A handful of Contractors against PANDORA agents with drugs that can turn us into Regressors,” Hong says, frowning and taking a step back from the table. “Don’t like those odds much.”
“No,” Hei agrees. “But we have no choice.”
“What about the information your scientist contact found?” Hong asks with a dubious look.
“It’s not enough. The sample was taken from someone already injected with both doses.”
Hong heaves a sigh and rubs the back of his head. “I don’t like this.”
“What are we supposed to do with the samples?” Bindy asks. “It’s not like we or the EPR have easy access to a lab.”
“That’s where Ladon is going to come in,” Hei says. Ladon and McCoy, probably, but no sense in confusing his team. “He has connections.”
“We still don’t know what those connections even are…”
“We don’t have to. I get the feeling he’ll come through for us. Right, Hei?” Azure flashes a grin at him.
Hei clears his throat. “Of course he will. It’s to his advantage to help us.” One way or another.
“Alright, then. So all we have to do is get these samples?”
“Exactly.” Hei nods. “Hong, I want you to take TN-145 and Azure and go to Shibuya. There you’ll meet with the other Constellation members and explain the situation to Mouse. You’ll wait in Shibuya until PANDORA comes; kill the agents if you have to, but I want a viable sample of that dose, intact.”
“Can do,” Azure says.
“What about the rest of us? Shouldn’t we all go?”
“We need people here. The rest of you don’t have abilities conducive to assassination and ambush. And Yin and I can’t be seen in Tokyo.”
“But I should—”
Hei cuts Verde off. “We don’t know what effect VS81 would have on a Moratorium. I’d rather not find out.” He looks over at her. “It’s not a risk we can take.”
Verde sighs a little, but she nods. “I understand.”
“Sounds like a plan, then,” Azure says, her eyes flicking briefly in Verde’s direction. “When do we move out?”
“Tonight. Collect what you think you’ll need. This might take awhile.”
It’s then, from out of nowhere, that Hei feels the migraine coming on. He takes a step back from the table, keeping his expression blank.
“You two can discuss details of the mission,” he says. “The rest of you get back to work. If necessary, Hong will return and bring the rest of us to Tokyo. We need that sample.”
Azure leans toward TN-145 and starts talking about tactics and methods. Hong and Bindy start complaining to each other, while Verde just settles back and listens in. No one bothers Hei as he slips out of the room.
He’s halfway up the stairs when he feels someone grab his wrist. He turns and looks back to see Yin.
“You’re sick.”
“I know,” he says, then sighs and looks away. “It’s just a migraine. It’ll pass.”
“Hei…”
“Don’t worry. Once we get a hold of VS81, we’ll be able to make an antidote. I’ll get better.”
Yin frowns a little and gives his hand a squeeze.
“You don’t see me anymore.”
“What?”
“When I track you. You don’t see me.”
With a sinking feeling, Hei realizes what she’s talking about. Her specter. He hasn’t seen a single surveillance specter since losing his powers. It only serves to drive what happened even further home.
“…I’ll get better.”
Yin is silent a moment, staring at a spot on Hei’s chest. Then she nods.
“Please.”
She lets him go. Hei can feel the migraine bearing down on him, the pressure increasing. It’s like waiting for a tidal wave. He continues on up the stairs without another word.
He makes it to his room and manages to draw all the shades before the migraine hits. Then he crawls into bed and curls up, already gritting his teeth as the pain overtakes him.
