Vidare 02: The Carnival

"Not at all." She patted him. "You just make them so quiet they can't hear them, and wait for them to fall asleep when the first movie is done. Miles couldn't even sit through Black Hawk Down. It'll be easy." Jason still looked nervous. "Look you do this, and we're even for the bullet wound."

"What are you gonna be doing?" He groaned. "Aren't you just sitting in the waiting room?"

"I'm gonna find a closet and see if I can send them some energy."

Jason looked horrified. "You're gonna masturbate in a public hospital?"

Ariana covered his mouth. "Hush." She looked around. "Just get them out of here."

Jason waddled away anxiously looking over his shoulder as he started to talk to Miles and Derrick. Ariana started walking down one of the halls as she checked every door she could without being spotted. Finally she found the one she needed, and slid inside quietly. Stripping and shivering at the temperature, she took out a small bottle of oil from her pocket and began annointing herself. "Let's do this."

***

"Good morning." Ariana said as she set down her book and smiled at Garrett.

"What the hell happened?" Garrett mumbled, coughing. "Can I have some water?"

"Sure." She stood and filled a paper cup with a small amount of water, and handed it to Garrett as he sat up.

"Thank you." Sipping it slowly he gasped again and looked around.

"We took you here yesterday morning. You've been passed out for a day. Doctors say you almost had a full OD on the amount of meth you ingested." Ariana said it calmly.

"Meth?" Garrett coughed again. "I didn't take any meth."

"No? Then what do you think that program is doing to your brain?" Ariana folded her hands, her steady cold anger unsettling.

"Oh fuck." Garrett rolled his eyes.

"Yeah." Ariana pulled her chair up the side of the bed and took his hand in hers. "I should break every bone in your arm."

"Listen to me, I found -"

"I don't give a shit what you found." She squeezed his hand and glared. "You put Kai in the room down the hall."

"I what?" Garrett sat up with a struggle but he felt Ariana tug his hand.

"He had so much backlash from your dumbass, they're thinking he had a suddenly reaction to a medication, but you and I both know different." She grit her teeth. "I am not your grave digger. I won't watch you do this to yourself."

"Ariana wait, it's not what you think. There's this letter with Derrick -"

She pulled one of his fingers back painfully. "Don't you fucking dare bring him into this."

"Break my finger if you have to! I found a record of him in the eighties!" He whined.

"You're still fucking high aren't you?" She quickly looked out the door to make sure no one would see what she was doing as she bent it harder.

"I'm not! I fucking swear! Please! Go check what I left open on my computer. Please don't break my fingers, please Ariana." He begged and tears started to stream down his face.

"If you use that shit again before your mentor says your ready, I wont be there to watch you die." She said coldly. Ariana felt awful giving Garrett such pain in his weakened state, but in The Sahajiya she had seen many of her friends overdose, and beautiful magicians flush their lives down the toilet with drugs. "Kai put his life on the line for you, don't waste it by being a fucking junkie." She snapped the finger and covered his mouth as he howled in pain. "Get better soon asshole."

Grabbing her coat and heading for the door, she turned back and snatched up her book as he silently cried. The overload from his advanced searching magic had fried most of his thoughts, and with the morphine they pumped into his veins, he could barely recall what he had found. Ariana drove home as fast as she could, storming right past Miles as she headed for Garrett's room. Flicking the screen back on, she maximized the text file and started to pour through it.

"Dearest Chris,

When you fell into my life I was nothing more than a scared apprentice who had talent and no way to use it. I was living every day like a robot and leading my team without ever getting to know them. You changed me down to my core. I knew from the first night we spent together we were special, and even though we got twenty good years together, I still feel cheated by fate that I didn't get to grow old with you. Sometimes I still stay awake at night and drink that bitter tea you used to tease me for, just hoping I'm going to hear your voice. I miss the way you used to snore, I miss the times we spent up all night researching together and slipping off to a quiet corner of the library when no one was looking. I'll never be able to forget you.

I've lived with so much anger over how I last saw you. Everyone told me you were dead, but I dug through the rubble for hours looking for any shred of evidence you were alive. I don't know why you haven't come home, and the thought of why makes me lose more sleep than any of my work. Our home may have burned to the ground but I never lost faith that you survived. If you ever found this letter, please know I'm still keeping leaving our little signal in the window. You made me happier than I knew I was allowed to be, and I'll look for you every day. Wherever you are, whatever trouble you get into, I'll always be here falling asleep to thoughts of you.

With love, Vic."

Ariana huffed as she read the letter, saving and closing it with a deep sigh. As she minimized the window, behind the letter was an old photo that had been scanned and uploaded. Derrick stood on the left side with a boy holding his hand, but he looked a little taller and had more muscle and weight on his body. Two girls were in line with them, posing, and then two more boys with awkward looks as they smiled for the camera. The six of them stood at the carnival gates with their arms open and happy to embrace each other, and in the corner, someone had scrawled "1986."