010: Pure Again Daylight, Chapter 7

[beautifultragedy]

Fandom: Breath of Fire
Story: Pure Again
Summary: Very Bad Things happen when rogue demigods try to reverse time.
Warning: references to sexual abuse
 

From the Eyes of the Father

 I was out of bed and down the hallway before my mind even registered what had woken me.

 I burst into Garr's room, the portion of my mind that was still asleep expecting to see him lying in a pool of blood or something. His covers and pillows had all been thrown haphazardly to the floor, and his hands were balled up in tight fists, clenching the sheets beneath him. He was soaked in sweat, and his eyes were wide, an expression of unspeakable terror in them. "Garr? Garr!" He didn't respond to my calls, but when I sat down next to him to pull him to a sitting position, he screamed again and shied away from me. I realized, with a distinct feeling of dread, that he was still dreaming. "Wake up!" I shouted at him, shaking him slightly. He yanked away from me wildly, and I brought one of my hands up and slapped him very lightly across the face. "Garr!"

 Demeter and Byron entered the room as well, and one of them flicked on the lights as Garr suddenly stopped resisting me, and instead latched onto me with a death grip with one arm, the other hand pressed against his chest as he gasped for air desperately. I pulled on my magic abruptly, channeling it into a healing spell. Almost as soon as Garr sensed my magic, he attempted to escape my hold again, breaking my concentration. “It’s just Rejuvenate!” I said, probably sounding a bit harsher than I meant. Regardless, Garr stopped fighting me, instead clinging to me like I was a lifeline, and I cast the spell again, quickly. My son’s frantic gasps calmed almost instantaneously as my magic washed over him and his grasp on me relaxed. He slumped against me, his breath regulating itself once more, and I breathed my own sigh of relief.

 And then I suddenly heard everything that was going on in the house.

 Sara was screaming as loud as her little lungs could. I hear Janus' footsteps patter down the hallway and he yelled for someone to pick up Sara, then he raced to Garr's bedside and began demanding to know what was wrong, stroking one of Garr's wings and attempting to soothe him between his demands. Byron left the room, and Demi looked at me with a helpless expression. "Get on the telephone this instant and call Val," I ordered.

 "Ryu! It's four in the morning-"

 "I don't give a damn!" I shrieked, suddenly at the edge of my temper. "What if he hadn't screamed, Demi?!"

 "Oh, give me a break-"

 "Demeter, there's a screaming baby two rooms away, a nine-year-old is scared witless but trying to act calm, I have a teenage boy here who can barely breathe, don't argue with me!"

 "He's not that bad-"

 "His lips are blue!" Byron yelled above the infant girl he now cradled in his arms. "Just call Valerie, Demi!”

 Demi left the room with a huff, and I decided not to ponder how difficult it could be to figure out how distressed Garr was. Instead I pulled away from him slightly, trying to get us both in a more comfortable position so that he could breathe easier and I didn't feel like he was trying to tear my arm off. Byron stood in the doorway, watching us as he tried to calm Sara. Garr's gasping had become little sobs, and he just started repeating, "I'm sorry, I'm sorry," over and over again. After shaking his head and gazing at Garr with a pitying look on his face for a few moments, he strode over and knelt next to Janus. "Hey, kid, maybe you should go back to bed."

 "Is Garr gonna be okay?" Janus demanded to know, one of his hands closing over Garr's wrist, in almost a protective way. Byron nodded.

 "Uh-huh. But I don't think having a little shrimp like you fawning over him is going to help."

 Janus miffed at Byron, and stood on his tiptoes, and kissed Garr on the cheek. "I love you, brother," he whispered, then ran from the room, looking like he was near tears.

 I watched him go, with a sinking feeling. "Great." Now I had an ill teenager, a screaming baby and a child with hurt feelings. "Thanks, Byron!"

 Byron smirked. "Don't mention it, Ryu."

 Demeter popped her head back in the door, and I nodded to her. "Go back to sleep," I told Byron, suddenly very tired myself. "Demi will take Sara." Byron shrugged, handed the baby off to Demeter, and then tromped back to his room, whistling a happy tune.

 My wife rocked the infant gently. "Val said to stop all giving him the vitamins until she’s had a chance to look at him," she said sullenly.

 I nodded, pleased. I hadn’t had a chance to speak with Byron about Garr’s accusation, but we’d see how Garr responded to not having the vitamins. If he was tampering with them in a dangerous way, it would be easy to see now. "Good." I looked at my son, who had quieted down quite a bit. "Are you okay now?" I asked softly.

 "No." He shivered and hiccupped, then snuggled closer to me.

 I gazed at him for a few more moments. "I think he's falling asleep again," I mused aloud, and Garr made a sound of protest and shifted position, but didn't open his eyes. Demeter chuckled lightly as I detangled myself from him, then picked up his pillows and tried to arrange them under him, and then pulled the covers back over him. He murmured something incoherent, and curled around one of the pillows. Demeter and I left his room, closing the door gently behind us.

 We walked out to the balcony outside of our own room, together, before either of us spoke. "Are you alright, Ryu?" Demi asked me in a concerned tone. I wordlessly nodded my head, too much on my mind to actually speak at the moment. Demi sighed. "I'm sorry I got snappy. I'd probably be a wreck if I saw Janus in that condition." Another moment passed, and she turned her gaze from me out to the horizon. "You're going to be so exhausted, Ryu. You should get back to bed."

 "I would if I thought I could," I murmured, leaning against the railing. A light breeze brushed past us; I closed my eyes. "This is killing him, Demi. Whatever's doing this to him is killing him, and there's not a damn thing I can do." I felt so helpless. I knew something was wrong, very wrong, but I had no idea what. I couldn't figure out what I needed to do to help him.

 Demi sighed again, and laid a hand on my back. "You can be a masochist if you want, Ryu. I'm going back to sleep. I wish you'd come too."

 "I'll be there in a bit. Love you."

 "Love you too, Ryu." And then she left me with my thoughts.

  ~*~

 I sat and stared blankly at the piece of paper before me. What the hell was I doing with it?

 Circe poked her head in the room. "Yo! Ryu! You done with that report yet?"

 "I- uh... almost. It's almost done. Sorry."

 Circe made a rude noise. “You look like shit, darling." She swaggered into the room and grinned obnoxiously at me. "Little lady kept you up all night, 'eh?"

 I scowled at the girl in front of me. "I wish that were it." I turned around in my chair and moved to file the page I'd been looking at. Circe's mentioning it had reminded me of what it was and why it was sitting on my desk.

 Circe giggled and hopped onto my desk. I growled in irritation; I really didn't need this overly cheerful... thing... in my presence at that moment. She was so painfully fake about it. "Whatever, hon, you do look like shit. Maybe you should talk to Her Highness about maybe going home early?" She nudged my shoulder. "After all, I have access to the guest list for tonight, and you and your family's on it. Pretty high up there, too."

 I chuckled. "Yeah. Right. Demi and I are going out while the boys go to the ball. We need some time together."

 "Ah. I see." She hopped off my desk and stretched. "I still think you should go ask Queen Serra if you could leave early. You do look like shit."

 "We've established that, Circe."

 "Yeah, but I don't think you quite believe me."

 "Goodbye, Circe," I said, standing and walking towards the door. "I do have work I need to get done."

 Circe clucked her tongue at me as she passed. "You need your sleep, Ryu-"

 "Goodbye," I repeated, closing the door behind her. I sighed. I knew she wasn't trying to be that damn annoying. She honestly couldn't help it.

 Circe was one of the three "generals" Serra kept around. The other two were Rzalyn and myself. Circe was in charge of public relations and diplomacy. Rzalyn was the minister of education, and I was in charge of the Wyndian health care system. All three of us had the skills to lead the Wyndian army, if it came down to it, but it didn't look like it would, ever. Serra did her damnedest to stay friends with all the surrounding nations- in fact, the only two she hadn't befriended successfully was the Independent State of Dauna, and Dragnier.

 Dauna had major issues with the way she came to power, as did Dragnier. But for Dauna, it was a simple matter of not wanting to risk their independence in return for assured safety from Serra's army. It was a tad more complicated, in Dragnier's case; although she'd honestly done her best to assure them that she would be a different ruler than her father was, they maintained the declaration of war that had been passed when her father came to power almost sixteen years ago. They felt that I was still being held hostage- never mind the fact that I really had settled into a life here in Wyndia, and really didn't want to go back to Dragnier. It would have been nice to have the option to, but I could do without it, especially since, at this point, it was the Dragons who were denying me access to Dragnier, not Wyndia.

 I sighed and went back to the report Serra'd ordered. She wanted to know the number of youth fatalities over the last year. Why, I wasn't sure. It wasn't my place to ask. But it sure was peculiar, going back over my records.

 I sighed as I reached a familiar name. "Just another statistic," I told myself with a shake of the head, and penned his name in. I still didn't understand it. Thomas Orrizontei had been one of the happiest children I'd ever come across. There was no reason for him to have killed himself. Yet, that's what everything pointed to, from the position his body fell, to the angle of entry of the bullet. I shook myself as I remembered just how close Garr had come to death, both the day after Thomas's suicide, and the day after his funeral.

 I don't think Garr remembered his own suicide attempts. He didn't remember anything else from that day, but for destroying his room. But, the day after Thomas's funeral, he disappeared. Alex and I eventually found him, lying on Tommy's grave. His body temperature was pretty low, and I'm almost certain that he was trying to will death on himself. Fortunately, it wasn't too hard to raise his temperature to a safe level again, and the passive attempts on his own life seemed to cease. He actively attempted suicide once more, an effort Alexandre was able to thwart, and almost at the cost of his own life. I still felt indebted to the former soldier, almost a year later, my gratitude for his intervention no less than it had been at the time.

 But what of the nightmares since? I knew he suffered from them immensely before, but as time wore on, they seemed to become worse and worse. I was scared. I really thought that Garr might be dying, even though I couldn't find anything wrong with him physically. The idea terrified me.

 I blinked and looked at my work. It was completed. I sighed and leaned back in my chair. Perhaps Circe was right. Maybe I needed to go home early. I'd just done an entire report, and I was distracted the whole time, not even realizing I was working on it at all. I glanced over it quickly to make sure I'd made no mistakes, then picked it up and headed for the throne room.

 I still preferred the way it was when Nina was the heir, and her parents were on the throne. When Nina came to power, she was six months pregnant with Garr, and the whole thing was such a shock to her. Both her parents, gone. Just like that. We never figured out how they died. And when she heard that there was a revolt being staged within the city, it forced her into premature labor. I wasn't there for it. I was down on ground level, fighting. A page found me to tell me that Nina was in labor, and I did my best to fight back to the castle gates, but Areloas, the man behind the revolt, had the same idea as I did. We probably would have won, had he not gotten to Nina before I did.

 After Rei assassinated Areloas, Serra did her best to restore the castle to the state it had been in when Nina was overthrown, but she hadn't quite made it. She probably never would. Blood was shed within the castle walls. It would never be the same again.

 Serra looked at me and stood as I approached the throne and knelt briefly. "Ryu, you look horrible," she said, sounding very concerned. "Are you ill?"

 "No, my Lady," I said, standing again and grateful that she didn’t point out that I ‘looked like shit’. "I'm just tired." I handed the report to her.

 She took it, her expression still not shifting from concern. “Thank you, Ryu. You look more than tired. You look exhausted." She examined me for a moment longer. "Might I inquire why?"

 I scowled inwardly. I couldn't say no to the Queen. "My eldest son had an... episode... last night," I explained, "and I couldn't get back to sleep afterwards."

 "An 'episode.' Was his life in danger?"

 I sighed. "Yes, but not by his own hand, if that's what you mean." She was fully aware of everything that led to Garr’s attempted suicide those months ago, and frequently questioned me about him.

 She tsk'ed at me. "You're getting testy, Ryu." She smiled. "I'm sorry for intruding. It's none of my business to ask."

 I tried to think of some suitable response, but my mind was too numb, too tired. I simply nodded.

 "Perhaps you should leave early, Ryu."

 "I have patients," I responded quietly.

 "See if Valerie will cover them for you." She set me with a look that told me not to argue. I nodded again, bowed to her, and then removed myself from the throne room. Audiences with that girl were so tense, for some reason. I ventured aimlessly into the hospital area of the castle. Another technological consequence of Myria’s absence in the world was the expansion of medical technology. There were tools available to healers that could save people who would have otherwise been fatally wounded. There were also weapons now, which could cause fatal injury in a split second- like the pistol that Thomas had shot himself with.

 I still wandered. I had things to do, but I couldn't focus long enough to gather my thoughts and go do them. Sorrow tried to talk to me a few times, and once again, I reconsidered my staunch opposition to leaving. I hadn’t noticed her join me.

 After a while, she just took to following me, chattering like an airhead. I got the feeling that she was talking to keep me awake, but again, I had not the motivation to ask if that was why she was so talkative at that moment. I wasn't a zombie or anything like that. I did respond to her, but they were mostly one-word, monosyllabic answers. I was so bloody tired.

 Finally, my mind snapped onto something she said. "... and Garr's been acting strangely in class, too. I mean, not as badly as Byron has. But Garr's a pretty powerful mage, and I can tell he's faking stupidity."

 I stopped and looked at her. "'Faking stupidity'?" I repeated. "What's that mean?"

 She shrugged. "Oh... just... intentionally failing tests. We all know he's doing it. Except Byron. Byron seems very firmly convinced that Garr is an idiot."

 I laughed shortly. "Byron thinks everyone but himself are idiots. I wonder why Garr'd do that, though-?"

 Sorrow shrugged. "Beats me. But you should see the expression on his face when he screws up. It's so cute." She gave a slightly wistful sigh, and this time I couldn't help but laugh out loud.

 "You've got a crush on him, don't you?" I teased. Sorrow squealed.

 "No, I don't! It's nothing like that-"

 "Uh-huh. Right." I chuckled to myself and kept walking. Sorrow followed, refuting my comment about her having a crush on him like there was no tomorrow. Oh my god, she does have a crush on him! I thought in amusement.

 Our paths crossed Val's a few moments later. "Ryu Bateson, a word with you," she said in her 'mother' tone of voice. I blinked. "Queen Serra just informed me a few moments ago that you aren't fit to be in work today?" I kinda just opened and shut my mouth a few times, stunned. Wow, I thought, I do need to go home. I completely forgot.

 Val, of course, demanded to know exactly how much sleep I'd gotten last night- "A little more than three hours," I shrugged. "I've come to work on less."

 "That's not good for you and you know it. What kind of reflection would it be on the rest of us if our boss commits suicide by exhaustion?" I wanted to laugh at that, and I probably would have, if not for the fact that I knew my ex-wife, and you didn't laugh when she was angry. It was just something you didn't do. "Go home, Ryu. I'll cover your patients for you."

 "I'm your boss," I muttered in irritation. She was right, but… "Not the other way around-"

 "And I'm a woman who's pissed off. You still want to argue?"

 "I'm fine," I objected, my previous conviction that I was too tired to be there overruled by stupid pride.

 "No, you're not." Val sighed. "Ryu. Listen to me. You've been completely out of it all day. You have some pretty sick patients, to boot. You need to be on the ball, or you'll end up being a threat to some of them, even though it's really not your fault. Please go home and get some rest."

 I growled. "Val, I'm not going home-"

 "Don't make me go back to Serra and have her order you."

 "Great. You first try to boss me around, and then claim you're going to boss around the Queen-"

 Val gasped in exasperation. "Ryu! Cut it out! You know as well as I do that Queen Serra would have sent you home herself, if not for the fact that I needed to know you were leaving! There's no reason for you to get catty on me!"

 I sighed, forcing my stupid pride back. "You're right, I'm sorry. I'm irritable right now."

 Val put a hand on my shoulder. "And that's why you need to go home and go to sleep." She looked at Sorrow. "Will you make sure he gets home safely?"

 I laughed and muttered under my breath about being baby-sat, but even though Val most likely heard me, she ignored it. Sorrow nodded and beckoned me to follow. And all the way home, I wondered why people were treating me like a child today.

 Wyndia had become very economically segregated- that is, rich people on one side, poor people on the other. It was really pathetic that such a large divide was between the upper and lower classes. Of course, being a "rich people", I don't think I had much to complain about. I'd probably have a lot more to complain about if I didn't work directly under the Queen. I absolutely hated it, though. I wanted my family to be well off, but I genuinely wanted there to be equality in Wyndia, like there was in Dragnier, last time I was there. I didn't know if it was still so community based there, but I hoped it was.

 So, as it was, we didn't have much of a walk, as the upper class area was closer to the castle. It only took about an hour and a quarter; on the way home, I quizzed Sorrow on some of the less difficult healing spells, when it was appropriate to use them instead of the more complex ones, and when it was inappropriate to use them, amongst other points. She answered every question right; I needed to talk to Val about possibly advancing her to more difficult spells.

 We arrived at my doorstep, and I started to bid Sorrow goodbye, but she interrupted me before I could. "Will Garr be at the ball tonight?" She asked in a hopeful tone. I shrugged.

 "That depends entirely on how he's feeling. Had a rough night last night."

 "Oh." She looked disappointed; I chuckled to myself.

 "He probably will be, Sorrow. He hates being left home alone." She cocked her head slightly, and I responded before she asked: "Byron's going," I started, and tried to ignore the face she made at me, "and Demeter and I will be out tonight. Unless he wants to baby-sit, he'll be there, and I don't think he wants to baby-sit." And then I cursed. "Damn! I was supposed to ask Val to watch Janus and Sara!"

 "I'll ask her for you. I'll have her give you a call when I get back to the castle, okay?"

 "Thanks. See you- be good!" I said as she ran off. She waved to me over her shoulder, and I went into the house.

 I resisted the urge to collapse onto the living room couch. I trudged up the stairs. It seemed that the house was empty. That was odd; Demi didn't have work today. I poked my head in our room. She wasn't there. Byron's door was wide open, so I knew he wasn't there, either. I opened the door to the kids' room, and sighed. Demi probably took them out to make up for the crisis last night. I shook my head and went back to my room.

 There was a note from her on my book, though, and I picked it up curiously:

 Ryu,

 Garr was just as exhausted as you were this morning, and Byron needed to talk to me about something. So I took the kids with me, so I could let Garr sleep. We went for a picnic down by Maekyss Gorge if you need me.

 Love,

Demi

I shoved the note into my nightstand drawer, wondering when they left and when they'd be back. Then I debated just falling into bed and going to sleep, or checking on Garr. Paternal instincts won out, and I went to make sure Garr was okay.

Garr was sleeping peacefully, curled up around his pillows. I put a hand on his back in a sudden paranoid fit, and relaxed as I felt his heartbeat, strong and steady. Then I measured his heart rate to make sure that it wasn't too slow. Then I put a hand to his forehead to check his temperature. That didn't make the paranoid feeling go away, but it satisfied my logical mind, anyway, that he was okay. I watched him sleep for a few more moments, and then turned to his nightstand.

I peered over it, searching for something in particular. I raised an eyebrow at the container of “cigarettes” there. That was a new one. They were a relatively new “invention” that allowed the person to inhale several chemicals as well as smoke. I knew for a fact that they were very bad for the smoker. There was no way a person could inhale smoke and not be damaged. That was nothing new; smoking tobacco was common when I was a boy. But there were various chemicals added to the tobacco with these things, and no one had bothered to check them for safety. I wondered for a moment if that might be why Garr's night terrors didn’t seem to be getting any better than they were, and why they were now causing him to wheeze. I was tempted to confiscate those, too, but decided to find a way to let him know that I knew he was smoking and that I didn't like it. He was reaching the age where I should be expecting him to behave maturely, and although he had shown no interest in doing so, I would give him a chance. I could always take them later.

Hanging from a peg above the nightstand were Garr's chakram rings. These rings were his weapon of choice, designed by him personally. I was quite impressed with them. They were made of steel, very thin and light, about nine inches in diameter. The outside edges were razor sharp, but for two spaces directly opposite each other, which the rings were held by. They could be used in distance or close combat, and when thrown, the rings would boomerang back after a distance, depending on how hard they were thrown, or when they struck something. Unless the rings lodged in the thing struck, which happened quite frequently in Garr's tests. That was their one flaw, but a pretty minute one, as there were about ten rings in the set, and they had to strike the object at the right angle to get stuck. That could also turn into quite an advantage against a humanoid opponent. I wondered how Garr thought up the idea for them, but decided that it was probably a subject best left alone.

I finally saw, amidst the rest of the miscellaneous junk, the bottle he kept the offending vitamins in. I picked it up and examined it for a few moments. Should I destroy them, or just take them and put them elsewhere? I decided I shouldn't destroy them- what if Val says for Garr to start taking them again? Demi would have a fit if they were gone. But I couldn't resist. Those little pills caused so much trouble for Garr. Grinning, I gripped the bottle firmly and focused on it, raising my magic power little by little until it spontaneously combusted. But then I frowned; something was wrong.

Magical fire didn't leave ashes. Yet there were particles of... something... left in my hand.

I looked at Garr, feeling sick to my stomach, remembering all the times that Garr complained of Byron tampering with his vitamins. Could Byron have-… but Garr never saw him actually do anything to them, just move them around and hide them.

I didn't have enough proof to accuse Byron of anything. But I wanted him out of my household- or at the very least, away from my son. FAR away from my son.

And through the sudden storm in my head, Garr just slept on, peacefully. I left his room, closing the door behind me, and went downstairs to the kitchen. I pulled out a plastic baggie, and carefully dumped the remnants of the vitamins in it. Then I turned on the sink faucet and let the water run until it was hot, and I washed my hands very, very meticulously. I didn't know what the hell that stuff was, and I didn't want to find out by getting it in something else. Like food. Or, gods forbid, getting it on Sara. I shuddered at the thought and decided to make sure I'd gotten it all off and dumped more soap into my hands. Then I rinsed the baggie off, and folded it into one of my pockets. I'd made up my mind.

Garr was going to live with Nina for a while. And I knew he'd want to know why, and I'd show him the baggie. I'm sure he'd agree with me, that he was safer with his mother until I figured out what the hell was going on.

Sighing, I climbed the stairs again, and went into my room and lay on the bed. And stared at the ceiling. "God damnit... For the love of Ladon..." I muttered. I was wide awake. Oh, I was going to pay for not going back to bed last night. I was going to be so sore by the time bedtime came around tonight.

~*~

I was woken by the sound of running water. Someone was taking a shower.

I glanced at the clock beside the bed. Almost five thirty in the evening. I couldn't believe I'd actually slept that long. I couldn't believe I'd slept, period. I was almost positive that I'd just lay there and stare at the ceiling all day.

I crawled out of bed. I did feel quite a bit better, even if I was still tired as hell. I ventured out of the room and into the hallway, looking around. Garr's bedroom door was open, and Byron's was shut. So Garr was up, Byron was home. So where were Demi and the kids? I poked my head in their room; Janus was seated on the floor. He looked up and waved cheerfully at me. "Hi, Daddy!" And then he held out one of the toys he was playing with. "Play with me?"

I shook my head. "Sorry, buddy. I've got to do stuff. I'll play tomorrow, how 'bout that?"

"Okay," he said, although he sounded and looked VERY disappointed. I sighed and went back out to the hallway, looking around again. I decided to try looking around downstairs.

No one was in the living room, no one was in the kitchen or the dining room, and that meant that either Demi or Garr was in the shower. Everyone else but Sara was accounted for, and I assumed Sara was with Demi, so logically, that must be Garr in the shower. I shrugged and went out into the living room, trying to think where the hell Demi could be. I sat down and picked up the phone, and dialed Val's place. Sorrow picked up.

"Hello?"

"Hey, Sorrow. It's Ryu."

"Oh! Hi. Yeah, Val said she'd watch your kids, but when she called, no one picked up."

 "I kinda fell asleep. Sorry."

 "Don't worry about it. When should she be over?"

 I heard the bathroom door open, and I looked over my shoulder. "Hey, Garr!" He jumped, blinked at me, and then sighed. I cringed. I hadn't meant to startle him. "Uh, actually, I don't know. Demi's not here right now. Can she come over now?"

 "Yeah, sure. I'll tell her."

 "Thanks, Sorrow. Bye."

 I hung up the phone and turned around. Garr was still standing there, drying his hair; he'd obviously been listening to the conversation. "Val's coming over?"

 "Yep. Hey, do you know where Demi is?"

 He scowled. "No."

 "Ah... er... Sorry?"

 Garr sighed. "She left about an hour ago," he said sullenly. "I didn't mean to get pissy with you, Dad."

 I smiled. "S'okay. I don't think any of us are in a particularly good mood today."

 He grinned slightly, an embarrassed look. "Yeah. Sorry 'bout that. I- hey, I noticed that the vitamins were gone."

 I blinked in momentary confusion, still far too tired to keep events straight, and then recalled the day's earlier events. "Oh! Oh yeah. Val said to take you off them last night-"

 "Woohoo!"

 "- and I destroyed them this morning when I came home early from work. That reminds me. There's something I need to talk to you about those pills. I think-"

 At that moment, the front door opened, and Demi bounced in. "Hey, all! Ryu! You're awake! Hiya, Garr!" And she walked over to me and kissed me, then grinned. "I'll be right back. Gotta lay Sara down. She's heavy when she's asleep!" And then she disappeared up the stairs. I looked at Garr; he was staring at the staircase, even after she'd disappeared up it, a bewildered look on his face.

 Then he slowly looked at me. "Dad, I'm loosing it. I have no idea what just happened." I raised an eyebrow at him. "I mean... what the hell? What was that all about?"

 I shrugged. "I guess she's just in a really good mood."

 "I wonder why," Garr replied under his breath, his tone uncharacteristically dark, and then looked at me. "What were you saying? About the pills?"

 "I think we better discuss it later," I responded, hearing Byron's door open now. I was quite irritated with fate at this point. "It's important."

 Garr blinked, and then shrugged. "Whatever. Do you know if Sorrow's going to be at the ball tonight?"

 I brought my hand up to cover my mouth as quickly as I could, but I'm pretty sure he saw the shit-eating grin that question triggered. "Funny, she was asking the same thing of you earlier today." I ignored Garr's irritated grunt and watched him trundle up the stairs, before I myself rose and returned to my room to get changed out of my work clothes.