Dark Realms (52 page)

“Nora? Awesome, invite her too! I’m sure
Paige will be fine with that.”

I snorted. “Unlikely. Nora scares the crap
out of most people. I can’t imagine Paige being thrilled about her
coming over.”

“Just check,” Allie pleaded. “It would be so
much fun! I haven’t been to a real slumber-party in ages. It’s
usually just me and Kylie.”

Shrugging, I said, “I suppose it wouldn’t
hurt to ask.”

“It’s going to be so much
fun!” my sister replied all giddy. She turned on the radio and
started singing and bouncing around to the music. “Hey, it’s your
song!” Ironically it’s called “
Wild
Ones”
by Flo Rida, and she’s always
playing it for me on her iPod.

“Allie, don’t forget to check with mom,
too!” I yelled over the music

She nodded, then leaned
over and gave me an unexpected kiss on the cheek. Unlike me, she
wasn’t shy about showing affection to anyone. “I get to hang out
with my sister,” she sang. “
The Wild
One!”

I smiled at her. Allie was growing up
quickly, but to me, she’d always be the mischievous imp dancing
around in her crooked tiara and Little Mermaid gown.

~~~

Later that night, when my mother read the
information about the flu shot, she was furious. She crumpled up
the permission sheet and tossed it into the garbage. “It’s
ridiculous. They can’t enforce this. I’m calling the school.”

I rolled my eyes. “Mom there’s nothing you
can do. Maybe we should just get the stupid shot.”

Mom put her hands on her
hips. “Are you kidding me? Absolutely not! Did you notice how our
family hasn’t come down with anything yet? It’s because
we
don’t get those
stupid flu shots. If we did, we’d probably be as sick as everyone
else.”

“Sorry…” I mumbled.

Allie pouted. “Mom,
I
have
to go to
school. There’s a
major
test next week.” I also knew she didn’t want to
be away from her friends or the guy she was crushing on.

Mom put her arm around Allie‘s shoulders.
“Don’t worry about it, sweetie. I’ll make some calls and get this
taken care of.”

I got up off the couch and stretched. “Well,
if I can’t go to school, I’m definitely not hanging around Daycare
Central,” I said.

“I’m sure you’ll find something to do.
Otherwise you can run some errands for me, like picking up your
prom dress.”

Although I wasn’t thrilled about wearing a
dress, my mother had helped me choose one that I actually liked; a
strapless, coral-colored chiffon gown that made my waist look
smaller and my skin look tan.

After dinner, as my mom disinfected the
daycare area of the house, I took a shower, then retreated to my
bedroom and turned on the television. There were news reports on
every channel covering the flu epidemic. On channel eleven, Eva
King’s mother, Veronica, was interviewing a spokesperson from the
Centers for Disease Control Prevention (C.D.C). I actually like
Eva’s mother, who I’d met back in grade school at a birthday party.
Although she’s somewhat of a celebrity, she never once acted snooty
or cold. In fact she was really sweet to everyone, unlike her
daughter.

Veronica definitely wasn’t herself today;
she looked sick and miserable. Her normally tan face was pale, her
nose bright red, and her blue eyes watery. Usually she looked so
professional, with no red curl out of place.

“This is Veronica King, and if you’re just
tuning in, I have Dr. William Blake from the Centers for Disease
Control on satellite. We‘ve been discussing this new flu virus that
people are referring to as ‘The Creeper’, because it starts out
slow and then hits its victim pretty hard. Does that about sum it
up, Doctor?”

“Correct,” replied Dr. Blake stiffly. He was
over fifty, slim, with little round glasses and wispy grey hair
that didn’t quite cover the bald spot.

“Thank you again for
joining us, Doctor. As I mentioned, this virus has been spreading
at an alarming rate. It’s affected the entire country,” she croaked
and then cleared her throat. ”Excuse me. I mean the entire
world
. The big question
tonight is, how do we control this growing epidemic?”

“That’s easy, Ms. King, we control it by
making wise decisions; like getting vaccinated. It’s imperative,
especially for our elderly and small children.”

Veronica’s eyes narrowed. “And you stand
behind this vaccine one hundred percent? Earlier we heard from
other medical experts stating that they don’t feel the vaccine is
having a significant enough effect on this particular virus.
Millions of people have still contracted severe flu symptoms even
after getting vaccinated. Emergency rooms have been flooded and
can’t even care for their patients properly. They’ve had to turn
people away. Let me ask you this, is the CDC working on improving
the current vaccine?”

Dr. Blake cleared his throat. “Yes, well,
our scientists are working around the clock to evaluate and improve
the current vaccine. But, these things still take a considerable
amount of time. I cannot stress enough, however, how important it
is to get the current vaccine that is available right now.”

Frowning, she replied, “What’s the point if
it doesn’t seem to be working? What about those people who’ve been
hospitalized? Countless numbers of patients who’ve slipped into
comas; reports indicate they‘d all received the vaccination.”

Dr. Blake smiled smugly. “I can assure you
that if they hadn’t been vaccinated, they would have probably
perished. We are quite confident that the vaccine has lessened the
symptoms and has saved many lives thus far.”

She released a heavy sigh. “Well, I hope
you’re right. One last thing…there have been accusations from
certain leaders of the United Nations, claiming the virus was
created by terrorists, specifically targeting countries the U.S.
supports. What are your views on this?”

He laughed and rubbed the bridge of his
nose. “Utter nonsense. Come on, a terrorist virus? It’s just
another strain of the seasonal flu. In a week or two we‘ll have a
more powerful vaccine available to the public and this won’t seem
like such a crisis. It‘s just the flu, nothing more.”

Veronica sniffled and grabbed a tissue.
“Excuse me.” She dabbed at her nose then smiled weakly. “A flu
virus on…steroids?”

“If that’s what you want to call it.”

“Okay. Thank you for joining us tonight, Dr.
Blake. This is Veronica King with WCCL, reminding everyone to keep
taking your vitamins and stock up on tissues.”

I sighed and turned off the television.

There was a soft knock on my door and then
my mother peeked in. “Cassie, Paige is on the phone,” she said.

“Wow…nice look, mom,” I snorted. Pieces of
brown hair stuck out of a plastic cap and her face was covered with
thick, green slime.

She smiled and patted her head. “Oh, you
like this?”

“It‘s awesome. Dad‘s going to love it,
seriously.”

Her hazel eyes sparkled with amusement. “You
think? Your dad and I are going to a party this weekend and I’d
hate to embarrass him.”

“He‘ll be the envy of all the other guys
with you on his arm.”

She left and I could hear her giggling all
the way down the hall.

I picked up the phone. “Hi.”

“Hi, Cassie.”

“So I heard about the slumber-party.”

“Yeah, but unfortunately I made plans with
Nora for Saturday night.”

“Well, do you think she’d want to hang out
with all of us? I don’t have any plans yet for this weekend and my
folks are going out. As long as she behaves herself, we should have
fun.”

I cracked up. “Honestly,
Nora’s not
that
bad. She told Eva King off in the bathroom earlier today; it
was awesome! You both might have more in common than you
think.”

“Really? Well, in that case, she‘s
definitely invited. Let me know what she says.”

After I hung up with Paige, I called Nora to
find out if she’d be willing to go to Paige’s Saturday night.
Fortunately, she liked the idea.

“So she has a swimming pool? That sounds
cool. I’ll hang,” said Nora.

“Okay. I’ll let Paige know.”

“Sweet!”

I hung up the phone right as Allie rushed
into my room.

“Excuse me? Knock before you enter,” I
said.

Her eyes were large. “Oh, my God…you have to
watch the news! Some hospital in France was attacked by a bunch of
crazy patients. I guess they were acting like cannibals, eating
each other’s flesh! Can you believe it? How gross is that?”

I made a face. “Really?”

We turned on the television. Sure enough,
every channel was reporting about the incident. On one station, an
anchorman stood outside of the French hospital where their local
police surrounded the building.

“So far, there have been reports of at least
fifty fatalities during this bizarre attack. The building has now
been secured and everything seems to be under control. At least ten
people have been arrested and detained; all were patients that were
being treated in the hospital when this madness occurred. We’ll
have more updates for you in just a minute.”

“Okay, that’s enough,” I said, turning off
the television. “I don’t want to hear any more. This stuff gives me
nightmares, so if you want to watch the news, do it in your
room.”

Allie blew on her freshly painted nails.
“No, that’s okay. It’s too freaky for me to watch, too. Anyway …did
you talk to Nora yet about Saturday?”

“Yes, she’s interested,” I said, picking up
my iPod.

“Cool. I like Nora and I
really
love
her
tattoo.”

Nora had several tattoos, but the one Allie
was referring to was of a small fairy on the back of her neck. A
blue fairy covered in chainmail that was scowling and stood ready
to kick ass.

I looked at my sister in surprise, as far as
I could remember, she’d always been a girly-girl. “Isn’t that a
little dark for your tastes?”

She looked at me like I was an alien. “No.
In fact I’m going to see if I can get my nose pierced for my
birthday this year.”

I snorted. “Good luck with that. I’d like to
see dad’s expression when you run it by him.”

She put her hands on her waist and scowled.
“Mom will let me.”

“Right…”

Allie mumbled something and then left the
room.

Tweens
, I thought.
They think they know
everything
.

Chapter Five

I woke up Tuesday morning
without Jed sneaking up on me or any remnants of a nightmare where
someone was trying to eat my brains. When I made it to the bathroom
without any kids charging after me, I had to pinch myself to make
sure I wasn’t dreaming. The house was
so
unnaturally quiet that it put me
on edge and I just couldn’t enjoy it.

When I made it to the kitchen, my dad was
eating and reading the paper.

“Well, this is kind of a
nice change,” commented my dad as he finished a bowl of cereal.
Normally he brought his breakfast downstairs to his
Man Cave
.

“Nice? It’s
weird
. Megan is the only
one here and it’s too quiet,” I answered.

“I’ll take the
weird and quiet
any
day,” he said then glanced at his watch. “Shoot, I’m running late.
Bye, sweetheart.” He stood up and kissed the top of my
head.

“See you later, dad.”

Just then two-year-old Megan came barreling
into the kitchen, giggling. “Hi, Cassie!” she shouted.

“Hi, Megan,” I answered as she flung herself
at me, wrapping her arms tightly around my legs. We’d watched her
since she was a baby and I had to admit, she held a special place
in my heart.

I kneeled down and tugged her hair. “Oh…your
hair looks so cute today!” Her short blond hair was pulled tightly
into two little ponytails. She touched them proudly and smiled with
her big doe eyes.

“Where Jed?” she asked.

I poked her playfully in the tummy. “Don’t
know.”

She giggled and then asked, “Where
Daniel?”

“Don’t know,” I said, this time tickling
her.

She laughed hysterically as I continued to
tickle her. When she’d had enough, I put her on my lap and she
asked about the remaining daycare kids.

I sighed. “Sorry, I really don’t know. I
think most of them are sick and stayed home with their mommies to
get better.”

Just then my mom walked
into the kitchen and informed me that everyone
was
sick with the flu. Except for
Megan and her mother, Sara, who was six months pregnant.

“Thank God Sara’s not sick with this virus,”
I replied.

“And she’s
not
getting that
vaccination, either. I talked her out of it,” declared my mom
proudly.

“Daddy sick,” Megan said, matter-of-factly.
She then raced back into the toy area.

“Oh. Well hopefully he doesn’t get either of
them sick,” I said.

“I heard that Kevin is just miserable and
wants her to stay away from him. I told Sara she could stay here if
she wanted to, since her folks live a couple of hours away, and she
still has to work. At least until after Megan’s dad gets better.
But she declined. She just doesn’t want to impose. Plus, she really
wants to take care of him.”

“Oh,” I said. I looked at my mom’s hair. It
looked pretty with the new highlights and colored gray. “Your hair
looks nice, mom.”

She smiled at me. “Thanks, honey.”