Valerie woke up, her head still aching. Once she and Mateo got to the hospital and she knew the old guy wasn't going to die, she got another taxi home. She felt like death, partially from last nights game, but probably from dealing with the drug addicts. First was the one in the casino, and the second was the one from last night. She wondered just how much the guys running the game knew about her. The one at the casino was probably a coincidence, as far as she knew, the gods didn't know she would be the one to find the drug addict in the basement. But she still didn't like it.
So she left her room to go downstairs. She passed the hole her dad left in the wall. She was screwing around with Elijah when he punched it in there. According to her mother, he meant to hit her when he was on some bad trip, and a week later he got checked into rehab. For the first time since that incident, she looked at the hole in the wall. It was a pretty deep one considering it came from a single punch. If her mom didn't manage to duck, she'd probably be hospitalized, and that was the best case scenario. She never outright said it, but she looked at her dad as pathetic when she saw him injecting that shit into him, and her mom for staying with him. But when she saw the guy last night in a paranoid wreck, all she could see was her dad in that position, clinging on for dear life. It disturbed her deeply.
She casually entered the kitchen, where her mom was checking her phone while sipping a coffee.
"Morning, Nat." She said, not looking up from her phone.
"Morning." Valerie replied. She didn't know how to suddenly express interest in her dad's wellbeing. After a few seconds, she figured beating around the bush would just delay matters, and she wanted to talk before she went to school anyway.
"You know how dad's doing?"
Her mom looked up from her phone, with a slightly puzzled look on her face.
"Talked to him a few days ago, he's doing okay. Sounds a lot better."
"Mind if I talk to him?" Valerie asked. "Or is the time to talk later on?"
"I think the rule is not talking during counselling hours, so it should be fine?"
She handed Valerie her phone after typing a few numbers in, and after a few seconds, someone picked up.
"New Life counselling clinic, how can I help you?"
"Hey, I'm looking to call Thomas Wyatt?"
"And who's this?" The receptionist asked. For whatever reason, she already sounded annoyed this early in the morning. Was this the type of place to get prank calls? Even so, she couldn't fathom someone being this pissy this early in the morning.
"His…child."
"Child?" The receptionist asked.
Valerie hasn't started anything medical regarding transitioning, just training her voice to sound more feminine. She wasn't sure what the reaction to saying 'daughter' would be, but she obviously didn't want to say son. Or mention the name Valerie, seeing as she didn't know how much her dad knew about that.
"I'll ask for him, counselling's not for another hour."
Valerie nodded to her mom, to indicate that she did in fact get onto her dad.
"Heyyyy." Her dad said after about a minute and a half of silence. Compared to the slurred speech of the last time they spoke, he seemed a lot more chipper.
"Hey." Valerie replied.
"Heyyy, it's my…daughter. How's my…"
"Valerie." Valerie replied.
"Valerie doing? Gotta say, Valerie's a good name. I knew you became a chick since I came here, but forgot your name. Was kinda scared you'd name yourself Mildred or something like that."
"Why would I name myself Mildred?"
"Maybe that name was popular with the trans ladies, It's not something you check much at my age."
"It's not." Valerie replied. "Anyway, how you doing?"
"Oh, pretty good." Her dad replied calmly. "Staff here are pretty nice minus that one receptionist, sorry she was your intro to the place. But I'm getting better. Lot of guys here are worse than me though, let me tell ya."
Some muffled yelling was heard over the phone before her dad continued.
"Sorry, comparing out struggles is kind of a no-no here, I forgot. But anyway, anything going on in your life?"
"Ah, you know, exams and stuff." Valerie was asking herself if he knew about the death games or not.
"Yeah, sounds right, good you're taking it seriously." Her dad nodded. Valerie couldn't see the nod, but he was 100% subtly nodding to that statement. "You know, I had some weird dream your mom told me about a death game you were in, and that you had some kind of superpower now."
"That's pretty crazy." Valerie whispered. A part of her wanted to let him know that was real, but he seemed to be dealing with enough.
"I know, right?" He said. "But anyway, how's Elijah doing? Heard his old man died."
"That was a while ago." Valerie said. "Some kind of heart attack."
"Well, let him know I'm sorry it happened."
"I will." Valerie said. She wouldn't. "Anyway, any clue when you're out?"
"It'll be after your exams, anyway." Her dad said. "But hey, once I'm out we'll compare who's had the better transformation, how's that sound?"
"Yeah, that does sound good." Valerie said, smiling to herself.
"What? No, comparing me to my own kid? Sorry Val, gotta go."
Mateo went back to the hospital. It was early in the morning, and he didn't know if they'd accept visitors, but he figured it wouldn't hurt to try, and he'd be on time for class if they didn't. He checked himself in. The receptionist spent a lot of time at the computer trying to figure out who he was or what his connection to the homeless guy was, but his name did come up when he searched for him, so he was eventually let in.
Mateo opened the door as silently as possible, just in case the guy was still asleep. Luckily, the guy was wide awake, relaxing in bed and just observing some birds outside of the window. He looked to be in a slightly better state then last night, anyway.
"You doing okay?" Mateo whispered. The man's neck snapped in place to meet his voice.
"Yep!" He said with a thumbs up and a smile that seemed genuine, even if a couple of teeth were missing. "People here are pretty nice, even if I remember the nurses being on the sexier side last time I was here."
"I see." Mateo said, looking at the two nurses chatting in the hallway. They seemed attractive enough to him. But that was besides the point.
"I tried asking around after you got admitted here. Your name is Mason Dudley, right?"
"That'd be me, yes." He replied, the reminder causing his demeanour to droop slightly.
"Heard you were a scientist before you fell into a drug habit." Mateo said calmly. He read his mood getting worse. The rumours were he fell into the habit after his son died to illness, but he didn't want to say it to him in fear he closes himself off further.
"Maybe I was. Why you askin?"
"Well, I just wanted to ask if you wanted to go back to those days. Because if you do, there are free programs dedicated to that."
Mateo handed Mason a card with the church's program on it. It had the name of the place, a phone number, location, and he thought Susan from the front desk did some good with the graphic design. Mason took it off him and inspected the card for a few seconds, his mood seeming to sour with each second it was in his hand.
"Church boy, hm?" He asked, glaring at him from his bed.
"Lion City Yeshuan Church, yes." Mateo nodded.
"Well, I guess father Boone would have died before your time." He muttered. "But I'll figure it out by myself. I don't need to join some cult."
"It's a volunteer program the church funds." Mateo added. "We try to accommodate all beliefs. Or lack thereof."
"Don't wanna hear it." He said, flicking the card back. "Did better when I stopped having those dolts breathing down my neck. And I'll bet everything I got left you'll be better off too."
"I see." Mateo replied slowly, picking the card off the ground and leaving it by the small plastic table by his bed. He walked toward the door slowly, just to see if he wanted to continue the conversation. But he just stared out of the window, in a more sour mood than previously.
Mateo walked out of the hospital, ruminating on his approach back in the room. Was he too forward in the religious angle? What history did Mason have to give him such a negative view on the church? What did he get out of the church's community that others didn't get? Heck, some of the older members would say Mason wouldn't have fell into the habit if he didn't leave, but he clearly had some kind of reason. And not to mention, the small possibility he met god, or at least his servants, and they forced him into a death game. A game which killed Terrence, something he barely had the time to mourn or even think about. He sat on the curb outside, just watching the skies. He would already be late for school, so why not?
But out of the corner of his eyes, he saw something. He turned his head, and saw a tall man in a black shirt and tracksuit bottoms, pacing around the hospital car park with his head down. He was tanned, the same skin tone as Ines…
"Hey!" he yelled out. The man stopped in place, head still down. But after a brief second, he ran away in the opposite direction. Mateo tried giving chase, but eventually stopped.
A part of him was just relieved Ramon was still out there.