Dirk Gently and The Ghosts of Time

Focus

       "Hey, guys!" Tina said as she and Farah walked through the door into the hotel room. "We're back! And we brought coffee for Todd," She handed him a hot paper cup and he nodded in appreciation, "Tea for Dirk."

"Thank you, Tina." He took the cup from her hand.

"And donuts for everybody!" She presented a large dozen box from a little stand-alone bakery.

"You're the best!" He smiled at her.

"Thank you, guys," Todd added.

"It's no problem really," Farah said.

"Did you find anything?" Dirk asked.

"Unfortunately no," Farah said.

"Really boring out there." Said Tina. "You get any hunches?"

"Not any that revolved around the case, no," Dirk said, matter a-factly.

"How can you be sure?" Farah asked.

"Oh, I can be sure." He beamed.

"Anyway..." Todd changed the subject. "Maybe we should go back to the house, or look through the box again. Maybe we're missing something."

"I'm not sure that will help," Dirk said.

"Let's put our heads together. Maybe we can connect something that we haven't connected yet." Farah suggested.

"Again, not sure that will help." Dirk repeated.

"We should at least try," Todd said.

"It doesn't work like that," Dirk said as Todd took a sip, more like a chug of his coffee. "I think our best option is to sit and wait for something to happ-"

Todd screamed. The lid to his coffee fell off and the entire thing spilled. Except it wasn't hot. It was warm.

He stared at his hands and lap, they bubbled and boiled. Flesh melting and oozing. Pink and yellow balloons of puss, liquid, and blood expanded and burst, leaving raw skin underneath only for the cycle to began again. It had to be his most disgusting and terrifying attack to date. He felt his stomach turn as a heat rose in his throat. He dove for the sink in the bathroom, narrowly making it.

"FUCK!" Dirk immediately jumped up to go get Todd's pills. Frantically digging through his duffle bag. "He hasn't vomited from an episode before!" He ran into the bathroom and turned on the light. Shaking as he tried to open the bottle.

"NO!" Todd screamed and put his hand over Dirk's to stop him from opening the bottle, shaking. So he instead grabbed a towel and wiped Todd's sweating forehead and mouth. "Th-this is so-something. L-last t-tt-time m-my ep-pp-isode lead to a- AHHHH!" He continued screaming and fell to the floor, Dirk narrowly catching him and pulling his back to his chest.

"I know, I know. You don't have to talk." Todd curled into him and Dirk rocked him in his arms, stroking his head. He mouthed out 'rubbish-bin' to the girls standing in the bathroom doorway. Tina darted for it and handed it to Dirk who then handed it to Todd who pushed it away with a trembling arm. Thank God he was done with that. "You sure you don't want your pills? This looks to be a bad one."

"NO!" He cried, "I n-need t-tt-t-to have a v-vision. Pp-pills s-st-top th-them."

"Ok. Ok." He kissed the top of Todd's head. "I'm here then." Todd nodded and then screamed again. "Shhhh... I'm here."

He sobbed and screamed for a few minutes, Dirk soothingly shushing him.

It was agonizing. Agonizing for Dirk to watch, Agonizing for Todd to experience. It was strong and vivid, more so than usual and it didn't help that the visuals that accompanied it made him want to vomit. Like something from a horror movie. What was worse was that like Amanda had taught him, to use the powers of the attacks you had to focus on them. You couldn't ignore them.