Distract and Sedate | Hemlock Grove |

Chapter 18 | A Fool

"Stay very still," the technician says over the speaker. Emma closes her eyes and steadies her breathing. The flat bench vibrates then begins moving back. She can her the circle around her spinning. The process repeats a couple of times before she's allowed out.

It's already been a long morning. It took almost an hour of waiting before she gets to see the doctor. Then, another hour in a different waiting room for a CT scan. By the time she's back in her mother's car, she's ready for a nap. Emma's let her mother handle scheduling the doctor's appointments. It's not like she has anywhere to be, or anything to do. A full week hadn't even passed since she came home.

"It's a moderate head injury," the doctor says after greeting them. "I'm estimating that you lost consciousness for around 30 minutes, but I haven't heard anything from the other hospital about it."

"They haven't said anything else to us," Kay says.

"I understand that you don't remember the injury happening, correct?" Emma nods. "What do you remember from before? How much time passed?"

"I know that I was walking back to my dorm, but I don't remember doing it. I just know that I was."

"Well, most people are back to their normal selves at six months. If you have any symptoms after six months we'll give it a year. After a year, that's when we'll start considering that it might be permanent."

"What symptoms could last?" Her mother asks as if she hadn't sat on her phone all morning reading about them.

"My biggest concerns are always fatigue and irritability. Those usually go hand in hand with each other. If one stays the other probably will too," she explains. "For now, headaches, cognitive impairment, light sensitivity... That stuffs pretty obvious now. But, the fatigue and mood swings, that sort of sneaks up on a lot of people."

"What should we be doing?" Emma rolls her eyes at her mom's question. We? Since when did Kay have a head injury?

"I want you taking it easy for the next three months. That means no school, no exercising, no standing for long periods of time. No driving for at least two weeks. I trust your mom to make a final call on that."

"I don't have a car," Emma says.

"Most importantly, keep your stress levels down. When people's symptoms get worse it's usually because they're stressed. I would keep track of how you're feeling day-to-day."

......

Back home, Roman's day-to-day life returns to normal very quickly. He'd only been a few hours late on Monday, but everything else was normal.

Pryce calls him to his office on Thursday. Roman walks with a particular rhythm in his step. Although he doesn't trust Pryce, he needs something from him. He needed to be fed a quickly. Roman knows he's lucky to have access to donated blood, even if it is a limited amount. He could make Pryce give him more but it wouldn't make a difference. It didn't matter. It never seemed to be enough.

It's sitting there on his desk in a clear beaker. The closest thing to ambrosia that Godfrey money could create. Pryce barely gets in a hello before Roman's urgency makes itself down. The doctor carefully picks up the beaker and hands it to him.

He chugs down the chunky liquid without a second thought. It's only when the glass is back on the table his stomach turns. The texture is horrible, and the flavor... The flavor is horrific. It's as if he expected a soda and instead got a poorly flavored seltzer water. A seltzer water with chunks. Pryce watches Roman's face and rushes forward to grab the glass.

"Remember, you still have a fresh comparison," Pryce says. "After a few weeks of synthetic, you won't notice a difference- or much of one."

"I find that hard to believe." Roman fights back the urge to vomit.