Readers, my greetings. For some inexplicable and vexing reason part of this chapter has been put into bold and won't change back. Not really important but just so you know, the characters are not angry during this scene and nor was I whilst writing it.
Groaning in sleepy satisfaction, Georgie turned over onto her back, yawning hugely. Planting her hands by her ears she lifted herself up into a full bridge, pushing her ribs up to the sky until she heard a click. "Ah". Rubbing the sleep from her eyes, Georgie opened them, blinking in puzzlement.
Sitting up, she looked around her with an incredulous shake of the head. "Soft, repentant, bastard", she said with a chuckle.
The few months since the student's arrival at Persephone's Grove had seen many transformations amongst the inhabitants. One thing which had not occurred was the development of Georgie's cleaning abilities. True, nothing smelt, there was no festering pile of socks and takeaway packages hidden under the bed, but the room could not be called neat. Organised mess would be more appropriate.
That was until that morning. The floor was clear, the unnecessarily large collection of books was in alphabetical order, as were the vinyl. Georgie's schoolwork was piled neatly on her desk in due date order and her folders were fanned out in rainbow order. Not only that, but her laundry was no where to be seen, having been put away in draws and wardrobes, smelling of lemon grass and sea salt. To top it off, hearty breakfast of a mushroom and spinach omelette with a side cup of creamy hot chocolate was on her bedside, still piping hot.
Pulling her duvet over her bent knees, Georgie picked up her drink and sighed, contented. Of course, she now had no idea where any of her things were but it was the thought that counted. She supposed she would have to forgive Hades for sending her to sleep. It was probably for the best even if the method had been a little unorthodox.
Suddenly sitting up straight, splashing hot chocolate on her top Georgie remembered the rest of the evening. Seb had almost opened up to her. It had been so close, then that idiot of a devil had blundered in, ruining everything. "Blast", Georgie muttered, downing the rest of her drink, near scorching her tongue in the process.
Struggling out of bed, Georgie got her legs tangled in the now eiderdown duvet, falling to the floor with a thump. "Ow", she said, detangling herself with all the grace of a worm who had forgotten how to wriggle. Managing eventually to free herself, Georgie rocked to her feet and began searching her room for something to wear. It would have been so much easier if everything was in its proper place. As it was, it took her all of ten minutes to locate her favourite cropped sweater vest, hanging up in the wardrobe. Less time might have been necessary had Georgie not kept going back to her omelette. Her mind told her there were more important things then food but her body did not agree. Besides, Spike could cook.
Fully clothed, minus socks which she could not find for the life of her, Georgie stood in front of her mirror wondering if she could be bothered to do anything with her hair. Umming and aahring for a full three seconds, she turned from the mirror with a devil-may-care wave. Exiting her room, she looked at though she was trying to bring poodle-rock back and succeeding.
She did not know what should be done, Georgie considered, but her being craved action. Finding no response to her knock at Hades' office she let herself in but it was unoccupied. Not even a cooling pot of tea or half-finished biscuit in site. Damn, she'd needed to shout at someone. No matter, perhaps he was downstairs.
It all seemed very quiet, Georgie thought as she made her way downstairs. Sort of weird, as if the house was on the brink of something.... "Maybe they've all been eaten." Georgie then wondered if a full night's sleep was not good for her.
Extending her search for human and demon life, Georgie opened all the doors downstairs, even popping her head into the broom cupboard under the stairs just in case. The air was still, a thing unnatural for Persephone's Grove, usually so full of mayhem and stress (So, so, much stress). The kitchen was the worst with no sign of Spike's usual culinary exploits, no hungry students waiting in salivating anticipation for the oven door to be opened.
Scratching her head, Georgie bit her cheek. "How long was I asleep for?", she asked.
A key in the lock jolted her heart. Georgie would never admit to feeling scared, but the place quiet as it had been, did generate intense feelings of heebee jeebees.
Skipping along the hall, Georgie split a grin when she saw Seb walk through the door, his barley gold hair dripping with mizzle from the outside world.
"Georgie", he cried, slamming the door behind him with a structure shuddering crash.
"Umph", Georgie replied as he caught her in a tight embrace, lifting her feet from the floor leaving her feeling as helpless as a plank of wood. 'Oh God, my ribs', she thought. As thought sensing her desperate plight, Seb released her to thump back down to the ground. If Georgie thought she was going to get in the first word, however, she was most assuredly incorrect.
"Are you all right? I've been so worried. The others thought I was being stupid, but I just couldn't – I couldn't do anything. Just poof and you were asleep, you wouldn't wake up. I didn't know .... I didn't want to end things badly'. Seb was swallowing hard now, his voice tightening. "And everything is going mad, and you weren't here."
"I'm going to stop you right there", said Georgie, putting a silencing hand over Seb's mouth, bringing instant silence. Seeing something incomprehensible in Seb's eyes Georgie quickly removed her hand and held it behind her back. "Don't worry, I'm fine. Look", Georgie pointed to the skin under her eyes. "No shadows."
That did not seem to appease Seb. Man alive this chap was high management thought Georgie. It's a good job she loved him so much. "All right so A. you couldn't wake me because I sleep like a log with a healthy sleep schedule. B. Things wouldn't have ended badly I clearly wasn't dead, and this isn't sleeping beauty. C. Even if I was dead things wouldn't have ended badly as we weren't fighting. D. What is going mad?..... I see that didn't help."
Georgie eyed Seb up and down, the guy was a therapist's nightmare (or daydream depending on individual views and preferences). He needed to start taking regular chill pills or he was going to worry himself into an early grave. Why would he not just vent, Georgie could help him.
"Seb", Georgie began.
"Juksemaker pipelort Klossmajor", the door crashed open revealing a very dazed and agitated looking Mats. Stalking up to Seb, he began shaking his fist in the other boy's face whilst reeling off a string of sounds which neither Seb nor Georgie understood but they gathered would have been terribly insulting in Norwegian.
"Oi", Georgie grabbed Mats' fist and made her face him.
"He broke my nose", said Mats with an accusatory finger.
Seb had the good grace to look guilty. "Oh", he said with a glance at the front door he had slammed in his friends face when he had seen Georgie. "Sorry."
Mats through up his hands. "Pah, English." Facing Georgie his expression softened. "You are looking much better. Before, you looked like rotting corpse. Now much better."
Georgie took what she could get. "Thanks Mats. Go get some ice on that nose." The boy nodded, walking into the kitchen with a step of injured pride.
Following through the front door then came Advik, gym bag and constant companion thrown over one shoulder. "He's a bit stressed."
"No kidding", Georgie responded, looking over her shoulder at Mats' retreating back.
"Good afternoon, Georgie. Well rested?"
"Thank you, Advik, yes."
"Excellent. Me and the boys signed you up for the next powerlifting competition. It's in Bristol on Saturday so start increasing your protein."
"Oh good", Georgie said forcing a smile whilst internally dying. "Something else I need to worry about."
Advik ruffled her hair, "That's my girl. I need food." With that he powered into the kitchen like a man on a mission.
"Honestly", said Georgie. "I have a decent night's sleep and suddenly everyone's acting like we're up the creek without a paddle in a seventy-six-year-old, leaking canoe."
"Uh, Georgie", Seb said gently. "It's been a little more than one night."
Georgie's heart plummeted to somewhere in the vicinity of her knees. "Give it to me."
"It's Wednesday. You've been asleep for three days."
A pause.
"Bastard". Georgie made a neck ringing motion with her hands. "Utter bastard." Well, she had missed two deadlines so that was Georgie down at the bottom of the class. The female statistics in first year engineering taking a killer hit. She tried to tell herself it did not matter but 'Arrrggghh'. Georgie metaphorically banged her head repeatedly against the wall. But there was another matter at hand. "And the other matter?"
"That's the mess."
"Oh good", said Georgie with as much sarcasm as she could muster (which was roughly the charge of a heavy mobile artillery weapon). "Do share."
Seb's grimace had Georgie's heart falling further, reaching her ankles.
"It was never going to work was it", said Seb with a hint of nastiness which shocked Georgie. "This whole trying to get people's confessions and stopping them giving money to good causes. It's stupid...."
"Ouch", said Georgie
".... and morally incorrect", continued Seb without pause. "Yeah, people are answering the calls and Lydia has been talking to them. So have Mats and Advik, which I'm not sure is better or worse to be honest, they murder the English language."
"Harsh."
"And Hades is notably absent through all of this. As is Spike, angel that he pretends to be. Both of them have been sneaking off at all hours of the day and night, or else locking themselves up in the office with that strange Emily Mathias."
"Urrr."
"I know you like him Georgie, but Hades is playing you. The slimy git has you wrapped around his little finger, having you do his dirty work and making you believe he cares a fig about you. He's nothing but a lazy creep."
"I would say charmingly troubled nonconformist."
"For the love of Christ Georgie." Seb clutched his head. "Would you stop being so perfectly imperious all the damned time. It's too much."
Numbed, Georgie sucked in a breath. So many swirling thoughts, so many things to be spoken. But only one Georgie believed slotted nicely next to that outburst.
"OK".
Turning smartly on her heel, Georgie skipped into the kitchen and swung the door to. All right, perhaps she could have handled the situation differently, perhaps better. But she had a younger brother and knew how to handle a teenage boy in a tizz – at this stage she was also quite fed up with them in general.
Swinging onto the counter, Georgie moved a slice of sour raspberry bundt cake from a large cake platter onto a small side plate. Picking at it with relish, she swung her legs through the air. "Don't disappoint me boys", she said to Mats and Advik, the latter holding a bag of frozen garden peas on the formers face. "What's Hades up to and what's been going on to the call ups."
"Sod me if I know", said Mats morosely and with perhaps a more nasal tint to his accent than usual. Georgie was kind enough not to mention it.
"He's in pain", said Advik trying to account for his friend's lack of civility. "I don't know about Hades. Nyala says he's rented out a town hall somewhere so I'm guessing that's where he and Spike go. Mathias is with them a lot too."
"I heard", mused Georgie with a hint of ice, thinking of Seb. "If she's involved we shouldn't worry too much."
'I hope', she added to herself. Who knew what went on behind Mathias' sharply intelligent eyes.
"And the calls", continued Advik. He paused to collect his thoughts. "Not great. We've been following the system, but people are asking lots of difficult questions and then they don't want to confess. Lydia said we don't have enough people with only the seven of us."
"I suppose not", said Georgie putting down her cake, appetite lost to thought. "We would have to keep it up forever. Impossible. We have out studies, and clubs, and holidays where we can't be expected to be on phones all the time. And even if all of us were doing it for eternity we would never reach everyone." Georgie rubbed her face. "Damn", she said softly.
"We'll find something else", said Advik, unnerved by Georgie's downtrodden demeanour. "Or another way of doing the calls. It's a good idea."
"It's not", said Georgie, massaging her temples with her palms. "It's unattainable and ethically unsound." With a sad, silent laugh Georgie saw how she was echoing Seb's earlier concerns. If only she could voice her true thoughts.
"Milk", said Mats like it was the answer to the universe (Footnote 1).
Raising her head, Georgie wondered if she had misheard but seeing how Advik was equally baffled she was forced to conclude that Mats' accident had harmed more than his nose. "Beg pardon?", she asked, near fearing the answer.
"Milk", repeated Mats, removing the quickly defrosting peas. "We should deliver milk every morning to some people on the bad list. Mostly it is good milk but sometimes it is bad."
"Loving it", said Georgie, desperately trying to keep the sarcasm in her head and out of her voice. "But one question. To what end?"
Advik leaned in, eagerly awaiting Mats' answer.
"Because there is nothing better for putting you in a bad mood then making a drink and your milk being bad."
"Ah", Georgie said, nodding in understanding. She tried to hold it in, she really did, but sometimes one just had to speak. "You had an easy upbringing didn't you Mats."
1. As to this question, there has been much debate. Scholars and philosophers, the greatest minds on earth have spent far too long pondering it and it really must stop. For sure, it could be milk, ideas far more preposterous than that have been suggested – all by middle class men would you believe – but does one really need to obtain such knowledge to appreciate the glories of it all? I leave that to you fair reader and shall myself stay silent on the topic. For interests' sake, there is one who possesses the answer. She is to be found every afternoon tending to her tomato patch and reading romantic crime novels in an undisclosed location on the north coast of Wales. If you do ever come across her however, I would not bother asking. It really isn't worth the aggravation.