#papp

NEW • Domhnall hanging out in LA last night with Chelsea Frei, Eric Rahill, and friends!

Chapter Seventeen is on the way, which means it's time for a sneak peek a little into the future. I'm sure with the last few chapters, you can think of how this might have happened, but have this bit from Chapter Nineteen: A Discourse and Pertinacious Fidelity.

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“No worries, not like I could go anywhere.” He heard her hissed intake of breath, could imagine the horrified looking expression to accompany it. “It smells like a butcher shop in here, and I look like an incompletely done up rack of ribs, but all of that is just dramatic window dressing. I’ll be fine.”

“Where’s the first aid kit?”

“By my desk, it was a bitch and a half getting it from under the bathroom sink. We should hide it someplace that requires less bending and reaching.” He waved his hand vaguely in the direction of his desk chair, where he’d placed the plastic box, and focused on his breathing. The room was spinning more, and the feeling of hanging near the ceiling was kicking in.

“I say that every time, and then, every time you complain about having to think of a new spot for it.” He heard her rustling about inside the first-aid kit for medical supplies and started mentally preparing. Iodine and alcohol stung like hell, and stitches were worse. No matter how many times he insisted he didn’t need real disinfecting, he never bothered when he stitched himself, his sister didn’t listen. That meant hard to reach spots or wider areas always got an extra heavy dose to make up for it via Jazz.

“I’ve suggested several great spots for it.”

“Half of them have been inside of walls,” she moved closer, he could feel the heat coming off her fleece PJ covered legs near his own, “and the other half haven’t been any more sanitary.”

“It’s a sealed box.”

“It’s not a hermetic seal, Danny, things will end up inside!”

“It’s not like there’s anything dangerous in the walls. I’m sticking stuff in there all the time; I would know.” The bed near his right side dipped down, and a hand with gauze moved through his peripheral vision. The discussion was a great distraction from the pain. “If the bags of chips and Wild Monster are still edible after pulling them out of the wall, the first-aid kit should be fine.”

“The edibility of those snacks are always questionable, little brother.” She dabbed around the wounds, trying to clean them up enough to stitch. “What caused these?”

It is finished! I'm so happy to post the last chapter and finish off my first long fic! Thank you to everyone who has joined me along the way and who left comments, kudos, bookmarks and subs! This has been a wild ride, so I hope you all enjoy the ending to the first entry in the Pestilence!AU trilogy. Inside, Danny and Valerie catch up after the harrowing events the day before, and Danny asks an important question...

One last time: Have a sneak peek for the dashboard!:

Chapter 22 is out! I am so excited to finally get this chapter out! Thanks once again to @emotigonecreative for the amazing art! You can see it in this chapter. It's sometimes wild to think all 160,000 words came from this single image. They say a picture is worth 1,000 words, but I can honestly say Emotigone's are worth at least 160x as many.

Everyone should take a look at the original art on her blog, because it is awesome and needs more love!

Want a taste of the chapter before you head inside? You'll find it below.:

Things are really heating up! I bet my regular readers are worried about Valerie by this point. There are still some ways lower to wander on that account. The last chapter of the Second Act is coming out on Wednesday, so let's take a little glimpse into the future. This bit is from Chapter Twenty: Internecine and Solitude

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“What is wrong?”

“Valerie, you’re hurt! You need to pull that off right now so I can take a look at you!” His voice filled with panic, and the human began waving their upper limbs around in an uncoordinated, awful manner. Silly sire. They would be harmed without their true skin to close the gaps while repairs occurred.

“I am fine. The outer holes are already closing, and the armor will cover the inner ones until we recover.” Their sire’s face turned an odd color, going gray and lifeless, a pale color far too light for his darker skin tone. “Do you feel unwell?”

“Valerie, take off the suit.”

“What?”

“Take. Off. The. Suit. Right now.” The human’s tone of voice did not make sense, their command was both pointless and dangerous. They could not shed their outer true skin. It was unsafe. Perhaps he did not know?

“It’s not safe.”

“We’re at home.”

“Phantom and any other ghost can attack at any moment.”

“He doesn’t know where you live! There’s something very wrong, baby, you have to take that thing off right now.” He was becoming irrational, hysterical, his eyes filling with water and salt. Tears. Why was their sire crying? They would be repaired by tomorrow morning.

“We are not forsaking the protection of our outer skin. That is nonsense.”

“Valerie.” Something…about his voice rang foul. A memory, buried deep where she did not have to think on it often, came back. He hadn’t sounded like that since before… “Baby, I need you to listen to daddy, that thing is doing something to you. It’s hurting you. I can tell from how you sound. You’re bleeding under there, but it won’t let you take it off. You have to though, you have to do this for me, sweet pea.” They looked up into his face from their spot on the floor. It was twisted and wet, something desperate turning it ugly. Why was he being so difficult about this?

“You don’t understand, I’m not safe without it. I need it.”

“You don’t. I’m right here, baby. I promise you’re safe with me.” Something wicked and angry crawled up their spine, latching to their tongue to come out with the sound of hissing and screeching computer tubes.

“If you could keep us safe, then why did our house get destroyed? Ghosts did that. You can’t protect us from ghosts, but we can.” They rose from the floor, power gathering around them in a hot red circlet to halo their head. “We can stop any ghost in Amity. We can keep us safe. Not even Phantom will stop us as soon as we’re repaired. You will see. You don’t understand, but we will show you.” He looked at her, face still wet and ugly, and began backing away.