by Jamie Davis
Dean didn’t much like shopping, he was a typical guy. He went out, bought what he needed and then went home. Jo enjoyed the whole process, though. She wanted to see all the possible outfits in all the stores serving teens with the latest in casual fashion before she made up her mind on which outfits to buy. It was exhausting for Dean but Jo seemed to recharge every time she found something new to try on.
The whole time they were out, Dean kept his eyes open for anything that looked like a threat. He was not sure what the demon would do or look like. Jaz had only said that the creature would come looking for Jo, and Dean had to remain close to enable the protection spell to work. Dean also knew that Jo possessed potent magic of her own, but Jaz seemed to think this demon was going to be more of a challenge for them all before this was all over.
Dean and Jo went home from the mall, one exhausted and the other energized. Both of them had enjoyed their time together, Dean thought. He had to go to work the next morning and Jo was going to have to stay home in his apartment all day with nothing but the internet and his cable TV to keep her occupied. He knew how he would react to being cooped up that way all day. As a teenager this negative reaction would have been even stronger. Still, Jo seemed alright with the restrictions. He wondered how long that would last.
The next morning rolled around soon enough, and Dean got up at five a.m. to shower and get ready for work. Jo had not gotten up by the time he was ready to leave, so he left her a note to have a good breakfast and he’d check in on her later that morning if he got the chance. He grabbed his stethoscope and other gear and headed out to his pickup truck to drive in to work.
* * *
———
* * *
Barry was already there at Station U when Dean arrived. Bill and Lynne were just wrapping up their shift work as he entered the squad room and he saw the other three paramedics seated around the small dinner table eating breakfast. Based on the smell, the station’s zombie chef Freddy had outdone himself yet again.
“What is that amazing smell, Freddy?”
“I got some supplies in from Kristof Algar at Sabatani’s. He got some new spices and herbs in so I was able to whip up some Cajun steak and eggs for breakfast this morning. I hope you like it.”
“Freddy, that sounds fantastic. I’m famished,” Dean said. He sat down with the other paramedics who, based on their silence, were enjoying the meal as much as he expected to.
His steak was nicely medium rare and the accompanying dual fried eggs were amazing. He knew that having their own personal chef in the station would make them the envy of every other ambulance unit in the Elk City Fire Department, if they had known. Freddy was definitely the best-kept secret in the whole department.
Bill and Lynne finished up their meals and headed home for the day while Dean was finishing up his breakfast. It was excellent and he was eating his last bite of steak when the tones sounded over the squad room speakers announcing the first ambulance call of the day.
“Medical Box 843, ambulance U-191 respond for a behavioral emergency, apartment 24, 8342 Hopewell Ave.”
Barry looked over at him and raised one eyebrow in question. “Hey Dean, what do you think? I’ve never heard of that with our patients before.”
“I don’t know, Barry. Our Unusual patients are just like normal people, though, aside from their special abilities or circumstances. They can have mental illness, too.”
His partner nodded and the two of them headed to the ambulance bay to roll out to the new emergency call. Dean wondered what the emergency could be, too. This was the first such call he’d encountered with his patients. Overall, the Unusual community seemed pretty well adjusted to their lives. If they had cases of depression or schizophrenia, he had never seen it. He hopped in the front of the ambulance to drive while Barry jumped in the passenger side. He got on the radio to notify headquarters they were responding to the call. They drove across town and were almost there before the dispatcher came back on the radio with some additional information relayed from the 911 caller.
“Ambulance U-191, you are responding for an agitated male patient threatening suicide. Use caution when approaching, Police units also responding.”
Barry acknowledged the radio message. While Dean considered the information they had on the patient. Suicidal patients were not just dangers to themselves. They could also cause problems or injury for responders and bystanders as well. The dispatcher didn’t say anything about a weapon, but it would make sense for them to pay extra attention to the patient and scene when they arrived.
It didn’t take more than three or four minutes for them to arrive on the scene. It was an apartment complex that sprawled around a central courtyard. Dean had been here before and knew that all the apartments’ entrances opened up on that courtyard. He pulled up on the scene, noting a police car pulling up at the same time.
“Barry grab the stuff you need. I’m going to go chat with the officers about how we should approach this.”
Barry nodded and hopped out to get the bags he thought they would need for this patient. Dean knew there were no injuries so far so their basic trauma bag and their medication kit would suffice for now. Hopefully they could talk their patient down from whatever was going on in his life that caused the present emotional response.
Dean knew the first officer who walked up. Officer Hamm was one of the police officers assigned to their police counterpart to Station U. They handled police emergencies with Unusuals in the community.
“Hey, Craig,” Dean called. “We got the additional that the patient is suicidal. I was thinking that if there is no weapon present, we’d take the lead and try and talk him into letting us help out.”
“That sounds good to me, Dean,” Officer Hamm said. “I’d just as soon as watch you work as have to deal with this on my own. Knock yourself out.”
Dean smiled and gave the officer a thumbs up and then went back to join his partner by the ambulance. The two of them then walked into the complex’s central courtyard and looked around until they figured that their destination apartment was to their left. Dean took the gear from Barry and let him take the lead, since he was still the probie here.
They heard the shouting and yelling before they got to the door. Someone inside was very upset. Barry knocked on the door and then stepped back just in case someone came to the door with a weapon. Officer Hamm and his partner stood back and watched from about fifteen feet away, ready to jump in if needed.
The door swung open and a woman with a worried expression stood there. “Oh, thank God you’re here. He woke up and started talking in a different voice, in a language that I couldn’t understand. I freaked out and ran out of the bedroom and called 911. Since then he’s come back and started talking like himself again, but now my husband says he has to kill the voices in his head, no matter what. I don’t know what to do. He’s making a noose and is threatening to hang himself.”
“Okay, Ma’am,” Barry said. “We will try to help out. What is your husband’s name?”
“Steve,” she told them. “He’s been acting strange for the last few days, but just told me he was not feeling well. Then he woke up like this.”
“Let us go talk with him. We’ll see if can talk him into going to the hospital to get help,” Barry said. He looked to Dean and started to head inside. Dean followed him.
Once inside the small apartment, they heard muttering coming from the next room and found a man standing on a chair fashioning a noose out of a torn-up sheet. He was in the process of tying it to the ceiling fan in the middle of the room. The man did not immediately notice the two paramedics enter the room.
“Steve,” Barry said in a calm, even tone. He stood with his hands in plain view so that the patient could see he was unarmed. Hopefully it would be interpreted as non-confrontational.
The patient turned his head to look at them. For just an instant, Dean would have sworn there was a flash of green light in his eyes, then it was gone. The man shook his head a
nd went back to his work.
Barry tried again, taking a step forward. “Steve, my name is Barry. Why don’t you tell me what is going on. Your wife is very worried about you.”
“Stay back,” Steve said. “I have to stop the voice. It keeps telling me to do horrible things, to bite my wife, to drink her blood. I can’t stop the voice and I’m afraid it’s taking over. I have to end this the only way I know how.”
Barry held out his hands palm forward. “Why don’t you stop for right now and talk with us. We might have some medicine that will help take the voices away for a time. My partner and I are here from Station U, so you can tell us anything and we’ll keep it a secret from your wife and neighbors.” The paramedic turned his right hand, showing the back of it to the patient. This would expose the stamp with ultra-violet ink that only could be seen by the Unusual patients.
Steve just looked at the back of Barry’s hand and shook his head. “What are you trying to show me? I don’t see what you’re pointing at. Do you think I’m crazy?”
“We think you’re upset, not crazy,” Barry said. He looked at Dean. Dean nodded. Whoever this guy was, he wasn’t an Unusual. He was acting like an Unusual and that was probably why they got dispatched. Still, even a human patient who was agitated and suicidal could be dangerous to a paramedic crew.
“Steve, why don’t you step down from that chair and sit and talk with us for a while? Tell us what is going on and we’ll see what we can do to get you some help.” Barry took another step forward and extended his hand.
Steve looked at Barry and then to Dean before looking up at the ceiling where he had tied the makeshift rope. He swayed a little bit and then slumped, falling off the chair and to the floor. Barry was able to catch him part of the way down and kept the patient from hitting the hardwood floor head first.
Dean rushed forward to help. Steve was sobbing now, curled up in the fetal position on the floor. Together, the two paramedics started to check the patient for any injury from the fall. There was no sign of anything. Dean did notice how cool to the touch the patient’s skin was, as well as how pale he was. If he didn’t know better, Dean would have thought he was a vampire, especially since he had talked about biting his wife and drinking blood.
He was pretty sure that vampires didn’t spontaneously happen on their own. “Check for bite marks,” Dean instructed his partner.
Barry was near the head and looked on the patient’s neck. Steve just cried and ignored the two paramedics assessing him. After a quick check around the collar of Steve’s T-shirt, Barry looked back at his partner.
“Nothing there.”
“This is weird,” Dean said. “I’m going to call medical command on the radio and get permission to give him a dose of Haldol to calm him down some. Then we can take him in to the hospital.” Haldol was a sedative and hopefully the drug would make it easier to get the patient to go along with them peacefully.
He called Craig to come in the room while he went outside to call in to the hospital on his portable radio. The police officer was standing in the hallway and came in to sit with his partner and the patient. It wasn’t a good idea to leave Barry alone with a disturbed patient.
It only took a few minutes to call in and talk to the doctor in the ER. Dean got the permission to administer a loading dose of Haldol to sedate the patient while he was transported to the hospital. He drew up the med in a syringe and took it back in to the apartment.
Dean walked over to their patient. Nothing had changed from when he had left the room. “Steve, I’m Dean, another paramedic. I have some of that medicine we mentioned that would help you out while we take you to the hospital. You’ll feel a little pinch where I give you the shot, then you’ll start to feel better.”
Dean quickly cleaned a spot on the side of Steve’s arm and gave the intramuscular injection. He rubbed the injection site when he was done to help the medication absorb a little faster. Steve barely moved the whole time.
Dean knew that many people saw mental illness as nothing more than a weakness of character. He knew better. It was often a chemical or anatomical problem in how the brain worked. It was no less a medical problem than a broken arm. It was just not as easy to see and acknowledge because you didn’t put the head in a cast and sling where everyone could see it and understand. It was a problem that all of society needed to address and help build awareness about.
It took about fifteen minutes for the drug to start to have an effect. The crying stopped and Steve started to calm down. Then they ran into another problem.
“Steve, let’s stand up and we can walk together out to our ambulance, okay?” Barry asked.
“I can’t go outside. The sunlight burns my eyes and hurts me,” Steve said.
Barry looked at Dean and shrugged. They had to get him out to the ambulance and take him to the ER. Dean thought to try something.
“Steve, I can understand that. How about if I bring you one of our special reflective blankets to cover up with. The sunlight will bounce right off of it. Does that sound good?”
Steve just gave them a groggy nod in agreement.
“Okay,” Dean said. “I’ll be right back.”
Dean went out and got one of the mylar emergency blankets from the bags they’d left in the kitchen. When he opened it up, it was a large reflective and opaque covering for their patient. That did the trick. With the mylar emergency blanket wrapped around him, Steve accompanied the two paramedics back out to their ambulance.
Dean told the wife to meet them at the ER in her own car as it would take a little time to evaluate her husband before she got there. Then he got in the front of the emergency vehicle and started the drive to the hospital. This was a new one. He had a lot of questions and needed answers. Was there another way to turn a vampire other than biting and feeding on them, then feeding them vampire blood before they died from the blood loss? He needed answers.
If this guy wasn’t a vampire, he might be in some sort of transformation into one. That posed a problem if there was someone running around turning people into vampires without going through the normal process. Dean resolved to check in with his vampire expert, James Lee, a vampire himself and the feudal lord over all the Unusuals in the Elk City area.
He and Dean’s former partner, Brynne Garvey, were together as a couple. She was no longer working as a paramedic, not since she had been turned into a vampire herself after almost dying from a gunshot wound. Dean had encouraged her boyfriend James to turn her so she wouldn’t die. Neither of them had wanted to lose her.
If anyone knew of another way to turn a vampire, it would be James. Dean would call him and meet up with him right after this shift was over. Someone might be up to no good and James needed to know about it, while Dean needed to find a way to heal the problem.
Chapter 8
Dean texted a message to Celeste Teal, James’ long-time assistant, to see if he was available that evening. The response came in right away to come over any time. Dean said he’d be there around seven PM after work. He left himself enough time to go home and change first. He also wanted to check in on Joanna. He was sure she was tired of being cooped up in his apartment all day. He wasn’t wrong.
“C’mon, Dad. You have to take me with you. I haven’t seen James and Brynne in like — well, like forever.”
“I’m not sure that is such a good idea. Remember, they don’t know you in this timeline yet. Doesn’t meeting them now as a teenager mess up the future or something?”
“Oh, you mean the whole paradox thing? The way it was explained to me, once I get back in time, anything I do is already a part of my past. I would have to cause the death of you or mom to change my future.”
“Well…” Dean said with a sly smile.
“Seriously, Dad? I get mad at you but I would never do something like that.”
“Okay, bad joke. It hasn’t been that long since I was a teenager, though. I know how angry parents can make you.”
“That’s only when they ar
en’t reasonable and make rules that make no sense. You’re not going to do that, are you?”
“I’m not getting sucked into that one, kiddo. Alright, you can come, but stay close to me just like your mother said.”
“Got it.” Jo gave a little salute as she grinned ear to ear.
Dean felt bad for her. He knew he would not like to be shut in the house all the time either. He resolved to make sure to get her out of the apartment with him whenever he wasn’t working. It would make it easier to stay in when he couldn’t be with her.
Jo disappeared for a bit in her room while Dean changed into jeans and a golf shirt. He came out and only waited a few minutes before she came bouncing out into the living room wearing one of the outfits she had bought at the mall.
“I love this. I feel so retro, Dad. My friends back in the future would think this outfit was awesome.”
Dean was surprised at her response. She looked like any other teen he would run into, but maybe that was the point. She had squeezed into skinny jeans and a t-shirt and a jean jacket. She spun around to show off her outfit and grabbed her purse and the katana from the kitchen counter.
“Hey, wait a minute. Where do you think you’re going with that?”
“What?”
“The sword.”
“I can’t go out without this dad. I’ll feel naked. Plus, there’s a demon out there hunting me.”
“That’s what the protection spell is for, Jo. Leave the sword here.”
“Fine.” Jo’s shoulders slumped as she set the katana back down on the table in the kitchen. “I hope I don’t need it.”
“You’ll be fine. You still have your magic. I’ve seen you deal with demons without your sword. I have no doubts that if we run into something during our time out of the apartment that you’ll come up with a spell to take care of it. What good is having a witch in the family if she can’t use her magic once in a while?”