Generations's (Spin Off/ Book FOUR)

Drugged

WARNING: Massive discussion about drugs and mental health in this chapter. If of faint heart, then maybe skip that part. But it's a big part, and it's about Khalilah and how she takes after her father. If you are affected by addiction or anything like this, then I urge you to reach out for help, through your GP, or through a charity. You don't have to suffer alone.

Dean:

I hated trying to freaking strip fuse wire. Mostly because Sam always thought that I was going to do it wrong, or not do enough, while Khalilah was on guard duty, spinning her staff impatiently. She was on edge more than usual right now, because of whatever the hell was affecting her. "Did you strip enough wire?"

"Yes, I stripped enough wire."

"All right."

Sammy attached cables to the stripped wires, before electricity crackled and the lights came on, letting my Kali collapse the staff down, and I put my arm around her with a smirk. "See? Told you."

Bobby came in then, letting us look at Sam as he sat down, before Khalilah sat down with him, picking at her silver nails the black tips already cut off to stop her scratching at her skin. She might heal, but they'd still her her. "Well, isn't this cozy?"

"Yeah. Well, Motel 6 just ain't leaving the light on anymore."

"Well, I'm taking a page out of Frank Devereaux's Bible on this." The old man told him as I kissed the blonde curls of my fake wife, but real one true love. "Everybody's out to get you -- paranoia is just plain common sense."

She shivered below me, her eyes silver as she stared into space, either for a vision, or because she was hallucinating whatever had been haunting her. "Weeks, guys. Weeks. We've been living with cold showers, cold Hot Pockets, cold freaking everything. I mean, this is the bottom that we're living in. You guys get that, right? If I had anything to say about it, i'd be moving back to England right about now, but my dad is about to jump off a building and my house is occupied by two bachelors."

With folded arms, Bobby looked at her. "How many big mouths are out there, running card traces, like Chet, or hunting us down God knows what ways? No, now's not the time to be laying our bed rolls out on the grid. Not if we can help it. And you're our best chance at staying hidden, Kali, you know that."

Then the lights went out, and Sam turned on a battery powered light, my girlfriends eyes glowing eerily still, like a silver coin reflecting the light. "That's just great. This is stupid. Our quality of life is crap. We got Purgatory's least wanted everywhere, and we're on our third "The World's Screwed" issue in, what, three years? We've steered the bus away from the cliff twice already."

"I think you'll find that I saved it the second time, because we failed the first." Sunny muttered, playing with a ball of ice in her fingers. "But it is our job, dear."

"What if the bus wants to go over the cliff?" I asked her. She'd be the one to know, given that she was time.

She gave me a hard, sarcastic look, her pupils tiny and surrounded by silver and black veins dancing on her skin as she bared fangs. "You think the world wants to end? After everything I told you about my time?"

"I think that if we didn't take its belt and all its pens away each year that, yeah, the whole enchilada woulda offed itself already." Kali rolled her eyes, getting up and starting to pace. She was really starting to lose it, and I didn't have a clue how she was taking things without me knowing, given that she was with us all the goddamn time. "Maybe tour time

Bobby shook his head at me. "Stop trying to wrestle with the big picture, son. You're gonna hurt your head." Taking a beer, I lay down on the sofa, ignoring them all, even my girlfriend.If she wouldn't talk to me, why should I talk to her? What happened to my pain was her pain, and her pain was mine, or was that just a load of bull? Because I was giving her a lot more pain than she was giving me, which was hurting me more. "So, what's the guff?" He asked her, sitting down at the table with my brother and girlfriend.