Editing Ghosts of Rage (Warhammer High) (section)

===Sudden Sickness===

Furia arrived home after school, in a hurry as she needed to prepare. She was supposed to pick Simon up in about a half hour, so she didn’t have much time to waste. Making her way into her room, she dropped her bag and looked around, planning out her steps.

She began to breathe deeply for a moment, feeling hot for whatever reason. She noted that she had been sweating on the way home as well. She figured a shower first would be best, making her way into her bathroom.

Or so Furia tried as she stumbled her way to the door. She groaned, suddenly feeling much worse than earlier. Pain shot through her stomach as she buckled over unto the bathroom floor. Clawing herself to her toilet, she puked out her lunch into the bowl. For several seconds afterwards she emptied the occupants of her stomach until there was nothing left.

“Shit,” she commented, easing back a minute afterwards. She sat on the floor, wondering what was happening to her as her vision blurred. She didn’t move for over ten more minutes as the symptoms slowly eased off, most disappearing.

Soon, she was able to stand as she surveyed her condition. She still felt hotter than normal and couldn’t focus as well. She made use of the sink, splashing water over her face to keep herself cool. It mildly helped for the moment. Staring at herself for several moments, she felt inclined to see her father.

She eased her way down the hallway, doing her best to focus on every step. It became easier as time went by, slowly making her way past the many other rooms in her house to her father’s study. Knocking on the door, she heard him grunt inside.

She eased the large gate open into his study, or if you could even call it that. Instead of being an office or a workplace, Angron came here to relax. The strong stench of alcohol and cigar smoke wafted over Furia, making her feel nauseous once more.

The large room was best described as being spartan. Angron had few pieces of furniture, mainly a single large desk, a few shelves and in the far back was a large bar type area. Like her own room, Angron didn’t try to keep himself organized at all. Over the limited surface space available were many stacks of paper, most old reports related to the legion. Corners of the room were populated by boxes of other reports, centuries old.

“Dad?” she whispered weakly into the room.

“What is it pumpkin?” he asked, not looking up from a report he was reading, a large cigar in his mouth.

“Uh, I don't feel so well.”

He chuckled at that. “You usually do this before you go to school, not after,” he joked.

“Yeah, well, my stomach contents thought it was a good time right now.” Angron looked up at her, suddenly realizing how weak she looked. She was leaning against the door frame, pale in comparison to her lively self.

“You vomited? What happened?” he asked as he stood up from his seat. He made his way over to her, placing his large hand on her shoulder.

“Not sure. I got home and felt sick in my room. Vision blurred, felt hot and then I puked.”

For a moment, Angron’s eyes widened as he stared at her, a very surprised look on his face. She barely noticed it herself before he went back to being worried. But she did see it. He nodded slowly, knowingly looking at her. “Could be from the blood loss. Or maybe it's something you ate,” he said a moment later. “Some of that spicy food that you love. Easily could have caused all this.”

“I guess,” she muttered, not totally convinced herself. She usually ate very sickening food all the time and was never affected by it before. “What about the pills I’m taking? Did you have a similar reaction when you started?”

Angron shook his head very slowly. “No. Not that I know about,” he proclaimed. She nodded slowly, guessing he wasn’t affected by such trivial problems because of his physiology. “Go take a nap or something. Relax for the night.”

She was about to blurt out that she had plans with Simon, but knew better. His hand felt heavy on her shoulder. She glanced at it for a moment then back at him. He gave her the ‘I am in charge’ look to make it clear that she didn’t have a choice. Lifelong lessons of her youth told her that she knew better than to argue with her father.

“Yeah, okay,” she mumbled as she backed out of the room. As she left, Angron watched her walk down the hallway to her room and eventually closed his door, going back to his work.

Furia walked for a few more steps before arriving at her room. She opened the door and walked inside, closing it behind her. She felt better than earlier, but still felt warm. Collapsing on her bed, she began to think of what just happened.

Something was very strange about the entire talk with her father. She could tell that he wasn’t telling her everything, maybe even lying to her. There was still some recognition in his eyes when she described her situation. He knew something.

She was about to nod off to sleep when she could hear yelling down the hallway. It took her a second to recognize it to be her father’s voice, piercing through the many “soundproof” walls all the way to her room. He was clearly angry about something.

She stood up and stealthed her way to her door. The voice was becoming louder as she approached it. Carefully, she turned the knob and eased it open without making a sound.

The voice was becoming clearer now and she could hear him yelling to something. Must have been on his vox as he seemed pretty engaged into his conversation. Being careful to not make a noise, she closed her door and made her way closer to the study as she began to make details out from his conversation.

“...I don’t care if they affect me you fucking idiot. I care about it not affecting her. You gave me a promise that these things would be fixed by the time she started using them. You promised me that.” He paused for several seconds. Furia’s heart began to beat faster as she wondered if he knew, somehow heard her. He walked around his room and Furia was about to dash back to her own. Seconds later he began talking again, easing some her growing tension.

“So what you are telling me is that the new version didn’t fix all the problems? And why’s that?” She could hear Angron pacing around the room, knowing his anger was growing.

“Complications in the research? Behind schedule? Are you trying to use excuses to get out of this one?” He paused again, listening to the other side. “All I hear is you trying to get out of your responsibilities. What you aren’t telling me is how you are going to stop the same symptoms that affect me affecting my daughter. You had plenty of time to work out these fucking problems since I started. I don’t care what you have to do fix this, all I care about is results.” Silence filled the room again and she could probably guess a very nervous scientist on the other side was trying his best to tell her father what he wanted to hear.

“Let me give you some advice. If I find out you guys have been tricking me in the slightest, not even the Emperor himself will stop me from destroying you. Understood?”

She knew the conversation came to an end as she heard the vox smash into the wall in the study. She had to hurry and hide as heavy footsteps moved to the door of the study.

Her room was too far for her to get in, so she ran down past her door to where the hallway turned to another section of the house. Hiding behind the wall, she listened carefully as Angron opened the door and walked outside.

There was a pause as he slowly made his way towards her. She began to freak out, thinking she would be found out. Thankfully, Angron came to a pause in front of her room’s door and knocked. “Furia?” he said with a very quiet deep voice. Of course there was no answer.

She worried for a second that he would open the door and walk inside, but instead he sighed. He turned around and walked down the hallway back to where he came from. Eventually he disappeared around a corner and left Furia alone. She could only guess he was heading to the gym to blow off some steam.

She walked back into her room, a bit shaken from what she had heard. He had lied to her about everything. It seemed that whatever she was going through, he had the same effects as well.

And there might have been more affects that she didn’t even know about. She picked up the bottle of Xelaratin and stared at it. Somehow, she needed to figure out what the pills really did to her before she got worse. Unfortunately, she didn’t know many scientists with access to Treasury research.

Her eyes suddenly widened as she realized she did. Looking at the many piles of clothes in her room, she started searching for a pair of pants she wore yesterday. Suddenly cursing her disorganized state, it was a couple minutes before she found the right one. Digging into the pockets, she took out a small piece of paper. “Dr. Elizabeth Chawas,” she muttered to herself.

Her vox suddenly went off, nearly giving her a panic attack in the silence of her room. She grabbed it and checked the number, and cursed immediately. She answered the call and put the device to her ear.

“Hey Simon,” she said quickly.

“Hey. We still on for tonight? You were supposed to be here by now.”

She sighed, not sure what to tell him at that point. “Uh, kinda. I came home and felt really sick. Let’s do it tomorrow, alright?”

“Yeah, sure,” he said, clearly sounding worried. “You alright? Want me to come over?”

“I’m fine Simon. Must have been something I ate, you know?” She tried her best to give a reassuring voice. “I’m going to call it early tonight, get some sleep and see if I feel better by tomorrow.”

“Alright, call me if you need anything.”

They said their goodbyes and she hung up. She felt like shit for not telling him what was happening, but she needed more info before she could accuse anyone of anything. Looking at the card once more, she grabbed her car keys as she walked out of her room. Dialing the doctor's number, it rang for several moments before someone answered.

“Hello?” said someone, who she instantly recognized to be the doctor.

“Doctor Chawas? It’s Furia. Can we meet?”

There was a pause as the doctor suddenly realized who was calling. “Oh, Lady Furia. Yes, I am still at the hospital if you want to swing on by. Is there a problem?”

“I’m not sure. I’ll be there in fifteen minutes.” Before the doctor could reply, Furia turned her vox off as she made her way to the front door. She stealthy treaded down the hallways of the house, knowing full where she needed to avoid to go on undetected.

Arriving to the entrance, she slipped on her leather jacket and opened the front door. In the driveway beside the other cars her father owned was her own, a beat up red modified gravcar. Although she could get better, she liked the enduring spirit that her own had. She wondered if she should drive in her condition, but her sudden focused self seemed to overtake any symptoms she was having.

Slipping into the driver seat, she quickly turned the car on and made off before anyone noticed and could stop her.