FicWad

AUTHOR'S NOTE: Thank you so much for all of the amazing people who review this, even though I think it totally sucks!!!!

I stood in Kales' doorway, trying to muster up the courage to go talk to her. She was sitting with her back turned to me, typing away on a computer.
Without stopping the steady flow of typing, Kales spoke, "You can come in Pete, you don't have to just stand there."
I blinked a few times, startled by the fact that she was aware of my presence. I slowly crossed the room and sat down in the chair next to hers that she had motioned to. "How did you know I was standing there?"
Kales stopped typing and turned to me, "I've been around vampires my whole life. You guys have a certain aura to you. I don't know, I can just tell when I'm being watched."
"Oh," I replied thinking of what she had said. "You're whole life? Even before..." I cut myself off. Don't remind her of her parents.
Kales smiled sadly, "My parents deaths was no accident. It was more like a therapeutic chain of events* in my life and the lives of others. So, what's on your mind?"
I sighed. A lot... "I just really wanted to tell you 'thank you' for...everything."
Kales shrugged and continued typing, "I don't want to be cocky and say it was 'routine work', but it kind of was. I've done about a million rescue cases like yours. Only you were a little harder to track down and get out."
I frowned. Oh come on stupid, did you really think you were anything special to her? "Oh..."
Kales stopped again and turned to look me fully in the eyes, "I'm sorry, that came out wrong. I've done a lot of cases, but yours is a lot different. I've never been responsible for a vampire completely before. TJ and Mark aren't helping you a lot. And, well...there's just...something about you...I mean a good something..." Ok, now I've got myself confused. How do I tell him?
"I think I understand what you mean," I whispered.
"Uh, yeah..." Kales quickly turned back to her computer.
"What're you doing?" I asked hesitantly.
"Oh," Kales scooted over so I could get a better look at the screen. I frowned: it was written in some foreign language. "It's a code. A hacker's code."
I looked back at Kales, "You can understand that?"
She just nodded her head, "That's why it sometimes takes a couple of months to track down a person. There are so many different codes, and so many new ones that I've never seen in all the years I've been doing this."
"Who're you looking for now?" I asked, not sure if Kales would answer.
"Patrick," she replied. I quickly looked back at the screen, trying to make sense of the jumble of numbers, letters, and symbols covering the whole screen.
Kales continued typing. Slowly, the code was being translated into English. "Your case was hard to follow because ninety percent of it was codes I had never seen before. The more information I found, the harder the code got."
"But why me?" I asked, confused at why I would be so important.
Kales shrugged, "You either had a lot of people coming after you or you were going after a lot of people. Or both. Finished."
I looked at the page, "Three words?! That's all? What about all of the code? There was so much of it!" I was totally lost.
Kales sighed, "Now you can see why tracking people down can take forever."
"Do Mark and TJ use computers to find people too?" I asked her.
"Nope, they go by word of mouth on the streets," Kales took one look at my confused face and continued, "That's the only way we'll find your friends."
"Then why...?" I was utterly lost now.
Kales frowned, "Because if they're dead or injured, I can find out through computer bases. It might be faster than by word of mouth on the streets."
"Oh," I pulled my knees to my chest and wrapped my arms around my legs.
Kales smiled a little and pointed to the screen, "These three words are also a code. See how the letters are all jumbled and there are numbers in them?" I nodded my head. "Well, this is one of the harder parts. If I unscramble the letters, then I should get some real words. But then there are the numbers. Now, they could indicate directions, when the building was built, where it's at, anything."
I furrowed my eyebrows together, "This stuff sucks."
Kales just smiled sadly, "It can get tough and frustrating at times, but it's really rewarding when you figure it all out."
I just sat staring at the screen as she continued to type out different words that the scrambled words could make. Three hours later, Kales had nothing to prove for all her efforts. Except maybe a headache.
Kales sighed and leaned back in her chair, "This isn't working."
And it's just three words. I couldn't imagine a whole page of this stuff. "Well, sunrise is in ten minutes," I stood up and stretched my cramped body.
"Good night, maybe when you wake up I'll have this all figured out. Or at least some of it," Kales turned back to the computer screen.
"Don't you normally sleep during the day too?" I asked.
"Yup, but I'm too awake. It's that adrenaline rush you get when you know you're onto something good," Kales tried to explain. I just silently exited the room. Four hours later, Kales finally figured it out. At least now I can get some sleep.


*-I decided that this would be a good time to honor FrostedGlass and her insane footnotes. But really, we all know where this line came from.