11
logiccosmic
the Prince of Word Crimes
- Location
- the Hague, formerly
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Second Breath 1.1
A cabinet sat in a dusty room. Its pale green surface was illuminated only by an opaque window, the light filtered through ages of grime. Gentle whorls marred the otherwise perfect surface of the cabinet, rising from the edges to form a graceful handle and lock.
Shelves of tiny pots – of gold, silver, and gleaming steel – sat in neat rows, surrounded by stale air and caked with dust. Each one labeled, and placed precisely among its cousins. Some were plain, others so intricate that they looked impossibly fragile, but all were in perfect condition with nary a scratch.
A faint rattle broke the stillness of the room. Another, and another, until they blended together, the sound becoming a constant buzzing. A golden pot, streaked with lines of bronze and black, shook in its place, vibrating so fast as to be a blur. Tiny cracks spider-webbed out from the lid, and a faint green and purple glow emanated from them.
A thunderous detonation shook the room, rattling the window and pots and blasting a wave of dust away from the cabinet. Within the cabinet, a ball of shadow of purest black covered the offending pot. As the dust settled, so too did the inky shadow fade away, revealing a broken pot with nothing within it.
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I wouldn't have said I had a serious problem, before it all happened. I hadn't really enjoyed life, such that it was, but nothing had actually threatened me. I had bullies - Sophia, Madison, and Emma, that latter who had pretended to be my friend for months. But they had been a problem I could handle. Utterly disheartening, yes. A threat, no.
They had even stopped harassing me, for several months. I had assumed that they had grown bored, or grown up. That we could have a détente, where I would ignore them, and they would ignore me to our mutual satisfaction. But, it wasn't to be.
Upon returning from Winter Break, my assumption of a détente with my tormentors was abruptly clarified. Or more likely, the reprieve was never really real, if the volume of things in my locker was any indicator. It had just been another trick, even worse than the one Emma had pulled on me.
They had been waiting for me in the hallway. When I opened my locker, I had inhaled a full sample of its contents; used pads and tampons, fermented. I had retched, and nearly vomited. Until I was shoved into my locker, and then did vomit. All over myself. And then the door was shut behind me. I could hear the lock click, even over the messy evacuation of my stomach, followed by laughter.
Of course they were laughing. They were enjoying it. But I wasn't laughing, or enjoying it.
I screamed, cried, sobbed. I wailed as much as I could. Begged, even. My elbows were already bruised and bloody from beating at the door. I could feel vomit - my own contribution to my misery-, and other things I was trying not to think of covering my clothes and skin. I had been surprised by those three before, by the depths of their cruelty, but this- this was just too much.
My cries for help broke down to whimpers, because I knew no one was coming. Class had started, and no one was patrolling the halls right after a vacation, and they wouldn't have helped me anyway. They never did.
It was getting harder to breathe, and when I did, it was followed by dry heaves. My stomach had long ago reached empty. I was trapped here, and I could feel the metal walls closing in, with their sticky cargo. I tried to think of anywhere else to be, somewhere else, anything to help.
It didn't. I couldn't escape, I couldn't get out, I couldn't do anything. Time slowed down, even as I felt the wall's crushing weight pressing down upon me. Every second was longer than the last, until the merciful grasp of unconsciousness.
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
A heartbeat later I pushed free of the locker, scrambling out onto the floor and scraping at my body to everything off. I landed with thud, and -
"Miss Hebert!" the school nurse, Ms. Fletcher, stunned me out of my blind panic. "You're alright. Calm down, deep breaths now."
Panic receded, and my heart went from hummingbird to normal. She made gentle gestures for me to get back onto the bed. The sharp smell of disinfectant stung my nose, but I didn't care. It was infinitely better than the locker's smell. My arms seemed to move of their own accord, spreading out and propping me up so I could face her. The ability to move, freely and without constraints, did more than her words to calm me down.
"Good, nice and easy now. Deep breaths." She exaggerated her breathing, matching it with mine. For several minutes, the only sound was our breathing and faint rumble of the heater. "Are you feeling okay?"
I gave a shaky nod. "Very good. Now, can you tell me what happened?"
She reached for a clipboard behind her, and turned expectant eyes on me. I looked away, and took several more deep breaths. and exhaled with purpose.
"I was pushed in there."
Her eyebrows rose even as she transcribed. "Pushed? By who?"
I stopped my temper from exploding - barely. Did she think I had stuffed myself in there? But letting her know my opinion -via screaming my pain and indignation- of her assumption wouldn't help matters. Those three had crossed too many lines with this, this crime, and finally it would be over. I wouldn't have to deal with them ever again. I slowed my breathing to keep it under control, and sat up.
"Sophia Hess, Madison Clements, and Emma Barnes," I stated, very clearly.
She nodded as she transcribed my words, before standing, "A moment, please."
She crossed the room, and opened the office's door to reveal the principal. I could only see her hair, but the blond bowl-cut could only be the principal. No one else in the last twenty years had that haircut. They quietly conversed, and I turned my head to try to hear what they were saying, looking at an eye chart, but listening to them. They spoke a few brief, quiet sentences, and then Ms. Fletcher handed her the clipboard. She turned back to me, and gave me a smile. But the principal barely even looked at me before closing the door.
My stomach clenched. No sympathy or kind words. My hands tightened around my arms, even as I realized I had been rubbing them unconsciously, from nervousness. I stopped myself, and looked at Ms. Fletcher.
"Could you call my father? He should be working today-"
"Already done. Not five minutes ago the Union said they had reached him and he was on his way. Something about a meeting with an aide."
At least my Dad would be here for me. I closed my eyes to gather my thoughts. I hadn't wanted to involve him at all. I was - well, not happy - but content with him just thinking that Emma and I had drifted apart. He didn't need to know how bad it had gotten. But he'd find out now.
Ms. Fletcher interrupted my , "Ms. Hebert? I think you may want this."
I opened my eyes to see Ms. Fletcher offering me a small, clear plastic cup of water. I snatched it out of her hands and raised it to my lips, draining it. Instead of nice clean water, I tasted blood and vomit, and I almost gagged.
She offered me another, and gave me a sympathetic look while gesturing to the sink behind her,. "I thought you might want to rinse out your mouth first..." She trailed off, and her face became a bit more contrite. "I couldn't clean out your mouth."
Embarrassed, but touched, I took the second cup and handed her the first. I drank this one far slower, merely siping at it. The office went quiet as I finished my water, and as I looked up I saw her carrying a tub of sponges stained faintly red, along with my clothes, also stained. Shocked, I looked down, and found I was wearing a blouse two sizes too large, trousers one size too large, and socks that barely reached above my ankle. Had she dressed me? How had I not noticed that right away?
Noticing my surprise, Ms. Fletcher explained, while raising the tub, "You couldn't wear these, so I put you in some clothes we keep on hand in case of lice or accidents. Chemistry accidents, really."
"Thank you." I said, quietly. She gave me a friendly nod, and went back to work. I brought my feet up onto the bed, and wrapped my arms around my legs, resting my chin on my knees. I focused my eyes on the wall and thought.
It should have been over. The bullying had simmered down in November, with no incidents at all in December. I had become hopeful, too hopeful that it was completely over. Maybe Emma would even apologize. We couldn't go back to what we were before, but, maybe we could have been friends someday. Evidently not. I wiped the beginning of tears from my eyes.
The door opened again, and the principal walked in, along with Sophia, Emma, and Madison. Behind Sophia, a taller man, in his late twenties stood, with his hand on her shoulder. He was the only one of the four giving me a sympathetic look.
"Ms. Hebert." The principal began, "These three have something they want to say to you."
What?
"I'm sorry, Taylor." Madison said, with the other two repeating after her. Emma and Madison gave me exaggerated looks of pity. Sophia gave me a look, mixed between pity and a sneer. Her lip curled as I met her eyes.
"Thank you girls." The principal made a shooing motion towards the door, herding all three of them in front of her. As the moved towards the door, with the principal following, Sophia's (stepfather?) stayed, looking at me, and opened his mouth.
I beat him to it. "That's it?"
The principal stopped, and turned to face me. "Ms. Hebert?"
"They assaulted me, shoved me into a locker with used tampons, and that's it!?" I snapped, stuck between wanting to scream and break into tears.
I finally got a response from her; a face full of false pity and barely-concealed exasperation. "Ms. Hebert, it is your word against theirs, and your homeroom class, who were in the same hall as you, all say that nothing of the sort happened. I don't know exactly what happened, but it's clear something has to be done. However, I will not punish-"
I was speechless, but only momentarily, and interrupted her. "I sure didn't put myself in there!"
"And when the custodian removed you, you were facing in. You might not have gotten a good look at who did this, and we -" she continued right over my objection. The nurse was flinching back each time we spoke, like she was struck. She wasn't jumping in to help me, though. I had to do it myself.
"Good look? I got a good look when they dragged and forced me in!" I said, offended that she thought I was blind.
"Ms. Hebert, please. We are trying to solve this altercation- " she started, raising her hands to placate me.
I interrupted once more, "And this isn't even the first time! They have been threatening me, stealing from me, harassing me, abusing me."
The principal frowned, and after a brief glance back at the girls, asked me, "When has this been occurring?"
"Ever since last September," I answered, succinctly.
"And why have you not come forward with this?" she asked, momentarily confused.
Because you wouldn't take my word. You would take Madison's over mine. You would take Emma's, my former friend, or never friend, and Sophia's, who is glaring a hole in me, over mine. I wanted to say it, but didn't. It wouldn't help my case. I didn't have hard proof. Even with all they had done, I hadn't thought to keep evidence. My eyes dropped from her face, to my lap.
The principal waited for me to speak up, then sighed as I did not. Her face hardened, losing its fake sympathy. "Ms. Hebert, this is the first we have heard of this. These are serious allegations. However, at this time, I will not assign punishments without due cause."
I could feel tears starting to stream from the corners of my eyes, and let out a bitter laugh. "Due cause."
"Ms. Hebert -"
"So nothing is going to happen then?" I asked, once, for clarification
"A proper investigation will be conducted." The principal declared, frowning as she glanced at Sophia's guardian.
"And actions like this will not be tolerated." The first words from Sophia's guardian, and in my support. A surprise, but not an unwelcome one. He was giving Sophia a look I couldn't see, but I could see her sullenly glare at him. One person, who barely mattered.
I wiped away my tears, and stood. "So nothing. No justice. Nothing. You are going to let her walk all over me again."
The principal frowned, and replied, "I will not hand out punishments for some form of eye-for-an-eye."
I brushed past her, and the four of them, heading to the door to hallway.
"Ms. Hebert, where are you going?"
The nurse's and principal's question overlapped, but I ignored them. I could feel fresh tears replacing the ones I wiped away. The door to the nurse's office swung closed behind me as I stalked through it, but I could hear someone catch it. They would follow me to offer up some other platitudes, while doing nothing.
Mrs. Knott was in the hallway, shepherding my homeroom class out from an unused classroom. She spotted me, and went pale. She took a step towards me, and she asked, "Taylor, are you alright? We were so worried."
I ignored her too. She hadn't tried to help me. I walked faster, turning at the end of the hall junction, full of bland walls lockers, and moved to the closest exit. I needed to get out, and get away from all of them. But I couldn't ignore all of my classmates along the way. Most didn't even look at me. I saw a few give me pity or sympathy - Greg among them. But I saw Madison's friends give me smirks, knowing they had gotten her off clean. That they wouldn't stop, that it was just a matter of time until they tried something worse. I broke into a run.
"Taylor! Please stop!"
I could hear Mrs. Knott calling for me, but I just ran faster. I slammed into the steel push bar of the door to the front lot and kept running, tears streaming.
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I stopped, out of breath and sobbing. I had run all the way to the edge of the Docks, a distance I would have trouble judging normally let alone now, and was now sitting against the side of an abandoned building, hidden by crumbling bricks and the shade. I slumped down further, winded and panting from my flight from the school.
My Dad was going to show up to school, and hear everything that had happened to me. My accusation, this incident, and their stories. I hadn't wanted him to know what had been done to me, what with so much on his plate already. And then I was going to have to explain it all to him. The emails, Mom's recorder being stolen, the locker, and more. An eternity of abuse. What would he think of me, afterwards?
I leaned forward, collapsing in on myself. I didn't really want to see anything. And it would get worse. Much worse, now that Madison and Emma wouldn't be punished. And Sophia's guardian wouldn't be there to enforce his order. She wouldn't care what he said. She'd just take it out on me. My fear that if I reported them, that they could spin it their way was becoming horrifically true. And now they would have free reign. No limits.
And there was nothing I could do to stop them. Despair and resigned acceptance warred within me. I knew it was going to happen, after all. But I wasn't looking forward to it. But - acceptance- what choice did I have? The only other school was Arcadia High, and my grades weren't good enough to go there. Nor would the principal go to bat for me to get me transferred. My father wasn't rich. I wasn't a cape. I was just another fly for those three to pull the wings off of.
Wood rustled nearby, breaking my pity party up. I uncurled from my attempted fetal ball, and looked at what had disturbed me. There was no wood in a mile, this far into the Docks. And shrank back as fast as I could, trying to get as much space between it and myself with haste.
It was an abomination, or some sicko's idea of a practical joke. A doll, half as large as I was and obscenely shaped, was staring me down, not a foot away from my face. Its own face, a parody of one of those Greeks masks, was as large as the rest of its body, and as I pressed myself against the wall at my back, the mask tilted. I had the disturbing, and irrational, feeling of having my soul stripped bare. The thing rested on its fingers - long, three yard fingers, twisting out of its hands to reach the ground.
I glanced left and right. No escape. Tentatively, I asked the thing, "What do you want?"
Tendrils of twisty, gnarly wood shot out from its elevated hands, planting themselves on the other sides of my head. As I watched, the new fingers drew its bizarre mask closer to my face, coming within a few inches. I looked away, not wanting to stare it down, and instead got to watch as several of the fingers it had been previously standing on ignited into green flame. One more finger slowly curled out, snaking closer to my face.
Not exactly the answer I had been hoping for. The newest finger touched my cheek, and I flinched. It curled up, and started rubbing my cheek. I thought I had been surprised when the fever dream doll closed in on me, but this went into fairy tale or nightmare territory.
I swallowed the lump that had formed in my throat from panic. It wasn't unheard of for some capes to be complete psychos, and the whole experience was getting crazier by the moment. I tried again, "What do you want?"
Warmth. The feeling of a sunny day on my skin. Dad's hug. I gasped, as the unexpected feelings cut off just as suddenly as they had appeared. The finger that had touched me was glowing a faint green, the same as the fire that had burned the previous fingers. The doll had withdrawn the finger, keeping it just above my cheek.
"You want to give me something," I offered. I couldn't quite place how I knew it - but it seemed right.
It nodded, slowly. The mask, still facing me, pulled back. It was easily twice the size of my head, so I still had no problem seeing it, but I couldn't understand it. But once more, I saw the finger near my cheek headed for a collision course, even as more formed, gripping my arms.
It touched, and I saw power. Or maybe POWER. Only an instant of contact and I was breathing harder than I had after I had fled. Fear and longing fought for command, and longing won.
I asked, very carefully, "For me?"
It nodded, rapidly.
Sophia. Emma. Madison. They only tortured me because I had no power. Because I was weak. If I was better -
My Dad, slaving away, for less and less. Wasting away since Mom had died. I could help him. I could do more -
The world - full of monsters. How many problems could I solve -
"Give it to me," I ordered.
The fingers grasping me pierced through my skin, eliciting a gasp of shock from me as I registered the pain. The doll surged forward, mask colliding with my face, only to break apart into a thousand shadows that swallowed me whole.
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A/N: Yes, it has returned, and been reborn.
Old Fiend can still be found in the threads.
Long story short, I was writing myself into a corner, and have also become a less shitty writer. So, let's see if this round works better. Old 1.1= 2.2k words. New = 3.5~k
Thanks to Robo, Shyft, ES, and Arkeus for slapping sense into me and shit out of the story.
A cabinet sat in a dusty room. Its pale green surface was illuminated only by an opaque window, the light filtered through ages of grime. Gentle whorls marred the otherwise perfect surface of the cabinet, rising from the edges to form a graceful handle and lock.
Shelves of tiny pots – of gold, silver, and gleaming steel – sat in neat rows, surrounded by stale air and caked with dust. Each one labeled, and placed precisely among its cousins. Some were plain, others so intricate that they looked impossibly fragile, but all were in perfect condition with nary a scratch.
A faint rattle broke the stillness of the room. Another, and another, until they blended together, the sound becoming a constant buzzing. A golden pot, streaked with lines of bronze and black, shook in its place, vibrating so fast as to be a blur. Tiny cracks spider-webbed out from the lid, and a faint green and purple glow emanated from them.
A thunderous detonation shook the room, rattling the window and pots and blasting a wave of dust away from the cabinet. Within the cabinet, a ball of shadow of purest black covered the offending pot. As the dust settled, so too did the inky shadow fade away, revealing a broken pot with nothing within it.
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I wouldn't have said I had a serious problem, before it all happened. I hadn't really enjoyed life, such that it was, but nothing had actually threatened me. I had bullies - Sophia, Madison, and Emma, that latter who had pretended to be my friend for months. But they had been a problem I could handle. Utterly disheartening, yes. A threat, no.
They had even stopped harassing me, for several months. I had assumed that they had grown bored, or grown up. That we could have a détente, where I would ignore them, and they would ignore me to our mutual satisfaction. But, it wasn't to be.
Upon returning from Winter Break, my assumption of a détente with my tormentors was abruptly clarified. Or more likely, the reprieve was never really real, if the volume of things in my locker was any indicator. It had just been another trick, even worse than the one Emma had pulled on me.
They had been waiting for me in the hallway. When I opened my locker, I had inhaled a full sample of its contents; used pads and tampons, fermented. I had retched, and nearly vomited. Until I was shoved into my locker, and then did vomit. All over myself. And then the door was shut behind me. I could hear the lock click, even over the messy evacuation of my stomach, followed by laughter.
Of course they were laughing. They were enjoying it. But I wasn't laughing, or enjoying it.
I screamed, cried, sobbed. I wailed as much as I could. Begged, even. My elbows were already bruised and bloody from beating at the door. I could feel vomit - my own contribution to my misery-, and other things I was trying not to think of covering my clothes and skin. I had been surprised by those three before, by the depths of their cruelty, but this- this was just too much.
My cries for help broke down to whimpers, because I knew no one was coming. Class had started, and no one was patrolling the halls right after a vacation, and they wouldn't have helped me anyway. They never did.
It was getting harder to breathe, and when I did, it was followed by dry heaves. My stomach had long ago reached empty. I was trapped here, and I could feel the metal walls closing in, with their sticky cargo. I tried to think of anywhere else to be, somewhere else, anything to help.
It didn't. I couldn't escape, I couldn't get out, I couldn't do anything. Time slowed down, even as I felt the wall's crushing weight pressing down upon me. Every second was longer than the last, until the merciful grasp of unconsciousness.
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
A heartbeat later I pushed free of the locker, scrambling out onto the floor and scraping at my body to everything off. I landed with thud, and -
"Miss Hebert!" the school nurse, Ms. Fletcher, stunned me out of my blind panic. "You're alright. Calm down, deep breaths now."
Panic receded, and my heart went from hummingbird to normal. She made gentle gestures for me to get back onto the bed. The sharp smell of disinfectant stung my nose, but I didn't care. It was infinitely better than the locker's smell. My arms seemed to move of their own accord, spreading out and propping me up so I could face her. The ability to move, freely and without constraints, did more than her words to calm me down.
"Good, nice and easy now. Deep breaths." She exaggerated her breathing, matching it with mine. For several minutes, the only sound was our breathing and faint rumble of the heater. "Are you feeling okay?"
I gave a shaky nod. "Very good. Now, can you tell me what happened?"
She reached for a clipboard behind her, and turned expectant eyes on me. I looked away, and took several more deep breaths. and exhaled with purpose.
"I was pushed in there."
Her eyebrows rose even as she transcribed. "Pushed? By who?"
I stopped my temper from exploding - barely. Did she think I had stuffed myself in there? But letting her know my opinion -via screaming my pain and indignation- of her assumption wouldn't help matters. Those three had crossed too many lines with this, this crime, and finally it would be over. I wouldn't have to deal with them ever again. I slowed my breathing to keep it under control, and sat up.
"Sophia Hess, Madison Clements, and Emma Barnes," I stated, very clearly.
She nodded as she transcribed my words, before standing, "A moment, please."
She crossed the room, and opened the office's door to reveal the principal. I could only see her hair, but the blond bowl-cut could only be the principal. No one else in the last twenty years had that haircut. They quietly conversed, and I turned my head to try to hear what they were saying, looking at an eye chart, but listening to them. They spoke a few brief, quiet sentences, and then Ms. Fletcher handed her the clipboard. She turned back to me, and gave me a smile. But the principal barely even looked at me before closing the door.
My stomach clenched. No sympathy or kind words. My hands tightened around my arms, even as I realized I had been rubbing them unconsciously, from nervousness. I stopped myself, and looked at Ms. Fletcher.
"Could you call my father? He should be working today-"
"Already done. Not five minutes ago the Union said they had reached him and he was on his way. Something about a meeting with an aide."
At least my Dad would be here for me. I closed my eyes to gather my thoughts. I hadn't wanted to involve him at all. I was - well, not happy - but content with him just thinking that Emma and I had drifted apart. He didn't need to know how bad it had gotten. But he'd find out now.
Ms. Fletcher interrupted my , "Ms. Hebert? I think you may want this."
I opened my eyes to see Ms. Fletcher offering me a small, clear plastic cup of water. I snatched it out of her hands and raised it to my lips, draining it. Instead of nice clean water, I tasted blood and vomit, and I almost gagged.
She offered me another, and gave me a sympathetic look while gesturing to the sink behind her,. "I thought you might want to rinse out your mouth first..." She trailed off, and her face became a bit more contrite. "I couldn't clean out your mouth."
Embarrassed, but touched, I took the second cup and handed her the first. I drank this one far slower, merely siping at it. The office went quiet as I finished my water, and as I looked up I saw her carrying a tub of sponges stained faintly red, along with my clothes, also stained. Shocked, I looked down, and found I was wearing a blouse two sizes too large, trousers one size too large, and socks that barely reached above my ankle. Had she dressed me? How had I not noticed that right away?
Noticing my surprise, Ms. Fletcher explained, while raising the tub, "You couldn't wear these, so I put you in some clothes we keep on hand in case of lice or accidents. Chemistry accidents, really."
"Thank you." I said, quietly. She gave me a friendly nod, and went back to work. I brought my feet up onto the bed, and wrapped my arms around my legs, resting my chin on my knees. I focused my eyes on the wall and thought.
It should have been over. The bullying had simmered down in November, with no incidents at all in December. I had become hopeful, too hopeful that it was completely over. Maybe Emma would even apologize. We couldn't go back to what we were before, but, maybe we could have been friends someday. Evidently not. I wiped the beginning of tears from my eyes.
The door opened again, and the principal walked in, along with Sophia, Emma, and Madison. Behind Sophia, a taller man, in his late twenties stood, with his hand on her shoulder. He was the only one of the four giving me a sympathetic look.
"Ms. Hebert." The principal began, "These three have something they want to say to you."
What?
"I'm sorry, Taylor." Madison said, with the other two repeating after her. Emma and Madison gave me exaggerated looks of pity. Sophia gave me a look, mixed between pity and a sneer. Her lip curled as I met her eyes.
"Thank you girls." The principal made a shooing motion towards the door, herding all three of them in front of her. As the moved towards the door, with the principal following, Sophia's (stepfather?) stayed, looking at me, and opened his mouth.
I beat him to it. "That's it?"
The principal stopped, and turned to face me. "Ms. Hebert?"
"They assaulted me, shoved me into a locker with used tampons, and that's it!?" I snapped, stuck between wanting to scream and break into tears.
I finally got a response from her; a face full of false pity and barely-concealed exasperation. "Ms. Hebert, it is your word against theirs, and your homeroom class, who were in the same hall as you, all say that nothing of the sort happened. I don't know exactly what happened, but it's clear something has to be done. However, I will not punish-"
I was speechless, but only momentarily, and interrupted her. "I sure didn't put myself in there!"
"And when the custodian removed you, you were facing in. You might not have gotten a good look at who did this, and we -" she continued right over my objection. The nurse was flinching back each time we spoke, like she was struck. She wasn't jumping in to help me, though. I had to do it myself.
"Good look? I got a good look when they dragged and forced me in!" I said, offended that she thought I was blind.
"Ms. Hebert, please. We are trying to solve this altercation- " she started, raising her hands to placate me.
I interrupted once more, "And this isn't even the first time! They have been threatening me, stealing from me, harassing me, abusing me."
The principal frowned, and after a brief glance back at the girls, asked me, "When has this been occurring?"
"Ever since last September," I answered, succinctly.
"And why have you not come forward with this?" she asked, momentarily confused.
Because you wouldn't take my word. You would take Madison's over mine. You would take Emma's, my former friend, or never friend, and Sophia's, who is glaring a hole in me, over mine. I wanted to say it, but didn't. It wouldn't help my case. I didn't have hard proof. Even with all they had done, I hadn't thought to keep evidence. My eyes dropped from her face, to my lap.
The principal waited for me to speak up, then sighed as I did not. Her face hardened, losing its fake sympathy. "Ms. Hebert, this is the first we have heard of this. These are serious allegations. However, at this time, I will not assign punishments without due cause."
I could feel tears starting to stream from the corners of my eyes, and let out a bitter laugh. "Due cause."
"Ms. Hebert -"
"So nothing is going to happen then?" I asked, once, for clarification
"A proper investigation will be conducted." The principal declared, frowning as she glanced at Sophia's guardian.
"And actions like this will not be tolerated." The first words from Sophia's guardian, and in my support. A surprise, but not an unwelcome one. He was giving Sophia a look I couldn't see, but I could see her sullenly glare at him. One person, who barely mattered.
I wiped away my tears, and stood. "So nothing. No justice. Nothing. You are going to let her walk all over me again."
The principal frowned, and replied, "I will not hand out punishments for some form of eye-for-an-eye."
I brushed past her, and the four of them, heading to the door to hallway.
"Ms. Hebert, where are you going?"
The nurse's and principal's question overlapped, but I ignored them. I could feel fresh tears replacing the ones I wiped away. The door to the nurse's office swung closed behind me as I stalked through it, but I could hear someone catch it. They would follow me to offer up some other platitudes, while doing nothing.
Mrs. Knott was in the hallway, shepherding my homeroom class out from an unused classroom. She spotted me, and went pale. She took a step towards me, and she asked, "Taylor, are you alright? We were so worried."
I ignored her too. She hadn't tried to help me. I walked faster, turning at the end of the hall junction, full of bland walls lockers, and moved to the closest exit. I needed to get out, and get away from all of them. But I couldn't ignore all of my classmates along the way. Most didn't even look at me. I saw a few give me pity or sympathy - Greg among them. But I saw Madison's friends give me smirks, knowing they had gotten her off clean. That they wouldn't stop, that it was just a matter of time until they tried something worse. I broke into a run.
"Taylor! Please stop!"
I could hear Mrs. Knott calling for me, but I just ran faster. I slammed into the steel push bar of the door to the front lot and kept running, tears streaming.
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I stopped, out of breath and sobbing. I had run all the way to the edge of the Docks, a distance I would have trouble judging normally let alone now, and was now sitting against the side of an abandoned building, hidden by crumbling bricks and the shade. I slumped down further, winded and panting from my flight from the school.
My Dad was going to show up to school, and hear everything that had happened to me. My accusation, this incident, and their stories. I hadn't wanted him to know what had been done to me, what with so much on his plate already. And then I was going to have to explain it all to him. The emails, Mom's recorder being stolen, the locker, and more. An eternity of abuse. What would he think of me, afterwards?
I leaned forward, collapsing in on myself. I didn't really want to see anything. And it would get worse. Much worse, now that Madison and Emma wouldn't be punished. And Sophia's guardian wouldn't be there to enforce his order. She wouldn't care what he said. She'd just take it out on me. My fear that if I reported them, that they could spin it their way was becoming horrifically true. And now they would have free reign. No limits.
And there was nothing I could do to stop them. Despair and resigned acceptance warred within me. I knew it was going to happen, after all. But I wasn't looking forward to it. But - acceptance- what choice did I have? The only other school was Arcadia High, and my grades weren't good enough to go there. Nor would the principal go to bat for me to get me transferred. My father wasn't rich. I wasn't a cape. I was just another fly for those three to pull the wings off of.
Wood rustled nearby, breaking my pity party up. I uncurled from my attempted fetal ball, and looked at what had disturbed me. There was no wood in a mile, this far into the Docks. And shrank back as fast as I could, trying to get as much space between it and myself with haste.
It was an abomination, or some sicko's idea of a practical joke. A doll, half as large as I was and obscenely shaped, was staring me down, not a foot away from my face. Its own face, a parody of one of those Greeks masks, was as large as the rest of its body, and as I pressed myself against the wall at my back, the mask tilted. I had the disturbing, and irrational, feeling of having my soul stripped bare. The thing rested on its fingers - long, three yard fingers, twisting out of its hands to reach the ground.
I glanced left and right. No escape. Tentatively, I asked the thing, "What do you want?"
Tendrils of twisty, gnarly wood shot out from its elevated hands, planting themselves on the other sides of my head. As I watched, the new fingers drew its bizarre mask closer to my face, coming within a few inches. I looked away, not wanting to stare it down, and instead got to watch as several of the fingers it had been previously standing on ignited into green flame. One more finger slowly curled out, snaking closer to my face.
Not exactly the answer I had been hoping for. The newest finger touched my cheek, and I flinched. It curled up, and started rubbing my cheek. I thought I had been surprised when the fever dream doll closed in on me, but this went into fairy tale or nightmare territory.
I swallowed the lump that had formed in my throat from panic. It wasn't unheard of for some capes to be complete psychos, and the whole experience was getting crazier by the moment. I tried again, "What do you want?"
Warmth. The feeling of a sunny day on my skin. Dad's hug. I gasped, as the unexpected feelings cut off just as suddenly as they had appeared. The finger that had touched me was glowing a faint green, the same as the fire that had burned the previous fingers. The doll had withdrawn the finger, keeping it just above my cheek.
"You want to give me something," I offered. I couldn't quite place how I knew it - but it seemed right.
It nodded, slowly. The mask, still facing me, pulled back. It was easily twice the size of my head, so I still had no problem seeing it, but I couldn't understand it. But once more, I saw the finger near my cheek headed for a collision course, even as more formed, gripping my arms.
It touched, and I saw power. Or maybe POWER. Only an instant of contact and I was breathing harder than I had after I had fled. Fear and longing fought for command, and longing won.
I asked, very carefully, "For me?"
It nodded, rapidly.
Sophia. Emma. Madison. They only tortured me because I had no power. Because I was weak. If I was better -
My Dad, slaving away, for less and less. Wasting away since Mom had died. I could help him. I could do more -
The world - full of monsters. How many problems could I solve -
"Give it to me," I ordered.
The fingers grasping me pierced through my skin, eliciting a gasp of shock from me as I registered the pain. The doll surged forward, mask colliding with my face, only to break apart into a thousand shadows that swallowed me whole.
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A/N: Yes, it has returned, and been reborn.
Old Fiend can still be found in the threads.
Long story short, I was writing myself into a corner, and have also become a less shitty writer. So, let's see if this round works better. Old 1.1= 2.2k words. New = 3.5~k
Thanks to Robo, Shyft, ES, and Arkeus for slapping sense into me and shit out of the story.