Very much NSFW fic continued from yesterday:
Fracture Thirty-Eight: Adjusting
Tom thought he’d panicked when he found out Kitty was a mutant. Staying in a whole school full of them was just constant terror. Every time he turned around, someone was doing something bizarre and unearthly. Sure, he’d got used to Bluebelle and Kurt through near-constant exposure, but the others just unnerved him.
They pulled *stunts* with their powers. Like Bobby icing over an entire room so the rest could throw ‘capades’ in the summer. Or Evan's 'indoor rock climbing’ experience in one of the sub-basements. Or Amara’s 'cook-outs’.
*Then* there was 'share a skill nite’; which was as unnerving as all heck, because kids were teaching other kids how to do incredibly dangerous-looking stuff and now they had a seven-year-old girl involved. She looked unnaturally gleeful to be there.
“Pumpkin?” he begged from the control/observation room “Please tell me you don’t do this?”
“Like, relax, Daddy. The safeties are like, totally on.”
From the middle of the high wire, Kurt called out, “Come on, liebe! We’re all waiting!” He was standing there as if it were a perfectly normal thing to be bouncing on one foot several meters above the very solid ground.
Either they did this every week and nobody figured out how to tell him, or they were doing it now as a subtle hint for him to go home.
He certainly wasn’t going to stay here for his *health*.
*
_Submitted for your approval, one Principal Edward Kelly. A humble man with dreams of grandeur on the bottom rung of a tall ladder that leads, in his dreams, to the highest seat in the nation. In reality, mister Kelly’s hands are clasped firmly around the doorhandle to - the Twighlight Zone…_
A guitar plucked itself in the back of Principal Kelly’s head as his left eye continued to twitch.
“Great,” he muttered to himself. “I have a dead TV presenter in my head. Keep calm. Keep calm. *Just* keep calm. You only have to worry when you *see* him. Keepcalmkeepcalmkeepcalm…”
“…um. Sir?”
He looked up at his secretary. “Darla? Are you *used* to this?”
“Used to what, sir?”
“The earthquakes. The strange happenings. The demon sightings. The - the *everything*. The insanity…” he whimpered and twitched again. “The chickens in your car.”
Darla looked at him as if his head was about to explode. “Sir, Tammy Richards’ parents are here to see you.”
_Oh God…_ He put on his Show Face with a lot of effort. _Sparkle, sparkle._ “Lus. Patty. Hello, Tammy. Bonbon?” He pushed a little bowl of them forward with a nervous jerk that was more of a spasm.
“Don’t you touch those, sweetie, you don’t know what’s in them,” said Patty.
“*Mommy*…”
“We wanna talk to you about this alleged gym teacher that’s in the news,” said Lus. She had piercings covering one half of her face and an interestingly celtic-style tattoo on the other half. “If she even *breathed* on our little girl…”
“*Mo-om*…” Tammy cringed in her seat. “I don’t even *take* gym. I never went *near* her…”
“You said you weren’t sure, honey,” said Patty. She had jewelery that matched her outfit. Her one concession to her life-partner was an extra piercing in her right ear, which had the yin half of a yin-yang circle dangling from it.
A quick check in the forest of Lus’ earrings eventually found the matching yang. They also wore wedding bands.
“From what we can gather,” Principal Kelly managed, “Frau Rosafar– er; *Hess*… was more interested in -ah- old acquaintances, as it were, than taking new victims.”
Lus leaned on his desk. “Our five-year-old said she saw Hess hanging around his kindergarden. He said she was taking notes.”
Was that a flicker of black in the corner of his eye?
“Ms. Richards, please… I had no idea who she was when I hired her," just to be safe, he backed out of his chair and paced his office. "I can’t do long, investigative personality checks on new members of staff. What with all the -” twitch “- damage to the school, I can barely afford *staff*. Nobody wants to pay any extra to help support the school… the chickens in my car…” twitch twitch twich. Kelly jerked a nervous glance over his shoulder. He was certain he’d seen… No. It was just a trick of the light.
“Sweetie, did this man touch you?”
“*Mom*…” Tammy sounded indignant. “I *am* taking Tae Bo classes, you know. You *make* me.”
“Ms Richards… I swear I’ve never had anything to do with – D'AAARGH!”
Rod Searling was walking down the street outside the school. He was looking right back at Kelly.
“What in hell’s wrong with you, twitch-boy?”
All that came out of his mouth was an inarticulate gibber. By the time they came to see what he was pointing at, Rod Searling was gone.
“I’m starting to think this entire school is insane,” said Patty. "Honey, we’re going to get you a *therapist*, okay.“
”*Mom-meeee*…“
*
Lance Alvers woke up screaming. Again. He wasn’t getting much in the way of sleep, lately. Every time he closed his eyes, he’d see the old biddy experimenting on him and all those he felt close to.
Every time he closed his eyes, it got worse.
_God, I’m so tired…_ His head hurt. He couldn’t focus.
Maybe he could take a pill. But the thought of being trapped in a nightmare with Hess for company didn’t appeal.
But, hey, there just happened to be two telepaths in town who were suckers for a sob story. He looked haggard enough for them to believe that he was suffering.
_Who’m I fooling? I *am* suffering…._
He was in no shape to drive, so he began the long walk towards the institute. Good thing he’d slept in his clothes, otherwise he’d be plodding towards the mansion in his jammies. He didn’t care. He needed rest. Rest without Hess in his head.
*
Bluebelle hid her scream behind both hands as Jamie fell, and cringed at the squeak that escaped anyway. Any second, now, a hand would descend from above…
It did, but embraced her shoulder.
"It’s okay, Bluebelle,” said Daddy. “He has a safety harness on, see?”
She looked. Sure enough, Jamie was dangling in mid-air, arms flapping comically.
“Look, I’m flying!”
Bluebelle giggled, relaxing again. Mistress wasn’t here. She had to keep telling herself that. No-one hurt her here.
But she kept waiting for the blows to fall. Even when Mistress was feeling nice, she’d never lasted this long without hitting her. She was more than a little nervous every time something went wrong. She had to keep reminding herself that that this was a new place. Daddy said it was safe, and so far, he’d told the truth.
She turned and hugged Daddy with all the strength she had. She didn't want things to go bad. She wanted the good things to go on forever.
“Hey, what’s that for?”
Bluebelle didn’t want to say, so she shrugged.
Daddy just chuckled and said, “I love you, too. Come on. Let go. It's your turn, now.”
Bluebelle grinned. She was starting to enjoy this part. She readied herself to leap for the bar, and almost jumped out of her skin when an alarm went off.
The holograms and unused training gear put themselves away. The rest lowered everyone to the safety of the ground.
Daddy {Bamf!}ed her into the control room with Doctor Hank. “Stay here,” he said and {Bamf!}ed away again.
Bluebelle found a nice pipe to dangle from as Doctor Hank typed things into the computers.
“We should be able to watch the proceedings on the monitors,” he looked back at her and smiled. “Shall I obtain popcorn?”
“Can I really?” Popcorn was still a special treat. Daddy wanted her eating properly before he let her 'go nuts on the junk’.
“One bag won’t hurt,” said Doctor Hank.
*
Their enemy hardly looked fit to walk, let alone fight. He seemed to be holding himself up by sheer force of will alone.
Lance Alvers was a changed mutant. His cocky grin was replaced by an exhausted pout. His sneering eyes were bloodshot, bruised and had bags underneath them. His hair and clothes looked like they’d been slept in by an insomniac.
He’d lost a lot of weight.
“I surrender,” he croaked, barely able to hold his hands up. “I just - I came here to - I need help.”
“Whoah,” said Kitty. “What happened to you?”
“Can’t sleep,” he managed. “Keep havin’ nightmares 'bout Hess an’ all her sick 'games’. ’S like I’m *there*. I feel everything even after I wake up and my whole body hurts and every time I shut my eyes, I’m back there and I’m too scared t’ sleep but I *need* to and – oh God… help me…”
Kurt glared at Jean as he helped Lance into the Institute’s grounds. _Enough is enough, I think,_ he thought at her. _He’s suffered enough. Give him respite. Let him rest._
“I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry,” Lance was saying, half out of his mind through lack of sleep. “I’m so sorry I gave you to Hess, Kitty… Just wanted you back… Just wanted you to love me again…”
“It doesn’t work like that,” said Kitty. “You should like, *know* that by now.”
“I’m sorry,” he whimpered. “Believe me I am *so* sorry…”