Chapter 52: A Crispy Prince
Song: The Hills by The Weekend
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"Matt. I am so disappointed in you."
Sparklez sounded like one of those parents who didn't have the heart to stay angry with their kid, but was majorly upset by what they'd done. To be honest, I was pretty upset with him too. Unfortunately I couldn't get outside fast enough to save Andor's ass, because Matt had already knocked the kid out cold.
So now they were both once again in our inn room, except this time Andor was unconscious and Matt was bundled up in a small ball in the corner of the room, silently weeping guiltily. I sorta feel bad for him. I mean I know he nearly killed someone, but I can tell he feels absolutely terrible about it. Jealously can make you do pretty awful things. I've definitely learnt that over the years.
"I am so sorry...I don't know what came over me!" He cried, his loudness making Rosie stir in Sparklez arms.
"Whisper. If you wake her up, she's gonna cry." Sparklez pulled the little blanket further up Rosie's chest, and she snuggled into it further. Thank god she fell asleep before all of this crap happened. She hates violence of any kind. It makes her so upset.
"Dude you can't get jealous every time Rosie starts playing with someone else. You especially can't do this." I motioned towards the bruised and completely fried Andor sprawled across the bed. Oh yeah, Matt didn't just beat the guy up, he struck him with lightening.
"I know I am so sorry, I won't ever do it again. I feel so horrible. Jealously is an awful feeling...I don't ever want to feel it again. I hope he isn't too angry with me when he wakes, he seemed like such a nice person..." He stared at Andor with tear filled eyes, sniffling quietly and shaking his head in shame.
"I'm sure he'll understand," Sparklez assured him. "He's a really loving and forgiving person. Uh, Tom do we need to um...you know, help him? Like medicine wise?"
I almost snorted. "Well there's not much you can do for bruises and singed hair, besides throw some ice packs on him or give him some pain pills. We have neither of those though."
"Well...at least see if he has any cuts or anything under his clothes. I don't want anything to get infected."
"What?! I'm not bloody taking his clothes off!" I hissed. Rosie moved again, letting out a small little whimper as she drew the covers further up her neck. Aw. God she's adorable.
"Shh!" Sparklez scolded me, trying to coax Rosie back into sleep by brushing her hair with his fingers. She hummed quietly and went still once more, making me sigh in relief. Thank god I didn't wake her up. "You have to, I can't do it. If I move, she'll wake up. Please? I just wanna make sure he's okay." He stuck out his bottom lip pitifully, trying to persuade me further to do the horrible act. I can't take another guys clothes off in front of my family! That's like cheating...or something.
But how can I say no to that cute little puppy dog face Sparkley pants is pulling? Dammit.
"Fine," I forced out through gritted teeth. I glanced down at the dead looking kid in front of me with dread. This is gonna be super awkward and it's gonna suck. Ugh.
I sighed and took both ends of his shirt, pulled it up, and tugged it off over his head. I physically felt myself get sick when I saw the shape his body was in. Oh shit. I forgot about the wing incident...I shuddered at the thought of the day I stitched up Andor's back on my kitchen table. The poor kid was in so much pain he nearly broke the table in two.
"What...what's wrong with his back? What are those markings?" Matt pointed at the two huge parallel purple-black scars running across Andor's back, goes from his shoulders blades to his waist. This kid had been through too much. I never really knew him that well, but still, I feel like I should wrap him up in my arms and pet him for awhile. Is that normal?
"He um...he got his wings removed while he was in a prison one time. But don't bring it up in front of him. He doesn't like talking about that stuff, it makes him really depressed." He forgot to mention that he was the one who gave Andor his new wings, and cared for him for weeks, and helped him recover from his past.
Matts jaw dropped to the floor, horror and pity mixing in his red eyes. "What kind of person would do such a thing?! He's so young! What human being would hurt someone so young?"
"Well didn't you just fry the kid with lightening?" I joked. Matt didn't think it was funny. He curled up tighter around himself and stared at Andor worriedly.
"I didn't mean to..." He whispered sadly. "I would never hurt anyone unprovoked. Who would rip the wings off of a child? What monster would do that?"
"His name was Alister, but he's dead now. He deserved it too. It took Andor so long to get better again. He stayed with us for awhile until he took off. This is probably the longest I've seen him since four or five months ago."
They spoke a lot more about him, but I tuned them out after awhile. Andor did have a few cuts that looked like they needed some treatment, though I was pretty sure they weren't from he and Matts fight. What's the kid been through lately? Where does he even live now? Though he said he was happy, so I guess I shouldn't pry in on his life. Maybe he's like me, he likes chaos. Maybe he likes the thrill of winning against those who have power over him. I know I always did.
Maybe that's his way of healing.
"Tom?"
Sparklez voice snapped me out of my thoughts, and I turned to see he and Matt both staring at me with expectant faces.
"Sorry, what? I wasn't listening."
"I asked if you've seen Sonja or the others around since you've been here? You guys did say they went to Urulu, right?"
"Well yeah that's what the towns people said. It was getting too cold and they wanted to travel somewhere safer. I haven't seen them though. I've been too busy worrying about other things, like a little nerd named Jordan." I gave him a reassuring smile, though it was kind of a lie. I have been worrying about other things, but he was only half of those.
Mots been trying to bring back Dianite.
Every night that we all spent at his house, we'd steal the wizards book of spells while they were both busy dealing with one another. Well, Phil dealing with the extremely unstable Matt that is. We'd go through page after page, looking for a resurrecting god spell. We found none. Not even one. He said he was going to track down Mianite somehow and get him to tell us about how he made the cyborg suit, so maybe we could make one for Dianite. I don't think we'll have time to make the suit though. I remember Sparklez one time explaining to me just how much time it took Gaines to make the suit, and how much materials he needed. We aren't gonna be able to get that much in such little time.
"Tom?"
I looked up from my hands to see Sparklez staring at me, an annoyed expression on his face.
"Sorry, what'd you say? I spaced out again." I grinned apologetically, but he didn't smile back.
"I said you're lying," he retorted snappily.
What? How could he have known that? "No I'm not. I was worried about you."
"Really? You think you can pull that shit on me? Do you think I'm an idiot?" He hissed. I don't know if maybe I missed something while I was spaced out or maybe he's just a really fast walker, but suddenly he was directly in front of me glaring at me with a look I'd hardly ever seen him use before.
"Sparklez-"
"Shut. Up." I could see the last brown in his eyes fading to violet. I could see his hands twitching violently as he got closer to me. What's wrong with him? He hasn't gone insane in months. Why now? It was just a little white lie! I just didn't want to worry him was all!
But apparently that was enough to set him off.
"I show you nothing but loyalty. I give you everything. I GIVE YOU MY LIFE, AND YOU LIE TO ME?!" A hand came flying across my vision and against my cheek, making my whole jaw crack painfully. He slapped me? Did he just slap me?
"I-I didn't m-mean-"
"I SAID SHUT UP YOU DISGUSTING FLESH EATING MONSTER!" Another slap, this one was harder, much harder. My face stung painfully and I went to touch it, but he grabbed my hand and twisted my wrist sideways, making it snap instantly. I cried out in pain and jerked away from him, but he wouldn't let go of my broken wrist. What's wrong with him?! Why isn't Matt stopping him?! Why isn't Rosie screaming?!
"I always deserved better than you. I deserved Capsize. She was right for me. We loved each other. You ruined that. You killed her, right in front of me. I lost so many nights of sleep, I thought about suicide, I nearly killed myself because of you. You deserve this. You deserve to die." His hand shot around my throat and clamped it together, completely cutting off my airway. I tried desperately to pry his fingers off, but he was impossibly strong. He was choking me to death.
But that wasn't the worst part about this. The worst part was the words he had said. I ruined his life. He deserves better. I'm the reason he's miserable.
I stopped fighting his hand and went limp, watching lifelessly as he strangled me with all his strength. I deserve this. He has a right to kill me. I shouldn't fight against him when I know he's right.
I deserve to die for what I've done to him.
"Daddy!"
I felt cold hands press against my cheeks and air flood it's way back into my lungs again. Sparklez wasn't in front of me anymore. Rosie was. And she wasn't choking me or staring at me like I was a mistake to world. She was...sitting on me?
"Rosie...w-what are you d-doing?" Shit, am I crying? I shouldn't be crying around Rosie. I've never cried around her.
"Daddy it's okay. It's just the bad man in the hood. Poppy loves you. Don't listen to the bad man. He tells lies." She wiped away my tears with her thumbs and kissed my cheek. What happened? Why am I on the floor? And why is my daughter sitting on my chest?
"R-Rosie where's-where's your pops, why are you on top of me?"
"You had a fit daddy. You woke me and Andy up. You wouldn't sit still and you kept screaming. It worried all of them, but it's okay. I fixed it."
She fixed it? What does that mean? I angled my head to the side slightly to see what she was talking about.
I caught on pretty fast.
Everyone and everything in the whole room was frozen. All of them were frozen in place, each wearing the same expression of complete panic. Andor was backed against the wall with his eyes closed, hunched over and shielding his face with his hands. Matt had his hand raised in Andor's direction, his mouth open doing some sort of spell I guess, and there were sparks frozen in front of his pointed finger. Sparklez was desperately tugging on Matts shoulders trying to get him to stop the spell he as doing. Had I been attacking Andor? Wow. I really did scare the shit out of them, didn't I?
Wait a second.
"Rosie. You did this?" I gestured towards the frozen people in front of us.
She nodded, sliding off my chest and going back to sit on the bed. "The purple lady said bad things were gonna happen if I didn't stop them. She said I could help you, daddy. But I had to get you to be still first."
"P-Purple...lady?"
"Yes. Lady Ianite. She talks to me a lot. She tells me what to do when bad things happen."
Why is Ianite talking to my daughter and not Sparklez? I thought she couldn't communicate while she was...well...dead.
I managed to scramble out of the floor and brace myself against the other bed. My legs felt like jello and heart was racing a ten thousand beats a minute. It was so hot. I could barely breathe right.
"Rosie h-how did you do this? How did you freeze them?"
She shrugged her shoulders and swung her feet back and forth off the bed. "I don't know. I just thought about it and it happened. Lie down on the bed daddy. Pretend you're sleeping. I'll fix them back once you're tucked in."
"W-Why do you want me to pretend I'm sleeping?"
"So it'll confuse them and Matty won't try to hurt you. Go on daddy, lie down. He won't give you anymore bad dreams if I'm beside you, I promise." She smiled brightly at me and nodded towards the bed I was leaning against. When did she get so incredibly smart? It seems like just yesterday I was teaching her what snow ball fights were.
"O-Okay." I climbed into bed and slipped under the covers, turning my back and closing my eyes so that I looked like I was sleeping. It wasn't long before I felt someone else, much much smaller, slip under covers too.
"Thaw out," she whispered under her breath.
"Stop! You'll kill-...what?"
"Wait, wasn't he just-?"
"He was right there! How did he get in bed so quickly?!"
"...did we black out or something?"
"No no...I don't know what just happened. Perhaps we were the ones who were deluding?"
I felt a hand touch my cheek, a familiar one, the one that slapped me and broke my wrist in my dreams. I almost flinched, had it not been for Rosie discretely grabbing for my hand and squeezing it softly. It wasn't real, I assured myself. It wasn't real.
"Tom? Tom wake up." Sparklez shook me a little, and I opened my eyes as slowly as I could just to highlight how fake sleepy I really was.
"Mmh?" I asked him, my eyes drooping for effect. I feel horrible for lying to him, but it's for the greater good. I don't want him to worry.
His face went instantly apologetic because of my fake exhaustion. "Sorry for waking you up. I just...something weird happened and-"
"You comin' to bed soon? S'too late to be up..." I mumbled tiredly.
"Uh, yeah! Yeah I'll be in soon, I just...I have to say goodbye to Andor and Matt first. Give me a minute." I heard him shuffle away, and a long five minutes of conversation followed. It was hushed and barely audible, but I could make out what they were saying. Matt and Andor made up, Sparklez made them both promise not to fight again, and Matt said was going to stay outside the room all night incase we needed anything or something weird happened again. When they started talking about my fit again, I groaned sleepily and cracked an eye open, getting their attention for a moment. "Sparklez would you come to bed? You're wakin' up Rose."
Rosie stirred a little in my arms shortly after I said the words, and I nearly let a smile break out on my face. She's pretty conniving when she wants to be, eh?
"Sorry! Sorry, one second." The sentence was followed by some hushed goodbyes and the sound of a door closing quietly. Another body joined the bed a few seconds later and an arm draped over my waist.
"Finally," I muttered tiredly.
"I'm sorry I woke you. Really, I am."
"S'fine. Just go to sleep."
"Matts outside incase anything happens. And I think Phil's on his way here. Matt said he'd call him."
"Sparklez."
"Sorry! I'll go to sleep now. Goodnight Tom."
"Night Sparkley pants."
"Um...Tom?" He asked timidly.
"What?"
"You'd never lie to me, unless it was for my own good, right?"
Oh shit. He does know. I can't fool him that easily I guess.
"Yes. Why?"
"It's just...I feel like you are lying to me about something. Maybe I'm just being delusional..." He chuckled nervously.
"I am lying to you. But it's for your own good. There are some things I just don't want you to worry about. You understand?"
"Y-Yeah I understand. You will tell me someday what it was, right?"
"Shut up and go to bed..." I grumbled. He went silent again. Crap, did I hurt his feelings? "I'll tell you someday when this is all over."
"...what if that day never comes?"
"It will. I promise you it will. Goodnight Sparklez."
He sighed. "Goodnight Tom. No more fits, okay?"
I rolled my eyes at him in the dark. The little sausage already knows. "Yeah, no more fits. Right Rose?"
I heard her giggle softly. "No more fits, daddy."
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