He Who Controls the Flame (001 fanfic)

Chapter Twenty Four- Power Play

Everyone in the Rainbow Room looked half-dead.

The children's faces were sunken in and pale, the shadows dark under their eyes and in the hollows of their cheekbones. None of them were smiling, and all their eyes were half-slitted, vacant almost, like their souls had decided to up and leave them to go on a coffee break.

Not that I could really blame them at all, I doubted I looked much better. It had been about a day since the test in the tank room, and it looked like nobody had slept since.

Most of the lab was filled with screams.

During break, when children were sent to their rooms to have personal time, screams flooded the halls. Children would take naps and would wake up shrieking, or they would doze off during lessons and would wake, not realizing they were awake, and send their toys and their teachers flying across the room. One poor teacher had broken a rib earlier that morning from getting thrown by a child post-tank-simulation.

Poor woman, she'd probably be back by tomorrow with Brenner's lack of appreciation for employee medical leave. Peter was a prime example of that: Mr. I-went-back-to-work-a-week-after-getting-shot.

But I understood why the children were acting the way they were. I was no better. I woke up this morning to my lip bitten raw, gasping and whimpering after having dreamed that Robbie had lured me into a dark room, slowly walking towards me till my legs hit a bed, a malicious grin etched into his face, his eyes replaced with gaping holes, dripping with blood.

My dream had shifted at one point to Robbie with mangled limbs in all angles, his jaw broken, hanging open like how those people were in my other dream. I wished I could've gone to some kind of sleep specialist, or been able to get my hands on some kind of hard core drugs so I could've been so blissed out I couldn't even dream.

I had never done weed, but there was no time like the present.

That was the first thing I had said to Peter when I jerked awake. He had been right by my side, his hands on my shoulders, rubbing soothing circles into my shoulders blades, already telling me that I was okay, that I was safe.

When I had told him about the drugs he had barked out a laugh, asking if I had hit my head somehow when I was asleep.

I did not hit my head. Because I still remembered exactly what he had done the night before. I definitely would not have wanted to get amnesia for that memory. God, it had been the strongest orgasm of my life. It had been like an out of body experience. The stuff my erotica novels were written about.

I stared down at the chess board in front of me, willing a piece to move with my mind. I had fire powers, it wouldn't be too outlandish to have mind powers too. I mean, I was capable of way more than just acing physics tests, I had already surprised myself enough in this lifetime.

The door swung open suddenly and I turned to see Seven and Eleven walking through it. Seven had his arm around El, holding her close to his side. El, on the other hand, looked pale and tired. I had never seen such large bags under her eyes before.

But when she saw me, her expression broke, and a small smile crossed her lips as her eyes widened. She broke free from Seven and sprinted for me, colliding into my already opened arms.

Her tiny body was enough to send me stumbling back a couple feet, but I held onto her, not letting go even when I crouched down so I could get on her level. She held me so tightly she felt like she wanted to merge our bodies. I didn't blame her, I kind of hugged her like that too.

"I'm not going to ask if you're okay," I said, rubbing her back gently. Kids were staring, as were Orderlies, but I hardly cared. "Because that's a stupid question."