Sanders Sides (power rangers au)

Chapter 23.

TW: PANIC ATTACK.

Virgil slept horribly. He and his mom had gotten home at about 11, then Virgil had seen the group chat. He assumed that the others were all asleep soon after, when the thread had gone silent. He never was one for sleeping well, but everytime he tried last night, it only ended in nightmares about that weird creature. None of this made sense to him. He kept trying to run through everything, but the more he thought about it, the more confused he got. He finally settled on sitting up in his bed for the night and scrolling on his phone. However, when that got boring, he turned on his bedside lamp and stared at the bracelet on his wrist. He guessed he could call it that anyways. It was a fabric-like material that had a belt-like buckle on the top, but Virgil could never get the clasp to work, so it was effectively stuck on. It was a darker purple, but it had strips of a brighter color throughout, and the buckle was white. He grabbed scissors at one point, thinking he could cut off the bracelet, but only succeeded in giving himself a small cut where he closed the scissors on the base of his hand.

By 4, Virgil was pacing his room. He wasn't in his comfort hoodie, since his mom had taken it and still not given it back. His dad hadn't been home when Virgil and his mom went to bed earlier. Now Virgil was just hoping he wasn't stomping as he moved from one side of his room to the other and back. He grabbed his bluetooth headphones that went over his ears, and tried to connect them to his phone, only to hear the beep of low battery. Out of frustration, he threw them at his desk, which only knocked over a glass of water that was sitting on the edge.

"Shit!" He cursed, watching as the plastic cup bounced onto the floor and the water spilled out. He looked around his room, knowing he wouldn't make it to the bathroom without waking up his parents. His mom hated that he didn't get good sleep, so he often lied about how much he was getting. In a panic, he tried scooping the water back into the cup with his hands, only to watch as his hands stayed dry, and the water climbed back into the cup and waited from inside for Virgil to upright the it again. Suddenly not caring about his mother's distaste of his sleeplessness, he immediately went to the bathroom with a change of clothes, turned on the shower, and stuck his hand in.

At first, he just thought he'd missed the jet stream, but then he put his hand right up to the shower nozzle and watched as the water simply bounced off him. Technically bounced off an invisible wall right before his hand. Not bothering to get undressed, he got into the shower and watched as his clothes stayed completely dry.

"What the fuck?" Virgil breathed. He paused for a moment, before thinking about getting wet. In an instant, his clothes were soaked and his dark bangs were dripping in his face. He looked back down at his bracelet. It was still dry.

"Virgil?" A knock sounded from the door. "Virgil, are you awake?" His dad was home now after all.

"Ye-Yeah, Dad. I woke up early and wanted a shower."

"It's 4 am?"

"I woke up really early?"

"Subtle." His dad's voice always helped calm Virgil down a little. "Okay, I'll leave you to it."

Virgil waited until his dad's footsteps faded, before sitting down in the shower and letting the water hit him.

"Did I imagine that?" Virgil asked himself, lifting his hand to watch the water glide down his fingers. He paused for a moment, before lifting his hand a bit higher, and looking at the wall. He thought about the water turning just before hitting his hand, and hitting the wall instead. Sure enough, the water did just as Virgil instructed, making a dull thudding noise as it hit the sides of the shower wall. Virgil let his hand down, and the water followed. Then Virgil turned off the water. Instead, choosing to stay on the floor of the shower and try not to panic. His brain was filling with sci-fi movies of people like him on tables. People like him being studied. Poked. Dissected. He was gonna have that happen. He was gonna be on a table. He was gonna be one of those people. What if that was what those spider-guys were? What if they were here for him? What if they knew where he lived? They knew what he looked like. Oh god, that fucking computer. His face was on that computer.

Virgil tried to look up, but his muscles wouldn't move. He tried to slow his breathing, but his lungs had stopped listening. He was out of control. He was losing control. He was gonna die. The water. He moved water. Oh god. Virgil grabbed his hands in his head. His hands gripped tightly against his hair.

*Buzzz. Buzzz*

Virgil's phone. His phone. Someone was calling. He needed to move his hands. He needed to answer. He had to. Move hands! Move! Fucking hell. Stop shaking. Move hands. His phone stopped buzzing. What if they were calling? That spider-guy had arms. He could call.

*Buzzz. Buzzz*

Virgil suddenly threw his hand out and grabbed his phone. Then snapped his hand back. His eyes tried to focus on the caller id. Logan. Logan?

"He-Hello?"

"Virgil?" Logan sounded panicked. Hearing another voice sound as panicked as he did helped. Was he a bad person for that?

"Yeah" He gasped.

"I can't breathe." Logan said. "I feel wet, and tired and awake and scared and confused and-"

"What?"

"Virgil." Logan paused to say some curses under his breath. "I awoke five minutes and thirty-six seconds, thirty-seven seconds, thirty-eight second-"

"I got- I get it."

"I believe I can hear your thoughts."