Part 1
Gabe was entirely sure this was just bullshit. ‘Community Payback’…or blowback if one read the back of his orange fucking jumpsuit properly. Jesus. It wasn’t like he’d even really done anything.
;;;
William was bored. He tried to tune into what their probation officer was saying, but really, did it matter? The whole matter was idiotically dumb. So he might have driven without a license, and sure, maybe he’d been a little tipsy. Who the fuck wasn’t driving drunk these days? He managed to catch the officer saying something about them proving their worth when his thoughts were interrupted by the dark haired boy to his right, beyond the scary looking blond girl.
“We could just not have worth,” He was saying, sarcasm and smart-assery dripping from every syllable, then motioned quite rudely to the boy on his other side, “I mean, sometimes people are just born criminals, you know?”
“Who the fuck are you calling a criminal?” The boy next to him spat, instantly looking ready for fight. William had a feeling this would be a lot easier if he learned some of their names, but really, he couldn’t be bothered.
Thank god his phone rang. He pulled it out and flipped it open, “Hello?”
“Are you serious?” The officer sounded exasperated, but William ignored that in favor is Sisky’s, “What’s up?”
“At community service,” William wrinkled his nose, “Stupid you know?”
“Put the phone away!” His officer yelled.
“Who’s that?” Siska asked, not sounding terribly interested. Stupid asshole was probably having a lot more fun somewhere other than here, William thought.
“Just my probation officer,” William sighed.
“Oh yeah?” Siska questioned, voice filling with venomous glee, “Is he hot?”
“Ew, you perv,” William kicked the ground as the officer yelled at him again. He felt all the eyes of the group fixed on him and he basked for moment. He had always liked being the center of attention. He was good looking and he knew it, used it, perhaps abused it. “He’s like, old.”
“Put the damn phone away!” Okay, the officer sounded near stroke now.
“I gotta go,” William sighed and snapped the phone shut before Siska could reply, sliding it into the pocket of the ugly orange suit and splaying his hands out, “There.”
William watched with half-hearted interest out of the corner of his eye as the Smart-Ass Boy goaded on the angry one some more. His interest became a little more whole-hearted when annoyingly-hot-for-a-criminal straightened up off the rail and muttered something. William was definitely going to find out his name. Then he spoke up, “Look, this isn’t working, can I be moved to a different group?”
Before the officer could open his mouth, scary blonde chick cut in, in the strangest accent he had ever heard, “What? Where d’you get off thinking you’re better than us?”
At least, William thought that’s what she said. Everyone stopped not paying attention to turn to her incredulously. She bristled, “What?”
“What the fuck?” Smart-Ass Boy finally spoke. William was starting to get the idea that he was the kind of person who constantly said whatever was on his mind. He had a feeling that was going to get really old really fast. Smart-Ass continued, gesturing to the blonde, but addressing their officer, “Was that even real? Are we going to be expected understand that?”
“Fuck you,” The girl snarled, and William smirked.
“Aww,” Smart-Ass suddenly threw his arm around Angry, “She likes you,” He teased and Angry instantly attacked, yelling obscenities. The officer immediately intervened, and William laughed as he watched Angry attempt to be intimidating while Smart-Ass goaded him. Well, community service would at least be some form of interesting. He felt the heat of a pair of eyes on him and turned to catch the gaze of the very hot guy obviously checking him out. Some…form of interesting.
;;;
Mikey had always been a little left out, a little out of the loop. Hell, it was why he was here if you really thought about it. But for right now, here wasn’t making him feel like he was miles behind everyone else’s loop. He was at least self-aware to know he wasn’t quite with everyone here, but it was closer than he ever was at school.
The plus side to being not quite in line with everyone was he always knew when the less obvious was happening.
He watched out of the corner of his eye as Gabe, the tall, dark-haired boy with a permanent streak of outspoken, grew bored with their current task, painting over graphitized benches, and felt the need to prod at the short fuse that was Quinn. Again.
And succeeded. Mikey watched Quinn storm off after kicking over his paint bucket with mild interest.
He turned his unnoticed attention to where Travis and William were moving around each other carefully and, not so carefully, undressing each other with their eyes. Mikey let his eye follow William’s lithe form for a moment, before cutting them back to Gabe and Maja, the scary blond with the accent, and tuning into their conversation.
“What’re you in for?” Gabe asked her with a wicked smirk.
Maja, just snorted, “What do you care?”
Gabe pouted, “Hey, I’m just being friendly. You know, this is a chance to pick up some tips from other young criminals, maybe we won’t get caught next time.”
“Yeah, whatever,” Maja tried to dismiss him, but Mikey was noticing that Gabe had an unexpected tenacity, a perseverance to him. He also had the unfailing ability too just not shut up until you were so annoyed that homicide seemed like a viable option.
“All right,” Gabe grinned and looked her over, “I’m guessing shop-lifting?”
Maja rolled her eyes and gave in, more out of boredom than anything, Mikey could tell, “A girl called me a slut and I got in a fight, okay?”
“Interesting,” Gabe rocked on his heels while Maja just ignored him in favor of painting some more.
Mikey allowed his eyes to drift back to William, unable to keep them away. So he was pretty freaking gorgeous. And he knew it. While the latter wasn’t really Mikey’s taste, he could always just appreciate the former from a distance. He was apparently going to let Travis deal with William on a closer level.
“Hey weird kid,” Gabe’s voice pulled Mikey’s attention back to him and his rather impressive leer, “You look like one of those perverts.”
Mikey frowned, “I’m not a pervert.”
“You sure about that?” Gabe started panting and jacking the paintbrush right in front of his crotch. Mikey tilted his head and watched with mild disinterest.
“Not a pervert,” He said again and painted some more. Gabe was starting to bore him.
“You’re sick, you realize that, right?” Mikey heard William say, amusement marring his distaste.
“I’m just trying to get to know everyone,” Gabe reiterated wildly, “This is a wonderful opportunity!”
“Yeah, you’re still sick,” William sniffed.
“How’s it going?” Mikey looked up at the voice of their parole officer, Brian, who frowned after doing and obvious headcount, “Where’s Quinn?”
Gabe answered, obviously having declared himself unofficial group spokesperson. To be fair, Mikey thought, none of them were exactly fighting it, “Don’t know. Ran off muttering something about his grandmother and a horse.”
“Sick,” William muttered.
Then the car exploded.
;;;
Maja liked to think she was a lot tougher than she looked. People took in the blond and stature and, well, girl, and seemed to think she was some kind of pansy who needed to be taken care of. Yeah, the last ass who’d tried to ‘take care of her’ had ended up introducing his face to the edge of the bar.
But there was only so much a girl could be tough, and a boulder sized chunk of ice falling on a car pretty much reached her limit.
She heard her shrill scream fill the air with a couple of shouts from the boys around her. Then there was their probation officer shouting, “Fuck, my car!”
“That was your car?!” Gabe shouted, full of glee, “Brilliant!”
Brian whirled, obviously intent on reaming Gabe out, but then another piece of ice fell right behind him. They all ran. Maja vaguely registered the sliding click of a phone opening next to her as the hail (could it even be called hail at this size?!) began to fall in earnest, crushing and cracking the pavement.
“Open the door!” She heard William yell at Brian, who was fumbling with the keys at the door of the community center. She opened her mouth to berate him as well, but before a word could escape a shock ran through her system, throwing her backwards as the world seemed to slow down.
Sparks traveled over her body, biting at her skin softly, seeming to be searching and intent rather than painful. The world darkened until all she was aware of was the blue glow of sparks and the peripheral knowledge of the four around her. Then something clicked in her mind, right before the rest of her ‘clicked’ with the sidewalk.
The lighting returned to normal, and Maja almost believed she imagined the whole thing.
“Jesus, ow,” She heard groaning to her right and she sat up, wincing when the weight on her elbow sharpened into pain.
“The fuck was that?” She questioned no one, looking at the sky, where all signs of the storm had disappeared. Like it had never happened.
“I don’t know,” The Mikey kid sat up next to her, phone clutched in his hand protectively.
“Hey, are you okay?” Gabe suddenly called, and her eyes slid up to where Brian was breathing heavily. He looked up with crazed, bloodshot eyes and muttered something under his breath before shaking his head and closing his eyes. When he opened them, they were normal.
Maja heard William scoff, “Did he just call you a dick?”
“No way,” Gabe laughed, “I don’t think he’s allowed to do that.”
“I’m pretty sure he just called you a dick,” Travis smirked.
“Yeah, well, fuck you,” Gabe grinned, and Jesus did the dude ever stop grinning? It was starting to border on mildly creepy, and Maja was not dealing with some unhinged person.
“Seriously,” Maja felt the need to interrupt this rather unimportant debate, “What was that?”
“It was just a storm,” Gabe turned his ridiculous grin on her, “Don’t get your panties in a bunch doll.”
Maja frowned and considered kicking his ass for a couple of seconds, but…nah, not worth it, “Whatever,” She rolled her eyes, “We’re done here. I’m going home.”
;;;
Gabe slouched against the wind as he went home. That entire storm business was weird, and really? He kind of just wanted a warm house and a place where he wasn’t expected to paint any fucking benches.
But apparently, the world felt the need to throw a few more raging middle fingers his way. Which was just bloody peachy.
“Mom,” Gabe called through the locked door, “C’mon, let me in,” He knew she was in there, which made it even more ridiculous that he was apparently locked out of his own house while his Mom waited on the other side of the fucking door.
“I’m sorry Gabe,” She finally answered, “But you can’t live here anymore. Your stuff is by the garage.”
“Mom,” Gabe could here himself begging a little bit. He hated begging. It’s pretty much why he didn’t speak with his Dad anymore, “Mom, you can’t do this.”
“I can,” He heard her sigh, a long-suffering monster of a thing, and despite being pissed off from having his own damn locks changed, he perhaps felt bad.
“All right,” Gabe reasoned, “I’ll just stay somewhere else tonight, and we’ll sort this out later.”
“There’ll be no sorting,” He heard his Mom sigh, but he chose to ignore it. He could just…stay at the community center tonight. Totally. That place looked easy enough to break into. And tomorrow he could come back home and everything would be fine. Right.
;;;
“It was really weird, you know?” Maja stared up at the ceiling of her apartment, running her mind over the storm again. There was just something wrong about it, and her fucking fiancé wasn’t doing a lot to help at this point. Maja huffed as he mouthed his way down her neck, “Are you even listening to me?”
He hummed noncommittally, kind of ignoring her. Then she heard him speak. Or, it was his voice, but she knew nothing had disturbed the air in the room, no sound was actually prevalent. But it was him. And it wasn’t very nice.
Just get her top off, She heard, Then you’re in the clear.
“What the fuck?!” Maja shoved him off the bed. Hard, “What did you just say?”
“I didn’t say anything!” He frowned, but then she ‘heard’ again, Crazy fucking bitch. The guys were right, she isn’t worth my time.
“You bastard!” She screamed at him, “Get the hell out of here!”
He didn’t need telling twice. Gathering up a couple things, he was at the door in less than a minute. Before he left though, he cast one last fearful glance at Maja. There’s something wrong with her, she heard clearly. Then he was gone. Maja turned onto her side and squeezed her eyes shut tight. That most certainly wasn’t normal. Not in any way, shape, or form. Shit.
;;;
Mikey’s eyes raced across his computer screen as he watched the video for what seemed like the hundredth time. The ice falling down, them running, the screams, and then…the video stopped, probably shorted out by the lightening. Mikey frowned, the cool light of the computer screen deepening the shadows and highlights on his face grotesquely.
Something had happened to them. Mikey knew deep in his bones. There was something different about that storm, the lightening, that had done something to all of them. Now he just had to figure it out.
;;;
Sleeping a the community center wasn’t all that bad. Gabe knew he’d slept some way worse places some nights. And it’s not like anyone knew what he was doing. The place was deserted at night. No one had to know. At all. It was ingenious. And temporary. That was the important part to Gabe.
Maja was the first to show up, red-eyed and looking like the world had ended. Gabe felt it only appropriate to grin at her from his perch on his stomach on a bench he had dragged in and offer, “You look like shit sugar tits.”
“And you steal your insults from an Anti-Semitic,“ Maja snorted and shot him a glare that could wither plants. Gabe was impressed.
“Only for you,” Gabe winked at her and she dutifully ignored him. Gabe was rather taken with this scary blond girl. He would most definitely sleep with her. Maja turned from her locker and gave him an annoyed and disgusted look. Gabe shot his own confused face back at her. She blanched and turned back around. Gabe shrugged and watched for more of his fellow inmates. Weird kid, Dykey or Mikey or something of the like was next, staring dutifully at the ground.
“Pervert,” Gabe grinned in greeting, “Abduct any little girls last night?”
The kid (And Jesus, he really was a kid compared to the rest of them.) just frowned and peered at Gabe over the pair of ridiculously low-on-his-nose glasses, “I’m not a pervert.”
Gabe just rolled his eyes, “Right. You didn’t even say what you were in for.”
The kid wasn’t bothered by such though, “Nor did you.”
“Because mine is tale of intrigue and mystery,” Gabe waved his hands around to indicate just how much mystery. There was loads of waving. Loads of mystery. Yeah, “And you probably just nicked your neighbor’s lovely wife’s underwear and yanked out a good one, eh?”
Mikey (Gabe had finally settled on that. Even if it wasn’t the kids name. He didn’t particularly care, really.) finally appeared ruffled. He hunched his shoulders up and opened his locker, speaking into it, “I didn’t. I tried to set someone’s house on fire.”
Well that was certainly shutting Gabe up. No one wanted a pervert, perhaps arsonist, against them. Just in time to distract from his decision to keep his lips zipped, the lovely androgynous William shuffled in.
“Ah, if it isn’t the confuser of genders!” Gabe announced, flipping around and watching William’s haughty sniff upside-down.
“Ah, if it isn’t the ass of them all,” William shot back, going to his own locker and stripping his jeans off, “And if that’s a crack at my hair, I don’t want to hear it.”
“Oh William,” Gabe attempted a poetic tone, but knew he failed, “William, Will, Bill.”
“Don’t call me that,” William looked over at him sharply, and Gabe grinned wolfishly. Jackpot.
“Why ever not Bilvy?” Gabe grinned even wider as William shuddered.
“Innocent is not a good tone on you Saporta,” Maja interjected, and Gabe turned his gaze to where she was leaning up against the lockers, jumpsuit and fuck-the-world expression on.
“Never claimed innocence Miss…” Gabe trailed off and shot her a questioning glance.
“Ivarsson,” Maja half-smiled and Gabe considered it a win.
“Right, when I can pronounce that, I’ll get back to you,” Gabe turned his attention back to his new favorite entertainment, “Now Bilvy-”
But he was interrupted by the entrance of Travis, who only offered up a cornucopia of new opportunities.
;;;
Mikey listened and watched with amusement as Gabe annoyed William with his new nickname, and tried not to watch at all as William undressed and redressed, approaching the full length mirror at length and primping for Christ’s sake. He was very busy not watching when the first yank came. Thinking someone had snuck up on him, Mikey tried to turn his head to glimpse the attacker that had grabbed a handful of his hair and yanked back. But it wouldn’t go. Then another yank came from a different direction. Then another. And another and another and another, until Mikey couldn’t tell what direction was which anymore. Then, just as suddenly it stopped. Mikey fell to his knees as the force let go.
But something was wrong. Shaking his head, Mikey felt like there was cotton in his ears, and Gabe’s jibes at William, Maja, and Travis were somehow muffled. Everything looked a little shimmer-y as well, like he wasn’t on the same plane anymore. What the fuck was going on?
Mikey stood up slowly and looked at the others. He waved his hands a bit, “Um, guys?”
They were either really good at suddenly ignoring him, or something was up. Mikey approached William carefully and waved at him in the mirror. William didn’t respond. That’s when Mikey realized that he had no reflection. Mikey stared at the mirror, dumbfounded, while William turned and sauntered out of the room, along with everyone else.
As soon as the door swung shut, the invisible attacker was back. Mikey’s head was yanked every which once again, and when he looked back up, his reflection was there.
What the ever loving fuck?
;;;
If Maja was anyone else, she knew she would be freaking the fuck out. But she was herself, so therefore, by default, she did not freak. Sure, there’s was a niggling worry that she had started to hear voices. More often then not criticizing or dehumanizing voices that sounded just like the people around her, but still. Voices were never good, no matter how sure you were that you could suddenly hear people’s thoughts.
She heard Gabe thinking about screwing her earlier, and had definitely caught a few nasty comments from William’s head. But that wasn’t normal. People didn’t suddenly become telepathic. Unless…no way.
Maja shook her head and slapped some more paint onto the wall diligently. So far, their community service seemed to consist of painting over graffiti. Boring as it was, Maja was entirely okay with this. Really.
Then Gabe’s voice popped into her head again. She really isn’t that bad, it said, But she wouldn’t if she knew I was homeless…No, I’m not homeless.
Maja started and turned to look at Gabe, who stared back at her, shocked. His voice started up again, What was that? Shit, maybe she does know!
Maja looked at Gabe carefully, past the smile to the heavy bags under his eyes…Like he hadn’t slept all night. She caught his eye, “Are you okay?”
“Um yeah,” Gabe blustered, “Never better doll.”
Maja frowned and threw him a glare. Just a stupid ass. She sighed and dropped her brush back into the bucket, turning and leaning on a clean patch of wall. She surveyed the group, Gabe painting inappropriate signs over the graffiti, Mikey working quietly and efficiently, William and Travis doing more mental undressing than actual work, and Quinn…Quinn was no where to be seen.
“Hey,” Maja said and waited for everyone’s attention before she looked around slowly, “Where’s Quinn?”
Mikey frowned, “He’s going to violate the terms of his parole if he doesn’t show up at some point.”
Like anyone even cares, William’s despondent voice filled Maja’s head and she finally bit the bullet, “Has anything weird been happening to you guys?”
Gabe looked spooked at the question, probably worried about his evident homelessness. Travis and William just looked bored and annoyed…She was starting to guess that was their default. Mikey though, Mikey was her key she realized. He looked both interested and a little guarded. Like something was up with him, but he didn’t want to say anything in case it was a joke. Perfect.
“Like what..?” Mikey cautioned, setting his own paint brush down carefully and wrapping his arms around his thin frame.
“Like something impossible,” Maja stared at him, “Something to do with that storm.”
William snorted, attracting her attention from Mikey, “Forget about that stupid fucking storm. It was some freak occurrence. Nothing happened because of it.”
Maja opened her mouth to snap back at him, but before she could Brian decided it was a good time to check in on them. Which just, lovely, considering all the work they were managing to get done.
“Why aren’t you all working?” He crossed his arms and…huh, Maja had to admit it was actually kind of intimidating, considering that he wasn‘t a very big guy.
“Don’t we deserve breaks?” Gabe pontificated, “We must have a union or something!”
“No union,” Brian looked entirely too amused by this.
“Then we’ll start one!” Gabe looked at the rest of them, “Who’s with me?!”
“Right,” Travis snorted and turned back to painting, “You get right on that.”
William and Mikey followed suit. Maja considered it when she heard Gabe’s voice, C’mon sweetheart. You haven’t got much better to do. I can tell by lookin’.
That pretty much blew it. Maja stormed over to Gabe, but…She couldn’t do anything. He hadn’t technically said anything. And that was terrifying. So, Maja picked her next best option and ran.
Brian caught up pretty damn quick. He called out, “Hey! Stop!”
Maja slowed and caught herself on one of the tables that was scattered around the park next to the center. She took a deep breath and fought for a handle on the tears that were dangerously close to falling. She didn’t cry. She just…didn’t.
“Hey, what’s the matter?” Maja shrugged the hand that landed on her shoulder off and turned around, glassy, but dry eyed.
“Nothing, just…Bad night last night. Sorry.”
“It’s okay, just,” He choked off. Maja glanced at him sharply. What the hell? He looked back up with suddenly bloodshot eyes and a furious expression.
“Um,” Maja moved back around the table carefully, “Are you…? Um, hello? Are you okay?”
“Dirty, the whole lot of you,” He suddenly spat, and the anger on his face was nothing to the murder inherent in his voice. Maja went out, she’d seen some of the angry drunks. But this was nothing. She glanced around carefully, keeping her eyes on the panting form of Brian in front of her. There weren’t a lot of options. Shit. Shit.
Then he pounced. Moving quicker than Maja could of imagined, he was on her side of the table in an instant, crowding her back against it, surprising strength coiled in the arms that were caging her.
“None of you are going to be worth anything,” He breathed in her face, “Need to be exterminated. Gotten rid of. Cleansed.”
There was pepper spray in her pocket. Perfect. Moving ever so slowly, Maja inched her hand in, wrapping her fingers around the bottle, slipping it out even slower as this thing breathed on her and watched with bloodshot, crazed eyes. Then she sprang. It howled when the chemicals hit it’s eyes. Maja took her chance, kicking it in between it’s legs, then a knee for good measure. She ran.
;;;
Travis knew he was staring. He also knew it was obvious and indecent. But he was pretty sure William was watching him the same way and there was no way he was going to pass that up.
“So what are you in for?” Gabe looked at William as they all lounged in the center. There wasn’t any need to bother with any kind of service if the officer wasn’t around.
William smirked and moved his eyes over all of them. Travis felt his gaze linger, traveling over his own body. He fought the urge to shiver. William sighed dramatically, “It was quite annoying actually.”
“Aw, c’mon,” Gabe was completely falling for it, hook, line, and sinker. Even Travis could see it. William liked an audience, “Tell us.”
“Well, there was this party, right? And my license was already suspended, but me and Sisky, we just had to go, you know? Couldn’t miss it, it was going to be huge. So, I asked my Dad for the keys, and he just gave them to me, fucking idiot. The party was totally fucking on, so awesome. And Sisky and I…maybe we had a few drinks you know? Whatever, it wasn’t like I couldn’t drive. But we get pulled over by this policeman,” William paused and his eyes twinkled with mischief, “And he asks if we’ve been drinking. But of course not officer! Still, he gives me the breathalyzer test, and I just work it the best I’ve got,” William sat up on the edge of his seat suddenly, locking eyes with Travis from under his eyelashes, “Well officer, do I suck? Or blow?”
Jesus fucking Christ. Travis willed his mind out of his dick, lest and embarrassing situation occur, as William smirked at him, like he knew precisely what is running across Travis’s mind.
Suddenly, the doors slammed open and Maja came streaming through, quick to shut and lock them behind her, screaming.
“Where’s the fire doll face?” Gabe laughed. Maja turned to face them slowly.
“It’s the probation officer, Brian, whatever the fuck,” She panted, watching them all with terrified eyes, “He’s gone crazy.”
The silence that met this statement was thick and deadly. Gabe felt it appropriate to destroy it with mirthful laughter. It rebounded off the walls, transforming the empty space into an echo chamber of psychotic happiness. Travis just watched Maja. She was dead serious.
“What happened?” Mikey spoke up, concern in his voice, and Travis nearly jumped out of his skin. He’d forgotten the kid was even there.
“I don’t know!” Maja walked away from the door, casting a frantic glance toward it, “He was just normal one second and the next he was insane, blabbering on about how we needed to be exterminated!”
“Maybe this has to do with the storm,” Mikey sounded legitimately worried and thoughtful, like he actually believed it.
William laughed derisively, “On about that stupid storm again!? It was just a freak happenstance, seriously! Nothing happened because of it!”
“No,” Mikey shook his head, his glasses catching the light and reflecting like Gabe’s laughs, “Something happened to me, something not normal.”
“That’s called an erection,” Gabe snickered.
“Shut up,” Maja spat at him, then took a deep breath, “Something happened to me too.”
“That would be an orgasm,” Gabe interjected helpfully. They ignored him. Travis flicked his eyes back and forth between Mikey and Maja who were staring each other down in a clear contest of you tell first. He looked over at William, who had crossed his arms and was rolling his eyes.
“I-I turned invisible earlier,” Mikey broke first, wrapping his arms around his torso and staring at the floor.
“Really?” Gabe approached him, looking mean, “Can you do it again?”
“Um, I don’t know,” He shut his eyes and shook his head, “I don’t think so. I didn’t exactly try before.”
“Do it,” Gabe commanded.
Mikey shut his eyes again, tight. Travis watched the tension and concentration in his body build up, before he relaxed and opened his eyes, looking at Gabe questioningly. Gabe had adopted a wondering expression. He reached out slowly and…flicked Mikey on the forehead, “Wow, you’re invisible!”
Mikey shrank in on himself, looking hurt. Maja stepped up and shoved Gabe aside, “Stop it. He’s-I believe you.”
Mikey looked up at her carefully, “What happened to you?”
“I,” Maja looked back at Travis and William, then Mikey again, “I heard people’s thoughts.”
“Forget the orgasms,” Gabe said, “That’s lunacy.”
“Shut up!” Maja whirled on him, “Shut your fucking mouth!”
“Cuckoo, cuckoo,” Gabe whirled his finger in a circle next to his head. Next second, he was on the ground.
“Dick,” Maja growled, standing over him with her fist clenched, “Shut your fucking mouth.”
Gabe just continued to laugh, evidently ignoring the thin line of blood coming out of his mouth.
“Jesus,” William whistled.
Travis decided he had had entirely enough of this, “Whatever, I’m leaving. We’re done…or close enough, whatever,” He moved toward the door, but Maja was there, between him and the exit.
“Seriously, move,” Travis narrowed his eyes, but Maja just glared back, fierce and fearful at the same time.
“No,” She insisted, “It’s not safe. He’s out there some where.”
A knock vibrated through the air, freezing them all. Travis watched the dark outline through the frosted glass, as it pounded heavily on the door. Maja had started quaking in front of him, muttering under her breath, “Shit. Shit. Shit.”
Suddenly, a shriek like crash resounded as the glass broke under the force of…something. The probation officer stood silhouetted in the broken door, breathing heavily and bearing a metal bar as a weapon in front of him. Nobody moved. None of them dared to. Then he did. He stormed in, swinging the weapon, connecting with Maja’s head with a sickening crack that unfroze the rest of them.
Maja fell to the floor heavily. Travis vaguely heard someone scream and the sounds of the rest of them scrambling up to run away, but time wasn’t…moving right. Everything was heavy and slow, unable to react. He watched the blood pool under Maja’s head, pervading the dirty tile slowly, inching out sluggishly and thickly. The color was too bright, too bright. Travis whipped his head around to see the others, but they weren’t moving. They were frozen, mid-air, in various forms of panicked escape. What was going on? Travis looked back at the crazed form of their parole officer, his eyes bloodshot, more blood staining his weapon. This was odd.
The next moment was like a hit to the solar plexus. His breath was pulled out of his body and a…screen-like thing had appeared on his eyes like contacts, replaying the last few minutes at high speed and backward. He gasped and bent in half when the sensation finally let go. Breathing hard, Travis worked to check back into the situation. What was going on? When he finally regained enough sense to listen, he heard Maja saying, “It’s the probation officer, Brian, whatever the fuck. He’s gone crazy.”
The silence that met the statement was thick and deadly. Gabe felt it appropriate to destroy it with mirthful laughter. It rebounded off the walls, transforming the empty space into an echo chamber of psychotic happiness.
“She’s right!” Travis interrupted. This was…this was not even two minutes ago, but he could fix it, save them, save Maja, “I saw it happen!”
“Oh my god, seriously?” William muttered, but Travis ignored him.
“What do you mean, you saw it happen?” Mikey asked, and Travis turned to him, knew he would believe him.
“The officer is going to show up at the door in a couple minutes. He has a…a metal thing. He’s going to bash through the door and kill Maja,” Travis explained frantically. They needed to get out of there.
“How do you know?” Mikey questioned him. Not disbelieving, just…unsure.
“Because, I saw it,” Travis swallowed, checking the door, “I saw it happen, then I…I…I don’t know, I went back in time or something, and now I’m here and he’s coming, seriously we have to mov-”
This time around there was no knocking. Travis jumped when the glass shattered, but this time he wasn’t going to just stand there, useless. He yelled, “Run!”
He turned tail and followed his own instructions, listening to the surprised screams and pounding feet of the rest of them. They moved down the winding hallways, ending up in another little room type thing, where the hallway opened up more, for benches and lockers and such to be pushed against the wall.
“Oh my god,” William panted, “What the fuck?!”
“We need to defend ourselves,” Mikey said quietly. Travis nodded. Maja walked to the nearest set of lockers and opened the end. The body almost seemed to fall out in slow motion. Maja managed to dodge it in time, letting out a surprised yell as it hit the floor with a muted thud that made him shiver.
“Is that Quinn?” Mikey asked at large, sounding shaken.
“Yeah,” Maja backed up slowly, nearly tripping over one of their unopened paint cans.
“Is he dead?” William looked pale.
“Well, I’m not doctor, but see the way his head’s all caved in like that?” Gabe said, sounding a little too entertained for the situation.
“Ugh,” William groaned, turning away. Travis reached out a hand to pat at his arm consolingly. Then…nothing. When he came to, everyone was staring at him, shocked.
“What?” Travis asked, feeling the heat of their gazes prickling him uncomfortably.
“You just said…” Maja trailed off, giving William a considering look.
“You just tried to get with him,” Gabe had no such reservations, “Really not the right time dude.”
“I, what?” Travis shook his head, “I don’t remember.”
“William,” Maja ordered quickly, “Touch someone else.”
William reached out shakily and grasped Mikey’s arm. The change was almost immediate, Mikey straightening up and looking at William hungrily and yanking the arm he had a hold on closer, “I’m going to come all over that pretty face of yours…”
William let out a sharp cry and yanked his arm free. Mikey blinked, shaking his head as if clearing a bad feeling.
“Whoa,” Gabe looked over at him, “That’s the kind of thing you want to keep between you and your internet service provider.”
A cry suddenly resounded through the halls, sounding distinctly like a very pissed off mutant parole officer. Travis looked around, hoping that something like a baseball bat would just suddenly appear, but much to his chagrin and physics’ win, no such thing appeared.
The man stormed around the corner to where they were, and tripped over Quinn’s body. Which kind of served him right in a sick ironic way, as Travis realized that he had probably killed Quinn. While attempting to lumber to his feet though, Maja was suddenly there, swinging a paint can down onto his head with an almighty crack. He collapsed back to the floor, unmoving.
“Oh my god,” Maja dropped the paint can and brought her hands to her mouth, “I…I killed him! Oh my god.”
“Shit,” Gabe said, and whistled low, toeing the body lightly, “You got him good girl.”
“It was self defense!” Maja said, sounding wild, “You all saw it, he was crazy! He was going to kill us!”
“But no one’s going to believe that,” Mikey said slowly into the shocked silence that had fallen over that, “We’re a bunch of criminals.”
“What are we supposed to do then?” Travis asked, and Mikey met his eye with a grim expression.
“We have to hide the body. Bodies,” He said, “Act like it never happened. Tell no one.”
“Where could we hide them?” Maja asked shakily, still staring at what she had done.
“Under the end of the causeway,” Mikey said, sounding like this was entirely too planned out.
“Jesus,” Gabe said, “You’ve had a lot of time to think about this?”
“No,” Mikey defended, “It’s just…It’s the best place.”
“He’s right,” Maja said, “Yeah. But, how do we get them over there with no one noticing?”
“There’re tons of wheelchairs lying about the place,” Gabe presented, “We could just sit them up in them, cover up all the blood and, erm, caved in head bits, and we’d just look like a bunch of young offenders taking a couple specials for a walk!”
“You’re utterly vile,” William said, “But that could work.”
;;;
Mikey pushed the wheelchair with Brian in it up the slight incline with Gabe, who was huffing and puffing beside him a little bit more than necessary. Maja and Travis had Quinn in the other next to them, William walking along next to them with shovels, afraid to touch anyone.
They finally reached a spot that wasn’t paved over and stopped, staring at the ground. Mikey couldn’t believe something like this was actually happening. They had killed their probation officer and were hiding the body. Shit like this just wasn’t…real.
On top of all that too, they had superpowers. Mikey pondered his ability to turn invisible, coupled with the others. Especially with William’s, it seemed like some perverse subversive message. But, still. It was better than just being…boring. Actually…Mikey cocked his head and looked over at Gabe.
“Has anything weird happened to you Gabe?” He queried, suddenly confused.
“Oh no,” Gabe fired back sarcastically, “Hiding a couple of bodies is just my normal everyday activity.”
“I mean with like a power,” Mikey clarified, entirely fed up.
Gabe thought for a second, “No. But that doesn’t mean anything!”
Mikey shrugged and looked over at William, “Well, a shovel then? We should get to digging.”
They dug in silence, each wrapped up in their own thoughts. Or in Maja’s case, Mikey thought grimly, everyone else’s as well. It was dark before they managed to dump the bodies in and cover them up. Afterwards they stood in a loose circle, carefully looking anywhere but at each other.
“We never talk abut this,” Travis finally spoke up, “Ever.”
“Yeah,” William agreed, and Maja nodded.
“Well okay then,” Gabe said, “I don’t know about all of you, but I need a fucking drink. See ya.”
Mikey watched him go, disappearing into the night. He looked back at the rest of them, “Well, see you tomorrow.”
Part 2
;;;
William was bored. He tried to tune into what their probation officer was saying, but really, did it matter? The whole matter was idiotically dumb. So he might have driven without a license, and sure, maybe he’d been a little tipsy. Who the fuck wasn’t driving drunk these days? He managed to catch the officer saying something about them proving their worth when his thoughts were interrupted by the dark haired boy to his right, beyond the scary looking blond girl.
“We could just not have worth,” He was saying, sarcasm and smart-assery dripping from every syllable, then motioned quite rudely to the boy on his other side, “I mean, sometimes people are just born criminals, you know?”
“Who the fuck are you calling a criminal?” The boy next to him spat, instantly looking ready for fight. William had a feeling this would be a lot easier if he learned some of their names, but really, he couldn’t be bothered.
Thank god his phone rang. He pulled it out and flipped it open, “Hello?”
“Are you serious?” The officer sounded exasperated, but William ignored that in favor is Sisky’s, “What’s up?”
“At community service,” William wrinkled his nose, “Stupid you know?”
“Put the phone away!” His officer yelled.
“Who’s that?” Siska asked, not sounding terribly interested. Stupid asshole was probably having a lot more fun somewhere other than here, William thought.
“Just my probation officer,” William sighed.
“Oh yeah?” Siska questioned, voice filling with venomous glee, “Is he hot?”
“Ew, you perv,” William kicked the ground as the officer yelled at him again. He felt all the eyes of the group fixed on him and he basked for moment. He had always liked being the center of attention. He was good looking and he knew it, used it, perhaps abused it. “He’s like, old.”
“Put the damn phone away!” Okay, the officer sounded near stroke now.
“I gotta go,” William sighed and snapped the phone shut before Siska could reply, sliding it into the pocket of the ugly orange suit and splaying his hands out, “There.”
William watched with half-hearted interest out of the corner of his eye as the Smart-Ass Boy goaded on the angry one some more. His interest became a little more whole-hearted when annoyingly-hot-for-a-criminal straightened up off the rail and muttered something. William was definitely going to find out his name. Then he spoke up, “Look, this isn’t working, can I be moved to a different group?”
Before the officer could open his mouth, scary blonde chick cut in, in the strangest accent he had ever heard, “What? Where d’you get off thinking you’re better than us?”
At least, William thought that’s what she said. Everyone stopped not paying attention to turn to her incredulously. She bristled, “What?”
“What the fuck?” Smart-Ass Boy finally spoke. William was starting to get the idea that he was the kind of person who constantly said whatever was on his mind. He had a feeling that was going to get really old really fast. Smart-Ass continued, gesturing to the blonde, but addressing their officer, “Was that even real? Are we going to be expected understand that?”
“Fuck you,” The girl snarled, and William smirked.
“Aww,” Smart-Ass suddenly threw his arm around Angry, “She likes you,” He teased and Angry instantly attacked, yelling obscenities. The officer immediately intervened, and William laughed as he watched Angry attempt to be intimidating while Smart-Ass goaded him. Well, community service would at least be some form of interesting. He felt the heat of a pair of eyes on him and turned to catch the gaze of the very hot guy obviously checking him out. Some…form of interesting.
;;;
Mikey had always been a little left out, a little out of the loop. Hell, it was why he was here if you really thought about it. But for right now, here wasn’t making him feel like he was miles behind everyone else’s loop. He was at least self-aware to know he wasn’t quite with everyone here, but it was closer than he ever was at school.
The plus side to being not quite in line with everyone was he always knew when the less obvious was happening.
He watched out of the corner of his eye as Gabe, the tall, dark-haired boy with a permanent streak of outspoken, grew bored with their current task, painting over graphitized benches, and felt the need to prod at the short fuse that was Quinn. Again.
And succeeded. Mikey watched Quinn storm off after kicking over his paint bucket with mild interest.
He turned his unnoticed attention to where Travis and William were moving around each other carefully and, not so carefully, undressing each other with their eyes. Mikey let his eye follow William’s lithe form for a moment, before cutting them back to Gabe and Maja, the scary blond with the accent, and tuning into their conversation.
“What’re you in for?” Gabe asked her with a wicked smirk.
Maja, just snorted, “What do you care?”
Gabe pouted, “Hey, I’m just being friendly. You know, this is a chance to pick up some tips from other young criminals, maybe we won’t get caught next time.”
“Yeah, whatever,” Maja tried to dismiss him, but Mikey was noticing that Gabe had an unexpected tenacity, a perseverance to him. He also had the unfailing ability too just not shut up until you were so annoyed that homicide seemed like a viable option.
“All right,” Gabe grinned and looked her over, “I’m guessing shop-lifting?”
Maja rolled her eyes and gave in, more out of boredom than anything, Mikey could tell, “A girl called me a slut and I got in a fight, okay?”
“Interesting,” Gabe rocked on his heels while Maja just ignored him in favor of painting some more.
Mikey allowed his eyes to drift back to William, unable to keep them away. So he was pretty freaking gorgeous. And he knew it. While the latter wasn’t really Mikey’s taste, he could always just appreciate the former from a distance. He was apparently going to let Travis deal with William on a closer level.
“Hey weird kid,” Gabe’s voice pulled Mikey’s attention back to him and his rather impressive leer, “You look like one of those perverts.”
Mikey frowned, “I’m not a pervert.”
“You sure about that?” Gabe started panting and jacking the paintbrush right in front of his crotch. Mikey tilted his head and watched with mild disinterest.
“Not a pervert,” He said again and painted some more. Gabe was starting to bore him.
“You’re sick, you realize that, right?” Mikey heard William say, amusement marring his distaste.
“I’m just trying to get to know everyone,” Gabe reiterated wildly, “This is a wonderful opportunity!”
“Yeah, you’re still sick,” William sniffed.
“How’s it going?” Mikey looked up at the voice of their parole officer, Brian, who frowned after doing and obvious headcount, “Where’s Quinn?”
Gabe answered, obviously having declared himself unofficial group spokesperson. To be fair, Mikey thought, none of them were exactly fighting it, “Don’t know. Ran off muttering something about his grandmother and a horse.”
“Sick,” William muttered.
Then the car exploded.
;;;
Maja liked to think she was a lot tougher than she looked. People took in the blond and stature and, well, girl, and seemed to think she was some kind of pansy who needed to be taken care of. Yeah, the last ass who’d tried to ‘take care of her’ had ended up introducing his face to the edge of the bar.
But there was only so much a girl could be tough, and a boulder sized chunk of ice falling on a car pretty much reached her limit.
She heard her shrill scream fill the air with a couple of shouts from the boys around her. Then there was their probation officer shouting, “Fuck, my car!”
“That was your car?!” Gabe shouted, full of glee, “Brilliant!”
Brian whirled, obviously intent on reaming Gabe out, but then another piece of ice fell right behind him. They all ran. Maja vaguely registered the sliding click of a phone opening next to her as the hail (could it even be called hail at this size?!) began to fall in earnest, crushing and cracking the pavement.
“Open the door!” She heard William yell at Brian, who was fumbling with the keys at the door of the community center. She opened her mouth to berate him as well, but before a word could escape a shock ran through her system, throwing her backwards as the world seemed to slow down.
Sparks traveled over her body, biting at her skin softly, seeming to be searching and intent rather than painful. The world darkened until all she was aware of was the blue glow of sparks and the peripheral knowledge of the four around her. Then something clicked in her mind, right before the rest of her ‘clicked’ with the sidewalk.
The lighting returned to normal, and Maja almost believed she imagined the whole thing.
“Jesus, ow,” She heard groaning to her right and she sat up, wincing when the weight on her elbow sharpened into pain.
“The fuck was that?” She questioned no one, looking at the sky, where all signs of the storm had disappeared. Like it had never happened.
“I don’t know,” The Mikey kid sat up next to her, phone clutched in his hand protectively.
“Hey, are you okay?” Gabe suddenly called, and her eyes slid up to where Brian was breathing heavily. He looked up with crazed, bloodshot eyes and muttered something under his breath before shaking his head and closing his eyes. When he opened them, they were normal.
Maja heard William scoff, “Did he just call you a dick?”
“No way,” Gabe laughed, “I don’t think he’s allowed to do that.”
“I’m pretty sure he just called you a dick,” Travis smirked.
“Yeah, well, fuck you,” Gabe grinned, and Jesus did the dude ever stop grinning? It was starting to border on mildly creepy, and Maja was not dealing with some unhinged person.
“Seriously,” Maja felt the need to interrupt this rather unimportant debate, “What was that?”
“It was just a storm,” Gabe turned his ridiculous grin on her, “Don’t get your panties in a bunch doll.”
Maja frowned and considered kicking his ass for a couple of seconds, but…nah, not worth it, “Whatever,” She rolled her eyes, “We’re done here. I’m going home.”
;;;
Gabe slouched against the wind as he went home. That entire storm business was weird, and really? He kind of just wanted a warm house and a place where he wasn’t expected to paint any fucking benches.
But apparently, the world felt the need to throw a few more raging middle fingers his way. Which was just bloody peachy.
“Mom,” Gabe called through the locked door, “C’mon, let me in,” He knew she was in there, which made it even more ridiculous that he was apparently locked out of his own house while his Mom waited on the other side of the fucking door.
“I’m sorry Gabe,” She finally answered, “But you can’t live here anymore. Your stuff is by the garage.”
“Mom,” Gabe could here himself begging a little bit. He hated begging. It’s pretty much why he didn’t speak with his Dad anymore, “Mom, you can’t do this.”
“I can,” He heard her sigh, a long-suffering monster of a thing, and despite being pissed off from having his own damn locks changed, he perhaps felt bad.
“All right,” Gabe reasoned, “I’ll just stay somewhere else tonight, and we’ll sort this out later.”
“There’ll be no sorting,” He heard his Mom sigh, but he chose to ignore it. He could just…stay at the community center tonight. Totally. That place looked easy enough to break into. And tomorrow he could come back home and everything would be fine. Right.
;;;
“It was really weird, you know?” Maja stared up at the ceiling of her apartment, running her mind over the storm again. There was just something wrong about it, and her fucking fiancé wasn’t doing a lot to help at this point. Maja huffed as he mouthed his way down her neck, “Are you even listening to me?”
He hummed noncommittally, kind of ignoring her. Then she heard him speak. Or, it was his voice, but she knew nothing had disturbed the air in the room, no sound was actually prevalent. But it was him. And it wasn’t very nice.
Just get her top off, She heard, Then you’re in the clear.
“What the fuck?!” Maja shoved him off the bed. Hard, “What did you just say?”
“I didn’t say anything!” He frowned, but then she ‘heard’ again, Crazy fucking bitch. The guys were right, she isn’t worth my time.
“You bastard!” She screamed at him, “Get the hell out of here!”
He didn’t need telling twice. Gathering up a couple things, he was at the door in less than a minute. Before he left though, he cast one last fearful glance at Maja. There’s something wrong with her, she heard clearly. Then he was gone. Maja turned onto her side and squeezed her eyes shut tight. That most certainly wasn’t normal. Not in any way, shape, or form. Shit.
;;;
Mikey’s eyes raced across his computer screen as he watched the video for what seemed like the hundredth time. The ice falling down, them running, the screams, and then…the video stopped, probably shorted out by the lightening. Mikey frowned, the cool light of the computer screen deepening the shadows and highlights on his face grotesquely.
Something had happened to them. Mikey knew deep in his bones. There was something different about that storm, the lightening, that had done something to all of them. Now he just had to figure it out.
;;;
Sleeping a the community center wasn’t all that bad. Gabe knew he’d slept some way worse places some nights. And it’s not like anyone knew what he was doing. The place was deserted at night. No one had to know. At all. It was ingenious. And temporary. That was the important part to Gabe.
Maja was the first to show up, red-eyed and looking like the world had ended. Gabe felt it only appropriate to grin at her from his perch on his stomach on a bench he had dragged in and offer, “You look like shit sugar tits.”
“And you steal your insults from an Anti-Semitic,“ Maja snorted and shot him a glare that could wither plants. Gabe was impressed.
“Only for you,” Gabe winked at her and she dutifully ignored him. Gabe was rather taken with this scary blond girl. He would most definitely sleep with her. Maja turned from her locker and gave him an annoyed and disgusted look. Gabe shot his own confused face back at her. She blanched and turned back around. Gabe shrugged and watched for more of his fellow inmates. Weird kid, Dykey or Mikey or something of the like was next, staring dutifully at the ground.
“Pervert,” Gabe grinned in greeting, “Abduct any little girls last night?”
The kid (And Jesus, he really was a kid compared to the rest of them.) just frowned and peered at Gabe over the pair of ridiculously low-on-his-nose glasses, “I’m not a pervert.”
Gabe just rolled his eyes, “Right. You didn’t even say what you were in for.”
The kid wasn’t bothered by such though, “Nor did you.”
“Because mine is tale of intrigue and mystery,” Gabe waved his hands around to indicate just how much mystery. There was loads of waving. Loads of mystery. Yeah, “And you probably just nicked your neighbor’s lovely wife’s underwear and yanked out a good one, eh?”
Mikey (Gabe had finally settled on that. Even if it wasn’t the kids name. He didn’t particularly care, really.) finally appeared ruffled. He hunched his shoulders up and opened his locker, speaking into it, “I didn’t. I tried to set someone’s house on fire.”
Well that was certainly shutting Gabe up. No one wanted a pervert, perhaps arsonist, against them. Just in time to distract from his decision to keep his lips zipped, the lovely androgynous William shuffled in.
“Ah, if it isn’t the confuser of genders!” Gabe announced, flipping around and watching William’s haughty sniff upside-down.
“Ah, if it isn’t the ass of them all,” William shot back, going to his own locker and stripping his jeans off, “And if that’s a crack at my hair, I don’t want to hear it.”
“Oh William,” Gabe attempted a poetic tone, but knew he failed, “William, Will, Bill.”
“Don’t call me that,” William looked over at him sharply, and Gabe grinned wolfishly. Jackpot.
“Why ever not Bilvy?” Gabe grinned even wider as William shuddered.
“Innocent is not a good tone on you Saporta,” Maja interjected, and Gabe turned his gaze to where she was leaning up against the lockers, jumpsuit and fuck-the-world expression on.
“Never claimed innocence Miss…” Gabe trailed off and shot her a questioning glance.
“Ivarsson,” Maja half-smiled and Gabe considered it a win.
“Right, when I can pronounce that, I’ll get back to you,” Gabe turned his attention back to his new favorite entertainment, “Now Bilvy-”
But he was interrupted by the entrance of Travis, who only offered up a cornucopia of new opportunities.
;;;
Mikey listened and watched with amusement as Gabe annoyed William with his new nickname, and tried not to watch at all as William undressed and redressed, approaching the full length mirror at length and primping for Christ’s sake. He was very busy not watching when the first yank came. Thinking someone had snuck up on him, Mikey tried to turn his head to glimpse the attacker that had grabbed a handful of his hair and yanked back. But it wouldn’t go. Then another yank came from a different direction. Then another. And another and another and another, until Mikey couldn’t tell what direction was which anymore. Then, just as suddenly it stopped. Mikey fell to his knees as the force let go.
But something was wrong. Shaking his head, Mikey felt like there was cotton in his ears, and Gabe’s jibes at William, Maja, and Travis were somehow muffled. Everything looked a little shimmer-y as well, like he wasn’t on the same plane anymore. What the fuck was going on?
Mikey stood up slowly and looked at the others. He waved his hands a bit, “Um, guys?”
They were either really good at suddenly ignoring him, or something was up. Mikey approached William carefully and waved at him in the mirror. William didn’t respond. That’s when Mikey realized that he had no reflection. Mikey stared at the mirror, dumbfounded, while William turned and sauntered out of the room, along with everyone else.
As soon as the door swung shut, the invisible attacker was back. Mikey’s head was yanked every which once again, and when he looked back up, his reflection was there.
What the ever loving fuck?
;;;
If Maja was anyone else, she knew she would be freaking the fuck out. But she was herself, so therefore, by default, she did not freak. Sure, there’s was a niggling worry that she had started to hear voices. More often then not criticizing or dehumanizing voices that sounded just like the people around her, but still. Voices were never good, no matter how sure you were that you could suddenly hear people’s thoughts.
She heard Gabe thinking about screwing her earlier, and had definitely caught a few nasty comments from William’s head. But that wasn’t normal. People didn’t suddenly become telepathic. Unless…no way.
Maja shook her head and slapped some more paint onto the wall diligently. So far, their community service seemed to consist of painting over graffiti. Boring as it was, Maja was entirely okay with this. Really.
Then Gabe’s voice popped into her head again. She really isn’t that bad, it said, But she wouldn’t if she knew I was homeless…No, I’m not homeless.
Maja started and turned to look at Gabe, who stared back at her, shocked. His voice started up again, What was that? Shit, maybe she does know!
Maja looked at Gabe carefully, past the smile to the heavy bags under his eyes…Like he hadn’t slept all night. She caught his eye, “Are you okay?”
“Um yeah,” Gabe blustered, “Never better doll.”
Maja frowned and threw him a glare. Just a stupid ass. She sighed and dropped her brush back into the bucket, turning and leaning on a clean patch of wall. She surveyed the group, Gabe painting inappropriate signs over the graffiti, Mikey working quietly and efficiently, William and Travis doing more mental undressing than actual work, and Quinn…Quinn was no where to be seen.
“Hey,” Maja said and waited for everyone’s attention before she looked around slowly, “Where’s Quinn?”
Mikey frowned, “He’s going to violate the terms of his parole if he doesn’t show up at some point.”
Like anyone even cares, William’s despondent voice filled Maja’s head and she finally bit the bullet, “Has anything weird been happening to you guys?”
Gabe looked spooked at the question, probably worried about his evident homelessness. Travis and William just looked bored and annoyed…She was starting to guess that was their default. Mikey though, Mikey was her key she realized. He looked both interested and a little guarded. Like something was up with him, but he didn’t want to say anything in case it was a joke. Perfect.
“Like what..?” Mikey cautioned, setting his own paint brush down carefully and wrapping his arms around his thin frame.
“Like something impossible,” Maja stared at him, “Something to do with that storm.”
William snorted, attracting her attention from Mikey, “Forget about that stupid fucking storm. It was some freak occurrence. Nothing happened because of it.”
Maja opened her mouth to snap back at him, but before she could Brian decided it was a good time to check in on them. Which just, lovely, considering all the work they were managing to get done.
“Why aren’t you all working?” He crossed his arms and…huh, Maja had to admit it was actually kind of intimidating, considering that he wasn‘t a very big guy.
“Don’t we deserve breaks?” Gabe pontificated, “We must have a union or something!”
“No union,” Brian looked entirely too amused by this.
“Then we’ll start one!” Gabe looked at the rest of them, “Who’s with me?!”
“Right,” Travis snorted and turned back to painting, “You get right on that.”
William and Mikey followed suit. Maja considered it when she heard Gabe’s voice, C’mon sweetheart. You haven’t got much better to do. I can tell by lookin’.
That pretty much blew it. Maja stormed over to Gabe, but…She couldn’t do anything. He hadn’t technically said anything. And that was terrifying. So, Maja picked her next best option and ran.
Brian caught up pretty damn quick. He called out, “Hey! Stop!”
Maja slowed and caught herself on one of the tables that was scattered around the park next to the center. She took a deep breath and fought for a handle on the tears that were dangerously close to falling. She didn’t cry. She just…didn’t.
“Hey, what’s the matter?” Maja shrugged the hand that landed on her shoulder off and turned around, glassy, but dry eyed.
“Nothing, just…Bad night last night. Sorry.”
“It’s okay, just,” He choked off. Maja glanced at him sharply. What the hell? He looked back up with suddenly bloodshot eyes and a furious expression.
“Um,” Maja moved back around the table carefully, “Are you…? Um, hello? Are you okay?”
“Dirty, the whole lot of you,” He suddenly spat, and the anger on his face was nothing to the murder inherent in his voice. Maja went out, she’d seen some of the angry drunks. But this was nothing. She glanced around carefully, keeping her eyes on the panting form of Brian in front of her. There weren’t a lot of options. Shit. Shit.
Then he pounced. Moving quicker than Maja could of imagined, he was on her side of the table in an instant, crowding her back against it, surprising strength coiled in the arms that were caging her.
“None of you are going to be worth anything,” He breathed in her face, “Need to be exterminated. Gotten rid of. Cleansed.”
There was pepper spray in her pocket. Perfect. Moving ever so slowly, Maja inched her hand in, wrapping her fingers around the bottle, slipping it out even slower as this thing breathed on her and watched with bloodshot, crazed eyes. Then she sprang. It howled when the chemicals hit it’s eyes. Maja took her chance, kicking it in between it’s legs, then a knee for good measure. She ran.
;;;
Travis knew he was staring. He also knew it was obvious and indecent. But he was pretty sure William was watching him the same way and there was no way he was going to pass that up.
“So what are you in for?” Gabe looked at William as they all lounged in the center. There wasn’t any need to bother with any kind of service if the officer wasn’t around.
William smirked and moved his eyes over all of them. Travis felt his gaze linger, traveling over his own body. He fought the urge to shiver. William sighed dramatically, “It was quite annoying actually.”
“Aw, c’mon,” Gabe was completely falling for it, hook, line, and sinker. Even Travis could see it. William liked an audience, “Tell us.”
“Well, there was this party, right? And my license was already suspended, but me and Sisky, we just had to go, you know? Couldn’t miss it, it was going to be huge. So, I asked my Dad for the keys, and he just gave them to me, fucking idiot. The party was totally fucking on, so awesome. And Sisky and I…maybe we had a few drinks you know? Whatever, it wasn’t like I couldn’t drive. But we get pulled over by this policeman,” William paused and his eyes twinkled with mischief, “And he asks if we’ve been drinking. But of course not officer! Still, he gives me the breathalyzer test, and I just work it the best I’ve got,” William sat up on the edge of his seat suddenly, locking eyes with Travis from under his eyelashes, “Well officer, do I suck? Or blow?”
Jesus fucking Christ. Travis willed his mind out of his dick, lest and embarrassing situation occur, as William smirked at him, like he knew precisely what is running across Travis’s mind.
Suddenly, the doors slammed open and Maja came streaming through, quick to shut and lock them behind her, screaming.
“Where’s the fire doll face?” Gabe laughed. Maja turned to face them slowly.
“It’s the probation officer, Brian, whatever the fuck,” She panted, watching them all with terrified eyes, “He’s gone crazy.”
The silence that met this statement was thick and deadly. Gabe felt it appropriate to destroy it with mirthful laughter. It rebounded off the walls, transforming the empty space into an echo chamber of psychotic happiness. Travis just watched Maja. She was dead serious.
“What happened?” Mikey spoke up, concern in his voice, and Travis nearly jumped out of his skin. He’d forgotten the kid was even there.
“I don’t know!” Maja walked away from the door, casting a frantic glance toward it, “He was just normal one second and the next he was insane, blabbering on about how we needed to be exterminated!”
“Maybe this has to do with the storm,” Mikey sounded legitimately worried and thoughtful, like he actually believed it.
William laughed derisively, “On about that stupid storm again!? It was just a freak happenstance, seriously! Nothing happened because of it!”
“No,” Mikey shook his head, his glasses catching the light and reflecting like Gabe’s laughs, “Something happened to me, something not normal.”
“That’s called an erection,” Gabe snickered.
“Shut up,” Maja spat at him, then took a deep breath, “Something happened to me too.”
“That would be an orgasm,” Gabe interjected helpfully. They ignored him. Travis flicked his eyes back and forth between Mikey and Maja who were staring each other down in a clear contest of you tell first. He looked over at William, who had crossed his arms and was rolling his eyes.
“I-I turned invisible earlier,” Mikey broke first, wrapping his arms around his torso and staring at the floor.
“Really?” Gabe approached him, looking mean, “Can you do it again?”
“Um, I don’t know,” He shut his eyes and shook his head, “I don’t think so. I didn’t exactly try before.”
“Do it,” Gabe commanded.
Mikey shut his eyes again, tight. Travis watched the tension and concentration in his body build up, before he relaxed and opened his eyes, looking at Gabe questioningly. Gabe had adopted a wondering expression. He reached out slowly and…flicked Mikey on the forehead, “Wow, you’re invisible!”
Mikey shrank in on himself, looking hurt. Maja stepped up and shoved Gabe aside, “Stop it. He’s-I believe you.”
Mikey looked up at her carefully, “What happened to you?”
“I,” Maja looked back at Travis and William, then Mikey again, “I heard people’s thoughts.”
“Forget the orgasms,” Gabe said, “That’s lunacy.”
“Shut up!” Maja whirled on him, “Shut your fucking mouth!”
“Cuckoo, cuckoo,” Gabe whirled his finger in a circle next to his head. Next second, he was on the ground.
“Dick,” Maja growled, standing over him with her fist clenched, “Shut your fucking mouth.”
Gabe just continued to laugh, evidently ignoring the thin line of blood coming out of his mouth.
“Jesus,” William whistled.
Travis decided he had had entirely enough of this, “Whatever, I’m leaving. We’re done…or close enough, whatever,” He moved toward the door, but Maja was there, between him and the exit.
“Seriously, move,” Travis narrowed his eyes, but Maja just glared back, fierce and fearful at the same time.
“No,” She insisted, “It’s not safe. He’s out there some where.”
A knock vibrated through the air, freezing them all. Travis watched the dark outline through the frosted glass, as it pounded heavily on the door. Maja had started quaking in front of him, muttering under her breath, “Shit. Shit. Shit.”
Suddenly, a shriek like crash resounded as the glass broke under the force of…something. The probation officer stood silhouetted in the broken door, breathing heavily and bearing a metal bar as a weapon in front of him. Nobody moved. None of them dared to. Then he did. He stormed in, swinging the weapon, connecting with Maja’s head with a sickening crack that unfroze the rest of them.
Maja fell to the floor heavily. Travis vaguely heard someone scream and the sounds of the rest of them scrambling up to run away, but time wasn’t…moving right. Everything was heavy and slow, unable to react. He watched the blood pool under Maja’s head, pervading the dirty tile slowly, inching out sluggishly and thickly. The color was too bright, too bright. Travis whipped his head around to see the others, but they weren’t moving. They were frozen, mid-air, in various forms of panicked escape. What was going on? Travis looked back at the crazed form of their parole officer, his eyes bloodshot, more blood staining his weapon. This was odd.
The next moment was like a hit to the solar plexus. His breath was pulled out of his body and a…screen-like thing had appeared on his eyes like contacts, replaying the last few minutes at high speed and backward. He gasped and bent in half when the sensation finally let go. Breathing hard, Travis worked to check back into the situation. What was going on? When he finally regained enough sense to listen, he heard Maja saying, “It’s the probation officer, Brian, whatever the fuck. He’s gone crazy.”
The silence that met the statement was thick and deadly. Gabe felt it appropriate to destroy it with mirthful laughter. It rebounded off the walls, transforming the empty space into an echo chamber of psychotic happiness.
“She’s right!” Travis interrupted. This was…this was not even two minutes ago, but he could fix it, save them, save Maja, “I saw it happen!”
“Oh my god, seriously?” William muttered, but Travis ignored him.
“What do you mean, you saw it happen?” Mikey asked, and Travis turned to him, knew he would believe him.
“The officer is going to show up at the door in a couple minutes. He has a…a metal thing. He’s going to bash through the door and kill Maja,” Travis explained frantically. They needed to get out of there.
“How do you know?” Mikey questioned him. Not disbelieving, just…unsure.
“Because, I saw it,” Travis swallowed, checking the door, “I saw it happen, then I…I…I don’t know, I went back in time or something, and now I’m here and he’s coming, seriously we have to mov-”
This time around there was no knocking. Travis jumped when the glass shattered, but this time he wasn’t going to just stand there, useless. He yelled, “Run!”
He turned tail and followed his own instructions, listening to the surprised screams and pounding feet of the rest of them. They moved down the winding hallways, ending up in another little room type thing, where the hallway opened up more, for benches and lockers and such to be pushed against the wall.
“Oh my god,” William panted, “What the fuck?!”
“We need to defend ourselves,” Mikey said quietly. Travis nodded. Maja walked to the nearest set of lockers and opened the end. The body almost seemed to fall out in slow motion. Maja managed to dodge it in time, letting out a surprised yell as it hit the floor with a muted thud that made him shiver.
“Is that Quinn?” Mikey asked at large, sounding shaken.
“Yeah,” Maja backed up slowly, nearly tripping over one of their unopened paint cans.
“Is he dead?” William looked pale.
“Well, I’m not doctor, but see the way his head’s all caved in like that?” Gabe said, sounding a little too entertained for the situation.
“Ugh,” William groaned, turning away. Travis reached out a hand to pat at his arm consolingly. Then…nothing. When he came to, everyone was staring at him, shocked.
“What?” Travis asked, feeling the heat of their gazes prickling him uncomfortably.
“You just said…” Maja trailed off, giving William a considering look.
“You just tried to get with him,” Gabe had no such reservations, “Really not the right time dude.”
“I, what?” Travis shook his head, “I don’t remember.”
“William,” Maja ordered quickly, “Touch someone else.”
William reached out shakily and grasped Mikey’s arm. The change was almost immediate, Mikey straightening up and looking at William hungrily and yanking the arm he had a hold on closer, “I’m going to come all over that pretty face of yours…”
William let out a sharp cry and yanked his arm free. Mikey blinked, shaking his head as if clearing a bad feeling.
“Whoa,” Gabe looked over at him, “That’s the kind of thing you want to keep between you and your internet service provider.”
A cry suddenly resounded through the halls, sounding distinctly like a very pissed off mutant parole officer. Travis looked around, hoping that something like a baseball bat would just suddenly appear, but much to his chagrin and physics’ win, no such thing appeared.
The man stormed around the corner to where they were, and tripped over Quinn’s body. Which kind of served him right in a sick ironic way, as Travis realized that he had probably killed Quinn. While attempting to lumber to his feet though, Maja was suddenly there, swinging a paint can down onto his head with an almighty crack. He collapsed back to the floor, unmoving.
“Oh my god,” Maja dropped the paint can and brought her hands to her mouth, “I…I killed him! Oh my god.”
“Shit,” Gabe said, and whistled low, toeing the body lightly, “You got him good girl.”
“It was self defense!” Maja said, sounding wild, “You all saw it, he was crazy! He was going to kill us!”
“But no one’s going to believe that,” Mikey said slowly into the shocked silence that had fallen over that, “We’re a bunch of criminals.”
“What are we supposed to do then?” Travis asked, and Mikey met his eye with a grim expression.
“We have to hide the body. Bodies,” He said, “Act like it never happened. Tell no one.”
“Where could we hide them?” Maja asked shakily, still staring at what she had done.
“Under the end of the causeway,” Mikey said, sounding like this was entirely too planned out.
“Jesus,” Gabe said, “You’ve had a lot of time to think about this?”
“No,” Mikey defended, “It’s just…It’s the best place.”
“He’s right,” Maja said, “Yeah. But, how do we get them over there with no one noticing?”
“There’re tons of wheelchairs lying about the place,” Gabe presented, “We could just sit them up in them, cover up all the blood and, erm, caved in head bits, and we’d just look like a bunch of young offenders taking a couple specials for a walk!”
“You’re utterly vile,” William said, “But that could work.”
;;;
Mikey pushed the wheelchair with Brian in it up the slight incline with Gabe, who was huffing and puffing beside him a little bit more than necessary. Maja and Travis had Quinn in the other next to them, William walking along next to them with shovels, afraid to touch anyone.
They finally reached a spot that wasn’t paved over and stopped, staring at the ground. Mikey couldn’t believe something like this was actually happening. They had killed their probation officer and were hiding the body. Shit like this just wasn’t…real.
On top of all that too, they had superpowers. Mikey pondered his ability to turn invisible, coupled with the others. Especially with William’s, it seemed like some perverse subversive message. But, still. It was better than just being…boring. Actually…Mikey cocked his head and looked over at Gabe.
“Has anything weird happened to you Gabe?” He queried, suddenly confused.
“Oh no,” Gabe fired back sarcastically, “Hiding a couple of bodies is just my normal everyday activity.”
“I mean with like a power,” Mikey clarified, entirely fed up.
Gabe thought for a second, “No. But that doesn’t mean anything!”
Mikey shrugged and looked over at William, “Well, a shovel then? We should get to digging.”
They dug in silence, each wrapped up in their own thoughts. Or in Maja’s case, Mikey thought grimly, everyone else’s as well. It was dark before they managed to dump the bodies in and cover them up. Afterwards they stood in a loose circle, carefully looking anywhere but at each other.
“We never talk abut this,” Travis finally spoke up, “Ever.”
“Yeah,” William agreed, and Maja nodded.
“Well okay then,” Gabe said, “I don’t know about all of you, but I need a fucking drink. See ya.”
Mikey watched him go, disappearing into the night. He looked back at the rest of them, “Well, see you tomorrow.”
Part 2