The Villain Academy- Chapter Six: Wish You Were Here
Hi, everyone!
Yay, I'm back with Chapter 6 of "The Villain Academy"! I'm sorry I haven't posted any chapters for a couple days, I've just had no time to do anything lately. :( But once the Christmas Show is over, my schedule should loosen up significantly. I'll be done by this time next week, so everything, particularly Hermione's ABCs, should be back on track soon, I promise. I have a Christmas thing planned and everything should be returning to normal soon.
But until then, I've grabbed a moment to post! So before you go to read Chapter Six, try Chapter Five on for size. Enjoy! This is the chapter with a blatant splash of MCR! Also in this chapter, Tori considers the Snowflakes' sister and gives Charlie a stat
6. Wish You Were Here
The day seemed to be going by slow as a glacier. After breakfast, Tori didn’t know where to go. She wanted to ask the Snowflakes where they were going, but by the time she was done cleaning up they had already gone.
Tori sat back down at the table with a huff. This undercover mission wasn’t going so well. Maybe she ought to call Uncle Charlie.
But where could she get some privacy? She still didn’t know the place well enough to find anywhere to do her top-secret conspiracy plot stuff.
Well, I got time to kill, she thought resignedly. She got up from the table, pulling her bag around to rest on her hip, and left the dining room.
One of the most jarring things about the Villain Academy was half the time it looked totally deserted. Tori hardly ran into anyone. Earlier today, she’d thought everyone else was at their classes. But apparently going to class is for non-villain losers, even in a boarding school. Tori scowled. Stupid villain school.
She wandered the hallways. Tori remembered hearing how the Villain Academy housed so many soon-to-be villains and their teachers, along with other staff. Was it all a lie? Maybe the school wasn’t as strong as the heroes anticipated. Maybe it was truly very weak. Villains were good liars, after all, and it was rare they ever told the truth anyway. Lies, lies, lies: a villain’s bread and butter. That’s what her parents and Uncle Charlie had always told her. She could remember.
After she came home from her regular, average, boring public school, where she barely had any friends, Tori would get lessons in heroes and villains from her parents and uncle. They’d taught her that villains were despicable, hypocritical liars who cared for none but themselves. Villains were bent on destroying the world instead of working to make it better.
And now that Tori was living among them, and she wasn’t so sure about that anymore. True, most all the kids, save for Rune, seemed to be bent on wrecking the world or taking it over. And maybe Rune too; she wasn’t sure just what he would have to do to impress his parents. But Tori was certain the Snowflakes at least cared for each other, and most definitely for their long-lost baby sister Aimee. She wondered what the Snowflakes’ story was. Perhaps they’d be more candid than Rune about their past. She wondered how long the Snowflakes and Aimee had been trapped in the asylum before their escape. She wondered how much younger Aimee was than them. She wondered if Aimee had made it out.
Wouldn’t it be ironic if Aimee had been discharged years ago? Tori wondered. And the Snowflakes would burst into the asylum, bent on revenge, and Aimee would be gone. Then what? Maybe they’d change, switch alignments to good and not evil and search for Aimee with changed hearts.
Tori knew she was being ridiculous. If Aimee was gone from the asylum, the Snowflakes would be more enraged than repentant. They’d probably blow up the place or kill everyone in a fit of rage.
Besides, it was a horrible thing to think. Hoping for Aimee to be gone already just so the Snowflakes would turn away from evil. An awful thought indeed.
Another thought crossed Tori’s mind. Maybe Aimee won’t even recognize or remember them, when the Snowflakes go to rescue her. Maybe she likes it there.
Maybe she’s dead.
Tori gasped; she couldn’t help it. She clapped a hand over her mouth and hurried from the hallway she was in, hoping she hadn’t been heard.
The thought came again. Maybe Aimee died already, died years ago. Maybe from sickness, maybe from mistreatment. Maybe they did tests on her, and she didn’t survive. The Snowflakes had said their little sister didn’t have powers. If Aimee was anything like the Snowflakes in build, Tori couldn’t honestly expect her to survive under heavy scrutiny of scientific testing. From what the Snowflakes had said, Tori expected the asylum they had escaped from to be awful. If they were willing to leave their baby sister alone just to escape, it had to be pretty bad. She wouldn’t be at all surprised if the Snowflakes themselves had undergone some sort of testing to determine the origin of their powers, to see if the kinetic energy they wielded with such ease could be harnessed.
At that moment Tori walked into a wall; the corridor had ended and had she been paying attention she would have turned left down another long hallway. But tragically she was not paying attention, and so walked face-first into the end of the hallway.
“OUCH!” she yelled, her head rebounding forcefully against the wooden wall. Her head pounded like a drum and her hands flew to her stinging face.
“Wow, I’m really that much of an idiot?” Tori groaned, hands over her face still. She regarded the wall with a fiery glare. “Why couldn’t you have magically molded into a door or something?”
At that moment, Tori heard a click and a door in the wall swung open, hitting her outstretched arm. “OW!” she yelled again.
Out of the hidden closet tumbled a mop, which clocked Tori right on the head.
“Dammit!” she yelled. Her whole head was throbbing so much now that she didn’t know where she was really hurting anymore.
Save for the rogue, mean-spirited mop that now lay on the floor, the closet was empty, Tori realized. She took great care to step on the mop with as much force as she could muster as she investigated further. No other brooms or cleaning fluid, nothing anyone could find useful, no reason to open the closet. Seemed like a good place to make a secret conspirator’s phone call. No spiders either.
Tori stepped into the closet, made sure no one was around to see or notice, and shut the door tight behind her.
A light with a chain hung overhead, and Tori pulled the chain.
“Let’s shed some light on this situation,” she laughed to herself. “Heh. Light. Clever one, aren’t I?”
The second she pulled the chain the light bulb it activated blew up with a bang, shedding sparks over Tori.
“Ow!” she cried, rubbing a spot on her cheek where a spark hit and where a shard of glass grazed her nose. She scowled at the broken light. “I get it! The building itself knows I’m a spy! I know it hates me! Stop trying to prove it, I’m convinced!” she informed it angrily.
As expected, it gave no rebuttal; Tori would have left the Academy immediately out of fright if it had started talking back to her.
Tori stepped over to a wall of the closet, cracking shards of glass under her feet as she went. She leaned against the wall and pulled out her cell phone from its inside pocket on the vest she wore. The screen lit up as she flipped up the screen, casting her face in electric blue light. She typed in Uncle Charlie’s cell number, looking around, on the alert for any unexpected company.
Back home, Charlie sat in his sister’s kitchen anxiously. He’d expected Tori to call earlier, but he hadn’t heard from her. He couldn’t help but worry. That was his sister’s baby girl at the Villain Academy, his only niece with her life on the line here.
The thought had crossed his mind that perhaps Torianne was far less nervous than he was, and he was miles and miles away with no relation or connection to any Tori-Lynne Parathion. He was safe, but he was positive Tori was way more confident in her work than he.
At that moment his cell phone rang with a song he’d recorded off his radio. It sat expectantly ringing on the kitchen counter
“You’re running after something that you’ll never kill, if this is what you want than fire at will…” proclaimed the phone as Charlie scrambled to pick it up. In his haste he knocked over the chair he had been sitting in. He picked up the phone as the ring tone prepared to repeat itself; he’d only recorded a bit of the song. He picked it up and said, “Hello?”
“Uncle Charlie, it’s me, Tori,” Tori said, keeping her voice low.
“Torianne! Oh, I was hoping I’d hear from you soon, I was starting to worry,” Charlie said. In reality he’d been worrying ever since he started to drive away from the Villain Academy last night in the rain, leaving Torianne to fend for herself in a school of blood-thirsty villains who would feed her to a giant mutant electric squid as soon as say hello. Probably point lasers at her too, making sure she couldn’t escape without getting fried.
“I’m fine.” Tori said.
“Why are you talking so quietly? Where are you?” Charlie asked.
“At the Villain Academy, of course,” Tori said with a roll of her eyes.
“Torianne, could you be serious for once in your life please? Once.” Charlie said. He wasn’t in the mood for his niece’s cutting sarcasm for once.
“I’m in an old broom closet. There’s nothing in here, and I don’t think there’s anyone around. But, y’know, I should be careful anyway,” Tori replied, still in a low voice.
“Yes, you definitely should be careful anyway.” Charlie said, nodding vigorously. “So, have you found out anything?”
“Not much. I got lost. There’re not as many kids here as we thought. Half the time the hallways are completely deserted,” Tori reported, glancing around nervously. Mainly for spiders; she wasn’t entirely sure the closet was clean.
“Oh, really.” Charlie said, becoming serious. “They say they’re so strong, but really they don’t have many students. Interesting. Very interesting.”
“Apparently villains don’t go to class, and I don’t know where to go, so I don’t know exactly who’s teaching,” Tori said.
“Figures,” Charlie said resignedly. “I wouldn’t expect a villain to report for class, even in a school where one learns how to be a villain.”
“I don’t think the kids in my class need much help,” Tori said with a frown, still glancing around for any people or arachnids.
“Tell me about them,” Charlie ordered.
“Well, there are five other fifteen-year-olds here. Three girls and two boys. I share a dorm with the girls. One’s Angie, but her real name’s Angara, and she’s a pyro. Like, literally. She can create flame, she can be flame, and she’s pretty insane and dangerous. She plans on murdering her parents because they didn’t accept her powers,” Tori started. “The other two are twins. They’re psychic and kinetic, like they can talk to each other psychicly and they can move stuff around. And they’re identical, so much so that no one knows who’s who. One’s named Gemelle and one’s named Tamsyn, but I have no idea who’s who and which is which, so they’re just known as the Snowflakes collectively cause they’re so pale. They want to unleash asylum patients.”
“Why?” Charlie asked, alarmed.
“They were locked up there for their powers. They escaped but they had to leave their baby sister Aimee behind. So they’re going to free her and all the other asylum patients. They say it’s to free other misunderstood people with powers, but they know it’ll also cause mass chaos. They just don’t care.”
There was a long silence from Charlie’s end.
“Uncle Charlie? Are you still there? Did something happen? Are you okay?!” Tori asked, her voice becoming increasingly frantic. She had always feared something awful happen to her parents or to her uncle, and quite wisely, really.
“I’m here; don’t have a super-freak-out, Torianne.” Charlie finally replied.
“Excuse me for worrying! I’m locked up with a thousand evil souls, I’m a bit paranoid! I feel like I’m in the asylum myself,” Tori said darkly.
“You’re not,” Charlie replied quickly. “You’re fine, you’re a smart girl and you’ll be fine, okay?”
“You sound more nervous them me. Are you sure you’re okay?” Tori asked again.
Charlie sighed. “I am nervous, okay? You…they could find you out at any time, Torianne. I’m responsible for you. I…I could never face my sister again if something happened to you,” he admitted.
“Mom would know it’s not your fault if they find me out. If anything it’ll be mine for letting them find me out. If I wasn’t careful enough to protect myself, well, that’s my fault. So don’t worry, Mom won’t shun you,” Tori said reassuringly.
“I’m still worried about you.” Charlie said.
“I’m fine, I don’t think they suspect anything,” Tori said, glancing around for unwelcome visitors once again.
Charlie nodded. “Okay. Tell me about the other two, the boys.”
“Okay. One’s named Altair, he’s a flier. His parents didn’t believe him or pay much attention to him, according to his word, so he’s planning something really bad for them. I could see it his eyes, it was so creepy. The last one’s Rune. Of all of them I think he’s the sanest, the rest are clear psycho villains. I mean, I don’t know what his plans are, but he didn’t mention anything specific like the others. He’s a dhampyr and his parents have always shunned him, so he wants to win their affection.” Tori finished.
“Do you think any of them would turn to good and help you bring down the Academy?” Charlie asked.
“Not really.” Tori frowned. “I mean, Rune’s only really sane by default, I don’t think he’d switch alignments and help us fight the Academy.”
“Okay. Just checking.” Charlie rubbed his temples as he leant on the counter. “Tell me more about the twin girls. Gemelle and Tamsyn, did you say?”
“Yeah, but we just call them the Snowflakes. Why? What do you want to know about them?” Tori asked, her brow furrowing.
“Just curious. You said they’re trying to free their sister from an asylum?” Charlie asked.
“Yeah, their younger sister. They said she doesn’t have any powers and they had to leave her behind when they escaped.” Tori said, still rather confused by her uncle’s fascination with the Snowflakes.
“Did they mention a name to you?” Charlie asked; it seemed he was just full of questions.
“Yes. They said her name’s Aimee. Do you want me to find out more?” Tori asked.
“No, I was just wondering if they could be good.” Charlie said.
“I don’t think so. They seem pretty willing to unleash the asylum’s dangerous mental patients. So be it, they said.” Tori said, remembering last night’s conversation with a shudder. The looks in their eyes had been so cold, so uncaring, so unfeeling.
“Okay. You stay safe at that madhouse, okay, Torianne? I mean it, be as careful as you can.” Charlie said.
“I will, I promise. I’ll stay safe.” Tori promised.
“Good-bye for now, Torianne. Call back if you can.” Charlie said.
“Bye,” Tori said, hanging up the phone and stowing it away in her inside pocket.
Far away from the Academy Charlie hung up his cell phone as well with a sigh. As he did so he accidentally set off his ring tone, sending it singing through a grainy screen of feedback.
Running after something that you’ll never kill…Charlie thought the words as he listened. Why did he feel like the ring tone was taunting him? Why did it fit this moment so well?
He picked up the phone with a frown. He definitely needed a new ring tone.
I really wanna make up for lost time, so there'll probably be another chapter up pretty soon.
Quote of the Day: "MY CHEESE IS DEAD!!!"
~June
Yay, I'm back with Chapter 6 of "The Villain Academy"! I'm sorry I haven't posted any chapters for a couple days, I've just had no time to do anything lately. :( But once the Christmas Show is over, my schedule should loosen up significantly. I'll be done by this time next week, so everything, particularly Hermione's ABCs, should be back on track soon, I promise. I have a Christmas thing planned and everything should be returning to normal soon.
But until then, I've grabbed a moment to post! So before you go to read Chapter Six, try Chapter Five on for size. Enjoy! This is the chapter with a blatant splash of MCR! Also in this chapter, Tori considers the Snowflakes' sister and gives Charlie a stat
6. Wish You Were Here
The day seemed to be going by slow as a glacier. After breakfast, Tori didn’t know where to go. She wanted to ask the Snowflakes where they were going, but by the time she was done cleaning up they had already gone.
Tori sat back down at the table with a huff. This undercover mission wasn’t going so well. Maybe she ought to call Uncle Charlie.
But where could she get some privacy? She still didn’t know the place well enough to find anywhere to do her top-secret conspiracy plot stuff.
Well, I got time to kill, she thought resignedly. She got up from the table, pulling her bag around to rest on her hip, and left the dining room.
One of the most jarring things about the Villain Academy was half the time it looked totally deserted. Tori hardly ran into anyone. Earlier today, she’d thought everyone else was at their classes. But apparently going to class is for non-villain losers, even in a boarding school. Tori scowled. Stupid villain school.
She wandered the hallways. Tori remembered hearing how the Villain Academy housed so many soon-to-be villains and their teachers, along with other staff. Was it all a lie? Maybe the school wasn’t as strong as the heroes anticipated. Maybe it was truly very weak. Villains were good liars, after all, and it was rare they ever told the truth anyway. Lies, lies, lies: a villain’s bread and butter. That’s what her parents and Uncle Charlie had always told her. She could remember.
After she came home from her regular, average, boring public school, where she barely had any friends, Tori would get lessons in heroes and villains from her parents and uncle. They’d taught her that villains were despicable, hypocritical liars who cared for none but themselves. Villains were bent on destroying the world instead of working to make it better.
And now that Tori was living among them, and she wasn’t so sure about that anymore. True, most all the kids, save for Rune, seemed to be bent on wrecking the world or taking it over. And maybe Rune too; she wasn’t sure just what he would have to do to impress his parents. But Tori was certain the Snowflakes at least cared for each other, and most definitely for their long-lost baby sister Aimee. She wondered what the Snowflakes’ story was. Perhaps they’d be more candid than Rune about their past. She wondered how long the Snowflakes and Aimee had been trapped in the asylum before their escape. She wondered how much younger Aimee was than them. She wondered if Aimee had made it out.
Wouldn’t it be ironic if Aimee had been discharged years ago? Tori wondered. And the Snowflakes would burst into the asylum, bent on revenge, and Aimee would be gone. Then what? Maybe they’d change, switch alignments to good and not evil and search for Aimee with changed hearts.
Tori knew she was being ridiculous. If Aimee was gone from the asylum, the Snowflakes would be more enraged than repentant. They’d probably blow up the place or kill everyone in a fit of rage.
Besides, it was a horrible thing to think. Hoping for Aimee to be gone already just so the Snowflakes would turn away from evil. An awful thought indeed.
Another thought crossed Tori’s mind. Maybe Aimee won’t even recognize or remember them, when the Snowflakes go to rescue her. Maybe she likes it there.
Maybe she’s dead.
Tori gasped; she couldn’t help it. She clapped a hand over her mouth and hurried from the hallway she was in, hoping she hadn’t been heard.
The thought came again. Maybe Aimee died already, died years ago. Maybe from sickness, maybe from mistreatment. Maybe they did tests on her, and she didn’t survive. The Snowflakes had said their little sister didn’t have powers. If Aimee was anything like the Snowflakes in build, Tori couldn’t honestly expect her to survive under heavy scrutiny of scientific testing. From what the Snowflakes had said, Tori expected the asylum they had escaped from to be awful. If they were willing to leave their baby sister alone just to escape, it had to be pretty bad. She wouldn’t be at all surprised if the Snowflakes themselves had undergone some sort of testing to determine the origin of their powers, to see if the kinetic energy they wielded with such ease could be harnessed.
At that moment Tori walked into a wall; the corridor had ended and had she been paying attention she would have turned left down another long hallway. But tragically she was not paying attention, and so walked face-first into the end of the hallway.
“OUCH!” she yelled, her head rebounding forcefully against the wooden wall. Her head pounded like a drum and her hands flew to her stinging face.
“Wow, I’m really that much of an idiot?” Tori groaned, hands over her face still. She regarded the wall with a fiery glare. “Why couldn’t you have magically molded into a door or something?”
At that moment, Tori heard a click and a door in the wall swung open, hitting her outstretched arm. “OW!” she yelled again.
Out of the hidden closet tumbled a mop, which clocked Tori right on the head.
“Dammit!” she yelled. Her whole head was throbbing so much now that she didn’t know where she was really hurting anymore.
Save for the rogue, mean-spirited mop that now lay on the floor, the closet was empty, Tori realized. She took great care to step on the mop with as much force as she could muster as she investigated further. No other brooms or cleaning fluid, nothing anyone could find useful, no reason to open the closet. Seemed like a good place to make a secret conspirator’s phone call. No spiders either.
Tori stepped into the closet, made sure no one was around to see or notice, and shut the door tight behind her.
A light with a chain hung overhead, and Tori pulled the chain.
“Let’s shed some light on this situation,” she laughed to herself. “Heh. Light. Clever one, aren’t I?”
The second she pulled the chain the light bulb it activated blew up with a bang, shedding sparks over Tori.
“Ow!” she cried, rubbing a spot on her cheek where a spark hit and where a shard of glass grazed her nose. She scowled at the broken light. “I get it! The building itself knows I’m a spy! I know it hates me! Stop trying to prove it, I’m convinced!” she informed it angrily.
As expected, it gave no rebuttal; Tori would have left the Academy immediately out of fright if it had started talking back to her.
Tori stepped over to a wall of the closet, cracking shards of glass under her feet as she went. She leaned against the wall and pulled out her cell phone from its inside pocket on the vest she wore. The screen lit up as she flipped up the screen, casting her face in electric blue light. She typed in Uncle Charlie’s cell number, looking around, on the alert for any unexpected company.
Back home, Charlie sat in his sister’s kitchen anxiously. He’d expected Tori to call earlier, but he hadn’t heard from her. He couldn’t help but worry. That was his sister’s baby girl at the Villain Academy, his only niece with her life on the line here.
The thought had crossed his mind that perhaps Torianne was far less nervous than he was, and he was miles and miles away with no relation or connection to any Tori-Lynne Parathion. He was safe, but he was positive Tori was way more confident in her work than he.
At that moment his cell phone rang with a song he’d recorded off his radio. It sat expectantly ringing on the kitchen counter
“You’re running after something that you’ll never kill, if this is what you want than fire at will…” proclaimed the phone as Charlie scrambled to pick it up. In his haste he knocked over the chair he had been sitting in. He picked up the phone as the ring tone prepared to repeat itself; he’d only recorded a bit of the song. He picked it up and said, “Hello?”
“Uncle Charlie, it’s me, Tori,” Tori said, keeping her voice low.
“Torianne! Oh, I was hoping I’d hear from you soon, I was starting to worry,” Charlie said. In reality he’d been worrying ever since he started to drive away from the Villain Academy last night in the rain, leaving Torianne to fend for herself in a school of blood-thirsty villains who would feed her to a giant mutant electric squid as soon as say hello. Probably point lasers at her too, making sure she couldn’t escape without getting fried.
“I’m fine.” Tori said.
“Why are you talking so quietly? Where are you?” Charlie asked.
“At the Villain Academy, of course,” Tori said with a roll of her eyes.
“Torianne, could you be serious for once in your life please? Once.” Charlie said. He wasn’t in the mood for his niece’s cutting sarcasm for once.
“I’m in an old broom closet. There’s nothing in here, and I don’t think there’s anyone around. But, y’know, I should be careful anyway,” Tori replied, still in a low voice.
“Yes, you definitely should be careful anyway.” Charlie said, nodding vigorously. “So, have you found out anything?”
“Not much. I got lost. There’re not as many kids here as we thought. Half the time the hallways are completely deserted,” Tori reported, glancing around nervously. Mainly for spiders; she wasn’t entirely sure the closet was clean.
“Oh, really.” Charlie said, becoming serious. “They say they’re so strong, but really they don’t have many students. Interesting. Very interesting.”
“Apparently villains don’t go to class, and I don’t know where to go, so I don’t know exactly who’s teaching,” Tori said.
“Figures,” Charlie said resignedly. “I wouldn’t expect a villain to report for class, even in a school where one learns how to be a villain.”
“I don’t think the kids in my class need much help,” Tori said with a frown, still glancing around for any people or arachnids.
“Tell me about them,” Charlie ordered.
“Well, there are five other fifteen-year-olds here. Three girls and two boys. I share a dorm with the girls. One’s Angie, but her real name’s Angara, and she’s a pyro. Like, literally. She can create flame, she can be flame, and she’s pretty insane and dangerous. She plans on murdering her parents because they didn’t accept her powers,” Tori started. “The other two are twins. They’re psychic and kinetic, like they can talk to each other psychicly and they can move stuff around. And they’re identical, so much so that no one knows who’s who. One’s named Gemelle and one’s named Tamsyn, but I have no idea who’s who and which is which, so they’re just known as the Snowflakes collectively cause they’re so pale. They want to unleash asylum patients.”
“Why?” Charlie asked, alarmed.
“They were locked up there for their powers. They escaped but they had to leave their baby sister Aimee behind. So they’re going to free her and all the other asylum patients. They say it’s to free other misunderstood people with powers, but they know it’ll also cause mass chaos. They just don’t care.”
There was a long silence from Charlie’s end.
“Uncle Charlie? Are you still there? Did something happen? Are you okay?!” Tori asked, her voice becoming increasingly frantic. She had always feared something awful happen to her parents or to her uncle, and quite wisely, really.
“I’m here; don’t have a super-freak-out, Torianne.” Charlie finally replied.
“Excuse me for worrying! I’m locked up with a thousand evil souls, I’m a bit paranoid! I feel like I’m in the asylum myself,” Tori said darkly.
“You’re not,” Charlie replied quickly. “You’re fine, you’re a smart girl and you’ll be fine, okay?”
“You sound more nervous them me. Are you sure you’re okay?” Tori asked again.
Charlie sighed. “I am nervous, okay? You…they could find you out at any time, Torianne. I’m responsible for you. I…I could never face my sister again if something happened to you,” he admitted.
“Mom would know it’s not your fault if they find me out. If anything it’ll be mine for letting them find me out. If I wasn’t careful enough to protect myself, well, that’s my fault. So don’t worry, Mom won’t shun you,” Tori said reassuringly.
“I’m still worried about you.” Charlie said.
“I’m fine, I don’t think they suspect anything,” Tori said, glancing around for unwelcome visitors once again.
Charlie nodded. “Okay. Tell me about the other two, the boys.”
“Okay. One’s named Altair, he’s a flier. His parents didn’t believe him or pay much attention to him, according to his word, so he’s planning something really bad for them. I could see it his eyes, it was so creepy. The last one’s Rune. Of all of them I think he’s the sanest, the rest are clear psycho villains. I mean, I don’t know what his plans are, but he didn’t mention anything specific like the others. He’s a dhampyr and his parents have always shunned him, so he wants to win their affection.” Tori finished.
“Do you think any of them would turn to good and help you bring down the Academy?” Charlie asked.
“Not really.” Tori frowned. “I mean, Rune’s only really sane by default, I don’t think he’d switch alignments and help us fight the Academy.”
“Okay. Just checking.” Charlie rubbed his temples as he leant on the counter. “Tell me more about the twin girls. Gemelle and Tamsyn, did you say?”
“Yeah, but we just call them the Snowflakes. Why? What do you want to know about them?” Tori asked, her brow furrowing.
“Just curious. You said they’re trying to free their sister from an asylum?” Charlie asked.
“Yeah, their younger sister. They said she doesn’t have any powers and they had to leave her behind when they escaped.” Tori said, still rather confused by her uncle’s fascination with the Snowflakes.
“Did they mention a name to you?” Charlie asked; it seemed he was just full of questions.
“Yes. They said her name’s Aimee. Do you want me to find out more?” Tori asked.
“No, I was just wondering if they could be good.” Charlie said.
“I don’t think so. They seem pretty willing to unleash the asylum’s dangerous mental patients. So be it, they said.” Tori said, remembering last night’s conversation with a shudder. The looks in their eyes had been so cold, so uncaring, so unfeeling.
“Okay. You stay safe at that madhouse, okay, Torianne? I mean it, be as careful as you can.” Charlie said.
“I will, I promise. I’ll stay safe.” Tori promised.
“Good-bye for now, Torianne. Call back if you can.” Charlie said.
“Bye,” Tori said, hanging up the phone and stowing it away in her inside pocket.
Far away from the Academy Charlie hung up his cell phone as well with a sigh. As he did so he accidentally set off his ring tone, sending it singing through a grainy screen of feedback.
Running after something that you’ll never kill…Charlie thought the words as he listened. Why did he feel like the ring tone was taunting him? Why did it fit this moment so well?
He picked up the phone with a frown. He definitely needed a new ring tone.
I really wanna make up for lost time, so there'll probably be another chapter up pretty soon.
Quote of the Day: "MY CHEESE IS DEAD!!!"
~June