“No,” Cathy mouthed softly as she shifted back, watching her friend get beaten to what would surely be his death. She brought a hand to her mouth to stop from screaming, a hand that had been propping her up. She slipped a little on the slick porcelain, then caught herself... on the yellow rubber duck Xander had had since he was a child.
-SQUEAK!-
Everything stopped. Everything was silent. The only sounds were that of a few, solitary drops of blue liquid coming out of Xander’s nose, the only motion Al and Raine exchanging glances. Raine stared at the shower curtain for a long moment... then shrugged. Smiling at Al, the both of them again got Xander up, carried him to the stairs, and hurled him out over with all their combined might. He flew for just a moment, his eyes barely open, then he landed on his face with an earth-shattering crack! and flipped over onto his shoulder, which popped out of joint with a wet snap.
Upstairs, Cathy stayed in the bathtub, huddled into herself until long after she was sure that Al and Raine were gone. Long after. When she started to hear the sounds of people taking their lunch breaks, which must have been hours after it had all begun, she decided to move. When she started down the stairs, Xander was still there. A pool of blood had grown around him in a roughly circular pattern. He didn’t seem to be breathing well. She ran to his side, wrapping her arms around him and forcing his head up onto her lap. He grunted in dismay, but said nothing else. She leaned down and kissed him on the forehead, stroking his blood-caked hair out of his eyes. And she cried.
Because it’s not worth it unless they cry.
And still, all that Xander could think were those four, simple words:
Pain is your power.
CHAPTER SIX:
REAL EVIL
Tim White marched down the hallway of Coral Beach High School, ignoring the frustrated rambling of Principal Shnieder beside him. He hated having to do this, but despite him loathing being back in these walls and the memories that they brought for him, he still couldn’t help but keep a certain swagger in his hips. There was a certain amount of joy in such a desperate situation, for he knew that he’d be gone soon. Gone far away from this horrid little town and all the cretins and weirdness that seemed to make their home here, and going all the way up to the hallowed halls of the FBI. He smiled when he thought of his badge, wondering when they would actually give it to him. He hoped that there would be a ceremony of some kind.
“...don’t like this,” Shnieder continued in his high-pitched voice, the lights gleaming off of his bald head as they strode throughout the halls. Tim could no longer tune it out, like a growing itch in the back of your mind. “Really don’t like this. Every time anything happens in this town, I’m the one who gets the brunt of the weight. I’m the one who gets his school turned upside down. I’m the one who -- ”
“Shnieder, you little worm,” Tim cut off, stopping dead and turning to stare the troll in the eye. He had to look down to do so, and from this distance Shnieder looked to be about three feet high and shrinking. “I used to have to actually listen to this crap back when I was a P.D., but now I’ve been alleviated of your gross incompetence that got a good portion of this school’s student population killed less than a month ago, moron.” He reached deep into his pocket, taking only a second to appreciate the sound of the cowering man’s gulp as it echoed through the halls. He pulled forth a picture of a girl with bright, long blonde hair and a series of freckles in a line across her face. “Greer Donaldson. She in school today, by any chance?” he asked, though clearly the question was rhetorical.
At least, it was clear to anyone with an IQ over ten. Sadly, Shnieder did not qualify. “No, she isn’t. How did you know that?”
Tim frowned. “Because I just watched her parents identify her body.”
All of the colour drained from Shnieder’s face. “She’s dead?” he asked, mortified by the notion. “She’s only fourteen.”
“She’s comatose, actually,” Tim admitted as he placed one hand on the shorter man’s wiry shoulder. “They’re still doing the rape tests, but it’s fairly obvious what happened... There was a lot of bleeding.”
Shnieder looked about ready to throw up. “I helped that girl study once or twice, back in my teaching days. Such a sweet child. What can I do to help?”
Tim put the picture back into his pocket, withdrawing his hand again with a small slip of paper. “I want all the people on this list in interviews with me. I don’t care how stupid or inconvenient it may sound.”
Shnieder took the list and went down it, reading it aloud and furrowing his brow at some of Tim’s choices. “Peterson? Harris? Smith? Thomas and Frederick I can understand, but what do you want with those first three children? It doesn’t make sense, man,” he said, trying to reason with him.
“The Drew kid, too. I’ve been trying to get hold of him since the Genblade capture.”
“Mr. Drew is not in school today,” Shnieder mumbled absent-mindedly, trying to recall where each of those students would be at this time of day.
“Isn’t that convenient,” Tim mumbled, putting a toothpick into his mouth and beginning to chew on it as the gears started to grind inside his head.
He couldn’t wait for that reassignment.
Mike had been in Chemistry class with Mr. Howards when the intercom had buzzed
