AN: This is just a oneshot from Diana's POV while Caine is crazy. I'm not sure I got Drake in character, he might be a little too jovial for Drake, but I think I did pretty well with Diana.
I walked into Mose's room, disappointed but not surprised that Caine was sleeping. Thankfully he wasn't having a nightmare. . .yet. He had one almost every time he fell asleep now. It was a small room, with only a bathroom in addition to the main one. The bed laid on the left wall from the entrance, and a dresser with a mirror on top was along the right wall. The door to the bathroom was on the right wall, near the top corner.
I put the gross slush that passed for food up here at Coates on the nightstand near the bed. It was a wonder that thing was still standing, what with Caine's "Tantrums", as I called them. Those were horrifying. Even I was afraid of him when those happened.
Usually his nightmares, or hallucinations depending on wether he was sleeping or awake, consisted of him using his power and destroying something, which I was now used to. Tantrums were less common, and so much worse. Something triggers them, he usually mentions "Gaiaphage" in his rants, and he just goes insane. More than he usually is, I mean. It was during a tantrum that he pushed Chunk through a brick wall.
I remembered the day he came back from, well, wherever it was that Pack Leader took him to. It had been horrible.
Drake and I were running things while Caine was away, under his orders. Drake seemed to think that meant do whatever the hell you want. He was enjoying being in charge way too much. The only reason kids weren't chained to a wall and calling him master was because I had somehow managed to keep Whippy under control, I hated having to be the "good guy", it was bad for my reputation. Although, kids probably loved me at the moment for protecting them from Drake.
It was some young kid, probably about 10 years old that saw him first. Pack Leader was guiding him, but as soon as they reached campus ground Pack Leader bailed. I don't think Caine noticed, I don't think he even noticed he was walking until he stumbled.
Noticing how pale he was, and that he seemed to be muttering to himself, I walked out to meet him, grabbing Drake and dragging him with me on the way. I REALLY didn't like what I saw when I reached him. He was, in fact, muttering to himself, which is something Caine did not do. Of course, that wasn't the worst part, I could deal with a Caine that's picked up the habit of talking to himself. The worst part was that he didn't seem to recognize me or Drake, and when he noticed us he immediately put his hands up and pushed us back. It barely made us stumble, though, and that's what worried me the most. Were his powers failing? He was one of the first to have his powers develop, so if his were, would other people's as time wore on?
My fear of losing my power was banished in favor of real wariness when he started yelling. What the hell was Gaiaphage? By that time people had come out, and were muttering that "Fearless Leader's gone crazy." Well, I think they're right. Then I saw his eyes. Glazed, fevered, and, yep, crazed. He's definitely gone crazy. A few thoughts briefly flashed through my head (What happened out there? This is not going to look good with our subjects. Is he okay? No.), but one stood out. Crazy Boy was about to throw up. He seemed to realize that after I did, and dropped to his hands and knees before trying to vomit. Trying. Apparently The Darkness didn't serve food.
The barf spell did have one advantage, when he was done he looked up at me with semi-sane eyes. Fevered, semi-sane, pleading eyes. Pleading.
"Diana. Water." Now he recognized me. His voice was hoarse. And he was dehydrated, of course. It was kind of like a movie, the main character stumbled out of the forest, sick and crazy, begging for water. I turned to the kids that the three of us ruled. I really disliked admitting that Drake had an influential part in the FAYZ, but I guess you have to be if you're the scariest guy around.
"Everyone get back inside, Caine needs to tell us what happened when he was gone." Drake standing next to me and Caine mumbling behind me got most people to turn around and head inside, but a few stragglers stayed behind. No problem. I sent them a dirty glare, and that got rid of them fast.
I turned back to Caine in time to see him pass out, and hurried to grab him before he fell in his own sick. I leaned him back on his knees, and shot Drake the dirty look I had invented just for him.
"Help me out here?" I asked, though it was almost a demand. He just smirked at me, and watched me glare at him before rolling his eyes and wrapping his tentacle around Caine's waist, lifting him up and holding the unconscious boy out to his side when he turned back to the school and walked back to Caine's room.
"Oh,what a lovely picture." I mumbled at his back before I caught up with him, and we walked the rest of the way in silence, both of us shooting occasional glances at our damaged leader.
----
When we reached his room, Drake dumped him unceremoniously on the bed before sitting on the only chair in the room.
"So I take it we're going to be in charge for a while longer." He stated, staring at Caine. I sighed.
"It seems so." He looked up at me then, and a grin flickered over his face before he got up and grabbed the blow-horn Caine had used to make announcements at the beginning of this whole thing, just a short two weeks ago. I stared at Drake inquisitively, but he didn't even look at me as he walked into the hall and turned it up to full volume. Oh no, this could not be good.
"Citizens of Coates Academy. Caine is out of commission, and will be for an indefinite amount of time. During this lapse, I will be representing him. You all answer to me." He turned the blow horn off and walked back into the room, putting it down and smirking at me.
"Wow, Drake, I didn't think you knew words like commission and indefinite." His smirk just grew.
"I call the shrink's office." He said simply as he again walked out of the room, leaving me with Caine. Yay. I closed and locked the door before pulling a chair next to the bed. I got to be his nanny. Double Yay. I knew I didn't really have a choice. I could either stick with the crazy or the sadist. I choose the crazy. Besides, he would need someone to take care of him until he got better. Oh, I hoped he got better.
And I still did. That was two months ago, and Caine was no better. I still took care of him, though who knows why. I decided to ignore the reason that I stood by being impossible. He did not really love me, and I did NOT love him. Not not not not not. That's my story and I'm stickin' to it.
I was drawn out of my thoughts by a low moan. I focused on the bed, that either meant he was waking up or a nightmare was starting. Please let it be him waking up. I reached out and shook his shoulder, another reason I wanted him to wake up. This boy needed to eat, badly. Generally I couldn't wake him up from a nightmare, but sometimes I was lucky. This was not one of those times.
He started with the yelling, and I sat there. Watching. Occasionally I would try to control him, keep him pinned down somehow, but it never worked, and seemed to just aggravate him more. Apparently he didn't like being constricted. There went the last picture on the wall. I picked up the food and stood in the far corner of the room, farthest away from him at least. Good thing too. There went the chair I had been sitting in.
He calmed down a few minutes later, and after checking to make sure he was covered and hadn't hurt himself I cleaned up the damage. What do you know, the nightstand survived yet again. When I was done, I walked back to the bed and knelt beside it, lacking any chair to sit in. I gently smoothed his hair away from his forehead, the dark color a stark contrast with his clammy skin. I leaned in to whisper soothingly in his ear that he had to wake up. It was vital that I be gentle while he was sleeping, or I would trigger another nightmare. His eyes flickered open, and I knew from their expression that I was lucky today. Sometimes, very rarely, but sometimes, he would be almost sane when he woke up. Like he knew he was crazy, and was sorry about it. He always apologized right before he went back under, but never clarified what for. I had a few theories anyway. I quickly stood up.
"Your awake." I said bluntly, I always made myself cold when he was aware, it wouldn't do to act caring. He didn't answer, just simply nodded and sat up. I could tell that he got dizzy, so I put my right hand on his shoulder to steady him and handed him the bottle of water with my other. He drank half of it quickly, and handed it back to me without looking up from the bedspread. I twisted my back and put it back on the tray. "You need to eat." Again he didn't answer.
I gave him the bowl, and saw him grimace at it. Yeah, I know it's disgusting, but it's all we have. I said as much, and he just nodded. I waited patiently for him to finish, and once he had took the bowl and spoon back, placing them on the tray next to the water, which I offered back back to him, but he raised his hand and shook his head.
He finally looked up and me, but didn't seem to register all his surroundings. He asked the same question he did every time he was partly okay, and now he didn't disappoint.
"How long has it been?"
"Two months." I saw him wince, but he accepted it.
"That stuff really is disgusting." This was new, he usually didn't mention random things.
"Yeah. You need to shower before you go back under." He nodded again, and I supported him over to the bathroom. I allowed myself to utter one nice thing. "I'll be out here if you need me." It wasn't much, but it felt like I was overdoing it.
I heard the shower turn on, and took the chance to change the sheets. I needed to take care of as much as I could while he was able to take care of himself, it was a lot harder to do anything when he couldn't. A few minutes later the shower turned off, and I heard him yell for me as best he could.
"Yeah?" I yelled back, moving closer to door as to hear him more easily.
"Where're my clothes?" The boy thought he was going anywhere? Where'd he get that idea?
"You're just getting back in bed."
"I should walk around a while."
"You should do as I say, and you're not going anywhere until you can walk steadily on your own." That ended his arguments.
A couple minutes later he came back out, and his face actually had some color. Good. I helped him back to the bed, but I could tell that he tried to support himself. Silly boy. He looked a little more alive now, but I knew it wouldn't last. I refused to entertain the hope that he had gotten better, like I had the first time, until he said that he knew he was better.
Once he sat down I smoothed his hair away from his forehead again, except this time it was wet with water instead of sweat. He smiled gratefully at me, and I had to repress the urge to smile back.
"You're tired." I stated, it was obvious by his slouched back and slack face. Of course, he tried to sit up straighter, now it was really hard not to smile.
"I just got up."
"True. Wanna play some video games?" I countered, and he halfheartedly glared at me. He started to reply, but was distracted by something over my left shoulder. I glanced back, and there was nothing there. Oh no, hallucination. I snapped in front of his face and yelled his name, but it was no use. He was getting more worked up. I quickly laid him down and covered him with the clean sheet, and he then seemed to realize that whatever he was seeing wasn't real. His eyes momentarily looked into mine.
"Sorry, Diana." And then he was asleep, back to crazy-ville. I quickly kissed his forehead before standing up and grabbing the tray. The water I would leave on the nightstand, but the rest I would take back to the main building. Besides, I needed a new chair.
AN: I'm not too sure about the ending, but I couldn't figure out how to put in the ending I planned on. Review?