Title: Simple Tensions

Part: 4/?

Author: Naisumi

Rating: R

Disclaimer: You've _got_ to be kidding...^.~

Archive: If you want, but could you tell me at least?

Warnings: Language


Notes: Now we get into the darkness.


Additional Notes: NOT BETAD! ^^

Enjoy, and please give me C&C!!!


"blah." People speak

-- uh...scene switch



--

It all happened at once, not slowly like in the movies. I remember it all. Sometimes I get the past and present confused; talk about people as if they were here when they're not. But these few weeks--I remember them so clearly I don't ever need to question if they happened before now or the day after.

I came home from school, expecting Lance there or at least Pietro lounging around. Lance had the afternoon off from work where he all this boring secretarial shit--only for a chemical lab. It didn't really matter where he was working, though; it was still a drag, and the others could tell. There was no one there. The house had been empty.

It hadn't really bothered me; after all, it wasn't like I needed a babysitter or anything. I had been a junior at that time; perfectly capable of taking care of myself, thank you very much. I can still remember what it had been like when I had had to stay there until it had been nearly eight and Freddy had staggered in. I can still remember as if I were there...as if it were happening all over again...



"Freddy, what the hell happened?!"

The larger teen had a glazed look in his eyes, unlike any I had ever seen before. It wasn't peaceable, and it wasn't angry--wasn't any emotion recognizable. I took a step toward him, my Physics book clattering to the tile floor, trying to reach for his arm to help his staggering weight, but he twisted like a cannon, one hand bracing against the counter in a crushing vice-like grip. Freddy's other arm was in front of him held tremblingly straight as if he were trying to fend off shadowy demons from the depths of his mind.

"Freddy!" I yelled, trying to get through to him. I had never seen him like this; never this enraged. Lunging to the side, I barely missed the brunt of his weight as he stumbled, his shoulder crashing into the water stained linoleum and leaving a dent. He wasn't trying to attack me, I realized with desperation still clouding my mind; he was trying to fight something off. But what? There was nothing there. Nothing...

There was a pang of burning hurt in my ankle, and I wondered distantly if I'd broken something only to hiss in pain as Freddy rolled off of my leg, both hands now clutching the sides of his head, fingers clenched so tightly I was chilled with fright that they might tear through his pulsing veins, blood-sprung flesh, that they might shatter the tough bone of his skull like boulders and rocks and earth under his normally gentle palms. Instinctively, I recoiled, muffling a cry of pain with the inside of my elbow as I grabbed onto the leg of a chair into which my ankle had collided. It felt almost numb now with occasional spasm of pain filtering through the thick choking cloud of worry and panic that was now smothering my mind.

You're so stupid Tolensky, I berated myself, struggling to collect the calm and rationality that I had told myself and many others many times that I was capable of. C'mon...what the hell could possibly freak Freddy out this much?!

But he wasn't just 'freaked out.' Freddy was in pain. He was kneeling there, his elbows just a few inches from his knees, his head cupped, his whole lumbering frame rocking back and forth, as if he were nursing a child. I crawled toward him, one hand cautiously reaching out,

"C'mon Freddy...Freddy, it's gonna be okay, man--c'mon...what the hell happened?"

There was the slamming of the screen porch and the sound of footsteps, a beat of silence, then heavy running.

"Holy shit, what the--"

"Lance!" My head jerked up almost painfully and I stared at him, my eyes stinging with foreign warmth. I wasn't sure whether to laugh or to just retreat into myself at the sight of Lance--but despite it all, despite my hands quivering and clutching Freddy's shoulder so fuckin' piteously, I knew that Lance would fix it.

"Fuck, what the hell happened, Todd?!"

"I...I-I don't know," I said, feeling like I was on the edge, the precipice of some long engulfing plunge that I might take at any moment. This was Freddy. Freddy, who made clay frogs and etched roses in play dough with toothpicks. Freddy, who didn't mind that sometimes lightning storms scared the hell out of me because of closet monsters that were never banished by loving parents. Freddy--honest to goodness Freddy, who was always, always there.

Then I was angry. It wasn't supposed to be like this. It wasn't supposed to hurt again--not now. Bayville was supposed to be new; a fresh start. This hurt didn't belong here. I wanted the pain gone. I wanted everything gone. I wanted it to just be me and them...I wanted it to be alright after everything.

Of course it hadn't been alright. I remember everything that happened...and it hadn't been alright. It hadn't been alright when we found out what had happened to him. It hadn't been alright ever after that...

~tbc~