Chapter 4
Memories Reawakened
If things weren't already bad enough before…
Now this is where things Really got bad... Father didn't like coming down to the school normally, so he was absolutely Livid when he found out that not only did he have to come down to the school to pick up Sasha…on the day when he had a severe hangover… but also to be informed that one of his Delightful Children had to be rushed to the emergency room for severe burns that were caused by Sasha. When he arrived at the school; a fire so hot and so menacing was burning around him; it was like hell itself had erupted. He walked into the office only to be met by the sight of Sasha sitting outside of the principal's office… having been instructed that she was to go home… as she was now suspended for the rest of the week …
"You little Brat!" He snarled down at the ashamed young girl. "How dare you burn one of my Delightful Children!"
"I-It was an accident! I swear!" Sasha stuttered, only to find herself once again face to face with the fiery demon known as Father.
"I don't care what I agreed too; you're outta here! I'm sending you right back from whence you came!" Father roared angrily; his fire flaring wildly around him. He grabbed Sasha up roughly by the back of her sweatshirt and pulling her out of her wheelchair and more or less dragging her out to the waiting car… Completely leaving her wheelchair back in the school… And he commanded his chauffer or to drive the several hour drive back to Ezekiel Harth's office building…
(Several hours later)
The second the car pulled up in front of the office building Father stormed out, ordering his chauffeur to get Sasha inside… not caring how he was actually going to do this, seeing is how Sasha no longer had a wheelchair… He then stormed all the way up to Ezekiel's office, completely ignored the secretary (who didn't really pay him much mind either) and stormed straight into Ezekiel office… The old man was alone… although he was currently hooked up to several medical machines that were now behind him… and surprisingly enough he was not all that surprised to see Father back so soon.
"Take your bratty granddaughter back!" Father fumed at that the old man. Ezekiel merely raised an eyebrow.
"Not even a whole day Benedict? That must be some sort of record…" The old man stated simply; completely unafraid of the fiery demon before him. "What did poor Sasha do that has made you so angry?"
"She burned one of my Delightful Children! The boy is in the hospital right now! Am I supposed to just overlook that?" Father snapped getting right up in Ezekiel's face… Again this didn't seem to faze the older man; in fact he did something both unexpected and a bit creepy…
He laughed…
"Ah, Sasha… If only you didn't have your idiot father's blood, you two wouldn't be so similar." Ezekiel said causing Father to recoil a bit in surprise.
"What the heck are you talking about you crazy old man?" Father demanded… suddenly not liking where this conversation was going.
"Doesn't this whole thing sound just a wee bit familiar to you Benedict?" Harth questioned.
"No… why would it?" Father questioned nervously, though some thought began buzzing in the back of his head… A memory long suppressed was fighting its way back to the surface… But Father fought it; he really didn't need old memories helping to make an already bad situation worse.
"If I recall correctly, you had a nasty little incident were you burned someone… Only you did it with malice whereas I'm willing to bet that Sasha did it on accident."
… That did it…
The memory broke through into Father's consciousness and no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't get it to stop playing back… it was one of the many memories from his youth… The memories he'd sooner wish to forget then have to relive again…
(Benedicts Flashback)
He remembered it… It had happened back when he was 17 years old. While his father had long since been decommissioned by his brother Monty, the old man was still as evil as ever. And he couldn't have cared less about what was going on in Benedict's life… which wasn't really that much at the time.
Except for tonight…
Tonight he and Mariah were going to the movies. They had been planning it all week and it was a movie that they both really wanted to see. Quite frankly Benedict loved going to the movies, especially with Mariah. It was the perfect way to relax and forget about his troubles. And Mariah… She was so beautiful. He often wondered how he got so lucky to have her as his friend…
… She was like an angel…
But on that night they had gone to the movies. They had gotten a little popcorn and some sodas and were sitting quietly watching the movie; just happy to be alone together… although it didn't take long for things to turn sour... Because sitting directly behind the pair were a few of their high school classmates… and some real creeps at that. Amongst them was one boy in particular named Nick Luxin who'd always seemed to have it out for Benedict; and for a very obvious reason...
He'd had a crush on Mariah…
And he had let her know it several times before, in fact Mariah had many admirers; as she was considered to be the most beautiful girl in the entire school… and even though she could have had her pick of any boy she wanted; she chose Benedict...the school's outcast. This especially bothered Luxin; as he was the captain of the football team and believed he was meant to be the one dating the schools beauty.
But Mariah did not want anything to do with him and she'd made that completely clear to him right from the beginning… as far as she was concerned Nick was a total jerk, and she just wanted him to leave her and Benedict alone… But he never seemed to get the message. Now on this particular night, both Benedict and Mariah were enjoying watching the movie when suddenly they found their heads being pelted with popcorn and other such snack foods by Nick and three of his football buddies… they were trying as hard as they possibly could to make the rest of the movie completely unenjoyable for both Mariah and Benedict.
That was at least until when Mariah got fed up. From her purse she took out an item that she was particularly skilled with… a slingshot. She picked up a piece of an old, cruddy chocolate bar from the theaters floor, and fired it right into Nick's big open mouth when he was laughing at them… Not surprisingly he immediately choked on it because A) He hadn't seen it coming, and B) It was seriously gross... He ultimately had to leave the theater for the rest of the movie, trying to cough up the disgusting piece crud that had gone down his throat. This left Mariah and Benedict to enjoy the rest of the movie…
But when they were leaving they both got a nasty surprise... Nick was waiting outside for them along with his three friends. And they proceeded to pick a fight with Benedict, whose patience had already been worn thin due to the incident in the movie theater... not to mention that all his life Benedict put up with being pushed around… and he was even putting up with it then, at least for a little bit… until for the first time ever…
Something inside of him snapped…
He'd grabbed Nick around the throat and he ignited his entire body in searing hot flames… and he proceeded to burn the Jocks throat. Hell, he was in such a rage that he probably would've killed him had Mariah not grabbed him and somehow managed to pull him off of Nick.
From that day forward, Nick would never speak again…
His vocal cords had been completely destroyed by Benedict's fire. And it hadn't stopped there; the flames had also damaged his esophagus… leaving him reduced to having to get his nutrition through a tube for the rest of his life as well... after it had happened; this incident had really unnerved Benedict…
He didn't mean to do it…
It had been an accident, he just lost his temper. He'd just lost control!
…it had just been an accident…
(Back to the current story)
"That was… an accident." Father muttered… suddenly finding that most of his accumulated rage was beginning to ebb away... and was being replaced by a feeling of depression. Ezekiel looked smugly at the now considerably calmer Father.
"Which is probably what happened with Sasha… let's face it Benedict; your children could make a saint turn violent. They probably were the ones who started the fight; Sasha just found a way to finish it… So what's the matter Benedict? Don't like it when the past comes back to haunt you?" Harth taunted, in turn getting an evil glare from Father…
"…No… grrr… fine… I'll take her back for the rest of the month." Father groaned in defeat. No matter how much he really wanted to get rid of Sasha, the more he looked at this situation; the more he found himself reliving that night… He hated those memories, memories that seemed to exist to bring him nothing but pain. If guilt was Harth's weapon of choice, than it certainly have an effect on Father… after all… how was Father supposed to punish Sasha for the same sin he himself had once committed?
"Just try not to mentally scar her any more than you already have." He said as Father turned on his heel and walked out of the office… now realizing that the score was currently Harth 2 Father 0… as he walked toward his Town Car… his chauffer walked past him, carrying Sasha in his arms, since again Father had not brought her wheelchair with them.
"Stop!" Father said causing his chauffer to stop in his tracks. "Put the girl back in the car, she's coming back with us." Sasha blinked in surprise as she was placed back into the car…
"Why are you -?"
"Doesn't matter…" Father interrupted; then he grabbed Sasha by the collar of her sweatshirt and pulled her up to his eyelevel. "But if you ever do something like this again I'll-"
"I never will!" Sasha whispered, tears streaming down her face. "I never wanted to hurt him! I don't ever want to hurt anybody!... I just… got so angry…" This caused Father to raise an eyebrow and released his grip on the girls' collar. He then turned away from the girl and began looking out the window, content to just sit in silence for the rest of the car ride home. Everything proceeded to get extremely quiet and awkward once again… As neither Father nor Sasha so much as uttered a peep until the car pulled up in the mansions driveway late that evening… Once there, Father again roughly grabbed up Sasha by the back of her sweatshirt and proceeded to carry her inside… like a cat carrying its kitten by the scruff of its neck, only much less cute… And once inside, Father sought to remedy the whole 'lack of an actual wheelchair' problem… of course his choice in a substitution was far from adequate…
…An Office Chair…
"…really?" Sasha muttered as Father dropped her into this sad excuse for a wheelchair replacement. Father glared at her.
"I could always just let you crawl on the floor; take your pick…" he warned icily.
Sasha shut right up.
"Father- What is she still doing here?" The voices of the Delightful Children rang through the room like a shot in the dark. They were standing in the mansions doorway, having apparently returned from the hospital. Bruce's arms were heavily bandaged with gauze and medical tape, and there were several dark blotches seeping through the bandages… as his wounds were apparently still bleeding quite badly. Sasha cringed at this sight…
"I did say she was staying the month." Father said irritably as he set his sights on the Delightful's… an expression of pure horror spread across their faces like a flood.
"But Father! Look what she did!" The Delightful's yelled, gesturing to Bruce's heavily bandaged arms. But Father had suddenly gotten very menacing; fire bloomed around his body as he glared evilly down at the Delightful Children.
"Didn't I say last night that I didn't want you to fight with each other?" Father asked darkly and he began approaching the Delightful Children, making them back away from him in fear.
"But Father, we-"
"I said you were NOT to fight with each other! That's not exactly a hard direction to follow is it?" Father snapped hatefully at the now terrified Delightful Children. "And don't even so much as think about lying to me, I know you little brats were the ones who started the fight… Am I right?"
"…yes Father…" the Delightful's said suddenly becoming very interested in the floor.
"If that's the case then you deserve what you got!" He raged. "When I give you an order I expect you to obey it! Now go to bed! And DO NOT disobey me again!" The Delightful Children said nothing… they just walked slowly out of the room; careful to throw Sasha dirty looks as they walked past.
"You too… go to bed!" Father growled at Sasha, who glared back at him… but that was when a thought hit her, maybe she could-
Sasha created flames in her hands and then blasted flames behind her, successfully rocketing the office chair forward at an extremely high speed… a little faster than what Sasha had intended… judging by her screams… and by the fact that there was an extremely loud crashing sound, closely followed by the sound of something breaking… and Sasha's faint voice saying 'I'm ok'…
Father felt another migraine coming on…
(Sometime Later)
By now Sasha had gotten into her pajamas and was now sitting upright in her bed. Even in spite of the late hour, she wasn't tired at all… if she wasn't dealing with nightmares, she was having chronic insomnia… and that was just the way it had been for the last six months; Sasha found she was actually getting used to it... much to her annoyance. Currently she was wrapping something very carefully in what looked like a raggedy brown cloth.
"Maybe… this will help… just a bit." She whispered as she held this strange item very carefully… but suddenly she heard a strange sound that was getting progressively louder… what was it? It sounded like some sort of vehicle? Sasha couldn't figure it out… and since she'd destroyed the office chair; (Father had not given her another way to get around. He just picked her up and dropped her on her bed and left her to her own devices…) she couldn't exactly move about to see what was going on. She could merely wonder what was going on and stare at the open window across from her. Since it was hot and muggy outside, and uncomfortably warm inside… Father had opened the window; he did this just so Sasha wouldn't end up breaking anything else trying to open the window herself…
…Sasha nearly had a heart attack when Numbuh 1 suddenly appeared in her window…
"It's clear, move!" Numbuh 1 yelled behind him and faster than Sasha could react, all the operatives of Sector V were in her room… and they were all armed.
"W-What's going on?" Sasha muttered; she was not so much scared as she was freaked out by all of this…
"What do you think? We're saving you girl!" Numbuh 5 said to Sasha; who blinked a few times completely confused.
"Saving me? From what?"
"Isn't obvious?" Nigel said darkly. "Father is the Arch-Nemesis of the Kids Next Door! He is extremely dangerous… as I'm sure you know. Once we get you out of here you can tell us about what he's done to you and our top scientists will work on getting you back to normal-"
"Whoa, whoa, whoa! Time out! What the heck do you mean by 'What he's done to me?' the guy hasn't done anything to me!" Sasha said angrily suddenly not liking where this conversation was going. "And I'm not going anywhere!"
"What? Are you crazy?" Numbuh 2 exclaimed. Although honestly all of Sector V looked horrified at this.
"You lit up like a Roman-Candle in the middle of the cafeteria! Do you mean to tell us that Father didn't mutate you or something to make you able to do that?" Numbuh 5 questioned… Sasha's face fell in a mix of embarrassment and irritation.
"I've always been able to that… long before I ended up here. And I've only known this Father guy for about a day and a half… and I'll say it again he's done nothing to me." Sasha said her eyes seeming to glow a little bit with her growing irritation.
"Then how are you able to do all that fire stuff?" Numbuh 4 demanded.
"If you figure that out, let me know… I just… can." Sasha said with a shrug.
"Ohhh! I love your stuffed lion!" Numbuh 3 said picking up Sasha's stuffed lion and giving it a hug… totally oblivious to what was really going on. Although her sudden outburst did cause Sasha's temper to calm down a bit with this distraction.
"That's Tico; I've had him since I was little." Sasha said… but then her eyes suddenly widened. "Oh, before I forget… I made this for you Kuki." She reached over to her nightstand, opened the drawer and pulled out a beautifully crafted pink Lotus Blossom and gave it to Numbuh 3.
"WOW!" Numbuh 3 said her eyes wide with a mix of shock and awe. It really was an extremely beautiful glass flower; it also clearly took Sasha quite a bit of time to make. "Thank you so much Sasha!"
"Getting back to the task at hand;" Nigel growled regaining everyone's attention. "Alright, so dismissing the whole fire thing for now… why are you refusing to come with us?" he asked suspiciously… this caused Sasha's eyes to narrow dangerously at him.
"Because… my Grandpa told me to stay here until he's finished renovating his house. And I won't disobey my Grandpa. He would never put me in danger or lie to me. So I can't leave." Sasha said softly… although her voice didn't fully hide her growing agitation at Numbuh 1.
"Your Grandfather could be setting you up to be 'Delightfullized' do you want to end up like the Delightful Dorks?" Numbuh 1 hissed. For some reason he had taking quite a disliking to Sasha, and he couldn't help but let it show a little bit right now… could she not see that they were trying to help her?
Sasha brought up her fist and it instantly ignited with her blue flames… "Say something bad about my Grandpa again… and I'll make you regret it!" She threatened hatefully.
"Whoa calm down Sasha!" Numbuh 5 said getting between Sasha and Nigel. "Now… are you absolutely sure that you wanna stay here?"
"There are other options open you know." Hoagie commented, "We could just-"
"Really, thank you for the offer… Hoagie, Abby, Wally, Kuki… but, I can't… I just… can't." Sasha said sadly… then Wally asked the dumbest thing he could have possibly asked.
"What about your parents?" At this Sasha's eyes went wide… and for a full minute, she relived the hell of waking up in a hospital bed… her Grandfather crying next to her bed… and learning she was paralyzed… and her Mother was gone…
"I never had a Dad… and my Mother died in the accident that… paralyzed me…" Sasha said… trying to keep her voice from cracking
…The room became dead silent…
No one in Sector V knew how to react to this… even Nigel's jaw dropped. The sheer horror of what Sasha had just revealed to them… just destroyed anything they were going to say to her.
"If you really want to help me… please… just go away right now." Sasha said quickly wiping away the tears that were forming in her eyes.
"…lets go team." Nigel muttered… but his eyes wandered over to Sasha's nightstand and he took notice of Sasha's broken music box. "Wait… what's that?"
"None of your business…" Sasha growled… but she sighed and just rubbed her temples. "It's just my music box. "Now please just go… I'm sorry… but it's been a very bad day."
Numbuh 1 couldn't explain it… but he had a feeling he'd seen that music box before.
"Wait, hold on a minute…" Numbuh 2 said quickly going out through the window… and after a few minutes he returned... carrying Sasha's folded up wheelchair. "I figured you might be wanting this back." He said placing the wheelchair next to Sasha's bed.
"Thank you Hoagie…" Sasha said giving him a weak smile. She was officially worn out; although she knew that she still had some things she had to do before the night was over.
"If you ever need us, you call us." Abby said as the rest of her team made their way back out through the window they entered through. "See you at school ok?"
"I'm suspended for the rest of this week… and Abby… thank you. You guys… it's really nice to know what having friends is like." Sasha said warmly, and Numbuh 5 just gave her a quick nod before disappearing out the window and rejoining her comrades.
The only bad thing was that the sound of their aircraft taking off alerted Father to their presence…
In a mere fraction of a second after Sector V's departure, Father slammed Sasha's door open. His demonic aura was already flaring around him. If Sasha had anything to do with the Kids Next Door; that would be the final straw!
"What is going on here?" Father seethed at Sasha… who seemed completely unfazed and unafraid of him.
"Nothing… just some kids from school came to give me back my wheelchair." Sasha said simply; quickly pointing to her now present wheelchair. Father blinked a few times in surprise.
"That's all?"
"Yep. They just gave it back to me and left." Sasha said softly, before she stretched and yawned a little bit. "I'm really tired now… so… goodnight… Father." Father's eyes narrowed at the young girl… but he said nothing. He just took a deep breath and exhaled slowly. Then he just left the room… it was far too late to do anything else tonight.
But Sasha was not really going to sleep yet…
Oh no; she still had something very important to do before this night was over. She gulped nervously before once again picking up the cloth-wrapped item from beside her… just because she had to do this, didn't mean she wasn't extremely nervous about doing it at the same time. Slowly she managed to get back into her wheelchair… and after a few minutes of listening at the door to make sure that Father wasn't still wandering the mansion she opened her door and quickly wheeled her way down the hall…
…and knocked on the Delightful Children's Bedroom Door…
After a few long moments the Delightful Children managed to rouse themselves from their near coma-like state of sleep, get up, and open their door… of course Sasha wasn't there; she'd just barely managed to make it back to her own room before the Delightful's had opened their door… although she had left the wrapped up item on the floor directly in front of the Delightful Children's doorway.
"Now what is this all about?" They questioned grumpily, as they were still very tired… it hadn't been a good day at all for them. Since Bruce's arms were not functioning properly; it was the girl Delightful, Ashley, who picked up the parcel and they went back into their room… once inside they unwrapped the item… only they didn't suspect anything like what they got.
It was a large blue glass Lotus Blossom with four large leaves that were no doubt its base; it was also considerably larger than the one that Sasha had made for Numbuh 3. Although curiously enough there was a small red button right in its center. There was also a note taped to it…
I'm truly sorry for what I did to you…
-Sasha
The Delightful Children blinked a few times in shock. As they were certainly not used to people actually apologizing to them; let alone receiving any type of gift… but their eyes narrowed darkly; it wasn't like they were actually going to accept this apology. In fact they planned to smash this glass flower… but… first they figured they might as well find out what the button did… and they pressed it.
Inside of the large flower, one of Sasha's blue flames suddenly lit, causing the flower to light up with a bright, twinkling light. And then… the recorded sound from the GODSEND music box began to play…
…That's when things really got weird…
The Delightful's were suddenly crippled with searing headaches. It felt like thousands of volts of electricity were surging through them! Then all together a single sound resounded through their unified minds…the sound of something cracking… When they finally reopened their eyes; they weren't quite themselves… for some strange unknown reason-
They had reverted back to being the members of Sector Z…
Bruce, Ashley, Oogie, Lenny, and David could barely believe it! They were themselves again… well… at least for a little while. They all knew… there was no way this was permanent.
"H-How?" was all Ashley could ask…
"…I think it has something to do with this thing." Oogie whispered looking at the glass lotus blossom music box.
"Then grab it and let's get out of here!" Bruce demanded starting towards the door to their room… only he was stopped by David who pulled his overzealous leader back a little… before he stretched out his arm a little bit farther in the direction that Bruce had been going, only for his arm and the sleeve of his shirt to revert back to being 'Delightfulized'… Then as he pulled his arm back the Delightfulization wore off once again.
"It's not going to last long enough to do any good." David said solemnly. The recording of the music box was already beginning to slow down… they could feel that they weren't going to be free much longer. So with heavy hearts they laid side by side... Oogie and Lenny sat against the nearby wall next to each to each other; content to just hold hands once more. Bruce laid his head on Ashely's knees… although in spite of the terrible pain in his arms, he reached up to wipe away a tear from the taller girls eye… and lastly David, he sat in between both pairs… having been the only single member of Sector Z… but still he found the same silent joy as his friends at being himself once more… As the music box's song came to an end; the group drifted into a deep sleep, filled with dreams of what their lives once were…
At least they were themselves again… even for just a little while…
Alright once again that's it for now, thank you all so much for the reviews! I think I got the Delightful's names right… if I didn't I will fix it immediately! Alright once PLZ R&R ^_^