Banshee: Hello~! Chapter 8 is in the house~!
Disclaimer: I only own my OCs and the plot.
Chapter Eight: Weakness
Well you're a real tough cookie with a long history
Of breaking little hearts, like the one in me
That's okay, let's see how you do it
Put up your dukes, let's get down to it!
...
Hit me with your best shot!
Why don't you hit me with your best shot!
Hit me with your best shot!
Fire away~!
…
Nikki is a tough girl. Axel knew that for a fact.
When she sparred with him, she brought him to his knees. She's immune to his charms, and brushes off his attempts to flirt with her. But every person has a weakness. All he had to do was find hers.
It should be easy… right?
It was October, the month of fear, scary movies, and candy; the perfect time to find out someone's weakness. He was going to find out what her fear was, so he could get one step closer to her heart by comforting her when she was afraid. At the same time, Monique was also trying to find out what Nikki's fear was so she could exploit it.
…
- Friday -
…
At the beginning of school, Nikki and her friends saw a sign-up sheet on the bulletin board in front of the office, advertising a school trip to the zoo. The trip was free, and the bus will be leaving at eight o'clock on Thursday morning. It was a day-long trip. Nikki, Sandy, and Ven signed up for the trip, and the group headed off to class. A short time later, Axel an Roxas came by, and when the redhead saw her name on the list, he signed himself up as well. Roxas also signed his name.
…
Science class.
Mr. Lincoln asked Nikki and Axel to go get some mops to clean up some spilled chemicals. The chemicals were all over the floor. They complied with the teacher's request and headed to the broom closet. As they left, Monique snuck out of the classroom and followed them. When they got inside the closet, the blonde shut the door and locked it.
"Have fun, Nikki~." Monique cooed evilly. "Hope this tiny space doesn't bother you~."
With that, she snuck away.
Meanwhile, Nikki and Axel were grabbing the mops and the buckets to clean up the mess in the science room. As soon as the door shut, and they were in pitch blackness, they stopped what they were doing and Nikki turned on the light. She went over to the door and jiggled the knob, growling when the door wouldn't budge.
"What happened?" Axel asked.
"We've been locked in." Nikki said.
"Didn't Mr. Lincoln give you a key?"
"The lock is on the outside, you idiot."
"Does he have a spare key?" He asked.
"No." Nikki said. "But the janitor does. He works on this floor, but he won't be here for half an hour."
The broom closet was small. There was only enough room for some brooms and mops, and a little spot in the corner for brushes and buckets. The lack of space left Nikki and Axel standing next to each other, with barely any room to move around. If they did move, their bodies would be touching. For this reason, Nikki didn't dare to move.
"This closet is so small.." She said. "I can barely move in here…"
"You're not claustrophobic, are you?" Axel asked.
Nikki gave him a look. "Of course not." She snapped.
"If you get freaked out, you can always hold onto me~."
"Ugh.."
They spent over a half hour in the broom closet before the janitor finally came and unlocked the door. He was shocked when he found two students inside the closet, and when they got back to class and explained everything to Mr. Lincoln, their classmates made a lot of 'Seven Minutes in Heaven' jokes.
In the time they spent in the closet, Axel noticed that Nikki showed no signs of being scared. She spent the whole time with her arms crossed, and leaning against the wall, with her foot tapping impatiently. She wasn't scared; she was just irritated; irritated that she was stuck in a closet with him.
Claustrophobia was definitely out of the question.
…
- Monday -
…
Health class.
A bad thunderstorm rolled in during the school day. Everyone figured it must have started sometime during gym. The clouds were almost black, making it seem like almost nighttime. The rain was heavy, the thunder was loud, and the lightning struck brightly and often.
"That's a pretty bad storm out there." Ven pointed out as he looked out the window. "Do you think the power will go out?"
"Maybe." Nikki said.
Suddenly there was a loud BOOM as the thunder hit again. Axel saw that Nikki was a little shocked, but not scared. Everyone was shocked when a bolt of lightning struck the wire connecting to the school, and there was a mess of sparks as the wire got disconnected and fell to the ground. After that, the lights went out.
Nikki watched as her classmates started freaking out, screaming and crying as Mrs. Sanchez tried to calm them down. "They're acting like this has never happened before." She said. "This happens whenever we get a bad storm. It's nothing to freak out about."
"Thunderstorms don't scare you, do they?" Ven asked.
"Nope." Nikki said immediately. "I'm not afraid of the dark, either."
"Does anything scare you?"
Nikki paused for a second before she said, "… That's for me to know, and for everyone else to never find out."
The lightning continued to strike, and so did the thunder, lighting the rooms for a few brief seconds. Mrs. Sanchez left the room to speak with the principal. She returned a few minutes later, and told the students that no one was allowed to leave the school because of the storm and the downed power lines, and couldn't leave until the fire dept. came in and cleared it. Until then, the students and faculty were stuck in the school with no power.
"Great.." Nikki muttered. "We're stuck here until the storm stops, and until the fire dept. takes care of the power line."
"This su~ucks~!" Sandy whined. "Who knows how long it'll take them to get here!"
"The whole town must be having power issues." Nikki said. She checked her phone, and saw that there were no bars on it. "Cell phone service is shot too."
"At least we've still got the plumbing." Ven said.
"Speaking of which, I need to go to the bathroom." Nikki said.
"Want me to go with you?" Sandy asked as Nikki stood up.
"I'll be fine." Nikki assured. "Don't worry about it."
Nikki got a bathroom pass from Mrs. Sanchez and left to go to the bathroom, unaware that she was being followed. Using her flashlight keychain as a source of light, she navigated to the restroom and went inside. Outside of the restroom, Monique and two members of her squad had stolen the keys to the bathroom. There are no inside locks on the bathroom doors; this is to prevent students from locking the door from the inside to have fights in the bathroom.
"Are you sure this is a good idea?" One of the cheerleaders asked. "We could get into a lot of trouble for stealing the bathroom keys.."
"Shh. Quiet." Monique hushed her. "She's getting what she deserves. That little freak stole my boyfriend."
"Ex." The second girl chimed in.
"Shut it." The blonde snapped. "If I can't have Axel, nobody can; especially not her. If I have to take him down with her, then so be it. I have a plan for how to exact my revenge, but it's going to take a while for everything to fall into place. In the meantime," she locked the door, "take your time, Nikki. Something tells me you'll be in there for a while.."
Monique cackled sadistically, and she and the other two cheerleaders left.
When Nikki was finished, she washed her hands and attempted to leave the bathroom, but when she went to open the door, she saw that the door wouldn't budge. Thinking the door was stuck, she bumped it to try to loosen it up. When that didn't work, she tried jiggling the handle. That didn't work either. She soon realized that she had been locked in.
"Oh, that's just fucking perfect.." Nikki grumbled. "I'm locked in. It was probably some jackass taking advantage of the blackout." She sighed. "Guess I'll be in here for a while.. How am I going to pass the time?"
…
The storm finally cleared up after two hours. The fire dept. reached the school and cleared the damaged power line, and deemed it safe for everyone to leave the building. On the way out, one of the teachers realized, after a headcount, that one of the students was unaccounted for. The teachers searched the school, and came across the locked bathroom. They unlocked it, and found Nikki fast asleep inside.
"H-How could she sleep through all that?" Ven asked.
"It's Nikki." Sandy said simply. "She could sleep through the end of the world."
One of the teachers picked up Nikki and carried her, and the students were taken to the buses.
When Nikki finally woke up, she was on the bus, and she was leaning against Axel.
"Afternoon, Sunshine~." He greeted. "Sleep well?"
"Wha-?" She exclaimed, immediately jumping away from him and moving as far away as she could without falling off the seat. "What the hell is going on?"
Axel summed up everything that happened. "The storm cleared up, then the fire dept. came and cleared the line, and now everybody's going home. They found you asleep in the bathroom. Speaking of which, you're a lot less threatening when you're sleeping."
Nikki blushed, and recovered and growled, "You better not have tried anything-"
"Don't worry sweetheart, I didn't. If I'm going to touch a girl, I'd rather do it while she was awake."
She twitched. "What did I tell you about calling me 'sweetheart?'"
"To not to?"
"Exactly."
"What can I say? I'm a horrible listener."
"Apparently."
As the bus drove down the road, Axel was in deep thought. "She was trapped in a dark room during a really bad thunderstorm, and the first thing she did was take a nap? She doesn't scare easy.. Finding her weakness is going to be tougher than I thought…"
…
- Tuesday -
…
Gym class.
The class was playing dodge ball. They were playing with rubber balls, not balls that were made out of foam.
Axel and Nikki were on separate teams. He made a personal vow that if anyone was going to hit the brunette with a ball, it was going to be him. Every time one of his teammates went to throw a ball at her, he 'accidentally' bumped into them, messing up their throws. Even if he didn't interfere, it wasn't like they could hit her anyway. The girl had the reflexes of a cat.
Monique was angry. Axel was willing to make their team lose so that Nikki wouldn't get hit. As far as she was concerned, he should be doing that for her. Seeing Ven standing next to the brunette, and knowing how attached she was to him, Monique walked over to one of the jocks and asked him to throw a ball at the underclassman. He threw the ball, and it hit Ven in the face, breaking his nose. Mr. Ryan saw the ball hit him and blew his whistle frantically, stopping the game.
"Oh my God, Ven!" Nikki exclaimed. "Are you okay?"
"Aaugh!" Ven cried out. "M-My nose! I-I think it's broken!"
Nikki grasped Ven's face in her hands and examined his nose.
"Yup." She said. "It's broken, alright."
"Am I bleeding?"
"Oh yeah."
"By God, you're bleeding like a faucet, soldier!" Mr. Ryan exclaimed. He waved his large hand at the other students. "Everyone stay put! I'm taking him to the nurse."
"Don't worry Mr. Ryan, I'll take him." Nikki said.
"Very well then." Mr. Ryan agreed. "I'll go get you a hall pass."
He left momentarily to get a hall pass. Once he left, Axel approached them.
"Is he alright?" He asked.
"Yeah, he's fine. His nose is just broken." Nikki said. "What the hell do you care?"
"He's my best friend's brother." Axel said. "I have a right to be concerned."
Nikki growled. "Where's the son-of-a-bitch that threw that ball? I'll shove my fist down his throat."
"It could have been an accident." The redhead reasoned.
"It hit him too hard for it to be an accident. Whoever threw that ball did it on purpose."
He couldn't argue with that kind of logic. He took a look at Ven, who was using a wad of paper towels to cover his nose. There was so much blood, it stained the brown paper a muddy red.
"Wow, he's bleeding pretty bad." Axel pointed out, grimacing. "Doesn't all this blood bother you? Even a little?"
"No." Nikki said. "I saw my own blood more than once. I've made other people bleed too; by beating the crap out of them. It doesn't bother me."
Mr. Ryan returned a couple minutes later with the hall pass, and Nikki left with Ven. As Mr. Ryan cleaned the blood off the floor with a paper towel, Axel confronted Monique; knowing she had something to do with it.
"What the hell was that?" He demanded.
"What was what?" Monique asked innocently. "I had nothing to do with that."
"Bullshit." He snapped. "I know all about your grudge against Nikki. If you want to give her shit, that's fine because she can take anything you throw at her and brush it off. But leave Ven out of it. If I have to tell you again, we're going to have a problem. Got it memorized?"
Before the blonde had a chance to respond, Axel stormed away.
…
- Thursday -
…
Today was the day of the zoo trip.
The students signed up for the trip gathered outside the school, and the chaperones gave a headcount before everyone got on the bus. Nikki, Sandy, and Ven sat in a cluster in the back of the bus, and Axel and Roxas sat nearby.
"Are you still trying to find out what Nikki's fear is?" Roxas asked.
Axel nodded. "Yup."
"What could be at the zoo that she would be afraid of?"
"That's what I'm trying to find out." Axel said. He added in his mind, "The zoo has all kinds of animals. Odds are, one of them is bound to freak her out."
After an hour, the bus reached the zoo. The students were given free reign to go to any part of the zoo that they wanted, and there was one rule: that everyone must be back at the bus by three.
Nikki, Sandy and Ven explore the zoo, with Axel and Roxas following not far behind them.
After wandering around and seeing some of the animals, Sandy managed to drag Nikki inside the reptile and insect house. Axel deduced that she was either afraid of reptiles or bugs. There was only one way to find out. As the trio went inside, he and Roxas followed them.
The house was divided into two parts; insects and reptiles. Reptiles were on the right, and the insects were on the left.
Nikki separated from Sandy and Ven, and Roxas and Axel went their own way as well. The redhead found her looking at the snakes.
"Fear of snakes is a common phobia. Maybe they'll scare her." Axel thought as watched her.
To his dismay, she showed no fear. Instead, she was looking at the serpents in fascination. She seemed to show interest in one in particular; a Burmese Python. It's twelve foot long body was tightly coiled, and it was staring at her with its beady eyes. It showed no signs of aggression.
"Maybe not." He retracted his previous thought. "Then again, they're behind glass. If one of them happened to escape, then she might think differently."
As if on cue, there was a sudden crashing noise; broken glass, most likely, and some other zoo patrons ran by them, screaming. At that moment, the zoo speakers turned on.
"Attention, everyone." The announcer said. "A king cobra has fallen out of its containment unit. This snake is extremely venomous. Everyone must leave the reptile house immediately."
Axel looked over at Nikki. When she is about to move, he spots something near her feet. It was the escaped cobra.
"Nikki, don't move!" He yelled. "It's right behind you!"
Nikki froze when she heard a hissing noise behind her. Slowly turning around, she saw the snake a couple feet away from her. The cobra was only a juvenile, with bright colors adorning its body. Its hood was extended, and it was standing up and hissing; a sign of aggression. The cobra soon turned around and slunk away, and as soon as Nikki saw the back of its hood, she moved in. To Axel's amazement, she grabbed the cobra just behind its head, and grabbed the end of its tail. The snake was hissing still, but when she whistled to it in a certain tune, it stopped. Axel was dumbstruck.
"She just grabbed a venomous snake, a king cobra no less, charmed it, and showed it no sign of fear. This chick's got balls of steel.. I think it's safe to say that she is definitely not afraid of snakes."
Zoo officials soon arrived to take the juvenile cobra, and were shocked to find that a high school student easily subdued a venomous king cobra. They took the snake away to put it in a temporary container, and the zoo announcers declared that it was safe to come back into the house. However, the area where its former container fell was taped off so no one could step on the broken glass.
"That was impressive." Axel said. "You showed that snake who's boss."
Nikki scratched the back of her head. "Thanks. I saw something like that on Animal Planet once."
The two walked towards the exit, and on the way, they passed the insects, and Nikki spotted a giant spider near the entrance to the insect house. She froze and stared at the spider with the 'deer-in-headlights' look, and it seemed to be staring back at her. When Axel moved to open the door, he stopped when he didn't hear any footsteps behind him. He turned around and saw Nikki staring at the spider with something in her eyes; was it fear?
"Hey, is something wrong?" He asked.
"Hm?" She shook her head. "Oh, it's nothing. I was noticing how big that spider is."
"Wow." Axel whistled after looking at the spider. "That is a big spider. Want to go take a look at it?"
Nikki shook her head. "Not really."
"Come on." The redhead urged. "You're not afraid of a little bug, are you?"
"What? No! Of course not!" Nikki denied.
Axel and Nikki walked over to the container and looked at the spider, and Axel read the description under its container.
"'Solifugae are an order of Arachnida, known as camel spiders, wind scorpions and sun spiders or solifuges, comprising more than 1,000 described species in about 153 genera. They may grow to a length of 300 mm (12 in) including legs, and have a body comprising an opisthosoma (abdomen) and a prosoma (head) with conspicuously large chelicerae, which are also used for stridulation. Most species live in deserts and feed opportunistically on ground-dwelling arthropods and other animals. A number of urban legends exaggerate the size and speed of Solifugae, and their potential danger to humans.' A camel spider, huh? Wow, look at the size of that thing. How big do you think it is?"
"Probably…" Nikki looked at the spider, and guessed, "a foot. Can we go now? That thing is staring at me and it's making me uncomfortable. Besides, I want to see the otters."
"As you wish, ma dame."
"Will you stop speaking French?" Nikki said. "You're even creepier than the spider."
"Ah~!" Axel exclaimed dramatically. "Vous me blessez, ma beauté regardée de bleu~!"
Nikki smacked him. "Stop it! I can't understand a word you're saying!"
Axel laughed.
As they exited the house, Monique was watching them from around the corner, with two of her squad members behind her.
"Monique, this isn't working." Said one of the cheerleaders. "We let the snake out, but she didn't even bat an eyelash. Face it, nothing scares her."
"Yeah." The second cheerleader agreed. "Maybe we should forget about the whole thing and stop before we get in trouble."
Monique shook her head, smirking evilly. "There's no need. I have all the information I need. Let's go girls. I have to put in a suggestion for this year's Halloween theme…"
…
- Monday -
…
When Nikki walked into school Monday morning, she immediately wanted to leave.
Fake webs covered every wall and hung in the doorways, and frighteningly realistic spiders were hanging from ceilings, doors, and walls. The theme for the year was spiders.
Spiders, spiders, spiders.
Spiders everywhere.
Students were allowed to wear their costumes on Halloween, so everyone was dressed up; even the teachers. To her dismay, some were dressed like spiders.
For a costume, Nikki was dressed as a rabbit; her favorite animal. She wore all white, with rabbit paw gloves and shoes, painted whiskers, and a headband with rabbit ears. She and her friends dressed up the same way every year. Sandy dressed as an otter, Harriet was a Gothic princess, Cassandra was a bumblebee, and Maggie was a witch, and Nikki herself was always a rabbit.
"Hey, Nikki!"
Ven approached her, wearing a strange suit of armor, and carried around a key-like blade made out of wood.
"How do you like my costume?" He asked. "Is it badass?"
"It's badass, Ven." Nikki said.
"Thanks." Said Ven. "My friends back in Radiant Garden made it for me. Aqua made the armor and Terra made me this blade. What's your costume?"
"I'm a rabbit." She said.
"Shouldn't you be wearing a bunny suit?"
"I am not wearing a bunny suit. I'd look stupid."
Nikki checked the clock.
"Uh-oh." She said. "We'd better get to gym class and change, or we'll be late and Mr. Ryan will make us run laps.."
Ven's face went pale, and the pair hurried to the gym and into the lockers rooms so they could change before class started.
…
Lunch.
Nikki was uneasy.
She went the whole half of the day seeing nothing but spiders. She just wanted to get through the day and just go home so she could get ready for trick-or-treating.
"Hey Nikki~."
Nikki turned around and saw Monique standing behind her, with a conniving smirk on her face and her hands behind her back. She stood up, and readied herself for a confrontation.
"Monique? What are you-?"
"Boo~!" Monique blurted out, and threw something from her hands; a handful of fake spiders.
Nikki stared wide-eyed as the spiders flew towards her, and screamed when they hit her, flailing her arms around to get them off. The spiders were sticky, so they stuck to her. She stumbled backward and tripped over the chair, knocking a nearby student's tray out of their hands. The food fell off the tray and the metal hit her in the head and clattered off the floor. Her white costume was stained to the colors of the food. She fell to the floor, screaming as she tried to get the remaining spiders off of her. When she stopped, she suddenly realized that everyone had seen her have a spazz attack. The other students stared at her for a few seconds before they burst into all-out laughter. Humiliated, Nikki got up and ran out of the cafeteria.
Axel had seen the whole thing. He knew that Nikki was afraid of spiders since Thursday when she saw the camel spider and stared at it like a deer in headlights. There was fear in her eyes then, and it was definitely there a few seconds ago when she had fake adhesive spiders thrown at her.
He was disgusted. Everyone else may have seen it as a harmless prank, but he saw it for what it really was; humiliation.
Then again, maybe there was a silver lining to this mess. Everyone was sure to exploit her fear of spiders now that they knew.
This could work to his advantage.
He left the cafeteria and headed for the bathroom; the one place where girls go to hide. He had no qualms about entering the girl's bathroom, pushing the door open and stepping inside. Even from outside the door, he could hear her crying. He pushed on the stall doors, stopping when he reached the one that wouldn't open.
"I know you're in there, Nikki." He said.
"Get away from me!" She yelled. "Why are you even here? Do you want to laugh at me too? Oh, guess what, big, tough, scary Nikki is afraid of a little spider! Ha ha ha! Go ahead! Laugh! Get it all out of your system!"
"I'm not here to laugh at you, Nikki." Axel said sincerely. "Come on, open the door."
There was a few seconds of silence before the lock on the stall door clicked, and it slowly opened.
Her eyes were brimming with tears, and her face was covered with tear trails, mustard smudges, and smeared bunny makeup.
"If you're not here to laugh at me, then what are you here for?" She asked.
"I just wanted to see if you were okay." He said.
"Well, considering I was just humiliated in front of the entire school, I'm just peachy." She drawled sarcastically. "How the hell did Monique find out? I never even… Unless… unless she saw the way I acted at the zoo when we were looking at that camel spider.. She's always trying to hurt me, so I'm not surprised that she pulled this shit."
"Speaking of spiders," Axel plucked an adhesive spider off her head. "you missed one."
"AH! Get that thing away from me!" Nikki yelled, smacking the spider out of his hand. "I hate spiders!"
Instead of flying across the room, the spider stuck to her hand. Nikki panicked, and shook her hand frantically, trying to get the fake arachnid off. Axel grabbed her wrist and took the spider off, tossing it in the trash.
"There. It's off." He said. "Better?"
"Yeah." Nikki sighed.
"If you need to vent, go ahead and let it out. I won't judge you for it."
Nikki stood there for half a minute, debating in her mind what she should do. When she made up her mind, she let herself fall against Axel as she started crying again. He wrapped his arms around her, stroking her hair as she sobbed against his chest. With her face buried against his chest, Nikki was unable to see the dark look in his eyes and his malicious smirk. Without knowing it, she was doing exactly what he wanted.
"It's only a matter of time, sweetheart." Axel thought deviously. "It's only a matter of time… before you're mine…"
…
…
ma dame: my lady
Vous me blessez, ma beauté regardée de bleu: You wound me, my blue-eyed beauty
