A/N: There's some swearing in this chapter.

Tia cut Peter's birthday cake and dished it out onto paper plates, serving a slice to everyone seated at the table. The younger children fought over who got the first few slices, before everyone settled down into their chairs. The table became very quiet and contented as everyone began to eat. Tia sat back for a moment and looked over the table. She was feeling quite proud of her efforts.

"I think it's called polenta", whispered a little girl. Tia couldn't help but overhear her.
"It tastes like sand. Why would you put it in a birthday cake?" replied a little boy, clearly annoyed at the anomaly in his cakey confection. Tia cautiously ate a spoonful of her own cake. Now that she thought about it, it was a little gritty. How hadn't she noticed before?

"Ouch", the cry came from across the table. Everyone's head shot upwards, distracted from their food.
"What the hell?", a young girl called as she fished around her mouth and pulled out a small solid lump. She rubbed the sore spot on her jaw from biting down on it.
"Why was it in the cake?" she exclaimed to no one in particular, "What is this, concrete? Was this cake made in a garage?"
Tia's heart sank a little. The cake clearly wasn't as perfect as she had initially thought. She looked down at her own cake and noticed it was looking a little off-colour. Tia could have sworn it looked like a perfectly normal sponge cake only a second before.

Tia glanced across the table to the remainder of the unsliced cake. It's insides had turned blotchy, as though it were riddled with mould, and the icing had begun to dry and flake away from the sides of the cake. Tia felt sick, but not from the putrid dessert. She knew this wasn't what normally happened to a cake.

"Eeeew! Where is this from? Someone needs to complain to the bakery, this cake is awful!" screeched a little girl. Tia grimaced at the children's voices. She wished they would stop being so loud about it.
At this point, Tia knew Charles was looking over at her, but she couldn't meet his eyes. She didn't need too, she knew he would have read her mind by now. He knew what she'd done.
"Who even bought this cake?" called a little boy. Someone pointed at Tia in response to his question.
"Where's this from? It is like, poisoned or something?" he sneered in his childish way.

"Yeah" a chorus of children's voices chimed in, shouting various version of, "Where's this from? What's wrong with it? How could you let this happen?"
"WHAT'S WRONG WITH THE CAKE? HOW COULD YOU LET THIS HAPPEN?", they cried, almost in unison.
Tia looked over to Peter.
"I'm sorry. I just wanted the perfect cake. I had this image in my mind, I didn't- I didn't know if it really existed", Tia's eyes slid over to the remainder of the cake, which was slowly melting into a fetid pool of mush, "Or if I'd just imagined the ultimate cake". Tia's heart was melting in much the same way as the cake. She wondered if the cake they had already consumed was doing the same in their stomachs. She wondered if they'd all die from this.

Peter gave a confused look as he struggled to process what Tia meant.
And then he remembered the lion.
Peter remembered how it had ended when Tia had last 'teleported' something that didn't exist. He glanced over to the unsliced remainder of the cake. It had disintegrated into a squirming heap of mustard-yellow slime upon the serving plate. A young girl at the end of the table hurled at the sight and smell of it. Her vomit had a similar appearance to the melted cake.
Well, no we know what happened to the cake we ate, Tia thought to herself.

The children were becoming hysterical. Charles sat back calmly, and motioned for Hank to do the same. Until Tia asked for his help, Charles wasn't going to save her. He watched as she avoided any eye-contact with him. He wondered how this would end.
"It's alright, everyone" Peter called over the top of the noise, "We've made a bit of a mistake with the cake-" Peter paused as a child vomited all over his shoes, "but it's going to be alright".

The children turned to Tia, they knew it was her who had brought the cake.
"Why did you do this to the cake?" cried a little girl, her throat scratchy and her voice raspy from being sick. Tia's eyes bulged at the little girl, her face was red and splotchy from crying, and Tia knew it was her fault.
"You know, we could have gotten really sick. Someone could have died. Do you want the death of a child on your hands? Hmmmm? You wanna kill a kid?" an older girl asked Tia in a matter-of-fact tone.

Tia's head spun. She was queasy with guilt. I don't want to kill anyone. I never wanted to kill a child. I'm sorry.
"Yeah", joined in another girl, "We could have died, in fact, we might still die of food-poisoning!"
Tia shook her head. All the talk of death made her mind race back to that fateful day when she was the same age that the youngest of the children at the mansion were now. That poor little boy. He was even younger. I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. I never wanted to hurt anyone.

"Why would you do that?" the children chanted.
"Attempted murder!" they all seemed to call. Tia had never had a panic-attack, but she was pretty sure this was how one would feel. Her head was spinning, she couldn't breathe, they were all blaming her. And they were right, she was a killer, she should have been more careful. Stop it!
The children were all screaming at her, blaming her, it was all her fault.

They accused her of trying to hurt them, she covered her ears with her hands. But I didn't mean to hurt anyone!
She wondered if any of the children were telepaths. Could they possibly know she had once killed a little boy?
She watched as they silently screamed and gestured to the putrid cake, to themselves, to Charles, back to themselves, then the cake, then to a little boy heaving on the ground. Tia watched it all from her own private underwater bubble of quiet, thanks to her blocked ears. But he knew she couldn't put it off forever. She'd have to face the blame soon. The little boy who had been vomiting collapsed into his seat and closed his eyes, exhausted beyond belief. The children became a little crazed- even though the boy was still breathing, they seemed to believe he was dead.

"How does it feel to kill a little boy?" a small child whispered into Tia's ear only seconds after she had removed her hands from them. Tia's heart almost stopped.
"Why would you want to kill a child?" Tia wished she could escape the children's accusations.
"Do you think you're going to get away with this?"
"Did you mean to do this to us?" No, Tia thought to herself, I never meant to hurt a child, I never meant to hurt him.

Tia couldn't take it anymore. Her whole body was twitching. They were pushing all of her buttons at once and they didn't even know her. She focused on the cake in an attempt to clear her mind. It's mud-like consistency bubbled over the edge of the plate and spilt down onto the table, pooling on the lacy table cloth. This was all her fault.

"You tried to kill me, I'm just a little kid", one of the children called out. Tia wished they'd just stop it all.
"Why did you do this?" a small boy asked. Tia turned to look at him. He had pale flushed cheeks and dark hair, just like the other little boy had. The little boy she'd killed. Why did you do this? That's exactly what he would want to ask her. Tia felt like the children knew her secret. They were teasing her with it, accusing her. I'm sorry.

I'm sorry.

"I'M SORRY", Tia screamed at the top of her lungs, silencing the room. "I'm sorry I killed him. I fucking murdered him and I never confessed." Tia breathed in deeply, the children sank below the table in fear. Why were they cowering? This was what they had wanted. They were the ones who had pushed her. Years and years of guilt were bubbling to the surface.

"Wanna know why I'm a criminal, kids? Huh? Why I steal? Why I mess with the police? You want to KNOW?" Tia's questions were answered with dead silence.
"I hope maybe someday they'll catch me, and lock me up. I'll deserve it. But you know what? The only crime I'm truly sorry for will be the only crime I never tried to commit. And I can never own up for that one. I mean, even I can't bring Tommy back now", Tia cried. She leant forward and braced herself against the table with her arms as she took a few deep breaths.

"I'm sorry."

I hope you liked this chapter. A little bit of drama.

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