Chapter 28

He smirked and crossed his arms. "You're bluffing."

"No, I'm not. I'm controlling plants right now actually…." I smiled deviously.

Moss started climbing up his legs, and he looked around frantically. "I'm so glad I paid attention in science class." I chuckled.

Pitch struggled, trying to get free, attacking my moss with his black sand. I made a moss broom and brushed the sand away, into a moss dustpan. "Don't fight the fear little man!" I taunted, eager to return each and every one of his insults.

While Pitch struggled fighting against my miniature moss minions, (I love alliteration.) I decided to free myself from the black sand around my ankles and wrists. The moss couldn't pile up more than a couple inches, so it wasn't too difficult to control them with just my index finger pointing and motioning. (The bigger the plant is, the more movement I need to make, in order to control it.)

One of my miniature moss minions took a break from attacking Pitch and dusted away the sand at my ankles, and then climbed up and dusted the sand off of my wrists.

Once the little minion was done, it jumped off my hands and started gripping onto Pitch like a starfish onto the seafloor. I rubbed my wrists, and then started stretching it.

I walked over to where Pitch was lying on the floor, with my moss plants, now combining, becoming more of a carpet than individual plants.

Bending over, I grabbed the air above the plants and pulled it gently, the plants following it, like pulling a blanket back. Pitch's eyes had been closed, due to plants trying to force their way in. Once he fluttered them open, he seemed shocked.

"Fight's over, Pitch. I won." I said nonchalantly. I offered my hand to help pull him back up, but he ignored it. I'm kind of glad he did though, since he'd probably use grabbing my hand to attack me anyway. He pushed himself up, and I watched as he faded away still with a stupid smirk on his face. I had to get out, but unfortunately, he and I both knew that getting into someone's head is a lot easier compared to getting out of someone's head. I sighed, as the room bumped around. I stumbled over to the window. Pitch was coming after me, my physical body anyway, since I was still trapped inside his head. I knew he was going to do that, but I paid no attention to how to stop it. Inconveniently.

I watched as Tooth and Sandy took me and Jack back further and further, as Pitch gained more and more length between me and him.

Bunny and North, tried to hold him back, but I guess since he had already tasted a piece of my powers, he felt confident even without them. He ducked suddenly, making me go sprawling downwards. And North's swords didn't do a thing. Bunny and North kept going, though, and Pitch kept dodging it, making me have to stumble instead of walk.

"I have to get out…" I muttered. "I have to get out!" I cried out, as if making my voice louder, made it easier for me to actually get out.

"Oh, how silly of me. You're probably bored! Here I'll give you something to do! Fears can be such interesting little things. Wouldn't want you to miss out!" Pitch probably hadn't wanted me to snoop around his head, but I wouldn't have done so, if he hadn't done that. But now… Now I'm thinking, I might as well. I started going deeper into the room, but soon came rushing back out.

A spider bigger than my head came running towards me, spewing out its silky threads at me. It got hold of my shoe, yanking it off. I cried out¸ trying to break free or kick it (I'm not really sure), but the spider was already inching towards me, its powerful leg clutching mine. It stabbed me with one of its legs, and then it reached down and bit me, and I couldn't feel anything. I went numb, and dull. I had my eyes open still, but the darkness gradually crept in. I closed my eyes and tried to bring them open again, but since I wasn't sure if I really wanted to anyway, in fear of a giant spider's eyes looking at me right in my face, I kept them shut nice and tight. And before I knew it, the darkness melted away, and I felt warm and hazy. Like I was floating in the air, or water.

I gasped! "Or water!"

I flung my eyelids open, and sure enough the bubbles coming from my mouth, stopped coming, and I anxiously paddled up. Gasping for breath, even though I knew it wasn't going to work, since it was water and not air. The ice was thick, and I struggled to bang on it, trying to crack it or something. Something! Anything! The last bubble forced itself out of my mouth, and the icy temperature quickly sunk in, not at all warm like it used to be. My body sunk down to the floor. And I drowned.

I gasped, and quickly sat up. I was on a bed. I looked out the only window in the bedroom.

A highway. I sighed. No wonder I couldn't sleep. I was in the orphanage again.

Why was I in the orphanage? I finally became old enough to go on my own. No more hurtful "interviews" where the parents would always tell you "We'll think about it" and then never come back for you. No more times where you got attached to them and you swore they liked you too, yet had to watch the smoke coming from their car as they drove away, without you. No more times other kids in school would pick on you for being an orphan, even though you had no control on that whatsoever. No more rejection. No more pain of feeling like an outcast. So much pain, yet all you had to do was simply grow out of it. Simple enough, but it took such a long time. But I finally did it! But why am I still here?

Panic quickly set in, and I anxiously stumbled around, but there wasn't a door. Outside the wall, a teacher was talking to a doctor.

"I don't think she'll ever get adopted. She's very sick. I don't even know if she can survive, let alone who'd want to take care of her."

"I think she has a very significant chance, Miss Johnston. Please don't gossip. She's doing very well an-" My heart sunk. That's right.I thought. I was always weak, and the therapy was the only relief from the people that were mean to me, even though the therapy made me tired. So tired. More like exhausted.

"I hope so. I really do…" I heard them walking away; the doctor's heavy set footsteps were loud and clear, and the teacher's was a little light on her feet, but I could still hear the light footsteps.

I thought of yelling out, but I realized I didn't really want to talk to Johnston always hated me. Sometimes I believed she actually didn't want me to survive. The doctor was always nice. Sometimes I wished he'd take me away to live with him. I knew he had children, and I desperately wanted to play with some kids who weren't throwing rocks or something at me, probably making me weaker than I was before.

I sat on the bed, crying softly. The only person I loved as a father- Doctor Walker - already had children, and was also getting older. His wife wanted him to retire soon, but he always put it off, feeling it was important to see me. I grabbed a pillow and hugged it tightly. The only person that did adopt me, I realized, was Pitch. Human name of course. and no dress. I forced a chuckle. But by the time "Mr. Black" returned me, the doctor had already retired. There was no reason for him to come back to this horrible place, anymore, thinking that I was already safe and sound in a happy family of my own. Pitch had took care of me, but he didn't care about me. He just wanted me to be healthy, preferably even stronger than what I was before, where the orphanage would take me back in, instead of putting me into a hospital. He didn't want the doctor to visit me again. Me being in a hospital would definitely guarantee this. He wanted to snuff out my heart, even though it was already pretty dimly lit. And he succeeded. The more I thought about, the more I realized, that Pitch really had "destroyed me from the inside out."