Reviews :
Lyssdoodle : He definitely made an oopsie :( Poor kid.
ThoreLB : I feel that, I was saying ouch the whole time. I totally relate X(
BanannaSammich : Meeee too, it was definitely hard to write!
Burgie : Poor boy indeed
Firesong-Writes : I agree! I'm shocked at how many people I can relate to. Gideon is telling my story, I really genuinely thought I'd be the only one out here who had dealt with similar experiences. I guess time will tell if people can continue to relate to me/Gideon, as the story progresses.
Song Listened To :
Drifter Transit by Ben Prunty
*Chapter 44*
With swift footwork, a boiling pot now bubbling over from the dregs of a very intense night of inner turmoil and stewing, the Schweetz family stumbled on home. Vanellope sternly snipped Gideon a quiet notion of an order, one of making concisely clear that he is to shower and get ready for bed. With fire in his eyes, wrecking fists clenched, his bare feet stomped down the dark corridor past his mother's and father's bedroom and straight to his own. Riled with pent up frustration, heart drowned in embarrassment from the events earlier, and now boiling over with the fact of getting his thoughts straight so to even begin thinking up a new land to escape to was impossible, he erupted into his dark bedroom, turned on his heel, grappled his bedroom door and harshly slammed it shut; the reverberation nearly made the hinges of every single door, on the palace lot, rattle the screws loose. Gideon grit his teeth in a clench of anger and mild dread, though the few moments of deafened silence was suddenly pierced with the swift swing his bedroom door took one more time, though in this instance, Vanellope exploded from the other side of it.
"Alright, Gideon, you listen here, and you listen good," Vanellope's voice dripped far past deathly delight and straight into dark, parental domination Gideon was well aware he couldn't rival; as if looks could kill, Gideon's teary gold eyes scarily glowered up into Vanellope's as her stern, angry voice shook with the final straw she was pulling, "You've been NOTHING but disobedient all night long. Your father and I have told you several times to cut the crap, and you persisted. I KNOW you're having fun, and there was a ton of ice cream and treats and family everywhere, but-"
"FAMILY everywhere?!" Gideon suddenly erupted, he threw his arms up in exasperated sarcasm and lazily turned in a circle, "WOW, maybe I wouldn't be running around with Finch if said family would even notice me!"
"They noticed you, alright," Vanellope growled as she stepped closer to Gideon, "You spoiled the birthday gift we got for your big brother, you were VERY nasty to Callum, I don't even know what's gotten into you."
"No one cares to ask!" Gideon skillfully volleyed as he grappled his hair and peered his teary, now-becoming crazed eyes tight into Vanellope's, "I was just having a GOOD TIME by myself! Why am I in trouble for that!"
"You're not in trouble for having a good time by yourself, you're in trouble for your blatant disregard for everyone else around you, and not to mention, Oliver's feelings," Vanellope yelled, to which Gideon puffed his chest and desperately tried to rival his mother.
"I don't CARE about anyone else's feelings, no one cares about mine!" Gideon suddenly screamed tight into Vanellope's aura; he was surprised to see her flinch.
"Tell that to your big sister who dedicated a whole palace wall for you to paint on. Tell that to Oliver who selflessly missed out on your birth so your father could be present," Vanellope began to rattle off on her fingers, though she firmly gestured to herself and shook her head, "Tell that to ME! Who constantly visits you in lucid core, Gideon, we ALL care about you."
"Try telling that to Callum! Him and his stupid... 'Way-to-go Gideon' comment," Gideon wildly mocked Callum in a deep voice and daintily flailed his hands whilst tears streamed his face, though he grit his teeth and felt bravery soak his circuits, "Stupid asshole."
"... SORRY?" Vanellope raised her eyebrows in high surprise, causing Gideon to shrink in a full-glower of avoided eye contact. Vanellope firmly side-eyed Gideon and began to get into his face, "You wanna try that again?!"
"I SAID, STUPID ASSHOLE!" Gideon suddenly matched with a firm yell into Vanellope's face, he clenched his fists and heavily panted through the grit of his teeth, full anger now billowing from his pores, "ALL of you! You all SUCK!"
"Goodnight, Gideon," Vanellope growled in steaming defeat, she shook her head and firmly pressed to Gideon's door, and with a wide swing, she pointed back into his dark room, to his isolated figure and sent a deathly glower of full anger directly into his soul, "You're to shower, brush your teeth, and get into bed. I don't want to see you until morning. If you so much as show your face before then, you're grounded until you're one."
"Yeah, and then I'd leave this stupid place," Gideon growled back, tears rained down his face, his little chest heaved with manic crying hiccups as he urgently did what he could to get one last dig in before Vanellope shut the door, "ANYWHERE is better than here!"
With the last sliver of light to climb out of his retinas with the firm and heavy shut of his bedroom door, Gideon urgently grit his teeth, clenched his fists and lulled his eyes closed in the defeat of allowing anger to fervently have its way. With a hard cry and a loud yell out to the universe, Gideon firmly swung both fists down into the beautiful tiling of decorative wood underfoot and easily felt the ripple of the explosion of wood shards erupt upwards. Gideon heavily panted through his mouth and loudly cried out into the room. Certain there was a wreck all about him, and his mother and father would come bursting in, he stood in his heavily panting, crying aura of manic despair and was shocked to find that no one was coming to fix up the mess or give him attention for such things. Although it was an act of pure anger, and not attention seeking, he quickly understood that no matter what was done, help wasn't on the horizon.
Gideon huffed a shaky, quiet few cries out to the room and covered his face with his hands. He trembled with a flood of emotion, the desperation to imagine a better scenario somehow wasn't able to come to fruition. A strange feeling of cold dread came over him, as if the heavenly daydreams he was used to sagging away to had vanished, and now that he was left alone and grey on the ground, he felt the skin on his body feel realer than he had ever felt before. As if opening a door to what he thought would be a beautiful escape, was now just a brick wall, and the only thing he had to resort to was the legitimate people in his life, the people of whom he had just nastily spoken of. Gideon removed his now wet hands from his even wetter face and inhaled a shaky, readied breath of defeat. Although he had been alone crying for about five to ten minutes, he wondered if his mother and father would be gracious enough to adhere to his genuine white flag.
"Mom," Gideon shakily called out to his dark, closed bedroom door; knowing full well that Ralph and Vanellope could hear him, he furrowed his brow in a pang of rising sorrow as no reply came his way. He hiccuped a few cries and rubbed his cheek as he bravely pressed on, "Mommm."
"Go to bed, Gideon," Vanellope's voice could be heard sternly calling from far away, deeper in the living room; it was here did Gideon feel desperation climb over him, the urge to just simply be held, the reality that his daydreams weren't real and the real thing he was desperate for wasn't coming to his rescue, despite understanding his existence.
"Mom, I just want a hug," Gideon loudly called through his tears; face swollen with grief, nose clogged from crying, Gideon tried to inhale a sniffle through his nose but failed. He grimaced and continued to quietly cry as Vanellope's voice ceased to reply. Gideon rubbed his eyes and felt exhaustion overtake him, though he urged himself to keep trying, "Please, mom, I just want a hug!"
"Gideon, GO. TO. BED!" Vanellope's stern voice sharply pierced the air from across the house, and though Gideon's heart begged him to keep trying, to keep reaching out for that buoy on the darkened mass of infinite black ocean, he lulled his tired eyes closed and hiccuped a cry as he stumbled to his bed for good.
Although deep in his heart he was well aware this all stemmed from something silly and easy to bounce back from, he stumbled to his bed and felt cold with dreaded realization. As if feeling betrayed by the adults around him wasn't enough, he hesitantly flopped down into his messy, big, unmade bed and wondered just why his safe space, imaginary goodness, was now not an option. As if sadness overrode the ability to manifest said goodness, he furrowed his brow and grimaced silent cries into his pillow until it was wet. Limp with exhaustion, certain of a solid headache upon waking up, he urgently did what he could to get to sleep in sure certainty that his dream land would just be awaiting him there. After what felt like hours of crying and trying to desperately fall asleep, he wrinkled his nose with the tickle of something on his sticky skin. Gideon scrunched his face, peered open his eyes in a narrow of confusion and allowed his blurry vision to come to.
Having never had reoccurring dreams, Gideon felt a wash of relief come over him the second he realized just where he was. The familiar sunny beach scape him and Finch had dreamed up, Gideon was laid in the warm sand, the tickle of nearby ocean-side foliage flit in the wind and brushed up against him. With a tired grunt, feeling relieved he was finally here, he sat up on his rump and tossed his gaze across the broad scenery, though upon doing so, he clenched in a sting of nervousness and felt an uneasy wash of deja-vu come over him. What was typically a beautiful beachy scene, big puffy white clouds, glorious glowing sand and an endless crystal ocean was now wrought with discomfort. Still, tinted grey water and an atmosphere that held a dome of dark clouds nearly about to eclipse the boiling hot sun, which was now directly overhead. As if in a spotlight, Gideon nervously panted through his nose and fixated on the one thing that stuck out like a beacon of hope; that infamous light house he was desperate to explore a few nights prior.
Gideon narrowed his eyes and felt as if the beam of cheery sunlight down on him was being tested by the creepy splay of ominous dark clouds that surrounded him. In a grunt to get to his feet and push through the hot sand, the wind whipped about his hair and clothes, the smell of it had his senses on high alert, as if he was simply an animal whose instincts were telling him to get to high ground, like a massive storm was brewing out on the horizon and things could become dangerous. His human mind disregarded this hint, and with fervor, he pushed closer to the lighthouse. A sturdy, cute little lighthouse, it looked run down and out of operation. The silo of the main tower was properly painted with an infamous lighthouse look, a faded show of cream and dark teal paint that spiraled up the entirety of it. The infrastructure attached to the side and back of it had beautiful bay windows with cracked glass, a cute little patio that overlooked the previously beautiful ocean. It looked as if it was an adorable little home once upon a time, though was now abandoned and left for the sea to reclaim.
Gideon approached the perimeter of the lighthouse's plot and allowed his eyes to gloss up the silo-like main tower, where the beacon of light would emanate from. Still with haunting memories, surely having directed lost ships to shore thousands of times, this old lighthouse looked as if it could tell Gideon a million stories, none of which would be boring. Gideon smiled a little and felt his brain rush with the idea of fixing up this little lighthouse and setting up a permanent camp, inside of his imagination. Grateful to be back, he furrowed his brow in mild, smiling dismay and looked about the grey ocean and clouds on the horizon. Certain that he could control all of this in his lucid state, he raised his hand, cued his glitching powers and began to will everything back to normality. Upon sagging his bare feet to the loved, croak of a wooden deck, the stairs that lead to the lighthouse's entrance, Gideon furrowed his brow in hot surprise and took note of something detrimental; he had absolutely no control, here. The way his surroundings didn't sway to his liking had his skin prickle with goosebumps of rising fear.
Gideon drew his eyes to the rickety entrance of the lighthouse and peered into the broken glass doors. He could feel his pupils tighten with the hot realization that his reflection was blackened out, as if someone had taken a black marker and scribbled over the way he looked. Finding it hard to peer back into his reflection, he could feel his airways tighten with further lack of control over his body. How desperately he wanted to just get into the lighthouse, and into safety, he long-blinked in rising dread and began to feel panic set in. With hot understanding that he now couldn't move his limbs, he struggled to take in a breath of air as a great amount of pressure sat on his chest. Like looking into a voided mirror into a darkened dimension, his reflection in the glass began to strangely vibrate with a larger billow of blackness. Blackness so dark, there was no depth, just a void of nonsense in the shape of a man.
Now fully understanding that he was in the midsts of his very first night terror, dug deep in a plane he couldn't control, he desperately tried to yank himself from it as the bass in his ears began to warble with yells and screams from what sounded to be the damned; a hell scape of noise and blackened visuals, Gideon grit his teeth and began to urgently yell out for help, though his lungs felt tight with the onset of collapse as no noise was made. Almost to no avail, Gideon struggled to move, though he finally was able to lull his eyes closed. Upon the painful reopen, he staggered a trembling breath of panic as his eyes squinted open to his dark bedroom. Now fully realizing that he was awake, and not on the deck of the lighthouse he was desperate to seek refuge in, he felt his lungs shrivel at the sight of said man-shaped blackened void across his bedroom, lurking in the corner, now fully in his realm. Certain he had accidentally brought this voided image of himself to the physical world, Gideon began to further panic with the tighter realization that he still couldn't move or make noise. As desperation took over to become unstuck from this hellish scenario, his coding began to fully panic, and the unknown began to soak his retinas with a further, deathly kiss of infinite blackness.