All warnings and disclaimers still apply.
X X X X X
Merton woke from a deep, exhausted sleep with mixed feelings. He was very content in his surroundings, which were warm and soft, and he didn't want to wake up. Instead he snuggled deeper in his nest of blankets. But a tiny, wriggling worm of worry had embedded itself in his brain, and sleep would not return. Merton frowned against the warm pillow, not giving an inch. He was tired still, he wanted to sleep. But the more he fought it, the more the worry grew until he was fully aware and had to face what he was worried about.
He sighed and sat up, scrubbing at his face with his palms. What a night. First he'd made the utterly stupid mistake of telling his father where to stick it, and then, as if he hadn't been on enough of an emotional rollercoaster, he'd spent the rest of the night being comforted by Tommy and Lori. Heat came to his face as he recalled how he'd behaved. After the hug, Tommy and Lori had coaxed the whole sorry story from him, and he hadn't made it two sentences before he'd started crying in earnest. But he didn't feel ~too~ bad because by that time Lori'd begun doing the same. With both of them bawling, it didn't take long for Tommy to turn on the waterworks, too.
They'd talked for hours, too, about everything. And to Merton's surprise, they didn't seem to think he was weak or pathetic. If anything, their respect for him seemed to increase. He'd taken for granted that he survived. After seeing what cruelty was, he'd made ever effort to avoid becoming it himself. This appeared to be what impressed his friends the most, that he didn't repeat the pattern of physical and emotional abuse.
How did he get so lucky with his friends?
With a stretch and a yawn he kicked his feet over the side of his bed, feeling better than he had in days. He quickly hopped in the shower, washing the sleep from his eyes. He even hummed under his breath as he got dressed. He grabbed his coffin backpack and his car keys, ready to face the day. Even his worries about his father were far away. After all, the man probably wouldn't try anything when Merton was likely to be missed, and if he didn't show up for school Tommy and Lori at least would notice. It was with a lighter heart that Merton stepped out of his door -
- and came face to barrel with a 9mm.
Mr. Dingle grinned widely at the shock frozen on Merton's face. "Good morning, son. You ready to finish what we started last night?" Merton couldn't find his voice. "What's the matter? Not brave enough to talk back when you don't have your friends with you? It doesn't matter, anyway. Here's what you're going to do. We're going to get in your sick little car like there's nothing wrong, and then we're going for a little ride. You got me?"
Merton couldn't speak. His throat constricted, his stomach churned, and even his knees were weak with fear. Unfortunately, Mr. Dingle actually seemed to want and answer. When he did not receive one immediately, a look a pure irrational rage twisted his face. He lashed out, clipping Merton on the side of his head with the handle of the gun. The goth reeled, falling back against the door. He felt his backpack splinter and all his supplies fell to the ground. Then Mr. Dingle grabbed his arm and shoved him up the first few stairs, keeping the gun pointed steadily at his son's back.
"Get moving. And act casual," he commanded, and he stuck his hand and gun in the deep pocket of his jacket. Merton was certain that it was still aimed at him, so he had no choice but to obey. His hands were shaking so badly he could barely get the key in the ignition. As his father instructed him where to go, he sneakily rolled his window down, hoping it would be enough to leave a scent trail for Tommy to follow. His only hope was for his friends to find him before it was too late.
X X X X X
Tommy was jittery. It was the first day of his and Lori's family values project. It meant standing up at the front of Lori's home ec. class and speaking about what they intended to prove about the nuclear family. Usually public speaking didn't bother him very much because he had such a great rapport with his classmates. Or maybe he just took after his politician father. Whatever.
The only thing that made him uncomfortable about this situation was that amongst all the goings-on of the weekend, he and Lori had forgotten to work on their project. They had absolutely nothing, and to make things even more distracting, Merton wasn't in school. Neither Tommy nor Lori had seen him all morning, and given Merton's near-perfect attendance, they both suspected something was very out of the ordinary.
"What are we gonna do?" Tommy asked as they walked down the hall to the lunch room at noon.
"I don't know, but I think we should talk to Becky," Lori said.
"Huh?" Tommy asked intelligently, wondering why Becky would know anything about home ec.
"Doesn't Merton always give her a ride to school? Well, if he's not here, then maybe Becky would know where he is," Lori explained, stepping to the side of the doorway so as not to block the way for the other students as she scanned the lunchroom. Tommy, embarrassed and a little ashamed of himself for thinking about an assignment instead of Merton, followed her lead, and being taller than her, he spotted Becky first.
"Over there," he said, gesturing to the other side of the cafeteria. They wasted no time in weaving their way between tables until they reached their destination. He stopped next to Becky and grinned his best charming grin as the girl turned towards him with surprise all over her face. "Hi, Becky."
"H-hi Tommy," she replied, smiling back flirtatiously. Though he could only see Lori out of the corner of his eye, Tommy knew that she was rolling her eyes. Needless to say, the appearance of Tommy Dawkins sent the table of freshmen girls into fits of whispering and giggles. The tall boy couldn't help but preen a bit before being brought back down to earth when Lori elbowed him hard in his side.
"Could we talk to you for a second? It's about your br-" he began, but he wasn't allowed to finish his sentence. As soon a he'd started it, Becky's eyes widened with panic and she leapt to her feet.
"Sure, Tommy," she said too quickly, cutting him off. "Let's go talk."
This set the whispers off again, but it hardly mattered as they walked a few feet away. Becky looked at Tommy and Lori sullenly and flipped her hair over her shoulder with exaggerated care. Before either senior could speak, Becky began.
"Look, if you're looking for Merton, I have no idea where the freaker is. I saw him drive off this morning," she said carelessly.
"Drive off?" Tommy asked.
"Yeah. I was just getting out the front door and he peeled out of the driveway," Becky told them. "Jerk. I had to walk in ~these~." She gestured to her chunky, five-inch-heeled shoes.
"Was there anyone with him?" Lori asked unsympathetically, a note of urgency in her voice. Tommy felt it, too. Merton's fear and suspicion of Mr. Dingle had infected them both. Had the man found a way of coercing Merton?
"Actually, I think there was someone in the passenger's seat," the younger girl said. "I didn't get a good look. Why?"
"No reason," Lori lied as their fears were confirmed. "Which way did he go?"
"The opposite direction from school. It's funny. I never thought he was the type to ditch," Becky smirked. "Is this all? I was kinda in the middle of a conversation."
Tommy nodded. "Thanks, Becky."
"Any time, Tommy," she said with an insinuating smile. She flounced by Lori, who frowned after her. When she was out of earshot, the blonde sniffed.
"That girl is a snot," she pronounced with authority, then turned to Tommy. "We have got to find Merton. If we don't - "
She broke off. It was too hard to say, not to mention unnecessary. Tommy's imagination was working overtime already. He swallowed the fear and led the way out of the school.
X X X X X
The blow fell heavily on Merton's bruised and bloodied face, and he was knocked from his kneeling position back to the twig and leaf-covered ground. A booted foot connected with his ribs, and he felt something snap with a blaze of white pain. He wheezed, even breathing an agony, and didn't try to get up again. It was pointless, hopeless. He'd just get pistol-whipped for his troubles.
"Pathetic little shit," spat his father, toeing him none too gently into turning over so he was facing up. "You haven't changed. I thought you might have, after the way you stood up to me last night. I thought you might have grown a spine."
Merton didn't respond, couldn't. He blinked his swollen eyes and concentrated on breathing just right, so he'd get enough air without setting off the pain in his chest. Already he was preparing for the end. If he didn't get beaten to death, the 9mm would take care of everything. So none of it really mattered. All his pain would be over soon, one way or the other.
Tommy and Lori, if they'd noticed by now that he was missing, probably had no luck finding him. After driving in the car for almost an hour down a dirt road in the middle of the woods, his father had marched him through the trees until he was certain he'd never be able to find his way back to Pleasantville even if he ~did~ by some miracle survive this. It was his own stupid fault for letting his guard down. If he'd been thinking this morning, he'd have gone upstairs and gotten Becky to come out to the car with him. He was fairly certain that his father liked Becky better than Merton, so it was a safe bet that he wouldn't attack when she was around. That, and she would be a witness.
"Get up, boy," commanded Mr. Dingle, looming above Merton menacingly, face deadly serious. The goth was tempted to disobey. At least if he was shot now, he wouldn't have to go through the pain his father had in store for him. However, he found just how cowardly he was as his muscles obeyed his father without consulting his brain.
"You don't know what it's been like, these past years. They all called me crazy, you know. Said I was a crazy drunk, and they put me in an institution," Mr. Dingle said, pacing slowly, menacingly in front of the boy as he talked. He stopped and leaned in close. Merton tried to flinch away, but it hurt too much. "And it's all your fault. ~You're~ the one who did that to me."
"W-what?" Merton manage to gasp, unable to understand this leap of logic.
Mr. Dingle snarled and grabbed Merton's arm with his free hand, fingers digging so hard into the flesh that Merton knew there would be bruises there, too. The man shook him violently.
"Because it was ~your~ imaginary friend that nearly killed me! Because it was ~you~ who was always such a fuck-up! You were an accident, you little shit! Neither your mother nor I wanted to have a kid!" he screamed in Merton's face. He let go of his son's arm, and Merton's slight frame went sailing five feet to crash against a tree. The teen crumpled at the base of the trunk as his father went on.
"But ~you~ were born, and then you were so annoying, always wanting attention, always talking to your imaginary friend. You were a miserable excuse for a child by anyone's standards," Mr. Dingle paused to wipe flecks of spittle from his lips. After a moment of sneering down at Merton, though, he grinned nastily. "Don't you want to know how I got out?"
X X X X X
Tommy and Lori stared at the remains of Merton's beloved coffin-shaped backpack, their fears confirmed. Lori met Tommy's eyes in time to see them flash yellow just before he transformed. She resisted the urge to wrinkle her nose - sure, she loved him to pieces, but Tommy's facial features in mid-morph were just a little creepy-looking.
"Well? Can you smell anything?" she asked as Tommy began sniffing the air.
"Yeah," he panted. "I got a good whiff of both their scents."
"Why both?" Lori asked. "We only need to find Merton."
"Because," Tommy growled dangerously, the suppressed rage in his tone not matched by any she'd heard before. "If Merton is..."
He trailed off, and his girlfriend was glad he did. Not only did she not want to face the possibility that something might happen to Merton, she didn't even want to think of what Tommy might do if he ever found Mr. Dingle afterward. She shivered, but not from the cool air.
Tommy brooded for a moment, memorizing the scents so he wouldn't confuse them at an inopportune moment. He would track Merton down first, and decide what to do from there. Hopefully, Merton was relatively unharmed, but there was always the possibility... Tommy considered himself a good werewolf, but no one had ever killed a member of his pack before. Judging from the urges he'd had to control when a monster even just threatened Lori or Merton, he had a feeling that if either of them actually ~died~ that he wouldn't be responsible for his actions.
He took a breath in the hopes of calming down - already the wolf was begging for free reign to track down and tear the interloper to pieces - but it was in vain. The scent of Merton's father just served to further enrage him. He shook his head rapidly to get a grip on himself, then turned his back to Lori.
"Hop on," he said, crouching down a bit.
"What, a piggy-back ride?" Lori asked, surprised and bemused.
"You're too slow. We have to get going," he explained shortly.
Lori chuckled a little nervously and hopped up onto Tommy's back. He wrapped his arms under her legs as she grabbed his shoulders firmly. With only a small grunt for warning, Tommy set off.
X X X X X
"G-got out?" Merton asked, too lost in a haze of pain to really focus on what his father was saying but too frightened not to play along. To be honest, though, he didn't really think that it mattered much. Mr. Dingle went on as if he hadn't heard.
"After I left Pleasantville, I went on a huge binge. I don't remember a lot about how it happened, but I got picked up and sent to detox in a psych ward, and from there it was straight to the funny farm. Seems they thought I was having delusions that my son's imaginary friend fried my brain," Mr. Dingle explained with a strange little giggle Merton had never heard before. "You remember that, don't you?"
"Y-yes," Merton said.
"I thought you would," the man went on. "I was there for so long, it was starting to ~drive~ me crazy. All the medication I didn't need but had to take. All the nuts in there. It got so I thought I was as mad as they all said I was. I was a sick fuck, I beat my child, I saw little green boys who weren't there. I'd almost given up hope. Until, that is, I saw ~him~ again."
"Him?" Merton asked, a sinking feeling forming in the pit of his stomach.
"Yeah, you know who. Your old pal Vince. He came to me a couple months ago, all grown up. He told me what you did to him. He told me he wanted revenge," he said, and his unwavering disturbing grin growing wider. "And you know what? I wanted revenge, too. So Vince helped me out. He took care of the guards while I escaped."
Merton almost sighed, but his ribs screamed in protest. Vince had sided with his father against him. Even after what Merton had unwittingly done to him, Merton had never thought that Vince would consider helping Mr. Dingle for a second. It was a betrayal of what little faith Merton still had in the Vince he knew so long ago. Now it was official. Everyone he'd ever trusted had turned against him.
"Where is he?" he bit out.
"Oh, now that was a pity," his father said, taking two steps forward and going down on one knee in front of Merton. He reached into his jacket's inner pocket as he continued. "You see, as soon as I was a safe distance from the nut house, I got my gun and got my revenge."
He grabbed Merton's hand and put something twisted and cold into it. Merton peered into his palm. It was a small lump of metal.
"What?" the goth asked.
"This is the bullet that killed Vince. After he got shot, he didn't bleed or die messy. Just puffed out of existence. This was all that was left," Mr. Dingle explained, smug pleasure in his voice. "Thought you'd like a souvenir to remember him by."
Merton's hand started shaking so badly that the remnants of the bullet fell from his palm. "But- you couldn't have - he can't be! He was invincible!"
Mr. Dingle just shrugged. "Coulda fooled me."
TBC!!!
So sorry about the time between updates! ^^;; I was adjusting to my - ahem! - "wild" college lifestyle. Classes suck. Dorms suck. Cafeteria food sucks. Ah well, at least I have the comradeship of fellow slash fangirls and people with the same twisted and cynical sense of humor I have.
Review, please? I promise the next chapter won't end on a cliff hanger thingie like this.
X X X X X
Merton woke from a deep, exhausted sleep with mixed feelings. He was very content in his surroundings, which were warm and soft, and he didn't want to wake up. Instead he snuggled deeper in his nest of blankets. But a tiny, wriggling worm of worry had embedded itself in his brain, and sleep would not return. Merton frowned against the warm pillow, not giving an inch. He was tired still, he wanted to sleep. But the more he fought it, the more the worry grew until he was fully aware and had to face what he was worried about.
He sighed and sat up, scrubbing at his face with his palms. What a night. First he'd made the utterly stupid mistake of telling his father where to stick it, and then, as if he hadn't been on enough of an emotional rollercoaster, he'd spent the rest of the night being comforted by Tommy and Lori. Heat came to his face as he recalled how he'd behaved. After the hug, Tommy and Lori had coaxed the whole sorry story from him, and he hadn't made it two sentences before he'd started crying in earnest. But he didn't feel ~too~ bad because by that time Lori'd begun doing the same. With both of them bawling, it didn't take long for Tommy to turn on the waterworks, too.
They'd talked for hours, too, about everything. And to Merton's surprise, they didn't seem to think he was weak or pathetic. If anything, their respect for him seemed to increase. He'd taken for granted that he survived. After seeing what cruelty was, he'd made ever effort to avoid becoming it himself. This appeared to be what impressed his friends the most, that he didn't repeat the pattern of physical and emotional abuse.
How did he get so lucky with his friends?
With a stretch and a yawn he kicked his feet over the side of his bed, feeling better than he had in days. He quickly hopped in the shower, washing the sleep from his eyes. He even hummed under his breath as he got dressed. He grabbed his coffin backpack and his car keys, ready to face the day. Even his worries about his father were far away. After all, the man probably wouldn't try anything when Merton was likely to be missed, and if he didn't show up for school Tommy and Lori at least would notice. It was with a lighter heart that Merton stepped out of his door -
- and came face to barrel with a 9mm.
Mr. Dingle grinned widely at the shock frozen on Merton's face. "Good morning, son. You ready to finish what we started last night?" Merton couldn't find his voice. "What's the matter? Not brave enough to talk back when you don't have your friends with you? It doesn't matter, anyway. Here's what you're going to do. We're going to get in your sick little car like there's nothing wrong, and then we're going for a little ride. You got me?"
Merton couldn't speak. His throat constricted, his stomach churned, and even his knees were weak with fear. Unfortunately, Mr. Dingle actually seemed to want and answer. When he did not receive one immediately, a look a pure irrational rage twisted his face. He lashed out, clipping Merton on the side of his head with the handle of the gun. The goth reeled, falling back against the door. He felt his backpack splinter and all his supplies fell to the ground. Then Mr. Dingle grabbed his arm and shoved him up the first few stairs, keeping the gun pointed steadily at his son's back.
"Get moving. And act casual," he commanded, and he stuck his hand and gun in the deep pocket of his jacket. Merton was certain that it was still aimed at him, so he had no choice but to obey. His hands were shaking so badly he could barely get the key in the ignition. As his father instructed him where to go, he sneakily rolled his window down, hoping it would be enough to leave a scent trail for Tommy to follow. His only hope was for his friends to find him before it was too late.
X X X X X
Tommy was jittery. It was the first day of his and Lori's family values project. It meant standing up at the front of Lori's home ec. class and speaking about what they intended to prove about the nuclear family. Usually public speaking didn't bother him very much because he had such a great rapport with his classmates. Or maybe he just took after his politician father. Whatever.
The only thing that made him uncomfortable about this situation was that amongst all the goings-on of the weekend, he and Lori had forgotten to work on their project. They had absolutely nothing, and to make things even more distracting, Merton wasn't in school. Neither Tommy nor Lori had seen him all morning, and given Merton's near-perfect attendance, they both suspected something was very out of the ordinary.
"What are we gonna do?" Tommy asked as they walked down the hall to the lunch room at noon.
"I don't know, but I think we should talk to Becky," Lori said.
"Huh?" Tommy asked intelligently, wondering why Becky would know anything about home ec.
"Doesn't Merton always give her a ride to school? Well, if he's not here, then maybe Becky would know where he is," Lori explained, stepping to the side of the doorway so as not to block the way for the other students as she scanned the lunchroom. Tommy, embarrassed and a little ashamed of himself for thinking about an assignment instead of Merton, followed her lead, and being taller than her, he spotted Becky first.
"Over there," he said, gesturing to the other side of the cafeteria. They wasted no time in weaving their way between tables until they reached their destination. He stopped next to Becky and grinned his best charming grin as the girl turned towards him with surprise all over her face. "Hi, Becky."
"H-hi Tommy," she replied, smiling back flirtatiously. Though he could only see Lori out of the corner of his eye, Tommy knew that she was rolling her eyes. Needless to say, the appearance of Tommy Dawkins sent the table of freshmen girls into fits of whispering and giggles. The tall boy couldn't help but preen a bit before being brought back down to earth when Lori elbowed him hard in his side.
"Could we talk to you for a second? It's about your br-" he began, but he wasn't allowed to finish his sentence. As soon a he'd started it, Becky's eyes widened with panic and she leapt to her feet.
"Sure, Tommy," she said too quickly, cutting him off. "Let's go talk."
This set the whispers off again, but it hardly mattered as they walked a few feet away. Becky looked at Tommy and Lori sullenly and flipped her hair over her shoulder with exaggerated care. Before either senior could speak, Becky began.
"Look, if you're looking for Merton, I have no idea where the freaker is. I saw him drive off this morning," she said carelessly.
"Drive off?" Tommy asked.
"Yeah. I was just getting out the front door and he peeled out of the driveway," Becky told them. "Jerk. I had to walk in ~these~." She gestured to her chunky, five-inch-heeled shoes.
"Was there anyone with him?" Lori asked unsympathetically, a note of urgency in her voice. Tommy felt it, too. Merton's fear and suspicion of Mr. Dingle had infected them both. Had the man found a way of coercing Merton?
"Actually, I think there was someone in the passenger's seat," the younger girl said. "I didn't get a good look. Why?"
"No reason," Lori lied as their fears were confirmed. "Which way did he go?"
"The opposite direction from school. It's funny. I never thought he was the type to ditch," Becky smirked. "Is this all? I was kinda in the middle of a conversation."
Tommy nodded. "Thanks, Becky."
"Any time, Tommy," she said with an insinuating smile. She flounced by Lori, who frowned after her. When she was out of earshot, the blonde sniffed.
"That girl is a snot," she pronounced with authority, then turned to Tommy. "We have got to find Merton. If we don't - "
She broke off. It was too hard to say, not to mention unnecessary. Tommy's imagination was working overtime already. He swallowed the fear and led the way out of the school.
X X X X X
The blow fell heavily on Merton's bruised and bloodied face, and he was knocked from his kneeling position back to the twig and leaf-covered ground. A booted foot connected with his ribs, and he felt something snap with a blaze of white pain. He wheezed, even breathing an agony, and didn't try to get up again. It was pointless, hopeless. He'd just get pistol-whipped for his troubles.
"Pathetic little shit," spat his father, toeing him none too gently into turning over so he was facing up. "You haven't changed. I thought you might have, after the way you stood up to me last night. I thought you might have grown a spine."
Merton didn't respond, couldn't. He blinked his swollen eyes and concentrated on breathing just right, so he'd get enough air without setting off the pain in his chest. Already he was preparing for the end. If he didn't get beaten to death, the 9mm would take care of everything. So none of it really mattered. All his pain would be over soon, one way or the other.
Tommy and Lori, if they'd noticed by now that he was missing, probably had no luck finding him. After driving in the car for almost an hour down a dirt road in the middle of the woods, his father had marched him through the trees until he was certain he'd never be able to find his way back to Pleasantville even if he ~did~ by some miracle survive this. It was his own stupid fault for letting his guard down. If he'd been thinking this morning, he'd have gone upstairs and gotten Becky to come out to the car with him. He was fairly certain that his father liked Becky better than Merton, so it was a safe bet that he wouldn't attack when she was around. That, and she would be a witness.
"Get up, boy," commanded Mr. Dingle, looming above Merton menacingly, face deadly serious. The goth was tempted to disobey. At least if he was shot now, he wouldn't have to go through the pain his father had in store for him. However, he found just how cowardly he was as his muscles obeyed his father without consulting his brain.
"You don't know what it's been like, these past years. They all called me crazy, you know. Said I was a crazy drunk, and they put me in an institution," Mr. Dingle said, pacing slowly, menacingly in front of the boy as he talked. He stopped and leaned in close. Merton tried to flinch away, but it hurt too much. "And it's all your fault. ~You're~ the one who did that to me."
"W-what?" Merton manage to gasp, unable to understand this leap of logic.
Mr. Dingle snarled and grabbed Merton's arm with his free hand, fingers digging so hard into the flesh that Merton knew there would be bruises there, too. The man shook him violently.
"Because it was ~your~ imaginary friend that nearly killed me! Because it was ~you~ who was always such a fuck-up! You were an accident, you little shit! Neither your mother nor I wanted to have a kid!" he screamed in Merton's face. He let go of his son's arm, and Merton's slight frame went sailing five feet to crash against a tree. The teen crumpled at the base of the trunk as his father went on.
"But ~you~ were born, and then you were so annoying, always wanting attention, always talking to your imaginary friend. You were a miserable excuse for a child by anyone's standards," Mr. Dingle paused to wipe flecks of spittle from his lips. After a moment of sneering down at Merton, though, he grinned nastily. "Don't you want to know how I got out?"
X X X X X
Tommy and Lori stared at the remains of Merton's beloved coffin-shaped backpack, their fears confirmed. Lori met Tommy's eyes in time to see them flash yellow just before he transformed. She resisted the urge to wrinkle her nose - sure, she loved him to pieces, but Tommy's facial features in mid-morph were just a little creepy-looking.
"Well? Can you smell anything?" she asked as Tommy began sniffing the air.
"Yeah," he panted. "I got a good whiff of both their scents."
"Why both?" Lori asked. "We only need to find Merton."
"Because," Tommy growled dangerously, the suppressed rage in his tone not matched by any she'd heard before. "If Merton is..."
He trailed off, and his girlfriend was glad he did. Not only did she not want to face the possibility that something might happen to Merton, she didn't even want to think of what Tommy might do if he ever found Mr. Dingle afterward. She shivered, but not from the cool air.
Tommy brooded for a moment, memorizing the scents so he wouldn't confuse them at an inopportune moment. He would track Merton down first, and decide what to do from there. Hopefully, Merton was relatively unharmed, but there was always the possibility... Tommy considered himself a good werewolf, but no one had ever killed a member of his pack before. Judging from the urges he'd had to control when a monster even just threatened Lori or Merton, he had a feeling that if either of them actually ~died~ that he wouldn't be responsible for his actions.
He took a breath in the hopes of calming down - already the wolf was begging for free reign to track down and tear the interloper to pieces - but it was in vain. The scent of Merton's father just served to further enrage him. He shook his head rapidly to get a grip on himself, then turned his back to Lori.
"Hop on," he said, crouching down a bit.
"What, a piggy-back ride?" Lori asked, surprised and bemused.
"You're too slow. We have to get going," he explained shortly.
Lori chuckled a little nervously and hopped up onto Tommy's back. He wrapped his arms under her legs as she grabbed his shoulders firmly. With only a small grunt for warning, Tommy set off.
X X X X X
"G-got out?" Merton asked, too lost in a haze of pain to really focus on what his father was saying but too frightened not to play along. To be honest, though, he didn't really think that it mattered much. Mr. Dingle went on as if he hadn't heard.
"After I left Pleasantville, I went on a huge binge. I don't remember a lot about how it happened, but I got picked up and sent to detox in a psych ward, and from there it was straight to the funny farm. Seems they thought I was having delusions that my son's imaginary friend fried my brain," Mr. Dingle explained with a strange little giggle Merton had never heard before. "You remember that, don't you?"
"Y-yes," Merton said.
"I thought you would," the man went on. "I was there for so long, it was starting to ~drive~ me crazy. All the medication I didn't need but had to take. All the nuts in there. It got so I thought I was as mad as they all said I was. I was a sick fuck, I beat my child, I saw little green boys who weren't there. I'd almost given up hope. Until, that is, I saw ~him~ again."
"Him?" Merton asked, a sinking feeling forming in the pit of his stomach.
"Yeah, you know who. Your old pal Vince. He came to me a couple months ago, all grown up. He told me what you did to him. He told me he wanted revenge," he said, and his unwavering disturbing grin growing wider. "And you know what? I wanted revenge, too. So Vince helped me out. He took care of the guards while I escaped."
Merton almost sighed, but his ribs screamed in protest. Vince had sided with his father against him. Even after what Merton had unwittingly done to him, Merton had never thought that Vince would consider helping Mr. Dingle for a second. It was a betrayal of what little faith Merton still had in the Vince he knew so long ago. Now it was official. Everyone he'd ever trusted had turned against him.
"Where is he?" he bit out.
"Oh, now that was a pity," his father said, taking two steps forward and going down on one knee in front of Merton. He reached into his jacket's inner pocket as he continued. "You see, as soon as I was a safe distance from the nut house, I got my gun and got my revenge."
He grabbed Merton's hand and put something twisted and cold into it. Merton peered into his palm. It was a small lump of metal.
"What?" the goth asked.
"This is the bullet that killed Vince. After he got shot, he didn't bleed or die messy. Just puffed out of existence. This was all that was left," Mr. Dingle explained, smug pleasure in his voice. "Thought you'd like a souvenir to remember him by."
Merton's hand started shaking so badly that the remnants of the bullet fell from his palm. "But- you couldn't have - he can't be! He was invincible!"
Mr. Dingle just shrugged. "Coulda fooled me."
TBC!!!
So sorry about the time between updates! ^^;; I was adjusting to my - ahem! - "wild" college lifestyle. Classes suck. Dorms suck. Cafeteria food sucks. Ah well, at least I have the comradeship of fellow slash fangirls and people with the same twisted and cynical sense of humor I have.
Review, please? I promise the next chapter won't end on a cliff hanger thingie like this.