It is I! Jjah-Jjah! Once again, I am sorry it took me so long to update.
There was a test, and a birthday, and college visits at six in the frikken
morning, and that stupid baby.
Ah yes. Let me tell you about the baby. It cried every five minuties for two hours! Then it got me up at two and then five in the morning. Do you know how hard it is to change the diaper of a screaming child in the middle of the night when you've just woken up and you also happen to be nearsighted and can't see what the hell you're doing??!! *breathes heavily* It's hard. Anyhoo. On to the reviews. I hit the big 20! I'm so happy! *Glomps Ed the Flamingo*
Ed: Squawk!
***
Rouguehobbit: Thanks for your understanding on the school thing. It's evil, but hey.
Taineyah: I would have let you have the evil little child. Anyway, the Barbie thing was actually one of those tests were you give a person whose been abused a doll that's supposed to represent them, and then they're supposed to make it more like them. Often times they'll rip it to pieces, because that's how they feel. But the Barbie probably isn't the best doll to give this test with. There probably will be a pattern of Barbie abuse in this story. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles rock!!
Storm-Pietro: There will be a lot more Pietro, but not till later on.
Eileen: Ha! I shall not tell you the identity of my mystery! It's not Xavier, but it's kind of odd that he hasn't noticed Jillian yet, ne? The chapters are in reverse to symbolize how messed up Wanda's mind is because of her memories being messed with. Thank you for noticing!
Talia458: Oh, yes indeedy! Magneto will most certainly be in here, but just like Pietro, not till later on.
The Mouse of Anon: I like you, you're silly. Thank you for the reviews and the taquitos. Good thing I don't have a garage.
Thn: Pie will be beaten up several times, but look on the bright side! Maybe it'll beat some sense into him! (
A girl and her muses: Thank you! The world is mine. You may live in my society free of tax.
*** Chapter Five: Idiots live on
French fries were a disgusting food, really. They were saturated with grease, pumped full of steroids, and God knows what else. They really were kind of gross. Especially when they were cold. You could taste how heavy the grease was when they were cold. The only things that made them edible then, were ketchup and salt.
Wanda swirled a French fry into the ketchup and brought it to her mouth chewing slowly. Mentally, she reviewed what she now knew.
Her name was Wanda Maximoff. She was sixteen years old. She was a mutant with incredible power. At some point, she had apparently lost all her memories and had them replaced with fake ones . . .
She had been in a hospital, a mental hospital, for several years. Her father and possibly her brother had been the ones to leave her there. She had been understandably angry. Professor Xavier had visited her. She had had an imaginary friend named Jillian. All of her memories included Jillian. . .
Wanda sat up at that realization. All the memories included Jillian. What was the real purpose of her dreams? To remember her past, or to remember Jillian? She rubbed her temples and wished she had some aspirin.
Even so, the memories were incomplete. There were huge gaps in between each one, and they couldn't even really be called true memories. She remembered the visions themselves, but she only remembered the events from the visions; she didn't actually remember the events.
A low rumble startled Wanda from her thoughts. She looked over to the direction the sound had come from. A dark smudge of clouds outlined the horizon. Despite the clear blue sky, it appeared a summer storm was approaching. For a moment, Wanda felt a wisp of memory. The sound of thunder and rain pounding on the roof, echoing down through the quiet, empty, building. The sound even reaching through the thick walls of a cell. . .
Wanda blinked and it was gone so quickly, she was convinced she had imagined it. The storm was still far away. She had hours left before it came anywhere near her. She ate another French fry.
The pain hit her then. It radiated from the center of her being and caused Wanda to take a sharp intake of breath. It was not a physical pain; it was something deeper; akin to intense grief. She rolled over onto her side and brought her hands to her head.
"Here comes another one."
***
*And today, in the local news, the hospital workers have undergone a wardrobe change. They've gone from last year's look of bunny-rabbit white, to a hip new shade of puke green. Speaking of green, the cafeteria is now serving green jell-o, but how do they make it green? That's what this reporter would like to know. And now, Bob, with the weather.*
"Bob is a straight jacket."
*At least he laughs at my jokes. . .*
Wanda snorted in reply. They sat like that for quite a while. Neither one said anything. Unsurprisingly, the one who broke the silence was Jillian.
*I'm soooooo bored.*
"Go talk to Bob."
*He has nothing to say. Why don't we do something?*
"What do you suggest? It's not like we have a lot of options."
*We could jump up and try to touch the ceiling.*
"We did that already."
*Oh.*
Silence permeated the room like a foul stench. It was so quiet, that Wanda's ears began ringing. If it was quiet for much longer, she going to go deaf. She turned her head towards the table and chair. Besides the bed, they were the only pieces of furniture in the room. They were nailed to the floor with titanium bolts. Wanda raised an arm and beckoned the object forward. It vibrated and groaned against the bolts, but did not move.
Wanda grimaced and tried harder. What was a desperate attempt to break the silence had turned into a consuming need to wrench the table up from the floor and destroy it. She cursed under her breath as beads of sweat popped up on her forehead under the strain. The table shuddered slightly.
Her arm trembled under the strain. She was putting so much effort and energy into this single cause and it was having no effect. Snarling, she moved her arm slightly so it was in a more comfortable position.
Then she bent her middle and ring finger slightly inward. And the table flew off of the floor and crunched against the ceiling. . .
Wanda jumped back about a foot and her mouth hung open in surprise.
*Damn! That was so cool!*
Wanda had to agree. It was cool. Grinning openly, she brought her fingers into the same position and pointed it at the chair. It melted into the floor like butter. Wanda's grin, if possible, grew wider, and with a whoop of joy, she began annihilating everything in the room.
***
An hour later, tranquillized and trussed up in good old Bob, Wanda gave her interpretation of a sheepish grin to an unhappy looking Professor Xavier.
"Wanda." He trailed of and sighed. "I know living here is hard for you, but I thought we had this all worked out."
Wanda raised an eyebrow. They had worked out something? Erk. . . She couldn't exactly remember. Woozily, she mused to herself whether or not they had given her just a little too much tranquilizer this time. . .
"I thought we had talked about controlling your power. You know you need to stop destroying the hospital's property wantonly, and you know you should use your power in an appropriate way."
'Excuse me?' Wanda thought, as her eyes narrowed. 'This is the guy that always tells me "your powers are a gift" and all that junk, and I just discovered something new about my powers and he's telling me I did something wrong? He's a hypocrite!'
*No duh.* Jillian replied.
Wanda eeped in surprise and fell out of her chair onto the visitation room floor. This was the first time Jillian had ever responded to something that Wanda didn't say out loud. Ok. She could concentrate her powers by just lowering two fingers and she could talk to Jillian in her head. Oh boy.
"Wanda? Are you alright?" Xavier said as he wheeled over. He looked concerned.
Wanda turned her head towards him with a tremendous amount of effort. She looked at him and blinked a few times, confused that there appeared to be two people looming over her.
*You're stoned.* Jillian stated matter of factly.
"Am not." Wanda slurred out. "I'm not on any thing, I'm feeling splendiferous thank you very much.."
Professor Xavier raised an eyebrow at the girl lying on the floor looking disoriented and talking to herself. With no hesitation, he reached over and hit the assistance button.
*You sound like a crazy person.*
Slightly embarrassed Wanda responded, "Do not! Stop trying to psychoanalyze my brain! All three of you!" She addressed Jillian and the two Xavier's. Dimly in the background, she could hear Professor Xavier arguing with someone about giving her too much of something.
*Go to sleep already. You aren't missing anything.*
Wanda did just that.
***
Wanda rolled over and started on her burger. With every vision, she learned something new. Grimacing, she opened her burger and started picking out pieces of onion. She hated onions. Onions made you cry, and besides, they tasted bad. She finished and went back to eating.
***
*You aren't going to like this.*
"Like what?" Wanda huffed, stopping her sit-ups. She had discovered exercising was something that passed the time. Surprisingly, it had been Xavier's suggestion. He did come up with good advice sometimes.
*You just aren't.*
"What?!" Wanda snapped.
"Mr. Montgomery is coming today."
Wanda replied by swearing at the top of her lungs.
"You're kidding!"
*I kid you not. . . Weasel Claus is coming to town.*
With that said Jillian burst into song, substituting the word "weasel" for "Santa" in Santa Claus is Coming to Town.
Wanda sat down, ignoring the song in the background, and contemplated her fate. . .
Basil Montgomery was a feared man all around the loony bin. He was the hospital's largest benefactor, and therefore had certain rights. Among these were random visitations to the patients he deemed "special". Montgomery wasn't feared because he was particularly scary. Wanda had him beat in that department. What the patients feared was his enthusiasm, and his lack of working brain cells.
Mr. Montgomery picked out the patients that were the most messed up, (in his opinion) and "sponsored" them. Sponsoring included taking pictures with Mr. Montgomery, listening to Mr. Montgomery, and being basically all around annoyed by Mr. Montgomery. Unfortunately, Wanda was "special".
*He sees you when you're sleeping,
He knows when you're awake
He knows if you've been bad or good.
'Cause he's got the place bugged for Goodness' sake!*
In fact, Mr. Montgomery had a special place in his heart for Wanda. She was his favorite project. He had decided to go on a one man crusade to make Wanda (and I quote), "An upright, responsible, young lady and American citizen." (Unquote). Her powers didn't faze him; he considered them to be the side affects of some brain disease. Wanda would have killed him at their first meeting if she hadn't been wearing Bob. She had bitten him though, but that only seemed to strengthen his resolve.
*You better watch out!
You better not cry.
You better not pout,
I'm telling you why.
Weasel Claus is coming,
To town!*
"Shut up!"
Jillian only laughed, but stopped suddenly as the cell began to open.
*He's heeere!* Jillian said eerily.
Wanda started saying the word 'shit' over and over, and began to bend her fingers into the customary position. She made a mad dash for the exit, but was caught and secured into Bob. They sat her at her table and Wanda could only watch in horror as Basil Montgomery strolled into her cell with a grin on his face the size of the Golden Gate Bridge and a nervous photographer.
"Hello Miss Wanda, are you having a nice day?"
Wanda shuddered and gave him her Satan's Spawn glare. It didn't work.
Even the way he looked was annoying. He was about thirty-five. His hair was reddish brown, and his bangs were swept to one side in a really annoying way. His nose was straight, his smile was straight from a polydent commercial, and his entire face was shaped like that of a shaven weasel.
"My goodness, how you've grown! I've got some super fun things for you to do today!"
He opened a bag he had with him and pulled out several items. A teddy bear, an inkblot test, and an adorable baby doll. No Barbie dolls.
"The teddy bear is for you to snuggle with whenever you want. I know how people like you need comfort in your condition." He smiled sweetly.
*You know, if he didn't have so much money, he'd probably be an inmate here. . .* Jillian mused.
'He makes it sound like I'm pregnant or something.'
*Or brain dead. Whichever you prefer,*
"Now, I want you to look at these for me, ok?" He asked slowly, as if waiting for her to grasp the meaning of his words. He held an inkblot test.
Wanda smiled slightly. He was seriously giving her an inkblot test? She knew he didn't know anything about them. This could be enjoyable after all.
'Quick, Jillian! Give me something to say!'
Inkblot tests were a common sight in an institution, oftentimes becoming monotonous. However, Wanda and Jillian had made a game out of it long ago. They would try to see how badly they could freak out the person giving the tests by giving extremely odd answers. Jillian has always been the one to come up with the answers since she was odd anyway.
Wanda barely contained a chortle at Jillian's answer, but hid it under the pretense of studying the inkblot carefully. After a few minutes she answered.
"It's a rhinoceros. A genderless one. I believe it's searching for tutus among orchids in a babbling brook of lemonade and squid ink. The Moose of Katmandu is coming out of the Astroturf forest in the background. He's going to push the genderless rhinoceros into the lake of molten fire and watch him fly away into the glitter berries. But hark! It's Lucky! Those damn kids are after his cereal again! Maybe he should seek political asylum from Willy Wonka. After all, he did let in the Oompa Loompas. What do you think?"
Montgomery looked startled when Wanda looked at him expectantly awaiting an answer. He stuttered illegibly for a few moments and blushed before saying,
"I think we should move on to something else don't you? Now here."
He picked up the doll and cradled it gently.
"Do you know what this is Wanda?"
Wanda contemplated killing someone. Either Montgomery or herself. What the hell did he think she could think it was other than a baby doll? A pot roast?
"This is called a baby, Wanda. Once upon a time, you were a baby and I was a baby. Everyone in the world was a baby once!"
*That. Is a hunk of plastic shaped to look like a baby. . . Isn't it?*
'You and I know that, but I think someone forgot to tell him.'
"Do you know what you're supposed to do with a baby?"
"Eat it?" Wanda answered and leaned towards the little bundle as Jillian cracked up in the background.
Mr. Montgomery snatched the child away and held it to his chest.
"N-no, Wanda. That's not what you do with a baby." He placed the doll back into the bag, where it was safe from being eaten and beckoned the photographer, who had been snapping pictures the entire time, over.
"Take some pictures of me with Wanda, will you?" He walked over and placed an arm around the girl's shoulders. She stiffened visibly.
As the photographer snapped pictures that seemed to show Basil Montgomery being charitable towards a psychopath, the man yammered on about how it was his responsibility to be patriotic. This was rather stupid, because no who was listening cared, and it wasn't like the camera could record sound. When the incessant talking wandered from patriotism to Benjamin Franklin to the evils of modern technology, Wanda had just about had enough.
She was crazy mad. Why did she have to listen to this asshole anyway? Even Jillian was beginning to feel cross. Turning her head, she noticed a bandage on one of the fingers on the hand resting on her shoulder. Wanda and Jillian both developed an eye twitch at the same time. That bandage had been there seven months ago when he had first visited. He had grinned and called it a tennis accident. She would show him tennis accident.
Montgomery stopped and screeched in mid-speech, then frantically tried to pry the angry teenager's teeth off his finger. Once he freed himself, he swore, something he had never done before, and rushed out of the cell. The photographer scurried after him, still snapping pictures.
Wanda spit the weirdo taste out of her mouth and grinned widely. She could hear Montgomery outside complaining at the top of his lungs to someone outside. He was angry. She could tell. Whenever Montgomery was angry, his voice became incredibly high pitched.
"I'm holding you responsible for this! I try to help her and look what happens! Why can't you make her act better? I'm going to need stitches!"
A random hospital worker replied, "I'm sorry sir, but we can't make our patients act in a certain way. If we could do that, they wouldn't need to be here."
"It's going to get infected! It doesn't matter! She should have been better prepared. How am I supposed to get publicity with her acting like that? You could have put me with one of those freaks upstairs who thinks they're a pirate, or the girl who cries all the time, or the one that doesn't do anything at all and I would have gotten more results! Jesus!"
The two men's voices faded as they moved away. Someone came in and released Wanda from her straight jacket. Then it was as quiet as before. Wanda sat on the floor and reached over to the teddy bear that had been discarded carelessly on the floor. She traced its glass eyes with a finger. It had been abandoned here just as readily as she had been. She laughed noiselessly under her breath and walked over to a corner. She placed the animal there facing the wall, as if he were in time out. Then, she went to her cot and lied down, staring at the ceiling.
***
*Exactly what are you seeing?*
***
Wanda's eyes shot open. The sky overhead was dark with storm clouds and cold rain had just begun pounding down. A flash of lightning illuminated everything briefly before it went dark again. Wanda stood, still looking up into the clouds. Rain covered her face and a frigid wind blew her coat and hair wildly around her. Water smeared her eyeliner and it ran down her cheeks in tears of scarlet. The lightning flashed again and briefly, everything appeared as if out of an old movie. Everything in black and white. Except the tears of scarlet.
Which just kept streaming down red.
***
You know what the scary part is? Mr. Montgomery is a real person. *screams* Can you tell I don't like him very much? Anyhoo. Review this thang!
Ah yes. Let me tell you about the baby. It cried every five minuties for two hours! Then it got me up at two and then five in the morning. Do you know how hard it is to change the diaper of a screaming child in the middle of the night when you've just woken up and you also happen to be nearsighted and can't see what the hell you're doing??!! *breathes heavily* It's hard. Anyhoo. On to the reviews. I hit the big 20! I'm so happy! *Glomps Ed the Flamingo*
Ed: Squawk!
***
Rouguehobbit: Thanks for your understanding on the school thing. It's evil, but hey.
Taineyah: I would have let you have the evil little child. Anyway, the Barbie thing was actually one of those tests were you give a person whose been abused a doll that's supposed to represent them, and then they're supposed to make it more like them. Often times they'll rip it to pieces, because that's how they feel. But the Barbie probably isn't the best doll to give this test with. There probably will be a pattern of Barbie abuse in this story. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles rock!!
Storm-Pietro: There will be a lot more Pietro, but not till later on.
Eileen: Ha! I shall not tell you the identity of my mystery! It's not Xavier, but it's kind of odd that he hasn't noticed Jillian yet, ne? The chapters are in reverse to symbolize how messed up Wanda's mind is because of her memories being messed with. Thank you for noticing!
Talia458: Oh, yes indeedy! Magneto will most certainly be in here, but just like Pietro, not till later on.
The Mouse of Anon: I like you, you're silly. Thank you for the reviews and the taquitos. Good thing I don't have a garage.
Thn: Pie will be beaten up several times, but look on the bright side! Maybe it'll beat some sense into him! (
A girl and her muses: Thank you! The world is mine. You may live in my society free of tax.
*** Chapter Five: Idiots live on
French fries were a disgusting food, really. They were saturated with grease, pumped full of steroids, and God knows what else. They really were kind of gross. Especially when they were cold. You could taste how heavy the grease was when they were cold. The only things that made them edible then, were ketchup and salt.
Wanda swirled a French fry into the ketchup and brought it to her mouth chewing slowly. Mentally, she reviewed what she now knew.
Her name was Wanda Maximoff. She was sixteen years old. She was a mutant with incredible power. At some point, she had apparently lost all her memories and had them replaced with fake ones . . .
She had been in a hospital, a mental hospital, for several years. Her father and possibly her brother had been the ones to leave her there. She had been understandably angry. Professor Xavier had visited her. She had had an imaginary friend named Jillian. All of her memories included Jillian. . .
Wanda sat up at that realization. All the memories included Jillian. What was the real purpose of her dreams? To remember her past, or to remember Jillian? She rubbed her temples and wished she had some aspirin.
Even so, the memories were incomplete. There were huge gaps in between each one, and they couldn't even really be called true memories. She remembered the visions themselves, but she only remembered the events from the visions; she didn't actually remember the events.
A low rumble startled Wanda from her thoughts. She looked over to the direction the sound had come from. A dark smudge of clouds outlined the horizon. Despite the clear blue sky, it appeared a summer storm was approaching. For a moment, Wanda felt a wisp of memory. The sound of thunder and rain pounding on the roof, echoing down through the quiet, empty, building. The sound even reaching through the thick walls of a cell. . .
Wanda blinked and it was gone so quickly, she was convinced she had imagined it. The storm was still far away. She had hours left before it came anywhere near her. She ate another French fry.
The pain hit her then. It radiated from the center of her being and caused Wanda to take a sharp intake of breath. It was not a physical pain; it was something deeper; akin to intense grief. She rolled over onto her side and brought her hands to her head.
"Here comes another one."
***
*And today, in the local news, the hospital workers have undergone a wardrobe change. They've gone from last year's look of bunny-rabbit white, to a hip new shade of puke green. Speaking of green, the cafeteria is now serving green jell-o, but how do they make it green? That's what this reporter would like to know. And now, Bob, with the weather.*
"Bob is a straight jacket."
*At least he laughs at my jokes. . .*
Wanda snorted in reply. They sat like that for quite a while. Neither one said anything. Unsurprisingly, the one who broke the silence was Jillian.
*I'm soooooo bored.*
"Go talk to Bob."
*He has nothing to say. Why don't we do something?*
"What do you suggest? It's not like we have a lot of options."
*We could jump up and try to touch the ceiling.*
"We did that already."
*Oh.*
Silence permeated the room like a foul stench. It was so quiet, that Wanda's ears began ringing. If it was quiet for much longer, she going to go deaf. She turned her head towards the table and chair. Besides the bed, they were the only pieces of furniture in the room. They were nailed to the floor with titanium bolts. Wanda raised an arm and beckoned the object forward. It vibrated and groaned against the bolts, but did not move.
Wanda grimaced and tried harder. What was a desperate attempt to break the silence had turned into a consuming need to wrench the table up from the floor and destroy it. She cursed under her breath as beads of sweat popped up on her forehead under the strain. The table shuddered slightly.
Her arm trembled under the strain. She was putting so much effort and energy into this single cause and it was having no effect. Snarling, she moved her arm slightly so it was in a more comfortable position.
Then she bent her middle and ring finger slightly inward. And the table flew off of the floor and crunched against the ceiling. . .
Wanda jumped back about a foot and her mouth hung open in surprise.
*Damn! That was so cool!*
Wanda had to agree. It was cool. Grinning openly, she brought her fingers into the same position and pointed it at the chair. It melted into the floor like butter. Wanda's grin, if possible, grew wider, and with a whoop of joy, she began annihilating everything in the room.
***
An hour later, tranquillized and trussed up in good old Bob, Wanda gave her interpretation of a sheepish grin to an unhappy looking Professor Xavier.
"Wanda." He trailed of and sighed. "I know living here is hard for you, but I thought we had this all worked out."
Wanda raised an eyebrow. They had worked out something? Erk. . . She couldn't exactly remember. Woozily, she mused to herself whether or not they had given her just a little too much tranquilizer this time. . .
"I thought we had talked about controlling your power. You know you need to stop destroying the hospital's property wantonly, and you know you should use your power in an appropriate way."
'Excuse me?' Wanda thought, as her eyes narrowed. 'This is the guy that always tells me "your powers are a gift" and all that junk, and I just discovered something new about my powers and he's telling me I did something wrong? He's a hypocrite!'
*No duh.* Jillian replied.
Wanda eeped in surprise and fell out of her chair onto the visitation room floor. This was the first time Jillian had ever responded to something that Wanda didn't say out loud. Ok. She could concentrate her powers by just lowering two fingers and she could talk to Jillian in her head. Oh boy.
"Wanda? Are you alright?" Xavier said as he wheeled over. He looked concerned.
Wanda turned her head towards him with a tremendous amount of effort. She looked at him and blinked a few times, confused that there appeared to be two people looming over her.
*You're stoned.* Jillian stated matter of factly.
"Am not." Wanda slurred out. "I'm not on any thing, I'm feeling splendiferous thank you very much.."
Professor Xavier raised an eyebrow at the girl lying on the floor looking disoriented and talking to herself. With no hesitation, he reached over and hit the assistance button.
*You sound like a crazy person.*
Slightly embarrassed Wanda responded, "Do not! Stop trying to psychoanalyze my brain! All three of you!" She addressed Jillian and the two Xavier's. Dimly in the background, she could hear Professor Xavier arguing with someone about giving her too much of something.
*Go to sleep already. You aren't missing anything.*
Wanda did just that.
***
Wanda rolled over and started on her burger. With every vision, she learned something new. Grimacing, she opened her burger and started picking out pieces of onion. She hated onions. Onions made you cry, and besides, they tasted bad. She finished and went back to eating.
***
*You aren't going to like this.*
"Like what?" Wanda huffed, stopping her sit-ups. She had discovered exercising was something that passed the time. Surprisingly, it had been Xavier's suggestion. He did come up with good advice sometimes.
*You just aren't.*
"What?!" Wanda snapped.
"Mr. Montgomery is coming today."
Wanda replied by swearing at the top of her lungs.
"You're kidding!"
*I kid you not. . . Weasel Claus is coming to town.*
With that said Jillian burst into song, substituting the word "weasel" for "Santa" in Santa Claus is Coming to Town.
Wanda sat down, ignoring the song in the background, and contemplated her fate. . .
Basil Montgomery was a feared man all around the loony bin. He was the hospital's largest benefactor, and therefore had certain rights. Among these were random visitations to the patients he deemed "special". Montgomery wasn't feared because he was particularly scary. Wanda had him beat in that department. What the patients feared was his enthusiasm, and his lack of working brain cells.
Mr. Montgomery picked out the patients that were the most messed up, (in his opinion) and "sponsored" them. Sponsoring included taking pictures with Mr. Montgomery, listening to Mr. Montgomery, and being basically all around annoyed by Mr. Montgomery. Unfortunately, Wanda was "special".
*He sees you when you're sleeping,
He knows when you're awake
He knows if you've been bad or good.
'Cause he's got the place bugged for Goodness' sake!*
In fact, Mr. Montgomery had a special place in his heart for Wanda. She was his favorite project. He had decided to go on a one man crusade to make Wanda (and I quote), "An upright, responsible, young lady and American citizen." (Unquote). Her powers didn't faze him; he considered them to be the side affects of some brain disease. Wanda would have killed him at their first meeting if she hadn't been wearing Bob. She had bitten him though, but that only seemed to strengthen his resolve.
*You better watch out!
You better not cry.
You better not pout,
I'm telling you why.
Weasel Claus is coming,
To town!*
"Shut up!"
Jillian only laughed, but stopped suddenly as the cell began to open.
*He's heeere!* Jillian said eerily.
Wanda started saying the word 'shit' over and over, and began to bend her fingers into the customary position. She made a mad dash for the exit, but was caught and secured into Bob. They sat her at her table and Wanda could only watch in horror as Basil Montgomery strolled into her cell with a grin on his face the size of the Golden Gate Bridge and a nervous photographer.
"Hello Miss Wanda, are you having a nice day?"
Wanda shuddered and gave him her Satan's Spawn glare. It didn't work.
Even the way he looked was annoying. He was about thirty-five. His hair was reddish brown, and his bangs were swept to one side in a really annoying way. His nose was straight, his smile was straight from a polydent commercial, and his entire face was shaped like that of a shaven weasel.
"My goodness, how you've grown! I've got some super fun things for you to do today!"
He opened a bag he had with him and pulled out several items. A teddy bear, an inkblot test, and an adorable baby doll. No Barbie dolls.
"The teddy bear is for you to snuggle with whenever you want. I know how people like you need comfort in your condition." He smiled sweetly.
*You know, if he didn't have so much money, he'd probably be an inmate here. . .* Jillian mused.
'He makes it sound like I'm pregnant or something.'
*Or brain dead. Whichever you prefer,*
"Now, I want you to look at these for me, ok?" He asked slowly, as if waiting for her to grasp the meaning of his words. He held an inkblot test.
Wanda smiled slightly. He was seriously giving her an inkblot test? She knew he didn't know anything about them. This could be enjoyable after all.
'Quick, Jillian! Give me something to say!'
Inkblot tests were a common sight in an institution, oftentimes becoming monotonous. However, Wanda and Jillian had made a game out of it long ago. They would try to see how badly they could freak out the person giving the tests by giving extremely odd answers. Jillian has always been the one to come up with the answers since she was odd anyway.
Wanda barely contained a chortle at Jillian's answer, but hid it under the pretense of studying the inkblot carefully. After a few minutes she answered.
"It's a rhinoceros. A genderless one. I believe it's searching for tutus among orchids in a babbling brook of lemonade and squid ink. The Moose of Katmandu is coming out of the Astroturf forest in the background. He's going to push the genderless rhinoceros into the lake of molten fire and watch him fly away into the glitter berries. But hark! It's Lucky! Those damn kids are after his cereal again! Maybe he should seek political asylum from Willy Wonka. After all, he did let in the Oompa Loompas. What do you think?"
Montgomery looked startled when Wanda looked at him expectantly awaiting an answer. He stuttered illegibly for a few moments and blushed before saying,
"I think we should move on to something else don't you? Now here."
He picked up the doll and cradled it gently.
"Do you know what this is Wanda?"
Wanda contemplated killing someone. Either Montgomery or herself. What the hell did he think she could think it was other than a baby doll? A pot roast?
"This is called a baby, Wanda. Once upon a time, you were a baby and I was a baby. Everyone in the world was a baby once!"
*That. Is a hunk of plastic shaped to look like a baby. . . Isn't it?*
'You and I know that, but I think someone forgot to tell him.'
"Do you know what you're supposed to do with a baby?"
"Eat it?" Wanda answered and leaned towards the little bundle as Jillian cracked up in the background.
Mr. Montgomery snatched the child away and held it to his chest.
"N-no, Wanda. That's not what you do with a baby." He placed the doll back into the bag, where it was safe from being eaten and beckoned the photographer, who had been snapping pictures the entire time, over.
"Take some pictures of me with Wanda, will you?" He walked over and placed an arm around the girl's shoulders. She stiffened visibly.
As the photographer snapped pictures that seemed to show Basil Montgomery being charitable towards a psychopath, the man yammered on about how it was his responsibility to be patriotic. This was rather stupid, because no who was listening cared, and it wasn't like the camera could record sound. When the incessant talking wandered from patriotism to Benjamin Franklin to the evils of modern technology, Wanda had just about had enough.
She was crazy mad. Why did she have to listen to this asshole anyway? Even Jillian was beginning to feel cross. Turning her head, she noticed a bandage on one of the fingers on the hand resting on her shoulder. Wanda and Jillian both developed an eye twitch at the same time. That bandage had been there seven months ago when he had first visited. He had grinned and called it a tennis accident. She would show him tennis accident.
Montgomery stopped and screeched in mid-speech, then frantically tried to pry the angry teenager's teeth off his finger. Once he freed himself, he swore, something he had never done before, and rushed out of the cell. The photographer scurried after him, still snapping pictures.
Wanda spit the weirdo taste out of her mouth and grinned widely. She could hear Montgomery outside complaining at the top of his lungs to someone outside. He was angry. She could tell. Whenever Montgomery was angry, his voice became incredibly high pitched.
"I'm holding you responsible for this! I try to help her and look what happens! Why can't you make her act better? I'm going to need stitches!"
A random hospital worker replied, "I'm sorry sir, but we can't make our patients act in a certain way. If we could do that, they wouldn't need to be here."
"It's going to get infected! It doesn't matter! She should have been better prepared. How am I supposed to get publicity with her acting like that? You could have put me with one of those freaks upstairs who thinks they're a pirate, or the girl who cries all the time, or the one that doesn't do anything at all and I would have gotten more results! Jesus!"
The two men's voices faded as they moved away. Someone came in and released Wanda from her straight jacket. Then it was as quiet as before. Wanda sat on the floor and reached over to the teddy bear that had been discarded carelessly on the floor. She traced its glass eyes with a finger. It had been abandoned here just as readily as she had been. She laughed noiselessly under her breath and walked over to a corner. She placed the animal there facing the wall, as if he were in time out. Then, she went to her cot and lied down, staring at the ceiling.
***
*Exactly what are you seeing?*
***
Wanda's eyes shot open. The sky overhead was dark with storm clouds and cold rain had just begun pounding down. A flash of lightning illuminated everything briefly before it went dark again. Wanda stood, still looking up into the clouds. Rain covered her face and a frigid wind blew her coat and hair wildly around her. Water smeared her eyeliner and it ran down her cheeks in tears of scarlet. The lightning flashed again and briefly, everything appeared as if out of an old movie. Everything in black and white. Except the tears of scarlet.
Which just kept streaming down red.
***
You know what the scary part is? Mr. Montgomery is a real person. *screams* Can you tell I don't like him very much? Anyhoo. Review this thang!