Inner Turmoil-Chapter 3
It was already past nine by the time Blossom began walking home. It was incredibly dark as a result of the moon's absence in the sky, and a good many of the streetlights were burned out. The thick blackness did make her just slightly nervous. It closed around her like a thick blanket, making her feel very isolated and alone. Of course, there really wasn't anything to worry about seeing as she could easily take down any kind of attacker, but it was just the possibility of some kind of confrontation that made her wary.
She walked briskly, letting the cool summer breeze ruffle her long hair. Despite her cautious nature, she felt just slightly elated at the moment. School was over for the summer and the break from grueling homework and school activities was a welcome change. With a light grunt she repositioned her side bag on her shoulders. End of the year locker cleaning was an absolute bitch. There was at least a semester worth of junk crammed into her otherwise meager sized bag.
Blossom was in the middle of thinking about what she'd make for dinner when something made her stop in her tracks. Her programmed instincts had suddenly kicked in, telling her that she wasn't alone. She had stopped just in front of a neighborhood park, now bathed in the complete blackness of a thick forest area.
Heart thundering, breath shuddering, she peered into the infinite blackness, willing her eyes to see. She screwed her eyes up tight, allowing her pupils to shrink to mere pinpoints in order to allow her enhanced optical perception to kick in. Squinting, she scanned the darkness in front of her, relieved that she couldn't see anything of immediate danger.
No it's nothing. It's just an animal, she thought quickly in an effort to calm herself. Yes, just an animal, one that she could feel watching her from the shadows. Blossom started walking again, suddenly more eager than ever to get to the safety of her own home. Everything that had made her happy just moments before had been erased from her mind. Strangely enough, she was now thinking about her dream. That certainly didn't make her feel any calmer.
Blossom could feel her body reacting to the danger she felt. She really couldn't explain why she felt endangered, but didn't want to hang around and find out. She was very alert now, her heart pounding and muscles tense, ready to run-
-There was a faint whisper all around her. She stopped instantly, whirling around with her arms up, ready to fight an attacker. There was none, but in mere seconds a lazy breeze caught her hair again.
Yes. It's just the wind, that's all. Sometimes it can sound like voices.
"Who's there?" she said softly, mostly to herself more than anything. There was of course, no response.
Then she felt a sudden on rush of terror that she couldn't explain, as if something carried in the wind had decided to jump out and attack her. She looked around her, trying to find some source of this distress, but she didn't see a thing. There was no visible explanation as to why her body had just told her to flee. For a few moments she remained standing in the middle of the street, feeling the fear induce shivers down her spine. There was something very familiar on the wind. Something evil.
Then just as quickly as it had appeared, it was gone.
Blossom began running towards her home, not at all wanting to wait for whatever it was to show up again. Something had been there watching her, and strangely enough Blossom had the feeling it knew exactly who it was watching.
Ten minutes later she crashed into her front door, pausing to allow herself breathing time. It wouldn't look good for her to waltz in looking utterly terrified.
She took a deep breath, straightened her hair and opened the front door, making sure to lock it behind her. She set her bag down by the coat hangers and walked into the living room. Bubbles was sitting there reading a rather huge novel, and she looked up as soon as Blossom walked in.
"Oh, I need to talk to you," she said quickly, throwing the book onto the cushion beside her. The cordless phone was also sitting there. Bubbles looked completely rattled.
"What is it?" Blossom asked quickly, having a faint idea at what it could be.
"I need to warn you. Buttercup is fuming," she said softly. The look on her face told Blossom that Bubbles had already had a rather hurtful confrontation with her green-eyes sister.
"Oh, so what else is new?" Blossom said casually. "Did you guys argue again?"
"Well, that did happen, but only because she was already in a bad mood in the first place. Why does she always pick on me." Bubbles trailed off, her last sentence was more of a thought to herself.
"Oh, she picks on me too. That's just her way of expressing herself when something's bothering her."
"She likes to put everyone else in a bad mood with her," Bubbles answered.
"Uh huh. Now, what should I make for dinner? Professor's going to be home any minute now." Blossom said, walking towards the kitchen. "You know what, I tell you this all the time. Just stay out of her way when she's like this. It's no use asking her what's wrong, because she always pretends it's nothing," Blossom sighed. "Why is she so stubborn?" she asked herself. Bubbles followed her into the kitchen.
"She can't find her boxing glove. That's what's wrong. I told her I thought the professor put it in a box in the basement. There's still loads of stuff we never unpacked," Bubbles said, taking a seat at the kitchen table. Blossom began rummaging in the pantry looking for some boxed spaghetti.
"Is that all? Did you tell her it would be a good idea to actually go look for it herself? It isn't going to jump out of the box and take itself to her," Blossom said, putting the noodles on the counter as she went to go fetch a pot from the drawer.
"Yeah." Bubbles sighed. "So, what's wrong with you?"
Blossom froze for a split second, accidentally allowing the pot to overflow with water in the sink. The sudden gush of water onto her arms finally brought her back to her senses.
"What do you mean?"
"You did crash into the front door. The entire house shook."
"Oh-er-I was just running and didn't stop in time," Blossom lied. There was silence for a few seconds.
"Did you feel it too?" Bubbles asked, the smallest hint of fear in her otherwise cheerful voice. Blossom turned to look at her sister for a moment. Her face seemed even, but her breathing trembled.
"What?!" Blossom cried in surprise. Blossom must have been advertising her worries on her face, because Bubbles seemed to know exactly what had happened. All three of them had a habit of reading each other pretty accurately.
"I-well-that's why I crashed off my horse at lessons a few days ago. Something had spooked Ringo. I felt it too. Someone was watching me that I couldn't see," Bubbles breathed. Blossom turned and looked at her as the water began to boil on the stove.
"You said you'd missed the jump," Blossom said, raising a delicate eyebrow.
"I know, but that was a lie. I thought I'd gone nutty or something. I mean- nothing particularly evil has happened since we left Townsville. I thought it was perhaps a relapse of a memory or something," Bubbles sniffed. Blossom sighed.
"I was walking home and I thought something was watching me. Coulda' been an animal or something. There was lots of trees around-"
"But it felt evil didn't it?"
They both stood there in awkward silence. Blossom looked at the floor, tracing the patterns of the tiles with her eyes. She honestly didn't know what to say. Bubbles was right, it had felt evil. The pot of water began to bubble violently, sending droplets of sizzling water in every direction. Blossom rushed to turn it off, thankful for a reason to break the tension.
"It's probably nothing. Just a memory like you said, that's all.could you hand me the spaghetti sauce please." Blossom said, very careful to keep her voice calm. She looked at her hands, horrified, to find that she was shaking. She stuffed them behind her back as Bubbles came towards her with a jar of red substance. There was a very odd look in her eyes that Blossom hadn't seen in years. It was the confusion of a small child.
"What would happen. if say. and enemy followed us here? What would we do?" she said, handing Blossom the jar of sauce. Blossom set it down onto the counter and looked at the jar for a little while, trying to think of a response. She hoped Bubbles just thought she was reading the label. She gave the only honest answer she had,
"I don't know."
At that moment Buttercup came stomping into the kitchen.
"Where's Professor?" she said quickly. There was an obvious hint of anger in her voice. She scanned the room eagerly as if expected the professor to be standing right there.
"Honestly Buttercup, you could just go look in the basement yourself," Blossom said. "Afraid of a few spiders?"
"No! There's tons of stuff down there and it could take me all night! There's still boxes down there Professor says he wants to go through first. Important stuff. The last thing I want to do is piss him off!"
"Look, I know it's in one of the boxes labeled toys. I think it's the one next to the cabinet. Just go get it yourself. Why on earth would the professor put his important things in a box labeled toys?"
"Augh." Buttercup fumed, and then she stormed out of the room. Blossom heard the basement door open, and then slam shut a few seconds later. In a far part of the house she heard something crash to the floor.
"We really should do something about that temper of hers," Blossom mumbled. Bubbles suddenly perked up.
"Professor's home!" she shrieked. Her normally child-like demeanor had returned. Bubbles ran from the kitchen into the living room, and a few seconds later Blossom heard the front door fly open, then,
"What's wrong?!" Bubbles cried from the other room. There was no answer, and a few seconds later Blossom heard the professor walk into the kitchen. Oddly enough he didn't say anything to her, he merely walked up behind her in an effort to see what she was doing. Blossom turned, surprised to see his face look so worn.
"Ahh. it's nothing, nothing. I'm just preoccupied a bit.were there any phone calls?"
"Um, no, not since I've been home," Blossom said, looking up at him. He was still over a foot taller than her. He didn't just look tired, but he also looked slightly harassed.
"Yeah, a man called asking for you. He didn't sound familiar so I told him you were busy," Bubbles said, now holding the cordless in her hands. Blossom could tell she was hiding the fact that she, like herself, was actually worried about something. Bubbles caught Blossom's gaze, and in that brief exchange, they both agreed it was not the best time to tell the professor about what was bothering them.
The professor spun around.
"Did he say who he was?!" he blurted, surprising Blossom enough to make her splatter tomato sauce all over the counter. "Oh, sorry honey. Let me help you clean that up." He began walking around the room aimlessly, obviously looking for towels, but behaving as if he'd never been in the kitchen before.
"Um, they're right here Professor," Blossom said cautiously, pointing to a drawer that was directly to her left.
"Yes, of course. Seemed to have slipped my mind that's all." he trailed off, grabbing a white towel. He looked back at Bubbles expectantly. She was staring at him with a mix of fear and confusion. Blossom agreed he was definitely being weird.
"Er- no, he just said he'd try back later."
Satisfied the professor turned his attention to the spilled tomato sauce, which Blossom had already cleaned up.
"Did you get any on you?" he asked quickly.
"No, I'm good," Blossom smiled. The professor nodded, put the towel back into the drawer then walked from the room. Blossom thought she heard the professor mumble something under his breath, but she wasn't paying close enough attention to hear it. She could have, with super sensitive hearing, but only when she willed it. This wasn't the best time to eavesdrop on the professor because he was clearly distressed. Bubbles acted confused too; she clearly hadn't heard either.
They both exchanged glances, and Bubbles mouthed a very emphatic, what was that all about? Blossom shrugged.
"Go get Buttercup will. you." Blossom began to say, but Buttercup had already walked into the kitchen, still without her lost boxing glove. She didn't look angry anymore, but instead her eyes held a haunted expression.
"Where's the professor?" she blurted suddenly, the fear leaving her eyes to be replaced by a fiery tension.
"He just left the room. I wouldn't bother him though. He's acting really funny."
But Buttercup had run from the room before Blossom could even finish what she was saying. She heard the door to Buttercup's room slam, and then there was silence in the house. Bubbles burst into tears.
"Oh! Why is e-everyone acting s-s-so f-f-unny?!" she wailed, tearing away from the kitchen to her own room in a shower of muffled sobs. Dinner was going to be really awkward that night.
It was already past nine by the time Blossom began walking home. It was incredibly dark as a result of the moon's absence in the sky, and a good many of the streetlights were burned out. The thick blackness did make her just slightly nervous. It closed around her like a thick blanket, making her feel very isolated and alone. Of course, there really wasn't anything to worry about seeing as she could easily take down any kind of attacker, but it was just the possibility of some kind of confrontation that made her wary.
She walked briskly, letting the cool summer breeze ruffle her long hair. Despite her cautious nature, she felt just slightly elated at the moment. School was over for the summer and the break from grueling homework and school activities was a welcome change. With a light grunt she repositioned her side bag on her shoulders. End of the year locker cleaning was an absolute bitch. There was at least a semester worth of junk crammed into her otherwise meager sized bag.
Blossom was in the middle of thinking about what she'd make for dinner when something made her stop in her tracks. Her programmed instincts had suddenly kicked in, telling her that she wasn't alone. She had stopped just in front of a neighborhood park, now bathed in the complete blackness of a thick forest area.
Heart thundering, breath shuddering, she peered into the infinite blackness, willing her eyes to see. She screwed her eyes up tight, allowing her pupils to shrink to mere pinpoints in order to allow her enhanced optical perception to kick in. Squinting, she scanned the darkness in front of her, relieved that she couldn't see anything of immediate danger.
No it's nothing. It's just an animal, she thought quickly in an effort to calm herself. Yes, just an animal, one that she could feel watching her from the shadows. Blossom started walking again, suddenly more eager than ever to get to the safety of her own home. Everything that had made her happy just moments before had been erased from her mind. Strangely enough, she was now thinking about her dream. That certainly didn't make her feel any calmer.
Blossom could feel her body reacting to the danger she felt. She really couldn't explain why she felt endangered, but didn't want to hang around and find out. She was very alert now, her heart pounding and muscles tense, ready to run-
-There was a faint whisper all around her. She stopped instantly, whirling around with her arms up, ready to fight an attacker. There was none, but in mere seconds a lazy breeze caught her hair again.
Yes. It's just the wind, that's all. Sometimes it can sound like voices.
"Who's there?" she said softly, mostly to herself more than anything. There was of course, no response.
Then she felt a sudden on rush of terror that she couldn't explain, as if something carried in the wind had decided to jump out and attack her. She looked around her, trying to find some source of this distress, but she didn't see a thing. There was no visible explanation as to why her body had just told her to flee. For a few moments she remained standing in the middle of the street, feeling the fear induce shivers down her spine. There was something very familiar on the wind. Something evil.
Then just as quickly as it had appeared, it was gone.
Blossom began running towards her home, not at all wanting to wait for whatever it was to show up again. Something had been there watching her, and strangely enough Blossom had the feeling it knew exactly who it was watching.
Ten minutes later she crashed into her front door, pausing to allow herself breathing time. It wouldn't look good for her to waltz in looking utterly terrified.
She took a deep breath, straightened her hair and opened the front door, making sure to lock it behind her. She set her bag down by the coat hangers and walked into the living room. Bubbles was sitting there reading a rather huge novel, and she looked up as soon as Blossom walked in.
"Oh, I need to talk to you," she said quickly, throwing the book onto the cushion beside her. The cordless phone was also sitting there. Bubbles looked completely rattled.
"What is it?" Blossom asked quickly, having a faint idea at what it could be.
"I need to warn you. Buttercup is fuming," she said softly. The look on her face told Blossom that Bubbles had already had a rather hurtful confrontation with her green-eyes sister.
"Oh, so what else is new?" Blossom said casually. "Did you guys argue again?"
"Well, that did happen, but only because she was already in a bad mood in the first place. Why does she always pick on me." Bubbles trailed off, her last sentence was more of a thought to herself.
"Oh, she picks on me too. That's just her way of expressing herself when something's bothering her."
"She likes to put everyone else in a bad mood with her," Bubbles answered.
"Uh huh. Now, what should I make for dinner? Professor's going to be home any minute now." Blossom said, walking towards the kitchen. "You know what, I tell you this all the time. Just stay out of her way when she's like this. It's no use asking her what's wrong, because she always pretends it's nothing," Blossom sighed. "Why is she so stubborn?" she asked herself. Bubbles followed her into the kitchen.
"She can't find her boxing glove. That's what's wrong. I told her I thought the professor put it in a box in the basement. There's still loads of stuff we never unpacked," Bubbles said, taking a seat at the kitchen table. Blossom began rummaging in the pantry looking for some boxed spaghetti.
"Is that all? Did you tell her it would be a good idea to actually go look for it herself? It isn't going to jump out of the box and take itself to her," Blossom said, putting the noodles on the counter as she went to go fetch a pot from the drawer.
"Yeah." Bubbles sighed. "So, what's wrong with you?"
Blossom froze for a split second, accidentally allowing the pot to overflow with water in the sink. The sudden gush of water onto her arms finally brought her back to her senses.
"What do you mean?"
"You did crash into the front door. The entire house shook."
"Oh-er-I was just running and didn't stop in time," Blossom lied. There was silence for a few seconds.
"Did you feel it too?" Bubbles asked, the smallest hint of fear in her otherwise cheerful voice. Blossom turned to look at her sister for a moment. Her face seemed even, but her breathing trembled.
"What?!" Blossom cried in surprise. Blossom must have been advertising her worries on her face, because Bubbles seemed to know exactly what had happened. All three of them had a habit of reading each other pretty accurately.
"I-well-that's why I crashed off my horse at lessons a few days ago. Something had spooked Ringo. I felt it too. Someone was watching me that I couldn't see," Bubbles breathed. Blossom turned and looked at her as the water began to boil on the stove.
"You said you'd missed the jump," Blossom said, raising a delicate eyebrow.
"I know, but that was a lie. I thought I'd gone nutty or something. I mean- nothing particularly evil has happened since we left Townsville. I thought it was perhaps a relapse of a memory or something," Bubbles sniffed. Blossom sighed.
"I was walking home and I thought something was watching me. Coulda' been an animal or something. There was lots of trees around-"
"But it felt evil didn't it?"
They both stood there in awkward silence. Blossom looked at the floor, tracing the patterns of the tiles with her eyes. She honestly didn't know what to say. Bubbles was right, it had felt evil. The pot of water began to bubble violently, sending droplets of sizzling water in every direction. Blossom rushed to turn it off, thankful for a reason to break the tension.
"It's probably nothing. Just a memory like you said, that's all.could you hand me the spaghetti sauce please." Blossom said, very careful to keep her voice calm. She looked at her hands, horrified, to find that she was shaking. She stuffed them behind her back as Bubbles came towards her with a jar of red substance. There was a very odd look in her eyes that Blossom hadn't seen in years. It was the confusion of a small child.
"What would happen. if say. and enemy followed us here? What would we do?" she said, handing Blossom the jar of sauce. Blossom set it down onto the counter and looked at the jar for a little while, trying to think of a response. She hoped Bubbles just thought she was reading the label. She gave the only honest answer she had,
"I don't know."
At that moment Buttercup came stomping into the kitchen.
"Where's Professor?" she said quickly. There was an obvious hint of anger in her voice. She scanned the room eagerly as if expected the professor to be standing right there.
"Honestly Buttercup, you could just go look in the basement yourself," Blossom said. "Afraid of a few spiders?"
"No! There's tons of stuff down there and it could take me all night! There's still boxes down there Professor says he wants to go through first. Important stuff. The last thing I want to do is piss him off!"
"Look, I know it's in one of the boxes labeled toys. I think it's the one next to the cabinet. Just go get it yourself. Why on earth would the professor put his important things in a box labeled toys?"
"Augh." Buttercup fumed, and then she stormed out of the room. Blossom heard the basement door open, and then slam shut a few seconds later. In a far part of the house she heard something crash to the floor.
"We really should do something about that temper of hers," Blossom mumbled. Bubbles suddenly perked up.
"Professor's home!" she shrieked. Her normally child-like demeanor had returned. Bubbles ran from the kitchen into the living room, and a few seconds later Blossom heard the front door fly open, then,
"What's wrong?!" Bubbles cried from the other room. There was no answer, and a few seconds later Blossom heard the professor walk into the kitchen. Oddly enough he didn't say anything to her, he merely walked up behind her in an effort to see what she was doing. Blossom turned, surprised to see his face look so worn.
"Ahh. it's nothing, nothing. I'm just preoccupied a bit.were there any phone calls?"
"Um, no, not since I've been home," Blossom said, looking up at him. He was still over a foot taller than her. He didn't just look tired, but he also looked slightly harassed.
"Yeah, a man called asking for you. He didn't sound familiar so I told him you were busy," Bubbles said, now holding the cordless in her hands. Blossom could tell she was hiding the fact that she, like herself, was actually worried about something. Bubbles caught Blossom's gaze, and in that brief exchange, they both agreed it was not the best time to tell the professor about what was bothering them.
The professor spun around.
"Did he say who he was?!" he blurted, surprising Blossom enough to make her splatter tomato sauce all over the counter. "Oh, sorry honey. Let me help you clean that up." He began walking around the room aimlessly, obviously looking for towels, but behaving as if he'd never been in the kitchen before.
"Um, they're right here Professor," Blossom said cautiously, pointing to a drawer that was directly to her left.
"Yes, of course. Seemed to have slipped my mind that's all." he trailed off, grabbing a white towel. He looked back at Bubbles expectantly. She was staring at him with a mix of fear and confusion. Blossom agreed he was definitely being weird.
"Er- no, he just said he'd try back later."
Satisfied the professor turned his attention to the spilled tomato sauce, which Blossom had already cleaned up.
"Did you get any on you?" he asked quickly.
"No, I'm good," Blossom smiled. The professor nodded, put the towel back into the drawer then walked from the room. Blossom thought she heard the professor mumble something under his breath, but she wasn't paying close enough attention to hear it. She could have, with super sensitive hearing, but only when she willed it. This wasn't the best time to eavesdrop on the professor because he was clearly distressed. Bubbles acted confused too; she clearly hadn't heard either.
They both exchanged glances, and Bubbles mouthed a very emphatic, what was that all about? Blossom shrugged.
"Go get Buttercup will. you." Blossom began to say, but Buttercup had already walked into the kitchen, still without her lost boxing glove. She didn't look angry anymore, but instead her eyes held a haunted expression.
"Where's the professor?" she blurted suddenly, the fear leaving her eyes to be replaced by a fiery tension.
"He just left the room. I wouldn't bother him though. He's acting really funny."
But Buttercup had run from the room before Blossom could even finish what she was saying. She heard the door to Buttercup's room slam, and then there was silence in the house. Bubbles burst into tears.
"Oh! Why is e-everyone acting s-s-so f-f-unny?!" she wailed, tearing away from the kitchen to her own room in a shower of muffled sobs. Dinner was going to be really awkward that night.