'Between Infinity and Reality'
a fanfiction by
Kaci
based on the show
'Fairly-Odd Parents'
(c)
Butch Hartman
----
It's funny how much a person can change in only a few short days... and it's funny how slowly those few days can go by to make it seem like an eternity and a half has passed.
Thoughts like this keep drifting through my ten year-old mind as I lie here, on the back yard lawn, between infinity and reality.
Above me is space; the infinite forever of stars and blackness, dark and cold. Below me is the ground; the thing that links me to the reality that is my life.
Reality. My God. How very messed up that one word has become to me, and how I long to drift off into infinity and forget about all that has happened to me before. I want to let go. I want to just float up there into the stars and stop existing as who I am. I want to be free.
Two days have passed. Well, two and a half nights and two days, I guess. That's how long it's been since my entire view on life was unexpectedly torn away from me and replaced with a distorted and warped lense that changed the way I think, the way I see things.
I always knew Vicky to be the sadistic type. Ever since I first met her, she was an evil, sadistic, horrible person to me. I just didn't know how far those negative tendencies would go.
That is, until Friday night.
It wasn't too much of a surprise to me when my parents announced that they were leaving for the weekend.
"Timmy, we're leaving for Bermuda!" my mom called from the living room. I ran downstairs quickly, tearing myself away from my comic books.
When I reached the bottom of the stairs, my parents were standing in the front hall, holding luggage and wearing travel-gear. I said, "Why didn't you tell me you were going to Bermuda?"
My dad replied, with his usual insanely happy smile, "We just won the tickets this afternoon!"
"Won them? Where?"
"Internet. Bye, Timmy! We're leaving you with Vicky until Sunday morning!" And they were gone.
I didn't even bother wondering why they didn't get a ticket for me, or why they were going to Bermuda for a day and a half. I could sense her standing behind me. I just knew she was there, and sure enough, when I turned around she grabbed me by the front of my shirt (as was her usual greeting for me) and gave me that horrible smile as she said to me, "Oh, how good to see you, twerp. We're gonna have sooo much fun tonight."
Too bad I didn't know how much 'fun' was going to go on.
Before long, she had me wrapped in chains, sitting on the living room couch. I never could figure out where all those chains were coming from. She always just seemed to have them.
"Tonight's a special night, twerp," Vicky said, sitting down on the floor in front of the coffee table. She set a plastic grocery bag down in front of her. I wondered what was in it.
I asked, "How is it special?" I had to play along, or else she might make me wear a dress again.
All she did was smile and open the bag. She brought out a small bottle of clear liquid. It looked like water. Then she brought out two more bottles, both of them blue glass.
"I have three new friends I'd like you to meet," said Vicky as she pushed the bottles towards me. "Velma Vodka, Tony Tequila, and Brandy."
I sort of stared for a few moments. "Vicky... is that liquor?"
"What if it is?"
"You can't have that here! My parents'll flip!"
"If they find out, that is." She pulled a small pocket knife out of the bag, grinning at me with that evil glint in her pink eyes. "But they're not going to find out... are they, Timmy?"
I could feel myself trembling. "N-no, of course not..."
Vicky giggled to herself and said, "Good." She stood and left the room for a moment, returning with a glass and some sort of juice.
While she made herself some sort of alcoholic drink, I wondered where Cosmo and Wanda were... then I remembered that they'd gone to watch a filming of The Fairy Dating Game. I could just picture Cosmo commenting on one of the female contestants, and Wanda turning him into a can of creamed corn in response.
My babysitter got up and sat down beside me, turning on the TV to some senseless sitcom. Over the course of an hour and a half, she drank almost all of the contents of those three bottles. I noticed her expression becoming more dull and glazed over with every sip.
Finally, at the end of 'Buddies' and before 'Jill and Drake', Vicky looked at her watch. I didn't usually notice her wearing a watch, but when she wanted to know what time it was, it just sort of seemed to appear there.
She stood up and picked me up by the back of the line of chains that bound me. "Time to put the twerp to bed," she slurred, stumbling off towards the stairs. I was scared that she'd drop me or something. Now I wish she had done that instead of what she did later.
Vicky swaggered into my room and tossed me onto the bed. My hat fell onto the floor. The sixteen year-old drunken girl sauntered over to where I was and flipped me onto my back, fumbling with the chains.
I watched her nervously. I had hoped she was just going to unchain me so that I could go to sleep, but something else seem to be concocting behind those dim and unfocused eyes. I knew something was wrong, but I didn't know how to stop her.
She pulled the chains away from my body, then looped them around my wrists and locked them onto the bed posts. This is when I began to really panic, but by now it was too late to escape.
I started jerking at the chains frantically. No good.
"Vicky, what're you doing?" I asked.
Again, she just grinned. "How long've I been sittin' you, twerp? S'been a few years... but, y'know, I never seen what's under them blue jeans you always wear..."
My eyes widened. "What're you talking about?! Get away from me!"
But before I knew it, she was undoing my jeans. I spazzed and doubled-over. I bit her arm as hard as I could and I tasted blood. Vicky shrieked and pulled away from me, but then she was back, and she was mad.
Stars filled my view when she threw the fishbowl that usually held my fairy guardians. It hit me in the side of the head and shattered. For a few moments, I couldn't see or hear anything, but I was concious. I could feel myself sobbing and feel the blood running from my ear down my neck. I felt Vicky's hands near my waist.
All at once, my senses came back to me, and I started to scream.
"HELP! SOMEONE! ANYBODY! MOM! DAD! COSMO! WANDA! MR. DINKLEBURG! ANYONE! HELP M--nnngh!"
Vicky had shoved my hat into my mouth.
"Shut up, twerp," she growled, grabbing my face and digging her nails into my cheeks. "Yer makin' this harder than it has ta' be."
I whimpered and shut my eyes, which were stinging and beginning to fill with tears. What had I ever done to her to deserve this?
Soon she had my pants completely off. I felt as if she were stabbing me each time she touched me, running her hands over places that only I was supposed to come in contact with. I hated her. I wanted to kick her in the face or something, but I knew that she was bigger and stronger and that she could kill me as easily as she could file her nails. The people in my life seem rather ignorant. I highly doubt she would've gotten caught.
I don't know what possessed me to open my eyes. Perhaps blind fear made me lose my common sense, but I opened them.
I caught a glimpse of Vicky, her shirt pulled up and the fly of her black jeans undone. With one hand she was touching me, with the other she was touching herself. I squeaked and shut my eyes again. I didn't open them back up until I felt her hands leave my body and heard her shut the door of my room.
Somehow I managed to push my hat out of my mouth with my tongue. For a while, I just stared at the cieling in pure shock. Then, I curled up onto my side and began to cry.
Why? Why had she done this to me? I knew Vicky was evil, I knew she had a black-hole for a heart, and I knew her sense of kindness seemed to have vanished from her body completely, but never in my life did I imagine that she would do something like this to me.
I lay there for hours just crying. My wrists were sore and chafed from the chains, but that didn't matter. My hands could've fallen off for all I cared. I wanted to die.
At some point, amidst the crying and the surpression of screams, I fell asleep. I don't remember dreaming anything.
I woke up the next morning to find myself fully dressed and tucked in as if my own parents had put me to bed the night before. The fishbowl had been replaced, and the blood had been cleaned up from my neck and shoulders. As I came out of the arms of unconciousness, I noticed that the blankets and sheets on my bed were not the ones there the day before.
She was clever.
Slowly, I slid out of bed and dropped onto the floor, looking down at myself. I was in my blue pajamas.
Was it all a dream?
I took a look around the room. All seemed normal. No chains on the bed posts, no blood nor shards of glass on the floor...
This couldn't be. I ran out of the room and down the stairs. If it had been a dream, then my parents would be home.
But I was wrong.
Vicky stood in the kitchen, searching through the cabinets with her upper-torso hidden from view behind one of the cabinet doors.
I stared at her for a few moments. Then she pulled back as she found what she was looking for. I gasped.
Her arm was wrapped in bandages. It had happened. It wasn't a dream. It was real.
And I hit the floor.
When I came to, I was lying on the living room couch, with Vicky standing over me. She glared down darkly, arms crossed over her chest as she scowled.
"So... you remember," she said with a voice that made me feel dizzy.
I gave a small nod.
"But that's not going to be a problem, is it?" she asked as she sat down on the couch at my side, reaching to pick up her pocket knife from the table. She held the blade up at my throat. "Because you're not going to tell anyone, are you?"
I shook my head and stammered in a terrified voice, just over a whisper, "N-no."
"Promise?"
"I-I... I promise..."
She smiled. "Good. You're a good kid, Timmy. You're such a good kid that I'm going to cook you a special lunch. How does that sound?"
All I could do was nod.
"Do you like alphabet soup?"
Again, I nodded.
"Alrighty," said Vicky as she stood to leave. "You just sit tight, munchkin, and soup'll be ready in no time!" Then, she left for the kitchen.
I sat up and stared after her in horror. What had just happened?
POOF! Cosmo and Wanda appeared at my side.
I couldn't help it. The sudden burst of noise and presence scared me. I shrieked and fell off of the couch, covering my head and trembling.
I peeked up to see a puff of pink hair in my line of view.
"Timmy? Are you okay?" asked Wanda as she pulled me to my feet. I looked up at her gratefully and wrapped my arms around her in a huge hug.
"I'm so glad you're back," I said, falling to my knees as I began to cry again.
Wanda put her arms around me in return, patting my back. "What's the matter, sport? Why are you crying?"
All at once I realized that I couldn't tell her. I knew Vicky would never find out that she or Cosmo knew, but I just couldn't... I didn't want them to know. I was ashamed.
It didn't matter. I was crying too hard to talk anyway.
In my dazed and weary state of uncontrollable sobbing, Cosmo and Wanda got me up to my room. They sat me down on my bed and hovered in the air before me, Wanda again pulling me into a hug.
"It's okay, Timmy, you can tell us," I heard Cosmo say.
I just shook my head. "N-no... I can't..."
"Why not?"
"I just can't."
They must've sensed that it really upset me to talk about it, so they just sat down on the bed with me and held me while I cried. For a moment, I wished my real parents were there... then I wished I would never see them again.
After all, it was THEM who had left me with Vicky. It was THEM who weren't there to protect me, like they should've been. This was all their fault.
Or was it mine?
I mean, I was too puny and weak to take care of myself. I practically ASKED her to violate me.
This has been my mentality ever since.
I knew that if I vocalized any wish to Cosmo and Wanda, that it would come true. I wished for many things at that moment. I wished to die, I wished to live. I wished Vicky was dead. I wished Vicky had never been born. I wished I had never been born. I wished I had a cookie. I wished I was asleep. I wished I didn't exist.
But I said nothing. I just cried.
Cosmo and Wanda suddenly vanished as someone was heard coming up the stairs to my room. The door opened. Vicky stood holding a bowl of soup.
She walked cheerily over to my bedside and placed the bowl on my nightstand.
"You must be feeling under the weather," she said in an uncharacteristically caring tone. "You'd better just stay in here for the day."
All I did was stare at her while she set up a spoon, napkin, and glass of ice water on my nightstand. Then she left.
My fairy God-parents reappeared as soon as her footsteps left earshot.
"Mm, soup! Oh!! Soup with LETTERS!" I heard Cosmo exclaim. I looked up at him as he pointed to the bowl as if it were the most amazing thing in existence, but Wanda was watching me.
She sat down on the bed beside me and put a hand on my shoulder, "Timmy, you know you can tell us anything, right? We'd never betray you."
I nodded.
"But you don't have to tell us anything if you don't want to. Okay?"
Again, I nodded.
Wanda gave me a weak smile and hugged my shoulders. Then she said, "You'd better eat that soup before Cosmo decides to practice his spelling, and we both know how that'll work out."
I smiled for the first time in hours and gave a dry laugh, but I shook my head. I couldn't eat anything. I felt sick. "I'm not hungry right now," I said.
Cosmo grinned and said, "I know what to do in a case like this!"
Poof! A magic cloud surrounded my lunch, with the word 'TUPPERWARE!' flashing before my eyes as the cloud vanished and my meal was in a plastic bowl with a lid.
"Thanks," I said quietly, pulling my knees to my chest. "If it's okay with you guys, I think I'd like to just stay inside and read comic books today."
"Feeling sick?" asked Wanda.
For the millionth time that day, I nodded.
"It's okay, sweetie," she said, placing a kiss on my forehead. "You just say the word and we'll get you anything you want."
"I know," I said. "Thanks."
The two of them grinned at me before vanishing and reappearing in the fishbowl as two goldfish with crowns on their little rounded heads.
Cosmo started blathering on about his soup wasn't special, that it never had literary value or anything educational about it.
I picked up one of my Crimson Chin comics off of the nightstand and lay back on my bed, holding the book up in front of me, but I wasn't reading it. I was just staring at the panels.
The rest of the day went by that way. I never ate my soup, Vicky stayed downstairs, and Wanda agreed to obtain Shakespeare Stew for Cosmo.
Soon it was night time again. I put my comic down on the floor and curled up in a ball in bed. I didn't even say good night to my fairies before I went to sleep.
That night I dreamt that Vicky was a giant bird, chasing me down a narrow pathway. On either side of the pathway was a drop into an endless abyss. All around me things were black, with swirling clouds of purple and red. I ran as fast as I could, but soon the razor sharp talons of Vicky's claws were digging into my shoulders.
I awoke with a soft yelp, drenched in a cold sweat. Gasping for breath, I looked at my alarm clock. Three in the morning. My parents would be home soon.
But did I want them to come home?
I lay back down in the bed and stared at the cieling. I wasn't thinking. I wasn't sleeping. I was just staring.
I stared until the sun came up and I heard birds singing outside.
I stared up until Cosmo and Wanda poof!ed in front of my line of vision and floated down to sit at my feet.
"Feeling any better, sweetie?" Wanda asked, patting my knee.
I shook my head and sat up. Cosmo was eyeing my soup, which was still in a bowl on my nightstand.
I said, "Cosmo, just take it."
He gave a squeal of delight and snatched the bowl, pulling the lid off and sticking his fingers into the soup to spell out whatever words he knew.
"I'm gonna go take a bath," I said to Wanda, who was giving me a strange look, before sliding out of the bed and walking off to the bathroom.
I locked the bathroom door before I started undressing. When I was nude, I stared down at myself and sighed. I felt like an alien in my own body. Surely this couldn't have been me.
Shaking my head in disgust of my own physical being, I turned to look at the mirror. My eyes widened. There was a bruise formed on the side of my face where Vicky had thrown the fishbowl at me. I put a hand there and felt the powdery substance that had begun to rub off. I looked at my hand.
Make-up.
Vicky wasn't all that clever after all.
I showered and got out of the tub, wrapping myself in a towel that was at least four times as long as I was tall. I had forgotten to bring clothes to change into, so I decided to just toga into my room and get some, then return to get dressed.
I made sure the towel was wrapped securely around my waist before opening the bathroom door.
Vicky stood in my way.
I backed up, holding the towel as if it were a lifesaving device.
"You've got a bruise, Timmy," she said, stepping towards me. "What happened?"
"I-I don't know..." I stammered. I felt like I was about to faint again.
Vicky tipped her head in thought. She said, "I think you fell out of bed while you were sleeping and hit the side of your head on your nightstand. Is that right?"
"Yes... yes, that's it..."
"But I came to help you, didn't I? I gave you some tylenol when your head started hurting and I put you back to bed, isn't that right?" She was standing over me.
I nodded frantically. "J-just like any good babysitter would do..."
Vicky smiled and patted my head. "Such a good boy," she said, turning and walking away.
I watched her until she had gone down the stairs. Then I ran into my room, grabbed some clothes, and ran back to the bathroom to get dressed. I could hear Cosmo calling after me to look at his rendition of the Gettysburg Address.
When I was dressed, I sat down on the floor of the bathroom and hugged myself. I could feel myself wanting to cry again, but I couldn't allow it. My parents would be home any moment now. If they came home to see me crying, they'd ask what was wrong. I wouldn't be able to make up a good story, and they'd find out, and then Vicky would kill me.
After a few moments, I gave a shuddering sigh and pulled myself to my feet. I'd be okay for another hour or two.
As I opened the bathroom door to head into my room, I heard the front door slam shut.
"Timmy! We're back!" came the all-too familiar voice of my father. I ran down the stairs to greet them, hugging my mom's knees.
"Hi, mom! Hi, dad! How was Bermuda?" I was smiling. How was I doing this? It seemed so easy to put up this facade, but at the same time I felt myself dying inside.
My dad held up his arm, which was bright red. "Sunny!" he said with a wince.
My mom continued, "Your father fell asleep with one arm hanging out from under the beach blanket."
I grinned. That was totally something my dad would do.
"Oh! Timmy, what happened to your head?" asked my mother as she kneeled down to get a closer look at my bruise.
Before I could even open my mouth, Vicky had told them story about my falling out of bed.
"Isn't that right, Timmy?" she said when she was done.
I nodded.
"Oh, Vicky! Thank you so much for taking care of him! My, my, what happened to your arm?" asked my mother.
Vicky said, "It's nothing, Mrs. Turner, I just bumped my arm against one of the burners on the stove while it was still hot. I'll be fine. Why, Timmy was nice enough to go out and get me an ice pack, weren't you, Timmy?"
"Uh, y-yeah..." I said.
My mother gasped and hugged my shoulder, then handed Vicky an enormous wad of money.
"There's a little extra there for taking such GOOD care of Timmy!" I heard my mother say.
I was disgusted.
Taking good care of me? She molested me...
"Bye, Mr. and Mrs. Turner!" said Vicky as she took her money, pulled her backpack over her shoulder, and headed for the door. She shot me one last evil grin. "Bye, Timmy," she said before she turned and shut the door.
I think my heart stopped for a moment or two.
After Vicky had gone, I sat through a few hours of watching the slides my parents had put together in an unbelievable amount of time. All the same, they also had souvenoirs and photos to show me.
By the time that whole schtick was over with, it was dark out.
I left the living room and headed for the stairs, then I stopped. I turned and went back through the living room to the kitchen, then through the backdoor and into the back yard.
Now here I lie, on the back yard lawn, between infinity and reality.
I don't know if I'll ever tell my parents about Vicky. I don't know if I'll ever tell Cosmo and Wanda, either.
But for now, I'm just gonna watch the night sky... perhaps I'll tally up the stars...
THE END
a fanfiction by
Kaci
based on the show
'Fairly-Odd Parents'
(c)
Butch Hartman
----
It's funny how much a person can change in only a few short days... and it's funny how slowly those few days can go by to make it seem like an eternity and a half has passed.
Thoughts like this keep drifting through my ten year-old mind as I lie here, on the back yard lawn, between infinity and reality.
Above me is space; the infinite forever of stars and blackness, dark and cold. Below me is the ground; the thing that links me to the reality that is my life.
Reality. My God. How very messed up that one word has become to me, and how I long to drift off into infinity and forget about all that has happened to me before. I want to let go. I want to just float up there into the stars and stop existing as who I am. I want to be free.
Two days have passed. Well, two and a half nights and two days, I guess. That's how long it's been since my entire view on life was unexpectedly torn away from me and replaced with a distorted and warped lense that changed the way I think, the way I see things.
I always knew Vicky to be the sadistic type. Ever since I first met her, she was an evil, sadistic, horrible person to me. I just didn't know how far those negative tendencies would go.
That is, until Friday night.
It wasn't too much of a surprise to me when my parents announced that they were leaving for the weekend.
"Timmy, we're leaving for Bermuda!" my mom called from the living room. I ran downstairs quickly, tearing myself away from my comic books.
When I reached the bottom of the stairs, my parents were standing in the front hall, holding luggage and wearing travel-gear. I said, "Why didn't you tell me you were going to Bermuda?"
My dad replied, with his usual insanely happy smile, "We just won the tickets this afternoon!"
"Won them? Where?"
"Internet. Bye, Timmy! We're leaving you with Vicky until Sunday morning!" And they were gone.
I didn't even bother wondering why they didn't get a ticket for me, or why they were going to Bermuda for a day and a half. I could sense her standing behind me. I just knew she was there, and sure enough, when I turned around she grabbed me by the front of my shirt (as was her usual greeting for me) and gave me that horrible smile as she said to me, "Oh, how good to see you, twerp. We're gonna have sooo much fun tonight."
Too bad I didn't know how much 'fun' was going to go on.
Before long, she had me wrapped in chains, sitting on the living room couch. I never could figure out where all those chains were coming from. She always just seemed to have them.
"Tonight's a special night, twerp," Vicky said, sitting down on the floor in front of the coffee table. She set a plastic grocery bag down in front of her. I wondered what was in it.
I asked, "How is it special?" I had to play along, or else she might make me wear a dress again.
All she did was smile and open the bag. She brought out a small bottle of clear liquid. It looked like water. Then she brought out two more bottles, both of them blue glass.
"I have three new friends I'd like you to meet," said Vicky as she pushed the bottles towards me. "Velma Vodka, Tony Tequila, and Brandy."
I sort of stared for a few moments. "Vicky... is that liquor?"
"What if it is?"
"You can't have that here! My parents'll flip!"
"If they find out, that is." She pulled a small pocket knife out of the bag, grinning at me with that evil glint in her pink eyes. "But they're not going to find out... are they, Timmy?"
I could feel myself trembling. "N-no, of course not..."
Vicky giggled to herself and said, "Good." She stood and left the room for a moment, returning with a glass and some sort of juice.
While she made herself some sort of alcoholic drink, I wondered where Cosmo and Wanda were... then I remembered that they'd gone to watch a filming of The Fairy Dating Game. I could just picture Cosmo commenting on one of the female contestants, and Wanda turning him into a can of creamed corn in response.
My babysitter got up and sat down beside me, turning on the TV to some senseless sitcom. Over the course of an hour and a half, she drank almost all of the contents of those three bottles. I noticed her expression becoming more dull and glazed over with every sip.
Finally, at the end of 'Buddies' and before 'Jill and Drake', Vicky looked at her watch. I didn't usually notice her wearing a watch, but when she wanted to know what time it was, it just sort of seemed to appear there.
She stood up and picked me up by the back of the line of chains that bound me. "Time to put the twerp to bed," she slurred, stumbling off towards the stairs. I was scared that she'd drop me or something. Now I wish she had done that instead of what she did later.
Vicky swaggered into my room and tossed me onto the bed. My hat fell onto the floor. The sixteen year-old drunken girl sauntered over to where I was and flipped me onto my back, fumbling with the chains.
I watched her nervously. I had hoped she was just going to unchain me so that I could go to sleep, but something else seem to be concocting behind those dim and unfocused eyes. I knew something was wrong, but I didn't know how to stop her.
She pulled the chains away from my body, then looped them around my wrists and locked them onto the bed posts. This is when I began to really panic, but by now it was too late to escape.
I started jerking at the chains frantically. No good.
"Vicky, what're you doing?" I asked.
Again, she just grinned. "How long've I been sittin' you, twerp? S'been a few years... but, y'know, I never seen what's under them blue jeans you always wear..."
My eyes widened. "What're you talking about?! Get away from me!"
But before I knew it, she was undoing my jeans. I spazzed and doubled-over. I bit her arm as hard as I could and I tasted blood. Vicky shrieked and pulled away from me, but then she was back, and she was mad.
Stars filled my view when she threw the fishbowl that usually held my fairy guardians. It hit me in the side of the head and shattered. For a few moments, I couldn't see or hear anything, but I was concious. I could feel myself sobbing and feel the blood running from my ear down my neck. I felt Vicky's hands near my waist.
All at once, my senses came back to me, and I started to scream.
"HELP! SOMEONE! ANYBODY! MOM! DAD! COSMO! WANDA! MR. DINKLEBURG! ANYONE! HELP M--nnngh!"
Vicky had shoved my hat into my mouth.
"Shut up, twerp," she growled, grabbing my face and digging her nails into my cheeks. "Yer makin' this harder than it has ta' be."
I whimpered and shut my eyes, which were stinging and beginning to fill with tears. What had I ever done to her to deserve this?
Soon she had my pants completely off. I felt as if she were stabbing me each time she touched me, running her hands over places that only I was supposed to come in contact with. I hated her. I wanted to kick her in the face or something, but I knew that she was bigger and stronger and that she could kill me as easily as she could file her nails. The people in my life seem rather ignorant. I highly doubt she would've gotten caught.
I don't know what possessed me to open my eyes. Perhaps blind fear made me lose my common sense, but I opened them.
I caught a glimpse of Vicky, her shirt pulled up and the fly of her black jeans undone. With one hand she was touching me, with the other she was touching herself. I squeaked and shut my eyes again. I didn't open them back up until I felt her hands leave my body and heard her shut the door of my room.
Somehow I managed to push my hat out of my mouth with my tongue. For a while, I just stared at the cieling in pure shock. Then, I curled up onto my side and began to cry.
Why? Why had she done this to me? I knew Vicky was evil, I knew she had a black-hole for a heart, and I knew her sense of kindness seemed to have vanished from her body completely, but never in my life did I imagine that she would do something like this to me.
I lay there for hours just crying. My wrists were sore and chafed from the chains, but that didn't matter. My hands could've fallen off for all I cared. I wanted to die.
At some point, amidst the crying and the surpression of screams, I fell asleep. I don't remember dreaming anything.
I woke up the next morning to find myself fully dressed and tucked in as if my own parents had put me to bed the night before. The fishbowl had been replaced, and the blood had been cleaned up from my neck and shoulders. As I came out of the arms of unconciousness, I noticed that the blankets and sheets on my bed were not the ones there the day before.
She was clever.
Slowly, I slid out of bed and dropped onto the floor, looking down at myself. I was in my blue pajamas.
Was it all a dream?
I took a look around the room. All seemed normal. No chains on the bed posts, no blood nor shards of glass on the floor...
This couldn't be. I ran out of the room and down the stairs. If it had been a dream, then my parents would be home.
But I was wrong.
Vicky stood in the kitchen, searching through the cabinets with her upper-torso hidden from view behind one of the cabinet doors.
I stared at her for a few moments. Then she pulled back as she found what she was looking for. I gasped.
Her arm was wrapped in bandages. It had happened. It wasn't a dream. It was real.
And I hit the floor.
When I came to, I was lying on the living room couch, with Vicky standing over me. She glared down darkly, arms crossed over her chest as she scowled.
"So... you remember," she said with a voice that made me feel dizzy.
I gave a small nod.
"But that's not going to be a problem, is it?" she asked as she sat down on the couch at my side, reaching to pick up her pocket knife from the table. She held the blade up at my throat. "Because you're not going to tell anyone, are you?"
I shook my head and stammered in a terrified voice, just over a whisper, "N-no."
"Promise?"
"I-I... I promise..."
She smiled. "Good. You're a good kid, Timmy. You're such a good kid that I'm going to cook you a special lunch. How does that sound?"
All I could do was nod.
"Do you like alphabet soup?"
Again, I nodded.
"Alrighty," said Vicky as she stood to leave. "You just sit tight, munchkin, and soup'll be ready in no time!" Then, she left for the kitchen.
I sat up and stared after her in horror. What had just happened?
POOF! Cosmo and Wanda appeared at my side.
I couldn't help it. The sudden burst of noise and presence scared me. I shrieked and fell off of the couch, covering my head and trembling.
I peeked up to see a puff of pink hair in my line of view.
"Timmy? Are you okay?" asked Wanda as she pulled me to my feet. I looked up at her gratefully and wrapped my arms around her in a huge hug.
"I'm so glad you're back," I said, falling to my knees as I began to cry again.
Wanda put her arms around me in return, patting my back. "What's the matter, sport? Why are you crying?"
All at once I realized that I couldn't tell her. I knew Vicky would never find out that she or Cosmo knew, but I just couldn't... I didn't want them to know. I was ashamed.
It didn't matter. I was crying too hard to talk anyway.
In my dazed and weary state of uncontrollable sobbing, Cosmo and Wanda got me up to my room. They sat me down on my bed and hovered in the air before me, Wanda again pulling me into a hug.
"It's okay, Timmy, you can tell us," I heard Cosmo say.
I just shook my head. "N-no... I can't..."
"Why not?"
"I just can't."
They must've sensed that it really upset me to talk about it, so they just sat down on the bed with me and held me while I cried. For a moment, I wished my real parents were there... then I wished I would never see them again.
After all, it was THEM who had left me with Vicky. It was THEM who weren't there to protect me, like they should've been. This was all their fault.
Or was it mine?
I mean, I was too puny and weak to take care of myself. I practically ASKED her to violate me.
This has been my mentality ever since.
I knew that if I vocalized any wish to Cosmo and Wanda, that it would come true. I wished for many things at that moment. I wished to die, I wished to live. I wished Vicky was dead. I wished Vicky had never been born. I wished I had never been born. I wished I had a cookie. I wished I was asleep. I wished I didn't exist.
But I said nothing. I just cried.
Cosmo and Wanda suddenly vanished as someone was heard coming up the stairs to my room. The door opened. Vicky stood holding a bowl of soup.
She walked cheerily over to my bedside and placed the bowl on my nightstand.
"You must be feeling under the weather," she said in an uncharacteristically caring tone. "You'd better just stay in here for the day."
All I did was stare at her while she set up a spoon, napkin, and glass of ice water on my nightstand. Then she left.
My fairy God-parents reappeared as soon as her footsteps left earshot.
"Mm, soup! Oh!! Soup with LETTERS!" I heard Cosmo exclaim. I looked up at him as he pointed to the bowl as if it were the most amazing thing in existence, but Wanda was watching me.
She sat down on the bed beside me and put a hand on my shoulder, "Timmy, you know you can tell us anything, right? We'd never betray you."
I nodded.
"But you don't have to tell us anything if you don't want to. Okay?"
Again, I nodded.
Wanda gave me a weak smile and hugged my shoulders. Then she said, "You'd better eat that soup before Cosmo decides to practice his spelling, and we both know how that'll work out."
I smiled for the first time in hours and gave a dry laugh, but I shook my head. I couldn't eat anything. I felt sick. "I'm not hungry right now," I said.
Cosmo grinned and said, "I know what to do in a case like this!"
Poof! A magic cloud surrounded my lunch, with the word 'TUPPERWARE!' flashing before my eyes as the cloud vanished and my meal was in a plastic bowl with a lid.
"Thanks," I said quietly, pulling my knees to my chest. "If it's okay with you guys, I think I'd like to just stay inside and read comic books today."
"Feeling sick?" asked Wanda.
For the millionth time that day, I nodded.
"It's okay, sweetie," she said, placing a kiss on my forehead. "You just say the word and we'll get you anything you want."
"I know," I said. "Thanks."
The two of them grinned at me before vanishing and reappearing in the fishbowl as two goldfish with crowns on their little rounded heads.
Cosmo started blathering on about his soup wasn't special, that it never had literary value or anything educational about it.
I picked up one of my Crimson Chin comics off of the nightstand and lay back on my bed, holding the book up in front of me, but I wasn't reading it. I was just staring at the panels.
The rest of the day went by that way. I never ate my soup, Vicky stayed downstairs, and Wanda agreed to obtain Shakespeare Stew for Cosmo.
Soon it was night time again. I put my comic down on the floor and curled up in a ball in bed. I didn't even say good night to my fairies before I went to sleep.
That night I dreamt that Vicky was a giant bird, chasing me down a narrow pathway. On either side of the pathway was a drop into an endless abyss. All around me things were black, with swirling clouds of purple and red. I ran as fast as I could, but soon the razor sharp talons of Vicky's claws were digging into my shoulders.
I awoke with a soft yelp, drenched in a cold sweat. Gasping for breath, I looked at my alarm clock. Three in the morning. My parents would be home soon.
But did I want them to come home?
I lay back down in the bed and stared at the cieling. I wasn't thinking. I wasn't sleeping. I was just staring.
I stared until the sun came up and I heard birds singing outside.
I stared up until Cosmo and Wanda poof!ed in front of my line of vision and floated down to sit at my feet.
"Feeling any better, sweetie?" Wanda asked, patting my knee.
I shook my head and sat up. Cosmo was eyeing my soup, which was still in a bowl on my nightstand.
I said, "Cosmo, just take it."
He gave a squeal of delight and snatched the bowl, pulling the lid off and sticking his fingers into the soup to spell out whatever words he knew.
"I'm gonna go take a bath," I said to Wanda, who was giving me a strange look, before sliding out of the bed and walking off to the bathroom.
I locked the bathroom door before I started undressing. When I was nude, I stared down at myself and sighed. I felt like an alien in my own body. Surely this couldn't have been me.
Shaking my head in disgust of my own physical being, I turned to look at the mirror. My eyes widened. There was a bruise formed on the side of my face where Vicky had thrown the fishbowl at me. I put a hand there and felt the powdery substance that had begun to rub off. I looked at my hand.
Make-up.
Vicky wasn't all that clever after all.
I showered and got out of the tub, wrapping myself in a towel that was at least four times as long as I was tall. I had forgotten to bring clothes to change into, so I decided to just toga into my room and get some, then return to get dressed.
I made sure the towel was wrapped securely around my waist before opening the bathroom door.
Vicky stood in my way.
I backed up, holding the towel as if it were a lifesaving device.
"You've got a bruise, Timmy," she said, stepping towards me. "What happened?"
"I-I don't know..." I stammered. I felt like I was about to faint again.
Vicky tipped her head in thought. She said, "I think you fell out of bed while you were sleeping and hit the side of your head on your nightstand. Is that right?"
"Yes... yes, that's it..."
"But I came to help you, didn't I? I gave you some tylenol when your head started hurting and I put you back to bed, isn't that right?" She was standing over me.
I nodded frantically. "J-just like any good babysitter would do..."
Vicky smiled and patted my head. "Such a good boy," she said, turning and walking away.
I watched her until she had gone down the stairs. Then I ran into my room, grabbed some clothes, and ran back to the bathroom to get dressed. I could hear Cosmo calling after me to look at his rendition of the Gettysburg Address.
When I was dressed, I sat down on the floor of the bathroom and hugged myself. I could feel myself wanting to cry again, but I couldn't allow it. My parents would be home any moment now. If they came home to see me crying, they'd ask what was wrong. I wouldn't be able to make up a good story, and they'd find out, and then Vicky would kill me.
After a few moments, I gave a shuddering sigh and pulled myself to my feet. I'd be okay for another hour or two.
As I opened the bathroom door to head into my room, I heard the front door slam shut.
"Timmy! We're back!" came the all-too familiar voice of my father. I ran down the stairs to greet them, hugging my mom's knees.
"Hi, mom! Hi, dad! How was Bermuda?" I was smiling. How was I doing this? It seemed so easy to put up this facade, but at the same time I felt myself dying inside.
My dad held up his arm, which was bright red. "Sunny!" he said with a wince.
My mom continued, "Your father fell asleep with one arm hanging out from under the beach blanket."
I grinned. That was totally something my dad would do.
"Oh! Timmy, what happened to your head?" asked my mother as she kneeled down to get a closer look at my bruise.
Before I could even open my mouth, Vicky had told them story about my falling out of bed.
"Isn't that right, Timmy?" she said when she was done.
I nodded.
"Oh, Vicky! Thank you so much for taking care of him! My, my, what happened to your arm?" asked my mother.
Vicky said, "It's nothing, Mrs. Turner, I just bumped my arm against one of the burners on the stove while it was still hot. I'll be fine. Why, Timmy was nice enough to go out and get me an ice pack, weren't you, Timmy?"
"Uh, y-yeah..." I said.
My mother gasped and hugged my shoulder, then handed Vicky an enormous wad of money.
"There's a little extra there for taking such GOOD care of Timmy!" I heard my mother say.
I was disgusted.
Taking good care of me? She molested me...
"Bye, Mr. and Mrs. Turner!" said Vicky as she took her money, pulled her backpack over her shoulder, and headed for the door. She shot me one last evil grin. "Bye, Timmy," she said before she turned and shut the door.
I think my heart stopped for a moment or two.
After Vicky had gone, I sat through a few hours of watching the slides my parents had put together in an unbelievable amount of time. All the same, they also had souvenoirs and photos to show me.
By the time that whole schtick was over with, it was dark out.
I left the living room and headed for the stairs, then I stopped. I turned and went back through the living room to the kitchen, then through the backdoor and into the back yard.
Now here I lie, on the back yard lawn, between infinity and reality.
I don't know if I'll ever tell my parents about Vicky. I don't know if I'll ever tell Cosmo and Wanda, either.
But for now, I'm just gonna watch the night sky... perhaps I'll tally up the stars...
THE END