Chapter Seven: Fools in Love
Chester and A.J. were stupefied. Timmy's parents hung over him and whatever logical explanation A.J. should have had vanished before his eyes. Tootie knew trying to convince Timmy his parents were an illusion was fruitless, but she had hoped, however foolishly, his friends wouldn't walk in on them. She suppressed a groan.
There was another more puzzling development. Timmy's parents had been see through when they first arrived. Tootie hadn't spent much time around them and hadn't been able to observe much. Now, they were foggy, like a storm cloud had taken up residence in their bodies. Mr. Turner high fived Timmy and he shuddered, condensation appearing on his hands. Tootie stared.
((Every violent action he takes, every profane word he speaks, every time he hurts his godparents, his parents regain their bodies a little.))
Tootie jerked at The Other's voice inside her mind. He must be nearby or else linked into Timmy in order to ascertain her reactions. It unnerved her and she considered ignoring him. Unfortunately, her curiosity won out. She shivered, disregarding Chester and A.J.
((But, then what happened?)) she inquired.
((Timmy took a page out of my book and said something that's needed to be said for quite a long time.))
Tootie groaned. The Other was relishing the moment and drawing it out. She rolled her eyes at his pedantry and replied, ((Which would be...?))
((Timmy called Wanda a bitch. I have it on instant replay, would you care to see it? I assure you, it's quite entertaining. Within your mind, you'll even receive surround sound!))
Tootie scowled. ((I don't want to see it. How dare you make Timmy profane his godmother.))
((Don't you believe me? There's a simple way to prove it,)) The Other sent and she felt his cruel, malicious smile. ((Redo!))
From Lorenzo's point of view, she saw what Timmy could not possibly have known. Every time he sided with his parents and refuted reality, he weakened Cosmo and Wanda. It was no wonder they'd lost to The Other earlier today. He was siphoning off their magic and converting it into dark power. He did it by feeding off Timmy's resentment, which was linked to Cosmo and Wanda in hitherto impossible to see fashion. This meant the stronger Timmy's rejection, the more powerful The Other got and, conversely, the weaker Cosmo and Wanda grew.
Timmy's friends jerked her back from her hypothesizing and The Other withdrew, with a smirk, from her mind.
"Dude, I am not seeing what I think I am," Chester yelled.
"I agree. This is quite impossible."
Then, without a second glance, they fled, down the stairs and out the door. Tootie watched them go, slightly forlorn, and glared at Timmy. Not only was he being selfish and shoving away his godparents who loved him, he was actually hurting them in the long run. They couldn't exactly protect him against The Other if The Other had all their power. He looked nonchalant, too, blissfully unaware of what he was doing.
Swiftly striding to the power plug, she yanked it and the TV one free, harshly. She flung them to the floor and whirled on him.
"What the heck was that for?" he snapped.
"We need to talk. Now!"
Timmy opened his mouth to protest and Tootie yanked him to his feet, down the hall, along the stairs, and out the door. Timmy fumbled behind her, unable to keep up with her fast pace. Tootie thought if she stopped, she might hit him. Then again, she might hit him anyway.
"What? I almost had that guy licked!" Timmy snapped.
Tootie slapped him hard, leaving a handprint. She was shaking with rage, positively glowing with it. "What? Why don't you ask Wanda that, after you called her a bitch! That's what!"
Wincing, Timmy held his cheek, staring at her. "I…"
"Get up there, now, and apologize. You may not agree with everything she says, but that gives you no right to insult her!"
"She's trying to drive me away from me and my parents and she won't admit she's jealous!"
Tootie slapped him again, tears in her eyes. "In case you haven't noticed, they have nothing to be jealous of. As for the first thing, she always wanted what's best for you, even if you were too thick to see it."
"I..."
"Is that all you can say?" she mocked. "You were out of line. Shut up and admit it."
Timmy swallowed hard and didn't speak.
"You'll get up there and apologize."
Timmy sighed, exasperated. "I know I was out of line. I know I shouldn't be driving them away. I was going to apologize, before you made me your personal punching bag."
"Oh. Sorry."
"Are you?" Timmy said, holding his cheek.
"You deserved to be slapped," Tootie snapped. He didn't even know the extent of what he'd done.
Timmy grabbed the stair rungs to climb up there when Tootie jerked him back. He swiveled his head around to stare at her. "What is it now?"
"Call to them first."
"What? Why?"
"They might not be..." she paused and blushed. "Decent."
"You mean they'll be mad at me?" Timmy said.
Tootie slapped a hand to her forehead. "That's not what I meant."
"Then what did you mean?" Timmy looked completely clueless, which was hardly a new experience.
"Just call them!"
A dull flush erupted along Timmy's neck and he craned his head upward. "Uh, guys? Cosmo? Wanda?"
Wanda stuck her head out of the tree house. A curtain concealed the rest of her body and it was as Tootie suspected. Her cheeks remained inflamed and she really wished someone would sit down and explain the facts of life to Timmy, or at least give him the abridged edition.
"Are you here to apologize?" Wanda snapped.
"Yes," Timmy said and Cosmo's head appeared beside hers. He grinned, staring at Timmy cradling his cheek and Tootie, who was blushing fit to cook an egg.
"Heh, heh. You got bitch-slapped."
"Cosmo!" Wanda snapped.
Timmy groaned, rubbing his cheek. "Can we just come up?"
"In a sec," Wanda said and she and Cosmo's heads disappeared from the curtains. Timmy tapped his foot, impatient, and continued to crane his neck upward in a way Tootie was certain would give him a crick in the neck.
"I told you they weren't decent," Tootie said, willing her blush to recede.
"They weren't that mean," Timmy defended.
Tootie groaned and banged her head against the tree. "I'm only going to say this once, Timmy. Decent means you're wearing clothes."
"Why wouldn't they be?" he said. He gawked at her and she smacked her head into the tree again.
"Sometimes you drive me nuts!"
"Why?"
Tootie released an inarticulate scream and banged her head a couple more times into the tree.
Cosmo and Wanda poofed in front of the tree house and lifted them up via their wands. Wanda received Tootie and Cosmo had Timmy, with the effect that Cosmo's wand 'accidentally' smacked Timmy around into branches, atop the tree, and, on one memorable occasion, straight into a bird's nest in front of a mother bird. Tootie arrived before Timmy and saw Wanda smirk at Cosmo's mishandling.
Tootie landed neatly, on her feet, in front of the tree house's opening. The entire tree house looked like Cosmo and Wanda had exploded into it, with pink and green everywhere. The centerpiece was a large four poster bed, with pink sheets and green curtains. As a testament to their prior activities, the sheets were half on the floor and the pillows had joined them. The pillows were half pink, half green.
Two bay windows looked out onto Timmy's room and another two looked out onto the street. The windows all had pink and green curtains and the carpet consisted of soft, luxurious green carpeting that made Tootie want to roll around in it. It looked to be four inches thick and probably just as comfortable as their bed.
On their nightstand, they had a picture of Timmy and, next to it, a picture of themselves, which looked like it had been created around the time photography started. Both photos were in glass frames. In front of Timmy's picture, Wanda had a large hardcover book with a bookmark in it. Tootie could see the chain from her position on the floor.
Across from the bed, they had their bureaus and overhanging it, a mirror. Beside the bureaus was a dressing table with make up and a small chair, faerie sized, for Wanda to preen herself in the mirror. There was also a bookshelf in the corner filled to the brim with books, though Da Rules took up an entire shelf. All in all, Tootie was impressed. It looked nothing like a tree house from the inside.
Timmy bounced onto the floor and landed on his stomach. Eyes watering, he wiped them and glared at Wanda. "You could be a little gentler."
"Wand slipped," she said, with no remorse evident. Timmy crawled into a sitting position beside Tootie.
"I didn't mean what I said," he said. He looked Cosmo and Wanda in the eyes. "I really am sorry."
Wanda smiled. "I know you are, sport. Apology accepted."
Something caught Timmy's eyes and he jumped to his feet to stare through the bay windows at his room. His father had managed to plug the video games and TV back in and Tootie's stomach unpleasantly churned. His parents had enough corporeal form to manipulate real world objects. Timmy's apology hadn't affected anything at all. Her heart leaped into her throat.
Timmy glanced at his godparents, looked uneasy, and backed up. "So, the video game's back in...and, uh, my parents are waiting. We're cool, right?"
Wanda sighed. "I really don't think it's a good idea for you to-"
"Okay, I love you, bye!" he said and sped down the ladder as fast as his little body could carry him. Tootie's mouth dropped. Wanda snarled, hair turning to flames temporarily. Her hands clenched as if she longed to strangle someone.
"Timmy..." she growled.
Lorenzo DeMedici was not having a good day, not any more. Not only had Cosmo, Wanda, and Tootie thwarted him before he'd managed to acquire Timmy's energy, but he'd lost his edge over his sire. The tug of war between Cosmo and Wanda and his real parents was temporarily erring in the faerie's favor, and it made Lorenzo want to murder someone. Tootie, Cosmo, and Wanda were his preferences, but he couldn't cajole Timmy over to his side if he murdered them now. He could read Timmy's mind- he knew he questioned Wanda's warnings, but hadn't discarded them out of hand again.
He swept around the barren practice room. His mansion was composed of various other rooms, borrowed from different houses, and this room might have been a ballet studio in the distant past. The mirrors were broken and dust clung to everything, including his leather boots when he stomped around the room. It was fairly wide, the room, stretching at least twenty feet in both directions, and resembled a rectangle more, far longer than it was wide. The once pristine wooden floors were impossible to see under the grime and profound darkness.
"Fucking frach," he snarled, punching the air. "Fucking whore." He pivoted, longing to go out and punish those who had dared impede his plan. He hadn't believed Cosmo was capable of defending Wanda, since he was the weakest link, but there he was, keeping him from his goal too. Lorenzo hated them all.
He concentrated and produced a nebulous black energy ball. Smiling cruelly, he sent it along its way. If he couldn't touch Tootie physically, there were other ways to get his message across.
Tootie's hair stood on end and she held her breath, chest constricting, upon entering her old elementary school. It had never felt ominous before, but now she stumbled, slipping in a sticky wet patch. She looked down and discovered it was blood, dark and sparkling. Her heart clenched painfully and she realized the blood formed a trail. Little droplets ran in a line down the hallway and she began to follow it, dreading what she might find.
Against her skin, a cold wind blew out of nowhere and Tootie looked up. The lights flickered on and off and all the windows were smashed beyond repair. Glass panes clung to a couple and wind whistled through the holes. It raised the hair on the nape of her neck, along bringing up goosebumps. She tasted blood in her mouth and swallowed it back, but it lingered. Her mouth was dry and the blood ran over her cracked lips.
The hallway was longer than usual, and the blood puddles increased in size, until she felt something warm and sticky drop onto her face. She looked up and screamed- Calente hung from a rope and his face had been cut to ribbons. Skin dangled in straps and beneath it, dull red muscle layers were faintly visible in the flickering lights. His tongue protruded from his mouth and his vacant eyes stared at nothing. Tootie wasn't sure The Other had killed him by mangling or by lynching, and her stomach revolted. She didn't throw up, but her stomach felt like a hard rock inside her body.
"Tootie..." Cosmo whispered and Tootie jerked her head. Cold sweat formed on her forehead and trickled down her neck and back. She walked straight into a door and it opened before her, revealing the principal's office.
The principal's office had gotten a makeover too, sharing the flickering lights and now featuring Cosmo, lying bound by thick ropes, atop the desk. His blood had soaked the papers and he shook convulsively. Tootie stepped closer, to help Cosmo, and a shadow fell over her. The Other spun her around and laughed at her gasp.
"You should see what I've done with Wanda..." he said and then stepped back, fading into the dark. Tootie stared at the space he had occupied, and wails cut through her like knives. She couldn't abandon Cosmo, but Wanda needed her help. Scooping Cosmo up into her arms, she carried him into the assistant principal's office, where Timmy sat behind the desk. He twirled a knife between his fingers.
The assistant principal's office, by comparison, had the brightest lighting she'd ever seen in a nightmare. It burned her eyes after the last few scenes, and she was too stunned to fight Timmy tearing Cosmo from her arms. By the time her vision had settled into anything resembling normal, Timmy had the blade pressed against Cosmo's throat. His eyes were wide, pleading silently with his godson.
"What did you do with Wanda?" Cosmo cried.
"Ssh," Timmy said. "The birds are singing."
"Okay..." Tootie said and turned around. She stared at the door, and, from behind, The Other snatched her and held her above the floor. She kicked and struggled, but her fighting only weakened her, and strengthened her enemy. The Other's breath was warm on her head.
"Where's Wanda?" Tootie repeated Cosmo's question.
"Funny you should ask that," The Other said and kicked a box out from under the desk. Timmy dumped it on the desk next to Cosmo and flung off the lid. Wanda was lying there, barely breathing, barely moving, and Tootie could feel her heart sputtering. Next to Wanda was Vicky's head and Tootie screamed, recoiling and stepping on The Other's feet to get away.
"We're a happy little family now," The Other said and brought his hand down Timmy's shoulders, along his chest, and into his pants. He groped Timmy and then sent magic dispersing throughout the room, so Wanda and Cosmo were both cognizant and aware of everything.
"Aren't we, Timmy?" he asked and shoved Timmy's pants down. Timmy grinned from ear to ear and, while The Other gave him a hand job, he proceeded to slash Cosmo's and Wanda's throats in front of her.
Tootie screamed until her throat went raw. The images had seared into her retinas and she couldn't stop shaking. Cosmo, Wanda, Timmy, Cal...
"Are you all right?" Vicky asked and Tootie screamed again. Oh god...Vicky...
"What the hell are you doing here?" Tootie shrieked.
"You were screaming so loud the Dinklebergs woke up, you stupid shrimp!" Vicky snapped. "You scared all the faeries half to death. I wound up coming in for them."
"Oh." Tootie murmured and cast her gaze at the bed sheets.
"Look," Vicky said and seemed pained. "I know I'm the last person you'd want to tell anything to, since I'll lord it over you until the end of time, but it might make you feel better. And then we can all get some goddamn sleep."
Taking a deep breath, Tootie relayed her dream to Vicky and burst into tears. She'd never realized how traumatic her dream was until she relived it. Then again, she'd never, as long as she lived, believed she'd tell her nightmare to her sister, Icky Vicky, and expect comfort. The world had gone topsy-turvy.
"Thanks for killing me off. It's very much appreciated."
"It's not like I did it on purpose!" Tootie snapped.
Vicky snorted. "Sure it wasn't."
"Ugh," Tootie said and glared at the wall. "Even when you're trying not to be mean, you're still nasty."
"Can't change the basic truth," Vicky said and rose. She gave Tootie a noogie. "Stop having nightmares and get some sleep, twerp, or I'll give you something to really scream about."
"Thanks," Tootie said flatly.
Vicky smirked. "No problem."