Heightened Tensions- Chapter 12
Blossom was sitting alone in her room that night, pouring over the remainder of her makeup work from that morning. After everything had been over at the bank, Blossom had spent the rest of the afternoon wandering the streets of Townsville, trying to find some sort of glimpse of either Bubbles or Buttercup, but it seemed as if the both of them had vanished of the face of the earth. After hours of fruitless searching, Blossom had finally given up, and had made her way back to Pokey Oaks High to get her hands on all the makeup work she'd have to turn in the next day. While she'd been there, she'd managed to sneak in a few words to the professor, who was cleaning up his classroom.
"How did it go?" he'd asked jovially, smiling as he continued to wipe up the lab counters with a white towel. Blossom had shrugged, and had plopped her body down at the swiveling chair at his desk.
"Terrible!" she'd cried harshly, spinning her body around as she let her head fall back on the top of the cushy chair. "Buttercup had another one of her episodes again… and completely ruined everything… I was so mad at her-"
"Now Blossom…" the professor had said warily, stuffing the rag in his own private sink at the front of the room. He'd leaned against the counter, supporting himself with his right hand, and his face was awash with impatient concern.
"Have you been doing what I told you to?"
"Yes!" Blossom had cried, throwing her arms up angrily. "And for all the good its done, I might as well have not done anything at all! Professor, I think its time that you really need to sit and talk with her… she just won't open up with me."
"What about Bubbles?" the professor asked, moving to stand next to his desk, where Blossom was still spinning in his teacher's chair. Blossom clucked her tongue in annoyance.
"She isn't any help either. She's gone nuts too. She keeps mouthing off about being found and she keeps floating away into outer space. Me thinks she's been playing too many video games…"
"So Mojo got away?" the professor had asked, leaning over his own desk to watch Blossom's incessant spinning.
"Yes…" she'd said lazily, her eyes half closed. The professor let out a deep sigh.
"Well… look… I'll go ahead and talk to her… but let me tell you, she isn't- would you stop spinning please, you're making me sick-" and he'd grabbed the arms of the chair and Blossom had jerked to a stop, momentarily stunned by the sudden lapse in movement. It had taken a few minutes for her eyes to readjust, and to focus on the professor's dark gaze.
"-Now… she isn't going to be happy once she hears what I have to say… I'm going to tell her she needs to see someone… she needs to talk to a doctor…"
"She's going to flip, you know," Blossom had said, bemused, but knowing all to well that Buttercup really wasn't going to take too kindly to those suggestions. Buttercup was going to have to go so a psychiatrist… and who knew what sort of media attention that was going to stir up. Something inside told Blossom that it was probably going to cause more harm than good.
Blossom had returned home with the professor that night, and as soon as she'd walked in the door, she'd realized that the house was completely empty. Her sister's weren't home… and it was nearly seven. Blossom had glanced anxiously at the professor, who just smiled at her as he hung his coat next to the door.
"I'm sure they're fine Blossom… look, why don't you go do your work, and I'll fix you dinner tonight. You don't have to worry about it. I'll make your favorite!" He'd said brightly, patting Blossom on the shoulder before he'd disappeared into the kitchen, leaving Blossom standing alone in the middle of the wide living room.
She'd trudged upstairs to do her work, and it had taken her nearly twenty minutes to do all the various odd jobs that her less studious classes had asked for. But now, she was attempting to finish her calculus homework, but was finding it increasingly hard to concentrate with both of her sisters on her mind.
"Why doesn't anybody tell me anything…" Blossom had mumbled to herself, setting her pencil down onto her pad of paper forcefully. She rubbed her eyes sleepily, realizing that her room had gotten increasingly dark with just the desk lamp beside her on. But she didn't feel like turning her larger lamp on. It was on the other side of the room, and she wasn't in the mood to get up, not when she felt so damn tired, and so damn shut off from everything that was going on with her sisters.
Blossom looked back down at her homework, and she nearly forgot to breath. Her eyes widened, and she let out a pathetic whimper as she realized that she'd been doing all of her derivative equations wrong.
"Why have I not done this right!!" she muttered angrily to herself, feeling all of the bottled up tension and stress inside her heart give a frightening lurch. She picked up her eraser, and looked down at her book, trying to find some source of her error, when-
"Oooh Blossom… you do realize that these are all composite equations… right?"
And Blossom nearly fell off her chair as she took a sudden, sharp intake of breath, hearing the impossibly close whisper next to her face.
"Him!" She hissed angrily, turning her body around to face the demon, who had been leaning over her shoulder with an amused smirk on his face.
"How long have you been there- and how the hell do you know how to solve differential equations?!"
Him, leaned ever closer, and seemed to be concentrating hard on Blossom's math book. He narrowed his eyes and seemed to be reading, his face suddenly closed.
"I'm talking to you!"
"Blossom, you forget that I know many things… and being the leader of the Underworld definitely calls for some sort of mathematical skill…"
"You have got to be joking."
Him raised both of his delicate eyebrows, and turned his glowing gaze onto Blossom, who drew back just slightly at his closeness.
"If you must know Blossom… I just got here, noticing that you were very upset… I thought I could make you feel a little better."
Blossom turned back to her homework and sighed letting both of her fists fall into her lap.
"I'm… I'm fine… I just don't know how to fix these mistakes is all… I think I missed this lesson…" Blossom lied. She was quite sure that he knew she was fibbing too.
And Blossom was startled when she saw Him reach for her math book, grasping it with one delicate claw. He slid it off her desk, and Blossom attempted to snatch it, but she wasn't fast enough. She turned quickly, and looked up at Him with annoyance, who was reading the book sideways.
"Is this how they teach you? No wonder you never remember… Tsk… what a waste…" he said lightly, his voice the usual sing-song falsetto. He held the book by it front cover, and started shaking it curiously. Blossom felt her blood start to boil.
"You're going to ruin it!" she shrieked, and she leapt from her chair to make a grab for the book. "You're about to cost me fifty bucks… and I'll make you pay for it!"
"You really don't need this awful thing Blossom… you could let me teach you… was it… calculus?" he'd said joyously, jerking the book out of her reach before throwing it against the wall on the other side of the room. Blossom froze.
"There better not be any damage…" she said grumpily, leaning over the pile of pages that were propped haphazardly against the wall next to her dresser. She began examining the book for damage.
"Oh, so you think you can teach me math? And how do you plan to teach me without a book?" Blossom said, not paying attention to where Him actually was. She could tell he was near her somewhere, but didn't know what he was actually doing.
"Oh, their teaching methods are so… impractical…" he said carelessly, seeming to be preoccupied with something. "Its nothing a good amount of chains and spanking couldn't solve."
"Excuse me!" Blossom cried, feeling her face grow red with offended anger. He was really much too vulgar for her taste. "I think I'll stick with the book."
"Oh… that's a shame… and… my… what is this, Blossom?" he said curiously, his voice suddenly going very soft. Blossom turned to see what Him was talking about, and felt a jolt of embarrassed panic streak through her body. He'd been poking through her underwear drawer.
"Give that back!" she cried angrily, leaping up from the floor, and lunging at Him with her arms outstretched. He was holding a rather frilly pair of her panties, dangling them just out of her reach.
"Do you actually wear this… oh… how jealous am I…" he said sweetly, his voice very high and mocking. He jerked his claw, the one holding her personals, just out of Blossom's reach.
"Give it back! This isn't funny! Don't go through my stuff!" she cried desperately, scrabbling at Him's chest as she tried to snatch the panties out of his hand. He watched her casually, as she continued to leap up and down in an attempt to end the very awkward situation she was in.
"I'll only give them back…" and he raised his other claw, momentarily pushing Blossom backwards. She stopped her struggles for just a moment.
"… If you let me see you wear them-"
"DREAM ON WEIRDO!" Blossom burst, her face draining of all its color. She was so close to punching him, that she had lifted her fist in the air. He'd noticed this, and had only smiled, letting out a delighted snicker of laughter at her torture. She attempted one last leap, this time using Him's body for leverage, and managed to grab a fist full of her personal laundry in his claw.
She yanked hard as she fell, but only succeeded in losing her balance, pulling Him down with her. They both fell with a tremendous crash to the floor, and Blossom instantly regretted her course of actions, seeing as Him was now lying on top of her on the floor.
"Well… well… well…" he said silkily. "What a curious predicament this is…" his voice went very low and smooth, almost to the point of being seductive. Blossom tried to squirm out from under him, but realized that she was pressed too tightly to the floor. She felt her face start to burn with bashful panic, and her heart suddenly jacked up to at least a thousand beats per minute.
"Get… off…" she stuttered shyly, feeling as if her entire body had gone numb. Him cocked his head to the side, and looked at her strangely, his eyes partially closed.
"I don't think I can do that…" he said sweetly, biting his lower lip gently. He moved his right claw, the one that was still holding Blossom's laundry, and dangled it over her face. "You can have this back, I think I like this much better…"
"I said, get off."
Him frowned, and looked into Blossom's eyes firmly. He threw her panties to the side carelessly and rested his claw back on the floor.
"But that isn't fair to me…"
"I don't care… get off… and stop looking at me like that…"
"Like what?"
"Like you're trying to cop a feel. Get off!" and Blossom made one last violent push, but gasped as he caught her wrist in his claw, pressing it back to the floor.
This is it… I'm going to die… he's going to kill me now…
But his face didn't look angry, or vengeful. Instead, he seemed almost gentle. Very slowly, he dipped his face towards her, as if moving in for a kiss, but Blossom jerked her head sideways, so that he got nothing but her cheek.
He drew back just slightly in dismay, and turned his head to get a better look at her turned face. Her eyes were closed, and her face looked very strained.
"You will not let me kiss you?"
"Are you insane? Of course I won't… You're…. You're… Him…" she said simply, but held a light stutter in her words.
"Ah. I see. I make you uncomfortable?"
"Yes… Just a little!"
"But you almost let me kiss you… last time…"
"I was half asleep!"
"Blossom… you know its inevitable…" he breathed, lowering his face again, his mouth hovering just over her ear. He let his breath slide along the skin of her neck, and took in a heavy breath as he continued to whisper. "If we keep ending up in situations like this… I assure you… much more than an innocent kiss will occur."
Blossom felt her heart freeze as she snapped open her eyes. She let her breath catch in her throat as she took in the full meaning of his words. No, she wouldn't let that happen… I can't… this is crazy… I don't even want this… I WON"T.
"But, until then, Blossom… I suppose I will have to settle for all that I can…"
Blossom felt her body seize up, as she felt his surprisingly soft lips plant firmly against the skin of her neck, sending strange prickling sensations through her body. She whimpered in suppressed anger, and made one last violent attempt to push him off.
And this time, Him did move away, and he sat upright, looking down at Blossom with a very heated look in his eyes. Blossom propped herself up on her elbows, and looked up at Him fearfully, unsure of what she should do or say. Everything about this was so very wrong, and it just felt terrible inside, which was exactly why Blossom didn't want anything to happen. She wouldn't let anything happen, not if she had any say in it.
Him sighed, and his expression changed drastically. He suddenly looked very tired, and Blossom was very surprised at how young he looked. Maybe it was just a trick of the light, or perhaps his expression, but there was something about his face that seemed so adolescent.
"Blossom… I need you to know that I've been watching your sister… and I do think that Buttercup needs your help…" Him said warily, his eyes closed. Blossom sat up even more, her thoughts now overcome with worry.
"What do you-" But she was cut off as she heard the professor's voice float up from the bottom of the staircase below. He was calling her down to dinner.
Him turned towards her door, his attention on the sound of the professor's voice, and then he turned back to Blossom.
"I suppose this is my cue to leave you."
"Him… I need to ask you a favor…"
Him had been in the process of standing, but he stopped, and turned to Blossom as she grabbed him firmly by his arm.
"Anything."
"I guess… If you… really… care about me like you seem to… then… promise me you'll watch over Buttercup for me… and just let me know if anything goes wrong… we're going to get her help… but that may not be enough…" she looked up at Him sheepishly, whose emerald eyes were aglow with genuine concern as he looked mournfully into Blossom's eyes.
"Of course I will." he said, and Blossom found herself clutching onto nothing but a light wisp of pearly smoke as Him suddenly disappeared.
What Blossom didn't know, was that Him was the entire cause of Buttercup's draining spirit. On her own, Buttercup would have weakened, but not to the state that Him really needed. Thus, he was using his own influence over her to slip her deeper and deeper into depression, pushing her slowly into the final stage that would be the climax of his master plan. What Blossom didn't know, certainly wouldn't kill her.