That wasn't so bad. There's not much to say right now so, Dude. Read on.
Disclaimer: Furor Paxx and VulgateOfEarth do not own the X-Men or any affiliates. All are the property of Marvel Entertainment Group, Inc and its various affiliates and partners. Phoenix Malcolm, Haiden Malcolm and all irregular characters are the sole property of Furor Paxx and are being used with permission. ~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~
~~ Pietro's Room ~~
"So what was up with that guy, anyway? He was even creepier than Toad on a bad day."
Lance, Todd, Fred and Pietro were all arranged in Pietro's perfect room. There wasn't a thing out of place, no dust, no dirt. A perfect room for a perfectionist.
"My dad says he owed Phoenix's guardians a favor and that's why he took the creep in. He says that with the 'proper influence' Phoenix might turn out okay. As if."
"Why'd they send him away?" Todd asked. He was crouched in his usual position at the desk and was settled in and finally comfortable.
"Oh, you do not wanna know. That's why I left the freak with those punks. Let them get the crap scared outta them."
"C'mon, Pietro, you can't leave us hanging. What'd he do?" Lance shifted his feet off the edge of the desk and let them hit the carpet with a thump.
"Okay, try this, Phoenix isn't a guy, 'he' is really a 'she.'"
"No joke?"
"Nope, she went totally psycho one day, went out and bought a million candles and lit them in the house. Then she walked out and let them burn themselves out. One of them started a fire, and the idiot ran all the way back inside to get a turtle and a stuffed alligator and a binder. Let everything else burn to cinders. She got off with a slap on the hand for that one, no one could prove it was arson, and for all I know, she wasn't really crazy then, but I doubt it."
"She saved the turtle?"
"Yes. As far as I know she still has it, that turtle was the only thing she managed to hold on to through the years. Now shut up Freddie and lemme finish." Pietro's voice got lower, and uncharacteristically slow. It still sounded fast, but not as fast as it usually was. "After that, her family- mom, brother and sister- moved into a new place, in a bigger city. Man was she pissed about that. Her mom had said that they were gonna move to a big city, where ever there was work, but Phoenix fought tooth and nail since the beginning. Phoenix doesn't like crowds and used to go through all kinds of measures to avoid them. She doesn't anymore, but that's no surprise."
"You're getting off topic." Lance pointed out.
"Yeah, well, the first day, she pushed a bunch of boxes out the window. All of them in fact, luckily, nothing broke. The window wasn't high up and everything was packed carefully. All her mom did was yell at her and make her move the boxes. Then she bought spray paint and sprayed all over the walls and then set the walls on fire. Her mom noticed really quick and put it out, but there was a big burnt spot on the wall. After that her mother sent her to a shrink, but Phoenix refused to say or do anything while she was with the lady. A couple of days later," Pietro leaned forward and spoke menacingly. "A couple of days later her mom was going to bed and saw Phoenix sitting in the hall, staring at that burnt spot, barely even blinking. Every now and then she would nod like she was listening to something. The next day she acted like nothing was wrong. Got up, ate breakfast, got ready for school and all. In fact, she didn't do anything weird at all. Then when she got home, she sat in front of that spot for eight hours and then went to sleep. The next day she did the same thing, and the day after and kept doing it for a month."
"Yeah." Todd breathed, so wrapped up in the story that he didn't even notice that he had come out of his crouch and was sitting on the chair.
"At the end of that month, the school blew up."
"WHAT?!?" all three of Pietro's listeners gaped.
"Yep, and that day, she refused to go to school. She didn't even go to bed like she had all the other nights. She just stayed there in front of the spot all night and eventually all day long."
"Were there, y'know."
"Almost two thousand people." Pietro said with a nod. "Her mom forced her to go to a counselor after that, but she kept staring at that spot. They did countless tests and things on her, all of them said that nothing was wrong. But then she went out and got a dog. She butchered it in the bathroom and painted the walls with the blood. Her mom had no idea. She walked in the bathroom and saw the walls were red and thought it was paint. Phoenix even went out and bought towels and curtains to match it, a rusty red color. Next thing you know her brother and sister's rooms are red too, and they keep waking up in the middle of the night screaming," Pietro gave a half-hearted laugh. "bloody murder."
"Oh man, no more. I feel sick." Todd whined and pulled his legs up again.
"Did they ever find out who she killed to paint the other rooms?" Lance asked, half-fascinated, half-fearful.
"Nope. But I'm not done yet. After the fifth room turned up painted red, her mom got suspicious. One day she came home early and no one heard from her again. The cops came and checked the place. Didn't find anything. The kids were moved to a foster home and the next family moved into the house. They found a plumbing problem and had to rip out a wall to get to the pipes, that's when they noticed how the 'paint' just crumpled off. So they called a friend of theirs over to find out what was wrong with the paint."
"But it wasn't paint."
"Exactly." There was the sound of a door slamming in the background and then footsteps, followed by another door.
"The investigation showed that it was animal blood, all of it, but who cares about that? After they moved in with the foster family, things got really bad. The people they moved in with had a son, who got really drunk, and used to hit them. One day, he got a bit too pushy and made a move on Phoenix's little sister, Phoenix beat the crap out of him. Then he threatened to come back and kill Phoenix and mess up her brother and sister. When he left, they were all huddled around the fireplace, Phoenix was wiping blood off her hands and staring at the walls. She said the living room needed a new coat of paint, and her foster parents, not knowing about the old house, and thinking that she was changing the subject, agreed." Pietro paused as Todd began whimpering again. After a moment, he continued. "No one ever heard from him again, but, those walls.she painted them a pastel green." All three of the boys gave a sigh of relief.
"Then the sister disappeared." They gasped, and if Pietro didn't have to share a house with the freak, he might have been pleased at his friend's reactions to the story. "Oh, man, Phoenix went berserk. Tore up the countryside looking for that little girl. And they found her eventually. Someone had kidnapped her, done their thing and chucked her in the concrete foundation of a building that had just been laid. They found her when they were pressing it flat and an air bubble trapped beneath made her arm stick up out of the concrete."
"Oh my God." Lance's eyes were huge, even Todd could tell he was on the brink of crying. Todd was too busy being scared to bother him about it though. He wished he had enough compassion in him to care about the girl, but he was in the same school, heck the same state as the monster who painted walls with blood. He felt sorry for the dead girl, but was more concerned with himself.
"Yeah, they never even found out who did it either. After that, Phoenix was fiercely protective of her brother, but no protection in the world could save him from leukemia."
"He died too?" Freddie was all out crying, he could barely speak.
"Uh-huh. Then the cops caught up with Phoenix and charged her with a mess- load of crimes, including the disappearance of a dozen animals, arson, her mother's disappearance and that guy's disappearance too. There wasn't much proof, they never even found a body, but she got DJJ for three months. While she was in there, she set fire to a wall of her cell and did the same thing as before, she'd sit there for hours looking at the burnt spot. Once the grownups noticed, they moved her to a different room and she did it again. They kept her in for another five months for arson and destruction of public property. Then she kept getting into fights, she got more time for that. And then she escaped, if you can believe it. The cops dragged her all the way back to the center, only to find it gone. Blown to pieces with almost a thousand people inside. Try as they might, the feds couldn't stick her with anything, so they sent her to another place and she served the rest of her term there. Once she got out the government dumped her in nuthouse and pretended that she didn't exist."
"So how'd she get out?" Todd asked, knowing he wouldn't like the answer.
"This FBI agent was looking through the cold cases, and found out about the school, center and the missing people. He went to her and asked her about it. She told him to do something to himself and that she wasn't crazy and didn't have anything to say to people who locked her up for no reason. The man went and looked through her files and found out that they weren't current, she never had to take a test to get in there and the only tests she had ever taken all came up clean. In short, a law-suit the size of Texas. She got her money too, quite a bit, she could live in style for the rest of her life if she wanted to, but she was still a minor. The agent did some searching and found her great aunt and uncle and arranged for her to stay with them. In return, she had to tell him the honest-to-God truth. So far as anyone knows, she did. The agent took all his notes and tapes and destroyed them and then stuck his gun down his throat and pulled the trigger. She was pretty upset about that for a while. I guess she took a liking to him or something."
"Man, that's so sad." Lance said as the first tear drops began to fall. "I thought we had it rough."
"We do. My dad said she can stay here as long as she wants to."
"Grow up, Maximoff."
"If I live that long." Pietro muttered to himself. The four of them fell into silence, each one dwelling in his own thoughts.
After the silence dragged on for several minutes, Phoenix slowly stood up and stretched, she had almost fallen asleep there in front of Pietro's door. Her eyes narrowed slightly and she wondered who had told him so much of her past. It wasn't accurate, but it was better than most. She liked Pietro, and would be sad if anything happened to him. Only for a while though. That guy with the blue hair, he was cool and his voice was just as mesmerizing as Pietro's.
"Yeah, blue or silver hair, maybe green too, and a really cool voice. but, hey, any color, so long as it's not blonde, black or brown or too garish is cool. Accents, now, how can you not love a guy with blue hair and an accent." Phoenix let out a harsh laugh and a feral grin spread across her face. "But then, fear. fearful, quick-talking gossips. we love them too, don't we." The strange glint returned to her eyes, completing the look of utter evil, that the once shy, quiet Phoenix had hidden within for so long. "Yessss. Fear is good." She hissed. Pietro's door opened and she gave Pietro a fleeting glimpse of her face before she retreated to her room. He backed into the imaginary safety of his room and decided to spend the night at someone else's house until his father came back to his senses.
Disclaimer: Furor Paxx and VulgateOfEarth do not own the X-Men or any affiliates. All are the property of Marvel Entertainment Group, Inc and its various affiliates and partners. Phoenix Malcolm, Haiden Malcolm and all irregular characters are the sole property of Furor Paxx and are being used with permission. ~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~
~~ Pietro's Room ~~
"So what was up with that guy, anyway? He was even creepier than Toad on a bad day."
Lance, Todd, Fred and Pietro were all arranged in Pietro's perfect room. There wasn't a thing out of place, no dust, no dirt. A perfect room for a perfectionist.
"My dad says he owed Phoenix's guardians a favor and that's why he took the creep in. He says that with the 'proper influence' Phoenix might turn out okay. As if."
"Why'd they send him away?" Todd asked. He was crouched in his usual position at the desk and was settled in and finally comfortable.
"Oh, you do not wanna know. That's why I left the freak with those punks. Let them get the crap scared outta them."
"C'mon, Pietro, you can't leave us hanging. What'd he do?" Lance shifted his feet off the edge of the desk and let them hit the carpet with a thump.
"Okay, try this, Phoenix isn't a guy, 'he' is really a 'she.'"
"No joke?"
"Nope, she went totally psycho one day, went out and bought a million candles and lit them in the house. Then she walked out and let them burn themselves out. One of them started a fire, and the idiot ran all the way back inside to get a turtle and a stuffed alligator and a binder. Let everything else burn to cinders. She got off with a slap on the hand for that one, no one could prove it was arson, and for all I know, she wasn't really crazy then, but I doubt it."
"She saved the turtle?"
"Yes. As far as I know she still has it, that turtle was the only thing she managed to hold on to through the years. Now shut up Freddie and lemme finish." Pietro's voice got lower, and uncharacteristically slow. It still sounded fast, but not as fast as it usually was. "After that, her family- mom, brother and sister- moved into a new place, in a bigger city. Man was she pissed about that. Her mom had said that they were gonna move to a big city, where ever there was work, but Phoenix fought tooth and nail since the beginning. Phoenix doesn't like crowds and used to go through all kinds of measures to avoid them. She doesn't anymore, but that's no surprise."
"You're getting off topic." Lance pointed out.
"Yeah, well, the first day, she pushed a bunch of boxes out the window. All of them in fact, luckily, nothing broke. The window wasn't high up and everything was packed carefully. All her mom did was yell at her and make her move the boxes. Then she bought spray paint and sprayed all over the walls and then set the walls on fire. Her mom noticed really quick and put it out, but there was a big burnt spot on the wall. After that her mother sent her to a shrink, but Phoenix refused to say or do anything while she was with the lady. A couple of days later," Pietro leaned forward and spoke menacingly. "A couple of days later her mom was going to bed and saw Phoenix sitting in the hall, staring at that burnt spot, barely even blinking. Every now and then she would nod like she was listening to something. The next day she acted like nothing was wrong. Got up, ate breakfast, got ready for school and all. In fact, she didn't do anything weird at all. Then when she got home, she sat in front of that spot for eight hours and then went to sleep. The next day she did the same thing, and the day after and kept doing it for a month."
"Yeah." Todd breathed, so wrapped up in the story that he didn't even notice that he had come out of his crouch and was sitting on the chair.
"At the end of that month, the school blew up."
"WHAT?!?" all three of Pietro's listeners gaped.
"Yep, and that day, she refused to go to school. She didn't even go to bed like she had all the other nights. She just stayed there in front of the spot all night and eventually all day long."
"Were there, y'know."
"Almost two thousand people." Pietro said with a nod. "Her mom forced her to go to a counselor after that, but she kept staring at that spot. They did countless tests and things on her, all of them said that nothing was wrong. But then she went out and got a dog. She butchered it in the bathroom and painted the walls with the blood. Her mom had no idea. She walked in the bathroom and saw the walls were red and thought it was paint. Phoenix even went out and bought towels and curtains to match it, a rusty red color. Next thing you know her brother and sister's rooms are red too, and they keep waking up in the middle of the night screaming," Pietro gave a half-hearted laugh. "bloody murder."
"Oh man, no more. I feel sick." Todd whined and pulled his legs up again.
"Did they ever find out who she killed to paint the other rooms?" Lance asked, half-fascinated, half-fearful.
"Nope. But I'm not done yet. After the fifth room turned up painted red, her mom got suspicious. One day she came home early and no one heard from her again. The cops came and checked the place. Didn't find anything. The kids were moved to a foster home and the next family moved into the house. They found a plumbing problem and had to rip out a wall to get to the pipes, that's when they noticed how the 'paint' just crumpled off. So they called a friend of theirs over to find out what was wrong with the paint."
"But it wasn't paint."
"Exactly." There was the sound of a door slamming in the background and then footsteps, followed by another door.
"The investigation showed that it was animal blood, all of it, but who cares about that? After they moved in with the foster family, things got really bad. The people they moved in with had a son, who got really drunk, and used to hit them. One day, he got a bit too pushy and made a move on Phoenix's little sister, Phoenix beat the crap out of him. Then he threatened to come back and kill Phoenix and mess up her brother and sister. When he left, they were all huddled around the fireplace, Phoenix was wiping blood off her hands and staring at the walls. She said the living room needed a new coat of paint, and her foster parents, not knowing about the old house, and thinking that she was changing the subject, agreed." Pietro paused as Todd began whimpering again. After a moment, he continued. "No one ever heard from him again, but, those walls.she painted them a pastel green." All three of the boys gave a sigh of relief.
"Then the sister disappeared." They gasped, and if Pietro didn't have to share a house with the freak, he might have been pleased at his friend's reactions to the story. "Oh, man, Phoenix went berserk. Tore up the countryside looking for that little girl. And they found her eventually. Someone had kidnapped her, done their thing and chucked her in the concrete foundation of a building that had just been laid. They found her when they were pressing it flat and an air bubble trapped beneath made her arm stick up out of the concrete."
"Oh my God." Lance's eyes were huge, even Todd could tell he was on the brink of crying. Todd was too busy being scared to bother him about it though. He wished he had enough compassion in him to care about the girl, but he was in the same school, heck the same state as the monster who painted walls with blood. He felt sorry for the dead girl, but was more concerned with himself.
"Yeah, they never even found out who did it either. After that, Phoenix was fiercely protective of her brother, but no protection in the world could save him from leukemia."
"He died too?" Freddie was all out crying, he could barely speak.
"Uh-huh. Then the cops caught up with Phoenix and charged her with a mess- load of crimes, including the disappearance of a dozen animals, arson, her mother's disappearance and that guy's disappearance too. There wasn't much proof, they never even found a body, but she got DJJ for three months. While she was in there, she set fire to a wall of her cell and did the same thing as before, she'd sit there for hours looking at the burnt spot. Once the grownups noticed, they moved her to a different room and she did it again. They kept her in for another five months for arson and destruction of public property. Then she kept getting into fights, she got more time for that. And then she escaped, if you can believe it. The cops dragged her all the way back to the center, only to find it gone. Blown to pieces with almost a thousand people inside. Try as they might, the feds couldn't stick her with anything, so they sent her to another place and she served the rest of her term there. Once she got out the government dumped her in nuthouse and pretended that she didn't exist."
"So how'd she get out?" Todd asked, knowing he wouldn't like the answer.
"This FBI agent was looking through the cold cases, and found out about the school, center and the missing people. He went to her and asked her about it. She told him to do something to himself and that she wasn't crazy and didn't have anything to say to people who locked her up for no reason. The man went and looked through her files and found out that they weren't current, she never had to take a test to get in there and the only tests she had ever taken all came up clean. In short, a law-suit the size of Texas. She got her money too, quite a bit, she could live in style for the rest of her life if she wanted to, but she was still a minor. The agent did some searching and found her great aunt and uncle and arranged for her to stay with them. In return, she had to tell him the honest-to-God truth. So far as anyone knows, she did. The agent took all his notes and tapes and destroyed them and then stuck his gun down his throat and pulled the trigger. She was pretty upset about that for a while. I guess she took a liking to him or something."
"Man, that's so sad." Lance said as the first tear drops began to fall. "I thought we had it rough."
"We do. My dad said she can stay here as long as she wants to."
"Grow up, Maximoff."
"If I live that long." Pietro muttered to himself. The four of them fell into silence, each one dwelling in his own thoughts.
After the silence dragged on for several minutes, Phoenix slowly stood up and stretched, she had almost fallen asleep there in front of Pietro's door. Her eyes narrowed slightly and she wondered who had told him so much of her past. It wasn't accurate, but it was better than most. She liked Pietro, and would be sad if anything happened to him. Only for a while though. That guy with the blue hair, he was cool and his voice was just as mesmerizing as Pietro's.
"Yeah, blue or silver hair, maybe green too, and a really cool voice. but, hey, any color, so long as it's not blonde, black or brown or too garish is cool. Accents, now, how can you not love a guy with blue hair and an accent." Phoenix let out a harsh laugh and a feral grin spread across her face. "But then, fear. fearful, quick-talking gossips. we love them too, don't we." The strange glint returned to her eyes, completing the look of utter evil, that the once shy, quiet Phoenix had hidden within for so long. "Yessss. Fear is good." She hissed. Pietro's door opened and she gave Pietro a fleeting glimpse of her face before she retreated to her room. He backed into the imaginary safety of his room and decided to spend the night at someone else's house until his father came back to his senses.