In My Life- Controlling you through a chip in your butt since April

-----

Rick pattered down the dark street faster than he ever thought he could, despite the sharp pains shooting up and down his sides. He came close to tripping over his floppy feet about twenty times, tearing the soles of his dilapidated Chuck Taylor shoes with each step. A stray rock took him down, but he was back up before he realized he slammed chin-first into the cobblestone, stepping over shards of what were once his glasses.

He skidded to a halt at the Supermarket, tearing around the side of the building to the side entrance. With one hand cupped over his gushing chin, he frantically pounded on the door with the other fist, ravaging his larynx with every scream.

"MR. CARDONE!! MRS. CARDONE!! OPEN UP!!"

His pounding and screams became weaker as he continued to wear out. The blood running from his chin wasn't clotting either, and his head felt like it was tethered to the pit of his stomach with a fraying thread.

He ran around to the back of the house to get a glimpse into the kitchen window, the thread snapping once he saw that none of the lights were on in the house.

Then he fell forward over his knees, sliding into unconsciousness along the side of the house.

-----

"What a hock," Karen huffed. "Don't those spirits realize they're just senseless rumors spat out on a whim and backed by no evidence?" She rolled her eyes, muttering a bit more under her breath.

She managed to stay entirely oblivious to everyone else. There was some sort of attraction, and no matter how much Makoto and Elli wanted to yank their hands away, they could only leave their fingers feeling limp on the planchette. Gray gulped loudly, with Mary clenching onto his arm with locked fingers. The color drained from Ann and Cliff's faces. Popuri was wide-eyed, her mouth hanging agape.

Finally, Elli came to her senses.

"Let's pack this up," she told her coolly. "If these spirits are just going to fool around, then it's not worth the time."

But no one said a word. Popuri looked up apprehensively at everyone, her mouth drawn tight. Finally, she spoke.

"What if they're right?" she speculated, her voice trembling. "Then that means--"

"Makoto is no murderer," Elli cut in. She shifted her leaden gaze around the circle, and no one dared disagree. Slowly creeping her hand over her side of the planchette, she soon found herself stroking the top of Makoto's hand.

Makoto looked down, and even if he saw her stroking his hand, he felt numb. The words would even come together in the base of his mind, where to begin speaking. He was nowhere near opening his mouth when the planchette jiggled under their hands, and began moving again.

It slid all the way down to the opposite corner, and Makoto and Elli had to swerve around as it turned and headed towards the next corner, back up to their side, and finally stopping at the YES marker.

Everyone was left baffled, but Karen managed to take the helm again.

"Who's out there?" she asked curtly, and the planchette immediately crossed the board and headed for the alphabet.

Everyone was close enough to touch their chins on the board, watching the planchette fly from letter to letter.

"HI DAUGHTER YOUR PARENTS ARE TALKING TO YOU"

All eyes were drawn towards Elli. She looked back up at them, turning only the corners of her mouth into a sheepish smile. But they all knew that the message tapped a soft spot; she couldn't hide it in her eyes. The two fingers she had on the planchette quivered very slightly, and the fingers she rested on Makoto's hand fell flat. And that was when Makoto picked up her hand in his, weaving his way through her svelte fingers.

She turned to look at him, and he was gazing back at her as if from halfway across the town square. Elli had to look down at the planchette, and sure enough both their hands were still resting on it idly. Something, maybe ions buzzing in the air around her head, was drawing her to look back over her left shoulder, shifting her body away from everyone else and towards Makoto.

And Makoto felt it too. Neither of them lurched forward ahead of the other, instead moving closer slower than a passing hour. Closer... closer...

The planchette jerked and took off so fast that if they didn't break the moment, they would've lost their hold on it. Everyone was staring intently at the oscillating object that was nearly burning a figure eight over the alphabet. It cut a sudden corner and sped around the alphabet, soon finding letters to slowly guide over just to get a message across.

"DONT LEAVE US DONT YOU MISS US"

Makoto looked at Elli again, but she was completely engrossed in the message, glistening droplets hanging off the corners of her eyes. He wasn't even sure if she noticed that they were still holding hands.

"Ummm... I don't think the spirits are supposed to ask questions," Mary pointed out. "There's no question mark on the board."

There were a few stifled nods of agreement floating around the circle until Karen spoke above them.

"There's something very wrong here," she said, drawing everyone's attention to her. "It's like the board is out of our control!"

As if on cue, the planchette spun around through the alphabet again.

"NOT THAT BOY HE TOOK LIFE BEFOREF"

"That's not true!" Elli retorted, squeezing Makoto's hand while barely maintaining a firm voice. "You're not my parents! My parents would never judge Makoto like that! And Makoto never killed anyone before! He'd never do that!"

"CTHULHU R LYEH WGAH NAGL FHTAGN"

She fell silent, exchanging the thousandth round of baffled expressions with everyone else that night.

"SORRY WGAH BUT IT TRUTH BEING THAT WHAT IS TRU"

"Does this board speak English anymore?" Ann piped up, sticking her hands into her windbreaker's front pocket. Everyone else was fidgeting, groaning, looking in other directions, but their eyes all met back at Ann to see her present a silver Zippo with the initials "D.F" crudely carved into the side between her thumb and forefinger.

"Let's get rid of it already, eh?"

"You can't just go burn my board!" Karen snapped, snatching the lighter from Ann before she could flip it open. "My parents had this for God knows how long, and maybe my grandparents had it before then!"

Mary nervously rubbed her fingertips together. "Supposedly... Ouija boards scream if you burn them," she added in a low voice.

"No, I think we'll scream when we catch the grass on fire," Elli commented. "Let's do it on the beach."

Everyone stretched out and clambered to their feet, spending a good minute or two shaking some feeling back into their legs. And it was a shame that Karen let her guard down, because Ann snatched the Zippo before anyone realized it.

The old board flared up faster than Miss Bo Peep did, and the embers took to Karen's left jeans leg. She screamed hysterically, jumping back faster and further than anyone else did as the rest of them split up between wild panic or throwing fire safety knowledge her way.

"Roll around in the dirt," Elli groaned, shaking her head. She probably would never get over the blatant disregard Ann displayed or Karen flipping out with the flames dancing around her ankles.

"No, run to the water pump at the side of the church!" Popuri undermined.

Thankfully, Karen took Elli's advice and threw herself on the dirt, patting and rolling around. Rushing to her aid, everyone else scrambled downward to gather up dirt and throw it at the fire. They turned their shoulders to the burning board, and even the gush behind them didn't jar their attention from Karen, who was sprawled out on her stomach under Miss Bo Peep's tombstone.

Finally, both blazes were out, and once a panting Karen was helped to her feet, they all turned to see who had put out the other fire.

Pastor Carter was livid. His mouth was drawn taut over his face, his nose curled in disgust, and he gripped the barrel of the heavy fire extinguisher in one hand and the hose in the other, as if able to squash the whole thing. The kids came to a crash into his golden eyes, built on his face like one brick wall. If he wasn't such a good man, he might have bowled them all down with the fire extinguisher as his weapon.

In the three years he lived in Mineral Town, nobody had ever seen the man at all furious, less the slightest bit angry. He'd never even raised his voice.

"EVERYBODY INSIDE--" he began, and as if that didn't shake the kids, "NOW!!"

------

"You HAD to go burn my board, didn't you, Ann??" Karen shrieked with an accusing finger, directing her homing glare around Carter's torso and pegging Ann. "You're so fucking immature, you know??"

Carter cringed at hearing the swearword, but Ann made her rebuttal before he had the chance to reprimand Karen.

"I'm immature??" Ann huffed. "You're the oldest one out of all of us, and you're the one dragging us to play that stupid game when we all had plans!" She paused, and spat at Karen's feet. "Bitch!"

"Well—"

"That's ENOUGH!!" Carter roared over the both of them, and the silence hovered once the echo bounced away. His voice was already going raspy, and the anguish in his eyes betrayed his fury. He looked to the both of them, their attention locked on, and spoke civilly.

"I don't want to see you girls up in arms. You're best friends," he told them. "Just let it go."

Ann was loosing her composure, if she had any to begin with, and glared with a furrowed brow and her arms folded over her chest at a haughty Karen. Everyone else was watching from one of the front pews, idly exchanging uninterested and impatient looks as the girls carried on.

"Carter, you don't understand!" Ann exclaimed. "She's always like this! Always so bossy, pushing me to do what she wants to!"

"Oh, like you're so unfortunate, being abused by big... baaad... Karen," Karen cooed, leaning closer on each word she put emphasis on in with a ridiculously overdone pout and her hands on her hips. Carter hesitated, not sure whether to play the brick wall again or not. But then Karen leaned in and added: "By the way, you're the one always making your boyfriend your bitchslave."

Cliff slumped down in his seat, hiding his crisped with embarrassment face behind his hands and groaning as he shook his head.

"Leave Cliff out of this!" Ann shouted, and when Karen only cast another haughty, sideways glance her way, the redhead stomped off. She swept over by the edge of the pew with a "C'mon, Cliff!" and reaching over to grab the boy by the arm, cursing aloud as she dragged him out of the church.

Silence lingered on for a moment after the huge door slammed shut.

"Anyway," Carter trailed a bit. He turned his eyes to Karen, who looked back at him with the remnants of her fury. "I was just talking to the Doctor before I found you guys doing your heathen..." He paused. "Something, something, eternal damnation, thousand Hail Mary's, confessional booth tomorrow, something, and Rick's over at the Clinic." Karen cocked her head, about to speak up when Carter continued. "Oh, it's nothing serious. He's just getting a few stitches done."

"Oh, so you don't care about the Ouija board?" Karen asked with a bit of a saline tongue.

"Nah, but burn down my house and we'll have to talk, 'cause I live in the basement, you know," Carter replied with a broad smile before shifting his attention everyone else. "Go run off, kids," he said, "'Cept..." He snapped his fingers on both hands and pointed straight at Elli. "You. Doc wants you."

"Oh well," she sighed, half-exasperated, as Makoto jumped up from the pew to let her slide out. She was about to head for the door herself when the thought of Makoto stopped her before she started, and she turned to meet his disappointed face with one of her own.

"Don't worry about me," Makoto said curtly, motioning his head to the slowly shutting doors. Elli nodded with a sheepish half-smile, and just as she turned to depart, Makoto took her hand her hand in one of his, limply hanging onto it between them.

"I…" he trailed, wincing a bit as if fighting for control of his voice. He sighed, idly gripping her hand a little tighter. "I want to tell you something… but it'll wait," Makoto finally finished, letting go of her hand and motioning to the doors that still weren't shut. "Go."

Elli looked a little flustered.

"Makoto, you can come, you know," she sighed. Without another word, she grabbed the same hand he took hers and wove through his pianist fingers, clasping palm-to-palm. He looked down briefly at their hands, his legs moving to match Elli's pace without his mind knowing, but didn't raise his downcast eyes to even watch where he was going when they slipped through the half-open doors.

It was a wispy night, and the sky seemed to peel back to reveal a more vivid cobalt than the previously colorless sky could lead anyone to expect. They could've been off moon viewing by then, and Makoto felt almost ready to speak up to Elli. But his mind wandered off to the Ouija board, gorging itself on the image of the planchette spilling out what he convinced himself he didn't need to say.

"Elli, I can't," he said, dropping her hand. They came to a halt outside the Clinic, standing in the dull yellow light of the flickering street lamp that washed over Elli's perturbed and attentive face. She wanted dearly to look into his eyes, but he hid his face from the light, turning away from her entirely.

He felt her hand on his shoulder, the spot tingling. It did nothing to flip his wretched stomach right-side up or to alleviate his pounding mind. Only one thing could.

"Elli... those rumors are true..."

It all fell on Elli. Her mind was set on a dizzy, downward spin in denial. Manna pulling out Makoto's secret out of nothing and twisting it with glee into what was harmless gossip to her was the least of Elli's troubles. She felt the weight of despondency drag her down, even enough to hinder her from consoling Makoto.

"Oh my God!! It's true! It's true!"

Makoto and Elli snapped their focus around at whiplash speed. And there stood their motor mouth, choking on the shock.

"Ohhhh... shit..." Makoto said in a barely audible whisper. Manna stood across from them, mouth agape and barely able to maintain a good posture. There was nothing left for them to dread.

Manna was practically rolling over shrieking.

"Well, I was just on my way to Sasha's, but... OH MY GOD! I was right! I was right!!"

"You pulled it out of your ass," Elli said bluntly, turning to her. "You never gave him a chance, all because he's not our great and revered hero that our old man was." She was done with the accompanying exaggerated gestures with her insight, and stared Manna down with a sickened expression. "I don't know why you and Duke could never accept Makoto as Makoto, but if you use what he told me in confidence against him, then you should have no one to look down on."

It didn't instantaneously set into Manna's head, but the twenty watt light bulb eventually flickered enough to lamely imbibe Elli's words. Her mouth bent into a slightly ajar frown, and her posture hung limp for a moment while her brain decided the next move. But Elli had enough.

"Come on, Makoto. Let's forget about the Doctor and go already," Elli said quickly, reaching out to idly grab his hand as she turned to face him.

He wasn't standing under the lamp post, nor, as Elli hoped, he snuck around to her flank to take her hand and half-drag her from the spot. Elli darted her eyes around the immediate vicinity, soon turning all over in her spot looking for him.

A barely audible rustle rose up from somewhere, and without giving it another thought, Elli darted off the main road and around the side of the Cardone residence. There was a white picket fence wrapping around their backyard that stood at about five feet high that she would've never bothered to or cared to jump in the seventeen years of her life. But she grabbed the top once her fingertips could reach it and scuffled up it, clumsily toppling over and touching the grass for a brief moment on her feet before spinning down and landing on her side.

But she knew all along that was where Makoto was, and the sight of his lanky silhouette in the corner of her eye darting past the back fence of Mary's house got Elli to scramble up from the ground, only to stumble over and hit it again.

By the time she pulled self up on the fence, Makoto was long gone, and all Elli had was a sprained ankle and the last of the lingering warmth pocketed in her palm.

-----

Elli stared down at her left palm, letting a forlorn sigh slip before dragging her focus back up to Karen's frowning face.

"So yeah," Elli sighed. "You wanted to know, and that's what happened."

They were sitting in Elli's kitchen on her day off, Karen trying her best to whittle out parts of the previous night's incident to piece it together. Elli didn't mind Karen asking her, but she didn't dare let Makoto's ambiguous confession out into the open.

Karen stared at the glum nurse from across the round table and over bowls of Italian wedding soup, dumped out from Progresso cans, as the brunette sighed again and swirled her spoon through the broth.

"Jeez, you're the last person I'd expect to see this hung up over someone," Karen said dully, and Elli nodded.

"I know, I know. I'm actually pretty pathetic."

"And all of a sudden smitten with Makoto," Karen added sardonically. Elli looked up from her soup with a slight frown, to which Karen added: "What? Don't like hearing your own brand of sarcasm directed at you?"

"I'd prefer the term "stupid crush" than "smitten with"," Elli replied blandly.

Karen shook her head.

"No, no, no. The Doctor was a stupid crush," she reasoned. "He's about as loveable as rock. At least Makoto's a little bit more loveable… like a scruffy stuffed animal."

Elli smirked at that.

"Back off, bitch," she joked, and Karen wriggled out a smile of her own before Elli fell serious again. "But it doesn't feel right to like him…" Karen looked puzzled. "… I don't know, because he makes it so obvious that he's got the biggest crush in the world on his best friend, and I consider him my best friend—"

"And you're not getting to the point," Karen interjected.

"Shut up," Elli said, and continued without hesitation. "I thought that by asking him to go moon viewing might show him that I like him too, but now I'm thinking I might be taking advantage of him."

With a rather amused face, Karen mulled over it for a moment.

"Yeah… you might be," she finally said, nodding. "You monster, feeding off on his affection." She paused for a moment, only to shake her head and mumble: "Note to self, never use 'Makoto' and 'affection' in the same sentence ever again."

"You were the one who compared him to a stuffed animal."

Silence. Elli went back to swirling her spoon through her broth and occasionally looking down at her palm. Karen had nothing left to say, and went back to her soup.

"He still hasn't come back," Elli sighed. "I went out a few hours before sun up to see if maybe he was heading to Strawberry Fields, but he wasn't. Ann told me he hadn't come home either when I asked her in the morning."

"Ann…" Karen echoed in a groan.

By this time, Elli had dropped her spoon with a clunk against the side of the bowl, propping her elbow on the table and her face against her fist.

"I'm so worried about him," she sighed.

Karen wasn't sure whether to say what she had to say next. But she went along with it, spilling it out after a long sigh of her own.

"He might get kicked out for sure if he comes back," she choked out. "His secret's out."

Elli shook her head.

"I saw it coming," she sighed. "Manna, of all people, eavesdropped on us."

-----

"I'm walking on… sunshine… hmmm-mmm… walking on sunshine…"

Makoto glanced up at the thick, swampy sky for the umpteenth time that day.

"And I feel…" He didn't feel much like putting feeling into the song. "Like a wussy."

He was far enough from the outskirts of Mineral Town to be singing without anyone hearing him and jumping to strangle him.

"And I can't walk on sunshine," he capped.

"Damn right you can't!" a voice responded from behind.

Makoto abruptly halted and spun around, only to find a dark haired girl clad generously in layer after layer of clothing. She laughed nervously when Makoto shot her a displeased look, complete with his eyebrow arch, and stuck out her left hand.

"Aja," she said with a nod.

Makoto extended his right hand, twisting his elbow to shake her hand. She was on the short side, but her scuffed combat boots gave her about extra three inches. Once Makoto finished his brief and firm handshake, she stuck her hand back into the pocket of her tan pea coat.

"Yeah," he said. "Anyway, I was about to go. Wouldn't want to let the folks of Mineral Town down." He turned away, only for Aja to latch onto his elbow.

"Don't go!" she begged. "We were looking for a stand-in, and you'd be perfect!"

Makoto stopped and turned to face her with a puzzled face.

"Stand-in? And where do you draw that from?"

Aja nodded, too excited to answer Makoto's question fully.

"Yeah, all you have to do is drive. Not dangerous or anything, I think."

With an arched eyebrow, Makoto stared her down.

"Great..." he muttered with the dread lodged in his throat.

"Drag racing," Aja explained, once again oblivious to Makoto and the reservations manifested on his face, tugging Makoto's arm with such force that he stumbled over his own feet as she took off the trail and down the hill. "The races start in an hour, and it sure beats Mineral Town!"

Ignoring the vertigo and the sensation of nearly falling off the steep hill, Makoto let out a yelp

"Aja??"

-----

It looks like I finally got around to giving characters last names... I'm always a little insecure about giving characters names they really don't have, but that's just me. Anyway, cliffhanging has turned into a bad habit for me, it seems. But I'm back into this story with full force, so I'll be updating more often... I hope. I know this one was a little short, but I got out all I wanted to... I think. Thanks to all my readers!

Ferocious Death-Kappa- I wondered if people would think that.

...- I did it again! I updated... and I stuck in a cliffhangerish thing.

azn anime addict47- Glad you enjoyed it!

anime26angel- I'm evil... I know... hides I'm sorry!

Quack Wabbit- Of course they are, but... ahhh, well. Thanks for joining in and reading, I always love to see new readers too!

Until next time, folks!

--EDIT--- Thanks to "..." for pointing out my editing foul-up in the review. I added the line that needed to be there. Apparently, since my copy and the final copy are always a little different, I lost a line somewhere there. Thanks again!