I don't own Sky High. I'm surprised I didn't delete this.
The kept me in the psyche ward of the hospital and made me talk to a psychologist once a day for a week because of my 'suicide' attempt seemed like a cry for help. My psychologist, a thin and wane super, says that I could have easily gone insane. He talks to me about my powers, and I tell him to fuck off and cuff me. To say the least, we don't make much progress, especially when I taunt him about his fear of coming out of the closet. I don't mention his fear of not being able to help me, because no one can and the sooner he realizes this, the better.
I spend my days reading worn paperbacks the nurses offer me, and trying not to let my powers make me a monster.
But, I can feel it happening.
My three day drug trip wacked out my powers, and it's getting harder to control them. Fear circles my head and the littlest irritation has me wanting to lash out. I want to hurt people like I'm hurting. My premonitions are weird and disjointed and I can't make anything out of them.
I cry at night.
Normally it's easy to change my visions, because I can take an element out and they alter accordingly. But I know, no matter what I do, that this one -the one in which I die- won't falter.
Why, you ask?
Well, because I know what's going to happen when I go into that building. I could have not gone into it -could not go into it- but I will. Something will happen in my life, and I will think that finding Peace is more important than living.
I hate that.
I hate it more when Peace comes to visit me.
I've just had my antidepressants given to me by my lovely, rotund black nurse and am trying to smother the erg to jump out the window- which I know wouldn't do anything but break my legs- when the sliding glass door opens. At first I think it's Powers, coming for her usual visit, but I should have known from the lack of clacking high heels that it wasn't.
"Go away Powers. I don't want to talk today." I mumbled into the fibers of my pillow. It smells like paper and starch and just like I think a coffin would -which is just about as comforting as it sounds. Plus, it crinkles every time I move.
"It's not Powers." He says, and I freeze. Crinkle.
"Go away," I whisper, far too quite for him to hear. "Please, just… go away."
He steps into the room, footfalls heavy against linoleum, and I feel sick to my stomach.
He's standing at the foot of my bed and his fear is pressing against me so sharply I feel like my skin is turning inside out.
People shouldn't fear like this.
"I'm fine," I said to his worries. Crinkle. "Please stop. You're making me sick."
He raised a single eyebrow, but his fear dwindled down.
"What are you talking about?"
Another side effect of knowing when you're going to die -you lose your off switch. There is absolutely little to no filter nowadays. Not that I thought before I spoke before, but now, well…
"I'd hate to be as afraid as you are. Jesus, it's like walking through a fucking tornado."
His gaze is so intense that for just a minute I am thoroughly convinced he has x-ray vision.
Crinkle.
He opens his mouth like he's going to ask me what I'm talking about, but it seems to click for him. I think, in that moment, he figures it out.
I hold up my hands, palms up, like I'm offering something, but they're empty and all I want to do is sleep.
"Go home," I tell him, and drop my hands to my lap.
He leaves.
My first day back to Sky High feels too normal to be real. Granted, there are still whispers about me. People are wondering where I've been. They stare at the fading bruise on the side of my face, but don't comment on the hospital bracelet on my wrist.
I'm required to wear it, and I couldn't take it off if I tried.
It's got a nullifier on the inside, pressing against my skin, along with a sensor that beeps when my powers start to act up too much. It doesn't make it all go away, but it makes them easier to control. They're working on a permanent one, but they probably won't give it to me, because my potential for good outweighs my risk factor, or something. They talked to me about it, but I hadn't listened.
I have the attention span of a goldfish and all I want to do is sleep. The best part? Every single teacher in the school lets me. Even Medulla.
It's easy to ignore the pity in their eyes if I don't look for it.
There's something I can't ignore though. Peace keeps giving me these fucking looks, like I'm about to snap and take over the world any second.
Which is probably why I do. Snap, that is, not take over the world.
It takes two weeks, but when it happens, well…
The kid is an idiot, even though he might be older than me. He's got this fucking smirk on his face when he shoves me in the cafeteria as he walks past.
Big mistake.
"Oops," he says, all sarcastic, looking me up and down, "Sorry, Nelson."
"Why don't you watch where you're fucking going?"
He says something to that, something that sparks my temper.
My bracelet starts beeping.
People are starting to stare.
"What the fuck is that, freak?" he smirks. And I get the weirdest fucking flashback. Suddenly it's six months ago and he's fucking Anderson, up in my face spitting idiocy everywhere and my rage is blotting you my vision.
Only this time, I know how to use my powers. This time, it's not an accident.
The beeping speeds up, and my eyes go black.
This isn't Save the Citizen. I'm not neutralizing shit.
The room starts shaking.
"Nelson," Peace says. "Don't."
I turn to look at him, and snakes start slithering out from under the tables, poisonous and hissing. "Can't stop now. Too late."
"Will," he says, turning to Flyboy, "Go get Powers."
"Why-"
"Just do it!" he shouts, and Flyboy takes off.
By now the kid is whimpering, backing away from the snakes.
My bracelet turns into one continuous beep.
That's when the nightmares creep out of the shadows, and the lights start to flicker. The monsters are drawn out of the crevices of his mind. Things like half-remembered childhood scares, things that harbored in his subconscious and festered like an infection.
He starts to scream, and so does everyone else.
And that's when everyone starts to be very afraid of me, and it fuels my powers in a vicious cycle, and I couldn't stop if I tried. A whirlwind is going through the cafeteria, shrieking and howling, sucking their screams around, with me at the vortex.
My muscles are whip-lock tight and I'm trembling from all the raw energy coursing through me. These things aren't real, but they're real enough.
I'm starting to loose track of who's fears I'm using when the school starts to drop, falling from the sky, and Powers crashes into the cafeteria with Flyboy, Medulla, and Boomer on her heels.
And then my power finds it, the one person in the room who's greatest fear is fear itself.
Then everything goes to hell.