"Eugh. . ." Blossom moaned as she finally opened her good eye. Everything was blurry. She blinked slowly. Then she blinked again. And again. She kept blinking until things finally cleared up. At what Blossom's eye first caught sight of, she let out a choked whimper.
No, she told herself. No, it's, it's not real. It can't be real!
Blossom squeezed her eye shut and opened it one more time. No, no. . .
She couldn't believe it. She didn't want to believe it. But she couldn't deny the truth anymore. It had happened. She had been taken hostage by some of her worst enemies.
She couldn't do anything but stare into Boomer's and Butch's eyes. The two of them merely floating over her made them just look menacing.
"Hey, look who's finally woken up," Butch said, an evil grin on his face.
Blossom just looked up in fear until she finally made up her mind to slap him in the face and escape. She had to get away from here, somehow. She threw an arm up. And realized it wouldn't move.
She tried to move it again, and felt her wrists tug against something. Blossom's hopes of fleeing sank immediately. She didn't need to try and get a look to tell what had happened.
Wait. . . Blossom's hopes began to rise. No, don't give up. I can still do this. She aimed a kick at Boomer. Her hopes diminished once more as she realized her ankles were bound together as well.
Fear welled up in her like a surfer's wave. She tried to inch backwards. But to no avail; her back could only push up against the couch (where she had been laid down upon), and no more.
The boys seemed to notice her panic, and their malicious smiles turned even more malicious.
"P-please don't hurt me," Blossom murmured when she found her voice.
"Oh, don't worry," Butch said with mock compassion. "We'll just maim a limb of yours before letting you go."
"Or maybe we'll just find a wall to hang you up on by the hair," Boomer chimed in, picking up on Butch's lead.
"Geez, if you guys are going to threaten her, can you at least make it sound realistic?" came a familiar voice.
Boomer and Butch turned around to face its source, and Blossom managed to follow their gaze. All three of them found a certain boy with a red baseball cap and long mullet-styled hair, throwing bottle caps into a fireplace.
She gasped. No, no, no! Butch and Boomer weren't the only ones present.
All of them were there.
She looked on in horror as Brick slowly hovered towards them. Frantic, Blossom struggled against the bonds, but it was no use. They held her arms and legs together as well as a mousetrap would strap onto a gullible rodent.
Her eye darted around, looking for a way to escape, but she couldn't find any. She squirmed with discomfort, her terror rising at a rapid rate.
Her gaze found Brick again. Now he was only two arm-lengths away from her face. But unlike his brothers, his expression looked. . . disinterested?
Uh-oh. That was not a good sign. If he wouldn't take pleasure in torturing her, he'd probably keep going until she was dead.
She pushed herself harder against the couch. It was no use trying to fly. All three of them had already surrounded her, and would block her the moment she took off. She was too tired to fly anyways. In fact, she was too tired to use any of her superpowers, and it would be pointless to take an offensive now. Growing more desperate with every passing second, she tried to snap her wrists backwards so that her hands may reach the knots and unbind them. But to no avail; the ropes only tightened the more she moved. Blossom barely managed to inhale before looking up with a scared eye at Brick. All he did was stare down at her with a blank frown. It nearly drove her insane, to see that expressionless face, not knowing what he planned to do with her.
Brick was remained silent for what seemed like a lifetime. Then, he turned to his brothers. "Out," he said, gruffly. "Both of ya."
He watched as the twosome flew out of the house. As soon as they were gone, Brick looked back down at Blossom, trembling like a leaf resisting a gust of wind. He hesitated for a few seconds before moving over a little closer to Blossom.
Blossom panicked. She hated the situation she was in. She couldn't do anything. She could only lament over her fate. It took all her will to prevent tears from falling out of both of her eyes.
Why did it have to be like this today? she thought, stifling a scream. She looked straight into Brick's eyes, horrified. No, no! There has to be a way, there has to be. . . but how?
She let out a small cough, and mustered all the courage she could gather into her mouth. "Listen, you don't have t-"
Brick cut her off. "You're not telling me what to do."
Blossom gulped. Oh, no. He wasn't going to listen to her. He definitely didn't seem to plan to go easy on her either. She readied herself for whatever blow that might be dealt to her. Hopefully, she would survive this ordeal. Hopefully, she would find a way out, and get home, safe and sound. Hopefully.
Brick pulled out something behind him. Blossom's eye widened. Is. . . is that what I think it is. . .? Blossom took another slow blink with her good eye, hoping she was wrong.
But she wasn't. That flash of metal was unmistakable.
Blossom hastily tried to break free, but she only caused the ropes to tighten so much that they began to hurt her skin. And the more the bonds tightened, the more the knot in her stomach tightened as well. She shrank back in fear. "N-n-no! You can't! P-please!" she cried.
Brick flew up above her. On her blind side. Now she would never see what would happen to her, let alone live to talk of it. "Please, please don't! Please!" she said over and over again, pleading for mercy. All of her hopes were gone now. Blossom tried to scream, but her voice box froze; she couldn't even squeak. She was terrorized beyond imagination to do anything. She closed her eye, waiting for the painful jab that would come when he brought down the knife.
It never came. Instead, she heard a sharp snag! and she felt her wrists break loose. She soon heard another loud snapping sound, and her legs also broke free.
An awkward silence rang throughout the room. Then Blossom clapped her hands to her face and cried. She was weeping with gratefulness; she felt so stunned by everything that had just happened.
Brick took notice of it. Wow, he thought, she must have been really scared.
He threw the knife onto a nearby stool, sat down beside Blossom, and waited for her to let it all out.
When Blossom stopped sniffling, Brick asked, "Are you OK?"
Blossom didn't answer, half because she didn't feel OK, and half because she was too shocked to answer.
When her senses finally came around, intending to fly out straight away, she sat up. Immediately, she wished she hadn't. Her body ached all over. "Ow," she said, softly.
Brick heard that. "Wait," he said simply, and dashed into a room. Seconds later, he flew back out with. . .
"A first-aid kit?" Blossom asked.
Brick shrugged. "Stole it from a nearby doctor when Boomer skinned his knee weeks ago." He hovered over to the couch and set down the box right beside her. Opening it, he scanned the materials quickly, then took out some gauze and bandages. "Hold still," he said. "This is gonna hurt." He wrapped some gauze around her knee.
Blossom bit her lip, grimacing from the initial pain. Brick wasn't clumsy, but he wasn't really gentle.
They were both silent for a moment. Blossom took a deep breath. "Why are you helping me?" she asked.
Brick stopped. After a moment, he continued to bandage her legs. "Because I was made to kill you."
Blossom was taken aback by the answer. Not only had she been scared by what he said, but she was also confused. "Um, beg your pardon?"
"Anyone who's going to kill you should be the one who hurt you, and I haven't hurt you. Someone else did, and I don't like that. So unless you're healed, I'm gonna make sure you're alright."
The message was half reassuring, and half terrifying. Blossom wanted to hear more; she had to know if this was going to get good or bad for her. "So. . . you're gonna kill me, or spare me?"
"Both."
"Oh, c'mon, you're confusing me," Blossom laughed out nervously. "It's either one way or the o-"
Brick flew forward and grabbed her by the collar before she could finish. He drew back a fist, as if he was going to punch. Blossom shook her head frantically. "Don't, don't-" she gasped with pain.
"I'm gonna do both," he said, careful to leave out his sympathy for Blossom and disbelief of his own actions from his voice. He hadn't really meant to go ahead and do that; it was instinct. He was just used to doing that to his "dads" every time they dropped into their "home" to say something stupid. He also hadn't meant to scare Blossom again; he didn't know why. But for some reason, he just didn't want to.
"I'm gonna do both," he repeated. "I'm gonna beat you up when you're alive and well. But because you're hurt, I'm gonna protect ya, until you don't have a single scar on ya.
"And when the time comes," he said, drawing Blossom closer to him, "then I'll kill you."
Both children failed to hear the lie riding freely on the boy's words.
Whoa. OK, be honest! Who didn't see the content in this chapter coming? Because I can tell you now, I didn't.
This is the part where you go O_O.
At first, I intended this chapter to be a little more softer, but I thought the stuff in here was far too bland and cliché. So I decided to make this a little more exciting. After a major revision, the outcome ended up being this. Needless to say, it's all about Brick wanting to kill Blossom, but can't for some reason (excuses, excuses, bleargh).
I'm not happy about the chapter, having all the grim content, but I'm mighty proud of myself to be able to write like this. I mean, it's only been three days since I last updated, so it's gotta be a record for me.
See ya all next time.