"Alright, this is getting ridiculous. I need an antipsychotic." Maddy backed away from the person she knew wasn't real, but she looked so real. Did she know any people that weren't psychotic? She was pretty sure she didn't. The panic was starting to set in. "You're not real."
The brunette smiled warmly at her. "Of course I am." A hurt look crossed her features. "How could you say that? I'm your best friend."
"You're dead!" She screamed at the vision.
Brittany sent the blonde another hurt look. "And yet, here we are."
Maddy took a deep breath and closed her eyes, hoping she could handle this better once she calmed down. Finally, when her heart stopped racing, she opened her eyes. "You're not real." She turned and walked out of the kitchen, willing herself to stay calm. This was just a figment of her imagination after al,l and what kind of grown woman was scared of her imagination?
Her. She was terrified of her imagination. It'd always had a habit of getting away from her. It'd only gotten worse after the doctor visits had started.
Her phone stopped, unlocking her phone so she could see the notification. "Who is it?" The fake Brittany asked. Maddy waved her off. "Let me look." It was from Lovino.
The bastard tried it again.
She sighed. But you got the mafia to trail her, right?
It was a few minutes before he texted back. Of course, Ragazza.
She sighed again and placed her phone back in her pocket. She didn't really like the idea of the mafia following her daughter around, but if Lovi thought they could protect Bell then that was what was going to happen. Bell had been around them for about a week now anyway, hopefully she was doing okay. From what Lovino said, none of them had tried anything and had scared off Bell's attacker many times in the past week. Hopefully, he'd finally stop trying to see her.
It's been a month since he attacked her. You'd think he'd have given up by now.
There was a knock on the door and Maddy jumped, her eyes narrowing at it. She was pretty sure she wasn't expecting anyone today. Although, her latest visitors hadn't exactly been planned either. She opened the door and relaxed, slightly. "James."
He smiled at her, not condescendingly for once. "Hey beauty."
She rolled her eyes, she'd given up on trying to stop him from using the nickname. It wasn't that she was starting to believe that she was attractive like he thought, because she wasn't, she just didn't care enough anymore to get him to stop. Maybe that was why he thought she was warming up to him.
He moved inside when she left the door frame and kept her back to him, hugging her elbows to her body. She couldn't handle this right now. She still had the fake Brittany trailing her, only this one wasn't acting like her dead best friend. This one was acting like how a dark or evil version of Brittany would and it scared her. "He's attractive." Brittany commented.
"No he's not." Maddy snapped at the vision, knitting her fingers together. She jumped as James laid a hand on her shoulder. He had a concerned expression on his face, but that didn't mean anything. "Are you okay?" She looked away from him and stared at a spot on the wall. Maybe if she ignored the vision, it'd go away. "You're not getting rid of me that easily." The illusion chuckled, her eyes shining with mirth.
James continued to watch the blonde uncertainly, wishing once again that his concern was feigned. Watching her suffer through her hallucinations was torture, but he didn't know what to do. Her suspicion of him just made it all worse. He wished that he was as bad as she thought he was, that he didn't really care about her and was just trying to hurt her, but that wasn't it at all. She shuddered and looked up at him, before smiling sheepishly. "Sorry."
"What did you see?"
"It wasn't so much of a 'what' as it was a 'who.'"
He suddenly had a very bad feeling about it. "Brittany."
She nodded and rubbed a hand up her arm. "I'm fine now."
"Are you sure?" His heart sped up again. "Are you sure you can handle meeting everyone today?"
Her eyes widened just slightly. "That's right! That's today."
He tightened his grip on her shoulder. "Are you sure you're up for it?"
She sent him a look that was a mix of annoyance and amusement. "I'll be fine. Besides, you're family's been planning for this for how long? Three weeks?"
He sent her another apprehensive look. She rolled her eyes. "James, while I appreciate the concern, I'll be fine. Just let me go get dressed and then we can leave." She worked herself out of his hold and went upstairs. He sighed and sat on the couch, burying his head in his hands. "Why are you so stubborn?"
She came down a few minutes later to James holding something behind his back. Her old paranoia reared up again and she stopped at the foot of the stairs, her heart thudding against her ribs. "What are you doing?"
He smiled at her, a small tentative smile. "I got you something."
She seemed to deflate before his eyes. "Really?" She didn't seem nearly as excited as most people usually were when someone else said they had gotten them something. She was sending him a half smile now that looked like it would fall any moment. Suddenly, he felt like this had been a very bad idea. "Mhm." Then with a flourish that was slightly less grand than it normally would have been, he revealed a small ball of fuzz. "Voila."
Realizing he didn't pose a threat, she came over and gingerly took the fluffy thing from him. It meowed at her and she smiled slightly. "It's cute." She held it up in front of her, looking it in the eye. The maine coon kitten meowed again and licked her nose. She chuckled. "Thank you, James. He's adorable." She cradled the kitten against her stomach, leaning down to head boop it as it meowed again. After laughing and cooing at the kitten for a few more minutes, she set him on the couch and they left.
They were driving before James decided to break the silence. "I'm sorry."
She looked away from the window and sent him a confused look. "Hm? For what?"
"For making you uncomfortable. With the cat, I mean."
"No, it's fine." She replied, looking at her lap. "It just makes me uncomfortable when people spend money on me."
"That explains lunch a couple weeks ago." He teased, quickly glancing over at her before looking back to the road. He heard her scoff and saw her cross her arms out of the corner of his eye. As they got closer to the house, his discomfort rose. "About Oliver's cupcakes-"
"Don't eat them unless I've helped him make them because they could be poisonous or have human flesh in them."
"Luciano uses human flesh. Oliver just poisons the cupcakes."
"Good to know I won't be considered a cannibal when I'm poisoned." She replied sarcastically.
"And Allen-"
"Allen is a vegan. Don't mention Alfred to him because he has a problem with him and calls him Porkchop."
"Right. Now Francois-"
"He'll probably silently glare at me, but I shouldn't take it personally because that's just how he is and he does it to everyone. Yes, James, I know! You've been grilling this stuff into me since you told me your family wanted to officially meet me."
He settled back into his seat, glad that she remembered it, despite her annoyance that he kept going over it. They had gotten to the house and he had parked when she spoke again. "Also, don't swear around Oliver because he doesn't like it."
He chuckled. "Yes. If he hears you swear, he'll make you put money in the swear jar." He'd lost a lot of money to that jar. "Let's go." Let's get this over with. He led her up to the front door and went in, gently rapping on it to announce their presence. "We're home."
"Hey bro! You finally brought the love of your life home!" Allen walked out of the living room, his baseball bat propped up on his shoulder. "Hey Doll." Maddy stepped away from him, her eyes glued to the barbed wire wrapped bat. He tilted his head curiously at her, then following her gaze and snickered. "Don't worry Doll, I won't be using this on you."
"Allen, stop scaring the poor poppet!" Oliver stepped past Allen and smiled at the two blonds in the entryway. He held a cupcake out to the female of the two and smiled sweetly at her. "Would you like a cupcake?" Trying hard not to visibly shake, she smiled and shook her head. "Ah- n-no thank you. I just-" She cleared her throat. "I'm not hungry."
Oliver's face fell before he sent James an accusing look. "What have you been telling her? Honestly," he looked to Maddy again, before grabbing her arm and dragging her deeper into the house. "You poison one batch of cupcakes and everyone assumes you've poisoned them all! No worries poppet, I wouldn't poison a pretty thing like you!"
She smiled at him nervously as she was forced into a chair. "I-I'm sure you wouldn't." Hands shaking, she took the cupcake from him. She jumped as a hand fell to her shoulder. What was it with people and touching her unexpectedly today?
"Y'know Doll, you're not at all like James said." Allen said, grinning smugly, as if he'd won something.
She looked up at him, hugging her arms to her abdomen. "Really?" He had a tooth missing, she noticed. It made him look like a wannabe gang member.
"He told us you were sassy and shi-"
"Allen, language!" Oliver snapped. Allen sighed and rolled his eyes before looking down at her again. "You're nothing but a timid little flower."
Normally, a sassy remark would've sprung to her mind and out of her mouth, but she didn't know Allen. She wasn't sure what would offend him and what he would find funny. She simply looked at her lap and shied away from his touch. So what if he thought she was a timid, delicate thing? It didn't matter.
James pushed his brother away from her. "Al, you're scaring her." He stooped down and gave her a concerned look. "Are you okay?" He seemed to be doing that a lot lately. She nodded and reached out toward the cupcake Oliver had given her. Despite her anxiety and everything she'd heard about these people, something made her think he was telling the truth about not poisoning her. James grabbed her wrist and sent her a dirty look, but she shook him off and grabbed the pastry. She took a hesitant bite, thoughts of convulsing horribly on the ground due to poison flashing through her head. She blinked and stared at the cupcake in surprise.
"What do you think poppet?" Oliver asked, a curious yet almost dangerous gleam in his eye.
James looked like he was ready to perform the heimlich on her just to get the small bite out of her system. "It's really good." She replied slowly, her eyes still on the pastry. The experience reminded her of how everyone made a big deal out of eating and surviving Arthur's cooking. Oliver smiled at her warmly. "Thank you!" Suddenly, his eyes widened and he left the kitchen in a pink blur. "Francois, come downstairs and meet the poppet!" He came into the kitchen and was relieved to see that the blonde had eaten more of the cupcake, though she now a strange look on her face.
"What flavor is this?" she asked quietly. It tasted a lot like pumpkin, but something was off. She had a theory, but she was really hoping she was wrong. "It tastes like pumpkin, but not normal pumpkin."
Oliver clapped a little, as if he were excited that she was interested in the flavor. "It's pumpkin spice!"
Her already strained smile fell away completely. She didn't say anything, she just set the cupcake down, stood up and walked out of the kitchen. She scaled the stairs two at a time and sat in the first corner she came to when she got to the second floor. Curling into a ball, she groaned into her knees, trying to express all her frustration with pumpkin spice without seeming like a psycho. After a while, however, she got the uncomfortable feeling that she was being watched and looked up. Staring at her with a stoic expression was the man she assumed was Francois, considering he looked like Francis and was the only person she hadn't met yet. She smiled weakly at him. "Bonjour Francois. Commen t-allez vous?"
He didn't respond, just continued to watch her and she felt chills crawl up her spine. That's right, he doesn't talk much. Alright, new plan. She smiled again, mentally adding another tally to her list of times she'd forced a smile today. "Hello. I'm Maddy. James wanted me to meet all of you and ah-" Her smile faltered and she looked down. "I'm kind of hiding up here. Oliver gave me a cupcake and the flavor-" She stopped. He probably didn't care that she didn't like a certain flavor or why she was on the stairs. Honestly, he was probably waiting for her to move so he could go downstairs. "Nevermind." She mumbled, resting her forehead against her knees again and curling into a tighter ball. Instead of going past her, like she thought he would, he sat down next to her, still staying silent. She decided not to react, suddenly not caring.
"I don't really like Oliver's cupcakes either."
Her head jerked up and she stared at him in shock. He, however, ignored her and continued. "What flavor was it?"
She looked away before mumbling, "Pumpkin spice."
He nodded and took another drag on the cigarette she'd just noticed he was smoking. They stayed like that for a while, just sitting in silence before he stood, helped her up and went downstairs. The rest of the day passed in a blur, but at least she didn't get poisoned.
pinkittwice54: No, not by your bidding at all.
silverfang493: Noo! I promise I'll be nicer!