Chapter 21: The Fight

Oct. 1st, 2015

“Mr. Johnston?!” Cadi said in surprise.

“What are you doing here West?” Harry demanded.

“Don’t worry-I came alone.” the man told him, holding his hands up in defense.

“Then what was that gunshot?”

“Oh that was me.” Emille piped up. “Warning shot.”

Harry still held on tightly to the two siblings, keeping his guard up. Emille sighed at the obvious tension in the air.

“Harry, why don’t you two go outside and… talk for a bit. I’ll take care of these two.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yeah. Put them in their room and I’ll be with them in a minute.”

Harry nodded, and then dragged Rick and Cadi to their little room.

Click.

Rick was starting to hate the sound of that door locking.

“Wha-what are they saying? What are they saying?” Cadi asked, immediately turning towards the door. Rick put his ear to the door, only to hear jumbled mumblings.

“Ugh! I can’t hear what they’re saying!” he muttered.

“Do you think they’re mad at us?” the eight year old asked fearfully. Rick glanced at her.

“Yes.”

“What do you think they’re going to do to us?”

“Well, hopefully nothing-since Mr. Johnston is here.”

Nevertheless, Cadi still gulped.

Rick put his ear to the door again, trying to hear something that could be useful.

Click.

Quickly, he jumped back as Emille slid through the door.

“Hello children.” she said through her teeth. Rick frowned. He wasn’t a child. He was a teenager. Not that she would care.

“I think we need to talk a little about discipline…”

Rick balled his hands into fists, feeling scared but also angry.

“We’re sorry!” Cadi cried. “We promise we won’t do it again! We’re sorry we’re sorry we’re sorry!”

Emille did not soften towards them.

“You know I have to punish you now.” she told them, bringing out a remote and a freckled banana. The two siblings stared.

“Wait-you’re not-you can’t-.” Rick started to say. Then, she clicked a button on the remote, and his head started to ache. He and Cadi put their hands to their heads as Emille tried to force them to rewind time on the banana, something she knew was too difficult for the eight year old to do.

“I’m sorry!!” Cadi sobbed.

“Please-it was my idea-don’t bring her into this!” Rick begged, wincing as it felt like spikes were shooting through his temples. Finally, the pain stopped, and the two siblings stood there panting, both with bloody noses.

“This time was just a warning.” she said coldly. Then she turned and left the room, locking the door behind her. Rick stood there in plain disbelief.

“Did she-did she really just-.”

He looked down at Cadi, who was silently crying, the blood still dripping from her nose.

“Aw… come on-let’s get you cleaned up…” he said a bit sadly. Cadi sniffed and the two of them went into the bathroom with no door. There also was no mirror and no shower curtain. They decided to try to rig up one of their bed sheets so they could have more privacy when they needed to use the bathroom. Cadi noticed that a part of her brother’s face looked a little bit bruised from hitting that tree, but she didn’t say anything about it.

Rick got a little bit of toilet paper and wiped the blood away from their noses. Cadi stood there silently, like she was thinking.

“Rick, what’s today’s date?” she asked quietly. Her older brother had to stop to think about it.

“Uh… I’m not sure. Why?”

“Your birthday is coming up.” Rick paused, and then gave her a sad little smile. He wasn’t sure what the date was, but his birthday was on October 12th, which probably was coming up soon. He was going to be eighteen…

“It’s ok. Birthdays aren’t that big of a deal when you get to be my age.” he told her, even though eighteen was kind of a big deal.

“But-you need a cake and presents and stuff.” Cadi said with concern. “Do you think maybe-maybe they’ll let us go by then and then you can have a party and Jessica can come with her cool red glasses and maybe Juno can come too and-.”

“Cadi. It’s not that big of a deal.” Rick said after a deep breath.

The eight year old could tell he was lying.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The next morning, when Harry and Emille came to bring Rick and Cadi into the living room, West Johnston was also standing there. He regarded the two of them with concern, and Rick wondered if his teacher was planning anything to help them escape.

“So as soon as you guys have what you need, you’ll let them go right?” he asked. Harry nodded. Their teacher sighed.

“Ok. Rick, Cadi, I’m going to help them get their machine up and ready so you two can get out of here faster. Does that sound like a plan?”

Machine? What machine? For some reason Rick just thought they were trying to run tests or something. Come to think of it though, a machine did make sense.

He also doubted that Harry and Emille would actually let them go even if their machine was complete.

“Fine.” Rick said quietly, staring down at the floor.

“Ok. Well, I’m going to go out and get some supplies. I’ll probably be back in about an hour.”

With that, he grabbed a coat and walked out the door.

So much for being a help…

“Alright. So with some of the tests, we’ve figured out what our next step should be.” Emille announced. “You both need more time stream in your system, so we need to build on that.” Rick and Cadi exchanged glances. From their understanding, the only way to do that was to practice and use their powers, but knowing Emille, she probably wasn’t going to let them take a slow pace.

“So you’re going to hurt us again?” Cadi asked bitterly. Rick was surprised his sister was getting so bold, but then again, it was Cadi.

“Well, if you stopped acting like such babies, then maybe things would go along faster.” she sneered. Rick put a hand on Cadi’s shoulder, knowing that she hated it when someone called her a baby.

“Don’t listen to her Cadi.” he whispered. “Don’t let her get under your skin.” The eight year old grit her teeth.

“Rick’s birthday is coming up.” she said quietly.

“Why should I care?” the adult responded, looking through some of her papers.

“He needs a cake and presents and stuff.”

Emille simply rolled her eyes.

“Cadi-I told you-it’s no big deal…” Rick cautioned.

“It is too a big deal!!” the eight year old yelled. “You should at least let us call Mommy and Daddy to let them know we’re ok!”

“Oh shut up.”

“You shut up!”

There was moment of tense silence hanging around the room and Emille glared at her.

Cadi suddenly had the urge to say a very bad word that she had heard on accident once, even though she knew she wasn’t supposed to say it. It was the most horrible thing she could think of to call a person, and she knew it was specifically for women, cause her parents had explained it to her.

“Ugh. Little brat.” Emille muttered, starting to turn away from her. Cadi’s little hands clenched into fists, and her face felt red hot as she started to feel the word on the tip of her tongue.

“Well, I know another b-word for what you are.” she said, her voice a bit shaky with anger.

Emille stopped dead in her tracks, which caused Rick and Harry to also halt.

“Excuse me?” Emille asked incredulously. Cadi swallowed.

“You’re a bi-.”

Emille did not let her finish getting the swear word out of her mouth. Instead, she struck the eight year old hard across the face, causing her to fall to the floor in shock. Cadi put a hand to her cheek, not knowing how to react to the sting and the blood that was now trickling out of her mouth. She could feel tears at the corner of her eyes, but for the moment, she was still in too much shock to react any further.

In her daze, she happened to turn to Rick, whose face was also in shock, but now quickly turning to rage.

Then, Rick did something Cadi did not expect.

He swore.

In fact, he said the same swear word she had been trying to say.

She had never heard him swear before.

Rick looked madder than she had ever seen him in his life. Even more mad than when she accidentally stepped on his ipod and broke it.

Rick charged at Emille in fury, his hands clamped into fists. But before he could get to her, Harry intervened, grabbing him. Rick struggled and the two of them soon became engaged in a fist fight. Rick swung his fists at the man struggling against him, all the while yelling and screaming about how Cadi was only eight years old and how they were evil and how he hated them.

“Stop struggling!!” Harry screamed as Rick punched him in the face.

“NO!!” Rick screamed back as Harry bashed the teen into a wall.

They continued to fight for a few more seconds, and then Harry tripped up the teenager, sending him tumbling to the ground. As soon as Rick was on the ground, Harry put him in a choke hold and wrapped a leg around him so he couldn’t really move. Rick winced and continued to squirm.

“I said stop struggling.” Harry growled. Tears of frustration filled Rick’s eyes.

“B******s.” he said hoarsely, a tear rolling down his cheek. “She’s only eight. Leave her alone.”

At this point, Cadi was now crying.

“Ugh. Annoying. Harry dear, lock them in their room.” Emille groaned, plopping down on the couch as if she was exhausted.

Cadi felt goosebumps crawl on her skin as she got a glare from Harry. He had a scratch on his face and a swelling lip, courtesy of her older brother, and he looked far from happy. His look made her want to disappear into a little ball.

With extra measure, he threw Rick to the ground and twisted his arm behind his back, keeping him down with his knee.

“When I get off, you and your sister are going to go to your room without any trouble. If you don’t, then maybe I should slap her next time.” Harry seethed. Then he got off of him. Slowly, Rick picked himself up from off of the floor, wiping some of the blood from off his face, one of his eyes swelling a little.

Silently, the two of them walked begrudgingly to the room they were now associating as their prison, and Cadi jumped a little as she heard Harry lock the door behind them.

Now that they were alone, locked in the room, Cadi looked up to her older brother, who was still standing there not saying anything.

“Rick?”

Rick did not reply. Tears were now fully streaming down his face.

“I’m-I’m sorry Cadi…” he cried, his voice cracking as he slowly walked over to one of the walls.

Cadi stayed where she was and watched as Rick leaned against the wall and slid down to the floor, burying his face in his hands. She had seen him cry before, but never this much. His body was currently racked with sobs, and he was shaking.

Cadi sniffed, unable to really hold back her own tears. She had never been hit by an adult like that before, and she could still feel the sting. Rick looked up for a moment, his eyes red. Then his arms opened up to her.

“Come here…”

Cadi ran to him and threw her arms around him, starting to sob. Rick held her tightly, whispering that he was sorry over and over again.

At some point, she cried herself to sleep in his arms.