Psychic Schoolkids - pt12

Three Months Earlier

"I don't care what kind of intentions you have, you do not mess with my head." I said, outraged.

"How else am I supposed to get your friends to like me? You're all so closed off! The only reason you even want me around is because it makes you feel like less of a freak." Dane spat back, and reached out to touch me again. I took a step back.

"Don't touch me! I know what that means. You have poked around inside my friends heads enough...I can tell when you're doing it to me! I spend my entire life separating what I'm feeling from how other people are feeling, I can do it with you as well."

"So what? You just want me to go back to being a loner? You show me I can do things and then you tell me not to use them when I can help myself?" Dane sat down.

We were in Chloe's kitchen. She had gone upstairs to spare Dane her involvement in the argument that was taking place. I would have tried to sit down myself, but I was too involved in my own indignant rage to care about trying to relax.

"These people can be your friends, but the best way to make friends is not to try and bend them to your will. That is not going to help you, and that is definitely not going to make us respect you for it."

"I can make you respect me for it..." Dane grumbled.

"No you can not!" I could feel my own anger building up and mixing with all the emotion Dane was feeling. It was giving me a terrible high but also a feeling that I could lash out at Dane. I tried to calm myself. "We are not your toys, and if you want to people to respect it you can do it by being helpful, not by just messing with us."

Dane just hung his head. I think by now I had communicated how angry I was.

"Now you will fix everything you have done to people like Kara and Lisa, you will make an effort to be nice to them and win their friendship the old fashioned way, and if you even so much as try something like this again....well I will think of something suitably threatening at the time."

I stormed out of the room. I wasn't sure how much notice Dane would take of my rant. I did actually like him on some level, even if he was weird, but at the same time I knew that was how I felt, not just how he was making me feel. The idea of him stopping people hating him or encouraging them to like him was....disturbing in a way. Not something I was comfortable with.

I walked into Chloe's room to find her on the bed with Nathan. Normally, this would lead to be awkwardly walking back out of the room, but they were both just as angry as I was feeling. Anger is not the most pleasant emotion at the best of times, so being in a house full of anger is not my idea of a picnic.

"It's done Chloe." Nathan said. "I think it's best we both just...move on and deal with trying to have some sort of friendship."

"You can't break up with me!" Chloe shouted. Jumping to her feet to face Nathan.

"Why? Because you didn't see it coming? Do you have any idea how frustrating it is to date you? You yell at me before I do things, or have entire arguments with me where I don't even get to say anything! I can't deal with it! Mel is nice...and normal..."

"You want normal! I'll give you a girl who reacts to her boyfriend cheating normally!" Chloe grabbed her pillow and threw it at him. Nathan braced himself. "I will throw a girly tantrum" She grabbed a soft toy Nathan had bought her and threw it out her window. "I will break things" She threw a photo of them on the ground. "And in general, I will be a bitch. Now get the fuck of out my house and I never want to see you again...."

Nathan turned to leave and saw me, and the look on my face.

"She's all yours to have now dude." He said to me as he walked out. I almost chased him down and punched him in the face. Instead I went to Chloe.

"Why?" Was all she said to me. I didn't even bother with responses, I just hugged her. "It's all falling apart. Nathan has left me, Dane is messing with our heads, Chris is going to try to kill us... I don't know if I can deal with this anymore Jacob...I keep seeing things coming but all these other things sneak up on me and I'm not ready for them."

"It's okay...we can get through it all. One thing at a time." I tried to sound reassuring. I wasn't confident in what I was saying though.

Despite the fact that Chloe and I could do some cool things, at the end of the day, we were normal people if it comes down to a fight. I couldn't follow my threat through with Dane, because frankly, I had no way of stopping him. What was I going to do? Read his emotions to death?

"How? Even if Dane listens to you, and Nathan realises he's a tool for getting with Mel, how will that help us? You haven't seen what Chris becomes....he's...a monster. He will be able to do things that we can't and you know that we can't stop him."

"We will find a way. We're far too cool for the world to let us die. Okay?"

"Anybody home?" Came a call from downstairs. It was Lisa's voice.

The downside to Chloe's house being empty most of the time, was that it was a place for everyone to go when they had nothing better to do. Lisa had decided she had nothing better to do, and it was a safe bet to guess that Chris and Kara were with her.

"Should we just make ourselves at home on the couch and wait for you guys to get dressed?" Chris called from downstairs.

"Nathan isn't here." I yelled out in reply.

"And your point is?" Kara replied. She clearly knew all to well my feelings for Chloe.

I stood up to go downstairs to greet them and saw Dane, standing in the doorway. People really need to check the door before they have arguments. I also saw the look in Dane's eyes - he had heard everything, and was all of a sudden very determined.

"Oh god...he's headed for Chris." Chloe said from the floor. She had noticed him too.

"Shit..." I said, and ran from the room.

Dane might have been little, but he could run, before I even got to the door, I heard screams from downstairs. I wasn't even sure whose they were. It might have been everyone's. My head exploded as I made it down the stairs to the lounge room.

Dane sat on the floor at one end of the room, looking exhausted. Chris sat at the other...his eyes closed. Kara and Lisa just watched in horror. Then Kara jumped forward with a kick to Chris' stomach.

"What did you do?!"

"I...stopped him.." Dane said.

"Stopped him from doing what? Relaxing on the couch?" Lisa had stood up and focused her attention on Dane too.

"Chloe said...he was going to turn into a monster...be able to do bad things...I stopped him."

"I don't care what Chloe said you undo whatever you did. You're the only monster right now. Chloe told us what you did...messing with our heads."

"Dane...what did you do?" I said, walked over to the scene.

"I...found all the doors in his head. Everything that had something locked away behind it. I opened them all."

"You did what?!" Kara screamed.

"Oh god.." Lisa sat down in horror.

"Okay. Dane...not cool. Fix it. Now." I said.

"I can't. I don't think I can even move right now." Dane panted.

"Good." Kara kicked him in his stomach.

From across the room, Chris groaned. I didn't even need to look at him to tell that his head was an absolute mess. Even standing near him hurt in all kinds of new ways, I wasn't going to be able to do anything to help him.

"Okay Lisa...can you try to heal him?" I said, thinking as fast as I could.

"Umm...his problem is mental, not physical. I have never even tried mental healing before." Lisa protested.

"Jacob, this could go bad.." Kara joined in the disagreement.

"We don't have any other option. I can feel what's happening to me. We need to do something and we need to do it now or there isn't going to be a Chris left to help. So stop arguing and we can make this not be the end of the world..."

"I don't like this..." Lisa said.

"He's right." Kara said. "Lisa...I'm sorry. But I need you to do what you can. I love him. I can't have him be broken..."

"Okay..." Lisa took a deep breath and moved towards Chris.