Shadow King: Mind Play

[x-firestar.livejournal.com]

John stops by to check in on Nathan and finds him in the midst of seeing things. When Angel stumbles along, it only gets worse.



Nathan was pacing. Back and forth across the narrow room like a caged tiger, ignoring the pain in his back and head. Amelia had tried to convince him to take something; he'd ignored her. Ignored her and everyone else who'd been in here - except Moira, a couple of times. Ignoring them was much safer. You didn't give them a reason to drug you, that way.

Files in hand, John stepped into the room and placed his forearm against the door frame. He arched an eyebrow as he watched Nathan pace back and forth, and back and forth, and back and...

"That's good exercise."

Nathan's head jerked in the direction of the voice, just for a moment; he was getting used to people sneaking up on him, not being able to sense them. "Go away." His voice was gravelly again. He hadn't been using it much the last day or two. At least he knew it was John. No one else would be able to wear John's face quite that well. It was an art. A cracked, very unsettling-sounding laugh escaped him.

John pressed his lips together in a tight smile, dropped the paperwork on the single bed and took a seat on the vacant chair next to it. He was worried about the guy but there was no way he'd showcase his concern. "Oh, my trip to Canada went fine by the way. Pfft." He waved a hand in dismissal. "Thanks for asking."

It was harder and harder to really absorb what people said when they talked to him. Like his mind just wouldn't put the words together. He should probably find that more frightening than aggravating, but there didn't seem to be much beyond anger at this point.

Nathan stole a look sideways at John, his eyes widening slightly at the flames wreathing the younger man, head to toes. "Do something about that," he rasped, leaning back against the wall and watching him warily.

His brows furrowed slightly at the look Nathan was giving him. Do something about what? John had no idea what he meant by that.

"What?" He glanced behind him and then to floor before returning his gaze to Nathan. "What are you looking at?"

"Can't be comfortable." Nathan rubbed hard at his temples, trying to slow his breathing down. The pacing had left him out of breath. "Try a bucket of water." Mystique leaned over John from behind, arms around his shoulders, her smile a taunting flash of white teeth in her blue face. "And she can leave, because I don't like the way she talks. Obsessed with her own cleverness."

"Maybe you should lie down or something," John said as he got up from his seat. "I can get you that--" Bucket. "--glass of water." He walked across the room and reached for the plastic jug on the bureau. "They've got you pretty doped up, huh?"

The buzzing in his head was back. Nathan winced and kept rubbing at his temples, trying to focus. "Doped up," he muttered, echoing the words that had come through clearly. Trying to figure out who 'they' were. "I did something wrong? But it doesn't make sense. The change in tactics."

"There's this... this thing people do when they're in recovery mode." He approached Nathan slowly and offered him the glass of water. "It's called sleeping. You might want to give that a try."

Nathan eyed the burning figure and then reached out and took the glass of water. Not drinking from it, just yet. There were writhing black... things in it. Like dark tentacles, thrashing in uncontrolled fury. He stared into the water, fixated by horror and fighting off a growing unease. The buzzing in the back of his head grew louder, harsher.

The way Nathan was acting was starting to unnerve him. Where the hell was Amelia? Or Jean? Shouldn't they be looking after him? Shouldn't someone be looking after him?

"You alright, man?"

Outside the room, Angel paused mid-step. She wasn't down there for medical reasons but she'd been running back and forth to her dark room, taking short cuts here and there, to get items she needed for a project. But the sound of John's voice had her stopping and turning towards the door. It'd been ages since she'd hung out with him and maybe she could coax him into some chill out time. Turning, she knocked on the door frame and since the door wasn't really closed, stuck her head in there.

"Oh! Oh gosh, I'm sorry Mr. Dayspring, I didn't know you were in here." She frowned and her gaze flicked between John and the teacher. "Um, everything okay in here?"

Nathan dropped the glass and backed away from the door, eying the young redhead. "Be careful," he mumbled.

John held a hand up, letting Angel know that she'd better stay where she was as he pushed the broken glass away with his shoe.

"Look, Nathan, why don't we just get you back to bed, alright? You're starting to freak m--" He glanced over at Angel. "Angel out." U-huh.

Angel's eyes grew really, really wide and she froze. She'd been worried before but now with Mr. Dayspring backing up and John saying things like freaking out (he was freaked out! Which meant she probably should be, too!), she was getting more and more concerned. "Should I, uh, go get one of the doctors?" she asked, keeping a leery eye on Nathan.

She was twitching slightly in her attempt to hold completely still.

Nathan stared flatly at her as she came into focus. "Why are you dressed like that?" His voice was sharp, clear for the first time in days. "You, of all people. What did they promise you?"

"Maybe you should," John said, taking a step toward Nathan. He certainly didn't think that this was something they could handle on their own. "Try the intercom."

Angel frowned - she was wearing a "Kiss the Photographer!" shirt with green and white lettering. She had no idea what Mr. Dayspring was going on about. "Intercom, gotcha," she responded, sidling slowly sideways. It was behind John but that was okay. Hiding behind John was starting to sound better and better because her teacher? Sounded nuts. After the whole lock down thing, she was more than willing to not do anything stupid.

"Do you think that's an option?" Nathan was focused totally on Angel, with a level of intensity that would have been frightening under any circumstances, and was even more so in this situation. "Because they lie, and they use, and it did not end well the last time, you little idiot!"

"I...just...what?" She froze, staring at him over John's shoulders. The tone and the words brought an involuntary sheen of tears to her eyes and she crowded even closer to the older pyrokinetic's back. Instinct was telling her to run but considering all the weirdness, she was better off not going anywhere without John. "I don't know what he's talking about!"

John glanced over his shoulder at her. "Don't listen to him, alright? He's not himself right now. He's sick. He's not well. Just... just get a hold of someone." He wasn't about to leave the room until he was sure that Nathan would be taken care of. He was pretty sure that Nathan wouldn't hurt them and John wasn't afraid of the man's temper.

Nathan's expression grew positively baleful as he focused on John. "No," he snapped, gray eyes cold and strangely empty. "You don't get to stand in here and taunt me."

"That's... pretty much the last thing I would do." John turned around and hit the button for the intercom. "Don't listen to a thing he says," he told Angel. "Try to get Amelia on the line or better yet, get a hold of Moira."

Angel scampered two feet to her left and smacked the intercom. "No worries, Mr. D., we'll get your wife down here faster than you can say "please and thank you"." She glanced over her shoulder at him, frowning in worry. The mansion was having it's fill of crazy, that was for sure.

Nathan was shaking his head as she spoke, almost doggedly, but the cold look had been replaced by one of wrenching despair. "You don't listen," he said, his voice gravelly and breaking. "I sit here and talk, and none of you ever listen!" Bed, table, chairs, medical monitor - all of the large objects in the room and most of the smaller were levitating all of a sudden, beginning to move.

Angel squeaked, loudly, and an alarm clock floating near by suddenly burst into flame as she became startled.

"John..." Angel said, flattening herself against the wall in an attempt not to make herself seen. Blue fire sizzled slightly as she found herself an inch above the ground -- her own power, though, not his. Mr. Dayspring had gone from being crazy and intimidating to being scary. "Dude, tell him we're listening and he's just not listening to us or something!"

"Do I look like I speak Insane?" The guy was hallucinating. John backed away from the moving objects. He focused his attention on Angel and made a grab for her hand. If she were to accidentally generate flames around him, he would have at least have control over her fire. The last thing he needed was a third degree burn. "We're getting the hell out of here."

"As you should have done immediately!" came an exasperated voice from the door. Amelia came in, hands out palms up, as if to show she wasn't holding anything. "Nathan, put the room down." Nathan staggered and caught himself against the wall, most of the larger objects falling back to where they'd been.

"Oh, look, not your wife but Doctor Voght will do!" Angel said, landing with a slight plop back on the ground. Still clutching John's hand like a life line, she started to edge around the back of the room. With the doctor there, she was willing to bet he wasn't going to start spouting any weird nonsense or make the room start flying again but she really didn't want to stand around to see.

Almost immediately, John led Angel out of the room, not wanting to chance her having to go through this again. Nathan had probably scared the shit out of her and had officially freaked John out. "What's wrong with him?" he asked as he stood next to Amelia. He had never seen anyone react so badly to being drugged before. He wondered if it had something to do with Nathan being a telepath. "He sounded a little possessed. He was... he was hallucinating and he wasn't making any sense." He couldn't quite explain it. It was just weird.

There was a loud crash from behind the door, followed by a moment of more than slightly unnerving silence. A minute or two later, Amelia came out, looking somewhat more disheveled than either pyrokinetic was used to seeing the Russian doctor.

"Clearly, further visitors are not in order," she said, and then vanished in a puff of green smoke.

Angel flinched as she vanished. "Can...can we go outside, please?" she asked quietly, sounding younger than 16 at the moment. "I don't think I want to be down here anymore." It was one thing seeing the teachers come back bruised and hurt -- they were still themselves. But this was made her realize that there were other things that could hurt someone beyond the physical and, maybe, that something could sometimes even be the people under the same roof as her. "Outside is good," she said, more firmly.

Maybe outside she could forget the way Mr. Dayspring looked and acted.