Stolen Time

Losing battle

He shifted on the bed to be able to look at the man.

"How did I get here?"

His voice was hoarse, and he could taste the stale blood in his mouth. Just wonderful. His mind was also still fuzzy from all the hits his head had taken in not just this day but the past week or so. Maybe he should be worried about getting some kind of permanent brain damage at this point.

"I don't know," Doc answered simply, sipping on his coffee with tired eyes. John only now noticed that it was already dark outside. He made Doc work overtime. Again.

'Just great,' he groaned. 'Another day completely fucked.'

He turned his attention back to Doc. "What do you mean you don't know?"

"I wasn't here when you came in."

"You seem to be away from this place an awfully lot these days. Are you avoiding me or something?"

He chuckled dryly. In his mind, it was very reasonable to think that even the grumpy Doc had enough of him and wanted to get rid of the annoying nuisance somehow. He certainly made his job harder, especially now.

"I was at the headmaster's office," he replied.

John didn't ask further. It wasn't his business.

"John," Doc's weary eyes looked at him as he frowned. "I'm worried about you. This cannot go on any longer."

He scoffed, angry that somehow even this was his fault. "I'm not here on purpose, Doc! I didn't even come here on my own this time!"

Doc pinched the bridge of his nose, massaging it in irritation. "I didn't say it was your fault, but you're sustaining serious damage day after day and at some point my cure will eventually stop working on you or they will break something even the people at the hospital wouldn't be able to fix."

"I'm already beyond fixing anyway," he shouted back angrily.

"John!" Doc raised his voice as well.

Not caring about the pain he shot up from the bed. "Why should I be the one to do something about this, huh? I already know the world is fucked up but shouldn't there be a line at least in the school?!"

Doc groaned. "It's not that easy to change the students' mentality. What do you want us to do?"

"I don't know, maybe not let articles that directly tell students to beat me up at every opportunity they have get released schoolwide?!"

He scratched his head in a rough, angry manner. "I tried to talk to Vaughn about it, but he said we can't possibly monitor every student activity."

John growled. "That's bullshit and you know it!"

"We took down the article. I personally went around and tore every single one I found to shreds and Vaughn informed the school press not to release anything that can incite others against a student, but new postings still keep appearing on the news board!"

There was a certain kind of desperation in Doc's voice that told John he indeed wasn't lying and did everything in his power to stop this at least from getting worse.

Sadly, he seemed to be the only one that cared.

John sank back on the bed as silence fell on them as neither knew what else to say. After minutes Doc finally spoke.

"John, why are you doing this?"

"What?"

"Why do you refuse to use your ability?"

John grumbled and turned away not even wanting to entertain the conversation any longer.

"I'm serious! If you just showed them what you are capable of-"