The door burst open with a kick and John stomped in a few steps with Zeke swaggering in behind him.
Seraphina glanced up from her game of cards. Fuck! Did Zeke convince him to do this?
John's eyes met hers as she glared up and he frowned. Did he recognise this game? He was the one that me it.
"HURRY, EVERYONE, GET OUTTA HERE!" one of the member's shouted and everyone that could fled for the other door.
John stared after them – his eyes empty – and paused before he shouted, "DON'T FUCKING MOVE! ONE MORE STEP AND I'LL MAKE SURE YOU CAN'T WALK FOR A WEEK!"
And then they all stopped: terrified and shaking in fear.
"Hoo hoo, wait a second!" Zeke said, taking his step forward. "Isn't this place supposed to have a designated supervisor at all times? Where are they, huh?"
"It's Blyke." A guy near the middle front spoke up. He had short curly, indigo hair and had a plaster over his nose. "He'll be back soon, so don't get comfortable!"
Zeke smirked and leant forward over the student. "Oh really? You sure he didn't just run off because he doesn't care about you?"
"N-no, he wouldn't! What's your problem Zeke?! W-why can't you just leave us alone?"
"He's right!" the girl, who stood next to him, said. She had long pale red hair and double hooped earrings on the lobe of her ear. "If you're just here to be an ass, then leave! We don't want you here!"
"Y-yeah!" the group called out together – their mismatched voices rising up together in hesitating. "GET OUT OF HERE! YOU'RE NOT WELCOME! JUST LEAVE US ALONE!"
Seraphina's eyes glanced to John as he pupils in his eyes shrunk and enlarged.
"Just look at this nonsense!" Zeke continued. "A 'Safe House' that's supposed to be open to everyone, but not us? Pft, your favouritism is showing."
His eyes fell on one blonde haired kid at the front of the crowd. "Well, what do we have here?" He grabbed his collar and lifted him up off the ground. "You're the same kid from yesterday! What was it that you told us again? Something about not being part of the Safe House and having no intention to join it? So, what do you have to say for yourself? Because, clearly that was a lie."
How does he know how to push the right buttons with him?
He dropped the boy in front of John for him to cower. "P-please don't hurt me. I'll quit the Safe House for good! Please, I-I meant no harm! I wasn't trying to offend you!"
"Shut up. YOU FUCKING LIAR!" he shouted. He kicked him to the ground in the face with blood splattering everywhere.
"JOHN!" Seraphina yelled, standing up to her feet. "THAT'S ENOUGH!"
She paced up to him and past to kneel down by the boy. The blood pooled up by his ear.
Zeke stepper over. "What do you think you're doing, Seraphina?" HE place his foot on the student's hip.
"Move. Your. Foot."
"Seraphina, who the hell do you think you are?" John questioned into her ear. He placed both arms around his waist. Oh, you so won't cool with this two days ago.
"John, let go," she whispered back through her teeth. She grabbed both his hands.
"You don't get to give orders, especially not to my people."
"John, I'm going to take him to the infirmary. He needs to go."
"He deserves it," he replied.
"And what? You did?" John growled in her ear in response and began to pull her up to her feet.
She glanced ahead of her to see that over half the students had taken the opportunity to leave. At least someone's benefitting from this.
"I put out a fucking order! Whoever joins this place becomes my enemy! Now I'm enforcing it!"
"Then what about me, John? Does that make me your enemy too?" When you're currently hugging me?
"Psh! You know what you did. You betrayed me when you went behind my back – long before the Safe House!"
Then why are you still holding me? "Get your story straight. Who betrayed who?"
"You betrayed me."
"I see." Why are you still hugging me then? "If you have a grudge against me, then fine. Then why are you still holding me?"
There was a pause in the air before his grip loosened and she broke free. She turned around to face him.
"You don't have to hold that grudge against everyone else here."
"Everyone here is a fucking liar, an abuser and a coward," he replied. What was he on?
"John, look at these people." She gestured to the thinning crowd, although everyone stood frozen now. "How many of them have you actually met? How many of them have you see before-?"
"I've seen enough to know how shitty all of you are!? You're just a bunch of cowards, hiding away in a room blindly following a bunch of Royal frauds."
"I understand you're still angry with them, but in the last month, they've done a lot to help us out-."
"SHUT UP SERAPHINA! Of course you'd defend them! You're just as bad as they are! Like that idiotic red-head who threatened to blow my brains out. And that rat who broke my wrist and exposed me identity! And that bitch who ignored everything around her! and don't forget Arlo! Deceived me, dragged me out into a field and ambushed me!"
Why not start off with that? That's obviously your main problem. Or at least it should be.
"Yes John, I'm aware. But have you thought about what you've done to them in return? You've publicly humiliated them; put them in critical condition, hospitalising them and stripped them of their titles. Don't you think that's enough payback? Isn't it time you let it go? Focus on to other things-?"
"NOTHING WILL MAKE UP FOR WHAT THEY'VE DONE! They don't care about other people! They're only doing this because they're lost! Now they want to act all righteous, so that they can undermine me!"
"John. They've all reached out and tried to work with you. You were the one who dismissed the-."
"Because they were afraid of how powerful I am! They're a bunch of fakes!"
"It really doesn't matter what I say, huh? Everyone is a fake to you-."
"IF THEY REALLY CARED, THEN WHERE WAS THIS PLACE SOONER?? WHERE THE FUCK WAS THE SAFE HOUSE WHEN I WAS A CRIPPLE-?!"
She clenched her jaw. Cripple? Seriously?
"THE SAFE HOUSE IS HERE NOW!" she yelled. "The Royals have made their mistakes and learned! What more do you want? You want them to turn back time? Start it up earlier so you can continue to play pretend? And keep running from all your issues?"
"THE FUCK DID YOU SAY?!" He yanked at her collar until her toes barely touched the ground. "YOU BETTER WATCH YOUR FUCKING MOUTH!"
She grabbed his wrist. "John, you're not the victim anymore! How about you start facing your problems instead of vilifying all the people around you-!!"
He ground his teeth together. "SHUT THE FUCK UP!! YOU DON'T KNOW ANYTHING!" he pulled back his fist. "DON'T PIN EVERYTHING ONTO ME, YOU FUCKING HYPOCRITE! YOU'RE THE PROBLEM ALL OF YOU ARE!!"
John froze mid-action. His eyes shone with fear and his clenched fist untightened.
The door swung open.
"YOU ASSHOLE!" Blyke's beam blasted over a wide area and sent him crashing out the window. "GET THE FUCK OUT!"
Remi sat on her bed in her light beige shorts and a mid-blue t-shirts with a white rim on the edges. Blyke walked in from the doorway and took her prompt to sit next to her.
"Look, I didn't take those drugs. I know they're said to be horribly addictive." He looked down at his hands in his laps.
"I wasn't going to ask about that."
She reached over to his hand before she drew back and placed her hand back on her thigh without him noticing.
"I just wanted to get that out in the open."
"I didn't think you had – it would have been obvious if you had," she said.
"Well, we didn't know how it would affect his ability," he replied. "I realised I didn't want to fight him if he could still magnify it afterwards. Or have him rat me out as he could see it."
She nodded, humming along. "Yes."
"I don't have it anymore, either. It must have fallen out of my pocket and smashed during the fight. Hopefully it smashed."
"Shouldn't you check that it was?" she questioned. "You wouldn't want it to end up in the hands of someone like Zeke – someone who doesn't understand what it is and could misuse it and get addicted."
"Yes, yes. I know. I was unconscious by the time I left there. I couldn't exactly check when I had to be carried away by the head of security!" he replied. He fiddled with his fingers in his lap. "The headmaster has already spoken to me about it."
"And..." She hesitated. She bit her lip as her hand hovered to reach out before she pulled back. "You are staying here?"
"Yes." Blyke glanced away from her as blood rushed to his fae. "He wanted to suspend me, but I convinced him to allow me to stay for awhile. Until the entire Joker thing is over, I guess. I wanted to stay and help with the Safe House."
Remi nodded with a gulp. That could have been her if they continued and they would have less to stand on then. It was before the entire Joker issue – so they had no foot to stand on.
"DO you understand Miss Smith's homework?" Blyke asked. Remi smiled as she forgot all about what she initially planned to ask.
Serpahina sat at her desk with a page of completed notes and the new page in front of her with the first few lines filled out.
She flipped over the page of the textbook to the next one in front of her only for there to be a yellow slip inside.
"Hm?"
Picking it up, she opened it only to find the note written inside.
'Friday. 5:00pm
730 Castine St.
In Lovun.
Let's make a deal.'
Sera bit her lip. Who wrote this?
A/N: I might be writing another one-shot at one point that may become a full story. I've kind of got an idea I'm toying with that I'm not sure I have full time to write. It's inspired by some stories I've been reading recently, specifically 'The Hawthorne Legacy' and 'The Journal of Andromeda Sylvester' (uno fanfic on ao3) and one shots, as well as some other stories. When Jane goes missing and her father finds out, he offers a place to stay for William and John, particularly expecting John to develop his mother's ability (as it's canon children are more likely to inherit their mother's powers). Also, Jane's basically was his favourite child, though not his heir.
Thank you for reading this chapter. Please share your thoughts in the comments (I do read them all).