Before beginning this chapter, I would like to preface that this chapter does include mentions of SA and r@pe. It happens near the end of the chapter, so I'll put a line where this starts to be talked about. I'll also put a description of the end of the chapter at the end. Please read this with caution and understanding of your own mental and physical health. Thank you.
Cyrus Anders
Cyrus slurped up the last of ramen noodles and threw out the packaging. His friend, Badger, sat next to him at one of the workstations in his lab without food. Not because he had not been given food, because he had finished it much quicker. He had also guilted Cyrus into giving him some more noodles, but that was beside the point.
After throwing away the empty packaging, Cyrus went to sit back down next to his younger friend. Badger had recently been a huge help around the lab and making sure that everything was done the way that it was supposed to. Which meant the exact opposite of what Tempest actually wanted them to do.
He actually found it quite funny. He had spent years fearing the man that had taken him away from his life, and he still was afraid of him. But now, it was different. He had always done everything in his power to appease Tempest’s rage, so now that he could just see the anger that lit in Tempest’s eyes when another project went wrong, it made him kinda happy to see a horrible man in misery.
The amount of failures as of recent had resulted in him getting a bit of a harder time from his boss. He had a lot more bruises on his body as of recently, and that did concern Magnus and Badger, but they all knew this was necessary for the plan. The rage that their boss had at the lack of success could easily correlate to craziness by Tempest’s other workers. Which backed up Magnus’s rumors about him going off his rocker. Plus, it was honestly comedy gold entertainment for Cyrus.
He looked to his side and realized that Badger was waiting for him to start on something or tell him what to do. As of right then, he wasn’t quite sure what to work on, but he knew that his friend wanted to feel like he was useful. So, he asked him to brainstorm some new ideas for weapons while he laid down for a little while. He saw the boy’s face light up, and it made him happy.
He stood up and stiffly walked over to the couch, where he slept every night and laid down. He knew that trying to achieve sleep was useless right now, but he figured that resting his eyes for a second couldn’t hurt, especially considering the headache that was beginning to crack its way into his skull.
The stress of everything that was happening and being in such close proximity to more people than he had even met in the past couple of years caused his mind to become slightly overactive, and not in a good way. He had begun having headaches more often than usual, and his nightmares became worse than they had ever been before.
Magnus had been given his own bedroom, though he still slept in Cyrus’s lab most nights, and Badger had to sleep in Cyrus’s lab. It wasn’t the worst place ever. He had a small kitchen connected to his workspace, a lavatory, and a couch with a tv where he slept for a long while. Given that the couch was the only place to rest other than the floor, that situation was a bit complicated.
Despite that, it was a, mostly, good experience living with more people. It made him quite happy to be around them, and they had grown close over the little while they had spent together.
Cyrus did pretend he didn’t see the looks of worry from his new roommates as they observed him and the problems he had in his everyday life. Badger had told him that after they were out of here, he would take him to therapy. Cyrus had laughed at that, thinking of it as a joke, but Badger had remained a serious face. Which, if he must admit it, had confused him very much.
He did think that therapy was a very useful tool for some people, but his problems simply didn’t warrant such a tool. That would be like getting a whole new set of silverware because one fork was a bit bent. Just not needed whatsoever. But when it had been brought up with Magnus, his other friend had also agreed. That fact had befuddled him even more so. If anything, Magnus needed guidance.
He breathed a deep breath. His ears perked up a bit at the sound of his companion humming a popular song that he had heard a couple of times on the radio or out of Badger’s phone. He believed it was one of Taylor Swift's songs. The last time he had heard her music was in twenty nineteen when she was doing Reputation. He did have to say that her music had changed a bit since then, but he wasn’t complaining. She still had a nice sound. At least, in his opinion.
Cyrus began to pay closer attention when Badger started to quietly sing the lyrics rather than hum them.
From sprinkler splashes to fireplace ashes,
I gave my blood, sweat, and tears for this,
I hosted parties and starved my body,
Like I’d be saved by a perfect kiss,
Badger’s voice washed over him, and he was grateful that his friend was a good singer. He wasn’t sure what song this was, but it made him a bit sad. He heard his friend pick up another pen and begin tapping it onto the table he was working at, hitting it in the rhythm of the song. He held back a laugh as Badger began to slowly get more and more into the song. Adding sounds as he went.
‘Cause there were pages turned with the bridges burned,
Everything you lose is a step you take,
So,
Make the friendship bracelets,
Take the moment and taste it,
You’ve got no reason to be afraid.
But, in a sudden instant, he stopped. Cyrus heard the pens drop as Badger quickly hid underneath the table, and footsteps were heard walking into the room. The boy sat up as he knew that this was Tempest. If it had been Magnus, or anyone else really, Badger wouldn’ve hid like that.
He snapped his head to the side to see his boss, who had already looked irritated. Tempest gestured to the workstation Badger was hiding under, telling him to go over there. This is going to be fun, he thought. Still, he got up and walked over as his boss told him that there was no reason for him to be lying down with how much work there was to do. But Cyrus did sit next to his boss, making sure Badger was closer to his legs than Tempest’s. He didn’t want to imagine if his boss found him there.
Cyrus slowly began to point out certain ideas and explain them, waiting for Tempest’s approval or decline of everything. Making changes to plans and figuring out what was feasible was not an easy job, and Cyrus saw his boss getting more and more frustrated as the discussion went on.
Eventually, what seemed like the longest conversation of his life came to an end. Not a happy end. They hadn’t been able to find a single thing that they could actually do as of right then. Which made his boss very exasperated, but it was clear that he wasn’t planning to take it out on Cyrus.
So, maybe he should have left it at that. But he couldn’t help the itch to answer the question he had asked himself for days.
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“Why did you tell Magnus I’m not a virgin?” He regretted it the second it came out of his mouth.
Tempest looked at him oddly for a second, then started laughing. “You really don’t remember? Well, I guess you were passed out for most of it, but still.” He said through loud chuckles. Cyrus didn’t have a clue what he was talking about, but he was becoming increasingly worried. At the sight of Cyrus’s expression, which only made him laugh more, Tempest said, “The night I caught you with that phone.” And then it clicked in his brain of what had happened that night.
He knew that he had blacked out after being hit in the head, which would cause some of the memories of the night to fade away, but he thought he would remember something like that. He tried to scour his mind of anything that could give any details as to what had led to what Tempest suggested had happened but he could only vaguely recall commenting on his mom’s post and Tempest being mad at him, nothing past that. Until the next morning, he realized. He had woken up in one of Tempest’s chambers in only a t-shirt. One of Tempest’s t-shirts, and he knew for a fact that the night before that, he had a full outfit of his own clothes on. More realization dawned on him.
His vision became foggy, and his breaths were quick and labored. He barely registered Tempest’s distorted voice, saying something that he couldn’t figure out. He saw someone else run into the room, and that person gripped his shoulder. He also felt something grabbing the bottom of his leg, but he quickly pushed off any and all physical contact that anyone had with him at that moment.
He couldn’t register anything happening around him, and he wasn’t sure he wanted to. He thought he heard Magnus yelling but he wasn’t sure why he was there. Everything was becoming too much for him to handle, and he felt as though the entire world were closing in on him as he continued to try to piece together both his memories and everything happening around him.
Cyrus felt himself stand up, but he wasn’t sure why he did that. It felt like his body wasn’t his own anymore, and it wasn’t following his instructions. He heard more loud sounds as he realized he was now running. He wasn’t sure where he was running, but he was. Only after a little while did he realize that he was standing near the edge of a building panting his lungs away. He still didn’t know what was happening or why he was on the roof.
His vision started to get splotchy, with black dots dancing in his vision. Maybe he heard someone running onto the roof with him, but he paid that person no mind because, for some reason, looking down seemed like the best option.
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That was the end of the chapter. Basically, what happened was that Tempest reaveled that he had done things with Cyrus while Cyrus was unconscious, and then Cyrus ran up to the roof and looked over the edge.