C11 Then it Shattered

Back at their dorm, Kailan hardly felt safe. The rising moon and eerie fog on the horizon could have played a part, but it was the Syndicate that had a hungry anxiety gnawing at his bones. He felt like he was in a room with no walls. As if those men and their shiny guns would walk right up to their dorm and haul them off to the land of lost Wickeds.

April had insisted they come back to the warehouse, said it was important. That if they didn't, something bad would happen. It pissed him off, the thought of having to face Jahni again—but he couldn't say she was wrong.

He laid an arm over his eyes, feeling weary and all too tired. "Well, can't say my first week wasn't interesting."

Vincent tossed his jacket to his bed, running a hand through his shaggy blond hair. It was late, and he too was terribly exhausted. "I wonder if it was her?" His mind was reeling back to the peculiar brunette at the party. Gigi was her name. He remembered it now.

Maybe it was the fact that he'd only had a little to drink. Or perhaps it was the vomiting and sprinting for his life that sobered him up. He could never recall her before, so it had to have been something different in the way the evening went on. In the past, she had left him a clumsy mess with a rucked up memory, but now Vinny could finally recall the last time Gigi had used her strange concoction on him. He just couldn't understand what exactly she was getting out of it.

The fact of the matter was that she had probably witnessed him shattering that glass.

"I should go find her. But I have no idea where to start." He fell back into his bed, his tired face looking to his friend across the room. "Do you think she could have called them? The Syndicate?"

"She seems vengeful, so possibly." Kailan cracked an eye open, his pillow muffling a subtle laugh. "She seems kind of determined to fuck up your life. It's creepy."

Closing his eyes once more, a yawn engulfed him. "We're still going back to that warehouse aren't we? April will probably bug the shit out of us if we don't." He was fond of the girl, despite only having met her earlier in the week. Her high-energy and effervescent attitude was refreshing to Kailan. She was friendly, pleasant to be around—but no matter how comforting April may be, the last thing he wanted was to utilize his powers.

Vincent himself had been running from his own for years. Now, it seemed they were finally catching up to him.

As Vinny stared up at his bare-fleshed fingers, he could feel the warm prickle running up his skin. His fist coiled closed before a flame could ignite. Not here. The only time he ever felt comfortable with using his power was during a rainstorm. It was easier to control when there was another force to fight it. Easier to stop.

Archibald let off a harsh meow, jumping atop the bed to curl up at the pit of his arm. Acknowledging the scruffy cat with a tender stroke of his ears, Vinny looked to Kailan once more: "You seem to know a lot about that April girl. You think what she was saying was real? There's actually an organization hellbent on finding our asses?"

"'A lot'? I've hardly known her a week." Kai snorted, then his breathing shifted into something slow, deep and relaxing. He didn't know her all that well, but April seemed trustworthy. He liked her. "She seems pretty truthful," he added. "Not to mention she's a Wicked too, so why would she lie about that? Besides, why the hell wouldn't there be some organization meant to weed us out? We're practically declared as bio-terrorists. We're freaks and we're dangerous enough that prison isn't even an option."

It was a daunting fact, but a fact none the less. When Wickeds acted out, they were lucky to be detained. Usually they were shot dead on the spot.

"I mean it's not like we were normal before," he continued, "but now we can be killed for it."

Vincent brushed his fingers through Archibald's rough fur, letting out a vexing sigh. He didn't want to use his powers again, either. He really didn't. It was one thing to light a cigarette, but another entirely to let the flames take over.

If only Sage was there. She was the only one that could put out the heat—literally and figuratively. She was good at handling Vincent's temper, and, being a Wicked herself, she could manipulate the flow of air. She could do something as simple as pilot a paper airplane, or something as complex as stopping the momentum of a moving car. It wasn't hard for her to suffocate Vincent's fire. All she had to do was deplete him of oxygen. It was like being a fish out of water for Vincent, and Sage hated every second of it. She felt like she was hurting her dearest friend, but it was better than letting the fire consume him. And after Kai left, that fire was hungry. With her help, he was able to take control. Able to hush the flames from the moment they began to spark. He owed her a lot for that.

As his phone let off a short bzz, Vincent turned his head to the flickering screen just long enough to catch sight of Cally's name.

"J left. He broke up with me. I don't know what I'm going to do, Vinny. Come over?"

Vincent slapped his phone face down on the nightstand next to him. As bad as he felt for Cally, he didn't have the time or energy to sense into her. Jason would be back the next day, and they'd sew things up like they always did.

Standing to his feet, Vinny rummaged through his unpacked belongings in search for any muscle relaxant or pain killer he may have buried in his things. He kept them handy, but he never abused them. He had a respect for pharmaceuticals; they had been a good friend to him over the years.

It wasn't the pills he came across, but a framed photo of Sage. She sat in tall grass with her beautiful smiling expression gleaming at the camera while she was busy drawing stupid romantic sketches of monarch butterflies. She loved those ugly bugs. The photo had been given to him after her passing—a gift from her mother. The thing never left his care.

His heart sank at the sight of her. With Kailan's return, he had completely forgotten he even packed the photograph, but now that he held it in his hands, he couldn't bring himself to let go. He moved slowly back to his bed, setting the precious photo down on the nightstand and sinking down onto the edge of his mattress. He had taken that smile for granted. He never knew that he'd miss it so much once it was gone.

Kailan glanced over to the picture, sitting up to get a better look. "Is that Sage?" he asked, smirking some. "How has she been?"

Tired blue eyes found their way to Kailan's face, and Vincent only stared. With a tight jaw, he exhaled, his attention drawn back to Sage's joyful expression. "She's been dead." He paused, sick from his words. It still felt so weird to say it. "She passed a year ago."

"Oh." Kailan's smile dropped. "That's unfortunate," was all he could think to say.

Kailan rose from his seat, silent as he left the comfort of the bedroom. He didn't know how to react to the news of Sage's death. She had been a good friend, but Vinny knew her far longer. She had faded to nothing more than a stranger to Kailan.

He felt a migraine coming on.

While Kailan busied himself fetching a fresh glass of water, Vincent watched every step he took.

"Unfortunate? Is that it?" Vincent could feel his lips curling into a crooked smirk, but it was not a happy one. His jaw was wound tight, flexing his ridged expression. He stood to his feet and followed Kai into the adjacent room, slamming the door shut behind him far loudlier than necessary. "Typical." A look of disbelief filled his face and he shook his head, letting hot steam rise from his chest. "You're a fuckin' asshole, Kailan."

Loud, of course Vinny would get loud. Kailan hated loud noises. He paid little more than a sigh's worth of attention to Vinny, his migraine pounding into his skull like an angry fist to a door. Turning his gaze to the kitchen drawers, he dug through for a bottle of painkillers, shaking two small tablets out into his palm.

"How'd she die?" Kailan swallowed the pills, hoping that his migraine would die out sooner than later. He'd need a clean head to deal with Vinny. He was angry—it was apparent. Kailan peered down at his glass, an unreadable expression mirroring on the water's surface. "What happened?"

"She killed herself." The words dripped from Vincent's tongue like poison. Emotions were crawling their way up his throat, and he could do nothing but swallow them back down. It left a harsh taste in his mouth. "But it figures you wouldn't have known. Like you said, 'no biggie', right?"

Kailan's grip on the cup tightened, a dry laugh bubbling up. "I did say that, didn't I?" He finally looked up at Vinny, a ghost of a smile on his lips. He couldn't place a finger on how he was feeling; too many things at once, but mostly just sick. He felt he was choking—suffocated by Vincent's condemning stare. "How was I supposed to know, Vinny? I didn't exactly have the liberty to call whenever I wanted." He spoke carefully, though he drawled his words out, hoping the speed of his speech slowed things down. Or maybe stopped time in general, if that were a possibility.

Either way, that simply wasn't the case. The vibe in the room grew tense, budding alongside the flames of Vincent's rage.

"That's a bullshit excuse!" Vinny could feel the strain in his vocal cords as he shouted. He wasn't just angry. He was hurt. And the mixture of the two made it far more difficult to control himself. Sage was so heartbroken after Kailan had disappeared—they both were. She was so busy caring for Vincent, so careful to disregard her own feelings; he had no idea she was depressed until it was too late. Vincent wasn't ready to admit that it was partly his fault—not when he still felt so abandoned. Instead he turned the guilt into rage: "All we needed was one fucking call!"

Kai fought remain calm, despite Vinny's suddenly cross attitude. He blinked, slow and agitated. "I just told you I wasn't allowed to call." His brows fell, eyes becoming narrower as he met Vincent's fuming glower. "One phone call wouldn't have changed anything, Vincent." His tone was low, guttural, as he nearly growled the name. "It's not my fault I couldn't be there." Lie. "If I could have called I would have." Lie. "Don't get pissed at me!"

Kailan hated lying. But he couldn't simply tell Vinny the reason he was sent to a military camp. If he had called to explain, they would have wanted to know. He was scared, frankly, of the two finding out he would never hold the same fixation of girls as his best friend did. As normal boys did. He wasn't there for them. He wasn't there for Vinny, and he was angry because of it. It was all bullshit.

Vinny skewed his jaw, expelling a thick breath. "Right." The word was wrought with sarcasm.

He shifted up from his position against the wall, his knuckles going white from how tightly his fists clenched. He didn't want to hurt Kailan, but he was quickly reaching his limit. To leave him all alone like that—to stick by his side for ten fucking years, and then just leave.

"How can you say it wouldn't have mattered?" He was raising his voice again. It wasn't his fault; he couldn't control it. He never had been able to control his anger. Instead, he let it all spill out. He forfeited to it with a convicting growl: "You weren't here, asshole. You don't know shit!"

It all happened too fast. Kai's grip on his glass was painful. He hardly batted an eye as he sent it flying towards Vinny. The throw was off, exploding against the wall to Vinny's left. He'd winced at the sound of shattering glass. Even as the droplets of water that had jumped to his cheek ran down his face like brittle tears, Vincent found himself frozen.

"You're fucking right!" Kailan's voice was louder, the tone a little too high pitched. Kailan rarely yelled. He typically had a grasp on these things—a talent at ignoring it all and walking away, but in the moment he was overwhelmed. He was conflicted with anger and guilt and every emotion in between. "I wasn't there, I had no control over what happened, because I was gone!"

The situation was so dramatic, so comical and so absurd to Kai that he was nearly grinning. "I was in a military camp because I was too old to be taken back into foster care." He closed the distance to Vinny, looking him dead in the eyes. "I don't know what you went through, but I didn't fucking cause it either."

To see Kailan anything but composed was rare, and it shocked Vincent. He stood, stagnant, until that rage took over again. He was in the right to be angry. Angry because after Sage's death, there was nothing to fill Kailan's absence. No one to save him from himself. There were ways he could have gotten in touch—ways he could have let Vincent know that he still had someone. Anyone. There had to be ways.

He clasped a fistful of Kailan's shirt collar pulling him into the heat of his menacing stare. But as he bared his fangs like a rabid wolf, no words came to mind. He had nothing to say that hadn't been said. The only thing he could think about was hurting something. Anything.

Just not Kailan.

He tossed him aside, long strides taking him across the room to swipe his cigarettes from the counter. It was over in a matter of seconds, and he was gone, only leaving the slam of the door behind him.

Kailan stumbled a bit, unable to say anything more by the time Vinny was out of his sight. He stood there, staring silently at the door. Jaw tense, he rocked on his heels and pinched the bridge of his nose, forfeiting his weight to the kitchen counter.

He fucked up. He really fucked up.

Dropping his hand, Kailan glimpsed over at the shattered glass on the floor, his frown growing heavy. "I'm an idiot."