Rivalries: Chapter Twenty-Four, Part Two

 Notes: Not a terribly long scene today, but BOY do some people get wrecked. I hope you appreciate who.

Title: Rivalries: Chapter Twenty-Four, Part Two

***

Chapter Twenty-Four, Part Two

 

It took a while to calm things down after the duel and its subsequent revelations. The fact that Ari had broken free of his own knack’s grip, the fact that Charlie was alive and uninjured despite the ferocity of the shield storm, and the fact that Colonel Applegate had to be restrained to keep from prostrating himself in front of Ari were all…complicated situations, to say the least. John wasn’t sure what was going to happen next for the kid, but Huda seemed to have things well in hand, and had called for her personal security escort to join them, as well as contacted someone in the military about the colonel’s new situation. She didn’t want her son to be charge with misusing his knack, so she was working hard to get ahead of it.

It probably felt like a dream come true to her, and John couldn’t help but be happy about it as well. The fact that he was going to have to tell Catherine she was right was a bitch, though.

All of this confusion and happiness and pandemonium made the sudden realization that John hadn’t seen Roland since before the end of the duel hit him like a hammer to the chest, stopping his mind in its tracks. Roland was supposed to stay by his side until his foster mother came to pick him up, that was part of their agreement. Sure, things had gotten crazy during the duel, but…

“Roland?” John turned away from Ari and Charlie and Huda, looking out into the crowd of milling students, parents, and teachers. “Roland?”

He couldn’t see him anywhere, no sign of his square, tanned face and slouched shoulders. A sick feeling began to develop in the pit of his stomach, something made of a mixture of nausea and rage.

A touch on his elbow made him jump. “What’s wrong?” Charlie asked quietly. John hated to cut short the celebration with Ari, to take away the relief of years’ worth of worry that his lover was experiencing, but…he needed help.

“I don’t see Roland anywhere,” John said. “He was supposed to stay here with me. It’s not like him to leave without letting me know.”

“Maybe he needed the bathroom?” Charlie suggested, but his eyes were already scanning the crowd.

“He’d still let me know,” John emphasized. “I—we need to find him. Now.”

“We can use the bullhorn, for starters.” Charlie looked around. “There’s the vice principal, I’ll go grab it from him.”

John watched Charlie walk away, the sensation of sickness rising. A piece of the wrongness suddenly snapped into focus, and John spun around, searching desperately for the one person he hated looking at but longed to see.

He couldn’t find Principal Cross.

Pieces of a puzzle he was only vaguely aware of began to fall into place. Her support of Linda Patterson. Her barring of the office to him, while she talked to someone who was already inside. Her vanishing after a potentially deadly duel that she ought to be at right now, for the sake of damage control at the very least. She’d been here for the majority of the duel, he remembered seeing her. When had she left?

And who had she left with?

He heard Charlie start calling for Roland over the bullhorn, heard the kids start buzzing with a new thread of gossip, but it all faded away as John headed toward Cross’s office, his walk quickly becoming a run. His chest ached and his heart beat so hard he could feel it in his ribs, but John didn’t stop until he reached the office.

Principal Cross was there…outside the door, which was closed. She crossed her arms when she saw him and drew herself up to her full height, which was several inches taller than John even without the heels.

“Mr. Gibilisco, I’m not—”

“Get out of the way.” He barely recognized his own voice.

“Absolutely not! This is my office, and I won’t be displaced on your whims.”

“You’re not in your office,” he pointed out, narrowing his eyes. “Who is?”

“That’s none of your con—”

“Is Roland in there?”

She frowned. “Why would you think such a ridiculous thing?”

“That’s not a no.” He took a step closer, but she held out her hand and thrust her index finger toward the middle of his chest.

“If you take one more step, I’ll have you charge with assault,” she snapped. “You have no right to force your way into my personal space, and I will see to it that you lose your professional licensure. You’ll be fired, Mr. Gibilisco, and probably arrested. How would you like that?”

“How will you prove it?” he shot back, glancing at the cameras in the corner. “With those? Because if they’re still on, then they’ll show you leading Roland into this office, won’t they?” He watched her fierce façade waver a bit and pressed harder. “And if they’re off, then it’s your word versus mine on what I have to do to move you the hell out of the way!”

“And who do you think they’ll believe?” she spat. “Me, the principal of this school, or a hapless little man with anger issues who shouldn’t even be here?”

John opened his mouth to reply, but before he could he heard—

A whimper. A pained, frightened whimper. It came from inside the office. It sounded like someone was scared out of their mind.

All of his anger and illness and reserve vanished in an instant. John pulled up one of the worst knacks he could think of, set it to the worst permutation he had control over, and used it on Principal Cross.

Flay took hold of her mind and, an instant later, revealed her worst memory to her. She was blinded by it, broken by it. She stumbled back with a gasp, then a scream as John pressed Flay upon her, harder and harder, making whatever that memory was absolutely inescapable.

She collapsed.

A second later, John used Strength to rip her office door off its hinges. When he saw Linda Patterson straighten up from where she’d been leaning over Roland, who was sitting tilted back in the principal’s office chair, his face a rictus of fear, he didn’t bother setting the door down gently.

He threw it straight at her instead.