Hard to Hate You // Michael Langdon

Part IX - Headaches

"What the hell is wrong with you?" Coco asks as I lean my head against the dining room table.

I'm aware of almost everyone's eyes on me, but I couldn't care less; the excruciating pain in my skull is enough to make anyone pass out.  "Just a headache," I groan, attempting to play it off.

"Either sit back up or have Ms. Mead give you a medical examination," Ms. Venable states from the head of the table.  "You're disrupting dinner."

I sigh as I force myself to sit up.  "I'm fine," I insist as I rub my temple.  This pain has been torturing me for the last hour, ever since not long after my heat-of-the-moment kiss with Michael.  God, if he caused this, I will not hesitate to snap his neck.

Everyone turns back to picking at their gelatin cubes as Coco leans towards me.  "Seriously, Valentina, you don't look good," she whispers. "Your face is losing color by the minute."

"I just need to go lay down," I state as I stand up.

"I did not excuse you," Ms. Venable says as she glares at me.

I sigh as I slip into her mind.  "Ms. Venable, I just need to rest," I insist.

"I suppose that is fine," she replies nonchalantly.  I probably could've done a better job at making our interaction feel more natural, but my head is hurting too much to do anything besides simple mind control.

I quickly exit the room, pushing through the pain as I speed-walk toward the hallway where my bedroom is.  I need to get to my room before I collapse.  However, as I pass Michael's room on my way, I realize my pain peaks as I pass his door. I slow down, then take a few steps back until I'm standing in front of his door. My pain is definitely worse here than it was a few feet past the door. Fuck, so he actually has something to do with this.

I knock on the door harshly three times. "Michael, it's me." My tone makes it quite clear that I'm unhappy.

I wait a few seconds, but there is no movement on the other side of the door.

"Michael, I'm going to open the door myself in five seconds if you don't answer," I state as I knock again. 

As promised, I wait (impatiently) for five seconds before slamming the door open. As I step into the room, I realize Michael isn't in there. Suddenly, without me willing my body to do anything, my feet start moving towards a door at the side of the room.  My hand lands on the locked doorknob, but I unlock it with a simple tilt of my head.  I push the door open and gasp at the scene before me.

Michael is sitting naked in the middle of a pentagram made from his own blood, blood dripping from his arms as snakes slither around him.  His eyes flash black as he looks up at me.

"What the fuck are you doing?" I seethe.  "And are you the reason my head feels like it's about to implode?"

He sighs, his eyes flashing back to their normal blue.  "Took you long enough to figure out that I was the reason." As he puts a pause on whatever weird ritual he's doing, the snakes disappear from sight (thankfully).

I realize that my pain is increasing tenfold, and I lean against the doorframe to stabilize myself. "Why the hell would you do that?" I ask in annoyance, my pain visible on my face.

"I didn't mean to," he sighs apologetically.  "I was trying to communicate with my father, then I started thinking about you, then I accidentally cast a spell that would cause you torturous pain before eventually killing you."

"How the fuck do you accidentally do that?" I scoff.

He rolls his eyes.  "It's not hard to do when you're feeling extreme emotion towards said person."