The Shrink Program

chapter 126

"...Maddison..."

Giant fingers plucked at the hem of my dress, giving it a gentle tug. The insistent movement snapped me back into focus, reality crashing in like a bucket of ice water to the face.

Vain is here.

At the damn Underground.

Ripping my eyes away from the albino boy, I turned my frantic gaze to Apollo, who looked caught between anxiety and apprehension.

Only now did I realise that he had stopped, standing frozen in the middle of the bustling crowd.
Apollo studied me warily, as if unsure whether or not I was about to burst into hysterics or fall into a coma.

Understandable, seeing as I was quite prone to one, and had just come out of the other.

"We don't have time..." Apollo began hesitantly, only to have me shake my head in agreement.

"I won't forgive you." I interrupted flatly. I met his gaze, not glaring, but staring with such intensity that no emotion was needed.

"I won't forgive any of you. If he gets hurt, I will make every last one of you regret it."

I'm not intimidating. My anger is loud and over the top, but more often than not, my bark is worse than my bite.

Maybe that's why Apollo's eyes widened in shock. Why he swallowed and nodded seriously.

This wasn't emotional. I wasn't angry.

I was stating fact.

If you hurt him. I will make you regret it.

"So, what now?" He fell back on his usual bored tone.

"It's fine, I don't need to talk to him." I grimace at the thought, speaking with quiet acceptance. "I'm too busy kicking the Underground's ass anyway..."

I just couldn't do it.

I couldn't face Vain so soon after what had happened... After I had got myself sent away to the Shrink Program pretty much to just to rain on his parade.

The only good thing in all this was that, while I could see Vain, he was currently blind to my presence. What with the whole bandages covering his eyes thing he has going on...

Now, all we have to do is sneak past and pretend this never happened... This isn't running away... It's for his own good.... if he knew that I could see him wearing that crap, I'm pretty sure he would be too mortified to ever talk to me again...

Yea, walking right past him while he was unaware of my presence would have been the cool, tragically romantic thing to do.

It was at this point that I noticed the final accessory to Vain's outfit. On the leading end of the chain connected to a collar around his neck, was Rachel Fre-aking-dem.

Dressed in a short back dress that I suspected was leather, and a black mask made from black feathers.

Any thoughts of sneaking past Vain completely unnoticed flew out the window, shot off into space, and vanished from the face of the damn universe.

"I don't believe it...."

"Don't Maddison...!" Apollo hissed warningly.

"I leave him alone for one week, and you already have him playing dress up kinky doll with Insane Fan-Girl No1?! WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU GOD?!" I screamed in pure outrage.

Goodbye. My one chance to be the aloof ice queen for a change.

I stand, near hyperventilating in the suddenly quiet crowd, my hands clenching and unclenching in uncontrollable fury.

"You-!" Apollo choked after a moment of staring at me in speechless horror. "Did you break your brain or something!? What part of don't draw attention to ourselves don't you understand-"

"She's violating him!" I wailed in despair. "He won't be able to get married!"

"Shut up, you idiot!" Apollo hissed his giant hands surrounding me on each side to strangle me. "All they're doing is freaking standing there! Is that so bad that you feel the need to scream the house down?!"

"Of course, it is!" I wailed. "It's like watching someone TORTURE A UNICORN!"

Dead.

Silence.

The commotion had caused even the damn music had stopped, and now my small voice pierced the room as the one and only sound.

The one time in my life movie logic actually works, and it's to humiliate me.

Thank you, everyone, so kind of you all to politely pay attention to my mental meltdown.

The silence was only broken by the gasping sound of someone, somewhere in the vast room, laughing his arse off.

90% sure it was Alan.

"You know, it is times like these where I miss having you as an enemy Maddison." Apollo hissed furiously. "My job was so much easier back then. Not to mention enjoyable."

"Hey-!" I began to cry indignantly when a soft voice sliced through me.

"Maddison?"

My breathing hitched, eyes going wide as I slowly, stiffly turned to see Vain.

Even though he was blind, Vain's head was tilted at a sharp angle, turned towards the sound of my voice.

His entire body was frozen in shock, his lips parted in silent horror, far from his usual calm facade.

"Maddison." He said again, this time his voice was much more assured, despite me not saying anything at all.

He said my name in the same way I say "Chocolate."

The way I say "Home" and "Family" and "Sleeping in."

The way I sometimes say "Vain."

When I'm sure, no one can hear me.

Like the word made me want to smile and cry, made me feel relieved and terrified, all at the same time.

I choked on a pained noise, not wanting to say anything, but suffering too much to stay silent.

Vain jerked forward at the distressed sound, taking a step towards me before the chain at his neck stopped him.

This action, small as it was, reminded me of our situation.

It wasn't safe to break here.

Frustration flickered across what I could see of Vain's face, desperate despair twisted his lips into a pissed off snarl.

"Take it off." He hissed, more furious than I had ever seen him as he turned towards Rachel.

She yanked sharply on the chain, bending him forward so that the small gap in their height was breached.

"You know the rules of my game Vain." She murmured back softly, and I froze in shock.

This... Was wrong...

"Or don't you want to play with me anymore?" She pleaded, in a mock imitation of need. Her lips only a breath away from where Vain stood frozen before her.

Rachel was crazy, a fanatic, but otherwise, not a threat.

But as she glanced over at me from the corner of her eye, watching me slyly, I felt something I had never felt since before meeting Jack.

Terror.

"In that case, I suppose I will need to find other toys to torment."

She winked at me.

Knowingly. Mockingly.

Before she pressed her lips to his.