Behavioural Tutor

43 // Whatever I Want

The hand felt cold, hard and much larger than Tommy was expecting... not that he was expecting to get yanked back... but this hand was huge.

"H-huh? Let me go!" No matter how much he squirmed, Tommy could not escape the grip of whoever was holding him.

"Hush, Toms. It's only me." What should have been a comforting, soothing and probably quite relaxing comment sent shiver ran down Tommy's spine. There was only one person who had that voice. His body went rigid and he immediately stopped wriggling around. Nervously, Tommy turned his head to where Dream and Techno were previously fighting. All that was left, was a rather alarming level of blood.

"W-what have you done with Techno?"

"That's none of your concern." Tommy stopped breathing for a second.

"WHAT HAVE YOU DONE WITH TECHNO!?"

Silence. If Tommy could see Dream's face right now, he would have been met with a harsh glare; green eyes burning into the back of his neck and fluffy, golden locks.

"Toms, I'm warning you, don't raise your voice at me. Now, I'm going to let go, and you're going to follow me to the bomb. We're going to set it off together. Think of it as a... father and son bonding experience. We-"

"Why would I do that?" Tommy's voice was no more than a whisper, but Dream had heard it.

"Stubborn as always. Last time I checked, gun beats table. On my command, I can have Sapnap kill at least the twelve people you have back there, maybe everyone on this floor if I'm feeling harsh. Heck, I could murder everyone in the building if I really wanted to."

Tommy's blood ran cold. "Y-you can't!" Perhaps it was the adrenaline running through his body, or the sweat dripping down his temples, but whatever the reason, it hadn't registered to Tommy that all those people (and probably more) were going to die anyway if the bomb went off. Or, perhaps his brain cells had gone on strike after the shock of the last 24 hours.  He was only a child, after all.

A low, ominous chuckle escaped Dream's lips. "Oh Toms! You really don't know when you've lost, have you?" Dream bent down so that his mask was level with Tommy's face. "I can do whatever I want to." With that, he grabbed Tommy's wrist and dragged him towards the air vent in the corner of the room. After pushing the child into it, Dream hopped in and flapped it shut.

Tommy was expecting some sort of ventilation shaft, but instead, he was dropped into some sort of room. It was painted completely white, but everything had a thin layer of dust on it; looking like it had been abandoned long ago.

Looking around, the room was not larger than the average classroom. Grey, almost industrial-looking walls lined the edges of the room. Towards the far end was a long, slightly slanted table full of buttons, levers, screens and keyboards. The thin layer of dust gave the impression that no one had been here for a while, but under closer inspection, Tommy noticed some very distinct footprints leading to this... table? Panel? Evil lair? Collection of buttons? Death machine? Whatever it was, someone had definitely been here recently. No - several people had been here recently. There were more than one set of footprints. However, it was pretty clear they had tried to cover it up.

Tommy would have spent a long time analysing the room in front of him if he hadn't been pushed forward. Oh yeah! He was in a hostage situation! He quickly shook his head and mentally reprimanded himself for forgetting such a fundamental fact.

"Welcome, Toms, to what I'm going to call The Control Room. Please don't make yourself too comfortable - we won't be staying long." Dream put a firm hand on Tommy's shoulder and guided him towards one screen in particular. Dream hooked a single finger under Tommy's chin and angled his face upwards; forcing him to look at the scene displayed on the tiny screen. The gesture was probably a bit unnecessary in the situation, because Tommy's inquisitiveness would have made him look anyway. "Look."

Tommy bit his tongue - now was not the time for sassy comebacks.

The cluster of pictures showed some sort of blurry black smudge in the centre of the screen. What? Tommy squinted his eyes, trying to make sense of the image projected before him. Under closer inspection, Tommy could make out some red, green, blue and yellow wires winding their way out of the black... whatever it was.

"I don't get it?"

"... seriously?"

"WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT SUPPOSED TO MEAN!?" Perhaps it was the heat of the moment, perhaps it was Tommy getting over the shock, but something in Tommy snapped. Something in Tommy made him forget who he was talking to. Something in Tommy had had enough.

"I'M SORRY THAT YOU GO THROUGH ALL THE EFFORT AND TROUBLE OF KIDNAPPING ME JUST TO REALISE I'M TOO STUPID TO UNDERSTAND YOUR EVIL PLAN! BUT COULD YOU MAYBE... OH I DON'T KNOW... GET THE FUCK OFF OF ME!? I'M NOT SURE IF YOU'RE AWARE OF THIS, BUT YOUR HAND IS KINDA WEIGHING DOWN ON MY SHOULDER A BIT TOO MUCH RIGHT NOW AND I'D KINDA APPRECIATE IT IF YOU'D JUST GET THE FUCK OFF! I MEAN REALLY, WHAT'S THW POINT OF ALL THIS? AND WHAT'S WITH ALL THE VAIGUE HINTING AND MYSTERIOUS ROOMS? IT'S GETTING PRETTY FUCKING ANNOYING RIGHT NOW! AND DON'T EVEN GET ME STARTED ON-"

Bam.

Tommy shuddered as his body was slammed into the wall behind him. The blonde was about to scramble to his feet, but he barely made it to his knees before he was kicked down again. Hard.

Coughing and spluttering, Tommy put a hand up to his head, horrified to find that he was bleeding. As the ringing in his ears grew stronger, Tommy rolled onto his back and looked up at Dream. The kind facade was gone. It was replaced by the same emotionless stare Tommy had grown up with all his life.

"Get up, Toms."

Tommy got up.

"This," Dream gestured towards the small screen once more, "is my bomb that we're going to set it off. This," Dream gestured to another screen, showing a map. Several buildings next to each other (including Greenview Hostipal) were circled in thick, red marker, "is the area it's going to blow up."