Inciting Events

Chapter 11

Before beginning this chapter, I would like to preface that this chapter does include mentions of SA and r@pe. It happens near the end of the chapter, so I'll put a line where this starts to be talked about. I'll also put a description of the end of the chapter at the end. Please read this with caution and understanding of your own mental and physical health. Thank you.

Cyrus Anders

Cyrus slurped up the last of ramen noodles and threw out the packaging. His friend, Badger, sat next to him at one of the workstations in his lab without food. Not because he had not been given food, because he had finished it much quicker. He had also guilted Cyrus into giving him some more noodles, but that was beside the point.

After throwing away the empty packaging, Cyrus went to sit back down next to his younger friend. Badger had recently been a huge help around the lab and making sure that everything was done the way that it was supposed to. Which meant the exact opposite of what Tempest actually wanted them to do.

He actually found it quite funny. He had spent years fearing the man that had taken him away from his life, and he still was afraid of him. But now, it was different. He had always done everything in his power to appease Tempest’s rage, so now that he could just see the anger that lit in Tempest’s eyes when another project went wrong, it made him kinda happy to see a horrible man in misery.

The amount of failures as of recent had resulted in him getting a bit of a harder time from his boss. He had a lot more bruises on his body as of recently, and that did concern Magnus and Badger, but they all knew this was necessary for the plan. The rage that their boss had at the lack of success could easily correlate to craziness by Tempest’s other workers. Which backed up Magnus’s rumors about him going off his rocker. Plus, it was honestly comedy gold entertainment for Cyrus.

He looked to his side and realized that Badger was waiting for him to start on something or tell him what to do. As of right then, he wasn’t quite sure what to work on, but he knew that his friend wanted to feel like he was useful. So, he asked him to brainstorm some new ideas for weapons while he laid down for a little while. He saw the boy’s face light up, and it made him happy.

He stood up and stiffly walked over to the couch, where he slept every night and laid down. He knew that trying to achieve sleep was useless right now, but he figured that resting his eyes for a second couldn’t hurt, especially considering the headache that was beginning to crack its way into his skull.

The stress of everything that was happening and being in such close proximity to more people than he had even met in the past couple of years caused his mind to become slightly overactive, and not in a good way. He had begun having headaches more often than usual, and his nightmares became worse than they had ever been before.

Magnus had been given his own bedroom, though he still slept in Cyrus’s lab most nights, and Badger had to sleep in Cyrus’s lab. It wasn’t the worst place ever. He had a small kitchen connected to his workspace, a lavatory, and a couch with a tv where he slept for a long while. Given that the couch was the only place to rest other than the floor, that situation was a bit complicated.

Despite that, it was a, mostly, good experience living with more people. It made him quite happy to be around them, and they had grown close over the little while they had spent together.

Cyrus did pretend he didn’t see the looks of worry from his new roommates as they observed him and the problems he had in his everyday life. Badger had told him that after they were out of here, he would take him to therapy. Cyrus had laughed at that, thinking of it as a joke, but Badger had remained a serious face. Which, if he must admit it, had confused him very much.