Turn It Into Magic

"Where's Pogo?" Elizabeth asked Abi suddenly, turning her attention from the laptop on the table in front of her. Abi clicked a few buttons on her own computer before observing the location of Pogo.

"Wandering the halls," Abi replied.

"Of course he is," Elizabeth sighed. "How about Ginger, how's he doing?"

Abi clicked a few more buttons before replying again, "He looks fine. Tired, haunted, but fine nonetheless."

Suddenly, the door to their room was pushed open and Pogo sauntered in, smirking.

"I'm fucking bored," he complained, pulling up a chair next to the two girls. They both looked at him as if he were crazy. In many ways, he was, but that was beside the point.

"Then do something," Abi stated.

"There's nothing to do!" Pogo yelled, exasperated and whining. "Why can't you make this place more interesting? Get some more girls in here or something. I mean, you do know that you're the only girls here, right?"

"We're perfectly aware of that, Pogo," Abi said emotionlessly, starting to type on her computer. Pogo glared at her, then reached over and turned off her computer. He smirked and sat back in his chair, arms crossed.

"He really must be bored," Elizabeth muttered to herself, closing the lid of her laptop to watch the scene unfold before her.

"That was a really bitchy move, Pogo," Abi growled, pushing her chair back. She raised her hand and lashed out to hit Pogo across the head, but Pogo caught her wrist.

"Hit me and I'll rape you," he threatened. Abi let her hand drop to her side.

"Tell you what. Go find some girls or something. Bring them here, do as you please, then make them leave," Abi said. Pogo smirked once more and stood up.

"Have fun!" Elizabeth said, waving him off.

"I will," he said smugly, then walked out of the room. Abi sat back down and shook her head.

"Every morning, I put his meds in his ice cream. Every morning! He eats the ice cream, and nothing happens!" Abi said in disbelief.

"He's probably trained himself to handle it," Elizabeth shrugged. "I mean, I wouldn't put it past him."

"Good point," Abi said, pondering. "Y'know what? We need to review the video footage from last night."

"I'll get it," Elizabeth said, pushing back her chair. She retrieved the video tape from the recorder that they placed up the night before. Elizabeth popped it in the DVD player that was connected to their large TV and hit play. She took a seat next to Abi, who handed her a Coke Zero Vanilla.

"We really only need to watch the parts that we missed. Even then, just the interesting parts. They probably slept - well, Ginger would've - so we could fast forward through that," Abi suggested. Elizabeth grabbed the controller and fast forwarded through the parts that they had been awake for. Finally, it got to the part where both Abi and Elizabeth had been asleep. At this point, Ginger had fallen asleep on the floor and Pogo was sitting silently in the corner.

The video went on like this for a while, then Ginger woke up so Elizabeth pressed 'play.' He stretched, stood up, then sat in a corner of the bed. Pogo's head snapped up, the scarf Ginger was playing with had caught his attention again.

"Fucking stop," he growled. Ginger dropped the scarf immediately on the bed and sighed heavily. He slid down on the bed and rolled over, burying his face in the pillows. Pogo jumped up and started pacing around the room, moving his hands and lips as if he were talking to someone, even though he wasn't making a sound. After a while, Ginger slept and Pogo sat back down, so Abi took the controller and fast forwarded again.

After quite a while, Ginger rolled over and Pogo was pacing again and Abi resumed the regular speed. Ginger was following him with his eyes as he walked.

"Stop it," Ginger said quietly. Pogo stopped for a moment, then looked at Ginger with disgust.

"No!" Pogo said incredulously, as if he couldn't believe what he was hearing. He continued pacing once more.

"Pogo, stop it!" Ginger whined, raising his voice a little bit.

'Fucking no, you Ginger!" Pogo shouted back. Ginger flinched and squeezed his eyes shut. Pogo rolled his eyes and kept walking.

"Pogo, I'm starving," Ginger complained, opening his eyes again. Pogo stopped, turned, and stared emotionlessly at Ginger for a few moments before he spoke.

"Just keep talking, Ginger. It's only going to be worse for you in the end," Pogo sighed, shaking his head.

"What do you-" Ginger was cut off by Pogo storming over to him. In one swift motion, Pogo had swung himself up onto the bed so that he was straddling Ginger's hips.

"I warned you, Ginger. Now you have to take this like a good little boy," Pogo murmured, unzipping his jacket.

"I can't watch anymore," Abi said, turning off the video and covering her eyes. Both the girls sat in silence for a moment, processing what they'd just seen.

"What time is it?" Elizabeth asked Abi. Abi looked at her bare wrist, then looked at a dead clock, then at a motionless clock on the wall.

"Who the fuck turned off all the clocks?!" she yelled. She stood up in a huff and checked Elizabeth's computer for the time. "It's 5:21."

"Sweet, dinner's soon," Elizabeth whispered to herself. Abi still hadn't come back to the couch, so she layed down on it.

A knock sounded at the door and Abi called for them to come in. John strode into the room hesitantly. "It's okay if I hang here, isn't it?" he asked.

"Of course, Johnny. Sit wherever you want," Elizabeth replied, waving her hand in the air from her place on the couch. John took a place in an armchair across from Elizabeth's seat on the couch. Abi jumped over the back of the couch and landed on Elizabeth's stomach, where she looked as if she wasn't going to be moving any time soon.

"So, Fivey-boy, what brings you here?" Abi asked, swinging her legs like a child to rock Elizabeth's body back and forth. John didn't answer right away, he just looked at both the girls hesitantly.

"Well, I don't hang out with you guys very much, y'know? So I thought I'd chill here for a while. If that's okay," John added quickly.

"At least you knock. Pogo just comes in here unannounced whenever he sees-" Elizabeth was cut off by the sound of the door slamming open and an eruption of giggles.

"Speak of the devil," Abi sighed as Pogo sauntered in, smirking, for the second time that day. The only difference was that this time, Pogo was surrounded by very young females.

"Look what I found," Pogo said, pushing forth one of the girls like they were a sacrificial offering. She stumbled, obviously drunk, and giggled.

"Pogo! Get them out of here!" Abi cried, jumping up from the couch. "They're shitfaced, they're half your size, and they're obviously underage!"

"You told me I could go get girls, but you weren't specific," Pogo said smugly, yanking the girl back into his grasp.

"I thought you would have the decency to at least bring someone of age here!"

"Decency? Decency! You're gonna preach to me about decency? You sit in here like a hermit, writing porn all day, and you're gonna talk to me about decency?!"

"THERE'S A DIFFERENCE!"

"Oh, really? Because I don't see one. Why don't you explain it to me?"

"Writing erotica is a career. Raping thirteen-year-olds is not!"

"It's not rape. They want it, too."

"Only because you forced them to guzzle alcohol with the promise of rockstar sex!"

"You're just jealous."

"OF WHAT?!"

"You just want a piece of this action and I'm out getting other girls!"

John turned to Elizabeth, who was still laying casually on the couch, playing with the sleeves of the shirt she borrowed from Twiggy. "Does this happen a lot?" he asked.

"Pretty much every day," Elizabeth answered, nodding her head to confirm it.

"Wow."

"Meh. You get used to it." Elizabeth shrugged. She peeked over the couch to see that Abi was approaching Pogo, carring a large book and looking vicious. "No, Abi! That's a good book! Oh, and remember what he said earlier!"

Abi stopped walking and sighed, defeated. "Fine, Pogo. Go have your fun. But I want them out of here in an hour. An hour! You got that?"

"Jesus, you're uptight. You need to get laid," Pogo said, emphasizing the word 'laid.' Abi glared at him, making him laugh, "All right, all right. And hour."

With that, Pogo herded his group of giggling, underage girls out the door. Abi groaned and slumped into an armchair, gripping the bridge of her nose in defeat. John cleared his throat casually.

"He totally wants you," Elizabeth giggled quietly. Abi picked up a pillow and threw it at her.

"This is not the way I wanted to spend my time with John!" Abi groaned.

"It's alright. That was pretty funny," John said, smiling. "I've never met someone who was so close to controlling Pogo. Not even Marilyn could do that."

A bell rang within the hospital, signaling that it was dinner time. Elizabeth, Abi, and John all jumped up at the same time.

"I hear it's pizza tonight!" Elizabeth exclaimed excitedly, "We better hurry before someone eats it all."

__________

"Dude, I'm so full," Abi complained, rubbing her stomach as she walked into the room with Elizabeth and John, both of whom were looking at her like she'd lost her mind.

"You ate a piece and a half," John pointed out.

Abi shrugged, "I'm still full."

"Y'know what? Ginger wasn't at dinner. I think I'm going to check on him," Elizabeth stated. She turned on Abi's computer because it had all the monitoring software and manuevered her way to the cameras placed in Ginger's room.

"You guys watch us?" John asked, shivering slightly. A blush was creeping up on his face.

"Only if we feel you need to be watched. For example, Ginger and Pogo had a rough night last night. We feel he might be broken, so we keep a close eye on him to ensure that he's not," Abi explained. John mouthed 'oh' and nodded. He appeared to loosen up a bit.

"WOAH! What the hell?!" Elizabeth exclaimed. Abi and John rushed over to see what Elizabeth had just witnessed on the computer.

"Who is that...?" John asked. On the bed was a tangle of bodies and blankets, one of which was obviously Ginger. The other person, though, remained a mystery to all the spectators.

"Is that...?" Abi asked slowly.

"It is," Elizabeth confirmed.

"Rezzy."