Status: Redo of my old story
Silence Falls
Chapter 82: Like It Ain't Nothing?!
The group all sanctioned giving it a full week before voting to come down from the cloaked panic room they located in the manager’s office behind a stately bookshelf. They were unnerved when they first stepped foot back into the mall again, but with a meticulous sweep for the soldiers Otep had sworn she’d seen they found their mall had remained both intact and undisturbed during their absence. It took hours later for the fear and paranoia to recede. Bert took that opportunity to make it transparent to everyone else that Hermanni was now free to go wherever he pleased and to even sleep upstairs in the mattress store alongside them. Evidently, Hermanni had proven that he wasn’t another menace to them. Despite this, Hermanni stuck to sleeping in the Electronic store to lessen further discomfort to some of the other’s moroseness upon his release. With the soldiers now gone and Hermanni free, there seemed to be a shroud of edginess that lifted from their heads where it had once perpetually brewed before.
But of course, that was only momentary.
Several days later, Cris and Connor were jarred from their deep sleep to a frenzied feud right outside the store. Unlike a disoriented Cris, Connor was instantly infuriated with the interruption and launched out of bed to exit the store to wedge himself between the two opposing sexes that were in a yelling match. “What the FUCK do you idiots think you’re doing!? Back up off of each other, right NOW!” Not waiting for either party to submit to his demand, Connor thrust a red-faced Bam with one arm away from a livid Onika who was holding a skateboard out of Bam’s reach by dangling it over the rails of the second floor. “GIVE ME THAT!” Connor snagged the board from her hold and slammed it down onto the floor with so much strength that he put a crack straight through it. The sound perforated the air, ending the fight as everyone gaped down at the broken board.
Now, if Bam was pissed off before, then he was now violently enraged. “YOU SONOFABITCH!” Bam roared, and without thinking, he hurled himself at Connor. His weight managed to take the larger of the two down to the floor as they both wrestled with each other for the exact same reasons...they both thought the other was a total imbecile.
“HEY, YOU TWO! STOP IT! STOP THAT RIGHT NOW!” Cris interjected, trying to corral the random fists soaring through the air, but not having the strength to hinder them from lodging back into the other rival’s face. Cris knew he was at a loss to break the fight up, but continued to try anyway. “YOU GUYS!”
Hermanni appeared around the corner with the rest of the girls herding behind him, and spied Cris’s unfortunate predicament. He had been requested by the ladies to go out for a walk around the mall, which he agreed to and had spent his entire morning in their company. But now he was having to excuse himself. “Pardon me, ladies.” Rushing forward to abet Cris, Hermanni calculated an opening, took advantage of it and captured Bam from around his waist. The unhinged boy was agitated and wouldn’t give in. Sensing this, Hermanni closed his eyes and pressed his hands against Bam’s flat stomach through his shirt to utilize his powers on him to split through his fury. “Bam, you must calm down. Let him go!”
Cris and the girls scurried around them to assist dragging Connor back onto his feet, but he shook them off and rectified himself while growling. “I got it, I fucking got it!”
Bam and Connor were panting heavily as they glared at one another, a bit bruised and hardly bloody when Otep and Bert sprinted up the stairs to stop the commotion. Looking between both fighters who refused to break eye contact with one another, Bert demanded with his arms stretched open. “What the fuck is going on up here, huh!?”
“Speak up, don’t you idiots be shy now.” Otep pressed on, her arms crossed as she stood beside Bert and scowled at the two trouble-makers. “SPEAK UP!”
But Bam didn’t bother to say anything as he wrenched himself out of Hermanni’s slackened hold, and stomped off down the stairs, cursing aloud to himself. Hermanni and the others quietly watched him go, deciding to give him time to compose himself down before confronting him. Otep wasn’t going to let Connor off that easily though. Stepping forward, she irritably snapped. “Connor, tell us what happened between you two? And I don’t want to hear excuses!”
Connor merely sighed and rolled his eyes in response as he touched his throbbing jawline. Since she was just as entangled, Onika placed her hands on her hips and chose to speak up for him. “It wasn’t Connor’s fault they started fighting, Bam was arguing with me first. Apparently the little bitch gots a bug up his ass or something cause out of nowhere he has some problem with the way I dressed today. I overheard him calling me a motherfucking whore underneath his breath while skating past me on his stupid little ass board. Naturally a bitch got pissed, and so I confronted that motherfucking asshole for talking that dumb shit. He played it off, acting like a bitch was fucking crazy. So, I took his board from him, and we started yelling at one another.” Onika glanced over her shoulder to deliver a contrite look to Cris despite her heated eyes. “And I guess we must have woke Cris and Connor up cause the next thing I knew Connor was trying to break up the fight between us. Bam’s skateboard broke as collateral damage in the tussle, if you ask me, and Bam went crazy over it.”
Otep rolled her eyes and Bert merely shook his head in annoyance. Shaking her head, she vented on just how she felt about Bam and his fiery temper. “You know what, you guys? I am honestly sick and tired of Bam and his fucking tantrums. In the little time I’ve known him, I’ve wanted to kick his stubborn ass more often than those assholes who stuck us down in that underground hellhole! We really need to do something about him before he ends up killing one of us over something stupid...or vice versa.”
“And you guys thought Hermanni was the dangerous one.” Demitria grumbled beneath her breath.
Stifling a groan at the reminder of how he treated poor Hermanni, Bert locked eyes on him. “I guess you can call this another reminder of how wrong we were to imprison you the way we did, Hermanni. It looks like Bam is the real possible danger among us.”
“We all got along well better before he showed up!” Natasha inserted with a distasteful look on her face. “Despite the hell we were living in everyday we never fought like this with each other.”
“Wait, you guys aren’t thinking we should lock him up in the Electronic store like we did with Hermanni, are you?” Cris questioned them, his wide eyes spanning to all the faces appearing at peace with that idea.
Hermanni also examined their faces, reading that they too were all slowly agreeing with the idea of using his area as a holding cell for someone else. Did that mean he couldn't return there anymore? He had a feeling it might. Hermanni pouted to himself. He had come to like that particular store. He's learned so much from the televisions. No, he wasn’t willing to give it up to imprison someone else. “No.”
Everyone snapped their heads to gaze at Hermanni, who in turn stared solidly back at each of them. Puzzled by his short response, Otep asked. “No, what?”
“I have been in that store during my imprisonment, and the longer I stayed there I grew to fancy that space as if it were my own. I never saw it as an issue to be sealed inside that store to begin with. I truly see that store as my place, my room.” Hermanni explained. “I know you are having trouble with Bam, some more than others, but I do not think you should detain him within that room, nor anywhere else in this building. I think instead of casting each other into secure separate rooms much like the guards did to us underground, we should at least try figuring him out first.”
“Figuring him out?” Onika reiterated in a voice filled with grief. She couldn’t believe what Hermanni was saying. He was defending Bam!? Stepping towards him, but keeping a safe distance, she glared up at him with tears in her eyes. She strangely felt like her heart was crumbling over Hermanni teaming with someone other than herself as she shouted up at him, her face twisting with pain. “Did you not hear what the fuck I just said? He called me a fucking whore! So, what? Nothing gets to happen to him? I’m just supposed to let it go and forgive him like it ain’t nothing!? Like it didn’t hurt?!”
But of course, that was only momentary.
Several days later, Cris and Connor were jarred from their deep sleep to a frenzied feud right outside the store. Unlike a disoriented Cris, Connor was instantly infuriated with the interruption and launched out of bed to exit the store to wedge himself between the two opposing sexes that were in a yelling match. “What the FUCK do you idiots think you’re doing!? Back up off of each other, right NOW!” Not waiting for either party to submit to his demand, Connor thrust a red-faced Bam with one arm away from a livid Onika who was holding a skateboard out of Bam’s reach by dangling it over the rails of the second floor. “GIVE ME THAT!” Connor snagged the board from her hold and slammed it down onto the floor with so much strength that he put a crack straight through it. The sound perforated the air, ending the fight as everyone gaped down at the broken board.
Now, if Bam was pissed off before, then he was now violently enraged. “YOU SONOFABITCH!” Bam roared, and without thinking, he hurled himself at Connor. His weight managed to take the larger of the two down to the floor as they both wrestled with each other for the exact same reasons...they both thought the other was a total imbecile.
“HEY, YOU TWO! STOP IT! STOP THAT RIGHT NOW!” Cris interjected, trying to corral the random fists soaring through the air, but not having the strength to hinder them from lodging back into the other rival’s face. Cris knew he was at a loss to break the fight up, but continued to try anyway. “YOU GUYS!”
Hermanni appeared around the corner with the rest of the girls herding behind him, and spied Cris’s unfortunate predicament. He had been requested by the ladies to go out for a walk around the mall, which he agreed to and had spent his entire morning in their company. But now he was having to excuse himself. “Pardon me, ladies.” Rushing forward to abet Cris, Hermanni calculated an opening, took advantage of it and captured Bam from around his waist. The unhinged boy was agitated and wouldn’t give in. Sensing this, Hermanni closed his eyes and pressed his hands against Bam’s flat stomach through his shirt to utilize his powers on him to split through his fury. “Bam, you must calm down. Let him go!”
Cris and the girls scurried around them to assist dragging Connor back onto his feet, but he shook them off and rectified himself while growling. “I got it, I fucking got it!”
Bam and Connor were panting heavily as they glared at one another, a bit bruised and hardly bloody when Otep and Bert sprinted up the stairs to stop the commotion. Looking between both fighters who refused to break eye contact with one another, Bert demanded with his arms stretched open. “What the fuck is going on up here, huh!?”
“Speak up, don’t you idiots be shy now.” Otep pressed on, her arms crossed as she stood beside Bert and scowled at the two trouble-makers. “SPEAK UP!”
But Bam didn’t bother to say anything as he wrenched himself out of Hermanni’s slackened hold, and stomped off down the stairs, cursing aloud to himself. Hermanni and the others quietly watched him go, deciding to give him time to compose himself down before confronting him. Otep wasn’t going to let Connor off that easily though. Stepping forward, she irritably snapped. “Connor, tell us what happened between you two? And I don’t want to hear excuses!”
Connor merely sighed and rolled his eyes in response as he touched his throbbing jawline. Since she was just as entangled, Onika placed her hands on her hips and chose to speak up for him. “It wasn’t Connor’s fault they started fighting, Bam was arguing with me first. Apparently the little bitch gots a bug up his ass or something cause out of nowhere he has some problem with the way I dressed today. I overheard him calling me a motherfucking whore underneath his breath while skating past me on his stupid little ass board. Naturally a bitch got pissed, and so I confronted that motherfucking asshole for talking that dumb shit. He played it off, acting like a bitch was fucking crazy. So, I took his board from him, and we started yelling at one another.” Onika glanced over her shoulder to deliver a contrite look to Cris despite her heated eyes. “And I guess we must have woke Cris and Connor up cause the next thing I knew Connor was trying to break up the fight between us. Bam’s skateboard broke as collateral damage in the tussle, if you ask me, and Bam went crazy over it.”
Otep rolled her eyes and Bert merely shook his head in annoyance. Shaking her head, she vented on just how she felt about Bam and his fiery temper. “You know what, you guys? I am honestly sick and tired of Bam and his fucking tantrums. In the little time I’ve known him, I’ve wanted to kick his stubborn ass more often than those assholes who stuck us down in that underground hellhole! We really need to do something about him before he ends up killing one of us over something stupid...or vice versa.”
“And you guys thought Hermanni was the dangerous one.” Demitria grumbled beneath her breath.
Stifling a groan at the reminder of how he treated poor Hermanni, Bert locked eyes on him. “I guess you can call this another reminder of how wrong we were to imprison you the way we did, Hermanni. It looks like Bam is the real possible danger among us.”
“We all got along well better before he showed up!” Natasha inserted with a distasteful look on her face. “Despite the hell we were living in everyday we never fought like this with each other.”
“Wait, you guys aren’t thinking we should lock him up in the Electronic store like we did with Hermanni, are you?” Cris questioned them, his wide eyes spanning to all the faces appearing at peace with that idea.
Hermanni also examined their faces, reading that they too were all slowly agreeing with the idea of using his area as a holding cell for someone else. Did that mean he couldn't return there anymore? He had a feeling it might. Hermanni pouted to himself. He had come to like that particular store. He's learned so much from the televisions. No, he wasn’t willing to give it up to imprison someone else. “No.”
Everyone snapped their heads to gaze at Hermanni, who in turn stared solidly back at each of them. Puzzled by his short response, Otep asked. “No, what?”
“I have been in that store during my imprisonment, and the longer I stayed there I grew to fancy that space as if it were my own. I never saw it as an issue to be sealed inside that store to begin with. I truly see that store as my place, my room.” Hermanni explained. “I know you are having trouble with Bam, some more than others, but I do not think you should detain him within that room, nor anywhere else in this building. I think instead of casting each other into secure separate rooms much like the guards did to us underground, we should at least try figuring him out first.”
“Figuring him out?” Onika reiterated in a voice filled with grief. She couldn’t believe what Hermanni was saying. He was defending Bam!? Stepping towards him, but keeping a safe distance, she glared up at him with tears in her eyes. She strangely felt like her heart was crumbling over Hermanni teaming with someone other than herself as she shouted up at him, her face twisting with pain. “Did you not hear what the fuck I just said? He called me a fucking whore! So, what? Nothing gets to happen to him? I’m just supposed to let it go and forgive him like it ain’t nothing!? Like it didn’t hurt?!”