Big bad things [open]

[myblueskies]

Characters: Romeo and open
Setting: Beginning in his room (1-02), then in the new graveyard and then around the tower. Set on the 1st and 2nd of November
Format: prose
Summary: Romeo wakes up, realises what he has done. Has a crisis of good and evil, talks to friends long gone and then seeks people out to apologise to them
Warnings: Traumatised twelve year old, mentions of death and killing

[Room 2-01] Romeo woke up feeling strange, it took a moment to figure out that he felt normal again. He put his hands on his head, the antlers were gone and he wasn't super strong anymore.

He sat up looking for Piccolo who peered at him from the bed side table. He blinked at him as everything he had done over the last two weeks crashed down on him. "Piccolo..." His voice cracked as he reached over to pick up the Weasel and cuddle him. Tears sprung to his eyes, he had killed people... Killed people and hurt them...

Deep down he knew right away that it was because the bad people. They had made him strong and made him want to hurt adults... But he had still done it. He had wanted to hurt them and he had killed them. He started to cry.

He was a bad person. Only bad people hurt others. Strong people didn't, heroes didn't hurt others. They used their powers for good. Romeo had never had powers before, but when he did he used them for evil that wasn't something heroes did!

Standing up Romeo tried to make his bed, but his eyes kept trying to cry and his spirits were very low. Then he noticed something at the end of his bed. He picked it up and his eyes widened as he saw the red hat that Mister Rossi's mum had given him in Milano.

The hat he had given Alfredo to take with him to heaven...

[Floor 48] Romeo ran out of his room, hat clutched in his hands. He didn't know where he was going to go, he had to find everyone and say sorry. He didn't know how to say sorry for such a bad thing but he had to try. Because even if what he had done was really really bad he should try and make it up and say sorry.

However when he ran down from the dormitories he found himself on an outside floor instead of the jail floor. It was a graveyard... Romeo stopped running; because you had to be respectful in graveyards and began to walk through it. He saw a name though, one that he recognised... And another.

He began reading the names really carefully. Some of them he didn't know but lots of them he did. They were all the people who had been here and disappeared...

Mister Jason had lied. He had said that they were okay. That they were on their worlds and that the bad people could see them. But they weren't... They had lied and all his friends were dead...

He hurried through the graveyard looking at all the stones until he found the one he was looking for, and then stared in horror at Molly's grave.

"Molly..." He sat down tracing the name with his finger. He didn't know if heaven was real or if it was destroyed like everything else. But he hoped it was real and still there. And that Molly was with Alfredo...

"It's Romeo, if you can hear me. I hope you are in heaven. You should look for Alfredo though he probably already found you because he will have been watching me. I'm sorry they stole your hat Alfredo."

He rested his elbows on his knees and placed his chin on his hands. "They made me be a bad person. Like when they made you kill me but I killed lots of people... For ages and I wanted to... I think they will all think I am really bad now. But I didn't want to hurt them. I promised to help Kidou, to help protect him and stop him hurting people. But then I killed him.

I tried to hurt mister Itachi as well. I broke my promises and that was bad too." He sighed, "I don't know what to do Molly. Everything's so bad and scary and I'm trying to be really brave like you but they gave me super strength just like you and I hurt lots of people. I was a really bad superhero."

He spoke to Molly for a while longer, it calmed him down and stopped the tears from falling and though people who are dead can't answer back he did think he knew what to do when he stood back up and returned to the staircase.

[Around the tower] Romeo went searching for everyone he had hurt while he had super strength. The right thing to do was apologise and he was going to do it properly. He was wearing the hat and began by going to the rooms of all the adults he had hurt. If he didn't find them he would go to all the floors.

He was also looking for his friends, because he had to make sure they were okay. Because he hadn't been a very good super hero but that didn't mean he couldn't be a good friend.

Comments

Dorm Room 1-09

[tohko_amano]

Tohko, who was quite happy that she had turned back to normal, sat in her room, reading the notebook that the Administrators had left for her. Sad stories, spicy stories, stories with horrible punctuation..Tohko read Konoha's stories, remembering the days they had spent together in the book club.

It was then that a small boy walked into her room. Even without his antlers, Tohko recognized him. She sighed, closed the book, and put it on her nightstand. "Hello. Are you feeling any better? That costume did a lot to you...and I'm sorry for what I did to you."

Dorm Room 1-09

[myblueskies]

Romeo blinked fearfully at the woman who he had tried to kill, and who had killed him instead. "It's okay miss, it was the bad people so you don't got to feel too bad. I'm really sorry that I tried to hurt you and that I called you a bad person. I'm sure you are a nice person really!"

Because telling people they were bad when they hadn't done anything was really nasty!

Dorm Room 1-09

[tohko_amano]

Tohko smiled. "I don't know if I am a good person, but I do know that what I did was wrong, so I apologize. If there's anything I can do to make it up to you, let me know. And it's alright. However..as a small punishment, you have to write me a story!" Tohko grinned mischievously.

[myblueskies]

Romeo blinked at her worried that she would be really mad at him; but she wasn't he didn't think. Still he wanted to make things up to her so when she told him to write her a story he nodded. "Have you got paper miss? I'm not a very good writer, but I'll try my best! What do you want your story to be about?"

[tohko_amano]

Tohko got up, opened her trunk, and pulled out her notebook and pen. She was a terrible writer, so she hadn't used it. Thankfully, Nesir hadn't damaged it. "Don't worry about the quality. Just try your best, alright? And your prompts are..a writer, a reader, and..a broken heart." Tohko sighed and handed the boy the notebook and pen.

[myblueskies]

Romeo nodded taking the paper with a smile and sitting crossed legged on the floor. "I always try my best miss."

A writer, a reader and a broken heart... how did you break a heart? That sounded like it would hurt a lot...

He began, in large messy handwriting; his tongue between his teeth in concentration.

Wons apon a time ther was a very nise lady that likd to rite buks. She rote all the time evrey day, she relly likd riting buks abowt anemals. Her faverot anemal was a wale becos wales are big they are biger then a train but they liv in the water.

Soon she rote so many buks that she had to open a bukshop and lots of peepel likd coming to her bukshop to reed.

Peepel who reed buks are called reeders and one of this reeders was a litel girl. She went into the shop evry day becos her boss was a bit meen but reeding helped her keep her spirits up. Even wen her work was reely hard and she was reely hungry she cud go to the bukshop and reed.

Won day thow she was reeding in the bukshop and her boss came in. He was reely angry and showted at her. He piced up the buk and threw it on the fire. The riter was angry becos bucs are lots of monies to make.

The girl reeder was also angrey becos she likd reeding and so she runned to her boss and asked him to stop. He hitted her and she felled down and broked her hart. But I fink peepel die when there hart is broked and that wud be a sad story. So maybey she cud just brake her leg insted becos then she cud get beter and the riter cud let her live in the bukshop wile she fikses her leg and the riter gived her lots of nise foods and dident hit her at all.

So even when the girl had to go bak to her boss she cud remembr the nice riter lady and keep her spirits up!

When Romeo was finished he handed it over with a small smile.

[tohko_amano]

Tohko happily took the notebook from Romeo. "Let's see.." She began to read the story, but instead of a heart-aching cake with cream made out of red wine, she got a messy, tiny stir-fry that had chicken, onions, and some fish in it. Despite the grammar, it wasn't bad. However, the ending needed some work.

While Tohko would have loved to have eaten it, she would have to wait until the boy was gone. "This isn't bad. However, you should work on your grammar. Also..the ending needed some work. You strayed into your own thoughts." Tohko, who knew by reading the story that they boy had no idea what a broken heart was, tried explaining the concept to him.

"Let's see..imagine being with the person you love the most for a long, long time. And then, suddenly, they're gone, and you can never see them again. That's what a broken heart feels like."

[myblueskies]

"What's grammar miss?" You'll have to forgive him a little bit Tohko, this kid has never been to school in his life.

When she described what a broken heart actually was Romeo thought of Alfredo and he reached up to touch his hat for a moment. It turned out he knew what a broken heart felt like all along...

"I can try again miss... If you want..."

[tohko_amano]

"The way you write things. Like periods, capitalization, and spelling. If you want, I can teach you." Tohko smiled. Poor kid. What sort of world had he come from..?

By the kid's motions, Tohko guessed that he too, had lost someone precious. To comfort him a little, she patted his head. "I'm not going to force you if you don't want to. But if you do, then I don't mind that either."

[Floor 48] Always gotta go with the sad scenes

[pengeen]

Kidou decided to check out the new floors, starting with what looked to be a graveyard. He lingered in the doorway, not quite sure if he trusted this floor. For all he knew, there could be zombies waiting for him to walk near their graves... but it didn't really matter now though, did it? If he ended up getting eaten by a zombie, he'd just come back the next morning... living in fear wasn't going to help with anything.

He takes a deep breath and walks in, looking at all the different headstones as he slowly walks by. He paid close attention to the names on the headstones but most of them he didn't know... What were these graves even for? As he walks further into the graveyard, he hears a familiar voice. Romeo...

The boy was a few rows away, talking to one of the graves. Kidou wondered why he was talking to it when he realized something... he looks to the grave closest to him and reads the name carefully, his eyes widening just a bit in surprise. These names on the headstones belonged to people who had left the tower, didn't they?

Kidou looked back to Romeo who looked as though he had cried earlier.. that gravestone probably belonged to one of his friends who had left. His expression turned worried and he took a few steps towards Romeo. The boy stood up and started making his way towards the exit, so Kidou quickly closed the gap between them and gently placed his hand on the boy's shoulder.

"Hey... are you alright?"

y...yup

[myblueskies]

Romeo jumped when his shoulder was grabbed and turned around to see who it was, his eyes wide. He relaxed when he saw it was Kidou but then his face dropped as he remembered...

"Kidou..." Tears filled his eyes again and he looked down at his bare feet. "I'm sorry! I shouldn't have killed you that was really bad of me! I broke my promise..."

[pengeen]

Seeing Romeo looking so upset... it made Kidou feel worse than he already felt for what he had done to the boy... But he offers Romeo a small smile all the same and squeezes his shoulder a bit, hoping to cheer him up at least a little.

"To be honest... you didn't kill me. I was already dead, so something like what you did wasn't going to take my life. You actually kept me alive and stopped me from hurting others, and I really appreciate that.

You did keep your promise."

[myblueskies]

"I didn't?" Romeo blinked fearfully. Because that was worse... Killing him was bad but if he hadn't died then he would have been injured and not just come back fixed.

"Did it hurt a lot?"

[pegeen]

"Not really." Actually it did, a lot. But Kidou didn't want Romeo to worry about it...

"Being undead made my senses a bit dull... so it felt like a pinch more than anything."

[myblueskies]

"Oh..." Well that wasn't too bad, but it would have still been really scary to not have a head and so Romeo still felt bad. Really bad, especially since he had promised to help Kidou... Even if he had stopped him from hurting others he had done it in a really bad way.

"I'm still sorry sir..."

[pegeen]

"It's alright, Romeo. That whole month was thanks to the tower.. I don't blame you for anything you've done." And as if to prove that he really wasn't upset with Romeo, he pulls the young boy into his arms for a hug.

[myblueskies]

"I don't blame you either," Romeo wrapped his arms around him in a hug. "The bad people really wanted everyone to fall out with each other this time!"

Floor 48

[warriorscribe]

Graves, was it? They weren't done the way he expected, but the deliberate mounds and the air of death as rest hung over the place. It wasn't hard to figure it out. Enoch seemed mostly passive as he walked among the graves, holding a notebook to his stomach with both arms. He hadn't paid attention to the coming and going in the tower, his attention focused on those that were here. He was only aware of some when they had been his own roommates or when someone else had mentioned them, and then they rarely mentioned their friends by name. It was only when he noticed Dojima's name and the others that he realized the pattern. It registered dully; Enoch wasn't sure what to make of them.

When he saw a child kneeling at a grave, however, he approached and knelt beside him, still clutching the notebook. He was a familiar child, too... And the numbness from the beginning of the day was starting to fade.

[myblueskies]

Romeo looked to the side as someone knelt next to him, he recognised him both from when he had spoken to him when he had been Itachi, and as the bright angel man that he had tried to hurt.

"Hello sir..." He bit his lip, "I'm really sorry sir... I didn't mean to hurt you..."

[warriorscribe]

Enoch shook his head. "It's over now."

[myblueskies]

Romeo nodded, "I know sir, but I still shouldn't have done that because it was bad." He hugged his knees and looked back to Molly's grave. "It's not how superheroes are supposed to act."

[warriorscribe]

Enoch didn't know all the connotations of "superhero", but the root words themselves gave him something manageable enough.

"You were dressed as someone from legend?" That would explain the odd antlers. Oh well. Enoch shook his head. "I didn't behave the way an angel should, either. We weren't...what we were dressed as, we were...something else. Ruana's twisted vision of them."

[myblueskies]

Romeo nodded because legend was just another word for story and superheroes were in stories. Even if they were real as well. "Miss Ruana is a really nasty person sir, she pretends to be nice but she is the baddest of them all." He looked back at Molly's gravestone.

"Angel's and superheroes are both really good things and she made them bad."

[warriorscribe]

"I've only seen her once. But...there is something unsettling about her. Perhaps in her smile... I didn't have much time to think about it."

He followed the child's gaze to the stone, and after a moment, put his hand on his shoulder. "The entire...competition last month tried to do that to everyone, didn't it?"

[myblueskies]

Romeo nodded, "It tried to make us all bad people. Probably so we couldn't be friends any more and then we would all be sad. They like making people sad."