The Shrink Program

...So it's either die...or lose all memory of the last two years and become...

Fifteen...

Just.

Like.

Apollo.

"Vain." I sent him a look. A look that said, very clearly, that if he made me the same mental age as my arch-nemesis B, I would find a way to kill him.

Miniscule or not.

"Just let me die!" I demanded, hands curling into fists against Cassandra's fingers. "I did not endure two years of education just to forget... all that stuff that I definitely learnt..."

But his expression was already taking on that stubborn edge.

The one that said he had no choice. That this was the only way to save us...oh, and also, redoing that whole school thing again and potentially getting a less stupid Maddison at the end of the day... it would be madness not to even consider...

"Besides." Cassandra pressed her lips to his ear. "I'm sure the Fleming boy will take good care of her in your absence."

The screech of Vain's train of thought coming to a stop was an audible thing.

Alan and Alex are doomed to be under their Mother's thumb for the rest of eternity...and if Vain agrees to become her evil apprentice...that leaves...

"You can count on me Vain!" Nigel declared heroically from wherever Cassandra had tossed his lazy ass, voice pinched with pain and sacrifice.

Vain's eye twitched once...before his expression settled into something very...neutral.

That. Is when I realised.

He's actually going to kill me.

"You can not be serious." I hissed at him, leaning menacingly forward as much as my prison would allow. "I don't care what the wall in the girl's bathroom says, Nigel is not a fate worse than death!"

Nigel made a choking sound that was quite possibly him coughing up blood... but Vain's morality obviously got lost in the mail as his only reaction to my desperate plea was to avert his gaze.

Guiltily.

"Vain-!"

"You're bluffing." Vain finally spoke, ignoring me to glare over his shoulder at Cassandra.

Who seemed awfully assured for someone apparently bluffing...

"Am I?" She asked, smiling back.

Yea. I don't see it either...

"Since the beginning." Vain nodded, unwavering. "Unfortunately, your usual tactics won't work this time."

Faces barely inches apart, the two stared each other down.

...Did they seriously have to be that close? I mean...she's the bad guy, and she's gotten to more bases with Vain than...um...

"And why is that dear?" Cassandra whispered, smile slipping away into something much colder.

Vain's expression was already artic.

"Because there is a difference between provoking a dormant threat, and stopping an active one." He explained simply so that us people flustered by our own stupid thoughts could keep up.

In theory.

True, I may be having some difficulty reading between the lines...or focusing on what Vain was talking about in general... but Cassandra obviously wasn't having the same problem. The red-headed woman had stiffened, expression becoming uglier as Vain continued.