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"So like...where are we going?"
"Detention."
Pencil had been grabbed by Four after roughhousing too much in the Exit classroom. With many "ooooos" from the other classmates as she was pulled into the hallway and led far away from the room she'd grown accustomed to. She tried to get a better look around, but didn't have enough time before a quite unamused Four pushed her into a room at the end of the hall.
"Detention" as Four called it was a dull colored classroom with spiked black padding around the walls, like you'd see in the room of someone filming a video to keep the sound inside...or a psychiatric ward.
On top of the padding there were math equations pinned into the walls to at least make the room less dull and blank. There was a lone student desk in the middle of the room that sat in front of a teacher's desk and a chalkboard.
Four closed the door by flicking his wrist. Pencil only understood why he did that after looking back at the door and realizing that there was no handle. No escape...
He sat her down in the student desk, sighing. They seemed frustrated, but not in the way Pencil was used to. They were preparing for…something.
"So...uh..." Pencil started. Her voice felt so quiet in the padded room. "What do I do-"
Four held up his hand as he sat in the teacher's desk. "You sit. Silently. For as long as you need to before you've learned to stop goofing around and hurting other students in my classroom." Four said with a glare leveled at her.
Pencil nodded.
"Quiet time starts now."
Pencil sat in complete silence for about two minutes before finding herself becoming understimulated. She absent-mindedly moved her hand up to the desk to begin scratching at it. Four's now extended hand grabbed her wrist and lifted it up. "Do not scratch your desk or else I will screech you..."
Pencil nodded again.
She managed to stay still for another two minutes, before she started scratching herself. Four put a stop to that too.
She tried to hum, she was screeched. She tried to rock back and forth, Four glared at her with the wrath of a demon who was about to rip out her soul and eat it.
So she sat. Completely still and quiet. Her eyes drifted to the math problems on the walls. She tried to occupy her mind with those instead of Four's stare, and that only worked for so long until the lights went dark, being replaced by a light above her head. Pencil could still see Four's eyes in the dark.
She continued to try to sit still. She could feel Four's eyes on her, and that only made her feel heavier. The world around her gave her no sensory input, and she couldn't give it to herself.
She sat there for what felt like years. Staring past Four's eyes in a way only someone in complete dissociation could.
Until-
"You got eliminated round one."
Pencil jumped in her seat, looking up at Four with wide eyes. She opened her mouth to speak, only for Four to immediately screech her before she could let sound out of her mouth.
The silence continued for another long time before he spoke again.
"It wasn't hard to notice how your abuse affected your teammates. And your alliance…And your girlfriend." He added.
Girlfriend? Pencil thought, remaining quiet as Four spoke directly into her head. His voice felt so loud but so torturously quiet. She clung onto his words for any sound at all.
"Let's start with Book. She's a mess. She lost all of her friends that she made through your alliance, lost her team, and lost her best friend. All because your abusive actions stayed with her beyond your simple elimination."
Pencil didn't abuse Book! She did what was best for the team! She never treated her as less than...right?
"Not to mention the status of alternate. How demeaning...and then there's Icecube. She lost Book after Book became a babbling idiot over abandonment and alike, and doesn't want anything to do with Book anymore. Let alone you."
Pencil looked away from Four...but ended up being drawn to look right back. Her thoughts felt hazy, like she wasn't in full control of her body anymore.
"And Ruby? What a follower. You ignored the obvious crush she has on you and Match, more focused on being stoic and rude to notice her feelings. She's nothing without the both of you."
Crush...?
"Oh, but when she's with you? You and Match drag her around like she's your scary dog. The only member that actually matters to you outside of yourselves."
Pencil took a deep breath. The words were bouncing around in her head like a bunch of table tennis balls. It was so overwhelming but so silent at the same time. Her head rolled back slowly.
Four just continued.
"On the subject of members...how about a bember?"
Oh no...
"Bubble is truly nothing to you. In Match's efforts to take on your role as team leader, she simply mistreated Bubble. What an interesting thing to do while taking on your role hmmmmm?"
Match tried to take on her role in her stead?...
"Bubble is anxiety ridden. Even if Ruby could be something without you, Bubble could never be. She relied on you the most, and you treated her like a joke. You body shamed her, laughed at her pain, and made her feel like she was worthless. And in her eyes, she is. What a pathetic mark of a leader. What a pathetic thing to do to someone. What a joke."
Tears slowly filled Pencil's now closed eyes. She felt completely trapped in her own mind. She couldn't will her body to move anymore. Her nails dug into her legs so hard it was starting to physically hurt.
"And Match."
No...please...stop...
"You know, back when I watched bfdi all those years back, I thought you two were an item, with the way she looks at you. Now I see the way you truly feel about her. A lackey. Someone who takes your place as an abuser the moment you get torn from her side. She's just number two to your number one."
Pencil shuttered.
"You don't see the way she looks at you. Or maybe you do, and you just like the feeling of someone fawning over you like a lovesick puppy. Either way, you drag her around on a leash and make her do your bidding. How would you feel if she won the battle for bfdi? How would you feel if she took the prize that you so want? Would you let her have that victory? Or would you take it from her like you took her identity?"
If Match won?
Tears rolled down Pencil's cheeks and she jolted as she sobbed. She couldn't hold back the noises she was making.
Four didn't screech her for that.
"What a pathetic alliance you have. Two people that will eventually never talk to each other again after their reactions to your treatment, an unhinged gem that only sees her worth in her alliance's opinion of her, a Bubble who only sees her worth in everyone's opinion of her, and a lackey who places her worth...in you."
Another sob wreaked through Pencil's body. Her lungs felt weaker by the second, and her heart was racing. Was she...was she having a panic attack?
"And what about you?"
Pencil heaved. The words were like hot coals against her chest. Her vision was becoming spotty.
"You don't see any worth in yourself if you're not using those around you to your advantage. You try to mold everyone around you into what you see as perfection, and if they aren't perfect, you just continue carving out their souls like you carve pictures into my desks. Everyone hates you."
"Maybe you deserve it."
Their words were cold. Pencil couldn't breathe. She couldn't breathe! Her lungs felt like they were caving in. She began to hyperventilate.
After a moment of silence, Four sighed, standing up and gently lifting Pencil into his arms. "Hold onto me."
His body began to rapidly warm up, and as Pencil shoved her face against him, the soft texture of his clothes began to ground her. She never realized how soft he was. She'd never really touched him before.
Sound ruptured her ears as Four left the detention room with her in their arms. Her breathing was slowly becoming even, and her presence felt like it was inside of her body again.
She was taken down the hall in silence, passed some lockers and passed the exit. She slowly looked around as her vision came back to her. When she looked up at Four's face, she noticed a somber look. Was it guilt? Or was it something else.
She was set down in yet another room. It seemed to be some sort of play room. She could feel her back pressing up against something soft, and the noise it made filled her ears. A bean bag chair.
"Recover here. Take a shower once you get the strength to, and then call me. Take all the time you need." He turned to leave.
"Four…" Pencil said softly. Her voice was groggy.
He turned back to her, surprised she was even talking.
"Is all of that...true?"
Four made a face. "...what I said was what I observed from my time watching bfdi and bfdia...and my time hosting bfb."
Pencil closed her eyes.
"I know I'm mean in a lot of ways, and that my words may have been unnecessarily cruel, but you've hurt a lot of people. I believe you can be better, but that comes with seeing the pain you've caused..."
Four looked away. "Your team is up for elimination. There's still a week left to vote, but Match is an overwhelming majority. Your actions may have lost her a chance at winning the bfdi. I'm not saying this to be mean. I'm saying this because you need to hear it."
Pencil nodded slowly. Curling up in the bean bag chair. "...I'm sorry..."
"I'm not the one you need to apologize to."
And with that, Four was gone.