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“Sue.”
Sue murmured, “Please hold” to the phone, glancing up at her husband. Blue eyes, the mirror image of her younger brother’s, exhausted by stress, heavy-lidded. Returning from space had somehow been worse than arriving, as the publicity only continued to skyrocket. Sue and Reed had planned to treat the trip as a sort of eccentric honeymoon, and for the most part, it’d worked. They spent their time in the ether doing science, kissing, and perhaps experimenting with zero-g, just a little, in the endless night. Now, upon returning home, they’d secluded themselves for nearly eight months to test and safeguard their house and themselves against their new abilities. When they emerged, the world was kind, for the most part.
Those who didn’t applaud or ask politely lurked in the corners of the internet, sneaking through back alleys where they thought they weren’t seen. Reed had eyes on them all, though, and unfortunately, Johnny- the unluckily clever teen- found his way to them.
Edited photos. Drawings. Erotic and romantic or just disgusting. Blood or bodily fluids.
Johnny deactivated his Instagram. Turned off his Twitter. Bought a fucking burner phone for Sue, Ben, and Reed to contact him on, only giving the number otherwise to Wyatt. Could he trust anyone else?!
He didn’t know.
“Johnny?” Sue tapped on the door of his room. He’d welded his windows shut days prior, and now he gave no reply, so his sister turned the doorknob. “Johnny? Come on, bud.”
A vaguely baby-brother-shaped lump was curled against the headboard, barricaded in by pillows and stuffed animals.
She sighed, sitting at the end of his bed as she had so many times before. Darkness escapism was a habit of Johnny’s, something she’d learned long ago when he’d hide in closets, under couches, beds, blankets, desks, and chairs, to escape his nightmares and his fears.
“Sue,” replied the muffled voice from beneath, “they know I’m a kid. They know I’m underage, Sue.”
The blankets were warm, Johnny’s newfound power heating them from inside, and he sniffled as Sue tugged back a pillow to reach in and squeeze his shoulder.
“There’s a countdown.” He laughed- she knew he was crying by the choke in his voice, it’d been telltale since they were children- “To my birthday. So they can do it all legally, not with their fucking… loopholes and secrecy, and they can’t be scared of being reported.”
Sue hung her head. She’d failed him, their parents in turn. “Johnny…”
“They like that I’m a kid. Some of them. And the ones who are my age say they can make that shit because they’re not adults yet, not yet.”
The siblings sat in silence, Johnny sniffling, Sue guilty.
“I’m scared, Sue.”