“Samuel, please, I really need to pee. Normal teenagers do not take this long in the bathroom, especially doing what I know you’re doing.” Tanner kept knocking on the door before sighing at not receiving an answer and turned to use the upstairs bathroom.
Samuel stood staring at himself in the mirror, something he had been doing almost too frequently recently. All four of his eyes stared right back at him. 14-years-old, 7’2 and annoyed beyond belief. He had to bend to see his reflection, raising his hand to poke at his growing horns. “Ouch.” They still hurt, and he knew they would continue to hurt until they were fully in. What even was the point of them? Sure, some Xs had more ram-like horns which were great for defense, and others had more like bull-like horns which could cause considerable damage to their opponent. But Samuel knew that his horns would be like his father’s. They would point straight backward. What was he supposed to do, back into his attacker? Just seemed useless that’s all. Useless pain. Useless migraines. Useless horns.
His hands gripped the edges of the sink as he stared into his deep-red irises. Along with his height, his strength had also increased quite a bit. It wasn’t and never would be at the same level as an average male X, but it was much higher than an average human male’s, that was for sure. Unfortunately, Samuel hadn’t quite adjusted to either his height or strength, so under his hands, the sink gave in with a crash.
“SAMUEL?!” Lucy booked it to the bathroom followed closely by her husband. She threw the door open to find a disorientated Samuel in the bathtub, toilet seat around his ankle, and the shower curtain pole next to his face. The sink sat in shatters on the ground, and water sprayed everywhere.
“Oops,” Samuel whispered, looking up at his adoptive parents. Tanner had to hold back a snicker at the sight of the scene.
Lucy sighed, also trying to hide a smile, “So how did it happen this time, and did the pole hit you?”
“Well, um see I think I may have pushed on the sink a little too hard, and yes it did right in the face. You know if I had ram horns, they probably would’ve blocked it but no, I have the most useless horns in the world.” Samuel clutched his face which was beating with pain but still managed a smile.
“Tanner, go get the ice pack.” Tanner nodded and left the bathroom. “Sam, shrink back down so I can see how bad it is.” Samuel nodded, transforming back to his human form. “Oof, sweetie, that’s gonna be a nasty bruise, how much does it hurt.”
Samuel shrugged, “Not too much, I guess. I mean it doesn’t feel good, but I can’t tell if the headache I have now is from it or the stupid horns. And as much as I appreciate you checking, will you please hand me my pants. Being naked in this form is strange.”
Lucy chuckled and stood to grab her son’s pants, “This is really great timing, you’re starting school next week, so a huge bruise across your face will definitely be a strange first impression. Oh, and Callie is coming today too, so let’s try to get the swelling down before she gets here.”
Callie: Therapist/Social Worker. She had been requested to do home visits by Social Services after they had received a report of a minor being constantly hurt and covered in mysterious bruises that had no explanation.
“Ugh, why can’t she just back off, I’ve already told her the bruises are due to my recklessness.”
“Sweetie, she’s doing her job. If they believe a child is in trouble, don’t you think that they should try to get involved?”
“Well, I mean yeah, but why won’t she just believe me.”
“Well, maybe she can sense you’re lying.”
“Of course, I’m lying. What am I supposed to do? Oh hey, Callie, don’t worry, my parents aren’t hitting me, I’m actually an X who can’t seem to figure out my own strength, and therefore have broken almost everything in this house.” Lucy snickered and shook her head while patting the teenager’s. At this point, Samuel had managed to get his pants on and was sitting crisscross in the bathtub.
“Can you get up, let’s move you to the couch.” Samuel nodded, so Lucy stood and held out her hand to help him out of the bathroom. For a male X, he would be considered short, but for a male human, he would be considered tall, standing at 6’2 in his human form. Being in his human form, not only depleted his height but his strength and his speed. Both were still higher than the average male human, but by less now. Due to the depletion of his strength, Samuel had found himself favoring his human form and remained in it most of the time.
Tanner came into the living room with an ice pack in hand. His face grimaced immediately. “That’s gonna be a hard one to explain to Callie.” Samuel and Lucy nodded in agreement as Tanner placed the ice pack on the boy’s face. “I called Ed, he’ll be here in about an hour, and I was able to stop the water.”
Ed: Contractor. He had worked closely with the Wilsons long before Samuel even arrived, and lately had been getting a lot more work from them. He also happened to be the person who reported the Wilsons to Social Services, something of which they were well aware.
The doorbell rang, and Lucy jumped to her feet. Tanner quickly tossed a shirt to Samuel and helped him cover the number 19 on his wrist.
“Why, hello Callie, come on in, Samuel is just in the living room with Tanner.”
Callie had bright red hair, which was braided behind her head, but still reached her butt, it was the first thing anyone noticed about her. She stepped through the doorway with a smile.
“Oh, I should probably tell you beforehand, so you’re not surprised. Samuel had an accident this morning and now has a large bruise forming over his left eye and cheek.” As she said this, Lucy knew what it sounded like, and that’s why Callie had kept up with the visits. She also knew Callie wouldn’t ask her any more about it, she had to hear what happened from Samuel. The Ariel look-a-like just nodded and continued to the living room.
“Hello, Samuel. Oh my, I see your mother wasn’t exaggerating about the bruise.” Callie walked over to the boy and shook his hand before sitting on the opposite couch.
“Yeah, I really did a number this time, but you should see the other guy,” Samuel smirked, he knew she was there because she was worried about him, but it pissed him off. She was so persistent on visiting him, no matter how much he reassured her it wasn’t his parents, yet no single human ever bothered to notice the abuse of his kind, and that irked him.
“The other guy? I thought this was an accident. Did you get into a fight?”
“It was a joke, Callie. Although if you want Mom can show you the bathroom, it definitely took more damage from my tumble than I did.”
Callie looked to Lucy, who nodded and turned to the door to show her the bathroom. Samuel and Tanner remained in the living room, so Tanner could inspect Samuel’s ankle which had been twisted during the fall. Lucy opened the bathroom door and turned the light on. Callie gasped at the sight.
The sink’s mutilated body had been swept to the corner until they had time to dispose of it. The toilet seat lay against the wall waiting to be returned to its home. The shower curtain was tossed to the side of the tub, and the pole that had supported it sat loose near it. There was water all over the walls, and the tub had several indents. Even the mirror was broken.
“How?”
“Well, we haven’t actually gotten that far yet, it happened only about 10 minutes before you came. All we know is that he was in the bathroom, there was a crash and we found him in the bathtub with the toilet seat around his ankle and the pole in his lap. We do know that he was standing at the sink, and he says he put too much pressure on it, causing it to break, but I doubt he even knows how he ended up over there.”
Callie racked her brain trying to imagine the event, but to start with how did he break the sink? She turned to inspect the pieces when she noticed the doorknob. “Why is the doorknob all taped up?”
“We’ve done that to almost every doorknob with a lock in the house. It’s to prevent Samuel from locking the doors.” Lucy saw the concerned look on the lady’s face. “Don’t get me wrong, we always respect his privacy and knock on his door before entering. It’s just that, when he first came home, locks were like his favorite thing, so he developed a habit of always locking the door, which we didn’t mind at first. But now that he’s been having these accidents, we want to always be able to reach him, so the tape is just to ensure that he won’t instinctively lock the door. I mean he could peel it off, but he never has. It’s just. Do know how scary it was the first time we heard a crash, and we couldn’t get to him and he wasn’t responding? Both of us about died from heart attacks right there and then.”
Callie smiled. She believed Lucy. She didn’t believe these people were hurting Samuel, and other than the bruises there was no proof of abuse. But she could also tell there was something else going on, and it was her job as one of Social Services’ therapists to help minors. So, if there was even the slightest chance of pain being inflicted on a child she would be there to help. They backed out of the bathroom and walked silently back to the living room where Tanner and Lucy were dismissed.
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