Title: Slipping Through the Cracks
Author: Harper Kingsley
Character: Franz Caulder/Ryan Wilder, Dr. Pamela Werth, Nicole Carson
Genre: mm
Rating: mature
Summary: Kid Nitro went to sleep in his own bed, and woke up on another Earth in the body of an alternate Franz Caulder. It’s a world without metabilities, which is jarring enough, but it’s also a world where Other-Franz is a mental patient grappling with some serious problems.
* * *
He was running. His legs were churning fast and the world was spinning past him in slow motion. The faster he went, the more the world slowed down, until he thought that if he just went a little faster then time would stop all together.
Lightspeed was a bright yellow blur ahead of him and he couldn’t help being jealous. There was a reason Lightspeed was known as the world’s fastest man. Franz always felt a bit left in the dust.
Clenching his jaw, Franz pushed himself until his legs began to burn. Faster and faster until something seemed to happen, a strange switch over that turned the world around into a swirl of color and he was RUNNING with no impulse to ever stop. He felt as though he could keep going forever.
Lightspeed was always just a few steps ahead of him, always that little bit faster, but Franz didn’t feel like giving up. He knew that if he kept going, one day he would catch Lightspeed. One day *he* would be the fastest man alive.
“I’m going to catch you!” he shouted, the wind trying to whip his words away.
Lightspeed glanced back over his shoulder with a teasing smile on the visible portion of his lips. “You’ll have to try harder than that, boy.”
Franz yelled when Lightspeed put on another burst of speed and zipped ahead. Franz tried to catch up, but it seemed impossible. The man was just too fast. There was no catching that speed.
Franz woke with a jerk and the momentary sensation that he was falling.
He sat up and looked around the room, hating it and wanting to go home. He wondered if Nigel was taking care of himself without him there to nag him.
He got out of bed and went out to deal with his second day in Rotham Lite. He figured it wasn’t going to be too bad; he wasn’t locked behind a security door with padding on the walls like they had at Rotham. Housing both the criminally insane and the non-violent but permanently disturbed, Rotham had been rated as the world’s “Fiercest Asylum” by FasHonesta Magazine and that had only been a little bit of a joke. Rotham killed people.
This, though, was a completely different situation. These people actually cared for the mentally ill instead of just locking them up. He’d heard people discuss letting them out as an option, but he’d never believed it would work.
He’d heard all the stories about what the mentally ill would do if they were let out in public. There would be murders and rapes and horrible things all over the place. Everyone knew that’s what would happen. They had to be locked up for their own good, only allowed out to work and then only with a chaperone. It made sense; they were completely unbalanced and should be locked up for the good of everyone.
It was an idea Franz had always believed in. Except here in this world, the mentally ill were treated like normal people for the most part. They were only locked away when they were an imminent threat to themselves and other people. Otherwise they received what what was called “out patient” care, something Franz had never imagined possible. He was used to the idea of mental patients receiving permanent medication dispensing pumps to keep them safely controlled and happy in their Mental Health housing. Here, someone that just needed a few pills could live a normal life *outside*.
Which meant that Other-Franz had had some serious issues he’d been dealing with. Franz suspected violence and antisocial behavior, though it was hard to tell without asking what his prognosis was. He figured it would be better to wait for the information to present itself than ask dumb questions.
He’d been considering proving his sanity and getting out, but discovering how this world worked made him have to think. If these people that seemed so understanding about mental problems had thought it was a good idea to keep Other-Franz locked up for nearly a year, would it be such a good idea for him to get the guy out? If there was a body switch, Other-Franz would be out on the street with a clean bill of health. Could he do that to these people?
Sometimes he hated having a conscience. Because he definitely wanted out of this place, but not before he found out if it was safe for Other-Franz to be out in the world.
Franz wished that he knew anything about mental health disorders, but it had never been one of his concerns. *Those people* lived in special care facilities where regular people never had to see them or worry about them. When he’d occasionally had to deal with someone crazy, it was usually a supervillain he could hand over to the CMPF; it wasn’t his problem.
Yet here he was in this place, surrounded by people that made his skin crawl uncomfortably, and it wasn’t something he could happily ignore. They were right in his face and the doctors and nurses thought he was one of them.
The only relief he had was to keep reminding himself, “I’m not crazy.”
He held to it through another group session where he slouched in his chair with his arms crossed and his mouth shut. He held to it for the twenty minutes when he was forced to write down his *feelings*. And he was only a little violent with the paintbrush when it came to arts and crafts time.
He was feeling as though the walls were closing in by the time they were taken out after lunch for their daily walk. He pulled on his hoodie and promised himself that everything was going to be all right. Nigel would get him home and everything would be all right.
The air was crisp outside, a switch from the summer he’d left behind. The sky was a grayed out blue with some darker clouds in the distance. The leaves on the skinny trees framing the lawn were changing from green to yellow and he couldn’t help reaching up to touch them. Everything felt so real.
Franz looked around at the other patients with him–two men and three women–but they were seemingly off in their own worlds, wrapped up in their own problems. The nurse with them let them all do their own thing, knowing that the tall chain link fence surrounding the large yard would keep them in.
He turned to look back at the hospital, his eyes tracking over the windows and what he could see of the roof. It was a solid red brick square looming four stories high with bars on every window and only the wide double doors for entry or exit. He didn’t see a whole lot that he could work with.
For about the ten millionth time in his life, he wished that he had taken the extra courses the CMPF offered on escape and survival. He’d always had his superspeed and his superstrength; being normal had never been one of his worries, so he didn’t know how to do it.
His body felt strange to him, heavy in a way it had never been before. The hum that he’d heard thrumming in his blood since he was a little kid was gone. He felt drained, a shell of himself.
But he was still alive, and powers or no powers, he was still Kid Nitro.
Harper Kingsley
Ko-fi: HarperWCK
Paypal: HarperKingsley
Franz looked around at the fenced in yard and the other patients. He’d never been in a situation like this, had swung things so he would never be in a position like this.
He’d never seen much purpose in facing hardship when he didn’t need to. If the world went to hell, he was sure he could survive whatever got thrown at him. He didn’t need special training because he would be fine. Plus he’d have Nigel, and Nigel knew practically everything.
Except here he was in another world all alone. And he was worried that he was going to screw everything up. Because without guidance that’s what he always did; he ruined things. He was a ruiner.
Franz must have been too deeply in his own world, because the overly friendly arm slung across his shoulder almost made him fall. He caught his balance and looked at the brown haired man that held him.
Cheerfully round body and a clean-shaven face that was nearly cherubic in its sweetness. But there was something in the green eyes that put him on edge. “Shame about the scar on your face, but you’ve always caught my eye, Franzy. You’ve got something appealing about you. You’re a very handsome boy.”
Franz felt a throb of creeping dread go through his whole body. He couldn’t help it. He *cringed* away from the man. “Leave me alone, Bertie,” he blurted out, and it didn’t even sound like his voice. It was so timid and small; weak.
It felt as though all the strength was draining out of him and the fight went with it. He felt small and fearful and there was this rising sense of helpless misery.
He experienced the phantom slide of hands across his bare skin and the ghostly whisper of voices in his ears. And there was fear and pain and somewhere in the dark someone was screaming.
The sound that escaped his lips made his whole body twist. His throat felt squeezed tight and his testicles were trying to draw up. Every bit of him felt strung with wire and the world was narrowing down to a pinprick of light and he was fading away.
“Bertie, you have been told before that you are not allowed to speak to Franz. It was part of our agreement to treat you.” The nurse sounded exasperated. “Are you all right Franz?”
He couldn’t speak. He was being pulled out of his skin, colors smearing around as his breath came in fast pants that left him still desperate for oxygen.
He wondered if he were dying.
The world was getting too bright and everything looked too sharp and frightening. He was scared, he couldn’t help it, and he wasn’t even embarrassed when he felt the warm gush of hot liquid down his leg.
His head was whirling and spinning and he couldn’t breathe. Everything was too bright, too harsh, it was killing him, wiping him out, destroying him bit by bit as the world spun fast and faster. He keened, the sound rising from him like a bird and…
There was a nearly gentle prick against his hip. He hadn’t even seen her get close. The needle looked gigantic in her hand.
Then everything slid sideways and he went too. Just for a little while.
TBC…
[table “24” not found /]
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