Comfyvember 11

Story: superhero siblings (original) Prompts: Verbal affirmation — Couch cuddles — Nose kiss

“Jack!” Sophie cried in alarm when she looked up and saw the way her brother staggered through the door.

Knees trembling, hands shaking as he collapsed against the wall, Jack nevertheless tried to give his sisters a reassuring smile as the the door swung shut behind him and the lock quietly clicked. Sophie rushed forward, lending him a shoulder to lean on as she helped him to the couch. She hated how heavily he slumped against her.

“Did he hurt you?” Grace asked in a tiny voice.

Sophie looked over to where her sisters had been half-heartedly playing with the enormous dollhouse Dr. Clementine had given them. At first, they'd been overjoyed with its beautiful, intricate details, down to the working light switches and the little remote-controlled car. But all of Dr. Clementine's lavish gifts had lost their luster in the past few weeks.

“No, I'm fine,” Jack said, but he was so weak that he didn't seem able to lift his head from where it rested on the back of the couch. “He just had me...doing chores.”

“What kind of chores?” Sophie demanded, sitting down next to him.

For a moment, Jack just stared at the ceiling, like he could somehow avoid answering the question that way. But finally, he mumbled, “There was a truck with a flat tire, so I lifted it while the mechanic changed it.”

“Oh. But you've done that before, right?”

Jack wearily closed his eyes. “Not like a pickup truck. Like a delivery truck. Must've been completely full. And...he made me hold it over my head. He wanted all the tires to be checked. And I had to hold it steady the whole time.”

“What?” Anger burned in Sophie's chest. “Why would he need you to do that? You can check the air when they're on the ground, can't you?”

“Yeah,” Jack sighed. “I think he's testing me. I mean...obviously there's the tests in the lab. But he wants to see if I'll do what he says. There were way more guards than usual, and they all had guns. It's like...he wants to see if I'll go along with whatever he asks me to do, or if I'll rebel. As if I can do anything, when....”

Cold fingers of dread clutched around Sophie's throat as she looked around at her siblings. Every time she thought about Dr. Clementine's thinly veiled threats, the way he held each of their wellbeing hostage at different times, promising swift retribution if any of them acted out...she wanted to scream.

“Sorry.” Jack's voice was a harsh whisper that sounded loud in the silence. “I'm sorry I...I can't protect you....” He bit his lip, which had begun to tremble.

Glancing at each other, Rebecca and Grace set aside their dolls and crossed over to the couch. Rebecca leaned up against his side, hugging his arm. Grace climbed right into his lap, wrapping arms and legs koala-style around his torso. She kissed the tip of his nose and then buried her face in the crook of his neck.

Sophie caught a glimpse of tears in Jack's eyes, still pointed up at the ceiling, before she wrapped her arms around all of them in a big hug. “I know it doesn't feel like it right now,” she murmured, tears pricking her eyes, “but you are. You are protecting us. You're the strongest person we know—and I'm not just talking about your powers.”

“Yeah,” Rebecca said quietly. “I always feel like if you're strong, I can be strong too.”

When Jack spoke, his voice was thick with emotion. “The only reason...I even try...is because of you guys.”

They were all crying now, in a big huddle on the couch just like that first awful night after their parents had died. But it helped, Sophie thought. It was always scary when Jack got weak like this, so weak he could barely move. It was terrifying to think about how they'd ended up here, in this helpless situation at the mercy of a man who'd turned out to be worse than a monster.

Even after they'd all sniffled themselves to silence, none of them seemed to want to let go. Sitting here like this, they could almost forget about their awful situation. It almost felt normal, like they would all open their eyes and find themselves somewhere else, somewhere safe, somewhere like....

“Let's go home,” Grace whispered.

“Think somebody else's living there now, Gracie,” Jack mumbled, patting her on the back.

“It wouldn't be home without Mom and Dad anyway,” Rebecca muttered, drying her eyes on Jack's sleeve.

“Not our old home,” Grace said, as if this should be obvious. “Dr. Clementine said this would be our home now, but it's not. So let's go find our real home.”

Could she dare to hope again? Sophie had believed Dr. Clementine's friendly smile, as had they all. She'd thought maybe they could build a new life here. It had all turned out to be a dreadful lie...but was it worth it to believe that their true home was still out there somewhere?

“You're right,” Jack said softly, breaking into her thoughts. “We can't just give up. We have to keep trying.”

Sophie straightened just enough to look at Jack's face. He looked a little stronger already, a little more like his old self. “Do you really think we can do it?”

Jack looked around at them all, catching each of their gazes and giving each of them a little smile. “If we all work together...yes.”

Comfyvember 9

Story: superhero siblings (original) Prompts: Scars — Passing smile — Baking cookies

“Who keeps cookbooks in their library?” Rebecca asked, wrinkling her nose as she flipped through the ancient Betty Crocker cookbook.

“Dr. Kartal, apparently,” Jack said, and the kitchen rang with their laughter.

“He probably just gets his recipes off the internet or something,” Sophie pointed out, wiggling her fingers at Rebecca until she handed over the cookbook. She found the tab for desserts, and flipped to that section of the thick book. “Now, what kind of cookies should we make?”

“Chocolate chip?” Jack suggested.

“Sprinkles!” Grace piped up.

“Peanut butter,” Rebecca said confidently.

“Maybe we should just go with sugar cookies,” Sophie said, biting her lip. “We don't know what kind he likes....”

“Isn't it the thought that counts?” Jack said. “I think he'll be happy no matter what we make for him.”

Rebecca scrunched up her nose again. “Yeah, but you know how awful it is to get a Christmas present you can't even enjoy? Like, what if he doesn't like chocolate or he's allergic to peanuts or something?”

Sophie turned another page in the cookbook and smiled for a moment before turning it around to show her siblings. “How about this one? Sugar cookies, but you can make paint with egg yolks and food coloring. Everybody likes sugar cookies!”

Watching her smile spread to all three of her siblings, Sophie sent them all off to scour the big old kitchen for everything they needed. They'd all helped Dr. Kartal cook on multiple occasions, but he wasn't big on baking, so it took some exploration to find things like baking powder and cookie sheets.

They never did manage to find any kind of mixer, but when Sophie fretted over how much more work it would be to mix it by hand, Grace just said, “You know me better than that!” Standing on a chair at the counter in the middle of the room, she grasped the big bowl with one arm while her other arm moved so fast it was just a blur, mixing together all the ingredients they measured out. In just a few minutes, the batter was smoother than they probably would have managed to achieve even with an electric mixer, though Grace was trembling all over by the end and had to sit at the table with a cup of apple juice and a plate of bread and butter to replenish her energy.

Next they had to roll out the dough and cut out a bunch of festive shapes. Though Rebecca spent the entire time they were mixing the dough scouring the kitchen for cookie cutters, she couldn't find any. At first, they thought they might have to just use the rim of a glass to cut circles or something.

“That's boring!” Rebecca scowled. “I wanted to make Christmas trees and stuff!”

Jack paused in the process of rolling out the dough. “Hey...Sophie, why don't you do it?”

Sophie looked up from the cookbook, where she was looking over the portion of the recipe that explained how to make the paint. “What do you mean?”

“You know, like....” Jack peeled off a bit of the dough in a lopsided triangular shape. “But better, obviously. And we wouldn't even waste any of the dough, because you could make them whatever shape and size we want!”

“Well...okay,” she said doubtfully. “But I have to do it sitting down, you know, or I'll fall over when I'm done. And I can't see the counter when I'm sitting down.”

“Then we'll do it on the table,” Jack said, unperturbed. “C'mon, Rebecca, put some flour down.”

“Wait!” Sophie said before Rebecca could dip her hand into the flour jar. “Make sure you wipe the table off first and then dry it.”

“Yes, Mom,” her siblings chorused.

In just a few minutes, the table was clean, and Rebecca dusted it with a thin layer of flour before Jack placed the mass of dough onto it and carefully rolled it out again. Then the others gathered around eagerly to watch. Sophie felt a little hot around the collar and wished for a moment that they would all turn away and pay no attention to her. In recent weeks, she'd only used her powers for big things. Rough things. Knocking things over or throwing things at their pursuers. It had been a long time since she'd done much precision work.

So she began with something simple: a star. Focusing on the dough in front of her, she envisioned a star shape in the middle, then reached out with her mind and sliced apart the dough, pulling apart the bits of dough as cleanly as if she wielded a knife. Slowly but surely, the star shape lifted out of the dough and then sailed across to the cookie pan Jack held at the ready.

Rebecca and Grace clapped appreciatively, and Sophie blushed a little, but she couldn't suppress her satisfied grin. She could already feel the immobility tugging at her limbs, pulling everything from the neck down back into the chair. But she was perfectly situated to see the tabletop, so she kept going even though she knew it probably meant she'd be sitting here in the kitchen for a long time.

As she proceeded, she went for more and more intricate shapes with the dough. Not just the Christmas trees Rebecca wanted, but also gingerbread men (well, they weren't gingerbread), stockings, candy canes, presents with bows, even a series of Santa Claus in his sleigh with all his reindeer. With the last bits and pieces of dough, Sophie used her mind to squish together letters that spelled out THANK YOU DR KARTAL.

Each new design earned the cheers and applause of her siblings. As each cookie sheet grew full with Sophie's designs, Rebecca and Grace worked to paint them with the egg-yolk glaze they put together, and then Jack whisked the sheet off to the oven and watched the timer carefully.

The old, drafty kitchen was soon full of warmth, laughter, chatter, and the delectable smells of baking cookies. When Dr. Kartal opened the front door that evening and heard the happy hubbub in the kitchen, he paused in the entryway and smiled to himself. His strange little family, his children who had come to him bearing scars that could be felt but not seen, were really acting like children for once. And that was the best Christmas present he ever could have wished for.

Comfyvember 1

Story: superhero siblings (original) Prompts: Breaking bad habits — New day — Train ride

“I'm hungry,” Grace announced.

“Just a minute,” Sophie sighed, plopping down into the seat next to her. “Let's wait until the train gets underway.”

“Yeah,” Jack said, sitting down across from her. Unlike his sisters, he hadn't taken off his backpack. He sat staring tensely out the window at the train station, eyes flicking over the early-morning passengers milling about, poised to run at a moment's notice. “In case we have to get out of here in a hurry.”

Sophie glanced around the drab compartment at her siblings, whose faces looked pale and wan in the sickly lights overhead. Grace's big grey eyes seemed to take up half her face as she clutched her stuffed cat and looked up plaintively at her older siblings. Rebecca slumped in the window seat opposite Grace, long brown hair disheveled from their recent escape. Her jaw was set, as if to keep her teeth from chattering, and she hugged herself tightly.

And Jack...he looked so old. Bags under his eyes, creases in his brow, worry radiating off him like heat. He shouldn't look like that, like Dad did before everything went wrong, like he carried the weight of the world on his shoulders.

Sophie wondered what she looked like.

With a jolt, the train began to move, sliding away from the platform. As one, all four let out a breath of relief.

And immediately tensed as they heard a voice steadily approaching, calling down the corridor, “Tickets! Tickets, please!”

Sophie's eyes locked with Jack's across the compartment. Suddenly their plan of getting on the train and hopping off at the next city before anyone realized they didn't have tickets seemed as flimsy as Jack's initial suggestion that they hitchhike all the way to Missouri.

They listened to the ticket man opening the compartment behind Sophie, the rumble of his voice as he exchanged pleasantries with the passengers, the thump of his feet on the carpet outside...a pause, and then a brisk knock at the next compartment behind Jack, and more rumbling voices as he took the tickets from the people on the other side.

Sophie sat frozen, still staring into her brother's eyes as their mirrored expressions of tension faded into confusion. It was like the ticket man had...forgotten them. Or that he got confused and thought he'd already checked their tickets.

Narrowing her eyes with suspicion, Sophie looked at Rebecca, whose expression was oddly smug for someone who'd been terrified a moment before. “Rebecca!” she said sharply.

Rebecca held up her hands defensively, as if to say don't look at me! Tellingly, though, she didn't speak a word.

But Jack grinned, all the tension seeping out of his shoulders instantly. “That was you? Atta girl!”

They high-fived, but Sophie crossed her arms and snapped, “Don't encourage her! Or she'll never break her bad habit!”

“Bad habit?” Jack snorted. “Of what, saving our hides?”

Sophie glanced at the window to the corridor, even though she knew no one could hear, and lowered her voice to a hiss. “Of using telepathy when we know Dr. Clementine has machines that can sense it!”

Rebecca, still unable to talk in the wake of using her powers, waved her hands to get their attention and then pointed out the window meaningfully. The train had already picked up speed, and tall buildings and streetlights flitted past, growing more and more spaced out by the minute. Soon, they would be out of the city limits—and hopefully out of Dr. Clementine's grasp.

“I'm hungry,” Grace reminded them.

“Right. Sorry.” Sophie glanced at Rebecca, including her in the apology.

Bending down, she opened her backpack and looked at the rather paltry supplies she'd managed to grab from the kitchen on their way out. “Well, I've got crackers and peanut butter...no knife, though.”

“That's fine,” Jack said, holding out his hand to accept the jar of peanut butter so he could open it. “We don't really have an easy way to wash one anyway.”

Sophie carefully divided up one sleeve of crackers into four portions and handed them out. Jack passed the jar over to Grace first, and she scooped out a generous portion of peanut butter onto her cracker before passing it on to Rebecca. She looked up imploringly at Sophie again. “Read to us?”

Setting aside the cracker sleeve with her meager portion, Sophie reached over to dig around in Grace's backpack for the one book she'd allowed her to bring (well, seven books in one, but who was counting?). The only book from their old home that they'd hung onto despite Dr. Clementine's assurances he could buy them as many books as they wanted, and all in first editions. And Sophie was glad of that now, since he never had taken them to the fancy bookstore like he'd promised.

Pulling the bookmark out and tucking it behind her ear, Sophie began to read as she'd been doing every night. “At first Shasta could see nothing in the valley below him but a sea of mist with a few domes and pinnacles rising from it....”

And so, as the sun slowly rose in the sky and the buildings of the city gradually faded away into rolling hills, the four siblings passed around the peanut butter jar and listened to a tale of far-off lands and talking animals, a world far away from the dangers looming ahead of them. At least for a few minutes, they could believe they were also headed for a home that would welcome them.