Phantasmal Truths
By: Mark J. Hadley
CHAPTER 2
Bubbles and Buttercup made their way quietly down the steps leading into the professor’s lab. It was still night; the whole house was dark. “We’re gonna get in trouble,” Bubbles said.
“No we’re not,” Buttercup insisted. “We’ll be really quiet.”
Bubbles nodded, and glanced back upstairs for a moment to make sure no one was following. “Why are we coming down here, anyway?” she asked.
Buttercup hesitated for a moment, and said, “I don’t really know…I just felt like there’s something we needed to see down here…”
“Yeah,” Bubbles said, “you’re right…I kind of feel it too…” As they got amongst the tables, they started looking around, still not even sure of what they were looking for. They went through piles of scientific equipment, beakers and test tubes, stacks of books and papers, in search of something…
“Nothing yet,” Buttercup muttered. Maybe we should just forget about it, Buttercup thought. It’s just a feeling, after all. It’s probably nothing…
“Hey!” Bubbles said, not too loudly, but loud enough for Buttercup to hear. “I think I found something!” Buttercup flew over to take a look at what she found: a box containing a set of cassette tapes, and a small cassette recorder. The tapes were labeled, “Perfect Girl Project”, and were numbered and dated. Many of the dates on the tapes preceded their creation.
Buttercup smiled, “I think this is it. Wow…I never knew the prof was keeping a journal like this.”
Lifting one of the tapes up, Bubbles examined the date and said, “Hey, I think this is the one from right after we were born! Let’s listen to it…” Buttercup nodded, and they loaded the tape into the recorder, pressing the ‘play’ button.
The professor’s voice came from the recorder…Buttercup quickly turned the volume down so that they wouldn’t wake anyone else in the house up. “A major success last night. I believed that I had completed the final calculations on the Perfect Girl recipe, as detailed in the previous tape. I had decided to try preparing the formula, when during the mixing procedure, an accident occurred…my memories of the event are a little sketchy, because I was overwhelmed with the results. I had apparently smashed the beaker containing Chemical X, which poured into the Perfect Girl mix, and had an unstable reaction…”
They listened as the professor’s voice continued, “It had worked! But not as I had expected, exactly. For one thing, the Chemical X had enhanced the Perfect Girl recipe, adding superpowers to it…a most unusual addition, indeed. But even more stunning was the split. Instead of one Perfect Girl, as I had intended, there were three…”
Bubbles seemed confused, “Wait, but…I thought the recipe was supposed to make three…”
“Yeah, me too,” Buttercup said. “I mean, that’s how he planned it, didn’t he?”
They continued to listen, more intrigued now, as the professor’s voice spoke, “This was a most stunning turn of events. How were three created, when there were only enough in the recipe for one? Perhaps it was due to the Chemical X. Perhaps I miscalculated. I just didn’t have the answers yet. I will, though. I have written out a test plan, and will carry it out over the next few weeks. A month from now I should have the results I’m looking for.” The tape came to a stop.
Quickly, without missing a beat, they popped the tape back out and searched for the one matching that next month’s date. Finding it, they put it into the recorder and started playing it. “What did he mean, he ‘miscalculated’?” Bubbles asked. Buttercup held her hand up for Bubbles to be quiet, as the next tape was going to start. Bubbles thought, I thought this’d make it easier to understand, but I’m just more confused now…
The professor’s voice came on again, “I concluded my tests. I can see it in everything about the girls…their personalities, their mannerisms…it was definitely a split, and I believe this is what happened. Blossom, as we have named her, is without doubt the desired end product, the Perfect Girl. However, something happened, and I believe it was just part of the formula’s reaction to ensure her perfection. Several of the more ‘undesirable’ traits were expunged from her system during creation, leaving her only the good qualities that one would expect in a Perfect Girl. She’s intelligent, outgoing, resourceful, helpful, and very sweet and polite. The expunged elements, however, manifested themselves into two completely separate beings, likely due to the Chemical X.”
Bubbles looked shocked, “What does he mean?”
“I don’t know,” Buttercup said, “Shhh….”
They listened as the tape continued, “As I said, I could see it in them easily. The one we named Bubbles seems very repressed…a little shy, uncertain, and without any real strength of presence. Maybe eventually she could grow out of it, but I sincerely doubt it. And the one we named Buttercup has an uncanny fierceness in her. She’s rough, defiant, and seldom tries to be serious. Not at all in fitting with being a Perfect Girl.”
Both of the girls stared at the tape, speechless. The professor’s voice still spoke, “Oh, they try to be helpful, but the fact remains that they’re still just by-products of the formula. Merely unplanned side effects. At least I should be glad that one of them was still ‘perfect’. I suppose I’ll tell them someday, when I think they’re ready.”
Buttercup reached down with a trembling hand and hit the stop button on the tape. She suddenly felt very ill, and from the looks of it, so did Bubbles. They stared at each other silently for a few seconds. Bubbles finally said, “We’re…we’re just…”
“Waste,” Buttercup said. “We’re…just garbage…never meant to be…”
“But…” Bubbles began, and trailed
off, looking very sick now. She thought, Why? We’re good…we try to be
good! We’re not perfect, but…but
this? No…it can’t be…
Buttercup herself started to feel dizzy…the room seemed to be spinning around her, and she thought, It’s worthless…my whole life…it’s all worthless…and Blossom! She’s ‘perfect’, thanks to us…we were made just to make her better, nothing more… She clutched her stomach and doubled over as it all sank in…
* * *
When Buttercup opened her eyes, though, she was no longer in the lab, but she was sitting on her bed. She blinked a few times in confusion…How did I get back up here? she thought. Glancing over, she saw Bubbles on the other side of the bed, also sitting up, looking just as disoriented as she felt. Bubbles slowly looked back at her, their gazes meeting.
Buttercup suddenly realized that it must have just been a dream. Or had it? “Bubbles,” she whispered. “Did we…did we go down into the lab together, you and I?”
Looking pale, Bubbles nodded, “I think so…I…I thought it was just a dream…but…”
The details of what they had just learned were still fresh in Buttercup’s mind. She still felt sick, and she tried to find an explanation, “Maybe we just had the same dream, you and I…I mean, we’ve shared dreams before…”
“I hope so,” Bubbles said softly. She glanced at the spot in the bed between them, where Blossom was sleeping. Her pillow was wet with tears, “Look…Blossom’s been crying…”
Buttercup
said, “Hey, you’re right.”
Blossom…hearing the name stirred something within her. She had felt anger towards her in the past
over one thing or another, and sometimes a little jealousy as well, but for the
first time, she felt a twinge of true resentment. She shook herself out of it, though, and thought, No, it was just a dream, that’s all. It wasn’t real.
“Should we wake her up? You know, to find out what’s wrong?” Bubbles asked.
Buttercup shook her head, “No, we can find out in the morning. Lets just try to get back to sleep.” The two of them laid back down again, but instead of going to sleep, they both just stared up at the ceiling. After a minute or two of this, Buttercup whispered, “Hey, Bubbles…maybe…maybe we should ask the professor about…you know…”
“Maybe,” Bubbles whispered back. “I don’t think I wanna know. But I gotta know.” There was another long pause, and Bubbles asked, “Do you think if we fall asleep again, we’ll have more bad dreams?”
“I hope not…” Buttercup answered, trying to close her eyes. She just wanted the night to end…
* * *
They woke up the next morning. Apparently they managed to get a little more sleep, because they didn’t feel quite as tired as the day before. The three of them made a beeline for the kitchen, and Bubbles asked, “Blossom, did you have any nightmares last night?”
“Yes,” Blossom said, taking a seat at the kitchen table. “I…don’t really want to talk about it though.” She looked up at her, and said, “Why, did you have a nightmare?”
Bubbles nodded, “Me and Buttercup both did. It felt real again, like the last time.”
“Mine too,” Blossom said. “Nothing’s wrong with us, I hope…I don’t want to keep having bad dreams every night.”
Buttercup said, “Yeah, me either. Hey, Bubbles…hurry up with breakfast. And make sure, it’s cereal this time, ‘k?”
Going over to the cupboard, she pulled a box out, and felt it carefully. It felt like a box, so it wasn’t a bag of flour like before. The label confirmed that it was cereal. Still, she decided to double-check it. She held the box out and said, “This is cereal, right?”
Blossom nodded, “Looks fine to me.”
“Me too,” Buttercup agreed.
Bubbles smiled, and flew back over to the table. She put her bowl out in front of her and tipped the box towards it to pour it out. For a moment, her mind almost didn’t register that something was wrong…the cereal that was coming out wasn’t the right color; it was black. Then her eyes caught movement, and she realized what it was. It wasn’t cereal that was pouring out from the box, but dozens of huge, black spiders. Each one was just over an inch wide, with thick, hairy legs…and they were alive, and crawling…
She dropped the box with a shriek, and flew backwards away from the table, stopping against the wall, her hands flying up to cover her mouth in shock. The spiders were crawling up over the edge of the bowl and dropping down on the table, and more spiders were crawling out of the box she had just dropped.
Concerned, Buttercup said, “Bubbles? What’s wrong?”
Bubbles was breathing quickly and couldn’t talk for a moment, but she finally pulled a hand away from her mouth and pointed a shaky hand at the table, “S-sp-spiders…!”
Blossom looked at her with surprise, then peered down into the bowl, which still had spiders crawling out from it. She seemed completely unfazed and said, “What are you talking about? It looks okay to me…”
“But…” Bubbles said. She rubbed her eyes, and looked at the table again. Amazingly, the spiders were all gone. The bowl just contained cereal, and the box had cereal spilling out of it where she had dropped it. “But…but…”
“Easy, Bubbles,” Blossom said, trying to calm her down. “Were you hallucinating again?”
Bubbles edged uneasily back towards the table, and said, “It was…it was there…there’s no way I coulda been wrong…they were crawling around and everything…they were there, I know it!”
“Well, if they were, they’re not there now,” Buttercup said.
Gingerly taking her seat again, Bubbles sat and just stared at her bowl of cereal. Blossom picked up the box from where Bubbles dropped it, and poured herself a bowl, saying, “Look, I’ll eat right now and show you that it’s all right.” As Bubbles watched, she ate the whole contents of the bowl, without anything bad happening.
“Ok, I…guess it’s safe…” Bubbles agreed.
Buttercup had finally poured her own cereal and was eating, “Yeah, c’mon. It’s fine, see?”
Blossom got up and said, “I’m going upstairs to get ready for school. Make sure you eat, Bubbles…we have to keep our strength up, you know.” With that, she flew out from the room, heading upstairs.
Bubbles looked down at her bowl, and cautiously picked a piece of cereal up, holding it up in front of her and examining it closely. It looks normal enough, she thought. As she watched it, however, it suddenly sprouted several small, wriggling legs. Almost like someone that had been electrocuted, Bubbles yelped and instinctively tossed it away.
It landed on the table, but it no longer had the legs; it was a normal piece of cereal again. Buttercup gave a questioning glance at Bubbles, who turned and flew over to a bowl of fruit on the counter, and said with a nervous giggle, “Heh…think I’ll just have an apple…”
* * *
Upstairs, Blossom was brushing her teeth, and looking at herself in the mirror at the same time. It looked like dark circles were forming under her eyes, from the little amounts of sleep they had gotten in the past two nights. If this keeps up, she thought, we’re going to look just as bad as we feel. She rinsed off her toothbrush, and cupped her hands under the cool water. As she did this, she couldn’t help but think back on her last nightmare.
It was awful, she thought. Why would I ever dream something like that? Maybe, somewhere deep in my mind, I really don’t think I’m a good leader…no, I’m good, I really am…but I can always get better. Yes, that’s it…I’ll work on improving my planning skills. That way, a situation like in that dream will never happen to the other girls, nor to Townsville…but then, if I wasn’t the leader, I wouldn’t have to worry about their blood being on my hands anymore…
Closing her eyes, she leaned down and splashed some of the cool water onto her face. That made her feel better, but only for a moment, because she felt an odd sensation…a stickiness, across her face and hands. Confused, she opened her eyes, looking at her cupped hands in front of her. They weren’t wet with water, but soaked in a bright red color. Her eyes flew up to the mirror…her whole face was dripping with the same red…
…sticky…red…
Blossom screamed, falling back from the sink and landing on the ground. She frantically wiped her face, her mind screaming, Oh god get it off get it off!! The professor appeared at the door…he had heard the scream, and ran over to see what was wrong, “Blossom?”
Looking up through her tears, Blossom was about to say something, when she noticed the professor’s expression. It wasn’t horrified, but rather just concerned. She stopped wiping her face, and slowly looked down at her hands again. The red was gone…her hands were a little wet with water, but there was no sign of anything else. She traced her hand once across her cheek and looked at it again. Still nothing, no indication of what she had seen at all.
The professor repeated, “Blossom? Are you okay?”
Blossom got back to her feet unsteadily, and said, “I’m…I’m fine…” In reality, that was far from the truth. What’s going on?! she thought. That couldn’t have been just my imagination! I felt it!
“Are you sure?” the professor asked.
“I’m fine!” Blossom said, a little more fiercely than she intended. Seeing the hurt look on the professor’s face, she quickly added, more softly, “I’m sorry…I just…I just want to be alone for a minute, okay?” Still looking worried, he left the bathroom nonetheless, closing the door behind him. Blossom looked at herself in the mirror again. She was trembling. Sleep isn’t the only thing I’m losing, Blossom thought…I feel like my sanity’s on the way, too…
* * *
As they flew off towards the school, high in the sky, Buttercup looked at the other girls. They both look seriously disturbed, and Buttercup couldn’t help but wonder if something similar was going to happen to her as well. She kept her eyes open, watching for any sign of trouble. Nothin’s sneakin’ up on me, not even a hallucination…
“Are you sure we’re okay for school?” Bubbles said apprehensively. “I just wanna stay home…”
Blossom shook her head, “No, Bubbles…whatever’s going on, we can’t let it interfere with our normal routine. We need to see this thing through.”
“I don’t know…what do you think, Buttercup?” Bubbles asked.
“I’d be happy if we could all just stay home ‘till this all blows over,” Buttercup replied, “but I’m no sissy…Bloss is right; we can beat this, whatever it is. We just gotta be strong and…”
All of a sudden, the air in front of her seemed to pitch forward. Buttercup blinked in confusion, and then realized that her flying had just cut out on her. She flailed her arms for a moment and shouted, “What the…!” She suddenly felt herself falling…the ground, a few hundred feet below, was rushing up towards her fast.
“Aaaugh! Help!” Buttercup cried out in panic. Where are the other girls? she thought…Why aren’t they trying to catch me? She watched the ground grow nearer. Oh no…what if it’s not just my flying? What if none of my powers are working? What if I’m not super-tough anymore?! If I hit the ground…n-no!! She gave a loud scream, and clenched her eyes shut moments before impact…
The impact never came, though. Shaking, she opened one eye, and saw that she was still flying forward through the air, still hundreds of feet up, not right next to the ground like she was expecting. Hovering to a stop, the other girls appeared next to her, and Bubbles asked, “Are you all right?!”
Buttercup panted, and held a hand to her chest, trying to calm down, “What…just happened…?”
“You just suddenly took off,” Blossom said. “Straight forward. You looked like you were out of control…”
“You mean I wasn’t falling?” Buttercup asked. They both shook their heads, and she said, “Geez…geez, that wasn’t just a hallucination…I…I felt it…it felt like my powers were all gone…and…it looked like I was falling from the sky…”
“It’s okay,” Bubbles said with an unsteady voice, trying to be reassuring, although she wasn’t doing a very good job at it.
The three of them closed together and held each other in a comforting embrace. There were a few seconds of silence before Buttercup, the confidence completely gone from her voice, admitted, “I’m scared…” The other girls could only nod. They knew they had to find out what was happening to them now…it was getting really bad, and if it kept up, they wouldn’t be able to function anymore…
* * *
At Pokey Oaks Kindergarten, before class started, Bubbles asked to talk to Miss Keane alone for a moment, so that she could explain what was going on. They went into a different room, and Miss Keane said, “Yes, Bubbles, what is it?”
“Well…I wanted to warn you,” Bubbles said. “If we act kinda weird, it’s ‘cause we’re going through something right now…”
“Going through something? Like what?” Miss Keane asked, concerned.
“We’ve been…having some really bad dreams at night,” Bubbles told her. “And…and we’ve been seeing things during the day…”
Miss Keane looked sad, “Ohh, that’s awful…why is it happening?”
“We don’t know!” Bubbles said, trying to hold her tears back. “And it keeps getting worse…”
Falling silent, Miss Keane stared for a few moments, and then in a soft voice, whispered, “It’s my fault…”
Bubbles was puzzled, “What?”
Miss Keane stood up from her chair and walked over to the window, staring outside, tearfully. “I pushed you girls too hard…I should have realized that with all the monsters and villains you fight daily, you wouldn’t have the time to study at school…that’s just too much stress for you…”
“No it isn’t…we like school,” Bubbles insisted.
“Yes, but it’s still too much for girls your age,” Miss Keane said. “It’s…it’s all my fault…all I wanted is for you to learn and grow, but I never thought it would affect you this way…now you’re probably going to be psychologically scarred for life…” She buried her face in her hands, crying, “I can’t…forgive myself…for doing that to you…”
It tore at something deep inside of Bubbles to see Miss Keane crying like this. She flew over and put a hand on her shoulder, saying, “It’s not your fault, we don’t know why it’s…”
“No!” Miss Keane shouted, pushing Bubbles’ arm off of her, and turning to run out of the room, crying, “I can’t live with myself! I just can’t bear it!!” She disappeared into the hallway.
Bubbles thought, Oh no…what did I do? Where’s she going? She quickly flew out of the room and looked around. She wasn’t anywhere in the hallway. As she hovered past a few of the doors, she called out, “Miss Keane? Where are you?” There was no answer, and she kept looking…
All of a sudden, from one of the rooms near her, she heard a loud sound…like a gunshot. Bubbles gasped, and rushed to the door, opening it. “Miss Keane? Are you all ri—…” Her heart leapt into her throat at what she saw in the room. A desk, with one of the drawers open on it…a small revolver…and Miss Keane…
Bubbles almost couldn’t see it clearly through her tears, and she didn’t really want to, anyway…yet, she couldn’t take her eyes off the gruesome scene. Oh my god, Bubbles thought…oh my god…oh my god…
Buttercup suddenly flew next to her from the hallway, and asked, “What was that noise…” and gasped when she saw what Bubbles was looking at. “Miss Keane!! What…what happened?!”
“I-I was…” Bubbles stammered, “…I w-was only…”
“Bubbles, what did you do?!” Buttercup yelled. “You did this?!”
“No! I mean…” Bubbles tried to explain, but she couldn’t…because she knew that it really was her fault. It was an accident! she thought. If I hadn’t said anything…ohhh…no, please…I didn’t mean it, I swear!
“You…killed her!” Buttercup said, her rage building…all of a sudden, she pulled a fist back in anger and shouted, “YOU KILLED HER!!”, swinging it directly at Bubbles…
*WH--
* * *
--AM*
Bubbles lifted her head with a start, as the book slammed onto the table in front of her. She looked up, disoriented…and in complete shock, saw Miss Keane standing in front of her, having obviously just dropped the book that had hit the table. “Bubbles,” she said, “Glad you could join us. Now, class, let’s go over that last problem one more time…”
Overjoyed, Bubbles abruptly flew out of her chair and right into Miss Keane, hugging her tightly. This sudden action surprised her, as well as the rest of the class. Bubbles, tears pouring down her face, started crying, “OhmygodI’msosorryMissKeaneIdidn’tmeanitI’msosorryI’msosorry,” repeating it over and over.
“Bubbles?” Miss Keane said, not quite understanding what was going on. Bubbles gradually calmed down, and looked up at her. She blinked her eyes a few times to clear the tears out, and Miss Keane continued, “It’s all right, you don’t have to apologize that much for falling asleep in class…”
I…fell asleep? Bubbles thought. Relief washed over her as she realized she had been dreaming again. A little more composed, but in still somewhat of a shaky voice, she said, “I’m sorry…I’ll…I’ll go back to my seat now…” She released Miss Keane from the hug, and floated back to her seat slowly.
Miss Keane furrowed her brow with concern, and said, “Is there something I should know?”
Blossom said, “Well, yes…you see, we…”
“NO!” Bubbles shouted, quickly reaching over to cover Blossom’s mouth with her hands. She quickly explained, “We’re fine…really…I just…I’m sorry, I won’t fall asleep again, I promise…”
Miss Keane knew that something was wrong, but she didn’t want to press her any further right now. Instead, she just nodded, and said, “Ok…well…as I was saying, class, that last problem is a little difficult, but…”
Meanwhile, at the Powerpuff Girls’ desk, Buttercup whispered to Bubbles, “What happened? Did you have another nightmare?”
Bubbles nodded, “Yes! It was awful…” She buried her head into her arms, and whined softly, “I can’t take it anymore…I want it to stop…” She thought, It just keeps getting worse and worse…when’s it gonna end? Is it gonna end at all? Oh please…don’t let it get any worse…please…