Fire in the Firehouse 17

"Don't treat me like a child Mitchell. I don't appreciate it. Why can't you be more sympathetic to my needs? I hear you two out here being all buddy-buddy while I'm in mourning." He was provoking a fight. Mitch was using his Empathy power to stay one step ahead of his lover. Colby sensed this right away and sarcastically addressed his feelings on it. "Oh, I see. I forgot. You've got these powers and can tap into them to read my thoughts." Cory stopped eating and looked up. Had his brother lost it? The man, in his anger forgot his twin didn't know of Mitch's abilities. He stopped speaking.

Mitch had had enough. "For your information I'm letting you grieve. But you're acting more like a toddler than a man in mourning and for your information, I've yet to tell your brother of my heritage and my powers, blabber mouth. I don't get it Colby. A few days ago you wanted Marie dead, now she is and you're acting like you had everything to do with it. Poor me, poor Marie. Why, why, why, why, fucking why? Cry me a river Colby. If you're having this much difficulty, get some professional help. You're being stupid now."

Hearing these words caused Colby to fly off the handle. "Who the fuck do you think you are? You think now because you have powers Mr. Bewitched you can tell others how the fuck the feel? What-the-fuck-ever, dude. I don't need this shit." He stopped eating. His brother was in disbelief. He'd never seen his brother react as such since having met him. This was all new.

Mitch was furious. "Look, Colby! Enough already! I'm trying to help you deal with this. I know its strange and seeing Marie eaten alive isn't easy for any of us to deal with. Have you bothered to call Dad? He's not taking too well to it either, but he's trying. Oh, wait. No, you haven't talked to him. You've been too busy riding the Pity Express and feeling sorry for yourself and not willing to open up. Great you wrote Drake, I'm fine with that. Get it out, however you need to. But why are you taking this shit out on us? All we've ever done is bust our asses for you. This shit needs to stop now. Neither of us are going to stand for it anymore. We want to help you through this, but not like this. We need to be pulling from one another, come together. But you seem happier fighting progress."

Naturally this caused the other to snap back. "No one asked either of you. You two just assumed I wanted you to do all this shit for me. I'll be fine. I don't need to sit here and take this abuse. I'm going through a tough time right now and you two could be a lot more supportive. But no. You have to be Mitch, the super hero. And Cory your lackey."

Cory spoke up this time. "You're being ridiculous and you're way out of line bro. Grow up. Mitch is right. You're being ridiculous. Get over it. For crying out loud, Marie wanted us all dead. Hell, she made sure I never got to know you and Dad. If anyone should be angry, it should be me. If you ask me, she got what she deserved. She played with fire too long and it burned her ass. Too bad, so sad. Maybe her next life she'll get it right. And let's not forget she had my adoptive parents taken out, too. She caused me to lose everything just like you. But yet you want to feel sorry for her? If anything you should just pray for her soul. That's what's best here. See? These are things we could work out together if you'd come to us."

Colby felt backed against a wall. He tried to speak but the words failed him. He wanted the fight to continue but he was being ganged up on. Reality was, he knew they were right. But this isn't the attention he wanted. He wanted their sympathy and pity and wasn't getting it. He knew he was being unreasonable. Facts were, Marie's demise made him worry about his own. It was scary seeing someone eaten alive and brought down deep into the ocean, drowning.

"Fuck you both! I'm outta here! You two deserve one another. If you two can agree so well, maybe you guys should marry and I should just die!" He flew up from his chair, flung the chair out of his way and ran down the hall to get his keys. Both men stormed after him. They both anticipated his next move, Mitch more so.

Mitch spoke first, knowing him better than Cory. "Just stay here and calm down. You're in no condition to be gallivanting around right now. Look, we all said some strong shit and we need to discuss it calmly." Colby listened.

Then the young man spoke, "How about you calmly go fuck yourself? How's that sound" There was no getting through to the man. He was more angered and enraged than either of the other two men had ever seen. They both knew there was no reasoning with him now. They watched him grab his keys and pass right between them like they weren't even there.

Cory begged for his bother to listen. "Colby, don't. I don't need you to go out there, do something stupid and join Mom. I need you in my life. Please, don't..." Colby was being self centered and wasn't going to budge. He kept going. He wasn't sure where and with Mitch around, he wasn't about to even attempt to think where he might go. He just knew it had to be away. This might be beneficial, a way to escape the pain.

He bolted out the door, got in his truck and peeled out. As he drove, heavy rock music filled the space of the cab of the truck. Tears of anger, rage and frustration poured down his unshaven face. His locks blew in the wind. He had the window down for air. It was a bit cool, but his blood pressure was so high he paid no attention to it. The night was calm, the marine layer thick. This kept his speed reduced. He wanted so bad to just get on it and speed, but the fog held him at bay. "Even the son-of-a-bitching weather works against me." He drove on, soon having an idea form in his mind. He thought to himself, the Golden Gate Bridge. Perfect.

Mitch and Cory were thinking long and hard. They debated calling Nick, but what good what that do? He was having a hard enough time coping with things. They feared Colby might do something absurd. Mitch had an idea. He began revealing his abilities to Cory. "I guess I should explain the power thing, especially right now." He covered the topic briefly, though enough for it to make sense. 

Cory had an open mind. He was accepting and very open to the idea. He always believed in things of this nature and seeing first hand was a trip to him. He wondered what all he might see and learn. 

A few moments passed and Mitch had gotten out a map of the entire Bay Area. "I've got a plan. I've never tried this, but was often told as a child this works. I'll need something of Colby's...Maybe like a shirt or something, needs to be his, small is best." Cory grabbed his friend a pencil Colby had used. "Perfect, good size. Now I'll wrap this string around it and presto, I should be able to hone in on Mr. Hissy-fit."

Cory inquired what was happening. "What's this going to do?" He stopped, "Oh, my God. I've seen this on Charmed before. This is wild man! You're going to use a crystal and scry for Colby. This is too funny. If it works, we could get a serious one-up on him. This is awesome man!" Mitch was happy to hear Cory was so into all of this. He knew he'd be able to entrust his family secret in his lover's brother.

Scrying was the Wiccan way of using magic with a crystal that would lock in on a missing or sought after person. It was a long shot, but with the fog being as thick as it was as well as the city being so big, anything else was purely long shot anyhow. So it made sense. It was worth a try.

Cory had moved over to the window. It was pointless, true, but in a way it brought him that much closer to his missing twin. He mumbled, "Where are you bro? If you needed help with this, why didn't you come to one of us? We had know way of knowing this was effecting you like this." A tear formed in his right eye and crawled down his face.

Colby felt his lover's twin's pain. It was all so confusing. The two men had just recently met and in that time there'd been no peace, bonding time and getting to know one another between moving and work and life in general, was a difficult thing to do. It was one thing after the other. Truth be told, Cory was enjoying the excitement until tonight. He debated whether or not to call his Dad and inform him, but the two men were hopeful they could find their missing lover/brother before they needed to resort to that extreme. He even entertained the idea briefly of moving home, but that was the easy way out.

Colby had to keep his speed under control. The heavy fog was severely impairing his vision. "Damn this fog. I can't see shit. Can anything EVER go the right way?" The fog was just one more notch in a seemingly unending list of trials and tribulations facing the man. All it did was add to his anger and fuel his inner fire. He became more focused on his vision than ever. "This just cements my thoughts. What's the point of going on? Nothing ever goes right. I can never just relax and be myself. Ever since I was born its been one thing after the next. I swear, its almost like I wasn't supposed to be born. I don't see how Cory can go on." The young man thought hard about the brother he'd just met. It almost got him to rethink his position, but the anger inside begged him to go on.

He casually made his way through town, avoiding the highways. He didn't want to lose the cover of night and fog. It was easier this way. He didn't want there to be a rescue mission and wind up on the news or in a psyche ward. There was nothing anyone could do for him as far as he was concerned. It was his life and his choice. And it was, as he felt, his time. Enough was enough.

As he drove at the lesser speed, his mind wandered more. There was a part of him that wanted to just run home and beg his brother and lover to help him, but there was no backing down now in his eyes. He wasn't going to be seen as weak anymore. He even thought of Drake. But if he called him and it came out, Drake would convince him otherwise. He clicked his cell phone off in the event the other two men got crafty and called Drake to intervene. He felt alone, cold and isolated. The empty feelings he caused fed his soul. It felt good wallowing in self pity and self disgust and hate. Far too long the man had done everything right and by the book. Often times Marie would tell him he always needed to be his best, look his best, and so on. "People are watching, people will talk, you'll never get anywhere in this world if you act like this." The words continued to ring strong in his head. The words hung heavy from a time long gone. Words that formed him into the man he was today. He longed to live more on the edge. In ways he wanted to be more like Mitch. It was time to take charge of his life, regardless of how or what he was going to do.