John Merlin regarded his now doll-sized acquaintance with a wearied look. "Ugh What a fucking mess."
He didn't generally swear, but this stupid girl had brought out the worst in him today. Perhaps even the very worst. But I can't blame it all on Sarah, I guess, Jon thought to himself bitterly. None of this would have happened if I hadn't gotten this fucking rock in the first place. But then, none of this would have happened if there weren't people like Sarah in the world!
The brown-haired boy sighed, setting the miniature girl on the surface of her dresser by opening his palm and sliding her off. The girl grunted in protest as she collided lightly with the smooth painted wood of the antique dresser, the landing being more abrupt than she would have liked. In a show of frustration, John brought his newly-freed hand to his face in a theatric gesture, not at all sure what to do next, but sure that whatever happened next wouldn't be good.
"Y'know, Sarah originally, I didn't want to use this stone at all," he told the cheerleader casually, though his tone was taking on a venomous quality. "Don't think for a second that I asked for it. My grandfather left it to me, after departing for Parts-Truly-Fucking-Unknown, telling me next to nothing about it! Almost-absolute power at my fingertips how do you think I felt about that?"
"I I " Sarah stammered. She was sobbing too heavily to answer the question; her feelings of utter powerlessness, along with the intensity of John's anger, were bringing on a flood of tears. She was unable to express the regret she was feeling any other way; the girl was impulsive, but she wasn't stupid, not at all. Sarah was at John's mercy, now, and she knew that in his position she would have shown none.
"I'll tell you how I felt!" John shouted. Under the current circumstances, he didn't give a damn how the girl was feeling. "Scared, Sarah. Really, really fucking scared. You know why? Because power is fucking dangerous! This stone was my own goddamn secret for four days before I told another living soul about it and almost the second I do- my own best friend, for God's sake- she proceeds to do something absolutely irresponsible and I don't know if she'll ever get back to normal! And I know you don't like her, Sarah, but Karyn is an intelligent, kind, responsible individual, probably worlds more than I'll ever be, and all it took was one wish for her to do irreversible damage to herself! That's what absolute power does, Sarah. Look what you did to yourself. You're not even a foot tall! It doesn't matter what happens now, Sarah. Your life as you know it is over," John remarked scathingly, glaring at Sarah coldly.
That was too much for the young girl. She shrieked with despair, weeping loud enough now that John moved to close her bedroom door. He didn't know who else was in the McMillan residence, if anybody, but he knew he certainly didn't want any uninvited guests interrupting his showdown with Sarah. Seeing a strange boy in Sarah's room would surely be more than enough reason for Richard McMillan to burst in and blow John's brains out with a Smith & Wesson.
When John returned to the dresser, he saw that Sarah had gone into the fetal position, still crying, but with her back turned away from him. John suddenly felt guilty for being so hard on Sarah; it wasn't in his nature to inflict suffering on other people, even as angry as he was right now. John thought sardonically that it was good that he had no interest in being a lawyer, because he'd be a horrible prosecutor. Perhaps he was just too soft-hearted. Still, the point was made, and he wasn't going to shout at the quivering teenager any longer.
"Look, I'm sorry," John told the girl, with a somewhat softer tone. "You weren't ever meant to get this stone, or even find out about it. I would never have trusted you with it; God knows you're certainly not the most moral human being on the face of the earth "
"Fuck you," Sarah mumbled, barely audible to John since she was so small and facing away from him.
"It's true, though! People like you are the reason why this stone isn't supposed to exist, Sarah. Because there are tons of unscrupulous people more than happy to get a hold of it- through any means necessary, as you demonstrated today. And as you've also demonstrated, once they have the power, they tend to use it to make a mess of things."
"Whatever, asshole," Sarah said, uncurling from the fetal position, having found strength anew to confront the situation. She now lay sprawled out on the dresser in the supine position, staring up at the much larger boy. Her glare was still dewy from crying, but she had stopped sobbing for the most part. "What are you going to do to me? The stone is yours again, at least until you mess up just as badly, as I have," she asked, her voice quavering only slightly. "I should be so lucky."
