INFLUENCE [discontinued]

4. A fight to (not) remember

Andrew, Lewis, Jason, Lucifer

"What a night." Andrew muttered pouring milk into his coffee. He never stirred the cup as he never saw the point. He didn't have sugar in his coffee so he didn't see the point of putting a wet teaspoon on the counter unnecessarily.  It was only Maxwell who enjoyed sweet coffee. Their dad hated coffee and would only drink tea.
Then again he did happily put three teaspoons of sugar in his tea.

Their kitchen was enormous, mostly because it was both the family dining room and kitchen. Lewis never exactly said why he merged the two rooms but Andrew was ninety-nine percent sure it was because his dad knew he was listening into his hour long 'conversation' with Maxwell. It wasn't even a conversation- it was mind control. There was no way it wasn't.
Maxwell didn't know anything about demon history, hell, he was FAILING the class. Not human history. Nothing else. Just demon history.

And yet Lewis didn't care. If Andrew was failing a subject he'd be told it wasn't good enough... he wasn't good enough. He didn't have magic like his brother. He could only persuade people to pick an object out of a list. That's influencing. Not mind control. He just wanted to understand how it works, how hypnosis could lead to mind control. And what was hypnotic control?

It was his fault for everything, everything that mildly inconvenienced his father, anyway. It always 'Andrew failed to do this' and 'Andrew failed to do that.' 'Andrew is useless,'

Andrew was done. That's what Andrew was.

Sure, he was able to hypnotise people now, a sudden decision he had made at four in the morning and then pulled three consecutive all-nighters to learn even a basic induction. But what he had done to Jason, what he had done to his brother. That was the first time he even succeeded in actually hypnotising someone. It all started as Andrew finding a way to call his father out for his wrong doings, anyway.

He wasn't useless, he was better than everyone in this room.

Where nobody else was...

"Andrew are you going to drink your coffee or just stare at it?" A different voice came from behind him. Turning around, Andrew could see it was Jason. His scarlet eyes glowing in the dimly lit room. Was it that dark already? Well it was February, in Scotland.

"Yeah... I'm just thinking Jason. I'm... I'm okay." He took a sip of the bitter liquid, not even that comforting him.

"What do you think dad wants from him, Jason?" Andrew then added after a moment or two. Jason looked confused, dumbfounded even. Andrew didn't even want to elaborate, because not even he knew what his father's motives were.

All he knew is Maxwell spoke to Dad, well the other way around, for an hour and then was unconscious the rest of the day. Not knowing was one of the scariest things to experience... that is what Maxwell said once.

"Andrew, I honestly can't tell you what your dad wants. He's got one of the hardest minds I've ever come across to read. He never thinks about what happens, he just does it." Jason said, his voice shaking slightly as he answered.

"Bullshit," Andrew growled as he put his cup down and approached Jason, "You know what he wants and my god are you going to tell me what he wants."

"Andrew, I can't. Lucifer said I can't."
"I don't CARE what Satan said. I am not Maxwell and I am not telling dad, do you-"

The front door creaked open as Andrew fell into silence. Lewis was back, Andrew and Jason both knew that. Andrew grabbed his cup and pretended he wasn't just shouting at Jason.
Lewis made his appearance quickly, his electric blue eyes scanning the room before finally landing on Jason and his son.