Hello! I'm back with a new Forbidden Game story. I've revised Tallulah, Danni, Damien, Maria, Warren and Shadow and they are the only OC's that will make an appearance. This is part of a trilogy. This one happens to be the last of them. The first two consist mostly of Tallulah and Damien, how they interact, how they got together and so forth. I'll probably publish that later if anyone's interested. In the mean time, enjoy the fic I have written and hopefully, I'll be able to update a bit more frequently and this one I will definitely continue.
Disclaimer: I do not own The Forbidden Game trilogy nor do I own any character that isn't Tallulah, Damien, Danni, Maria, Shadow and Warren.
"Did you hear that there's a new guy?" These were the first words Jenny heard as she walked into school; three weeks post the third Game. At first, Jenny brushed these words and gossips off, concentrating on just getting her life back on track after the whole Julian-fiasco but she couldn't shake the way she felt about him, about what had happened. She wasn't necessarily depressed but she wasn't overjoyed by the prospect of not being haunted any more. Really, all she wanted was to get out of high school and move on for good but memories of Julian kept flitting through her mind, every hour of every day. Sometimes, he'd even appear in her dreams and she simply could not escape him. Sometimes, Jenny didn't want to forget him. In a way, Julian was like a disease but somehow, for some reason, Jenny couldn't think of him that way.
Try as she might, Jenny couldn't think badly of Julian since the last Game. She just couldn't. Jenny shivered slightly, pulling her thick cardigan tighter around her frame and chewed on her lower lip as she headed to her first class of the day. Although it wasn't cold, she felt it and goose-bumps had even made themselves apparent on her skin. She entered the classroom and took a seat at the back, digging her notebook and pencil case out of her bag, not that she'd be doing any learning.
Despite the fact Maths was a bore; Jenny was unable to concentrate on anything. Her mind would whirr and buzz and memories would be replayed in her head and the words 'what if' would repeat themselves, scalding her like a poker. Absently, Jenny withdrew a pen from her pencil case and started doodling on the cover, not really focused on what exactly she was drawing. Maybe it was swirls, maybe it was skulls, Jenny didn't actually know.
Or care, for that matter.
Vaguely, she could hear the teacher talking in the background, the hum of noise making her want to steal away and go home to curl up in bed but she forced herself to remain grounded, trying to keep calm. A shadow passed over her and she jumped, her cypress eyes snapping up wildly, anxiously and she froze, her lips parted slightly in shock.
A teenage boy stood in front of her, his pale pink lips curled up in a smile. It was sweet – almost shy. He had shaggy chestnut brown hair with blonde highlights and a honey-brown tan that made him look almost radiant. He was tall and lanky with sinewy muscles disguising themselves beneath his flesh and he moved with a strange sort of grace, something a teenage boy should have lacked. Beneath his locks of hair, she could see a diamond piercing in the lobe of his right ear, glittering prettily in the dull light of the classroom. That wasn't what made Jenny gasp; it was eyes that did it. They were cobalt blue, electrifying and gorgeous and Jenny's heart thudded rapidly in her chest, her mouth drying. Nobody had blue eyes like that, nobody.
Except Julian.
She clamped her lips together, her cheeks turning red as she caught herself staring and dropped her head, abashed and continued to doodle. Her heart was racing erratically and the rushing sound of blood roared in her ears as her face burnt with embarrassment at being caught staring. However, another part of her was nervous, apprehensive. The guy had the exact same colour eyes as Julian and they glittered the same way. No one's eyes were that blue and Jenny was positive that they weren't contacts but she couldn't really accuse the poor guy of being someone he may not be. The chances of Julian being reborn were miniscule, almost non-existent. The Shadow Men wouldn't bring him back for he had betrayed them and sacrificed himself for her. He loved her and he would die for her and he did. Julian would mean nothing to them dead but they could make replacements. Maybe the guy sitting next to her was Julian's replacement and he wanted revenge? What if?
Those two words again, chanting and twisting around in her mind like a mantra; what if, what if, what if, what if…
Someone nudged her lightly in the side and she started, flinching away from the touch. Normally, Jenny would never react in such a way if someone even so much as brushed against her but times had changed since then. Although she was stronger mentally and physically, emotionally, she was almost a wreck. A simple touch made her jump and move away, as if she didn't want to get too attached again. After the Games, Jenny and Tom had split up. It was for the best, they'd agreed and Tom had a new girlfriend, a cute girl with grey eyes, dimples and brown hair. She was sweet and Jenny approved of his choice but since the day they broke up, they hadn't spoken.
Summer and Zach winded up together, just by a possible fluke but Jenny liked seeing them together, the way they balanced each other out. On occasion, Jenny would catch herself staring at them as they laughed and briefly wondered if that would've been Julian and her in another world, a different life. Would it have been them if she'd accepted him for who he was and stayed with him in the Shadow World? For one, he'd be alive now.
Nowadays, Jenny couldn't deny the attraction she had for the deceased Shadow Man, although she tried hard to fight it in the beginning, assuring herself that it was merely grief because she'd seen someone die but soon, she gave into her emotions and succumbed to the waves of anguish and the icy stabs of broken-heartedness. What if she'd figured out her feelings earlier? What if she'd realised that the attraction she had to Julian was more than desire and an intrigue for adventure or the thrill he gave her whenever he kissed her earlier? Would he still be with her or would he still have ended up dead and nothing more than a broken runestave?
Another nudge was delivered, this time a little harder and Jenny's attention snapped towards the person sitting next to her. Cobalt met pine. She swallowed, her eyes darting away as she chewed on her lip. The strange boy smiled serenely, eerily calm and not at all put off by her rude and strange behaviour. "Hello," His voice was naturally husky, smooth like honey with a hint of music seeping into the greeting, relaxed tone. "My name's Damien. I'm new," He held out a smooth, golden-tanned hand that had yet to be cursed with callousness and roughness from work.
Jenny shivered at his words and gently moved her hand and placed it in his dubiously. "Jenny," Her own voice was nothing but a whisper. Since when did she seem so weak and fragile? The boy – Damien – smiled wider, shaking her hand lightly before dropping it in favour of picking up a pencil.
"Pleasure to meet you, Jenny," He replied smoothly, scrawling something down on the lines of his notebook. "I hope you don't mind me asking, but, is it alright if I sit with you and your friends at lunch? I've yet to find somewhere to go,"
She blinked, her fingers curling around her pen, her grip tightening a little as she gazed at him. "Uh…" She trailed off awkwardly, thinking. Ever since the Games, Dee, Audrey, Michael, Zach, Summer and Jenny never spoke about them again. Julian was never brought up in any conversation and for that, Jenny was thankful. However, now that some new guy with eyes like Julian had turned up, surely they would despise him at first sight? Jenny's teeth bit through the skin of her lip, blood welling on the stinging that that she soothed with her tongue, blocking out the coppery taste that coated her taste-buds. However, she couldn't let the poor guy wander around alone – that wouldn't be fair on him. Hell, if Jenny had been declined, she'd probably be in ruins. No, no matter what he looked like, she wasn't going to turn him away. "I suppose you can sit with us," She answered finally, her gaze not meeting his, trying to avoid the reminiscing it would cause.
Damien smiled gleefully, in such a way that Jenny's heart almost stopped. It wasn't that it was ugly, oh no, far from it. It was just so much like Julian's; wolfish and devil-may-care. Her breath was stuck in her throat, lodged there painfully and her chest constricted tightly. "Thank you," He said, turning his blue-eyed gaze back to his work and continuing to write down notes on something Jenny really didn't give a damn about.
She inhaled and exhaled a few times, her breath coming a little easier and her chest felt looser as she twisted back in her seat and clenched her free hand into a fist, her nails digging into the skin of her palm. Her other hand gripped her pen tightly, her knuckles white and straining beneath her skin as she tried to make some form of movement to get it to draw a picture or something to distract her.
"You're welcome," She mumbled eventually, not bothering to turn back to look at him as she willed herself to draw a flower on the corner of the lined canvas in front of her. For the rest of the lesson, she ignored Damien's existence, trying to push away the uneasy feeling that churned in her stomach sickeningly.