Title: Lethal Whispers

Author: Max and Liz believer, a.k.a. Josephin

Disclaimer: I don't own any of the Roswell characters. I'm just borrowing them for a short while.

Category: M/L, AU

Rating: R

Summary: Forget everything that has happened on the show. This is an alternate universe fic. However, there are still extraterrestrials in the picture. Elizabeth Parker was special. Strange things had happened to her during her childhood, but she had repressed them all to a state of denial. It was all safely tucked away until someday something happened, and she found herself in deep danger...

Author's note: Okay guys... feedback, please! It's what keeps my blood pumping and my fingers typing :-)

Author's note 8th of February, 2015: Since I stopped updating this story several years ago I've lost inspiration. And since I don't like to have unfinished fics, I've rewritten this story in order to finish it. The choice to do so was simple; my writing and my level of life experience are not the same as 10 years ago so I needed to get a fresh start. The basic premise is the same, but this version of the story won't be finished. If you want to "finish" this story, I suggest you read my rewritten version…

Prologue

The rain was pouring down. The sky was black, the clouds heavy with raindrops. The clouds had finally found their relief, drowning the scenery below in water. The water was streaming down the streets, creating runnels that carried traces of nature. Leaves, dirt, twigs, dead bugs. An immense amount of insects took their last breath that day. The heavy raindrops fell on their wings, immobilizing their movements. The clattering of the rain was the only sound to be heard in the darkness of the night. The wind was still, having withdrawn from the forceful downfall of the rain. The light from the lanterns lining the streets glowed faintly, its light doing little to penetrate the heavy darkness. The light inside the houses looked warm and comforting in direct contrast to the hostile environment outside. The inhabitants of the houses stayed inside. Inside the buildings there was life. Inside the houses, the outside could be ignored. Forgotten.

Through the mist a stubby figure appeared. The worn shoes were repeatedly lowered into the cold water, as the figure made its way in a hurried manner down the desolated streets. Its movements were hasty, as if competing against the hands of time. The figure came to halt in front of one of the houses. The balmy light shone in the windows. It was the right place. It radiated with love. However, the inhabitants of that special house had a deep longing for something. One thing that would make their lives complete.

The figure hunched in the rain, and pulled off the cloth that had hindered the rain from reaching the surface of the skin. In the hook of the figure's arm, laid a small bundle. The bundle was now lowered to the doorstep to that special house. The house that had been chosen. The cloth was spread over the bundle, to prevent the menacing rain from reaching the precious bundle. With a hard knock on the door, the figure vanished into the night.

Chapter 1

Changes is hanging in the air. Danger is creeping closer. Be aware.

She stood staring out the window. The rain was pelting down. Would it ever cease? It had been raining for days. She didn't like rain. Many considered it to be a relief. Something that brought a change, that washed away everything old. She didn't like changes. She liked things to stay the way they were. To her, rain meant a gray sky. It meant sadness. It meant lack of color, of everything that made a day bright. Rain always made her senses run overdrive. There were smells all around her. Smells that normally went her unnoticed, but which during rainy days burned the inside of her nostrils. The sounds were louder. The buzzing of a mosquito could drive her nuts, its buzzing growing to something similar to the sound of a helicopter. She followed the drops as they run down the window pane, and for not the first time she wonder why she still lived in New York City. There was too much rain in New York. She should live in a place where drought had the leading role. She would thrive there. But something made her stay in New York.

She took a deep breath, and pulled up the umbrella, mentally preparing herself for going outside. She really didn't want to. It felt like the rain was mugging her. It didn't like her and the feelings were mutual. She opened the door and the moist cold air hit her in the face. She pushed away her feelings of distress. It was only rain, for Christ's sake! She tried to smile at her own stupidity, but she couldn't quite shake her feelings of unease. Something was wrong today and it wasn't just due to the rain. She started walking down the street. It was dark. The hands of her watch informed her that it was after eleven p.m. She really shouldn't be out at this hour. Not alone. Not in New York City. Not in the rain. She pulled the raincoat closer around her body, and her pace automatically quickened. She was not too far away from her apartment. She would soon be home. Home. Where she could light candles and make herself some tea. Then she could curl up under a blanket and read a book. She loved books. They presented her with an opportunity to flee to another world. An imaginary world. She could become the characters of the book. She could live their lives. They were her, she was them. It was her escape, her haven.

With her thoughts deep in a place where love was eternal, soulmates existed, and the harsh terrible reality didn't, she failed to notice the dark figure that was slowly following behind her. His movements were graceful, like the movements of a cat. He stayed in the shadows, effectively hiding himself from her line of vision. However, that was not necessary. Her mind was already in some other place and she barely registered what was going on around her. She momentarily jumped out of her reverie as thunder ripped through the silence. Shortly thereafter, lightning illuminated the street. But it also ripped her follower from his disguise, and she quickly turned her head towards what she had seen from the corner of her eye. But the lightning was over, and the figure had disappeared into the darkness. An icy chill ran down her spine, and she shivered. While her eyes nervously darted around her surroundings, she quickened her pace some more, turning into half running. She longed for her home. She wanted to be at home now. She silently cursed herself for going out tonight. She shouldn't have stayed so long at her work. She shouldn't have worked late. She should have bought a car, so that she didn't have to walk. If she made it home alive – without any incidents – she was never, never going to do the same mistake again. No, not if she made it home. When. She was being ridiculous. She always became antsy when it rained and her mind was playing tricks on her. She had probably just seen a cat, or it had just been a shadow. There wasn't anyone following her. But still she couldn't stop her mind from making up all the things that could happen to a young woman in the middle of the night in a big city as New York. She could get robbed, she could get raped. She could even get killed.

No! Stop it! She tried to shake off the thoughts and turned left into a nearby alley. One small part of her mind, the part that was not yet paralyzed with fear and panic, tried to tell her that it was never a good idea to take short-cuts through dark and desolate alleys in the middle of the night. But she was too agitated to notice. She wanted to get home, and the way through the alley was the closest way. She quickly turned around as she thought she heard footsteps behind her. Her eyes quickly darted over the empty alley. She was alone. Her breathing was raspy, her heart was slamming against her ribs. This wasn't happening. It was all just an evil dream. It was just her imagination. She took two quick breaths, before she turned around again to continue her walk home.

Before she could react, she was trapped. Strange hands were on her face, covering her mouth and eyes. She couldn't see, she couldn't speak. She could only whimper as she felt herself being dragged along the alley. She could not move, her captor was too strong. She felt his hot breath against her cheek and then she heard his voice.

"Don't say anything."

But the voice wasn't menacing or hostile as she had anticipated it to be. It was soft and low. If her heart hadn't been slamming in her chest, if she hadn't tasted bile in her throat, she would have been calmed by that voice. But she wasn't. She was scared to death, and her survival instinct had kicked in. She kicked her leg backwards, connecting with the small of his leg. She heard him inhale sharply, but his grip on her didn't lessen.

"I'm not going to hurt you," he said. "I need you to listen to me."

She was still struggling, desperately trying to escape him. She wasn't going to get raped without a fight. She wasn't going to die without a struggle. This was her life and she wanted to be able to decide over it for herself. She had always been in control. Now she found herself trapped in a uncontrollable state, and she hated it. It made her weak and she didn't like being weak.

"If I remove my hands, will you promise not to scream?" the voice asked.

Like hell she would! She would take first best chance at running away from him, and then she would start screaming. The whole world would be able to hear her scream. He would be too afraid to risk exposure to go after her and she would be free.

She nodded.

"Thank you," he said and slowly removed his hands. She was quickly out of his arms as soon as his grip on her lessened and she started running, without looking back. Somehow she lost control over her feet, and she tumbled to the ground, having nothing to support her fall. She landed hard, her chest slamming into the hard ground. She felt his arms on her, trying to lift her from the ground. She made her body limb, making herself heavy and difficult to move. She had her eyes close. She didn't want to see him. If she ever made it out of this alive, she didn't want a face to haunt her dreams and her thoughts for the rest of her life. Her mind told her that it was stupid not to look at his face, because she wouldn't be able to describe him to the police. But she wasn't like other people, and she was still looking for some sort of control to hang on to in order to not completely lost sight of what was happening. If she could at least control her eyes, she wasn't as weak as her perpetrator wanted her to be.

"What do you want?" she asked, her voice barely a whisper.

"I'm not here to hurt you," he said again. She frowned. Was that regret she heard in his voice? Her senses were still running overdrive, and with her eyes closed she could more thoroughly focus on his voice. She could interpret all the different keys of his voice, every different note.

"You already have," she said. "Please let me go."

She hated to beg. But she also wanted to live.

"I'm here to warn you," he said.

The thudding of her heart that was thundering in her ears somewhat decreased in intensity and volume.

"What?" she asked, confusion now mixed with her fear.

"Something bad is going to happen to you."

Was he threatening her? She couldn't tell. His words told her that he was threatening her, but his voice was sad. Strained. She was starting to doubt that this was a regular rapist or robber.

"What is going to happen to me?" she asked. She was a little surprised that she still could get her mind to form a coherent thought, even more that she was able to voice it.

"I don't know," he said, and once again he sounded regretful...or guilty.

"Okay..." she said, still clutching her eyes close. Her body had started to relax, the feelings of unease had started to leave her. Instead she had started to wonder if she was going insane. If this really was just a dream. Perhaps she was really trapped in a mental hospital and this was just one of her make up realities. Soon there would probably land a space ship in front of her, and the man in front of her, holding her in an iron grip, would be beamed up into the spaceship. Pink bunnies would probably start dancing around her soon. She plummeted back down into the rainy, gray reality at the sound of his voice.

"I only know that something is about to happen to you. I had to warn you. You better get home. I saw it happen outside. You'll be safe inside. Go home."

Okay, this was really weird. She slowly opened her eyes and focused her vision on the man in front of her. He was dark as the darkness around him. His hair was black, his skin was gray, his clothes were dark. If it wasn't for his eyes, he would have made a perfect robber. But it was the eyes that defined him. It was the eyes that revealed the true him. She found herself being almost hypnotized by those eyes, as she tried to read him. However, at the same time as his eyes were the most readable feature on his face, they didn't tell her anything. They did, nevertheless, give her a sense of calmness. A sense of rightness.

Her staring seemed to make him uncomfortable and she could feel the grip of his hands on her arms lessen. Her mind and body reacted like a prisoner being released from a repressed captivity. She quickly pulled herself out of his grip and got her legs moving. She ran down the alley, expecting to feel his hands on her back any time. But then she was standing in front of the door to the stair well of her apartment complex, her breathing labored and her clothes soaked, clinging to her body. With fear still an evident and decisive part of her body and movements, she slowly turned around and eyed the street behind her. There was no one there. She was alone, and she was home.

TBC...