The Sacrifice

CHAPTER 1

Title: The Sacrifice

Author: Me

Fandom: (Source of the original work) The Forbidden Game Trilogy (The Hunter, The Chase, and The Kill) by L. J. Smith

I do not own any of the characters nor do I intend to cause offense, harm, or disrespect to anyone including the author. I really enjoy the trilogy and writing some creative work in the world created by L. J. Smith is my way of showing appreciation to her and her creativity.
_

I hope you all enjoy my fanfic! I would love feedback and although I do have a plan, any ideas or additions to the plot which you would like to see please either review it or PM me. Thank you.

Shit. Where the hell was he? Jenny was engulfed in a darkness so thick she could practically feel it suffocating her with every shuddering gasp she took. The darkness swallowed her, which could only mean that Julian was close, far too close. And still she had not found the painting of the door. Where the fuck was it? Running she grappled blindly along the walls, and cursed when she fell over a coffee table. Her shins smacked right into it, flipping her over the entire thing. Angrily she got up and wiped away her stinging tears. Now is not the time, she thought. Just find that bloody painting. Hobbling she carried on groping her way around the house, her fingertips clinging to the wall on her right hand side. Her heart was practically in her throat.

"Jennyyyyyy" a whisper filled the pitch black room. Oh god he's here. Don't scream don't scream don't scream. She couldn't breathe, or see, or move. "Jennyyyy" the hiss was closer now. RUN the voice inside her urged. And she did; as fast as she could. She knew she was running towards the kitchen before the realisation properly hit her. He was going to find her, and when he did he would take her. Her hands clumsily fumbled around the kitchen sides until they found what they were looking for. She grasped its handle and held it down at her right side, hidden. He can try and take me, she thought.

She felt more in control now, and much more determined. One step, next step, another, her feet stepping slowly but purposefully through the kitchen. Moving through the doorway she went to her left, being careful of her footing as she knew the steps leading down to the garage were close. She moved up against something soft, and cried out in realisation. "No!" Strong fingers grasped her upper arms, holding her in place. She struggled desperately, her hair coming out of its pony tail and falling over her face. "No! Let. Me. Go."

"Shhhh", he hushed, maintaining his grip.

She remembered. Her fingers brushed the hilt of the knife, angled it towards him and thrust herself forwards into him, to plunge it deep in his stomach. However, just as she pushed herself into him he side stepped her. He spun her around so her back was to him and one hand was on her throat, holding her in place, and his other hand grasped her wrist tightly, trying to make her drop the knife.

"Let go Jenny. You've lost. Accept it."

Now she was full on crying. She felt utterly helpless.

"Jennyyyy", he whispered into her hair.

She struggled feebly as tears streamed down her face. She had failed. He had her. He had won. The knife fell from her grasp to clatter on the floor. The sound reverberated, emptiness echoing emptiness.

"Shhhhh. I've got you." Something stirred in Jenny, his words struck a nerve. She did not have to accept this. This is not the way her world worked. You could not take someone as your own just because they lost some stupid game. She struggled again, this time with more energy.

"Jenny stop this", he shook her. Was that irritation?

"Let me go Julian. You're… you're…" a thought came to mind, "you're hurting me!"

"Oh". He let go of her immediately at which point she sprinted away from him only to have him catch her by the waist and pull her back towards him.

"Fuck off!"

"Jenny!" he commanded, her hair was encased in his fist as he pulled her head back, forcing her face upwards.

"You can't do this", she whispered, struggling to breathe with her head so far back. "You can't."

"I can Jenny. You lost the game. That's all. But now you are mine. I said I would win in the end didn't I? Don't struggle, don't fight me Jenny. I love you, and I know you love me too." He bent down and forced her lips up to his and kissed her, hard. His hand twisted in her hair, pushing her face into his. His lips moved on hers hungrily. She whimpered, helplessly, a tear tracing its way down her face.

When he dragged his lips away he was panting, his eyes shining brightly down on her. He wanted more. He enveloped her into him, embracing her tiny self in his strong hold.

"It's time to go", he murmured.

"I don't want too…."

"It's time."

"I'm scared."

"Don't be. I will take good care of you, I promise. I love you." He kissed her more gently this time. The fight had gone out of her completely. She had lost. The laws of her world did not apply to his, and his world was the one that mattered here. She would go, because she had no choice. But she would not stay there - she had resolved this the very moment that he held her in his arms. She would return to her own world, and when she did, she would make sure Julian never dared return to find her again.

"Here we go." He stepped forwards and suddenly they were falling. Jenny got that sickening feeling in her stomach. Involuntarily she screamed and clung to Julian, terrified. They were falling through blackness with electric blue lines zigzagging past them as they plummeted. Her hair was blown up around her face, her hands getting colder as the wind whistled past them, and still they kept on falling.

After a few minutes she noticed they were slowing down and she could see a glimpse of a white carpet getting closer. Surprisingly they landed relatively softly, Julian catching Jenny's elbow to stop her from stumbling when they did. She shrugged him off and moved away from him, but couldn't help herself from looking around. Where am I?

They were standing in an impressive foyer with a grand staircase leading upstairs. The staircase was a light coloured wood which led up to another three stories; Jenny's eyes widened in amazement. This place was huge. And it was beautiful. A chandelier glittered above her, sparkling from the light being given off by the lamps which adorned the walls.

"Do you like it?"

Jenny snapped out of her reverie and stared angrily at him.

"What is it?" he asked cautiously.

"Where are they?"

"Oh…" he at least had the grace to lower his eyes, she thought.

"What have you done with them all? Are they safe? Have you kept up your end of this sick bargain?"

"Jenny…" he tried to move towards her but instead she spat out the words,

"Don't you move any closer. I don't want you anywhere near me Julian. What have you done with them?"

"Be careful Jenny", he warned, his voice low and threatening.

But she didn't care. "How dare you threaten me", she whispered back. She was furious. Julian always awakened extreme passions in her which she usually found unsettling and irritatingly erotic, but this time she was glad of the strength and courage the emotion was giving her against him. "Answer me."

Julian sighed, running a hand through his hair as white as icicles covered with frost, and let it fall over his eyes; eyes that were the deepest blue: soothing and dangerous; passionate and merciless, desirous and hungry. She had to snap out of this, Jenny realised. She could not let him distract her like this, not now.

"The door separating them from their world will have opened for them. They should have all left by now."

"Should?"

"Well I haven't had time to check Jenny. You put up rather a chase" a wolfish grin appearing on his face which she didn't return. His smile faltered. "Jenny, you chose to play the game. I played by the rules, you knew what would…"

"Enough" she snapped, cutting him off. "Firstly", she took an intimidating step forward, "where the fuck did my choice come into it? If I am not mistaken my so called 'choice' was either be taken by you unwillingly to your world where I would be yours, whatever that means, or play the game which you would make sure I would lose, resulting in being taken to this place unwillingly, yet again. Do not pretend it was my choice. Don't you dare. And secondly," she took yet another step forward so she was directly in front of him, "you made damn well sure that I would lose from the start. As for those so called rules of yours…" she spat on the ground in answer. Much to her satisfaction Julian's eyes opened wide in surprise and shock.

She couldn't believe how invigorated she felt. All of the anger, frustration and hurt that Julian had caused her over the last two games was pulsing through every vein in her being. She was practically shaking with emotion. She felt brave, courageous, and daring.

Until she saw his eyes change; they visibly looked darker and he looked absolutely terrifying. Her resolve faltered and she cautiously stepped back, suddenly frightened. All of her strength had disappeared in a single moment. She felt like a small, scared, little girl lost in a dark, unknown world with a monster; a monster who wanted her and would do anything to keep her.

"Be careful Jenny. You are in my world now." He didn't move, his words echoing in Jenny's head. Her breath quickened and she had frozen. "I'll show you to your room", and he took her hand and started leading her up the stairs.

In a daze Jenny unthinkingly started following until she came to her sense and wrenched her hand back hissing at him "take me home you bastard."

With that Julian grabbed her hand back and started dragging her up the stairs. "No! Let me go!" Jenny protested more, desperately trying to grasp the bannister at which point he picked her up and slung her over his shoulder, with her continuing to kick and object.

She felt him turn and gradually the stairway in front of her got smaller as he walked down a long hall way, carpeted in the same colour as the foyer. The walls were adorned with various photographs and painted vases stood on tiny tables to the side however she took little notice of them as they were too far for her to reach and hold on to. Eventually she felt him stop and walk through a door into a lilac room. Yet she had little time to take in her surroundings as he swiftly slung her off his shoulder and gently but forcefully pushed her onto a large, white bed. Before she could get up and make a run for it he had already silently left and shut the door on her just as she was clambering up to make her attempt. Nevertheless she bolted to the door and rattled the handle, only to find out it was locked. He had locked her in her own prison cell; a cell made up of lilac walls, a white carpet, and a white double bed. Frantically she rattled the handle again, she tried to pull the door, push it, kick it; even slamming herself into it would not make the door budge. Feebly she banged her fists on the door as tears of realization slid down her cheeks. Unable to contain it she outwardly started sobbing as she crossed the room to fling herself onto the bed where she cried herself to sleep, soaking a soft pillow with her salty tears.

He continued scrunching up the paper in his fist until it couldn't get any smaller. He was going to kill Julian. He didn't know how yet but he was going to do it. Once and for all he would rid Jenny, himself, and all of their other friends of this sick, twisted, sadistic creature.

"Tom, are you alright?" Michael gingerly laid a hand on Tom's shoulder.

"Of course he's not alright" Audrey snapped. "None of us are."

"I know but…"

"Just give it a rest Michael" Dee sighed.

Zach was sitting apart from everyone else, in a corner of the garage, silently watching everyone. It just never ends he thought. Even though we've lost… He remembered back to when they had been stuck in a cafeteria which was inside a painting; a painting which was facing him now, and had been sitting there in his garage since he had completed it a few months ago. Even though he knew it was not his fault he blamed himself since he had painted it. They had been stuck there for weeks, receiving food on an automated conveyer belt which Zach had painted, waiting around sitting at tables he had also painting, with only each other's company and the brooding silences to occupy them, combined with the few unwelcome but always memorable visits from Julian. That had been the most awful aspect of the whole ordeal in Zach's mind. And most likely everyone else's also.

Julian loved to taunt Tom the most. However, it was vastly different to his psychological torture of the first game where he had tied Tom up in front of a mirror to watch Jenny with Julian, fighting against Julian, and being manipulated into accidentally giving him permission to touch her as a result of an exquisite silver rose.

No, since Jenny had defied Julian after the first game Julian had definitely turned much more sadistic in his desire for her. The worst visit from Julian had been the very last time they had seen him. Smirking, he had strolled into the cafeteria through a door which only he could enter and leave by; a door which Zach had not actually painted, which did relieve him a little of the guilt. His eyes had been flashing malevolently, his usually silver hair gleaming white, and he looked the epitome of arrogance. Languidly he had placed himself onto a seat next to Tom, still smirking, and said, "Well hello there little Tommie."

It was not uncommon for Julian to mock Tom however instantly this had felt different. Tom had sensed it as well. He had cautiously sat up straight, looked his torturer in the eye and calmly replied "Hello Julian." Julian had smiled at that.

"So much self-control Tommie. I had rather hoped you would be putting up more of a fight for your girl. Although," he snickered, "you haven't given much of a damn about her the last few months have you, so why would today be any different?"

Tom had visibly stiffened at that, a reaction Julian did not fail to notice. "What have you done?" Tom had demanded, panic etched upon his rigid features.

"Ah no… it is what I am about to do little Tommie." He had then leaned in to whisper in Tom's ear, words that only Tom had been able to hear which resulted in Tom grabbing Julian by the collar of his leather jacket, drawing back his fist until Julian had slammed his head down onto the table and held him there. His last words had been hissed in Tom's ear, yet heard by everyone in the room, "Keep going like that dear Tommie and I will kill you. And I will make her see just how I will kill you. I will have her, make no mistake about that. And when I take her to my world, she will be mine to do with as I please. So keep going you little shit because nothing would give me greater pleasure than to kill you with my own bare hands before returning to Jenny's bed in celebration." Julian had then released Tom to walk away from them and out of the cafeteria one last time, whilst the rest of them had stared at Tom in horror of what they had all just heard.

Zach remembered the madness that had gripped Tom in that moment. Wildly he tried sprinting after Julian through the door, only to be greeted with an explosion which knocked him off his feet onto his back in the centre of the cafeteria. He had then tried throwing everything he could find at the door, before trying to run through it again. Tom had repeated this over and over until Dee had finally seized Tom by his collar, put him in an arm lock, and marched him back to the table where she had forced him into a seat, much to everyone's relief. Audrey had sat down next to him and enveloped him in her arms as he cried into her shoulder. Everyone had sat around the table with him then. Everyone but Zach, who was seated apart from the group, just watching, feeling numb.

Zach remembered how Tom had banged his fist on the table shouting "I WILL get her away from him. I will. I will. We will not lose; she has to come back to me. I have so much to tell her, so much more to give her, just to be so much more with her." Audrey had tried quelling his cries with uncharacteristically soothing strokes whilst everyone had meekly looked on, unable to think of anything to say. Eventually Tom's anguish had repressed into a deafening silence; tears replaced by dry eyed thoughts, cries replaced by plotting silence, anguish replaced by loathing.

Tom's hatred of Julian had consumed him in that moment, only to be fuelled further when an archway had appeared to the side of them, showing Zach's garage. When they had all stepped through a piece of paper floated down to rest at Tom's feet. He had picked it up; in elegant, flowing lines the words glared up at Tom, a final piece of mockery from the shadow man:

I won the game Tommie. And I won the girl. Jenny is mine.

And now here Tom sat, hunched in a corner of the room; a man broken by the loss of the one thing which meant everything to him. His face reflected all of his regrets and defeats he felt surrounding Jenny. All of the times he never held her when she needed him to, when he never kissed her when he wanted to, when he never told her how much he loved her when he needed to. Distancing himself away from her had been a mistake, he had learned that much at least from Julian's untimely visits. Deliberately or not Julian had revealed his true self to Tom, forcing Tom to recognize that last year what Julian showed him in that mirror was unlikely to all be true, and the parts that may have been were unlikely to have been as truthful as they first appeared. And in all honesty, the real Julian Tom thought he had glimpsed absolutely terrified him. He could not, would not leave Jenny with him. She was much more vulnerable than he had realised the last few months when he had stupidly been ignoring her.

All of his friends could see how defeated his looked, how much anguish he was in. However, they all inwardly froze when they saw what lurked in his eyes. A deep, dark fury stared back at them from eyes that chilled each of them, for the eyes spoke volumes for what he would do to get her back.