Izzy lay on the floor, awake.
Being indoors while she slept was…unusual for her, even if she wasn't in a bed. For that matter, lying down while she slept was…well, she had done it before, in the backseats of cars, but that was cramped. Having so much space was just…strange.
Of course, she could make herself shut down whenever she wanted. She didn't want to, though. She needed the time to get her thoughts in order.
Matthew wasn't going to walk away from her. He followed her because of who and what she was, and the only way to get him to leave would be to pretend to be something she wasn't…and he'd probably see through that anyway. She could count on him.
She had never been able to count on anyone before, except to hurt her. Matthew was…
"Izzy."
She started at the barely-audible sound of her name. She sat up and looked at Matthew.
"Izzy," he murmured, shifting around in his bed.
It took a lot of effort for her to suppress the urge to laugh. He was dreaming about her? Men really do think with their dicks, she thought; Matthew is no exception.
Then he said something else:
"…not going to hurt you…"
Izzy blinked. If he was dreaming about her, it didn't sound like a wet dream. In fact…no one had ever said that to her before, not even in her own dreams…
She laid down again, more confused than ever. She listened hard to his sleep talk, but the only thing he ever said again was her name, over and over. Eventually she gave up and went to sleep.
The last thing she heard was his voice saying her name.
"Izzy…"
o~X~o
Matthew woke up well-rested. He remembered his dream and smiled.
What an amazing dream…
He got up.
"Oh, look," Izzy said almost instantly; "you're awake."
He chuckled. "How long have you been awake?" he asked.
"About half an hour," she said with a mocking smile. She was sitting on the small sofa, her legs crossed. Her posture was both confident and mocking.
God, he loved her.
As he started to walk to the bathroom to wash up, she stood.
"Do you know you talk in your sleep?" she asked mockingly.
Matthew's gut clenched, but he managed to smile at her. "What did I say?" he asked.
She shrugged. "Mostly my name," she replied, smiling wickedly.
"Which name?" he asked, worried that he had broken his promise against his will.
"Oh, just my name," she said reassuringly. "You know - Izzy."
"Oh, good," he said, breathing a sigh of relief.
Her mocking smile returned. "So?" she asked teasingly. "What were you dreaming about?"
He tried to match her teasing smile. "You," he replied.
"Uh-huh," she teased. "What about me?"
"Oh, I don't remember much," he said with mock evasiveness, and he resumed walking to the bathroom.
Then, suddenly, he stopped - he had a crazy urge to push things.
He turned back to her. "There is one thing I remember, though," he said.
She raised an eyebrow at him.
"You trusted me," he told her, allowing some of his bitterness to enter his tone.
She gave a mocking half-smile. "Liar," she said.
He blinked. "What?"
"You mostly said my name," she told him, "but there was one other thing you said. Something about…you weren't going to hurt me? Why would you need to say that, if I trusted you in your dream?"
He made a split-second decision. "You know, now that you mention it, I do remember that part," he said. "Yeah…I said, 'Don't worry, I'm not going to hurt you,' and you replied, 'I know. I trust you.'"
It was Izzy's turn to blink.
"You see?" he said, somewhat bitterly. "Clearly a dream."
She rolled her eyes. "Don't take it personally, baby," she said; "I don't trust anyone. Never have, never will."
"And why not?" Matthew challenged.
Pain flashed across her face for a moment, and Matthew winced internally. Of course. She had been raped. Someone had betrayed her. She didn't trust people because she was trying to protect herself.
Sure enough, she replied, "Well, why should I?"
He shook his head. "Never mind," he said; "I'm sorry."
"Hmm." She nodded mockingly. "So…what were we doing in your dream that you felt the need to tell me you wouldn't hurt me?" she asked, back to being cruelly teasing.
He smiled. "Hey, I can't help what I dream," he said, throwing his hands up in surrender.
"Perv," she said nastily. "I thought sex wasn't what you wanted."
"It's not what I want most," Matthew corrected her; "I never said I didn't want it at all. In fact, I think I recall admitting that I did want it."
"Well, keep dreaming, baby, because it's not gonna happen," Izzy said.
He gave a long-suffering sigh. "I know," he said. "That's fine." He gave her a nasty smile of his own. "Maybe I'll just get it out of my system while I'm in the shower…"
Her jaw dropped, and she laughed. "I'm glad I already took a shower myself," she said.
"You did?" he asked, surprised.
She rolled her eyes. "Just because I sleep outside and don't live anywhere in particular doesn't mean I don't have a sense of hygiene," she told him.
"Guess that explains why you taste so good," he teased.
Her expression darkened. "I thought we agreed that that never happened," she said coldly.
He threw his hands up in surrender again. "Whatever you say, sweetheart," he said, and he walked to the bathroom.
"Hey!" she called after him.
He turned back to her. She was glaring lethally at him.
"The next time you call me 'sweetheart', it'll be the last word you ever say," she told him dangerously.
"Okay," he said, holding out his hands in a 'calm down' gesture, and finally, he went into the bathroom.
Izzy hadn't lied; she really had taken a shower - the shower floor was still wet. She's pretty good at putting on that disguise, he thought; she hadn't looked at all different from the way she had the previous day.
He got undressed - he had gone to bed in his clothes, for Izzy's sake - and took a shower himself. He actually seriously contemplated pleasuring himself, but ultimately decided against it. He did think about her, though.
What had happened to her? He knew that a simple case of rape wasn't nearly enough to affect her so much - not that he thought rape wasn't traumatic, but Izzy's trauma went way too far for that to be all that she was carrying around. She had said that becoming evil had been the only way for her to save herself…Save herself from what? Death, obviously - she had said that much - but death under what circumstances?
Maybe it really was none of his business, but it bothered him so much that she was hurting and there was nothing he could do about it. The absolute best part of his dream had been that he could make her happy. He wanted to make her pain go away. He wanted to make her happy.
But he couldn't. Not as long as she kept her heart closed to him.
I'll just give her time, he decided once he was done in the bathroom. But…
He came out. Izzy was sitting on the bed, waiting for him.
"Where to now?" he asked her.
"Oh, let's stick around here for a couple of days," she said; "no need to leave in a hurry."
Matthew shook his head but didn't argue. "Okay," he said instead; "what should we do while we're here?"
"Let's just stick around and take a break," she said. "Watch the news…enjoy the panic and the speculation…" She chuckled. "They're probably going to start crying 'terrorism' or something…"
"Maybe we can talk while we're here?" he suggested.
Her expression darkened.
"You can trust me, Izzy," Matthew said. "I know something terrible happened to you, and I know it hurts you day and night, and I know that whatever it was makes you think you can't trust anyone or feel anything-"
"I can't feel anything," she said coldly. "Monsters don't feel."
"Izzy, just because you're a sadist doesn't mean you're a psychopath," Matthew said.
Izzy closed her eyes and shook her head.
"Look, I'm not going to push this anymore," Matthew told her. "I'm just letting you know, if you ever feel like talking about it, I'm here for you. Okay, sweetheart?"
Her eyes snapped open, and she leapt to her feet. "What did I tell you about calling me 'sweetheart'?" she snarled, glaring at him.
Suddenly, Matthew got a crazy, insane, stupid idea.
"You said it would be the last word I ever said," he replied, imitating her mocking tone. "Which is funny, since I'm still talking."
"Do. Not. Push. Me," Izzy growled.
"Hey, I told you, I'm not pushing anything any further," he said, walking past her. He paused, then added, "Sweetheart."
He heard her move, and turned around to see her aiming her gun at him.
"I swear I'll do it," she said icily.
"Now, see, that's twice I've called you 'sweetheart' since you gave me that warning," he said, still imitating her mocking tone of voice, "and you still haven't even hit me. Makes me wonder if y-"
The gunshot almost deafened him, and pain exploded in his left shoulder.
"AAAGH!" he cried out, falling to his knees.
"The next one will be in the gut," Izzy told him coldly.
He panted through gritted teeth, trying to get a handle on the pain. He looked up at her.
"There," he managed to say; "feel better now?"
She blinked.
He smiled at her, even though his shoulder throbbed. "I'm sorry," he said; "I couldn't think of anything else."
"You goaded me into shooting you to try to make me feel better?" Izzy asked incredulously, putting her gun away.
"Yep," Matthew replied, smiling at her again.
She shook her head. "You're an idiot," she told him matter-of-factly.
"I couldn't think of anything else," Matthew repeated, struggling to his feet. "Besides…it's okay. I can take it." He met her eyes. "I would do anything for you," he told her.
"You're really willing to try that hard…?" Izzy asked softly.
"Yes," Matthew said. He grimaced for a moment as the pain in his shoulder throbbed, then said, "We need to leave now, though; we can't stay here."
"I thought you were up for a couple of days off," Izzy teased.
"I am," he told her, "but you just fired a gun. We're not on the streets, Izzy, we're in a hotel, surrounded by people. Someone heard you. We need to go."
Izzy blinked. "Oh," she said sheepishly.
He smiled at her reassuringly. "Don't worry, I'm not going to press charges," he said.
She laughed.
He looked at his wound. "Bullet's still in there," he muttered. He looked down at the blood that had dripped onto the floor. "The maid's going to have a bit of a mess to clean up." This wasn't one of my brighter ideas, he admitted to himself.
Izzy laughed again. "Come on, baby, let's go," she said.
He smiled at her. "Right behind you," he said.
She grabbed her bag and headed to the door, then stopped.
"I have an idea," she said wickedly, turning back to him.
"Do tell," Matthew said, smiling back; "I love it when you have an idea."
"I'll explain on the way," she said.
He grabbed his bag, and they left.
A woman was waiting right outside their door.
"Oh my god!" she exclaimed when she saw Matthew's injury. "I thought I heard a gunshot and - What happened?"
Matthew smiled at her and shrugged. "Don't worry about it," he told her; "it's no big deal."
The woman blinked.
Izzy and Matthew laughed as they walked past the woman to the lobby.
"No big deal, hotshot?" Izzy teased. "Really?"
"Hey, I've seen worse," Matthew said. "Former Marine, remember?"
"You've seen worse," Izzy repeated. "Did you ever actually get shot while you were in?"
"No," Matthew admitted.
She laughed. "The look on that woman's face was priceless," she said.
"It was," Matthew agreed. "Let's do it again when we check out."
"Right behind you," she teased.
At the checkout counter, Matthew walked up nonchalantly, like absolutely nothing unusual was going on, and asked to check out.
The woman behind the counter saw the bleeding gunshot wound in his shoulder and gasped.
"What happened?" she exclaimed.
Matthew shrugged and gestured to Izzy with his head. "Oh, she shot me," he said, sounding like he was talking about the weather. "No big deal."
"Sorry about the mess, though," Izzy added. "Bloodstains are hard to get out - I hope the maids can handle it."
The poor lady looked between Izzy and Matthew, wide-eyed.
"Look, we just want to check out," Matthew said, "that's all. Can we please do that?"
"I…" The woman continued looking between the two of them. She looked more than a little bit frightened.
Izzy and Matthew looked at each other and started laughing. The woman laughed nervously with them, which only made Izzy and Matthew laugh harder.
Naturally, Izzy was the one to get ahold of herself first. "Look," she said to the woman, "we just want to go now. Check us out, and you won't have to worry about us."
"And don't call the cops," Matthew added.
"Are you sure?" the woman asked him timidly.
He grinned. "Do I look like I'm pressing charges?" he asked.
"Erm…No…" the woman said hesitantly.
Izzy and Matthew gave her the friendliest smiles they could muster as they checked out. As they left, Izzy playfully bumped Matthew's shoulder. Unfortunately, she hit his left shoulder, so he yelped involuntarily.
"Hey!" he exclaimed, turning to her.
"Oops," she said, smiling. "Sorry."
"Why you…!" He shoved at her playfully, smiling back. They giggled and shoved at each other a couple times, then Izzy ran out the doors, laughing, with Matthew chasing after her - the perfect image of a happy young couple.
Matthew knew that they were just role-playing to mess with the heads of anyone who might have been watching, but he enjoyed the fun…and tried not to hope too hard that someday, they might actually be a happy couple.
~X~
They were still laughing as they got in their car.
"That was beautiful," Matthew said.
Izzy chuckled. "I don't know about beautiful, but it was definitely fun," she teased.
He smiled at her.
Her own smile turned mocking, and her eyes froze again. "Don't get any ideas, though," she said coldly.
He sighed. "I know," he said; "we were just role-playing to screw with everyone. I'm not stupid, Izzy."
She nodded and started the car.
"So, are you going to tell me about this idea of yours?" Matthew asked her.
She smiled wickedly. "Well, in case you haven't noticed, you have a gunshot wound in your shoulder," she said mockingly. "You might want to have that looked at."
"The wound's clean," he said dismissively; "I took a shower right before you shot me."
"Yes, but the bullet's still in there," Izzy said, her tone still mocking. "Now, we can't exactly go to a hospital, because then we'd have to fill out all kinds of forms and stuff…it would be too complicated."
"So what are you thinking?" Matthew asked.
She chuckled nastily. "Well, word on the street is that there was a bombing nearby last night," she said. "A lot of people got hurt - they had to send in a bunch of paramedics and EMTs. It was just last night, so a few of them should still be there. Maybe we could…persuade one of them to help you out."
"And then kill them when we're done?" Matthew asked, a slightly wicked smile of his own crossing his face.
"Now you're talking, hotshot," Izzy bantered, smiling her evil smile.
"Right behind you," Matthew said.
"You wanna be the one to pull the trigger this time?" Izzy offered.
He smiled at her. "No thanks," he said; "I don't get off on it like you do."
"Fair enough," she sighed with mock disappointment.
~X~
As it just so happened, there was only one ambulance left at the scene when Izzy and Matthew got there. The cops hadn't been given the all-clear to search for clues just yet, so the bomb site was otherwise abandoned. The lone EMT was just packing up the last of his equipment into the back of the ambulance when Izzy and Matthew started walking up to him.
"Hey!" Izzy shouted.
He turned to look at them.
"This is a restricted area," he told them. "You need to leave."
"Yeah, we know," Izzy said, not even slowing down; "we'll go soon, but right now we kinda need your help."
"Actually, I need your help," Matthew piped up as they reached the EMT. "See?" He pointed to his bullet wound.
"What happened?" asked the EMT.
"Oh, she shot me," Matthew said casually, gesturing at Izzy with his head.
The EMT blinked.
"It's no big deal," Matthew assured the guy quickly; "I had it coming. But, ah…the bullet's still in there, so we were wondering if you could fix it up for me."
The man looked at Izzy, who gave him an evil smile. Then he turned back to Matthew.
"You should really…go to a hospital," he said hesitantly, clearly put off by the strange attitudes of the couple. "I'm not sure I can-"
In the blink of an eye, Izzy pulled out her gun and pointed it at the EMT. "Why don't you just see what you can do?" she suggested coolly. "That's your job, isn't it?"
The man's eyes widened. Izzy smiled wickedly at him, as did Matthew. "Please?" Matthew asked, slightly sarcastically.
"I…er…" The man looked between the two of them. "I'll, erm…see what I can do. Let me have a look."
Izzy kept her gun aimed at the man's head as he treated Matthew. The wound was already clean, and while the bullet had gone deep, it hadn't hit any major arteries. After he had been stitched up, Matthew stood.
"Thank you," he told the EMT. "Goodbye."
Izzy turned her aim to the man's stomach and fired.
Izzy and Matthew laughed as the man collapsed to the ground.
"Who are you people?" the EMT gasped.
Izzy gave him her evil smile. "We're the ones who bombed this place," she told him.
"Thanks again for your help," Matthew said wickedly, and he started walking away.
"Hey, hold on," Izzy said, grabbing Matthew's arm.
Matthew turned to her.
She gestured at the man she had just shot. "He's an EMT," she said; "he might be able to do something about that bullet in his gut."
"Do you really doubt your aim?" Matthew teased.
She chuckled nastily. "No," she said, "but we shouldn't take any chances." She held out her gun, handle-first, to Matthew. "Care to do the honors for a change?" she asked him.
Matthew blinked. While Izzy's tone was casual, something in her eyes told him that she wasn't just making an idle suggestion.
He smiled and took the gun. "Don't mind if I do," he said, and he shot the man in the head without a moment's hesitation.
Izzy laughed evilly. "Come on, hotshot," she said, taking her gun back; "let's go."
"Right behind you," Matthew said, as always, and they left.
o~X~o
Izzy drove with Matthew to the next hotel in silence. She was grateful that he didn't try to talk; she needed to ponder something strange that had happened.
She hadn't enjoyed shooting Matthew.
When he had cried out in pain - when he was first shot, when she had bumped his shoulder, and even when the EMT had taken the bullet out - she hadn't felt any of the thrill that causing people pain normally brought her. In fact, it had almost made her…unhappy.
And that just wasn't normal for her. It had never happened before - ever!
Something about Matthew made him different from her victims. She wasn't quite sure what, but the more she thought about it, the more she realized that she didn't think of him the way she thought of every other human being in the world. She didn't think he deserved pain or death, like everyone else did. He was…special.
Though in what way, she couldn't begin to guess…