I don't own any of the characters in the Chucky series; I am just an admirer writing some fiction as I suffer from inspiration and boredom. However, the characters in this story that aren't in the movies are my creation. Here is another isntallment of 'Skin', sorry for the wait for any of you that have been waiting. Thank you to the people that have reviewed this story so far, your encouragement is very inspiring and I hope you enjoy this chapter. For this particular part, I listened to alot of music to try and capture the atmosphere of Chucky and Meredith's past and present relationship. I have incorporated the lyrics in this chapter from the songs I was listening to at the time. 'The Day of Night' from the Silent Hill soundtrack was also a recurring melody I listened to, especially for writing about Meredith and Chucky. Happy reading, please leave a comment with your thoughts and I'll see you next time.-EA.

Skin

By EerieAlice

Part V

Winter – 1985

She couldn't make out the surroundings when her vision would skip between the darkness and when the clouds would melt, she stared up and saw her apartment ceiling. Her face felt ten times too big and her lips ached and cracked. She heard a faint jingle in the background and then the low buzz of orchestral music. She'd heard the song a million times, he loved to play it.

"Sunday is gloomy," Billie Holiday sang and then she started the verse. "My hours are slumberless, dearest the shadows, I live with are numberless."

She heard the rattle of keys over the music and her heart froze, he was still there.

"This wasn't meant to happen," she heard him say and he stood over her, peering down. "You weren't supposed to be like that, Mer."

Tears cascaded down her cheeks, she tried to move and for some reason her body felt as if she had been connected to laces of hooks and weights. Just the slightest tap and she'd shatter right then and there.

"I've taken the tapes, the wires, everything," he said and he stared at her, watching her wince and struggle. "Don't try and find me." And then he was gone, just like that.

She listened to the sounds all around her. "H-help me," she whispered. "H-h-help me!"

The pain in her ribs exploded and the darkness began to cloud over again. She heard the final sound of Billie Holiday's voice before she blacked out and the song had reached its final crescendo. "Darling I hope, that my dream never haunted you. My heart is tellin' you, how much I wanted you." She felt the rhythm in her chest soften and then she welcomed the darkness.

"Surprise!" Chucky sang and he glanced down at his hand. For the first time since he'd been in isolation, Meredith knew who it was. "You missed." He waited for her to respond and the time trickled past. "Come on Mer, you've got to say something, don't leave me hanging here!" He smiled at the sound of the wording. "Hanging! Get it?" He cackled and he noticed the whites of her knuckles and the grip she had on the knife tightened. "Oh for God's sake, if you're going to kill me, just fucking do it! But your Sammy boy will die too!"

"Stop it," she whispered.

"Finally she speaks!" Chucky eyed the blade. "Do you mind if I...?" He wriggled on the stool and it reminded him of a fish out of water. He'd skewered his past victims just the same and he'd loved every minute of it.

Meredith ripped the blade from the work surface and Chucky was released. He checked his hand and he watched her, all Meredith did was stare and it was beginning to irritate him. "What?" He picked at Sam's clothes and his hair. "Don't I look good in Sam's skin?" He eyed the blade as she hadn't put it down. "Put that back or I'll go upstairs and give Amber a little surprise." Immediately, Meredith slotted the knife back in the box. "Good girl."

"What are you doing here?" Meredith asked.

"I came on business to find something and I got side tracked."

"That fucking doll," Meredith said under her breath. "I knew there was something off about it." She ran her gaze over him, up and down, calculating and analysing him just like a psychotherapist would do. "How did you do it?"

"It's called voodoo, silly."

"You killed my father, didn't you?" There was a wave in her voice Chucky recognised and she knew the truth.

He held up his hands. "I've got to confess my love, Bryan had it coming."

"God, you really don't have a heart, do you?"

"Never had one sweetheart," Chucky said. "Plus, it makes things simpler...and more fun!"

"Why are you here?" she asked again.

"I told you, on business."

"No...why are you here? In my house?"

"Amber picked me up and brought me here. Look, I didn't know you lived in New Hampshire okay? I'm not a fucking stalker!"

Meredith leapt from the stool but Chucky was on her tail. She dashed into the living room and headed straight for the telephone. Chucky ripped it from her hands and threw her to the floor.

"That was really fucking stupid Mer," he said, closing the door and he grabbed the back of her head. Meredith fought; shouting and Chucky got her in a lock and wrapped Sam's arms about her, almost in a loving embrace. "Make a sound?" he whispered, his lips touched the curve of her ear and he clamped his hand down on her shuddering mouth. "And I will kill you." He waited for a beat so she could dissolve his words. "Do you understand, Mer?" She nodded and he tossed her back down to the floor and he heard her whimpering.

"You nearly did once," she said through her tears.

Oh no, he wasn't going through that dance again and he spat at her. "You betrayed me, remember?"

Meredith laughed and her voice sounded heartbroken. "Yeah." She laughed again. "Yes, it makes sense. I betrayed you."

He didn't like the sound in her voice; it was as if in between the lines she was saying 'fuck you' to him. Chucky grabbed her shoulder and held her face in her hands. "I could break you so easily Mer, or is that something you've forgotten?" He watched the tears fall down her cheeks. "Now...I want you to calm down." He stroked the red hair from her face and she opened her eyes, Chucky had forgotten how bright they were. Except, something changed in her gaze, upset had turned to horror.

"What...?" she whispered and she pushed herself away from him. "What are you?"

Summer – 1985

There were three things Chucky couldn't live without, one was liquor and for the moment he lay loving the pain killer boost it provided for him. The room was blurry but not out of focus and he loved the buzz it gave him.

The second was blues and jazz music, there was nothing quite like it, nothing sexier than it.

"Well I could play with Tom, Dick and Harry – but for me you're the only one." The provocative voice of LaVern Baker filled the apartment and he let a stream of smoke twirl from his lips as he listened to the words. "Who makes me shiver, makes me tingle - and who brings my loving down."

The last and most important of all that Chucky loved was women. Now, he wouldn't want to live if it was just a world full of men, that thought would make him plant a gun to his head. With that image brewing in his mind, he took a drag of his cigarette and he stared towards the sleeping body of one of his lovers.

"I played the love game before I met him - it's a game I've always won. But now you set my soul on fire - and I really had my fun."

Her name was Meredith Lambeth and she was a student nurse at the local hospital. Chucky noted her as a black sheep, she'd been born with a silver spoon in her mouth and she was from New Hampshire. A good all nothing place where nothing ever happened. He wondered why she didn't just stay home and live off Mommy and Daddy, then when they popped their clogs, she could find Mr Moneybags and then live off his wages. She had the looks for it.

"With other boyfriends, the good-time men friends - I still had to walk this road all by myself."

Instead, she resided in the city of Chicago and went to college there. He'd met her when he'd been taken into the Emergency Room thrashing and ruling. Of course, he'd told the docs that he'd been mugged but that was far from the truth. In fact, he'd been the one doling out the punches and stab wounds. Chucky hadn't calculated his opponent fully before he attacked, when he was about to make the deadly move – the opponent blocked him and slammed the knife into him.

He'd been truly fucked.

"I was their play girl, a careless gay girl - but I put them all on the shelf."

Meredith's apartment was in the heart of Chicago and in the summer, the heat was just as much of a killer as he was. He rose from the bed and he downed a shot of Jack Daniel's whiskey. He peered through the blinds and he stared out at the city lights. He could hear the thumping beats from the nearby clubs, the whirling sirens of the cop cars and the tiniest bang of a gun going off.

"I found my true love with you forever - and my life has just begun."

Meredith breathed out as she moved in her sleep. Chucky watched her and he ran his gaze over her body. The silver necklace lay perfectly between her breasts and the beads of sweat glistened in the moonlight.

"'Cause now you set my soul on fire - and I really had my fun."

He remembered shouting and thrashing and cursing the heavens and then out of nowhere, she appeared to him. Doe green eyes and that rope of blood red hair. His favourite colour. On the wards, he used to spy on her when she'd finish her shift, she'd release the pins from her hair and it would cascade down her back and tumble over her shoulders. Just watching her made his heart race.

"Good bye to play boys, those hey hey boys - good bye to everyone but you my love."

Meredith wasn't his only lover, he had a few darted about, some in Chicago, some in other cities, he always kept them spaced out. He'd only been with women from a place on one side of a certain street, but Meredith was new territory.

And that place had alot to offer him.

"Well no more heart aches, no more heart breaks - I swear by all the stars above."

He'd fascinate himself with scenarios to preoccupy his insomnia; one in particular was his idea of killing Meredith. He'd strangle her in her sleep and he envisioned Meredith's body on the front page of the newspapers; her head twisted to the side and her hair swept over her face. The camera would lay focus on her naked body and the silver necklace.

"Well, well on my soul, my love, my heart - miss you darling from now on."

Chucky wondered what the reporters would call her to glamorise her death, it would be just like The Black Dahlia and Jack the Ripper. Would they focus on her red hair? Her porcelain skin? Her beautiful lips?

"Cause now you set my soul on fire - and I really had my fun..."

Chucky didn't understand Meredith's reaction and he rushed to the mirror. A man with long wiry black hair stared back at him; he had long silver strands streaked from the crown of his head and the skin by his eyes crinkled with age. His eyes were as blue as he recalled, pale as ice and he remembered when Meredith used to describe them as "beautiful." He'd locked eyes with himself, except he was older. Was this how he would've looked if he hadn't have transferred his soul into the doll? Why did it happen around her? What type of voodoo was this?

"Is this your doing?" he asked, stroking his finger along the rim of his cheekbone.

"No," Meredith said, she sounded very scared. "Of course not."

He rounded on her. "Bullshit! Yes you do!" He grabbed her shoulders and hauled her to her shaking feet. "Why are you doing this?!"

"I'm not!"

Chucky felt his rage curdle and he slapped her hard and clean across the face. "Yes you do and stop fucking crying!"

Meredith fell back onto the floor and then a soft crystal sound echoed down the stairs.

"Momma?" Amber called out and they both heard the creak of her feet on the stairs.

Meredith rushed to the door and Chucky grabbed her arm. "What is it, baby?"

"I heard you crying."

"Momma is watching a movie with Daddy and it's a very sad movie," she replied, wiping the genuine tears from her skin. Chucky squeezed her arm and it would have felt as if her arm had been locked in a vice. "We'll up soon baby, go back to bed."

The child turned on her heel and marched back up the stairs, Chucky held her until they both heard the slam of her bedroom door. Meredith shrugged him off and sat down on the sofa, rubbing her aching face.

"Do you want a glass of wine to calm you down?" Chucky asked.

She nodded. "Yes, please."

"Don't move." Chucky went into the kitchen and collected the bottle of red wine and the glasses. He returned to the living room and poured her wine for her, noting her gaze on him. It was strange, he'd been encased in the form of her husband and now he was suddenly in his own skin, Meredith's ex and 'would-have-been' murderer. It had screwed up his plans for the moment, but he wasn't going to throw away an option.

Chucky noticed that his ex-girlfriend was trembling like a leaf in winter and he placed his steady hand on her knee. "Here." He offered her the glass and he watched how she sipped at her drink. "Are you calm?"

She nodded. "Getting there." Meredith placed the glass between her fingers and she looked at him. "What do you want?"

"A pendant." He downed his glass, added more to his and topped up hers. "I need it."

"What for?"

"I used it to transform my body into that doll and I need a new form."

"What's wrong with the doll? It's good camouflage."

"True, but I'm getting tired of the rubber life."

Meredith blinked, he could sense her yanking up her shields. "Why don't you have it?"

"Because the cops buried it with my body when they shot me." He touched her chin and slowly wiped a tear from her cheek. "God, it sure feels good to feel warm flesh again." He wanted to toy with her. "Though, I'm sure you remembered that rough and tumble with Sam a couple of nights back..."

"That was you?" she asked.

"Of course it fucking was – you wouldn't forget my moves that fast," he scoffed.

"What do you want me to do?"

Chucky sipped his wine. "To help me get my pendant back."

"How?"

"I need you to drive me there."

"Right now?"

Chucky leaned back into the sofa and lifted his hand from her knee. "No, tomorrow will do fine. But, it wouldn't hurt for us to have a 'catch-up', it's been a long time, what have you been up to?"

"Surviving," she said as simple as daylight. "And being a wife and mother." Then her eyes darkened. "How about you? How about your life? Have you been beating up any more vulnerable women?"

He ignored her jibe. "Hiding, killing, among other things, I found those newspaper cuttings you kept of me in the closet so I guess I don't need to tell you."

Meredith shrugged, but he could see she did it with an attitude. "Keeping those cuttings was the best thing to keep tabs on someone when they nearly ending your life..." She held her gaze and then he felt it. Her eyes, he'd seen them streaked with tears and over candlelight.

What is this? Then he felt a surge behind his eyes. Empathy? Guilt? She's pulling at my heartstrings - the ones I have left. Chucky shoved it to one side and he laughed instead. "You've always been a poet with words."

"You should be on Death Row."

He agreed, but that would never happen.

"Vivien Vanpelt." Meredith watched him. "What did you do to her?"

Chucky laughed. "I'm not telling you anything."

She leaned forward, her nurse persona had taken hold. "No story, no pendant."

Spring – 1985

Meredith stared up at the clock and the time rang out like an alarm bell. She was going to be late and she hated missing the trailers. She clocked out, grabbed her bag and hauled on her coat.

"Meredith, can I talk to you?" it was her boss.

She turned to Vivien. "Sure, can we make it quick? I'm meeting Charlie at the movie theatre."

"He's who I need to speak to you about."

That was odd. "What do you mean?"

"I'm worried about you."

"Why?"

"I don't trust him, Debbie doesn't either, we-I-we think he's using you. Remember when he was on the ward, he was horrible, nasty and crass, and...look I think you need to be careful."

"I'm a virgin Viv," the young nurse replied.

Vivien laughed with embarrassment. "No, it's not that, well it is now you've mentioned it but what I mean is, he seems the type that shouldn't be in relationships. And he shouldn't be dating girls like you – you are way too good for him."

"Look Viv I appreciate it but I'm fine really," Meredith said and she patted her shoulder. "I'm stronger than I look, honestly, I'm a tough girl."

She smiled. "I know you are."

"I gotta go, see you tomorrow," Meredith said and she skedaddled out of the ward.

Vivien's nightshift had come to an end and she gave Debbie the handover when she arrived on the ward. Debbie nodded, ticked everything off and then her voice quietened.

"Did you tell Meredith?" she asked.

"I did, but she was very insistent, she wasn't listening to a word I was saying."

Debbie sighed. "I'm worried, Viv."

"Me too."

"Did you see the way he was looking at her? I didn't like it at all."

"I know, but we'll have to warn her another way."

She grabbed her things and went to her car and made her normal journey home. She thought about her husband sleeping away and her twin boys and then she felt something smash into the side of her face.

The car swerved off the road and down the hill towards the river. Vivien fought at whoever was attacking her and she grabbed the handle of the car door. Her attacker wrapped their gloved fingers about her neck and she fought and she fought.

Chucky managed to get the hostile nurse under his thrall and he squeezed the life out of her. When her body had finally gone limp, he hooked his arms under her lips and pulled her out of her car. He saw something sparkle and glisten on her hand, and it sure was a beauty to behold.

"Thanks," he said to the corpse and yanked it off her finger. Then in one swing, he hurled the body into the river. Then, he put her car into accelerate mode and he watched it sink.

Meredith let the words fall and she shuddered, staring out at the garden. It had begun to rain since her ex-flame had made his return and he hadn't changed at all. He was still hot blooded, still had the quick wit, still a cold heartless bastard and still as beautiful as she'd remembered him. What was the matter with her?

"You knew all along I'd killed her Mer," Chucky said.

"Not until after you did, what you did."

Chucky began to hum a sad song and she imagined him miming as if he was holding an imaginary violin. "Yeah, yeah, heard it all before..."

"Why didn't you just kill me?"

"Hey, I tried to."

"Enough!" Meredith shouted and she turned to him. "Stop acting like that, and for once in your lousy fucking life. Stop. It. And tell me, the fucking truth!"

He ran his fingers through his grey and black hair and held up his hands. "Fine, fine. Look, originally I was going to fuck you and then leave. I did that with tons of other girls." Meredith knew that. "But if I have to be completely honest, I liked you...plus I'd never been out with a nurse before, and you weren't bad in bed coming from being so inexperienced." His eyes grew serious. "And then, you betrayed me...just like all the others, so I had to do what I had to do...but your heart kept on beating..."

"How is wearing a wire betraying you?" she asked.

He laughed. "If you really knew me, you'd know why."

She didn't want to hear anymore. "After you get your pendant, I want you to leave New Hampshire."

Chucky nodded. "Of course, you'll never see me again."

"You leave my husband and my children out of this."

"They aren't involved," he said and downed the dregs of his wine. Meredith backed up against the wall as he walked towards her, and then he was too close. She could smell him, the cigarette smoke, the old whiskey on his lips and Billie Holiday's sultry voice. "But, I gotta say sweetheart, I sure have missed this." He stroked the back of his knuckles against her cheek. "I've missed you, Mer." He cupped her face in his hands. "Have you missed me?" She took in the sight of him, his pointed nose, his spiky features and those pale blue eyes of his. He tipped her chin and pressed his mouth against hers. She breathed him in, remembering the night she'd spent with him when she was under the illusion it was her husband. She'd lost herself, and a fraction wanted him to slip off her scrubs and take her on the living room floor. A part of her did not care that he'd slapped her.

You're a sick fuck.

She pulled away from his kiss and covered her mouth as the tears streamed down her face again.

"Shame if things had been different, this could have been my house," Chucky said, stepping back from her. "I don't want to fuck a crier anyway." He stalked to the door and held it out for her. "Are you coming to bed?"

She stared at him. "I don't want you to touch me."

"I won't."

"What about Sam?"

"This is a temp spell that's why I need the pendant, your lovey-dovey hubby will be back in the morning so stop asking." He rattled the door. "Well? Are you coming up?"

"You go, I'll be up in a minute."

"Oh, I don't think so."

She had to do what he said, if she listened to him and got through it, then he'd be gone. She wiped her face down, shook the adrenaline from her arms and walked towards him. As she crossed the threshold, Chucky stopped her, blocked her with his leg.

"There is something I want to ask, it's been bugging me for a while now," he replied. "Dylan...is he mine?"

She watched him. "No... absolutely not."

Chucky shrugged his shoulders as if he was thinking 'Oh well, it was worth a shot' and he let her move into the hallway. She felt his presence behind her and he slipped his arm around her waist and they ascended up the stairs, just like man and wife.

She hadn't been to New Hampshire before; well her first visit had left her heartbroken, deprived and as dead as a doornail. But, she'd been quite negative when it came to this voodoo thing, trapped in a rubber body, being a living doll. By the time she had awakened, her bastard of a husband was gone and so were her markings on the graveyard. She'd been thrown into some rubbish tip after what had happened.

It took her forever to find her way back; she'd killed, robbed, hitchhiked and done it in her wedding dress that had gotten all tatty and filthy from her journey. When she got her hands on the pendant, she wasn't going to wear white again.