Merry Christmas Eve to those who celebrate it! Happy Hanukkah for those who celebrate it! And for those who don't celebrate either, I'm going to say Happy Holidays :) Because, let's be real, we're all happy to have a little time off on this happy weekend, right? Anyway, story is coming along nicely, don't you think? I had this huge spiel about life and stuff that I was gunna post, but I'm actually really tired right now and my brain isn't completely functioning to the highest level soooooo replies then story ;)
Replies:
JDrummond - I'm glad the descriptions are so vivid to you! I was hoping for that, so I'm super happy :)
Huntsman-in-the-snow - I'm glad that you like sassy Chloe! Some people don't and it makes me sad. More Derek interactions in the chapters to come, promise
Zane S. White - I'm glad you liked his personality!
Guest - I was actually thinking about a Derek POV too, but I might make that after I'm done this entire story. You know, see the other side of the story and how he sees all of these events. But I felt like doing it in this story would give too much away too soon
GeekGamerGirl - I'm glad you like it :) And let's just say that Buffalo was a hard time for our cute little Chloe
All right, enough with the stalling, onto le chapter
Disclaimer: I do not own the Darkest Powers :(
Alleyway Encounters
"I didn't think that you were going to show up."
"Sorry," Chloe yawned, sitting down on the bleachers beside Tori. A few weeks ago, Liz and Tori had managed to convince her to go on out to town after she had settled into school. When Liz had suggested this weekend a couple of days ago, she hadn't hesitated in saying yes. She hadn't even remembered until Liz had sent her a text an hour ago apologizing for an unscheduled cheerleading practice and asking Chloe to meet her at the field, somewhere she really didn't want to be on a Saturday afternoon. "Forgot that we were going out until I say the text."
Chloe yawned again and shifted into a more comfortable position. To say that last night was rough on her was barely scratching the surface of what was going on in that room. From the time that she had arrived to nearly three in the morning, Chloe had tried to gather as much pertinent information from Brady, Mila, and Peter as possible. But once again, it had led to more questions than answers. And the questions that actually got answered didn't do much to help them find the killer. Actually, most of the information last night just made it very hard to sleep. Chloe had woken up constantly in a cold sweat with terrifying nightmares fading away as she wiped the sleep out of her eyes. She was starting to give up hope that there really was anything that she could do to help them and all the information was currently doing was making her jumpier than she originally was. A fact that was proven when Tori tapped her shoulder and Chloe let out a squeak as she nearly jumped out of her skin.
"Jesus, Chloe," Tori said as she snatched her hand back. "What's got you so jumpy?"
"Late night," Chloe mumbled, rubbing her thumb and forefinger against her eyes. "Didn't get much sleep."
"Yeah, well, stick to decaf because you don't need to get any more jittery." Chloe smiled wryly, but otherwise kept silence. She thought that it was the end of the conversation. Tori preferred her phone to most human contact so she assumed that she wouldn't pay her any more attention. That assumption was wrong. "So I heard you finally got a face to face with Amber."
Chloe peeked an eye open to glance over at Tori. "Who told you that?"
Tori nodded to the field. "Liz mentioned it last night. And apparently you really made an impression."
Chloe's eyes skipped away from Tori to sweep over the field, zeroing in the redhead in question. Pursing her lips, Chloe lifted a shoulder in a half shrug. She didn't really want to talk about this. "You could say that."
"Seems she brought out the New Yorker in you," Tori added and Chloe's eyes snapped over to Tori. Tori was looking down at her phone again, scrolling through some sort of feed. Chloe couldn't tell if she was baiting her or not. "You lived in the Big Apple, right?"
"Yeah." Not technically a lie. I did live there at a point.
"You must have gotten the best shopping. I mean, you must have gotten those killer shoes from JC Penny. They're gorgeous. I would never want to leave N.Y.C.; I would be in heaven."
Chloe let out a breath of relief as Tori spent another few minutes talking about the many different clothing stores in New York. All she could think about was how relieved she felt because it seemed like Tori didn't know about her previous school experiences. She probably chalked it up to me moving all the time, Chloe thought absently with a smile. And if she doesn't know why I was here, then she can't be the one hunting me. Because they must know everything about me.
With that thought in mind, Chloe felt her mood brighten slightly even as a small part of her brain nagged at her about how weak of a reason it was. She didn't get to think about it much, however, as Liz was suddenly skipping back in their direction with her high ponytail bobbing in the wind. After the initial cheerful greeting, Chloe followed the two chattering girls away from the field back to the main campus building. As they made their way through the mostly empty building, Chloe let her mind wander as to how they were getting there. But when she voiced her question, Tori just waved her hand dismissively.
"We have a ride."
Chloe frowned as they went around the corner, nearly stopping in her tracks as she pushed through the front doors to see a black pickup truck and the people standing in front of it. "Oh. I thought this was a girls' only outing."
Simon and Derek were standing across from each other, having what seemed to be a very intense conversation by the way that Simon's hands were flailing everywhere. But unlike the conversation in the library, Simon had a huge grin spread across his face as he spoke, his laugh floating down the hallway to us. As they approached, both boys turned to look at them and it was clear that Derek was less than happy to be here. Chloe had a feeling that she didn't look much better.
"You're late," Derek rumbled, eyes on Tori. "I'm not your chauffeur, Tori."
"Whatever," she said smugly, smirking up at him. "Like you had anything better to do."
"Jump off a roof?" Simon mused. "Poke myself in the eye?"
"What?"
Simon snorted, leaning against the car door. "Listing all the things that are better than dealing with you."
"No fighting!" Liz interrupted before Tori could get out a retort. "We are going to have a nice day out with lunch and a movie. No fighting. Please?"
Tori shrugged, walking past them and slipping into the back seat. Simon rolled his eyes, but said nothing as he held the door open for Liz and Chloe. Liz climbed in immediately with a small, grateful smile and Chloe looked around. Her fight or flight instincts were going into overdrive and she couldn't figure out how she could get out of this. To get in this car with them, after everything that she did and didn't know, would be the ultimate leap of faith. And she wasn't much into leaps of faith anymore. She didn't trust anyone as far as she could throw them, and being her size, that really wasn't very far. But if she got in this car and nothing happened, she would know what her friends weren't a part of the nefarious plan to kill any supernatural that walked into the school. But if something did happen, she was sure that she wouldn't be able to fight them all off at once, even though she believed that Liz and Tori really weren't a part of this. This isn't a good idea. This is way too risky. I can't—
"You going to stand there all day or get in?"
Derek's voice snapped Chloe out of her thoughts and her eyes traveled to him where he was standing beside the truck. His eyebrows rose as he met her gaze head on, a challenge in his eyes. Chloe's eyes narrowed and her chin jutted out slightly. "Maybe if you weren't blocking the door I would be able to get in."
Derek's eyebrows rose and Simon tried to cover his chuckle with a cough. It didn't really cover anything though and he smiled warmly at Chloe. "Front or back?"
Chloe's eyes flitted away from Derek's gaze to Simon's warm one and she couldn't help but smile back at him, relaxing slightly. "I'll sit with the girls. Anything to keep you and Tori separated."
It was apparently the right joke to make because Simon laughed and waved her in. Chloe climbed in with a stony look to Derek as she passed him. Tori and Liz were chattering away about what movie they should see and Chloe felt her heart pound in her throat as the door closed behind her. Sucking in a deep breath, she tried to relax as the boys filed into the car and started it up. Here goes everything.
Two hours later, she found herself waiting in line at an old school cinema with the gang, all thoughts of supernatural killers and ghosts pushed from her mind for the time being. As soon as they had gotten into town, after the long car ride, Liz had made it her job to reintroduce the sights to Chloe, which she appreciated greatly. It had been years since she had stepped foot in this town and she was glad to be reintroduced to the things that had made her so happy when she was younger. The next thing that Chloe knew, they were all scurrying over to a theater to look at different movies.
"So I heard a rumor that you wanted to be a director," Simon started conversationally as they walked. Chloe cocked an eyebrow at him and he smiled. "Or was it a screen writer? Liz told me when she was talking about going to the movies and l thought it was interesting. What genre are you into?"
Chloe shrugged. It had been a while since she had really thought about movies. Her life just seemed to be an ever-playing horror film. "I don't know, everything I guess. Horror was always a fascination of mine."
"Oh really?" he asked, eyes searching her face. "I would have pegged you for the romantic movie type of girl."
Chloe snorted, shaking her head. "Yeah, no thanks. I mean, everybody likes a chick flick now and again, but I can only handle so much Nicholas Sparks movies before I get queasy from cheesy pick-up lines and poorly written plot lines."
Simon's eyes danced with amusement as he looked away from her. She did the same, thinking that the conversation was over until he started up again. "Horror movies have better plot lines?"
"Yes and no. Some do, but I don't really watch horror movies for the plot. I mostly watch it for the horrible C.G.I. and unrealistic stuff happening in it. It's insane, you know? Demons and witches and ghosts. It's just fun to get a break from reality." At least, it was until it became my reality. Chloe rolled her shoulders and looked away, forcing a smile onto her features. "Enough about me, what do you want to do when you grow up?"
"A scientist." He said it with a straight face but one look from Chloe and they were both sent into a spiral of giggles. When they had finally managed to catch their breath, he shook his head. "Oh, I don't know. I want to do something that involves art. Maybe publish some comics and make some video game art."
Chloe couldn't help but feel her interest peek at the thought of comic books. "You draw?"
"Yeah, enough to drive my Dad up the wall and my art teachers crazy," Simon chuckled at the thought and shrugged. "I'll show you some time. Maybe we could do a comic together."
Chloe felt a jolt of excitement run through her at the thought and felt her cheeks begin to warm for an inexplicable reason. Mumbling an affirmation, she sped up slightly to catch up with Liz and Tori, who had pulled ahead while Derek had hung back behind as Simon spoke to her. He hadn't done much other than grunt responses while they went around. The other seemed to accept it as forms of communication and Chloe figured that with enough practice, she would soon be well versed in Derek grunting as well. When they asked what movie he wanted to watch, he just shrugged and made a beeline for the food station.
The movie that they ended up watching was, in fact, a chick flick. Chloe had to hold in a groan at the stupidly romantic lines being spewed on the screen the entire time. That and the lack of sleep were making her drowsy enough that she was starting to nod off. She spent the first part of the movie fighting not to dose off. Simon seemed to be having the same problem, t had enough action for Simon not to complain the entire time, but Chloe could tell that he was bored out of his mind more than once as he fidgeted beside her. Eventually, the fidgeting started driving her crazy and she tossed a piece of popcorn at him, watching as it bounced off his nose. Sometime after that, Chloe must have fallen asleep because she startled awake when the lights of the theatre with her head resting against Simon's shoulder. Blushing furiously and coughing awkwardly, Chloe stood up quickly and nearly spilled her popcorn everywhere. Out of the corner of her eye, she watched as Simon stood up as well, rolling his shoulders as he turned to talk to Derek but not before she saw the grin that flashed across his face. Note to self, get a full night's sleep.
"So what did you think of the movie?"
Chloe looked up at Liz as they walked out, shrugging. "Not my thing. Kind of boring, really."
"Is that why you fell asleep?" Tori teased as they made in the lobby.
Chloe's cheeks burned slightly and she couldn't help but glance at Simon before looking back at Tori. "I told you, I didn't get much sleep and the movie was really boring."
Tori opened her mouth to say something when a sharp voice cut straight to Chloe's ears.
"What the fuck are you?"
Chloe whipped around, spilling the remainder of her popcorn all over Tori as her eyes zeroed in on an angry looking man with beady eyes and a horribly scraggly beard. Her eyes widened as she looked at herself and then around at the faces in the group. Tori looked beyond pissed off, swiping at the kernels that were sticking not only to her clothes but in her hair as well while Liz frantically tried to help her as she picked popcorn out of her hair and looking at Chloe with a look of confusion. Simon was doubled over with laughter, not noticing the panicked expression on Chloe's face. But it was Derek's expression that really sent Chloe over the edge. When her eyes finally moved up to his face, he was watching her intensely and his gaze made her feel as if he was looking inside of her soul. It seemed that no one else had noticed the man who was now stalking over to her. She couldn't let them see her talking to a ghost. She needed to get out of there. Now.
"I-I-I need a-air," Chloe managed to stammer out as she turned and all but bolted outside into the quickly diminishing sunlight. She had forgotten how early that it got dark now that Halloween had passed. Heart thumping in her chest, she whipped her head around in desperation to find somewhere that she wouldn't be seen. She could hear the man from inside calling angrily out to her and Chloe knew that she needed to get out of sight fast. Blinking against the burning rays, she spotted an alley beside the theater. Sprinting into the alley, Chloe clutched at her heart and tried to calm her breathing as she leaned against the wall. It would have worked if the man hadn't popped up behind her.
"You!"
"Fuck!" Chloe shrieked, hand flying to cover her mouth as she stumbled away from the wall. "S-stop that!"
"So you can see me!" he yelled. "What are you?"
"Can you stop yelling for like two minutes?" Chloe asked breathlessly, looking around. The alleyway appeared to be empty and now that she was away from the group, she could feel her heart pound a little bit less. She knew that she would look crazy if she had started having a conversation with nothing in the middle of the theater. Especially since this certain nothing was giving her such a bad vibe. Even from across the theater, she could feel the negative energy running off of him. "I'm a necromancer."
"Necro-what?" the man asked incredulously, eyes narrowing. "You're one of those little brats who are all into devil-worshiping, aren't you?"
Chloe shook her head, instinctively rolling her eyes. "I'm not a devil worshiper. I can just talk to the dead. Help them move on."
The ghost glared at her, folding his arms. "Oh, really? And what's that nonsense glowing around you? It's practically vibrating."
"It's an aura. I think." The more he spoke, the more Chloe heard his southern accent. He wasn't from around here and Chloe couldn't help but wonder why his spirit was floating around a small town movie theater. "So did you want to talk? I mean, that's why you followed me, isn't it? So that you could talk?"
The man snorted, shaking his head. "I came out here to find out what sort of demon was hanging around my home. I was wondering why I was suddenly pulled away from what I was doing and then there you are, glowing in the lobby. This town is a Christ-loving town and you aren't going to go corrupt no boys with your ways. I bet you couldn't even step foot into a church. Be gone, demon spawn!"
Chloe stared blankly at the old man as he continued to spew hate at her. She was so caught up with him that she didn't even realize there was someone behind her until it was too late. A hand clapped over her mouth as something sharp came to rest at against her windpipe, effectively stopping her from making any sounds. "Wrong place to wonder into, rich kid. You're going to keep your mouth shut and do what I say. Failure to do so will get your throat slit. Understand?"
Chloe kept her mouth shut as she nodded, mostly out of surprise. It was a girl. One that meant business by the way that she pressed the object, Chloe assumed it was a knife, into her neck hard enough to break skin and Chloe hissed involuntarily at the stinging sensation. The girl maneuvered Chloe so that she was facing the wall and started patting her down, pulling Chloe's wallet out of her pocket. Even as she was being mugged, the ghost kept talking. He was currently going on about how she deserved this and all Satan-worshipers were to be punished in the name of the lord. Yeah, okay, old man, Chloe thought as heard her wallet fall to the floor beside her. There wasn't much cash in there, less than fifty if she was right. She didn't keep big wads of cash on her anymore, after her friend Kari had been mugged down in New York.
"Turn around." Chloe did as she was asked, slowing turning to face the girl. She had dark hair that hung oily over a face that was covered in rashes, cuts and acne, probably not that much older than Chloe was. A clear junky if she had ever seen one. Desperate for more money, which Chloe saw with the way that her eyes were raking over Chloe as she looked for something else to take. When her eyes came to rest on her neck, Chloe swallowed against the sting of the cut under her jaw. "I was right. You are a rich kid. Give me the necklace."
Chloe's hand instinctively flew up to where her necklace was hanging on her neck. Her mother's necklace. Chloe looked the other girl in her dead, brown eyes as she spat, "No."
Suddenly, there was a knife at her jugular and she felt the tell-tale prick of it piercing her skin, forcing her to tilt her head up to avoid puncturing her artery. "You're brave, aren't you? Fine."
There was a sudden burning sensation at the back of Chloe's neck as she felt the necklace being ripped off her neck, the chain breaking with the force of the tug. And suddenly, it felt as if the whole world got brighter for Chloe in that moment. All her senses seemed to go into overdrive and her head felt like it was suddenly imploding. Suddenly, the ghost from the theater sounded as if his voice was being amplified by a speaker and she could feel everything around her. All of it was too much. The dark haired girl let her go and Chloe's hand flew to her neck, feeling the tell-tale stickiness of blood where her hand touched. But the only thing Chloe could think about was getting her necklace back. She had to get her necklace back. She couldn't lose the necklace.
"Thanks for the jewelry, kid," the girl said with a greasy smile as she backed away from Chloe with the knife held in front of her. It hurt Chloe's eyes to look at her but she managed to zero in on the necklace as she felt a stab of anger course through her. "Pleasure doing business with you."
"What the—" the old man's voice cut off with a gurgled scream and when Chloe's eyes flashed away from the girl to the old man, he was gone. But she could still feel him a little bit away. But why can't I see him?
The thought was answered a moment later when something jumped out of the dumpster behind the girl and they both screeched to the high heavens. Because what jumped out of the dumpster wasn't human. No, that wasn't right, because it was human. A decayed human carcass that was up and about because of the screaming necromancer. The carcass of what looked to be the remains of the old man started crawling towards the junkie girl and she did what any normal human would have done. She screamed and ran, dropping everything in her hands in the process. Chloe watched her mother's necklace clink on the floor, the garnet red stone landing smoothly as the girl shoved past her and ran down the alley without a glance behind back. Chloe turned to watch the girl run out of sight before she looked back at the body facing her, almost in a daze until it started advancing on her and she realized the gravity of the situation. She might have somehow managed to shove his soul into his body, but she had no idea how to take him out.
"F-Fuck," Chloe stammered as she started to back away. She couldn't leave him in the body. He would just follow her back to school, terrifying people in his wake until she released him. But she didn't know how. "Fuck, fuck, fuck! How the fuck do I always end up here?"
Chloe was desperately trying to figure out what to do over the pounding of her head when she felt something behind her moments before her back hit it. Eyes widening, she whipped around to find herself looking at a dark shirt that led up to a piercing set of green eyes. Eyes that weren't focused on her, but on the thing behind her. Shit. Chloe took a step back from Derek, automatically trying to figure out some sort of explanation to cover up her actions when she felt a bony fingers graze her ankle and she shrieked loud enough to jump start him into action. Grabbing her arm, Derek yanked her away from the corpse and into himself, hard enough that her arm burned even after he let go. Clasping a hand over her mouth to cut off her scream, he quickly moved her away from the dumpster and to the opposite wall of the alleyway.
"You need to release it."
What? "W-What?" Chloe asked, her voice muffled by his palm. Derek removed his hand from her mouth and she tried again. "W-What do y-you—"
"You reanimated a corpse, now you need to release it," Derek snapped, looking over his shoulder at the corpse. Chloe couldn't see it because of the way he had positioned himself in front of her, a barrier between the body and her. Though his face was calm, his voice and shoulders were tense and Chloe had a feeling that he was as freaked out as she was. "You put it in there, you can take it out."
Chloe gulped. "B-But I didn't… I didn't m-mean to."
"That doesn't really matter now, does it?" he quipped, but his remark feel short due to the strain of trying to keep it calm. "Figure out how to release it. Before it gets to us."
Though Chloe couldn't see where the corpse was, she could feel it's presence through Derek and that was enough to get her brain started again. Her senses were still raging out of control, making her see and feel everything around so much clearer than she usually could. Chloe figured that she could use it to her advantage, though. From everything that she had read, you had to have spells, channeling, and all sorts of ingredients to summon a ghost into its previous body. But somehow Chloe had managed to do it without any of that help so that meant she could release if she could just focus. At least that was what she hoped. Chloe tried to block out all other distractions of her senses. One by one, all her senses dropped off of her radar until the only thing she had left was the feeling of the spirit in front of her. She was so focused on feeling it and trying to release it that she didn't know it was right there until it suddenly grabbed her ankle again and she jumped, knocking into Derek.
"Chloe, calm down and release it."
The strain in his voice told her that he wasn't exactly the epitome of calm either but she used it to her advantage, focusing her frustration into her powers. Taking a deep breath, she opened her eyes and stared down at the corpse, seeing not the rotting body, but the angry man inside of it. "I release you."
The voice Chloe used didn't sound like her own as it came out full of power and crackled with energy. But the moment that the words escaped her lips, she felt the rush of the spirit leaving the body as well as the rush of energy leaving her body. Slumping against the wall, she looked down at the corpse that still had a hand on her ankle and a shudder ripped through her body. She shook it off of her leg almost violently, letting out a deep breath before looking up at Derek. "I released it."
"Yeah, I know." Taking a step back from her, Derek looked down at the body on the floor before looking back up at her, his green eyes almost glowing in the near darkness. Running a hand through his hair, he sighed. "We need to talk."
So much drama, so little time. The bittersweet ending, so close yet so far ;) Guess Chloe and Derek are going to have to communicate now, huh? But then there's cute Simon and his flirty ways. Hmmmm, what will happen next?
BTW, I'm super happy that you guys liked sassy Chloe. She's a fave persona of mine. I had someone read through this chapter to see if I wasn't going to fast and they woke me up at six in the morning in attempts to make me write more so I'm hoping that you guys like it as much as they did. It's kinda light on words, but I didn't want to add in too much more. I felt like it would have just made it super bulky.
But I want your thoughts and opinions so R and R if you please. Brii out! Tootles ;)
