All I Ask of You

Chapter Eight

"Hey, Ron, have you seen Ian?" Lisa asked franticly. The janitor shook his head,

"Sorry, Lisa, I haven't seen him since practice yesterday. He looked awfully pretty in that dress,"

"Thank you, if you see him, can you tell him that I'm looking for him?" Ron nodded and moved on; Lisa simply stood in the middle of the stage fiddling with the zipper on her jacket. She took a few deep breaths and tried to calm herself, she could feel a panic attack coming on and she darted from the stage and out of the theater. She glanced up and down the street the street before making her way towards Ian's house on shaky legs.

xXx

Ian Rickler slowly opened his eyes, Rippner had once again decided to whack him over the head with that freaking knife of his. Only the last time had blacked out. And very much to his surprise, woke up at the theater. Ian's blood began to boil at the thought of the man, the way he had talked about Lisa as if she was an object that belonged to him. Rickler stood to his feet and made his way to the stage, looking for any sign of auburn hair.

The conversation had continued for what felt like hours after the initial introduction. Most of it was random ramblings from Jackson about how he was going to make sure Lisa would be with him forever. Ian would but in from time to time and make a comment about how Lisa would escape, Jackson eventually got tired of being interrupted and had tried to cut out his tongue as he had promised. However, this required that Rippner first got his mouth open, and Ian was not about to give up tongue without a fight.

So when he first went for it, Rickler made a comment about 'Still using that organ' and bit Jackson's hand when he tried to pry open his mouth. After about five more tries, Jackson mumbled something about still having to break up with Lisa and had then given up.

"Hey, Rickler!" Ian looked up to Ron, the janitor, rushing towards him. "Lisa's been looking for you, if you ask me; I think she was rather worried."

xXx

Lisa panted loudly as she ran down the street towards the theater, she had jut finished a thorough investigation of Ian's house. He was nowhere to be seen. Tears were threatening to spill over and Lisa mentally curse Jackson. Ever since he killed her father, she had been very paranoid and jumped at everything under the sun.

She choked on a sob as she threw the door open only to collide with something warm and very solid. Lisa wound up landing on her backside. She looked up; ready to chew out the person who would merely stand in front of a door and act as a human wall, but instead she wound up jumping to her feet and throwing her arms around Ian's neck.

"You're okay," she exclaimed.

Ian, who was in a state of shock by this unexpected event, craned his neck to look her in her smiling face. "You doubted this fact?" he said trying to joke her, it did not work however, she wound up sobbing in his arms.

"Ian, I thought something awful happened to you," she sobbed.

"Hey, I'm okay, you think I would just leave without saying something?" he asked maneuvering her so that she was looking into his eyes. "You're stuck with me, Leese, I'm not going anywhere."

One last tear ran down her cheek and she nodded, "I know, I'm just a little paranoid." She said trying to pass it off with a small laugh, realization suddenly ran through Ian's eyes and he grinned.

"No matter what happens, Leese, I love you okay, remember that?" he placed a quick kiss on her forehead and then ran from the theater.


While it may not be evident, this chapter was inspired by a story I read on called 'Condemned'.

With All Due Respect
-Nina Rippner-