It's Time I Stop Denying

I don't really remember getting back to the Temple, except for being picked up by a pair of strong arms. The next thing I remember was opening my eyes with a voice in my ear.

One day left, Adrienne. I recognized the voice as Chase's, although I knew that he wasn't in the room with me. But I then remembered The Xù Diary, and came to the conclusion that that was what he had used. I looked over at the clock and saw that it was ten Am. I scrambled to my feet and rushed out the door. I found the Monks training out in one of the gardens.

"Oh, hey Adrienne," said Raimundo, somewhat shy. "Did you sleep well?"

"How long was I asleep?" I asked, ignoring his question.

"You were out for about a day," Clay said, looking over at me.

I let out a low curse and turned around and walked back to my room. "Oh, what-am-I-going-to-do? What-am-I-going-to-do? What-am-I-going-to-do? I only have a day to choose between life here, at the Temple, or life with Chase Young, the one person who makes me cry every night! This should be easy, but it's not! Brain! You said that you'd help me!"

Oh, really? I don't recall… I groaned, going into a state of pure panic.

"Oh, Christ! Why can't this just be a bad dream? This has nearly broken me!" I sat down cross-legged on the mat and put my fingers on my temples. I hadn't been this stressed and agitated since I had my drivers test and Chemistry final on the same day.

I can't wait to come collect my prize…

I whimpered. "Death is starting to look pretty appealing right now… Oh, who am I kidding? I couldn't kill myself!"

I'm counting the seconds until I get to come see you…

"Oh, shut up!"

I spent the next four hours freaking out, with Chase occasionally giving me the number of seconds until he would come for my answer.

72,ooo…

"Don't you have anything better to do?" I shouted, despite the fact that I knew that he couldn't hear me.

Good God, you've never yelled at him before…

"Well, he's never pissed me off this much before!" I stood up and paced my small room. "And since when have you cared?"

Ever since I took you over…

"Well, you know what? You seem awfully like my old way of thinking, to me!"

71,940…

I let out a pained wail and sat back down. "I can't do this anymore! I can't stand waiting! I'll make the choice tomorrow, but right now, I'm going to sleep."

Are you sure that's wise? What if he goes into your dream?

"Let him come! At least then he won't be counting off the seconds!" With that I closed my eyes and tried to force myself to sleep.

71,880…

I groaned and pulled the covers out from under me.

"Stop it!" I yelled as I threw the sheets across the room at the thin wall. "There has to be something you could be doing instead of driving me insane!"

-Scene Change-Chase's Citadel-

Chase smirked, because he knew that Adrienne would be going insane because he continued to tell her the number of seconds that were left until he came to collect her. He knew that she would choose him over those idiotic Monks. There was only one thing in the way of his complete domination over her: her free will. It somehow seemed different from the time they had first met. Then, she was a shy child whom he could easily mold to do his will. But now, she was slightly bolder, more resistant to him.

"That can be easily changed," He said to himself, rubbing his hands together. "I can easily use the girls fear as an advantage, as well as her," he scowled, "Boyfriend." The fact that she and Raimundo where building more intimate ties with each other disturbed him. But if that disturbed him, then the fact that that they had pet names for each other mortified him. He was unsure why Adrienne even liked Raimundo. He was three years younger than she, pompous, and he was, well, unintelligent. He had hardly tried to get inside the box where the girl was being held.

"The thing that puzzles me the most," He continued, "is why she hasn't tried harder to keep me away. Unless, of coarse, she enjoyed the dreams." He laughed to himself for his foolishness. Of coarse she liked the dreams! He could tell that she liked to be dominated, which was one of the reasons why she had let him come back and why The Dragon of Wind had stolen her heart, and not the softer willed Earth Dragon. He went back to the diary, which he had forgotten about in his thoughts. "Hmm, were was I?" He tapped the end of his ballpoint pen on the creamy paper. "Oh, that's right. 71,280" As soon as the writing was on the paper, it disappeared, as if it had sunken into the paper itself. He chuckled; he could have sworn he had heard the girl scream in aggravation from all the way here.

"What 'cha laughing at, Chase?" The Evil Prince grimaced when he heard the voice of Jack Spicer from behind him.

"What do you want, Spicer?" Chase asked, not bothering to turn around.

"I just wanted to show Amanda your evil lair." Jack said casually, looking over at his girlfriend, who was starry eyed.

"Oh, your house is beautiful! Never in all of my years did I ever think-"

"Who're you talking to, Chase?" Wuya interrupted the teen, eyeing The Xù Diary.

"Adrienne," he told her, putting the book down and standing up from the table he had been sitting at and turning to face the two teens and the witch. He was in his library; he found it to be more peaceful then his throne room, mostly because there was less cat traffic there and because people hardly ever got far enough to find him there.

"Ah, tormenting her more, eh?" said Jack with a laugh. "That is so cutting edge!"

"I think that it's a little mean," Amanda cut in. "I mean, she looked pretty upset the other day after the- mff!" Jack had thrown his hand over her mouth and smiled sheepishly at Chase.

"She doesn't mean it Chase," he said quickly, "She just, uh, forgot to take her meds today! AH!" He quickly pulled his hand away from Amanda's mouth. "She bit me!"

"I don't know what Jack's talking about, I don't take medication, and I'm as normal as can be, but I do like to bite people, especially if they have salty skin, is your skin salty Chase? Can I-"

"ENOUGH!" Chase said, holding his hand in front of the babbling youth. This, he soon found out, was a mistake. She took this as a sign to go ahead and bite his hand, which she did. She bit through his glove, she was biting so hard. "Spicer." Chase growled through clenched teeth. "Get her off of me. NOW!" Jack moved quickly to get his companion off of his evil hero.

"Come on, Amanda. You're embarrassing me in front of Chase!" He whined, pulling her shoulder. She quickly removed her teeth from the Dark Prince's hand.

"Am I?" she asked the pale teen, "I'm sorry, Jackie!" She hung her head in shame.

"Spicer, I recommend that you and your girlfriend get out of my sight before I decide to kill you both." Chase snarled, turning back around and picking up the diary.

"Ri-right. We'll be leaving now." Jack pulled Amanda's hand, trying to get her away from the very agitated Chase Young.

"Aw, but I barley got to see anything!" Amanda complained as Jack pulled her out of the room.

"Thank God they're gone," sighed Wuya. Chase cast an irritated look at the witch before sitting back down and opening the diary once more.

Chase looked at a clock on the wall and saw that five minutes had passed. "70,980," he muttered to himself as he wrote the number down.

-At the Xiaolin temple-

"I think that he's finally stopped," I said, my voice horse from screaming so much. "I think he's finally left me alo-"

70,980…

"Nope, never mind." I sat sadly down on my mat, not caring to scream or throw a fit any more. All I wanted was peace.


There are only two hours left, Adrienne. Only two hours. I sat up quickly and looked to the alarm clock. Eight O'clock Am on judgment day. I scrambled to my feet and took off down the hall to the dining area. I saw that the Monks were eating already. I stiffly took my normal seat between Raimundo and Clay.

"Good morning, Adrienne." Said Omi, clearly not noticing that something was wrong. I grunted.

"Is everything all right there, partner?" Clay asked, putting his fork down.

I started to nod, but changed my mind. "No," I sighed, my stomach hurting. "Guys, I have something to tell you." Everyone put his or her fork down to listen. "Well, you remember two days ago, when I was in the box with Chase?" Everyone nodded. "Well, I kind of, sort of… pledged my loyalty to him."

There was a thick silence as my words sunk in. But then;

"YOU WHAT?!?" It was Kimiko who regained enough of her composure to yell those words at the top of her lungs.

"I didn't actually do it," I said, my heart dropping. "I was only exploring the possibility. He said he wouldn't leave me alone unless I became his apprentice. And, ever since I asked, I haven't had nightmares, but he has been counting down the seconds until he came here for my answer with The Xù Diary."

"Let me get this straight," Raimundo said, still slightly dazed, "You swore your loyalty to him, and he let you come back here?"

"I didn't swear my loyalty… Well, I kind of did, but he let me come back here so I could make a final decision. Don't hate me, please. I was scared."

"That doesn't give you the right to say that you might join the most evil villain of all time, Adrienne." Kimiko cut in, clearly agitated.

I was beginning to feel abused. They weren't even trying to understand why I had said that I was going to join him.

"You don't understand," I said desperately. "I have no means of defense. You guys can fight and use Shen Gong Wu. He had me cornered in there, and it felt like Raimundo had been stopped by something, so Chase was my only way out! What would you have done?"

"I would've fought him with all of my might!" Cried Kimiko.

"And I was still trying to get in!" Raimundo said, angrily, "If you'd have hung in there for a little while longer-"

"I couldn't!" I yelled, "He took The GuÄng Lantern from me, I could hardly see anything, and he was holding me from behind!"

There was a pause, and then Raimundo asked, "He was holding you?"

"He had me by the shoulders. I couldn't do anything." I said, exasperated. "He had done that in one of my dreams as well, but then he started to move his hands down my arms."

Another silence. "So, he was coming on to you?" Clay inquired slowly.

"I don't know," I said, standing up and turning around. "He said he was messing with my mind. He also said that he-he-" tears began to stream down my face.

Clay patted my back comfortingly. "He what?" He asked gently.

I chocked back a wail and whispered, "He owned me."

"Oh, I'll get that no good varmint if it's the last thing I do!" Clay growled, punching his fist in his hand. "Doing that a lady with out her consent."

"As noble as that is, Dragon of Earth, there is one part our dear Adrienne left out."

Aw crap. And we all turned to see none other than the Evil Mastermind himself. An hour and a half early.

"Chase, what are you doing here an hour and a half early?" I asked him, stomach flipping wildly.

"I came early because I thought I'd save you some stress, after all of yesterday." He said, smirking. "And it appears it's a good thing I came. After all, we wouldn't want to leave the Monks with an unclear picture, now would we?"

"What do you mean, an unclear picture?" Raimundo spat, "There's nothing about it that's unclear! You violated her!"

"That, naïve young Monk, is not entirely true." He said calmly, giving me a look that explained what he meant.

My heart nearly stopped as I realized what he was going to say. "Chase," I whispered, "If you say that, I swear to God I will find someway to kill you."

He ignored me. "Why, it appears that our young friend Adrienne," his eyes glinted maliciously, "enjoyed it."

There was a stunned silence all around the Temple as soon as the words had been uttered. After a moment, all eyes turned to me. I was standing open mouthed, trying not to scream, faint, or die.

"Is this true, Adrienne?" Omi asked, his eyebrows wrinkled in confusion.

I stood there, unable to move or think. I just stared open mouthed at Chase Young.

"What have you done?" I managed to whisper. "What in the name of God have you done?" Chase just stood there, not answering, just smirking at me, daring me to try to kill him. I took a step towards him.

"Adrienne!" Someone was shaking me from behind. "Adrienne! Snap out of it!" I shrugged the hands off of my shoulders and took a step toward Chase. The man who revealed my secret. I took another step.

"Adrienne, what are you doing?" Someone shouted from behind me. I could no longer make sense of the words that were being said, let alone tell who was screaming them at me. I took step closer.

"What have you done to me?" I rasped, taking another step.

"I've put you right where I want you." He said so that only I could hear him.

I stopped walking. "What?" I asked, shocked.

"Now is the time that you need to make your decision, Adrienne." He said, louder this time. "Do you choose the Monks," He paused and sneered at them, "or me?"

End Chapter 9.

CLIFF HANGER! NENENENENENENENE! Please review!

-AML-