Chapter 10 - "Commonalities"

I blinked. "Doctors?" I repeated, my mind whirring with my own interpretation of the widely known term. Fettel chuckled again, the same terrifying sound coming from him, and as horrifying as it was, there was a small part of me that felt aroused at the constant growl in his voice. I bit my lower lip, and fought off the primal thoughts.

"Mm-hmm," he breathed, still smirking.

"What kind of doctors?" I asked tentatively as we stood there in the pitch dark, me with my back to the door and Fettel standing just a foot away.

"The kind that deserve to die," he replied menacingly.

"I know a few doctors that deserve to die," I replied quietly. Fettel arched a brow at me and I took it as a sign to continue. "I was put in an Institution when I was younger," I explained, and his eyes lit up with interest. "They tortured me there..."

"Do you remember the name of the facility?" he asked insensitively.

"I think it was called Boeing..." I recalled. A wicked grin spread across Fettel's face right then.

"It would appear that you and I have something in common after all," he replied, sounding pleased. I blinked, trying to understand what he meant by that. Had he spent time in a Ward, too? Had he spent time in Boeing..? "Enough with the small talk. I want to see something..." Fettel said, shaking me from my reverie.

"See what?" I asked suspiciously.

"I should warn you," Fettel began in somewhat of a drawl. "There is a small chance that what I'm about to do might kill you..."

"WHAT?" I shouted in alarm as I tried to jerk away from him. THUD. "-Ouch!" But all I had managed to achieve was slamming the back of my head against the wall. "What the hell do you mean there's a chance that you might accidentally kill me?"

"First of all, I never said it would be an accident," Fettel said with an evil smirk. "And second, considering the fact that you can even see me at all, there really is only a miniscule risk of you dying," he explained as if it all made perfect sense.

"But-?" I faltered, trying not to look as afraid as I really was.

"How about this," he began. "if you don't die, I'll explain it to you. And if you do die..." he paused for the briefest of moments. "Well it won't matter to you anymore anyways, now would it?" he said with a devilish grin and a sick little laugh. I swallowed hard.

"Oh, gee, well in that case, since you make it sound so comforting..." I trailed off sarcastically.

"Sorry," Fettel said in a contradicting tone that said else wise. "But I've never been the 'comforting' type." His narrow grey-green eyes bored into mine. "Now let's stop wasting time." He took his right hand off the wall and slowly, dramatically brought it down to my face. The whole time my heart was banging so hard in my chest that I swore I was going to pass out any second. It felt like an eternity of painful anticipation before I suddenly felt his ice cold hand against my cheek.

Fettel's skin was so cold that it caused me to gasp on accident. My heart spluttered with relief the very moment he had touched me. I hadn't instantly died. However, a completely shocked look crossed his face. "Strange," he mumbled, almost sounding a little disappointed.

"Your hand," I breathed as I brought my arm up without thinking and placed my hand on top of his. "It's freezing." I got an odd expression from him in return, and he pulled his hand out from under mine.

"That's because I'm dead," Fettel replied calmly. There was a pause. "Well... as dead as I'll ever be."

I blinked in surprise. "But..." I mused. "...how can you be... dead?"

Fettel scoffed ever so slightly, and I couldn't tell if he was amused or annoyed. "Let's just say my brother had a large hand in it," he explained.

"Your brother? Where is he?" I asked.

"Oh, somewhere around here," he replied with a casual wave of his hand, and I immediately wondered if I had seen his brother around town before and just not realized it..?

"Is he..." I paused. "Is he like you?" I asked curiously.

Fettel smirked again. "Not exactly like me, but we are bound together by blood. Even more so now that I'm dead."

"What do you mean?" I asked. He stared at me for a long moment, debating if he wanted to tell me.

"We share a psychic link," he explained with trepidation. "However, my influence on things is limited to the vicinity of my brother."

My brain reeled as I tried to process all this new information, and according to Fettel's words, his brother would have to be somewhere close by... I stared at him in the darkness, the wispy red flames emanating from his body was the only source of light. He looked so eerie... almost like the walking dead.

"So seeing as I didn't die when I let you touch me, how about holding up your end of the deal?" I asked. Fettel stared at me with a somewhat amused expression on his face.

"I think it's something that would be best shown to you instead of explained," he said. All of the sudden the electricity flicked back on, and the entire room was filled with light, as well as the rest of the houses in the neighborhood and the street lamps outside. The abrupt brightness temporarily stunned me, causing me to squint and my eyes to water. It took a few seconds for my eyes to adjust and when they did, I opened them half expecting Fettel to be gone.

But when I did open my eyes, my heart faltered at the sight of him still standing there just a foot or so away. My pulse was racing like mad as I took in all of his appearance, this time in full light. He was no longer glowing, but the strange red and black flames surrounded his body, and still emanated from him.

Fettel was deathly pale; I could see purple and blue veins right at the surface of his skin in both his hands, and his face. His hair was dark and he had it slicked back, accentuating his widows peak. He had broad shoulders, as well. I swallowed hard as I noticed just how much taller he was than me... and he was even slouching.

"You're so tall," I breathed as I continued to take note of Fettel's features; he had a slightly longer nose and chin, giving him a pointy face that added to his menacing look. And his eyes... My heart thudded hard in my chest. His eyes were just so intense. The sharp shape to them made his gaze very intimidating, but the fluorescent grey-green shade his eyes possessed drew you in like no other. Even if you wanted to look away, it was almost impossible to.

Knock, knock, knock! I jumped at the sound of someone knocking on my front door. Fettel stared at me silently, and I gave him a quick look before turning around and opening the door. Standing on my doorstep was Taylor.

"Stupid power outage," she complained as she stepped inside my house. I shut the door behind her, anxiously looking around, worried about what she was going to say when she saw Fettel... But when I glanced around the room, he was gone. Taylor looked at me with furrowed brows. "What're you looking for?" she asked as she followed my gaze to where my dead friend had just been moments ago.

I shook my head. "Nothing," I lied, but Taylor didn't buy it.

"No, I know that look," she said. "There's something you're not telling me..."

I hesitated. How did she know me so well..? "I-" I faltered. "I think I'm going crazy."

Taylor laughed. "Well we were admitted to a mental institution..." she replied. "But I'll humor you, and ask what makes you say that?" Suddenly the sound of sirens wailing in the distance could be heard and I was reminded of the girl laying dead in the middle of the street thanks to Royce, Indian and Larry...

"I need to sit down," I said as I made my way into my living room and sat down on the couch feeling dizzy. Taylor followed me, her expression growing worried as the sirens grew louder.

"You okay?" she asked as she took a seat beside me. I nodded stiffly. The sirens were close now... Taylor glanced out the window, it had her attention, too...

"Yeah, I'm okay, but..." I paused as I turned to look at her. "I saw someone die," I said in a detached tone of voice. Taylor turned back to me and blinked. The sirens finally came to a halt at the end of my block, the sound almost drowning out our voices.

"What are you talking about? When?" she asked with furrowed brows.

"Just a little while ago... In the blackout," I explained.

"Where?" Taylor asked. I glanced out the window in the direction of the sirens. She followed my gaze and and shook her head. "Are you kidding me?" she asked, sounding surprised. I nodded. "Why didn't you tell me this sooner?" she said as she rose from the couch and headed for the door.

"I told you as soon as I could," I explained as I got to my feet and followed her. I was startled when I saw that she had a small, crazed smile on her face as she stepped outside.

"Not soon enough as far as I'm concerned. I wanna' get a look before they cart the body off!" she said as we made our way down the block and toward the scene of the crime. I stopped half way down the block.

"I don't want to be seen by the cops, you go on ahead," I explained. Taylor nodded and ran off in front of me. I watched from a distance as the dead girl's body was put in a black body bag and laid on a stretcher. My dad drove up and parked his car outside our house right then, prompting me to go over and greet him.

"Well that was a nightmare," he said as he got out of the car looking exhausted. "That storm blew in out of nowhere." He glanced down the block at the flashing ambulance. "Uh-oh. What happened here?" he asked, a look of concern on his face.

"A girl who was trying to cross the street got hit by a car in the middle of the storm," I explained.

"That's terrible!" he replied, looking alarmed. "I was worried something like that was going to happen when the power went out like that. We were working non-stop to fix the power grid as fast as we could... but apparently it just wasn't fast enough."

"It's not your fault dad," I said as we crossed the yard.

"I know, I just wish it could have been avoided..." he mumbled as he went inside the house. I waited on my front steps for Taylor to get back.

"Dude!You missed out on all the gore!" she said as she plopped herself down beside me. I grinned and shook my head at her. The thought of Fettel suddenly popped into my head again and my expression went neutral.

"I want to tell you something, but..." I hesitated. Taylor looked at me with a more serious expression now.

"What is it?" she gently urged me to continue.

"I'm not sure if you'll believe me..." I said anxiously. Taylor furrowed her brows at me in a half confused, half amused manner.

"Well considering all that you and I have been through together, if there's anyone who oughta' believe you the most, it's me," she said with a grin. I smiled. Taylor was right... and her words made me feel a little more comfortable.

"That's true..." I replied with a nod before taking a deep breath and turning to look at her. "Alright," I began. "When the power first went out, I stepped outside, down the block a ways to take a look at the neighborhood and that's when I saw that girl get hit by the car..."

"Okay?" Taylor acknowledged, listening intently.

"I didn't want to be caught anywhere near the crime scene, so I ran back home..." I explained as I shifted around uncomfortably. "But when I got home... there was somebody in my house."

Taylor gasped involuntarily. "What do you mean there was somebody in your house?" she asked sharply as she whirled around and looked at my front door like it had suddenly come to life.

"It was the strangest thing, Taylor. He said... he said he wasn't alive," I explained as Taylor just stared at me. "And the freakiest part of all was that I know he was telling the truth. I could tell that he wasn't alive. He... he was as pale as a ghost, and had some sort of red smoke that emanated from his body. When he touched me, his skin was as cold as ice. Like a corpse."

Taylor's eyes flashed and a small smirk played at the corner of her lips. "Where is this guy now?" she asked as she glanced at the front door again. I shrugged.

"I'm not sure. You knocked and I answered the door, but by the time you stepped inside he was just gone," I explained.

"That's too bad..." she mused.

"Why?" I asked curiously.

"He sounded really interesting..." Taylor said with a shrug. "Did he tell you his name?"

"He told me to call him Fettel," I replied.

"Hmm, I wonder if that's a first name or a last..?" she mumbled aloud.

"Dunno'," I replied, and admittedly I was curious about that myself... "But I hope I run into him again," I said with a small smile. Just then there was movement across the street, getting both mine and Taylor's attention. Rachel was coming out of her house and looked over in our direction.

"Looks like your friend's coming over," Taylor said as Rachel crossed the street and approached us.

"Hi, Alexis," Rachel said as she came to a halt in front of us.

"Hey, Rachel, this is my friend Taylor," I introduced them.

"Hi, Rachel," Taylor greeted her.

"Nice to meet you, Taylor," Rachel said, though her friendly tone of voice sounded a bit artificial. "Some blackout, huh?" she asked as she looked down at the end of the block. The ambulance was gone now and the police were finishing up their reports before getting into their cop cars and driving off.

"Chyeah... I'll say," I groaned, my mind still having a hard time processing everything I had just witnessed and encountered in the last couple hours.

"We should do something fun tonight," Taylor said.

"Like what?" Rachel asked.

"How about going to a Club?" Taylor suggested.

"That sounds like it could be fun," I replied.

Rachel nodded. "Yeah, that sounds awesome!"

Later that evening after Rachel, Taylor and I went our separate ways, I ate dinner with my father and did my chores before going up to my room to get ready to go to a Club. I took a shower and went through all my clothes trying to find something nice to wear. I decided on a cute leopard print dress with black trim and sequins all over, giving it an artificial sparkle whenever the light would reflect off it. I pared the dress with my black pumps, adding 4 1/2 inches to my height, and making me go from 5'2" to 5'6 1/2".

As I looked at my reflection in the mirror I saw that I had gone from short and petite, to willowy and slender. Feeling pleased with the way I looked, I carefully applied my make-up and made my way downstairs where I waited in my living room for my two friends to show up. Taylor arrived at nine-thirty, but Rachel took until five after ten before turning up on my doorstep.

"Could you take any longer?" Taylor teased Rachel, but I sensed a bit of dislike in her voice. I wouldn't be surprised if she didn't like Rachel, who sometimes came across as too self-involved and phony.

"Had to make sure I looked good!" Rachel replied while flipping her hair back in a girly manner. I saw Taylor roll her eyes and I had a feeling she was biting her tongue from saying something in response. I caught Taylor's gaze and smirked ever so slightly. "So where is this place?" Rachel asked, absolutely clueless.

"On the edge of town," Taylor replied.

"Ugh, don't tell me we have to walk there?" Rachel asked.

"No, I have a car," Taylor said as she pulled out her car keys and jingled them in front of Rachel.

"Thank God. Let's go then," Rachel said, and we all got into Taylor's sporty pink car.

"Nice ride," I said with a grin.

"Thanks," Taylor replied as she turned on the ignition and drove off down the street. Twenty minutes later we were on the outskirts of Springwood. Taylor pulled down a gravel road and slowly followed it up to a large building in the distance. As we got closer, you could feel the bass of the music shortly followed by the sound of techno music intermingling with many voices. When we cleared the trees you could see multicolor lights flashing from the large entrance of the structure. Taylor pulled into an area that was full of other cars before cutting the engine.

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~Satine~