Chapter 10-Fear and the First Date

OMG, hi, I AM SOOOO SORRY FOR THE UBER LONG UPDATE TIMEE!!!! But I wrote the next chapter for ALL of my stories, so that they'd all be even, so it took like two months!!!! I HOPE YOU ENJOY THISSS!!!!!!! Please forgive me, and review!!

I lay curled in a ball on my bed, wrapped thoroughly in blankets. I trembled underneath them, scared for my life, and Gray's, and for everyone else's. Maybe I could get them out of town before it was too late. Maybe I could start a fire (a little extreme, but…) and tell them to leave, that I'd take care of it. Maybe I could tell them they were all in danger and they had to leave. I snorted at the thought. Yeah, right. These people have too much pride to leave if I told them that. They'd stay and defend Mineral Town. Pride, and…the goodness in their hearts. They would know something was going to happen to me. They would stay and fight back. Not like they could fight him. Not like they wouldn't die in the instant they even thought about attacking him.

He was furious. It would be so hard for him to control himself around people… and him here might make me lose control, too.

I didn't know what to do. I was the helpless little nothing that was going to watch everyone she knew and loved die, right in front of her, because of her. I buried my face in deeper to my blanket wrap; it was rather frankfurterish.

I sank into a rugged, twitchy sleep, and woke up in a dream. I was hissing at him, my teeth bared; they were sharper than usual, and could pierce skin easily. My right eye was black with a red iris, and the left was the opposite. My nails were claws, and my skin was smoother, softer, and silkier than all of the Nivea, Clearisil, and Neutrogena commercials put together. My lips were soft and pink, and my hair was fluffy and also soft, as everything seemed to be. My chest was also, uh, significantly, er, larger. But there was a sharp, cold edge to everything about me as I stood there, spitting and hissing at him. His face was hidden in the shadows, and he was laughing his silky smooth laugh.

Them I noticed my surroundings, and took them in with horror. While my dream self had her eyes locked on him, I looked around to see the bodies of the whole of Mineral Town strewn around dream me. I noticed Popuri's pink hair; I looked closer at her to see her eyes wide with horror, white with death. Her mouth was open in the ghost of a scream as she lay unmoving on the ground.

Suddenly, dream me lunged at him, and he laughed even harder as he opened his arms to me.

I snapped out of my nightmare with a start, cold sweat that dewed at the back of my neck and tears streaming down my cheeks. I stared, unseeing, at the ground, my jaw practically disconnected. After a while, I got up and ghosted over to wash up and get dressed. Everything was blurry, and I was hardly paying attention to what I was doing. I pulled on what was right in front of me and brushed through my massive rats' nest without feeling the pain that would have had me writhing on the ground.

Then I slammed into the corner of my table, which hurts so much it…hurts a lot, and I fell over and writhed in pain. Come on, I cooed to myself. Do as mommy told you to and think of ice cream and cookies and cute boys…make the pain go away…

A memory swirled into my head, one that I cherished, as I did with most of the few that included my mother. I had fallen over and cut my leg, and a lot of blood was spilling out; I was wailing like I had been shot.

"Shh, baby, shh, it'll be okay," my mom said, hugging me warmly as only a mother can.

"B-b-but it hurts, mommy!" I whimpered, fresh tears spilling over.

She smiled at me. "No it doesn't."

"…What?"

She giggled. "Think of the things you like. Cookies, ice cream, squirrels, video games…"

So I did. I thought of cookies crushed into ice cream, with a squirrel at my side, cheering me on as I played through my game.

"See?" Mom said when I had stopped wailing. "Think of things you love when it hurts, and think of Hanamori Hikari's protagonists in her mangas, how they never give up, and they always keep fighting, no matter what!"

Then my eyes snapped open with a realization.

I needed to fight to keep going. I had to save the people of this town, and myself! I was not going to become the monster in my dream!

Just then, someone started knocking at my door. I flitted over to it and flung it open. "Hiya!" I screamed into their faces; I was rather upbeat in that moment. It was Ann and Popuri, looking puzzled.

Poppy shook it off first. "Ooo, I heard you were dating Gray. I didn't know you were into him!" she said, winking at me and giggling.

I blinked. "Oh yeah." To be honest, I had forgotten already. Most guys had already been dropped from a window by now, and it was over. "Er, I mean, yeah…it was k-kind of sudden, but he came over and said he liked me and…" I blushed remembering the moment.

"Do you think it's just a fling or are you guys serious?" Popuri asked, her eyes glistening with the delight of worthwhile gossip.

I hesitated. My relationships usually only lasted a span of 5 hours, thanks to him and his cronies. It was hard for him to let go, I guess. "I don't know," I said. In a lower voice, I added, "I just hope he doesn't die…"

"What was that?" Poppy asked. I sighed; she just went on with her questions. "Have you kissed? How far have you gotten? Is he a good kisser? Does he have a nice body? What about—"

"Poppy!" I groaned, frowning. "Honestly! It was last night! What could have possibly happened other than a kiss?!"

She rolled her eyes. "Duh, keyword night."

"You sicken me," I mumbled, shutting the door. Popuri slipped her foot there, and winced.

"Ouch…no wonder people stop the door when others do this, they don't wanna get charged with the medical bill…" she grumbled, rubbing her foot as Ann pushed the door further open and invited herself in with a smile.

"He's cute; good catch," Ann said, speaking for the first time.

I smiled at her, just as more knocking started up at the door again. I sighed, standing up to go answer the door. I opened it to Gray's smiling face; he handed me some flowers and kissed my cheek. I blushed and mumbled a 'thank you'. He slipped in and waved at the girls. They gasped.

"Gray! You must really like her! You're not grumpy!" Ann said, her jaw falling open.

"I can count how many times I've seen you smile on one hand!" Popuri exclaimed, her eyes widening while she held up one hand.

He stuck his tongue out at them, his brows creasing. I rolled my eyes at the girls, who giggled back. I was going to put my hand in his, but I realized it was wet. I looked down at it, and gasped. It was bleeding! "Gray! What happened to your hand!?"

He looked down at it. "Oh, yeah…it's weird, things have been happening to me all day. First, I slipped on basically nothing when I got out of bed this morning, then one of the forks came flying at me"— he pointed to a bandage on his right forearm— "and then a bunch of embers puffed at me, and who knows what happened with this…"

My face and my heart fell. I felt like crying. I didn't want to hurt Gray like this. I bit my lip and glared hard at nothing, knowing he would know whom it was for. The growl that erupted from my throat said 'how dare you.' His chuckle breezed past me.

"Skye? What's wrong?" Ann asked, frowning.

I snapped back into reality. "What? Oh, nothing…just trying to remember where I put the bandages, is all…" I told her, laughing shakily. I walked away, and tripped over a chair. I was about to break my nose on the floor when a shadow appeared on the floor—his shadow. He caught me gently and lightly pushed me back up. A light sweat dewed at the back of my neck, and a shiver crept down my spine at his touch.

When I was completely upright again, I whipped around to see if he was somewhere in my house. My lip trembled as I looked around vigorously, and found that he was nowhere to be found. I didn't know he could do that…

My three guests stared back at me, wide-eyed. "A-are you okay…?" Gray stammered.

I laughed shakily once again. "O-oh yeah, just stumbled a little, ahaha…ah yes, bandages!" I escaped to my little First Aid kit. I unrolled some gauze and wrapped it around Gray's left hand, despair hanging around me like a cloud. I was the cause for Gray's pain. How could I not be sad?

But the next week was worse.

--

We went on a couple dates, and they were fun and they all ended in kissing. Of course, with every kiss, Gray's pain was worse. He caught a cold from 'falling' into the lake, a bump and a headache from 'accidentally walking into a tree', and so much more.

I was having so much fun! (err, except for the whole pain thing…) It had never taken him this long to break me up from a guy!

And then it happened.

We were walking in the back, behind the farm. Holding hands, laughing, having fun, like a normal couple. We went by the lake and the mine place.

"That place creeps me out," I told him, cocking my head to the side. "Plus I've never been into the whole hit rocks to get shinier rocks thing…"

Gray laughed. "Or are you just scared?"

"Ha! Please! Me, scared? Never!"

"Oh yeah?" he asked, smirking. He stood up, pulling me with him. We walked over to the cave. "Let's go in!"

Not waiting for a reply, he went into the cave, dragging me along with him. I stepped on what must have been a loose rock, and I almost fell. "Eek!" I squeaked (Yay, rhyming!) and clung to Gray; he laughed.

"I told you you were scared!" he said, kissing my head.

Suddenly, the cave started to rumble. Gray clutched me tighter to his side. A few rocks fell around us.

"We have to get out!" Gray yelled, and started leading me along. The light was so close, yet so far away…

A big crash was followed quickly by another one, and Gray cussed. "GO!" he urged, pushing me forwards and out the entrance. I heard him let out a grunt of pain after a third large crash.

"GRAY!" I shrieked, rummaging through my Roxy bag for a light. I finally found it, and flicked it on shakily. I ran over to the mine, and peered inside.

I gasped. Gray was caught under a huge rock, and his arm was not supposed to look like that!!

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I hope you liked it!! Again, sorry for the uber long update time!!! PLEASE REVIEW!!!

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