Sorry this has been so long in the making. I just finished chapter ten yesterday and I'll start working on eleven today. Enjoy this on your first day in the brand new year!

Song of the day: Sunday Bloody Sunday, by Paramore

Song of inspiration: Map of the Problematique, by Muse

Chapter Nine

Sunday Bloody Sunday

Fear and panic in the air
I want to be free
From desolation and despair

I ran until the scenery changed from suburbs to slums. Not that the slums were a safe place for anyone at any point during the day, but especially not for someone as prone to accident as me—at night even. But I didn't care. I swept the paranoid thoughts of being mugged into the back of my mind. I didn't have a clue as to where I was, but I didn't really think about that either. All I could focus on was the absence of pain in my mind, and the completely bizarre events that had just occurred.

I rounded a corner and stopped at the crosswalk of a major intersection. LA had a notorious and flashy night life, and I happened to be on a street corner where it was most lively. I looked to my left and saw a group of women, scantily clad, eyeing me up and down. I groaned inwardly. The last thing I wanted to do tonight was to be approached by a hooker.

Suddenly I found the thought insanely hilarious. I bit back a curl of laughter, smothering my mouth with my hand, and shuttered in my chuckle.

This had to be the most insane night of my life. I ran through tonight's events and it seemed like meeting Rosaleen's family in her hospital room had been eons ago. I remembered the conversations, the glares from Edward, and the comforting glances from Esme, Bella, and Rosaleen; Emmett's brotherly smile, and Frankie and Jasper's polite distance.

I was so deep in thought, that I barely noticed the woman approach me.

"Hey there handsome." The woman said, obviously attempting to seduce me with her sultry voice.

Oh boy. Here we go

I turned to her, and gave her a disinterested, curt nod, and then resumed staring at the street light. Hoping it would turn to 'walk' before she could pursue this hopeless venture with me further.

I wasn't so lucky.

"Are you alone tonight?" she prompted further, running her manicured hand down my left arm.

I pulled away in disgust, but pulled a tight smile across my face, so as to not offend her. I would be the only poor bastard that got assaulted by a prostitute, and then get arrested.

She raised an eyebrow at my movement, and eyed me up and down, obviously intrigued by what she saw. I briefly onced over myself, smoothing out my shirt with my palms—the realization hit me like a ton of bricks. I held my palms out before my face, and studied them. Mere minutes before they had been gushing with blood, mangled—and now not even a scratch marked where I had fallen or scraped my palms. My mind was reeling with the revelation, barely noticing that someone had stepped beside me.

"No. He's with me." A familiar voice broke through my trance and I looked up to see Rosaleen standing next to me, a feral look in her eyes.

"Oh is that right?" the woman purred, amused with Rosaleen's protective stance beside me. I, too, was awaiting her answer to that question.

Rosaleen tilted her head to the side, a smirk appearing on her lovely face.

"Yes that is correct, so if you'd like to live to see your next costumer, I would suggest you backing away from him." Venom coated every word that she spoke, and I was taken aback by the menacing tone in her voice.

At this moment, Rosaleen no longer resembled the lovely, fragile apple blossom that I had first imagined, but a wonderfully fierce lioness, ready to spring the first thing that threatened what was rightfully hers.

Pleasure at this idea rippled through my body, and I was on the edge of that hysterical happiness I had felt in the hallway of the hospital today, with Julie and Ray.

The only thing I could do was smile in euphoric pleasure as the woman coward back at Rosaleen's glowering expression. I probably looked like an idiot, but I didn't care—but I did make a mental note that being with just Rosaleen was good for my state of being. No mental pain or anguish. No throwing full grown men, twice my size, thirty feet across a yard in the middle of the night.

She turned and took off past the rest of the scantily clad women, not taking time to even speak to them or glance back at us.

I looked to Rosaleen, who was smiling ruefully, obviously very pleased with herself.

"How did you get here so fast?" she asked, turning to face me. The neon lights of the night shown on her face in a brilliant display of colors.

"I ran?" I half-asked, half-answered.

"I've never seen anyone move that fast Gerard. Believe me. I would know fast."

I let out a sigh of slight frustration. She was being unbelievably cryptic.

I looked at her, a bewildered expression surely plastered to my features. "What do you mean?" I asked, huffing another sigh.

"Gerard. Do you know where we are?" she asked, sounding dumbfounded.

I eyed her quizzically. "Somewhere past downtown?" I half-asked again, chagrin blushing across my cheeks.

Her mouth fell open. I wasn't expecting that.

"Gerard! WE ARE NINE MILES FROM MY COMPLEX! IT TOOK YOU LESS THAN FOUR MINUTES TO REACH THIS SPOT!" she shouted at me, her arms flailing spastically as she was rife with stress; obviously upset that I couldn't put two and two together and get four.

I reached out and put a calming hand on her face, she allowed her arms to fall to her sides. I drew her in to my chest in a bone-crushing hug. Somehow I had the feeling that something would be keeping me from her, and soon.

She grasped me tightly, planting small, passionate kisses behind my ear and in my hair. I shivered at the contact of her lips on my skin. She ran her fingers through my hair roughly, pulling my earlobe into her mouth. I couldn't breathe, my heart was battering in my chest once more, and then she abruptly stopped.

She took a step back from me and held something dark and crumpled in her right hand. It almost looked like string.

"What is that?" I asked, my voice husky.

A dimple formed between both of her eyebrows as she furrowed them in confusion. She held her hand closer to her face in order to get a better look.

"It, it looks like…stitches" she stuttered, raising an eyebrow.

My hands immediately flew to the back of my head to check for any open wounds. I felt nothing, no blood, no stitches, not even any scars. Just my soft black hair, and my scalp.

This night just kept getting even more bizarre.

"Huh. That's interesting." I held my hand out to her, motioning for her to give me the stitches. She obliged me, stepping closer to me in the process.

"What? What's going on?" she asked, her voice in a high worried trill.

"I'm… I'm not entirely sure. But those were the stitches the doctor put on my head four days ago… and now there is nothing there on my head. Not ever a scar." I pondered that for a moment, and a sudden déjà vu swept over my entire being. I'd been here before. I was sure of that. I couldn't figure out how I had gotten to this point, or remember where it took me in the future, but I knew that I had traveled this road before.

I sighed loudly, closing my eyes and trying to remember where I should go from here.

Where is here?

That was a good question.

Nine miles? Really? And if I did get that far, in only four minutes, which would have meant that I ran faster than any human alive. How was Rosaleen here? Was she like me? If I ran that fast, which definitely not normal, then how did she get here?

Opening my eyes, I stared questioningly at her.

"Why are you freaking out? If I ran that fast, and you suddenly show up right beside me, not even two minutes later, then you must have run behind me." I eyed her with suspicion. There was definitely a lot here that she wasn't telling me.

She took a step back, her eyes widening.

"Um, uh…" she stuttered for a brief second, then regained her composure with a haughty demeanor. "I thought I was asking the questions. You are the one that vomited on my front doorstep, nearly knocked out Emmett, and then ran from us." She stated in rebuttal, crossing her arms like a pouting child.

My mouth went slack-jawed. You know, she's right. She probably came to find out if you're alright. I shook my head at the sudden change of thoughts and the slight wave of discomfort that came with it.

Damn. This girl was really getting to me.

"So what exactly is going on with you?" she stepped closer to me, once more.

What was going on with me? I hadn't the slightest clue, other than the immense déjà vu that swept over me every few seconds. I looked around the street corner that we now stood, and suddenly my eyes flashed back to a similar situation. A bright sunny day, the street lined with dogwoods and elm trees in full bloom.

I shook my head and the vision vanished as suddenly as it came. The racket passing cars and club-goers made just seemed to be getting louder and louder. I couldn't even begin to think about anything I wanted to say to her; much less have an intelligent conversation.

"Let's go somewhere else, please." I stated in an urgent, flat tone. I could feel a different pressure building up in my head, it was only an echo of the preceding pain, but it still hurt.

"Alright. Where would you like to go?" she stood impossibly close to me, reached up on her tip toes and brushed her lips gently across my cheek. The warm rush of blood raced up to my face and my eyes met hers—and in that moment the world's center changed. A jolt of something stronger than any electrical current that has ever existed burned through me hotter than liquid lava. Our eyes were glued together, and I could feel the heat coming off her in waves, but I couldn't speak, I couldn't move, I couldn't even breathe. All I could do was stare into her eyes that seemed to be molten with the extreme heat pouring between us, and listen to the sound of our resounding heartbeats.

The blare of a fire truck siren knocked us out of our trance; I stumbled back a few feet, never taking my eyes off Rosaleen, and saw her plop down ever-so-gracefully onto her bottom. She looked up to me with astonishment in her eyes and raised her hands to me. I reached out to grab her without the slightest hesitation. The moment my skin touched hers, an electrifying sensation passed from my fingers to hers. She jumped back in shock, and I stood there, numb. My skin felt like it was crawling, buzzing, and moving all on its own. I could feel things changing, re-arranging inside of me.

"Gerard?" she asked meekly. I looked up to see that she was now standing a few feet away, a wary, confused look on her face.

"What?" I asked, a rippling feeling flowing from my core, to my limbs and out through all my fingers and toes. It was peaceful in an odd, sort of alarming way.

"You're…you… you're glowing." She stuttered, shaking her head. She didn't look horrified, like one would expect someone to react to this type of situation, but like she'd seen many a things in her day, just nothing like this before.

I took a cautious step towards her, reaching my hand out for her to take. She eyed me in a slightly alarming way, biting her bottom lip in hesitation. I closed my eyes slowly and allowed the peace to flow from within me, to her body. As soon as it left my body I felt her hand grasp mine in a quiet desperation that I'd never felt before. She grasped my hand stronger than anything I had felt before, but there was no pain. I took one large step towards her, aligning our bodies together, and rested my forehead on hers.

"I… I know I've been here before, but I'm not sure what happens. I don't want you to be afraid, but I need to go figure this out. I need to know what happens."

I opened my eyes to find her dazzling green staring back at me. "Will you allow me a few days to get this under control. Then I will come to you and tell you all that I know."

She nodded, seeming almost hypnotized. I gave a slight smile at her confused face, and heaved a sigh, releasing her hands from mine. I backed one step away, and suddenly her arms were wrapped around me once more.

"Don't go. Not yet." She begged into the crook of my neck.

I could feel my resolve to leave melting right there in her arms. Why do I have to be so weak for this strange girl who's almost gotten me killed twice and just now saved me from being assaulted by a hooker?

I chuckled slightly, kissing into her hair. "The park's not that far. I'll race you." I challenged, pulling away from her, a grin appearing on my face.

Rosaleen giggled and kissed my cheek. "You're on."