Chapter 10
Am I losing it?

Roxie

When I walked into the bedroom I noticed two things. One was that Jemma hadn't bothered to turn on the light and the second thing was that Jemma was sitting on the floor against the other wall. There were tear streaks on her face and she was staring blankly into the distance. She had little bloody marks on her arms. As I watched her I realized the bloody marks were from her nails as she dug them into her skin. I took a few steps toward her, I could care less if she yelled at me, this was getting serious and it was my fault.

When I was about five feet from Jemma her eyes snapped to mine and I stopped. I couldn't move my body and the harder I tried to, the harder I felt her press into my mind. As I realized that she was compelling me without even saying a word, all my willpower disappeared.

The next thing I know, I'm watching as a shadowy figure picks up a smaller feminine looking figure, twist, and the smaller figure falls to the ground. She was showing me my own death. I had been there, I don't need to relive it. I tried shouting out, but the image replayed, and this time I didn't stop falling. I fell endlessly and before I knew it, the ground was rushing up to me. The worst part was that I spun around as I fell and looked up to see the strigoi that were my first kills smiling down from the balcony of the fancy hotel my moroi was staying at. I spun around again and the picture changed once more...

A strigoi pushed me into a brick wall and I tried to reach my hand out to stop the impact, but I was too late and my head slammed into the unforgiving bricks. My vision swam and I saw the six strigoi in the alley in Casper surround a frightened Charles. Before I could see what else happened, the picture changed...

Pam was sneering at me with her red curls and sharp fangs. I couldn't move, like I was being held by inhumanly strong hands. Then Pam brought her mouth down to my neck and I tried to scream, but the image changed one last time...

I saw a figure run up to my mother who had let her guard down and turned around when I called out to her. The figure grabbed her and my mom dropped her stake to the ground and fought the strigoi, but it was no use and the strigoi bit into her neck, tearing it out-

"Stop," I heard a voice shout. Then I felt hands grab me before I hit the wall. I hurt, which made me realize I had been throwing myself into the wall the entire time Jemma had control of me. I dropped to my knees trying to make the shaking stop. Jemma had dug through my memories and made me relive all the times I had nearly died, except for the last one. She made me relive my most painful memory.

Charles

I grabbed Roxie before she could hit the wall again which in turn made Roxie fall to her knees. "Roxie are you okay?" I asked and felt her head nodding yes against my shoulder. Whatever happened while she was being thrown against the wall still has her shaken up. I looked over to see where Brett and Jemma were standing. To someone else it would seem that the Twins were giving each other glares for no reason but for a guardian like me it seemed that the twins were having an argument in the other persons head.

"Get her out," Brett said to me in a strained voice.

I nodded my head as if he was actually looking at me and carried Roxie out of the room by the tone in his voice, it seems that Brett is the only one that could calm down Jemma. Who would I be if I tried getting in the way of that. I asked myself while laying Roxie on the couch.

Roxie

Charles helped me sit on the couch. I still hurt, but I was trying to push it out of my mind like I usually would. I tried to stop myself from shaking too.

"Are you okay do you need some water or maybe a blanket?" Charles asked.

"I'll be okay," I told him taking deep breaths. "I just relived all my near death experiences."

"I'm not going to ask how she did that because with spirit nothing is impossible, I'm just going to sit near the couch and wait for Brett to calm down Jemma." Charles said sitting on the floor.

All of a sudden I wasn't on the couch anymore. I was in Brett's head and it was blazing with magic; His and Jemma's.

Calm down, Brett urged his sister. He was sweating from using his magic, but Jemma's strength was slipping. I'm still here for you Jem, I'm still your brother.

With that, Jemma finally stopped pushing against him with her magic. Realization flashed across her face and new tears spilled from her eyes. But these were different, these were regret and fear.

"Shh, its okay, it's over." Brett told her as he wrapped his arms around her.

"You don't know what I did to her," Jemma hiccupped. "I'm horrible." Brett had no idea what had happened when Jemma had taken over my mind.

"It wasn't you, it was the darkness," Brett told her and after a few seconds she calmed down a bit. "I meant it, I'm still here for you."

"Really?" Jemma asked in a small voice.

"Yup see," Brett took her hands and called up his magic. This was the first time I was in his mind while he did this so I was a blown away by how beautiful it was. When he passed the magic to Jemma it was like a rainbow of colors washed the world. Jemma's arms healed. Just as quickly as the magic came, it disappeared.

There was something dark that it left behind. Dark, rolling, horrible. I knew instantly that it was the darkness and I had to protect Brett from it.

I pulled on the darkness as hard as I could and it came away from Brett, and straight into me.

Charles

I heard Roxie gasp and looked up at where she was laying on the couch, or she was lying, now she was sitting up. Her fists were clenched and it was as if she didn't know whether to cry or punch something.

"Roxie what's wrong?" I asked her getting up from my spot I was debating whether or not I should try snapping her out of whatever but debated against it. I'm not sure if she would snap at me or not. Breath Charles, your the only sane person out of all of them that can at least calm them down or at least Roxie for now.

Roxie didn't answer me, instead her breathing got heavier. I noticed her eyes weren't exactly focused on anything in particular. She clenched her fists tighter and before I knew it she was off the couch. Before I could grab her she struck out and punched the wall as hard as she could, leaving a dent in it.

Okay Charles think, think what was it that Rose told you about being shadow kissed? Uh the other person can feel everything that the spirit user feels, sometimes they can go into the other person's mind, when a spirit user heals someone darkness hits them. Wait that's it she took away his darkness and it's affecting her. I got up from my spot and made my way towards Roxie trying to sneak up on her. To bad that didn't work out for me. She decided taking her anger out on me and began throwing a few punches at me. I managed to dodge a few punches she threw my way but she might have thrown a punch at my stomach. "Roxie I don't want to hurt you!" I said and still got no answer looks like we're doing this the hard way. I lunged towards Roxie and managed to pin her against the wall after she stopped struggling. These are the times I wish there was a third guardian.

Roxie's eyes focused on me and all the fight left her. I could see the tears springing up in her eyes as she tried to blink them away.

"If I let your hands go you won't punch me again will you?" I asked her.

She shook her head, making a tear fall down her face and I let her go. She slowly sank down to the floor and opened her hands. There were deep marks from where her nails had dug into her palms while she was clenching her fists.

"I'm sorry," She said quietly.

"It's alright I'm just glad I stopped you before you could do anymore damage to yourself, don't beat yourself up it was the darkness that took over." I said sitting next to her. Yea I might have a bruise on my stomach tomorrow morning. "How do your hands feel?" I asked her.

Another tear fell from her eyes and she hastily wiped it away. She ignored my question. "I don't want that to happen again," Roxie said. "I had no control..." She put her head on her arms.

If only spirit was that easy a thing to control I thought to myself. I didn't really know what to say that could make her feel better she pretty much took the darkness from Brett and absorbed it into her. Too bad shadow doesn't like us he would probably try and comfort Roxie right about now though.

"Jemma made me relive watching my mom die," Roxie whispered. "All I could think about when I took the darkness from Brett was that I had to stop the strigoi from hurting her."

"Darkness can be pretty twisted." I said to her and thought for minute. "Even though Jemma was going through the darkness you still reached out to her and you protected them the most that night."

Roxie looked up and met my eyes. she twitched up the corner of her lips at me and leaned her head against the wall. "How many times did I throw myself into the wall?"

"Um I don't know, maybe one or two times. I didn't really think to count since you know I was thinking of a way to catch you, why do you ask." I said giving her a confused look. I think Roxie is slowly losing her marbles. Getting hit by the wall really affected her brain cells.

"I asked because I hurt like hell," Roxie laughed a little. "We should probably get the twins to bed."

"Yea we should I could also use a few hours of sleep myself." I said slowly getting up from my spot on the wall. I turned towards Roxie and stretched out my hand to help her up. She stared at it like she'd never seen a hand. I rolled my eyes. "come on you must feel a bit drained and what kind of partner would I be if I let you struggle getting up on your own." She took it and I helped her up.

"I'm still taking first watch," she informed me. "It'll be easier for Jemma to fall asleep if I'm not in there."

"Okay I'm assuming Brett is back in our room so I'll say good night for now." I said and headed to Mine and Brett's room to sleep. Brett was laying in his bed. Sleep sounds amazing I thought to myself once I crashed onto my bed.

Roxie

Once Charles had gone to bed I paced around for a little while. Of course since I hurt from hitting the wall I could only do this for so long. I ended leaning against the wall for the rest of my shift.

When the time came to wake Charles up, I went into the boys room quietly and put my hand on Charles' shoulder. Like usual he woke up and got out of bed for his shift. We didn't say anything, mostly because it was the middle of the night, and partly because I don't think either of us was in much of a mood to talk.

I opened the door to my room and stopped at the threshold. Jemma was asleep, but I still couldn't help but remembering the last time I came in here. Shadow popped his head out from under the covers to watch me carefully. I changed into my pajama shorts and a tank top but I didn't want to risk Jemma waking up in the middle of the night. I grabbed my pillow, a blanket, and my IPod and headed back out into the main room. Charles looked up from one of the couches and gave me a weird look.

"I think it's safer tonight for me to be out here," I told him and I went to the couch that he wasn't on and tried to get comfortable. I put my ear buds in and hit play on my IPod.

I don't know how long I slept, but I know I was awake for most of the night. I opened my eyes to find Charels about to wake me up. I pulled my ear buds out.

"I'm up," I said.

"It's time to get up now we've got school" charles said

I nodded and got up off the couch. I didn't hurt as much as last night, but I was still sore. Charels went off into his room and I went back into mine pulling my things along. I grabbed a change of cloths and went to take a shower. Afterward i was brushing my teeth and there was a knock at the door. I nearly dropped my toothbrush. I spit out my toothpaste and opened the door to find Jemma with Shadow in her arms.

"I'm sorry," She said to me as Shadow mewed from her arms. "I shouldn't have done what I did." I looked at her for a second. She was apologizing to me.

"It wasn't you," I told her. "It was the darkness.

"Still, I was jealous because now I have to share my brother," Jemma scratched behind Shadow's ears while she spoke.

"He's always going to be your brother, nothing will change that."

"I know that now," She turned around then and carried Shadow over to the window.

Charles

Comparative lit, I really don't know what to say about this expect that I don't even try to pay attention or do the work in this because it's comparative lit. I mean I guess I do kind of pay attention to what he's talking about while looking around the room what is up with all these class rooms having this boring white I feel like I'm in a hospital. The bell finally ran and I couldn't be more happier walking out of the class. We made our way back to room in a comfortable silence which is good counting the last few days. We made it back to the room and found Roxie and Brett sitting on the couch talking.

"Oh you guys are finally here there is something really important I need to tell you both."

"What is it?" I asked taking my seat on the arm chair after shutting the door while took a seat on the couch with Roxie and Brett.

"Brett wants to experiment with spirit," Roxie told us.

He wants to experiment with spirit. What if all the things that happen last night happens with him but it could be worse. I mean I don't want to stop him from doing what he wants to tap into but there also the question of what if something goes wrong. "Are you sure you want to do this brett."

"I'm also on Charles side with the matter of this but I guess if your absouletly sure you want to do this then I'll be there to support you." Jemma said.

"Thanks," Brett said to us. Then he looked like he got a sudden idea. "I think that if we could make a healing charm for for Roxie it would help when the darkness leaks into her. Roxie looked slightly uncomfortable talking about darkness.

"What do you think about it Roxie since you are going to be the one wearing it." I asked her. It would seem that we would at least be more comfortable about spirit though with the things we have seen involving spirit I understand why it's hard to adjust to. Especially for Roxie I mean going inside someone's head at odd times can't be a great experience or even feeling there emotions which explains how she knew Brett wanted those raisins maybe he was hungry for them.

"I'm okay with it," Roxie told us.

"How long will it take for a charm to be made." They must be effective if the twins are willing to make one for Roxie. I think we might be getting off to good start now and considering everything else that's been going on I think that's good for everyone. Well the good thing is that no strigoi's have attacked us after that night but I'm not really sure if that's an achievement worthy of any medals. At least they got a cat out of it.

"The next time we go out we can pick up some silver jewelry or something silver, and then we can get working on it." Brett sounded excited. "I've never made a charm before, but I can learn."

Charles

I had just started watch after checking in on Roxie and Jemma who were both asleep. I was in the main room doing my guardian duties when a loud alarm blarred through the hallway outside our room.

By the time I realized it was a fire alarm going off Roxie burst through the door to her and Jemma's room. They were both in thier pajamas, but Roxie looked wide awake and ready for war as she pulled Jemma by the arm. She also had a bundled up blanket in one hand and another blanket over her shoulder.

I was just about to ask what was in the bundled blanket when Brett came out of our room rubbing his eyes with an annoyed expression on his face. "I think we should leave the room before one of the teachers come in and find out we have a cat in there." I said pointing to the moving blanket Roxie was holding.

Roxie nodded, "Stay close to Brett," She said and wrapped the blanket that didn't hold shadow around her and Jemma. It concealed the bundle and I barely caught sight of the silver of her stake as she hid it under the blanket too.

We quickly made our way out of the room with me keeping close to Brett and Roxie also keeping close to Jemma. We made our way outside where all of the other students and teachers were. They said that we had to wait a few minutes until the alarm was stopped. Some of the students kept looking at Roxie and Jemma because shadow kept growling about Roxie holding him. Though after a few seconds they stopped for fear that my glare would possibly burn a hole into them. Both Roxie and myself kept looking around to make sure our surroundings were safe.

The alarm was finally stopped and we were allowed to back to our rooms. Our walk back to the room seemed just fine until we made it to our door Roxie and I stopped where we were to find that our door was slightly open.

I gave Roxie a questioning look and found that she had handed Shadow to Jemma and with a quick check to make sure noone was in the hall we both crept up to the door with stakes in hand. I pushed the door open slowly and Roxie slipped in ahead of me, I followed a few steps behind her.

While Roxie went and checked the rooms I stayed by the door when I noticed something dark and fluffy. I moved closer to the weird object and found a note with five words no one wants to see:

I know what you are.

"Uh Roxie could you come in here I think I found something." I yelled to her. Roxie was by my side in an instant, and she crouched down to get a closer look at what was attached to the note.

"Someone hit the light," She said and the light switched on. What I saw looked like a pile of bloody feathers.

"What the hell?" I said and heard someone take harsh quick breaths. I turned to find that it was jemma with tears in her eyes and holding onto shadow to tightly by the way he was meowing. "Brett take Jemma to her room." I said to brett and moved out of the way so they could get to her and Roxie's room.

"Does this mean that someone knows we aren't human, or that someone knows that the twins are spirit users?" Roxie asked taking a random pencil from the table where her coffee pot was and poking the note away from the dead bird.

"I think it might be both." What is it with these random animals first it was shadow and know this bird. "This seems like a weird pattern I mean it doesn't seem like animals would live out this far if you ask me." I told Roxie still inspecting the dead bird it looks like it's a crow.

"This means we'll have to be even more carefull," Roxie stood up and grabbed some paper towels from the table. She knelt back down and picked up the bird with the paper towels. "I'll go put this in on of the trash cans in the hall, then I'll be right back."

"Alright." I said and walked to the couch taking a seat on the middle cushion. It's funny I'm finding more and more things that don't seem very safe about this town or or the school itself especially if it were so easy for some stranger to come in here and break into our room. Who could be doing this and why are they harassing us like this? This isn't like St. Vladimir's.

Sorry for the late update again! We're still writing and trying to get ahead of what we're posting.

Darkness is quite a scary thing as Roxie and Charles have discovered. Now not only do they have to worry about strigoi attacks and the twin's spirit, but someone knows about them. And this someone isn't afraid to set off fire alarms and kill innocent animals either.

The next Chapter is titled: Can't Save You

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