Greetings Users! This ones been a bit of a long time coming but I'm finding my time eaten up by other things. I will finish this though, there's no doubt about that. Anyway Disclaimer: I own nothing but the OCs, yadda yadda yadda.
"I don't know what's going on," she whispered. The ring wasn't huge, a simple gold band studded with tiny rubies and diamonds, but it was beautiful and it was hers. Somehow Andrew was here and they were married with a beautiful red haired daughter. "But I'm so glad I'm here," She threw herself back into Andrew's arms and sighed. He even smelt the same as she remembered.
He smelt the way she remembered he did before the car crash that killed him five years ago and left her completely infertile.
Jessie was on the hotel balcony watching the sun rise over the beach. The air felt good on her skin after the tightness of the black gaming suit she'd worn on the grid. She closed her eyes and listened to the waves. She was dressed in white for the first time in a long time.
She'd been twenty two when she'd been in the crash that had killed her boyfriend. They'd both been drinking and neither of them were wearing seatbelts, so when another car had drifted onto their side of the road neither of them stood a chance. Andrew had smashed through the windscreen and been killed instantly, shredded by the glass and pulverised by the force of smashing headfirst into the road. She'd barely survived herself, staying in the car but rupturing her kidneys and her uterus and breaking more bones than she could name. The driver of the other car had been having a stroke, so his passenger had called for help and in less than an hour she'd been on the operating table. It didn't matter in the end. They managed to patch up her kidneys, but there was no way to save what was left. On the verge of bleeding out, they'd clamped what they could and given her a complete hysterectomy to save her life.
Resting her chin in her palms, she watched a bird as it skimmed over the sea, twisting gracefully in the wind. Her red hair flew around her and a pair of arms encircled her from behind.
"Hey petal, you ready to go?" Andrew asked her, her lips so close to the side of her face that she could feel his breath on her ear. She shivered.
"Yeah, is Amy ready?" She turned in his arms and embraced him. Amy poked her head around the door, a wide grin on her face.
"I'm ready, let's go now!" the girl said with as much authority as a six year old could muster, skipping across the room and picking up a too large bag of sandwiches Andrew had made. "I wanna go to Disney!" she yelled, her round face lit up with an enormous toothy smile. Andrew laughed into Jessie's hair.
"She knows what she wants," Jessie commented and Andrew pulled away, smirking.
"I wonder where she gets that from." He took the bag from Amy and gave her a little camera. "We should make a move, or it'll get crowded before we've done anything." He opened the door and Amy sprinted out. Andrew went white as she disappeared down the corridor. "Amy!" he called after her. He glanced nervously back at Jessie. "I'll meet you by the car," he said quickly and he took off after the six year old sprinter.
Jessie was alone.
She looked out at the ocean again, gripping the balcony rail. She couldn't decide whether to laugh or cry or scream. What do you do in this situation? She had no one to protect but herself and she'd always done that by pushing people away but she was trapped here, cornered by a husband and a daughter.
Her head was screaming that this was a dream, that she should escape, get rid of them and run until there was nothing left of her, but her heart was begging her to stay. She gripped the rail until her knuckles were white.
"What do I do?" she asked the wind. It didn't reply, so she went inside and grabbed some sunglasses and her bag. A soft 'phut' noise caught her attention. She turned to the wall. The plasma screen TV had turned itself on. It wasn't showing a channel, just static. Jessie went to the wall and pressed the power button, but the TV stayed on. She could hear something, a soft breathing sound. She put her head near the speaker, trying to make it out.
"We're friends, aren't we Jess?" said a small, hopeful voice.
Her eyes widened.
"We're friends, aren't we Jess?" it said. She started to back away.
"We're friends, aren't we Jess?" She strode away from the TV, rummaging through her bag until she found her phone. Opening the door, she hit Andrew's number. He picked it up within one ring.
"What's up?" Andrew's breathless voice asked. She heard Amy wailing in the background.
"We're friends, aren't we Jess?" the TV insisted.
"Oh, I forget where we parked the car," Jessie said, closing the door and walking away.
Jessie had been out of breath for hours. Her legs ached, her shoulders were burnt and Amy was bursting with excited energy, picking at candyfloss and jabbering about how in the parade, Mickey mouse waved specially at her. Andrew humoured her whilst Jessie rested her exhausted head on the table. Much to Jessie's annoyance Amy wasn't tall enough to go on most of the rollercoasters, so they spent most of their time either looking for princesses or going around 'It's A Small World'. Andrew had to go the last three rounds alone after Jessie had vehemently told him that one more chorus would send her into a homicidal frenzy. She blamed that ride for her head ache.
She'd had fun though, and she'd laughed when Snow White had asked Andrew for a dance. He'd been up for it, and he'd done well, and Amy had been in awe of her awesome dad for the next half hour, even asking if he was the King and Jessie was Queen, so she'd be a princess. Andrew had told her no, and she said it was okay, because he as obviously Prince Charming, so she'd be a princess one day.
Jessie rubbed her hands over her face, cringing as she felt how sweaty she was. She'd give anything to go back to the hotel and relax, but she couldn't see Amy being very pleased if that happened. She was pleasantly surprised when halfway through her next speech about how obviously a princess she was, Amy gave an enormous yawn. Andrew looked like someone had lifted a lead weight off of him when she climbed onto his lap and said she felt sleepy.
So, they made their way back to the hotel, past the different lands and the massive castle and what felt like hundreds of gift shops. Jessie held Amy's hand and gazed into the shops, wondering if the bottle of wine in her fridge would look better if the stopper had mouse ears on it.
It was when all the TVs flickered to static that her blood froze in her veins. A murmur echoed from every screen, the same words repeated over and over,
"We're friends, aren't we Jess?"
Amy was walking quickly enough. Jessie picked her up without a word and strode towards the exit. She heard Andrew huffing behind her.
"Jessie, wait up!" she ignored him, her feet pounding the tarmac as she headed for the exit.
"You've been acting strangely Jess," Andrew said over dinner. Amy was practically asleep in her plate of spaghetti and Jessie was poking at her beef burger.
"I'm fine," she said quietly. Andrew grabbed her hand.
"No, you're not. I don't know what's wrong with you, but you've been distant lately," he told her, his soulful brown eyes gazing into hers. She deliberately took a large bite from her burger and stared him down wordlessly. He sighed and started eating again.
"Mommy, I don't want this anymore, can I have yours?" Amy asked, swiping her fists tiredly across her eyes. Jessie ignored her.
"Jessie, just admit something's wrong, please?" Andrew half begged. "I know you hate doing that but you need to start or we won't be able to do anything about it." He pushed his plate away. Jessie did the same.
"I'm fine," she told him, "I'm putting Amy to bed now, you get the bill." Without another word she picked up her daughter and went back to the room.
Her phone rang as soon as she reached her door.
"Jessie, will you tell me what's wrong? For God's sake- you're acting like a child," she hung up on him. She put Amy to bed without a word and went back to the balcony. The wind had picked up, combing its fingers through her hair as she stared out at the darkening sky. She sank to her knees, leaning her head against the railing as the waves crashed on the beach.
She felt tired, more tired than when she'd not slept in three days. Her head pounded, her shoulders ached and her feet were on fire. The words that had been following her all day were there again, she could hear them coming from the TV.
"We're friends, aren't we Jess?" they said hopefully. She pushed her head against the balcony rail.
"I'm surprised you lasted this long. Didn't think you actually had it in you," another voice said.
"We're friends, aren't we Jess?"
"But then again, you had help didn't you. You'd never have survived this long n your own steam," it continued.
"We're friends, aren't we Jess?"
"So you stole hers." It finished. Jessie stood up slowly, afraid to turn around. Someone was there. "So you're just going to stay there all night? I'm not leaving. You'll face me some time." It said.
"Go away," Jessie groaned. It laughed.
"That's it? 'Go away?' Get behind me Satan!" it mocked. "Too late. You've made this demon yourself." Jessie gripped the handrail until her knuckles went white. "Do you think Andrew's going to come and save you? Do you think he'll bust down the door and take me out and you'll live happily ever after? Oh wait; he'd need to be alive for that, wouldn't he?" Jessie fought back tears. "Maybe you think Hannah's going to come for you? Little baby sister to the rescue?" it jeered. "You didn't even try calling her today, did you? You didn't even think about her when you had something better, even if you knew it wasn't real,"
"Stop it," Jessie choked out.
"Do you know what the funny part of it is?" the thing behind her back said. "The kid is fine without you. Doesn't need you at all. How does that feel big sister? How does it feel to know the person you've spent your life protecting is fine by herself in the big bad world? Bet you feel worthless don't you? Bet you feel weak." She heard it take a step towards her. "I bet you feel like nothing."
"Leave me alone!" she shouted, blinking back tears. Pain lanced through her as the thing spoke.
"Make me," it laughed. "I'll give you a hint, crying at me doesn't work. There's one thing I want to know though. Why did you do it?" it hissed.
"We're friends, aren't we Jess?" the TV said.
"She-" Jessie began,
"She trusted you!" the thing howled. "She helped you, saved you in the lightcycle races, told you how to get around the Grid and what did you do?"
"We're friends, aren't we Jess?"
"WHAT DID YOU DO?"
"I killed her!" Jessie screamed. The pain stabbed through her stomach and she fell to the floor. "I killed her,"
"And you told Hannah they didn't feel." It said, disgusted, "You tried to make her believe programs don't feel because if she believed it, maybe you could to! If she believed it, you might be able to forgive yourself, and if she ever found out what you did, she'd forgive you because she'd know they don't feel. You lied to her! You hurt her and you told her lies to make yourself feel better. How could you!" it shouted at her back. "You're hideous. I despise you, I loathe you."
"We're friends, aren't we Jess?"
"I didn't mean to," Jessie whispered. "I didn't know what I was doing,"
"How does that change anything?" it said. "How does that make it different? How does that make it better than the only reason you've survived so long in here is because of the energy you stole from her when you killed her?" It was close now, close enough to touch her. "How does it change the fact you put your hands on her and leeched the life from her? You didn't know what you were doing? You could have stopped!" it placed its hand around her neck and the pain was unbearable.
"I'm sorry!" she screamed. The hands dropped away.
"We're friends, aren't we Jess?"
"You're sorry?" it said quietly. "Sorry?" the hands returned, squeezing hard at her throat. "You're sorry. You can't be sorry if you won't face what you've done." Jessie's world started to go dark. She felt the energy leaving her, the life being forced out of her and she made a choice. She put her hands on the floor and heaved herself around, looking the thing in the face. Green eyes and red hair met her, a body in a thick black suit with strips of light across it, and a vicious expression. It was like looking in a mirror. The other Jessie sneered.
"So you'll look at me now," it said. "So unrepentant you'll wait until the last seconds to face me." It backed off. "It doesn't matter. I'm done."
"We're friends, aren't we Jess?"
"You can listen to that before your time runs out." It told her, heading for the door.
"We're friends, aren't we Jess?"
"She's great company." The door opened and shut, and it was gone. Jessie massaged her neck. She could barely breathe.
"We're friends, aren't we Jess?"
The horizon was black and the water was swallowed by the gloom. Pinpricks in the inky darkness shone out at her.
"It's full of stars?" she whispered huskily. Even as she said it the spots of light struggled, fought and were overwhelmed. The beach was fading away, and the road and the pool and the trees disappeared. Pushing herself up on wobbly arms, she hunched over the balcony. As the black came at her, she hoped Hannah was okay. She wished she could escape, but she didn't know how, and the nothingness scared her more than anything she'd ever known. The wind was gone now.
"We're friends, aren't we Jess?"
But the voice wasn't. She didn't even realised she'd let herself go over the edge until she was falling and was swallowed up by the encroaching shadows.
Poor old Jessie, I'm very mean to her. I've been fighting with chapter for a while and I'd love to know if you think it turned out okay, so please do review. ~End of Line~