So, here comes part 2. Hope it's enjoyable, and thanks for all the great reviews and adds. Also, I had to mention, Calories4eva, your name is brilliant. Well, *cough* yes, enjoy the story, please and thank you.
Chris
-Sorrow (Part 2)
"Run away,
from the rivers to the streets,
and find yourself in the outskirts of the gutter."
-Gloria (Little Girl), Greenday
Chris was awakened by the ringing of a phone. He blinked, lifted his head off the toiletbowl, looked down at himself (this action caused him to cry out in disgust) and staggered up on his feet. Like a madman, he made his way to the ringing phone (which, as luck will have it, was buried beneath a million useless things), pleasantly cursing like a sailor and clutching his aching head.
"Who the hell-" he muttered to himself, "calls someone else at 4 o-"
Finally, he had retrieved his cell phone, and he grumpily held it up to his ear while he sank into the couch.
"YOU BASTARD! YOU JACKASS! YOU-"
Chris frowned as Cassandra cursed at him, letting her have full leash while he looked around the room. Oh, for chrissakes. The place was absolutely trashed. Matt would kill him.
"DO YOU KNOW WHAT YOU HAVE DONE TO HER? WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU, YOU-"
Right. Well, she was speaking the truth. But, god, what was he going to do with this trashed apartment? Matt would be arriving today!
"I KNOW YOU DON'T BELEVE IN GOD, Mr. CHRIS, AND NEITHER DO I, BUT YOU ARE GONNA BURN IN HE-"
Why did this girl have to wake him up at friggin' four in uthe morning? Honestly, he was a man who had just been dumped, and now he was woken up by a trashed apartment and a screaming ex-girlfriend bestfriend. And, ow, his headache!
He blinked, because all of a sudden there was a silence on the other end of the phone.
Cassandra sighed.
"Here's the thing, though, Chris. I mean, yeah, you've hurt Sierra. A lot. But you're a good lad, really. And you guys were happy together, weren't you?"
"I was gonna ask her to marry me."
There was a bit of a silence.
"Right, Chris, thats what I'm saying. I don't think that you can just, give up like that."
"But she had every reason to dump me."
"Yeah. But you're just gonna leave like that, without a fight?"
"Well, what am I meant to do?"
"Whatever it takes, Chris. Aren't you willing to try?"
He hung up, sat for a second staring into the air, then stood up, grabbed his shoes, and ran outside.
When Chris was young, he had been convinced that there was a god. More so, he had been convinced that god felt just like he felt, and so, when it rained, it was because God was sad, just like him, and when the sun shined, it was because God was happy, just like him. He quickly learned, of course, that it rained whether or not he was sad, and that the sun shone even while he wept. And so he started losing his faith, starting realising that God and he were not one, that it rained because the condensed water filled the sky with heavy, heavy clouds that at one point had to let it all go, and there was rain. And then there was Sierra, who he'd first danced with in the rain. Who he'd first kissed in the rain. Who he'd realized he was in love with as the tears fell and the sky bellowed and light shots exploded and they sat in front of the fire, keeping warm.
So maybe the rain falling on his head, his body, was a good omen. Not that he noticed it, of course. He kept on running, past the shouting people and honking cars, as fast as those legs would carry him, stepstepstepstepstep, stepstepstepstepstep.Car tires screeched and people cursed and raised their hands in fists and told him to watch out, you nutjob, you're gonna kill us all!, stepstepstep, stepstepstep. The neon sign of the Chinese, not far now, stepstepstepstep. There you go, up the stairs, rush past the porter that looks at you as though you're crazy. Now, up those stairs, stepstepstepstep, stepstepstepstep. Forget to apologize as you bump into a man and he exclaims "Mamma Miaaaaa!" as wine goes all over his white shirt. Time is all that matters, and you're running out of it.
Step step step step.
Her door was open, which he thought quite strange for a moment, but then decided not to care about. He raced inside the suite, calling out her name.
"Sierra! Sierra!"
"Go away!" She yelled back.
Where was she? Not in the suite, not in the bedroom. He slammed open the doors.
"Sierra, where the hell are you?"
"I told you to leave!"
"Sierra, listen to me! I'm sorry, but its not as though I have a relationship with that girl. Okay, I don't even know her name!"
There was no response.
"Sierra, I love you, goddammit. I love you more than anything in the world. I was gonna ask you to marry me, for chrissakes! And no, I know there ain't no excuse for what I've done, but I need another chance. You know that, Sierra."
Still, there was no response.
"Sierra, goddamit, say something, won't you? We can't just give this up, Sierra! We ca-"
And then he heard it. A scream, bloodcurdling and frightening.
"Chris, Chris, Chris!" Frantic screams, and Chris ran after them.
"Sierra! Goddammit, Sierra, where the hell are you!"
She screamed again, and then he heard another voice, a low male mumbling.
"Chris!"
"I'm coming, Sierra!"
He slammed open the door of the bathroom, and there she stood, black marks running down her face, red eys, and a horrified expression. Hairy hands were wrapped around her waist, a gun pointed to her head. The man's face that looked over her shoulders was covered by a large orange beard, brown eyes , a short crop of curls, and a self-satisfied smile.
Chris stood still.
Sierra looked at him, bit herlip, and he could see she was close to sobbing.
"Oh my god." Chris said softly.
"Aha. Boyfriend. Nice to meet you."
Chris blinked, turned to look at the man who was holding the gun to Sierra's head.
"Let go of her." He hissed.
"Let go of who? Oh!" He chortled. "You mean her?" He hit Sierra with the gun on the head, softly. Chris and Sierra winced. "Can't do that, matey. Sorry."
"I said, let go of her!" Chris surged forward, but was stopped by a click of the gun.
"Wouldn't do that if I was you, matey." The man said. "I mean, you can if you want to, o'course, man, I believe in liberalism and all that shit, ye know. Only problem is, if you do that, and this is a problem for you, o'course, not for me, I shoot her. Comprende?"
Chris stopped, noticed that Sierra was smiling. The man noticed it too.
"Wha' ye smilin' bout, lass?"
"Nothing." She retorted, biting down her smile.
"Fine. Fine." The man looked at Chris. "If she wants to smile before she dies, thats fine with me, you know. Come 'ere, come 'ere." He waggled his finger at Chris, and slowly Chris walked up to him, frowning and not understanding.
"Guess what?" The man whispered. "I'm gonna kill 'er." Then he started giggling, a high-pitched, unnatural giggle.
Chris looked at Sierra, who raised her eyebrows, smiling a little bit.
"Right." The man said, shooting a hole in the ceiling. "Party time's over, mates."
"Chris. Don't you want to know why I want to kill your dearly beloved? What bout you, Sierra, d'you wanna know? Do you remember me even, Sierra?"
Now the gun was under her chin, held up. Sierra was shaking. Chris couldn't believe that he was put in this situation, powerless.
"Of course you don't remember me. Little famous Sierra. I know everything there is to know about you, Sierra. Every little detail. When your mum was born, when your dad was born. I was lookin' forward to telling you all about it. You should see my wall, Sierra." He laughed. "It's filled with pictures of you, everywhere you look. Not the kind you can buy in the bathroom, I took 'em all by meself, ye se. I'm quite a good photographer, if I can mention it. Got quite a few bathroom shots." He started giggling, like a little boy, but then straigthened himself up again. "Thing is, Sierra, I love you. Not anymore, because now I know you're a bitch, but I loved you before. I'd even bought a ring. Remember that day, when you sang in Manchester, 23 of August 2005?"
"That's years ago, man." Chris interrupted softly.
"Did I ask you?" The man swung his gun to point at Chris, then casually swung it back under Sierra's throat.
"Thing is, Sierra, I was looking forward to meetin' ye there. So I went there, and ye sang all amazingly, and then ye had the signing time, remember? I stood in that queue for three hours, lil' Sierra. Three hours and fifty-three minutes, to be exact. So finally I get there, and I'm bursting to tell you all about it, and then guess what? Guess what you do? You sign my picture, and then you smile, and then you say that that sounds great but you're really very sorry, you don't have much time. You know what happens then, Sierra? The guards come. You called the guards. I got imprisoned, Sierra."
Sierra blinked.
"Ah, you remember me now, don't you? Three years I spent in that bloody jail, and who's to blame, eh, Sierra? Who's to blame?"
He looked at Chris, then back at Sierra, sneaking close so he could whisper in her ear.
"You, Sierra. It's your fault."
He grinned at her, grinned at Chris.
"I'm going to shoot her now." He told Chris matter-of-factly. So I'll let you make your last good-byes. From there, though, remember that, Chris. Or I'll shoot so fast that there won't be any good-byes, comprende?"
Chris jumped so that he landed between the man and Sierra, kicked the man so that he went flying into the wall, and pulled Sierra close to him. She started sobbing.
"It's all right, baby." He whispered. "It's all right, it's all right, he can't harm us now. It's all right."
"I was so afraid." She sobbed. "I was so frickin' afraid."
"I know, baby. I know, I was afraid too, but he can't harm us now, he's-"
Then, as if from another world, Chris heard a shot. Then he felt it, moving like a small stone on his back, through his back, and then, he realized, it was stuck, which he knew could only be a good thing, except it didn't feel like a good thing. Something wet was spreading all over his back, he fell to his legs, couldn't feel anything. Sierra was sobbing.
"Chris! Oh my god, Chris!" She fell to the ground with him. Chris looked at her. Wow. Beautiful eyes, those, even when they were filled with tears. Wow, wow, look at the world, look at those colours, bright and then fading and then bright and then fading and then black and then bright and then black and then fading and wow, what a confusing world.
His back was warm and wet and he couldn't feel his legs.
Oh, Christ, the man was still here.
"Sierra?"
Sierra flinched.
"Oh, Sierra?"
Softly, Sierra turned around, her hand still in Chris's.
"What's my name, Sierra?" The man looked at her, blood flowing down his head and a little smile on his face, gun held in right hand.
"Haven't you done enough?" She hissed, tears still flowing. "Haven't you done enough?"
"But, Sierra, don't you understand? This little lad has got nothing to do with anything, Sierra. Nothing. He's just a random guy who was in the way. You, Sierra, you are a whole different matter."
Sierra clutched Chris's hand tighter, started shaking.
"What's my name, Sierra, what's my name?"
"Get away from her." Chris croaked, "Get away from her, you bastard."
"Oh. Now I'm intimidated, I'll tell you that. You're shot, you shithead, how fuckin' retarded can ye get? You can't even lift your head!"
Chris attempted too, but as the flashing bright lights came and his head felt as though it was gonna explode, he realized he was right.
Fuck.
Chris coughed, once, twice, realized there was blood coming out of his mouth and Sierra was sobbing even more.
"Don't leave me, Chris." She was whispering, covering his face with kisses and trying to dry the blood away. "Don't leave me."
He wanted to tell her that he wouldn't leave her, he was right here, he'd be right here forever, he loved her, but when he opened his mouth all that came out was blood.
"Oh god, oh god, Chris, please, fight, fight."
I'm fighting, he wanted to tell her, I'm fighting as hard as I possibly can, but he couldn't, and he couldn't even see her properly, everything was blurry and faded. He tried to smile to Sierra, to show her he was fine, the pain was minimal, well, it was the worst he had ever been through but he would survive, he would, but then he saw him. Standing with a big smile, right behind Sierra, gun raised. Pulling the trigger.
Oh no.
Oh no oh no oh no.
There was a boom and Sierra fell forward but so did the man, which surprised Chris, but maybe he was just seeing visions, because Sierra's shoulders were still shaking, which surely they couldn't do if she was alive, and the man was being attacked by, could this really be, a wolf? Tearing at him and barking and the man was being ripped to shreds and screaming and Sierra was whispering "I love you I love you I love you don't leave me.", and she was shaking and he started noticing that he was shaking, too, and then he heard Sierra turn to the man and talk, which struck him as odd, because surely the wolf couldn't understand?
"Stop, Leah." She was saying. "Stop, Leah, stop, it doesn't help anything!"
But the wolf wouldn't listen, Chris could see, wouldn't listen and kept on tearing, as if to say why should I?
"Leah, how the hell do we explain that to the police? Now, goddammit, call 911 instead!"
And then, and wow, this was really strange, the wolf transformed into a naked woman with the same face as Sierra's friend who's name he'd forgotten, oh yeah, Leah, and she walked to the phone and Sierra was still sobbing and whispering I love you I love you I love you, and Chris was thinking this isn't real.
And then everything turned black.