Enjoy

With baited breath and urgent nerves, Stevie opened the door to her humble home, a ritual performed with no love, just need.

Stevie hadn't lived somewhere she loved ever since Erin.

The hinges creaked and Stevie's tired stare was met by two sets of equally worn eyes.

Harper and Alex were sat on the sofa, Stevie guessed she'd interrupted their conversation due to their pause in movement and breath.

The Detective set her keys down on the side table and made her way to the kitchen, all she wanted and needed was food.

The small light pinged on as she opened the fridge. The stench of salami and left over chopped onion soon hit her senses. The chill radiating from it's frosty innards reminded her that maybe her guests would also like a meal.

Her knotted stomach would have to remain tied.

"Have you guys eaten?" Stevie called out and waited for a response, tapping her foot against the floor.

"Er, yeah, we made omelets" Alex called back and Stevie rolled her neck.

Of course they did, why wouldn't they.

Stevie closed her eyes and steadied herself, she'd never felt so much like a stranger in her own home. Restricted to even breath without asking someone else if they were too.

Stevie fixed herself a sandwich composed of left overs and ate sat on the counter, her legs swung.

Alex was uneasy with the knowledge that Harper was back in her life. The fact should have settled her, but it just brought back pained memories of a more desperate time in her life.

Harper was her only bridge that linked her to the old world she'd been born, the new curious, healing life she was beginning to build seemed far better in comparison.

Harper had resumed their conversation, but Alex was lost, the presence of Stevie was like a knife to the bridge that was Harper, Stevie was slowly snapping the hope holding it together.

"So you get me?" Harper tore the raven haired wizard from her internal banter.

Alex forged a simple smile. "Totally"

What seemed like hours later, Stevie sat in bed, her back pressed against the back board.

The lamp sat on her bedside table flickered every once and a while, consequentially making the Detective constantly draw her attention to the lamp, then the shadows lurking around her room.

Why are you so paranoid?

What are you looking for?

Who are you looking for?

The clicks inflicted on her laptop key board filled the room with noisy tapping and the rustle of her bed sheets seemed too pronounced and loud to her tired mind.

Stevie assumed Alex was still trying to catch up with Harper. The only thing she had to catch up on was work.

All the paper work and new additions to the case file was wearing her down.

Stevie's ears then pricked up to the sound of the front door shutting.

Harper had left.

Stevie's attention was then drawn to her bedroom door as it creaked open and the light from the hall way flooded the once dimly lit space.

"Hey" Alex whispered. "Harper has gone"

Stevie halted her typing to direct a small smile at her.

Alex then moved wordlessly and sat on the end of the bed, cross legged and her eyes trained on Stevie.

The Detective closed her laptop with a click and set in on the floor.

Their distance seemed pained with their new born hostility.

"About earlier..." Alex looked at her lap. Stevie scanned her form, feeling almost robotic in her attempts to read her.

Stevie didn't speak, was all ears to what Alex had to say.

Her mind reeled to fill the space her self induced silence caused.

Is Alex moving out?

Is she gonna say she's straight?

But she kissed back... I could have been a spare of the moment thing.

Has she found out about the new body?

The new killer?

Oh God Damn talk already!

"Did you want it?" Alex plucked at the hem of her sweater.

Stevie sat taken of guard.

"Want...it?"

"When we... don't make this hard" Alex glanced at her, the hurt that laced the chocolate of her eyes made Stevie suddenly regret her dense comment.

"I never want to make anything difficult"

"Then tell me, did you kiss me becouse you like me? Or was it just impulse to shut me up and make me feel like less of a pathetic... victim"

Stevie furrowed her brow.

She struggled to place words without carrying out the physical display of affection. "I would never do something if I didn't mean it"

"Oh Christ, just say something that's not from a fucking fortune cookie" Alex snapped.

Stevie shrunk under her irritation, her own anger bubbled under her skin, she refused to let it out.

She'd never backed down... yet she felt so helpless under Alex's burning glare.

"Fine" Stevie regained an instinct, something that hadn't seen the light in years, submission to another human being. "I kissed you becouse, I have feelings for you"

Alex pressed her lips in a thin line, in thought.

Stevie felt her heart shrink.

A fear made her whole body go numb, this was the point when Alex completely tore her apart.

For that reason, Stevie shut herself out from people, she never made a move she never chased her heart becouse she knew it would end up wounded.

It was a stupid reason to, but it kept her on her toes.

Alex needed her fragmented emotion to collect.

"You like me?"

Stevie ran a hand through her hair. "Yes" as harsh as the word sounded, it was meant for sharp clarification.

The pair sat in silence once again.

Alex then broke out into a tiny chuckle. It was stupid to her. Why were they both so pissed off if they wanted each other? Their silence was suddenly hilarious.

Alex tried to stop herself from producing the waves of laughter she so needed to let out. Upon placing a hand over her mouth, the situation just got funnier.

Stevie smirked at the woman across from her.

"What's funny?" Stevie began to chuckle along with her, Alex's laugh was bubbly as it banished the harsh tension.

"This" she motioned between them. "Why are we so fucked with each other when we should be fucking each other"

Stevie let out a blurt of laughter at Alex's crass assumption.

"You're a little forward" Stevie grinned at her, the comment had made her heart leap, the feeling had made her veins electric with the rush of blood.

"Yeah well, it's better than being a human fortune cookie" she scoffed and Stevie mocked a hurt expression.

"I'm offended"

"Aw" Alex crawled across the bed and straddled the Detective. "Want me to kiss you better?" her voice lowered into a purr.

Stevie held her hips and sighed at the contact. Alex's slender frame melted into hers with ease, like their bodies had been born to fit, like a human jigsaw.

Stevie pouted and nodded, giving the saddest look she could muster under the surge of euphoria Alex was eliciting from her.

Alex leant in and with one swift movement captured Stevie's lips with hers. The contact wasn't needy and sudden like before, it was slow and held a small spark of new, unexplored emotion.

Their lips fit together in a lock.

The Detective's skin soon heated with the electricity from their contact.

Stevie pulled away first and Alex ran her hands into Stevie's unruly curls of hair.

"I think you may have to kiss me again, it didn't work... I still feel pretty shit" Stevie smirked and Alex ran her fingers through her hair, feeling the soft hairs tickle the nerves.

"Aww babe" Alex hummed and pressed their foreheads together.

Stevie pecked her lips softly and she felt Alex smile at the action. It gave her a kick, the burst of confidence made her ache to do it again.

Alex reconnected their lips and wrapped her legs around Stevie's lower back, pressing their bodies closer.

Stevie yearned Alex's skin, hidden under her clothes.

Alex ran her tongue in a slick movement to brush against Stevie's.

The intoxication of their movement made them oblivious to the room around them, nothing mattered, Harper could have walked into a the pair would feel no shame.

Stevie ran her hands under Alex's sweater, the tiny action made Alex moan into their kiss and Stevie continued until Alex's skin no longer felt just like another necessity to her body, but the very thing that connected them.

Then, the intoxication of lust soon gave way to a poison. The sickening knowledge of the bruises, the scratches, the pain Alex was carrying hindered Stevie's movement.

If the wounded skin was going to connect them, nothing would be washed away, their relationship would be born out of bitter scars.

Stevie stopped and pulled away, teeth gritted and touch trembling. Alex moaned in irritation and opened her eyes to witness Stevie's pale complexion.

"We can't" Stevie whispered and Alex frowned, the delicate change in expression sent a dagger to Stevie's heart.

"What?"

"I want to wait... until, this is all over" Stevie rested her head on Alex's shoulder. As stubborn as the raven haired wizard wanted to be, as much as she wanted to continue, she knew Stevie was right.

Alex drew a breath. "Okay"

Stevie closed her eyes tightly and hugged Alex close.

Alex then realised, it hit her like a train, she wasn't the only one hurting.

"Stevie, tell me" Alex whispered.

Stevie shuddered, she'd promised Dean to tell her anyway, but she'd tell her the good new first.

"Mason is going to jail" she spoke in a soft, careful tone.

"But that's not why you look like hell is it?" Alex cupped the side of Stevie's face.

"...There is another body"

Alex sucked in a harsh breath, like it would cushion the news.

"You think Mason did it?"
"No"

"Another killer?"

"Yes"

My own personal boogie man.

"I knew the victim... we think he's connected to Mason, Dean is going to question him about it once we pull DNA from the body"

Alex looked over Stevie with sympathetic eyes.

"You knew the victim?"

"I used to teach her"

"Teach?" Alex sat by Stevie's side.

What a way to kill a night.

"It's a long story" Stevie ran a hand through her hair and gulped.

"I have time" Alex crossed her arms over her chest and listened intently.

Stevie sighed.

"Can I tell you in the morning?" Stevie felt her limbs grow heavier with the weight that she now carried.

"Sure" Alex kissed her on the cheek and tucked herself under the duvet.

Stevie did the same and Alex nested into her side.

The lamp flickered again and Stevie outstretched her arm to flick it off when her phone started the buzz, the sound shattered her intentions of getting any sleep.

It's rattling against the wood of the bedside table made Alex shove her as if to say.
'Answer it or I will'

Stevie grabbed the device and answered it, her voice still thick.

"Nichols"

"I've been watching"

The voice was raspy, deep, like the caller had been running. His voice yet held something of a snakes, smooth and haunting, it crawled into the shell of her ear.

Stevie felt a chill down her spine and numb her nerves.

The devil breathed down her neck.

She'd heard it before, but couldn't place it, it was the voice of a nightmare.

"Who is this?"

"I think you know who I am"

"I wouldn't be asking if I knew would I" she sat up and Alex was suddenly alert too, watching Stevie's face turn from puzzled to irritated with fear.

Stevie felt her hear pulse, every breath she took hurt.

"Always the smart mouth"

"What do you want?"

"I want to see you, have a nice catch up"

Stevie felt vomit churn like butter in her stomach. The nausea set her on edge.

"And you think I'll come and see you"

"I don't think you have any choice Stevie"

Stevie squirmed.

"You have no control over me"

A lie.

A beautiful thought to think.

He had controlled her from the very moment his grey eyes fell upon her form. He had invaded her sleep for years, made her awake in a cold sweat, panic stricken.

The slither of his voice and the shaping of his accent, all allured the darker side of her humanity.

"Oh, but I have, oh I have. Remember? You were wearing that grey shirt, your favourite"

Stevie got out of bed, her skin crawled as ice infected the cells in her blood.

"You" Stevie hugged herself with her spare arm. Alex watched as Stevie trembled, helpless to do anything but stare.

"Smart girl. Smart, smart girl. I've done something very bad Detective"

Stevie felt tears sting her eyes as her voice screamed on her flesh. Memories of the blade on her throat, the cold metal of his knife.

Her throat twinged, the tissue flexed at the memory.

His weight pressed against her frail, broken body.

The heat of his breath as it touched her exposed skin, the marks her carved into her abdomen as she lay, screaming with out a sound.

The silent girl.

Like blood, the images of that night bled back, retracted and putrefied the old wounds.

His porcelain face, this icy flesh flashed across her mind like lightning and rumbled her with thunder.

"He is a excellent apprentice, I believe you had your own apprentice"

"He? Who are you talking about?"

"She was easy, I do hate it when they don't struggle, I thought you might have taught her better"

"Who is you're apprentice?"

"You took my boy Stevie Nichols. I took your girl"

"You killed Addison?"

"I would so love to see how you've grown. Did you like death?"

"I enjoyed getting away from you"

"You owe your life to me Stevie"

"I don't owe you anything you piece of shit"

"I've done something very bad Stevie"

The line turned to static and then beeped.

Stevie dropped the phone, it clattered to the floor from her shaky touch. The back of the device split from the body and spilled the battery from it's insides.

The bleep cut out.

"Stevie" Alex jumped from the bed and rested her hand on her shoulder.

"Don't" Stevie backed away, her eyes haunted with black pools of ghosts, demons... a devil in the making.

Her skin was icy and her throat burned with the need to throw up.

The Detective ran from the room and collapsed into the bathroom, her body moved from the natural urge to vomit.

As she doubled over the toilet to let whatever she'd eaten spill like sand paper over her lips, Alex stood in horror.

"Who was that!" Alex jerked her finger in the direction of the room and her eyes scanned Stevie's shuddering form.

Stevie spat out the tang from her mouth and rested her head on the rim of the toilet, feeling the shame infect her being.

Stevie rose, her legs couldn't hold her weight and wobbled under the pressure. Her heart hammered against every rib like a pin ball, winding her.

Her shuddering became almost violent as her hand rested on the valve to flush away the bile in the toilet bowl.

The sound of rushing water hurt her ears.

It was like he'd opened up her mind and had found the real person inside, the teenage girl she had been formerly and killed her all over again.

1:45am.

Stevie rolled onto her back, the bed creaked with the shift of weight.

The blade glinted in the candle light, I feel it's cold metal against my bruised skin.

I don't make a sound, but I hear my skin crack and split under it's icy bite.

Stevie gripped the sheets with with white knuckles.

My blood is warm but the sting and tang of his breath over my wound hardly soothes me.

I can feel the shape, I feel it's curves and meaning. As I breathe the split skin moves with me, taking on a stinging, fleshy life force of it's own.

My limbs ache.

My heart throbs and tears well.

He is already atop of me, his forked tongue licks the wound with salt.

Is he sobbing?

Is it me?

I feel the knifes in my palms, pinning me down like something to be dissected. The blood has crusted over and his breath looms over my neck.

The symbol in my skin burns as the fabric of his jeans rub harshly against it.

I let out a whimper.

His teeth gleam, almost like the blade in his hand.

I know I'm trapped.

I know I'm dead, so why am I still thinking he'll spare me?

Stevie let out strangled gasps and kicked away the demon that loomed.

Her features twitched as she writhed.

Stevie his voice is a whisper, my name is a curse as it leaves this thin lips.

Stevie

Stevie whimpered into the smothered air, her chest suppressed by a non existent weight.

Beads of cold sweat glistened upon her skin.

"Stevie"

The Detective awoke, panting, sat bolt up.

He was here.

Alex lay peacefully by her side, her breathing shallow, a kind rhythm.

Stevie frantically scanned the dark, for shadows.

For an instant her breath caught and her blood chilled. For an instant she thought she saw the gleam of white eyes in the corner of her room.

The monster had arrived, planted himself like a toxic seed in her mind, poisoning her nerves and her own judgement upon the world that had once been iron with her head strong ideals.

Abruptly her ears pricked to home in on a faint creak, the sound a tree makes when a rising wind causes the branches to sway.

She tried to rationalise the wound over the thunder of her heart.

She imagined the monster everywhere.

Even though the flickering light of her lamp supplied the room with a dusty light, he was waiting in her closet, under her bed, waiting until she turned off the lamp and took his chance to kill her in the vale of darkness.

He was waiting.

Stevie pulled her gun from the draw of her bedside table and clutched it in her hand.

Her rough breathing broke through the stuffy air.

Stevie slunk from the warmth of her bed, she walked away from it instantly, the tension, the fear of two hands grabbing her feet was too believable.

If he was here, he was here for her, not Alex.

The sound of her bare feet padding across the floor didn't disturb Alex's slumber.

Stevie gulped, the barren walls of her throat welcomed the saliva.

Stevie opened the door of the room and walked out into the chill of her house, her eyes battled the dark with adrenalin.

She knew she was emanating fear out for the demons to smell.

Holding her gun out with two, shaky hands she walked to the front door and clicked it open. It must have rained becouse the damp stench and the cold wind was harsh against her skin.

Bare foot, she stepped out onto the street.

Gun at the ready.

The distant whine of a car horn and the dull, orange glow of the street lamps were her only companions, the very signals to tell her society wasn't a dream.

But neither was her boogie man.

The rustle of a nearby bush sent her heart racing as she twirled in the direction and pointed her gun frantically at the sound. The hiss of a cat confirmed it wasn't a danger. Stevie ran a shaky hand through her hair, the tiny warmth of reassurance toyed with her.

The call had been real.

Then as she turned back to let her tired eyes roam the street, the apartment blocks that caged her in, across the street stood a hooded figure, black and spectral.

Stevie heightened her aim and he waved at her, the glint of a blade in his right hand.

Stevie twitched and pressed down the trigger.

On a another take of his figure, he was gone.