Chapter 21

'Come on Rose. What's taking you so long' yelled Jamie. Impatient bastard! Doesn't he know you can't spring on a girl that you are going out and expect her to be ready within ten minutes.

'I'm coming' I snapped.

'Argh, are you in another mood' he asked.

'No I'm fine. You should know it takes me longer than ten minutes to get ready. Give me more notice next time' I said coming down the stairs. I walked into the kitchen and grabbed my bottle of water out of the fridge.

'I don't know what took you so long' he whinged.

'Whatever, let's go' I said as we walked out the door. Jamie had decided we were off to yet another one of his friend's parties. Being his only guardian, I had no choice but to follow. Just one night I wanted to stay at home, but it wasn't going to happen. He was a bigger partier than Adrian!

We arrived at the party five minutes later and I sat down with one of his girl-friends Anita. The only good part about him going to friend's parties rather than the big social events is that I get to talk to some of the other women at the party rather than stand against a wall. Tonight there weren't many people here, only Zach, Anita, Ben, Nicola and Tahlia.

We had only been at the party for about ten minutes when I started feeling funny. My head was starting to spin and I felt like I was losing control of my body. When I moved my arms or legs, I felt like they weren't attached. I gulped down the rest of my water hoping the feeling would pass, but it didn't. If anything, it made me feel worse.

I tried to get up and go to the toilet, but as soon as I tried to stand, my legs gave way underneath me and I collapsed to the floor. I could hear Jamie laughing.

'Have you had too much to drink Hathaway?' he laughed. 'Your meant to be working, not playing'

'I….haven't had anything….except…water' I said. Well that's what I tried to say, but that's not what it sounded like. My words were slurring. I was getting scared now. What the hell was going on?

'Sure Hathaway, we know you've really got Vodka hidden in that bottle' sneered Zach. He came over and placed his hand on my cheek. I tried to push it off but the action was clumsy and weak and his hand barely moved.

'Don't fight me Hathaway. You know you want me' he said running his arms .

'Get off me' I said with as much force as I could manage.

'I like a girl with attitude. The chase is the best part' he said with a laugh. I began fearing for my life. They had obviously drugged me, but I didn't understand how. I was only drinking the water that I had brought with me from the house.

'You' I said looking at Jamie. 'You put something in my water'

'What in the world are you talking about Hathaway' he said as he slapped me across the face. 'I don't like your accusations'

I started fighting Zach off me, but I could feel how weak I was. He started running his hands up and down my body, kissing my neck and my face. I tried to push him off me, but it was no use.

I head butted him with as much force as I could and I felt satisfaction when I heard the crack. Blood was pouring out of his nose now but it didn't stop him from punching me in the stomach.

'You bitch. What was that for?' he screamed.

'Rose, stop playing hard to get. We know you like it rough. Although, we had always heard you were easy' said Jamie. He was standing in front of me now and he ran a finger down my neck, across my breasts and down to my belly button.

'Don't touch me' I growled.

'Come on Rose. I know you want it' he said and he bent down to my neck, lingering above my vein. 'You want this too, don't you?' A small gasp escaped my lips when I realised what he was doing. I started fighting harder. Hitting out at them with everything I could. It wasn't easy though because my limbs were becoming weaker and weaker and they were getting harder to move. I felt like I was being paralysed.

I had to fight though; I wasn't going to let him do this to me without a fight. I didn't realise Jamie had a knife in his hand until it was too late. After lashing out at him again, I felt a sharp pain in my stomach. I looked down and saw all the blood, realising he had stabbed me. The pain was unbearable and I screamed as loud as I could.

'Anita…Help me!' I sobbed begging for the women to help me. They were sitting there talking like nothing was even happening with me. I couldn't believe it. I mean I knew we weren't close, but I didn't think they'd be the type of people to just sit around and watch something like this happen.

There was no way I was going to be able to stop them. The affects of the drug were really hitting me now and I was losing the ability to move my muscles. It didn't stop me feeling what they were doing though. I felt every stab in the stomach, every punch, every touch and I could feel myself getting weaker and weaker from blood loss. Soon enough, I couldn't even stand up. It was then I felt them pulling my pants down.

'No…No, you cant do this to me' I was screaming. I don't know if any sound was coming out though. If it was, it wasn't scaring them, because he just kept going. 'Jamie, stop. You cant do this'

With as much strength as I could muster, I started thrashing my arms and legs, trying to get him off me. Strong arms latched onto my shoulders, holding me down.

'Don't touch me' I growled. 'Get off me.'

It was useless. He was like a solid rock pinning me down. I just kept screaming at him to get off me, and to let go, but they wouldn't listen.

'Roza, Roza…' I recognised the voice, but it didn't sound like the usual voice in my dreams, and I could tell it was pinning me down, so I just kept thrashing about, trying to get away from them.

'Rose? Dimitri, what's wrong with her? Why won't she wake up' asked another voice. It sounded like Lissa. Dimitri? Why is he here? Thank god he's here though. He will save me.

'Dimitri…Help me, please. Get them to stop. I can't take it anymore' I said sobbing. I tried to get up and go to them, but I still couldn't move.

'She's having a nightmare' said Caleb.

'Roza…Roza, please, wake up. Come on baby, it's just a dream. Please, come on…wake up. Lissa, why isn't she waking up?' he was asking frantically. What is he talking about?

Wait! Dimitri, Caleb, Lissa? Oh shit, a dream. Thank god it was just a dream. I stopped thrashing and concentrated on opening my eyes. Eventually it worked.

'D…Dimitri' I cried. I clung to his shirt, sobbing.

'Oh thank god. Shhh it's ok Roza. I'm here' he said. I finally took in my surroundings. We were still in the theatre room. I was lying on the couch with Dimitri, Lissa, Caleb and mum were all standing in front me. Dimitri had pulled me into his arms as soon as I opened my eyes. Lissa ran to me and wrapped her arms around me as well.

'Caleb…I need Caleb' I cried.

'It's ok Marie. I'm here. It's ok now' he said as he took Lissa place next to me and wrapped his arms around me, rubbing his hand up and down my back like he always does.

'I…I couldn't…stop….them' I said between sobs. 'I…tried…but…held…down' I could feel how much I was shaking. It was always like this. My body would shake so much it was like I was standing in a patch of knee deep snow with just shorts and a t-shirt on.

'Shhh Marie, it's ok. It's over now. They can't hurt you anymore. It was just a dream' said Cal.

'Janine, can you please get some blankets?' he asked.

'Right here Cal' she said handing him two blankets.

He wrapped the blankets around me and began rubbing my arms to try and stop the shaking, and also sang my lullaby. I don't even know what song it is, but he always hums it and listening to that and the beat of his heart, eventually calms me down.

After a few minutes, my body stopped shaking and the sobbing stopped. I finally looked around the room at all of the concerned faces. Adrian, Christian, Tasha and Eddie had come back into the room and I noticed Eddie had blood all over the front of his shirt.

'Eddie, what happened?' I asked panicked. Did he get into a fight with someone? Did he hurt himself in the gym?

'Nothing Rose. I'm ok' he said at the same time as Christian said 'He realised how hard you can head butt'

'Christian! Shut up' scolded Eddie.

'I…I did that?' I asked. I was stunned. How could I have possibly done that? Then I realised. He must have been trying to help Dimitri. In my dream when I'd head butted Zach, I must have done it in real life. 'I'm so sorry Eddie'

'It's ok Rose. Doesn't hurt! Lissa healed me' he said with a shrug of his shoulders like it was no big deal.

I looked over at Lissa. 'Thank you' I said sadly. I felt horrible that I had done that to Eddie. I was scared to know what bruises Dimitri had as well.

'You are most welcome Rose. Are you ok?' she asked.

'Yeah, I am now. I'm sorry you all had to see that' I said.

'It's ok Rose. I told you, we're here for you ok' she said and came over to hug me. Caleb stepped back and let her take his place. I noticed Dimitri hadn't moved. He was still holding me tightly and I was glad. It made me feel more secure.

'Thank you' I said with a yawn. These nightmares really take it out of me. The problem was, I was always too scared to go back to sleep.

'Adrian, can you please dream walk me when I go back to sleep?' I asked shyly.

'Of course Lil Dhampir' he said with a smile.

'Come on Roza. Lets get you into your bed so you can get some decent sleep' said Dimitri as he got up off the couch, pulling me up with him. My knees were still weak from my break down though and I started falling to the floor. Dimitri caught me before I could hit the ground and picked me up bridal style. Without waiting for any further comments he walked out the room and carried me to my bed.

After he put me down, he kissed my forehead and started to get up to leave. Straight away my panic returned.

'Please stay' I whimpered. I felt so ashamed of how weak I must look.

'Are you sure Roza?' he asked.

'Yes…Please, I don't want to be in here alone' I said.

'Of course, I would stay with you every night if you let me' he said with a small smile. He took off his socks and climbed into the bed with me, pulling the blanket over us. He wrapped his arms around me, bringing me closer to him, so that my head was resting on his chest, and he kissed my forehead. 'Get some sleep my Roza, I will be here when you wake up'

And that was the last thing I heard before sleep overtook me.