Painted Ivy and Wax Hearts
AvalonReeseFanFics
A/N: Are you guys ready for this? Ready to see what's going to happen? I know I am. This is going to end with a little bit of a cliff hanger, but hopefully you guys like it. As always don't forget to leave a review and I'll see you guys next week.
Chapter 11
Vincent's heart dropped the second he saw Bo carrying Charlie's body up to the house. At first, he hoped that she had just gotten hurt again but Bo shut that down when he said: "I found her in the church."
Vincent just stared at her, where her face was starting to swell from the hit Bo had landed on her.
"Maybe she didn't…"
"Nope," he said cutting off Vincent's last hope. "She saw Max, figured out what we're doing here and basically called us sickos. She's gotta die Vincent."
Everything in Vincent's body froze, his heart sunk into his stomach. Usually Bo handed him bodies, it wasn't like him to hand him a live one, and whenever he did before, Vincent had been fine with dealing with it himself. But this was Charlie, his Charlie. And he didn't want to hurt her, let alone kill her.
"So, I'm going to take her to your lab, and you're going to turn her into a wax doll and then me and you will put her in the window. You'll have her forever just like you wanted. Alright?"
Normally, normally this was what he wanted. He liked doing this. Turning people into wax creations. He wasn't so okay with killing all the time, but he the wax part he liked.
Vincent didn't want to hurt his Charlie, he didn't. He wasn't going to enjoy this like he usually did because he didn't want a wax version of Charlie. He wanted a real live one. But he couldn't argue with Bo, he could only follow.
Follow as Bo took her down the basement stairs and down the hallway to the lab. He watched as Bo put her onto the table, but he couldn't just sit there and let him strip her down. No, he did that for him. Once she was bare, they put her into the chair, strapped her in and then positioned her the way that Vincent was going to put her in the window.
He'd put the clothes onto her when she was wax. And he already knew what he was going to put her in. The grey dress with flowers along the hem that she had loved so much.
Maybe he'd even get fake flowers to turn into a flower crown for her. She did so like weaving those for him.
"You good now?" Bo asked when they were done and Vincent nodded. "Good, and when I come back down here, she better be wax. You understand?"
Vincent nodded again, unable to put his agreement into words. Bo took it though, and finally left him there alone in his lab with a naked Charlie.
He had never wanted this.
He knew it was something that could potentially happen, but he had never thought it would actually come to this.
He figured when Charlie found out he'd be there, he'd be able to talk to her, calm her down. He could explain that it was mostly Bo's idea and she'd believe him, and she'd say she'd stay with him so long as he stopped and he would.
He might even have been able to get Bo to calm down, though he figured they'd fight and Vincent would no doubt have to kill him.
But it was Bo there with her in that church, and things could have only escalated with Bo being the only one there.
Max was supposed to be the last living wax he ever made, but now… now it was Charlie. And she wasn't going to be his last either. No point in stopping if he wasn't doing it for her.
Everything was ready to go. All he had to do was turn everything on, she'd be pumped full of formaldehyde and wax. Once that was done, he'd cover her in it and sculpt it out so it looked more realistic.
He just couldn't bring himself to do it. Every time he went over there to start the machine he'd just stop. His heart would hurt and his throat would get thick and tears would prick his eyes. He didn't want to do this to his Charlie, he just didn't.
And because he dithered on starting everything up she woke up and then he had a whole other problem. Because now she was awake and she could talk to him and make him feel worse.
He stood away from her and just watched as she got her bearings and realized what was happening. She took in her bareness, the fact that she was strapped into the chair and the position, and then she turned her bleary eyes to Vincent.
"Where are my clothes?" she asked. "What's… what's in my arm? What are you… you're doing it aren't you? You're going to turn me into wax!"
Charlie, his wonderful Charlie had always been so very smart. Vincent avoided her eyes, and that was all she needed as an answer.
"Are you serious Vincent? Seriously?" she asked. "You kill people and turn them to wax? Why… why do you do that?"
Vincent shrugged because he didn't really know why they did it, just that they did and it worked for them.
"And what, because I know you have to do it to me too?" she asked. See, see, she caught on quick, always had.
She looked around again and Vincent forced himself to move, but the second he got close to her she started talking again.
"Please," she whispered her voice breaking causing Vincent's heart to break too. "Please don't do this."
But Vincent had to. He had to because she knew about the town, she knew what they were, and she was going to sell them out.
He said nothing so Charlie kept begging. "I won't tell anyone. If you let me go, I'll… I'll just forget all about being here… I promise."
That was a promise she couldn't keep, and they both knew it.
Vincent finally came to stand beside her. To make sure that everything was ready to go, to start the procedure. He had wanted her unconscious for this but knock Bo had hit her with had clearly worn off, good thing he had sedation drugs. This was something he had to make sure the victim didn't thrash and disrupt the process. He would have to inject her with enough to keep her unconscious through the process.
When he was ready, needle loaded and in hand when he returned to her. She turned to him and he almost shied away, except he didn't. Couldn't, because he had to do this.
"Please Vincent," she sobbed. "Please don't do this to me. Please let me go."
He paused, needle almost to her arm. His heart fractured, tears flowed down his face, but she couldn't see that because he was wearing his full mask again because he couldn't bear for her to see his face while he killed her.
"I can't… I have to… you know what we do now… you know…"
But as she cried, so did he. He sobbed in earnest now, his head dropping into her lap.
"You don't have to do this… me and you… we can run away. Don't you want that? Don't you want to escape? We can do that. Me and you, steal a car, ride off into the sunset. No Bo, no more killing, just me and you."
Vincent wanted that more than anything but he knew there was no way that Bo would let them go.
"I can't leave… Bo would never let us leave…" he whispered and then stabbed her in the arm. Charlie cried out as he injected her and his sobs renewed, he couldn't do this, it was killing him to do this.
"Please don't do this. Please!" she shouted. "I'll stay, okay? I promise, I won't leave, I'll stay, I'll be good. Just please Vincent… please don't do this to me…"
Vincent looked up to her he wanted to believe her, he wanted that to be true but people lied when they were facing death. They'd say anything to stay alive.
"Please Vincent… you said you loved me."
How dare she throw that in his face as if he were the liar. Couldn't she see that this was killing him?
"I do… I do…" he sobbed back at her as he looked up into her foggy green eyes.
"You wouldn't do this to me if you loved me," she whispered and that was true. He could barely bring himself to start the procedure, he could barely look at her and he knew if he went through with this he'd never forgive himself. "If you love me Vincent… if you really loved me… you wouldn't do this to me."
"I… I…"
"Please don't do this to me. Don't turn me to wax. Please? Please?" she dropped her head to hiccup. He wanted to save her, he wanted to keep her for himself.
Vincent looked up into that beautiful face he had come to love and knew without a shadow of a doubt that he wasn't going to do as Bo had asked him to. That he'd die before he let Bo take her from him. He quickly started to free her, pulling the lines of needles out of her arms, unstrapping her from the chair. Once she was free she threw her sobbing form at him again, holding onto him as tightly as he clung to her.
"I'm sorry, I'm sorry," he kept repeating to her as she shook against him. "I'm so sorry, Charlie."
The drugs he had pumped into her system took over again and she collapsed against him, leaving the shaking Vincent to hold onto her as if she were to vanish into thin air. He wasn't going to let anything happen to Charlie. Ever.
[-]
This was stupid.
That he cared this much.
But he did. He very much did. Cared, he meant. God, he hoped Vincent killed her before he started the procedure, he didn't want her to suffer. He didn't want her to slowly waste away encased in wax.
He didn't want her to die.
He had never felt that before, he had always been able to do what needed to be done, but here in this moment he couldn't. He had left the house, gone back to his garage, to keep himself from doing something stupid. But the longer he stayed there the more he wanted to sprint back to the house and stop Vincent from killing her.
But what could they really do? She knew about them, she knew what they did, what that town really was. She wasn't going to stay with them now, she had said so herself. They were sickos. She'd want to get away from them both now, even if he managed to pin the blame all on Vincent.
Bo took the wrench closest to him and threw it with all his might at whatever he could. It ricocheted off of the wall and into one of his toolboxes. He shouldn't be taking his frustrations out on his tools but he couldn't help it.
Because he couldn't take his frustrations out on who really frustrated him.
He thought about it, the whole time he had Charlie in his truck with him. Of just doing whatever he wanted to her, beat her, rape her, kill her with his own two hands. But he couldn't bring himself to do it. He couldn't hurt a hair on her head, knowing she might wake up, that she might start crying.
Just thinking about her crying now had his gut all twisted up in knots. Dear god what had happened to him? Why the hell did he want her so badly?
God if only there was a way to keep her… wait… what was stopping him from keeping her? A couple chains, a few threats, they could Stockholm her right? It couldn't be that hard, she had wanted to stay originally, they could convince her to stay again… right?
As soon as he thought it, the idea stayed in his head. And the more he thought about the more he realized that that was the way to go.
He needed to stop Vincent.
Bo raced all the way back to the house, throwing the door open. He called his brother's name, loud enough to be heard in the basement. If he was at work, if he had started, he wouldn't hear him though.
"Yeah?" came from behind him and when he turned he found Vincent on the stairs that led to his room.
Odd, but good that he was near-by.
"You haven't done it yet, have you?" Bo asked and Vincent shook his head. "Okay good. I was thinking, maybe we could keep her here? You know, she likes being here anyway, so we could probably convince her to stay quiet. You know, give her some incentive to stay. Like stay or we kill you? What do you think?"
Vincent nodded and Bo nodded too. He hadn't asked what changed his mind and that was good. "Okay, so uh… let's go get her then," he said.
"Oh that's okay, I can do that," Vincent said quickly.
"She's gonna be heavy Vincent, besides I kinda want her tied up so she doesn't make a runner," he said. "I take it she's still in the chair?"
He was heading towards the stairs, got three steps down actually before he realized that Vincent hadn't answered. Bo turned right back around, found his brother still on the steps and frowned.
"She's not down there, is she?" he asked, already knowing the answer. Vincent hadn't started because he wasn't going to kill her. And he wasn't downstairs with her, because she wasn't downstairs. Bo would be major money that Vincent's plan was to hide her in his room again, like when she first came into town.
Vincent faltered as Bo came to stand before him, slightly lower because his brother was higher up on the stairs.
"I couldn't Bo," he said in a shaky whisper. "I couldn't… she's… she's sleeping."
"And that's great, Vincent, but she's still a flight risk, and we want her to think that we're in control, so we're going to do things my…"
"I don't want to hurt her, Bo," Vincent said a little more sternly than Bo was used to. "And I'm not going to let you hurt her either."
Bo stared at his brother. He saw the defiance glittering in his brother's eyes and sighed, almost wearily. So, he had finally grown a backbone. Look at Charlie, the miracle-grow.
This was going to be harder than he expected.