Anthony fumbled with the button on his new shirt. His large but gentle fingers struggled with the tiny button. New shirt smell was seeping into his nose as he tugged the thing back and forth. iStupid/i button! He thought.p
"Here, let me help you," Rae offered. She was sitting in the seat next to him in the raggedy Hyundai. As she reached over her soft hair, the hair Anthony was so crazy about, brushed against his cheek. p
"Thanks," he managed to mumble and start the car, "uh, where do you want to go?" he asked. He was new to this whole dating thing, so he had no clue where to go next. They already had gone to one restaurant, and that left his wallet a little lighter, even though Rae split the cost with him.p
"Uh, maybe, we could go talk somewhere?" She said, avoiding eye contact.p
"Where do you want to talk?"p
"Maybe, uh, Wood's Core?" This time she was definitely avoiding his eyes. Even Anthony knew what Wood's Core was, it was the make-out spot in Atlanta. It was a clearing in the woods, about a mile or two in. One car could fit, and whatever lucky couple got that spot usually steamed up the windows.p
iWhy the hell does she want to go there?/i He thought. The image of their first-and only-kiss popped into his mind. It was so full of energy, so warming, so emotional. Did she want to feel that again? Did he? iOh yeah./ip
This time she looked at him, deep into his eyes. All he saw was the blue of hers.
"You, uh, you sure you want to go there?" He asked hopefully.
"To talk," and she slightly narrowed her eyes.p
"Yeah, talk." She had sounded pretty serious. iSee? The whole kissing Anthony thing is something she wants to avoid. She just wants to talk someplace where we won't be bothered. You're not a Salkow, remember that./i And he started the rusty engine and drove out of the busy resteraunt.p
He turned onto the narrow dirt road after a couple of miles, and started toward the clearing. They were soon there, it was free, no steamed up windows of stupid Prep School cars. He stopped the Hyundai and turned to Rae. She looked frightened.p
"What's wrong?" he asked, she shook her head and smiled,p
"I just haven't been here, since-" she stopped short and looked at Anthony. iSalkow./i He thought bitterly,i Her last time here was with Salkow, and I don't think they came here to "Talk"./ip
"Nevermind," she said hastily and scooted over in her seat so she was next to Anthony. She rested her head on his shoulder and he put his arm around hers.
p"That's good, I don't think I want to know." He said with a touch of anger. He thought he saw a tear in her eye. iCrap, she still cares about him./i He thought sadly, maybe a little too sadly, he could feel his eyes get hot and watery. iHide it, blink it off,/i he told himself.
p"Anthony, are you...are you crying?"
p"No!" iIdiot! I am such an IDIOT!!!/i
p"Yes you were. I saw a tear...It's because of Marcus, isn't it?"
p"Um..." his voice trailed off and he pulled away from her. She just inched closer. iTalk about hitting the nail on the head/ip
"You think I still like Marcus, because I kissed him here. You don't think you're good enough. Anthony!" she saw a tear again, "I know we can't just be friends after what happened outside the motel, I need to know what's going on."
pHe turned around. iSo she feels it too. We're not just friends./i They were looking into each other's eyes. iKiss her./i He thought, ishe practically asking you to, just kiss her!/i
pBut he didn't have to, she was already there, on his lips. It brought back all the emotion from the hotel. They were in each other's arms, hugging, kissing, Anthony thought he could die right then and it would all be okay, he'd be happy.
pA gunshot broke apart their embrace.
p"What was that?" Rae whispered.
p"Gunshot, and it was pretty close," Another, even closer exploded right behind the car.p
"Someone's shooting at us!" Rae said shrilly. Just then, the glass broke in the back of the car and Anthony felt a hard push in the back of the chair.
p"Let's get out of here! Out of the car, now!" And he grabbed Rae's hand and they ran, the gunshots wizzing by them.p
"Ahhhhh!" Rae screamed, "Ahhh-ugh!" and she fell to the ground, Anthony's hand still in hers. She had been shot.p
"Nooo!" Anthony screamed, "You bastards!" he screamed to the area the shots were coming from. He picked Rae up and started to run. She leaned her head against his chest. She coughed and blood splurted onto his new shirt, which, just a few moments ago, she had helped him button that stubborn button. Suddenly, he cut sharply to the left, into the woods, out of the line of fire. He ran for a ways and then he stopped. p
"We've lost them," he said between huffs. p
She coughed up more blood. The bullet had gone through the back of her, all the way to her chest. Blood was everywhere. p
"Anthony...I'm not going to make it," she said softly.p
"Rae," he moaned, "you can't leave me, you can't, I-I-I care about you, Rae! I care about you so much, you can't die!"p
"You kiss better than Marcus ever did. Remember that," she smiled.
p"No! Rae..."
p"I love you, Anthony."
p"I love you too." But she was already gone. He held her closer, and cried into that soft red hair that he was never going to see again.
ppbrbr
The last thing Rae remembered was waking up in her bed to two men dressed in black who hit her over the head with something large. She was blacked out. When she woke up she was all tied up, and sitting on a chair. She didn't know where, exactly she was, but she knew she was in the woods. She was in a small room, a hut almost. Somebody was standing over her, she blinked and the image came into focus.
p"Yana!" she gasped, seeing her friend, "Yana, help me out of these! They kidnapped us again! How did you get out of your ropes? Is there a knife somewhere? Yana?" but Yana was smiling evily down at her.p
"Poor, innocent little Rae. Always getting just what she wants, but now I'm getting what I want, you dead!"p
"Yana, it's you?"p
She laughed again, "of course it's me! I've been sending you those little igifts/i, I'm the one that kidnapped Jesse, to find out what power you really had. But all I had to really do would be to lock you in a motel room and cry along side you to know. Too bad, it cost a lot to get those kidnappers in the first place."p
"But, Yana, why?" Rae was trembling, especially because she saw that Yana had a long, thin, butchers knife in her hand.
p"My name is not Yana, it's Erika, after my imother./i" She said dramatically.
"What!?"p
"That's right. Your mother killed mine. And do you know why? Did little daddy-kins ever tell you WHY?"p
"N-n-n-no," Rae was crying, she didn't want to die, and she defiantly didn't want her best friend to do it to her.p
"Because of you! YOU YOU YOU!!!! My mother worked in this organization called Artificial Psychics Labratories, and she wanted you as a test subject. A simple little guinea pig if you will, nothing harmful, they just needed a newborn baby. WELL, your mother said flat-out no. She had used herself already, she had gotten injections of Chemical V82, she could plant ideas in people's minds. But she wanted her baby, you, to be normal," she spat out the word. "But they were in desperate need of a newborn, I was too old, one year. And I had already been used once. No, they needed one about three weeks old. So, she took you anyway. Or at least, tried to. And your mother killed her. And not like the papers said, a quick, easy death with a clean bullet through the head, no, she stabbed her over and over with this," she held up the knife, "And guess what? Come on Rae, GUESS WHAT?!"p
"What?" Rae said softly to humor her.p
"You are going to meet the same fate as my mother, with the same thing that YOUR mother used to kill MINE."p
"Anthony," she whispered, more of a question than a statement.
p"Oh, yes, little lover boy. Don't expect him to save you, he thinks your dead already!" She screeched.p
"What?"p
"Oh dear, you still haven't figured it out. I have the same powers YOUR mother, and MINE had. I can MAKE people think things. So, here's what I did. I gave him the memory of you two on a date. You suggest to go somewhere to make out, he, like the typical GUY he is, agrees. You do the little kissing thing, emotions soar...yada yada yada, somebody shoots at you, you guys run, you get, SHOT!" and she slammed the knife down on the table, "and you die in his arms after stating your love for him. Sappy, I know, but I wanted something believeable."p
"Anthony..." she cried. She did love him, but she never told him, never had the chance to tell him, and now she was going to die. iThat's not right,/i she thought, ihe thinks you told him you loved him, and that's what he'll remember./i She found a tiny pinprick of comfort in that thought.p
She heard a truck pull in. The two men dressed in black stepped in.p
"You're finally back," Yana, Erika, Rae supposed she should refer to her as, said.p
"We dropped him off, he was wakin up when we drove away though," said one. That voice sounded so familiar!p
"Rae, I'd like to introduce you to my two partners..." and the two of them took off their masks. p
"Mr. Jepperson!" She gasped, looking at one of them.
p"Actually, Mr. Keaton," said Erika, "my father."
p"Your what?"
"He helped me, because you killed his wife, Somewhat of a father-daughter bonding thing," Erika said simply, "and this one, you may not know, is the leader of Artificial Psychics Labratories, Mr. Aiden."
pRae recognized him as the meter-reader and one of the voices of the hotel.
p"Now that we're here, one big happy family," Erika spat, "we can do what we came here to do. Say goodnight Rae!" And she brought the knife hard down on her, but she ducked, and rolled off the chair.p
ppbrbr
Right before she brought the knife down again, the door of the hut flew open, and there, in a rage, was Anthony. p
"YOU KILLED RAE YOU FRIGGIN BASTARDS!!!" He screamed, and lunged at Jepperson, punching him out. He jumped at the meter reader next, hitting him hard in the stomac. While he was down, he punched him in the face, breaking his nose and consicosness.
p"Anthony!" p
"Rae?" Anthony was startled by the voice he thought had gone away forever.
p"She's trying to kill me! WATCH OUT!" And Anthony turned to see Yana lunging at him with a knife.p
"Crap!" he yelled, and jumped to the side, letting her hit the floor. She rolled over and stabbed him in the leg. He kicked her away, separating the knife from her hands. He grabbed it and used his good leg to kick her in the stomac. She fell down and he kicked her face, not caring that he was beating up a girl. She was out, so he used some rope that was nearby to tie her up.p
He turned to Rae, "I-I-I....I thought you were dead!" There were tears in his eyes as he said this, and, dispite being tied up on the floor, she smiled.p
"They made you think that, planted that thought in your mind to throw you off. How did you find me?" She said. He reached over and carefully cut the ropes.p
"Even though I thought you were dead, I was still going to find out who did it and make them pay. The pickup truck was pulling away when I woke up outside my house, so I ran after it and hopped into the back. I was so angry. I wanted to make them pay for what they did to you because, because I..." He stopped. iShe never said she loved you, stupid./i He thought, iit was just that stupid dream that Yana planted in your head. She never said it, so don't say it now. Don't make things more confusing than they already are./i The last rope was off and they both were sitting on the floor that was pretty bloody from Anthony's leg.p
She thrust herself into his arms and started to sob. He could feel the tears dripping onto his back.p
"I thought I would never have the chance to tell you how I felt!" she cried, "But I love you, Anthony! I love you, I love you!" That was enough. It wasn't confusing anymore. It was right, it made sense, it was the only thing that made sense now.p
He hugged her closer, "I love you too," he whispered, "I have for a long time. And now that you're safe, I'm never, never letting you go again." She pulled back off his shoulder and smiled, looking straight into his eyes.p
"Do you mean it?" She said softly.p
"Of course." And suddenly her lips were on his, just like in the image of Yana's, just like at the hotel, just ten times what it was before, and they kissed and never wanted to let each other go.