Jhondie

Jhondie

When I went back into the den, everyone got quiet. I was so embarrassed. "I'm sorry your friend died," Brit said in a small voice. He was my brother, but I couldn't correct her. Maybe one day I would, but not for a very long time. Hell, maybe never. Kayla didn't know, and I had no plans to tell her anything.

"Me too," I said, grateful for Justin's presence. I thought I wanted to be alone in the kitchen, but when he came in, I knew I needed him there. I hadn't told him much, and he never pushed, but I thought I felt just a little better for sharing that tidbit of my life with him. When you're older, you feel responsible for the younger kids. Zack, Eva, and I had managed to hide seizing siblings before, but when Jack collapsed in line, there was nothing we could do. A few minutes later and we would have been on maneuvers, and we could have hid him then. It was hard to not dwell on the past sometimes.

I was glad conversation went on in a much lighter mood. I was feeling so much better getting my mind off of the past. I had no idea why I was being so reflective. I normally shoved down the first nine years of my life and pretended they didn't happen. It was better that way. Luckily the twins started clowning around, and when they start, there's no being depressed. They go back and forth until everyone is dying with laughter. You'd think Bryan was a little shy and reserved, but that's only when he's being compared to Brit. He's actually very outgoing, and has a wicked sense of humor. I was willing to bet Justin was a lot like that as a little boy. With the way Bryan was already starting to look, I knew he was going to be a heartbreaker one day.

It started to get pretty late. Not that I noticed, but the twins started to run low on energy, and Mr. Carter seemed pretty tired, and even Justin was drooping a little. I had just had another huge plate of the stuffing (oh, more cranberries make everything better) when Mr. Carter told the twins to go to bed. It was almost midnight. Brit woke up long enough to protest she wasn't tired.

I couldn't help but be annoyed when I went to Justin's room. I wanted to stay downstairs, but Mr. Carter scooted me off to bed. There was going to be a downside to spending the night over here. I would have to pretend to sleep. With as much as I had gotten the day before, it would probably be a week or more before I got the urge to sleep again, but I was going to have to fake it. I did some work on Justin's computer for a while, entering research notes and the like, and tried not to think about sneaking downstairs. Finally, I plopped down in his bed, smelling Justin's scent in the sheets and pillows. Not fair!

I lay in bed, relaxed, but I still couldn't sleep. I wanted to go downstairs, and it had nothing to do with food for once. I could just picture Justin in his boxers stretched out on the couch in the den. Even if we couldn't do anything, it would be nice to snuggle up next to him and talk and I wouldn't sleep, but just be close to him while he slept. That wouldn't be wrong would it? Except for the little fact that in about thirty seconds after me getting there, we would be going at it like rabbits. No, I would be good and not attack him for now. Tomorrow would be a whole different story though. It was going to be a matter of in the car, or if we could make it back to my house. I groaned in frustration, and threw the blanket over my head. I wanted him now.

There was a light scratching at the trellis outside of the window. Justin's room faced the back, and his window was right over the roof of the porch. It was an easy jump for me, but the scratching was a little louder now, and it sounded like…like someone was climbing. Maybe it was an animal. I had no idea how right I was.

I was about to get up and check it out when I heard a whispered curse. It was a feminine voice. It sounded like…no…she wouldn't…but she was insane and had been thwarted. I left the blanket over my head and waited for a second. The lock on Justin's window had been broken for a couple of years, and he had just never gotten around to fixing it. Well, as of six months ago that was the excuse. Now it would just take me longer to break into the place. The window slid open.

"Justin?" Denise whispered. "Don't say anything," she said quickly. Her tone, even in a whisper was seductive. She was a dead bitch. She'd gotten her one warning. I had to lie there quietly for a minute, trying desperately to calm down. I could rip her arms and legs off without breaking a sweat, and at that moment, I was so tempted to do it.

"I've been thinking so much," she said. Yeah right. You had to have two sparking brain cells to think bitch. "About us, what happened…we both know that we both made major mistakes," she continued. "Face it my love, you know as much as I do that we're supposed to be together. Even your little girl knew that. Why else did she try to get rid of me so quickly?"

Say nothing I ordered myself. Maybe she would get the hint and go away. Dumping yum-yum on her was one thing. Spreading her from one end of the room to the other was a different level. One that I was rapidly getting ready to do. Little girl my sweet a$$. I was born an adult unlike your skank self.

She paused, and I sensed her frustration at not getting a response. "I know you're awake," she whispered, and I heard the smile in her voice. "Your light just went off maybe ten minutes ago, and it takes you a while to fall asleep. See? I know everything about you, everything important." She started approaching the bed. "You said yourself that you weren't homesick in New York. You didn't miss that child at all. Remember how many times you told me you missed me when you were in Mexico? She isn't more important than your work, is she? I'm still the only one that ever distracted you from it, aren't I?"

That's because he was trying to escape from you. Escape is not distraction. I…I had distracted him before. I thought I had. There was that time…well, we were together, but we just had to get one thing. And yesterday…well, we did go to the construction site first. Well, I was the one who agreed to have my Prom interrupted. Just because I was too angry to think of a time didn't mean it had never happened. It just meant that bitch was about to take a short trip back to the ground via the window.

Now she must have thought that silence meant agreement. "I knew it," she murmured triumphantly. "You see it too now? Oh Justin, I knew you would. I'll never love anyone the way I love you. Bradley is so sweet and wonderful, but I pretend he's you when we're in bed together. Remember all the times we made love? You said it could never be better. Have you slept with her? How long did it take for you to get over the memory of touching me before you could touch her? You told me so many times how perfect my body was." There was a whispery slithering sound. I placed it. Clothes sliding down and hitting the floor. "You can touch me now," she practically gasped. Time to die.

I know I moved to fast for her to follow. Careless, I know, but I was too furious to even think about acting normal. She was so dead. I had a split second to take in the scene before I was on her. She was standing there, completely naked, jeans and a shirt on the floor, running her hands up her torso like some whore in a porno flick. Her eyes got huge when she saw not Justin, but a worse psycho than herself come out of that bed. You think you're bad? I was trained by better than you, and I learned very, very well.

She was pinned against the wall in a heartbeat, the start of a scream cut off instantly by the hand clamped around her throat, squeezing firmly. Her face was turning red as she slapped at my wrist, terror filling them as she realized I had every intention of choking the life out of her right then and there. I could have broken her neck, but…nah…this was better. Deep inside, I knew I couldn't kill her. I would stop once she passed out but she didn't know that.

She would have escaped with a few bruises on her throat and a massive headache (lack of oxygen does that, I knew that from underwater training at Manticore) had she not taken a swipe at me. I was so intent on her face, that I didn't catch her hand in time. My face stung, and I could feel the warmth of four lines of blood well up on my cheek. Oh, that was *SO* it!

I let go of her throat, grabbing her wrist with my right hand, and catching her nails with the tips of my fingers of my left hand and jerked them back hard, hearing the nails tearing down beneath the quick. She had been trying to get her breath back, and it came in one shrill scream as the pain tore up her arm. Still holding her wrist in an iron clamp, I jerked her forward into my knee, knocking the wind out of her once again. She was lucky I didn't go with full strength. I could have damaged organs and shattered her ribs. Instead she was just going to be bruised over her entire stomach. And other places because I was not done yet.

I backhanded her hard, flinging her halfway across the room, slamming her into the corner. I could hear running, but ignored it. Four scratches meant four broken bones. It seemed like a fair trade to me. I jumped quickly across the room before she could get back up. My fist rose to deck the shit out of her when some one grabbed my wrist, and an arm around my waist jerked me back off of her.

Justin

When I was awoken by a scream, my body was moving before my mind could figure out what the hell was going on. Dad and I hit the door at the same time, and all I saw was Jhondie was about to kill someone huddled in the corner, and Jhondie's hair was over her shoulder, exposing her neck. I had to grab her before Dad tried to. I grabbed her arm and waist, and hauled her backwards. She twisted, grabbing me, and for a split second I thought I was toast. If it had been Dad, he would have gotten a crash course in genetics, the crashing being the sound of him hitting a wall. But, I guess deep down, I knew Jhondie wouldn't ever hurt me. Even furious, she wouldn't. Thank God, I was right.

My hand clamped around the back of her neck. I jerked her close, and hissed into her ear, "your barcode is showing!" She tensed with fear at exposing herself like that. The room was still somewhat dark, the only light coming from the hall, so for someone not looking closely, chances were only another person with Jhondie's vision could have seen it, but it was enough to calm her down. She needed to be calm. Denise was the one in the corner and she was screaming bloody murder.

Dad managed to get himself in between Denise and us. He must have realized I was doing everything I could to keep Jhondie off of her. Jhondie turned around again so that she could glare at Denise. I was still keeping my arms around her waist though. Not that I could really do much if she really wanted to get at her, but it was the effort that counted. I wanted to laugh at the sight though. Denise was mother-naked on my floor, in mortal terror. For once she wasn't acting. Jhondie had really put the fear of God into her. That just made up for the four flat tires, the broken windshield and the dead fish in my car.

"She tried to kill me!" Denise screamed. "That crazy…oh my God, she tried to kill me!" She looked directly at me, tears streaming down her face. "What's that crazy b***h doing in here?" she demanded. Jhondie jerked in my arms, but I kept hold of her.

"I don't know, Denise," I responded hotly. "What are you doing in here?"

"Justin!" Dad snapped. He looked over my shoulder. "You two! Back to bed now!" I risked a glance backwards. Brit was giggling silently and Bryan was staring wide-eyed at Denise. Oh that was not what I needed.

"But, Dad," they started to protest in unison.

"Now!" he yelled at them, pointing. He looked back at me, trying to get control of the situation. I was having a hard enough time trying to keep control of Jhondie. She wanted another go at Denise who was still whimpering. "Take Jhondie downstairs," he ordered me firmly. He looked down at Denise. "Get dressed," he said coldly. "I'll take you back home myself."

I tugged on Jhondie, and for some reason, she decided to come with me. I didn't like leaving Denise alone in my room, but I didn't have much of a choice. Getting Jhondie away from her was the best thing for me to do right then. I got her downstairs into the den. She couldn't see the living room from there, and it would be best to not let her see Denise as Dad hauled her out of here. We sat down on the couch. She still wasn't talking. Please let Dad get Denise out of here fast, I prayed. Once Jhondie decided to go back up there and kill her, there wasn't going to be any stopping her. The sad part was I wasn't sure if I would try terribly hard. Dad had just better hurry.

When Jhondie gets mad, if she's not yelling, she's thinking. When she thinks about something that's upsetting her, she broods on it. When she broods, she gets madder. The madder she gets, the more likely there are going to be fireworks. Of course as Denise had just learned, Jhondie can skip to the fireworks straight up. I preferred trying to get her to talk. It was safer for all the non-genetically engineered around.

"Jhon?" I said softly. "I am so sorry. I had no idea she would pull a stunt like that."

She glared at me for a second. "You shouldn't have stopped me." That's when I noticed her cheek.

"She did that?" I asked, seeing the dried blood on her face. It looked like fingernail cuts. I had a great deal of experience with Denise and her nails.

"It's nothing," she said, a cold smile touching her face. "She won't be doing that again for a long time." I hadn't gotten a good look at what Jhondie had done to Denise. Hell, she was alive. I thought it best to not ask. Jhondie might decide to go back up there and finish the job. Jhondie didn't say anything for a long moment. "She was sure she was going to seduce you," she finally said flatly.

We both heard some light sobbing coming down the steps, and then a second later the front door slammed. It gave me a second to digest what Jhondie was saying, and why she was so angry. I touched her face lightly, making her look at me. "You think she might have actually succeeded?" I asked a little incredulously.

Some of the anger melted a little, and she looked a little confused and embarrassed. "I don't want to think you'd ever cheat on me, but then she came in and you never said she was beautiful like that and then she snuck into your room and said all that stuff and got naked, and I just saw red." She looked miserable. If she hadn't looked so miserable, I would have gotten mad. I had never once given her cause to doubt me. Of course I had never had a naked ex in my bedroom before. Not that I would have let anything happen, in any case, but…but I was very glad it was Jhondie in my room. If I had been there and said no, Denise would have raised such a ruckus that Jhondie would have come up there and walked into that situation. I didn't think Denise would have gotten off so easily in that circumstance.

Instead of getting mad, I hugged Jhondie to me. She didn't try and pull away. "There is no way in hell she would have gotten her way," I said softly. Our eyes met, and I could see she was on the verge of crying. It was hard for her to learn to trust someone. She trusted me. "I love you sweetheart. It was never like this with her. Ever." I grinned at her wickedly, and whispered. "And I guarantee after yesterday, I have been ruined for any other woman." I paused for a second, pretending to think. "At least, unless one of your sisters show up with that incredible muscle control thing going," I teased.

She let out a little snort of laughter and playfully punched my shoulder. "You're a jerk," she said, trying to look mad.

"You love it."

She leaned up and kissed me. "No," she said, almost a sigh. "Just love you."