Banshee Song Book One

Chapter Thirty-Three

Chloe moaned in her sleep and reflexively snuggled closer to Brady's warm body. He responded automatically by tightening his arms around her. They lay tangled in soft satin sheets wrapped in each other's arms. The dark hotel room was bathed in moonlight and the lights of the still-active city outside.

Chloe fluttered her lashes against Brady's neck and clutched his chest. She was having the dream again. The same disturbing dream that had haunted her nights for months.

God, no, she was back in that house. That dark, shadowy house where fear lived and despair dripped down the walls in thick, slimy rivulets. She was helpless, paralyzed, unable to do anything but watch the scene unfold before her.

"Die, bitch!" her foster father yelled as he raised his evil gun to point at her head. He pulled the trigger, sending the small metallic assassin on a deadly course straight to her brain. Time stopped for Chloe. Eternity in a second. She could even see the Matrix-like shockwaves pulsating from the bullet as it flew toward her. She heard her father's maniacal laughter echo in the room.

And then, horror of horrors, her love Brady jumped up in the path of the bullet, taking it in his body. She stood transfixed, horrified as the miniscule killer ripped through his body. He hung suspended in air for a horrible second before silently collapsing to the floor in a limp heap.

No. Her soul screamed in silence. How was it possible that she could feel such pain and still live? Her heart still beat; her lungs still drew ragged breaths. Yet she was dying inside. She could feel him leaving her; his light was fading, his soul preparing to depart.

She sank to her knees and cradled his lifeless body in her quaking arms. She caressed his still face with her trembling fingers. Questioning tears reflected in her blue eyes as she looked up at her foster father, the nightmare monster of her past.

"Stupid kid." He sneered mockingly. "Now you're both going to die." He stated with a cold finality as he once again brought his gun to bear on her. He pulled the trigger and once again time stopped. Not just time. All reality seemed to bend and twist around her. Her physical surroundings melted into a shimmery clear liquid that pooled at her feet. She watched in fascination as the fluid rose up her body, quickly covering her head, quickly filling the boundless space.

Chloe bucked in terror and kicked her legs. She was drowning. Drowning in visions and memories of another time, another life. Through the cold liquid she saw a warm, glowing light above her. She struggled against the fluid and headed for the surface. With a loud gasping breath, she finally broke through and found herself standing in a dimly lit tunnel. Beside her was a small, shallow puddle of water. She stared at the puddle and started at her reflection.

A strange face stared back at her from the mirrored surface of the puddle. A pale porcelain face with a wild mane of bright red hair and piercing emerald eyes. Chloe tore her gaze away from her reflection and looked around her at the tunnel walls. She had barely begun to wonder where she was when she heard hurried footsteps heading toward her. She gasped in amazement when a girl wearing the same face as the one reflected in the puddle came running towards her. In one arm, she cradled a sleeping baby. The other arm hung tightly onto the man at her side.

Chloe's breath caught in her throat at her first glimpse of the man. She had never seen him before in her life. But she recognized him. Recognized his soul.

"Brady?" she whispered in a raspy voice.

But the frantic couple paid no attention to her as they continued their panicked race down the tunnel. They were on a collision course with Chloe, and she shut her eyes and braced herself for the inevitable impact.

Yet there was none. The ghost forms simply flowed through her like water through a sieve. She whirled around in shock and looked down at her body. Understanding dawned on her suddenly. They weren't the ghosts; she was.

The breathless couple stopped suddenly and Chloe could barely make out a third person in front of them, blocking their way. He came slowly into view and once again Chloe felt her breath freeze.

"Stefano Dimera." She murmured. It was him, all right. No mistake about that. He did appear to be older, though, but otherwise he exactly the same. Chloe watched the scene before her in morbid fascination. What was this she was seeing? Where were they, and who were the strangely familiar couple in front of her.

She was still asking questions when suddenly Stefano pulled an antique looking pistol from his coat jacket and fired a bullet with precise aim at the other man.

"Sheamus!" the woman screamed a heartrending cry. The name rocked through Chloe, chilling her to her core. She had known that name once.

More people came running to the scene. A man and a woman, both also eerily familiar to Chloe. The first woman, apparently called Rhianna, gave the child in her arms to the new couple and bade them leave. Which they did, very reluctantly, leaving Rhianna to deal with the man who had murdered her love.

Rhianna turned furious eyes on Stefano Dimera and Chloe felt power surge through the underground tunnel. She watched Rhianna with stunned eyes.

Rhianna's green eyes rolled back into her head, and the now visible whites glowed brightly. Energy pulsed from the young woman and she floated several inches off of the stone floor. Chloe could hear singing from very far a way. Faint at first, but growing louder by the second.

Rhianna's beautiful face was twisted in hate. She gazed upon her love's murderer, and with a dark smile, opened her mouth.

{What is she doing?} Chloe was wondering when suddenly she was hit by an intense tidal wave of invisible force. She threw up her arms to block when she realized that the energy, whatever it was, was harmlessly passing through her. She watched Rhianna, frozen in amazement.

{She's singing.} Chloe thought. {And her singing is causing this, this power.} Rhianna hovered in the air, her back arched and her head thrown back with the force of her song. Chloe winced as the singing grew louder and louder, the energy waves from Rhianna growing stronger and stronger.

Chloe watched in horror as the swelling power suddenly erupted, lashing out at Dimera. He was bodily picked up by the force wave and dashed against the stone wall behind him. He slid bonelessly to the floor, resembling a rag doll.

Rhianna gave a sad smile of vengeance and with one last breath, collapsed on the floor to join her love.

Tears slid out of Chloe's eyes for the sad ending of the two young lovers. Why did this feel so familiar to her? She wept openly, feeling her heart break painfully.

She was still weeping when again, reality shifted and she was once again in her father's house.

"Stupid kid. Now you're both going to die." Her foster father pulled the trigger of the gun pointed at her head.

She knew what she had to do. She felt the old song well up inside her, and she didn't hesitate to unleash it on the bastard who had just killed Brady. Power filled her, became her, terrified her. Ugly satisfaction played on her face as she saw her father thrown into the opposite wall.

The power faded and she was empty, with nothing but her grief, and her guilt. She had taken a life. She had spilled blood. Blood flowed over her in dark, sticky rivers. Her vision swam and all she could see was blood, she was drowning in it. As it filled her lungs, she heard faint, mocking laughter and a face appeared before her.

Chloe awoke with a start. She bolted upright, Stefano's face still dancing in her vision. Why had she been dreaming about Stefano? She wondered as she shivered in the cool night air. She jumped as she felt Brady's warm arms wrap around her.

"Hey, what is it?" he asked sleepily, his eyes still half closed. "You have a bad dream?"

Chloe simply nodded, too shaken up to say anything.

"Come here," he murmured softly and held her closely against his bare chest.

"Wow, what a beautiful campus!" Chloe exclaimed softly. She and Brady stood on the green grassy grounds of The Julliard School. It was a warm, spring day and the bright sunshine was helping to erase the disturbing memories of last night.

"And think, soon you'll be living here." Brady told her with proud confidence.

"Well, first I have to get through this audition." Chloe replied with a wry grin. "Speaking of which, shouldn't there be more people here?" she wondered as she looked around the sparsely populated campus.

"Well, Andrews Hall is located on the other side of campus. That's probably where everyone else is. Come on." He said, taking her hand in his.

They reached Andrews Hall and stopped uneasily. They looked at the construction scaffolds that were placed sporadically around the exterior. The building appeared to only be half built, as large portions of the interior were visible.

"Are you sure this is the right place?" Brady asked uncertainly.

Chloe showed him her letter in answer. They were still deciding whether to enter the building when Chloe noticed a small handwritten sign. "Auditions to the rear" with an arrow pointing to the back of the building. Brady shrugged his shoulders and they headed into the building.

A thin man in a suit greeted them cheerily. He shook their hands vigorously and Brady felt like he had seen the man before. But he couldn't place it and simply put it out of mind as simple coincidence.

"You must be our 1:00. Miss Chloe Lane, right?" the man asked while glancing down at a sign up sheet filled with names.

Chloe nodded in reply.

"Just a question. Why isn't anyone else here to audition?" Brady asked. He still couldn't shake the nagging suspicion that something was wrong.

The man smiled nervously and paused before finally answering. "Ah, well, you see, uh, we had originally scheduled the auditions for a few weeks later. But we realized that we had uh, overbooked the auditions. I mean, there are only so many kids you can see in a day, right?" he laughed nervously, and Brady was again hit with the thought that he had met this guy before.

"Anyhoo, we moved a few of the auditions to this date. You're the last one of the day, that's why you don't see anyone else here."

"O-okay." Chloe replied with a small smile. That made sense.

"Anyhoo, if you're ready, Miss Lane, you'll be singing in the auditorium to your left."

Chloe and Brady moved in the direction that the man had indicated, when he suddenly stopped them. "Ah, sorry. You can't go in there." He said to Brady.

A silent alarm sounded in Brady's head. "Why not?" he asked darkly.

"Ah, well, we've found that friends and family tend to distract our applicants. Our judges like to see them alone. Uh, there's a room over there, though, where you can uh, watch the audition." The flustered man suggested.

Brady still didn't like being separated from Chloe. He felt very uneasy about the whole situation and he hadn't forgotten her attack the other night in the rest stop bathroom. He turned questioning eyes to Chloe.

"It's okay. I'll be all right." She assured him with a bright smile.

"Okay, I'll be right next door, watching you. You're going to do wonderfully." He grinned at her and gave her a quick kiss on the lips.

Chloe waved to him and entered the auditorium. Brady watched her leave and then headed into the viewing room. He was immediately concerned by the lack of lights in the small room. His senses flared to life and he tensed, ready for a fight. He heard a muffled noise behind him and whirled around.

He suddenly felt a sharp pain on the back of his head. Stars flashed before him and he collapsed to the ground. He heard a familiar voice in his ear. A voice he hated.

"Sorry, little Black. I'm afraid you won't be coming to the rescue this time." Stefano laughed mockingly.

Brady's last thought, before darkness overtook him, was of Chloe.

Chloe entered the dark auditorium. "Hello?" she called out nervously. Shouldn't someone be here waiting for her? She heard a soft footstep and tensed.

She gasped in terror when suddenly two arms grabbed her from behind. A hand holding a handkerchief clamped down on her mouth and she panicked to smell the strong chemicals. She twisted and kicked at her attacker, causing him to curse violently. But her struggle was useless as the chloroform slowly took effect. Her body slackened, her head filled with lead. She struggled once more, and then she too fell into darkness.

End of Book One