Author's note: Sorry for the long update, I was still reeling over the completion of Remember Heaven. Here is the follow-up to that apparently shocking chapter.
Bloodlover: Heart is the name of a young actress where I live, that's where I got the name from. Thanks for the comment.
Linda: Hey now, don't do that, it's okay. I mean, you can't force people to read something if they don't like to, right? I'm just glad I still have your attention.
Soul Schulyer: That obvious, or was the review button so easily accessible? : p
Tek: Heh, just downloaded season six until kingdom comes, can't download seven though, sad me. How's about Angel, you watch it too?
Frenchy: Shocker! But hey, go light on the preps, I'm 90% prep, it's like, in my genes. (hey, you're 's kid brother right? It's nice to meet you! Meet my friends…) Then various flirtations and scandals ensue. I cannot count how many people I've been linked too just in this freshman year. Creepsome.
RogueRaven: Now that is a very nice compliment. Thank you.
Melina: Too bad it isn't your real name, it must be impossible for perfection to exist here on Earth then. Close though.
Ksim: I hope I won't ruin anything when I say that you shouldn't worry about her.
Chapter 7: "Oblivion"
Mark entered the room, immediately getting washed in a state of internal panic as he saw the three people talking right outside Heart's room. It was the same image a day ago, with Jill still distraught, and just barely hanging, while Chris had it in his eyes that he was almost about to explode. A few people passed to and fro, some in white coats and others in clad in blue, some with clipboards while others pushing defibrillators. Rebecca was telling them something important, he could tell even though he was still in a short distance. Fear always pushes the senses further. "I have to be there for them…for everyone…" he thought, albeit still in dread, as he watched them from where he stood.
Roses in hand, he approached the three older people, noticing Jill and Chris' look of mixed frustration and confusion. A precognitive voice told him that something was wrong, not with Heart, but in a way something related to himself. "I'm paranoid." He went closer, until Chris noticed him, giving him a stare colder than death that made Mark stop in his tracks. At that very moment, he wanted to say sorry to his paranoia and back up, but now, he was there. No turning back.
The young man wanted to ask them what was wrong, but he convinced himself that he couldn't be ready for whatever it was that they grimaced from. Before he could gather his thoughts, Chris moved away from the conversation, cutting through Jill and Rebecca as he did, and moved straight for Mark, much to the young man's trepidation.
"Did you know about this?" he asked in a demanding voice. His eyes were practically on fire, putting the fear of God and then some into the young man. "Chris…" Jill tried to call, but found no other words to escape her lips. "What…what are…?" Mark's voice faltered, as it usually does when he finds himself in an unexpected situation.
"Ecstasy. Ecstasy did this to her." Chris said with a wolf-like scowl, inching closer to Mark. The young man's mind refused to budge for a second, as the words passed through his senses. "…"
"Did you hear what I just said!?" Chris asked him, practically shouting at him, making him snap back to himself. "…I…we…"
"…" Chris held his breath, waiting for a sign of coherence from the young man. Mark's mind traveled back to just before Heart's sixteenth birthday, the night that they spent together unbeknownst to their families. The rapid beating, the constant moving, the flashing lights came back to him, and in an instant, he realized why Heart didn't want to mention anything. She knew what it was that did it. Her boyfriend. Herself. "…We did it. We…took…we…"
Mark's mind traced back to that night, when it was in one of Stoneville's wildest nightspots, "The Bronze", that they decided to go. Bright yellow lights poured down from the ceiling covering them as they danced. Mark could clearly recall everything about Heart that night, from her pink knit top to her revealing black skirt. It was packed, so they practically felt everyone else's skin on their own, making the heat even more intense. Techno and industrial music pounded at them, making the ground vibrate with the force. Mark wore a sleeveless gray shirt with a black cross emblazoned on it, and a pair Capri pants. They had their friends along, two more couples who were together before they were.
"…We weren't thinking…" Mark whispered as he dug farther back. The night carried on, sweaty, wild, it was the life of a teenager. That was then one of their friends begun to take the medicine out, small round tablets, violet in color, with smiley faces engraved on them. "Take some." One of them said. Of the friends, Mark and Heart were the youngest, but not necessarily the least wise. "I…don't think so." Heart responded. "Where'd you get that?" Mark asked, a stupid question since it also meant how much his interest was piqued. "Some friends of mine…" he replied, garnering a giggle from his blonde, pig-tailed girlfriend. "Come on…hey Mark, I know you want some." He offered with a sly grin.
"I…told her that…" Mark closed his eyes, regretting that night. A sudden monotonous noise came from Heart's room, interrupting the young man's confession. "She's flatlined!" Screamed a nurse, prompting Jill and Rebecca to rush into the room. Chris stared down Mark for a moment, before joining the others inside the room. "What happened!?" Rebecca yelled to anyone with an answer, drawing blanks. "Her heart, I think it stopped…it just stopped…" responded Lisa, the nurse in charge.
A young man pushed in the defibrillators right beside Rebecca, and consequently prepping it for the doctor's use. "Wait…" Rebecca ordered. "Excuse me, ma'am, she's dying…" the young man objected. "Who is the doctor here?" she snapped back, shutting him up in the process. "What's happening!?" Jill shouted over the haunting tone of the dead lifeline. "Calm down, Jill." Rebecca replied sternly. It was times like those that her authoritarian means became clearer. "Give me my kit." She ordered Lisa, who sprinted outside to the doctor's office, which was nearby. "Move over, I'm giving her CPR." She said, pushing the others away. "Come on Heart, don't give up on me…" she urged the child as she began to apply pressure to the girl's chest.
Mark stood outside, capable of nothing but to watch the proceedings in horror. He didn't know how one single drug could have done it, but he knew now for certain that it was because of him that Heart was laid there. She was trying to defend him and he never knew it. His mind was in constant flux, so much that he stopped moving altogether. The night in "The Bronze" flashed back in his mind over and over again. "Come on Mark…it's just one little tablet…it won't hurt you. Hell it'll make you feel a hell of a lot better." The girl coaxed, winking at Heart at the same time. Mark gave Heart a look that both pleaded for forgiveness, as well as an offering for her to say yes as well. She always trusted him, and he felt the same way about her.
"Okay, I'll try it." Mark said, taking a tablet from his friend. He arched his head back and swallowed the tablet. He shook his head right thereafter in response to the tingling sensation he almost instantly had inside. "Here's for her…" coaxed the girl, handing Mark another one. "Heart…" Mark offered whilst gasping, it was his moment of weakness. "Usual tablets take about 20 minutes before you can feel the heat babes, but this thing, it's different. It'll make you hot in a second."
Moments later, heat overcame the young couple, after Mark was able to force the reluctant girl to say yes. "It's a macho thing." His friend said right before the sweeping lights practically burned at their flesh. Flashes of chills then hot spurs came all over them as they began to sweat further, and soon, Mark stripped his shirt off, slinging it over his shoulder. He pulled Heart closer, who herself couldn't object, and passionately kissed her.
It wasn't an effect of ecstasy, it was an effect of well-being. In response, Heart ran her hands over her boyfriend's chest, she herself not knowing her stand on the situation. She didn't like it, but she didn't stop it. Neither of them did. They began to get thirsty, but drew refreshment from each other. Their kiss became wilder, harder, as the need for their teeth to grind and their jaws to cramp overwhelmed them. "It's like an MDA…it shoots up to the brain and opens the fucking doors…you won't be able to hold back…" Soon, he had Heart undressed as well, revealing a body that was too shapely for anyone to realize that she was just about to turn sixteen. "Let it go…."
"I have it!" Lisa yelled as she got back into the room, pushing past Mark as if he wasn't there. "Okay, good." Rebecca took the black handbag and took out an injection, filling it with a white serum used for resuscitation. "Okay…" she immediately stabbed the needle right into the girl's Heart, pouring the serum straight inside.
Jill and Chris looked on in trepidation, never has either of them been so scared in their lives. As if on cue, her lifeline began to beep again, drawing relieved gasps of air from everyone in attendance. "She's fine." Rebecca whispered with an exasperated smile, turning to find the same expression in Jill's face. "…Chris, what is it? She's okay…" the doctor said, her smile fading as she recognized the dead serious look that Chris gave. "…No, she isn't." he said through gritted teeth. With that he turned and walked up to Mark.
"Piece of shit." He uttered, before slamming his fist right across the young man's face. The roses dropped onto the floor, soon trampled by both men. Cries of surprise came from the people inside the room as Mark fell back with a loud cry of pain. It was only a second that his focus shifted from Chris, to the bright lights in front of him, as well as to the stabbing pain he had on his jaw. "Chris!" Jill called as her husband went out the room to forcefully pick Mark up, and then slam him against the near wall, breaking a directional glass plate against the back of the young man's head from the intensity. "Little piece of shit!" he reiterated, right in Mark's face.
A sharp gasp of air left Mark's lips as the numbing pain coursed across his body. He could feel the warm red fluid trickle down the back of his head. Now his lip, as well as the back of his head was already bleeding. "You will never, ever, go near my daughter again, do you understand me!?" he demanded, as Rebecca and the male nurse, along with his wife, tried desperately to pull him away.
"I trusted you!" he yelled one more time before he was finally pried away from the kid. "Chris, stop this, just stop this…" his wife scolded him as he tried to go back and push Mark into oblivion. He heard the same synonymous requests from the other people around him, forcing him to push his anger back inside.
"It's just one little tablet, come on, what harm is it going to do to you?"
Mark staggered to his feat, bleeding inside and out. He leaned on the wall, unable to fully stand because of the slug that he got straight to his jaw. There was more pain in ruining something you had with somebody more than getting beaten. For a second, Jill felt sorry for the young man as she saw the confusion in his face. There was no rage, just fear. Probably why he didn't fight back. He couldn't. He had no idea with what was happening around him. He stuttered, probably trying to ask what just happened, how could one little drug cause all this, but hard as he tried, he couldn't form a single coherent sentence. "Go away, Mark." Jill sternly ordered.
"I…I…" he tried to object, he wanted to be with Heart. "Leave, now, before I hurt you myself." She demanded through gritted teeth. "…You…you should listen to her…" Lisa added with a look of concern etched in her face. "Please…just go." She didn't know what was happening, but she knew full well that if he stayed, he could get himself injured even more than he already was.
His eyes shifted, from Jill to Chris, from Rebecca to Lisa and then to the crushed flowers that he had just bought, and then he knew that he wasn't wanted there anymore. "I'm sorry." He whispered, on the verge of tears, before he ran away. It was a culmination of pain, regret, and of shame, a trio as deadly as any other virus. His world was still swirling as he hurried off, ignoring the stares that came his way, all this pain due to one moment of faux happiness, of forced passion. "I'm sorry." He repeated under his breath. "I'm sorry." Jill watched him leave; not knowing what it is she should feel for the young man. In a way, she felt sorry for him, the naivety of youth in general, but when she looks at her daughter in that bed, all the pity just goes away.
"We can't solve anything by that." She softly reminded her husband, this time taking the role of comforter, unlike before. "…" Chris took a deep breath and closed his eyes, wiping away the smidge of blood that was splattered on his fist. "I'll pay for the…uh, thing." He whispered, referring to the plate broken by the impact from Mark's head.
It took him awhile before he could finally settle down in the corner of his room. He didn't want his grandmother to see the marks he had on his face after Chris attacked him earlier on. Mark spent the last hour in silence and rumination, evaluating that night, how it could have led to this. Of course, he could never have factored in an undead mutation hiding inside Heart. No one could have. He trailed his finger through the back of his head, grimacing at the sting from the wound that he had. Of course, the pain that he felt physically didn't match up to the realization that it was him who put Heart in the hospital. All of this pain around him, it was because of him.
Author's note: Sleeveless and Capri? What was Mark thinking? Okay, so blablabla, angst here, guilt there, I guess you can see where my people are headed off to. Doesn't look too bright. I hope that the flashback was a proper explanation for Heart's actions. Do I have to explain why Rebecca didn't use the defibrillators to shock Heart back to life? I guess do. Oh yeah, the drug really has side-effects that totally mess with the nerve endings and branches in the brain and that could be fatal or long-term even if you try it only once. Until next time!