Disclaimer: I don't own anything you recognize. It (the characters…etc) all belongs to the great Meg Cabot, so don't sue…please.
A/N: Thanks for all the great reviews I got! Four in one day! Hooray!
~*The Undoing of the Mediator*~
Chapter 3: The Truth
I ran straight for his lunch table. He was sitting alone and I walked straight up to him, tears running down my face. "What did you do?" I screamed. "What did you do to me?"
"Suze," Paul stammered "I don't know what you're talking about. What's wrong? Why are you crying?"
"Don't play games with me, Slater. I know it was you! What did you do to me?" I felt like dying.
"Suze, I only want to be with you" he whispered, so no one else could hear him except me. The whole school was staring at us now. I swung around and punched him in the face. Hard. I felt cartilage break under my fist and swung again, hitting him in the stomach. He doubled over. I was just about to hit again when hands were pulling me back. I wanted to kill him, break his neck.
"Suze," a distant voice was saying "Suze, stop it. This isn't worth it"
"Father D, get out of this! This is my fight!" I yelled, but he was steering me back into his office. My tears were coming freely now. Once we were back in his office, I spun around and hugged Father D, crying even harder.
I hate crying, I feel like such a baby. Father D patted my back awkwardly and said, "It's alright, Susannah. Ssshhh. Jesse? Could you help me here?". Then he realized what he'd said and I started sobbing even harder.
"Jesse's here? Jesse, I'm sorry, I really am."
~*Jesse*~
I watched, helpless, as Susannah cried onto Father Dominic's shoulder. I reached out to touch her shoulder only to find my hand pass right through her. I swore in Spanish.
It was all my fault, for letting her get attached. I saw this coming, someday. I couldn't help it, though. I loved her from the moment I saw her and when I found out she loved me, I…couldn't help it. I cursed myself for being dead, and I cursed the world for letting this happen to her.
The night it happened was the worst of my life. Paul had left, and Susannah had just said she couldn't live without me. It was this confession that left me thinking about her future. It was when I was thinking that Paul Slater called me.
I thought it was for another one of his "discussions" about the so-called well being of Susannah, but when I materialized in his room, I was grabbed immediately by his ghost cronies. When you are grabbed by a ghost, you cannot just dematerialize. His cronies flung me onto his bed, holding me down with grips like iron.
"Nombre de dios, Paul. What did I do? Let me go, now!" Paul just looked at me and laughed, his now dark eyes filled with hate. He never showed these eyes to Susannah. That much I knew.
"Tonight is the night, Jesse" he sneered "and there is nothing you can do to stop it"
"The night for what, Paul? I swear, I will kill you if you hurt Susannah!" I screamed. I had a really, really bad feeling about this. I really would kill him if he hurt my querida.
Paul laughed, "no you won't, because if you come after me, I will kill her." He looked at me and suddenly I felt a sharp pain in my head. I could feel Paul's voice in my mind saying, "shouldn't have read so much, Jesse. Now I know how to take it away". He nodded to his cronies and they let me go, but I still couldn't move.
I knew two things at this point. One, Paul was reading my mind and had total control over my body. Two, he was going to take away Susannah's ability. I knew that because I read about how to do it in a dusty old tome I found in a library seventy years ago. I read how it could be done, but thought it was a joke—completely impossible. Apparently not. I wanted to rip his heart out.
"But I don't have a heart, do I, Jesse?" He asked, reading my mind. Then he laughed and disappeared from his room.
That's how the situation ended up how it had, with Susannah, my soulmate, crying on Father Dominic's shoulder and me being unable to touch her. I couldn't go after Paul because he would kill her, I didn't doubt that. I just stood there, watching her cry and feeling depressed, angry and helpless.
That night I followed her home. I promised Father Dominic I would watch over her to make sure Paul didn't try anything else. She cried the entire way. All I wanted to do was to wrap my arms around her beautiful body and tell her that everything would be alright, but that was impossible. I wanted to kiss her tears away, but I couldn't, and I was standing right next to her.
She stomped into her house, and ran up to her room, avoiding her mother's questions. She locked the door threw herself on her bed, sobbing into her pillow. I felt so helpless, I wanted to do something, so I pulled the blankets out from under her and pulled them over her body.
She looked wildly around her, "Jesse? Are you here?"
I smoothed out the blanket around her in reply. She whispered, "Jesse, even if I never see you again, just know this. I love you, always and forever. I will never forget you."
Now I was really mad, seeing her give up like this. I ran my fingers through my hair. Suddenly, I thought of a brilliant idea. I strode over to her desk and wrote down on a piece of paper "Don't give up querida. I have faith that things will work out. Just know this—I love you too, always and forever". When I finished, I walked back to the bed to give it to her, only to find her tear streaked eyes closed. I slipped the note into one of her hands, and lay down beside her. I held her with arms I knew she couldn't feel, and suddenly I found myself crying. It is something I have practically never done in my life, or death, or whatever, but I found myself doing now. I would rather be die again a million different cruel ways before I saw Susannah, my querida, unhappy. I cursed Paul Slater, I cursed my death, and I cursed my helplessness.
I remembered that kiss we shared at the cemetery, the greatest thing that ever happened to me. Susannah was the greatest thing that ever happened to me. She was the reason I wasn't moving on, true love. A psychic told me once that I would only love one person, and I would love her for all eternity, so I didn't move on. I was waiting, and I had found her, but she couldn't see me now.