Now they
show you how detergents take out bloodstains, a pretty violent image there. I
think if you've got a T-shirt with a bloodstain all over it, maybe laundry
isn't your biggest problem. Maybe you should get rid of the body before you do
the wash."
--Jerry Seinfeld
Lazy hnh: Heh, I' trying to update at least once a day. Couldn't yesterday though. Had a game.
Laureate: thanks for the heads up. As for Arcane, there's an itty bitty segment at the end about him. Nothing more. He'll show up more a bit later.
Azzandra: Yeah, but that's what horror is all about, I guess.
Flamingo1: Yes! I'm hooking people in!
HoneyBug17: Doggy's tough. He'll pull through. Unless you make him eat Kitty's cooking.
Rogue77: But the suspense is what makes it fun. *evil laughter*
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Doggy.
My best friend…
"How could he?" I burst into tears. The Puppet master guy.
"This is not real, Danny, he's just messing with your head, just messing…" I whispered loudly, attempting to reassure myself. But Doggy looked so real. So real.
I touched him. I traced my fingers across his muzzle. It was an accurate nightmare. I felt my fingers go over a light scar where he had run into a tree while chasing a rabbit. I had to bandage his nose for three whole days.
I stroked his cheek. He wasn't moving around or trying to bite me. In any other circumstance, I'd have wondered why. But right now I could barely see through the tears beginning to cloud my vision.
"Doggy, why won't you move?" I don't know what was happening now. Maybe I was to far gone from the shock of seeing him like this. "I want you to move."
It was so slow at first. Sluggish. And a little painful. It moved with my heartbeats. Slowly, yet definitely.
Power. Like a pulse. It moved through my entire body then it ran into my hands, feeling a little like molasses. Thick and almost sickly feeling. I looked down at my hands. They looked normal, except the tip of my middle fingers were glowing. My hand was still on Doggy's cheek. The glow dripped onto the other fingers, and there was a definite greenish gray color to it.
I watched in fascination as the glowing energy dripped down through my fingers onto Doggy's cheek.
He twitched.
I jerked my hand away, breaking the mesmerizing spell of the power. I looked at the Doggy corpse. Yes. It was just a corpse. And not even truly of Doggy. It just looked like Doggy. Everything was it should have been. Other than the fact that I was standing in the Banquet Hall from Hell.
The power…was gone. As if had never existed.
"Just a trick." I whispered. I turned to walk out. "Just a trick. It was just a trick."
I reached the door and stopped and turned slowly back around.
The scene had changed. Now it was full of people, getting ready to dine. A handsome and bright-eyed host picked up a couple of knives and sharpened them, preparing to dole out the main course. Doggy was sitting upright on the platter looking at me with mournful eyes as the feasters cheered and jeered at him…
I caught my breath and turned around fast. The noise stopped as suddenly as it had started. I turned back around slowly. No one. No one was there.
Beside me I heard the sound of sharpening knives. I turned around to look the host in the face. He had a huge grin on his face, as if putting me through this was some sort of game.
I didn't want to take it anymore. I felt some sort of surge of anger at him. He came at me with the knives. I calmly opened the door in his face. He collapsed in a heap. I took one of the knives, a butcher's knife.
"Remind me not to eat here, Garson." I turned and walked out.
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"Whhiiiinne."
"Hey Doggy." Spike patted Doggy on the head. Doggy leaned againt him solemnly. Hezibah stayed back, naturally untrusting as she was.
Spike sighed inwardly. It wasn't that he wasn't greatful that they put him up in this nice hotel. Not even that he got to watch the dog and hyena for a while. He didn't know what it was.
Yes he did. I t was Danny. His favorite baby cousin. Even if she was only five years younger than him. She didn't deserve this. Neither did her family. Danny rarely did anything wrong. She was a very good girl. If anybody deserved it…Chrissy did.
No, that was a bad thought to have. But it still made him grin.
^*^**^*^^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^^**^^**^^*^
I picked up Andy and we took off down the halls again. I felt very tired. Maybe the stress of being here was taking a toll on my physical body or something.
Andy began talking, telling me about his favorite TV shows. I listened slightly, not really hearing anything. My head was beginning to swim again.
\I Don't want to die!\
I jerked my head up. "What?" I whispered tentatively.
"I-I said th-th-that I l-l-liked the Superc-cats."
"Um, oh! That's good."
I didn't tell him about the voice I just heard. It was a young voice, a teenager, maybe thirteen, I think it was male.
\What did I do wrong?sob\
There it was again. Inside my head. That was why Andy didn't hear it.
\Mommy…\
He was terrified. And sad.
\ShUt-UP! WhO cares?\
Another voice. A very mean and nasty voice. Andy kept talking, blissfully unaware of the voices in my head.
\YeaH It's NOt LiKE WE carE.\
They came back en masse. All of them, speaking their minds and fighting. I suddenly had a very new respect for Jean.
\Stop.\
There it was again. The voice that sounded like me.
\YoU CAN't StOP uS.\
\Wanna bet?\
Screams. A sudden pain lanced through my head and I fell to my knees again. Andy grabbed my arm trying to pull me back up. I just sat there holding my head waiting for the pain to subside.
Then there was silence. I was alone again. Alone in my head. I looked up slowly and allowed my vision to clear. Andy watched me wooriedly.
"I'm okay now. Just a headache."
I got up. I walked slowly forward, still a bit dizzy. He followed me warily, as if he didn't trust my state of mind.
To tell the truth, I didn't much either.
*^*^*^*^^**^*^^**^*^*^*^**^^*^*^*^*^*
Doctor Garen walked into the hit-and-run, Danny, room. She was still on the respirator, looking sadly thin. She had only been there a week, yet her body was wasting away. It would only be a matter of time before the suffering would be too great for her.
He sighed and wrote a few nonsense things on his clipboard. It was a shame really. He had been told she was such a brave girl.
*^^*^*^**^^*^*^*^**^^**^^**^^*^*
"Ugh. Sickening décor." Chrissy walked past Ray and Amara as she wandered around the mansion on the arm of her brother, Donnie, a handsome and successful looking fellow, with blonde wavy hair, blue gray eyes and a charming smile.
"Aliens," Ray muttered. Amara stifled a laugh.
"You'd think with all of this money they could get something more fashionable," Chrissy gushed to Donnie. He nodded like preppy young men do to their sisters.
"Indeed. But you can't expect much. Look how Danny turned out." They both laughed in stereo.
Ray and Amara swiftly left the room before the urge to beat down and take names got too powerful.
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"Swam!"
The girls were crowded around him, looking up at him adoringly. They had been wandering all over the institute in their group, trying to meet new people.
"Sam, where's Danny?"
"Mommy and Daddy said that she was sick."
"Is it a bad kind of sick?"
"Does she have a cold?"
Sam squatted down to look at them.
"Danny…had a little accident. But if she were here she'd be real glad to see you."
"Even Chrissy and Donnie?"
"Err…Ah don't know about that."
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The road. His world.
The road was his favorite place to be. He was just a drifter, really. Moving place to place without caring to settle down.
A romantic idea.
Arcane walked down the burning hot highway. The sun burned above in the desert heat.
In truth, he almost missed running around with the crazy kids he met a couple months ago.
Nah. He assured himself. He didn't miss them one bit. Brats.
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Hmmm…..Looks like something's happening to Danny. I wonder what it is?
As for the next chapter:
Andy wakes up!
Kally take reviews today! She hasn't been around yet.