I'm back by popular demand! (Nah . . . sorry, I always wanted to say that.
Again . . .sorry. Oh, God, now I'm blushing. I'm SORRY, OKAY?) I hope you
like the chapter. I'm not sure if I do. But it's got lots of "Snow White"
inclusions, so let's see . . .
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The terror that I suffered, and the blood that had been stolen immobilized me. Paul drew nearer with a menacing dark aura, clad in that slick black leather jacket that had not been present in my dreams. His face was tipped down at an evil slant. I recognized the rage in his eyes . . . eyes so icy blue they froze me with a mere gaze.
Then I screamed bloody murder with the little energy I still had.
Those crystallized blues widened in alarm, then rage again. With catlike grace, he swept down upon me, and held a forceful hand to my mouth. My voice was thwarted, and my brain hammered from the harsh change of sound to silence. I could barely move, the panic made the still existing blood in my body pound hard and painfully. Breath ripped at my lungs like thousands of little blades.
'It's been a while, Susie . . . '
His whisper effectively made that pain with the breathing thing stop. Reason? I could no longer breathe.
'You're going to kill me . . . ' I realized. He was . . .
He neglected my allegation, and stroked my face so gently it made my skin freeze agonizingly with his touch. 'I've waited a long time . . . '
'Paul,' I tried to choke out, but no air was available to me, so it refused to come out.
Why couldn't he have just left me to Tad? WHY? It would have been so much less painful. Tad had been killing me because he needed to. Paul, Paul would torture me, abuse me, just to make me feel the pain's intensity.
Pain . . .
It's something that I've made myself familiar with, both physical and emotional. But the pain inflicted by Paul was on a level on its own. I couldn't' describe it, but it was like mental, emotional, physical, and even on a spectral level, all at the same time.
Paul needed to show me that he was the one in with the power . . .
Again, I kept seeing flashed of black. I could no longer struggle in the slightest. All oomph was drained from me. I felt dead already.
'Ah, I've been fading away, not seeing you,' he said with a low growl in his voice, sliding his hand beneath my head and supporting my back. I felt the cool leather he donned on my naked arms. He lifted my face so it was right in front of his. Seeing Paul's face that close, in reality, it was a terrible thing. It had been different in my dreams; there was always that sense of fantasy.
This was real. So real . . .
The darkness and the absence of the moon heightened my fear. Death was so close, I could smell it. It was corrosive and suffocating. Paul's hands were gently, but dominant. He knew perfectly well that I couldn't move.
I hiccuped at the lack of oxygen, choking on my own spit or something. Paul's hand glided smoothly down my bare arm, leaving a trail of ice, and wild effects of my nervous system. He looked down from my eyes at me, and I saw his eyes blaze in the darkness. He moistened his lips with his tongue needlessly.
'Is this worse than a nightmare, Suze?' he hissed, a superior smirk tugging at those violating lips.
I swallowed, gasping for the air that I knew was too far away now.
'Weird, this time? I don't want you dead,' he frowned, a thousand hidden meanings pelting down on me in a monsoon of warning. 'And definitely not a vampire. That would be like . . . game over.'
This was all a game to him. My life, whether I lived or died.
. . . And he seemed to play this game so well.
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Paul's POV
She was so close to me . . . closer than she had been for these past weeks. She was so, so beautiful . . . More so than last time I'd seen her. Chaste, and pure. The perfection I so richly deserved after enduring what I had. I'd been going fricken CRAZY without her, without knowing I could always come back to see her shrink away from me in fear. This absence of dominance had been destroying me. I thrived from it, was sustained by it.
And after this long wait, I'd been rewarded with a precious scenario. Little Susie was dying, wasn't she?
I could no longer feel her breathing. She was still conscious though. I didn't understand what was happening to her, but I didn't care. It didn't matter, so long as I could make her suffer. That scream she'd pleasured me to just now, the first in so long, had been thrilling, rousing.
There was no laughing at my leather this time . . .
But just as I was muttering my goading words in her ear, something registered. She was dying . . . from a vampire bite. If she died, then, she'd be one of them. Realization dawned in me. No, I couldn't have that. If that was so, there was no hope for us. She wouldn't be the Suze that I loved, that I was addicted to. Because that's what I was.
Addicted.
I couldn't let her die. Not like this . . . It was me who had to kill her, if at all, not a stupid amateur vampire.
That was when her eyes closed and her already limp body went even more flaccid. My mouth fell open . . . No . . . she wasn't . . . no . . .
'Suze?' I shook her.
Nothing.
Shit!
'SUSANNAH!' I roared, standing up rapidly in a feral manner. Shit! God damn it! God, calm down Paul . . . what can you do? First aid's pretty useless, seeing you don't have any air to give her, but mouth to mouth wouldn't be so bad in the meantime . . . No!
I had to do something, get someone. I didn't believe that I was feeling panic, but I was. I couldn't lose her. I didn't lose . . . I NEVER lost!
That was why I was so relieved when a voice – any voice – rang out gently from the front door.
'Suze? Um, the door was kind of open. I got some more stuff on that Red guy.'
I stopped dead. This voice struck a sense of familiarity in me.
'Suze? You home? Why's it so dark?'
And when she swept around the corner, I was able to put a name to the voice.
Aaah . . . Snow White . . .
She froze in horror when she saw Suze lying motionlessly on the ground, pale as her own skin.
'Holy shit,' she breathed, her hand shooting to her mouth. 'Suze! Wake up!' She fell down beside her, shaking her and trying to get her to wake up. She was no longer facing me. It was evident that she was crying. Whoa, didn't want her in a my crisis situation . . .
I watched the scene, feeling very much to a spectator. For someone who seemed to have so much intelligence, she wasn't doing the first thing one would do in this situation – calling 911.
So I took matters into my own hands.
I focused to Snow, connecting with her aura, shutting my eyes, and concentrating on my objective.
With a wave of something very cold, I knew that I was visible and audible to her.
'Hello Snow,' I said indifferently.
I saw her back go severely rigid, and time seemed to stop. It took forever to get any kind of response.
'You,' she choked out. Her swaying white hair gleamed in the near darkness. It was like a sheet of white silk.
'Yes me.'
Again, it was ages before she replied. I never knew that she was so scared of me, ha. I laughed in spite of myself. Which was probably a bad move.
'You did this?' she asked, still not moving a muscle as she held two fingers on Suze's wrist, forgetting to check if she still had a pulse or not.
I was gobsmacked. I was. Sorry, but it seemed so weird at the time, me KILLING Suze like that. I know, I've tried killing her before, so it shouldn't have been such a shock, but well, it was.
'I don't think so,' I snapped at her.
Slowly, vigilantly, she rotated to face me.
Her pale face was trembling in a fusion of anger, and dread, so it seemed. I never knew that I had this affect on her. This was pleasant news to me.
'Well what did you bloody do?' she asked. It took courage for her to say these accusing words, I could tell.
I blinked lazily. 'I did nothing, Snow.' She flinched at the moniker, to my amusement. 'I was merely calling on you to tell you that normal people would consider it the right time to ring emergency about now. She's dying, if you didn't notice . . . Snow,' I added, smirking maliciously at her.
She gulped, and subconsciously edged away the tiniest bit. 'I know that,' her voice quavered. Her eyes were shining. Whoa. Someone with compassion. So rare for me to meet one, with the people I associated with.
'Well?' I pressed on, and I stepped very loudly on the ground, 'Call.'
She recoiled again, and hightailed it to the phone, talking breathlessly into the receiver.
'Hello? Um, my friend has fainted,' she said.
'She's lost heaps of blood,' I offered boredly.
'She's lost a lot of blood . . . I'm not sure, I just came in. No, there, um . . . there was no one else here when I came,' she said, her voice getting quieter by the moment. 'I don't know. It doesn't look like she's been cut anywhere . . . Of course she's still alive! That's why I'm bloody calling! So you can get – sorry . . . Address, um, 99 Pinecrest, I think, oh, what you said then. (A/N: I know that's wrong, can someone tell me what it really is? I CAN'T remember, for the life of me!) Yeah. Only about ten minutes . . . okay, thank you. Please hurry,' she ended feebly, placing the phone back on the hook very stiffly.
She turned to me, not looking at my eyes directly. 'They're on their way,' she said heavily, touching her face and keeping her distance. So she should . . . I'm not tame.
'So Snow,' I grinned slyly, 'How have you been keeping?'
She frowned. 'What do you care? Who are you, anyway?'
I laughed at that. Of course I didn't care. The only answer I was hoping for was "I toss and turn every night in fear that you'll come back to haunt me." Otherwise, I wasn't interested.
'Who am I?' I smirked, 'Aaah, not for you to know, Snow.'
Snow White crossed her arms indignantly, and glared right into my eyes. 'You beat her up, didn't you?'
'I told you –'
'Not now, before. You gave her those scars on her wrists, right? The ones she always looks at when she's done something wrong, or she's unhappy? You . . . you assaulted her, didn't you?'
I felt myself getting angrier by the second. How dare she . . . how dare she just fling these accusations around so carelessly?
'Yes,' I snarled, taking a threatening step towards her. 'I did all but the scars. You happy?'
She stumbled back. 'No, of course I'm not happy. It doesn't change anything, you admitting it. I can just put a face to the person who's made my best friend's life hell.'
That infuriated me and slaked me at the same time. I'd made Suze's life a hell for reasons that Snow knew nothing of. Suze wanted me so badly it hurt, and it affected her in a way that tore her world apart. That was the hell that Snow recognized. But she was indicting me again . . . She had no right.
'Shut up,' I scowled, picking up one of the chairs threateningly. 'This doesn't concern you. You know nothing about me, or why I do things.'
'I know your kind,' she sneered right back at me. 'You're like . . . like a serial killer, I'll bet. You kill because you enjoy it. You hurt people because it makes you feel powerful!' I turned my head away from her. How could a stupid albino pinpoint my motives like that? Was she a mind reader or something? An emotion that I was slow to identify was escalating in my mind. Guilt. She was making me feel . . . guilt. It was a feeling I prided myself on lacking. How could SHE make me feel it? 'You know it's wrong, but that's what makes it so fun. You relish pain. And fear . . . Am I right?' she demanded aggressively. 'AM I RI-'
I cracked.
'SHUT UP!' I roared to her face.
I lunged at her, and shoved her brutally to the ground with the chair that I was holding. She screamed and slid across the floor, her hair flying into a messy shield across her face. Her hand shot to her chin, which was bleeding a little. Breathing sharply, she lay on the floor, not moving, not wanting another rise from me.
'Don't EVER judge me,' I spat in my rage. 'You don't know me. You don't know anything about me, you little bitch.'
My temper had been quick to flare up. Once again. This rage that I'd learnt to subdue had erupted again. Snow finally stood up, and ran back to Suze. After a moment of standing solitary, controlling my tantrum, I followed silently.
I saw her clutching Suze's hand, very hard, her eyes closed and her breath unkempt. A mysterious glow played across her face. I couldn't have imagined what it was, as there wasn't a moon tonight, and this street didn't have any near streetlights.
Then I realized.
It was me that was glowing.
I was the ghost.
And oh, did I know it.
Groaning, I sank in front of her. 'Look, Snow . . . Sorry,' I said acidly. I felt no sorrow, but . . . I didn't want to hurt her. I had no reason to. No, that didn't make sense. I had no reason to really hurt many people, but I did. The only reason I had killed some guy before was to get his clothes. I didn't feel bad about doing that at all.
And Suze . . . She didn't deserve to be killed . . . I wouldn't have felt guilty at ALL for doing that. It would have meant I had won. That I had beat Jesse, that asshole.
But Snow, she . . . I dunno. I knew she really didn't deserve it, I guess. She'd told the truth about me. I wasn't even savouring her fear and her pain, as she'd put it. I couldn't make sense of it, which was really pissing me off.
She looked away from Suze, who was dead still. But oh so gently, I saw her chest rising and falling. Not much oxygen was entering her, but just enough to keep her alive for the moment. Her beautiful, innocuous face was frozen in time, and her lips were moving very softly as if she was muttering in her dreams. My lip curled . . . damn Thaddeus. Damn his sissy ass to hell. The bloody prick, taking Suze like he owned her. Suze was mine. I don't like sharing my things . . .
'Is she going to die?' Snow whispered. I noticed she was looking right at me again. Her eyes, they were filled with tears. I blinked. Whoa . . . she cared too much.
'No,' I said. 'Well, not if that fricken ambulance gets here. She'll need a blood transfusion. She's lost a hell of a lot of it, courtesy of Thaddeus and his stupid father. But this was all the doing of Marcus Beaumont, of course.'
CeeCee looked tremendously perplexed. 'But . . . Marcus? I read about the Beaumonts, and it mentioned that there was a conspiracy about the real estate companies MountBeau and RedCo, that they killed to get their land. What does Marcus have to do with it?
Should I tell her? No . . .
'Hang on . . . ' she said very slowly. 'What do you mean, this was Tad's fault and his dad? How did they make her lose this much blood, without a mark on her?'
I rolled my eyes. 'Isn't it obvious? Think. There is a mark of Suze. I'm looking right at it,' I said pointedly, staring at the bite on her neck.
Snow followed my gaze, and gasped. 'The hickey?' she said.
I snorted. What? It was funny. Hickey my ass.
But then I kind of couldn't stop laughing. It was really a funny thing, for Suze to have a lovebite, for some reason.
'It's not a bloody hickey,' I derided. 'Think Buffy, and you've got it.'
She gave me a really weird look. 'As if,' she scorned. 'Don't go all Transylvanian on me, please.'
I stopped laughing. 'I'm very serious, Snow. Bet you wouldn't have believed that ghosts were real in a million years. Suze told me that you were quite the science nerd,' I said.
She looked insulted in her refusal to believe.
'Well, different wording, but yeah. And Suze, well, she was bitten by a –'
'Don't say it,' she said suddenly. 'You're messing with my head. Stop it.'
'– A vampire . . . '
She looked pained. 'No . . . No, why does this all have to be so COMPLICATED? Why can't Suze just have a NORMAL stalker? One with a HEARTBEAT?' she snapped, throwing Suze's hand down in disgust. I smirked.
'Oh, it gets better. You wanna know who the demon is?'
She yelled out. 'Enough! No, I do NOT want to know! I have to pass my midterms, and it's hard enough to remember the stuff I study for. Chuck in a whole plot line of vampires and demons and shit, well, I'm not going to have a spare millimeter in my head to cram in the stuff I need to know!' She stood up furiously.
I just blinked . . . Whoa. Fiery, wasn't she?
But she couldn't beat Suze on a warpath.
I fondly remember the cartoon I'd drawn on the back of her homework so long ago. Now THAT had got a prize-winning reaction.
'Okay,' I muttered, 'I'll keep it to myself then.'
'You do that,' she retorted.
Silence.
She really was quite pretty, in a very white, very conservative way. ha, since when did I have such good taste and high standards? Probably since Suze . . . I was just assuming that because she was Suze's friend, she was like her. I eyed Snow with a smirk.
'So,' I said, with a hint of suggestiveness, 'What should we do now? Keep each other . . . company?'
What? I was bored, okay?
She was revolted. 'Ew! My God, were you born with your legs apart or something? I hope they buried you in a "Y" shaped coffin, save you the strain . . .'
Whoa . . . at least she was witty. I laughed in spite of myself.
Thankfully, it was broken by the welcome sirens of an ambulance. Snow White sighed in relief. 'Thank God,' she said, standing up.
Suze would live now . . . I was done here . . .
Don't get me wrong . . . no, I wasn't just going all nice. I'm not nice. Never nice. I just didn't want Suze to die this way. If she did then she would be soulless, and I couldn't have that now. Oh, no. I knew that I was still the villain here. Just, maybe not the villain that Suze needed to be worried about at the moment. Seemed that Thaddeus Beaumont Junior, as it is, was pushing me out of my "Bad guy" seat. Well, as soon as I eliminated him, I'd get right back into it, and make Suze's life a living hell. It was partly why I still existed, of course. Because while she didn't realize her deadly desire for me, she had no right to live happily ever after with Jesse De Castrated. I'd be back to haunt her . . . I just had to make sure that she was still around to haunt, you know?
Moulding into the archetypal evil one again, I stood right in front of Snow, looking down at her with disdain and superiority. I was going soft . . . Couldn't have that . . .
'I'll be back,' I smirked down at her.
She looked up at me with a scornful look. 'Whatever, Schwarzenegger.'
Oh yeah . . . stupid Terminator . . . Go to hell.
'Whatever,' I replied, and for effect, I shoved the couch so it slammed right against the wall with an echoing crash. Snow screamed.
'What the hell is wrong with you?' she squealed.
I shrugged coolly. 'I'm not around to help you,' I growled. 'I'm doing this because it's in my best interest for Suze to be alive.' For further effect, with the throw-rug that had been on the edge of the couch, I seized her and too slammed her against the wall. I still couldn't touch her as a ghost, but I could if I put something between us. I squeezed her shoulders viciously, feeling almost bad about this futile pain I was prompting. She gasped, and pleaded for me to stop.
'Just a healthy reminder so you don't forget who's in charge,' I snarled in her face, shaking her abruptly. Snow shouted as her head bashed against the wall violently. I threw her down next to Suze, who was looking worse and worse by the second.
There was an urgent knock on the door. Aaah, the meds at LAST. Suze was going to be okay . . . Doctors would fix her, even if it had been to late for them to dig a bullet out of my brain by the time they'd found me. Oh well, dwelling on the past was stupid.
Unless, of course, you were a vengeance seeker. Then, it mattered a lot.
'Be seeing you,' I said coldly.
Snow stared at me as if I was crazy. 'I bloody well hope not . . . '
Laughing malevolently, I dematerialized. I'd go see Suze in hospital . . . Remind her who was in control.
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Suze's POV
'She needs a blood transfusion!'
'What blood type is she?'
'Group A negative, as far as we can tell. But this is unusual, Doctor. She seems have unknown antigens in her blood, that we've only seen before from few Egyptian people that have given blood. But A blood, no rhesus, should be adequate.'
. . . These voices . . . They sounded very panicky. Quick, and loud. Urgent, even. What was going on?
'Is cause for blood loss identified?'
'No . . . she has no marks upon her body except her neck, but the wound is too small for her to have lost so much. Her friend wasn't giving any details, either.'
. . . F-f-friend? Blood loss? My eyes fluttered open, and I was greeted by a sea of white. It was blinding!
'Doctor! She's waking up!'
'Well, anaesthetize her!'
'Yes, Doctor . . . '
. . . I felt something sharp being inserted in my shoulder, and a painful feeling of poison traveled around my body, deadening it. I felt very scared. What was happened? What was this blood loss deal? And where was I, God dammit?
. . . But sleep claimed me, once again . . .
~*~
Someone was holding my hand.
I didn't know who, or why, or how, but before reality or the memories could reach me, I just assumed it was who I wanted it to be so badly.
'Jesse,' I breathed . . .
The hand suddenly went very hard, and crushing. I gasped, and opened my eyes. There, I met the eyes of none other than a seething Paul Slater.
'You still hung over that loser?' he glared intensely.
I hiccuped, and looked around fearfully. I was in a hospital. Everything was very white, and it hurt my eyes. Everything, but Paul. Paul was jet black, from his black aura to his even blacker heart . . .
I felt very enervated and shaky still, and didn't have the vigour to jump out of the bed and run screaming down the hospital corridors. Besides . . . that would be weird . . .
'You are relentless,' I commented, feeling drained. Yet, I noticed with some gratification that I wasn't running so low on blood anymore. But I might as well have been . . . I felt that Paul, just in my presence, was sucking me dry all over again.
Feeling numb with both anaesthetic and fear, I warned, 'Get out of here . . .'
He smirked broadly, and leant in closer to my face. 'How about . . . no.' His hand rested on my hip, and I breathed in huskily.
'You think I'm gonna go after just getting back? I'm a bit put out, Susie . . . you don't seem happy to see me. Didn't you miss me?'
I was disgusted with him. 'Never,' I spat.
He frowned sardonically. 'That's just too bad . . .' he leant in so his face was right beside my ear. 'Because I missed you.' With that, the hand on my hip shot up to my chin, and his pressed his lips against my mine. I squealed in alarm. 'Get off!' I stammered, as he violated my mouth. I could tell that I'd had a blood transfusion; it was pumping so painfully around my body, I was almost screaming!
'I've yearned to do this,' he said breathlessly between a kiss. I took a very much so needed breath – it was okay for HIM. He was dead! He didn't need to breathe – and prepared to push myself away, but he returned to me, only with a kiss that wasn't so innocent, if the first one had been that at all.
'P –Paul, what are you DOING?' I asked wildly, trying to shove him away, but he seized my wrists and jammed them above my head and out the way, continued to ravage my bruised lips. It hurt, with a pain that, once again, only Paul could make me feel. Pain of the spectral nature as well as any other. He was forceful, and was arousing a horror that I hoped to God I'd never undergo again. But since when does God do anything for me?
I resisted with all my strength, trying to turn my face away. My head was pounding horribly, further proof that my blood had been restored. God, who needs blood if it hurts so much? I tried not to cry out – I didn't want some nurse to come in and think I was having a seizure. My heart was cracking under the pressure of this kiss, splitting me across the line of rampant lust and sheer terror.
Do not respond . . . Do not give in . . . Do not give up . . .
Never let him win.
With a sudden burst of unforeseen strength, I managed to yank my hands from his, and elbow his face away. Cussing, he fell to the floor. And surprisingly, so did I. On the other side of the bed, thank goodness. I landed painfully, and clean ache spurted up my spine. I groaned, and carefully picked myself up, stumbling out of the little room. I guess I'd been in ICU. I turned my head, but I realized that Paul had gone. Ha. He was such an idiot . . .
And I'm not?
Okay, don't answer that.
I sighed and walked back into the room, falling into my white bed. I knew Paul wouldn't show up for a little while. I don't know how, I just did. Feeling emotionally drained again – bouts of terror can do that to you – I closed my eyes and yet again, slept a dreamless sleep.
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Like the chapter? I hope so.
NOTE: Um, listen. I have a sequel for "Get Out Jesse And Never Come Back" just out, but only three lovely people have reviewed it. It's under the name "Devil At Heart," which is Katie's new account, so maybe that's why you didn't recognize. Katie was very discouraged at the little response. Please lift her spirits and review it! It's called "Power of Love" and it will be good if I can help it!
And what did you think of the chapter?
REVIEW!!!
Regards, MystAngel.
Love you all so much!!!
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The terror that I suffered, and the blood that had been stolen immobilized me. Paul drew nearer with a menacing dark aura, clad in that slick black leather jacket that had not been present in my dreams. His face was tipped down at an evil slant. I recognized the rage in his eyes . . . eyes so icy blue they froze me with a mere gaze.
Then I screamed bloody murder with the little energy I still had.
Those crystallized blues widened in alarm, then rage again. With catlike grace, he swept down upon me, and held a forceful hand to my mouth. My voice was thwarted, and my brain hammered from the harsh change of sound to silence. I could barely move, the panic made the still existing blood in my body pound hard and painfully. Breath ripped at my lungs like thousands of little blades.
'It's been a while, Susie . . . '
His whisper effectively made that pain with the breathing thing stop. Reason? I could no longer breathe.
'You're going to kill me . . . ' I realized. He was . . .
He neglected my allegation, and stroked my face so gently it made my skin freeze agonizingly with his touch. 'I've waited a long time . . . '
'Paul,' I tried to choke out, but no air was available to me, so it refused to come out.
Why couldn't he have just left me to Tad? WHY? It would have been so much less painful. Tad had been killing me because he needed to. Paul, Paul would torture me, abuse me, just to make me feel the pain's intensity.
Pain . . .
It's something that I've made myself familiar with, both physical and emotional. But the pain inflicted by Paul was on a level on its own. I couldn't' describe it, but it was like mental, emotional, physical, and even on a spectral level, all at the same time.
Paul needed to show me that he was the one in with the power . . .
Again, I kept seeing flashed of black. I could no longer struggle in the slightest. All oomph was drained from me. I felt dead already.
'Ah, I've been fading away, not seeing you,' he said with a low growl in his voice, sliding his hand beneath my head and supporting my back. I felt the cool leather he donned on my naked arms. He lifted my face so it was right in front of his. Seeing Paul's face that close, in reality, it was a terrible thing. It had been different in my dreams; there was always that sense of fantasy.
This was real. So real . . .
The darkness and the absence of the moon heightened my fear. Death was so close, I could smell it. It was corrosive and suffocating. Paul's hands were gently, but dominant. He knew perfectly well that I couldn't move.
I hiccuped at the lack of oxygen, choking on my own spit or something. Paul's hand glided smoothly down my bare arm, leaving a trail of ice, and wild effects of my nervous system. He looked down from my eyes at me, and I saw his eyes blaze in the darkness. He moistened his lips with his tongue needlessly.
'Is this worse than a nightmare, Suze?' he hissed, a superior smirk tugging at those violating lips.
I swallowed, gasping for the air that I knew was too far away now.
'Weird, this time? I don't want you dead,' he frowned, a thousand hidden meanings pelting down on me in a monsoon of warning. 'And definitely not a vampire. That would be like . . . game over.'
This was all a game to him. My life, whether I lived or died.
. . . And he seemed to play this game so well.
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Paul's POV
She was so close to me . . . closer than she had been for these past weeks. She was so, so beautiful . . . More so than last time I'd seen her. Chaste, and pure. The perfection I so richly deserved after enduring what I had. I'd been going fricken CRAZY without her, without knowing I could always come back to see her shrink away from me in fear. This absence of dominance had been destroying me. I thrived from it, was sustained by it.
And after this long wait, I'd been rewarded with a precious scenario. Little Susie was dying, wasn't she?
I could no longer feel her breathing. She was still conscious though. I didn't understand what was happening to her, but I didn't care. It didn't matter, so long as I could make her suffer. That scream she'd pleasured me to just now, the first in so long, had been thrilling, rousing.
There was no laughing at my leather this time . . .
But just as I was muttering my goading words in her ear, something registered. She was dying . . . from a vampire bite. If she died, then, she'd be one of them. Realization dawned in me. No, I couldn't have that. If that was so, there was no hope for us. She wouldn't be the Suze that I loved, that I was addicted to. Because that's what I was.
Addicted.
I couldn't let her die. Not like this . . . It was me who had to kill her, if at all, not a stupid amateur vampire.
That was when her eyes closed and her already limp body went even more flaccid. My mouth fell open . . . No . . . she wasn't . . . no . . .
'Suze?' I shook her.
Nothing.
Shit!
'SUSANNAH!' I roared, standing up rapidly in a feral manner. Shit! God damn it! God, calm down Paul . . . what can you do? First aid's pretty useless, seeing you don't have any air to give her, but mouth to mouth wouldn't be so bad in the meantime . . . No!
I had to do something, get someone. I didn't believe that I was feeling panic, but I was. I couldn't lose her. I didn't lose . . . I NEVER lost!
That was why I was so relieved when a voice – any voice – rang out gently from the front door.
'Suze? Um, the door was kind of open. I got some more stuff on that Red guy.'
I stopped dead. This voice struck a sense of familiarity in me.
'Suze? You home? Why's it so dark?'
And when she swept around the corner, I was able to put a name to the voice.
Aaah . . . Snow White . . .
She froze in horror when she saw Suze lying motionlessly on the ground, pale as her own skin.
'Holy shit,' she breathed, her hand shooting to her mouth. 'Suze! Wake up!' She fell down beside her, shaking her and trying to get her to wake up. She was no longer facing me. It was evident that she was crying. Whoa, didn't want her in a my crisis situation . . .
I watched the scene, feeling very much to a spectator. For someone who seemed to have so much intelligence, she wasn't doing the first thing one would do in this situation – calling 911.
So I took matters into my own hands.
I focused to Snow, connecting with her aura, shutting my eyes, and concentrating on my objective.
With a wave of something very cold, I knew that I was visible and audible to her.
'Hello Snow,' I said indifferently.
I saw her back go severely rigid, and time seemed to stop. It took forever to get any kind of response.
'You,' she choked out. Her swaying white hair gleamed in the near darkness. It was like a sheet of white silk.
'Yes me.'
Again, it was ages before she replied. I never knew that she was so scared of me, ha. I laughed in spite of myself. Which was probably a bad move.
'You did this?' she asked, still not moving a muscle as she held two fingers on Suze's wrist, forgetting to check if she still had a pulse or not.
I was gobsmacked. I was. Sorry, but it seemed so weird at the time, me KILLING Suze like that. I know, I've tried killing her before, so it shouldn't have been such a shock, but well, it was.
'I don't think so,' I snapped at her.
Slowly, vigilantly, she rotated to face me.
Her pale face was trembling in a fusion of anger, and dread, so it seemed. I never knew that I had this affect on her. This was pleasant news to me.
'Well what did you bloody do?' she asked. It took courage for her to say these accusing words, I could tell.
I blinked lazily. 'I did nothing, Snow.' She flinched at the moniker, to my amusement. 'I was merely calling on you to tell you that normal people would consider it the right time to ring emergency about now. She's dying, if you didn't notice . . . Snow,' I added, smirking maliciously at her.
She gulped, and subconsciously edged away the tiniest bit. 'I know that,' her voice quavered. Her eyes were shining. Whoa. Someone with compassion. So rare for me to meet one, with the people I associated with.
'Well?' I pressed on, and I stepped very loudly on the ground, 'Call.'
She recoiled again, and hightailed it to the phone, talking breathlessly into the receiver.
'Hello? Um, my friend has fainted,' she said.
'She's lost heaps of blood,' I offered boredly.
'She's lost a lot of blood . . . I'm not sure, I just came in. No, there, um . . . there was no one else here when I came,' she said, her voice getting quieter by the moment. 'I don't know. It doesn't look like she's been cut anywhere . . . Of course she's still alive! That's why I'm bloody calling! So you can get – sorry . . . Address, um, 99 Pinecrest, I think, oh, what you said then. (A/N: I know that's wrong, can someone tell me what it really is? I CAN'T remember, for the life of me!) Yeah. Only about ten minutes . . . okay, thank you. Please hurry,' she ended feebly, placing the phone back on the hook very stiffly.
She turned to me, not looking at my eyes directly. 'They're on their way,' she said heavily, touching her face and keeping her distance. So she should . . . I'm not tame.
'So Snow,' I grinned slyly, 'How have you been keeping?'
She frowned. 'What do you care? Who are you, anyway?'
I laughed at that. Of course I didn't care. The only answer I was hoping for was "I toss and turn every night in fear that you'll come back to haunt me." Otherwise, I wasn't interested.
'Who am I?' I smirked, 'Aaah, not for you to know, Snow.'
Snow White crossed her arms indignantly, and glared right into my eyes. 'You beat her up, didn't you?'
'I told you –'
'Not now, before. You gave her those scars on her wrists, right? The ones she always looks at when she's done something wrong, or she's unhappy? You . . . you assaulted her, didn't you?'
I felt myself getting angrier by the second. How dare she . . . how dare she just fling these accusations around so carelessly?
'Yes,' I snarled, taking a threatening step towards her. 'I did all but the scars. You happy?'
She stumbled back. 'No, of course I'm not happy. It doesn't change anything, you admitting it. I can just put a face to the person who's made my best friend's life hell.'
That infuriated me and slaked me at the same time. I'd made Suze's life a hell for reasons that Snow knew nothing of. Suze wanted me so badly it hurt, and it affected her in a way that tore her world apart. That was the hell that Snow recognized. But she was indicting me again . . . She had no right.
'Shut up,' I scowled, picking up one of the chairs threateningly. 'This doesn't concern you. You know nothing about me, or why I do things.'
'I know your kind,' she sneered right back at me. 'You're like . . . like a serial killer, I'll bet. You kill because you enjoy it. You hurt people because it makes you feel powerful!' I turned my head away from her. How could a stupid albino pinpoint my motives like that? Was she a mind reader or something? An emotion that I was slow to identify was escalating in my mind. Guilt. She was making me feel . . . guilt. It was a feeling I prided myself on lacking. How could SHE make me feel it? 'You know it's wrong, but that's what makes it so fun. You relish pain. And fear . . . Am I right?' she demanded aggressively. 'AM I RI-'
I cracked.
'SHUT UP!' I roared to her face.
I lunged at her, and shoved her brutally to the ground with the chair that I was holding. She screamed and slid across the floor, her hair flying into a messy shield across her face. Her hand shot to her chin, which was bleeding a little. Breathing sharply, she lay on the floor, not moving, not wanting another rise from me.
'Don't EVER judge me,' I spat in my rage. 'You don't know me. You don't know anything about me, you little bitch.'
My temper had been quick to flare up. Once again. This rage that I'd learnt to subdue had erupted again. Snow finally stood up, and ran back to Suze. After a moment of standing solitary, controlling my tantrum, I followed silently.
I saw her clutching Suze's hand, very hard, her eyes closed and her breath unkempt. A mysterious glow played across her face. I couldn't have imagined what it was, as there wasn't a moon tonight, and this street didn't have any near streetlights.
Then I realized.
It was me that was glowing.
I was the ghost.
And oh, did I know it.
Groaning, I sank in front of her. 'Look, Snow . . . Sorry,' I said acidly. I felt no sorrow, but . . . I didn't want to hurt her. I had no reason to. No, that didn't make sense. I had no reason to really hurt many people, but I did. The only reason I had killed some guy before was to get his clothes. I didn't feel bad about doing that at all.
And Suze . . . She didn't deserve to be killed . . . I wouldn't have felt guilty at ALL for doing that. It would have meant I had won. That I had beat Jesse, that asshole.
But Snow, she . . . I dunno. I knew she really didn't deserve it, I guess. She'd told the truth about me. I wasn't even savouring her fear and her pain, as she'd put it. I couldn't make sense of it, which was really pissing me off.
She looked away from Suze, who was dead still. But oh so gently, I saw her chest rising and falling. Not much oxygen was entering her, but just enough to keep her alive for the moment. Her beautiful, innocuous face was frozen in time, and her lips were moving very softly as if she was muttering in her dreams. My lip curled . . . damn Thaddeus. Damn his sissy ass to hell. The bloody prick, taking Suze like he owned her. Suze was mine. I don't like sharing my things . . .
'Is she going to die?' Snow whispered. I noticed she was looking right at me again. Her eyes, they were filled with tears. I blinked. Whoa . . . she cared too much.
'No,' I said. 'Well, not if that fricken ambulance gets here. She'll need a blood transfusion. She's lost a hell of a lot of it, courtesy of Thaddeus and his stupid father. But this was all the doing of Marcus Beaumont, of course.'
CeeCee looked tremendously perplexed. 'But . . . Marcus? I read about the Beaumonts, and it mentioned that there was a conspiracy about the real estate companies MountBeau and RedCo, that they killed to get their land. What does Marcus have to do with it?
Should I tell her? No . . .
'Hang on . . . ' she said very slowly. 'What do you mean, this was Tad's fault and his dad? How did they make her lose this much blood, without a mark on her?'
I rolled my eyes. 'Isn't it obvious? Think. There is a mark of Suze. I'm looking right at it,' I said pointedly, staring at the bite on her neck.
Snow followed my gaze, and gasped. 'The hickey?' she said.
I snorted. What? It was funny. Hickey my ass.
But then I kind of couldn't stop laughing. It was really a funny thing, for Suze to have a lovebite, for some reason.
'It's not a bloody hickey,' I derided. 'Think Buffy, and you've got it.'
She gave me a really weird look. 'As if,' she scorned. 'Don't go all Transylvanian on me, please.'
I stopped laughing. 'I'm very serious, Snow. Bet you wouldn't have believed that ghosts were real in a million years. Suze told me that you were quite the science nerd,' I said.
She looked insulted in her refusal to believe.
'Well, different wording, but yeah. And Suze, well, she was bitten by a –'
'Don't say it,' she said suddenly. 'You're messing with my head. Stop it.'
'– A vampire . . . '
She looked pained. 'No . . . No, why does this all have to be so COMPLICATED? Why can't Suze just have a NORMAL stalker? One with a HEARTBEAT?' she snapped, throwing Suze's hand down in disgust. I smirked.
'Oh, it gets better. You wanna know who the demon is?'
She yelled out. 'Enough! No, I do NOT want to know! I have to pass my midterms, and it's hard enough to remember the stuff I study for. Chuck in a whole plot line of vampires and demons and shit, well, I'm not going to have a spare millimeter in my head to cram in the stuff I need to know!' She stood up furiously.
I just blinked . . . Whoa. Fiery, wasn't she?
But she couldn't beat Suze on a warpath.
I fondly remember the cartoon I'd drawn on the back of her homework so long ago. Now THAT had got a prize-winning reaction.
'Okay,' I muttered, 'I'll keep it to myself then.'
'You do that,' she retorted.
Silence.
She really was quite pretty, in a very white, very conservative way. ha, since when did I have such good taste and high standards? Probably since Suze . . . I was just assuming that because she was Suze's friend, she was like her. I eyed Snow with a smirk.
'So,' I said, with a hint of suggestiveness, 'What should we do now? Keep each other . . . company?'
What? I was bored, okay?
She was revolted. 'Ew! My God, were you born with your legs apart or something? I hope they buried you in a "Y" shaped coffin, save you the strain . . .'
Whoa . . . at least she was witty. I laughed in spite of myself.
Thankfully, it was broken by the welcome sirens of an ambulance. Snow White sighed in relief. 'Thank God,' she said, standing up.
Suze would live now . . . I was done here . . .
Don't get me wrong . . . no, I wasn't just going all nice. I'm not nice. Never nice. I just didn't want Suze to die this way. If she did then she would be soulless, and I couldn't have that now. Oh, no. I knew that I was still the villain here. Just, maybe not the villain that Suze needed to be worried about at the moment. Seemed that Thaddeus Beaumont Junior, as it is, was pushing me out of my "Bad guy" seat. Well, as soon as I eliminated him, I'd get right back into it, and make Suze's life a living hell. It was partly why I still existed, of course. Because while she didn't realize her deadly desire for me, she had no right to live happily ever after with Jesse De Castrated. I'd be back to haunt her . . . I just had to make sure that she was still around to haunt, you know?
Moulding into the archetypal evil one again, I stood right in front of Snow, looking down at her with disdain and superiority. I was going soft . . . Couldn't have that . . .
'I'll be back,' I smirked down at her.
She looked up at me with a scornful look. 'Whatever, Schwarzenegger.'
Oh yeah . . . stupid Terminator . . . Go to hell.
'Whatever,' I replied, and for effect, I shoved the couch so it slammed right against the wall with an echoing crash. Snow screamed.
'What the hell is wrong with you?' she squealed.
I shrugged coolly. 'I'm not around to help you,' I growled. 'I'm doing this because it's in my best interest for Suze to be alive.' For further effect, with the throw-rug that had been on the edge of the couch, I seized her and too slammed her against the wall. I still couldn't touch her as a ghost, but I could if I put something between us. I squeezed her shoulders viciously, feeling almost bad about this futile pain I was prompting. She gasped, and pleaded for me to stop.
'Just a healthy reminder so you don't forget who's in charge,' I snarled in her face, shaking her abruptly. Snow shouted as her head bashed against the wall violently. I threw her down next to Suze, who was looking worse and worse by the second.
There was an urgent knock on the door. Aaah, the meds at LAST. Suze was going to be okay . . . Doctors would fix her, even if it had been to late for them to dig a bullet out of my brain by the time they'd found me. Oh well, dwelling on the past was stupid.
Unless, of course, you were a vengeance seeker. Then, it mattered a lot.
'Be seeing you,' I said coldly.
Snow stared at me as if I was crazy. 'I bloody well hope not . . . '
Laughing malevolently, I dematerialized. I'd go see Suze in hospital . . . Remind her who was in control.
**************************************************************************** ***************
Suze's POV
'She needs a blood transfusion!'
'What blood type is she?'
'Group A negative, as far as we can tell. But this is unusual, Doctor. She seems have unknown antigens in her blood, that we've only seen before from few Egyptian people that have given blood. But A blood, no rhesus, should be adequate.'
. . . These voices . . . They sounded very panicky. Quick, and loud. Urgent, even. What was going on?
'Is cause for blood loss identified?'
'No . . . she has no marks upon her body except her neck, but the wound is too small for her to have lost so much. Her friend wasn't giving any details, either.'
. . . F-f-friend? Blood loss? My eyes fluttered open, and I was greeted by a sea of white. It was blinding!
'Doctor! She's waking up!'
'Well, anaesthetize her!'
'Yes, Doctor . . . '
. . . I felt something sharp being inserted in my shoulder, and a painful feeling of poison traveled around my body, deadening it. I felt very scared. What was happened? What was this blood loss deal? And where was I, God dammit?
. . . But sleep claimed me, once again . . .
~*~
Someone was holding my hand.
I didn't know who, or why, or how, but before reality or the memories could reach me, I just assumed it was who I wanted it to be so badly.
'Jesse,' I breathed . . .
The hand suddenly went very hard, and crushing. I gasped, and opened my eyes. There, I met the eyes of none other than a seething Paul Slater.
'You still hung over that loser?' he glared intensely.
I hiccuped, and looked around fearfully. I was in a hospital. Everything was very white, and it hurt my eyes. Everything, but Paul. Paul was jet black, from his black aura to his even blacker heart . . .
I felt very enervated and shaky still, and didn't have the vigour to jump out of the bed and run screaming down the hospital corridors. Besides . . . that would be weird . . .
'You are relentless,' I commented, feeling drained. Yet, I noticed with some gratification that I wasn't running so low on blood anymore. But I might as well have been . . . I felt that Paul, just in my presence, was sucking me dry all over again.
Feeling numb with both anaesthetic and fear, I warned, 'Get out of here . . .'
He smirked broadly, and leant in closer to my face. 'How about . . . no.' His hand rested on my hip, and I breathed in huskily.
'You think I'm gonna go after just getting back? I'm a bit put out, Susie . . . you don't seem happy to see me. Didn't you miss me?'
I was disgusted with him. 'Never,' I spat.
He frowned sardonically. 'That's just too bad . . .' he leant in so his face was right beside my ear. 'Because I missed you.' With that, the hand on my hip shot up to my chin, and his pressed his lips against my mine. I squealed in alarm. 'Get off!' I stammered, as he violated my mouth. I could tell that I'd had a blood transfusion; it was pumping so painfully around my body, I was almost screaming!
'I've yearned to do this,' he said breathlessly between a kiss. I took a very much so needed breath – it was okay for HIM. He was dead! He didn't need to breathe – and prepared to push myself away, but he returned to me, only with a kiss that wasn't so innocent, if the first one had been that at all.
'P –Paul, what are you DOING?' I asked wildly, trying to shove him away, but he seized my wrists and jammed them above my head and out the way, continued to ravage my bruised lips. It hurt, with a pain that, once again, only Paul could make me feel. Pain of the spectral nature as well as any other. He was forceful, and was arousing a horror that I hoped to God I'd never undergo again. But since when does God do anything for me?
I resisted with all my strength, trying to turn my face away. My head was pounding horribly, further proof that my blood had been restored. God, who needs blood if it hurts so much? I tried not to cry out – I didn't want some nurse to come in and think I was having a seizure. My heart was cracking under the pressure of this kiss, splitting me across the line of rampant lust and sheer terror.
Do not respond . . . Do not give in . . . Do not give up . . .
Never let him win.
With a sudden burst of unforeseen strength, I managed to yank my hands from his, and elbow his face away. Cussing, he fell to the floor. And surprisingly, so did I. On the other side of the bed, thank goodness. I landed painfully, and clean ache spurted up my spine. I groaned, and carefully picked myself up, stumbling out of the little room. I guess I'd been in ICU. I turned my head, but I realized that Paul had gone. Ha. He was such an idiot . . .
And I'm not?
Okay, don't answer that.
I sighed and walked back into the room, falling into my white bed. I knew Paul wouldn't show up for a little while. I don't know how, I just did. Feeling emotionally drained again – bouts of terror can do that to you – I closed my eyes and yet again, slept a dreamless sleep.
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Like the chapter? I hope so.
NOTE: Um, listen. I have a sequel for "Get Out Jesse And Never Come Back" just out, but only three lovely people have reviewed it. It's under the name "Devil At Heart," which is Katie's new account, so maybe that's why you didn't recognize. Katie was very discouraged at the little response. Please lift her spirits and review it! It's called "Power of Love" and it will be good if I can help it!
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