For Your Love
Chapter 13
"Jesse, get out of here quickly."
I moved to his side and looked up at him. He seemed totally confused.
"What?"
"Just go Jesse!" I said, this time with more urgency in my voice.
Jesse stayed put. "I am not leaving you alone with him Susannah." He scowled at Paul.
No. Jesse could not be arguing with me right now! Not after finding out that Paul could do a lot more with his powers than just shifting between the realms of the living and the dead.
"I'll be fine!" I told him. It was the truth too. I didn't think Paul wanted to hurt me. But Jesse on the other hand… "Just get out of here Jesse! We really don't need you to get exorcised again right now!"
Jesse's eyes narrowed. I looked over to Paul and saw he was looking very interested in the way Jesse and me were arguing.
"Please…" I said, turning back to Jesse.
"No," was his firm reply.
Oh God. Jesse had no idea what he was getting himself into. This could ruin everything!
Paul decided to voice his opinion on the matter. "You should listen to her, you know," he drawled. "Save yourself. You know I'm not going to hurt Suze. Just leave her alone with me." Paul winked at me. "I'm sure we'll have a great time."
As soon as the words were out of his mouth Jesse lunged at him. He drew back his fist and smacked him in the mouth. Paul went flying backwards for the second time in five minutes, this time into my bedroom wall. I could tell he wasn't at all pleased about this.
He stood up, wiping blood from his split lip, but before he could do anything else Jesse went up to him, grabbed him by the neck and slammed him against the wall. "If you lay a finger on her," Jesse hissed, "then I will tear you limb from limb."
I personally thought that Jesse sounded pretty scary when he said that. Paul however, didn't seem at all bothered by Jesse's threat. In fact he laughed. "Won't that be difficult seeing as I'm not planning on letting you stick around for that long?"
Then Jesse dematerialised. Or at least that's what I thought he'd done. Relief turned to horror as I realised that Paul wasn't just standing there, annoyed that he'd lost his chance to get back at Jesse. Instead he was unconscious. He'd shifted. And he'd taken Jesse with him.
I'd known something like this was going to happen. Why can't Jesse and I just have a normal relationship? Is that just too much to ask for?
Who did Paul think he was anyway? How could he come here asking for my trust, then do this?
Well I knew what I had to do. I had to go to Shadowland and get Jesse back. No matter how much I hated the place.
Only then something happened that stopped me from shifting. I was just about to close my eyes when I saw a faint glow to the side of me. I turned and saw Ellie picking up the knife we'd used to cut Jesse the other day.
Um, what was she doing?
"Ellie?"
Ellie turned to face me. She still looked really angry. "I'm ending this now," she said.
"What…?" At first I didn't have a clue what she was talking about. Then I saw her walk over to Paul's unconscious body, holding the knife.
"Whoa!" I said realising just what she had in mind. Then, without really thinking, I rushed forward and pulled her back. "What do you think you think you're doing?" I asked.
Ok let me get this straight: I do hate Paul and everything, but killing him is so not the answer. I mean, after everything that happened with Michael Meducci that time I've totally learned my lesson about that sort of thing.
"Don't bother trying to stop me Suze," she said, sounding bored. She pulled away from me and turned back to Paul. I spun her around again.
"You don't need to do this Ellie," I said.
Ellie scowled at me. "I thought you hated him," she said, her anger now also directed at me.
I tried to explain, "Well I do, but that doesn't mean you should kill him. It's wrong."
"And it was wrong to kill me too!" she yelled. "And I don't care what's right or wrong, I'm getting my rev-" she stopped then a small smile crept onto her face. "Wait, you're right. Perhaps I shouldn't kill him. I want to make him suffer after all." She turned back round to Paul, but had lowered the knife. "And what better way to do it than get rid of the person who started all this?"
Um, what? I thought Paul was the one who had started it. Was I missing something?
"Who?" I asked.
Ellie turned back round to face me. She wasn't smiling anymore, I noticed. Far from it, her eyes were filled with anger and hatred towards me.
"He's left me the perfect opportunity too, by going off with Jesse and all. He's too busy taking care of him to worry about what could happen to you."
Yep, definitely missing something.
"You have no idea," she went on, "how desperate I've been to do this since I met you. You ruined everything for Paul and me."
I was still really confused. I mean, one minute she's helping me to get revenge on Paul; then she decides she's just going to kill him; then for some totally unknown reason she wants to kill me.
"Ellie," I said, "I really don't know-"
Ellie interrupted angrily, her voice much louder than it had been at first, "You think you're so unfortunate. You're always complaining about something, like Jesse not being alive or Paul being in love with you. You have no idea that some people would give anything to have what you've got!"
"You can have it!" I said. Seriously, having Paul practically stalking you is no picnic, I'd be more than glad for it to be Ellie he wanted instead.
"I did have it!" she screamed, "And you took it all away from me! You ruined everything!"
"I don't get it," I said truthfully, "You told me before that you two broke up because you didn't like how Paul treated the ghosts that came to him."
"Well of course I wasn't going to tell you the truth then," she snapped. "But I'll tell you now. You might as well know what you've done. That while I was sat at home in Seattle last summer, missing my boyfriend, he was off in California with some skank who was supposed to be looking after his little brother."
Ok, one thing: I am not a skank. I was about to point that out to her, but she just carried on talking.
"When he got back he just went on acting as if nothing had happened, so I didn't realise at first. But then his brother told me he thought we'd broken up. And when I asked why, he told me it was because Paul had been going out with you while he was here."
Ellie seemed really upset by this point. I was almost torn between being angry with her for calling me a skank and feeling sorry for her. Almost, though. I mean, she'd just told me she was planning on killing me; she's not exactly on my top ten favourite people list right now.
I could tell she really loved Paul though, despite wanting to kill him and all.
"So now I guess I'm killing two birds with one stone," she said casually, not sounding at all like she was talking about murder. "By killing you I'll get my revenge for what you did to me. And Paul's sure to be upset about losing his new love," she sneered at me as she said that last bit.
"Right," I said. "So now that you've finished filling me in on the details I've missed you're going to kill me?"
She smirked, "Damn straight."
And then, before I could so much as reach out to try and get the knife off her – which had been my plan - I went flying backwards into something really hard and lost consciousness.
You know, when I woke up I hadn't at all expected my head to start hurting like it did. I mean, that time I'd had myself exorcised I'd had that hideous bruise, but it hadn't hurt at all. And it figured that being dead would be just like that.
Only then I saw a face hovering over mine. Paul's face.
"You ok?" he asked looking pretty concerned.
Oh yeah, just fine. Apart from the whole part where my head feels like its being repeatedly pounded on by bricks or something, I mean.
"No." I closed my eyes and groaned. "How come I'm not dead?"
Opening my eyes again, I saw that Paul was grinning. "Ah," he said, "that would be thanks to me."
"Hooray," I said, not very enthusiastically. I propped myself up on my elbows. I was lying on my bed with Paul sitting next to me.
"Come on Suze," Paul said. "Surviving Ellie's attempt to kill you can't be that bad."
That's what you think.
Fool.
I looked around. "Where's Jesse?" I had only just realised that he wasn't in the room. Nice of me, I know.
Paul rolled his eyes. "Probably right where I left him. The guy really doesn't know what's good for him after all."
I ignored his last comment and groaned. "Great," I said. I was SO not in the mood for shifting right now. I mean, I already had a really bad headache, I was sure shifting would make it worse. Why couldn't Jesse have listened to me before? Now I had to go and rescue him.
"Thanks for that Paul," I said, annoyed.
"Just doing my job," he replied dryly.
God, why couldn't Paul get a normal job? Like working at McDonalds or something. Ha! Paul working at McDonalds, somehow I couldn't quite see that happening.
"Right," I said, "Look, you see that book?" I pointed to Critical Theory Since Plato, which Jesse had left on the window seat. "In the future skip all the rigmarole and just hit me over the head with that instead. It ought to do the trick."
Then I lay back down, closed my eyes and shifted.
A/N: There are parts of this chapter that I really don't like. But I've been working on it for ages so I give up now. Anyone got any constructive criticism for me?
Ok review replies…
Demonic Miko: Thanks. Looks like I updated. Your turn now. Because your story's great!
Angel Gemman: I'm sure Jesse will be fine. Just keep reading! And thanks for the review.
Nikki007: Um, right. I'll pass that on lol. Thanks for reviewing.
- Jassy-Pooh Meets Winnie-the-Pooh -: As much as I like PS this started as JS so I'm going to keep it that way. I mean, that's what everyone wants right?
meggiec: Sorry, I forget that there are people out there who actually have lives, unlike me. I just can't be bothered. So yeah, if you want to stay out late then you do that.
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