Angel Gemman- oh my. Yes…I can see that you are calm…

Mrs. Nikki Slater- I love the new name, dear. Ah, if you love both Jesse and Paul what are your feelings right now on the possible outcomes of this story? Suze may end up with Paul…she may stay with Jesse…hmm.

Koiza- haha yeah I am not Paul either but I sure wish I had a Paul…or a Jesse…mmmm boys.

Thanks for the reviews!

Chapter 29…and the end is nearing us…

I am running out of time. I need more time, yet I don't have any. We are down to the last 30 minutes before the castostoma ate up all of Jesse's life. I could hardly bare to look at the limp body of Jesse standing there with his shoulders sagged and his head bowed. It just took too much effort for him to keep them up. My heart was tearing in half because there is nothing I can do to save him. I was sitting on the edge of Paul's bed with my head in my hands trying to think up a plan. The problem is though that I have been trying to think up a plan for the past 3 and a half-hours and still have nothing to show for it. All I know is I love him. Love. And I am running out of time. Time.

I told myself that I would not cry. I could not fully give up yet even though I did not see how I could win. Paul hates to lose, he has shared that tidbit of information about himself with me many times, and I am now starting to see why. It hurts. I lifted my head and started to burn a hole in Jesse by staring at him. I somehow knew even though he couldn't move he knew I was looking at him. He knew I was trying. Ok, so his body is not working, but Paul never said anything about Jesse's mind not working. I decided to try to talk to Jesse via mind.

"Jesse? Can you hear me?" I said in my mind, concentrating as hard as I could on him.

I saw his body twitch a little as if he was surprised and I heard a voice in my mind say back, "Que-Querida? Is that you?"

If the situation was not as serious as it was I would make a sarcastic remark about whom else could it be, but instead I said, "Yeah…it is. Jesse, I want you to know I love you…and I am trying as hard to think something up…but…I am scared. I can't think of anything my powers could do…I mean Paul is so powerful and I am still forming my powers…and…oh Jesse I can't bare you to leave me…"

Jesse interrupted me with, "Susannah you are rambling again. We must keep a clear mind…it is not over…yet." He paused for a moment and then said, "But Querida I am scared as well. I do not want to die again. This time I do not even get to be a ghost. Now that I have life again I cannot even imagine death. I love you…I love you so much."

Ok, shut up, but I started crying then. I could not help it! "PAUL!" I screamed. Whoa. That sort of just exploded out of me.

I saw Paul literally jump and put a hand to his heart, "Jesus Simon! You scared me to death!"

"Good!" I shrieked at him. "You deserve to die you bastard! I hate you. I loathe and despise you with every flaming fire of that in hell. A place that you better get used to because you will be spending a lot of time there! God, Paul, you have everything. Everything. Why must you take away the only thing Jesse has? Why must you kill to make yourself feel better? You are nothing but a cold hearted murderer." By this time I had stood up and was standing right in front of him with my hands clenched into fists. I could feel the rage and hate pouring out of my eyes and beating into Paul. For a split second I actually saw a look flash on Paul's face I had never seen before. Fear.

This look of fear was of course quickly covered over and replaced with his usual look of boredom. "You better back off, Suze," Paul said in a low voice, "Before I do something I will regret to you."

I threw my hands up in the air in mock fright and said, "Oh! The big bad Paul is gonna hurt little ol' me? Ah! What you going to do Paul? Hit me? Why even bother? You get to see me suffer soon enough, or is that not enough? When will it be enough to you? You have tried countless times now to get between Jesse and me causing pain. You tried to kill me. You threatened Jesse more times than there are stars. You pretended to be Erik to get me to kiss you and make him not like me anymore. And now you must kill him? Why Paul…Why?"

The look on Paul's face was one of pure hate when he said, "Because I love you!"

I laughed. It was not funny but I could not help but laugh. "Paul, hun, you do not know the meaning of love. If you loved me you would want me to be happy. You would want what is best for me, even if that means I am with another man. Because, Paul, really you cannot make me happy. You only anger me…you bring out the hate and rage in me."

"Susannah, what are you doing?" Jesse asked in my mind.

I blindly walked back to the bed and sat back down and said back to Jesse, "I have no clue. I have lost the little logic I once had."

"You must stay calm if we want to get out of this." Jesse said back in his silky voice.

I groaned in frustration and replied, "I don't think so."

"What do you mean…you have to stay calm so you can think out a plan and…"

I know since there is the possibility of me losing him soon I should be nice to him and all, but I could not help but interrupt him and say, "You know what? I have done that for hours. I am done thinking. I never used to think out my plans…I just did them. I am the spontaneous kind."

"Si, I have noticed that you do not think which is why I normally have to come rescue you but in case you haven't noticed I am unable to move right now."

"Thank you oh so much for the support, Jesse." I said sarcastically. We were both quiet for a few moments and then I said, "Jesse…I am sorry. Please forgive me."

"Of course mi Amor. You are right…your ideas normally are good when you don't plan so much. Keep doing whatever you are doing."

I frowned and said, "Yeah well, I do not really have much of a choice."

Suddenly Paul said, "Suze you are being strangely quiet."

"I am thinking," I shot back. I mean, my god, did he think I was just going to sit around and let him win without trying?

"Why bother? You know there is nothing you can do to over come the castostoma. We are down to the last 15 minutes. You better get your good-byes done and over with soon." Paul said coolly. How is he not effected by any of this?

"I am not giving up yet. I refuse!" I said wishing my voice matched my words. I could not help but let the fear slip into my voice. "I just need more fricking time!"

"Well, you cannot have more time. Even if I wanted to give you more time, which I don't, I could not because once you start the castostoma you cannot stop it. It is a done deal. Your Lover is as good as dead." He then looked at Jesse with his smirk and said, "I hoped you enjoy your death, because there is no escaping it this time."

"Paul, do us all a favor and put a lid on it, ok? No one here wants to here your annoying voice." I paused and then looked at a pocketknife sitting on the table next to Paul's bed. I picked it up and stated fiddling with it.

Paul was watching me do this and said, "Oh, what, are you going to stab me now?"

I glanced up at him and then put my attention back on the knife. "No. I am going to let you live, but just because I do not want you to ever be happy again. This is to kill myself once you kill him."

"WHAT?" Jesse screamed into my head. Ow. That hurt my head!

"Jesse. Calm down." I shot back at him not taking my eyes off the knife. I suddenly saw a shadow fall in front of me.

"Suze. Come on, that is not funny. Give me the knife," Paul said in the most serious voice I had heard him use all day.

I tilted my head up so I could look him in the eye and said, "I am not joking."

Paul's eyebrows furrowed up and he held out his hand and said again, "Give me the knife."

I nodded towards Jesse and said, "Get him out of that thing…alive."

Paul frowned and said, "I told you, it is not able to be stopped."

I let out an audible sigh and looked back at the knife and said, "Well, it looks like you went through all this trouble to get what you wanted, and you still do not get me. Looks like you lose again."

"Oh I see what you are doing," Paul said sounding calm again.

Shit. He really is too smart for his own good. Better if I act like he is crazy, which might not be too far from the truth. "What am I doing?"

"You are trying to trick me. You would not dare kill yourself. You are trying to get me to tell you how to save Jesse, but it will not work. Jesus. You do not joke about death."

My eyes went wide and then I felt a glare cover my face. "Oh you cannot joke about death, but you can play with it right?"

"This is different." That is all Paul said and then he spun on his heel and walked away from me. He looked at his wrist and said, "Ten minutes."

"Susannah. Do not ever scare me like that again! Even if I am dead it does not mean you have to be also!" I heard Jesse's stern voice in my mind once again.

I said out loud for both Paul and Jesse to hear, "What is the point of living if the only thing that has ever made you feel somewhat normal and adored is being ripped away?"

"Normal. You want to be normal? Why would you want to be normal if you have powers like we have, Suze? We have an effect on things!" Paul said to me.

"Yeah and why would I want it if it causes things like THIS to happen?" I said motioning to Jesse.
Paul walked over to me so he was in front of me again and said as he reached out to hold my hand, "Because with this power things like THIS can happen." Meaning him and me. That is exactly why I do not want to be a stupid Shifter!

"I really hate you, did you know that?" I said, meaning the words with every fiber of my being. As I said that a thought popped into my mind. Hate. I have been focusing on Love this whole time that I forgot all about hate. Hate is just as powerful as Love, just in the opposite way. If I am so powerful in the ways of Love, wouldn't it make sense if I were just as powerful in Hate? Maybe even more when I have something like Paul to aim it at. He actually made me sick I hate him so much; that must be a sign. My love for Jesse will guide me, but my hate of Paul will be the winning punch, I just know it.

But how? I must figure it out quickly. Back to the whole time issue. I shot a glance up at the clock hanging on the wall in Paul's room and saw that I had 6 minutes to save Jesse's life and my own. I closed my eyes and pictured the clock in my mind. I pictured numerous images of clocks. Watches. Hour glasses. If time itself had an image I would have pictured it but I figured thinking of the tick tock of seconds passing would have to do. I thought how time is the problem and it must be stopped. I could almost feel the seconds slow down as the passed by me. In fact the whole room had an Erie feel to it suddenly, and the different clocks that I could see in my mind stopped moving, halting time as we know it with them. I opened my eyes and gasped for air to refill my lungs. While I was trying to freeze time I sort of forgot to breathe. Wait…I did not just try, I succeeded. I looked at Paul's wall clock again and saw that the second hand was not moving at all. I ran at Paul and grabbed his wrist looking at his watch and saw that it too was not working.

I cleared my throat and said, "Uh. I just stopped time…"

Paul glanced at his watch and said, "That you did. I am impressed."

I looked up at him, still in shock that I could actually STOP time and said, "There's the more time I needed."

His gaze bore into mine and said, "You have no idea how much that made me want you even more. How can you not see that you and I need each other? We can be the most powerful Shifters ever to exist!"

"First off, ew. I do not need to know my power turns you on. Besides we cannot ever become the most powerful Shifters. Yours grandfather is, and look how he ended up!"

Paul's eyes narrowed and he yelled out, "I am nothing like that incoherent waste of a Grandfather! He was stupid with his powers, and I will not end up that way!" Paul then stalked up to me and grabbed me roughly by the shoulders. "You and I, we were meant to be. Why won't you believe me? We were meant to be the two strongest shifters ever! Why won't you let me teach you? Why didn't you just pick me instead of Jesse? Then none of this would have happened."

My temper was getting the best of me again. "Because I do not love you! I love Jesse! I do not like you. At all!"

Apparently Paul's temper got the best of him too because his hand all of a sudden flew forward and slap me across the face. He yelled, "You belong to me!"

I took a step back, a look of complete shock spread across my face. I looked up at him, feeling all the rage and hate that he has ever produced in me bubble up and explode out of me. I stared at him, deathly calm, hate pouring out of my green eyes and burning into his ice blue eyes. I took a deep breath and shakily let it out. I felt as if my whole entire body was shaking with the intense rage running throughout my veins. I was seeing red, I, oh, how I wanted to hurt him! To make him learn that he is not this all mighty king! He does not have power over me! I hate him! "You." I said slowly, the venom evident in my voice. "You arrogant asshole." I closed my eyes, my fists clenched so tightly I could feel the skin tearing from my nails digging into my palms. "I advise you better start wishing you never put the castostoma on Jesse, because believe me, things are about to get ugly."

TBC

Ok, I know this took a really long time to write…and it is not even that great…but on July 21st my dad died so I have been totally out of it. I meant to make this go longer and such but I thought you might like a shorter chapter instead of waiting even longer for a longer chapter.

I hope you enjoyed..and review

To all my lovely reviewers I did not respond to, I am sorry, and I love you.