Ugly,a Thirteen Ghosts Fanfic by Sweetboxer
Thanks to Rune-Spirit for your excellent Beta work, and Nemanja and PR1 for reading and reviewing. (Insert other thank you's here):
Disclamier: I don't own Thirteen Ghosts; Cyrus owned them, before they revolted and killed him. If anyone says I'm plagiarizing, I will email him or her a specially made CyrusXPilgrimess TorsoXBen Moss Smut fic that will either guarantee nights upon nights without sleep, or will fulfill your every hidden and twisted fantasy. (Cringes) So don't accuse me when there are people out there making two of the same movie at the same time! Gordy and Babe? Deep Impact and Armageddon? They're the people who should get sued, because we have to sit through the same crap twice!
Chapter 5: Not Kathy
"I told you, I don't know what the hell kind of trick you're pulling, but these aren't the pictures I ordered. O-Okay, yeah, whatever… Look. Look! I'm returning them tomorrow, so if you could find it in your 'policy' to do a half-decent job serving your customer, could you give me the pictures from the film that I turned in! Fine, whatever you say. Bye." Dennis hung up the phone, whispering "What a bitch!" to himself.
He stared at the pictures in his hand. They were obviously of a girl in her late teens, wearing Kathy's prom dress, but this girl wasn't Kathy. She looked a bit older. Her facial features resembled that of a supermodel. She had brown hair and blue eyes, and looked strikingly familiar. Dennis knew what he'd taken pictures of, and he'd never snapped a shot of this girl, though she was in practically every picture. He wasn't an idiot, and he knew how people could use Photoshop to alter pictures. He just never thought a 1-hour photo employee would try to do that.
Sighing, Dennis put away the pictures and went to Bobby and Kathy's room, feeling guilty for taking over Bobby's day with the hospital trip.
"Hey kid, what's up? Where's your sister?"
Bobby sounded dejected, "In the bathroom still. She's putting on her stupid makeup again." Bobby grabbed his game boy and switched it on. "Are you sure she's not sick? Cuz, she sure is acting weird."
Dennis laughed, "Yeah, girls are always weird. You'll just have to get used to it." He couldn't help but worry for Kathy though.
Dana sat in the bathtub, the hot water turning her skin red and the frantic, angry scrubbing turning her skin even redder. "Exfoliating", mother called it. It meant scrubbing with something rough and abrasive to remove dead skin. Dana believed it was a major part of the beautifying process. Her skin was blazing scarlet and felt like it was on fire, but Dana knew the color was only temporary. It would return to peach minutes after she got out of the tub, and Dana could stand the pain for as long as it took to become beautiful. The extra hard scrubbing wasn't necessary, but she wanted the dead skin to suffer as much as it could.
Realizing her fingertips were getting a little wrinkly, Dana drained the bath and dried off. She dropped the towel and stared at the mirror in a daze. She stood there naked, fixing her hair, trying to think pretty. It never worked, because she always found something she needed to change. She felt like the whole world was laughing at her, that even her own reflection hated her. The doubts got louder and louder, driving her to her breaking point. Screaming, Dana brought her fist down upon the mirror, shattering it into pieces.
Kathy remembered screaming and her hand hitting the mirror. Almost instantly, a shard of broken glass flew from the mirror and sent a slash down her fist and forearm. Kathy winced and fell backwards, sitting in the corner made by the bathtub and the wall. She looked at her hand, watched the blood run, and once again felt a strange emotional rush. She thought she must have fallen and hit her hand on the mirror, but she couldn't remember anything. She was so confused; all she could think to do was pull the towel to her to cover herself if someone came in. When Dennis rushed in a moment later. Kathy saw the concern in his eyes, even before he looked directly at her. He really did care…
Dennis had heard the scream and the smash, milliseconds later, so he told Bobby to wait in his room, while he ran for the bathroom. He threw open the door, steam pouring out of the open room. His eyes darted around first to the broken mirror, then to Kathy, who was on the floor among pieces of broken glass. She was bleeding from the arm.
"Kathy!" He momentarily took her in his arms, "What happened?"
She looked up, "I don't know. I fell, I-it happened so fast, I... " Dennis reached into the medicine cabinet for some gauze when he realized the wound needed to be cleaned first.
He turned to Kathy, "Can you stand up?"
Kathy half smiled, "Maybe with some help..." Dennis nodded, bending down to help her up.
"We need to clean that, and it might hurt a bit." She winced in anticipation, but nodded. He turned on the cold water in the sink, holding Kathy's arm under the stream until most of the blood was washed away. Then he dabbed her cut with hydrogen peroxide before wrapping her upper arm in gauze.
"Good thing it was such a shallow cut; you could've been hurt a lot worse." His words were optimistic in contrast to his dark tone. Kathy frowned, squeezing his hand with her free hand.
She looked up at him, her eyes pleading, "If... if it's not too late... Dennis, please don't leave." Dennis didn't know what to say to that.
"Don't worry about it, Kathy. Your dad understands. And he's not mad, so I'm not going anywhere."
Kathy's eyes were moistening, "No, Dennis. Don't leave... this. Us." Kathy put her arms around his waist, pulling him close.
Dennis thought she was going to kiss him again. He assumed at the most, she was attracted to him, and nothing more. He wouldn't have complained if she kissed him again, actually. What she did somehow seemed to have changed everything he'd assumed about how she saw him.
Instead of kissing him, Kathy had embraced him, resting her head sideways on his chest. Once again, Dennis was shocked. She could just as easily have brought her lips to his. With a sad smile gracing his features, he wrapped his arms softly around her shoulders, wondering but not really caring at the moment if he got emotionally attached or not. They stood there for a while before either spoke.
"Where's your dad?" he whispered quietly.
Kathy gazed up at him, "Probably still resting, he would've come up if he'd heard."
Dennis smiled, "Well, just in case he wakes up, why don't you put your clothes on. I'll talk to Arthur about you and the mirror later."
Kathy nodded, stepping back. Her towel fell, revealing her for just a second before she bent down a caught it, embarrassed.
'Oh-God-Oh-God-Oh-God-Oh-God!' Dennis was shy to see Kathy unclothed, even considering what they had done only the night before. Blushing, he looked away. As she left for the door, he caught up to her, wrapping her in his arms and squeezing.
"I don't want to leave this, Kathy... I just don't know if I can stay" Kathy smiled at the feeling of his arms around her. It was better because Dennis actually made the move.
"I don't plan on giving you up." She left his embrace and headed into her room, shooing Bobby and his game-boy out. Dennis smiled to himself, finding it hard to believe what he had said and done; yet he was glad he had finally fixed everything.
He'd soon find out that he didn't even come close.
To Be Continued...
Next chapter is on it's way. Maybe a review will get it here faster?