A.N: Hey Coltxdoom! (waves) I wanted to tell you incase the chapter for the explanation was still a bit confusing. Marissa had planted an image of herself in Rocky's brain so that he wouldn't see what's she really looked like. That time (in the flash back) when he saw Marissa yet Maria was still there she was just an image as well. She was mad then because Rocky didn't recognize her. I wanna thank you all for the reviews, you're really nice. I hope I can keep on writing and you will too. I wanna read the rest of your fic Colt! Don't you feel discouraged I've been doing this since forever and I only wrote in script back then haha check out the website for that. I took lessons from a friend and he helped me write out in novel form. I still think I stink at past tenses and stuff but I can't help it.

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Chapter 24

"This isn't right!" Maria shouted. "No... no it wasn't supposed to go like this." She stabs her hand repeatedly with the wooden end of the knife. It looked as though she were thinking, her mouth twisting this way and that until she shouted a swear and stood up. Rocky sat up as well, hoping to be released. The demented woman turned to him, knife pointed directly at the boys head. "STAY THERE!" The weapon wavered in her grip. "If I find that you've fucking moved, I will carve your eyes out of your head..." Disappearing into the hall; Rocky listened as the girl descended the stairs.

Screw his eyes, he had to put his plan into action. The ninja wasn't sure what had started the fire but he was glad for it. Popping the cuffs from the bed post, Rocky hurried out into the hallway. Noelie's door was locked- as it should be- so, using his gift he flipped the lock over and entered the room. Looking left then right, he spots the girl huddled in the corner of the room, crying, clutching his phone in her hand. "Noel', I'm here." He dropped to his knees beside her. "Come on," turning around he held his hands to his lower back. "Get on my back. I'm gonna carry you out of here."

The girl looked hesitant because of the blood, she didn't know what had happened to him, but she didn't have the time to ask as Rocky began to speak again. "Noel', there isn't much time to think, we have to do this right now." There was a dead serious look in his eyes that told the girl he was right, and she had better listen. She didn't want to be stuck in this weird place forever, even if she thought that Rocky was nice and she could at least be comfortable around him. It was still scary. Especially with Al' in the basement. Reluctantly, the girl reached out and climbed on Rocky's back.

"Thank you." He said, mostly because his insides were killing him in that position. But he would have waited as long as it took for the girl to trust him. He had been nothing but nice to her since they had been introduced. He had to be after what Cocky Rocky did to her. The two of them, he and Noelie, often played quiet games together in her bedroom. Mostly because Maria was watching them at the door, but sometimes they got to talk to each other without the psychic woman finding out. Noelie is a sweet girl, bright too. She and her mother take dance classes in the same building, her father is a hard worker and she is an honor student. Rocky, in turn, told her about himself. She thought he sounded nice, but a little sad. She had no idea.

Rocky stood up, gripping the girl under her legs. "You ready?" With a nod from her, Rocky started out of the bedroom. Maria was still in the kitchen as from what he could tell by the sound of what seemed to be beating. He didn't care, his concern was for the door. Letting go of one of the girls legs, he grabbed the banister to steady himself as he descends the stairs two at a time. It was hard to do it without his full strength and he nearly tripped, twice, but the ninja didn't need to be quiet because Maria is deaf. She wouldn't hear him if he sneezed right beside her. The tricky part is getting past the kitchen entry way to the front door without being seen. Hopefully her back was turned so they wouldn't have any trouble escaping.

"STOP IIIIT!" She screamed at the flames. The girl was attacking the fire with sink water and an oven mitt that was soaked in it. She'd be there all day if she thought that that would put out the fire. The fire, it seems, had started at the stove where a pot sat. The stove was still turned on aiding in keeping the fire burning. Below the pot was where the source of the fire had started; apparently Maria had rushed upstairs so quickly she didn't notice that she had dropped an oven towel beside the flame.

The two of them have been upstairs for so long the fire had time to spread across the stove, lighting the other tops as well as, burning to the counter and cabinets above it. The room was a mini inferno. And the deranged girl stood in the center of it, uselessly, beating out flames that had expanded from one end of the kitchen to the other.

Rocky felt sorry for her, for a moment. But it passed when everything she had done to him since he was eight years old flashed through his mind. He couldn't believe that she was the one. That she had come back into his life, tricked him, into thinking that she were a nice teenage girl, misunderstood and picked on because she's in the year book club, when she's actually a forty- or so- year old pedophile! No. There would be no pity for this woman. He hoped that the fire would consume her, just as it had eaten her soul in the first place to turn her into such a horrible person.

Continuing to the door, he grabbed the keys from the hook. Rocky placed the girl down to the floor, wincing in his actions. This couldn't be from the sex. He was much stronger than that. No this pain was shooting and constant even before she raped him. His alter kept saying something to him about poison. She wouldn't do that to him though, would she? Listen to what he was saying, he shook his head, of course she would! The woman could go from rational and sane to crazy and homicidal in a heart beat.

Maria shouted this swear and that in her thoughts; which was good because she wouldn't be able to hear Rocky as he spoke to Noelie telepathically. Signing would take too long. "Listen Noel', I can't go with you-... But!" He said when he saw the girls eyes widen in fear. "I will be right behind you just as soon as I get Al' from the basement."

"But I'm scared..." Her mouth pouts.

"I know, I'm scared too. But you need to do this for me." He reached up for the knob behind the girls head. The wind howled behind them, whirling cold air into the house. He hoped she wouldn't freeze too much before she got to town. That flimsy little, pale blue, pajama set wouldn't protect her at all. "Now pay attention. Town is a little ways out from here. You go straight- run if you have to- but go straight ahead it's when you see a tree in your way that you turn right." The girl nods. "You continue going right until you see another tree in your way, then you turn left, town is right ahead of you then. There's a diner at the bottom of the hill."

The girl looked as though she were making a mental note, then she nods. Rocky smiled at her, wrapping his arms around her in a hug. He shivered a moment, feeling the breeze coming from the door. "Here. Take my shirt." Quickly undoing the buttons of the pajama shirt, Rocky slipped it off then wrapped it around the girl. It fell rather low around her tiny body, it would help keep her warm for the most part. "Be safe." He said to her as an added thought.

The hispanic girl turned on her heals and ran out the door. Her tiny feet leaving no kind of indent in the snow as her weight wasn't nearly heavy enough to leave foot prints. Rocky hoped she didn't get lost because without foot prints, he wouldn't find her. The girl fell once, but got back up and continued away into the darkness. Rocky smiled at her bravery He prayed that faith was with her. But he had bigger concerns like how was he going to get downstairs without Maria stopping him?

"Going somewhere?" A voice came from behind him.

Rocky turned around just in time to miss being stabbed in the back, instead the knife aimed a bit higher, slicing him across the face. Rocky stumbled to the floor. He looked up at the woman, seeing anger in her eyes. Good. Be mad at me, just don't go after Noel'. "It's over Maria, you can't hurt me anymo-... Ah!" He cried out when the knife struck him again, only this time across his forehead.

"I told you that my name is not Maria!" She growled.

"But you said..." When Rocky saw the knife coming down again, he shielded his face with his forearm, the pain would hurt less there. "Ah!"

"You don't love me because I tricked you, right?" The girl went on. "Right? Well, I'm not tricking you now... look at me..."

Rocky shook his head. She wasn't making any sense. If she wanted him to see the brunette underneath the blonde it was kind of hard when the blonde was staring him right in the face. She did this to herself not him. He had nothing to do with her sudden face change. He didn't even know what she really looked like up until... whatever day that was his alter showed him his past. So why now this sudden want to be loved for the demented woman who had raped him so long ago. Is that why she changed her appearance? So that he wouldn't remember? So that she might have another chance with him? He was EIGHT!

He would love to know what she told the surgeon who operated on her had he or she asked why this woman wanted to get so much reconstructive surgery done. He could imagine it was something like, 'There's this younger man I like, I want to show him that I can still be pretty'. Sick.

Rocky jumped from start when the girl just dropped to a sitting position on the floor in front of him. What, did she want a better angel to stab him? He winked his eyes closed when the blood from his forehead slipped down his face. Brushing a hand right across his head to stop the blood from blinding him, he continued to look at the girl, waiting for her next move. It was then that she began to come in clearly, the tears streaming down her face. He saw her. Marissa. All this time... All this time it was a lie. There was never a blonde woman at all. She was an image, a mirage if you will.

The blood in his right eye must have dimmed the vision that she had planted in his mind when she had come back into his life when he was 15. Revealing now, the true woman underneath the lie. Rocky had gotten so used to seeing the girl he could guess the implant wasn't needed at all anymore because his own mind could remember her. Rubbing his eyes profusely, the image had faded away and he was left with a near stranger before him. Short, black hair down at her shoulders, a sweep of bangs in front of her face. Marissa's body was a little more full than Maria's, more covered up as well. The blonde liked to wear skimpy revealing clothes, where as this woman seemed to like jeans and sweaters.

No... Don't pity her... Don't feel sorry... But it surprised him when she laid down and began to cry.

"I'm... afraid... I can't stop... It's already gone to far..." She sobbed heavily, the knife stabbing the wooden floor over and over again. "I love you... But, you're too old now... I have to... I have to kill you, just like all the others..." The pace of the weapon picked up, little holes were covering one spot of the floor, the holes that were stabbed more than once got bigger and bigger. "Just like the others... The others..."

Rocky frowned at her. In a way... In a way Marissa's just like me. Confused, scared.. She didn't want to be deaf, she didn't want this gift, but its hers. Now she has to figure out how to live her life as a freak. Maria was just another name for how much more terrible she can be. Just like my alter. I'm nothing like him and yet he tells me we're twins. Maria's alter manifested into an image, just as my eyes turned green when Robbie saw me.

Reaching out a hand, he rubbed her shoulder. His touch was barely a ghost of a hand it was that thin now. If the young girl wasn't as light as she was, he may have fallen down the stairs and he certainly wouldn't have been able to hold her up. Noelie? I have to get back to the plan. I won't be distracted now.

Standing, he walks over to the kitchen. Raising a hand in front of his face, he tried looking past the ever growing flames. He could do it. He had to. Everyone had to get out. Just as his foot stepped onto the warm wooden kitchen floor, he stumbled, grunting when he hit the floor. The sharp pain in his shoulder told him why. "Marissa! Stop it!" He shouted at her. Blood trickled down his shoulder, he covered it with his hand.

Marissa wasn't listening. The girl continued to come at him, the knife making an almost scissoring sound as she swings it back and forth with enough quickness to make the air wince in pain. Rocky rolled over to protect his back from serious injury. Using his forearms to protect his face, yet again, from the girls assault. Rocky backed across the kitchen, carefully, trying to avoid the still burning oven and stove. Little cries of pain came from him once in a while if she hit the same spot twice or the knife landed on his legs.

Staggering to his feet, Rocky hit a wall when he back a few steps away from her. "Marissa it's over!" He held his hand out to stop her. "I can- Ah!" He drew his hand back to his chest as his palm was sliced. "I can help you!" He was shouting so she would hear. How far gone was she now? "I can get you the help you need so that you can be better!"

The girl continued to approach him, knife gleaming red with his blood. He was starting to wish he hadn't given up his shirt so hastily. Where was that basement door? Turning his head in a quick second, he saw it across the wall. He could make it. Leaning sideways, he dashed across the kitchen, the demented girl at his heals. He tossed a chair from the kitchen table in her path but she was hardly phased by it. Pushing it aside, the woman continued her knife wielding charge.

Rocky made it to the door, but it was locked. He jumped away as the knife came down into the door. "Marissa, stop this! We have to save Al'!" He tried reasoning with her again. "He's gonna burn to death- we all are! You have to listen to me!" When Marissa started to run at him, he grabbed a bowl from the table to use as a shield. The knife knocked on the bowl like an angry, unwelcome, visitor wanting to get in. "Aaah!" Rocky hadn't anticipated in her stabbing his gut. He fell to his knees, pain gripping him.

Maria stood over him, glaring down with her icy blue eyes. "She was a doll... make believe... you couldn't see that, yet you want me to love you?"

He never said anything like that!

"Like the pictures traitor..." The woman smiled. "I don't care about the fire... I'm going to go- we're going to be burn in this fire... to be together forever." Her body rocked back and forth in a crazy little shake. "Al... Ahahaha... He's so dumb. I could never love him... Not like I love you."

Rocky wasn't listening. He was nursing his bloody chest and arms, one eye still closed to get the blood out.

Marissa twisted her lips up, then looked at the door. "I suppose we should go down there..."

The fire was in the living room now, catching hold of every dry thing in the house. The carpet, the wooden floor and walls. They really would burn to death if they didn't get a move on.

"Down there..." She went on. "Down there we can have one last night together... I can make believe you're that sweet little eight year old boy, and you... you can make love to me as I really am." Leaning over she grabbed him by his ponytail, jerking him to his knees. "WHAT'DYA SAY ROCK'EMS?" The insane brunette shook his head back and forth. "YOU WANT ONE LAST NIGHT WITH ME! HUH!" Kneeling down so that they were eye to eye she whispered. "You want to fuck me from behind like you would my nephew, Robert?"

Robbie! Rocky's eyes flicked left and right rapidly as he looked the boys face over in his mind then the woman. Their eyes... it was in those cold eyes. How could he not see it? Robbie knew... he knew all this time that... That his aunt was insane and yet... he said nothing about it. Why? Why?

"He came looking for you, ya know." She licked the side of his face, he didn't even breathe. "So concern... I saw that the two of you kiiiissed." She hissed it like a snake with enough venom to poison a heard of cattle and drop them dead ten minutes. "Did you like it?"

Something broke somewhere in the house when the flames engulfed it. They really should be leaving by now. Rocky looked into her cold eyes, and he shook his head. He didn't enjoy it, he hated it and Robbie for doing it. He wasn't gay! Who was he kidding... he hated women and it was all because of her! And as long as he lives he will never let another woman touch him. But that doesn't necessarily mean he's gay, right?

"You did, didn't you?" Marissa spit in his face. He didn't dare wipe it away, he knew the feel of punishment and he didn't want it. If he could just reason with her until they got outside.

"This is what gets you killed, Sam! Thinking that the world can be negotiated." Cocky Rocky screamed. "You have to be 'cut throat' to get anywhere in life. Kill her... Kill her... KILL HER!" His laughter filled his mind.

"ENOUUUGH!" Lunging at the girl, he grabbed the knife from her. "You'll wish you never met me!" Rocky raised the knife above his head. The woman lay limp beneath him, she almost looked happy.

"Do it... you'll be sorry when you see that no one else loves you like I do..." Laughter. "DO IT!" Bringing the knife down it landed beside her head, sticking into the floor. Marissa looked at the weapon, still laughing. "You're so weak." She laughed. "Weak, weak, weak."

"I'm not you." Rocky hissed. The lights cut off but the room was still lit up from the flames. Alfonse. Standing, Rocky reached for the knob, he opened the lock as he had done with Noelie's room. Descending down the stairs, he hurried through the hall to the electronic door. Since the lights had gone out the door was reduced to nothing but a simple push open or closed. Glancing back at the laughing girl, he went through the door. He didn't think that she would be moving anytime soon, lost in her own little world. "Al! Al?" He opened the door to the boys cell. He wasn't there! Going back into the hall, he looked around again in the other rooms. He wasn't there!

Finally going to his cell, he walked through the door. Rocky could tell something was wrong since the door was already open. Sure enough there was-... He didn't recognize this person by body, but the face was familiar. Cell block 2... He was alive? Or what was left of him. A dry husk of a child. Knees curled up to his chest, expression frantic. He sat on Rocky's bed, shaking back and forth. The smoke from upstairs was coming down into the cell making it hard to breathe. Rocky coughed, then covered his mouth to vent the smoke. "Come on! We gotta go!" He walked over to the bed.

The boy looked at him, same scared look on his face. At a closer look, Rocky could see that he was bleeding. It was coming from his neck. The young boy had stuck a large piece of the glass from the broken mirror into his neck. "I did bad... I started a fire... Maria will hate me..."

"No... She can't hurt you anymore." Walking closer, his arm out, hand reaching he was too late. The boy fell over on the bed. He was dead. Rocky was paralyzed for a moment. But he shook it off. He couldn't let himself be vulnerable down here. Al was a lost cause now, he didn't have time to look for the boy. But he wouldn't let the kid in his cell go unremembered. He would tell them. Anyone who would listen, that he had saved them all. Hurrying from the cell, Rocky rushed back to the stairs but it was blocked off by Marissa.

She stood at the top of the stairs, fire blazing behind her, a smile on her face. "Thank me... You're going to die beautiful." She whispered. The door started to close, but her hands were stopped. Someone had grabbed her. Rocky looked past the girls shoulder wondering who it could be. That's when he saw him. Al! He had a firm grip around the girls body, he was pulling her away from the door. "Get... OFF of me, you idiot!"

The boy giggled like an incoherent child. Rocky hurried up the stairs and past the two of them, but he couldn't help looking back. What was Al going to do to her? But before he could see anything, the cellar door closed and eaten by the flames. There were rapid thumps against the door, but they soon silenced. Turning his eyes away, he said a silent thank you to the boy. Heading for the door, Rocky jerked it open and was blinded by light.

"That's him!" A man said ahead of him. He couldn't see, his eyes were shielded. "Get the fire department down here, hurry." The man continued to speak. "Get that kid into a cop car and give him a blanket. We're going him home."

Lowering his hands, he saw cops cars out in the snow, there must have been four or five of them. Men came rushing past him into the house. One of them stopping to put a blanket around his shoulders. He could hear a child's laughter. It was Noelie. They found her, or she found them and lead them here. Rocky smiled. It was true... he had kept his promise. They were going home. The next thing he saw was the night sky as his eyes rolled up into his head and he collapsed.