Dead To The World

Chapter ten:

I lay panting on the ground as I stared up at the sky, the same looking large brown and black wolf standing just a few feet away from when it first attacked, coming across my sternum and lower hip, or that's what I was feeling right now. My eyes were closed as I focused on my breathing, my cell phone lay beside the hound as it growled at my moving fingertips. I lay perfectly still, my eyes closed lightly as my stomach went numb. It unnerved me that I knew my body was broken in some way, but I couldn't feel it. This was not good.

I opened my eyes to shouting as I saw a blur of white and brown before the hound jumped back, muzzle parted to show all the teeth in that large head of his. Someone came beside me as a hand rested on top of my sweat-drenched forehead. I slowly opened them to look up at Asher.

"A-Asher?" I asked slowly, wondering if I had fallen asleep on the bench, resting beside Lance. Maybe that's why I couldn't feel my stomach. I touch it lightly with my fingertips, as I tried to bring it to my face, but he took my hand in his. I felt liquid, not good. I looked at him with wide eyes.

"W-what's happening?" I asked through gulps of air, he looked down at my stomach, pulling his hair over his shoulder as he touched my stomach. Lance showed up by his side in a blur that made me gasp, which hurt my stomach, which I felt, which made me cry. Fuck. Not good not good. My world did that 'I can move before you can even process what your name is' kind of thing, which squeezed tears from my eyes. I looked up at Asher, smiling.

"H-how come I always g-get to . . ." I gulped loudly, swallowing the large amounts of screams that filled my throat, "See you on bad t-terms?" I asked with a sweaty smile. He looked down at me from where he was inspecting my stomach, smiling I heard that Godly voice one more time.

"I don't know the answer to that Zowie." He said, smiling that dimple-chin grin that his Brother had. I closed my eyes smiling.

"It's goo-good to see you again, bastard." I said, biting my lip. Suddenly crying out as my shirt was ripped in half. Someone said, "Shit. Get her pants off!" I shot my head up glaring at the voice. "You take my pants off I take your dick off!" I growled, looking from each young and handsome face to the next. He looked at me stunned, turning back to Asher as he smiled and shrugged. I suddenly howled as my jeans rubbed against whatever was happening to my stomach. "Get them off get them off get them off!" I cried. Not only did they 'not' slide them off, but one person completely ripped them in half. Amazing. Someone leaned over my vision as a needle came into view right above my stomach. I hated needles. I grabbed Asher's hand in mine tightly, tears falling down my cheeks as the heat from the summer night slid along my exposed and bleeding stomach. Like hot water were flowing through my veins, my vision sparkled and danced with lights as I relaxed. Everyone was moving so fast? They were giving me a headache . . . but I couldn't feel anything.

Everything was so . . . high. I looked over at Asher's face as he wiped his hand across his forehead, smearing that perfect Magnolia petaled flesh with my red icky blood. I watched the look that passed between Asher and Alexander, a look that confused me. What was so bad anyways?

"You guys." I said slowly, trying to get their attention, I laughed. I laughed! "You guys!" I said, getting a couple of their attentions. "Stop okay?" I said through a goofy smile, I could even feel the goofyness of it stretching my lips into a wide grin. I looked down at myself, seeing the large gashes. Three deep bleeding slashes from above my belly button down right below my hip. But that just wasn't what I was worried about. How? I don't know.

"Oh my God, you people are seeing me naked." I looked down at my black lace bra holding my C cups, my matching black lace thong with the large black butterfly as the front, glad they couldn't see the back. "I . . . I need some clothes. I think I should go to the hospital." I said slowly, lying back down. Hands were everywhere, it was so annoying. I slapped them away giggling.

"J-just get me to a hospital!" I said through hysterical giggles. I stopped smiling all of a sudden, "I feel really good." I said slowly, not completely understanding what I'd exactly been given here. Grateful, but way curious. Lance asked it for me.

"What the fuck did you give her?" He asked, hysteria in his voice as I inspected his voice. His eyes roamed on my breasts, down the curve of my wide hips, my muscular thighs, oh Goodness, did I have my shoes on? I couldn't see. I interrupted the voice asking, "It seems as though I've lost my flip-flops." I wiggled my toes giggling up at Asher. He turned to look at my wiggling toes, his hair brushing my face as I practically purred into it. I lifted his hand rolling my cheek against it as he shivered violently, his flushed face looking back down at me. I could see him visibly struggling to keep his eyes on my face, made me giggle. Which I did.

"Yes, you have your flip-flops." He said, his eyes drifting down to look at my collar bones, I could almost feel his eyes brushing my skin with heat. I closed my eyes with the sensation. I felt the thong of my black flip-flops slipping back over my toes. I giggled with my eyes still closed. "Thank you." I said quietly, my mind drifting. And this time, I completely and utterly couldn't have cared less. I let it, in fact I encouraged it, embraced it even!

I felt a fingertip brush my collar bone, feeling the tip of a finger touch the scabbing of the growingly smaller wound. I opened my eyes, head bobbing to look over and up at Asher, who was staring at my collar bone with such interest it brought my focus back, which brought the pain back. Damnit, and I was so carefree of everything for a while. I looked up at him pleadingly.

"Ow." I said quietly, sniffling as my eyes watered from the intense stinging of my stomach. Like a swarm of wasps stinging me over and over again in the same place repeatedly. He looked from my collar bone to my face, then back to someone else I didn't care to look for right at the moment.

"It shouldn't be waring off this soon, that's impossible!"

"Fix it then." Someone's calm voice rang through my ears as I realized it was Asher. It relaxed me, it 'was' my drug. I yanked on his hand till I got his attention.

"Talk to me." I said, gasping from the pain. He looked down at me then back at Alexander. I shook his hand again crying out from someone putting gauze over my hip bone. "Talk!" I cried out. He looked down at me confusion on his face, as the realization spread through his eyes. He scooted closer towards me, lifting my head to lay in his lap. And no, I didn't care to open my eyes to watch what they were sewing so quickly down there.

He brushed his fingertips over my sweat drenched forehead, pulling my extremely long hair, out and around me so it wasn't touching my body, not bothering to pull his as it curtain both of our faces, me brave enough to open my eyes and look up at him. I listened to his deep growly baratone voice sing a song in a language, surprisingly I didn't know. It was eerie and slow, something that entraced me to look past the beautiful light hazel of his eyes and deeper in. It sucked me in like metal to a magnet. I was lost in dark, dark, dark everywhere. Surrounding me, swallowing me up. But no, no it wasn't swallowing me up. Asher was there, he . . . he wanted. No, he was angry with me, and he left me to be alone in the dark room. Why? What had I done to him to make him do something so . . . it felt so painful, why would he do this to me?

I felt arms wrap tightly around me as I turned to lock mine desperately around him. Squeezing his waist as I cried into his chest as he picked me up. Pleading for him to stop this madness. This utter torment. I was suddenly filled with fire, warm fire that left me squirming in his arms. It chased away the coldness that was creeping up my stomach. What was this? The utter feeling of ocean ice licked up at my midsection as I squeezed to him harder. "Make it go away." I whispered into the crook of his warm neck. I sucked to that warmth like it were the last piece of honest wood in a freezing ocean. "Make it go away." I cried loudly into his shoulder as the cold swallowed me up.

I felt . . . I felt fur. Fur was everywhere. Where was I? Fur ran along my sides, fur under my fingertips, it was everywhere. "Asher?" I called out, turning around and around in that cold, freezing cold dark place. I was alone, cold, with fur that wasn't allowed for me. Like some kind of . . . some kind of torment. Why couldn't I have the heat? I needed it! I tried to reach for the hot skin of animals but it was just out of my reach. Why was I so alone? Why was I so cold? I looked up above me with tears in my eyes as I saw a flicker of a flame. Small, barely none-existent. I reached for it, cooed it down to me with soft weeping and promises of fire and wood. Dry wood that I would feed to it, make it hot and burning alive again. Make it come alive with life. Warm, hot, firey life.

I cradled the flame in between my palms as I watched it grow, it grew and grew as the cold was chased away. Even the fur and the animals retreated. It chased away everything, and brought warm toe wiggling warmth. Why had I been denied this in the first place? I . . . couldn't remember what I did. All I could think about was the fire enflaming my entire body, warming me. I felt so . . . at ease. I hadn't felt this calm and comfortable ever since the day I met Elisabeth and Samantha.

Yes, I remember Lizzy and Sam taking me into their wing. It was so sad, they were the new kids and they fixed me. A long-since broken toy that they mended with their perfectness. The butterflies made me a butterfly. That thought brought the thought of my Mother. My cold and distant Mother whom I never saw and whom never cared enough to say not even one word to me. My Father . . . Oh God my Father. Why hadn't I been given not even a single moment with him? Just one joyous moment I could retreat my mind into embracing? Just one. One single moment of a Father who cared, and a Daughter who cherished. I wanted that. I wanted to know what love felt like.

I wanted to know what it felt like to be Sam and Lizzy. Married, babies, happines, love. True love. I wanted the look on my face that Samantha and Parker had daily. Why couldn't I just have a tiney morsel? No, of course not, not for Zowie. Back to my cold lifeless apartment, with that open window with the world outside of it's glass that you're not allowed to have. That dark and empty canvas with your emotions 'splashed' over it. The emotions you want, but are never allowed to feel. Never Zowie Excel. But why not? Why couldn't I have it? What made me so fucking different? I was just so, cold. I was sooo cold.

"What's happening?" I whispered to myself, wiggling my fingers as I found those hurt, too. I didn't open my eyes, afraid that would cause further pain, my attentions moving from that to the arm draped around my waist. I slowly opened one eye to look at the muscular forearm which lay casually over my hip. Pale arm, Magnolia pale. I looked behind me to follow that hand to a small, beautifully muscular arm. My eyes fell in between the pale shoulder, where it meets neck. I found closed soft honey eyes behind all that mass of eye-gaping thick hair.

A body shifted to my left, making my head slowly, cautiously turn to look at the other body. It was so close to mine and I didn't even notice? I let my eyes roam from where the white sheets covered up to his calves, he wore blue-jeans that were unzipped and unbuttoned; pulling decoratively down his hips. He looked like a painting, both of them. It looked like they'd been positioned this way and were only paintings. It was so beautiful. He cradled himself with that larger Magnolia arm which flexed every so often when he fussed in his sleep.

I watched the rise and fall of that thick chest, thinking again of the Roman breast plates. He had a soft, long neck like Alexander. It was just strange how his body was so built yet his face was only touched about certain places muscular. I let my eyes drop because I wasn't ready to look at his face, not yet. He had no hair on his upper body, all except for the small trail of honest black running from his navel into his jeans where I lost site. I could've gone down to look, but didn't really care to. A blush ran along my cheeks as I darted my eyes from that wonderful masculinity of art as I found that God chin.

It didn't have the noticeable dimple as when he smiled, but it was there soft and knowingly dotted on that soft chin. He had a soft jaw line, but hard to the touch. A small shadow of a stubble on his chin and a little on his cheeks, it made me smile as I bit my lip to shut up before I got caught. Oh God all of that hair, he looked like he weren't real. Models didn't even get this affect, where they looked cold and strictly beautiful. They were soft and warm, not sexual like the photos were but inviting and something just . . . alive and warm. That hair spread around him in endless waves of ebony. Waves upon waves of ebony that curtained that soft body that he must have worked so hard to get.

I had to look away before I squeeled for no reason, as I found myself. I had a sheet wrapped around me and only me, like it were a towel and that was it. I felt something soft and taped under my fingertips as my cheeks flaired to life. I could not help what I was about to do. I tried to sit up but was greeted by my waking stomach, I forgot about the pain, distracted by their beauty. Good one Zow. I touched my stomach as if that would somehow relieve the pain, to no avail it only hurt more.

Thick arms wrapped around my waist as the two sat up, pulling me back down I shook my head.

"No no no, I'm naked. No no." I said over and over as they shushed me.

"If you move too quickly you will rip it open, again. If I might add." Alexander said as I glared at him. I looked over at Asher as he rested on one arm, pushing himself up as all that hair layed limply in his forgotten spot against the bed. Looking down at me with matching Hazel eyes as Alexander. I looked into those eyes and they made me lay back down. I couldn't stare into those things any longer as I shut my eyes, the pain more than joyous to take my mind of off the two men beside me and my current nude state. I breathed heavily as I turned my head to Asher's side, pressing it down into the matress to maybe relieve some of the spine splitting pain.

"Let me look at it." Alexander said softly, pulling some of my hair from my neck and from around the sheets. I shook my head, "No clothes." My teeth chattered from the wracking of my stomach. I prayed to God for him to settle me, it was hurting so bad.

"It's okay, I've seen naked bodies before." I shook my head as his hand laid itself just above my stomach on my abbs. I panted looking up at Asher's eyes, how stupid. I swam in those on-fire honey eyes, begging to get out.

"Zowie, please. Let us look at it, we can relieve the pain if you let us." I shook my head as he lifted his hand brushing my cheeks. "We will only look at the parts of your body we absolutely have to. If not, then I bet you'll get the best damned attourney on the lot of us in minutes." I opened my eyes smiling.

"Bastard." I said as I looked at that smile, I counted those straight white teeth so I wouldn't have to look into his eyes.

"Please Zowie, I swear to you we will take care of you. Please Zowie." He said softly, over and over again as I finally turned to look into his eyes. This time I wasn't sucked in, all I saw were beautiful male brown eyes. I nodded slowly, wondering how he could do that.

The sheets made a small opening only around my stomach, I felt cool air part between the bottom of my large breasts, but other than that nothing opened. I closed my eyes as fingertips touched the tape that held the gauze down.

"Look at me, pet." I opened my eyes slowly, really only looking up at him through both of our waterfall of black hair because he called me 'pet'. . . and because it sounded so, right.

"Good girl." He said, his index and middle finger brushing my cheek as the tape was pulled away. It didn't hurt like I knew it was supposed to hurt, I didn't question how or what Asher was doing to me, so I left it alone. It felt like someone was slowly ripping off a band-aid, way way too slow. But I didn't ask him to speed it up, I wanted to hide from the pain as long as I could. I let my eyes roam behind Asher because the feeling of being tranced scared me, glancing at the clock on the side of the bed I gasped. I tried to sit up as I said.

"Oh my God I've got to go to work! I'm so late!" I closed my eyes as thankfully four hands pushed me back down. The white-hot flair of pain I couldn't begin to explain exploded throughout me like a bomb. It made me scream as I gripped the sheets, the door ahead of us opened as Lance came in rubbing his eyes and sleep-tousled hair.

"Is she alright?" He asked, quickly walking over to stand at the end of the bed looking down at the lot of us.

"Oh God oh God oh God." I whispered over and over again as the tape was more quickly removed.

"Well, she didn't rip the stitches but she's bleeding again." He said, turning back to look at Lance. "I need some more gauze and tape, get some aspirins also." With that Lance turned quickly, closing the door softly behind him. I looked over and up at Asher appologizing.

"I've got to go to work." I said slowly, finding Alexander's free hand as I gripped it tightly in my smaller one. He hugged to my hand in return as he worked with the gauze.

"You're going to go into work like this?" He asked, eyes looking down at my smaller body. I breathed hard trying to calculate everything, slowly shaking my head I whispered no.

"We'll get someone to take your place." He said, smiling down at me. I looked up at him through pain filled eyes. Glad I couldn't see what I looked like right now.

"Get someone? You can't, that's my job, you can't just ask someone to do it for me."

"Why not? You do it all the time, don't you?" I opened my mouth to say something, then closed it. True.

"We'll find someone." He said softly, laying back down cautiously on his right side to look at me. He lifted his arm, placing it slowly over the top of my chest and shoulders, rubbing his forehead against the ball of the shoulder that faced him.

"How do you guys even know eachother?" I asked, swallowing as I closed my eyes. Gripping Alexander's hand tighter. There was silence than a soft chuckle I realized were the both of them.

"We're Brothers." I couldn't tell which one said it, making me believe it in a heartbeat. I smiled lopsidedly looking down at my small frame shake with pain as Alexander dabbed the gauze around the wound, trying to soak up the blood.

"The Magnolia Twins, huh." I said, amusingly to myself. Asher quarked an eyebrow at me as he smiled sideways.

"The Magnolia twins?" He asked. I nodded.

"It's because of your skin, and because you look like twins."

"She's rythming." Alexander said from below us, I giggled softly.

"I remember weeks ago you told me you liked my skin in a daze, I thought you were hallucinating a tad." I rolled my eyes.

"Anyone would say that, I was j-just in a state that made me say it out loud." I probed rememberingly.

"Why were you naked, by the way? I remember it, you had no clothes on. What were you even doing out there?" There was thick silence between the two of them that was hard enough to walk on before Asher finally asked.

"What were you doing out there?"

"I work."

"What kind of a career keeps you out untill the early of morning?"

"I'm a bartender." I said, gritting my teeth. Anything to distract me of the lessening pain. "Don't change the subject." I said, smiling up at him. He shrugged a shrug that left my eyes staring at him shoulders, watching the movement perplexed by the grace of it.

"I suppose . . ." He said drawingly, making me swim in the deep sudden richness of his voice. "I was out for a stroll." I found my voice small and wavery.

"In the middle of the night? Naked?" I closed my eyes forcing myself to step away from that trance I'd fallen into again. This time when he shrugged I watched Alexander.

"She's too stubborn to get rolled Brother, give it up." Alexander said as he kneeled over me, gently dabbing continuously on my hip. A gentleness to his touch that made me wonder if he'd done this before, and how many times?

"Rolled?" I asked, watching his movements with awe struck eyes.

"You say that as you are attempting."

"I'm only peeking why it isn't working with her, problem?"

"No." Came the sharp reply of Asher to my left, my hand slid down my side as I took Alexander's hand in mine, blood smearing from his hand to mine. He looked at me through large almond eyes, kneeling closer to my stomach as I held both his hands. His eyes rolled up to look past me at Asher.

"Sure?" He asked, a smile tugging from his lips from what I could see at this angle. Silence was heard from my side, but Asher must have done something agreeing because Alexander smiled, not bothering to hold his hair as his tongue darted out to touch my wound. I gasped, letting go of one of his hands to grip Asher's. His tongue was slick and cool, warming me and my pain to a dull throb. I gasped and even squirmed as I felt the sheet part to show a large sum of my cleavage in between, not giving away the whole show, but parting enough down the line to give Alexander a pretty good shot of my right hip, thigh, and whole leg.

A growl was low and sickly loud to make me turn towards Asher, until I felt Alexander's lips against my waist and that was too much. I cried out softly as I wrung the sheets in hand, toes curling into the comforters below us making me blush. Asher looked down at me as he suddenly pulled my hair from my neck. Placing a soft kiss against the tender flesh there to cause me to shudder.

His lips worked at the soft area, licking it gently as I gripped his other hand in a death vice. Squeezing my eyes closed from the mix of pure delight and numbing pain. His teeth found the edge of my skin as I slowly bowed my back. His other hand gripped around my neck, holding it tightly as I let my head fall back against the pillows. The feel of his pressing my neck hard against his mouth as he scraped his teeth against it made me whimper into the suddenly throbbing room. I found my whimpering pathetic voice seconds later.

"S-stop." I whimpered through something that could have been mistaken for a breath, but they both stopped at once.

"Stop?" I heard their echoing voices, Alexander lips idly pressed against my the soft part of the dip in my hip. Asher's lips parted still against my neck as if he were going to take a bite, but those full lips were against my flesh. Oh Dear.

"S-stop." I said softly, wiggling away from both of their touches at once. My hard melodiac breathing was the only sound in the room.

"Did you not like it?" Alexander asked bewildered below me. I nodded, slowly. Remembering the feel of both their lips against my quivering flesh made me gasp, gripping their hands tighter. They took that as a go when I found both their tongues the same time. I whimpered loudly, helplessly under them.

"No." I said quietly lifting my hips to push at Alexander's face, closing the small gap between my shoulder and neck by placing my head there as I looked up at him through glazed eyes.

"But you like it." He said softly, those eyes looking somehow shades lighter than they normally were. His tongue found my ear where he tugged on my small metal stud, biting it with his teeth as he breathed hotly against my cheek. I whimpered, again under him. I nodded slowly, awkwardly while trying to cover my neck at once.

"Then why stop?" He asked, eyes lingering down my body where Alexander bent over my hip, staring at the flesh there too.

"Because I don't know you." I said softly, slowly as if telling myself that too. It brought both Alexander and Asher's attentions away from my exposed body, their faces mirroring eachother.

"We know you." Alexander said, eyes looking at me as if I were crazy, I shook my head looking down at him.

"I saw you once before," I said inclining my head towards Asher. "And you've only bought one of my paintings, once." I said, looking at the door as it opened with Lance.

"Painting?" Asher asked, looking from me through that gorgeous fall of black hair, then to his Brother whom was turning his attentions away from the both of us.

"Yeah, he bought my painting a couple of days ago on Ebay. A piece of crap really." I said, my breath still shallow and soft, dazed as I watched Lance hand the small medical supplies over to Alexander.

"Did you, now Brother?" Asher's voice was still hot on my ear as he leaned over me inticingly. Alexander glaced at him, while he slowly parted the sheets again, nodding. I looked at him strangely, what was with the attitude, it seemed as if he were ashamed.

"It wasn't expensive or anything. I mean, it really wasn't anything." I said, trying to protect Alexander. I didn't understand why everyone was so mean towards Alexander, he seemed like a good guy from what I knew of him, I liked him enough to protect him.

"Asher it's fine. Why is everyone so mean towards him anyways? What'd he do?" I asked, shifting as I winced to sit up. Alexander grabbed my shoulders steadying me as I touched my stomach sighing heavily. "Wow." I felt two more hands on my back sitting me up. I glanced up to find Lance watching with interest.

"He hasn't done anything wrong, right Alex?" Lance asked with folded arms and a curve to his hip that lead to a smirk of his lips. I rolled my eyes.

"You guys are like little girls in High School. You're like wild cats towards eachother."

"You barely know us, remember?" Alexander said with a smirk.

"You're right, but from what I have seen I can tell you that much." With a bounce to the straightening of my back I said, "And yes you are right. I don't know you. So, if you can please help me out of bed, find me some clothes, and get me out of where I am. I will make sure and never come to your little zoo parties ever again." With that I slowly eased from the bed, taking the hands that Lance was offering. We both lifted our chins smartly as he practically carried me.

"I'm sure Lance won't try anything on an injured helpless woman." I said, "Isn't that right Lancey Boy." He nodded with a grin. I didn't look but more heard double snorts from the bed.

"Of course not." And with that he lead me from the room, slamming the door behind him.