Chapter 8

After her friends left, Katie decided the best way to clear her mind was with a nice, hot, relaxing shower. The feel of the water pounding against her bare back, while the stereo she kept sitting on the sink blasting her favorite Michael Crawford songs, creating the perfect oasis's for her troubled mind. Not once during her shower did Tarek cross her mind, in those few twenty minutes, only images of Erik danced before her eyes. They weren't the powerful soul stealing experiences which recently had been accruing in her mind. She knew exactly were she was, and what she was doing, but he was there, smiling at her, watching her with those tender, caring eyes.

She turned off the water and stepped into the steam filled room. She wrapped a towel around her slim figure, and glanced at herself in the mirror. Something looked different, about her image, but she couldn't out her finger on what. Her normally curly brown hair laid flat against her head, strait as a pin from the water, and her rosy cheeks looked even more flushed with the steam, but that wasn't it. It was the look in her chocolate brown eyes, they twinkled and looked incandescently happy, matching the smile on her pink lips, which hummed along to the music.

"I'm in love." She told herself, as she spun around happily.

"I'm in love"

If I loved you

time and again I would try to say

all I want you to know

if I loved you

words wouldn't come in an easy way

Michael's voice came from the stereo.

"If only you loved me." She told herself, as she wrapped a robe around herself, and went to her room to get dresses. After she was satisfied with her favorite pair of drawn on jeans, and a rose coloured corset style shirt, she grabbed her favorite black fedora, coat, and cell phone. She left her house to wonder around town. Unknowingly and unwillingly, her feet took her to the church.

"I shouldn't go back." She told herself, but she couldn't resist. When she walked in, a rather percular sight laid before her. Tarek was standing in the middle of the church, actually standing there in his haunting beauty. He looked even taller than the simple six feet she had guessed the night before, in his simple blue jeans and black tee shirt which still took her by shook, even thou she had helped him out of a similar outfit. She had always picture him to were a full suit, and cape. On one of the pews before him, two people sat, the one another tall man, with dark brown hair, and a girl who looked rather short compared to the men, her curly golden brown hair tumbled over the back of the pew. Before any of them noticed her presence, she slipped behind one of the giant pillars that sat before the pews, not wanting Tarek to notice her there.

"Why is it you came here?" Tarek's voice filled the cathedral, "Do you not trust me? Katie does, and as her friend you should trust her judgement."

"I am worried about her." The girl whispered, her voice filled with fright. Katie recognized it immediately to be mandi.

"I was just trying to be a good friend." He laughed at her timid behaviour.

"So you came to ask the father about me? Well me dear, that's not a subject I want being spread around, not even your Lotte knows the lies he has told you." His voice grew louder, filled with anger.

"She was just looking into the best interests of her friend, you cannot blame her for caring." The man chimed in.

"Oh, can't I? Father Sean, I know you have to look for the good in all of 'god's children', but this girl is nothing more than a nosy, jealous teenage brat! Who doesn't wish to share."

"Shut up!" Katie screamed. She caused them all to jump in shock, as she walked out form behind the pillar.

"Do not talk about my friend that way." His eyes flickered with fear for a moment, then filled with fake tenderness.

"Katie, I wasn't trying to be mean to Jammes, but she caught me off guard." His worlds flowed over her, in its usual intoxication manner. "I just wanted to tell you my story first, before she relayed the message." He shot a triumphant grin at Mandi, then returned to wooing Katie back into his grasp.

"Why don't you come back home with me, so I can tell?" He whispered into her ear.

"Alright." Her mind screamed for her to stop but once again his voice took control, and she gladly followed. Tarek turned back for a moment, locking his golden eyes with mandi.

"She's mine" His lips mouthed, but he did not speak, not wanting to alarm Katie.