Some suggestive dialogue in this chapter. You have been warned.

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Chapter 20:

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"Chase," Caleb said under his breath, staring at the man before him, standing alone in the alone between the crowds of seated people. Panic and anxiety came over his chest, first for all the people here, second for his case with the school committee, and third for himself.

This was bad. This was very bad.

"Caleb!" Chase replied stretching his hands out to the boy on the stage as if he was read for a hug. "Your speech…" he put his hand over his heart and bowed his head. "It touched me… right here…"

Caleb quickly hopped off the stage and began to walk over to his enemy slowly and cautiously, as if approaching an angry beast.

"Chase, let's take it outside…" he pleaded. "Not here…"

"Why not?" Chase asked, then whipped out his hands toward Caleb, strings of energy flowing from his fingers and throwing the younger man back the way he had come.

Caleb listened as the audience gasped in shock.

"This boy here," Chase said to them. "We have the same Power. What I can do… he can do."

Chase picked up Caleb and threw him down again. Pogue stepped like he was going to go help him, but Tyler took a firm handful of his shoulder to hold him back. They were useless without any Power, and would only get in the way, or worse, hurt.

"Why don't you defend yourself, Caleb?!" Chase shouted so that his voice echoed through the auditorium. "Give these people a show!"

Caleb groaned, trying to get up slowly.

"You'd need to be on the stage for that…" Chase said decidedly, and picked him up with a strong dose of Power, launching him onto the stage. Caleb thought he felt something in his arm crack when he fell, and he was without the ability to Use to heal it.

"SAVE YOURSELF, CALEB!" Chase taunted.

"Chase," Caleb pleaded in a low voice. "Please… let's at least take this away from the people…"

Chase acted surprised and a bit confused.

"Wait, I thought I was the bad guy here-- I'm sorry…. Bad guys get to do what they want; it's in the handbook."

"Which I'm sure you've studied thoroughly," Pogue said angrily, stepping out into the aisle behind Chase, but he was only shoved back into a seat with an invisible force from Chase's hand.

Chase turned his attention back to Caleb and slammed him to the stage floor once again. The audience was in awed silence, most of them ducking to the exit. Chase didn't seem to care about them.

"Yes, yes, run for your lives…" Chase said, waving the crowd out as if bored. As soon as the last person was gone, Chase locked the double doors of the theatre after them, Using to move a long stretch of seats in front of it. He then began to laugh loudly so that his voice echoed through the auditorium ceilings.

"I don't see what's funny," Tyler said with confusion.

"What's funny, Tyler," Chase called back. "Is the raw IRONY of all this. Who knew that Caleb's attempts at doing away with me would prove to be his undoing? If he hadn't killed me, well, I'd have the Curse upon me too. That, my friends, is priceless."

"What did you do with Reid?" Caleb demanded in a threatening growl.

"I am SO glad you asked. Wouldn't be a party if everyone didn't join us, would it?"

Chase flew himself over to the stage, and clapped his hands. Soon the spotlight was on him, as the rest of the stage dimmed. Pogue was thrown into a front row seat, followed by Tyler.

"Sit down!" Chase commanded, shoving Caleb in the last seat next to Pogue's. "This is going to be a doozy. If I could just have my lovely assistants…"

He nodded toward the wing of the stage, and out came Sarah and Kate in a tight, short leather dresses and long leather boots fit for gothic showgirls. Caleb's mouth dropped in shock at the black heels, the leather gloves, the dark make-up… They looked like gothic angels… fitting for the devil's right-hand girls.

"You like 'em?" Chase whispered boastfully. "Try watching them slip into it…"

Pogue was immediately outraged, flying to his feet in anger, quickly followed by Caleb.

"Son of a--!"

"—You did not--!"

"--Calm down, boys," Chase interrupted, pushing them back in their seat with his Power. "You haven't even seen the best of it yet. Sarah, darling, let's have look behind the curtain, shall we?!"

Sarah smiled widely, and pulled back the purple velvet curtain.

"Just like my great, great, great grandfather before me," Chase said like he was announcing a TV host. "A witch of Ipswich will once more… be burned at the stake!"

And behind the curtain, Reid was revealed, bound to a wooden stake, logs around it as if ready for a bonfire. His back was to the pole and his hands were tied around it… beat, bruised and bloody, wearing only his jeans and a gag over his mouth. He seemed in an intense amount of pain, he was so weak it was a concentrated effort just to lift his head to look at his friends.

"God, Reid, what'd he do to you?" Tyler breathed in sympathy.

"Oh, you feel sorry for him?" Chase spat out as if shocked. "I'm impressed, Sims. You save the boy's life, go through hell in lab because of it, then he steals your girlfriend… and you still pity him! If that isn't friendship, I don't know what is…"

The theatre was suddenly quiet. Pogue and Caleb instinctively looked to Tyler, and they watched as Tyler's face plummeted, his eyes growing livid with fury to the max, so angry he was beyond words.

"Ohh…" Chase replied to this with an understanding nod. "I see… He didn't tell you…"

"You BASTARD!" Tyler shouted to Reid, whose face had also gone angry. Chase let Tyler rise to his feet, only to be held down again by both Caleb and Pogue.

"I should have let Abbott blow your BRAINS OUT!" Tyler kept right on yelling despite their attempts at calming him. "DAMN YOU!"

Reid could only look away from Tyler's accusing gaze. Reid's guilt was written all over his infuriated face. Caleb couldn't help but notice that Chase was closing his eyes, breathing in and out in enjoyment, as if strengthening himself in their turmoil.

"Now now!" Chase coaxed Tyler when he was through. "You can't kill him yet. We still have about five minutes before he Ascends. But before then—I need Caleb to hand over his Power to the entity… so I can take it. I need you to Use, Caleb… Use like you know you want to…"

Caleb furrowed his brow in concentration. Chase was right: the very thought made him breathe raggedly. He suppressed it quickly and looked his enemy in the eye.

"I didn't give it to you last year, I'm not giving it to you now."

"I figured as much," Chase replied with a nod. "So I made a little more… persuasion."

Caleb didn't like the sound of that one bit.

Chase showed his hands to the wing of the stage, where Sarah and Kate violently shoved Elle Bishop and Evelyn Danvers flat on their faces. Both appeared to be unconscious, but began to stir at their violent wake-up call.

"Mom!" Caleb called out. That explained why she had never showed for his big speech. She was busy being kidnapped by a madman. Caleb looked up at Chase with rage. By that madman…

Reid's eyes grew wide at the sight of Elle, her pants dirty and tattered, her hair a mess and her face streaked with tears. Reid hummed furiously again, incoherent, however apparent anger in his tone. Tyler, again, jumped on his feet and was immediately yanked back down.

"Does everybody hate me yet?" Chase asked loudly with a broad smile. "I think so…!"

He turned to Reid, looking up to him.

"Oh, that reminds me…" he said seriously, his voice falling low as if confessing a dark secret. "I wanted to be sure you knew… Your peach here, she was quite the tasty forbidden fruit, if you know what I mean. I enjoyed her thoroughly in my attempts to save my bloodline."

Reid's eyes grew wide, suspecting he understood his meaning quite well. Chase lifted himself to Reid's eye level, getting close to his face as to make sure he caught every word.

"I think she enjoyed it as much as I did… she sure sounded like she did…"

It was all said in Reid's eyes, which were locked upon Chase in a murderous glare. Chase was getting to him—badly. Caleb knew that was just what Chase wanted, to weaken Reid more… but it was beyond stopped now, especially at Chase's next words:

"Oh yes…" he hissed evilly near Reid's left ear. "She moaned like a cheap whore… over… and over again."

Reid suddenly went wild, using every ounce of strength he had trying to break free of his binds to get at Chase, screaming behind his gag.

"What was that?" Chase asked him, cupping his ear like he was deaf. "I didn't catch that…"

Reid just growled back, his frustration fuming. Chase laughed and turned back to his small audience.

"Time is running out, Caleb," he informed him. "Made your decision yet?"

"I think my decision was made clear," Caleb replied angrily, wishing desperately to rip him limb from limb.

"Alright…!" Chase gave in. "I didn't want it to have to come to this…"

A wave of his hand and suddenly all the women began to clutch their thoughts and cough, as if choking.

"No!" Pogue shouted in fear.

"They have about a minute and thirty seconds." Chase announced.

"Oh, shit…" Tyler breathed.

Chase stepped down the stairs of the stage, looking Caleb straight in the eye.

"But you could stop this right now, Caleb," Chase said. "Stop all the suffering, the torture, the untimely ends…"

Caleb clenched his fists in an effort to restrain the growing desire in him at the thought of Using. He was surprised how hard it was to calm himself down, to slow his racing heart. It was the sound of the girl's panicked screams that did him in.

"You want to so bad you can feel it in every vein in your cold body," Chase taunted.

Caleb shook his head, trying to ignore Chase's bait but his body willing him otherwise.

"Shut up," he commanded Chase, but it was futile.

"You crave it with every fiber of your being, every beat of your dead heart, never stopping for a second, never letting you breath without the thought nagging you in your head! Getting CLOSE, AREN'T I?"

He got in Caleb's face, and grinned, as if mocking him. His voice suddenly fell to an eerie calm.

"Welcome to my life," he finished. "Use, Caleb—just Use and we can all go home. It'll all be over in about a minute. Just GIVE ME your FREAKIN' POWER!"

A sound arose from behind Chase, and everyone froze. It was Reid, calling out in absolute pain. Thunder began to roll above them, soft at first, but only growing louder by the second. Chase looked over his shoulder at the screaming blond behind him, then slowly turned his head back to Caleb with wide eyes.

"Oohh…!" Chase said, his mocking smile growing with childlike excitement. "Too late…!!"

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This is a two-part chapter, so the second part will be up in a day or two at most. Please review.
Signed,
--RedRogue