Author's Note: Yet another chapter! I'm really getting strong vibes from this story lately, so the updates hopefully will be often. Many thanks to my few but faithful reviewers! I really appreciate it.
turtle: Yeah, Wisteria has been through a lot. She's pretty messed up from it, and no...the light was never flickering. Her imagination is getting out of hand.
My PenName is...:I couldn't have taken it either. I would just be a vegetable for the rest of my life.
Special note to Kelly: this chapter includes your characters, so you had better review!
Logan surveyed her carefully, but he was true to his usual nature. He didn't question it. "Okay. Just take it easy. You look a little pale." Logan turned and stalked off down the hall, leaving Wisteria alone once more. She could feel her entire body shaking, her mind reeling with what she had just seen. She didn't feel tired, but she must be...but she was fully awake when she had heard White speak. He had to be hear, using a halucinogen. He had done it before, many times...but that had been nearly a year ago. And she had never found him, never killed him. He was the last one. All the others she had proven dead...every single one, except him. Was it possible that he was now back to take her back?
Her fist clenched suddenly and her eyes burned in anger. That would never happen. She would die before going back to that horrible place.
Never. Never, never, never.
She needed to drive, hard and fast, away from here. Going to a row of keys that was hung on the wall nearest the double doors, she selected Jamie's old car. She was no longer alive, and Ben refused to drive it, so what was the point in it sitting unused? It had been Scott's car before Scott had given it to his daughter as a gift. Now she could almost see it as an escape. Jamie had provided several of those...escapes for her anger, excuses for her absences, ways for her to get out of anything, even if she didn't give Jamie an explanation. Jamie had been good for things like that.
The cherry red mustang sat in the garage, just waiting for her. She didn't even wait for the electronic gates leading to the outside roads to open fully. As soon as they would even barely admit the mustang she zoomed through and turned dangerously fast on the dirt road, kicking up dust. Wisteria had to be doing close to ninety by the time she reached any main roads. It felt good. She was letting the music pound through the stereos, not even thinking of the song, or where she was going, or what she was running from...or even who she was. It was like old times.
The music seemed to agree with her.
If you want me, hold me back.
Frail. The skin is dry and pale.
The pain will never fail.
And so it goes back to the remedy.
Clip the wings that get you high.
Just leave them where they lie
And tell yourself
"You'll be the death of me."
(A/N--Seether, Remedy)
She was letting go of everything now, even her thoughts. Sometimes Arianne didn't exist. They were two seperate people now. Two seperate worlds now. Arianne was dead...Wisteria had killed her too. She had killed everything, even the memories. That's what ghosts were for. And soon she would make them go away, she would make it all disappear.
Wisteria jumped when she heard a friendly, familiar voice beside her and turned her head to see her father, head wounded, smiling at her and teaching her to drive, as he had when she was younger. "You don't have to drive so fast. Yeah, it feels good, but it get you killed. Just ease off the gas and maybe even press the brakes a little bit. Beyond that you're doing fine."
Wisteria was about to reply, close her eyes and try to block out the wound that was still leaking blood. Blood, dark blood.
A loud car horn sounded, and she could hear her father shouting. "Ari, look out!"
Wisteria saw the headlights a moment too late.
She woke up warm, sleepy, tired, and weak. Her vision was somewhat blurred and there was a low light shining next to her. Someone was standing over her and bathing her forehead with a warm cloth. Arianne tried to sit up, but whoever was watching over her gently laid a hand on her shoulder. "Lay back down, child. It's alright. My name is Jeff; I'm taking care of you."
She was to weak to disobey, even though he didn't try to force her to lie back down. She felt the man's hand stopping her from laying back down completely, and a glass was pressed to her lips, cold water pouring down her throat. He then let her lay back down and continued to bathe her forehead with cool water. A door opened somewhere and someone came in.
"How is she?"
"She awake, a little, but the fever is still pretty bad. I've gotten most of the wounds bandaged up."
"Has she said anything yet?"
"No, but I'd love to get my hands on whoever did this to this poor kid. She's been half starved."
Whoever had entered exited just as quickly, and the blurry form of Jeff turned back to her. "What's your name, darlin'?" He waited for her to respond while she tried to process the question. It didn't make much sense. A name came to her mind, but it didn't seem to make any sense or fit with her at all. Arianne Devon couldn't be her...or if it was, it wasn't anymore...then she heard a little girl's voice in the back of her head.
Can I name you?...I think you should be Wisteria.
"Wisteria." She whispered, then shivered. The warm, toasty room had suddenly turned ice cold. Her body was shaking before she could stop it, breaking out in a cold sweat. Jeff's voice was calming.
"Go to sleep, Wisteria. It'll be okay. Whatever you've escaped from, you're safe here."
So she went to sleep, completely oblivious to the world.
The room felt neither warm nor cold when she next awoke. The room felt too completely closed in, haunted and dark, small.
Panic raised in her throat like a disease. Even though this room had a small lamp and a bed, no stone, and some small boxes, plus a window, it was still closed in. It was a cell. Why was she here?
There had been someone here named Jeff. But he might be a plant sent by them. He might try to smuggle her back, coax her back, and then they'd beat her for leaving. She had to get out of there.
Wisteria's limbs stretched uncomfortably as she climbed out of bed, and for a moment she fell, too weak to walk well. But she crawled to the window, unlatching it and crawling out, the nightair hitting her. She welcomed it and yet it frightened her, all in one small moment. Even worse than the closed in room she had just left, this was so much space. So much room to run around and for the unknown to hunt and find her. She felt so small and inadequate as she crawled from the windowsill to the small drop below and just lay in the grass below, unable to move a bit further for a moment. Car horns blared in the distance and she moaned, unaware of what she listening to; it had been so long since she had heard a cricket, the sound of rushing traffic, the smell of grass...rain.
Rain. It was falling on her softly. She shivered at first, but it felt good...it washed through the thin wrappings that she realized covered her wounds from the whip weals and the other cuts, and the flannel outfit she was now clad it. Warm and light, it soaked through to her, and she just lay there letting it hit her softly, not causing any pain...it was just like soft taps on her body.
There were voices inside the room she left now. Jeff's, and then two others.
"We found her about two days ago, Jamie. I was hoping you could...she's gone."
A male's voice sounded. "As bad off as you say she was, and she's gone?"
Jeff spoke again. She could hear the frown in his voice. "She was still crawling when I found her. It looked like she had gone several hundred miles."
Now a female spoke. "Are you sure she didn't get these injuries while she was on the road?"
"No, Jamie. There were words burned into her...it was horrible."
Wisteria, looking up, could barely see the light washing over the window sill. She watched as a readheaded girl leaned out of the window and looked out into the night. Wisteria held her breath, hoping the girl would not look down where she was clearly visible, but the girl did not, only turned back into the other room. "Well, she couldn't have gotten far, Jeff. Did she say what her name was?"
"She called herself Wisteria."
She heard the boy snort. "Nice choice. No wonder this girl got beat up." There was a sound of something getting smacked, and the boy cried out. "Hey, what was that for?"
"For being an insensitive jerk, LeBeau." The girl called Jamie could be heard moving farther into the room. "Com'on, Ben. We gotta look for her. You wanna help, Jeff?"
"No. I better stay here in case she comes back."
"Good idea."
They wouldn't find her. They wouldn't...she lay there in the falling rain and felt the fatigue running through her. She was even too tired to move as another wave of fear washed through her when she heard a voice whisper in her mind...in her mind!...it sounded like the girl's...Jamie's...voice.
.:Don't be afraid. Stay there. We're coming to get you.:.
Coming to get her? Get her where? Wisteria struggled to her feet and lurched off down the alleyway, moving slowly and slipping once in the mud. She didn't trust these people, whoever they were. She had to get away from there.
A little way down the alleyway, she felt someone grab her mouth and hands from behind and pull her into another dark corner. "Shh..." The person who was pressed up against her whispered. "Com'on. I know where yeh can go, mate. They won' find yeh there." A girl's voice whispered in her ear, and she felt herself lifting from the ground. Part shock and part fatigue caused her to loose conscience.
Dani frowned, still thinking of whatever Wisteria had babbled as she left the room. Were her eyes decieving her, or did her friend look a little paler than usual? Like, in fright?
No. Wisteria was never afraid. She was often angry, always brave, sometimes condescending, but never afraid...well, maybe that was too much. Someone had to be afraid of something at some point.
But of a lightbulb?
There was a notebook that Dani didn't recognize lying on Wisteria's bed. It didn't look like one of her old school books, plus it was summer. No school, so why would Wisteria drag out her stuff?
Dani flipped through it, finding pages after pages of Wisteria writings and drawings...drawings of crude and horrible faces, twisted with cruelty and malice yet depicted with such description and detail that they looked real. As if they could leap off the pages. But mainly there was writing. Pages of it.
She thought about sitting down and reading it, but was interrupted when the phone rang.
"Hello? Xavier's School For Gifted Youngsters. Danielle Reynolds speaking." Dani answered cheerfully, but quickly slammed the phone down once the voice on the other end had said all she needed to hear. She ran downstairs, intent on getting the Proffessor and speeding in the Xvan to get to the hospital.
What the hell had that girl done to herself now?