Hey Guys, here's a new update! Also thank you demonbarber14 for being my beta and hope you are having some fun in London!
Chapter 5
Cold water pours over my face with Jazz saying, "Its wake up time!" She's sitting next to me on the bed with a pink bucket in her lap. With the pig tails and the girly pink dress she looks like she's ready for Easter. The injections marks on her arm kind of spoil the innocent girl effect. Even though cold water drips from my face my mind's still asleep. I lay back down with half closed eyes, mumbling, "Still dreaming."
"No you not," says Jazz. She forces my eyes open. God, she looks like she's ten. "Got to get up, boss. We're going to see the Wizard!"
I push her off, saying, "The Wizard can fuck himself. Now get me some water from the fridge, my mouth feels like the desert." Jazz skips to the kitchen while I drag myself out of bed. My body moans from the rigorous activities last night with Bright Eyes. One of the many, many special side effects from Bliss. Just so long as I don't get suicidal thoughts I'm good.
Closing my eyes I try to piece the fragments of my dreams. I can remember about three fragments. One fragment showed the Divine Brothers holding hands at a decrepit church. They were in the mist of revealing themselves but, quickly cuts to the second fragment. The next dream, I'm waving at myself in the mirror as Alexis. My reflection said, "Hi Zoya, I hope to see you soon." The last fragment is the one that gives me the creeps. The Steele girl I locked out last night was involved and it almost looked like one of my signature kills. She's strapped to the slab with her mouth split open and her organs pierced to the wall. The Glasgow smile and the ripped stomach would've been my doing but not piercing the organs. The organs I would've burned or eaten while I kept the bones, teeth and hair as trophies. To keep things creepier, the Steele girl was still alive. She looked at me, eyes blazing with fear. Before Jazz poured water in my face she told me this chilling message.
"She wanted you to know….you can't have Damien."
Processing the message in my head I asked myself, "What with the deal with the Anti-Christ?"
"Did you have fun with Bright Eyes?" I snap from my thoughts to see Jazz with a big one liter of water. She's smiling at my startled face, I hope I heard her wrong.
"What did you say?"
"I said, 'Did you have fun with Bright Eyes?' From the smell of sex and scratches on your body you guys really had a fun time." Looking down on myself, there were defiantly scratches and bite marks everywhere, including my back. Snatching the water I took a long guzzal in one breath. It wasn't vodka but it would do. Bright Eyes never marked me, even if he were to do something like this I always woke up without any injury. Imaginary desires aren't real, they shouldn't be able to cause something like this. Knowing Bright Eyes can mark me this badly I actually begin to get scared. This means he can inflict greater pain or worse kill me.
I turn around little too quickly as the rest of my sisters came in with really exciting news. Everything stung from the bruises and scratches. "Zoya, you need to see…what the hell happened to you?" says Natti. She's grinning ear to ear. I can imagine she's picturing what happened last night. She plops herself next to me and immediately I leave the bed wobbly. I needed a shower. A great way to escape Natti's prying. Almost close to the bathroom, Rachael grabs my arm. It stings like a bitch!
"What!"
"Who did this to you?" Her concern for my well being makes me hot and cold at the same time. I underestimated her feelings for me. Rachael doesn't have a crush on me, she loves me. This is worse than I thought, people in love are more likely to put themselves in danger. I yank my arm away from her. Her worry and heartbreak seemed to worsen in her hazel eyes.
"It's none of your business," I say. Rachael opened her mouth than closed it. Even though she's holding her tongue, she'll eventually push the issue on me later. Rachael is just one of those people that won't stop searching until they get to the bottom of it. Needing to get away from everyone, I walk to the bathroom looking calm as possible. When I finally get in the shower I fall apart crying. Rachael's going to die from love and I might be losing my mind.
Regaining my cool in the shower an hour later, I wrapped a towel around me and head out for my waiting sisters. Rachael's the only one there. She's in the processes of folding my clothes in my luggage. While she's so careful packing my stuff her hands looked a little shaky. I guess she was crying too. Taking a deep breath I say, "Thanks for helping me pack."
Rachael folds the last of shirt and turns toward me. Her eyes defiantly red from crying. I keep a blank face but I'm feeling bad on the inside. Grabbing a pink bra and underwear I say, "Look Rachael, we've talked about this last night. Our relationship can't go beyond friendship." In the process of strapping on my bra, Rachael asks something surprising.
"Was R the one here last night?" The way Rachael said it sounded like a growl. The anger in her eyes lit up like a bon fire. I try to focus on hooking my bra together but failing miserably. Rubick's creepy message from last night distracted me. This is one of those weird moments where I'm grateful to have Sparky, at least a little. My pussy might be an electric chair but that doesn't mean Rubick wants to put his dick in other places. Rachael turns me around and hooks my bra up and turns me again to face her. Her pretty face looked urgent and angry at the same time.
"Zoya, I need to know. Was R the one that did this to you?"
"No!" I say. I push her away and grab my Queen shirt and jeans. I put them both on in one quick session. Now I'm the one that's angry with her. "If you want to know who I was with last night so badly, I was with Bright Eyes! There, you happy?" Expecting her either walk off or get in a cat fight with me, she surprises me with a hug and a sigh of relief.
"Oh, thank God that's who you were with," she says. "I was about to go kick some ass and start a revolution."
I pull away from her gently. "Ok, I'm confused right now. How do you know Bright Eyes and why do you have beef against R?" Rachael laughs at my bafflement. She runs her hands though her hair smiling the whole way.
"Well, for one, Bright Eyes is defiantly real. Only I don't call him Bright Eyes, I call him Angel and we do a lot of Tank Girl role play together." I watch her savor the memories with my supposedly imaginary boyfriend doing fan fiction porn. I should be clawing her face off with jealousy but I seriously don't feel envious. It just seems stupid to bitch over something not of this world.
"But….how can he be real? He only appears when the Lynch takes over. He's supposed to be a figment of my hallucinogenic imagination."
"He's actually done the same to me too. When I asked him why he did it, his response was he didn't like it when people he loves pass him as fiction. You shouldn't worry though, he has no intention on killing us."
"How do you know?"
Rachael takes out a pen and takes my arm. "Just call his real name. He'll tell you why," she says. After writing the name down I want to scream in horror. On my right arm was written: DAMIEN. This just brings things to a whole new level of 'I'm so fucked'. Rachael saw how freaked out my face looks. She was about to ask me if I was ok when we heard a key turn and we spot Jazz opening the trap door. Where ever Jazz is going it's not good, not good at all.
Rachael walked over to the trap door while I stayed behind. I feel there's something down there that's not right. Once Rachael goes down calling for Jazz I finally yet unwillingly followed her. "Jesus, it smells bad down here," says Rachael. I cover my nose from the sudden stench. I knew that smell very well, the smell of death for some time. But that's impossible, I had no intentions of killing her. Just to say my thoughts out loud Rachael asks, "Did you kill someone last night."
Immediately, I say, "No, my intentions were to scare her, not kill her. If she's dead it had to be on accident or she killed herself." The smell was at its worst when we reached the bottom. It reminded me of the smell of three week old road kill drying up on the side of the road but ten times worse. It's a miracle I didn't barf.
"Then how do you explain that?" asks Rachael. She's pointing at the left side of the room. There was blood on the slab, the walls and the ceiling. Blood everywhere but no sign of the Steele girl. I'm shaking in my skin. I'd be cool as a cat if this was my doing but this piece of work belonged to someone way more evil then I (sounds strange but true). To make things even worse, this person's still here.
Sharp claws pierced into my right arm. I scream, "Something's on my arm! Get it off! GET IT OFF!" While Rachael tried to free me from whatever's clawing me to the bone, Jazz only watched utterly terrified and totally sober. It could've been seconds or hours but eventually the thing let go. The underside of my arm was clawed to the point where I can see muscle in replacement of Damien. Was Bright Eyes angry with me?
"It was the Red Lady," says Jazz. Her voice sounded like a child that found the Boogy Man is real. Rachael saves me in time as my legs betray me. She helps me to climb the ladder while Jazz stays put, babbling again, "It was the Red Lady."
"There is no such this as the Red Lady," says Rachael. "Now get your ass moving before I leave you there!" I wanted to correct her. Whatever he goes by, Bright Eyes, Angel or Damien, if he exist then there's a possibility everything else will exist too. Instead, I hang on to Rachael for dear life. Things were getting out of focus as we left the room. Once we were in the hallway I spotted a graffiti painting of a girl in a hot pink raincoat and umbrella.
I point at the girl, laughing like a drunk. "Look…I know that girl," I say. "I was into so much pink back in the day." At that moment everything became too much, my mind and body went night-night.
I woke up to a stinging sensation on my arm. Through a blur it looked like a knife stabbing my arm in fast speed. There wasn't any red oozing out. I wonder if I'm dead and this is God punishing me at last. My voice sounded groggy when I spoke, "What's…..happening?" Someone takes my left hand, I squeeze back in response and turn to see Rachael sitting next to me. She looks so tired.
"You're in the RV and being treated at the same time," says Rachael. She gives me the sweetest smile in the world. I can't help but smile back.
"Well, this is my lucky day," I say. I look at my right arm. It's not a knife but a Healing Needle picking my arm. The Healing Needle can heal almost anything. Halfway healed I can see it left half a name: DAM. Half that name makes me nervous, this proves there's power in that name and he's on my arm forever. I have a feeling things are going to get ugly soon.
"Are you alright?" asks Rubick. His voice almost makes me jump, almost snagging myself on the Needle.
"Yeah…I'm fine," I say. I hope I didn't sound nervous. "I just got attack by….something."
"That I believe," says Rubick. "But what about the other marks on your body?" Silent for a few seconds I thought up a good enough lie.
"They were from the Steele girl. We had a lot of fun last night. Even said it was the best last night of her life." I waited for what felt like an eternity for him to say something. I didn't like the silence, it meant he didn't believe me. After a long minute, he finally spoke and changed the subject.
"You have two assignments in Wichita. One at Wichita State and the other at Century 2. You'll be there for a week." Ah Gee, there's no place like home. Once Rubick clicked off I can finally breathe. I swear he can be unpredictable at times, especially when he's calm. Thinking of Rubick I turn to Rachael.
"You said something about R, Right?"
"Yeah," says Rachael. Still holding my hand, she looked like she wanted to talk yet didn't want to at the same time. I sense Rubick did something to Rachael.
"What did he do to you?"
Rachael let go of my hand. Her eyes downcast and baring her teeth. After seconds went by she says, "He does it to most of the female casts. Some more times than others. With me I endured him twice." I look up to the ceiling and felt a sense of unease. There's no use playing around it, Rubick's been raping my sisters and maybe I'm next.
"Who else in our group had to 'endure' R?"
"He hasn't got to Jazz yet but she was forced to watch Natti suffer at least once which is lucky. I had to watch the other five times."
"And what about Billi Jean?"
"He liked her the most. He must have forced her over forty or so times." Hearing the news, everything dawns on me at once. I put my hand over my face with a silent 'oh god'. No wonder Billi Jean killed herself. As bad as this sounds I'm a little relieved. For a while I thought Billi Jean had the hots for me too. I turn to Rachael again, her eyes gleaming with shame.
"Why didn't you tell me before?"
"Because you have Sparky," she says. Her voice sounded painful. "Did he say anything weird to you last night?"
"Yeah, he asked me about my dreams," I say. "I joked that I was dreaming about him but he took me seriously and wanted to know what we were doing in dream land." Rachael's eyes were wide open with horror. She takes my hand one last time.
"Listen to me very carefully, Zoya. If he ever tries to give you a drink, pretend to drink it. I don't know what kind of drug he gives us but it makes our bodies useless while our minds are awake. That's only the first time. If he likes it enough, he'll let you put up a fight at least for a while. Natti fought tooth and nail but unfortunately we had to pin her down. She wouldn't talk to Jazz and I for a week. With me I didn't fight back at all, probably the reason he lost his interest in me."
I ball my hands into fists. I want to punch him in the face. "Is there anything else I should know?"
"Be wary if he doesn't put on a condom," says Rachael. Tears poured down her face like rain. "The second time he did it, he didn't wear one. After he was done with me I felt this strange emotion that wasn't my own, like I wasn't me. He didn't just violated my body, he violated my soul. I don't know if its his penis or his semen but he made me love him. When he was done he left me lying there and I begged him to stay." Rachael paused, her body shook in pain from telling the truth. People say the truth shall set us free, they forgot to mention how painful that freedom could be. Rachael continued. "He told me I wasn't worth a third time and I felt heartbroken….so heartbroken." Rachael covered her face and cried. I reached out to touch her arm.
"Why didn't you tell me this?" Rachael pulls her hands away, her face red like pomegranate.
"Because I thought Sparky would protect you but, I think Rubick has some other plans if he's asking about you. That's kind of what he did to Natti and I. He asks if you find him interesting and if you say yes, he'll find a way to get you alone with him. So if I were you I'd keep Sparky a little longer, he prefers vaginal the most." Rarely I'm glad to have a Sparky and today was one of those times. The Healing Needle stops once my arm is healed and embrace Rachael in a hug, the closest I can get to being intimate without risking our lives. While Rachael cries on my shoulder I look at the new tattoo on my arm: DAMIEN. At least I won't forget the name.