Chapter 9: The Second Time

They spoke at the exact same time, with the same tone. They were filled with shock, stun, surprise, whatever else you can think of. I glanced between the two of them, baffled; did they know each other? And if they did, how did they? I admit that there was a lot about both of them that they didn't know, but still, I would have thought I'd known if Arsenio and Daniel knew one another.

"What's going on?" I asked, confused.

No answer.

"Someone answer me!" I cried, starting to get scared.

"Elena," Arsenio said softly, dangerously, "Move away from him, now."

"Arsen-."

"Now Elena! He's dangerous!" That made Daniel break.

"Me, dangerous?" he shouted, "You're forgetting our past! Unless you forget, I am not the one that landed the last blow! I am not the one that exploded with jealously and refused to listen to reason! You dare call me dangerous, Emil?"

Emil? Who was that? "You cannot put the blame solely on me!" Arsenio shot right back, "I will admit to having some fault, but it was yours as well as mine! We both agreed to not knowing who was the one that landed the blow! You did not try to stop me, Davide; you cannot not blame me only and not yourself!" Who the hell is Davide?

"I believe I can," Daniel snarled. "You admitted it yourself: you felt soft flesh before she fell. You told me that to my face right after she felt lifeless at our feet. I have no blame in this and you know it; you merely seek to put the blame elsewhere, even if you know it does not belong there."

"What did you expect would happen?" Arsenio demanded, "I freely admit to be the cause of her death, but did you not expect it? We did not know we were with the same woman! You stole her from me! I had her first!"

Daniel snapped. He moved faster than my eyes could see, charging at Arsenio with a murderous look in his eyes. The next second, they were on the floor, grappling and clawing at each other. "How dare you!" he growled, "How dare you say that! Alana loved me!"

Arsenio shouted something incomprehensible to me, and I saw Daniel shout something back. At that moment, I could hear nothing but the pounding blood in my ears. What the heck was happening to me? Without thinking, I launched myself onto them. I knew my mouth was open, but what I was saying, I did not know. Perhaps I was screaming too, perhaps I was yelling at them to stop, or maybe I was just scared. Whatever it was, it didn't matter at the moment; I just needed them to damning stop before they murdered themselves!

Somehow, along the way, I was pulled into the fray, and I was getting beaten alive, no exaggeration. Both men were freakishly strong, and in their hatred of each other, they didn't seem to notice that I was in the middle. I begged, them to stop, even as I felt an elbow catch me in the stomach, and a fist to my face. At that point, I was so deep into the battle that I couldn't have gotten out if I wanted to, and while my health told me I would faint if I didn't get out, I refused to leave until they were far away from each other and not damning fighting!

I felt a hand on my chest, and a small force on it. A second later, I was forced out of the fight and slammed into a wall. The force with which I hit the wall was enough to make stars jump out in front of my eyes, causing me to lose consciousness for a second. "Elena!" I heard both men yell vaguely.

It was too much. The pain they were causing by fighting, combined with the pain of the hit was enough to make me black out for a second. It made me lose focus, made me wonder if it was better to just knock myself out and be done with. Perhaps that was the best course of action; I didn't really know. The only thing I really knew at that moment was that I hurt, both inside and out.

My mind seemed to retreat from my tired body and curled up on itself. The action gave me enough energy to think, without the pain of my physical body to disrupt me. Once there, thoughts exploded through my mind, the first and foremost being 'Who the hell are Emil and Davide?' Then came the following parts, like 'How do they now each other?' and 'Is Daniel the best friend Arsenio told me about before?' The thoughts overrode my mind, driving me crazy with confusion. I wanted to retreat from it all, sleep, anything that would not pain me more than I already was. But hell, when had things ever gone my way?

I felt an aching inside my skull, kind of like a pressure building. It pressed the inside of my skull, growing stronger and stronger until I screamed in pain. What was this? Why was this happening? What was going on damn it? I fled from the pressure, trying to hide, but I couldn't. The pressure followed me, growing stronger the more I fled from it. Vaguely, I thought I could hear voices inside it, but I didn't know for sure. Excuse me for not knowing though; I was somewhat busy screaming to pay attention. The pressure kept building to the point where I thought my head would just explode with it.

There was a small part of my brain that thought that I would escape it if I just went with it, but I knew that was stupid beyond belief. If I went with it, I would not be able to resist, and the pressure would probably kill me. Maybe I kept screaming; I don't know, and I really didn't care. I just knew it hurt like hell.

Through my haze of pain, I felt heaviness within my body, kind of like how you feel after eating a lot, but worse. I tried to force it away, preferring the pain to it. There was something in me that recognized it, but from where I could not remember. However, the more I pushed on it, the closer it came; it refused to leave me alone!

In an attempt to escape it, I retreated further into myself, wounding myself up tighter within the little ball I had imagined. Why wouldn't everything just leave me alone already! I wanted them all to be gone and away from me! The pain was eating at me inside my body, making me scream continuously, and the heaviness on my body felt like it would crush me. Trust me; it wasn't the most comfortable feeling ever.

I was pretty sure that at some point, I had started writhing around on the floor, screaming. Why would nothing leave me alone so I could pay attention to Daniel and Arsenio? I fought against the forces as hard as I could; I really did, but who was I to fight against the supernatural?

The moment I finished that thought, something to spoke to me. That's right, girlie, who are you to fight against the supernatural? Now, allow me to have your body; I have things of importance that I need done.

Panic overrode my body as I tried to search in my mind for the source of the voice. "Where are you!" I screamed, "Go away! Leave me alone!" Fear crashed through me, drowning me completely. "Go away!" I screamed again. My heart was pounding; my brain was turning off with my panic attack. All I could do was scream at it to go away from me, whatever 'it' was.

"You said yourself you are no one to fight against the supernatural, and the supernatural I am. So, having confirmed that, give me your body!" The voice continued speaking to me, ignoring my protests and screaming.

"Please!" I sobbed, "Go away! Leave me alone!" Maybe tears were streaming down my face; I didn't know. With the mess going on inside my body, it was a miracle I still knew my own damn name!

The voice continued to ignore my pleas, and it kept trying to ask me nicely. I knew its patience was wearing thin, and I hoped that if I continued to refuse, it would eventually just leave me alone. Oh, how wrong I was. "Enough! Give me your body or I will subject you to pain so great you will not know your own name!"

That scared me, but I refused once more, hoping to dear Lord whatever it was, was bluffing. It wasn't. Pressure built inside my brain, squeezing it, and made me scream again. I felt like my head was going to explode! On and on it went inside my head, then my stomach, and my chest, everywhere. She went around it in cycles, staying just long enough to cause me pain that made me wish I could die before moving on to the next. She stopped just enough to give my body time to relax before going at it again.

"Okay!" I screamed at last, "Take it! Just please stop already! Please!"

I felt a deep sort of satisfaction emanating from whatever it was, and the pressure increased. I let out another scream, clawing at myself with my hands. "I thought I said you could take it!"

"Yes, you did, but no one ever said it wouldn't hurt when I did," it hissed savagely. The pain increased inside my body and I kept screaming, clawing at whatever I could.

"Stop!" I screamed, over and over again. "Please! Stop!" It was a miracle I could still speak or even think amongst my screams.

The pressure kept increasing within me, and slowly, it started stopping. I could feel myself being pulled away from my body, ever so slowly. The force was soothing, and barely painful at all. In my logic, I reasoned, the further I got from my body, the less pain I would feel, since it was my body that was full of pain.

As I kept drifting out of it, I remembered what had happened the last time this had happened. "Emil is Arsenio," my brain told me, "The lady who wants my body said so. Arsenio called her Alana, so Alana is take over my body? Isn't Alana dead? Arsenio told me he killed her by accident though. Besides, Daniel knows it too, seeing as how those two are still probably battling it out. Logic follows that if Arsenio is Emil, then Daniel must be Davide, but what is up with those names? Their names are Arsenio and Daniel, aren't they? Why the hell did they call each other Emil and Davide? Are those even real names? Hell, what's going on?"

I compared what I had concluded with what I had experienced myself. The voice had been undoubtedly female, but with a childish hint to it. Well, Arsenio did say she was what, 14, when she died, so no surprises I guess. Furthermore, Alana seemed to know about Arsenio, well, so there was no one else it could be. I briefly wondered how either guy could have fallen for her; she was so creepy it was… creepy. Hell, that doesn't make sense, does it? Also, from what Alana had done to me as a person, she really wasn't all that nice; she'd basically forced me out of my body. I wasn't sure how that worked elsewhere, but in Elena's world, it certainly qualified as bitchy attitude. Hell, how could Arsenio fall for a girl like this? She was frickin' horrible!

By the time I had made those conclusions, I was already fully out of my body. I was in my house still, and I could see what was going on now, but I wasn't inside my body. Weird…

It occurred to me that Alana had said she was the supernatural, so I frowned. How was Alana supernatural if she had been killed so easily? Unless Arsenio was lying to me? Ugh, my brain hurt just thinking about all of it. It made sense that she was supernatural; she had taken over my body after all, and I was pretty damn sure the law of physics said that wasn't suppose to be possible. However, there was the possibility that this was all a dream. Considering the pain I had felt though, I was pretty damn sure it was no dream, no matter how much I would prefer it if it were one. Ah hell, whatever.

I tuned in to what was happening in my living room. My parents seemed to be frozen in the place, with their eyes wide and their mouths open to speak. I willed myself to move closer to them, and what do you know, I could. On closer inspection, I noticed they actually were frozen. "Shoot! What the hell did she do to them?" I cried in annoyance. I briefly considered trying to snap them out of it, but knew it was probably better if they didn't see what was going on, so I decided against it.

I turned to Arsenio and Daniel. They were both shaking me, while fighting at the same time. "Elena! Wake up!" Daniel cried, shaking me and slapping me, or rather, my body, gently.

"She isn't waking up, and it's been what, an hour!" Arsenio fretted, trying to push Daniel out of the way while he held me gently. Seriously? It's been an hour? No way man; I would have known if it'd been that long! Apparently though, I didn't.

"Let go of her!" Daniel demanded, "She's my girlfriend! She chose me first this time!"

"No, she chose me first," Arsenio snapped back, "I just made sure she stayed away; I didn't need to get close to her and she didn't need to get close to me, not after what happened to Alana."

"Then you should have stayed away!" Daniel hollered, "She just admitted she loved me today! Don't get in the way again!"

"Alana chose me first and you know it!" Arsenio roared, "She loved me better!"

"If that was true, why did she date me as well?"

"If it weren't true, she would have broke up with me! Admit it! You're just jealous that she always loved me more than you!"

Man, were they seriously fighting now when I was laying there screaming my head off? It occurred to me that I should have been still, now that Alana was in my body, and yet, I was still screaming. Was that to throw off the guys? To make them think that it was still I in there?

I tuned out to their conversation, focusing myself on my own body. It was so weird to see myself as I was, instead of a mirror. For once, I got to see myself as other people saw me, and it was pretty damn interesting. Perhaps I should have been freaking out, but I wasn't; I was perfectly peaceful. How odd… Ah hell, whatever; it didn't matter too much. All that really mattered at that moment was that I had to make the most of the experience and learn as much as I could.

Or at least, I tried to. I grimaced in distaste as I listened to myself scream non-stop. It hurt my ears, and made me think that I myself should be feeling pain, but I wasn't. Trust me on this; it's very, very disconcerting hearing yourself scream, but not feeling anything to make you scream. Hell, I had to make myself shut up, or I would wake the whole neighborhood! Hell, what is wrong with me? That doesn't even make sense! I had to stop thinking of my body as me; it was Alana now, and I probably couldn't do anything about it until she let me take it back…

Alana didn't move, but she did stop screaming. Both guys looked at her, puzzled, as she grew completely and utterly still. I felt a sense of foreboding, and I knew she was going to do something to them. I didn't know what she was going to do, but I knew it was bad. They had to get out of there.

I rushed to their side and tried to get their attention, anything. I screamed in Daniel's face, I slapped Arsenio, but they didn't notice; they just kept their eyes on Alana. I screamed in frustration! They had to damning get out of there! Alana meant to harm them, and I cared to much about both of them to let them get hurt! "Daniel!" I screamed in his face, "Listen to me! You have to get out of there!" No answer. I turned to Arsenio, giving up on Daniel. "Please! Arsenio! Leave my body alone damn it! It's not me in there! Please get out of there! Hurry up!" He gave no indication he even knew I as there, which he probably didn't.

"Alana!" I screamed at my body, "Stop it! Don't hurt them! Please!" It must be ignore Elena day, because no one in hell was paying any attention to me at all. "Alana!" I hollered, "Stop this damn it!"

Too late. Arsenio and Daniel were thrown away from my body with a sudden burst of power, and I could do nothing about it. I could only watch helplessly as they both smashed into opposite walls with a hard 'thump' sound and slid to the ground, wincing and rubbing their heads. They were not allowed to go any further, either of them; they were being held back by some force. Daniel looked confused, but Arsenio seemed to know what was going on. I saw him mouth the words, "Oh no…" right before the not-me spoke.

"You two… You are the reason my body lies in the cold earth."