A.N - Well, if anybody is still with me on this ... I love you. xD

Seriously though, I'm sorry for the delay between chapters. But there isn't much left - maybe one or two. So, thanks to anybody still reading and I'll really try to get this finished before Christmas.

There was an other-worldly glow out of the corner of my eye and I turned to see Josefina de Silva, glaring at me with hate in her eyes.

"How could you?" She shouted at me. "How could you do that to him? For Paul Slater?!"

I shook my head, silently asking her to leave it for now. I felt bad enough.

But again, Paul stopped me.

"Oh yeah." He turned and stared straight at Jesse's sister. "The ghost. I was wondering when you would turn up."

--- --- ---

Suze Simon's To-Do List:

1. Get out of this mess.

2. Find Jesse.

3. Make sure Paul Slater never sets foot anywhere near us again.

Chapter Eleven

That sentence, coupled with said ghost who was screaming at me and the pain everywhere – I had just survived a high speed car chase, after all – left me no choice. I burst into tears.

Paul, however, ignored me - some boyfriend he would have been – not that I wanted to go out with him. I had Jesse. At least I hoped I still did.

"Yeah, that's right," Paul continued. "I can see ghosts." He rounded his gaze on me. "And I know you can as well. Part of your appeal to me, shall we say?"

His gaze softened as he saw the state I was in and he wrapped his arms around me.

"It's okay, baby," he soothed me – or at least tried to. "I'll have her gone soon."

I pushed him away, the tears steadily cascading down my cheek, and spoke in a hoarse voice.

"I am not your baby." I spat. "And I want Josefina to stay."

Instead of being the slightest bit hurt – which was rather disheartening. Didn't I mean anything to him? – Paul laughed wryly, spurring me to carry on talking. Which was probably one of my bigger mistakes.

"If you think, even for just one second, that I would ever choose you over Jesse, then you're wrong." I tried to make my voice as poisonous as possible.

Paul wasn't fazed.

"You know what?" He asked conversationally. "I had a feeling that was the case."

I felt myself pale.

"Which is why-" He cut himself off and grabbed my wrist painfully tight as he pulled me towards him. "- he never left."

Paul's hand gripped my cheeks and pushed my face towards a large window I had been too preoccupied to notice before now.

"He's right there," Paul assured me. "He's watching our every move whilst my two men are flanking him."

My eyes widened as I looked straight into Jesse's eyes – I could see him clearly, his hair matted with dried blood as his eyes betrayed the hurt he felt – willing him to forgive me.

"And another thing," Paul leaned down to place his lips next to my ear, the result sending shivers down my spine. "He can't hear a word spoken. Think for a minute Susannah, how intimate do we look right now?"

I froze in Paul's arms. He was right. I was in Paul's arms, his lips at my ear with his hand cupping my cheek.

Jesse must genuinely think that I chose Paul.

My head whipped towards the window.

"Jesse!" I screamed, willing him to look up at me once again. His head had drooped to the floor. "Jesse!"

Paul laughed.

"He can't hear you." He paused, thinking. "It's like that film – 'No One Can Hear You Scream'."

Though someone, the one person both of us had forgotten about, could.

Paul was thrown away from me by superhuman strength, belonging to the girl Paul Slater had inadvertently murdered two years ago.

"Really?" She asked, her anger coming off of her in waves. "'Cos I can."

She ignored Paul the second he was unconscious on the floor and walked towards me.

"It's okay Suze." She smiled. "I know why you did that to my brother. And I'm sorry I reacted the way I did."

I smiled at her.

"Can't really blame you," I admitted. "I would have acted the same way too."

I wrapped my arms around her in a hug. It felt nice to know at least one member of the De Silva family liked me at the moment.

The thought made me glance towards the window where I'd last seen Jesse … only to find no one – I could only assume that Paul's goons had ran away in fear at the sight of their boss being thrown around by an unseen force.

I untangled myself from Josefina's arms, and ran through the twisted corridors of the place I was in – probably a warehouse of some kind, god forbid Paul Slater set up his hostages in style – desperate to try and find Jesse.

It wasn't long before I saw a door flung wide open, a spot of blood marring the dirty floor just outside of the doorway, and a head of curly hair belonging to none other then Jesse De Silva.

I screamed his name in fear – he was so still – as I skidded on the floor beside him, ignoring the pain in my probably broken ribs and hissing at the tenderness of my wrist from where Paul had grabbed it not five minutes ago.

His dark curls felt strangely soft under my fingers as I placed his head in my lap and checked his neck for a pulse. There was one there … but it was weak. He'd lost a lot of blood; my eyes were steadily focused on his closed eyelids to avoid the sight of his blood-drenched shirt.

"You'll be fine, Jesse," I whispered to him, kissing his forehead as I gently rested his head against the floor again. "I promise you."

I turned my head slightly to find Josefina standing over her brother protectively.

"Could you find my cell phone?" I asked her quietly. "It has to be here somewhere – we can call an ambulance."

Josefina nodded and disappeared leaving me alone in an empty store room with the unconscious body of my boyfriend – or, at least, he used to be.

I'd never thought that my once-in-a-lifetime chance of coming to LA and dancing for a celebrity would end up like this. The whole thing was just so surreal. I'd came to Los Angeles to dance – to feel free and powerful, like I could do anything – and, as luck may have it, I found Jesse, the most perfect gentleman this side of the Pacific Ocean. The man I loved.

Yeah, that's right. I love him. I, Susannah Simon, love Jesse De Silva.

"I love you." I whispered.

Only he was a bit too unconscious to reply with anything right now.

The wooden floorboards creaked behind me.

"Aw," Paul Slater mocked me. "How disgusting."

I stood slowly and turned to face him, a cold look on my face as I saw his hand come up to self-consciously soothe the bruise Josefina had created on his head.

"Just what, exactly," I asked, "is your problem?"

Paul looked ready to explode, his tanned cheeks darkening to a bright red with fury.

"He is!" Paul thundered. "Jesse De Silva is my problem!"

I shrugged.

"Sorry, I'm afraid he can't help you with that." I smirked as Josefina appeared behind him. "But I know someone who can."

Paul was on the floor in the next second, trapped by the chair Josefina had made pin him down.

"His sister."

She smiled triumphantly and threw my cell phone to me, which I caught easily and immediately began dialling 911.

"Hello, emergency services," a nasal-voiced woman greeted me. "What is your emergency?"

"We need an ambulance, desperately," I begged her. "And the police."

"Please state your location and -"

The voice was cut off as my cell phone was taken from my hand and snapped in the larger hands of one Paul Slater.

"Josefina -" I gasped.

"- is no longer with us." Paul finished. "It's such a shame too, she was such a pretty girl."

Jesse groaned deeply as he slowly came to – though not loud enough for Paul to hear. At this point in time I could only hope that Paul kept his attention on me – Jesse didn't deserve to be punished any more for liking me.

"Guess it's just you and me now, baby." Paul drawled. "Who's going to save you now?"

I have such bad luck.