Oh my god! I haven't updated since September! I'm so sorry! I've been real busy! I hope none of you readers hate me. ^^;
Loveless
Chapter 17
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Jack's POV
Muffy and I ran up the path that led to the mansion. It turns out that said mansion was on a steep hill, so it was kinda hard to run, but I didn't care. I was still determine to save Celia and stop Victor, the homicidal maniac.
When the hill got too steep, Muffy stopped running and tried to catch her breath. Her hair wasn't sticking in weird places anymore, but she still looked a mess. Her shoes were worn, her dress was disheveled and dirty, and her hair was ruffled. I stared at her, taking in her strange appearance. The usual beautiful Muffy was looking like this? Wow.
After she finally caught her breath, she looked at me irritably and mumbled, "What?"
I scratched my head nervously and faltered under her piercing glare. "I-it's just that--"
She rolled her eyes and started to walk away. "I already know how I look." She stopped and turned back to me. "If you say anything about it, you die." I nervously laughed as she angrily walked. Maybe her messed up appearance was getting to her...
Muffy's yelling snapped me out of my thoughts. "Come on, Jack! I thought you wanted to save Celia! Not think about how messed up I look!"
I cursed myself for my absent-mindness and continued on my way to the mansion.
Celia's POV
My eyes opened, but I couldn't see anything. I slowly sat up and looked around, but I couldn't see anything. I was in a dark room by the looks of it. My head throbbed in pain and I clutched it. Why was my head hurting so bad?
All I could remember was sneaking out of Victor's jail cell and he found me. "I think... a guard hit me over the head and knocked me out... then I ended up here..." I murmured to myself.
All of a sudden a heard clapping, and someone chanting the words, "Bravo. Bravo. You got it right." All the lights in the room came on and it wasn't so dark anymore. I saw Victor walking up to me with a twisted smile on his face. He was still clapping too.
I stood up from my spot on the ground and glared at him. "What are you going to do?" I tried to sound angry and irritable, but my voice came out hastily and shaky.
He chuckled--obviously hearing the unsureness in my voice. "Seems like someone is sacred." He stopped smiling and gave me a serious expression. "Well you have a damn good reason to be, wench. Once I'm done with you, you're as good as dead."
My eyes at the realization of him killing me, but I shook my head and regained my composure. "No! You're.... you're wrong! I know that someone will save me... Jack will save me!" I stood straight and proud. I was going to show Victor that he didn't scare me. And even if he did kill me, I bet he was going to get arrested or possibly killed as well.
He haughtily scoffed. "You must not know me very well. I won't hesitate to kill you, you know. I did kill your mother after all." He then covered his mouth and mockingly said, "Oops. I wasn't supposed to say that. Heh."
I felt tears well up in my eyes. Victor was the one who caused mother's death? I already hated him, but this just made it worse! I loved my mother! What reason did he have to kill her?
I blinked furiously to hold back the tears, then I reluctantly asked, "W-what... what made you... kill mother?"
He laughed. "You wanna know my master plan, huh? Well, when your father set up our engagement, your mother thought he was 'selling' you to me. I didn't care though. When I visited them to set up the engagement, that woman looked at me with such hate that... I didn't like it. So, I poisoned her drink and I guess she died from that." He shrugged. "Stupid wench. She shouldn't have looked at me in the wrong way. Hmph."
I could the tears flow down my cheeks. He killed mother just because of the way she looked at him? I miserably looked down to the ground and remembered my mother's words.
"Follow what your heart believes."
At that moment, my sadness turned to anger and I furiously pounced on Victor. "How dare you...!?" I yelled.
He looked taken aback for a moment, but then got a deranged, twisted grin on his face. "Oh? So you wanna fight me, huh? Well two can play at that game." He dug into his pocket and got a knife out. My eyes widened at the sight of it and he grinned. I reached for the knife and tried to grab it, but he held firmly onto it and held it out of my grasp. I scowled and struggled to get it, but it was to no avail. We both struggled on the ground and fought with each other. In pure rage, I kicked his arm and the knife flew out of his hand. He rubbed his hand while I crawled over to the knife and picked it up. He saw me and started to come over to me, but I stood up and threatingly held it out in front of me.
He slowly walked over. "Ah... Celia... you wouldn't stab me... would you?" He smiled and looked at me... hopefully?
I shook my head. "No... I... I just might... k-kill you.... because you... you did the same thing to mother..." I stumbled on my words. It was hard saying things like 'I want to kill you' it just wasn't in my vocabulary.
He mockingly laughed. "Ha! You think you can kill me?! Or rather, even touch me?! Well, you think wrong." He laughed again.
I took a deep breath and ran towards Victor with the knife in my hand. I hoped that I would scare him--I wasn't really trying to hurt him.
But... what happened next, was something that no one would ever expect.
Jack's POV
I panted heavily from walking so much and tried to catch my breath. I refused to stop walking though, because I knew that I had to get to the mansion as soon as I could. So, I kept walking up the steep hill with Muffy walking angrily in front of me.
I rolled my eyes at her behavior and continued to walk. I thought about what would happen if we saved Celia and went back home. I can see it now-- Muffy will stay with Griffin again, Marlin will be all angry and Vesta will be happy, the Valley residents will all be glad to see Celia safe and unharmed (hopefully), and I... well, I'll confess my feelings to her, I guess. I wonder how she would respond. I wonder if she feels the same way...
My thoughts were interrupted by me bumping into something. I opened my eyes to see that Muffy stopped walking and that I bumped into her back. I glared at her, well more like glared at her back--I doubt she could see it anyway.
"J-jack..." She whispered. "W-we're.... we're here!" She pointed ahead of her, and I followed her gaze to see that we were in front of a grand mansion. I grinned and ran up to the doors--I could finally save Celia!
I grabbed the doorknob after noting that it was made of pure diamond. Muffy anxiously ran up to me and watched as I opened the large, grand doors. The doors opened to reveal a large hallway with a grand staircase at the end. I bolted inside and headed straight for the stairs--I just knew Celia was in here... somewhere.
I ran into a hallway that had many doors along the walls. I decided to look in each of those doors. Muffy caught up to me and helped with the search. We blindly opened doors left and right, but it was to no avail--Celia wasn't in any of those rooms.
I sighed. "Where do I look now...?"
Right after I said that I heard a distant voice calling my name. I followed the voice and saw that Muffy was at the bottom of the stairs frantically pointing to something.
"Jack! Jack! I hear noises in this room!" A ran down the stairs and saw that she was pointing to a neglected room that we forgot to look in. I put my ear up to the door and heard noises--I wasn't sure what it was though.
I grabbed the knob and opened the door, but what I saw really had me shocked.
Muffy gasped as we watched Victor laugh maniacally over Celia's unmoving form. She lay there on the ground, motionless while Victor laughed. A knife was lying on the floor not to far from Celia's body.
At that moment, I felt so many emotions surge through me. Anger, regret, sadness, pain-- just every other emotion other than happy. Happy is the last thing I would be right now.
I ran into the room and hurried over to Celia. I knelt down and hugged her close to me. I could still hear her breathing--thank god.
I angrily looked up to Victor and he stared at me in shock. "You're here already?" He asked.
"Of course! I vowed that I would save her, and that's what I'm going to do!" I yelled. "What have you done to her?!"
He laughed. It was a sickening sound--hearing someone laugh at other's pain. It really disturbed me. "Ah. She threatened to kill me, so I knocked her out. I was planning to do something worse to her until you came." He glanced at the doorway and saw Muffy standing there with tears in her eyes. His menacing gaze faltered and I could see a pang of sadness appear on his face for a moment, but it left as soon as it came. "Oh... so I see you brought her as well."
I hugged Celia closer to me, relieved that I finally got to see her again. But the harsh reality hit me. I realized that Victor was still here, and he was crazy enough to kill. I picked her up bridal style and took her over to Muffy. She would be safe there.
After doing that, I walked back over to Victor and stared at him with determination in my eyes. I was going to end this.
Once and for all.
Whew! I hope you guys liked that! Unfortunately, the next chapter will be the last. I might write an epilouge too--I might not. It depends.
So, see ya guys later!