When I finally broke through the surface of that twisted dream, Jesse was directly above me, a crease between his frowning brows, framing black, worried eyes. His expression immediately softened, a smile spreading like sunshine over his chiseled features- he broke into a smile and kissed my hand- enthusing a long flow of Spanish exclamations. Clearly, he was relieved. I couldn't help but smile back at him, and I touched my fingers to his lips to still the foreign language. My touch was like magic- "…Susannah you scared me." The English was refreshing to my ears.
There was quiet, and I looked into his velvet black eyes, and felt nothing but love radiating from their unfathomable depths. "Jesse. We have to leave this place," I murmured quietly.
"As soon as I am sure your concussion is not too severe, we will travel." He reassured me.
Paul's voice was cold, the even tone of his voice dangerous in the gentle silence of the room. I hadn't even realized he was there. "There won't be any leaving with the storm."
"We will find a way." Jesse said, with a period at the end of the sentence that signified the closure of any argument.
Paul chuckled darkly, and when his eyes found mine, they were burning with a kind of feverish anger. "You can run, Susannah, but my uncle will have you- whether or not you hide."
"Is that his threat, or yours?" I asked softly.
He stared at me coldly, before turning his back, facing the rain flooded window, posture rigid.
"I'm not leaving." I told them both.
They both turned to me in surprise- Paul suspicious, Jesse alarmed.
"I'm not." I repeated firmly. "There's too much going on here for me to leave."
The corner of Paul's lips turned up in the ghost of a knowing smirk.
"Not anything to do with you," I mumbled, embarrassed, "Or Jesse. Or anyone else. Its this energy here- it'd be irresponsible to leave Paul with it." I rolled my eyes. "To hell if you don't become an evil henchman or something."
He smiled tightly "I resent that."
"Susannah- Father Dominic would not approve," Jesse's face was instantly stern. "I have to act as your guardian when he is absent. This is endangering your welfare."
"Her guardian?" Paul sneered. "When you're not vying to be her lover, you mean."
My fingernails dug into my palms as I stepped forward, eyes flashing- "I'm so sick of this! Its hard enough to deal with you two one at a time- when you're fighting like this, its impossible- do you have to act like complete neandrothals all the time?"
"No need to yell, querida," Jesse murmured nervously.
"I love the angry side of you." Paul said thoughtfully. "Its sexy."
"Can't you both take me seriously for two seconds?" I demanded furiously. "Jesse- stop trying to control me. I think it can be agreed you're not exactly fit to switch roles to authoritarian right now. And Paul, the barb-wire wording has to stop- we get it, you're clever."
He smirked at me- shameless. "So you're staying."
"You can't be left here to play with evil- you're like a child- you can't control yourself."
"Well, I do like to play with fire." He said softly, holding my gaze with glittering, navy eyes.
"And you'll perish in the flames!" Jesse exclaimed desperately, grabbing my shoulders.
"Someone has to put it out." I insisted, forcing myself to push him away. "I'm not one to ignore wrong-doing here. Whatever is happening- its big. While I was out- I dreamed of a presence, dark and looming, that approaches like a storm- its not here yet, but I'm serious- its power is terrifying."
Paul's eyes gleamed, lusting at the thought.
Jesse's expression was not so enthusiastic.
"So I see you've experienced the dawn of my project." The voice was cool, perfect, slithering like oil down a glassy surface, oozing with a silky danger.
It stopped me cold.
"I'm glad." It continued pleasantly, "It would be so very hard to explain."
"Please do anyway," I forced myself to turn around, meeting the very terrifying gaze of Paul's uncle.
"Who is this?" Jesse said quietly in my ear. I jumped a little, before relaxing into the frame of his body. The energy of this horror standing before me was constantly exhausting. I took his hand, steeling myself.
Denis watched me- coolly at first, before his snaking eyes grew wide and suspicious in uncontrollable rage- he lept forward, face askew in terror, "Whose there?" He screamed.
I stumbled backwards- but Jesse's steely arms kept me steady. And he stepped forward, wary. "I am Jesse de Silva." He said in a low, steady voice that I couldn't help but be proud of. Bravery in the face of Denis Washington was no easy feat.
Denis's face grew even more twisted with hatred- "You dare hide the identity?" He snarled, and in the blink of an eye he was gripping my wrists, so hard I cried out, the molded grasp like stone cemented into my skin, crushing the tender tendons.
I gasped in pain, stumbling forward- "Tell me!" Denis hissed.
"Tell, you, what?" I whimpered, trying to breathe through the pain. Jesse stepped between us- but when his hands pressed Denis's chest- they disintegrated like mere ash, falling away. Panicked, Jesse pulled back, the material of his hand growing back as he disattached himself from the crazy demon before us. Denis's body seemed to glow with a writhing, poisenous mercury, the pupil of his eyes growing red with hateful, bloody murder.
"Who is the spirit there?" His voice was contorted with a wild, mad frenzy, and ripped my arms forward, sending me sprawling onto the floor. "Tell me the spirit who is there with you now!"
"Denis!" Paul's voice rang out, sharp as the slicing edge of a knife- my tormentor turned his head- and Paul's fist connected smartly into his temples, crushing the bones beneath with a sickening crunch- Denis made a low, unearthly moan as blood came rushing out of his opened mouth. His terrible, terrible eyes met mine before he sunk to the floor- no match for the claims of his unconscious upon his mind.
Paul's arms surrounded me, and he ducked his head into my neck, breathing out shakily- the air tickling the sensitive skin- giving my shivers. There was a long silence, and I couldn't move myself to disattach him from me. It wasn't until I stopped that I realized that Paul's hands were shaking as they gripped my arms, pressing me to him. "Maybe you should leave."
I'd never seen him afraid before.
"Yes. She should." Jesse spoke, voice breaking. He looked away, unable to look at me in Paul's hold.
"What, what happened?" I whispered. "Why did he…."
"He can't see Jesse." Paul said quietly. "He is deathly afraid of what he cannot see."
"He can see that thing downstairs…."
"He's connected to it, but he cannot see it." Paul replied darkly, turning me to face him in his arms so that we were face to face. "His soul is invested in whatever power he's managed to move here. But he can't communicate with it directly…not the way we can."
"That's why we're here!" I cried, my eyes growing wide with horror. "To help him harness this…thing!"
"He's a part of it. But, I think…" Paul looked at me, face cold and impassive. "The more I see, the more I think he's going to be consumed by it."
"And so the walker becomes the dog." I joked weakly.
He rolled his eyes. I realized he still had his arms around me. I pushed him away, brushing the hair out of my eyes. "Is he going to wake up or did you kill him?" I asked quietly.
"He's alive, unfortunately. Just a little…bruised." He shrugged. "Don't count on his unconciousness to save us. I have a feeling that whatever he's doing- he can do just as well in the dark corners of his mind- buried deep in his dreams.
"He's still working evil inside those damned eyelids. Great." I whimpered.
A hopeless desolation was overcoming me. The devil, or something even darker, was coming to possess this place. And here we were. Trapped.