So I finished this chapter pretty quickly, I figured out that I write best when I sit at my kitchen table and listen to music. I really don't have much to say this time... Oh! But I do want to thank everyone who reviewed. I love you guys! And I urge anyone who normally doesn't review to please review! Please! And if you are one of the people who decided to read my story without first reading A Werewolf In The Making, well... you might get confused, but I tried my best to explain it, so good luck!
Disclaimer: Well, I can't think of anything funny to say, soooooo, yeah, I don't own the Darkest Powers series... yeah...
Chapter 7: Purple
Chloe could feel herself coming back to consciousness, could feel her fuzzy thoughts starting to work again as she became aware of the world around her. She took a deep breath, filling her lungs, becoming conscious of the musty smell that filled her nose. She frowned at this, wondering where she was. Then she realized that she was lying face down on the floor. She frowned even more at this: What had she been doing?
She moved her arms, intending to lift herself up, but found that her limbs were numb and weren't working. She didn't panic, she could sort of feel her arms and legs, it was just as if she had fallen asleep on them wrong and that her circulation had been cut off and she could slowly feel them coming back to her.
She turned her head sideways and cracked her eyes open. She was in some old run-down house; she couldn't see much because the light coming through the doorway was low from the sun setting outside. How did she get here? Where were Derek and Jessa and the others at?
She heard someone groan beside her, and she turned her head to the other side and saw Derek coming to consciousness beside her. "Chloe?" He voice sounded thick, and kind of confused, like he too had no idea where he was.
"Right here." Her own voice sounded weird, like she had just woken up from deep sleep. She could move her fingers now, and used her hands to sit up, leaning her back against the nearest wall.
She looked at Derek, as he tried to gain his bearings, slowly starting to move his arms and legs. Simon and Tori were also sprawled out on the floor and starting to wake up from whatever had caused them all to fall asleep.
"Where are we?" Tori asked, squinting at the house around them, "Why is it so dark?"
"Where's Jessa?" Simon asked, sitting up quickly, only to fall back down, groaning and gripping his forehead.
Chloe frowned at this. Jessa... where was Jessa at? She couldn't remember.
"Something happened." Derek murmured, scooting over so he was sitting beside her. He took her hand in his, and it wasn't until the fiery warmth of his skin touch hers that Chloe realized that she was freezing. The air was unbelievably cold, she could see her breath in the air with the help of the fading sunlight. She started to shiver and Derek wrapped an arm around her, bringing her closer to him.
"Where's Jessa?" Simon asked again, sitting up, his voice more panicked, sharper.
"I... don't... know..." Chloe replied, frowning, her mind in a fog, unable to see into her memories. She tried to push through it, but it was too thick and her mind seemed sluggish. She didn't like the feeling of not knowing what had happened, when she knew that she did know; she didn't like not being able to read her memories. She moved closer to Derek and his arm around her tightened.
"It's so damn cold." She heard Tori murmur, the light around them fading by the second. "And dark." A second later a sphere of white light was floating above Tori's palm, lightening everything around them.
Tori and Simon were both sitting up now, and their faces looked sharper in the white light Tori was producing.
"We need to get back to the house," Derek said, "Once there me and dad can go looking for Jessa."
"Oh, hell no! I'm-"
"Derek! I'm not sitting in the house like-"
Began Tori and Simon, but Chloe quickly shushed them, having heard something.
"Finally!" It was Jessa, "It's about time you guys woke up!"
"What?" Derek, Tori, and Simon asked at the same time, wondering why Chloe has shut them up.
"You didn't hear her?" Chloe asked, searching the darkness that Tori's light couldn't penetrate, trying to find Jessa.
"Hear who?" Derek asked, his arm tightening around her again. Chloe craned her neck, trying to see her friend.
"They can't hear me, Chloe." She heard Jessa say, and her friend approached the light, and Chloe could finally see her.
"What do you mean they can't hear you?" Chloe asked, something tugging at her mind, like she was close to remembering something, "Of course they can hear you; can't you guys?"
"What are you talking about, Chloe?" Tori asked, impatiently, "We can't hear anything, just you."
Chloe frowned, starting to get scared about her friends not being able to hear Jessa. "But can't you see her?" She asked, her voice shaking a bit, her mind coming so close to the memory of what had happened, but it was still out of reach.
"See who?" Derek's voice was a bit sharp.
"Jessa." Chloe's lips formed the word, and as soon as it was out the air seemed to suddenly weigh 100 pounds, pressing down on them as they all realized what it meant by Chloe being able to see their friend but not them themselves.
"Jessa?" Simon's voice was quiet and shaky as he called to his girlfriend.
"I'm right here," Jessa said softly, walking up to him, pressing her hand against his cheek, but it went right through him.
"Are you dead?" Chloe asked her, her jaw starting to wobble.
"No," Jessa sighed, "I didn't know you guys would lose your memories. This is going to be difficult to explain."
"Is she dead?" Simon asked, looking at Chloe like his life depended on it, his eyes shiny.
"She says she's not..." Chloe replied, frowning as her mind came so close to breaking through the fog that blocked her memories, but still, not close enough.
"Do you remember anything?" Jessa asked, her hand hovering just a hairs-breath away from Simon's cheek. She looked up at Chloe, "Anything at all?"
"No..." Chloe frowned, the fog blocking her mind again, "It's like it's blocked. But I know something happened..."
"Yeah," Jessa smiled sadly down at Simon, "Something definitely happened."
"What's she saying?" Derek asked, but Chloe just waved her hand at him, shushing him.
Jessa looked up at her from Simon, blinking fast, her lips shaking a little.
"What happened, Jessa?" Chloe's voice was soft, realizing that something big had happened to her (obviously) and Jessa was just barely holding it together.
Jessa smiled at her sadly, "Do you remembering walking through the forest this morning?"
Chloe frowned, trying to remember, and slowly it came back. "Yeah, I remember that."
Derek started to open his mouth again, getting ready to ask her another question and Chloe shot him a look that caused him to shut his mouth.
Jessa smiled at that, then continued, "Do you remember that weird feeling we both got? And the house we saw?"
"Yeah..." It was all starting to come back to her, everything that Jessa was saying bringing back more of the memory that she was missing.
"Do you remember walking inside?" Jessa asked, giving her time to remember before continuing, "Do you remember Nadinka?"
And BAM! It all came back to Chloe. Everything. All at once.
"Jessa!" Chloe whispered, and something on her face must have shown her understanding, because Jessa just nodded sadly, saying, "Yeah, I know."
"What?" Tori snapped, and when Derek tried to stop her from interrupting Chloe, Tori turned on him, "Oh, shut up, it's obvious that she remembers what happened! I want to know what happened."
"She's not dead." Chloe said, staring at Jessa, unable to believe what had happened to her friend, "She's possessed. The demon Nadinka took her."
And just like that, they all remembered, their faces turning from shock to horror as their memories came spinning back.
"Wha-?" Tori seemed speechless, her face dazed as the memories came rushing back.
"Jessa?" Simon whispered feebly, his face looking shallow and pale in the white light cast by Tori.
"Ah, man." Derek groaned, rubbing his his eyes, "This is not good."
Jessa snorted, "You're telling me."
"Derek!" Simon said frantically, "We have to follow Nadinka and catch her so we can Jessa's body back!" He was already scrambling to his feet.
"Chloe tell him to sit back down." Jessa said, staring at Simon worriedly.
"Simon, Jessa said sit down." Simon just stared at Chloe, unsure if he should listen or not, but then he slowly sat back down, he face immeasurably sad.
"Chloe would you please translate for me?" Jessa asked politely.
"Yeah," Chloe smiled slightly, trying her best to stay calm and not break down, "You're the first to ever ask."
Jessa gave a small laugh and smiled, "Well, you guys have no chance of catching Nadinka, she's already on a plane and heading for Las Vegas."
"Las Vegas?" Derek asked sharply, "How?"
"She did something to you guys," Jessa said, frowning, "I'm not sure what it was but you were passed out for hours, and that was more than enough time for her to escape. I followed her for as far I wanted to, and it was far enough for me to know that she was going to Vegas."
"So now what?" Tori asked no one in particular, "She jacked Jessa's body and ran, what are we going to do now?"
"You need to get back to the house." Jessa told Chloe sternly, "Kit and Aunt Lauren are freaking out, and Simon needs to eat something before his blood sugar gets too low."
Chloe looked at Simon and silently agreed with Jessa, Simon didn't look too good. With all the stress about losing his girlfriend and it being so long since he had last eaten he needed to get home.
"We should go back to the house." Derek said, having the same idea as Jessa, "Dad and Chloe's aunt will probably do something drastic if we don't show up soon."
"Derek's right," Chloe agreed, not wanting to mention that Simon needed to get back to the house more than any of them, "We need to get back."
Tori and Simon agreed and they all stood up and walked out of the house.
"So," Tori said breaking the silence that had settled over them as they walked through the dark forest, "How exactly are we going to explain this to Kit and Aunt Lauren?"
Chloe had to admit that was a very good question that she didn't have the answer to.
Kit and Aunt Lauren took the news pretty well. When they had finally showed up at the house both of them started yelling at the four of them saying they were grounded (Ha!) and that they had thought they were dead/kidnapped/stuck in a well (the last one was Aunt Lauren) and so when they said the reason that they were late was because the demon that possessed Jessa caused them all to pass out and temporarily lose their memory, well it wasn't as bad as all of them dying, but it wasn't good either.
"Dad," Simon asked after everything was explained, his voice sounded tired, "What are we going to do?"
Everyone looked at Kit, even Derek, expecting him to come up with a plan that would get Jessa back to them because that was what Kit did, he knew the most, therefore he would know what to do. But as Chloe watched him expectantly, she could tell that Kit didn't know what to do. He looked shocked and pale and his usual bright eyes were dull and glassy as he absorbed what they had told him. Chloe felt her heart fall. There was no plan. He had no idea what to do.
"Oh, God." Jessa said, her voice full of horror, "He doesn't know what to do." Chloe looked at her friend and was shook to her core to see that Jessa had tears running down her face, "Oh, God. Oh, God. Oh, God..." She kept murmuring over and over again, sobs escaping her mouth, her face crumpled.
Chloe was shocked, she had never seen Jessa like this. But then it wasn't like she wasn't expecting it, but it was just a shock. Jessa had always been strong. Always. Even when she found out that she could quite possibly die during her transformation into a full grown werewolf Jessa hadn't cried, or if she did Chloe didn't she her cry. Seeing someone who was so strong, who had always beat everything that had thrown itself at her, crying scared Chloe and made her look at Jessa as more than an unbeatable girl who could handle everything, it made her see her as human (so to speak), made her see Jessa as vulnerable. Chloe's head spun a bit, how many times in the past few days had she Jessa in a new light, in a way that made her seem childish?
But Chloe knew that Jessa wasn't childish, that Jessa was anything but childish. Jessa was strong and brilliant and anything that reduced Jessa to this crying girl that she was watching now had to be bad because Jessa could handle everything. Or so Chloe thought.
She didn't like seeing Jessa this way. It was like her brain couldn't process it. It was like it caused her to change a belief that she had unknowingly set into stone. The sky was blue; rain was wet; Jessa could handle anything. She couldn't fathom anything that could contradict what she believed, but there was Jessa, crying, breaking down right before her eyes, the hard shell that had always protected her friend was cracking and Jessa's soft underbelly was revealing itself. The thought that anything could do such a thing enraged Chloe, made her want to punch something, which surprised even herself.
She needed to comfort Jessa, but she couldn't do so without drawling the attention and offending Kit who still hadn't come up with a plan to get Jessa back. But Chloe was saved by Purple appearing.
Purple was an old friend of Jessa's from the lab they both grown up in being experimented on. Since the scientists there never officially named the kids that took part in the experiment, they were forced to name themselves. Chloe once heard Jessa say that she named herself after a nurse that had been really nice to her; Purple had named herself after her favorite color, purple. Purple, along with all the other kids who had been a part of the experiment, died in the lab when she was deemed a failed experiment when she had a temper tantrum and her half-demon blood caused her to fling items across the room and the scientists deemed her too out-of-control. Jessa was the only one to actually survive the experiment, escaping from the lab with the help of Purple's ghost, who was, like Liz, able to move objects in the living world.
Purple had stuck with Jessa through the three years that Jessa had spent living on the streets, helping her friend to survive. About two months ago Purple started spending more time on the other side than in the living world, only visiting her best friend every once in a while, but as far as Chloe could tell Jessa didn't mind this change because Purple seemed honestly happy with what she was doing.
Chloe took in the young girl, forever stuck at the age of 13, forever wearing her dark jeans and her purple turtle-neck sweater. Purple really was beautiful, and Chloe wondered what she would look like now, had she not died. With pale, clear, soft skin surrounded by a long wavy mass of dark brown hair, Chloe was sure that Purple's looks would have competed with Jessa's.
"Jessa!" Purple squealed.
"Purple!" Jessa sobbed, looking up with surprise at her best friend.
"Oh, Jessa! I just heard!" Purple ran up to her friend and tackled her in a hug. Chloe half-expected Purple to go right through Jessa; without Nadinka around Jessa looked no different than she normally did, and seeing Purple running at Jessa, Chloe could imagine things being normal and Purple being a ghost and Jessa being in her body. But Purple didn't go through Jessa, she ran right into her and wrapped her arms around her best friend's waist for the first time since Purple and Jessa had been seperated physically by Death more than three years ago. The thought made Chloe sad.
"Oh, Jessa, sweetie! It will be okay." Purple said, patting Jessa's back, "Tell you what, I will track that demon down and kick her ass! Will that make you feel better? If it won't it will sure make me feel better. Stealing your body! I can't believe she did that! So she had 237 years left to her sentence in that stupid house; that gave her no reason to kidnap your body! I will track her down and kick her from her into the next world! You just wait, she will regret ever..." Chloe smiled to herself as she listened to Purple's signature babble. The girl never shut up and was totally random. Chloe loved her.
"Why are you smiling?" Derek asked her, his face confused, not understanding.
"Purple's here." Chloe said softly, "And she's babbling."
Derek gave her a look, like he didn't know what to say. What do you say to something like that? He knew who Purple was of course, but he had never met her or heard her babble, so Chloe knew he wouldn't understand.
"Purple's here?" Simon asked, "Is she helping Jessa?"
"Of course I'm helping her!" Purple said sharply, looking at Simon, "What do you think I'm doing, Wonder Boy? Skipping around singing Christmas carols?"
"Yes." Chloe said, answering Simon, glad at what he was hearing.
"Is she okay?" Simon asked, looking at Chloe with worried eyes, "Is Jessa okay?"
Chloe looked at Jessa who was calming down considerably with the help of her best friend's presence. She was starting to smile at Purple's crazy babble, laughing at something that Chloe couldn't completely hear.
"Yeah," Chloe said quietly, looking at Purple and Jessa, both of them laughing and smiling like it was any old day, forgetting the fact that they were both in the spirit world, separated from the living world, just glad to see each other again, "Yeah, she's okay."
So I lost control of this chapter. I had a sort of-kind of plan, it was rather vague to be honest, buuuuuuuutttttttt I started writing it and the chapter took on a life of its own and I couldn't stop it. I really don't know what to think of this chapter... so let me know what YOU think by reviewing. Please!
Now I realize that this is a Chloe and Derek story and I haven't had much of them in this story so far, and I planned on there being more of them, but sometimes I just can't control what I write and that's just how it ends up. But I promise to have a Derek and Chloe moment in the next chapter, I just don't know what it is or how it will happen but I promise it will happen... Once I figure out what it is...
So yeah! Please review! They always make me happy! And they normally make me type faster, too, so it just depends on how much you want the next chapter.
Thanks- Cheerfully Blue