Chapter 20:

I don't own anything

~I'd like to add that, since I'm not an expert in making these things (not that I want to tell you that I am), I cannot describe it accurately… if someone has got experience in gassing school halls and such, please feel free to inform me of my mistakes… just expect the police at your door in an hour or two!~

Claire's POV: - she's still evil!

A knock at the front door interrupts my concentration and I curse at how someone could be so ignorant as to interrupt me in the middle of something so important! True, they don't know I'm working on a release system to disperse gas throughout the two schools to end in killing dozens of students, but what do they want?

I trudge down the stairs when it becomes apparent they are not planning on leaving, and throw the door open. Oh shit, it's dark… I didn't realise so much time had elapsed between commencing building the system in my room and now! It's dark… that can only mean it is after 9pm – and I'm yet to even finish making the device! I am certain of one thing: this cannot be good!

"You idiotic girl, Claire; what if I were another vampire, one who wanted to hurt you?" Sam's angry voice hits me as I squint in an attempt to see him. He steps forwards into the light flooding from the house, his expression uncannily like my Mother's when she's angry.

"I… I didn't think," I confess, no emotion inflicting my voice. "Sorry, Sam, but since I'm figuring you're not here to kill me, why are you?"

His blue eyes narrow slightly as he surveys me before his head whips around to focus on something further away. Of course, there's a beady eyed vampire at the end of the street, fangs out, naturally, and he is evidently waiting to see what Sam will do: will he kill me or leave me unprotected?

"Inside," he orders me, his voice slightly harsher than normal. I sigh but comply, internally wishing that he will just leave me alone, so I can get to work!

"Yes?" I ask him, faking a yawn so he thinks I want to go to bed.

"Are you ok?" the ridiculously normal question half surprises me, to the point where I almost laugh at the absurdity of it.

"Yeah, I'm good… miss the others, but I'm ok," I respond, allowing the ache in my heart to have some surface time for once. I miss Eve, Michael, Shane… oh, Shane. In my heart, I miss him so mu- no, I prefer the idea of gassing the schools more than having Shane here.

"Michael is ready to come home," Sam's voice startles me, warming my heart at the same time as sending waves of ice cold fear through my veins. No, he can't come home, not tonight. Tomorrow, whatever, but today… no. I wouldn't be able to complete my mission.

"That's fantastic!" I squeal, false excitement filling my voice as I reach forwards and hug Sam. He feels the exact same as Michael, a matching physique, height, build – identical in appearance besides for the hair. It's heartwrenching but familiar at the same time.

"Even though he can, he isn't returning tonight, unfortunately," Sam's comment raises my hopes beyond belief and it's all I can do not to allow real happiness onto my face. I strain to place disbelief and disappointment on there instead, stepping back from Sam.

"What? Why?" the high pitchedness of my voice only makes me seem hysterical in regards to Michael not being able to come home… befitting to the situation we are in.

"Amelie has insisted on him staying for one more night, something along the lines of 'he is young and he needs to stay to be looked after, rather than go home yet'," he scowls as he relays something that Amelie said.

For perhaps the first time, I am thankful for the ice cold bitch being around. If she hadn't have insisted that he stay, Michael would be home tonight. That would spell disaster for me a) finishing the device and b) putting the device in place! If she hadn't have made sure that he doesn't come home – I'm guessing it's because 'I will not be competent enough to look after him' – then I would never have had these hours to get the device in place. Oliver said it has to be in for the assembly tomorrow: I guess it's their leaving assemblies for the holidays or something, I don't know, but something tells me he will be very angry if it doesn't go in.

"Oh… well… I guess it's only one more night," I say slowly, trying to make sure that he thinks I am absolutely devastated about this turn of events. "And I mean, I'm going to bed pretty soon anyway, so really it's only tomorrow… and that'll fly by if I know he's coming home," I continue, allowing a touch of real excitement into my voice. You see, though this mission is what I think should be my main focus, something to do with my friends is definitely a good thing – so long as it falls after the events of tomorrow morning.

He smiles and pulls me in for another hug before stepping back to the door. "I'm going to let you go get some sleep," he says, the handle in one hand. "Since no other good vampire is going to come to the door tonight, do not respond if the door is knocked at… if anything goes wrong, you know what you can do, ok?" his gentle reminder of the secret portals which I should know nothing about makes me smile slightly, especially since I am going to be using them later.

"Yes, I know," I say, taking a step back to the stairs. I fake another yawn, though it seems as if real tiredness is on the way, which isn't a good thing with how much I have left to do. "Right, well, thanks for that news, Sam, and I'll see you soon?" I finish off as my feet already hit the first couple of steps.

"Night, Claire," he calls up the stairs as I reach the top. Only when I am safely away from the door does he open it and dart through it, locking it with his own key and leaving me alone.

I dart across into Eve's room and peek through the almost invisible peekhole to see him getting into his car and driving away extremely quickly. Finally, I am alone again!

A strange sense of disgust rises over me as I contemplate finishing my device off, something which unnerves me. It's as if part of me doesn't want to do this – the moral compass inside of me is saying that to murder all these children is wrong.

I can barely get through to myself, if that makes sense, that this is the right thing to do, that Oliver wants it to be done so I should do it… it almost makes me want to go see Oliver again, to prove to myself that this is the right course of action. But I ignore this as I continue my work, not stopping until I finish making the thing that can complete my job. I wear gloves – I've seen enough CSI – so that my fingerprints and such are not transferred onto the device… and I'll do the same with the bottles. I don't want to be caught now, do I?

An hour later…

Finally! I've finished it! It's perfect… utterly perfect; it will do exactly what I want it to do, at the exact time I want it to. Just to ensure that there is no discovery of anything, I've set it so that the gas will be released slowly over a build up time so that when the doors are shut for the assembly to begin, it will build up faster and faster, hitting a peak where everything shall go boom… well, not boom since there is no bomb, but you get my drift.

I cannot describe the device, it's too complicated to: there's so many funnels, a timer, various tubes for the gas to go down at staggered intervals – I tested it out with some pure oxygen I had in my room from an experiment from my old university classes and the measurer I have… and it works! I created an exact replica for the primary school, it being so much easier once I knew how to make it.

I decide that it's best to head straight to the school and drop this off in the ventilation system – I measured the size of this so that it would fit with the size of the tunnels from the blueprints for the school I found online – before then going to Oliver's office for the gas to then connect the bottles up.

Carefully, I hoist the device further up into my arms and shut my eyes, turning my head to face the blank part of wall where I know the portal door shall appear when my eyes reopen. I imagine the slightly battered wooden door with a smile, something which widens as my eyes slowly open to reveal the sight before me. It's here; I can do this!

At the same time as switching the device into my other hand, I twist open the doorknob and reveal the darkened corridors of the high school. Thankfully, there's still the emergency lighting on and I have my phone to sort of light the way, but it'll be pitch black in the ventilation system. Good job that I have a torch strapped to the side of my jeans as otherwise I'd be possibly sabotaging my own chances of sabotaging the health of the kids.

I creep through the corridors, worried incase somebody is still around, but it's entirely empty. Since the primary school closes an entire hour before the high school, I suppose that that will definitely be empty, but I'll still be on my guard… I just hope that they don't have CCTV… but this is a school; why would they?

My target is in sight: I can see the opening to get into the system just by the hall. It's a good thing that I'm so small as otherwise I wouldn't be able to get in – this is probably the reason why Oliver hasn't done it himself and why he has left me to do it. So, carefully so that the device isn't broken, I wriggle through the shaft and into the tunnel, no claustrophobia hitting me: immature things like that don't bother me, not at the minute. No, this is easy…

The vent just where the hall is lies just ahead of where I currently am, so I push it in front of me, knowing I need to put the canisters behind it, about where I am at the minute. So that's all set up… do I go home and get the second device to set it up, or do I finish this one here so that I can leave this building entirely? Decisions, decisions… I suppose it would be best to like go set up the other device and then get all the gas at the same time: they can't be that heavy and it means I only have to go there once… yeah, that's the best option. It also means I'm not lingering in one location for too long, which isn't a good thing incase someone decides to pop by. After all, I heard so many rumours of kids sneaking back to school after games when I was in high school, so maybe it's the truth?

Just incase there is anyone around, as I slide back out of the vent shaft I am careful to be as quiet as possible. I mean, being caught putting that in wouldn't cause any problems at all now, would it? But as I return to the portal, I don't see a single soul… not even a cat. So all the worrying is for nothing.

I dart through the portal and pick up the second, slightly smaller device – less gas is needed at the primary school because their lungs are smaller – before reopening the portal to head through to the primary school. It's like a strange sense of déjà vu – it's the exact same as the high school: I take it that the designer of the schools was the same person, and that they were very lazy, because every single corridor down towards the hall is identically placed in both schools. The only difference I can see so far is that there is no second floor in the primary school… that's it.

The device is soon set up and I smile at the absurdity of how simple it is: I mean, come on! This is Morganville, the only place in the world where curfews are actually kept, including by the adults! Surely it should be harder than this to break into a school?

The answer is simple though. It's because the school is for humans, ones who are in the know. If we were in the Elders Council building right now, this would be a very different matter, especially since they would be able to smell me from the off… there'd be no way to keep quiet what I'm doing if it was to vampires, if I could ever manage to poison them by gassing them.

I head through the portal and into Oliver's office, internally cursing as soon as the light office comes into appearance. What if there is someone in there and a door is suddenly appearing? More than that, what if it's Amelie and she finds out that Sam told me about the portals? I think that 'bad' doesn't even cover it.

"Claire," Oliver's voice startles me out of my thoughts as to what if people are in here, which half amuses me on the inside. I was so caught up in wondering if people are in here that, well, I forgot to look to see if people are here. "I believe I informed you that you should ring before you arrive, just incase people are present," he says, his voice harsh and steely… uhoh. This can't be good.

Oliver's POV:

Her appearance startles me. I… I was thinking about how much certain things mean to me and whether or not the last part of my plan will be able to be put into play when she just appears out of nowhere, looking as if she is in her own little dream world.

I don't know why, but the suddenness of her appearance angers me. Part of me thinks that it is because I've just came to the conclusion that I must distance myself from her if I desire this town to be mine. If I want control, I cannot allow these 'feelings' to get in the way: I must remain in control!

And yet here she is, calling the shots so to speak, as to when she arrives here, not bothering to be summoned or to call ahead as she ought to do! More than that, what if I had had someone in here? They would have found out about the portals, which would destroy my chances for getting the town!

Anger consumes me and I stride across to her, thankful I locked the office door. Somehow, I feel my fangs sliding down and my eyes turning crimson as I face her, her face slightly scared… this isn't right. She isn't entirely under my control; there is at least a medium sized chunk of her that would be willing to oppose me. She may be setting up the devices, yet she is not entirely mine, as she ought to be right now.

"What are you doing here?" I growl at her, inhumanity growing as I push her back into the wall. She swallows and motions to the gas canisters in the corner… of course, I forgot about that.

"I… I need the gas," she whispers, fear gripping her throat… this most certainly isn't good, since she shouldn't be feeling anything like this! So I force her to look at me, my eyes boring into the depths of her admittedly mainly empty ones… she is still under my control, but not enough, I fear, for her to complete the job.

I lean over to her, ensuring that I keep the anger at the forefront of my mind as I grip her arms, refusing to let her move. She remains still as I lean to kiss her, just until my lips press to hers. Instantly, she is acting as if I am the one she loves, as if this kiss is utterly perfect - and this does nothing to aid my keeping of all feelings locked away.

Everything seems to boil away at the same time as I almost loose myself in her. But I manage to refrain… just. I manage to distance myself enough from her so that I can only remember that I need her to kill for me, and no other reason.

The mixture of direct mind control, so to speak, and the method I usually use to bring her under my control work in conjunction, as I feel her mind relaxing to be subjective to my desires. However, I fear that for the next stage in the plan, the most important before my final stage, I do not know if this shall be enough. Yet I shall not dwell on this fact now, for I have a good week or so before I have to debate how to tackle this issue.

But I cannot concentrate right now. I'm… I'm thirsty, no more than that. I require her blood; I require it to be able to get enough strength to be able to inform her what to do, to manipulate her so that she does not have even the faintest of desires to be with one of her 'friends', to love anyone or anything.

My eyes snap open as I look at her, wondering… I doubt I can bite her in the neck, for Michael is surely coming home soon, but perhaps the elbow crease? That shall not be noticeable, and if anyone does see it is a little red, it is positioned in such a damageable location that surely nobody shall ask questions!

As soon as I realise that I can get away with this, instinct takes over. I do not stop to think of anything but the idea of Claire's luscious blood in my mouth, as it falls down my throat… it's pure heaven to think of, so much so that I cannot resist it any longer.

She remains immobile as I reach for her arm, not knowing or caring what I'm doing. She doesn't care as I slide up her sleeve of her top, doesn't care as I bend my head towards her arm and press my lips to it… she doesn't even seem to care as my fangs pierce her skin, her blood spurting out into my mouth.

It's so much better than I remembered.

Her blood is more than nice, it's perfect, tangy and poignant, burning an indelible path down my throat that I will never forget. Her scent will forever remain etched into my mind, stoppered there by the fragrance of her skin, the way that it is so supple and soft.

It's all I can do not to kill her, or even take more blood than I need for this small task. So I swallow the final mouthful of blood with a heavy heart, regretting the speed at which I have drank the good pint or so I have taken.

As so not to rip the skin further, I am careful as I retract my fangs from her skin, looking up at an entirely emotionless face. She hasn't moved an inch since I brought her under my control, something which I relish.

"Claire, you are to focus solely on this," I say softly, entirely rejuvenated from her blood. "Take the gas and fit it in. once you return to your home, go to bed. When you wake up, you shall be yourself again-" whatever that means, "and you are to go about your usual daily routine. You shall not remember any of this. Do you understand?"

Slowly, she nods in agreement and turns towards the gas in the corner, automatically rubbing her arm. I sigh and move away to my desk, watching from the other side of the room as she begins to lift one of the canisters with gloved hands. It is almost frightening to see how she can be… but it is a great asset.

It means I can win.

3rd person POV of Claire – as writing her like this emotionally devoid person is too hard to do in 1st person… it'd just be basic year 3 writing.

She lifts the first of the gas canisters and struggles slightly as she adjusts to having its weight in her arms. But then the weight balances out and she begins to get the hang of holding so much extra mass in her arms than usual, as she heads across to the portal. Her eyes shut as she imagines the secondary school, and then reopen slowly to reveal the darkened corridors she barely left. A smile slides onto her face for a moment as she steps through into the school before slipping away as she reprises her utterly serious assassin mode, so to speak.

Within minutes she has the gas canister in place and is returning for the second to fit into the system. A song is in her head but she cannot figure out what it is, the tune simply present as she spends the walk back to the portal attempting to fill in the gaps to the tune… and she has zero success.

Sighing slightly, she picks up the second of the gas canisters and heads back into the school, not noticing Oliver in the corner of the room watching her intently. She can only see the path back to the school, the path which carries her to her final part of this stage of her mission.

"Balls," she mutters as the can slips, almost gassing her with the poisonous chemical. But she catches it just in time to prevent her would be imminent death and smiles slightly at the brush with danger. The business mode takes over once again and she refocuses entirely on the task at hand, completing the entire device in merely seven point five minutes. The timer is set to go off midway through the assembly and the enormity of having finished this when her eyes feel as if they're going to close almost overwhelms her. It allows her a almost second lease of life, so to speak, increasing her speed as she heads to get the next canister to fit in the primary school here.

"Claire," Oliver's voice startles her as she returns to Common Grounds, his presence once again having gone unnoticed. He holds a CCTV camera in his hands, a small smile on his face. "They already have one in the high school – for riot reasons, I suppose – but can you fit this in the primary school hall, just near the device?"

She nods perfectly perfunctorily, taking the camera and sliding it into her pocket before lifting the final, smaller gas canister and hoisting it into her arms securely as she heads through the portal.

"Claire?" Oliver's voice, once again, calls her back. She turns to see him with a slightly soft expression on his face, one that ought not to be there. "Good…. goodnight."

She nods once again and smiles before heading to complete her job, slotting the device into place with ease. The only slight difference in this case is that, where the vent meets the device, she slots the camera into the top, rubbing the lens on her top beforehand to ensure that it is entirely clear of blotches or anything that could disturb the picture.

Work complete, she decides that it is high time to return home and go to bed – after all, it is almost three in the morning. Even the vampires will be calling it a night soon – no pun intended – so she ought to make it into the world of dreams soon.

She undresses quickly and slips into bed, the problem of the song continuing to plague her. But she still drops off, her last conscious thought being the lyrics of the song, the last line in particular…

They all fall down.

Thoughts?

The 'they all fall down' from 'Ring a Ring of Roses' (which, incidentally, originates from the Black Death when everyone died, as I learnt in history) is sort of inspired from the end of Season 8/beginning episode of season 9 of CSI:Miami (WHY DID THEY KILL MY JESSE?) but not really…

… and that, my dear readers, was over 4000 words of planning and stuff, with the action being relegated to the next chapter… loool…

The CCTV camera is for one reason in particular. You see, without it, we wouldn't be able to see the events that occur, so, although it shall be in 3rd person once again probably, we shall be able to see it.

I'm going to stop boring you now, so please review!

DON'T favourite/alert/read without reviewing thanks.

Vicky xx