"There is one thing that I will tell you right now: I loved him, with the time we spent together, what little precious time we had at all. He made me human. It was with him that I could feel, really feel. So no, Cordelia. I do not regret my decision one bit. Had he asked me too before hand, I would have died for him then."

-CL 05-13-15

I can tell by the look on you're face that your wondering about Violet. What her reaction was. My answer is simple...there was no reaction. I didn't see her after that day on Halloween. I guess she just, chose the easy way out of the problem and avoided me. Sometimes though, it was like I could feel her close by, watching. Maybe she wanted to pretend it never happened, but right when she would start to show herself to me she saw the look on my face when I had watched him that day.

To be honest, I didn't miss Sweet Lonely Cherie, let alone Violet. It was kind of exhausting having to put up a front like that so often, never feeling quite relaxed because I was always telling myself to worry about what she would think. Now, I didn't have too.

The house though...the house still fed me it's poison. I tried my best to stay out of it as much as I could, seeing as Liam had kept his promise. For months, that's all I would do was spend all day, sometimes a whole weekend, with him. He was my breath of fresh air, when I felt like I would surely suffocate. And the times that I enjoyed the high the poison gave me...those were the times that Liam would damn near have to drag me out of the house. Which he'd already done once or twice in the months that passed.

Constance got to where she would come over more often. Never like a normal neighbor, of course. Knocking on doors and asking permission were beyond that woman. But now, whenever she would show, Micheal was at her hip. I would carry him into the living room, leaving her nearly by herself in the kitchen. Moira kept a good eye on her, no pun intended.

I knew she was sneaking around the corner, watching her son and grandson play together. Lucky for her, Tate got to the point that he didn't care so long as she didn't make it too obvious, he just pretended to ignore her as he crawled around with Micheal, teaching him how to walk or just sitting him in his lap and playing silly hand games. This was the closest he would ever get to a real family, or to being happy.

And oh...the way my heart would race whenever he would glance at me. When his face lit up with pure joy at having someone to count on him, it was maddening. At times, yes, I did feel like some sort of social worker, supervising visitations, but there were other times when he would look at me as though I could have been more. I selfishly longed for that perfect romance that the house had promised me. I could even be a mother, if I really wanted to...

"Come on Cherie, what's the point of just sitting around every time Micheal's here? Join in the fun!" Tate laughed jumping up from where he sat.

"Have fun Cherie! Have fun Cherie!" Micheal parroted, clapping his hands and watching me excitedly.

I blushed as Tate grabbed my arm and drug me down onto the carpet with him and Micheal, where he convinced me to chase the little toddler around in an attempt to tickle him. This was one of those times, that the poison was pretty much rushing through my veins, aided by the cute giggles of a little child. Was it really poison, or did I simply not understand it?

Maybe, it wasn't the house at all that was convincing me to fall in love with Tate. It was legitimate, situational emotion that built with every time of contact. It was all me. After all, he had changed. Thanks to Violet of course, but he was changed none the less, and now with Micheal, I questioned whether or not he'd have had a better life, if he'd just met Violet then.

"Cherie?"

I sat up quickly from where I was on the floor, my heart beginning to tear in confusion. That was Liam's voice. Rationality slowly started to sink its way into my head and I looked from Tate to Micheal to the doorway. Tate had sat up, calm, and was attempting to retrain Micheal with little success. Poison or not, I couldn't deny how cute it was to watch the little boy continuously try to squirm out of his arms and run, while Tate kept his cheerful demeanor the whole time.

Liam's footsteps sounded from the front door, to the kitchen, then immediately to the living room. I'm sure by now he'd gotten used to the fact that if Constance was here, then I was with Tate and Micheal. When he showed up in the doorway, he visibly relaxed at seeing me. His look was stern but soft, and as always, he eyed Tate nervously—distrustfully.

"Cherie, thank god. You didn't call yet, so I kind of...well, you know me. I worry. I just thought..." He swallowed, unable to find the right words.

Almost guiltily, I avoided looking at the two behind me, sitting cross-legged on the floor. Micheal always calmed instantly when Liam would come into the room, because he knew what was going to happen next.

His voice would sound so sweet and innocent when he would talk, even when he sounded heart-broken. "Uncle Leemum...are you going to take Cherie away again?"

An apologetic half-smile curled into Liam's lips towards Micheal, as he walked over to me and helped me off the floor. "Yeah, I'm afraid so little buddy. Just for a little while though, I'll have her back to you in no time."

I didn't fight his decision this time, no matter how badly I had wanted to.

"I'll never get why that kid keeps calling me his Uncle. It makes me wonder what the hell Constance told him." Liam muttered, his arm wrapped around my shoulders as we walked back to his place. I tried not to get too aggravated.

Like I said, my best way to get to know someone was to go to their house, of which I'd gone to Liam's already, several times. Thankfully, his house had told me all it needed to say, and like every other house in my life (except Murder House), it had retreated back into it's natural silence. But I knew his secrets now, the ones he didn't want me, or rather anyone, to know. I left them alone simply because I felt it was his right to keep it private, but the more comfortable we got around each other, the more I noticed him lying about little things in order to keep from having to tell me the truth that embarrassed him. It also made me want to be completely honest with him.

"I just wish she wouldn't take the kid around him. What good could possibly come of that? Everyone around here knows what he did. Even if they don't know he still exists." His hands clenched and unclenched in a way that I'd learned to recognize as aggravation with him. He didn't hide the fact that he didn't like Tate, he never had since he'd come to my house for the first time. It didn't surprise him at all to see the dead walking around the way they did, which at the time had made me curious as to how much he really knew about it.

Well, I wasn't curious anymore.

Still, I felt myself cringe every time he referred to Micheal as 'the kid'. I wasn't even related to him and I already saw him as family! I started to open my mouth, then shut it again. How did one go about telling their boyfriend that they were a psychic? I shouldn't. Not yet. I guessed, at the moment, I would just have to put up with it. Everyone's entitled to their own opinion anyways, right?

Right.

"Tate's actually really good with Micheal. He hasn't done anything out of the way at all... I think he's being a good father, given his situation." I straightened, staring at Liam almost defiantly, daring him to disagree.

His stare was calculating. After a moment he ran his tongue thoughtfully over his teeth while he considered his response. If I had learned anything about Liam in these past few months, it was that he was like me—empty, trying to pick up the pieces of his true self so that he could feel half-way human. Part of me had even started to hope that he was with me for the same reason that I was with him—to feel.

"He's still seventeen. He will forever be seventeen, with that same teenager mentality. He's a murderer and a psychopath. It doesn't matter how nice he acts in front of you, it's going to rub off on that kid one way or another."

"His name is Micheal! And stop calling him that kid! He's your blood!" I stopped walking and turned towards him. Yep, that was a snap decision, and I literally just told myself I wouldn't say anything.

Damn it, Cherie. Why do you do these things?

Liam just gawked at me. This was the first time I'd ever shown him just how pissed I could be...not counting my freak outs when he'd take me out of the house. Freak outs that not even my father had paid mind to.

Screw it, you already started. Finish what you're thinking.

I obeyed my inner thoughts almost gladly, "I get it Liam. You hate your brother. He almost killed your father, that's more than enough reason to hate him even if his reasons were justified, and you're going to have your opinions. But do not, do not, take that out on Micheal. He's still your blood, your family, your nephew for god's sake! Quit treating him like he's just some thing that crawled out of the earth! He's a sweet kid, and Tate's a good father. If anything ends up wrong with that kid its because of genetics, not anything he's done."

"Even...if...his reasons were justified?" He said slowly, pulling away from me, his arms at his sides now. "I don't know what he, or Constance might have told you, but it's wrong."

"Stop lying to me Liam. Enough with the lies." I gave him the coldest stare I could muster. I don't know what exactly I had wanted to achieve at that point, maybe just to get him to admit it and be honest about it so that he could finally accept Micheal as his family, maybe even forgive Tate for what he'd done.

"You're going to believe them...over me? He might not have finished my father off, but he finished off those kids, and those people that he trapped there! And yet you believe him. You said you loved me, and you can't even trust me?"

Or maybe I wanted to push him away indefinitely. That way, I wouldn't feel so torn when I was with Tate, and I could finally give in to any and every urge I'd had since I'd moved here. After all, that's practically what I did with Violet when I formed an unnecessary bond with her. Now I just had one more unnecessary bond to sever...but then why did my heart twist so painfully at the thought of losing him? If he was as disposable as everyone else in my life, then why did it hurt so bad to imagine life without him?

I took in his own hurt expression. It hurt him that I didn't trust him, and though I knew it was fake—just like my own reactions, and his brother's—I couldn't help but hate the look in those gorgeous pink eyes of his. Part of me wanted to apologize for bringing it up, for saying anything at all, and just go back to ignoring everything. But that part of me had been losing control for several weeks now, and I was finally going to over run it.

It infuriated me that I had done my best to be honest with him saying everything as truthfully as I could. I didn't let the sociopath inside of me manipulate my reactions towards him, and yet here he stood feigning emotion so that he could?

"They didn't tell me, Liam. The house did. My house, you're house." I sighed, feeling myself starting to crawl back down into apathy, "Every house I've ever been in, tells me what's happened there. What it's residents have said and done. Believe me or not, that's the truth. You don't understand Liam, Violet changed him. Micheal changed him! He's a different person now...a better person."

"You're still stuck. That's what it is. That house has you all twisted thinking that you're in love with him, and now it's got you thinking you're a freaking psychic. That has to be it." He ran his hands through his snow-white hair, his face twisted in a confusing mix of anger, hurt, confusion, and guilt. He couldn't decide which emotions to show, and which ones to hide, so they just all fought their way onto his face. His lips were in an odd half snarl, half frown, his eyes glistening with barely withheld tears, his brow furrowed in confusion.

"Liam, the house might have it's way with my emotions, but not my own opinions, and not my...gift. I've always been like this." I tried to remember the things I'd heard in his house, to pick out something that he'd never told anyone, so that I could prove it to him.

"About two years ago, when you first moved into you're apartment, you invited some girl named Wendy over. She ended up staying the night, but by three the next morning she was in the hospital in a coma. She'd had a seizure. You sat in that bed for days staring at where she'd slept, blaming yourself for what had happened to her. You kept telling yourself that if you'd just stayed awake a little longer, or woken up a little sooner, you could have saved her. And you didn't. It still bothers you."

He looked like the breath had been knocked out of him. Those beautiful pink eyes couldn't even focus while he got lost in his own thoughts, remembering, trying to validate any other ways that I might have known that, but failing. "There's no way in hell, for you to know that."

I gave a sad, slightly hopeful smile, "There's one way."

"And you knew? All this time, ever since the beginning, you knew...and never said a word until now?"He licked his lips nervously, "There's no counting how many lies I told you just to hide that. I thought...I don't know, I thought that you'd think differently of me somehow, someway I wouldn't like. I...I don't know how to...respond to this. Cherie, I think I'm going to need some time to myself for awhile."

Then he just walked off. I tried to keep up with him, to at least figure out where I should go, but all he did was wave his arm at me, mumbling an emotionless, "I don't think I can care right now."

So I just stood there. Ten o'clock at night, halfway between my house and his, with no idea as to where to go from there. All I could think to do was stay where I was, watching pitifully as Liam walked away from me. When he thought he was so far that I couldn't see him, I saw his hands raise up into his hair, twisting into it in a way that I could recognize all too well. It was how I reacted when my emotions were to crazed to define, and all I wanted to do was rip my hair out, yet always stopped just short of that.

What had I done?

Sorry, That's all I've got right now, I thought it was a good stopping point at the moment though. I actually planned on ending the story here, but I decided not to. I have decided though, that this WILL have an alternate ending, so be ready for that. :)

Thank you everyone for your reviews!

Mysterious Stanger #3, I hope I answered a few questions on Cherie's perspective with this chapter, along with a few other questions that I was just dying to finally answer! So the secrets out! Along with a little more, so what do you think so far?

Laura, thank you so much! I'm glad you like it!

Everyone who guessed right, Congratulations! You win nothing... lol Except, I guess a couple more chapters. xD