Hey everybody. Sorry for the extremely long wait for this latest installment. (What has it been? Two months?) But anyway. Here's the next long chapter of Just The Two Of Us. Enjoy, and review what you think at the end!
Anger. That's the first thing she felt when she woke back up. The dark sky began to leak with heavy rain drops as the 16 year-old girl stood up. Her glasses had disappeared, yet her vision was perfectly clear as she glared at the boy in front of her.
"Isn't this better?" he nearly growled. "No more running. No more fear."
"Get out of my way," she said in a low voice. Jeanette turned away as he started to walk towards her.
"Dontcha get it Jean?" he insisted. His breaths came out as fog with every word he spoke.
"We're free!"
Jeanette growled softly, her muscles tense as her breathing became heavy.
"I said, get out of my WAY!"
She swung around, sending a fierce blow to his face with her fist.
"How can you say we're free?!" she screamed. "You just doomed man-kind!"
He took her by surprise by suddenly hopping up from his spot on the damp ground, and withdrawing the knife from his pocket. She dodged just on time as he tried to swipe at her.
In the back of her mind, she could feel the tiniest poke of fear. But she ignored it, blistering rage taking over her.
Remembering the knife she'd taken from home, she took it out as the two began to swipe at each other with the sharp blades.
"You're a better fighter than I thought," sneered Simon as he paused to take a breath. Jeanette ignored his comment and tried to slice at him once more. "Fight me, you coward!" she shouted.
By now the rain was pouring down in heavy, icy cold drops, soaking through their clothes. Jeanette barely noticed it as her hair was plastered to her face.
Simon glared at her, his eyes opened to just slits as he stood perfectly still. Jeanette stood her ground as he slowly walked towards her. She was prepared when he swung his knife and tried to stab her.
"I'm done," She growled.
"Good,"he barked. "Cause I am too!"
In a fit of rage, Jeanette swung her knife aimlessly, enjoying the feeling of the knife cutting through his skin. Yet at the same time, he brought his knife down hard, stabbing the knife deep into her flesh.
Jeanette barely felt it. Simon however, felt it very much. He stumbled back surprised at first. Then slowly, his vision became blurry, and a severe pain overtook his left eye.
He clutched his hands over it.
"JEANEEEEEETTE!" He stared up at her in pain. She grinned evilly down at him. "Wh-Why did you do that?!" he shrieked.
Jeanette didn't answer as she raised the knife once more, preparing to bring it down on him. In desperation, Simon wrapped his fingers around the knife that he had embedded into her thigh. Then in one quick motion, he ripped it out, leaving a trail of blood in it's wake.
Jeanette's entire body stiffened as the sudden shock of pain started to take over. Simon watched wordlessly as her eyes grew brighter and a black orb formed in the middle of her purple irises.
Soon after,she collapsed on the wet ground in pain. "Ow..."
She burst into tears,sobbing freely from the pain. And betrayal.
Simon crawled over to her. He silently wrapped his arms around her for some means of comfort, but she pushed him away.
"G-Get away from me,"she sobbed. "I can't believe you would do something like this to me. I knew you didn't wanna friends with me anymore, but I never thought you'd go this far."
Simon stared at her speechless. What could he possibly say to that? He hadn't known he'd her hurt so much. Back at the party that night, sure she had voiced her feelings, but back then he just thought she was pissed off. But now...
"J-Jeanette,"he stuttered. "I really w-wasn't trying to make you feel this way. I-I just-"
His voice soon cut off as his throat began to clog up. Jeanette saw this and looked at him sympathetically through the pain in her thigh. The rain had let up, and had turned into a misty drizzle
Jeanette retrieved her glasses and looked at the sight before her. Puddles of blood and rain water were scattered here and there. Jeanette shivered, finally soaking in the coldness that wrapped around her body.
Simon didn't notice as he pursed his lips, staring down at her leg with one eye. "We should wrap that up," he muttered.
That was when Jeanette finally got a good look at him. "Oh my god, Simon," she gasped. "Your eye!"
She watched as blood pooled at the very bottom of his eye, and trailed freely down his face as if he were crying. However, when she looked at his other eye, she could see that tears, hidden by the rain water that clung to his face.
Simon stood up in front of her and reached out for her hand.
"Maybe we should try to set up a camp," he mumbled. Jeanette took his hand and started to stand up, but as she put pressure on her injured leg, pain wracked through her entire body.
"I-I can't," she gasped. "I-It hurts too much."
She suddenly felt her arm being lifted as it rested on his shoulder. A strong arm wrapped around around her waist, taking most of the pressure off of her leg.
Simon smiled pitifully at her. "Better?" Jeanette nodded. Then they were back on their way.
Since the heavy rain had soaked everything before, it was impossible for them to make any kind of fire. All the while, they still had Jeanette's leg to worry about and Simon's now useless eye.
They walked around silently, both lost in their thoughts. Then, as if by a miracle, they found a dry spot under a grove of trees, with thick patches of leaves that protected the ground like an over head hanger on a patio.
Simon let out a deep sigh as he deposited Jeanette on a fallen tree.
They kept silent as he started searching around for firewood, having a harder time seeing as though he only had the use of one eye. But Jeanette wanted nothing more to stand up and scream at him to explain what was going through his mind back there. But she kept the impulse to herself, letting the awkwardness wrap itself around her and squeeze.
Surprisingly enough, Simon had actually managed to start a fire with the few dry twigs he was able to collect. He then sat heavily down on a moss covered rock across form her. They both sat silently, staring intently at the weak flames in front of them to avoid conversation.
Just as she gave up thinking up a conversation to start with him, Jeanette allowed her mind to be enveloped by thoughts about the day.
We stared out just fine. We were even having fun for a little bit! What could possibly drove him to do this to me? He can't possibly hate me that much! And what the hell happened back at his house? Who got him.
She paused for a little bit, breaking herself out of her thoughts. This reminded her of something...a song.
Where did I go wrong? I lost a friend.
Somewhere along in the bitterness.
And I would have stayed up, with you all night.
Had I known how to save a life.
She soon caught herself mumbling the third verse to herself, but it was quiet enough for Simon to hear her.
Jeanette:
As he begins to raise his voice
you lower yours and grant him one last choice
drive until you lose the road
or break with the ones you've followed.
He will do one of two things
he'll admit to everything
or he'll say he's just not the same,
and you'll begin to wonder why you came
(Chorus)
Where did I go wrong? I lost a friend.
Somewhere along in in the bitterness and
I would have stayed up, with you all night.
Had I known how to save a life...
She let the last note trickle off softly, straining to not catch his eye. He lets out a loud racking cough that could have easily been mistaken as a shuddering sob. His eyes turned a dark gray as he stared at her, eyes troubled and helpless.
"I'm sorry!" He blurted suddenly. "Dave scratched me and I only had a little time before I would fully turn. Then I saw you show up, and I couldn't think clearly. I wasn't trying to make you turn because I hate you. I just didn't want you to be all alone."
He let out a long breath of which he'd been holding. Jeanette looked at him surprised. "So you...thought you were helping me?"
Simon scratched the back of his head. "Y-Yes. I mean n-no. Well...at the time."
"Oh."
Jeanette stared down at the ground, and somehow found humor in the whole situation. A small smile appeared on her face. Look like even through all of this, Simon was still looking out for her. So now it seemed as though Leo had been wrong. If only she could summon him and rub it in his face.
"Wait a minute." Her head snapped up as a new thought occurred to her. "Simon, how did we turn back?"
Simon furrowed his brow thoughtfully. "I have no idea. I turned back as soon as you cut my eye. But you didn't turn back until I took the knife out." He paused. "I have no idea what that means."
"It means," she said standing up on one foot. "That there's a slight hope that we can still save everyone." She hopped over to their pile of stuff and dug through it until she found the roll of bandages. "We just have to figure out how we ourselves turned back," she continued, mostly to herself.
Simon stood. "Jean,hold up. Let's not get ahead of ourselves."
Jeanette gazed up at him, and stopped wrapping the bandage around her thigh.
"what do you mean?" she asked. "we just discovered that there's a cure for this thing, and you're acting like it might not even work."
Simon shook his head frantically. "No. It's not that. I'm glad we'll be able to help everyone get back to normal. It's just-" He paused as he sat down next to her on the log. His eyes still had a that slightly troubled glint in them.
"I-I was just wondered if we could talk."
Jeanette's purple eyes widened in surprise. Of all the things,this was the last thing she had expected to come out of his mouth. She stared at him, speechless for a moment, until she looked into his eyes. They were sad, pleading her.
"O-Of course we can talk Simon."
Yeah, so it probably wasn't the best idea to keep you guys on a cliffhanger. But what's gonna happen? Will Simon finally tell her what's been going on? Stay tuned to find out. In the mean time, don't forget to review!
