Echo

Running. Faster then I ever had. Faster. Faster. Run. Can't stop. Cold. Rain. Light. Night. Storm. Screaming. God, why is there so much screaming? Blood now, coating my hands, filling my head. Intoxicating. Toxic. Addictive. Delicious. Posin.

I woke up sitting straight up in bed, blankets twisted in my fists, a half-scream still in my thought. I panted, shivering with sweet. It hadn't even been a week since Morrie's almost-abduction.

I took deep shaking breaths, blinking hard. I couldn't think. Couldn't put a single thought together. My face was wet, I'd been crying in my sleep. I gave my head a sharp shake, trying to snap into focus. I just couldn't. I'd been having nightmares night after night. Each the same, each diffent, each its own brand of terrible. My hands were shaking now. I felt delecet, like glass, like a leave in the wind, fragile. Not at all my self. And I hated it.

My head ached, like a million, very pissed off bees were ricosaing around in my skull. I shifted, leaning my back agasint the wall, head in hands. I kicked off half the covers, trying to breath.

I jumped, there was a knock at the door.

"Echo?" For a moment I paused, still disoriented by sleep and wondered what Theo was doing at Leah's, then I remembered that since leah was out of town for the next few weeks I'd been shipped off to stay with Theo and Billy Black. "Are you alreight?"

"Yeah," I panted, trying to clam myself down. Just a dream, just a dream. Just a stupid, silly nightmare. "Just a dream. I'm fine. Go back to bed." My heart stil hammered in my chest, I felt like I was going to be sick.

"Again?" he asked through the door.

"Yeah, you tend to dream when you sleep. It's just not always pleasant," I snipped.

He pushed opend the door, ignoring my protests. Lets just say the most I ever wear to bed is a tank top and too-short shorts. I pulled the bankent up higher.

"Knocking is a nice thing," I glared.

"You knew I was there," he defended.

"So that makes it ok to bardge in-"

"Changing the subject wont work, Echo," he warned. "Are you okay? This is the third night in a row."

"Yeah, I'm fine. It's a dream. It can't actually hurt me," I pointed out.

"There are other kinds of pain."

I didn't even bother to bite back the growl in my throat and Theo shot me a look.

"Is it the moon?" He asked.

I nodded, "Could be…. Probably, actually." I dreamed of killing all the time. But I never felt sick afterwards… I'd always felt - to my horror - good.

"Maybe you should talk to someone. Maybe Nick went thought the same thing," Theo sugeseted.

"That'll be the day," I mused, "when I go to Nick for therapy."

"Your options are kind of limited here," he pointed out. "Nick is a lot like you. Maybe that's why you can't stand him."

I scoffed, and shot a glare that could turn you to stone. "I am nothing like him," I hissed with clenched teeth.

He waved his hands in defense, "Okay, okay. Just… think about it, alright? I can drive you up tomorrow if you like."

"Get out."

Seeing he was not yet forgiven for his insult, Theo left, pausing at the door frame. "Get some sleep, okay?"

"Yeah," I had no intetion of going back to sleep. Not after that. There is only so many ways you can watch someone you love die at your hands, but my sub-consious was not very creative. Over and over, on a bloody loop, I watched someone die. I never once knew who it was, all I knew was that I loved him. And he was dead.

To my horror, I dozed off on the way up to Nick's. It lasted about twenty minutes before Theo took pity on me and snapped me out of it. Before I knew it we were there, Theo seemed to have the route memorized now and drove without even thinking. Thorn's car was gone, but Nick's was there in the driveway.

I hadn't seen my sister in three days. Belive it or not, I don't think I'd ever been apart longer.

I opend the door, the screen slamming shut behind Theo and me. Nick stood in the kitchen shirtless, a cup of coffee in hand and a spatula in another. The sent of pancakes wafered though the air.

"Seriously, Nick? It's past noon," I scolded. He jumped a good foot in the air and cursed.

"Oh….. Echo. I didn't know you were going to visit today," He stammered.

"I'm full of suprises," I mocked.

He glanced down the hall, like he expected a monster to jump out and eat his face off.

"Hey, I have a question-" I froze mid-sentence, because Morrie cut me off.

"Hey there cowboy," she purred and I think I threw up a bit in my mouth.

Then she walked in.

I heard Theo curse behind me and get his car keys out, ready to make a run for it if Nick went into mate-mine-Hulk-smash mode.

She froze, eyes wide. A deer in the headlights. "Ummh…." Morrie stuttered. "Hey, Echo." she was wearing nothing but one of Nick's button up shirts, her light hair tousled. A blush worked its way up her face as Nick moved to block her out of the way from Theo, wielding the spatula like a weapon.

"You know what? I don't want to know. I'm going to leave, and next time you'll do something to warn me so I don't walk in on… whatever this is." I backed away, heading for the door, whishing I could run away and burn my eyes out of their sockets.

"Um…. The pancackes are ready," Nick mumbled awkwardly.

"I'm going to leave…." I made my way to the door, feeling sick.

By the time we made it to the car I was ready to throw up.

"Now we know why Thorn isn't there," Theo mumbled.

I gave a bitter laugh, "Yeah. Next time have her warn us."

"Well, that accomplished nothing."

"Yep. If anything it was counter productive." Nick and Morrie…. It was revolting, I gagged and theo gave me a look. "that was moe then I ever wanted to know," I explained. "Why couldn't my sister have picked someone else? ANYONE else. I am torn between throwing up and going back there to tear him limb from limb." I was shaking now, anger corsing thought as the innital shock wore off. What the hell had I thought they were doing in that house? Was I honestly so naive?

"Ugh," I groned, resting my forehad on the dash. "Can you remove my eyes for me? Or better you, do you know a brain surgen who can cut out that of my memory?" I pressed my palms agsint my eyes, "My eyes want to unsee."

Theo laughed and before I even registered I was laughing too. Though my hysteria I gasped, "This sucks."

He nodded, still laughing, "Of all the tarribul sistuations…"

"I know," I agreed.

We drove a few minuets in silence.

"Sorry that you didn't get any of your questions answered. What exactly are the dreams about? I've never seen you so distraught," his voice soffrend.

I stoped laughing, instantly sobering up, "I guess you kind of have a right to know, considering that I've kept you up the past few nights…." I mumbled. I took a deep breath. "It's all distoried, everythjng is in glimpses and flashes. Nothing makes any sense. It's dark and cold. And then I'm running. But then it cuts off, there's so much blood and screaming. Then someone's dying…. And I always feel like its my fault, like I killed him." Like I loved him.

"Is it the same dream? Every night?"

"Yeah. It's always the same, but everytime it hurts just as much. It's not like my other dreams where I feel... good after the kill. I feel sick, physically, emotionally."

"The dreams could be evolving or-"

"Or my guilt is catching up to me." I filled in.

"I was going to say your sub-conscious was trying to tell you something, but that works too."

"Do you remember what Nick said? …..About going mad?" I spoke quitly, half-hoping he wouldn't hear my words.

"You're not going crazy, Echo," he stated firmly. "You're not losing your mind."

"How do you know?" I challenged. "How could either of us possibly know what's going to happen?"

"Because your just not. Okay? You're not crazy. You're not losing it."

I stared at him for a second, reading his eyes. It wasn't that he knew I would be fine, it was that he needed me to be fine. He was just as afraid as I was.

"Hey," I said, putting a hand on his arm. "I'm not going anywhere."

He nodded, jaw set, eyes averted. "Echo-"

The windshild burst, cutting him off. The car spun on the ice-slick roads and hurtled into the forest. It flipped, glass shattering and slicing our skin. It finaly stoped- slamming into a tree. All there was was blood and smoke.

I gasped, opening my eyes and clawing the steetbelt off of me. My chest ached and I couldn't see thanks to the blood dripping into my eyes.

I turned to Theo, glass sparkled in his hair and his eyes were wide, unfoused. He was gasping, like a fish. A pole impaled him, stright though his abdomen, nailing him to the seat. I could see now, it had gone straight thought the window and pinned him, causing the crash.

"Hell," I breathed.

"Yeah," his voice was coming in stops and starts. "Hell." His hands clenched and unclenched the pole. "What happened?" he choked, gasping for air.

"Someone threw a pole at us?" I tried and he sputtered a laugh, grimacing when blood began to dribble down his lips. When the scent hit me I went bat-shit crazy, trying to get as far form him as I could in the small, crushed car. A string of curses fill my tongue, all of them dying. Dark blood was coating his hands, making them slip agisnt the pole. He grunted, trying to pull it out.

"I cant get it out. Echo I-I-I need you to…. to help me here," he slured. He was having trouble talking, I racked my brain for whatever medical thing that meant. His body was going into shock. If I didn't get that thing out of him, he would bleed to death. But he'd bleed to death if I pulled it out. No he wouldn't, I reminded my self, he was a shifter. He could heal fast enough.

Since the car was so small there was noware for me to go but his lap, that was the best way for me to pull the pole out with out damaging his organs any more then they already were. I tore off his seatbelt, carful not to jostle him. I got within a foot of him and froze, every muscle in my body tightened. Everything dipped and darked except for the red coating him. My thought burned and my mind blurred.

I closed my eyes squeezing them shut. Go away, go away. please not now. Of all the times to lose it…. My hands were bloody. So, so bloody. The warm red was slick on my fingers, dripping, smearing, burning into my skin and sending me into a frenzy. I became a puppet on stings. The hand-that-was-mine-but-was-not lifted to my lips, my mouth opened, tongue tasting bloody velet. The fire melted into passion, like hot oil pouring over my body and down my thought.

"Echo?" Theo's voice was faint, he was no longer gasping, instead his breathing was getting shallow.

A growl rose in my thought. My puppet hand reached out, whipping the trickle of blood from his forhead and tasting it.

"Echo," his voice was getting weaker. Dead things were no fun… dead. Dead. Theo. I snaped back, jolting up, my skull creaking against the ceiling.

"I'm sorry," I started to cry. "I'm so sorry."

I gripped the pole between my shaking hands. My throat burned and sung. I held my breath. And to my horror, Theo started to cough, blood bubbling up over his lips.

I tightend my grip on the pole again, mustering my stenght. I froze suddenly, icy filling my vains. My brain scattered. My hunger was replaced with nausea. I curled in on myself for a moment, moaning in pain.

Theo could smell it too, he froze- eyes becoming lucid for an instant. "Musta' landed… outa th border," he tried to speak. "Crap."

Inhumanly cold hands grabbed my shoulders and threw me a good ten feet back. I slamed into a tree, the wind knocked out of me and I blacked out for a moment. My body laid crumped under the tree. I peered out though my hair, all I could make out a a black cloked figure as it neared me.

The man grabbed me by the throat, eyes bright red, the color of blood. My blood. Theo's blood. Morrie's blood. All blood. Any blood. I reeled, choking and his ice hand tightend. This must be a vampire. Why was he was trying to kill me? I had no idea.

He stared at me with an unearthly hatred. "My, my," his words were drawn out, slow. "I don't suppose you remember me, do you?" My feet were a good foot off the ground, I flailed. The world bulred and suddenly we were back at the car. Theo was struggling to get the pole out, his fingers fumbling. Another vampire stood calmly. The blond vampire tossed me down. I gasped, and coughed, trying sand, but only managing to pull my self up with the help of the car's crushed hood.

The vampire gripped the pull and for a hopeful moment, I actually thought he would take it out and this would all be over. His face was expressionless, but his eyes were cruel. "I never cared much for your kind," he hissed, jamming the pole deeper. Theo screamed and I did too, lunging for the blond vampire.

But I froze. The other vampire held out his hands, black smoke poured form them. Theo's eyes rolled up in to his head and his body slumped forward. The pole protruded out the other side of the seat.

I screamed- or tried to at least, but it came out as a half-choked wail. I didn't acknowledge the creeping numbness of my senses. Even after my eyes went blind, all I could see was the vampire stabbing Theo though, his eyes rolling up into his skull. I couldn't move now, couldn't speek, see, hear, or feel. I had no idea what was going on outside of my mind.

Theo was dead. And I had killed him.