Soon it will all be over. There will be no more dark whispers and rattling chains, no more snarling urges or cravings for destruction. It would all soon be washed away by the rain. As I let the flames slowly fade, I could still hear a lingering howl. Let it burn. But it was far too weak, and I was stronger now. I knew better than to listen. I now knew what was important. Vigil had helped me to see that.
I raised my hands, palms up, and let the rain fall through my fingers. There was no fire on me any more. Only the night, the wind, the rain, the grass under my feet and the cold water pouring down my face.
I waved another hand and a circle of light flashed next to us, just like the spotlights that had been there last time. Then I made a movement and slashed at my hand, making a deep cut which oozed momentarily before healing up before our eyes. Now we had the blood.
All that remained was the last piece of the puzzle. I took the glass ball out of my pocket and watched as its dark orb swirled with tiny specks of white stardust floating inside. I extended the glass ball towards Vigil and gave him one last smile. When his fingers wrapped around the ball, a fierce blast of piercing light shot out, making the specks of light inside the glass burst and take over the entire sphere. My whole body was enveloped by this implacable light and an excruciating pain washed over me. It was unbearable and, just like the first time, the intense agony made me black out completely.
When I woke again, the first thing I noticed was how much I hurt. It felt like I had been hit by a bus or something. My head, my arms, legs, stomach, even my hair felt like it was hurting. And I was exhausted, completely and utterly drained. Even moving my head was painstakingly hard.
“Are you okay?” I heard Vigil’s soft voice calling out to me.
I blinked a few times and focused on his face, which loomed over me. He was holding me gently in his arms. I tried to answer but only a low whimper came out; pain shot through all my nerve endings whenever I tried to move.
“Do not try to speak … or move. Just rest for a while and you will be fine. I will carry you inside and dry you off, okay?”
I managed a small nod. Only then did I notice that I was cold and completely drenched. It wasn’t raining any more; I could even catch a glimpse of the moon right above our heads.
He carried me inside the living room and laid me down on the couch. He gently smoothed some wet locks of hair from my face. All the lights were off and there was no one else in the house. For a moment I wondered where everybody could be, but the thought quickly vanished as I was taken over by pain.
“You did good, Joe Gray,” Vigil said softly, adjusting a cushion under my head.
I nodded again and sighed deeply, closing my eyes in exhaustion. I wanted so badly to sleep.
“I will get you a towel and a blanket,” he told me, but stayed seated by my side. My eyes were still closed when I felt something brushing against my lips, warm and soft. It was Vigil kissing me, a gentle, chaste kiss of gratitude.
I wanted to say how sorry I was about everything I had done, about all the suffering I had caused him; I wanted to thank him for not giving up on me, for saving me from myself.
But I was so tired I couldn’t even open my eyes. I felt his fingers brush my cheek and then he stood up and left. The all too familiar stabbing pain shot through my wrist.
At least now I knew everything really was back to normal – even my weird, painful wrist connection with Vigil.
I must have dozed off for a minute because I was suddenly jerked awake. My hair was now dry and a warm blanket covered me.
“Joey, I have to go. Will you be all right?” he asked. “I have to take care of this now,” he said, holding the small white marble that imprisoned Nick. “But I will return as soon as I have finished.”
I mumbled something and closed my eyes, already drifting back to sleep.
“Joe! Joey!”
Someone was calling my name, but I couldn’t open my eyes. Or move. I was too tired. My body had given up and I just lay there, lifeless. There was someone talking to me, asking questions. The annoying voice insisted on calling my name over and over, but I couldn’t reply. I was almost comatose.
I felt someone holding me by the arms and then I was carried somewhere. It was probably one of the boys carrying me upstairs to bed. My body shook and slumped against something. I was lying down, half-asleep still. It felt like I was in a car – a moving car. Everything was pitch black, or was it that I couldn’t open my eyes? I could hear a motor running.
Maybe it was one of the boys taking me to a hospital, scared that I wasn’t waking up. That was probably it. I was too tired to think of anything else.
The motion of the car lulled me back to sleep. My head rolled to the left and brushed over something soft and velvety, like the petals of a flower. Before I slipped out of consciousness completely, the thought came to me that it smelled a lot like lilies …
In the hazy mist of my slumber I recognized car horns and the muffled sound of rushing traffic. The air was stuffy and hot, and the smell of lilies was strong and putrid, suffocating me.
At some point my sluggish brain tried to get my attention, warning me of something, but I was too drowsy to focus my thoughts.
I tried to open my eyes but realized it was dark anyway. Wherever I was, it was too dark to see anything. When I tried to move, I couldn’t; something tugged and was constricting my wrists. Something was holding me down, binding my hands and legs.
That’s when I realized I should be paying attention to what my brain was so urgently trying to warn me. Something was wrong.
I moved my head and realized there was something around my mouth too, gagging me. I knew I should be panicking, but my mind was still slipping as if in mud. I heard the sound of a door opening and it dawned on me that I was in the trunk of a car. Light flared, blinding me.
“Oh, you’re waking up. Good,” I heard a man’s voice say, and I blinked dizzily at his dark silhouette. Then, just as suddenly as he had appeared, he disappeared, and I was left there, alone, tied up and helpless. I glanced around, confused, as bits of information started to hammer into my aching brain. I was tied. Hands, feet and mouth bound. There were squashed lilies next to my head. White lilies with a black lacy ribbon.
A red alarm blasted inside my mind. Move! You have to get out! You’re in danger!
My body still felt stiff and heavy, like I had been drugged, but I knew it was the after-effects of my power switch with Vigil. I remembered how worn out and exhausted he had been when our powers switched the first time. My brain fought hard against the lethargy that gripped me, but it was a useless battle. Nothing was responding like it should.
I saw the outline of someone approaching again. “Come on, let’s get you out. I have everything prepared for you.” Jarvis’s face came into focus and he leaned in and lifted me out of the truck.
Jarvis.
I blinked furiously and tried to break free, but I couldn’t even hold my head up. Jarvis – our bodyguard Jarvis, silent and observant security guard Jarvis – carried me bridal style in his arms. Where the hell was he taking me? And what the hell was he trying to do?
“I’m sorry for tying you up like this, Joey, but I had to be careful. No need to draw attention,” he said, putting me down on the ground and walking away, still shouting to me. “I have to say, it was such a stroke of luck to find you passed out on your couch like that. First I thought you’d overdosed, but then I checked your pulse and breathing. You probably took a few too many sleeping pills there, huh? I knew then that this was the opportunity I’d been waiting for.”
The ground was cold and hard but with my feet tied together, I couldn’t stand up. I looked around wildly, trying to figure out how to escape. I was in a sort of old warehouse, or an abandoned hangar, with high metal walls and a few piles of crates lying around. Fluorescent lights blinked at me from the ceiling.
“And now here we are! You and me, alone at last.” He walked back, holding some ropes. He knelt by my side and pu
lled my bound hands upwards, tying them above my head to a metal structure behind us. I searched his face, trying to make some sense out of this madness.
“And the best part is, your boys left me alone in the house to wait for you, can you believe that? They were practically begging me to take you!” He cackled loudly. “All I had to do was leave a few lilies at your front door again and they all went into hysterics. You had to see the panic on their faces …
“Okay, I have to admit, the knife I put between the flowers could have been the reason they freaked out so much. But I was so happy when they called me and my idiot cousin. They all went to the police station and sent me alone to the house to protect you if you returned. I mean, talk about perfect timing!”
I listened to him, panic rising in my chest. No one knew I had been back in the house and that I didn’t have Vigil’s powers to protect me any more. No one knew Jarvis had taken me.
Where the hell was this place?
“You should have seen my stupid, ugly-mutt cousin, all worried about you. Haha! Big Johnson thinks he’s so clever, the brainless git. He went running for the main house to check the security cameras to see if he could catch who put those lilies at your door. But I’d disabled the security system – I was the one who installed it in the first place!” he confessed, smiling wickedly at me.
Then he leaned in close and whispered, sickeningly sweet, in my ear, “They won’t ever know it was me.”
I was too horrified to do anything other than stare at him in complete terror. Then he stepped back and watched me, curiously.
“So, Joey, did you like the flowers and notes?” Madness swirled dangerously in his eyes. But unlike that crazy boy from the bookstore, whose thoughts ran in a jumbled chaotic mess, Jarvis’s eyes reflected a focused kind of madness. I saw a sharpness that made me think of a predator: piercing, dangerous and deadly. My empathy-sight was back, I realized.
“You read all the notes I sent you? I’ve been writing them since the first day my eyes landed on you when I took this job as your security guard. I knew in that minute that you should be mine. I know everybody wants you, but I want you more!” As he stared at me, his eyes gleamed with excitement. “You know I’ll do anything to have you, don’t you, my sexy thing? I’ve been wanting for so long to have you, and now I have the courage to finally reach out and take it.” He pressed his sick hands over my face, making me cringe in disgust.
Oh God. This was really bad. I looked around, trying to find help. This guy was completely out of his mind! And without Vigil’s powers I was in serious danger. I was helpless: a useless rag doll all tied up and at his mercy.
He frowned as he watched me and his eyes darkened dangerously. “Joey, Joey …” He sighed deeply. “Why do you do this to me? Why do you act like this, like you don’t like the way I touch you? You let all those dirty boys put their filthy hands on you all the time and now you act like mine disgust you? Hell! You’ve probably slept with all of them. Now you think you can act all prudish like a saint with me?” he asked, gripping my chin hard, digging his fingers in painfully, forcing my head up.
I let out a muffled cry but the gag drowned my voice. I tried pulling at the bonds on my wrist, but he intensified his grip on my face and I stopped moving.
“It makes me furious seeing how those boys look at you, baby. All of them: Josh, Sam, Harry and, good God, Tristan. Tristan is the worst, the hungry looks he gives you … It’s disgusting! And now this freaky Vigil kid following you around, too! He is messed up in the head, Joey. He’s not normal. He makes my blood chill just looking at him – how can you stand being so close to him?
“I warned you in my notes, Joey. I told you I was going to make you see your wrongdoing. You can’t ever be with them again. You are mine now, only mine!”
One minute he was letting out violent outbursts of anger, the next he was all excited and manic. Completely insane.
“We will have a lot of fun tonight, babe.” His voice held a dark promise. He squeezed my face again and leered at me, dangerously close. I could feel his hot breath on my face. I whimpered and tried to wriggle free from his grasp, but he gripped my face even harder.
He pressed his chest against me, a wicked smile on his filthy lips. I needed help. Someone, anyone, help me!
I twisted and writhed beneath him, crying out as I tried to break free.
He shouted at me to stop struggling, and punched me hard. My head snapped back and blood started to trickle out of my nose and down my throat, the coppery tang filling my mouth.
I wanted to spit but the gag stopped me from doing so. I started to choke. I struggled even more, turning my head to the side to see if that would help. I couldn’t breathe through my nose. I was suffocating, slowly drowning in my own blood.
He grabbed the cloth covering my mouth and yanked it down to my neck, freeing my mouth. I sputtered and coughed, trying to catch my breath. He stood above me, looking calm, like the sickeningly deranged psychopath he was.
I cussed and started to shout at him, but that only egged him on, making him cackle maniacally, his arms raised high in victory.
“YES! Shout at me, Joe Gray. Call me names! This is even better than I imagined. Go on. Shout at me!” He laughed. “There is no one to hear you. It’s just you and me, no one else for miles and miles around. Go on, shout again. Louder!”
That got me to shut up pretty fast. Fucking sicko. He was enjoying hearing me scream. Before I could think of what to say he leaned close again, a sneer on his lips and a dangerous glint in his eyes. “I like it when girls get scared, when they shout, when they cry my name. Say my name, Joey.”
“Fuck you,” I said, and spat at his face.
He wiped the bloody spit with one hand and gripped my neck with the other, smiling warmly at me. “Ah, that’s my little spitfire talking. But I will make you behave, Gray. I’ll break down your wild heart.” Then he whispered close to my ear. “I will tear you to pieces and rip you apart.”
A shiver ran down my spine and I forced my tears back. I wouldn’t give him the satisfaction. I wasn’t going to cry. I wasn’t going to show him I was scared.
“I’m not scared of you, Jarvis,” I told him in the calmest voice I could muster. “You’re so pathetic, really. It’s pitiful to look at you. You know what the real torture here is? Listening to your crap. Can you just shut up already?”
That changed his mood, fast. He was seething now. And then he punched me again. Hard. I spit more blood on the floor but didn’t cry out. I didn’t make a sound. That made him even more pissed.
“Hit me all you want, it will only prove you’re pathetic and a coward,” I spat out, anger slowly taking the place of my fear.
He narrowed his eyes. “Let’s see if you still say that after I’m finished with you, then,” he snarled.
He stood up and walked back to the car, leaving me alone for a brief time. I looked around desperately, tugging frantically at my bound wrists, trying to break free from the damned ropes that burned and dug into my skin. There was no escape. They were bound too tight. Then I caught sight of my black tattoo. Vigil. He was my way out of this. I closed my eyes hard and chanted his name over and over in my head. Please, please, please, Vigil, come back and save me. I need you now. Come back, wherever you are. Help me!
I looked around, feeling panicky. There was no one there. Nobody. I was alone, in an abandoned dark room; alone with a monster.
Then Jarvis came back, holding a knife in his hand. This time, I couldn’t hide the fear on my face. He saw it, and smiled gleefully.
One of the fluorescent lights gave one last sharp buzz and cut out, leaving the room even darker; shadows danced along the walls, wrapping their ominous shroud over Jarvis’s evil form. He looked even more scary now in the half-light, like a monster straight out of a fairy tale.
This was just a nightmare, I told myself; a vivid, horrible, scary dream. I was going to wake up any moment now – right? I was still sleeping on the couch back home and this was just
a really bad dream.
I watched as Jarvis straddled me and brushed the tip of the knife close to my chest. I shut my eyes hard and silently pleaded. Vigil. Vigil. Vigil. Why wasn’t he listening to my pleas? Where was he? Why wasn’t he here?
Please, please, Vigil, come back to me.
Jarvis grabbed my jaw and squeezed it painfully. “Stop mumbling some other man’s name, Joey,” he growled furiously. “Can’t you see this is our special time alone? You’re saying another man’s name. You’re breaking my fucking heart, Joey. Guess I’ll have to break yours back,” he threatened. “Tear it apart.”
I felt a sharp, stabbing pain at my side and something warm and sticky started to drench my shirt. A loud gasp escaped my lips but I clenched my mouth shut, despite the pain I was feeling. I wasn’t going to let him hear me cry.
But when he put the knife close to my face, I started to break down.
Vigil wasn’t coming. No one was coming to help me. It was just me and this monster alone in this dark room. I was powerless, helpless, bound and hurt. There was nothing I could do to stop him. I had nothing. I was nothing. And I was going to die here, alone in this place, and no one would ever know.
If only I had paid attention. If only I had listened. I’d thought nothing could ever hurt me then …
My eyes filled with tears, which began to run down the side of my face. I couldn’t hold them in any longer. I was in too much despair, too broken down by fear.
I didn’t want to die. Not like this.
I turned my face to one side, staring at the ground in the distance. I could see black heavy boots moving far away, not making a sound. I looked up to see Sky’s face. Her beautiful face with sorrowful black eyes staring back at me. She stood still, watching in silence.
She was here for me.
Was this the way it would all end for me, then? Couldn’t she do something to help me? Couldn’t she intervene, one last time? Sky smiled sadly when she saw the look in my eyes, my silent pleas inside.