Hey, so sorry for the massive delay! I'm already on the next chapter so that shouldn't happen again! Please, read on...
'A cupboard? Seriously?' Jared drawled leaning against the doorframe with effortless elegance. I gaped at him; Amber beside me did the same. I knew what she was thinking: How had he gotten out, unless her parents had come home...
'Oh. Not even one sarcastic come-back?' He asked sounding genuinely disappointed. Amber's hand found mine and she gripped it so tight I had to fight back a wince. The dog's soft growling never ceased, and only served to reflect the grim atmosphere, like the strange wind before a tornado.
'Where's Alex?' She said in barely a whisper. Her eyes never left his and the bloody gash on her forehead seemed to almost glow in stark contrast to her pale face. A smug smile played across his lips and he shrugged off the question.
'I just repaid the favour. Got any cupboards 'round here?' He asked, chuckling at his own joke. The palm of my hand was clammy with sweat but I didn't let go of Amber.
'Joking!' Jared muttered, holding his hands up in the universal sign of surrender. Oh, very funny.
'What do you want?' I asked, trying to sound braver then I felt. Going by the slight furrowing of his brows I assume I failed.
'Don't be scared of me. Please don't. I know I've done some real bad stuff but I honestly didn't mean for anyone to get hurt!' The sudden sincerity in Jared's voice rang clear. It was at this moment that I realised just how good of an actor he really was, switching from deranged psychopath to the face of innocence in mere seconds. The sudden change in his mood unnerved me. He was unpredictable and that made him just that bit more dangerous.
Nobody spoke. We were all locked in our positions, Amber and I sat on the foot of the stair-case, our hands clasped tightly together. Jared, cross-armed in the doorway, tall and confident and intimidating. Even the purple-ish bruise forming around his right eye added to the effect. I couldn't help but feel a stab of savage pleasure that Jared was obviously feeling at least some repercussions of his actions tonight, judging by the size of that shiner he'd have a black eye for weeks.
Finally Jared sighed, slumping back against the doorframe in a defeated way. He brushed his hair from his eyes and frowned at the floor.
'Why don't you believe me?' He asked softly, even though he looked at neither of us I had a feeling that the question was meant for me.
'You cannot be serious.' Amber muttered incredulously. I gripped her hand tighter (if that was possible) and nudged her in the ribs, praying she'd get the message and shut up as soon as humanly possible.
'You're supposed to believe me,' Jared continued, thankfully having ignored Amber. Without warning he slammed the back of his head into the doorframe with such force I let out a squeak of surprise.
'Why? Why? Why?' Jared yelled, punctuating each shout with another head-slam. Amber had her eyes tight shut and was shaking her head, whether in denial or in trying to block out the scene in front of her I didn't know but it seemed like a good idea. I wanted to shut my eyes and drown out his yells and pretend none of this was real. I wanted to, but I couldn't. I had to face the reality of the situation, and so did Amber. There must be something I could say, something I could do. Without conscious thought I waited for his yells to subside into soft murmurs and stood up, ignoring Amber's restricting hand tugging, pleading with me to sit back down.
'Stop it,' I said to Jared, keeping my tone light and a careful mask of neutrality on my face. He stared incredulously at me, for the moment all traces of anger drained from his handsome face. He looked almost...normal.
'Look, I-I know you want us to understand. I get it, I do. But things just got a bit out of control with Amber and...everything,' I motioned vaguely behind me and heard Amber's soft snort of disapproval at referring to her injury as merely 'a bit out of control'.
'Maybe you should just try to explain it better so we-' Another vague motion, this time taking in Amber and myself. '-can understand properly?'
I waited with baited breath for his answer, feeling this situation could go either way. Having no idea what I was doing I resisted the urge to ramble on some more, and gave him time to think about my offer. All I knew was that perhaps if I spoke to him like an equal he might respond better then to the demands of a 'victim'.
After what seemed like an age a relieved smile broke out across Jared's face, and he pinched the bridge of his nose between his thumb and forefinger.
'Yeah...yeah let's do that. I'll explain it right to you and you'll understand.' He stated as though it was his idea. I could feel Ambers gaze burning into the back of my skull like a drill. Still, it seemed to have worked. He was calmer anyway.
'Alex...' Amber muttered uncertainly from behind me. Jared's head snapped up.
'He's fine. Just unconscious, I promise. I wouldn't hurt him.' He answered softly, and I could almost hear the stream of angry come-backs forming in Amber's mind, but was certain she wasn't stupid enough to say any aloud.
'Maybe you should bring him inside so you can explain to him too when he wakes up?' I suggested, foolishly overestimating Jared's self control. In all honesty I should've seen this coming; it wasn't clever of me to sound so concerned about Alex in front of him.
'Why do you even care?' Jared muttered, his voice deadly quiet. I heard Amber's quiet intake of breath behind me and my heart began to speed up in response. I couldn't think of anything to say. Not one, single thing.
'W-well if he doesn't understand he's going to think you're still dangerous, but if you explain to all of us together then he won't.' Amber explained, her voice straining with the effort to keep her emotions in check. I breathed a silent sigh of relief, and she squeezed my hand, which she hadn't let go of when I'd stood up. Jared nodded slowly, but he didn't seem convinced.
'I'll get Alex, we should, uh, sit down. I want to explain this right.' He gestured to the living room, inviting me to take a seat on my own settee. I couldn't help but feel a sharp stab of annoyance at this, in spite of the situation. Jared strode confidently outside to retrieve Alex's unconscious form from wherever he'd dumped him. Amber immediately stood up, pushing me in the direction of the living room. For the briefest of moments I considered trying to run away again, but he'd only catch up and we'd be back in this situation. Minus Alex.
'What are we gonna do?' She hissed in my ear, shooting sharp glances behind her to check for Jared's return.
'I don't know!' I whispered back, hopelessness colouring my tone. Amber's shoulders slumped and I lead her to the brown settee her dog currently inhabited. The three of us nestled closely together, seeking comfort from contact. Amber was in the centre seat, with me and her dog at her flanks. 'Let's just let him talk, pretend we believe his bull, and then call for help ASAP.' She suggested in a whisper. I silently nodded my agreement and heaved an uneven sigh when we heard the thud of Jared's shoes on the hallway carpet, heaving the dead weight which was Alex. Jared dragged Alex into the living room, somehow managing to keep the carpet free from splatters of dirt and blood. At least I wouldn't get any hassle from mum about staining her carpet. The normality of this thought made me giggle. Of all the things to worry about at a time like this. Amber stared at me, eyes wide, evidently thinking I'd lost it. Even Jared sent me an odd glance, then again he was carefully settling an unconscious boy into one of my mothers arm chairs so he had no right to think ME weird. He let Alex slump in the chair before wiping sweat from his brow and turning to face us.
'Thanks for hearing me out.' Jared flashed us that old charming smile of his, the same smile that Amber had described to me a million times in a flustered rant. I resisted the urge to gag. I nodded in regards to his comment, but Amber looked down, contemplating her navel.
'First, I'm sorry Amber. I didn't want to hurt you, I just lost it. I'm so sorry-' I let Jared's apologies fade into background noise, and suspected Amber was doing the same thing. She gripped my hand even tighter still, I was sure my circulation was suffering immensely from all this hand-holding but I needed the support as much as she did.
Instead of listening to Jared bumbling his way through false apologies I let my gaze wander to Alex. I studied his face, aside from the patchy bruise blossoming on his temple (which I assume was how he'd gotten into his current unconscious state courtesy of Jared) he was still the same good looking boy that Amber had been so excited about glimpsing that first day in the library. He had a nice, kind face. The kind Amber would stick on her 'wall of hotness' as she liked to call it. He wasn't perfect of course, he was a little on the skinny side, and that weird half-stubble thing he had going on was doing him no favours. Still, he didn't deserve what was happening to him. He was innocent in this, just a tool to some creepy guy's weird fantasy. Amber too. Neither of them deserved this. In all fairness I didn't deserve this either, I'm not about to turn into one of those heroic characters, that only exist in books and movies, that would blame themselves if someone on the other side of the world stubbed their toe. I hadn't exactly brought this on myself, but it was my problem and mine alone to deal with.
As I gazed absently at the boy who had rushed to save us, despite what could have happened, I thought I saw his eyelids twitch. Now I thought about it, his colour had returned a little more...
A sudden sharp pain in my side awoke me from my inner thoughts. My head snapped up to find Jared staring at me expectantly, his penetrating blue eyes boring into mine in an unnerving fashion. Amber nudged me again and I squeezed her hand to let her know I was concentrating. She hadn't looked up, or even altered her stance since Jared had begun talking.
'Well? Do YOU want to tell her?' Jared asked, letting impatience seep into his tone. I shook my head, still having no idea what he was asking me but not wanting him to know I hadn't even been listening to him.
'Are you sure you want me to tell her?' He asked, seeming genuinely surprised at whatever I had said. I nodded, thinking that would be the best thing to do. I tried not to glance at Alex or draw any unwanted attention to him.
'Ok then. I understand. Amber, try to bear with me here. It might be hard to hear but you have to know.' Jared turned to Amber and began what was sure to be a long story, the topic of which I was still completely clueless about.
This is so surreal...
The thought drifted through my mind, pretty much summing up everything I was feeling at the moment. Fear, anger, confusion, frustration. How could this day have taken such a drastic turn? We were sat with a boy, more powerful then anyone I had ever met, a boy who had controlled someone to get to me, harmed my best friend and now wanted to sit and talk it all out. Ok, so I had suggested the sitting-and-talking-out part, but what else could I do?
Don't make him angry, sit tight. Just wait...
At first I thought I'd imagined the second thought drifting in front of my eyes. It simply appeared. Something was wrong. I hadn't consciously created any such thought, and yet there it was. Plain as day, etched into my mind as though it had always been there. Almost as though someone had put it there. Almost as though someone was watching the scene in front of me, and was offering me comfort. I knew this was a big leap to make, I'd probably imagined it anyway, but a seed of hope had been planted. I allowed myself to imagine, just for a second, someone was watching over us. Someone wanted to help; someone was strong enough to actually help. I clung to this thought helplessly. It was stupid of course, letting myself believe that there was some knight in shining armour waiting to rescue us. This was no fairytale, but...
I all-too-casually scanned the room around me, unsure what exactly I was looking for. Alex was still slumped in my Dad's favourite faded leather armchair, looking battered and bruised. Amber was still sandwiched between myself and her dog, glaring at the floor but listening closely to Jared's words. Jared was leaning against the doorframe (something he does a lot I've noticed) talking in a low, serious voice. His words meant nothing in particular to my racing mind. I knew I should be listening intently to whatever he was describing; I mean you always pay attention to the crazy person if you want to live, right? Wrong, apparently. Someone, or something could be looking out for us. Stop. I couldn't think that way. I couldn't wait for someone to 'rescue' us.
Amber let out a sudden gasp, for the first time raising her head to meet Jared's eyes. My eyes darted between the two of them, desperately trying to recover what I'd missed from the conversation.
'-well not exactly like me, but Holly can do things too...' He explained in a quiet voice, flashing me a half-smile. Everything snapped into place. Oh crap, he was telling her about me. Crap, crap, crap. Of course I'd be a necessary part of the story, I probably should've guessed earlier, the only reason he'd done what he did to Alex was because we had our abilities in common. I knew after this Amber would need to find out but I'd wanted to tell her myself.
Unsure what to do I remained still and quiet, now giving Jared my full attention. I risked a glance at Amber, she was rigid, and had resumed evil-eyeing the floor. She still didn't believe him, that much was obvious. I wasn't sure whether that was a good thing or not.
Nearly there, don't worry...
I let out a startled squeak, which I hastily disguised as a cough, when this second thought danced through my consciousness. Again, I hadn't created it; it had simply appeared as though etched into my skull. Way to turn a weird situation weirder. I was starting to wonder whether I was imagining these thoughts. Was I loosing it? No surprise really, it'd been a long day. Evening was setting in, even if my parents came home soon it would take little convincing on Jared's part to send them back out again.
No, I wasn't imagining anything. Not now. Someone, something was watching. Waiting. Something was coming.
I shifted my attention back to Jared, forcing myself to pay attention this time. He wasn't a great storyteller, he over exaggerated his gestures and seemed to branch off into a new story every five minutes, constantly backtracking and adding things in he's forgotten to mention. In fact, I was pretty sure he was confusing himself. The overall effect made no sense what so ever, it was clear Jared was trying to be brutally honest about everything. Make us understand, but even he could tell Amber didn't believe a word he was saying.
The ramblings of a crazy person
I could almost hear these words echo around the room, though no-one had spoken them aloud. It seemed as though we'd been there for hours, although in reality only forty minutes had passed, according to the digital clock under the TV. It was increasingly likely my parents would be back soon, a fact I wanted to share with Jared, but there never seemed to be an opening to interrupt him. Alex was still out (Jared must've really gone for him), Amber was still as white as a ghost and no other mysterious voices had appeared in my mind for a while now. All in all, things looked pretty grim to say the least. I was completely drained. My nerves felt raw and frayed, and I had no idea what Jared would do once my parents returned. In essence, I was a mess. In the midst of my second bout of hopelessness, a shred of light finally forced its way through my dark mood.
A mighty crash sounded from the hall, my head snapped up along with the others, and I clung onto Amber's arm with enough force to make her wince. The dog, who'd been shuddering with silent growls since Jared began talking, leapt Amber's restraining grip, letting loose a wild bark. Before we could move, before we could even THINK a voice rang out loud and clear.
'GET THE HELL AWAY FROM MY DAUGHTER!'
Hey, thanks for reading, as always comment with feedback is appreciated. I know this chapter took ages to upload, I'm not sure why I took so long to write it but I'm sorry! Thanks to anyone who is sticking with the story, I hope you know how much I appreciate it, and how it always makes me happy when I read such lovely comments on my stories!
Cheers! :)