Vanessa smiled as she danced around the bedroom, pulling out the perfect outfit to wear for her night out. Glancing behind her she smiled at her boyfriend as he listened to his music and wrote down some new song lyrics. She had begged Dead to go out with her and her friends, but the vocalist claimed he was behind on new material and needed a bit of alone time to work on it before Euronymous threw another fit. Almost as if sensing her gaze, Dead looked up from his papers and grinned back at her. Her heart raced at the sight; his smile was one of many things she loved most about him. Rarely would he ever really smile around the other guys, but when he did, it was as if he were lighting up the room.
"Are you sure you don't wanna go with me, Pelle?" she pressed once again.
Dead shook his head. "If I don't come up with something new Euronymous is going to kill me. Besides, club type parties aren't really my thing. I'm sure your friends would like to spend some one-on-one time with you anyway. We can walk to the river when you come home or even through the cemetery again if you want."
"I'd like that a lot, Pelle."
Turning his attention back to his papers, Vanessa began to get dressed. Unlike most of her friends, Vanessa's outfit wasn't too revealing or even provocative. She preferred to keep it simple with her camouflage cargo pants and simple black crop top and her combat boots to complete the look. Her makeup, on the other hand, was always over the top and had become heavily inspired by Dead's corpse paint. Once she had finished putting her makeup on and straightened out her hair she turned and looked at Dead once again.
"You look beautiful," he praised as he stood from his desk, pulling her into his arms. "Do you really have to leave me here all by myself?"
Vanessa could feel the heat rise to her cheeks as he pressed his lips against her neck. "I'll be back as fast as I can, Pelle, I promise. You still could sneak away for a while with me and come have some fun."
Smirking, he bit down lightly causing her to groan. "Perhaps I'll join you next time. I promise I'll be here waiting for you to come back."
Just as she was about to press further, the sound of a car horn captured their attention.
Dead motioned towards the door. "I think your friends are here to steal you."
"I'll be back soon, Pelle, I promise. I love you," she said before kissing him once more.
"I love you too. Be safe, my little demon."
Dead sighed as she walked out the door to her friend's car, his heart feeling heavy once again. He wanted so badly to go with her and have a good time with her, but Euronymous had made it clear that he wasn't liking the fact that Dead hadn't produced a new song in the last few days. He looked down at the papers, a few more lines and he could probably call it a night and focus on spending the night in the graveyard with Vanessa. Leaning back against the wall, he grabbed his pen and continued to write.
Vanessa tried her best to keep up the fake smile while she danced with her friends, yet she couldn't shake the feeling that someone was watching her.
"Cheer up, Nessa!" yelled her closest friend Melanie. "I'm sure you and Pelle will have some fun once you're home!"
"Yeah!" encouraged Natasha. "It's not very often we get to see you outside of work anymore! You're always cooped up in the house!"
"Speaking of seeing you, I think you have an admirer," laughed Melanie as she nodded towards a man not too far from them.
Vanessa's smile fell as the man's gaze intensified, turning into an almost menacing smirk. Turning back to face Melanie and Natasha, they had disappeared with two men of their own. The panic started to rise as the man approached her, the smirk never once leaving his lips. He was almost slightly smaller than Dead, but definitely had a bit more muscle in his arms with short matted down black hair that made his appearance all the more unsettling. Trying to be discreet, Vanessa slowly made her way to the back of the club to find the telephone.
"Where you think you're going, baby?" the man called as he wrapped his hand around her arm.
Vanessa pulled her arm away, glaring at the man. "Don't touch me," she growled.
Pulling her back to him, his face became darker, yet the smirk remained. "Why do you women have to be so difficult? I'm a nice guy, come and dance with me for a while."
"I'm not interested," she snapped again, trying to pull away. "Now let me go."
"Look, you don't need to be so stuck up. Now, why don't we head to the back and have a private dance?"
As hard as she tried to get away from the man, his grip tightened around her arm as he pulled her closer to the back of the building. Looking behind her, she managed to lock eyes with Melanie, hoping that her friend would pick up on what was happening.
Melanie's smile instantly fell as she watched Vanessa get dragged away by the strange man. Despite the fact that she wasn't overly fond of Vanessa's relationship with Dead, she knew that she loved him and wouldn't be going around with other men. Looking next to her, she pulled Natasha aside.
"What's the big deal?" yelled Natasha, clearly annoyed her dance had been interrupted.
Melanie pointed towards the back. "Ness just got taken to the back by some creeper!"
Natasha's annoyed expression was instantly wiped away, replaced by panic. "What do we do?"
"We need to call Pelle! If we even try and get security involved they'll just laugh it off as some drunken hookup!"
Nodding in agreement, Natasha followed Melanie to the bar.
"What can I get you?" asked the bartender.
"We need to use your phone, our friend is in trouble!" explained Melanie. "Please, I know we aren't allowed to use it but it's an emergency!"
The woman thought for a moment before reaching down and putting the phone on the counter. "Call whoever you need but don't take too long. If my boss finds out I'll be in deep shit."
"Thank you so much!"
Dead leaned back against the wall, finally done with his latest lyrics. He had written three new songs, which meant he could finally spend his free time with Vanessa without Euronymous getting on his back. Just as he went to close his eyes the phone on his desk began to ring. Curious, he went over and picked it up.
"Hello?" he questioned.
"Pelle!" shouted Melanie. "You need to get down here now!"
"Calm down, tell me what's going on. Is everything alright? Where's Nessa?"
"Some guy dragged her into the back of the club! She..."
Not needing to hear another word Dead dropped the phone to the floor and ran down the stairs, grabbing the truck keys from the kitchen table. His heart pounded against his chest as he drove down the road, surprised that cops weren't already pulling him over for going over the speed limit; not that he was concerned about it at the moment. Time seemed to slow for him as the panic he felt in his chest grew. Vanessa was strong, sure, but she wasn't one for confrontation with anyone besides Euronymous. He needed to remember to thank Melanie properly once he had beaten the light out of whoever had their hands on his girlfriend.
After what felt like an hour, Dead pulled into the parking lot of the club and ran inside not bothering to even turn off the truck. Melanie and Natasha met him at the door, pulling him inside past the crowd of people. All around people pushed past them, making it difficult for him to maneuver hi s way to the back of the building. His anger intensified, the music ringing through his ears not helping at all; if by some miracle he didn't go to jail tonight he was going to need a lot of heavy metal after hearing all of this pop music. His eyes narrowed as he finally had the man in view with Vanessa backed against the wall struggling to get away.
Yanking the man back, Dead's fist connected with his jaw, sending him to the floor.
"Who the fuck do you think you are?" he growled as he picked the man up. "Care to explain to me why your filthy hands are on my girlfriend? You low-life piece of shit."
Tossing the man to the floor once again Dead lifted his foot before stomping his boot into the man's stomach. The man cried out as Dead kicked him again, the anger apparent on his face. Vanessa couldn't help but watch in slight fear of the sight before her. Her usually calm, quiet, lover had completely disappeared before her eyes. Melanie took notice of her friends expression and quickly pulled her into a tight embrace, shielding her from the fight while silently cheering Dead on. Once he was satisfied, Dead turned away from the now bloody man, walking slowly over to comfort Vanessa.
"Nessa," he whispered into her ear. "I'm sorry you had to see that. I should have controlled myself more. I was just so..."
Vanessa turned to face him, taking hold of his face in her hands. "I'm not angry at you, Pelle. It was just so surprising to see so much violence come from you; you're usually so quiet and collected. I had Euronymous down for the fight type."
"I just wanted to keep you safe, Nessa. When Melanie told me you had gotten dragged away by some random asshole I couldn't even think straight. All I could think was the complete worst. That something bad was happening to you and I wasn't there to protect you. Next time you go out like this, I promise I'll come with you. You won't even have to ask, just tell me and I'll be sure to tell Euronymous to go screw himself."
"I don't think we'll be going to a club for a while, Pelle," chimed in Melanie. "Maybe a nice, safe lunch date would be better. Or even a movie for that matter. I'm sorry we weren't there with you, Ness."
Vanessa shook her head. "You have nothing to be sorry about. Thank you for calling Pelle for me."
Dead nodded in agreement. "I owe you big time, Melanie. If it wasn't for you something worse could've happened to her. I don't know how I can ever thank you for this."
"You don't need to thank me, Pelle. Just make sure you don't hurt her and you come on more outings with us. We really want to get to know you better, especially if you and Ness end up getting married one day!"
Vanessa felt the blush spread across her cheeks, thankful it was dark. "Mel!"
Dead chuckled. "I promise I'll come out more. For now though, I think I'm going to take Nessa home for the night. Do you want me to walk with you two to your car?"
Melanie nodded. "After all this that would be great. Thanks, Pelle."
Leaving Vanessa and Dead, Melanie went to go find Natasha to tell her they were leaving. Vanessa held tightly to Dead's hand as they walked slowly behind Melanie, both of them trying to calm their nerves after what had just happened. Once they reached Natasha, Dead led the way out of the building with all three of them close by.
"Thanks for coming, Pelle," murmured Natasha. "Are you alright, Ness?"
Vanessa nodded, forcing a smile. "I'll be alright. I'm glad I have you guys to watch my back."
"Be careful going home tonight," reminded Dead as they reached Melanie's car. "If you want to go ahead and call Vanessa when you get home so we know you made it."
Melanie smiled. "Thanks again, Pelle. We'll see you later, Ness."
"See you later," Vanessa managed.
Once the girls were in the car, Dead guided Vanessa back to the still running truck.
"You didn't turn the truck off?" she commented. "Isn't that thing a gas guzzler? Euronymous is gonna freak out."
Dead chuckled, seeing that she was trying to talk about anything else. "Let him get pissed I really don't care anymore."
"Did you call Hellhammer and Necro?"
Opening the door for her, Vanessa climbed in and waited for Dead to get in. Once in, he nodded as he pulled back out of the parking lot.
"They agreed with you. They don't like how he's acting and plan on calling him out tomorrow when they're over. You don't have to join if you don't want to, Nessa, you've already dealt with enough tonight."
Vanessa shook her head. "I'll be right there beside you, Pelle."
Dead couldn't hold back his grin as he reached over and took hold of her hand. "So, have you talked about marrying me to your friends before?"
Vanessa put her finger to her lips, biting down on it gently trying to keep from smiling.
"You can tell me anything, Nessa," he pushed.
Vanessa put her head down slightly. "I may have said something about it once or twice."
Dead squeezed her hand, his smile only getting bigger. "Maybe we could talk more about details tomorrow?"
"I'd like that, Pelle."
The two arrived back at the house, finding Euronymous asleep on the couch. Making their way up to the bedroom, Vanessa didn't bother in changing clothes and just fell down on the mattress ready to just get some sleep. Dead chuckled before sliding in behind her, his arms wrapping around her and pulling her to his chest.
"Goodnight, Nessa, I love you," he whispered, kissing her head softly.
"I love you too, Pelle."
Before long Vanessa had fallen asleep on Dead's chest; the same could not be said for the blond man. He stared at the ceiling for what felt like hours, his mind running through what had just happened. Maybe she was simply playing it off and acting strong for his sake, but he knew deep down that what happened had left her shaken. Had Melanie not called him...had he been a few minutes late...
No. Don't think about it! He yelled.
You weren't there to keep it from happening. All because Euronymous told you songs were more important.
"I didn't have a choice," he whispered to no one.
You could have gone with her. Could have protected her. That could have easily happened when you left her with Euronymous.
"I don't want to think about this," he cried. "Please stop this."
He couldn't hold back the tears that stung his eyes. Feeling them fall down his cheek and onto her hair as she slept soundly against him. He couldn't understand why she was still there beside him. He wouldn't have held it against her if she was angry with him, if she blamed him for what had happened. What kind of boyfriend was he? Was he really so weak that he couldn't stand up to Euronymous to make sure nothing happened to the woman he loved?
Grow a damn spine. Stick up for yourself and stop acting so defenseless.
"Starting tomorrow, there's going to be a new Dead."
Looking down, he kissed Vanessa softly on the top of her head before drifting off into a dreamless sleep.