Sexual Revolution (AU,CC,ADULT) Pt 19 - AN 5/11/05 [WIP]

[Morrigan Undomiel]

Title: Sexual Revolution-Hard Fucking
Author: Danie aka DarkHalfUndine(On Outer Haven) aka Morrigan Undomiel(on fanatics)
Rating: Ok this is ADULT. Rape, Violence, Sexual situations(I've always wanted to say sexual situations, how does that work anyway, you walk into a room and it's like "Uh folks, be careful this is a sexual situation, hee hee, hee...sorry), a bit of harshness about the human condition.
Category: AU M/L M/M A/I K/A
Disclaimer: The characters don’t belong to me. They belonged to Jason Katims, Melinda Metz, UPN, etc. etc.
Summary: This is Roswell Clockwork Orange style. Meaning that gangs run the streets and cops can do nothing. There is plot! It's a love story folks(eventually). Also I used Ava because I will never use the foul Tess Harding as a good person in any fic I write. She is the sole cause of everybody's troubles on Roswell. So die Tess die.


Previous chapters


Done by Jen. QT's was unfortunately pruned cause it was too big. I don't know how to resize it so for the time being, it is just gonna be Jen's.

*Song by Robert Johnson*

All Maria had ever wanted was a guy who could sing the blues. Well in general she always wanted a guy who could sing, but the blues in specific. Why? Because the blues were the first thing her father had ever taught her. And it was the last thing he had ever shared with her.
The day he left and went off to whereever dreamers go, he’d picked her up, sat her down in his lap with guitar in hand and said to her:

“Ria, what do you want me to play baby?”

Maria was 7 and in love with her daddy as much as any little girl could be. He was tall, handsome, and his smile would light up a room and your heart. When Maria was older, she realized that had been the problem. He lit up too many hearts and didn’t have the strength to deny them.

Maria crinkled her naïve eyes at him and tugged at his curly blonde hair.

“Play me the Malted Milk blues!!”

Her father rolled his eyes playfully.

“That again!”

“Yes yes forever yes!”

He laughed, he had the same crinkled eyes as Maria when he smiled. They turned upward making them seem even more jolly. He looked at his daughter, and twirled a bouncy curl on her head. His throat got tight and he grew sad. Maria noticed immediately.

“Daddy, what’s wrong?” Maria’s eyes went big with worry.

“Oh nothing, baby. Just looking at you. You’re so beautiful, just like your mom. My angel.”

“Oh daddy.” Maria fell into a fit of flattered giggles while her father watched her for the very last time. His beautiful girls, that he couldn’t treat right. He wasn’t good enough for them he knew. He kept hurting his wife, and he knew that one day Ria would catch on and it would hurt her to. He couldn’t do it anymore. He felt a huge coward, but he figured it was for the best. They didn’t need him, although he needed them. He knew they would be strong, because his girls were always strong and he would, well he would move on, and give them a second chance for happiness.

“Alright pumpkin time for the song.”

Mellow blues chords strummed out from his guitar. He opened his mouth to sing when Ria stopped him.

“What hun?”

“Can I…sing with you?”
He felt the tears start again. Maria had told him she’d always wanted to sing with him and it was as if she sensed this would be her last chance. He gave her a goofy smile.

“Baby I would be delighted and honored and privileged and happy, and-“

“Daddy! The song! None of your nonsense words.”

He laughed genially.

“Alright.”

Her sweet tiny voice mixed with his strong clear belt and they made a harmony all their own.



I keep drinkin’ malted milk
Tryin’ to drive my blues away
I keep drinkin malted milk
Tryin’ to drive my blues away
Baby, you just as welcome to my lovin’
As the flowers is in May
Malted milk, malted milk
Keep rushin’ to my head
Malted milk, malted milk
Keep rushin’ to my head
And I have a funny, funny feelin’
And I’m talkin’ all out my head
Baby, fix me one more drink
And hug your daddy one more time
Baby fix me one more drink
And hug your daddy one more time
Keep on stirin’ in my malted milk, mama
Until I change my mind
My doorknob keeps on turnin’
It must be spooks around my bed
My doorknob keeps on turnin’
Must be spooks around my bed
I have a warm, old feelin’
And the hair risin’ on my head.

He played some more focusing on her favorite songs until she fell asleep in his lap. He put her to bed, tucked her in and went to his room. His wife was there, waiting, crying. He touched her and she didn’t move away. She whispered painfully:

“For tonight, I want you…one last time. I want to remember what it felt-“

He kissed her knowing that she wouldn’t be able to finish her sentence, and only happy to oblige her with the one thing he’d wanted as well. One last night. It was hard to think of it as the last time, knowing that he would never touch her in this way again. As they moved together, he could hear her sobbing softly. He tried to make it as good as the time before it had all fallen apart. He gave, gave, and didn’t care if he received. But she did. She always cared, so she gave just as much back. He started to cry. They finished tenderly holding each other tight, letting all that had torn them apart just stay away for one moment. Then they went to Maria’s room and kissed her. She smiled in her sleep.

With a tiny suitcase in hand, his guitar, and his favorite Humphrey Bogart throwback hat, he walked out of their lives that chilly early morning, forever.

“Here take this blanket.”

Michael threw a thick blue comforter at Maria and she caught it gingerly.

“Put it down on the ground.”

“I beg your pardon-“

“Just do it!”

Maria obliged him bitterly.

“There your highness, are you happy?”

Michael stopped. He turned with a sallow look. “Don’t call me that.”

Maria inwardly shook her head. God he had some serious issues. There was a 10-foot thick wall between him and everyone else and she had no idea how it had gotten there. He seemed to be having fun in this life. Raping, killing, living like a cave bear. She supposed it was just an act, a way to keep everything down. But why? Why the need to bury it all away?

Michael hated being called that. Your highness, or your majesty, it just rubbed him the wrong way, almost as if he knew somewhere he wasn’t meant to be called that, even in jest. As though in another life there was a time when no one would have joked about it.

“Now, sit down.” Maria glared at him for a moment before slumping down on the hard ground. The blanket did not provide any comfort. She shifted her dress and tried to relax. Michael stared at her while she fidgeted and tried to not show her discomfort. He moaned and reached for a bag.

“Here.” He chucked the bag at her knocking her over. Michael winced and prepared himself for the tongue-lashing. Maria however was too tired to argue. She rummaged through the pile until she found something comfortable and stalked off to a dark corner to change. He kept his eyes on her watching her hips sway, her hair tangled round her shoulders in disarray. Her beauty never left him, he was always aware of it plaguing him…in an annoying sort of way. He shook himself. There was no point in thinking like that, it never got a man anywhere but trouble. Seeking to distract himself, he picked up his sword and slashed through the air listening to the metal sing and his muscles tense. His gift had always been a keen ear, sometimes he could hear the sounds of 5 city blocks when the wind was right. He could hear the crickets and their tiny chirps on the grass of the old lots through the window of the warehouse, somewhere further than that there was a fight and bottles were falling with sounds of tinkling glass. Another typical night down here in district Roswell. He closed his eyes and swung at invisible opponents. He hoped to let it all go, the tension and despair, the pain and loneliness. Another typical night in district Roswell, wishing he was somewhere else.

Maria turned to see Michael practicing with his kitana. She froze now more afraid than before to leave the corner. She didn’t dare try to escape under his watchful eye now, he seemed to be able to sense everything even when he was “asleep”. No this was not the time now, but sometime soon, soon she would escape again, and the next time she would succeed. It was just a matter of careful planning. Plan: She didn’t intend to stay here and leave her life up to fate in the hands of this man. She would get out and make sure he was brought down to justice. She could never see this happen to another girl again. ‘This whole town was insane’ she decided, leaving their sons to fester and grow into monsters, leaving their daughters helpless and unprepared to face life. It was a plague that would continue to spread as much as they liked to pretend it only bubbled here. It would spread and go into the town. It had already begun. She moved slowly with careful steps back to the blanket at Michael’s bedside. He turned at her first footstep. His anger surprised her. She saw his arm trembling with exhaustion, gripping the sword and transferring his hate into it. A flicker of desire came to his eyes and Maria noticed. ‘I seemed to notice a lot about him’, she thought to herself. She shuddered. That was not a good sign.

The room seemed warmer now to Michael. It was the practice, he deemed. Why did he not seem so sure when he looked in her eyes? He ran a hand through his hair and plopped down in his bed sword in hand. He turned to her again. Maria had lay down and made a weak pillow with her dress. She banged into it with acrimonious fists and settled in. She saw him looking at her.

“Could you not stare like that?”

“I’m entitled to look anywhere I choose.” Michael said while shutting off the lights, casting them into darkness.

“Couldn’t you just- ooh forget it!”

Michael expected her to turn and ignore him so he closed his eyes, but five minutes later when they slid open she was still there staring at him in the black.

“What is it?”

“None of your business.”

“Fine.”

“…I can’t sleep.”

“….do you want to come up here with me?”

“NO way in hell!”

Michael scowled.

“Fine. Then shut up and let me sleep.”

“Michael.”

“What!”

“I don’t know.”

“God if you don’t know why don’t you zip it and ponder while I sleep!”

“I’m scared.”

Michael felt his throat burn with culpability. He opened his mouth to say something, but discovered no words.

“I know you don’t care, I just wanted to say that. I hate the dark in strange places.”

“Just go to sleep, it’s dark when you close your eyes too ya know.”

“Well thanks for the comforting thought.” Maria sighed exasperated and closed her eyes. Eventually, swaddled in anxiety, she drifted into a light sleep.

Michael stayed up and listened to her breathing even and deepen. He sort of smiled when he heard her soft snores. He began to drift when he leaped up remembering something. He fidgeted with it for a moment before plunging into bed for the night.

The room was dark, light coming from the tiny street lamp outside the window cast a slim shadow on the wall. Everything else was pitch, except for a tiny sleeping figure, now lit by the flickering of candle glow.

[Morrigan Undomiel]

Hey Look I'm updating! I love all the great feedback you have been giving me and I'm happy that any with misconceptions about my work have been plesantly surprised. (I love just sex too and it was supposed to turn out that way, but it just evolved into something completely different) This part is shorter than I wanted but for some reason as I was writing it just seemed right to end it this way. I'll make up for it in the next few parts. I hope you like it and I'll try not to make the next update so far away.




“Sit down.”

“No.”

“…Sit down.”

“NO.”

“Sit-why won’t you sit down?”

“Cause I don’t feel like it. Until I change. I won’t stand another minute in a dress that is completely destroyed and exposing me to you. Thank you.”

Alex grasped at the invisible molecules of air. God she was trying to infuriate him again like she did last night? Yes yes she was…and she wanted to know if she could use his apparent lack of control against him. Well he wouldn’t so easily fooled. Isabel may be the most beautiful woman he had seen…ever, but she wasn’t going to get under his skin. God had he just thought that? Was it even true?

Much to his chagrin, it was.

He pointed to things behind her and she glided over to change. He sat down and searched through his record collection, trying to ignore the naked girl in his bedroom.

“Hey do you have any more Billie Holliday?”

Alex furrowed his brow. “Excuse me?”

“Do you have any more Billie Holliday? I like her, and I-I- she calms me down is all.” Isabel looked down and a great sadness came to her eyes, one that Alex had only ever seen in himself.

“Never mind.”

“No! I’ll…put it on, if it’s calming you down. It would be nice to have a toned down you.”

Isabel winced. Alex grimaced and put the needle on the record. Billie’s voice came over them both like a dose of laudanum.

She hummed quietly over the music folding the tattered corners of her dress into themselves and placing it next to the other things. If she escaped, she would have that dress framed. Nothing like a reminder of the bad times to keep you going. It can always get worse, she thought to herself. She picked at her new clothes and stared at her chip red lacquered nails. She looked over to Alex who had his back turned to her. If she was brave, she could run right now, knowing she wouldn’t make it to the door but at least warning him that she wasn’t lying down. Sighing she ran her hands through her hair. What was the point of it? It wouldn’t get her anywhere. ‘Pick your battles’ Isabel thought, which is the only way to win. If she could even win. There was so much power in this one man that it made her tremble. He barely contained it, how could she ever hope to gain control?

“Cold?”

Her eyes lifted to him in mild surprise.

“No.”

“Suit yourself.” Alex turned round again, picking up his book and pretending to read. The words wouldn’t come off the page like they always did. He waved his hand over it, hoping it would be absorbed into his mind, so he could see it like a movie played behind his eyelids, but he couldn’t concentrate. Not with her around. Sometimes he hated having enhanced sense due to being a genetic hybrid of alien and human DNA. He could smell every part of her, every part. When she moved he could hear her insides, her heart fluttering, her skin rippling with goosebumps. And he remembered her taste, from the first time he kissed her. Oh god it had been something transcending, like he had meant to taste her all his life, before and after everything had changed. What was going on? These girls were different, but not just in the sense of personality or even appearance, in the chemical sense, a mental, physical difference, almost alien, but not quite. And it scared him. Were these girls any part of their past that they just couldn’t recall? So much of it was lost to them it was hard to tell the difference between the real and the imaginary. But he knew this: They were four, four men without women. And they were four women without men. Traveling together, best friends. A coincidence, quite possibly. Or something else. Something written, organized, choreographed, engineered. Maybe they were more. Like he and his friends were more, and they just didn’t know it. He laughed bitterly. He sounded like a desperate fool.

He turned to Isabel, she was staring into space, hugging her knees to her chest trying not to look over at him. She looked so small and beaten. He closed his eyes and lay on the bed. He unbuttoned his coat and threw it in a corner breathing deeply, forgetting her.

If only.

Isabel looked longingly to the bed. She didn’t know how tired she had been until she had just sat in silence, watching him from the corner of her eye. He was reading. Bastard. How dare he just keep so casual a habit while he had a kidnapped girl not three feet away from him. But he was asleep now. And it seemed all she wanted was to sleep as well. Her pride pushed her to sleep on the floor although it was gritty and disgusting. She started to, using her bundled dress as a pillow. But she remembered those sheets. They were soft and warm, probably stolen but at this point, she didn’t care. Crawling as quietly as possible she lay next to Alex’s sleeping figure and fell as soon as her head hit the pillow.

Alex groaned softly. She had come into his bed. She was inches away and her scent was all around him. A more painful torture there never was.

[Morrigan Undomiel]

Hey Guys! I'm updating again. I hope you enjoy. That's it for the couple series, the next part they will be all together again. Whoo I have been realy busting my brain on making this story something interesting. It has been hard. I'm graduating tomorrow and I can't believe it so my mind is sort of blown right now. But I hope you like the part and I'll work on a new one as soon as possible for you.


Part 16

Silence can be golden. Listening to the murmur of the air and energy all around you…Silence can also be slow Chinese water torture. Kyle was beginning to pluck the hairs from his head. Ava wouldn’t speak. She sat in her corner balled up her fists tight and bruising on her knees. Her eyes were vacant pools of aridity. She stared in to space unseeing. Kyle was disappointed. He thought that they had maybe somehow started to be, he couldn’t say open because he know that she was no way even close to being open with him, if she ever would be at all. But there was something different. Now it all seemed the same as it had been. His head ached, his stomach clenched. He had to forget this. He had to get some sleep.

But it eluded him. He threw off his clothes and crawled on his bed. His body felt ready to take a thousand years of rest, but his mind stayed active, listening to her shift. Soon though as all things do he fell asleep, and left Ava alone with herself.

The mind is a camera.
A digital 3-D account of everything you see, smell, taste, and hear. If something traumatic happens to you, your mind chooses one of two options: To bury the images, to make sure that only deep hypno-therapy will ever let it free, or chooses to haunt you every second with the smell, the tastes, the sounds, and the sights of that one experience until you find the strength to overcome it. As Kyle snored softly, he left Ava alone, with his scent, sweat and pain. He left her with his face straddled above her as she fought. His salted skin a bitter putrid feeling in her mouth, like decaying meat, or infected blood. The sounds… the sounds of her own struggle and the sick dull thuds of a nonconsensual act that took away everything. Almost everything. Ava was quite alert behind her newly erected shell. She saw all, and she felt all. She was not destroyed, she told herself, she was damaged. And that meant she could be fixed. But not while she stayed near this man. Not while she was still here. She couldn’t fix anything here. There was nothing but torn pieces of homes in this barren land, scattered to the four winds. She had to be free. Her nails pierced her fleshy palm. She had to be free.

A quick snore disturbed her, and she looked up to see him curled up in a fetal position. Her eyes burned and ached to see his blood spilt tonight. She needed him dead. She wanted him dead. Determination steeled her and she stood, ever so softly and walked to the bed. He lay on one of the tattered pillows and she picked up the other, fluffing it carefully, before placing it over his face.

She loathed touching him, but of course, in this instance it was for the greater good. A pained smile of triumph etched her features as she lay her body weight on top of the pillow, cutting off his air. He would be dead soon. Hopefully he would be dead soon.

**
There was a crimson haze on the horizon and the ocean beat against the jagged cliffs. Where was he? He had followed a girl child, whose black and white polka dot dress had intrigued him. Her hair light blonde and softly curled made him follow, for it smelt like sunshine and the past, which always made him think of vanilla. For years, he thought his world smelt of nothing but vanilla. He knew better now. He followed her through woods, trees, and rain, to the cliffs. Where he saw another figure in the distance. A woman, calling to the little girl. She called from the sky just beyond the edge of the cliff.

“Ava!”

Ava. It was her. The girl child. She was pure, untouched, no jet-black hair and pink streaks in sight. No tattered fishnets and combat boots. Untouched. By life, by experience. By him. He smiled and felt her warmth seep in him like an IV. She drugged him, gave him new emotions he’d never had before. ‘What a gorgeous feeling’ was all he could think to himself. He walked to follow her, and then ran. She went past the cliff into the woman’s arms. Her mother? No not her mother. Why couldn’t he see her face? He ran to the edge of the cliff. He knew it was high. He could sense it. Yet he would not look down. Just like the Wile E. Coyote cartoons. He only fell when he looked down. He took a step and found a solid invisible road before him. He walked toward tiny Ava and the woman. He thought of them greeting him. He thought of them embracing and becoming one. It was a moment he wanted more than anything. He walked up to the girl child and knelt before her. She smiled sheepishly. He patted her head. Then he stood to approach the woman. She had not moved, nor made any attempt to pull him away from the girl so he was not afraid. He looked at her and saw…it was unclear at first but then began to solidify. He gasped in horror. It was her. Her mouth jutted in a scowl of contempt, her eyes glittering rage at him, her face pinked by odium. She held tight to herself, the little girl cowering now at her feet.

He saw it again: Laughing- As he drove erratically, the boys laughed drunkenly in the back seat behind him. The headlights. Squealing tires. Screams. A baby’s cry. Blood.

“NOT AGAIN!” he cried.

“He touched me! He touched me!” the little girl cried. She buried her pathetic head on the woman’s legs and wept. The woman look into Kyle’s very soul and he shook with fear. A slight mist came over her eyes and she trembled.

“I know. He touched me too.”

Then he fell. The road was swept from under him and he was left to fall while he saw the woman and child stare down at him waiting for him to splat on the canyon below.

It was just a dream, he told himself.

Yet why as he fell it became harder to breath? His lungs were crushed with pressure and he kept falling. Never stopping.

“AHHHHH!” Kyle woke with a strangled cry and saw nothing but blackness. He could barely think but with all his strength he pushed on the weight that was cutting off his air.

Ava fell back violently and began to cry. Why didn’t it work damnit, why couldn’t it have worked?

Kyle’s first instinct was to strangle her. His survival skills were fighting to take over. To seek the source of threat and destroy it. But it wasn’t that simple. He swallowed and looked at her taking ragged breaths. His lungs ached and he wondered how long she had been trying to kill him. He had no idea what to say. She looked down, letting her large tears of defeat slip on her cheeks. He couldn’t hate her. He knew that he would have done the same thing. He felt his heart sag as he watched her curled up, letting her defeat crush her. He didn’t know what to say. What could he say?

“You’re…strong.”

She didn’t move or look up, but kept crying. He wouldn’t dare touch her now. He was finally beginning to understand what he had done. And it was killing him. Why was it whenever he touched anything he destroyed it?

“I’m not mad at you.” He laughed inwardly. Yes and she feels greatly comforted by this.

“I mean, that I’m not going to hurt you, or touch you or anything. I’ll just go to sleep. I promise…I’m sorry.”

This time Ava looked up. She looked at him and saw that he was being sincere. Why? What trick was he trying to pull.

“Don’t apologize to me.”

“But-“

“I don’t want your goddamned apologies cause they don’t mean fuck all to me, so just keep them.”

Kyle kept looking at her, trying to will her into believing that he was sorry, but she looked away and ignored him.

“Do you…uh would you like to-“

“What?” Ava looked at him in annoyance.

“Well I’ll sleep on the floor and you take the bed.”

“NO! I never want to touch that bed again. I’m fine on the floor.”

“I said I was sorry.”

Ava shook her head and stood tossing down the blanket she was holding.

“You think that you can just do what you did to me and then just say sorry and have everything be ok again? What is your childhood trauma?”

Kyle swerved off the bed and stood as well, staring at her.

“I never said I wanted to make up for everything with that I just wanted to apologize.”

“Why are you apologizing? Why are you trying to make nice? I don’t want it you understand? I don’t want any part of you.”

“I know…but I can’t keep away from you. I don’t know why. I dreamt about you as a little girl-“

“Oh God-“

“No just listen! I dreamt of how happy you were and you ran to yourself, I mean the modern version of you, and you both condemned me.”

“We should have killed you.”

“Then I woke up and you had the pillow over my face, I wanted nothing more than to just beat you down, but I couldn’t. I couldn’t go through with it. I feel drawn to you Ava, I’ve never been drawn to anyone before.”

“How dare you! Who the fuck do you think you are. I can’t even fathom-“

Ava couldn’t finish her sentence. She lunged at him and wrapped her hands around his neck. But he was prepared for her and held her hands back. She struggled and screamed fighting him with every tiny ounce that she had ever stored in stored inside of her. But he was too strong for her. He pushed her on the bed, leaving her there. He didn’t touch her and she scrambled from him quickly.

“I can’t keep fighting with you. I don’t know why I need you Ava. If it were up to me, I wouldn’t care. But I do. So I’m going to leave you there. I won’t tie you up, and I won’t watch you all night. I know I hurt you beyond any recognition of explanation, but I don’t want to fight anymore.

She saw him crawl into the bed and pull the covers over himself. He closed his eyes and began to drift, though she could see he was struggling. She could do it again, she thought to herself.

But he hadn’t touched her, and he had apologized. No no, she thought to herself, she wouldn’t fall for it. She wouldn’t do it again because she knew that he would just push her off and the next time he wouldn’t be so patient. She lay warily on the floor watching him to see if he moved. She lay awake for a long time until her body forced her to close her eyes. Thick tears once again graced her eyelashes and she cried questioning if she could ever understand or escape this man.

[Morrigan Undomiel]

Oh my god. I'm updating. This feels fantastic. I'm soo sorry for taking so long, you know the schpiel. My life is chaotic. But thank you my loyal readers for being patient I appreciate beyond anything. ENJOY!!


Part 17


“How can I make you all understand? They are not dead.”

There was a thick tension in that statement as there was in the room where they now all stood, united by a common bond of fear and loss. Their children were dead.

They knew this, all of them, except Jeff.

“Look I know that it seems impossible but I just know and I won’t let my girls die without a fight.”

Amy Deluca sat sobbing in a booth holding the remnants of a shredded tissue in her hand.

“But Jeff, how could they be alive? I mean they went into the warehouse district, I just I want so much for my baby girl to be alive, but Jeff every time something like this happens…well you know the stories.”

“And in some of those stories the girls have come back.”

“But Jeff it’s so rare, and when they do come back, they are…oh god I’d rather Liz and Ava be dead.”

Jeff could not contain his rage at his friends. They sat there white, shaking, yet none of them held one thread of hope for their children.

“How could you just want to sit here and let them die! Let them be tortured, how could you want to sit here and not get even with their captives whoever they might be!”

“Now Jeff, we just…well, look Jeff we can’t do this. We can’t let our hopes get high and-“

“Jesus Phillip! Are you listening to yourself!? Are any of you listening to yourselves?”

But they couldn’t believe him. They couldn’t take his word for it.

“But what if they are ok? We have to remember that these are girls with lives of their own. They might have gone somewhere and forgotten to tell us. They are grown women! We don’t have to think-“

“Diane look at the facts. Jeff was supposed to have dinner with Liz and Ava and they never showed. Liz always tells Jeff when she has to cancel and she never misses out on a dinner date with her father. Ava included.”

“Yes plus when I asked around in their circle of friends at the university, they said that they were talking about going to a club near the warehouse district. They probably got lost inside there and then-“

This was when Nancy Parker could not handle anymore. She had sat silent the wave of nausea hitting her driving her sorrow deep inside, but with this an anguished cry escaped her, which she quickly stifled with her palm.

“Well I for one don’t care. If they are alive in there I am going to find them. I am not giving up on my children. Even if you all have.”

“But Jeff! No! You can’t go, if something happens to you what will I do? I’ll have nothing I’ll have nothing…”

Jeff Parker went to his wife as she crumbled in a heap. He held her and rocked her gently wishing to kiss away all her sorrows. But he couldn’t, and he also couldn’t stay with his friends and mourn for people he wasn’t even sure were dead. He would find them, or die trying.

Max woke up, in desperate need of a shower. He looked to his side and saw Liz, her eyes still closed, mumbling softly. He started to smile, but almost for his own benefit he frowned pondering last night. What had happened? What had he seen? What had she seen? He knew he was able to connect with people but he hadn’t even been trying, it was just a kiss, a simple kiss that had turned him upside down. He had dreamt of nothing but her that night, things in her past and even some things he could not understand. Images which were so familiar to him. Oh God what had it been? With an unsatisfied grunt he headed to the showers grabbing a towel lying close to his bed and locking the door behind him.

Isabel wished that she could get back to sleep. In sleep there was the wonderful bliss of denial. But now here she was lying next to a man she hardly knew, who had kidnapped her, attempted rape, and hit her pretty fucking hard. Life officially sucked. She got up slowly and made her way quietly to the door. To her great surprise she found it open and she slipped out hearing noise coming from the back. Walking closer she heard the faint sound of water rushing and hitting the concrete floors. She went to the door and peered in to see Max basking under the steaming jets. She frowned. God damnit she could use one of those right now, something to take the feeling off of the past few days off of her. She wondered if her mother was showering right now, or her daddy. Or maybe drinking coffee together, not even knowing that their daughter was lost somewhere frightened out of her mind. They wouldn’t know until Saturday when they were supposed to have dinner. Then they would probably just think that she was being flaky (as she sometimes was) and wait til Monday to call. When they didn’t get the call then that’s when they would panic, but not really. No it would take her parents a good almost two weeks to notice that anything was wrong, that their daughter was missing and might never be coming back. It was all her fault, if only she hadn’t been so flaky! If only I would trust my parents more-

“Ahhhh-“

Isabel looked up from her torrent of thoughts to see Max screaming and clutching his head writhing on the shower floor. She didn’t know whether to scream or to take the opportunity to run. She could only stare as he moaned and keened and held his head as if he was trying to keep it from coming apart.

Max was blind, except for the hailstorm of images that were being forced upon him without his control. He couldn’t move or see and the pain was so bad he wanted to kill himself. And all he could see was Liz. That’s what flashed in his brain. Liz. Liz as a child, Liz as a high school student, Liz as something that he couldn’t even fathom.


The rush of images kept coming and he staggered out of the shower room, crying and fumbling blindly for something anything to hold on to. What he found was Isabel. Isabel let out a tiny squeak as Max came down hard on top of her groping for the source of his fall. He looked down and saw Isabel hiding her face in terror struggling to get free. As Max became aware of another presence the images began to slow and he stood up with a semblance of control taking Isabel with him as he grabbed her hair. Isabel screamed as Max dragged her across the floor by only her hair, his towel held in the other hand loosely over his body. Max tossed Isabel down to the ground by the cage and stared down at her furiously. But Max held his rage in well and sneered at her from her bedraggled position on the floor.

“May I ask what you were doing spying on me?”

“I-I-I-I-“

“Well I-I-I what? Spit it out girl!” Max reached for her again and she screamed loudly. This was when Alex burst through the door. Awaked by the sound of screaming Alex looked over to notice that Isabel was gone.

“Goddamnit!” He ran outside to see Max barely covered in a towel holding Isabel by the hair and calmly questioning her as if they were sitting down to a pleasant lunch as old friends. Alex saw the red mist film his eyes and in that moment he wanted to kill, but Michael burst in with Maria before he could move, followed by Kyle and Ava, who hung back in the doorway and just stared before making her way quietly to the scene.

Liz banged on the door, continuing to hear the loud noises of a girl screaming. Not just any girl, Isabel.

“HELLO! Can someone hear me! Open this damn door!” She banged for what she thought must have been ten minutes and then fell as Michael wrenched open the door and looked at her. Liz fell on him and stood back quickly as if she had been burned. Looking into his eyes, she murmured a tiny thank you before heading out the door to where Isabel was being abused by…Max?

“Max what the hell is going on!?” The force of Alex’s voice surprised the others in the room and even Max looked up from Isabel with a weary look on his face.

“Alex she was spying on me as I took a shower. And she was walking around here without anybody watching her. She could have escaped and she had no right to come and observe me! You should have kept her locked in your room.”

“Isabel, was that the way of it?”

“I-I-I-I-“

“Isabel?”

“I-I-I-I-“

“See that’s all she’s said since she almost killed me when I was running out the door. Speak clearly idiot!” He shook her head a few times and pulled her hair again.

“MAX! Cut that out right fucking now! Leave her alone.” Max looked at Alex in surprise and let go of her.

“But Alex she’s bothering me man.”

“I don’t care don’t do that. And you,” he pointed to Ava, “What’s wrong with her?”

Ava knew what was wrong but knew that Isabel wouldn’t want anyone to know. Liz knew too. Ava continued to stay silent and looked Alex in the eye, defying him.

“If you don’t tell me, I’m going to have to get it out of her myself and you may not like my methods.”

Ava still stood, not answering while Isabel huddled and shook, inching away from Max.

“Fine if that’s the way you want it.” Alex headed with speed towards Isabel who was now cowering at his shadow as well. Without thinking Liz ran and skidded to where Isabel sat protecting her with her body looking at Alex wide-eyed.

“No! Stop! I’ll tell you!”

“Liz NO-“

“Ava I have to I don’t want them to hurt her! Do you want them to hurt her??!”

“No but we can’t do that, we can’t just-“

“We can Ava, we have to.”

“What the fuck is going on?” Michael yelled. Maria had not moved frozen in quiet shock. The sound of his voice made her flinch.

“Isabel…used to stutter when she was smaller. She hated it, so she practiced for months straight until she finally got over it. But sometimes when she is…”

“When she is so afraid that she reverts back to feeling like a helpless child she’ll stutter again. Does that make you happy!? That you’ve scared her to the brink of a breakdown?” Ava screamed.

“The only other time it‘s happened is when she thought she was lost in the mall when she was twelve. She told us that she couldn’t even get her name out to the security guard.”

Liz picked Isabel up and Ava ran to help her, they plopped her on a couch and comforted her, petting her hand saying things that would hopefully snap her out of the stuttering fit. Max stood speechless as did the other three men. Alex looked at Max accusingly and onced him over noting his pale white face.

“What happened to you? Why do you look like that Max? I know this girl didn’t just provoke you because she was watching you shower. What really happened?”

“Nothing! It was just that I didn’t want her looking because of Liz I just- AHHHHH-“

At the sound of her name he began to see the images again stronger this time, more painful. Maria started and ran like hell to where her friends sat, all in shock as Max’s towel dropped from his body and he ran screaming like a wild man clutching at his head, He finally dropped and curled into a ball shaking and crying out grasping at an invisible person, one word clearly uttered on his lips.

“Liz! Liz!”

She froze. Not knowing whether he really saw her or was now hallucinating about her, somehow trapped in his mind didn’t matter to her. What mattered was that he was calling out her name, screaming it, and her spine stood rigid and along the length of it ran shivers that were visible to everyone in the room. Michael was the first to advance on her, no one daring to touch Max yet as he seemed like some sort of infection that no one wanted to spread around the room.

“What did you do to him? Why is he like that?”

Liz looked up tears running down her cheeks trembling with fear.

“I don’t know. I swear I don’t know. I haven’t done anything to him, except last night we-“

“What?”

“I don’t think that it would have done anything-“

“WHAT??”

“We…kissed.” Ava, Maria, and Isabel’s mouths dropped down in shock.

“WHAT!? Liz how could you have kissed…that thing!” Isabel screamed.

“Hey! He’s not a thing. He’s a person just like you.”

“Oh I beg to differ!”

The arguing continued over Liz as she remembered the night before. Not only could she remember she could recall every inch of where he touched her, his lips on hers and the things she had seen. Strange things that she hadn’t had time to ask if he’d seen as well. They were all of him. She didn’t want to understand them now; she didn’t want to think of them now. She just wanted to understand what was happening to Max. While they argued she slunk over to him, bringing his towel that he had dropped on the floor. She draped it across him and put his head in her lap, he was still twitching and grasping at the air but her touched seemed to calm him and he looked up. Liz did not smile, but she looked into his eyes promising no harm.

"Liz?"

"What's wrong with you?"

"I don't know. I keep seeing…"

"What?"

"…you."

"Does it hurt very badly?"

He nodded.

"Good. It should hurt. You deserve it you know."

"I know." Max realized this was the first time he had truly acknowledged to her that he had done something wrong, and he let it burn in him. Liz still felt weary but her compassion would not allow her to let go. With shaky hands she placed her fingers at his temple, rubbing them softly. The pleasure of Liz's hands on him made Max subconsciously sigh with contentment. He needed those hands, just like he needed those eyes. But why?

"I shouldn't be doing this. I should be kicking you in the head and running for it. Why won't I?"

"I don't know…maybe you have Stockholm syndrome." Max laughed at his completely random thought. Liz smiled slightly.

"Ok amusing to you but what is that?"

"Oh it's when…well I don't know if I should say this."

"No I want to know."

"It's when a kidnapped person falls in love with their kidnapper, a psychological thing. I don't know maybe the intensity of the last few days have taken a toll on you."

Max noticed how rigid Liz became her hands dropping from his face to be gripped by her sides.

"I am not in love with you." She said it slowly deliberately to convince him as well as herself. She wasn't in love with him though. It was just not right. It was impossible.

Max sat up holding Liz's face in his hands. She pulled away.

"I'm…sorry I said that. I don't know why I even thought it. I know you could, well you could never love me." The realization hit hard and he felt his heart grow cold. He needed her and she felt sick at his touch. Even if they had kissed, even if they had shared something. But of course she wouldn't know what that was because she didn't know who he was. Ah cruel fate.

"Don't do that." He steeled himself against her.

"What?"

"Don't try to make me feel pity for you. You made the choice to live this life, maybe in another world; in a different time…I could love you. So much more than you would ever know. I don't know why I have these strange feelings for you. It's sick and it's wrong. They have come too soon and too strongly to be anything you know that. Feelings take time, this isn't…real. Maybe it is just a way for my mind to feel better about the situation, by making me think that you could ever truly care. But you can't and you won't. So don't make this harder by looking at me with those eyes, or whispering to me or kissing me. I don't know why you have freaked out with just seeing me in your head. Maybe it's your guilt-"

"Liz-"

"No! No more excuses, no more pretending this is some romantic story where you swept me away. You see your friend over there? He raped my friend. And you see them; they'll probably do the same. And even you, you'll get fed up with me one day, and you'll do it too. I don't know if you will ever let me go. I keep thinking that you will kill me soon. So how can I look at you and feel anything other than hatred? This is wrong, it is all wrong you know it is."

Max knew he shouldn't. He knew that he felt his emotions running and bleeding to the ground, crushed by her cruel words. But still he wanted to…kiss her. He was in agony and he didn't understand it. Why this girl? What had she done? Who was she? A desperate sob escaped his throat and he pushed his lips onto hers. She didn't fight, but sat still not making her mouth soft for him, not putting her arms around him, doing nothing. But he needed more, so he kept kissing her, he wrapped his arms around her, he pulled her warmth in to his. She was so warm, she was complete, and he was in pieces. Still she didn't move, didn't yield. He held her tightly and gently pressed harder and harder until he felt they were sealed together. Why did he want this? It hurt so much, and yet it was the only thing that stopped the aching.

Liz would not. No she wouldn't. No matter what he did or said, there was no going back from loving this man. She could see it already. He kept kissing her, and she kept saying to herself move away move away! But she couldn't and didn't understand why.

As they kissed the other six people in the room continued to fight, not noticing that Liz had left from where they had sat. Maria stayed quiet during the argument still too shocked to get involved. Why could they never just have a quiet moment in this place? That's all she wanted now, was silence. Personally, she thought Isabel had overreacted, though she also didn't know what she would have done if a half naked one of them had come storming at her screaming and pulling her by the hair. Probably scream and freak out. She looked to Isabel now venting her spleen on Kyle while Ava went for Michael. Alex struggled to stop it but she knew that he wouldn't succeed. Then she looked to where Max had been lying, and saw Liz. Liz locked in an embrace with him, even though her hands stayed still at her sides. Her eyes bulged in amazement. Without thinking she screamed, probably overreacting, but what would you have done if you saw your friend making out with a half naked one of them with a look of pain in her eyes?

[Morrigan Undomiel]

I return! Mwuhahhaha...Ok yeah. I hope you enjoy, some more juicy stuff some more questions. Will the ever find out...what? I can't tell you. Heh. It is just in time for Valentine's Day!!


Hee Hee!! I couldn't resist.

Chap 18

“Maria what in the hell…oh my god!”

It wasn’t a long scream, just long enough to bring everyone’s attention to Max and Liz.

Liz pulled away from him as if she had been seared and stumbled backwards.

Max slowly opened his eyes, and saw six pairs of alarmed to disbelieving stares awaiting an answer. He rose to his feet and tied his towel around himself. He looked to Alex, Michael, and Kyle and without words nodded them to the door. They left quietly leaving the girls to their own private meeting.

“Liz what is going on? What was that?”

“…I don’t know?”

“Oh you better come up with something better than that.”

Maria might not have been awake enough to get involved with the fight earlier, but she was rearing now, Liz’s life always a major topic of interest.

Liz rubbed her temples, trying to erase the strange images that kept coming from Max’s kisses.

“Maria, I really don’t want to talk about this.”

“Oh I think Maria’s right we better talk about this!”

“God Liz, one of them?”

“Isabel, Ava I’m sorry alright, I just can’t explain this. It is something that…happened and now I have to deal with it.”

“God we’re in mortal danger what two three days and you…I don’t even know what would possess you! Was it when he hit you or when he tried to rip your clothes off!? I know rape can be so romantic!!”

“MARIA! Could you not attack me! I’m as confused as you are right now. I don’t know how to…understand this!”

“I think I have every right to attack you! They are not our friends Liz! They aren’t some cute available guys…they are our kidnappers!! And I don’t know how you can not understand that!”

“Seriously Liz, this is just…you know what you’re right it’s not fathomable! What-“

“Liz isn’t it enough that one of them…hurt me, now you have to go and side with them? I have to lose a best friend to this too? Because if you think I am going to listen to you if you say ‘Give them a chance’ you don’t know me very fucking well. I will drop you Liz, to get out of here, I promise you.”

“Ava I’m begging you stop it! I’m not siding with them and it kills me to know that any of them have laid a hand on any one of you. But I didn’t put us in this position, and it’s not my fault that this is happening. And I cannot tell you what possessed me. I wish-“

Liz couldn’t finish. She fell onto the first available seat and curled up inside herself, wishing that all her friends would stop looking at her like she was insane. She well knew the implications of her actions.

Ava breathed deeply to calm herself. Her hands were shaking and she clenched them together. She knew it wasn’t Liz’s fault. She knew that. What had scared her was that she couldn’t explain it either. There was something odd, familiar about them. About Kyle. Her fear was that Liz felt that about Max too.

Liz tried again.

“Guys, I’m sorry again. If you want me to apologize a few hundred more times I’ll do it for you, but please help me out here. Don’t any of you feel…strange around them, like there is something familiar about them? From the moment, they “picked” us, hasn’t it felt that it was something that was meant to happen?”

Silence. Maria looked to Isabel and Ava. They looked back. Then they knew the truth.

“Yes.”

The fact they said it in succession surprised them more than the act of admitting they had some strange connection with the men that had stolen them, hurt them, and planned to…well they still didn’t know.

Maria plopped down next to Liz.

“Ok this is horribly scary and weird.”

Ava paced up and down.

“Why them? Why these…boys playing at men! WHY?”

“I don’t know Ava. They probably don’t know either.”

“Ha. They probably haven’t even noticed Maria.”

“I don’t think so Isabel. I think…Max knows.”

“Is that why you kissed him?”

“I didn’t kiss him! He kissed me…and then I kissed back. But that was only the first time!”

“Does that explain this morning? When he freaked out and was screaming your name? Liz that was the most terrifying thing.”

“I’m sure it was, having him threaten you Is.”

“No you can’t understand this. When I looked into his eyes Liz…they were black, and I swore I could see you. When he grabbed me, it wasn’t even as if he really knew I was there, only that I was…something in the way, blocking him from I don’t know what. Maybe you.”

“His eyes were black? What do you mean black?”

“I mean the color black.”

“But Isabel-“

“Liz I know what I saw.”

“And you saw…me?”

“As clear as freaking day.”

“Oh my god.”

“What’s going on?”

“We have to get out of here.”

“You’re telling me Ava.”

“Does this mean that we were meant to know them? We were meant to be on that street at that time? What the hell is that? Why are we important? Why are they important?”

“If that’s the case I won’t accept it. I don’t know who’s working the odd mumbo jumbo here but I don’t care, I’m not staying here.”

“None of us want to Ava and this is not some magical force. There’s no such thing. This is just a creepy coincidence. Maybe it is déjà vu or something. Do any of you ever remember seeing them before?”

“No.”

“Nope.”

“Uh-uh.”

“Ok well maybe it’s something else, but it’s not some unseen power controlling us. We’re in charge of ourselves here.”

“But Liz, how does that then explain everything that’s been happening? I mean I just feel like we’ve been in sort of some awful dream, and pieces of it are missing, and jumbled together. I mean remember when we were out with them that day? After that…incident with those other guys? Did you guys feel weird after that? Like, well I can’t really explain it.”

“I know what you mean Maria. That day was strange. I don’t want to remember it but something keeps nagging at me.”

“Oh fuck this is freaky.”

“I wonder what they’re talking about out there. Maybe they feel it too.”

The girls felt a shiver at the thought.

***************
“Max what the hell is going on!?”

“Yeah dude what was with that freak out over there? Then that whole thing with that Liz bitch, dude I have no idea what’s going on with you!

“Hey could you not call her a bitch?”

“Sorry.”

Max swayed back and forth, still not in complete control of his functions. Alex, Michael, and Kyle could barely stay still, twitching in agitation. What was going on?

“Guys, I’m going to ask you something and I need you to be completely honest with me.”

“Shoot.”

“Sure.”

“Alright.”

“Have you guys felt…strange around the girls? I mean has it felt that your powers are tuned into them? Sensing them, feeling something familiar about them?”

“Holy shit.” Alex, Michael, and Kyle said in succession.

“You feel it too Max?”

“Um did you not see me kissing the girl?”

“Yeah but we figured it was just you, you know like Kyle with-“

Alex stopped mid sentence, noticing Kyle tense.

“Didn’t you think it was strange I was doing it with an audience?”

“Well sure, but-“

“Guys, I’m telling you I felt compelled to kiss her. It was as if I had no choice. I did it last night too.”

“Do you think that is what spurred this morning’s display?”

“You had no idea what it was like Michael. It felt like every part of my body was splitting, especially my head, it felt like being cleaved in two. And the images of Liz were so bright, I mean they blinded me.”

“What did you see Max?”

“Well I saw Liz, just Liz, things I think from her childhood, people that looked like her parents, the other girls and her. The strange thing was I couldn’t get anything before she was five. I least I think she was five.”

“So you had flashes of what her 6th birthday party?"

“It wasn’t just me tapping into memories that she could access, it was me exploring the inner recesses of her mind, things she probably can’t remember.”

“Last night…I was sleeping next to Isabel. When I accidentally touched her shoulder in her sleep, I was pulled into her dream. It’s never happened before when I grabbed her or held her, but then, I think she wasn’t putting up a barrier, and I was just sucked in.”

“Ok Kyle, has that happened to you yet?”

“Are you joking? She won’t let me touch her…and even if I do she pulls away.”

“What about you Michael?”

“No. You know I can’t believe we’re having this conversation.”

“Why?”

“Because Max, this is ridiculous! These girls are not ‘special’ and all this stuff has a perfectly obvious explanation.”

“Michael we’re space alien hybrids, who have no one else in this earth-“

“But there is-“

“No Kyle he doesn’t count! As I was saying we have no one else on this earth worth knowing, as far as we know we are the only others of our kind, we have taken girls before, this is has never happened, and you think there is a reasonable explanation? Look around man! We’re freaks, and those girls are the first things outside of ourselves that we have unconsciously been able to connect to. It’s not like girls before who we could tap into if we so choose or just flittered around in if we were bored. No these girls are more, they might be…from our world.”

“Bullshit! How the hell wouldn’t they know? They would have the powers, the memories!”

Max was stumped on that one. He was right. They would know. It’s not like it was easy to ignore the fact that sparks were coming out of your hands.

“Well then how would you explain it?”

“It’s a fluke. Maybe we’re all getting sick or something.”

“Michael please! A fluke? That seemed to happen right when we got them? And besides when do we ever get sick.”

“Besides Michael it’s really weird. There were four of them; there are four of us. And remember when we switched girls? Didn’t it feel right to switch because you felt as if the girl you had just didn’t fit with you?”

“That’s just personal taste.”

“NO Michael it’s more than that. And we need to understand why.”

“Jesus this is fucking freaky.”

“And how are we supposed to do that, go up and ask them ‘Hey are you guys by any chance, from another planet!’ Max we can’t expose ourselves, no matter how different they are.”

“He’s right.”

“But how are we going to-“

“We’re not. We’re going to forget about this, because soon it will consume us. Max you didn’t exactly look like you were going to last a few more seconds this morning and if what you say is happening because are ‘connecting’ with them. Then we need to shut it off, immediately.”

“Are you saying you want to let them go?”

The question was raised. The boys looked at each other, the silent answer already formed behind their tongue.

“No.” They said in succession.

“Oh man this is weird.”

“Ok we have to stay away from them but none of us want to let them go? How are we supposed to accomplish that? And if we’re not going to do anything with them, what’s the point, having them around for show?”

“Well why don’t you try it Alex. Why don’t you try and let Isabel go and see how you feel.”

The thought of Isabel leaving him so soon was already making defensive, let alone if he tried the action. He sighed. Unfuckingbelievable.

“What are we going to do now?”

Max ran his hands through his hair, looking up at the sky. The sun belted down on him with its early morning rays pink and copper fading to an almost translucent blue. ‘Damn you’ he thought, damn you. Damn his planet, damn his family, damn everything. He was stuck now, and the only person he could possibly get to explain this he would rather seen dead, than ever utter another word to him. Ripped from navel to nose.

The boys look at him expectantly.

“We’ll just keep them and I don’t know stay away from them or something, we’ll just have to wait and see what happens.”

“That has to be the weakest plan I have ever heard.”

“Well Michael if you would like to come up with a better one, you are welcome. Now I’m going inside, I’m tired of being half naked.”

Max went to the door, and laid a tentative hand on the handle. The first step, he could feel how everything was going to change in an instant, and he could do nothing to stop it. He went inside.

The boys followed soon after.

[Morrigan Undomiel]

Ok I hope you all enjoy. Yes I know this is loooooong overdue. I suck at updating. I am the worst updater in the world. I should win for the "Writer you wish would upate her fics more" because dude...It is bad.






“Jeff.”

“Sheriff.”

“I think this is about the 15th time I’ve seen you at my station in the past week and a half.”

“You know why I’m here! My friends should be here to but like you they’ve given up hope even before we can start. Please sheriff, I need you to get a search party out there! Serve and protect!”

Sheriff Valenti was in trouble. He scrutinized the desperate man in front of him with his weathered eyes. He had seen it all, and he knew that this man was never getting his daughters back. There had been to many times before when he had tried…only losing good men and finding nothing. They could only wait, and see if and when anyone came back. More often than not, they were always disappointed. And when someone did emerge from the cesspool that lay on the outskirts of his town…well there was only so much you could do. There was nothing but pain out there.

“Jeff…I can’t risk my men for a hunch about where your girls are. Even if they are where you say they are, there is little I can do. You have to understand Jeff, some things are beyond my power.” Valenti hated feeling powerless, especially when he was the sheriff. He turned to his dusty window looking out at the expanse of his world. Out past the small town was the desert, arid and empty, a place just as unfriendly as the outskirts of Roswell. Valenti would have preferred if the greatest threat to his world was drought. He faced Jeff Parker and closed himself off.

“I’m sorry Jeff. I can’t help you.”

Jeff’s breathing came ragged and he wished he could hurl the sheriff out the window. He wanted to say something, something powerful and moving, preventing the sheriff from shutting off to his pleas. But he had nothing to say. He slammed his fist on the desk and walked out. He was well and truly alone…just like his girls.

*******

“What’s it like in Roswell?” Liz looked up in surprise from her place on the floor wondering if she was supposed to say something. Max looked at her expectantly and tentatively half expecting the miserable silence he and Liz had been brooding in for a week and a half. He couldn’t take it anymore. He knew he was supposed to distance himself from her, for his sake but he was just bored now. Knowing something anything about her life would make him feel better.

“Well… it is small, I mean that’s just the simple fact about it.” She grew silent uneasy about revealing anything else.

Max waited patiently for her to elaborate staring down at her hands as her fingers twisted together.

“There are still things to do though.” Max looked up again and Liz gulped. He really did look interested. “I mean 20 minutes out by car there is a mall where we can go to the movies and shop, and our college campus is big and full of things to do. I like to spend my time there a lot. Especially at the library…I like reading and also spending time at the bio labs…”

Liz realized that she was revealing her whole daily schedule to her kidnapper. “Idiot, idiot”, she thought to herself. She didn’t know if she would ever get back to her normal routine but she knew telling him about it wasn’t the smartest thing she could do.

“What do you do at the labs?” She looked back to Max and his earnest eyes drew her in, made her feel safe, if that made any sense. She felt that she could reveal her secrets to him and he wouldn’t laugh. He would understand.

“Well…I-like-to imagine that it will all soon be mine. I’m a Marine Bio major at my school, and I would love to have my own lab someday all those test tubes and microscopes at my disposal, to have grad students working for me instead of just being their assistant.”

As she talked Max scooted closer and closer to Liz, engrossed in her story. She had dreams and aspirations the likes of which he had never even imagined. He had never thought about things like that. Then he realized, maybe he had once long ago in his youth. But after he had found out…and all the things that had happened because of it, well he hadn’t dreamt like that in a long time. He knew then, listening to her, watching her eyes grow big with expectation that he missed it. He wanted to dream again.

“That sounds like a good dream.” Liz acknowledged Max’s closeness to her and cleared her throat nervously.

“It’s more of a plan than a dream, I know that one day I will be a Marine Biologist and I will have my own laboratory.”

“Well you may know that but that still doesn’t matter, you had to dream it to plan it. Everything starts with a dream Liz.”


She looked at him then and decided to be cruel.

“Did you dream you would be living this life? Is it everything you hoped for?”

Max winced. He didn’t know what to say, how to respond. Should he be angry? Hurt?

“My dreams were never specific, I just wanted…” He couldn’t finish, once again he remembered that she didn’t know just who he was, why he was here and he wasn’t ready to share.

Liz didn’t feel bad for what she said but she did want to know. She always watched those shows on TV, why the criminal did the crime but she never figured she would get an up close and personal experience with a criminal. It made her curious.

“What? What did you want?” Before he knew it he told her the deepest desire in his heart.

“I wanted to be…ordinary.”

Liz didn’t know what to say.



If it was possible, after that morning a sense of normalcy was regained, though that was the wrong word for it. Everyday the girls and the boys were surrounded by each other, and everyday they avoided each other like the plague. There was no way to truly escape each other since the girls were being held prisoner and the boys had to make sure they stayed that way, but still they tried.

The girls didn’t understand their purpose anymore. They had felt the distance the boys had placed between them so they couldn’t understand why they didn’t set them free. It frustrated them, and scared them. If they weren’t being used for what they thought they were for, what was going to happen to them now?

**********

“That’ll be 300 dollars.”

“Do you take credit?”

“Sir you are buying a gun from me without a permit and without the standard waiting period and background check…does it look like I take credit?”

“Just thought I’d ask.”

“Mr. Parker you and I are the same, we’re both looking for instant gratification. When I see the green you will get this handy dandy problem solver from me no questions asked.”

“Let me just get to an ATM.”

“I’m not going anywhere.”

***********

After another week the boys graduated the girls from the cage to the couches whenever they all gathered together. It was the beginnings of an odd sort of discomforting comfort. No one could trust each other but the girls would never complain that they weren’t being put behind bars. Whenever they were together their conversations were plagued with worried thoughts and escape plans only adding to their anxiety. They were all beginning to lose hope that someone would find them.

“Last night I dreamt that we were at that New Year’s Party last year.”
.
The girls had been sitting in silence for five minutes and looked up when Isabel spoke. It had been a week since they were allowed to convene together and they were each desperate for something to lighten the mood. She had an odd half smile on her face, her eyes lit up with nostalgia. Liz, Maria, and Ava could recall instantly that one night and broke out into simultaneous laughter.

“Alan Brook and that really embarrassing drinking contest!”

“Tessa Newton falling into the pool!”

“Maria kissing Steven McAdams!”

Isabel and Ava looked at Maria with shocked expressions. Liz put her hand over her mouth. Maria glared at Liz.

“MA-RIA! Steve McAdams? The one with the retainer?” Maria gave Isabel a death look but spurt her venom on Liz.

“Liz you suck! I told you never, NEVER to reveal my most darkest secret to anyone!”

“Maria I’m sorry! It just kinda slipped out.” Maria grabbed a ratty pillow from the couch and pelted Liz in the head.

“OW!”

“You deserved that!” Ava and Isabel burst into a fit of giggles at the sight of Liz’s disbelieving eyes covered in her unkempt hair. She grabbed another pillow and slammed Maria. Blows were exchanged until all four girls were yelling and shoving each other. They had abandoned pillows for rolling around on the couches poking each other and laughing and cursing loudly. They had forgotten that they were being watched and no one was more grateful than Max, Michael, Alex, and Kyle. Making a weak attempt at casual conversation while the girls caught up with each other, they couldn’t help but stare harder and harder as the girls momentarily forgot they were there. Now they made no sounds as the girls play fought, thinking any movement they made would destroy the moment the girls had created.

Michael had done some serious brooding in the past two weeks. Maria had been wreaking havoc on his thoughts and more than once there was no way to concentrate without turning his back on her. Which of course he couldn’t do. It had caused him to become extremely moody. Silence had become his friend and since he didn’t touch her, Maria kept her mouth shut…most of the time he grimaced. Lately it had been a barrage of complaints. “It is too cold in here!” “My god when have you ever swept this place?” “What was that sound? Is that a rat because I swear?” Yeah it wasn’t getting any easier. But strangely her comments hadn’t bothered him as much as he imagined they would. Sure they were annoying as hell, but it just seemed that it was a natural thing for her to mouth off. He kind of anticipated it, which made him crankier. If he couldn’t stop thinking about Maria, what hope did Max have over controlling his Liz driven thoughts? What hope did any of them have? He had never seen Max this out of control. And when Max was confused, it was a bad sign.

Alex knew that one day he would have to give her up. He knew that he couldn’t trap Isabel much longer. She was meant to be free and the more he kept her with him, the harder it would be for her when she was released. He just didn’t want to lose her. Why should he lose her? He could do what he wanted; he could take what he wanted. He could…couldn’t he? Looking at her radiant smile as she played with her friends he knew that he couldn’t keep her. She wasn’t his no matter how much he wanted her to be.

Kyle had been more determined than ever to help Ava and have her forgive him. He knew that it was probably a fruitless effort but he had still tried. The past two weeks he had made sure that she was as comfortable as she was going to get. He fed her when she was hungry and always gave her the thickest blanket because she still refused to sleep on the bed. When she had let slip that she liked to read he had quietly placed books around the room which he knew that she had picked up because they were slowly beginning to form a pile next to her space. He smiled. Her space. She had claimed a small section of the room where she slept, ate, and read when he wasn’t looking. She had put the clothes he had gotten for her in a little circle to protect herself and she liked to spend most of her time there, staring out of the tiny window he had in his room. He knew that she was starting to feel less weary around him because she had begun accepting the food when he gave it to her, instead of him having to place it on the floor. He knew it sounded like he was talking about an animal but in a way that was what she had become. She was territorial and liked to be huddled in her blankets safe from the outside world, safe from him. It wasn’t right he knew, but it made him more determined than ever to make it right. All he could do now though was give her space. Watching her thrash around laughing, her hair thrown messily around her face he knew that was going to be easier said that done. Everything she touched he wanted, and everything she was he needed.

Once again Max was faced with the fact that he didn’t want to let Liz go. It was now after a few weeks when he gained the strength to deny himself that he would be able to keep her that he was faced with his own selfish needs. He looked over to Michael, Alex, and Kyle and saw their enraptured faces. He knew his own was no different. Having Liz telling him about her life for the past few weeks had given him the greater desire to tell her who he was. And the dreams…they were getting more intense. It was only a matter of time when they were going to need help. But that was a bridge he didn’t want to cross because there was only one who could help them…and he didn’t want him anywhere near the girls. But it was going to come to that point…very soon.

**********

Jeff traded his convertible for a battered looking mini-van, and found new and innovative ways to hide the Browning Hi-Power on his person. He was ready he knew. Now all he had to do was wait. Wait for the right opportunity, wait for his stamina to be at its peak, wait until he was ready.

To kill.

It was going to be soon.

[Morrigan Undomiel]

*A/N*

I hate making promises to people who read my fic that I never keep, I'm sorry for all the delays and me never posting and all that. I'm grateful for every loyal reader I have. I started working on this story again, just to tell you and so I hope you can be patient. I'm not giving a deadline, so just know that I'm not gone. I'm just ridiculously slow. Beat me if you wish.