The Noose (ADULT, CC) [COMPLETE]

[lizard_queen]

Title: The Noose

Author: lizard_queen/Ki-ki/Kris

Couples: It doesn't really have specific couples, since this is about revenge, but i guess it is essentially based on A/I and there may be some M/L in there, so CC?


<center>

(one of the first banners i did, but i dont have the heart to change it.)</center>



Rating: ADULT - serious.

Disclaimer: Don't own it. Not my property. The title is from APC's song The Noose. Dont own that either.

Summary: Pay Back's a Bitch. Even the dead can get even....

A/N: I dont know why i'm posting this now since i still have the last two chapters to write, but anyhoo. Three little things i want to point out...

• 1. This is a fan fic about revenge. If your a fan of Tess, i suggest not reading this. If your a fan of Alex, then this is for you. This is merely a fic that i felt like writing, so please, if you have any negative oppinions about the nature of this fic and the things my characters will do, keep them to yourselves. I go by the simple rule, if you dont agree, dont read it.
  
  2. This fic will deal with suicide and death, hence the name 'The Noose'. I tried to make it not so pretty, so if your not into any of that, dont read it.
  
  3. This fic will only be 6 chapters long. At the moment, i'll update once every two weeks until i finish the last two chapters. Since its taken me 6 months to get the first 4 chapters written, you can see why its going to be every 2 weeks instead of every week.

Finally, i have to do a quick little thanks to my 3 wonderful friends who helped me when i first started writing this: icequeen, Crashdown_51 and LovinGuerin2Much.

Now, without further ado, i give to you the product of my little evil mind...

EDIT: Forgot to mention that this set after CYN.

<center>Chapter 1</center>


“I’m more than just a little curious
How you’re planning to go about making your amends…
…To the dead”

– A Perfect Circle, The Noose




Guilt. It eats at you until you’re nothing but a quivering mess, crying, curled up on the floor as the voices in your head tell you that all you have to do is pull the trigger and it’ll be over, they’ll disappear to haunt someone else, and you’ll be free…


<center>*****</center>


Tess Harding walked down the large stairs inside of the Roswell Mall, swinging her shopping bags as she walked with a bounce in her step. Everything was falling into place.

Max was finally starting to remember their past life and slowly but surely giving into destiny, the book was decoded and hidden away safely until the time came where she was pregnant and they needed to return home to Antar… and there was no longer one Liz Parker and her band of babbling humans standing in the way of re-claiming the throne.

The death of Alex Whitman was worth the effort for a number of reasons. The destiny book was decoded and Tess no longer had to worry that Alex would break out the mind warp and tell Max about what she was making him do. It was one less human to worry about getting in the way of destiny, and one less human that could find out her ulterior motive, but most importantly… Alex’s death caused a rift. Not just between Max and Liz, but between humans and aliens.

The aliens were vulnerable at a time like this, needing guidance that the humans would normally give… Max was vulnerable. Liz had always been the one he would confide in, the one he would run to in a time of crisis, but now Liz was out of the picture. Now, Max had no choice…he was being pushed towards Tess.

A sly smile featured on Tess’s face as she strolled down the main hallway of the mall, casually gazing into shops that she passed by. She needed an entirely new wardrobe, something that would make Max cream his jeans at the sight of her and be sure to put all thoughts of Liz Parker out of his head for good.

She stopped in front of Agent Provocateur, looking through the window of a mannequin that was clothed in only a scrap of lace. Her smile widened as she pictured Max’s reaction when he saw what she looked like dressed in something from this expensive store.

Her shopping spree was a small reward she was giving herself for disposing of a threat to the deal she had with Khivar. She knew that if Nasedo were alive today he would be proud of her accomplishment, so this was her reward… and if all went to plan, Max’s as well.

It had been only two weeks since she had fixed a major problem by killing one measly human with just a small nudge in her mind, and even though she appeared in mourning when in the presence of the others, she was far from grieving. In fact, Tess felt exhilarated knowing that she had the power to take a life. If only she could get Liz Parker alone one day…

She turned on her heels, heading for the entrance of the overly priced shop, but stopped dead in her tracks when someone spoke to her from behind.

“Tess.” The familiar voice called. She spun around, positive she was just imagining the person when she saw that no one was behind her. Letting out a huff of annoyance, she turned back around and came face to face with someone who shouldn’t be there.

Tess’s eyes widened as she stared at the person standing in front of her, looking less than dead. He smiled down on her in his own goofy way that made all the girls think he was adorable, and her entire face paled.

“A-Alex?” she choked out from all the shock. How was it possible? He was dead… she even killed him. She saw the blood drip from his mouth and nose. She saw the stain on the carpet that she made Kyle clean. She helped carry his limp body to the car. She killed him.

She wanted to reach out and touch his smiling face, to feel his flesh and make sure he was real, but instead Tess pinched the outside of her thigh and blinked, needing to make sure she wasn’t imagining Alex standing right in front of her, that he wasn’t living. She opened her eyes and found herself face to face with… no one.

The space in front of her was clear and quite, with this half of the mall basically deserted, pardoning the occasional lone shopper heading for the exit. She shook her head to clear her thoughts, trying to forget how real he looked standing in front of her. Looking down at her watch, she noticed how late it was getting and decided to call it a night, knowing that the mall would be closing soon.

“I have nothing; I might as well be dead…”

Tess jumped when she heard the eerie whisper from behind her, chills running down her spine and causing the hairs on the back of her neck to stand up at full attention. There was no mistaking the voice, or the pleading tone that came along with the memorable words.

The bags that were once in her hands were now tipped over on the floor beside her as her heart rate and breathing rapidly sped up. She swung around, fully prepared to blast the person who was playing these tricks on her… but once again there was no one there.

The memory of the words flashed through her mind but she pushed it into the background, not wanting to show any emotion. Nasedo always said that emotion was a weakness, a normal human reaction when they had no other option.

Tess had options, and emotion wasn’t one of them. She felt a gnawing feeling in the pit of her stomach but brushed it off to the side as she picked up the bags that were tipped on the floor beside her, not realising that her hands were shaking until she felt the vibrations against her leg where her arm was resting. Sweat was beading on her brow and her breathing was getting shallower and faster.

“You destroyed my mind…”

“Shit!” Tess yelped when the familiar voice once again floated into her ears, this time accompanied by the warm breath of the person against her skin. Swinging around again to face the horrendous person who felt the need to play a practical joke, she was once again met with nothing.

Her face was pale and her heart beating frantically as she stood in a deserted mall, surely going insane. Sweat beaded on her forehead and under her arms, her mouth suddenly dry as she cautiously stared at her surroundings, spinning in a slow circle, waiting for something to jump out at her. Swallowing audibly once Tess was sure that no one was near by, she turned and quickly walked towards the entrance, breaking out into a sprint when she once again felt the hair on the back of her neck rise from the eerie silence that surrounded her.

Sleep, she just needed sleep. She had had a big day and it was finally catching up to her. If she could just go home and sleep, then everything would be fine. She would wake up in the morning feeling fresh and alive, and not hearing the voices of her last victim.

Tess burst through the double doors of the mall and ran towards her car, her high heels slipping slightly in a small puddle on the ground as she ran blindly in the dimly lit car park that was shadowed by the night.

She drove the entire way home with the radio turned off, jumping at every sound that went bump in the night. A car backfiring a few blocks away had her slamming on the brakes and frantically searching around for any intruder.

She stopped, closing her eyes and breathing in and out deeply. “I need to calm down,” she thought to herself, willing her hand to stop trembling and her heart to return to normal speed. This was not normal. It was almost as if she was… scared?

But that was an insane thought. She didn’t get scared, unless she had to play the damsel in distress role in the hope that Max would be her night in shining armour. Fear was too human, and there was no way she would ever allow herself to sink that low.

When she finally reached the Valenti’s, she bolted out of the car and up the veranda, fumbling with her keys as she hysterically tried to open the door. In the end she gave up and just used her powers, rushing inside before slamming the door closed behind her.

She leant back against the closed door, stretching her neck back so her head was resting against the thick wood as she let out the deep breath, shaky she had been holding since she left the mall.

“Tess?”

Kyle’s voice coming from the couch made her jump and clutch a hand to her chest as she tried to calm herself down and not have a heart attack. She closed her eyes and tried to slow down her heart rate.

“You okay?” Kyle’s concerned voice drifted up to her. He had watched with a bemuse expression as she had run into the house and slammed the door closed, looking like she had seen a ghost with her face so pale she could blend in with the White House.

“Yeah… I… uh… I’m just tired.” Was her unsteady reply as she ran a hand down her face in frustration. She could blast whatever this thing was to kingdom come in a millisecond, so why was it making her so damn freaked out?

Excusing herself from the room, Tess walked down the corridor and into the bathroom. She unconsciously turned on the tap and splashed the cool water on her face, leaning over the sink as the liquid dripped off her skin and ran down the drain.

She raised her eyes to take in her hideous looking form, but her reflection wasn’t alone. Standing behind her mirror image was the haunting figure of her last casualty. Alex Whitman stared back at her with a perplexed face and gave a small wave, his expression turning into a scowl as he stared at her harder. The glass shattered in front of her eyes, distorting her reflection and the reflection of the ghost behind her. In one swift motion she had turned around in horror, her hands clutching the sink behind her for support as she stared at the blank cream wall of the bathroom. Her wide eyes searched the room, but she was all alone…

Slowly, the dripping noise of the tap penetrated her mind and she turned back around to face the broken mirror, her legs feeling weak as she turned of the tap and stared at her wrecked refection with half lidded eyes. Her face was pale and there were dark bags that haunted her eyes. Her lips were white and there was a light layer of sweat covering her forehead.

But that wasn’t the most disturbing bit about what she saw in the mirror. One large, crack ran across the centre of the mirror, corresponding with the position of her neck. Her breath lodged in her throat, along with the scream that threatened to crumble the rest of the house. A red liquid squeezed out of the crack and dripped down the glass, making the effect of her neck cut and bleeding.

Her hand instantly went up to her neck, frantically searching her skin only to find that it was perfectly fine. Her gaze was trained on the red substance slowly dripping down the mirror, the familiar crimson colour and the thickness that could only be blood.

She blinked, and it was gone.

Tess’s raspy voice echoed off the walls of the small room as she stared at herself and the cracked mirror with horror.

“What’s happening to me?”




TBC.... 2 weeks.

[lizard_queen]

Ok, i'm back with the second part. This part is kinda crappy, but i just needed to write her freaking out a bit more before i brought out the big guns.

Thank you all for your fb. I'm really nervous about this fic.

Ellie - you made me laugh.

It took me a while, but i finally got through Joye's monsterous fb aswell . I never knew that you could pick apart things so well, but you do have the inside scoop on this fic so i can understand why. Just be proud that that is the longest fb i've ever gotten.

I still haven't gotten around to writing the last two parts of this fic. I plan to attempt to do that this weekend, but i have to be in a pissed off and wanting revenge mood for it to work effectively.

Ok, i'll shut up now. On with the crazyness...


<center>Chapter 2</center>



“Go ahead and play dead,
I know that you can hear me,
Go ahead and lay there,
Why can’t you turn and face me?
You fucking disappoint me!”

- Passive, A Perfect Circle



Tess rolled over in her fitful sleep, the thin cotton sheets tangling around her feet from the movement. Sleep was the last thing she had planned to do tonight. She had crawled into bed with the lights on, huddling up under the warm doona and jumping at every singe noise she heard. Every creak in the floorboards, every car alarm going off streets away. Everywhere she looked she could see Alex’s face smiling down at her with that eerie, almost friendly grin that make her skin shiver.

Her head was throbbing with pain from today’s events but still she wouldn’t sleep, afraid that Alex would haunt her dreams. Was she going insane? Should she check herself into the local institution straight away or wait until someone else confirmed her suspicions? What was the strange feeling in pit of her stomach and why wouldn’t it go away?

She heard the click off of the TV when Kyle called it a night, the light in the hallway going out leaving the entire house dark except for the room she was currently in. But still she stayed awake and staring at the blank wall across from her. Exhaustion came fast and soon Tess was asleep before she could even process what was going on. But her dreams were less than pleasant…


She walked cautiously through the black barred gate, stepping into the dark recesses of the cemetery. She had no idea why she was here or what was about to happen, but it seemed to pull her in, like a magnetic force that she was powerless against, attracting her unwillingly into its deep recesses.

A cold breath of air rushed around her and Tess’s eyes moved down to look at the clothing she was adorned with. A white, long, flowing dress floated in the air around her, the ends tumbling in the frozen gusts of wind. Her hair fell in long curls around her face and her feet were cold, dirty and bare, sinking into the deep blank earth that she stood on.

The squeaking of rusty iron from behind her caught her attention and she turned around just in time to see the large black gates close together with a bang, sending dust up in giant puffs to surround the air. She took a shaky step back and craned her neck to look at the top of gate that was looming over her small frame. Dark points jutted out from the metal, spearheads covered in a crusty red substance that resembled blood, making in clear that it was no way out.

Gasping at the sight, Tess frantically looked around the cemetery for an exit. She took in the vine covered walls that towered at least five meters into the air, the leaves a stark green and covered in thorns and black splotches. She turned to look out over the rest of her surroundings. Random headstones protruded out of the earth at odd angles, corners chipped off and crumbling around the bottom of them. Their colour faded and the once meaningful words washed away from countless eroding. The graves underneath desolate and cold, now just a memory of the life that once thrived in the dusty bodies.

The horizon was clouded in mist, giving the entire cemetery an eerie feel to it. It looked like a typical scene from Buffy The Vampire Slayer and Tess almost expected some demon to jump out at her from behind a tree so she could slay them. Another gust of wind blew around her, picking up dead leaves and swirling them high up into the air before disappearing.

Her legs began to move involuntarily, carrying her though the mist, further into the graveyard. She walked for hours, passing tombstone by tombstone, some terribly old, some new, some nothing more than a wooden cross stuck in the ground signalling someone’s life buried deep below the surface. It was amazing how highly some people valued their loved ones life, how a simple stick in the ground was adequate an enough tribute to someone who once walked with the living.

She was awoken from her thoughts and realised that she had stopped walking and was now standing in front of a very familiar gravestone. Crouching down awkwardly before it, Tess extended her hand delicately and wiped away the grime and dead leaves that covered the owners name. She hadn’t been here since the funeral and would have been perfectly happy to never see it again. Being in the presence of all those mourning was bad enough, but standing over his lifeless body for a second time was worse.

The memory of him collapsing to the ground in Kyle’s bedroom played through her head over and over. The way his body just crumbled under the weight of his dead cells and fell to the floor with a loud thud that chose to echo around the small room.

She had been exhausted from the strain the mindwarp took and in the end it was pointless. His brain was too weak from her countless abuse beforehand to stand one last tamper so it shut down, killing his body functions in an instant and ending his life forever. Luckily Kyle had been there to help her move his body. She was so worn out that Tess doubted she would have been able to do it on her own.

She stood staring down at the engraving on the plaque, reading his name over and over in her mind, repeating it to herself in wonder of why she was there. Why was she dreaming of someone dead?

‘Alexander C. Whitman.’

The letters of his name started to blur, rearranging themselves and changing shape until they spelt someone else’s name. She rubbed her eyes in disbelief and stood there staring down at the words in front of her.

‘Tess Harding.’

There was no possible way what she was seeing was right. Where Alex’s name had one been now resided her name, clear as day. As if mocking her, the brass ‘T’ sparkled in the clouded light, shining in her eyes for a brief moment.

“Don’t like the word Destiny so much now do you?”

Tess jumped, startled by the deep voice behind her. Whirling around to face the intruder, she felt her stomach lunge up into her throat.

“A-Alex? Your not here. Your dead! How... how can you be here?” She stuttered, taking a cautious step backwards as he took one towards her.

“Your asleep Tess, just dreaming. And I must say, it’s turning out quite amusing so far, don’t you think?” He responded with a wry smile, staring at the ground curiously behind her.

She turned her head to see what he was looking at and her breath caught in her throat for a brief moment. Behind her where there was once grass was now a dug out grave, the mahogany coffin opened wide and lined with white silk, cushioning the eternal resting place.

She stumbled with her steps, trying to balance on the edge of the hole so she wouldn’t fall down. The dirt under her feet gave way, crumbling down into the six-foot deep hole. Tess flew through the air and landed on a soft surface, surrounded by white silk that wrapped around her entire body like a snake, constricting, preventing movement. A silent scream reverberated out of her mouth once she realised that she had landed in the open coffin.

Alex’s form appeared above her, staring down into the dark hole that was once his resting place. Tess struggled to stand up and get out of the hole but she couldn’t move, her entire body a dead weight.

The mist surrounding the grave cleared and seven figures emerged out of the darkness, each positioned around the rectangular hole, all of them smiling down at her much like Alex had been. Her gaze drifted over them all, Michael and Kyle both holding shovels in their hands, Maria and Isabel standing next to Michael with blood red roses in their hands, and Max and Liz standing together on the left of Alex.

“Max…” Tess breathed out; knowing that if anyone would get her out of this it would be Max, her destiny. He wouldn’t let her die, right?

The smile immediately fell of Max’s face and he reached out for Liz’s hand, pulling her body tightly against his and sealing his lips to hers for a passionate kiss. He pulled away, breathing heavily and placing his forehead against Liz’s holding her small body against him, staring down at Tess with a menacing smirk.

Alex reached his hand out to the top of the coffin door, his face now blank and expressionless as he gazed down at her. Fear tingled through her entire body, knowing full well his intentions but powerless to stop them

The last words that she heard as the coffin was closing were from Alex.

“Liz is Max’s destiny. And this is yours.”

Tess’s eyes went wide as the last of her light was shut off and the loud sound of dirt being shovelled on top of the coffin could be heard. “NO! NO! HELP! SOMEONE! HELP! KYLE! MAX! MICHAEL! ISABEL! ANYONE!” Tess screamed out in the darkness, already feeling how little oxygen there was trapped inside a wooden box such as this. Her screams surrounded the air, piercing her own ears but she didn’t stop. She screamed and screamed in panic until her lungs were sore and her voice was cracking, the tears cascading down her cheeks. She thumped on the door of the coffin, pushing with all of her might but with no result. Her breathing became shallow, her banging slackening off and eventually stopping.

She closed her eyes tightly and willed it all to end. Wanting it to be over as fast as it started. Her mind started to fade, thoughts and feelings disappearing as unconsciousness took a hold of her still frame.
“NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!” Tess screamed as she w

oke up, coming out of her dream sweat drenched and laying haphazardly across the floor of the bedroom. Her blankets were strewn all over the room and the bedside lamp had fallen off the table and smashed on the floor.

She hysterically put her hands on her chest, heads, shoulders, legs, her entire body shaking from the nightmare that had haunted her dreams. The sweat dripped off her brow and chin, mixing with the tears that she didn’t even realise were coming down her cheeks.

“Tess?” A half asleep Kyle called from the doorway, taking in the shaking figure lying on the ground in front of him. “Are you okay? I heard a noise.”

“Y-yeah.” She managed to choke out once her breathing had calmed and she had realised that she was back home in her room where she could breathe, feeling less than okay at this point. “I-I think so.”


TBC... friday in 2 weeks.

[lizard_queen]

I'm sitting here grinning like an idiot from all your wonderful fb. Thanks alot guys, i really apprecite it. You even made me get off my fat ass and finish another chapter for this, so all i have left to write is the epilogue. Which means... early update! Yay!

Now on with the vengence...


<center>
Chapter 3</center>



“Did you think its cool to walk right up?
To take my life and fuck it up?
Well did you?
I hate you…”

- Slept So Long, Queen Of The Damned Soundtrack


“Max,” Isabel sighed, looking over at her brother with a less than amused face. “I did not come here just so you could send daggers Liz’s way the entire time.”

He leant in closer across the table and spoke in a hushed voice, eyes still glaring at the small brunette across the room pouring his cherry coke at the counter and debating whether to spit in it or not. “She needs to know the consequences of what she's doing Isabel. She can’t just run around and try to look for clues to a murder that never happened. I know that she's just trying to deal with Alex’s death in her own way, we all are, but what she's doing is not only putting herself at risk but us as well.”

Isabel leant back in her seat with a sigh. The possibility that Liz could maybe be right, even in the slightest, was weighing on her deeply. She knew Liz, just like Max did, and she trusted her, like Max used to. Maybe it was the fact that he felt betrayed by her one night with Kyle, but Max just wouldn’t give in and admit that Liz maybe be right.

Alex would never kill himself, they all knew that. But because of personal feelings, broken heart or what ever relationship dilemma Liz and Max were having this week, he wouldn’t just give and in and admit that maybe he was going about this the wrong way. He wouldn’t take a step back and look around him, take in all of the facts and analyse the situation with slow precision like the Max she used to know.

Isabel wanted the old Max back, the one that wouldn’t act out of character and who's only hobby was to sit in this very booth and watch the girl of his dreams as she worked. Instead, he had been replaced with a bitter old King who was convinced the world was out to get him and that he was always right. She sighed and slumped further into her seat, vaguely playing with straw in her diet cola.

She wanted him to go back to the old Max so she could stop being the responsible one and have time to grieve like she wanted to. Through all of this, Max had been so wrapped up in proving Liz’s theory wrong that Isabel doubted her had even just sat and cried for the loss of on of his best friends.

The bell above the Crashdown door jingled as it slowly opened. Max and Isabel’s eyes were immediately drawn to the petite blond that walked in, looking like she had been attacked by death last night. Her entire face was as white as a ghost and she stumbled slightly walking towards them. Her eyes kept darting around the room, as if looking for demons that would jump out at her any minute. Max and Isabel followed her gaze, confused when they found her staring at an empty booth in pure fear, as if something that only she could see was there.

“Tess? What happened?” Max gasped, all thoughts of getting Liz to call of her stupid hunt gone.

Tess walked over slowly to stand at the end of the table and Max noticed the black bags hanging under here eyes. Her face was deathly pale and the normal crystal blue of her irises now replaced with grey and red from crying.

“I-I n-need to talk to you, Max.” She stammered, her arms wrapping around her small frame in protection. She looked cautiously over her shoulder, feeling a cold breath of air blow past her neck and the little hairs on her skin stand on their ends.

“Um, yeah, sure.” Max replied, concern for the girl he had come to know closely shining through his hard façade. He stood up, sliding his arms through his leather jacket and then leading Tess out of the restaurant with his palm on the small of her back.


<center>~*~*~*~*~*~</center>



“So…” Max said absently just to break the silence that had enveloped them both. They sat on the park bench, the same park bench they had sat together on that fateful night when Max’s heart was ripped into shreds. He grimaced faintly from the thought, his mind replaying the images over and over.

“He’s haunting me.” Tess barely whispered, staring down at her hands, completely unaware of the tear that was falling down her left cheek. She almost laughed at the thought that she was finally showing a human emotion. For the first time, these tears were real, not just there for show and deception.

“What? Who is?” Max asked, his head whipping around to face the girl next to him. He could see her visibly shaking, hear her sharp intake of breath and feel the fear in the air. Something was definitely going on.

“Alex.”

His eyes widened in disbelief from the one simple name. Tess was being haunted by… by Alex? How was that even possible?

“I-I think.” She added after a pause. Tess had never felt so vulnerable before. Everywhere she looked she saw Alex’s face. She had rolled over in bed this morning after staring at the wall blankly all night and there he was lying next to her. As soon as she blinked he was gone, but the evocative smirk that was plastered across his face would never fade away from her mind. It taunted her; the eerie snarl that the corner of his lips made flashing in her mind every time she closed her eyes.

“How long?” Max as softly, leaning forward in his seat, his hands clasped and his elbows resting on his thighs. He was concerned that Tess wasn’t grieving properly, and this was all just a manifestation of her mind. Liz’s theories were laying heavily on all of their shoulders, and he had little doubt that Tess was just feeling guilty from the many accusations made about them. He was feeling guilty as well, guilt for letting his friend die, guilt for not being able to heal him. But the guilt that was the worse was the guilt that he had failed Liz. If she was right, then he failed her and let one of his own kill Alex.

“A few days.” She shrugged carelessly, not seeing the point in asking how long she had been haunted. Shouldn’t the question be why?

“I-I came to you because of what happened last Christmas.” Tess continued. “Maybe… maybe you could make him go away? I-it worked for you.”

“The reason why the man was… haunting… me was because I could have stopped his death but I did nothing. I just stood by and watched as he got hit by that car. He saved his daughters life and in the process lost his own. And the only reason he went away was because I healed all those lives. His life ended, but because of him, I was able to help lives re-start. And I still feel guilty about it now Tess. But you… you couldn’t have done anything. No one saw what happened to Alex coming, we were all at the Crashdown. You’re just mourning, feeling guilty for something that you couldn’t have stopped even if you tried. It will eventually stop, it just takes time.”

Was it possible? Could she possibly be feeling guilty about Alex’s death? The thought was absurd. She was taught not to feel anything; that emotions were a weakness, but this feeling was strong, dangerous and Tess knew that she needed help before it ate her alive.

She looked around the park, her eyes scanning the children playing on the seesaw and in the sandpit, until her eyes landed on a man standing under a giant oak tree, his blue eyes piercing hers and the corners of his mouth lifting up into an unfriendly smile.

“Max, this isn’t something that will just go away with time. H-he wants something.” Tess said, turning away from Alex’s gaze with a shudder. She turned around in her seat, repeatedly telling herself that it wasn’t real, that he was dead, but that fact did nothing to calm her nerves. She could still feel his menacing gaze on her back, his lingering touch in the breeze.

She raised her eyes, expecting to meet warm amber eyes that she knew but instead found herself staring into those cold blue eyes once again. Tess jumped off the seat in terror, stumbling backwards into a bin and closing her eyes to block him out. How was it possible that one-minute Max was sitting there and the next he had disappeared, only to be replaced by her last victim?

“Tess?” Max asked in surprise when he saw her jump up with fear in her eyes. She stumbled backwards, repeatedly mumbling ‘no’ under her breath. He stood up slowly with his hands raised in front of him to show her that he was no threat. “Tess?” He asked softly again.

Max’s warm voice penetrated her haze and she cautiously opened her eyes. Alex was nowhere in sight and an extremely worried Max was staring at her. “Oh God.” She whispered as a cold draft floated through the air around her. The hairs on the back of her neck stood upright and a disturbing shiver ran down her spine. Her bottom lip shook from fright and she bit down on it hard to make it stop, drawing blood in the process.

Tess looked over at Max with wide eyes and her mouth opening and closing, trying to explain what just happened but no words would come out. She looked at the ground and swallowed hard, her arms coming up to protectively wrap around her body again.

“What happened?” Max coaxed softly, slowly taking a step closer to her quivering body.

“Nothing,” was her short reply. A crystal clear droplet rolled down her cheek slowly and she wiped the tear away with a small sniffle. How was she supposed to explain it without sounding like she was a lunatic? Alien or not, this wasn’t normal, they both knew that.

Tess raised her eyes to meet Max’s again but immediately regretted her decision. Alex stood there, staring back at her with his arms crossed over his chest and an indignant look on his face. The corner of his lip raised upwards in a mocking smirk.

Her breath caught in her throat and she blinked hard, ready to run as soon as her legs would allow her to move, but when she opened her eyes Max was still standing there with a perturbed look. He didn’t understand what was going on with her. One minute she was perfectly fine and the next she was freaking out on him.

“Tess, what the hell is going on?” Max asked forcefully. He wanted answers and he wanted them now. This wasn’t just some game.

“I don’t know!” She cried in helplessness, falling onto her knees and covering her face with her hands. Max knelt down next to her, running a soothing hand in circles over her back and gently whispering reassuring words in her ear.

The soothing circles suddenly stopped and Tess instantly knew what had happened before he spoke. Her entire body tensed up and a cold feeling seeped in through her skin.

“Are you ready to die now?” The cold voice whispered seductively in her ear.

Her eyes snapped open, her hands blindly pushing away the body hovering next to hers. She scrambled to her feet and ran, bolting through the park and ignoring the Max yelling her name.

“No, no, NO!” she screamed with her hands covering her ears to block out his voice, knowing that if she turned around it wouldn’t be Max standing there. It would be him. So she ran as fast as she could, not stopping when a jab of splitting pain ripped through her side. There was one place she knew Alex wouldn’t find her, one place she was sure even ghosts couldn’t get into.



~*~*~*~*~*~



Tess sat huddled in the corner of the Pod Chamber, the spare blanket that they kept in here just in case was wrapped securely around her body. She had driven around Roswell for an hour in panic, trying to figure out a place that he wouldn’t be able to find her, before driving here and sealing herself inside. The hum of the Granolith chamber was steady and soothing in the background and slowly calmed her nerves.

She closed her eyes and let the sound envelope her, surrounding her world and blocking out everything. Tess found that if she focused on the hum she forgot about everything else. Max, Liz, Nicholas and even Alex were all distant memories. She was at peace for the first time in days.

This was insanity. She wasn’t being haunted by Alex. It was all just her imagination. Too much time with the humans was getting to her, making her think she was seeing and feeling things that were impossible.

She took a calming breath and concentrated on blocking everything out, focusing on the hum of the granolith that would calm down her nerves and make her think clearly for the first time in weeks.

That was until the hum stopped. Cut short from intrusion.

Tess gradually opened her eyes, fearing the sight she knew would great her. Alex stood over the other side of the chamber, his skin glowing green from the reflective light in the cave and giving him a more than usual eerie look. He leant against the wall derisively, his arms crossed and one eyebrow arched in challenge.

“You thought running would get rid of me? Tsk tsk. You should know better, Tess.” He said contemptuously, pushing himself off the wall and walking towards her huddled frame that was trembling from fear.

“H-how did you get in h-here?” Tess stammered, unable to take her eyes of him menacing glare. The way he held himself with such authority was so different to the whimpering little boy she had shown no mercy for as he begged for his life.

He walked around for a few minutes, looking at the cave in great detail. His hand come to rest as support for his chin, appear to be in deep thought for a few minutes.

“HELLO? I’M A FUCKING GHOST!” His voice boomed, echoing off the walls and making Tess jump. He stared down at her with utter contempt and rage in his eyes. “If I can walk through walls what the hell makes you think a giant rock will be any different?” He spat, smirking at the way her entire body was shaking and the tears were openly streaming down her withering face.

“What do you want from me? Why wont you just fucking leave me alone?” Tess cried, fully prepared to beg if it meant she could just get on with her life. She was so scared, so terrified and she just wanted it to all be over.

The question sparked and interest in Alex and he stopped right in front of her clustered frame, crouching down so they were eye to eye.

“What do I want?” He repeated her question sardonically, taking a moment to pretend to go over it in his head before turning his harsh eyes back to her.

“Pay back.”



TBC... is it sadistic that i actually enjoy writing this fic?

[lizard_queen]

*slaps self* Stop smiling like a dickhead!

You guys are amazing. Thank you so much for all you wonderful fb. I'm getting that gitty feeling in my stomach full of anticipation when i read it. I love reading your reactions.

This is my baby, so its good to know its not sadictic that i love it.




<center>Chapter 4</center>



“So glad to see you well
Overcome and completely silent now
With heaven's help
You cast your demons out …”

- The Noose, A Perfect Circle





Tess quivered internally from his words, but on the outside she appeared calm and collected, not prepared to let some little boy threaten her when he wasn’t even alive anymore.

“You said it yourself, you’re a fucking ghost. How the hell do you expect to exact payback when you don’t even exist!” She snarled up at him, trying to get the upper hand, but he was smarter than that.

“Don’t try and fool me Tess. I may be dead, but I’m not stupid. I know all your secrets. I know all your wants; I know all your needs. But most importantly…”

He leant in closer until his mouth was inches away from her ear and spoke in an even, silky tone that sent shivers down her spine. His eyes were hard and his voice held an underlying tone that was menacing.

“I know all your fears.”

A small whimper escaped past the small blondes lips. She moved further back into the corner, desperately wishing the wall behind her would fade away but wishing was useless at this point. Alex stood up and took a step back, his blue eyes glaring down at her cowardly form. He turned away from her, his eyes focusing on the pods across the room where she was hatched.

Seeing this as her escape, Tess slowly started to slide along the wall, just needing to get across the room to the entrance of the cave and then she would be fine. With her back flush against the wall, she slowly started to slide along it as quietly as possible whilst Alex started talking again, his back still towards her.

“I know that you hated Nasedo with a passion. You hated how he would treat you. You hated that he made you cold and hard, yet you never did anything to change once he was gone. I know that you hate Liz and Maria because they were standing in the way of what you wanted. I know that your worst fear before you came here was not that someone would find out what you were, but that when you finally did come here, they would hate you.”

He turned around and walked towards her, fully aware that she had been sneaking along the wall towards the entrance. Tess saw that she was only about three metres away from the entrance and did the only thing she could think of. She raised her hand with a cold blue glare at her opponent and sent out the most forceful blast she could muster, draining all of her power out of her.

Time seemed to slow slightly as she watched with anticipated breathe for him to be hit by her blast, too frozen in the fascination of watching her enemy be destroyed for a second time that she didn’t think to run. Her eyes widened and her breath quickened when instead of being hit by the blast, a force field seemed to be created around Alex’s body that sent the blast straight back towards her.

He watched in amusement as the fear became evident in her eyes, seconds before she was hit by the ball of energy. It picked her body up off the ground and threw her forcefully back against the wall with a loud smack. Tess fell to the floor, seeping in and out of consciousness for an instant and until the sound of laughter broke through her haze.

Groggily, she lifted up her heavy head and looked around, her eyes meeting the angry stare of Alex Whitman. He stalked over to her and in one swift movement, she was no longer laying on the ground anymore, but slammed up against the wall his a cold, strong hand gripping her neck tightly.

“Now you will let me finish.” Alex growled out, his eyes darkening as she kicked her legs and clawed at his arms to let go. Satisfied that he know held her attention, he removed his hand and watched as she fell to the floor for a second time with a loud thump.

“Now where was I?” He questioned rhetorically, placing a mock hand on his chin in imitation thought. “Oh right, your fears. You were so afraid that Max, Michael and Isabel wouldn’t except you, that Max wouldn’t see you and immediately want to fuck you, that when your fears became real, you lashed out, blaming every innocent bystander but yourself. You blamed Liz and used your powers to deceive Max and try to win his heart, but that failed as well.”

His voice was cold and harsh as it echoed around the cave. Tess cowered on the ground, rolling up into a ball and whimpering in pain. Every time she moved it ached. Even when she was breathing it made fiery pain shoot up her chest. Yet Alex was oblivious to her crying and he kept on in his own little world.

“Nasedo created such an elaborate world for you where everyone loved you and you were the fucking life of the party that when you finally went out into the real world, your fantasies came crashing down around you. But no, you had powers, special ‘gifts’ as you people like to call them.” He turned around to stare at her pathetic form with a scowl.

“If I was given your gift, I would return it and get my cash back. You’re so pathetic, always doing what your told. Nasedo was controlling you, even from the grave. Max was controlling you, giving you orders like you were a fucking soldier. And now, now I’m the one controlling you, and there’s no escape. But the thing is, they don’t know you like I know you Tess. They don’t know what makes you tick, they don’t know what you want most in life. But I do.”

He finished his speech with a casual shrug of his shoulders and a friendly smile, in complete contrast to the earlier Alex. But she wasn’t fooled. She knew that this was all part of his game.

“I’m not afraid of you.” Tess said with dignity, sitting upright and wincing from the pain in her chest. She couldn’t let him know that she was terrified.

“Want to make a bet?” He challenged, walking closer until he was looming over her in authority. He crouched down to her eye level and leaned in close, taking a large sniff of her before pulling backwards in disgust.

“I can smell the fear on you. You can’t hide it Tess, I already told you that. I know you.” He reached out a gentle hand to caress her cheek but she flinched away from him, repulsion coming through in waves.

“Don’t touch me.” She growled out in a fierce tone, her jaw set and her eyes hard.

He stood up and faced away from her, not at all fazed by her, and stretched his arms up into the air, letting out a small yawn in the process.

“You’re going to tell them what you did Tess.” His voice came out in a taunting; sing song tone, not at all hiding the fact that he knew what was about to happen. He stopped stretching and turned around to pierce her with a stone cold glare. When he spoke this time, the teasing in his voice was replaced with pure hatred.

“You're going to tell them how you tricked me, manipulated me into decoding that book for you. You're going to tell them how I never went to Sweden. I didn’t even leave the fucking state, because you made me.” He stood above her, towering over her huddled form and smirking at the way her entire body shook.

“And then, just when you think it wont get any worse, you're going to tell them how I begged you for my life and yet you showed me no mercy. You're going to tell them how you went into my mind and killed me, covering it up to look like I fucking killed myself!”

She flinched from his sharp tone and begged him with tears in her eyes. “You can’t make me. You can’t make me tell them that!”

He crouched down in front of her once again. His voice was dripping with venom and the pure hatred in his eyes forever marred Tess soul.

“You have no idea what I can make you do.”


<center>~*~*~*~*~*~</center>

“Any luck?” Max sighed as he walked over to the booth in the Crashdown that was occupied by a solemn looking Isabel, Michael and Kyle. For the last three hours they had been out searching for Tess, hoping to find her and figure out what the hell was going on before she did something drastic.

The first place Max had gone was the pod chamber, only to find that she wasn’t there. The second place he had gone was her old house, the one that had been occupied by Nasedo and Tess before he was killed. Everyone else spread out, searching around Roswell in the hunt for her, all of them coming up blank.

He sighed and ran a tired hand through his deshelved hair, throwing his head back and dropping his shoulders in exasperation. This was insane. His entire life was so insane. He closed his eyes tightly and wished with everything he had that he could just go back to the times when things were simple. His memories floated back to that sacred night on Liz’s balcony.

Their first kiss.

He had been so sure of everything back then because everything was so simple. He was a boy in love with a girl, and he knew without a doubt that she loved him back. Now, however, he wasn’t so sure.

His tawny eyes fluttered open; only to find themselves staring into bewildered doe brown orbs that made his breath catch and his stomach flip. Desire mixed with a longing that had long subsided into his own subconscious flashed in his gaze briefly, reflecting her own eyes.

He blinked. Opened his eyes again and refocused.

He wasn’t allowed to feel this way anymore. After all, she made it blatantly obvious that she had no interest what so ever in any sort of relationship with him, friendship or otherwise. She turned away from him and put down her pen, closing her journal with a sad glance, lightly tracing the engraving on the front leather cover with her fingertips.

He watched her intently as she blew out a large breath that caused the ends of her hair to blow up slightly and fall back down into their place. She looked so thin and pale, like she hadn’t had a decent meal and a proper nights sleep in weeks.

Max’s heart physically hurt as he watched her pack up her things and walk into the back room. Her eyes glanced over to him one last time with a sadness that he had never even imagined before.

It was killing them both to fight like this. He longed to reach out to her, to take her in his arms and hold her as the tears fell. He needed to tell her that everything would be fine, that Alex wasn’t really gone. He just needed her.

But it was impossible. The rift that was created from her accusations was torn deeper every passing day, and no matter how much Max longed to be with her, he had a duty to Isabel and Michael, and even Tess, to be the leader he was born to be.

Quietly he stood from the booth and followed her into the back room. He had to end this now; he had to put a stop to these rumours and accusations that were leading them nowhere. They were stronger as a group, and they needed to be strong right now.

“Liz!” Max shouted up the staircase that led to her families home. He didn’t care who could hear him, he wanted to get this over with and done. He was sick of all this bullshit between them.

“What do you want Max?” Liz asked tiredly from the doorway of the storeroom. She wasn’t in the mood for all his little ultimatums. She just wanted to curl up into a ball and cry her eyes out in the privacy of her bedroom.

Max turned around in an abrupt wind when he heard her voice, his golden eyes blazing with determination. “I want to end this, now. I want you to just admit that you were wrong. I don’t care whether you think Alex killed himself or it was an accident; I just want you to stop this stupid ghost chase. He was not murdered Liz!”

He didn’t know what gave him the strength to say all those things to her when he himself sometimes had doubts about Alex’s death, yet as soon as he saw the devastation in her eyes, he knew that he had only made things worse.

“You have no idea what you’re talking about!” Liz bit out angrily through clenched teeth. How dare he come in here, demanding that she change her mind or else face his wrath. The tears started to fall before she could stop them.

“No Liz! You’re the one who doesn’t know what they’re talking about! You have no idea what its like to be me, to be faced with all of this damn responsibility and problems! I don’t want any of this! I just want to be a normal teenage boy, but nothing I ever do will be able to bring Alex back!” Max yelled, taking two steps closer to her small frame.

Liz took a step back, afraid of what might happen in such close proximity. Her back slammed into the hard brick wall behind her, her legs caving out and crumbling. She slid down the wall silently, the tears still falling.

Tears for her. Tears for Alex. Tears for Max and all of his pain. It was all too much.

He watched as she cowered before him and disgust overwhelmed him. She was so frightened. Frightened of him. How could he even think of raising his voice at her like that? His heart clenched in agony, knowing that now it was permanent. He would never be hers again.

Max took a few steps back into the middle of the room and turned his back on her distraught form. A frustrated hand ran though his tousled hair, his last strings of control holding back the salty droplets collecting in his eyes. With a deep sigh, he turned back around to face Liz. He wasn’t leaving this room until she understood what she was doing.

“You know what? Fuck this.” Max yelled, clenching his fists at his side with all the control he could muster. He had to stop himself from reach out and shaking some sense into her. “Tell me Liz, if you know so fucking much, who killed him huh? Tell me!”

His voice was patronising, demeaning her every thought and feeling. She furiously wiped at the tears staining her cheeks, preparing to show him that he couldn’t talk to her this way and expect them to be best friends the next minute. He had crossed the line by raising his voice at her, but before she could speak, someone else did.

“I did.”

The voice was soft, scared and pained. Two sets of eyes snapped to the hopeless looking form standing in the doorway. Her hair was dirty, her curls a figment of the past, replaced with giant knots and messy ends. Her clothes were covered in desert dirt and her face was as pale as a ghost.

“Tess? Are you okay?” Max immediately asked taking a step towards her, his rage forgotten at the sight of his battered friend. She looked as though she had gone through hell and back. Distraught delirium clouded her features from the though of what he was making her do, what he was making her tell them.

“What did you say?” Liz asked in an ensorcelled undertone from her position curled up against the wall. Her entire body was shaking from the confession she thought she had just heard. Tess turned her soulless blue eyes down to meet those of her most hated enemy, in that moment realising that this was her end.

Time stilled in anticipation of her final confession.

It was then that she knew…

“I killed Alex Whitman.”

… that there was no way she was getting out of this alive.

[lizard_queen]

OMG, i feel so hyper. I'm really excited about this post, because its the part you've all been waiting for!

Thank you so much for your fb, and especially to all those people who have nominated this story or even me (still confused about that one though). I'm so proud of this fic, so *squeals* thank you thank you thank you!

Theres one more part to go after this, so don't think its over yet. I have to finish writing it first, so i don't know when i'll post it. I really really would love for you guys to tell me what you think about this. I'm really nervous. Anyhoo, here we go:




<center>Chapter 5</center>


“I’ve had doubts, I have fail, I’ve fucked up, I’ve had plans,
Doesn’t mean I should take my life with my own hands,
But these words, they don’t replace,
The life that you waste…”

- Waste, Staind



“What!” A high-pitched voice screamed from the doorway that lead back to the main part of the restaurant. Three pairs of eyes snapped to the source of the voice. Maria was struggling to get out of Michael’s grip so she could run and rip out something of Tess’s. Behind them both a very pale looking Isabel stood frozen, her only source of comfort the guilty hand that Kyle lay on her shoulder as he avoided eye contact with Tess.

“Tess, you don’t mean that. You’re just confused; you didn’t really-” Max started, trying desperately to come across a perfectly reasonable explanation for this, but falling terribly short.

“No Max, I did.” The blonde responded forcefully with her eyes trained to the floor. If she had to die, she would rather it be by the hand of Max Evans and his band of humans than by her own guilty conscious that was haunting her. It may have been the cowards way out, but she couldn’t stand the pain of waiting for the final moment. Tess needed it to be over fast, she couldn’t stand the waiting.

Hushed silence filled the room. Maria stopped struggling in Michael’s arms. She stood in shock, like a statue, the only tell tale sign that she was even still alive were the tears falling soundlessly down her cheeks. Isabel felt like she was about to collapse, but the consolidating arm around her waist from Kyle helped her stand weakly. Michael swallowed thickly, his eyes seeking out Max’s. The anger he should have been feeling was frozen in place, not quite registering yet.

“Why?” A small voice squeaked out from the floor. All eyes snapped to Liz’s huddled form against the wall, all eyes that is, except Max’s. He couldn’t even look at himself, the guilt weighing heavily on the pit of his stomach.

She was right. He half laughed to himself, half cried from this revelation. Liz was right once again. She knew the danger, she knew that Tess wasn’t to be trusted and she knew that her best friend would never even considering doing something like that, yet they all abandoned her. When she needed them the most, when she needed Max the most, they abandoned her because they didn’t want to believe that something like this could happen.

They didn’t want to be responsible for someone else’s mistakes.


“I-I didn’t mean to, but his mind was s-so weak.” Tess pleaded, her teary gaze now trained on the small girl lying at her feet. She had the power to blast them all right now, to kill every single one of them with a flick of her hand, yet it was as though her body was frozen, being controlled by some other force that prevented her from denying her mistakes.

“I went to him to decode the destiny book, but I knew that if you found out what I was doing to him you would never forgive me.” Tess started, once again looking at the ground beneath her feet, not able to look into their eyes and see the hatred she could feel circulating around the room. Her voice was small and soft, but the silence surrounding her made what she was saying perfectly clear.

“The warp broke and he figured out what I made him do. He came to confront me, but God, his mind was already so weak from the warp, and I didn’t realise until… I needed to know what that book said. We all do. It’s our only chance to go home Max, don’t you see that? We needed that translation.”

“ENOUGH TO TAKE A LIFE?!” Max yelled, his face flushed with rage and his eyes blazing in fury. “How could you Tess? We befriended you, we trusted you!”

Liz stood on shaky legs, gripping the wall behind her with a force that cut through the tips of her finger and smeared blood on the walls. Like a zombie she turned and walked up the staircase that lead to her home. Max watched her go helplessly, needing to be with her, needed to tell her house sorry he was, but forced to stand and make the final judgement on his once brief friend.

Tess seethed as she watched the vulnerable look on his face from the departure of Liz. He would kill her, she was sure of it, but it was taking too long. It was too painful. She needed it to be over quick, and there was only one way to get there fast. She knew how to get to Zan, she knew how to ignite the rage inside of him. She remembered seeing it unleashed on Antar time and time again on their enemies, and she knew that once it was set free, nothing would live to tell the tale.

“You never cared one bit about me Max! All you cared about was your stupid human. Every single time you talked to me it was always because you were moping about something prissy little Liz Parker did! You never even looked twice at me unless you were under a mindwarp, and even then you were wishing it was her!”

His hands clenched at his sides. His control was on the edge.

“All of you are so fucking deluded its comical. You’re an alien Max! You’re a king of a planet, yet you grasp onto the fact that you’re half human so tightly because you’re afraid to be what you were born to be. You were my husband, and yet I revolt you. I don’t make the rules Max, I just play by them, and one of the rules was that the book had to be decoded. I was only doing what I was told I had to do, and if it meant that one feeble humans lie got in the way, then so be it. It was no great loss for me!”

This time it was Isabel who lunged forward ready to rip out Tess’s eyes. Kyle, Michael and Maria held her back, each of them wishing that they could inflict the same sort of pain on her worthless life that she had inflicted on theirs. Yet they all knew, in the end, it was Max who had the final word, and they accepted that.

His voice was low, cold, void of any feeling that wasn’t a synonym of hate.

“Leave,” Max growled, his blazing eyes burning her soul from the inside out. “Leave now Tess and never come back, otherwise I swear to God I will kill you myself for what you did to him!”

Tess looked up at him in shock. The Zan she remembered would never have given her that option. The janitors would have already swept up the ashes her body would create by now if it were Zan who was standing before her. With a trembling bottom lip Tess finally realised the thing they had been trying to tell her all year. Max wasn’t Zan, and he never would be.

She swept a final look around the faces of those who had tried to help her, realising that they were all different from who they once were. They were all so much better than their predecessors, in heart and in soul.

With a final teary glance at Max, she ran, out the Crashdown doors and continued to run her heart out until she reached the house she had once called her own. Tess burst through the front door of the Valenti’s home and ran into her room. She knew that soon he would come for her, expecting results, expecting her final payment.

But she would already been gone by then.

She ran around the room, opening draws and throwing her few possessions onto the floor of the room in a pile. Then it was the closet, grabbing all the clothes off their hangers and adding them to the pile. Her body shook and dry sobs racked her body, but not once did she stop and even consider the possibility that he had already found her.

“If it was me I would have slit your throat,” a taunting voice spoke from the doorway. Tess spun around in surprise, tripping over a book on the floor in the process and falling onto the floor with a loud thud. She scrambled back against the wall, wishing she had the power to disappear.

The man stood in the doorway, the light from he corridor masking out his face as it shone in her eyes. He took malicious steps forward, revelling in the way her body trembled in so much fear that he was sure she would give herself a heart attack.

“They disappointed me Tess. I thought my friendship was worth more to them than to let you go.” Alex sneered down at her, reaching out to pull straight a dirt strand of blonde hair and watching in fasciation as it curled back into place when he let it go.

A full blown smirk situated itself on Alex’s lips. “ I still find it amusing to see someone who was once so powerful, who could wrap anyone around their finger, curled on the floor in fear and crying like a little baby.”

Fury raced through Tess’s veins when she realised he was right. She used to be the one who would strike fear into the others because they had no idea who she was or what she was capable of. She obliterated the skins with a jolt of her mind, and yet here she was, letting this ghost or whatever it was push her around.

She was not some princess who needed a night in shining armour to come and rescue her. And she would not cower under the presence of something that was only in her imagination. This thing that was pretending to be Alex wasn’t real.

It wasn’t real.

With a new sort of grace Tess stood on wobbly legs, her head held high as she walked back over to the closet and reached up for the last parts of her belongings that were strewn across the top shelf. She continued to stretch up on her toes for them but they were so far back that she couldn’t reach them without the aid of a chair.

Tess closed her eyes as she walked past where he stood, blocking him out from her mind. She gathered up the fold up chair near the bedroom doorway and walked back over to the closet with it, setting it just in front of the shelf and standing up to reach the last few objects.

“Ignoring me wont make me go away Tess.” Alex said with a small smile, already imagining the scene about to take place in his head. His smile grew wider when he saw her entire body freeze from his voice. She shook her head defiantly, swatting out the light that was hanging in the middle of the closet by a long chord. Yet her entire body stayed tense, waiting for him to continue his unkind speech. She didn’t realise yet that she wouldn’t even make it off that chair alive.

“I know you feel it Tess.” Alex started, pacing back and forth underneath her like a hyena stalking its prey. “The guilt. It starts slow, so slow that your not even sure its there at all. Until one day… BAM!” He clapped his hands together forcefully and she jumped, letting out a small whimper of surprise.

“It hits you like a tonne of bricks. Or in my case, a truck.” Tess shakily turned around, holding onto the sides of the shelf and still standing on the chair. She waiting patiently for him to continue, glaring at him with as much hate as she could muster.

“Isn’t that what happened according to everyone else? I was just driving along and all of a sudden decided ‘hey, why not turn myself into this oncoming traffic because I suddenly don’t want to fucking live anymore!’”

The chair underneath her shook and she reached out blindly for anything to hold onto. Her eyes were wide with panic. The chair continued to shake but it wasn’t because of Tess, and it wasn’t because the ground underneath it was shaking.

The cord that the light was dangling on suddenly started to grown long and curl around in the air like it was a snake. Tess jumped in fright when the burning globe touched her shoulder and continued to slide across her chest. Her hands clawed at the cord that was attached but it would not move. She tried to lift her feet off the chair and move away but they were glued to the plastic seat.

“You took my life away from me Tess when it was at its most vibrant stages.” His voice played like background music, continuing on and on until you scream for it to stop.

The cord continued to move and wrap around her neck loosely, coiling around and around like a boa. Her powers were useless against it, useless against anything. It was almost as though she had lost them all together, her only weapon stripped away from her in an instant.

“You took away the life of all my friends that night like a greedy little pig when you killed me. But there’s something different about you and me Tess. Where my life was only just beginning, yours never even started.”

The cord tightened around her neck. Her guilty blue eyes went wide as the air was expelled from her lungs. Fingers frantically scratched at the cord but failed in their mission. The chair melted away underneath her feet and she was falling. With a sudden jerk she was suspending in mid air by the cord of the light fixture.

“You took my life Tess. And now I’m taking yours.”



TBC....

[lizard_queen]

Well, here it is guys. The end.

I'm extreemly proud of this fic, pardoning this last chapter of course which i think is rather crap. I just couldn't be bothered going over it another 12 times and no one was online to read it and help me, so i figured i would just post and get it over and done with before Fran hurt me.

Anyway, what was i saying? Oh yes, i am so proud of this fic. Its my baby and i can't thank you enough for reading this and your amazing fb. It really blew me away. Every time i got fb i would read it and have the cheesiest smile on my face. My cheeks started to hurt i was smiling so much.

Also, thank you all so much for the nominations. I don't expect to win anything, but its an honour to be nominated at all. So thank you.

Finally: all your questions and musings about if Alex is real, a ghost, or a figment of Tess' guilty concious? I decided to leave it up to you guys to decide. He is what ever you make him. Although Kath7 has the most reasonable explanation, i think its better if i let you decide.

Thank you all so much again. You're all absolutely amazing and wonderful, and you all get a pretty gold star and a cookie.

Ki-ki



<center>Epilogue</center>


“I can see through you, see your true colours.
Inside your ugly, ugly like me,
I can see through you,
See the real you…”

- Outside, Staind



The young girl sat away from the others, her hair blowing in the silent wind as it swirl through the air around them. She bit back the pain in her heart that reading the tombstone caused. Guilt encased her being from the knowledge that she hadn’t been able to bring herself to come here since the funeral. What type of a person did that make her? He was all alone because she couldn’t bare to go through the pain visiting would have caused.

Tears rolled down her cheeks, falling off the tips of her chin and nose to mingle with the dirt around the grave. It was all over. The wild goose chase had been finished for good by forces unknown, yet knowing that she was right didn’t bring Liz the satisfaction that she thought it would. Sure, the closure was there, but it didn’t bring back her best friend from the dead. He was gone forever, and it was something that she had to come to grips with.

That was another reason why Liz didn’t want this to be over. All the time that she had been trying to find out the truth she had been occupied. Her mind was too busy for the realisation to hit and the mourning to begin. But now that it was over, she had all the time in the world to say goodbye, and that scared her to death.

She was scared of what would happen now that the future was left undetermined. She was scared of what she would feel, all the pain she would have to go through. Mostly, she was scared that if she said goodbye now, one day she would just forget that he even existed at all.

“Alex, I miss you so much.” Liz whispered out with terrified eyes. What was the point? He was dead, he wouldn’t hear her anyway. It wasn’t as if these words would suddenly bring him back to life, just because she missed him.

A soft sniffle escaped into the wind and her shoulders shook with the silent sobs. Max watched helplessly from a few feet away, his heart breaking from the sight. The last few days had weighed heavily on everyone, but the worst affected by far had to be Liz. Even though she put up a strong front, he could see through her barriers, he could see how broken she was inside. All this time she had been right, and just the realisation of that was like a blow to her own chest.

But Max had always known. Deep down, he had always known that he would be responsible for the person who killed one of their best friends. It was the reason why he fought Liz so much, he was so determined for his gut instinct to be wrong that he didn’t even stop and take a look around. If he had taken the time, he would have realised that something was different about Tess. He would have seen her for who she truly was: a murderer.

And she had payed the price.

Three days ago they had found out the truth. Three days ago all their worlds had come crashing down around them. Three days ago, Tess Harding committed suicide.

That was the reason why they were all here today. To say good riddance to the vicious conspirator that had taken someone so precious away from them. This was the final moment, the pinnacle of the disaster, and it was almost over.

This would be the end. There would be no nice prayers said, no celebration of a life that once was. Instead the dirt would cover her body and they would all return to their homes. All except the Valenti’s, who hadn’t been able to bring themselves to going inside their house ever since Kyle had found her in his closet. He would be scared forever from that moment.

Max sighed softly with regret and closed the final distance between the girl and him. He didn’t want to interrupt the moment, but they had one last thing to do before it was all over. Before they could all mend.

“Liz?” Max implored softly, laying a gentle hand on her shoulder. She frantically wiped at her eyes with a shaky hand, trying to pretend like her heart wasn’t just open for all to see. She took a deep, shaky breath and turned her eyes to look up into his solemn face.

“It’s time.” He whispered and she gave a small nod in response, gathering her coat that was laying down beside her. Max watched the robotic movements that she took and knew that this was the hardest thing any of them had ever had to do. He extended his hand out to her unconsciously, surprised when she just sat there and stared at it hesitantly.

Liz looked at his outstretched hand with uncertainty. If she took his hand, would things just end up the way they were before? Her heart was still broken in more ways than one, and the trust that was once between them was banished from existence. After Tess’ confession she had locked herself in her room and refused to speak to anyone. It had taken at least an entire day for the realisation of what had just occurred to sink in, but by that time the wasted life that was Tess Harding was deceased.

They still hadn’t sat down and had the talk that they were both dreading. They still hadn’t worked out anything that could help resolve the pain burning in heart and soul. But as Liz looked up and met the candour and love shining in Max’s golden eyes, she knew that he would make it better.

They walked slowly, hand in hand across the cemetery to meet the others. Their hands never left each other as the casket was lowered into the ground and seven unwavering gazes hoped that the body and soul of the girl was re-living the hell she had created. No tears were shed, no prayers were uttered and no celebrations for the life was that just buried occurred.

Tess Harding was dead to them. Forever.

Alex watched from a far tree as Max and Liz returned back to his gravestone for one final goodbye once the ceremony was complete. He smiled at the way the boy wrapped his arms around the small girl and promised to protect her forever with a gentle kiss to her forehead. He watched as the girl relaxed into the boys embrace and felt safe for the first time in months.

As they turned to leave, dark chocolate eyes met Alex’s equally brown gaze. Liz smiled at him softly and held back the tears welling in her eyes. She knew she was just seeing things; there was no way he could really be standing there. There was no way he could be alive. It was illogical.

The ghost of the boy smirked back at her and gave a warming nod, and then he was gone, forever imprinting the moment in her memory and in her heart.






Fin.