Chp 16
~Chapter 16~
Later that day…
"AJ! What the heck are you doing in there?!" yelled Denise as she pounded on the bathroom door. He had been in there for three quarters of an hour. Suddenly, the click of unlocking was heard and the door squeaked open.
"Well, it's about time! I thought you flushed yourself down the toilet!"
AJ timidly walked out. Denise's jaw dropped.
"AJ, your hair…is blue."
"I know. I was going for green, but I mixed the dye wrong or something. Does it look bad?"
"U-u-um, well…no. It actually looks kind of nice, if you want blue hair."
"Are you sure? I don't look like a Smurf?"
"I don't know any Smurfs with tattoos and pierced ears."
"I'll take that as a no."
AJ walked away, while Denise nodded her head and smiled. Toni was in the kitchen drinking a glass of tomato juice when AJ stepped in. He scrunched up his nose.
"Eww?"
"What?"
"Tomato juice? Why?"
"Why not?"
"Cuz it's nasty."
"No it's not. I like it. It's yummy."
"Whatever."
He opened the fridge door and pulled out a cup of blood.
"Now this is more like it."
"Shut up, you blue-haired freak."
"Ah, so you've noticed! You like?"
He spun around, so she could take in his whole blue head.
"It's cool on you, but I wouldn't do it."
"Why not?"
"Because I'm not that adventurous. You're clearly the wild child of this household."
"Yup. Have you seen Val?"
"She left."
"Already? The sun just went down five minutes ago!"
"She was in a hurry. Something about ambushing and major slayage."
"Oh yeah, I almost forgot. I hope she's ok."
"I'm sure she is. So…what do you wanna do tonight?"
"I don't know. You're the guest. What do you wanna do?"
"Hmm…how about a movie?"
"K. Which one?"
"Interview With The Vampire."
"A classic."
"Yeah, and Brad Pitt is a major hottie."
"I guess, if you like old guys."
"He's not old! He's only thirty something!"
"Well, to you that's not old, but to me, yeah, considering I'll never reach twenty-two!"
"That's more bad than good."
"I know, but hey, I might as well enjoy what I have, right? Let's go in the living room. I'll put in the movie."
They entered the living room and Toni made herself comfortable on the sofa, while AJ stuck in the video.
"We'll have to keep it down cuz my mom's sleeping. Poor girl, she was dead tired today."
"That's fine."
AJ plopped down beside Toni and the movie started. As ironic as it may seem, Toni was afraid of all the graphic scenes, so everytime a rotting corpse or a bloody act of violence showed up, she would cling to AJ, which he didn't mind at all. By the middle of the movie, they were really close and snug. She was curled up, her head lying on his shoulder, while his arms surrounded her.
"This is nice," she said softly as she continued to watch the TV.
"Yeah, it is."
Their eyes met. She slowly raised her head and brushed her soft lips against his. He closed his eyes preparing for what would come next, which would hopefully be a great kiss.
"AJ…" she whispered as their lips got closer…and closer…and…
"AHHHHHHHHHHH!"
The scream came from upstairs. AJ and Toni jumped out of their seats and ran up the stairs and into Denise's room.
"Mom, what is it?!"
Denise was sitting on her bed, sweating and breathing heavily. Her eyes were widened in fear and she was staring out the window.
Toni stood in the doorway, while AJ sat next to her on her bed.
"Mom?"
Denise looked at AJ and gulped.
"AJ…"
"Yeah, it's me. What happened?"
She didn't respond with words. Instead, she started crying. AJ put his arms around her.
"Shhh, it's ok. You're ok, now. Whatever it is, it's over."
"It's never over," she croaked out.
Toni handed her a glass of water, which calmed her down a bit.
"Thank you, Toni."
"No problem."
"Did you have a nightmare?" AJ asked.
Denise shook her head no as she drank the water. AJ gave Toni a 'I don't know' look. She shrugged in return.
"Do you want to talk about it?"
"I don't know…"
"Umm, I think I should leave you two alone," concluded Toni as she began to walk away.
"No, dear, that's not necessary. You can stay," said Denise.
"Are you sure?"
She nodded her head. Toni slowly walked over to AJ and sat next to him. They waited for her to begin.
"U-u-umm, I had a-a-a flashback. I thought it was a dream at first, but I realized that it really did happen…"
"What was the flashback of?"
"It was, it-it, it was the day we went to the Black Sea. I saw us laughing a-a-and having fun at the beach. Then, it turned to night. Everything was exactly the same as it happened…the girl screaming, you going to help her, me calling the police, everything. The only thing that was different was t-t-that I saw it kill you. I don't know how, but I felt as if I was there while it was draining you. F-f-for some strange reason, I couldn't move. I couldn't help you. All I could do was watch helplessly. I could feel myself screaming and screaming, b-but it did nothing. The monster finally had enough and it dropped you. It disappeared and that was when I could move. I ran to you and knelt beside you, hoping that by some miracle, I got to you in time…"
She could feel the hot tears forming in her eyes.
" *sniff* And I tried desperately to w-w-wake you up…b-but, you wouldn't wake up…"
Her voice cracked with emotion.
"A-a-and then, I woke up, thinking it was just an awful nightmare. B-b-but I looked at the window and…and there was this horrible creature staring in at me! That's when I realized that it wasn't a dream! That it really happened! That my worst nightmare had come true! You were dead!"
She began to bawl again. AJ tried to comfort her.
"Mom, it's ok. I'm here. I'm right here, and I will never leave you again."
She looked up at him, sadness present in her eyes.
"But you're dead. You'll never see the sun. You'll never get married. You'll never be able to live your life the way you planned it. It's not fair."
"I know."
Toni felt her tears rolling down her cheeks, so she excused herself and went downstairs. She sat down on the sofa and cried. She didn't know why. It had nothing to do with her. But she realized it was because she loved AJ, she wasn't sure in what way, but she definitely knew she did love him, and she felt really close to Denise. To see them hurt made her feel pain, too. AJ came downstairs fifteen minutes later. She quickly wiped her tears away and tried to hide her emotion.
"How is she?" she asked.
"Asleep."
"Oh. That's good."
AJ took a seat next to her and noticed that she had been crying.
"Are you ok?"
She gave a weak laugh.
"Yeah. I'm just a really emotional person. I cry for everything."
"Oh."
AJ looked down at the floor.
"I really screwed up this time, Toni," he said quietly.
"What?"
"I shouldn't have showed up. Her life would have been so much better if I hadn't re-entered it."
"What are you talking about?"
"I shouldn't have come here. Eventually, she would have accepted my death and moved on. But I had to reveal myself and mess everything up. My mother's a wreck and it's all because of me. I can't leave again because it would only make things worse. Not only that, but I also put her life in danger and now the Daemoniacus know who she is and they might come after her. I should've done the world a favor and re-killed myself when I had the chance."
"But AJ, you said she knew even before you showed up. So it wouldn't have made a difference."
"She had a feeling, but it wouldn't have meant anything if I hadn't come along and confirmed it."
"Maybe, but you can't change anything. What's done is done. You just have to be thankful that she's alive and well and she'll stick by you until the day she dies."
"Oh and that's another thing. She'll die, but I probably won't. I won't be able to handle that."
"Don't worry, AJ, everything will turn out alright. I'll always be here for you. You know that, right?"
He nodded his head.
"I hope you're right, Toni, because I don't know what to do anymore."
Chp 17
Chp 15
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