by Harold Wall
"But you love Storm more." Lucas's eyes became pained, his voice rough. "And I just… I can't be with you knowing that you'll always love someone else more." Emerald opened her mouth wanting, needing to say something else but Lucas leaned down and gave her gentle kiss. He pulled back and they gazed at each other for a long, quiet, silent moment—the
only sound was their ragged breathing—before Lucas started for the door.
She sluggishly slid the keycard into the slot, waited for the green light and turned the knob, removing the card, pushing the door open. Inside was pitch dark, the light from the
hallway only reaching to a certain spot. Valerie froze in the doorway sensing a presence in the suite.
She stepped in slowly and closed the door, flipping the light in the hallway on.
"Storm…?" she asked uncertainly taking a few steps forward, into the small living room. "Iis that you?" She cursed silently for the stutter in her voice.
There was a chair, facing away from Valerie at the moment and a suddenly a hand appeared from that chair, reaching over to turn on the lamp that was sitting on a small table
next to the chair.
"Just the opposite, actually." A familiar voice floated through the gloom to Valerie's ears. Valerie's eyes narrowed as Emerald stood up and turned, walking around the chair. "Hey,
Valerie, how's it going?" Emerald gave her a smile but it wasn't friendly.
"Not too good, actually, Emerald." She answered unable to put up the nice act.
"That sucks because I'm about to make a lot worse." Emerald remarked.
"How did you get in here, Emerald?" Valerie asked coldly, hands balling into fists.
Smiling, she reached into her pocket and pulled out a keycard. "You know, I've actually been meaning to return this to Storm. But I thought it might come in handy sometime in an
emergency." She turned it around in her hand and looked at it. "I suppose it did come in handy." she muttered.
"I could call the cops and have you arrested, you know." Valerie threatened.
"And explain why I have the keycard to Storm's suite?"
"I'll just make something up. You stole it from me."
"Storm may love you, but that doesn't mean he hates me. If the cops ask him he'll tell them the truth. He gave it to me because I used to be his girlfriend and never asked for it
back."
Valerie crossed her arms and rolled her eyes. "So, what are you doing here? Are you looking for Storm, because if you are, he's not here. Late night at the store."
"No, I actually wanted to talk to you, Valerie."
Valerie's arms fell limply to her sides and her blood ran cold. "Me?" Her voice came out softer and sounded more fearful than what she had wanted to.
Emerald nodded walking forward, standing mere inches away from Valerie. "You told Lucas that I slept with Storm." she said slowly in an ice cold tone.
"He had a right to know!" Valerie spat not wanting Emerald to have the satisfaction of scaring her.
"That is none of your business!" Emerald growled, making Valerie cringe. "You have no right to interfere with my personal business!"
"Well you weren't going to tell him! Someone had to!"
Emerald swallowed hard, jaw going tight, one of her hands coming up, making Valerie flinch, and fisting before slowly lowering it and gaining control over her emotions.
"You don't know anything you stupid, little witch." she spat through gritted teeth.
Valerie's eyes flared and her hand flew up but Emerald was prepared for this, grabbing her wrist right before it could make contact.
"Don't insult me. And let go of my arm." Valerie ordered, her voice shaking with anger and hatred.
Emerald's grip tightened on her wrist. It wasn't painful, not yet at least.
"You don't have the right to butt into my personal business. How dare you assume that I wouldn't tell Lucas what happened." Emerald's voice started to shake. "How dare you
begin to think that I wouldn't even tell Lucas only to go and tell him a halftruth. You hypocrite." With ever word Emerald's grip tightened unknowingly, pushing Valerie's ulna and
radius together.
"Emerald, stop…" Valerie yelped, sinking to the floor. "You're… hhurting me." Tears started to pool in her eyes.
Emerald lightened her grip, but didn't let go.
"Please, you wouldn't have told him anything." Valerie breathed, brave enough to insult Emerald when she had the upper hand.
"Careful, now, Valerie, I don't think you understand the situation you're in." To prove this to her, Emerald tightened her grip on Valerie's wrist for a moment before letting up.
Valerie glared up at Emerald, still kneeling on the floor.
"Don't give me that." Emerald spat with contempt. "My boyfriend, my personal life, my business. I'll decide when and what I tell him. Not you. Do you understand?" She leaned
forward and got in Valerie's face.
"Yeah, yeah," she muttered looking away.
Emerald tightened her grip again. "Do you understand?" she asked again as Valerie yelped.
Valerie's hand came up and tugged and pushed at Emerald's hand. "Yes, yes! Please, just… let go of my wrist." she sobbed.
Emerald finally release and started toward the door. Valerie stood up, rubbing her wrist, glaring at Emerald.
"Why do this? You couldn't have just talked to me about without going all psychokiller, you know." she called after Emerald.
Emerald paused a moment before turning around to meet Valerie's glare with a glare of own.
"Congratulations, Valerie, you have now managed to steal both my boyfriends." she answered, before spinning back around and leaving, slamming the door on the way out.
Valerie huffed and went to sit down on the couch, peeved and pissed off. She wanted to so bad to do something, anything to get Emerald back. To seek her vengeance. Emerald
shouldn't ever be able to bully people around like that just to get a point across.
But, no, not yet. She'd get her just deserts very soon.
In fact… Valerie reached for her phone and typed in a text: O BECOMSE C AND C BECOMES O, WHAT IS IT?
They had this weird—in Valerie's opinion—way of communicating in code. They were paranoid and afraid that Emerald would tap into their conversation and find out their plan so
they never called or texted Valerie. The only way she knew if they were ready is if they replied to her riddle. Yes, it was stupid, but they were paranoid so Valerie just went along.
Her phone buzzed and she jumped. There was a replying text: THE MOON.
Excitement, anticipation and fear coursed through her. They were ready; they were finally ready, to Valerie's satisfaction. She'd get her revenge very, very soon.
Emerald had no idea what was coming to her.
And she deserved it too.
Emerald went back to her suite then. She was satisfied that she'd managed to scare Valerie but the overwhelming anguish and selfhatred was… well, overwhelming. The
satisfaction was a mere one percent of the emotions she was feeling as she entered her suite.
Well, barely managed to enter her suite. Her hands were shaking and she was breathing hard and tears were pooling in her eyes. If she blinked they'd come spilling out. She
collapsed against the door, shutting it and sunk to the floor, breaking down in tears, bodyracking sobs. She hated that she was so weak, breaking down like this over a boy when
she'd been through much worse pain and torture, not having shed a tear throughout her experiences.
She wasn't sure how long she sat like that, just sobbing, sitting against the door not wanting to move to the sofa or her bed. She'd lost the motivation to move or do anything else
but cry; to just let it all out. To let out all the emotions she'd been holding back through tears.
When she was done, she slid down further, resting her head against the floor. She would've moved because the position she was in wasn't the most comforta
ble, but, again, she'd
lost the will to move. For right now anyway. She was also really tired. The crying had really worn her out and now all she wanted to do was sleep. And though the floor was
extremely uncomfortable and she couldn't get into a position that was mildly comfortable, she closed her eyes and dozed off.
It only seemed like moments before she woke with a start from the nightmare she'd had so many weeks ago: The one with the warning from Storm before he was harpooned
through the chest.
"Storm," Emerald mumbled, slurring his name, for she was half awake. Her heart was pounding in her chest though and the room around her swirled. She blinked and sat up,
reaching, grasping at the walls for something to hold on to when suddenly a sharp pain hit her whole body. The room flashed in front of her into different room, but it was only a
second. "Storm!" she gasped as her brain woke up and her body tingled from the blast of pain.
She grabbed the door handle and hauled herself up but the room swayed, that pain hit her again and the room flashed into the other room. She fell against the adjacent wall with a
resounding thud.
"Storm," she murmured again trying to dispel whatever was happening. It was disorienting, confusing her. For a few moments she wasn't sure which way was up.
That pain hit her again, causing her knees to buckle, and her vision changed again to a different room. Leaning heavily against the wall, Emerald blinked hard trying to dispel the
weird vision she was getting but it wouldn't go away and neither would the pain. It was slow and searing, like she was being burned alive at the stake. And it wasn't just in one area
it was throughout her whole body. She was practically incapacitated.
The vision was weird, though, because the room seemed to glow a whiteish light. But it also looked familiar. Scarily familiar. And it was hard to think around the pain but it hit
Emerald, that this was Storm's suite.
Before she could do anything about the pain or about the vision everything went black. Her vision went completely black which was a shock from the glowing white and the burning
in her body vanished completely, leaving her feeling strangely hollow inside; hollow and cold and desolate.
Adrenaline pumped through Emerald's veins (or at least the vampire equivalent of adrenaline). She stood her head crystal clear now.
"Storm." she said again realizing that something was terribly wrong and it involved Storm.
Heart pounding Emerald dashed out of her suite and to the stairwell. She needed to be moving, she couldn't just wait in an elevator. Besides the stairs would be faster. When she
got into the stairwell Emerald grabbed the banisters on each side, catapulting herself down the whole section of stairs. In no time at all she was at Storm's floor. Without missing a
beat, she barreled through the door and down the hall, glancing at one of the door's numbers to gather where she was in relation to Storm's suite.
As she got to the hallway that Storm's suite was in Emerald slowed and tried to calm her breathing as she crept down the hall and to his suite. His door wasn't closed fully when she
finally got up to. She listened hard for any kind of noise to indicate someone was still in there and heard nothing. Complete silence.
But she had to be sure, so still on high alert, Emerald reached up and slowly pushed the door open. It glided across the carpet making no noise that a human could register. She
walked in slowly, looking around. The whole place had been ransacked. Everything was turned over and there was broken lamps littering the floor. She swiftly searched the rest of
the suite. She found nothing which was very disconcerting. No Storm, no Valerie, and no signs of their attacker or attackers.
It looked like there'd been a fight, but it was all over now with Storm and Valerie gone, kidnapped probably.
Kidnapped or—
Something hit Emerald then that made her knees buckle and left her gasping for air. She could feel a presence reaching for her but it didn't feel negative. In fact, it felt the exact
opposite. It was warm and happy and loving.
The chord. It was the chord that connected Storm and Emerald. Only he could make her feel that way. But why now? Of all times, why now? And wasn't he still with Valerie?
"Emerald," Storm's voice sounded in her ears. She stood, chest heaving and looked around the room but he was nowhere to be seen.
"Storm," she called anyway, frantically, still looking around the room like he was going to appear from thin air.
"Emerald," he said again. "I'm sorry."
Emerald shook her head, tears filling her eyes. "No." she whispered. "No, no, don't say that. Don't say that."
"Emerald?" It wasn't Storm's voice though, it was someone else.
She spun around quickly to see Sky and Carter standing in the threshold.
"What—what are you guys doing here?" she asked walking toward them.
"We got a call, an urgent call saying to come to Storm's suite." Sky explained. "What happened here?"
Emerald shook her head, "I don't know—" She broke off when suddenly the chord snapped. It didn't just disappear like what happened when Storm started dating Valier, it
like when… like when… like when your soulmate dies.
All the breath whooshed from Emerald's lungs at this thought.
No. Storm couldn't be dead. He couldn't.
"I have to go." Emerald whispered pushing past Sky and Carter and out of Storm's suite. They called after her but she didn't listen to them. She just kept running.
She ran faster than she'd ever run before in her entire life, faster than when she was being chased by her father's cohorts, faster than when she had been chased by a hoard of
bloodthirsty vampires, faster than when she ran to save Storm's life after Jonathan had kidnapped Emerald for the third or fourth time.
Her body protested, it just wanted to rest, to crawl into a hole, curl up into the fetal position and die, drown in her own tears of sorrow and loss and regret. But Emerald had to be
sure, she had to be sure that what the cord, or lack thereof, that Storm was in fact—No. She couldn't say it, couldn't even think it or she would shut down. Her body would just
collapse and she wouldn't even be able to get back up, to function ever again.
She barreled through people, knocking them over, knocking them into others, knocking them into objects like light poles or mail boxes or cars parked on the side of the road. She
ignored their shouts and their protests barely hearing them. She moved through them like a tornado, destruction following her wake.
Her breath rasped and her body ached, but it wasn't because of the exertion of running so far, so fast, so much but because of what had happened. She was practically hollow inside
now, her soul had given up and her body wanted to follow. It resisted with ever single leap and bound toward where she knew that she'd find Storm.
Behind her voices called her names, but almost out of earshot for a vampire. They were trying to keep up but they couldn't run nearly as fast. Besides it wasn't like Emerald was
going to stop for anything or anyone now. Not until she knew, not until she found out for herself.
The chord that connected her to Storm was now dangling limply into pitch, cold black that never ceased. It slowly crept its way up on the chord, grasping it like a rope, slowly,
slowly, slowly making its way up, consuming first the rope in its endless black before touching Emerald's soul. No, not touching, consuming, like a monster from the pits of Hell
itself. It gnawed and grasped at Emerald's whole being in a slow, torturous way that reflected where it came from. It ate Emerald from the inside out until she was completely
overwhelmed in the black, in the cold, in the hate and the fear and the sadness and hurt and any negative feeling that's ever hit human kind.
Finally, finally she
reached it. She reached Valerie's house. Emerald would've been shocked but she was in too much pain to be shocked, really. Not slowing down she leaped up the
small three steps to the front door. Of course it was locked, nonetheless, Emerald wasn't thinking straight at this moment. All she could think of was Storm, she had to find Storm.
She had to see Storm.
She grabbed the knob and twisted and pushed, the door not budging.
"Storm!" she called, banging the palm of her hand on the door frantically before reaching for the knob again and trying to push it. "Storm!" When she had had enough of that she
took a step back and kicked the door open before dashing in.
"Emerald! Wait!" someone called from behind, having caught up when she had been beating on the door.
"Storm!" Emerald called as soon as she had stepped inside. "Storm!" She looked around, walked a few paces forward to the nearest door and there he was, in what looked to be a
living room, on the floor not moving. "Storm." She gasped, darting over to him, falling to her knees next to him. He was lying on his back, his eyes staring straight ahead deep blue
pools of nothing, blankness.
His body was cold, like he'd been dead for a while now. His skin was a horrible gray, ashen color.
Tears formed immediately and streamed down Emerald's face.
It had been true. It had all been true. Storm was dead. He had died. He was gone.
Emerald shook her head, still not wanting to believe it, though it was right in front of her eyes.
"You can't leave me." she sobbed, resting her head on his chest. "I need you."
He may have fallen out of love with her, but Emerald had never fallen out of love with him. She had and always would love him with all her heart. It was true that she loved Lucas,
but her love for Storm was different, different and stronger and potent and everlasting. Not that her love for Lucas wasn't, it was just—different. Every love was going to be.
"Emerald," a voice spoke softly gently grabbing one of her arms and pulling her away from Storm.
She jerked out of their grasp, continuing to sob only quieter now, not looking away from Storm. She couldn't. It was painful to look at him so still and so lifeless but she couldn't get