by Rue Volley
“Oh.” Jessica said as she stared at his face and he placed his hand on her face and looked into her eyes.
“We are simply going to speed things along. Do not misunderstand me, I would love to kill Gabrielle as he is now, all weak and pathetic… but my dreams are to see his wings burn and fall from his bloodied corpse. I will not have it any other way.” He said.
Jessica smiled as Michael held his hand out in front of her and started to chant and she started to change, her hair grew, her face morphed and then standing before him was none other than the mirror image of Rue Volley… a perfect carbon copy all the way down to her shoes. Jessica looked down at her hands and then to her shoes.
“Oh… tennis shoes?” she asked.
Michael laughed.
“You need to go to him and find a way to seduce love. I am sure you will succeed.” He said.
Jessica nodded. “As you wish.” She said.
“Jessica.” Michael said and she stopped walking and looked back at him.
“Be mindful and only see him.”
She smiled and ran from him as he looked up at the sky and smiled. He raised his hands and started to chant in Latin as the wind kicked up the leaves around him in a swirling circle and the forest darkened, then as the leaves became thick and twisted around him and started to dissipate he stood there in another form… that of Joshua Barrington and he sighed as he looked at his hands.
“Disgusting.” He muttered and flashed through the woods towards my house.
***
I sat on my porch and swung slowly. I had not entered it since I returned and as I sat there and pulled my hoodie closed, trying to ward off the sudden chill I had, it started to eat away at me. The whole ‘you can have each other thing’, that was not Josh, it never had been and I couldn’t believe that he had said it. It hurt me, much deeper than I would ever admit to and just as the anger started to become something I could taste in the back of my throat, Johnathan came walking up my driveway and I looked out towards the woods and wanted to forget him too.
Johnathan stopped at the base of my steps as if an invisible ‘screw you’ shield held him back and then he mustered up the courage to come up and he stopped and looked at me. I kept my eyes fixed on the woods as the sun was starting to go down and I got lost in the way the colors change and then he opened his mouth and spoke and I closed my eyes and raised my hand.
“I suck.” He muttered.
I looked at him and raised my eyebrows.
“You think?” I said as sarcastically as I could.
“Rue… I just, I have no excuse for that at all.”
I sighed and looked down at my hands as the tingling from the cold started to creep in.
“I really don’t want to see you right now.” I said.
Johnathan leaned down, trying to get my attention.
“What can I do?” he asked me.
I looked up at him and laughed.
“Haven’t you done enough already?” I said, still full of venom.
“Rue… please. I can go there right now and tell him the truth.”
I shook my head and looked back towards the forest.
“I have no idea what is wrong with him, truth is… I don’t feel like I know him right now.”
Johnathan walked to the swing and sat down. I felt like leaning against him but my anger and pride prevented me from doing it.
Johnathan took my hand and I looked down at it and up at him.
“How many times have you saved me when Brooke told me to leave?”
“A million.” I said.
“Exactly, and the point being… you said ‘a million’, relationships suck.” He said to me.
“I honestly think that he meant that.” I muttered.
“He didn’t. People say stupid things when they are hurt or mad. I should know all about that.”
I looked at his face and he half grinned at me.
“You think he is just mad then?”
Johnathan shrugged his shoulders.
“Well, let’s see. He secretly wishes that I was dead and I told him we had sex, I would say yes.”
I hit him on the arm and he laughed.
“Sex was never mentioned.”
“Rue.” Johnathan said as he looked at me with his shitty grin.
“When a guy says ‘I stayed all night’ to another guy that is what it means.”
“Oh god.” I said as I stood up and started to walk. Johnathan stood up too.
“Rue.” Johnathan called out behind me and I raised my hand.
“Gotta go.” I said as I ran down the steps and headed down the driveway. I have to go and fix this, I have to. It is beyond ridiculous. I walked around the corner and stopped dead as I saw him coming towards me. Josh looked up, with his hands in his pockets and I smiled and then let it fade as I didn’t know what he wanted or what he would say but I could only hope that ‘we are over’ was not it.
Josh stepped up to me and a chill went through me again and I crossed my arms on my chest and he tilted his head and looked at my face. I swallowed and waited, which is odd for me to do normally I would just start in and be the first to say something, but not this time.
Josh cleared his throat and held his hand out to me and I took it slowly as he started to walk and I along with him. We said nothing the first five minutes and then I realized our surroundings, I stopped and he turned to look at me, just as the moon really started to shine and I studied his face and he studied mine.
“Are we talking?” I asked him and he smiled, letting the light hit his crooked canines and I looked at him and waited.
“I think that is the plan.” He said to me.
“Good… because I need to tell you that Johnathan…”
He interrupted me as he leaned towards me and touched my lips with his thumb and I stammered. He grinned and leaned in and kissed me gently and nothing. No humming, no tingling in my fingers or heart beat skipping. I stood there and allowed it but for the first time in all that I could remember, I did not have weak knees. He took his lips from mine and I stared at his face.
“I am sorry.” He whispered and I narrowed my eyes.
“You are?” I asked him.
“Of course I am, and I want to show you.”
I swallowed and took a step back from him and he grinned at me.
“In what way?” I asked him.
“In many.” He said low and calm and with that my breath did speed up a little.
“Well, last time you ended up…”
And again he kissed me, this time long and hard and as he placed his hand behind my head I did feel a little humming in my chest, but nothing compared to what it had been before.
***
A knock came at the door and Josh stood up and rubbed the side of his neck and walked towards the door slowly. He then opened it up and Jessica stood before him, although he would never know it was her as she looked just like his Rue. She smiled at him and he tilted his head as she walked past him and into the house. She stopped and swung around on her feet, so unlike the Rue he knew and Josh narrowed his eyes.
“Why are you here?” he asked her.
Jessica smiled and pulled her coat off and stared him down.
“There has been a huge misunderstanding.” She muttered to him.
Josh stepped back and watched her start to unbutton her shirt and he shook his head at her.
“Rue, seriously… go to Johnathan.”
Jessica stopped at the fourth button and pulled her shirt open slightly and placed her hand on her hip.
“Why? I love you and nothing happened… yet.” She said.
Josh took a deep breath and stared her down.
“Nothing? And what do you mean by ‘yet’?”
Jessica smiled and walked towards his staircase and started to walk up them. Then she stopped and looked back at him, letting her hair fall slightly in her face and undid the rest of her shirt and let it fall to the floor.
“I want you… now.” She
said and she climbed up the stairs and out of sight down the hallway.
Josh touched his chest and looked around the room, he then gave into his only temptation… the one that had plagued him for what seemed like forever and he ran up the stairs and down the hallway to find Jessica on his bed, leaning back, with her one arm above her head.
“Rue. I think that you are upset and not thinking clearly.” He said, not believing he was saying that. I mean this was something that he had wanted for as long as he could remember and now the opportunity was staring him in the face.
“Stop.” Jessica whispered as she leaned up onto her knees and pulled her legs apart, slowly rubbing her hands up the inside of her thighs and then onto her stomach and across her chest. Josh shook his head and could not help but stare.
“Are you drunk? Did you fall and hit your head Rue?” he asked her and she slowly rose and started to undo her pants and pull them from her hips and Josh rubbed his neck and cleared his throat.
“You need to leave.” He said before he even realized that he said it and Jessica stopped and stared at him.
“You are kidding me.” She said.
“No… I could kick myself in the ass, but this is not right, it does not feel right.” He said to her.
“What is not right? I am here with you and I want you now.” She said to him.
“No… no you don’t. I don’t know how I know, but I know.” He said to her.
Jessica shook her head and stepped from the bed and stared at him, taking a step towards him as he stepped back all glossy eyed.
“Take me.” She whispered.
“I cannot.” Josh said again and she reached for him and he grabbed her wrist and started to pull her out of the room and down the hallway. Jessica jerked her wrist from his grip and stared at him.
“Rue, I love you… I do, but this is not the time or place.” He said.
“Oh?” she said as she ran back into the room and grabbed her pants and shirt and started to put them on. Josh leaned on the doorway and watched her biting his lip and having terrible thoughts float through his mind. She stopped and looked at him and then grinned.
“You do want me.” She said to him.
“Of course I do, I have wanted you forever, but not right now.” He said.
Jessica shook her head as she buttoned up her shirt and then she felt the anger of not getting her way start to creep into her being. She stopped and stared at him, unlike Rue would do and Josh tilted his head, as he almost did not recognize her.
“Rue?” he started to say and she raised her hands and a light started to pulsate in the room and Josh stood up straight and stared her down.
“What the fuck?” he muttered and she screamed and pushed her hands towards him and the light hit him like a wave from the ocean and knocked him onto his back. He cried out as he felt the light creep through him and pin him to the ground. She walked up over him and grinned as her image started to shift and he narrowed his eyes and then to his horror she transformed from Rue to Jessica, he shook his head and struggled to free himself from the light.
Jessica leaned down over him and slapped him across the face and he blinked as it stung his skin.
“No one says NO to me, not even an angel such as yourself you pathetic excuse of an immortal.” She said and Josh opened his mouth and she stood up quickly and kicked him in the head, knocking him out.
***
Josh and I walked for quite some time until we reached Red woods and I won’t lie and say that I wasn’t nervous, because I was. I still had hurt in my heart from what he’d said and without him explaining to me why he did it and what exactly was going on with him. I was confused as to this sudden ‘I am sorry’ and ‘I want to be with you’ thing he was doing. He stopped just as I decided to force him to talk and he turned to me and smiled. I stared at his face and he pulled out a box from his pocket and grinned as he placed it in my hand. I stared at it and then back to him.
“Open it.” He whispered to me.
I opened the box, my hands slightly shaking and there it was… a ring. Not any ring, but the most beautiful one I had ever seen. I pulled it out and the moon played off of the not to gaudy rock set into it. Josh leaned forward and took it from me and smiled as he took my hand and placed the ring on my finger without saying a word. I stared at it and for a moment I felt sick, which I am assuming is a normal reaction to this kind of shock but then again, maybe it is just me. I looked up at him and then my eyes followed him as he lowered to the ground and held my hand in his.
“Rue Volley, I love you as I always have and it would do me a great honor if you would marry me.” He whispered.
I sucked in my breath and stared at him and the rock on my finger and then without warning I said “No”, even shocking myself. Josh rose up slowly in front of me and held my hand.
“Surely you are kidding.” He said to me.
I stepped back from him and stared him down.
“Who are you?” I asked him.
Josh stood there and his facial expression changed.
“Joshua… I am Joshua.” He said.
“No… this is not you, are you sick?” I asked him.
Josh laughed and rubbed his neck and I watched him.
“You are curious.” He said.
“Since when do you use words like ‘honor’ and ‘curious’?” I asked him.
“I was trying to appear romantic.” He said.
“You sound like you have a fever.” I said as I rushed at him and felt his head. He felt cold, not hot and I almost wished that he was burning up. Maybe that would explain things.
“I have no fever.” He said as he caught my hand and stared at me.
“This is wrong, something is wrong.” I muttered.
Josh laughed. “You get proposed to, and you say ‘something is wrong’?”
“Yes… yes, I do. Something is wrong with you; I think you need to get checked out Josh, seriously.”
“Well, this is not what I thought would happen. I thought you would kiss me and we would be on the ground by now.”
“Oh? Well, here is the deal. Just this morning you said Johnathan could have me, and before that you said we needed a break and now the ring and stuff.”
“A man can change his mind, or better yet… realize when he is wrong.”
“See!” I yelled at him.
“What?”
“That! The ‘I am wrong thingy’, you don’t say you are wrong, that is not you.” I said as I took another step backwards, suddenly feeling slightly panicked for some strange reason.
“I said that I was sorry.” He said.
“I can take the ‘I’m sorry’ but marriage? Are you serious? I am still in school.” I said.
“Is there a rule on when you are able to get married now?”
“I just… I thought we would wait and stuff. I have so much I want to do yet!” I said to him.
“Oh.” Josh said as he looked down at his feet and I felt like a turd.
“I mean marriage leads to sex and babies and houses and I have not even graduated yet.” I said to him.
My head had a sharp pain run through it suddenly when I thought of babies and all that hoopty and I swayed on my feet momentarily. My vision blurred for a second and my stomach turned and for a split second, Josh looked different to me and then it faded as he stared at me. I shook my head and stared him down.
“Well, I am glad you told me.” He said as he suddenly looked up at the sky and wiggled his fingers as if he felt something. He closed his eyes and muttered something under his breath and I watched him. He opened his eyes quickly and looked at me.
“You can keep the ring; it will be nothing to me.” He said.
I sucked in my breath and looked at him as I slowly shook my head.
“I want all of that someday, just not now.” I said.
“I understand. I do, and I am leaving.” He said.
“What?”
“You are right. You are young and you have so much t
o do yet. I am just not a part of that Rue. It is not what I want now.” He said to me.
“What are you saying to me Josh?” I asked him.
“I am saying that we are not meant to be.”
I stood there and felt like I was tilting slightly as the last words I ever thought would come out of his mouth did.
“You don’t mean that.” I whispered.
“I do, I want you to be happy but we are at two different roads right now and the one you want is not one I want to travel with you.” He said.
I stood there and he walked away from me and I have no reason why I couldn’t move, I couldn’t speak. All I felt was a heavy weight in my chest as if the world was ending.
Chapter 10
When The Past Is The Present
Gracie sat on the large rock and stared out into the open field as Elijah looked in all directions. Suddenly Gracie felt a pain in her arms and it crept up to her shoulders and she moaned as she stretched them and wiggled her arms. Then she stared at her hand, holding it up to the light as it started to look a tad bit transparent. She sucked in her breath and stood up on the rock and waved at Elijah who came running to her.
Elijah stopped and looked up at her as she started to glow slightly.
“What the hell?” he said as she reached out to him and her hand fell through his and he stepped back from her.
“What is wrong with you?” he asked her.
Gracie looked up at the sky and then across the field.
“Something is wrong with my parents, I can feel it.” She said as she started to walk from him. Elijah caught up to her quickly and leaned forward to try to look at her face.
“What?”
Gracie stopped and placed a hand on her hip and stared him down.
“They are not together.” She said to him.
“How do you know?”
Gracie held up her hand and Elijah could see through it slightly.
“Oh shit.” He muttered.
“Yes… ‘Oh shit’ is appropriate. I am starting to fade into memory. This is not good news.”