Factory

Chapter 31

I was still as I looked at Athena’s limp body. Her eyes were grey and they were rolled into the back of her head. I looked at Anna. There was a look of vengeance in her wild eyes.

“Anna…” I trailed off.

“The bitch got what she deserved.” Anna hissed. Her tone was so wild. It was like nothing I had ever heard before. It scared me. I felt Jack’s arm go around me. The comforting gesture was supposed to make me feel better.

“Open the doors.” Anna commanded. Jack took his arm off from around my shoulders. My gaze went from Athena’s body to Anna. She still held the knife tightly in her hand.

“Anna… why? Why did you do this? You know she’s going to come back. And when she does she’s going to come back for us. And she’s going to be mad. She’s going to come for me, for you, for Jack, for Calvin! Why did you do this?” I yelled frantically.

“She will never get past me. This will teach her! She will never come after any of us ever again! Don’t you get it, Jessica? This is good! Why are you so angry?” She asked.

“Why are you so happy that you killed someone, Anna? Especially someone like Athena? She will come back! When she does, she will be even angrier and she will come for us. She will come for you and Calvin, Anna.” I told her.

Anna sat down on a chair in the lounge. Her face fell just as she realized what was happening. I could see the emotions running across her face. I felt horrible for making her feel those emotions. But what was I to do? I only told the truth.

“She was going to kill you, Jessica. She was going to kill all of us. Or she would make us her minions. I would rather die than to have that happen. I had to do it.” Anna said darkly. She didn’t sound like herself. She sounded far off and dark. It was like she really wasn’t there. She was gone. She was in another place. She was in some far off dark place. I could feel it. I could feel where Anna was.

“Jessica, it’s okay. Athena will come back, and when she does, she probably will come after us. But we will be ready. We will be ready when she comes back.” Jack assured me. He stood behind me and rubbed my shoulders comforting me. But it felt like he was far away. I could hear him. I could feel him behind me but he wasn’t there. All I could see was Anna.

“We can’t just stand here and wait for her to come back. We can’t just wait for her to come and get us. She’ll force us to work for her. She’ll force us to take innocent lives away. She’ll force us to kill people, or, she’ll kill us.” I told him. I slid his hand off my shoulder. I didn’t want him to comfort me. I needed to think alone. I walked to the other side of the room and sat down on a chair towards the back of the room.

I didn’t dare look behind me at Athena’s lifeless body. I’m not sure if I would’ve been happy if she had truly been dead. I didn’t like the thought of killing people.

The confused vampires had fled when they realized they could. So the room was empty. Neither Anna, nor Jack, nor me, spoke a word. The room was eerily silent. But none of us knew what to say.

“Jessica,” Jack started cutting through the silence. He made his way over to me and stood behind my chair. “sitting in silence won’t change anything. We have to see what damage was done. We have to help the vampires who were taken. We have to figure out what to tell them.” Jack told me.

“What to tell them?” Anna exploded getting up from her chair. “What the hell do you mean? I thought we were going to tell everyone about Athena. About what she did and then we would overthrow her. We would get her.” She yelled.

“It’s our word against hers.” He stopped her. “If we tell everyone what she did they would never believe it as long as she can convince them that it isn’t true. You don’t know her. There’s a reason she hasn’t been overthrown yet. The vampires here believe every word she says. They think that somehow she will eventually make Factoria a better place.”

“But we know that’s not true. We know that really, all she wants to do is turn all humans into her minions and turn Factoria into a living hell.” I muttered. I still didn’t look back. I didn’t want to risk seeing Athena’s body. Suddenly there was a roar outside us. Followed by the sound of a man screaming. Jack and I ran to the door. Jack clicked the door open.

As I ran outside I saw the psyvamps from Shadow Hills. There was also a couple more vamps that weren’t from shadow hills. When they saw Jack and I, they bolted down the hall. There was a wolf and a tiger standing next a body. It was Robin and Erick. Robin bolted down the opposite way when she saw my gaze.

I looked down at the body. It was in pieces. A vampire. From Factoria. The body was grey and he looked like a piece of glass that had been thrown to the floor. But I could see the scratches on him. Robin. She had killed him. When I thought about it, it made me feel sick. He looked like, for lack of a better word, a vampire. Who was he? Why had she killed him?

“Jared.” Jack spoke. “He works for Athena. He’s her second in command. Or was. We have to dispose of him properly.” Jack announced. Dispose? I didn’t like the thought of that.

“What the hell do you mean? You going to give him a gravestone? A funeral? Say a few words on his behalf? What the hell is he to you? One of you comrades? You work with him? I thought you were one of the good guys! Goddammit he tried to kill Ashley!” Dylan yelled. I looked over at Ashley Jasper. She was sitting on the floor gasping for breath. Her face was streaked with tears.

“No!” Jack yelled. I could hear a hint of anger in his voice. “Damn it! You don’t even understand! If we don’t dispose of his body the right way then he’ll just reform and there will have been no reason for Robin to have ripped him to shreds.”

“Sorry.” Dylan muttered.

“Don’t ever assume that I’m not one of the good guys.” Jack warned. Dylan looked at him with daggers in his eyes. I could feel the tension in Jack. He didn’t like thinking about his former job. Or what he had done during it.

“What do we have to do?” Dylan asked.

“Anna will have to burn the ripped pieces of his body. Then we have to bury the ashes in different places among Factoria. It’s the only way to make sure he won’t come back. Our kind can reform even when they are ripped to pieces.” Jack explained.

“Why do we have to bury his ashes in different places? What difference does it make where we bury him?” Dominik asked. I didn’t want to think of burying him. It made me feel sick having to kill him.

“Burning him will only slow the process of his reforming if we bury his ashes together. But if we don’t bury him then even if we bury his parts far away he will still reform. Trust me, this is the only way.” Jack told him.

“You sound like you have experience.” Dominik pointed out.

“Yeah, well I learned. From when I wasn’t one of the good guys.” Jack told them. He glared at Dominik in a way I had never seen before. He looked too angry. He didn’t look like my Jack.

I walked back into the lounge, and then I realized that Athena was gone. Her body wasn’t on the floor where it was supposed to be. Sudden panic flooded through my body. Had Athena already come back?

“Where’s Athena?” I yelled. Jack ran in after me. He looked down at the spot where Athena was supposed to be. “D-did she already come back? Can she come back that quickly?” I asked.

“Not with her injuries. Somebody came back and got her. It was Stefan and Olivia came here. They’re super vampires. Part of Athena’s guard. They came in here without knowing. They have Athena now.” He told me.

“J-Jack?” I hesitated. He looked at me. “That thing, burning him?” I asked again, he nodded slowly as if telling me to go on. “That, wouldn’t work on Athena…” I trailed off. Jack sighed.

“No. It wouldn’t work on Athena. She’s not like us. I don’t know what she is. She’s not a regular vampire, that’s for sure. She’s not like us. She’s not a psyvamp. Whatever she is, she wouldn’t die.” Jack said slowly. I nodded. Jack let out another breath and balled his fists. He walked out of the room leaving me alone next to where Athena had lay only minutes before. A chill ran down my arms, and I followed him.

* * *

I was on my bed. The silk sheets underneath the dark canopy usually gave me a strange sense of comfort. But not now. Not when I knew that Jack was tearing someone limb from limb. Not when I knew that Anna was burning those limbs to ash so they could bury the ashes.

I was completely on edge. My nerves were on livewire. Suddenly, I heard the click of the door opening and I turned towards it. Anna was standing in front of the door with a blank look on her face.

“Anna!” I yelled. I ran towards her and hugged her. She shrugged me off. It wasn’t in a rude way. Just in a way that was obviously supposed to tell me she didn’t want anyone to touch her. “H-how was it?”

“How does burning bodies usually go?” She told me blankly. She didn’t look at me when she said it. I sat down and rubbed my arms. I had a shudder running down my body.

Anna looked over at me and suddenly her blank look went away. “Jack told us that people like Jared are only made into vamps so that Athena can control him. Athena would’ve killed him in the end anyways. What we did was more humane than what Athena would’ve done.” Anna assured.

“How is tearing someone limb from limb and burning there body parts in any conceivable way humane?” I muttered. I was picking at the stitching on my comforter. I felt completely and totally on edge. My stomach was on doing flops.

“Jack told me that she would’ve thrown him into the human world with no protection. He would literally boil to death. He would go into sensory overload. He would turn to dust.” Anna explained. I was used to Jack knowing so much more about Factoria and vampires than me. But, I wasn’t so used to it with Anna.

“Okay. Yeah.” I mumbled agreeing with her.

“I’m just glad that this is over. After that experience, I never want to lose Calvin again. I never want to have to go worrying about him ever again.” Anna stated. Then, something snapped inside me.

“God, Anna! You are so damn naïve sometimes! Calvin is not safe just because Athena is temporarily gone doesn’t mean that we can just run off into the sunset pretending that everything is okay! Calvin and you and Jack and I and everyone have to have the weight on their shoulders that Athena is going to come back and try and kill us or worse! She’ll turn us into the exact thing that that kid Jared was. Do you even realize that?” I asked.

Anna was blank. She just sat there with no expression on her face. Until I saw her eyebrows come together and tears form in her eyes. “What else was I suppose to do Jessica? She was going to kill all of us if I hadn’t have stopped her! You keep telling me how bad this was. You keep telling me that what I did was stupid and I didn’t know what I was doing and I shouldn’t have done it and it’s really upsetting me because I did what I did to protect you! I know that Athena will come back but at least I bought us some time!” Anna screamed at me through tears.

“Well I’m sorry that I’m worried for other people and I’m worried that some of us might get killed or worse by Athena because of this… thing that you did. You know, next time you want to help, don’t! That would help out a whole hell of a lot!” I yelled. I knew at this point I should’ve been apologizing. But, I could only think that I needed to get my point across.

“What do you want me to do, Jessica?! Apologize for saving your life?” She yelled. She looked at me and I stood motionless not saying anything. Anna sighed and slumped down on her bed. “Can we please just stop? I know that this is stressful. I know she’ll come back. But let’s just think of the now.” She insisted.

“But now is only a short time away from then. And then is when she comes back. I can’t just relax when I know that she’s going to hurt someone else.” I told her. My voice was small.

“So don’t think about it. Think about how we’ll kick her skinny little ass when she does come back! Think about how we’ll be able to get her when we need to. We’ll get her. When the time is right, we’ll be ready.” She told me.

“Alright.” I agreed begrudgingly. “Whatever you say.” I told her.

* * *

For the next week, everything started to go back into the normal shift of things. The vampires who had been taken had no memory of the events that had transpired. Even the friends who we had saved (except Calvin who for some reason was the only one who could remember the whole event) couldn’t remember everything that had happened to them.

Even though Athena’s absence did not go overlooked, Stefan and Olivia, the vampires who had been working with Jared, made up a reason for why she was gone. They said she was taking a ‘vacation’. That she was ‘relaxing’ from having such a stressful job. Only a handful of us knew the truth. That she was really trying to come back from the dead.

There were tearful goodbyes as the Shadow Hills vampires, werewolves, witches, and now one shapeshifter, left to go back to their home. I was going to miss all of them. It almost seemed like they were family now.

“I have to go help Danny. She’s still my best friend. She may be under mind control, but I have to help her. But, now you’ve given me the strength to help her.” She told me. I swear I saw tears forming in her eyes.

“Will I ever see you again?” I asked.

“Maybe.” Robin told me blankly. And that was it. They left. They were all gone. It was as if the psyvamps had never been here. It was as if nothing had happened. In fact, in the minds of most, nothing did happen. But we knew better.

I had found myself spending more and more time in my room. More and more time away from everyone else. I almost never saw Jack, and the only times I ever saw Anna was when I woke up in the morning and she was there. By the time she would get back, I was already asleep.

I was only trying to grasp what was happening. My friends didn’t even know I had saved them. Athena was half-way dead. My best friend had buried her head of security and burned his body to ashes. Was I supposed to forget it all and just go back to normal life? Forget the psyvamps and the werewolves and witches and Robin? I couldn’t even bear that thought in my head.

My life seemed to go by in one minute that week. Nothing of significance happened. No lives were changed. Nobody had awoken. Nothing had happened. I was just alone trying to find myself. I could almost hear a heartbreaking song playing in the background as I sat by myself in the room that had once comforted me. But now was the place of my nightmares.

After everything that happened, I hadn’t even thought of my birthday.

I walked into the lounge. Jack had asked me to come there. I had longed to see Jack. I needed to see him, to spend time with him. But, I just didn’t know how.

The lounge was dark. It sent chills up my spine to be in the same place where Anna had killed Athena. It had seemed like a distant memory after the week long passing period. I saw Jack in the corner. He was sitting in a chair.

“Jack.” I breathed. It felt like years since I had seen him. Since I had even really talked to him. Seeing him now, was astonishing. He looked tired. But I bet I did too.

“Happy birthday, Jessica.” He said holding up a box wrapped in a bow. He got up and walked towards me with the box. I was taken by surprise. I didn’t know about my birthday at all.

“I-it’s my birthday?” I stuttered. A smile escaped from his lips.

“Yes, your real birthday. September 29. You turn eighteen today. Well, technically.” He said muttering the last part. Jack didn’t like thinking of me as a vampire. He didn’t like the fact that he had created me. That he had made me into a monster.

“My real birthday.” I whispered. Now I knew why I hadn’t realized my own birthday. Now I knew why my biological clock had not realized I was a year older. My birthday that I celebrated in my human years was months away.

“Yes, so I repeat, happy birthday.” He said handing me the box. I took the top off the box. Inside, cuddled by tissue paper, was a black glass rose. The same one that had broken. Only this one had been engraved.

Buon compleanno amore mio, Jack

That was what it said. It was in Italian. My favorite language in the whole world. In English, it said, ‘happy birthday my love, Jack’. I felt like crying. I had been so horrible to Jack. Now he was giving me this. For a birthday I hadn’t even remembered I had.

“Thank you.” I told him.

“I have another present.” He told me. I was about to tell him that this was fine. I didn’t need another present. I really did not want to have him give me more than one present. But before I could say anything, he brought out another box. This one was smaller.

I took the box when he handed it to me. I opened it up. Inside was a silver J necklace written in intricate cursive. It was silver and covered in black diamonds.

“Jack… it’s beautiful.” I told him. Another smile escaped his lips. He took the necklace and put it around my neck. The delicate J hung just below the bones in my neck. A reminder always of this day.

“A J for Jessica, or a J for Jack.” I mused.

“I meant it as the first one.” Jack chuckled. “Though I seem to forget that our names start with the same letter of the alphabet.” Jack laughed. He took my hand. “We never finished our dance…” Jack started.

“I don’t know how to dance.” I reminded him.

“That doesn’t matter. I’ll lead you. You can just… follow me.” Jack smiled. I took his other hand and we started to slow dance. There was no actual music playing, but I could hear the song playing in my head.

“Athena, she’ll come back.” I said lowly.

“We don’t need to worry about her. We’ll take care of her. When the time comes. For now, we have to just celebrate.” He told me. I chuckled. I was a vampire now. What was the use of celebrating my age?

“Celebrate my birthday? I’m a vampire. I’m not actually aging.”

“No. But we can still celebrate the fact that we’re alive. That Athena is gone now. When she comes we’ll be ready. But for now, we should only celebrate us.” He told me. He smiled. I smiled back. Jack leaned his head down and our lips met. For the first time since this had happened, I actually felt safe.

Forget Athena. Forget Jared and Stefan and Olivia. They were a distant memory. All that was here, was Jack and I. And the music playing in our heads as we kissed and danced. We were together. We were safe. And that’s all that mattered.

END OF FACTORY BOOK ONE
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POSSIBLE TITLE
Asylum