Decadent

Chapter Five
eradicator

When I wake up, Danny is gone.
I sit up and I can hear him in the kitchen talking to Gran. I get up and walk out of the room and go into the kitchen. Danny’s face lights up when he sees me, and my heart jumps from both excitement that he is happy to see me and guilt that he is happy to see me.
I knew that one day this would happen. Hell, I wanted this to happen. I loved him for such a long time and now he feels the same way…so why am I questioning this?
Is it because of Alec? The guy I met only a few weeks ago?
“Gran is making some coffee if you’d like some,” Danny tells me.
I grin at him. “Can we go to IHOP?”
He smiles. “Get dressed and we’ll go.”
I turn and go back into his room. When we were younger and my father lived with us, Danny kept some of my clothes here so that I had something to where when I stayed the night. I went to the back of his closet and pulled out the trash bag full of my clothes. I dump them on the bed and smile at the sentimental clothing. There’s the pair of ripped jeans that fits just right and has doodles on them from boredom in class and then my favorite paramore shirt that Danny bought for me when we went to see them for the first time. I decide to put those on and through my crazed hair into a pony tail.
Danny knocks on the door. “Hey are you ready yet?”
I open the door and he grins at me. “I remember those jeans.” He pointed to his name under my left pocket.
“You two are going to be fat when you get to be my age,” Gran says, “With all the sugar you kids eat at that place.”
Danny rolls his eyes and grins. “We’ll go for a run today.”
“You better,” she continues, while she pours herself a cup of straight black coffee.
I make a disgusted face and leave with Danny. We take his car; I sit in the passenger seat and roll down the window before pressing play.
“So it’s getting really bad then?” I ask, “If you moved in with Gran?”
He knows that I’m talking about his sick sister.
He just nods and turns the CD up.
“Can you believe that it’s almost graduation?” I ask.
He looks at me.
I look at my shoes. “Then I can finally be free from him.”
His hand slides into mine. “I’ll take you away. Just like I promised you.”
I smile, almost bleak. “Danny we were kids then. I’m not holding you to a promise that you made in the fourth grade.”
He pulls up to IHOP and then turns to me. “Well then I’m making you that promise again.” He takes my face gently by my chin and turns my face so that we are looking eye to eye. “I promise that I will take you away from him. I’ll save you.”

Alec

At school, Faye is closer to Danny than I have ever seen her. She must have told Danny.
Cassy stands next to me, watching Faye and Danny. “Well something has changed. How are you?”
I grin. “I’m fine. It’s for the best. All I would have to offer her is pain.”
“That’s not true.”
I laugh. “Oh? So I’m not a fallen damned to spend all eternity on the earth?”
Cassy frowned at me. “I know that you had feelings for her.”
My face turns hard and cold. “I’m immortal, I don’t have feelings.”
“Alec…”
But I am already gone.
Faye sits next to me in Psychology. “Hey.”
I give her a smile, she still deserves that much.
“You and Danny seemed to work things out,” I point out.
She grins and I can see her cheeks turn a slight pink. I hear her heartbeat quicken.
“Yeah I suppose.”
I grin. “What happened, Faye?”
The teacher comes in before she gets a chance to say anything.
“How about tonight?” She whispers, “I’m craving some banana cream pie.”
I grin at her. I have corrupted her.

At seven she comes in the diner and sits in front of the pie that I ordered her. She smiles at me and takes a huge bite.
“We kissed,” she tells me.
I feel like someone has reached in my chest and gave my heart a good squeeze.
She stares at me for a moment, like she’s trying to figure out my expression, which I have hidden with a cold and blank expressionless face.
“What are you thinking?” She asks.
I flinch a little. What a strange thing to ask.
“Did you tell him about…” I trail off knowing she doesn’t like it when we talk about this. She feels ashamed for her moment of weakness. But she should understand that she is, after all, only human.
She shakes her head. “I don’t want to hurt him.”
I sigh. We’ve been over this before.
“Can we not talk about that?” She asks. “I rather not relieve it.”
I struggle to say something that is on my mind, I don’t want to upset her anymore than I have.
“Faye,” I begin.
She takes another bite of her pie. “yeah?”
“When I asked you why you wanted to….um….you said ‘my father’,” I say.
She freezes.
“Well, I was wondering what about him?”
She finishes her pie before she says anything. “He has anger issues,” she begins, “He likes to yell and put me and my mom down. It’s just not a very good environment to be in.”
Her heart is pounding and I can’t tell if she is lying to me or if she is scared. Either way, I figure this is hard for her to talk about. “You grew up like that?”
She nods. “Danny knows about it. He used to sneak me out and let me stay at his place. That’s where I was last night.”
And where she kissed him.
You don’t deserve her anyway.
We both are silent.
“I should go,” I say.
She looks up at me. “Alec?”
I don’t look at her. I don’t want to see her innocuous blue eyes pleading with me.
“Yes?”
“Are you angry with me?” She whispers.
I laugh, force myself to laugh. “Why would I be angry with you?”
She pauses. “For kissing Danny.”
I look at her then, with my mask of composure. “You love him. You always have. Everyone saw it.”
Before she can say anything, I get up, place a twenty on the table, and walk out of there.
I walk outside and I can smell it before I see it.
Death.
I follow the smell and it leads me to the alley behind the diner. There is a girl, about sixteen laying there with her eyes wide open. I take her hand and feel the coldness that took over her. Her skin is pale with splotches of black.
I know this death.
I have committed it before.
I get up and knock on the cook’s door.
Jess opens it.
“Alec?”
“I didn’t want to scare the costumers, there’s a body out here,” I whisper, “Call the police.”
He stares past me and sees the girl and his eyes are wide.
“Yeah ok.”
“Jess?”
He looks back at me, his phone to his ear.
“Is Faye still there?”
He nods and steps to the side to let me in. I walk out of the kitchen and see Faye still sitting in the same spot.
“Alec?” she asks, her eyes confused.
I take her hand. “Let me walk you home.”
She nods and comes with me. I take her the opposite way of the body. The police are coming down the road with their sirens blaring. She stops and stares at the ambulance that is following them.
“Come on, Faye.”
“What’s going on?” She asks.
“There’s a body,” I say, tugging her with me.
She looks at me. “You saw it?”
I nod. “I found her.”
She puts her arms around herself. “So there’s a killer? In this small town?”
I put and arm around her and get her to walk again. “It’s okay, the police will find them. It’s not like they have a lot of places to hide here.”
She nods.
“Your house? Or Danny’s?” I ask.
She looks at me. “Danny’s.”
Again, that same feeling, as if someone is squeezing my heart.
Daniel

She knocked on the door, with him.
Her arms were wrapped tightly around her and her eyes were wide.
She flung herself in my arms and I held her tightly. “What is it?”
“There was a body outside the diner,” Alec tells me.
I hold Faye tighter.
“The police are looking for him, I think it would be best that she stays with you until things clear up. She’ll feel safer too.” He continues.
I smile and place a kiss on her cheek. “She’ll be safe. Thank you for walking her home.”
He nods.
It’s the first time I have actually gotten a good look at him. His face is twisted in a demoralized expression and his fists are clenched.
“I have to go,” he mutters.
Faye releases herself and grabs his hand before he walks out the door. He turns back and puts his arms around her.
I stiffen.
“I’ll see you at school,” he tells her.
“Be careful,” she replies.
He chuckles and releases her before leaving.
I take her hand. “Want to call your mom, or do you want me to?”
She grins and points at me.
I sigh and walk to the phone while she goes into my room. When the phone picks up it is her father.
“Hello?”
“May I talk to Eleanor?” I ask.
“You tell Faye to get her ass down here, or ill come there and get her,” he growls then hangs up.
I put the phone down and walk into the living room where Gran is reading. “What is it Daniel?”
“Faye’s father threatened to come and get her,” I say.
“Hand me the phone,” she says.
I give her the phone.
She waits till someone answers.
“Well hello, this is Patricia,” she says, “I understand that…but she feels threatened there. And honestly I see why. I saw the bruises on her…and I suppose the police will believe a man who walked out on his family? I thought you would see it my way…oh it’s no problem at all…goodnight.”
She gives me the phone again and smiles. “He said it would be alright for her to stay.”
I laugh and give her a hug. “Thank you so much, Gran.
When I walk in my room I see Faye, with her shirt off. She looks at me and blushes, reaching for a shirt. I take her hand to stop her. She looks at me, her big blue eyes wide.
“Danny?” She asks softly.
It was one of my fantasies when we were young teenagers…to see her in just a bra. But now, that I see her like this, all that I can notice is the bruises on her stomach, on her shoulders, and on her back.
My fingers brush over the faint yellow bruises; her eyes close.
It makes me angry that if she was different, that her circumstance was different, we could actually enjoy this. But I don’t see a hot girl in a black lacy bra, I see a girl who has been beaten and I want to kill her father.
Her hands tug at my t-shirt and a let out a shaky laugh. She grins too and she pulls my t-shirt up and over my head, tossing it to the side.
I smile at her and find her lips with my own.

Faye

I wake up to his alarm clock, and he hits it loudly that makes me jump. But he’s in not ready to get up, so I slide out of bed and go to the kitchen to make some coffee.
Gran is sitting at the kitchen table eating grapefruit.
“You seem to be in a good mood,” She says casually.
I grin. “Nothing happened, Gran.”
She sighs. “Darn. I was hoping on getting the dirty details from you.”
I laugh and fill a cup for Gran and sit it down next to her. “Thank you, child.”
I fill two more cups and carried them into his room. He was sitting up when I got in and he grinned at me.
I handed him a mug.
“God, I love you,” he says taking it.
I laughed and took a drink of my own.
“So,” he says cautiously, “Last night…”
I blush, I can feel heat creeping all the way to my toes and I’m sure he notices.
“I mean nothing happened,” he says, “But I don’t want us to go too fast.”
I nod, taking a drink of my coffee. Scenes crashed in my head from last night. I could still feel his hands tracing over the bruises, trying to erase the harsh memories by replacing them with good memories. I could still feel his lips on my own as well as all over my bruised skin…
“Faye?”
I looked at him. “Yeah?”
“We’ll take it slow?”
I nod. “Yeah.”

After school we go to his house to visit Annabel. She’s paler than the last time I saw her and her hair is thinning because of the kemo.
“Danny?” I whisper, “I’ll wait outside.”
He nods, he knows I’m not good around the sick.
I walk outside and walk down the hill from his house and into the woods. When we were younger we had an old tree house in one of the trees…I wonder if it is still up. I look around, trying to remember where it was. It was deep in the forest so that our parents couldn’t find us.
I trip over a risen tree root and fell face first into the leaves. I start laughing at myself when I see a pale hand.
I jump to my feet and shriek. I turn and start to run.
“And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him,” something whispered. It echoed throughout the trees.
“DANNY!”
Something cold takes my arm and I am being pulled back into the forest, drug backwards deeper and deeper into the forest.
“DANNY!” I scream, “PLEASE D…”
And then something hard hits my head and everything is dark.

Alec

I cut it close when I find her. Whoever it was with her, left when they heard me coming.
She is knocked out and has a knot on the side of her head. I pick her up just as Danny runs down the hill and into the forest. “What happened? I could hear her screaming? Why the hell are you here?”
I glare at him. He heard her and did nothing. “I heard her scream from the road and I ran down here. She’s knocked out and has a knot on her head. Now would you shut up so I can get her to a doctor?”
He glowers at me but followed me to my car. I open the back seat’s door and slide her in so that she is lying down. Danny gets in the passenger seat.
“Who said you could get in my car?” I ask.
He rolls his eyes.
“That wasn’t a rhetorical question,” I say, getting in.

When she wakes up, Danny is at the food court. Some boyfriend he is.
Her eyes are wide and she flies up into a sitting position, letting out an earsplitting shriek.
I put my arms around her. “Shhh…Easy Faye its okay.”
She breaks into sobs and barriers her face in the curve of my neck. “It’s alright. You're safe.”
I want to get in her mind, I want to see who it was that tried to kill her. But I’m afraid that if I do, the demon won’t want to get out.
“He dragged me,” she whispers.
I hold her tighter. “I won’t let anything hurt you, Faye.”
She nods and digs her fingers in my hair and pulls me closer.
The closeness reminds me of the time she spent the night with me and it does something strange to my heart.
“FAYE!”
We both jump and I see Danny running in. She holds her arms out to him and he picks her up, holding her close to him. “I’ve got you, Faye.”
She starts sobbing again.
“It’s okay,” he murmurs to her quietly, placing little kisses on her cheeks, forehead, neck, and nose. It makes my heat squeeze again and I can’t bear to watch her with him like that anymore.
I get up and walk out the room and sit against the wall.
Her mother walks by me, giving me a glance, and then walks in the room.
“Oh, Faye,” I can hear her.

“Its someone like us,” I say.
Cassy sighs. “I don’t like this, someone that we don’t know.”
Eda and Elisha look at me.
“How badly was she hurt?” Eda asks.
“Minor,” I say, “She got hit on the head to knock her out. And she got some cuts and bruises from getting drug.”
“Jesus,” Cassy breathes.
Elisha stands up. “We need to find him.”
I nod. “But how?”
“Well before his next victim,” Cassy says.
“And how do you suppose we do that?” I growl.
“All the victims are women, correct?” Eda asks.
I nod. “Faye found Hilary Foster’s body.”
Cassy shook her head. “There’s so many girls he could be going after next.”
I shook my head. “And no pattern.”

I go and see her at her house with a whole banana cream pie, compliments of Jess. Her father looks at me strangely as he leads me to her room. She is sitting on her bed reading Flowers in the Attic. When she sees me her face lights up.
I grin at her.
“You brought pie,” she says.
I open the container and hand her a fork and a paper plate that I had in the bag.
“How are you feeling?” I ask.
She shrugs. “I’m okay. I get really scared at night still, but I’ll be okay.”
I nod and take her hand. “Does Danny stay with you?”
She smiles. “Yeah or I go over there. I feel better when there’s someone with me.”
“Have the police told you anything?”
Her eyes dim. “No.”
I put an arm around her. “They will.”
And if they don’t, then we will.
She looks so broken. I mean she has before, but she never looked so scared and helpless. She always had this independence vibe to her.
I pull her into my arms and she falls apart just like the day in the hospital.
“His hand was so cold,” she whispers. She pulls back a little to show me the bruises around her wrists from where he grabbed her. “It feels like he’s still holding me.”
My face is appalled. I take her wrists gently and place my lips very delicately to the bruises, over and over and everywhere on her wrists….anything to erase the pain and fear.
“Alec,” she says quietly, “Will you stay with me until Danny gets off work?”
I nod. “Of course.”
She lays back on the pillows, putting her pie on her nightstand. “I haven’t slept in such a long time.”
I pull the covers up. “I’m going to put this in your fridge so you can eat it later.”
She nods.
I grab the bag of the pie and walk to her kitchen. Her mother is sitting at the table with some iced tea. “Hello.”
I smile. “Hi.”
“How is she doing?” She asks.
I put the pie in her fridge. “She’s really scared.”
Her mother nods. “Even with Danny with her, she still has nightmares. It will pass when they find the killer.”
It makes me what to find him even more now.

Daniel

After work I pull up to her house and see that Alec’s car is there. I take a deep breath and walk up to the door and knock.
Her mother answers the door. “Hey Danny,” she says.
“Hi,” I say in return and walk in.
I walk to her room and knock on the door. No one answers, so I open the door and see her asleep in Alec’s arms.
He is reading her favorite book.
“Hey,” he says, “She was really tired.”
I hold back all of the nasty comments that I want to say and just smile. “I see that.”
“How bad are the nightmares?” He asks, “Does she see a face?”
I shake my head, “No. She just says it’s cold.”
He sighs. “A face would help.”
I sit on her computer chair and remember the night I took her to my house from the hospital.
“Take a shower,” I said taking her hand and leading her into the bathroom. I turned on the space heater. “You’ll feel better, love.”
She sniffled and wiped her eyes.
I hugged her close as I turned on the shower. “Trust me, okay? And I’ll sit outside so you’ll feel safe.”
She nodded.
I sat outside while she took a shower.
“Is it awful?” Alec asks.
I nod.
When I finally got her to sleep that night, she bolted up and screeched on top of her lungs. Gran came in with some hot tea to help soothe her while I held her and rubbed her back.
“Everything is ok,” we both repeated over and over to her.
It was like she couldn’t hear us though, she kept screaming and crying. It scared me to death. And I felt helpless because everything I tried didn’t calm her down.

Faye

When I wake up, it’s the middle of the night and Danny’s arm is around me. I sit up and slide out of bed to get a glass of water. And then I realize it’s Alec who’s lying next to me. He opens his eyes and looks at me. “What are you doing?”
“I’m thirsty,” I say.
He sighs. “Hurry back.”
I walk quickly and quietly through the halls. I open the cabinet door as discreetly as I can and get a cup.
“What are you doing up?” He says.
I turn and see my father.
“Getting a drink.”
“You think that stunt you pulled at Danny’s house was cute?” He growls, “She is threatening to call the police. So whatever lies you are telling better stop now.”
“They aren’t lies,” I whisper.
“What was that?” He snaps.
I don’t say anything.
“Get to bed.”
I put the glass down and run to my room. Alec has his arms around me quickly. “What is it?”
I shake my head. “It’s nothing. Just scared.”
He picks me up and carries me to bed. He lays me down and pulls the covers around me.
“It’ll be fine,” he says, “I’m right here.”

Alec

When she wakes up she stretches like a cat, arching her back and extending her arms. She looks at me and grins. “I haven’t slept so well in awhile.”
I smile. “I’m glad. Are you going to school Monday?”
She nods. “Yeah I don’t see why I shouldn’t.”
“Well you were attacked by some killer,” I say.
She shrugs. “I don’t want to be weak.”
I nod, but I’m grinning inside; she’s back.
“How about we go to the diner for breakfast,” I say.
She nods. “I’m feeling like some cinnamon apple pie.”
I laugh and agree to meet her there; we both have to change clothes. Her mother opens the door for me and says she hopes to see me again. When I get in my car I can smell it…
I look in the backseat and there is a dead crow. Tied to its wing is a note.
Her soul will taste delicious. She is mine.
I crumble the note in my hands and whip out of the drive way and speed down the road till I get to my house. I slam my door shut and storm inside. Alyce is waiting for me.
“What is it?”
I throw the crumbled paper at her feet and walk to Eda’s study. I walk in and she jumps up from her chair. “What is it?”
“He left me a dead crow in my backseat with a note threatening to take Faye,” I growl. “He’s sick and I want him dead NOW.”
Eda takes my hand and leads me into the kitchen. She puts on some tea and turns to me. “Listen, Alec, you have to stay calm.”
I slam my hand on the table.
“I have an idea,” she says, “I know I said it was wrong before. But if you could get into her head then maybe you could see the killer.”
I shake my head. “I can’t risk that. And she didn’t see a face anyway.”
She smiles. “Alec, she’s different remember? See if you can get a look around the scenery. See if she missed anything.”
She pours me a cup of coffee. “Drink. You’ll need to calm down before you see her again.”
I nod.
“And don’t try to get in her head unless you two are alone.”
I nod again.