Decadent

Chapter Seven
Desecrate
Faye

When Alec pulls up to my house, Danny is sitting on the porch.
He is waiting for me.
I get out without looking at Alec and stand in front of Danny. “Hey.”
He looks up at me. “You like him don’t you?”
I look down at my shoes, not at him.
“I’m with you.”
He laughs, but it’s full of angst. “You didn’t answer my question,” he growls.
I drop to my knees in front of him so we are at eye level. “I love you.”
He smiles at me, but it’s still bleak. “Faye, loving someone and being in love with someone isn’t the same.”
I feel my eyes burn.
He kisses my forehead softly. “I’m always here for you, romantically or not.”
I sniffle, but tears drip slowly down my cheeks.
“I don’t know what to do without you,” I say to him, still not able to bring my eyes to meet his.
“Well luckily you won’t be without me,” he says, and then he stands. “I can’t hate you for hurting me.”
And then he is gone.
My cheeks dampen and my heart breaks into a million pieces, but I all I can feel was his pain. All I can think of is how I hurt him.
I turn and see that Alec is still in the driveway. His eyes are sympathetic; and then he gets out of the car and sits on the porch next to me.
“Are you sure this is what you wanted?” He whispers.
I look at him and crawl in his arms. “Yes.”

I’m sitting in my room with my headphones in. My phone vibrates in my pocket; I retrieve it and see that it’s a call from my mother.
I pull off my headphones. “Hello?”
“Hey, sweetheart, there’s a storm coming in, so I’m just going to stay here at Anne’s tonight.”
My heart freezes and my skin is clammy. “Ok.”
“I already told your father. Maybe the two of you could get a movie like you used to.”
I roll my eyes. “yeah maybe.”
“That’s my girl,” she says approvingly before she hangs up.
I put my headphones back on and turn up the volume. I think about what Danny said about the difference between loving someone and being in love with them. I didn’t see the difference. I always thought that one could love more than one person; of course I knew that cheating was wrong. I closed my eyes and focused on the music. I had never been one of those girls. I didn’t believe in cheating; I didn’t want to be anything like my father.
I hear knocking on my door. Before I get up to answer it, he walks in and I can smell alcohol.
“Let’s go get a movie,” he slurs.
I shake my head. “I don’t want to.”
He glares at me. “You will do what I say.”
I put my headphones on, trying to make a point that I didn’t want to go anywhere with him.
He grabs my arm and flings me to the ground. “I am your father!”
I sit up. “YOU LEFT!” I scream.
He rolls his eyes.
“You cheated on my mother with some whore,” I hiss.
He lifts his hand and then I am on the ground again with my cheek burning.
“You’re mother forgave me,” he growls, “I suggest you get over it too.”
I stare at him. “Does it not bother you?” I whisper in disbelief, “How can you beat your only child and pretend it never happened.”
“STOP TELLING LIES!” He yelled coming at me.
I ball myself up so that I can protect my face and stomach. He grabs me by the roots of my hair and slams my face into my dresser. I fall to the ground. He kicks me in the ribs a few times before walking out of my room and the house.

Alec
My phone rings.
“Alec,” Eda says disapprovingly; she doesn’t like it when we leave our phones on at the dinner table.
I look at the caller ID. “It’s Faye,” I say.
She smiles. “Be quick.”
I answer it. “Yes?”
I can hear her weak and pained voice. “Can you come get me?”
“I’ll be right there,” I whisper to her.
“Can you stay on the phone?” she breathes, “Till you get here?”
“Yeah,” I say getting up from the table. “I’ll be back,” I tell them.
They stare at me, bewildered, as I walk out.
I get in my car and start it up. “I’m still here.”
“I know,” she says quietly. It sounds like it takes all of her energy just to talk. I listen to her breathing till I reach her street.
“Is the door unlocked?” I ask her.
“If it’s not there’s a key under the rug,” she tells me.
I park and run up to the door. I get the key and run in to her room.
When I get in there, I just freeze. It breaks my heart to see her crumpled on the ground.
She reaches her hand out to me. “Alec?”
I sink to the ground in front of her and smooth her hair out of her bloodied face. She has a gash on her left temple and her left eye is blackened at well.
She closes her eyes and is quiet. It bothers me that she is not crying or freaking out; she is calm.
“Did you injure your back?” I ask.
She shakes her head. “My ribs though.”
I nod and gently scoop her up in my arms, resting her head against my shoulder. I kiss her forehead; she smiles at me, despite her condition. I carry her out of that house and strap her in my car.
“Hospital?” I ask.
She shakes her head. “NO!”
I stare at her, appalled. “Why not?”
And then she starts to cry. “Because they can’t know.”
I wait for the rest of her story.
She takes a deep breath. “My father did this to me.”
Somewhere in the back of my head, I think I already knew that. I take her hand and brush my thumb on the back of her hand. “You have to tell the police.”
She shakes her head. “No. He’ll only hurt me again.”
“Faye,” I breathe, “You know he won’t if he’s in jail.”
She closes her eyes. “I’m graduating soon. He won’t be able to hurt me after then. Danny—“
I look away.
She laughed bleakly. “Well I guess not anymore.”
She looks out the window.
“We can tell them that you fell down the steps or something,” I say in attempt to comfort her.
She smiles. “Ok.”
When they fix her up, I take her home and tuck her in my bed. She looks so broken again with her bandaged head and gauzed up rib cage. He broke two of her ribs.
She shifts uncomfortable under the covers. I sigh and place a kiss on her forehead.
“Can I get you some aspirin?”
She nods.
When I go out in the kitchen, Alyce is sitting there alone. I look at her strangely.
“It’s hard, seeing her like that,” she whispers, “Isn’t it?”
I nod.
She closes her eyes. “Now we know why she’s so scared.”
I get the aspirin out of the cabinet. “When I got there, she wasn’t crying. She acted like it was no big deal that she got beat up by her father.”
“How long has it been going on?”
“She said for awhile now,” I tell her.
“Jesus,” She breathes.
We’re quiet for a moment.
“Are you ever going to tell her?” She asks.
I look at the bottle of aspirin and shake my head. “I don’t see the need for her to know. It might only hurt her.”
She looks up at me. “What about when she gets older and you don’t?”
I glare at her. “You told me to be with her!”
“Yes! But you have to be honest with her!”
I close my eyes. “I’ve ruined her. I’ve taken her away from her Danny, and for what!? She won’t be able to marry me, she won’t be able to have children with me, she won’t be able to have a life.”
Alyce pauses and I know what she is thinking.
“No.”
“And why not? If it’s something that she chooses,” She whispers.
My eyes snap open. “I will not damn her for my own selfish reasons. Why would I ask her to give up her spot in Heaven to stay on this Earth with me as a Fallen?”
Her eyes are soft. “Because you love her.”
My expression is hard, set in stone like my decision. “Exactly why I won’t allow it.”
“Even if it’s her choice?”
I nod. “Even if it is her choice. I won’t allow it. She will grow old. She will die. She will go to Heaven. I will not take that from her.”
Alyce gets up and leaves. I sigh and walk back to my room to see Faye half asleep. I sit next to her and prop her head up on my shoulder. “Faye, I got your aspirin.”
She opens her eyes long enough to take it and then she falls back to sleep.
I pull her phone out of her pocked and hit one then send. I know who’s on her speed dial.
“Hello?”
“We need to talk.” I tell him.

Daniel
When I get to the diner he told me to meet him at, he is sitting in the back in an empty booth with a piece of pie.
I sigh and walk over to his table and sit down. “What is this about?”
It honestly broke my heart to be here in front of him when I know that Faye is in his bed. I shiver at that thought. She belongs in my bed where she is safe. I looked him up and down, he looked like the type who would take advantage of girls. He looks like he’s the type of guy who keeps an extra robe in his bathroom for guests, female guests.
“Want some pie?” He asks with his mouth full.
Ugh, he is so annoying!
“What did you call me for? To have a nice chat about the weather? Because if you hadn’t noticed, you won! You don’t have to rub it in my face that Faye left me to be with the likes of you.”
His eyes darken. “What does that mean? ‘The likes of you’?”
I roll my eyes. “Oh don’t act so innocent. I know what guys like you do to girls like Faye. And I swear if you ever hurt her…”
He laughs. “I would never hurt her.”
This isn’t a laughing matter. “What do you want?”
He suddenly is very serious, and the quick mood swing leaves me with a whip-lash feeling.
“How long have you known about Faye’s father? I assume you know.”
I nod. “I’ve known for awhile.”
His eyes grow angry. “AND YOU DIDN’T DO ANYTHING?!”
I almost flinch at his rage, but I keep my composure. “There was nothing I could do.”
He slams his hand on the table. “And calling the police never occurred to you?”
I lean back in my seat; this was very insulting. “Of course I wanted to call the police. But you know Faye, she has to protect her family. She didn’t want to hurt her mother—
“Wha—
“And,” I continue, ignoring him, “Think about it. Her father is a very powerful man with money. And one thing that you have to remember about men like him, is that they get whatever they want. If Faye called the police, he would have been able to get one of the top lawyers and win the case. Do you really think that would help Faye any? If anything, it would make it worse!”
I watch him process this.
“It’s not like I left her there unprotected,” I say, “I had her stay at my place most nights. And then when he left them…well I was there too.”
He doesn’t say anything, just watches me fall apart in front of him. I let the anger get to me now, and I didn’t care if he was there witnessing it.
“And so it’s not fair! I was there! I watched her fall apart and cut herself. I held her while she cried herself to sleep. I protected her from him! And so why should you get her! Why the hell did she choose you? You just show up here, and you get to know her for about a month and she decides that she’s in love with you. Explain it to me please, because I don’t understand.”
His eyes soften.
“I don’t know why she chose me, but she did. She chose. I did not force her to do anything she did not want to. I even asked her if she was willing to throw everything she had with you to be with me,” he says, and then he looks down, “And yet she still chose me.”
Its worse that he made it seem as though he is sorry for me. Its worse that he makes it seem like he honestly does not know why she picked him. And what’s even worse is that I believe him.

Faye
I’m sitting in his room with my lap top trying to work on my French paper; but it’s hard to do when you’re in a room like his. Everywhere I look, he has scriptures and bible verses written on his wall in black sharpie.
I give up on my paper and walk to the wall and trace the inked words with my inquisitive fingertips. “Alec, why are you so obsessed with this?”
He looks up at me from his old fashioned bible. “I-I feel obligated to…” he says, almost in a question.
I lean against the wall. “It’s great to worship,” I say, “I mean that’s what religious people do and all,” I turn back to the wall, “But this is borderline insanity.”
He sighs. “No, it’s fear.”
I rest my forehead against the wall. “Alec, I have a father who beats me. I have every reason to be scared of him. But—I still cried when he left us. He abandoned my mother and me, and that seemed to hurt worse than the broken ribs and busted face.”
I hear him get up. Feel his arms wrap themselves around me. “I don’t understand that either,” he murmurs against the sensitive skin on my neck.
My eyelids fall close.
“How can you love something that is so bad for you?” He asks, “It’s like you love what desecrates you. I don’t understand how you can love a man who sends you to the hospital…I—I don’t understand how you could want to love me,” he says, and then he laughs softly and wistfully against my skin, “It’s like you don’t know what is good for you.”
It scares me, the way he is talking. It’s like he’s trying to talk himself out of being with me.
“Danny is good for you,” he says this almost bitter.
I turn then, unable to keep still and silent any longer.
“But I want you.” I tell him simply.
His face is pained and he shakes head.
I take his face in my hands, “But I do. And there’s nothing you can say that will change my mind. Not making me feel guilty about Danny and not trying to make yourself seem worthless.”
He sighs, and leans his head forwards so that it is resting against mine. “I just want you to be happy,” he breathes, “I don’t want you to get hurt.”
I smile. “You’re so selfless.”
He closes his eyes. “I wish I could be better for you.”
I trace my fingers all over the contours of his face. His face was pained, not only from the expression he held, but he had scares. Nothing drastic, but I could feel the rough edges of them on my fingertips. But I suppose that’s what makes me love him, his imperfections.
He is real.
“You don’t need to be,” I tell him, “I love you for the person you are.”
His face shifts under my fingertips, and I worry that I have upset him once again. But when his eyes open, they are shinning with that brilliant fire color.
“You said you love me,” he says, unable to keep the grin off his face.
I place a kiss on his forehead. “You got to know me so quickly, never judging me like so many others have,” my lips brush against his forehead, “You barely knew me, yet you talked me out of suicide. You listened to me go on about my problems with Danny. You were there when I was attacked, you’re the one who found me. I know it was you because I keep dreaming about you in the forest with me. You were the one who was there when I woke up in the hospital and you held me when Danny couldn’t.”
He’s holding his breath, like he is scared that he will ruin the moment.
I squeeze my eyes shut, trying to get myself to say the truth that has hurt my best friend. “And I felt safer when you held me.”
“Faye…”
“Even that first night,” I interrupt, “When I first fell asleep with you here. It was so different than when I was with Danny.”
He puts his hands over mine that are on his face. “You don’t have to prove anything to me. I’m yours”
I lean against him, like he’s all I have. And in a way, he really is all I have.
“It feels like you’re constantly trying to leave me,” I say.
He pulls me into that iron grip of his that makes me feel so safe. “I’m not going anywhere.”
I smile. “Good, because you just got here.”

Alec
She’s at school, where I know she will be safe with Cassandra. I lay out all the photographs of the women who have died, and then Faye.
Alyce stands next to me. “Well they are all in high school,” she points out.
I nod. “But that’s not a reason to kill, it’s not a pattern.”
She shifts the pictures around, trying to formulate a pattern based on physical features. The only thing they have in common, physically, is that they are all females.
Eda comes in and sits on the bar stool. “Do you know any of their personal history?”
I furrow my brows. “Only Faye.”
Eda picks up a picture of Alexia Wilson, who is seventeen with strawberry blonde hair. “Her mother talked to me once,” she says, “told me that Alexia tried to overdose.”
“Looks like she got her death wish,” Alyce mumbles.
I stare at the picture, then at Faye. I hated that she was lumped together with these dead girls. I hated that some sick twisted being was after her soul.
And then it snaps.
“The pattern,” I say, “Were the other girls suicidal?”
Eda picks up the other pictures. “We could certainly find out.”
Daniel
I can’t believe that she is walking up on my porch with him holding her hand. I want to wrap my hands around his throat and squeeze until his head falls off.
But she runs from his side and jumps into my arms. “I’ve missed you so much!”
I hold her tight and then she flinches.
I pull her back and see her blackened eye and busted lip.
“Oh dear God,” I breathe, hugging her back to me, but more gently this time.
Well whose fault is that?
But instead I say. “Me too.”
Alec stands in front of me. “They have a pattern between the victims.”
Faye and I look back at him.
He looks at Faye. “All his victims are female and suicidal.”
Faye’s face turns angry, and mine falls into bewilderment.
I look at Faye who runs into my house and slams the door. I follow her to my room, past a confused Gran. “Oh you’re going to have to run faster than that, sweetheart,” I hiss.
She falls down on my bed, her face buried in my blankets. “I don’t want to talk about it.”
I sit on my bed next to her. “Well I do.”
I can hear her start to cry. I rub her back, “Faye, what happened?”
“I held a gun to my head, and Alec found me,” her voice comes out muffled.
My hand stops, actually everything stops. I always knew that it was bad, but never had I thought that she would kill herself. Or even want to.
She bolts up and is in my arms again. “I don’t want to die anymore. I was just sad. You don’t understand, Danny.”
I kiss her cheek. “Help me to.”
She pulls back and touches her cheek. “Oh, Danny I never meant to hurt you like I have. It’s just…,” she looks down, “Well I mean,” and she looks back up to me, “You can’t help who you love. It just kinda happens.”
I stare at her. “And you’re telling me that you don’t love me?”
She closes her eyes. “I love you. But I’m in love with him. It’s different.”
I don’t understand what she sees in him. What makes her want him so much. The anger takes hold of me and I shake her, just enough to rattle her. “No. I’M IN LOVE WITH YOU!”
Her tears start to fall. “I wish I had shot myself,” she sniffles, “It would have been better than seeing you in this pain.”
And then she crawls out of my arms and runs out.
Again.

Alec
“And why did you tell him?” She squeals as I pull up to her house.
I shrug. “He needed to know. And, that’s how you’re linked to the other murder victims.”
She sits in the car silently for a couple counts. “How would they know if I’m suicidal?”
“Faye, hon, most serial killers are stalkers too,” I say. Gosh, I thought teenagers these days knew all about violence.
I look at her and watch her pull her knees to her chest as she tries to keep from crying.
I unbuckle her seatbelt and pull her onto my lap. “Look, I won’t let anyone hurt you,” I tell her, “I’ll call Cassandra and see if she can spend the night with you. I have some things I need to take care of tonight.”
She sniffles. “What kind of stuff?”
I forget how curious mortals are, its instinct.
I smile at her. “Family stuff. Alyce needs me to help her build a bookshelf. I’d ask you over, but I’m sure you’re parents are sick of you staying at my place so much.”
She nods. “I don’t mind though.”
I place a kiss on her forehead, knowing she won’t put up a fight tonight. “Cassandra will be over here in about an hour. I’ll make the call.”
She snuggles closer to me. “Will you stay until she gets here?”
I grin. “Yes.”
Sometimes it bothers me that I “won” her. What happens when she finds out, I don’t want her to be hurt. I don’t want her to go back to that gun.