“My Name is Chaos”; Chapter Fifteen, Part Two

Bella continued her grip over me until we had transported to the mortal plane. There, I finally was in control of my body. It didn’t come with a warning, or a gentle ‘here you go’. No, one moment Bella was striding forward, then the next I was crumbling down, waving my arms and flailing my legs to try and catch myself. Needless to say, I landed face-first in a snowdrift, gracelessly.

Pfah! I spat snow and scrubbed the freezing stuff off my face, propping up on one hand and scrambling up to my knees.

Inside, I felt Bella laughing at me. Thanks, but no thanks, I thought bitterly. “You can’t just do that!” I muttered viciously, just to be sure she heard that thought.

She must have heard me, but there was no answer. Perhaps she was tired from the stint of taking control over me? Now on my feet, I began trudging forward.

The portal had transported us into a scenery that looked dangerously familiar. There was quaint farmhouses. Lots of snow. Fields and valleys. And there, on the horizon? Pine trees of doom. Ugh.

I trudged and trudged and trudged. My feet were freezing and I was muttering angrily under my breath, wondering why the hell Bella hadn’t transported me closer to civilization. Why? And why did I have to do all the legwork, literally? Huh? She could walk and feel the freezy bits too!

No sooner had I thought that than I heard the sound of skidoos on the horizon. Great! I looked left, right, and saw them approaching from both directions. What luck!

It took me all of two seconds to realize that this was no luck. The humans must have sensed the portal somehow (what? Since when did they have that technology/spider senses?) and those skidoos were aiming straight for me.

So I stood still and let them come to me. Nope, I was not spending one iota more energy than I had to. No A+ for effort. I just stood, feet freezing, hands stuffed into my pockets for warmth, my breath freezing into misty clouds before me.

Finally, the skidoos (there was more than two, in fact they had been two flocks of five) drew up. Their riders fanned out, drawing guns that I recognized.

“Freeze!” one of them barked.

I laughed, hands still in my pockets. The irony was not lost on me. Freeze? Did it look like I was doing anything else in this stupid weather?

Laughter done and over with, I drew my hands slowly from my pockets and held them up at my sides. “Look, all I want is to talk,” I said flatly.

There was a beep. “Target recognized! Set to stun!” one of them barked.

“Hey wait-”

Thud thud thud, I was stabbed by about a dozen feathered needles ramming into my chest. “Fuck,” I groaned, hoping it wasn’t possible to overdose on this junk.

Then, the world swam and toppled over.

I woke up in a situation that was an echo. I was strapped down, and Leo was at my side in a lab coat. FoxFace was beside him, grinning wildly.

“What an excellent situation!” she was saying as I blinked awake.

“Oh,” Leo pointed at me. “Awake.” And he waved his fingers over my face. “Hey there!”

My first reaction was to snatch at those dumb fingers. What did he think I was? A baby? But I was strapped down, right? I just snapped against the straps, painfully.

“Good, awake,” said Leo, scribbling on an electronic pad.

“Hi there kiddo,” said FoxFace, leaning over me with a wicked grin.

I scowled and twisted my head away from her. Ugh. “What the hell?” I demanded. “Untie me!”

“Oh no,” she said, obviously enjoying herself. “We’re going to do this right here, like this. What brings you here?”

I glared at her, then skipped my eyes over to Leo. “What are you doing here?” Poor guy, he’d tried so hard to escape. But then again… my pity evaporated at the sight of his huge grin.

“Safely back at work, thank you very much,” he said pleasantly. Too pleasantly. Wasn’t he supposed to be miserable? What, had they tortured him into happiness? I frowned, puzzled.

FoxFace chuckled, patting Leo on the shoulder. “Our Sergeant here is perfectly well, don’t you worry. But you-” she pried at me with an eyebrow. “Tell us more.”

I snarled silently, lip curling in distaste. But what could I say? “I would like to talk to Leo alone.”

“Not happening!” said Foxface cheerfully. She snapped up a syringe from a table and waved it around like a drag queen would a shoe, a very dangerous shoe. “I believe you’ve been introduced to the dangers of needles, right kid?”

My scowl stayed firmly in place.

She grinned like this was one of those moments in life that she lived for. “Air in needles?All bad news for you, so,” she stretched out the syringe so that it was absolutely full of air. “Want to talk? Or am I sending you on a hot trip home?”

Cursing silently, I looked around. Nope, no rescue team coming in to help me. I hadn’t told anyone I was leaving, and so really, no backup.

“Okay, look!” I barked at her. “I just want to see her body! That’s it.”

Foxface made an unimpressed face. “Which part?” she asked, nonplussed. Then, setting the needle down she added “And what for?”

I pressed my lips together. Think, think, think. The best lie is one that contains the truth so → “Her soul is missing,” I blurted. “We think it might be lingering around her body.”

“Really?” asked Foxface. Turning to Leo she asked “Any electromagnetic activity recorded around the body?”

“None whatsoever,” said Leo happily as he checked something off his tablet. My, he looked so happy.

“Lookit,” I blurted. “Just a bone. Give me a bone.”

“A bone?” Foxface’s eyes lit up. “Whatever for?”

I floundered. I wasn’t sure why I wanted a bone, actually. “Uh, uhm, I uh-”

Foxface smiled like a cheshire cat. I shrugged. “A bone. Please. If you give me a bone, I’ll tell you something else.” Like what, genius? The color of Lucifer’s underwear?

“Oh no, no no no, you tell us what the bone is for, then we’ll see what we do from there.”

I bit my lip. This wasn’t going so well.

“My Name is Chaos” Chapter Eight, Part One

“So are you feeling better now that you’re seen your friends?” Bella asked as we left the floor for the stairs. Our hands were entwined again and that was making my heart do somersaults.

“Yeah,” I said breathlessly, watching her from the corner of my eye. What was it Leo had been wanting to tell me? It couldn’t be that terribly important, could it?

Bella hummed, pleased, and we kept walking in silence. I wondered so many things right then. What had really happened with Mark? Why Leo was back in a lab coat, evidently helping them out when he’d been so adamant to speak against them… were they forcing him to work? And if so, why was I getting the royal treatment out of all of us? She couldn’t do this for all the visitors. Why me?

Why, why, why – We reached the bottom of the stairs, walking out into the entrance hall. There were vampires in tow, vampires hanging around, and the little secretary’s desk at the entrance. My head was swimming with thoughts and I nearly kept walking when Bella drew to a stop.

“Hmm?” I turned to face her. Her fingers tugged me closer. A wry smirk was on her lips. I glanced at the vamps behind her, who were dutifully watching, blank-faced. But Bella was pulling me to stand before her. Her blue eye twinkled, her smile viciously excited.

“There is an announcement to be made,” she said as I stood before her.

“Oh?” I felt like something was flying straight over my head.

She stepped forward. I didn’t move back, instead tightening my grip on her fingers. My hand rose up between us as she stepped into my metaphorical bubble. Somehow it landed on her shoulder limply instead of stopping her final step closer. Her hand rose up for the back of my head and my mind went blank. She pulled me forward.

We kissed, her hand holding the back of my head firmly.

Well, my heart did all the flip-flops it could. My stomach was filled with butterflies. That euphoria returned from within, rising up within me in a flicker. I was happy, truly happy.

When we seperated she had an eerie smile on. “I think you should stay,” she whispered, her blue eye nearly glowing it was so bright.

“Sure,” was the smartest thing I could think of saying. Because I couldn’t think. My head was all abuzz, my body felt like it was fluttering, and I was filled with excitement bordering on euphoria. I just wanted to kiss her again.

She grinned. “Good,” and she began to march past me, out the building. I kept tow, not daring to look behind because I was sure my face was on fire and I had the dumbest grin on.

I swear, I felt glares on my back. Outside, the cold was burning on my face compared to the heat I had boiling within. I was full of butterflies, moths, fireflies, bed bugs, you name it. I had the jitters, bad.

Bella drew to a stop before her skidoo. She maybe winked at me, or just blinked. It was hard to tell with the eyepatch. “You can ride with me,” she said.

Yay! It felt like an ice cream cone on a birthday. A bit silly, but meaningful and sweet. Sickeningly sweet.

Did I still have alarm bells going off in my head? Questions? No. My head was blank now and filled with her. She was all I could think about. How fabulous she was. How amazing. Sweet and kind.

The next thing I knew, there were no skidoos following us. We were alone, drifting out of the city. Fields upon fields of snow whizzed by, complete with cutesy little farm houses and the occasional horse or herd of brave cows.

We came to a stop at the crest of a hill. There, Bella dismounted. I followed suit, watching with hearts in my eyes as she pulled off her helmet and shook her hair free. Then, a grin was turned my way.

“I wanted to bring you here since I laid eyes on you,” she said.

I looked around. Snow drifts gave way to peaceful valleys and a river swirling through it all. There was no farmhouses, no humans, no nothing but snowy fields.

I put my hands in my jacket’s pockets. “It’s beautiful.”

She gestured with an arm. “There’s nothing like this in hell,” she declared. “Only here.”

I almost corrected her. Almost. Sure, there was icy plains of absolute pain and bla di bla in hell, if you looked hard enough. But it was not like this. This was… nice.

“I want you to join me,” she said, leanign back against the skidoo. Her hand lay over my arm. “I see beautiful things in you, Chaos. I want you to join with me.”

I found myself looking into that brilliant blue eye as it was turned towards me. “I believe in you,” she said.
My heart fluttered. When was the last time anyone had said that to me? “Really?”

But she nodded, smile pure and sincere. She plucked my hand from my pocket and lifted it to her lips. She kissed my knuckles. “We could do great things together. Tell me you’re going to stay. Tell me you’ll stay by my side.”

My heart twisted on itself, like it was trying to run in two directions at once. It was painful. “I,” I croaked.

“Please,” she whispered.

It hurt. I ducked my head. Tears rose to my eyes, and the whole situation felt unfair. Why didn’t I get to choose where I would be in this whole mess? Besides, what was she doing that was so wrong anyways? She just… wanted to save people?

I pulled myself up. “You have to be honest with me.”

A flicker of a smile came over her. But she was serious when she said “Yes.”

I nodded, gulping. Swallowing the fact that I really had promised to go home, to do just my mission, and to do nothing else. My head bowed and I knew how disappointed everyone would be with me.

A finger lifted my chin to look at her once more. “Promise me you’ll stay by my side.”

“I promise,” I whispered without thinking, following the tug in my heart. It hurt to hear myself say it, to know that I was breaking my word to my family for her. But they hadn’t treated me right either, sending me here without the full knowledge of what was going on – the full knowledge of her.

Bella leaned in, hand sliding to grip in my hair, and we kissed. “I really like you,” she whispered against my lips.

“I,” was all I could croak as she drew back, gazing into me. I hurt. I was happy. I was so confused. I wanted to cry.

She seemed to know this. Pityingly, she took my head in both her hands and pressed our foreheads together. Her eye closed and she began mouthing words.

I felt them in my heart, reverberating with meaning and wisdom. I held on to her shoulders, shuddering as that strange euphoria came over me again. A white light seemed to fill me. It was bliss, lighter and gentler than before. I craved more. I wanted the same intensity that she had created in the church. But the words grew quieter now that the light filled me. They faded within me, takign the bliss with them and leaving me wanting more.

“Feel better?”

I blinked and saw her smiling at me. “Yeah,” I whispered, wondering how she could do that. I was no longer upset. More… muffled? The white within seemed tohave quieted the storm but it wasn’t gone. Just tucked away.

I shook my head, trying to clear my mind and reorganize my thoughts. More like get them working again. “How do you do that? What is it?”

Now she really did wink. “Secret.”

I punched her lightly on the shoulder. “No, really. Tell me!”

She laughed. “No. You’re not awakened yet. It will mean nothing to you.”

“But,” I protested. She shook her head, facing the fields once more and shifting so our shoulders pressed together.

“No buts,” she said strictly. “You don’t have a choice in this.”

I scowled and leaned against her. She leaned as well, and now we were propped on each other. My fingers slid down her side in a silent plea. She gave me her hand, and we twined together in the cold.

“My Name is Chaos”: Chapter Five, Part Two

Hi everyone! I just wanted to let everyone know that I’m doing well, that things are nice on my side of the world. 🙂 I just upped my testosterone, and my voice is breaking/deepening! I just hosted a very nice full moon ritual too, so I’m happy. I have so many ideas for this story, and really can’t wait to share it all with you! Surprises are coming! Do please comment if you read, I love chatting about my stories and seeing people read and enjoy it really boosts my day!

I wish you all a lovely day ❤

///

The vampires stared at me. Snowflakes fluttered left and right. It was cold, and I was fucking freezing, okay? So I stamped my feet and cursed.

No, they couldn’t just ‘bring me in because I gave a pretty speech’. They were smarter than that. So the big dude was on a tiny cellphone, holding up one arm in the air, then the other.

“Your body is not a channeling wire,” I hissed as he tried standing on one leg to reach higher.

“The reception here is bad,” he said to me as if I hadn’t already concluded that. Then he waved his arm around again, trying to literally ‘catch’ the signal, maybe?

The scientist shuffled next to me, hugging his lab coat around himself. “By the way,” he said , prodding me with an elbow. “My name is Leo.”

“Oh, yeah,” I said, completely ignoring him.

“Don’t just ditch me somewhere,” he hissed between his teeth. Whoah, reading my mind much?

I glared at him. “I don’t owe you anything.”

He gave me a hard look. “No, you owe me your life.”

“Do not.”

He blinked slowly. The icy wind blew between us. He looked every bit as frustrated as someone standing in the cold, realizing they’d just hinged their lives on → me. Chaos. I lived up to my name, okay?

“I was going to escape one way or another,” I said dryly, looking back around at the bundled up vampires. Some had taken hermitage back within their car. Others still tried to keep up their menacing auras while huddling like penguins.

“You- oh for fuck’s sake,” grumbled Leo. “You were literally about to become little bits in a petri dish. I saved you. Now the deal was-”

“So sad, don’t care,” I muttered. “Shut up.”

He looked ready to crack me one. I stalked past him, crunching through the snow to stand by the beefy guy who was now frowning down at his cellphone.

“Give me that,” I ordered.

The beefcake looked at me. He had removed his sunglasses due to the fact that it was (duh) dark out here. He looked somehow less menacing with pea-sized eyes. I held out my hand in a silent order.

To my surprise, the phone was put in my hand. “You got cellphone powers or what?” the beefcake asked.

“Yeah, check this out,” I said, turning away and chucking the dumb thing at arm’s length into the forest. Yeah! Great shot!

I turned back around, spreading my arms. “See? I made it disappear.”

The vampires gawked. Those who were still trying to look cool took off their sunglasses to make sure they’d seen it right.

“The phone,” moaned beefyMcbeefcake.

“Yeah, so,” I snapped. “Let’s go.”

The vampires gawked at me. I had the feeling I was missing something. Why such horror?

Then, faintly, I heard the phone ringing. The vampires launched into action. “Get It!” roared the beefcake. “The boss’s call can’t be missed!”

Oh. Shit. Way to endear myself to them.

So, yeah, I stood there like a goof while the horde of vampires vanished into the pine trees, scattering in bat form. A mere minute later, one returned, reappearing in humanoid form before the beefcake. She was wearing a snowsuit and really, only her nose was visible under that wool hat.

“Hello?” beefMcburgerarms answered the phone. “Yes, boss!” He turned a nasty eye to me, then to Mark and Leo. “We’ve found something. No, we haven’t captured the escaped hellion. But we found someone else. Do we bring them to you?”

I held my breath and wished for my dice. I’d have tossed it right then if –

“Okay, yes,” the beefy nodded. Then, with a surprised sound, he held the phone away from his ear. “oh,” he said softly. “She hung up.”

My skin crawled. “She?” I asked. Because, screw me, I didn’t get along well with females. Or women. Or really, anyone, but particularly not with women. Example in case: my fiancee. Who was right now probably crying to her daddy about how mean I was to her and blablabla.

But let’s focus back here. The vampires were staring at me like I was a sexist little shit.

“Yeah, so?” asked another woman vamp who was wearing a banana yellow coat that left no shape to her but a giant blob.

“I just,” I fished in my mind, trying to remember what female was in charge in the vampire legions. None came to mind. They usually were bald-headed guys with fangs who liked to speak dramatically. No women allowed in their dumb club.

So who was this leader?

I shrugged. “I’d love to meet her.”

The badguys snorted. “Sure you will. Get in the car.”

I looked at the already-cramped looking vehicle. And we weren’t all already in it yet. “Uh…”

Well, we fit. I spent the entire ride cramped on someone’s lap. Not so luckily, Leo was sitting in people’s footspace, and Mark had three vampires piled in his lap. No one was a happy camper.

At least I got to watch the scenery change as we drove on. The pine trees receded to give way to rolling fields and little farms that were all bundled up for winter. Then those faded away sharply, giving way to a pretty plain-looking city. It was all cubes and granite, with french street names that I couldn’t pronounce to save my life.

We turned on a road that was probably named after a croissant, and wham! The brakes went on.

“Fucking deer!” cursed the beefcake as we swerved on the silent road around a very still deer. A deer with blue eyes that stared straight at me through the windows.

Uh…

Luckily, there was no traffic, and we avoided the very much there ditch and electrical pole. Onwards we zoomed, vampires muttering about how hazardous this climate was- and I noticed that hey, there really was no traffic here. That and the deer had vanished.

We swerved, veered, and passed important-looking buildings in the center of town. The street lights weren’t working, the snow was piling thicker and thicker with no plow in sight, and I had the feeling that civilization under vampire rule had come to a stand-still.

Then we drew up to a house. A friggin’ house.

It was one of those cute oldsie victorian style houses, with frills and ruffles and the whole shingle thing going on. In this light, it was, well, dark with lighter highlights. Green and white maybe? Who knows? The important things was this: the driveway was shoveled neatly, baring the asphalt driveway.

Asphalt is very hard, I realized as the car doors were opened and I was gracelessly flung out.

“God dammit,” I hissed, cursing and rubbing my elbows. I rose to my feet as the vampires piled out around me, dragging Leo out by the scruff and prodding Mark on with knives.

We were ushered up onto the porch. Frilly curtains hid the interior of the house, but dim lights shone through. The beefcake cleared his throat, straightened his posture, and knocked on the door. In fact, all the vampires straightened their posture. Some even began put on their best smiles.

The door was opened by a maid in a frilly outfit and stockings and the whole deal. “Welcome,” she whispered, fang-less and lowering her gaze. Human. Ah.

She stepped aside, letting us all troop haughtily in. “The master is in the painting room,” she said in a hushed tone. She didn’t dare look anyone in the eyes as she began taking coats.

To my glee, the majority of the vampires stayed in the entry. Only two accompanied me and the beefcake as I was walked into the house.

And damn, it was a nice house. It was filled with all this polished wood and spiralling staircases and neat frames. Except when I double checked one frame, it wasn’t an oldsie picture of some victorian person, as would be expected. It was a Buddha, styled in black and white to suit the theme.

Rattling myself, I wondered what sort of bad guy/badgirl kept buddhas around. Well, I was about to find out, wasn’t I?

Up the imposing staircase, we were faced with a thick door. Beefy guy rapped his knuckles on it, straightening his posture again.

“Enter,” said a female voice.