AN: For those of you who read this when I first put it up here, I want to let you know that while I finished the chapter, as of right now I'm changing it to a oneshot. I'm sorry, but it works that way, and I have to put all my time into a different story I started earlier. I may decide to continue the story in the future, but it will not be anytime soon.
Audrey got up stiffly, she groaned clutching her head, and glanced around. Once her vision cleared the first thought she had was, what the hell? When the vortex had opened, out of nowhere, she had been expecting to wind up back in the paper house. But this was the high school cafeteria. That, or a perfect replica. She recognized the brown plastic chairs, the kind with the mysterious hole in the back that nobody could tell you the purpose of, and the tables they had all stacked in a pyramid once. So what was she doing here?
Had something else happened? Had she been knocked out for longer then she thought? It had been a long fall; at first she'd been sure she was going to die. However she felt just fine. Her head hurt a little, but other then that just fine. A spark of hope kindled itself inside her. Maybe she had been out for a while, maybe the others had already beaten this new game, and everything was all right! Not even a broken hair comb this time, though her dress was a total mess. She started to laugh. Wouldn't that be great? If it was all over? Before it had even begun really. As long as everybody else was ok, what did it matter if she had sat this one out?
"You really are that selfish aren't you?"
The laughter died in her throat. Audrey spun around, almost loosing her balance on her spikey black heels. The voice, his voice, had sounded like it had come from behind her.
And there he was, lounging on one of those chairs, making the cheep plastic look almost regal. His arms were simply crossed in front of his chest. His very smooth, gorgeously flat muscled chest. Audrey's cheeks flamed red at the thought. She glanced up at him embarrassed.
"I.." she started feebly.
"Don't talk until I tell you to" he commanded her coolly.
The normal anger she would have felt at someone saying something like that to her did not come. It had just occurred to her that she had never been alone with Julian, and that she had no idea what to do, or say. Audrey had never been at a loss for words before, she didn't like it. She was always the one in control of the situation. Well, almost. Last year in the paper house, in the Erklings palace, Audrey had not been in control. She had been hysterical. This time there were no deformed dwarfs, or incubi, but that feeling of complete and utter helplessness was starting to edge it's way into her.
"Now, Audrey" Audrey trembled slightly as he said her name. She couldn't help it. The way he said it sounded so personal and so…invasive. Julian paused, his eyelids drooping slowly, his eyes seeming to drink in her fear. "I need you to do something for me" he continued "I'm going to send you back, tell your friends whatever you like, as long as you don't tell them I sent you"
Audrey stared at him in shock. What? She opened her mouth to say something but he was already speaking again.
"When you return you will get dearest Deidre to leave the room with you, any private place will do, and then you will alert me, simply by calling my name, and I will come for her. Then you will do the same to Michael, and Tom. Zach is already alone at his parents house, I sent the Lurker after him so he should be arriving in a number of hours."
Audrey's mouth fell open; he couldn't possibly think she was going to lead her friends into a trap?
"They don't have to know you led them there, offer to walk with them to the kitchen, something simple. Jenny will never suspect you had anything to do with their capture. I probably couldn't convince her that you did if I tried. I'll come for Jenny myself of course." He smiled slightly, a smile that made Audrey feel sick.
"I will get all of you in the end, but this way it can be so much faster, a matter of a few hours. Don't you want it to end quickly, Audrey? You'll get your wish; you won't have to go through any pain, or fear. I would let you go of course, and Michael, if you want. You can even have Zach. I would like to keep Deidre but if you help me you can have her. All I want is Jenny and...Tommy." he said Tom's name like it tasted foul on his tongue.
"Don't you want to save them Audrey?" he asked, almost soothingly, like she was a cat he was trying to coax up unto his lap. "Don't you want to save yourself? You're a girl who knows how to watch out for herself Audrey, who did you go to the dance for tonight?"
I went to the dance for Jenny she told herself fiercely, knowing that it wasn't true. She had just seen Jenny's problem with Tom as a way to go herself. But she didn't always think of herself, there were lots of times when she helped other people, and she never did anything to hurt other people. She had no intention of starting now.
"No" it was the only thing she had felt confident about since waking up here.
Julian rose from his chair, letting hit the ground. The crash echoed eerily off the cafeteria walls. He was in front of her in an instant, only inches separated them. Audrey pulled her breath in sharply. He towered over her, thinking that expression must have been created for this type of thing exactly. Julian looked down into her eyes. His entire body radiated threat.
"Sorry" he whispered quietly "I didn't hear you, could you repeat that?" Somehow Audrey didn't believe that. Maybe it was because his eyes were daring her to repeat her first answer.
Audrey bit hard into her lip to keep the shivers she could feel starting in her hands from rocking her whole body. "I said no" it didn't come out nearly as confident as it had the first time, in fact it was barley audible.
Julian grabbed her chin and wrenched it up toward him roughly "One more time" he hissed at her through closed teeth.
"I.." Audrey stuttered feebly for the second since she'd gotten there.
"Yes?"
"I..no, I can't, I won't" He hit her.
She stumbled backward crashing into one of the tables. She had never thought that he- she hadn't that he could. The made no sense of course. The numbing pain on the side of her face was evidence of that. He had always seemed dangerous, but somehow the fear that he could cause violence never seemed to connect with the idea that he could actually do violence. It had always been words and mockery with him. She sank down into the chair next to her, pulling her knees up to her chest and resting her forehead on her knees.
Julian chuckled from where he was. "Always the drama queen" his voice stung in her ears. He sneered at her "I didn't hit you any harder then I regular man could have" he paused "I didn't hit you any harder then your father hits your mother"
Audrey's head snapped up. What was he talking about? Her father was a great man, he would never raise a hand to her mother, they argued constantly but he would never…
Julian smiled widely "He does it quite often actually"
Her mind raced, screaming that it wasn't true.
"Have you really never noticed?"
It couldn't be true.
"Have you really been that wrapped up in your own life?"
No..
"Not that she doesn't deserve it" he continued taunting her "your mother can be quite the little bitch."
"Shut up!!!" she screamed at him, quickly clasping her hand to her mouth.
Julian's eyes widened, he grabbed her by the arm, his fingers biting hard into her skin. The back of his hand collided with the side of her face again. One hundred times harder then last time. It was like something out of a horror movie, Audrey flew, literally flew into the cafeteria wall. Her shoulder smashed into it followed the horrifying smack of her skull. She crumpled onto the floor.
Her face felt broken. She could feel it starting to swell already. She wanted to roll on the ground clutching it and just scream. She didn't even care about her throbbing shoulder, or the spot on her head that had crashed into the wall, all she cared about was the left side of her face. She swore inside her head. Tears were rolling out of her eyes. It was the kind of pain that forced you to cry, weather you wanted to or not.
Suddenly she was yanked to her feet again, her hand was torn away from the spot where she had been attempting to press away the pain. Julian grabbed her face, but not like he had last time. Last time he had held just the tip of her chin, this time he held her whole face, deliberately pressing his fingers harder into the cheek that was flaming red. He lifted her off the floor and slammed her into back into the wall.
"Now Audrey" he said, using the exact same words he had in the beginning "I want you to rethink your answer to my earlier question."
Out of nothing Audrey felt anger leap up inside her. For a moment she almost forgot how much pain she was in. Julian dropped her on her feet again. How could he ask her that, just like that, so…bluntly? Like it wouldn't be the most despicable thing she'd have ever done. Like he expected her to do it, and not because he was threatening her but because she was the type of person who would. Was that the reason he went for her first?
"Audrey-"
"That wouldn't be fair!" she said, before thinking of the consequences her words might bring.
"Fair?" his hand clamped around her throat "I have already explained to your dear friend Jenny my views on fairness. I suppose she hasn't told you about them? No, I doubt she's told you about any of the time we've spent alone together." His hand closed in tighter around her neck.
"And you're supposed to be her best friend. Do you think she's told Dee?" he continued, "I'm willing to bet she has."
Audrey felt her heart sink to the bottom of her stomach. A defensive rant ran through her mind. You can't let him get to you, he's not telling the truth, Jenny likes you both the same, she wouldn't have told Dee something she didn't tell you, he just knows it would bother you if she did.
"Fairness?" Julian said cruelly "I've captured you. You've become my prisoner and it only follows that I use you for whatever I want" Audrey heard him inhale deeply as his hand released her throat, his fingertips quickly trailing down her collarbone, "Anything I want"
Her pulse stopped upon realizing the implications of his words. "But...Jenny, I thought-"
"If that sentence is going to end with a comparison of my feeling for yourself and my feeling for her, I want you to know that I will kill you, right here, right now"
Audrey gulped. "I don't understand. What do you want from me?"
"I told you what I want"
Audrey shook her head again, one of his hands tightened around her upper thigh. Tears of humiliation pooled helplessly in her eyes "But you're in love with Jenny"
"Yes, I do love Jenny. But you of all people should know Audrey that love and sex are two entirely different things."
"She'll hate you if you do, she'll really hate you"
"She already hates me. And yet she cannot resist me. It's an enticing combination of emotions, I assure you."
A shaky tear spilled down her cheek, "Please..don't"
"Beg me."
"Please" she felt his hot hungry breath close in on the space around her neck.
But just as she was closing her eyes a crash slammed in around the silence. Audrey looked past Julian to see Zack's crumpled body collide with a bang into one of the cafeteria tabletops.
Julian's lips brushed against her earlobe "It's you're lucky day" he breathed slowly in a voice that made Audrey's stomach tighten "Let's see which of you I can break first".