The Wallflower Ch. 08

"So, what did you order me?" he asked with a teasing grin.

"A porterhouse steak with something that has mangoes and chili peppers with it."

"A woman after my own heart." He poked his tongue out at her. "But seriously, thanks. Last chick I let order for me, ordered a small salad for me and a lobster for her." Louis shook his head like the memory still hurt him. "After I dropped her of back home, I went to McDonald's and ate three Big Macs, large fry, and a milk shake."

"So, I'm guessing no second date."

"Didn't even consider e-" Louis grabbed at his neck as his eyes went wild. He quickly raised a napkin to his mouth and coughed violently.

"You ok?"

"Yeah, I just choked on something. I don't know bu-" He went off into a fit of coughing again. Lily couldn't help but rub his back as he continued to cough. Once he was done, he swallowed most of his smoothie before trying to talk again.

"Ugh... I don't know where that came from. It seemed like I was choking on my tongue for a moment there. But yeah, we didn't go out again after that."

Silence settled between them as they waited for their orders. The mood was no longer jovial. It had turned to be dark and ominous as the evening continued. Lily couldn't prove it at the moment, but she knew for a fact that the Spirit was here and was just now beginning to get to work.

When their food arrived, her stomach gurgled loudly as she remembered all she had that day was cereal. She placed her napkin in her lap, but before she even got her utensils, she looked over at Louis and nearly screamed. Louis's eyes had gone completely red and strained that she could see the veins pulsing in his eyes. His tan skin was a deep russet red that made him look like he was burning him alive. Sweat was shooting from his skin like bullets, which caused his shirt to plaster to his body. Only thing she thought was 'Oh dear Jesus, he's going to kill him.'

She got up out of her seat to call for help, but he grabbed her wrist desperately. He tried to speak but his mouth opened and closed like a gasping fish without any sound coming from him. "I need to get help Louis, you may be dying-" . His strength and desperation forced her to sit back down. Lily fought tears as she was trying to squelch the fear rising in her throat.

Louis bean to point at something. Lily looked in the direction and saw he was pointing at her full glass of smoothie. She looked back at him confused. Then she understood. He wasn't dying. He was burning up from the spicy food he ate. She grabbed her smoothie and forced the drink to her lips. He swallowed gulp after gulp of the cool drink before pushing it away from him and letting out a deep breath.

"Ask...Ask for the...check." Louis's voice was raspy and raw as he continued to gain his breath. Lily went out and caught their waiter outside, asking for a check and a doggie bag for her food. Once everything was paid for and bagged up, they headed back to the car.

When they were in, she looked at Louis, making sure he was okay. She had to stop this before anything more drastic happens. "Louis, you can drop me off at home, ...if you don't feel up to doing anything."

Louis pinched the bridge of his nose and exhaled. "Nah, it's my fault." He turned his head towards her and she could see his eyes beginning to go back to normal, but she could see the exhaustion there from the last ordeal. "I know this date has been less than perfect, but I still want to at least save it with a movie. Then, if you want, I can take you home."

Lily could see the sincerity in his eyes. He really wanted to please her. And the pranks were...well...not deathly severe. In the back of her head, she heard Nicholas's warning of this date being her last date with Louis. Lily looked back at Louis. The Spirit wouldn't kill him, would he? Louis was so nice to her and a total gentleman. But right now, she was playing with the possibility of Louis being left to live or to possibly die.

Lily looked into his smoldering brown eyes, opening her mouth to give him an answer. She wanted to say yes. She wanted to say yes so bad. She really wanted to say yes. So she did.

He smiled at her and leaned over to kiss her cheek. "Great. You're gonna like the movie I picked out." He turned the ignition on and backed out of the parking space.

Lily smiled at him weakly as her thoughts screamed at her. 'You're leading him to his death!' they screamed as if already in mourning. 'If the Spirit kills him there will be blood on your hands! The will drip and stain your soul like a brand burned into your chest. You will have to live the rest of your days burdened with this secret as if you were the one who plunged the dagger into him. Live with the decision you have chosen!'

By the time her thoughts stopped screaming at her, they were at the movies. Lily put her doggy bag inside her purse as Louis came around to open her door. She took his hand and climbed out. Louis paid for the tickets and led her to the room where the movie would be playing. Lily recognized the movie title to be that new scary movie that just released.

Lily kept glancing back and forth between Louis, the screen and her food. She didn't understand why shy brought the food at all, since the pranks and the suspense of future pranks killed any hunger she had felt. She felt a warm hand clasp her hand. Lily looked over at Louis who began to rub his thumb over her skin.

"Relax, nothing else is going to go wrong I promise," Louis said.

Before she could say anything, the lights began to darken. And everything went quiet.

Lily couldn't help but take a big swallow of the fear burning inside her throat. She would look at Louis ever so often to check that he was okay, but he would just smile at her and give her a wink.

When the movie finally started, Lily felt guards start to come down. But just as they had started to come down, the show began to start. Lily felt her date fidget next to her. She turned to him, and saw once again that he was looking about him...looking for the source of the voices again. She gripped his hand tightly to help ignore the voices. He looked at her and gave her weak sheepish grim before focusing his gaze back on the movie. It had worked...for awhile

"Lily," Louis whispered to her.

"Yes?" she asked not tearing her eyes away from the movie.

"Do you see the writing?"

Lily scrunched her eyes up at the screen. She didn't see any writing. "I don't see any writing."

"Not on the screen. On the wall underneath the screen. It's a bright red."

Lily ripped her eyes from the screen and looked underneath it. There was nothing there. "There's no writing, Louis. It's just your imagination."

"No, it isn't. It's there as plain as day." Lily looked over at Louis. He was entirely focused on that part of the wall. "There's more writing. Someone's writing on the walls."

"Louis just concentrate on the movie. There's no writing." She grabbed his chin and made him focus on the screen. Lily began to fidget in her seat and sweat was running down her face. She couldn't distract Louis for much longer. The vision would just get worse.

As the movie progressed, she began watching Louis more than she was watching the actual movie. He continued to watch the movie, trying to ignore the vision that was beginning to grow like fire. But Lily noticed, after a while, his eyes were on the screen, but he was no longer watching. His eyes had turned an otherworldly misty blue as he continued to stare at what she could not see. For the Spirit did not let her see what he saw. Louis began to unfurl his hand from hers as he moved to press his hands to his ears. His upper body began to come towards his knees as he tried so hard to block out whatever he was experiencing. But whatever he did, his eyes continued to stay open.

Louis's breath began to hiss in and of his mouth as if he was hyperventilating, but just as quickly as it started, it stopped. Only to be replaced by a hideous noise.

He let out a gurgling scream like a dying man experiencing a painful death. His screams pierced the room, but they came out garbled as if he was choking on something that prevented him from fully screaming. His mouth was opened wide and his tongue was extended while his eyes bugged out from his face.

"OH MY GOD! SHUT THE FUCK UP"

"WHAT'S GOING ON?!"

"STOP SCREAMING, YOU WUSS!"

Lily had had enough of tonight. She couldn't bear to put Louis through anymore of this and the taunting of others. She stood up and helped Louis to his feet. She covered his mouth so she could squelch as much of the screaming as she could. His whole body was quaking and trembling as she helped him down the stairs and out the room.

"Ma'm," a voice said behind her, while in the lobby.

Lily looked around and saw it was one of the people who worked there.

"Someone complained about a disturbance in the room you just left."

Lily came up with a quick lie to tell them. "I'm sorry, my date just suffered a bad anxiety attack. He has those sometimes. I guess the movie was just too much for him. I'm taking him home now so he can cal down." She gave the guy the sweetest smile she could muster up, hoping he would by it.

He only gave her a stiff nod. "Have a good night then, ma'm."

Lily said sure and went back to the task of dragging Louis out of the theatre. The screams had finally stopped, but he was still trembling. He began to help her a little bit by walking unsteadily on his feet. When they made it outside, he ran to where the gutters were in the parking lot and vomited into them.

Lily waited by the car until he was done. 'Well, Lily, at least he's not dead,' she thought as optimistically as she could. But maybe Nicholas was right. This maybe the last date she will ever have if the Spirit continued to tag along and bully her dates with his sadistic pranks.

Louis came back to the car and opened it for Lily before getting in the driver's seat.

They sat there in an awkward silence before Louis broke the silence by breathing out a sigh of irritation. "I'm sorry, Lily. I'm pretty sure that your idea of a perfect date wasn't saving my ass two time tonight... I'll just take you home." He started the ignition and set the car in reverse.

"What happened?" she sked.

"What?"

"What happened at the movies? It looked like you were in a trance."

Louis's body slumped forward as if a ton of bricks had just toppled on top of his body. He glanced at her before returning the back to the road. "Lily," he said exhausted. "It doesn't matter."

"It does to me. Just tell me what happened." She said, softening her voice.

He said nothing and drove on. When they reached a red light, he sat back in his chair and rubbed a hand down his weary face before looking at her. "I heard the voice again. It was more clear and distinct this time. I looked around the room to see who it was, but everyone was just watching the movie. I did as you said and watched the movie, but his voice only got louder. It got loud enough to the point that I could actually hear what he was saying." He stopped so he could continue to drive pass the green light.

"What did it say?"

"It's a he. I couldn't see him at first. I could only hear his voice. He said the same thing over and over that I could recite it. He said, 'What are your intentions for this wall flower. Will you care and nurture her? Or will you pluck it from the wall? Enchanted and overcome by her silent and sweet overwhelming power. Only to drop her...trample her...crushing her body on the ground. Murdering her. Are you a murderer?' He would repeat that last part over and over while he said whole thing again louder. I tried to block it out, but it got too loud. On top of that, I heard scratching. Then I saw the writing that repeated exactly what he said. By that time, my head was full of his voice. I couldn't hear anything else. I could only hear him asking me over and over if I was a murderer." He swallowed the lump in his throat as he continued to drive.

Silence passed over the car as he gathered his thoughts.

"Then I saw him. I saw him underneath the screen. He was tall and pale as hell. He was skinny-"

"That sounds like Nicholas," Lily said, through gritted teeth.

"It wasn't. It's hard to describe. There were some characteristics that were the same, but they were different. He did not have tattoos or piercings and he was blonde. And he looked, no offense to Nicholas, but more mature. And then there were those red eyes...and his tongue. He opened his mouth and blood began to seep down his clothes. His tongue had been cut off, but it didn't stop him from speaking. Whenever he talked, the knife would write on the wall in that red color. The closer he got to me, the closer the knife got to me...When he finally did get to me..." Louis held his hand over his mouth, suppressing the need to vomit once more

"He looked into my eyes and forced open my mouth with his hands and pressed the knife against my tongue. He asked me once again if I was murderer. I saw in his eyes that he found it funny that I was squirming and on the verge of panicking. The first scream was a no to his answer. Then the ones after were in pain. It felt like he had cut off my tongue and I began to panic because I thought I felt blood building up in my throat."

He stopped the car when he pulled up in front of the townhouse. He sat there, looking ahead at nothing in particular with his hands on the steering wheel. He slowly turned his head towards Lily and looked at her. "Lily, I would never do anything to hurt you. I don't know what was about tonight, but I'm sorry this date came out so sucky. I think you're cool and everything and I hope we'll get to go out again and it not end in disaster."

Lily gave him a smile and a quick peck on the cheek. "Thanks for taking me out all the same." Not waiting for a response, she unlocked her door and went up the stairs. Before she could look for her keys. Nicholas already beat her to opening the door.

Lily didn't feel much up to dealing with Nicholas. There was no point in yelling at him, since the ruined date wasn't his fault. She went into the house and remarked, "Aren't you supposed to be getting drunk right about now?"

Nicholas shrugged his arms and said, "Usually...but tonight I had something a little more entertaining to do."

Lily only rolled her eyes as she looked back at the very person who decided to tag along.

"You didn't have to do that. He was a nice guy," she said as she pushed by him. A tug on her arm brought her around and face planted into his chest.

"You only say that because of all the sickly sweet nothingness he whispered into your ear. You know nothing of love. And also you do not dismiss me. I dismiss you." He said the last part with an edge to his voice that revealed the anger he tried to hide.

She looked up into his red eyes and glared back at him. "That's the point of dating! You're supposed to feel out the person and see if there is anything there with that person! And you are not my father! I can do as I please and how dare you ruin my date! You have no reason to be mad with me! It was MY date. YOU decided to come along and scare my date half to death!" She tried to pull her arms out of his grasp, but his hold was like iron.

"That is the point of it, but you are too immature to know that not all love is good for you. Unfortunately, you go about attracting the most dangerous kind."

"What are you talking about? Nobody loves me and at this rate, no one ever will," she spat back at him as she struggled in his hold. That was when the Spirit had had enough of her foolishness and got completely in her face.

"Really now, Lily? Are you that blind? Everyone else can see what you can not. I can name all the people who love you, but you are so caught up in yourself that you can not see it. Only when you sit down and think about it, do you actually figure it out. Do not cry to me about being unloved until you look around at the people in your life. You are so caught up in being loved by someone that you can't even see the people who do love you." He backed his face away from her slightly but still enough to breathe the same air as she. His eyes crackled and popped with the angry fire stirring inside of him. Whatever she had said had hit a nerve.

"I will not apologize for what I did. And I will not explain my actions. Good night." He let go of her and let her drop to the floor as he walked away from her.

~~~~*~~~~*~~~~*~~~~*~~~~*~~~~*~~~~

'Back again in my redundant, boring, everyday life,' Lily mused. She was back at her usual job in the library checking out books in her usual nerdy clothes. 'This must be how Clark Kent feels when he's not fighting crime.' She gazed at the clock on her desk. 11:30 a.m. 'Almost time for break.'

The last person in line finally came up. She pasted on her professional smile but it broke the moment she saw who was smiling back at her. For the first time in her whole life, she witnessed Brandon Atreides smiling at her without mockery or cynical intent. She would've been fooled that it was genuine, if she had not known him for the past four years.

"What do you want?" she asked in a monotone voice.

"I'm just here to pick up Vanessa for lunch." He said not breaking the smile.

"You can wait for her at the front." Lily went back to doing her work on the computer, but Brandon still stood there. Lily rolled her eyes and decided to ignore him. He cleared hi throat to get her attention, but sh just ignored him.

"Lily?"

'What does this guy want?!'

She looked up from her computer monitor and looked at him.

"I just wanted to say that I'm sorry for the way I've treated you. I mean, I know the shit I've done wasn't cool, and I see that now." He licked his lips, thinking of what else to say. "I should've never made you feel less than you are. I apologize for all the things I've done and said to you recently. I apologize for what happened that night as well. I shouldn't have put my hands on you. I hope you can find it in your heart to forgive me and we can move on from this." His eyes looked at her almost desperate for her forgiveness, but Lily was not at that part to forgive. She was furious and ready to call him out on all the bullshit he's done. But she was at work, and she couldn't do that here.

"Brandon, I'm not forgive you because I don't believe you. You do not fool me for one minute. I'd sooner believe that I can win the lottery and then be struck by lightning twice in the same place and come back as a new person before I believe you would ever apologize to me because you actually feel sorry. So no, I do not accept it, and I'm done talking to you." She stood up from her desk and turned around to go look for something else to do when she caught sight of Vanessa casting a glare at her. She had heard everything, but Lily still turned out looking like the cold hearted bitch in the end.

She watched as Vanessa go up to Brandon and kiss him before walking off with him to the front door.

He opened the door for her as she walked out before he turned back around and gave her toothy smile. "Have a good evening, Lily."

Then he walked out the door, leaving Lily with more broken pieces to clean up.