jephahoward Blog and Journals

Jepha’s POV

“DON’T YOU WALK AWAY FROM ME, MICHAEL!”

The unforgettable screech of Jessie screaming at Mikey is enough to wake me up from my deep sleep. She and Mikey have been fighting a lot lately. But never this early in the morning. They usually wait till at least midday to start their screaming matches. Something about today must be different.

“Are they fighting again?” Emmy asks from beside me as she rolls over to face me.

“Yeah, sounds like it.” I answer as I drape my arm across her waist.

“I can’t cope with this for much longer. It just doesn’t…feel right.”

“What do you mean, baby?” I frown as she snuggles closer into my body.

“It’s just…things around Jessie at the moment are…different. I can’t put my finger on it and somehow she’s blocking both mine and Quinn’s ability to read her thoughts. I’ve asked him and he can’t glean anything from her either.” She frowns as she finishes.

“But you still have an uneasy feeling?”

“Yeah, something about her just doesn’t sit right.”

If Emmy can sense it then there is something amiss, then who am I to ignore that? Her abilities have only increased since our time in the house. The close confines and isolation have forced us all to focus our energies into our powers. Into controlling them, focusing them.

Emmy has been able to focus her powers in a way that none of us has been able to achieve. She’s grown stronger physically, psychologically and emotionally…this only makes her abilities that much sharper and more powerful.

“We should get up baby.” Emmy mumbles as she nuzzles into my bare chest, running her fingers gently over the tattooed skin.

“I know. But I just want to lay with you for a bit longer.” I answer quietly, feeling her smile into my chest.

I can’t even begin to imagine my life without Emmy. I don’t know if it’s too soon to say its love, but that’s what it feels like. From the second I met her those few weeks ago, I felt a connection with her. Something that I haven’t been able to understand or explain. That connection has only been getting stronger, to the point where I can feel her. I feel her emotions, her power, I feel…her. There’s no other way to describe it. If this is only a small fraction of what she feels on a daily basis I don’t think I would be able to function the way she can.

“What are you thinking about, baby?” Emmy asks, her head not moving from its position above my heart.

“You. Me. Us.”

“Why are you thinking about that?” she replies and lifts her head to look into my eyes.

I take the time to simply fall into those blue eyes that I love so much. A fiery lock falls in her face, begging me to tuck it behind her ear, and who am I to deny that?! I allow my fingertips to linger on the soft skin of her forehead, feeling the tingle flow through my body as our skin touches.

Perfection. I’m staring perfection in the face right now. What did I do to deserve such perfection in my life?

“It’s just…I love you so much. I was just thinking about all we’ve been through, how perfect you are.” I answered in a hushed tone.

I watch as the inevitable smile graces her beautiful lips.

“Oh baby. I love you too…more than words can convey.” She answers and moves to kiss my lips softly.

I lose myself every time I kiss her and this time is no different. It’s like kissing an angel; an angel I’m not worthy of…

“PISS OFF MIKEY OR SO HELP ME GOD…”

“Argh. What is the go with those two? I wish they would just break up or something already.” I mutter exasperatedly.

“Baby…as awful as that sounds…I couldn’t agree more.” Emmy answers as she pulls herself out of bed, not neglecting to kiss my chest once more, and dressing herself in her pleated, polka dot mini skirt and tight fitting Linkin Park t-shirt.

God, that skirt brings back memories. Our first time having sex, our first time together as a couple, the first time I realised how special she was, the first time I told her I loved her and unfortunately the time I nearly lost her to her bastard ex-boyfriend.

“Jepha are you going to get dressed or just lay there and stare at me?” Emmy smirks pulling me from my thoughts once again.

I quickly dress before grabbing hold of Emmy’s hand and dragging her down the stairs with me and heading to the kitchen…

“I wouldn’t go in there if I were you.” A voice calls as we pass the lounge.

Slowly, we back away from the kitchen and enter the lounge to see everyone in the house, excluding Jessie and Mikey, scattered around the room looking sleep deprived and annoyed.

“They’re in there aren’t they?” Emmy sighs.

“yeah.” Growls Gerard.

“Did you make sure they don’t have any deadly objects at their disposal?” I mutter to a smattering of laughs.

I sit on the lounge next to Dan, Emmy situated on my lap, and look around the room. It’s a large room with large windows on two of the outward facing walls, all hidden by dark, heavy drapes shielding us all from the world outside. The room is large enough for three three-seater lounges and three two-seaters, all placed in a manner that creates a C shape. In front of the lounges is a large plasma TV mounted to the wall.

That TV has been our only view of the outside world in a long time. The house’s pantry is well stocked and we’ve had no need to go into town. However, the lack of contact with those on the other side of these walls is enough to make a person go insane. The only thing keeping me sane in this place is Emmy. She’s my life now. Forget the band and the music. She’s the one thing that keeps me going. More than that. We’re all family now. We’re in this together.

A cry from the kitchen made all those in the room jump. The cry was quickly followed by the sound of running footsteps, something dropping to the floor with a ‘clunk’ and finally the slamming of a door upstairs. We quickly made our way to the kitchen to see what had happened only to find Mikey on the floor in the hallway with a deep gash across his arm, blood flowing freely from the open wound. Nearby lay a bloody knife on the floor. Gerard quickly made his way to his brother, holding the wound tightly.

“God, Mikey, what happened?” Gerard asked in shock.

“Jessie…attacked me.” Mikey answered in a daze.

“Where is she?” Emmy asked out of nowhere.

I turned to face her and saw a new look in her eyes, almost like realisation. If she were a cartoon I’m sure a light bulb would have lit up above her head.

“I think she went up to our room.” Mikey answered.

As Emmy turned towards the stairs I grabbed hold of her arm, worried about what she would do.

“What are you doing? What’s going on, babe?” I asked.

“Something’s wrong. I can feel it. For once I feel like I can sense Jessie’s emotions. I can feel immense anger and strong hate along with a strange feeling of delight. I have to find out what’s going on with her once and for all while I can take advantage of whatever stroke of luck I’ve been granted.” She answered, placing a soft kiss on my lips to assure me that she would be safe and continued on her way up the stairs.

I watched after her, hoping with everything in me that she would be alright. After what Jessie just did to Mikey I’m sure she is capable of anything.

Emmy’s POV

I made my way up the stairs, not entirely sure of what I would find when I reached my destination. The feeling that I had experienced downstairs had only gotten stronger as I approached the door. I moved myself closer to the door and held my ear to it to overhear what was going on inside. To my surprise I heard a conversation, or at least one side of it, obviously she was on the phone.

“I know…yes, I understand…no, I’m afraid my cover’s been blown…I’m pretty sure…they’ve all been acting different around me and Mikey keeps asking questions…no, I think now is the right time…ok…yeah…I love you too, baby…oh, and Keane…be careful, you know how tight this lot are…ok…bye.”

I quickly made my way down the stairs back to the group to share what I had overheard. The mere mention of Keane’s name was enough to make fear course through my system. How could she do that to us? She said she loved Keane. My stomach turned as I realised that she had been playing us since before her and I had even met.

As I reached the others I quickly latched on to Jepha, wrapping my arms tightly around his body as if afraid that without the contact I would be dragged back to that life of fear and pain, or worse, dragged to a life of experimentation and imprisonment.

“What is it?” Jepha asked as he encircled his arms around me.

“It’s Jessie. I knew something was wrong.” I answered making everyone look over at me questioningly, “I overheard her on the phone. She was talking to Keane. She’s a traitor and worse. She…she’s Keane’s girlfriend.” I replied to their silent questions.

Mikey’s face dropped at the last sentence. I would not have liked to have been in that situation, to realise that you were just a tool to meet an agenda.

“So, I guess my secret’s out then.” A harsh voice said behind us.

We all turned to see Jessie walking down the stairs, gun in hand and aiming at the group. Instantly, fear struck through the group to the point where it was almost too much for me to handle.

Jessie continued on her way down and quickly grabbed hold of Jess, spinning her around so that she was facing us with her arm wrapped around her throat and the gun to her temple. Clara started to cry at the sight of her big sister held hostage.

“Now here’s the deal. We’re all going to be nice and calm while we wait for Keane to get here. No heroics. Got it? And don’t think I’m afraid to use this thing.” Jessie said while waving the gun around and returning it to its place against Jess’ temple.

“Jessie, please don’t do…” Topaz started moving forward.

Within half a second Jessie had removed the hand gun from Jess’ head and aimed at Topaz, pulling the trigger and hitting her right between the eyes before putting the gun back to its original position.

Topaz lay lifeless on the floor in front of us, blood pooling around her head in a grotesque halo. Skull and brain fragments lay around her limp form removing any hope that Dan would be able to heal her of her wounds.

“Let that be a lesson to all of you.” Jessie sneered.

Emmy, I can get away from her just stay back.

Jess’ thoughts echoed around my head and before I had a chance to stop her she elbowed Jessie in the stomach in a rash attempt to escape. Jessie quickly regained her balance, levelling the pistol to aim at Jess for the final time and pulling the trigger.

As if in slow motion, the bullet shot straight through her chest cavity and sent her flying backwards to land, sprawled on the floor alongside Topaz. Mia, Clara and I sprang together as Clara screamed after seeing her own sister shot. Dan went to move towards her to heal her only to be stopped by the barrel of the gun being aimed squarely at his head.

“You try to heal her and you go down too.” Jessie screamed at him.

I looked over at Gerard, still kneeling by his brother, to see tears streaking down his face. Suddenly, I felt his emotions switch from sadness to anger. His eyes darted from mine to the knife that lay abandoned on the floor in front of him. He looked at me again and I simply nodded my head in understanding. Slowly, as not to attract attention to himself, he picked up the knife and started to stand himself up.

“Jessie, please, why are you doing this? Haven’t we been good to you?” I asked, not really caring about the answer but wanting her full attention on me.

“Good to me? Yes. But what about Keane? You were an absolute bitch to him. I love him and I will do anything for him. Plus working for Ian isn’t half bad. The pay’s good and at least Keane and I can carry out our own agenda h…” Jessie gasped as the cold, bloody blade of the knife pressed firmly against her throat from behind.

“You betrayed my brother, you hurt my brother, you’re a traitor and you killed the woman I loved. Payback’s a bitch.” Gerard seethed as he pulled the knife across Jessie’s throat.

Arterial spray from the cut jugular vein and carotid artery covered the area. Jessie clutched at her throat as more blood began to poor from the open wound. Before long so much blood had spilled from her neck that she collapsed on the floor, dead.

I looked around and realised that by now we were all covered in blood, a mixture of all three of the bodies in front of us.

“Dan, can you help Jess?” Mia asked timidly as if afraid that she would have no voice.

“No. It doesn’t work that way. She was hit in the heart. If the heart or brain are damaged there’s nothing I can do to help.” Dan answered quietly with a look of sorrow on his face.

“We need to move.” Sonny suddenly said.

“Why?” asked Bert.

“They’re nearly here. I know of a place where we’ll be safe.” Sonny answered before making his way to Jared to tell him the location that we were to teleport to.

Jepha come to us and wrapped Mia, Clara and I in a warm hug. I let the tears leak down my cheeks silently. I needed to be strong for the girls now, needed to control my emotions. But with Jepha with me I knew that I would be able to be strong for them.

“Ok guys, you know the deal. We’ll form a circle around the Snow girls and hold onto each other. It’s time to go.” Jared announced.

We formed our group and made ready to leave everything behind again, only this time we were leaving two of us behind along with all of our processions, one of the guys had somehow managed to round up all of the cell phones and laptops in the house, for safety reasons and to keep as much from our pursuers as possible.

As we readied to leave the door burst open and a group of about 10 people stormed through the door followed by Keane. Anger bubbled in the pit of my stomach as the person that was the reason for my sister’s death stood before me.

“Stop them!” Keane screeched.

One of his henchmen launched at us, grabbing hold of Jared just as we begin to teleport, the world around us blackening for an instant before we find ourselves standing in an abandoned house.

We check that everyone is ok and with us only to find that we have someone else with us. Someone that could be a danger to us.