Invitation to a Better Life (Death Comes in All Colors Part Seven) (standard:drama, 3056 words) [7/8] show all parts
Author: Siobhan	Added: Oct 01 2002	Views/Reads: 2410/1735	Part vote: 0.00 (0 votes)
Jessica hs a diconcerning dream and wakes up to remember Joey and his friends are in trouble. She arrives only in time to watch them die a rather hideous death.

Click here to read the first 75 lines of the story

black stood before them.  Jessica had no fear, in fact, she was 
completely comfortable and welcomed the new but strangely old location. 


“Hi Jessie,” Steven smiled from one of the dancing flames.  He was still
in the real world, looking like he truly cared about her, while Jessica 
came to the realization that she was a demon.  She reached out with a 
clawed hand and ripped his throat out. She licked each of her blood 
covered fingers, savoring the lucious flavor.  Then she saw Joey and 
his friends falling down into a dark hole, screams floating up and 
their looks of terror haunting her.  Their pained expressions hit her 
like a load of bricks and she knew that this was not right.  She would 
forever see their agonized faces and hear their tortured screams.  She 
had to know why this was happening. 

“What have you done?” she begged Brandon for the knowledge but he only
smiled contentedly.  He didn't care, he had never cared, it had always 
been about making himself happy.  She knew that but she still wanted 
him to tell her things that she was sure that even he did not know. 

“Brandon, tell me,” she slapped him and he looked at her without really
looking at her.  His blue eyes, which had been so full of sparks, were 
dark, bottomless pits of fathomless blue, holding no answers and 
revealing no soul.  She shivered in spite of the tongues of flame 
lapping hungrily at invisible fuel around them. 

His voice was lazy and empty, “I got rid of the nobodies.” 

“How?  Why?” she was miserable when only moments ago, she had been
happy.  She couldn't understand all of what was going on.  Her friends 
were not nobodies to her and why would he get rid of them.  They were 
important to her, even though they took away from him.  Did he mean he 
had killed them or had just chased them away from her?  If he had 
chased them away, Joey would come back, she had no doubt in that.  But 
if he had killed them, she didn't want think about that.  It was just 
too horrible a thought. 

“You know Jessica, you know.  I've given you all the answers, you just
refuse to believe them,” he smiled and her face crinkled into 
confusion.  Had he told her?  Had she just forgotten the information? 
Or was it all laid out for her to seen and figure out? 

Suddenly a pure and sweet voice cried out from a flame, “Jessica!?” She
turned and saw her mother, her face twisted in agony, reaching for her. 
 It was a sight, that though she was in pain, thrilled Jessica and 
warmed her body because her mommy was there.  Her mom would make 
everything better and would chase away all the monsters and bad guys.  
She had all the faith in the world that her mother could right the 
wrongs and protect her from Brandon and his evil ways. 

“Mom?  Why are you here?” she asked, and she hugged her mother who was
flinching from another headache.  She wanted her mom to help her but 
she didn't belong in hell.  She was too good of a human being, she was 
one of the most wonderful people she knew.  She should, if anything, be 
in Heaven, guiding people through life and making the world a better 
place from her celestial perch. 

“You've got to help me, make the pain end.  You know what to do,” her
mother sobbed and began clutching her head, “Get it out of me!  The 
damn thing is killing me, Jessica, please, destroy it.  I can't take it 
anymore.”  Her mother dropped to her knees and began banging her head 
upon the floor.  It was beyond frightening to see her mother acting in 
such a manner and she had to stop her.  She couldn't handle the way her 
mom was acting, her mom was supposed to save her, keep the bad things 
from getting her.  Not the other way around. 

“Mom, please quit it.  You've got to stop before you hurt yourself,” she
pleaded, now crying hysterical and pulling frantically at her mother's 
sleeve.  She couldn't pull her up, she found she was weak and her mom 
was too strong.  It was terrible and she shrieked in protest, desperate 
to her mom to be safe and to rescue her. 

“Jessica, make it stop,” her mother howled.  Rhonda walked up behind
Jessica's mother and placed her hands on either side of her mother's 
face.  A cold feeling of fear settled in the pit of Jessica's stomach.  
She knew that something bad was about to happen, something that was 
wrong in every aspect.  She wanted to stop it but she felt as if she 
couldn't move. 

“You're too chicken to do this,” she chuckled and with a sickening
crack, snapped her neck, but Jessica found that she was really Rhonda 
and Rhonda was watching her kill her mother.  Guilt and horror flooded 
her body, blurring her vision for a moment.  She could feel her 
mother's warm skin beginning to cool beneath her fingertips and she 
began to feel sick to her stomach. 

“Oh God, what have I done?” Jessica let out a sickened wail and suddenly
all of Brandon's group were there, laughing at her and licking their 
lips.  Brandon opened his mouth and it was really a snout, full of 
dagger teeth, ready to rip and rend the flesh.  He extended his hand to 
her, as if inviting her to join him in his dance of death.  She felt 
herself being drawn to him even though she wanted to run.  It was as if 
she had no control over herself and she knew she was going to die. 

Jessica woke up with a start, sweat soaking her body.    A dull pain
thudded behind her eyes and her neck seemed to burn.  She staggered out 
of bed, ran into the doorframe, and half fell, half drug herself down 
the stairs.  She took two aspirin and lounged lazily on the couch.  She 
was zoned out on the television when a nagging feeling that she was 
forgetting something important whelmed her sense.  Brandon's face 
loomed in her mind, but behind him she saw Rhonda asking Joey to a 
party. . . to a party tonight and she needed to stop him from going. 

She leapt from the couch with a start and raced upstairs.  She threw on
a pair of old jeans and a lumpy sweatshirt.  She raced out the door and 
jumped into her truck. She prayed that she wasn't to late, that she 
would come in time to save her friends from the biggest mistake of 
their lives.  She flew down the road to Brandon's house and parked her 
truck with a squeal of tires.  There were no other vehicles on the road 
nor in driveway.  She raced up the walkway to the door and pounded upon 
it's wooden strength.  Sickly boy answered it and looked surprised to 
see her.  She pushed him aside and ran down the stairs.  Brandon was 
sitting coolly in a chair, talking to Rhonda and Jonathon.   They all 
looked shocked to see her. 

“Where are they?” she breathed out, a sense of urgency blinding her
momentarily.  She got the terrible feeling that she was already too 
late, that perhaps her friends were dead even as she was talking. 

“Where are who?” Rhonda asked innocently, though her eyes glittered with
her tainted knowledge.  Brandon looked amused by everything and calmly 
crossed his arms over his chest.  They were playing mind tricks with 
her and she wasn't going to take it.  Lives were on the line and their 
games were not worth those lives. 

“Don't play games, where are they?” she repeated, holding Brandon's eyes
steady with her own, and the fear that something was terribly wrong 
grew even stronger.  He never blinked, never looked away, just wore an 
evil smirk that said he knew so much but was going to reveal very 
little. 

“Do you mean your other friends?  They already left, they were quite
drunk when they drove off.  I can't even begin to imagine how they'll 
drive home but they fought off our helpful hints,” Brandon explained 
smugly and Jessica began to hyperventilate.  What had Brandon done to 
them?  Were they really drunk or had he done something to them?  He had 
to have done something to them and she knew that he had created their 
death sentences. 

She ran back up the stairs and sickly boy had the door open for her. 
She jumped in her truck and began speeding in the direction of the 
school.  She had no clue as to why she was heading this direction but 
her gut feeling was to keep heading in it.  She followed her instincts, 
keeping her foot pressed to the floor on the gas pedal and prayed that 
no cops showed up behind her.  A few minutes later, she came upon a 
Suburban that was weaving to and fro.  The driver was speeding way too 
fast and the SUV seemed to be jerked around by a giant hand.  She was 
wondering how she was going to stop them when suddenly the driver lost 
control.  Jessica felt her heart stop for she knew that on the other 
side of the road was a very thick cement wall. 

It was like a slow motion dance that occurred and had been waiting for
her, the audience, to show up and witness the horrible macabre ending 
that was about to come true.  She gripped her steering wheel so tight 
that later on, she would discover she had bruised her palms but for the 
moment, she watched as all hell broke out for the occupants of that 
car. 

The tires screeched in protest at the punishment and the huge Suburban
began to spin and flip in one moment.  The car rolled with the sound of 
broken glass and the scream of metal and then it flipped with a heavy 
thud back into it's wheels.  It tottered again and this time it smashed 
resoundingly into the cement wall.  Smoke poured out of the engine 
compartment and a limp hand was hanging out of the window, blood lazily 
trickling down the fingertips. Nothing moved and it seemed as if an 
eternity had just happened, even though it had only been a few seconds. 


Jessica's throat ached from the amount of screaming she had put forth
and she had narrowly avoided flipping herself when she stomped upon her 
breaks.  Now, she threw open her door and launched out as if she were 
superwoman.  The closer she got, the more she could smell and her 
stomach curdled at the scent.  The smell of burnt rubber and smoke hung 
heavy in the air, but something richer and more coppery, like blood and 
death, clung stubbornly below it.  Jessica was hesitant to approach the 
totaled vehicle because she could see a tongue of fire licking it's way 
towards the gas tank but she had to check and see if anyone was alive.  
Little hope remained in her that anyone could have made it through, but 
maybe, just perhaps, someone was lucky. 

It seemed like hours before she reached the car, but in reality it was
only a few seconds.  When she got there, she knew that there was nobody 
alive but she had to look anyway.  The first person she saw was Joey, 
his eyes wide and unseeing, blood pooling into one eye from a gash 
across his forehead.  The steering wheel had gone through him and the 
roof was pressing in upon his skull.  Jessica let out a slight gasp of 
air that was as close to a scream as she could get.  She turned around 
and ran, she couldn't look any further.  She knew that as long as she 
lived, she would never forget his face in the rigid horror of death.  
She jumped into her car and with a roar of wheels against pavement, she 
raced away.  She was about a half a mile away when she heard a loud 
explosion and knew the fire had reached the gas tank. 

Finally, she pulled to the side of the road, tumbled out into the grass
and weeds that greeted her, and retched her guts into the soil.  Tears 
streamed down her face and she wanted to shriek but everything seemed 
trapped inside her.  Her voice seemed to constrict inside her throat 
and the image of Josh floated in front of her.  She puked again then 
crawled to her rear end wheel.  She shakingly leaned against it and her 
hands were curled into tight fists besides her.  She could feel her 
nails biting into her flesh and the trickled of the blood against her 
palm, but the pain and the action did not register.  All she knew was 
that it was her fault that Josh and his friends burned in a metal 
coffin. 

The sirens wailed a hypnotic song of mourning that awoke Jessica out of
her stupor, kind of.  She got up, still in a trance and climbed into 
her truck.  She didn't remember how but she made it to her home and 
tumbled into her bed.  No logical thoughts flashed across her mind, 
only the most intense grief, guilt, and anger that she had ever known 
filled her and it was exhausting.  She was asleep the moment her head 
touched the pillow. 


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