Teen Idols And Happy Meals

Cookie Dough And Horror Stories

Jacen’s POV

Time didn’t pass in the cabin. The sun rose and set outside the window, and the hands on the clock moved, but nothing changed. It was a nightmare – the kind where you run and run but never get anywhere. No matter what I did, I was damned to relive the same day over and over again. It was hell.

And I knew a thing or two about hell. Anyone who ever met my mother could confirm that, but this was a million times worse than any family dinner or publicity event. Eleanor’s cabin was a special hell for me, not because of the pain, but because of Nikki.

My injuries were superficial. Not really of course; I knew logically that they were rather serious. But my screaming ribs and bloodied wrist ranked low on my list of priorities. Nikki, as always, was at the top of that list. Seeing her there, curled and cold in the corner, with dried blood caking her forehead and a chain around her ankle – it killed me. That feeling of helplessness hurt more than any broken rib. The guilt stung more than any bruise.

It was my fault she was here. If it wasn’t for me, Nikki would have lived the life she was meant to have; happy, normal, safe. By loving her, I had robbed her of that life. And by letting herself love me back, she had entangled herself into a never ending web of invisible spiders.

“How are you doing?”

Of course Nikki, saint that she was, was only concerned about me. “Alright,” I replied roughly. My voice was dry with dehydration, my forehead hot with fever. I was a wreck, and I knew it, but I’d never admit it.

Nikki didn’t need an admission to know the truth though. “You can’t keep this up much longer Jacen,” she admonished tiredly. “It’s been four days. You’ve barely drank anything, you haven’t eaten. You’re making yourself sicker.”

“Better sick than drugged,” I replied darkly. “God only knows what she’s been giving me.”

Nikki sighed. I knew I was exhausting her. I was exhausting myself. “Why do you choose now to become a poster boy for clean living?” she lamented warily. “You never cared about what you put in your body before. What’s changed?”

Everything. Nothing. It was hard to decide. “I don’t know,” I admitted. It was difficult to sort through my thoughts given the blinding pain that flashed behind my lids every time I blinked. “I just – I can’t stand being helpless anymore. It’s scary, not having control. I used to find it freeing – just letting go like that, but not anymore. There’s too much at stake.”

Nikki’s eyes, beneath the tangled strands of dark hair, were gold and clear with empathy. As always, Nikki was able to understand things about me I didn’t quite understand myself.

“We’re going to get out of this,” she vowed. There was a steeliness to her voice, to her gaze. Her tiny hands were clenched into bone white fists in her laps. Nikki had always been capable of great intensity. When something she loved was on the line, there was nothing she wouldn’t do.  I thought of the perfume bottle she’d decked Eleanor with. There was no doubt – Nikki aimed to kill.

“I know we are,” I said, though I wasn’t nearly as optimistic. The pain and the fever were taking their toll and if it wasn’t for Nikki, I might have already given up. Nothing was going to stop me from saving her though.

A gentle knocking sounded then, followed by the door opening. I didn’t have to wonder who it was. Ina beat, Eleanor appeared in the orange glow emanating from the frosted window. It was sunset – again. Another day in hell was ending so that the next could begin.

“Jacen,” she said tentatively as she entered. She was wearing a heavy flannel shirt and workman’s boots. Not a particularly feminine look, though perhaps the flower on her beanie was intended to girl it up. If so, it wasn’t doing a good job. “I brought you ice cream.”