It's Raining Blood and Revenge

····The Goth····

····The Goth····

I'm sure you wouldn't want to be looking at your own corpse, don't 'cha, Damian?

I was sitting at least three tables away from Damian and Mallory when I read his lips. He had freakishly strange facial expressions, like he had on a mask everywhere and blank eyes that even I couldn't see past through. But I could read his lips, and it wasn't good. I panicked and stood up to go find Charlie, but I stopped. There was no more Charlie. And it was my fault.

····Flashback····

"Don't tell me you think I'm the murderer. I was at home, texting you, wasn't I?" Charlie asked with her arms crossed. She didn't look me in the eye, though it was understandable. There were tear marks across her cheeks and I suddenly felt really guilty.

"That's not it, Charlie. Trust me, I know for a fact that you're not the murderer. I just..." I said. I don't know what going to happen to you in a place like this, especially when you're all alone. I wanted to say, but I kept my mouth shut. Damn, that would be embarrassing.

"Just what? You don't trust me?" she snapped. I shook my head and stepped closer.

"You know I care about you, a lot. And I just... don't want anything happening to you." I said in my most calming voice. Charlie paused and bit her lip in thought.

"I'm not a kid anymore."

"Yeah. Yeah, I can see that."

"I know what I'm doing and I don't need your help! This is something only I can do!" she argued back. I squinted my eyes at her. What was she going on about? Did something happen at home?

"What's wrong, Charlie? Why are you--" I was cut off when Charlie glared at me with teary eyes. I felt a lump in my throat.

"Jeez, you're so persistent!" she screamed at me. I clenched my fists. Why was she raising her voice? There were other people in this house and she was just screaming at the top of her lungs. "You don't get it... You just don't get it, do you, Jason?! Why can't you understand?! I can do this thing alone, okay? I don't need any of your help!"

"No, you can't. You can't do this alone," I said. Charlie bit her tongue and narrowed her eyes at me. "Do you think you could've gotten rid of Davey without the help of Mallory? How do you expect to get first hand witnesses if you didn't know Jeffrey? Do you think you could've gotten background information about Sylvester without Winter? Do you think you would've known where Audrey was before Damian told you?" I paused and placed my hand over my heart. It was beating; very hard and powerful, but it wasn't that fast. Was I calm? Or mad? Or maybe both. "And I don't think I would've ever met Iris if it weren't for you."

Charlie's face softened for a second, then it turned firm again. I frowned. Nothing was getting past this PMS firewall. She shook her head vigorously and crossed her arms.

"You don't know anything!"

"Yeah, I don't," I said with a frown. She looked up guiltily. "I'm pretty useless in this whole detective shit or whatever and the only thing I did was save Mallory, which honestly, in my opinion wasn't heroic," I said. If it were you, Charlie... if I saved you, then it'd feel like I was the best super hero ever. I thought. "My point is, you don't have to use me if you don't want to. I mean, I'm pretty much dead weight..." My voice cracked. I felt so lonely. Just the thought of not being able to talk with these 'friends' of mine was scary. Especially Charlie. I wanted to stay with her... I wanted to be with her and finish this thing together so that maybe... just maybe, after all this bullshit is over, I could look forward to a real future.