Mine (Jenlisa)

twenty two.

Lisa's POV~

When I got back home, the house was quiet.

"Jennie?"

I called her name as I walked up to the bedroom stairs, holding the books I had picked up for her. Hopefully these were better, a couple of suspense novels, and a book of short stories. A bit more literary than the romances I had originally picked out.

"Sorry I took so long. I-"

I stopped in the doorway. My heart stopped too.

Jennie's head lolled to one side, grotesquely. Her eyes were closed.

The books dropped to the floor as I strode forward. The smell of urine hit me as I leaned over the bed.

"Jennie? Jennie!"

I shook her shoulder, but didn't move. Quickly I pressed my ear to her chest. My heart was pounding so hard that I can barely hear over it, but it was there. Her heartbeat. She isn't dead.

Stupid. Stupid to leave her chained up with no way to get to the bathroom. I needed locks on the outside of the bedroom door. I needed-

I need her to wake up.

Shaking, I untied the knots that bound her wrists. Her hands were limp and white, cool in the air. I rubbed her wrists with my thumbs, urging the circulation back into them.

"Jennie? You're okay Jennie. You're okay," I whispered the words like a chant, like a prayer. Had she fainted? I went into the bathroom and turned on the cold faucet in the bath. I took a washcloth and ran it under the stream of water. And ammonia- I can use an ammonia.

I fumbled through the cabinet, trying to find the inhalant. It would be a last resort. There it was, I tucked the bottle into my pocket.

I ran back out to the bed and pressed the washcloth on her forehead. Her lips fell apart, but there was no other sign of motion, just her breath, warm against my arm. The water dripped down her cheeks like tears. It turned her hair dark brown with moisture. "Jennie! Jennie!" I screamed desperately, choking on her name. Still she would not open her eyes.

This- this was my guilt, my true sin. All of my life, I had known that I was different. I did not care for others. I had a horrible urge to kill, to destroy. And now, through my own stupidity, I'd destroyed the one thing I'd come to care for.

"Please wake up kitten. Please."

My hands flitted over her body, squeezing her limbs as though that would bring her back from wherever she was. And in the back of my head, the shadow taunted me.

This is what you wanted.

"No," I said, "Jennie wake up."

This is the easiest way. Cut her up. Burn her. Like the others-

"No!" I howled the word so loudly that she must wake up, she must. The thought of taking an knife to her body made me as ill as I had been when I'd tried to cut my own wrist and it was with great effort that I suppressed that bile threatening to rise in my throat. But she slept on, unhearing.

The only noise in the room was the sound of water running from the bathroom.

"Come on," I said, I flung away the red ropes from her wrists. Carefully, I gathered her up into my arms, not caring about the wetness soaking her lower half.

The bath was shallow, a few inches of water. The rush of the cold water filled my ears. I have no hope. In my arms, I thought I already carried a dead woman.

I knelt down, "Please," I whispered, not knowing who I whispered to. Supporting her neck with my arm, I lowered her into the cold bath. I picked up the ammonia inhalant, pressed it under her nose.