528last chapter. dont kill me for this one, guys, & if you reckon there are still loose ends, please point them out!
suicide-girl: lol! for some reason, i don't think i kan imagine jason becoming a daddy. as for your first question, you'll know by the end of this chapter.
Gilraen Acramenel: weeee. yep, the water thing was intentional. it's great that you pointed it out! haha. the torch thingie took me ages to come out with, 'cause i wanted her to hav some sort of intellectual escape. -giggle. i've just seen too mani thrillers. dumdum.
bribeluga: awww. this soon enough for you?
Sailor Loon: yay! glad you liked it. a ton of people reckoned that inkara was actualli normal. so meh. had to rectify that one. yeah, she onli beat jason 'cause of all the water slowing them down. & 'cause he was being a lil cocki. otherwise, truthfulli, she didn't realli stand a chance against him. she was just lucki. heh.
RedBerries: ooo, yay! iheart long reviews. haha, thanks for zee compliment.
toxic-noodle725: a ton of ppl reckoned it was the end of the stori. mm. but there's still a bit that i need to wrap up.
lameosaur: awww. thanks a ton! i doubt i'm that great. heh.
Death princess: yeah. don't get comfortable yet, babe.
Em Wolf: aww, thankyou. your review was realli loveli & it made me feel a ton better. i realli appreciate it & hope you like the chapter!
Jmarit17: thanks a ton for ur review. um um, as for ur question, im so glad you brought that up 'cause it ties into something that im gonna explain at the bottom & it's a good example to use. so i've got a note at the bottom going into that. um, i hope it's ohk but im gonna paste a lil bit of ur review to get the point across. heh.
Camisado: thankyou!
Winged Shadow: um, yupperz. killed zem both. as for jason... we will see.
aiur: -pout. it is all the master plan, my child. haha, iono about the whole length thing. mm. truth is i dont realli hav anything left to say with it, so i dont realli want to go into everything too much because everything that's meant to be said alreadi realli has. ick. if that makes any sense. haha but im definiteli gonna go bak & rewrite the last chap. mmm. it kame out grittay. guess it's cause its been so long since ive wrote action. meh.
VampGurl99: weee. hehe. long reviews equal long responses! ugh, yeah. comps are biatches. the ending to this is... iono. it's up to you to make ur own judgement. as for the chap, meh, the action did suck a lil. heh. it's been ages since ive written something like that. mmm. i'll definiteli go bak and rewrite it, tho. sometime in the future when my head's more clear on this. haha, i remember that bit. that film was awesome. i havent seen the second one, tho, but everyone says it good. iono. sequels usualli suck in comparison to the first. but i'll probabli check it out eventualli. i'm quite picki, tho. mm. HIM & rasmus? where are they from? heh. i dont actualli hav a clue 'cause im dumb like that. right now im not reallirealli into those two. i hav my timings. iheart the killing loneliness vid, tho. he looks so hot in it... heh. &, nah, my life sucks so i dont realli go to concerts. & i onli just turned 15, so my mom's all in the stage. ugh. ooo. siobhan's an irish name? coolios. you teach me tons in ur reviews. lol.
anon: lol! ur jason hatred makes me giggle. yeah, the fam is pretti effed. wich is why jason's all wacki. & tom's got his moments, too. but it's more ambiguous with him.
Creative Destruction: awww, thanks for the support! -huggles. um. as for the tom thing. heh. we shall see...
Kelli: oh, angst on you. ah missed you to mah lil ho-bag. onli, where did you go? -shocked. haha. ur a funni kid. all the funni ness of throwing urself into the review at everi possible moment. -slaps on bak. you funni kid, you. ugh, you would want them to drown together. you psycho. po lil j.
Gin:ginny-buns ah wuv you mah lil fruitcake. -tackles. meh, if u were a lil more manli i might consider making you one of my suitors. that review bought my hurt. be bought. mugh, i alreadi told you i'm not gonna giv u an awesomeli long response. 'cause my fingers hurt. & im a tired lazi arse. pugh. & 'cause u want me to update. sticks out tongue-
Catharsis
25
Wind, carvings and the time for her return
Wind rushed past me. Strands of hair rose, fell. The room was still so cold.
Hot breath touched my cheek. "Cold?" he kissed my cheek and I could feel the skin heat up. "It is pretty cold," he agreed. The water lashed us from behind, pushed at our forms, but his grip was firm; we didn't budge.
Around me, the hangings from his bed were fluttering like wings outstretched, ready to fly. I looked to his shelf and Bun-bun stared back at me, one eye torn out. I looked past Bun-bun, to the painting of Celine. She had been such a pretty girl. If she had lived, she would have been even prettier.
I pushed back the thoughts. The only way to get over things was to push them back, to forget them. And to forget, first you had to face them. That's what everyone said. It was meant to be the only way. This would probably be my last chance to come to his room, anyway.
After everything that had happened, the police had become involved and the Headmaster had been arrested. As for everything about Jason, I had been the one who had had to tell them. I wasn't sure if they believed me or not ––whether they did or not was up to them. They probably suspected that I was involved somehow. All proof of everything had been washed away, though. At least, I expected it had been. They were going to clear it up later in the day. They only had my word to hold onto. And the Headmaster's, too.
I ran a hand over Jason's now empty shelf. They were going to clean out his room today, too.
"Well…" he paused, then breathed into my ear, tingling the skin. "I like you, a lot. And that time we went horse-riding and you got drenched…the way he was gawking at you…no one looks at the girl I like like that."
"That's sweet." I informed him.
"I am sweet."
"Shut-up."
I gripped the shelf tighter, suddenly, my knuckles shining a stark white. I took in a deep breath, tried to level my breathing. It was okay. I was okay. Everything was okay. From behind me, I heard the door open.
Whoever was there wavered for a moment and I calmed my expression. I couldn't let them see.
"It's nearly time to go down," Tom finally said, unsure. "Are you coming?"
I turned around, forced a smile. "I'll be down in a moment. You guys go ahead."
He seemed to hesitate for a moment, then shrugged and left. I felt guilty, because part of me had wished he had been Jason. But Jason's gone, I reminded myself. And that's a good thing.
It was. I knew it was. But there had been good times, too. Before those last few days everything had been so perfect, so secure. I missed that. My fingers trickled over the shelf once more, feeling the dusty wood. Then I stopped, abruptly. There was something hidden, lurking in the shadows.
The bird cage rattled against the wall, the only sound to be heard. I reached for whatever it was, suddenly remembering.
There was a glint of wood beside Bun-bun, hidden so thatit could barely be seen. It was probably the fourth carving he had been doing in the art lesson, the one he hadn't shown me. I reached for it and his hand stopped mine, abruptly.
"Don't," he gritted out, "be so nosy. You get to see it when it's finished."
I reached for it, pulled it out and blew off the dust. What I saw made my stomach lurch, clench. It was a carving of a boy and a girl. The boy had his arms around the girl's waist, holding her securely, and sprouting from her back were wings. Angel wings. It was unfinished, though. He hadn't carved in their faces yet.
I set it down on the shelf, hands trembling. They looked so much like…But were they? I touched it again, picked it up and let my fingers run over the wood. Warily, I cast my gaze around the room, as if checking for something. It wouldn't really make a difference if I… No. I slipped it into my bag, zipped it up. Looking at that carving brought forward a new torrent of emotions. What they were, I wasn't quite sure. But for some reason, it made me feel…relieved.
The wind whipped past my ears. It was cold, especially since there wasn't much hair to shield the skin around my neck anymore. It would grow back, though. My hair grew back fairly quickly. As for whether or not I was going to have it that long again, I wasn't quite sure. Would it bring back the memories? Did I even want to remember? Because I was going to go back home now. I was going to start again, away from the boarding school, away from everything. The school would probably close down anyway. What with everything that had just happened. Who would want to send their children to somewhere with such a dangerous history?
The fingers tightened over my waist again, pulled me to the mirror and swerved me around to face it. Head bent, he nudged my lobe and whispered, softly, into my ear. "It goes with your hair, don't you think?"
I moved a hand to my ear, eased it out gently, careful not to prick myself.
"Where did you get it?"
"I love your hair," he added, nuzzling it again. "It's so…dark."
Which brought me thinking about the Layrenna story. After coming back, I had looked it up. Looked up the real ending. It left a sickened feeling in my gut ––it was something I just didn't want to think about. Co-incidentally, my bedroom had been Layrenna's too, which was why the passage way was outside of it. And the chest had been in it. I was planning to burn that chest.
I moved to the window, gazed out over the trees. The red mountain was a distant peak, silhouetted against the landscape. The teachers had arrived not long after I'd escaped and found me unconscious, then taken me back to the school. My first escape attempt, the burning tree, had sent smoke careening into the air and they had taken that as a signal ––realised that that was where we were. If it hadn't have been for that smoke, they might not have come for another few days.
If they had left it for a few more days, I would have died. The thought sent shivers down my spine.
Before we had left to go to the red mountain, Jason had left some sort of note for the Headmaster telling him to come meet us there and if he did, he would stop killing. Obviously that hadn't been his motive ––it was probably so that there would be more evidence against the Headmaster. Miss Hill and a few of the teachers had found the note, though, and, at the time, they didn't know who it was from. The Headmaster had refused to go to the red mountain ––he didn't trust Jason –– but the others had gone and realised it was Jason when they had seen us in the forest. If I had gone back with Miss Hill that one time, none of this would have happened. As for how she had treated me, it was probably because she had thought that I, too, was somehow involved.
I looked around the room again, probably for the last time. Then stopped. The bird cage. I moved to it, slowly lifted it off its hook and the room went silent. I peered at the bird through the bars. It was white, a soft, snowy white. Gently, I eased it open and guided the bird out. It clawed the ledge.
"You're free," I told it, and the sun shone into my face. "Fly away."
A gust of wind whipped past me and it stretched its wings, then rose, flew out over the landscape. As for me, it was time to go down. Down to the last assembly in the school.
And now I'm free, I told myself. Free at last.
I still missed him so much.
oOOo
The sky was burning.
The sun was a red disk, torn into the sky from a distance. Slowly, a white dot formed near its surface. It was approaching. Down below, the water had subsided, the door a soaking mess that had been torn off its hinges.
A hand crept out from the darkness, grabbed a fistful of damp grass and moved out slowly. It was pale, shivering, but the figure still had strength.
(and you always taught me to be strong, dad. and i can withstand absolutely anything i swear)
A shaft of silver followed, caught orange light and burnt as ice. He used it to heave himself out. The white dot grew larger, larger, and swept down. A bird. He looked up at it, green eyes weak, and brought the flute to his lips, then played.
The bird landed on his shoulder, nuzzled his hair.
(and i told her, darling. i told her you'd always come back to me.)
Arden watched the dead body with growing disgust. Soon, his father would come, and he would pretend that it had been Kayden. He would say Kayden had killed her. Then his father would kill Kayden, too.
Blood seeped from her wounds, stained the mountain a darker shade of red. Her hair caught sun-light, looked like fire. The blood trickled around his feet and he turned the blade over in his hands.
"I love you, mommy," he told her. No answer. In the distance, a raven cawed. The sun was setting. "May the blood wash away your sins."
End of Catharsis
wow. & it's over. i'll probabli hav a ton of people at me about this ending, but it's been the plan for like, forever. so watev. no amount of moaning will make me change it. if anyone still has any questions, or anything they'd like me to clear up, please say so in your review (thisisyourlastchance) & i'll probabli post an FAQ or something. um, also, if there're any lil lurkers out there, come on, don't be shy. say hi for the first & last time.
Also, um, if anyone still wants to read my stuff i've got a fic up kalled Her Ashes. but it's probabli not gonna be anywhere near as complex as cath. wen i'm halfway through that & relativeli comfortable with it i'll probabli post Predator or Drowning in the water or one of my other lil side things, & they'll probabli be all intricate like cath. heh.
Um, as for siobhan getting with tom, before i get too mani complaints, i reckon that, if it ever did happen, now would be way too earli & unrealistic & it would just kill the fic. i'm not sure if she could, tho, what with the openness of the ending and all... dumdeedumdumm.
Oh, and, one of my awesome reviewers (JMarit17) brought up something in her review that id like to go into a lil. just to clear a few things up.
was it like reverse pycology with the whole her going there with him thing to find Lani...
Cause i was just thinking about it and he said it would be too dangerous but she persisted on going. Was that his plan all along, to act like he didnt really want her to go but it was his plan all along? Or like... he liked her so he gave her a chance, and she more less chose what was going to happen by asking to go?
um. well. how to explain this... mmm. personalli, i always thought it was 'cause of reverse psychologi BUT never in the fic hav i stated that it was reverse psychologi, and the second point that she brought up makes a ton of sense too. it realli depends on what perspectiv you look at it. like, when jason&siobhan kiss, jason mentions that he likes siobhan, which is why he punched dev. so it all comes down to ur own opinion on the chars. like, maybe jason did like siobhan, maybe he was manipulating her all the time. i leave it all to the readers' interpretation 'cause i left a lot of the stuff open on purpose. as long as there's something to back up your opinion, you kan believ whatever you want on a ton of things in this especialli to do with the chars' personalities. nothing's realli set in stone. so, in relation to the actual question asked, it's whatever you think it is and there iz no set answer, because jason said nothing regarding the matter. so stuff like all the cute scenes between siobhan&jason could hav been him manipulating her, or some of them could have been genuine. after all, you kan onli manipulate so much & some of that stuff was a bit too intense to be orchestrated. but then, maybe it was orchestrated. haha. i hope that lil rant made sense. & if i get loads of questions etc on this chap & in regards to the whole fic i might post an FAQ thing. mm.
as for now, i don't think i hav anything left to say apart from a big thankyou to everyone who's reviewed! it's because of youguys that i kept this up & actualli managed to finish it. so thanks a ton & i hopeto hear fromyou again isoundlikeoneofthoseadvertisingchicks.
nafeesah