Cemetery Party (M&M, AU, Adult, Ch. 11, 09/15/08, COMPLETE)

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April
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Chapter 11

Post by April »

nibbles:
Yeah, of course Maria gets abducted and Michael gets whacked across the head. Because God forbid we'd have two happy chapters in a row.
:lol: That's right!
Christina:
I have to say that this Michael is absolutely (warning: cheesy word ahead) dreamy.
That's was my intent when writing him, making him completely dreamy! Usually, I don't enjoy characters like this Michael, but I had an uncontrollable urge to write him this way for some reason for this fic. (Oh, and you say you're a closet Candy? Well, I think I'm a closet Dreamer!) ;)
Krista:
God's just playing the worst little game with Michael in this story, isn't he?
Yep. But Michael refuses to stop playing until he wins. (Feel better! *hugs*)
Sara:
He played right into it by purchasing the gun......interesting.
Fate has a way of working itself out, doesn't it?








Chapter 11: Survival

I’m honestly not sure how I get to the river. I know what general direction I’m going, and I guess that’s all I need to know, because after about an hour in the car, I spy what I’m looking for off in the distance. The bridge. A wooden bridge. The same one I saw in my vision. She’s there. She has to be.

I turn off the headlights to avoid being seen and pull the car off to the side of the road. I climb out with the gun in hand and try my best at being stealthy as I creep forward, nearer and nearer to the bridge. I squint my eyes and try to see if anyone is up there, but it’s dark outside, and I can’t make out any details.

I continue forward with an undeniable sense of trepidation. I just get the feeling that something bad is going to happen. Maybe worse than usual. I grip the gun tightly, not afraid to use it if I have to. I’ll use it. Oh, I’ll use it.

“Hey, who are you?”

I freeze, startled when I come upon a kid who doesn’t look much older than fifteen. He’s standing out in the middle of nowhere, looking about as terrified as I am and packing the same weaponry. I can see the gun glistening in the waistband of his pants. He’s reaching for it . . .

I curl my hand into a fist and hit him hard, sending him spiraling to the ground. It’s a good punch, knocks him unconscious. I linger around him only for a moment more. He must be some kind of guard. Well, he’s not a very good one.

I crouch down low and continue towards the bridge. I make my way up a fairly steep hill, and that’s when I can make out a few faint details about what’s going on there. I see Maria, her blonde hair flowing in the wind. There’s a guy standing beside her. She looks like she’s only wearing a t-shirt.

There are a bunch of other guys, too, all looking on as the person beside her apparently terrifies her. That has to be Billy. His little car bomb didn’t work, so now he’s trying to finish the job.

I’ll kill that bastard. I’ll do it without a second thought.

At last, I get close enough so that I can actually hear what’s going on. Billy is asking Maria if she’s scared. She’s crying. He’s pointing a gun at her, and they’re standing close to the bridge railing.

Maria . . .

“You scared?” Billy asks her again. “Come on, baby, talk to me.”

She doesn’t say a word.

I step onto the bridge, and one of the boards creaks. I immediately raise my gun, and Billy and all the rest of his guys immediately whirl around to face me, their own guns drawn in the same manner.

“Michael!” Maria cries.

Now I know what true fear is, standing here with six pistols aimed right at me. These guys could fire at me in an instant, and the chances that I would live are slim at best.

“Ah, Michael,” Billy says. “That’s his name, huh? Don’t shoot, fellas. We got ourselves a dramatic moment here.” He laughs evilly, then wraps one arm around Maria’s waist and pulls her against his side. “So, this is your man, huh?” he says to her. “Your big hero. Your knight in shining armor. How’s your head, hero? It hurt?”

It sure as hell does.

“Michael, help,” Maria whimpers through tears.

“Don’t worry, Maria,” I say, trying to sound confident. “You’re gonna be just fine. None of these guys are gonna lay a hand on you.”

“Already have,” Billy seethed. “In fact, I think I’ll lay a hand on her again.” He reaches down and smacks her bottom, and she winces.

My blood feels as though it’s boiling with fury. He’s touching her. He’s touching her and she shouldn’t be.

“That was a nice trick, saving her from the car bomb,” Billy says, twirling his gun around on his index finger. “You know, that would’ve been the quick way for her to go. Now . . . oh, now she’s gonna suffer. Both of you will.”

“Maria, don’t be scared,” I tell her. “I got you.”

“Look again, ‘cause I’ve got her,” Billy reminds me. “Right where I want her. Maybe I’ll fuck her before I kill her. Right and proper, right up her ass. You can watch.” He grins. “Or maybe I’ll kill her, and then I’ll fuck her. Oh, yeah, that could get me off. No whining, moaning, ‘Billy, stop, it hurts! Billy, please, don’t!’” He grunts and shakes his head. “No means yes, right? She wants it.”

“She doesn’t.”

“You already put it to her good, huh?” Billy cackles. “Hey, good job, hero.”

I meet Maria’s tear-clouded eyes, wanting her to know that I didn’t just ‘put it to her.’ She knows that. She knows it was more.

“Face it man: girls are just sluts,” Billy says randomly. “This one’s no different. Except she’s got a big mouth on her, too. Likes to tell the cops when Billy does a little killin’. Bad bitch. Maybe I should shove my cock in that big mouth of yours so you can put it to good use.”

“Let her go,” I command, even though I know it’s basically no use. “You’re outta jail. You really wanna go back so soon?”

“What can I say? I like orange jumpsuits.”

“You let her go, we’ll both leave town. Leave the country, even. You don’t hear from us, we don’t hear from you. We won’t even tell anyone about any of this.” I don’t even know why I’m trying. I don’t see this being settled with logic.

Billy snorts. “You expect me to believe that? Do I look like I have dumb-ass written on my forehead?”

“Well . . . yeah.”

Apparently that makes Billy mad, because he glares at me and raises his gun again. “Time to start the dyin’,” he growls, before turning to look at Maria and smile. “I suppose we could always start with you.”

Not gonna happen. I won’t let it. My hand dances on the trigger . . .

“So many options,” Billy muses, waving his gun all around. “Head.” He points the gun to the side of her head, and she squeezes her eyes shut. “Heart.” He lowers the gun to point at the left side of her chest. “Although . . .” He drags the gun even lower, down towards the hem of her t-shirt. “Maybe I should just stick it up your hot . . . tight . . .” He turns the gun inward, underneath her t-shirt and between her legs.

That does it.

I pull the trigger on my gun, the first time I’ve ever shot a bullet, and it hits that bastard right in his face. The rest of the guys on the bridge don’t stand much better chance. I shoot wildly, not really caring who I hit as long as I hit someone. The two on the left are the first to go, and even though the two on the right try to hit me with their bullets, I duck, and they barely miss me. I don’t miss them. I’m too determined. One by one they fall, until they’re all dead and I’ve unloaded every bullet in my chamber.

I just killed five people. And it was easy.

I look over at Maria. She’s covered in blood. Not her blood, but Billy’s. With wide eyes full of horror, she surveys the scene, and then she literally screams and collapses.

Her scream brings me back to reality. I killed five people. They deserved it, but I still killed them. The gun falls from my hand aimlessly, landing on the wooden bridge with a thud, and I stagger backwards for a moment, completely shell-shocked. So many dead bodies, so much blood . . . it makes me feel sick to my stomach.

Maria is wailing. She’s violated and terrified, but she’s still alive. And she always will be if I have anything to say about it.

“Maria.” I rush towards her, collapse beside her, and immediately engulf her in my arms. She clings to me as wrecked sobs wreak havoc on her. I hold her and don’t regret for one moment doing what I just did. I’d do it all over again if I had to. And again after that.

She doesn’t cry for as long as I expect her to. In fact, she even starts to pull away from me slightly. “Michael,” she says. “Oh god, Michael.” She turns her head to the side to look at Billy’s lifeless body again. His face isn’t even a face anymore.

“No, don’t even look over there,” I tell her, cupping her cheek with my hand, keeping her looking at me. “We’re alright. Alright? We’re okay.”

“Michael . . .”

“We’re fine,” I insist, even though I know we’re everything but.

Fresh tears join her expired ones, and her look of panic changes to a look of . . . it seems like realization. “We can’t--”

“Don’t.” I already know what she’s going to say, and I don’t want to hear it.

“No, Michael, we can’t keep doing this,” she says in a rush. “You just killed people. For me.”

“It doesn’t matter.”

“It does,” she insists. “Michael, we can’t . . . I can’t let you keep saving me. I don’t wanna die, but I’m supposed to. And if you keep trying to protect me, you’re gonna ruin your life, too.”

“No, I don’t care. We can . . . we can do this, Maria. We can get outta town, go to L.A. You can go swimming in the ocean. You can go skydiving. You can do everything you wanna do.”

“But it’s not gonna stop. None of this. Just because Billy’s . . . dead . . . it doesn’t mean I won’t die. I’m still gonna die, Michael.” She cries some more.

“Everyone dies, Maria. But you don’t have to die yet.”

“I do,” she says. “You have to let me.”

I can’t believe she’s asking me to do this, to give up on her, to let her give up on herself. I don’t think I can.

“You can’t keep saving me,” she says. “I’m glad you did, because . . . I got to know you. And I’ve never known anyone like you.” She smiles sadly. “But I can’t stay. I can’t live like this. I don’t want to. Please, Michael. You have to let me go.”

I have to . . . just a few short hours ago, we were in her bed, all over each other, creating our own little heaven built for two. And now . . . I have to? She says I have to let her go.

Do I?

It’s the sound of the rushing current that first plants the idea in my head. I look down over the side of the bridge at the water beneath us. Cold, dark, water. The same as I saw in my vision. The bridge. The gun. The fear. The blood. The screaming. Suddenly it all comes together, hits me like truth serum. I understand now why that last vision seemed so different than all the others, why I couldn’t make sense of it before. But I can now. I get it now. It wasn’t her death I was seeing.

It was mine.

She notices the way I’m looking at the water, and somehow, she knows what I’m contemplating. No, not just contemplating. Deciding on. I’m decided.

“Michael . . .” she chokes out. “No.”

For some reason, I feel a sense of urgency. If she is to live, I have to do this now. There isn’t much time. “Maria, I want you to listen to me.”

“No, you-you can’t . . . you can’t . . .”

“You’ve got your whole life ahead of you,” I promise her, “and you can do great things with it.”

“Michael?”

“You have to know how special you are. You have to know there’s a reason why I’ll do anything for you: because you’re you. From the moment I first saw you, when that first vision hit . . .” I swallow hard as I gaze at her, into her whirlwind green eyes. I’m going to miss look at her.

“Michael, don’t--”

“You have to promise me something,” I say, holding her hands tightly in mine. “Promise me that you’ll find somebody who treats you right, who loves you and would do anything for you. Somebody who’ll never hurt you, but always protect you. Somebody who makes you happy. Promise me you’ll find someone like that.”

“Michael, I--”

“Promise.” I can’t stand the thought of her being alone.

Her bottom lip quivers uncontrollably, and tears of turmoil spill onto her cheeks in waves. “I promise,” she whimpers.

I smile. She promises. She’ll find someone. She’ll be happy. That’s all I want. That’s all I need.

I slowly rise to my feet and peer down at the rushing water. The fall alone will probably kill me. If not, the current will undoubtedly bring me under. There’s no way I’m leaving that river as anything more than a corpse. And that’s okay.

“Michael!” She scrambles to her feet, gazing at me with a look of wonder, sorrow, horror, and amazement. “Please don’t do this.”

“I have to.” The knowledge is here, just as it always has been. Somebody’s going to die. But this time somebody’s going to live, too. I know now that I was born for this, that this is the only reason why I’m alive: to die. It can’t be explained with physics or theory. It just is what it is, and I’m ready for it.

I tear my eyes away from her and ready myself, gripping the railing of the bridge in my hands. I’m not scared. I’m relieved.

“Michael!”

I can’t resist, turning to look at her one more time. Beautifully damaged Maria DeLuca. Perfectly imperfect. She’s the one for me.

She stares at me in silence for a moment, a moment in which I wonder if she’ll say anything at all. But at last, she manages to open up her mouth and say exactly what she wants to say. “I love you.”

A couple of days. We’ve only known each other for a couple of days. When I’m gone, she won’t even have a picture to remember me by. But she loves me, and I love her, too. I don’t have to tell her. I’m about to die for her. She already knows.

Instead of saying anything, I cup her face in my hands and kiss her one last time. It’s a good kiss, full of life. It better be. It has to last forever.

Parting my lips from hers has to be the hardest thing I’ve ever done, but I do it anyway. Her eyes flutter open, and she looks right at me, silently thanking me and at the same time pleading with me to reconsider. But I just smile at her and then launch myself over the side of the bridge.

Michael!

I fall towards the water, feeling as though I’m going in slow motion. I don’t see flashes of my life before my eyes or a white light at the end of the tunnel. Nothing like that. But I do see one last thing . . .

Old. Safe. Warm. In her bed, surrounded by so many people who love her. She’s lead a fulfilling life. Lots of children there. Grandchildren. Great-grandkids, even. Very old. Very safe. Very warm. But . . .

Wait a minute. One of her kids looks like me . . .


I crash into the water, and my cemetery party begins.








THE END
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LOVE IS MICHAEL AND MARIA.
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