A moment to die for

Vito seemed to be completely gone in the pleasure of hurting her. Her mind was reeling in ways to escape, but with his body pinning her down, and her already weakened state, she was fairly sure it would take a miracle to get out alive.. alive, for the first time ever, Chase was doubting whether she would win or not.. it seemed hopeless didn't it? And Chase could feel the cold realization sink into her bones. He planned on killing her, whether she did what he wanted or not.

Suddenly pain sprang up in her shoulder and she bit back a yell, her head falling back against the cushions, her body tensing and untensing rapidly in secession, her upper teeth bit into her lower lip, and drew blood there as well. "Stop!" She screamed, throwing her head from side to side, feeling the sharp pierce draw more blood as he carved his initials into her shoulder, branding her. He spoke, but Chase was in to much torment to hear, her mind had told her she was going to die, and his actions proved that she was going to, all that was left was to die, and there wasn't anything she could do. Except try to save herself.

Her shirt was pulled out from under her, and she felt a gasp escape her lips, his cold body touching hers was almost to much to bear. "Please! Please! I will do anything! I will do whatever you want, I will kiss you, I'll do more than that! Just please.. spare me!" She whimpered out after his last statement. "I'll do anything Vito, I swear, I will do whatever you want.. I'll be your slave.. I'll.. I'll do anything, please.." She felt tears fall down her face, dripping into her hair as she looked up at the man who had just announced that he would kill her.

In a rather uncharacteristic action, Vito cocked his head in an expression of curiosity, "You are quite easily broken, aren't you?" He inquired accusingly, before righting the posture of his neck.

He parted his ever-present smirk and bowed his head momentarily, so to drag his tongue steadily across the plains of the shoulder in which he had signed his name. He did not savor the presence of blood within his mouth, but rather, greedily drew from Chase's wounds another mouthful of the warm substance with the finishing of each previous serving. The tip of his tongue skirted along the edges of every precise slice that he'd made, leaving behind no blood, except for that which had sprouted from his initials once more after he'd finished. He pushed himself further upward until his hips had been aligned with Chase's, and he was sitting atop her.

He eyed her expectantly, lips painted in a gruesome red smile that was quite like that of a hellish circus clown. A flaw which he was not aware existed. “Go on then,” Vito encouraged her in an exasperated tone, “Do ‘anything’. Unless you would prefer that I resume my bleeding you dry?”

Chase felt shudders wrack her body, and suddenly his lips were on the initials he had carved into her. He was licking it! Pain stung through the wound and she whimpered loudly, her body desperately trying to move away from him, but being unable to. But he wasn't just licking the wound.. no.. he was drawing it out of her! He was drinking her blood! She squirmed desperately, her arms attempting to move between them so as to get some leverage to push him away, but there was no getting away, he had her trapped, even more so after he moved so his hips rested atop hers, and he was completely on top of her, sitting on her.

Tears started to fall harder down her face, as she looked up at this vile, disgusting creature, this creature with the red smile, that looked down at her, her own blood dripping from the corner of his mouth. "I don't know what to do.." She sobbed. "What do you want?! Do you want me to scream? Do you want sex?! It's what you thought I would give you before wasn't it? Do you want that? Will it save me?!" She sobbed, still attempting to push him away from her, but she was growing weaker, now only feebly pushing against him, sobs wracking her body.

"How kind of you to offer," was Vito's response, as though such a thought hadn't once occurred to him as he'd torn from Chase's bloodied torso her clothing. The falsely astonished quirk of his lips insisted that intercourse had not been on the evening's agenda before Chase's crudely direct statement had been made, despite what may have been deduced with ease from his previous actions about his honest intentions.

Vito splayed his fingers across her exposed stomach, and the precisely-trimmed nails which sat upon each tip burrowed deeply into her skin. "I have no intention of allowing you to live, Clara. Of that you may remain certain - for what little time I've saved for you," His enjoyment danced gracefully throughout his voice, painting for Chase an image – a mere glimpse - of the pleasure that violence inflicted upon him. "But I shall take you up on your offer," he added as an afterthought, and with his frost-dusted hands he did give the button by which her trousers had been fastened, a proper wrench.

Chase stared up at him, her chest heaving. Without her shirt on, she was freezing. Even though he was barely touching her skin, it was as though every bit of the chill that he placed on her, was going right to her soul, freezing her in spot, as his hand moved along her stomach, before he shoved his fingers into her flesh. Chase arched her back in pain, her eyes closing, as she let out a loud whimper of pain, his ice cold fingers digging into the soft flesh on her stomach. "Stop...." She whispered, knowing that it was useless, his fingers kept there, and she found herself slowly looking up at him, her eyes wide.

"Please.." she whispered, her eyes begging, her voice begging, her body trembling from the pain he was inflicting upon her. "Please.... spare me.." She said, staring up at the man who had stated several times that evening that he would kill her. When his hand moved to the button on her pants, and ripped it off, Chase had enough. She wasn't about to let him just. rape her, and then kill her anyway.

Without even thinking, she did the one thing that she knew would piss him off entirely, the one thing that would either distract him enough from doing the unthinkable, or get her killed in a manner of seconds..

Chase Moor touched his hair.

Jack was screaming. Teddy gripped her shoulders and was yelling at her, while her other interns backed away in fear. Carnie was pressed against the wall, but Bernice finally got the right idea and ran out of the room as Jack slumped over on the ground, attempting to pull out her own hair. She was certain her eyes were bleeding- there was red splotches flashing across her vision, screams other than her own filled her head, her ears were being whispered into.

So this was what Empathy felt like.

"Ch- ch- ch-" Jack chattered between screams and moans. She could not hear anyone around her. Could not hear anything but the screaming she had become aware was the screaming of her best, her only, friend. Her nails drug along the carpet- one snagged but she paid it no mercy. It doslidged itself from her finger and blood flowed from her finger. Not that she had fingers. They were bursting open, gone- even though they remained intact with her hands.

A hank of hair was pulled out as Teddy tore her hands from her scalp. She stood, gasping her hair as it began to abate. She forced the emotions down to her feet and stood. "I have to go." She gasped. Teddy said no, Bernice had just run in with a Healer. Teddy was pushed aside and Carnie and the healer rushed forward to detain her. She pulled back her fist and cold-cocked the Healer and pushed Carnie over. Bernice dove under a desk and Jack pushed Teddy out of her way as she ran for the door, disapparating in the doorframe.

She was outside of Chase's apartment. She ran forward, raising her wand and yelling "Reducto!" The door disintegrated into splinters and she rushed through, the wood chips cutting her face and exposed skin. "Chase! CHASE!" She ran through the rooms, breaking through each one and ending in Kitty's room. She came to a stop. Chase was not here. And then it hit her, the only other place Chase could be tortured.

No.

Off. His vision, the violent beat of his vessel’s heart (which was generally kept in said state of activity for the sole purpose of allowing Vito to experience the strange sensation of faked mortality), the ceiling lights which had previously provided Vito with a means of watching with keen eyes his victim's every facial expression – the same lights that had exploded in to two clouds of shattered glass - and the typically ever-present bass of the stereo on the floor below. All had been turned ‘off’ – had been halted abruptly as a result of the mere introduction of nine, foreign fingertips to the gel-laden locks upon Vito’s head. He blinked, but his rage had stolen his previously twenty-twenty eyesight and had left in its place a vision splotched with black and red. His chest had frozen in the absence of that familiar thump-a-thump rhythm, but when he shifted backwards upon the bed in an attempt to calm his frenzied mind, so to allow himself to function properly once more, he found that he’d instinctively coiled his fists around Chase’s wrists above his head.

Not a beat was missed between Vito’s realization that Chase had made contact with his hair, and his hasty collection of another shard of glass from the pile to which he’d diminished his bottle of wine. His arm left Chase’s and was moved without thought to the floor, and a second ‘blade’ joined the first in his hands. So fluent were his movements as to render his silhouette incapable of being seen in the bedroom, which had been painted black with the disintegration of the overhead lights – a product of Vito’s unchecked fury. That same fury which drove him to force Chase flat against his mattress with a jerk of his chin (for his hands were preoccupied with his makeshift weapons, and thus were incapable of being flicked in the manner which often allowed Vito to command his surroundings in such a way).

He took his first pause since the contact had been made, so to speak to Chase, “Do not touch my hair,” Vito spat through gnashing teeth. Simultaneously, within his irises the beast had stepped forth, revealing the underlying poltergeist in its true form. “You imperfect whore.” He drew his arms closely to his torso from where he knelt above Chase, with one knee placed firmly on either of her sides, and he crossed his wrists over one another, holding in his quaking fingers the two glass shards. And in one, supernaturally forceful switch, Vito uncrossed his arms as he threw them in an upward ‘V’ across the flesh of Chase’s chest and upper arms. The blades’ edges slid with ease under Vito’s command through her Axillary artery. And as a deafening, animalistic snarl tore through Vito’s core and erupted from his lips, his bedding was bathed in the blood that spilled from Chase’s fatal wounds, which outlined her shoulders in the poetic image of a pair of angel wings.

Breathing labored, Vito pushed himself backwards to sit at the end of the bed and examine the result of his actions. And with a single, callous word did he respond, “Whoopsie,” a statement which was followed shortly by a lethargic shrug of his shoulders. Before he added as an afterthought, "It seems I've made you the angel you were always pretending to be. Not quite under the terms you'd hoped, I imagine?"

Jack appeared in Knockturn Alley and pushed her way through the crowd, stepping between the queue of people lined up outside of Satan’s trying to get into the nightclub. People jostled her and tried to stick their ground, but there was no stopping this roaring lion who pushed people out of her way. She reached the bouncer and he glanced away as she walked in, allowing her free entry because he had enjoyed when she had been his boss.

The music pounded with the pulsating life and she heard the night DJ call to her in a friendly way, as though to try to reconnect. His shift had just ended and he was walking forward. She threw her arms out and they connected with him, throwing him from her path. A security guard ran up to her but she held up her wand, face blazing and he put his hands up, taking a few steps back. She stared him down and then looked to the stairs. There.

She ran for the stairs, the pain that was not hers seeping into her body. She reached the top of the stairs and suddenly- her chest burst open. She cried out and her foot missed the landing, stepping on the edge of the step. Her foot slipped down the stairs and she collapsed, sliding down the stairs and bumping herself all over as her chest was ripped open, cracked open, peeled apart. She gasped and her air game in short bursts, but her hands worked. They found the top of the top step and dragged her upward, pulling herself up after having fallen a good ten stairs down or so.

She got up, body pounding, and hurried back up the stairs, running down the hallway. Her hand reached out and grabbed the doorknob to Vito’s door and turned it. Locked. She held the doorknob and walked away, bracing herself against the opposite wall. She kicked her legs against the wall with all her might and angled herself just right, gritting her teeth and mustering all of her strength as she turned the doorknob and drove her shoulder against the door with all of her might.

The wood broke and the door flung open, hitting the wall in a way that was sure to leave a significant dent or hole in the wall. She stumbled in and that was when she saw her, Chase, her last friend- dying. “NO!” Jack screamed. She ran forward and collided with Vito, taking his place above her friend. “Chase. Chase!” She grabbed for Chase’s hands and searched for her wand. “Just hold on. I can fix this. I can fix you. Wait! I can save you, just wait!”

Thump

A heartbeat..

Thump

It's all it took.

Thump

Before the silence began.

Thump

Silence... and then...

Thump

A soul-shattering, ear-piercing scream.

Thump

Pain poured through every nerve in Chase's body. But she could barely feel it. It was like everything was going in slow motion.

"What is that sound?"

Blood poured, the smell of blood, the taste of blood.

Red.

Thump

Another sound joined the scream. Someone's voice...

"Chase!"

Chase's vision slowly resurfaced, her hearing came back, and she realized what the sound was.. she was screaming.. it was her own voice making that horrible noise, that horrible sound was coming from her. It didn't sound like her.. it sounded like someone else, someone truly in pain. But the pain wasn't all there, well it was, but it wasn't.

Thump

Blood poured, and suddenly her friend was on top of her, she could see her face swimming, Jack's face swimming in a sea of red.

"Jack.."

Thump

Her voice was weak, nearly inaudible after the scream that had ripped through her vocal chords.

"I'm sorry.."

Thump

Words were spoken that Chase could not understand. Slowly she was becoming aware of the situation.. blood poured from her chest, something was cut that shouldn't have been. Slowly, Chase turned her head to the right, and the smell of blood washed over her. Chase gave a shuddery breath, and turned her head to the other side, looking at the blood there.

Angel wings.

Thump

"I didn't mean to.." Chase coughed, and as she did blood poured more heavily from her wounds. Chase drew in a sharp breath, her whole body starting to tremble. Things were working in slow motion, and yet everything was spinning so quickly.

Thump

Her breaths came faster, and her eyes slowly slid over Jack's face. One hand reached up.

Thump

She gently touched Jack's cheek, accidentally spreading her blood on the skin, but she wasn't looking at that, she was looking in her eyes. "Forgive me?" She whispered.

Thump

The pain was catching up to her, and Chase's back arched, she hissed in her breath, and could feel another cough threatening to take over her, but she kept it back, her eyes closing against the sudden burst of pain through her shoulders and chest.

Thump-Thump

"Tell Calvin I love him.. please Jack.. will you?" Chase whispered, her eyes opening as she searched Jack's for the answer, another wave of pain crashing over her.

Thump

"You are my best friend Jack.. You always have.. you always have been.." Chase coughed and shuddered as another wave of pain crashed over her.

Thump

"Don't change.. just.. just don't change.."

Thump

"Love you Jack.."

Thump-Thump-Thump......

Chase's hand slowly fell from Jack's cheek, and landed across her own heart. Eyes slowly closing, Chase gave one last breath, and fell still.

Jack was madly fumbling for her wand, her vision blurred with pain and fear- the room was shrinking rapidly around her, closing in. She had to save Chase. She had always saved Chase and she could not fail now. Jack could not see how she could not save her, she always did. Jack surely could not live in a world where Chase Moor did not need her to save her. But, there was so much blood, so much more than Jack had ever seen on any living person, but...

She had to save her. It was that simple.

Chase began to apologize and Jack shook her head. "Don't be sorry, I'm going to save you." Jack did not think this was awkward, she just started to cover up the wound, pressing hard to try to attempt to stem the flow of blood. "It's okay, Chase. I'm not mad. I'm not upset. You're going to be perfectly fine, just perfect." The blood overflowed over Jack's hands, completely coating them. Why was it so bright?! God dammit, she had never seen such a bright red.

Chase asked for forgiveness and Jack screamed, "DAMN IT CHASE, I'M NOT MAD JUST LISTEN AND TRY TO BREATHE!" She pointed her wand. "Episkey!" The skin twitched weakly- the blood slowed, but then the wound fell back to its original horrific glory and another flood of blood spilled out. "Episkey! Episkey! EPISKEY!" The wound was not going to heal. It began to sink in. Jack could not save Chase Moor. And if JAck could not save Chase Moor, Chase Moor was going to die.

"No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no-"

Chase began to speak and she asked Jack to tell Calvin she loved him. Jack gulped and moved her head in a quick nod. Chase said Jack was her best friend and Jack shook her head- she did not deserve it. People liked Chase. Chase was pretty and nice and people liked her. It wasn't fair that Jack was her best friend. Chase needed a saint. She needed someone to stroke her and hold her and cry with her. Jack stared in shock at her friend, unable to do more than feel like she too was dying. Chase told her not to change, told her she loved her. "Chase. I..."

Chase's hand fell away. Jack stared. "Chase?" she asked. The pain in Jack was gone. All gone. And for a moment, someone else's relief flooded her. But then Jack stared at her lifeless friend. Jack stared. "Chase?" She reached up and closed Chase's eyes. But still. Jack stared. "Chase?" Chase was not going to answer. Ever. And all because...

Jack stood up, careful not to disrupt Chase. She turned and looked at Vito, who stood at the opposite side of the room. She stared at him, void of emotion. This was his doing. His fault. She had tried to protect them both, but it would never be possible. Chase had died because Jack had let Vito live. Jack blinked and raised her wand, slowly. Carefully. As though to just take a precaution.

Then the storm broke onto her face. Hell sprung onto her face, there were demons in her eyes. This was still Jack, the Jack that had held Vito and told him it was okay. This was the one that stood next to him once he made her choose. This was the one that she carried up to his room. The one who she saved time and time again. But that girl had been dragged down to hell and hell was in her eyes. Murder and Hate and Betrayal were chained to her wrists. All of this appeared on her face in a matter of one second. And then she waved her wand, and mustered with all the hatred her being could hold, "AVADA KEDAVRA!""