Okay… If you’ve ever read the ending of a story of mine before, you might know I have the tendency to rush things… Which I did again. I cannot WRITE an ending…ever. ;-; Here’s my latest attempt.

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Chapter… Er… The… Final Chapter!

“Paulo!” I call, pressing my ear against the thin wall shared with the Red Rom. “Paulo, can you hear me?” I need to have Paulo let me to of here himself and I need to get back on his good side to make sure nothing happens to Connor, just in case the worst case scenario really does happen. “Paulo…” I gently bring up a fist and knock.

I jump and spin around as the door of the White Room swings open. Paulo stands in the doorway, glaring.

“What do you want? I’m trying to sleep. Are you aware of what time it is?” he hisses through gritted teeth that also makes his breath whistle as it seeps out.

I slowly shake my head. “No, sorry… I didn’t mean to bother you, Paulo…” I hang my head. “I was just cold…and I couldn’t sleep.”

“Maybe if you were actually in bed where you belong, both of those problems would be solved. Get up off the floor and into bed before I lose my patience with you.” He crosses his arms over his chest and I scramble to my feet.

“Paulo, I’ve been lonely in here… C-can I sleep with you?” I take a step toward him and bite my lip as I stare up at him through wide eyes.

He lets out a sigh and runs a hand through his hair. “I guess… I guess you can if it means you’ll shut up and let me sleep.” He crosses the room, grabs me by my shoulder, ad jerks me from my room to our bedroom. “Don’t try anything stupid either,” he commands, pushing me toward our bed.

I wait till he lies down before I curl up beside him. It’s true that I’m doing this in case Connor gets to Paulo before I can talk him out of it, but it’s also true that I was get lonely and desperate in that bright, clean room all by myself.

“How’re you feeling?” he asks me. “Your head? I should’ve looked at it today, but I forgot.”

“It feels fine,” I whisper. Actually, it stings but what stings even more is the memory of him doing what he did to me, so I’d rather not keep talking about it.

His arms wrap around me and I momentarily tense up before closing my eyes and allowing myself to relax and sleep.

When I wake up the next morning, Paulo’s sitting in a chair and facing the dresser, a book and some papers spread out in front of him.

“Paulo, what’re you doing?” I ask, sitting up and rubbing a sleep-filled eye with the heel of my hand.

He glances at me briefly. “I didn’t want to lock you back up while you were sleeping, and I needed to get some work done…but you have to be supervised.”

“I’m sorry about the other night,” I announce. “And I won’t try to run away again, so you don’t have to worry about me.” Lying. I’m lying even though I tell myself that I’m not…mostly because I don’t want to think about the other night and its failed attempt again.

“Season, I’m not sure what was wrong with you then, but I don’t want to risk losing you so you’re going to be baby-sat whether you like it or not.” He doesn’t bother looking at me again and so I don’t bother arguing.

Finally, though, I get bored. “Paulo… I’m hungry and I need to use the bathroom…” I quietly announce.

He sighs. “Then we’ll take care of it and you’re going back into the White Room.”

I frown and sit up. “Why? I don’t like being in there by myself. It’s really lonely and boring.” And if Connor comes I won’t be able to easily get to him.

“I’m going into town. A woman called me this morning, absolutely hysterical, because her family’s sick. I told her it was probably the flu but she’s insisting I come down and check them all out.” He sighs.

“Oh…” Well, that’s good for me if he leaves the house. I just need to make sure I have a way to pick the White Room’s lock…and then maybe leave to wait for Connor to come so I can intercept him on his way up to he house. “All right, then. I hope you can cure them.”

He closes the book that’s in front of him and turns around. “You know, I could just bring you with me. It’ll be good for you to get some fresh air and with a whole family to look after; you might actually be some help. Yes… That’s a good idea. Let’s go shower and eat and then we’ll get going.”

“B-but… I don’t think I feel well enough to go out yet…” I reach up and touch my bandage.

“You’re fine. A bump on the head is nothing to worry about. Now get out of bed.” He gets up and walks to the doorway.

I curse under my breath, sigh, and slide out of bed, following Paulo into the bathroom. There he slowly undresses me, taking off my bandage last so he can gently kiss beside my injury.

“If you were feeling well enough, I’d think of sex…but you’re apparently not.”

The way he talks I know he expects and wants me to disagree, but I don’t. I won’t. And so I keep my mouth shut and climb into the shower and Paulo joins me, keeping his hands to himself.

I wash as fast as I can, keeping my eyes from Paulo’s body until I’m done and jump out of the shower without him. I dry and dress before he’s even done in the shower. I can’t think of touching him or letting him touch me. My stomach is scrambled and my legs shake with nervousness, but I’m not entirely sure why.

My mind keeps wandering to Connor. He wouldn’t come. He couldn’t. It’s something too rash for him to do, right?

“Your clothes are dirty,” Paulo points out. “Let’s go to our room and change. It’d be nice to just let you go there by yourself, but it’s sad that I can’t even trust you with that.” He glares at me and I hang my head. He lets out an annoyed sigh, grabs me by my shoulder, and guides me to our room.

Five minutes later, I’m sitting on the kitchen cupboard, watching Paulo try to cook.

“Y-you really shouldn’t wait so long… It’s going to burn...” I instruct as he taps the spatula on the cupboard while staring down at the sizzling eggs in the frying pan.

“I know what I’m doing. Another word and your eyes will join the eggs.” I nod and clamp my mouth shut. I’m still not talking when we board Silvia and begin to head down the mountain.

I cling onto the horse’s mane as we go down, sitting tensely between Paulo’s legs, one of his hands reaching around me to grip onto my thigh. I can’t relax. Not while I’m on Paulo’s bad side and not when I’m thinking of Connor. I should’ve called him back and talked him out of it…but now there’s nothing I can do. It’s too late for me to stop him so now I just have to do my best to intercept him.

We find the house in the village with the sick family because a woman is pacing around outside, nearly hysterical. Paulo pulls me from Silvia’s back and keeps a hand on me to keep me in place. He calms the woman and we all shuffle into the cramped, dim cottage.

I put a hand over my mouth, trying not to gag. It reeks of vomit and rot and I cling to Paulo’s side, just to be shoved away as he hurries to a bedside where two moaning children are huddled together.

“How long have they been like this?” Paulo asks the woman, who’s started to cry again.

“Just a few days. I thought it was just the flu… Then Joseph got worse…” She points to another bed where a man’s lying still. I wander over to him, but cry out and stumble away, falling backward.

There were eyes. Blank eyes staring at me and a mouth, gaping open, the air heavy with rot. And I saw it.

I moan and crawl to Paulo as the woman sobs, hanging her head in her hands.

“I’m sorry… I… He… I can’t get him out of the house by myself and I can’t leave the children anyway…” she stammers. “No one will come to help because they think they’ll get what they have... What Joseph had…”

“Paulo,” I whisper. “I want to go outside. I need to go outside.”

“Fine.” He shoves me away. “Just don’t try to run off or I’ll find you and kill you,” he growls. I nod and scurry out of the house.

I don’t get too far, however. Instead I collide with the side of a horse, falling down once more. Dazed, I stare up, and let out a gasp.

“Connor!” I scramble to my feet. “Oh, Connor!”

He jumps down from his horse and pulls me to his chest, pushing his face into my neck. “Sea…. I was on my way. What’re you doing down here?”

“Paulo… He’s inside with a patient.” He’s inside and we’re right in front of the door. My eyes widen and I drag Connor into the alleyway net to the house. “Are you insane? You’re not strong enough to just march up to Paulo and…and steal me away from him!” I lecture.

He looks sheepish. “I… I just wanted to protect you… I hate going home knowing you’re stuck here with that monster… And then when we had our plan to leave together…I was so hopeful… and when it never happened, I snapped. But I’m here and I have a horse…and we can leave.”

He presses his lips into mine, his hands shaking as he grips onto me. I kiss back, my annoyance for his brash behavior disappearing and he pulls away with a grin.

“Let’s go then.” We turn to the mouth of the alley together but freeze. Fear grows in my stomach and bubbles up to my chest as my legs begin to shake. Paulo’s standing in front of us, arms crossed of his chest.

“Why thank you for revealing your escape plan…” he hisses. “And now I know who to blame for Season’s attempt to run away the other night.” He takes a step toward us and I feel sick to my stomach.

“Paulo, wait. It’s not what you think… It wasn’t his fault…” I babble. “Leave him alone, okay?”

“Leave him alone? I take care of his family and welcome him into our house and bedroom and he takes advantage of it! Of you, Season! How long have you been doing this? I should’ve seen it… So…? How long?” He reaches forward and grabs me by the front of the shirt. “How long?”

“Let him go!” Connor yells, stepping forward. “Just let him go! You’ve been playing with him and hurting him for long enough!”

“Connor, stop it,” I whisper, coughing as Paulo pulls my collar tighter. I don’t care if Paulo hurts me. I just want Connor to get away safely.

“No! It’s not right!”

I yelp as Paulo lets me go and shoves me to the side. I hit the alley wall and whimper, wiping away tears of anger and fear that won’t stop falling. I watch in terror as Paulo storms to Connor and shove’s him up against the opposite wall.

“Not right? Coming into a man’s home and scheming to steal away his lover isn’t right. Season belongs to me…not you…” he growls slowly and calmly.

“He’s not a slave. He doesn’t belong to you, you sick bastard!” Connor returns to my dismay, only to be rewarded with a fist in his gut.

“He does belong to me. I saved his life. I own it.” Another punch and I can’t move. I’m frozen. What do I do? I can’t fight Paulo but I don’t know what’ll happen if I leave them alone to go get help. “I love him and I’m the only one who can love him!” One more punch and I finally struggle to my feet, working up all the nerve I have inside me. I take a deep breath and launch myself at Paulo, shoving him away from Connor.

“Run, Connor! Get out of here!” I order and he reluctantly obeys as Paulo begins to stand up once more.

Paulo turns to me and glares. “I’ll make you regret ever meeting that boy and then you’re going to crawl back to me like the little worm you are… And I’ll take you back in and you’ll never disobey me again.” He smiles at me. “Because if you do, I’ll destroy you…just like I’m going to do with that boy.” He turns and runs out to the road. I’m frozen as he rides by on Silvia a moment later. He wouldn’t. He couldn’t

No. He can and he will if I don’t stop him.

I run from the alley and see Paulo turning a corner and I sprint for him. When I finally get to the corner, he’s nowhere to be seen. I curse under my breath while trying to catch that breath and an old man selling apples glances at me, eyebrows raised.

“Would you be a sailor, eh?” he asks, a smile on his face. But I don’t have time for his jokes.

“I… I need… Did you see two men on horses just come through here?” I pant.

“Aye, I did.” He rubs his chin as he drawls out his answer.

“And which way did they go?”

He gives a slow, one-shouldered shrug. “I’m a merchant. Not a huntin’ dog.”

“Listen… I need to know. It’s extremely important!” If Paulo catches Connor, who knows what’ll happen. I’m positive he won’t stop till Connor’s hurt.

“Fine, fine, fine. They wen’ down tha’ way, they did.” He points to the left and I immediately take off running, not bothering with thanking the old man.

The road I turn onto makes me stop. There are just houses. No more streets to turn into. It’s a dead end into the woods. I hurry to the end of the road and stare into the trees. There’s a path shoving through the wild grass and bushes, and in the dirt is a hoof print.

I curse myself as I step off the road and into the woods. I should’ve borrowed a horse…but there’s no time to double back or dwell on it. I push through the leaves and brush, trying to stay on track. I call Connor’s name occasionally, but no one answers me besides the rustling of leaves overhead and the birds trilling.

Fear and desperation rage inside me, making me shake. I need to find Connor. I need to find Paulo before he finds Connor. I need I need I need to get out of here because the sun’s setting and I’m so afraid.

But just as I’m thinking that, the sound of hooves thunders toward me. I whirl around to see Paulo posed on Silvia, his hair messed up and jaw clenched with his clothes soaking wet.

“P-Paulo…” I stammer. Connor. Where’s Connor? Maybe Paulo lost him in the woods and he got away. Yes, that has to be it.

“I was angry,” Paulo announces slowly. “I’ve never been so angry before…so desperately angry…” His eyes glaze over and abruptly focus back on me again, causing me to flinch. “I’m the only one, Season. I am the only one who loves you. I’m the only one who wants you. Remember that. You have no one else.” His eyes go out of focus again and he leaves me shaking and numb.

What’d he do? What did he do?

I take off running again. Paulo’s clothes were wet. They were wet and the lake that Rodney and I always played at…the lake where Connor and I first made love together is around here somewhere.

I go straight, disoriented and dizzy. But I somehow do it. I somehow run to a thinning of the trees. The sun’s nearly gone and there… There’s the lake, stained blood red from the sun’s sinking rays.

It’s calm. I see nothing. I want to see something…anything. I need to know what’s going on… If maybe Paulo waded through a creek and I came here for nothing and am just wasting time.

“Connor!” I call again, heading around the edge of the lake. “Connor!” My throat aches and burns as my head continues to swim. I kneel beside the water and cup my hands, drawing water up and lapping it from my palms.

And that’s when something catches my eye. There’s something glinting, sending the sun’s reflection right into my eyes from above the lake and waterfall. I sprint around to the waterfall and scramble up the tocks behind it.

Glasses. Connor’s glasses are on the rock, snapped in half at the nose piece and the glass shattered. I scoop them up, shaking so hard that my teeth chatter. Oh… Oh, God… Connor…where is he…

“Connor! Connor, where are you!” I stand and my legs shake. I stagger, head spinning and swirling and tip over, plunging into the cold water below me. It takes me a few moments to register what’s happened and then water’s rushing down my throat and I desperately swim to the surface, throwing myself over a rock as I cough up water.

I bring up one hand and clutch Connor’s glasses to my chest as I pull myself through the water, back toward the waterfall with my other arm. A cry slips from my throat as something touches me beneath the water as I’m climbing from the lake. My eyes flash downward and there…there right below the surface is a foot and that foot is connected to a leg, which is connected to something in the alcove behind the waterfall.

I drop back down into the water and pull myself up into the small cave. It’s Connor. Oh, God, it’s Connor, sprawled on his stomach, his back rising up. He’s alive. He’s okay.

“Oh… Connor,” I sob his name and reach for him. He moans and twitches, shrinking away from me. “It’s okay… It’s me… I have your glasses. Here. I… They’re broken but maybe they’ll still work a little…” I set them beside his right hand but it doesn’t move for them. “Connor…?”

Shaking, I reach out and grab him by the shoulders, slowly rolling him over to his back. Vomit immediately rises up my throat and spills beside me. Connor is no longer Connor. The face I see is not the one I met the day he found me preparing his bedroom at mine and Paulo’s house. This face that greets me is a grotesque mess of blood and bone, teeth loose and missing, nose ground down to nearly nothing. His eyes are cloudy as he stares up at me, not seeing me.

Tears are falling again and my stomach continues to churn. “No… No…! Connor…!” My hands gingerly touch his face and he groans, trying to jerk away so I quickly pull them from him, resting them on his chest instead. Blood. There’s so much blood. What do I do? How do I stop it? Can I stop it? Will it help?

One of his hands comes up and grips onto mine suddenly. It squeezes tightly over mine and then loosens…and as I look down, his chest stills its rising and falling and his gasping breaths stop. No. No…no, no, no!

I throw myself over his chest, sobbing. How could I let it happen? No…

Time passes. I don’t know how long I lie there, holding him, but when I come to my senses again, its dark and his body is cold. I sit up, wiping away tears from my now blood-smeared face. Scooping up his broken glasses, I hold them to my chest again slide out from beneath the waterfall and head back toward the village.

I’m numb as I walk. Paulo did this because I belong to him. He killed Rodney’s mother when I got too close to him… I should’ve known he’d do it again. How could I possibly be so selfish? How could I endanger Connor’s life…? How could I be the reason he’s…he’s dead?

I remember what Paulo said in the woods. He’s the only one who loves me and wants me. And that’s true…because he won’t let anyone else get close to me. If I leave… If I find someone else, I know he’ll find me. I know he’ll kill them. I know that I can’t ever be with anyone else because he owns me.

My feet stop moving and I’m staring at a door. My hand comes up and knocks on it and I back up a step as it opens. Paulo stares down at me, fully dried and calm now. He raises an eyebrow at me and I walk to him, pressing my face against his chest. One of his hands comes up and strokes my hair as I continue to tremble.

“Welcome home, Season…” he whispers, bending close to my ear. “Welcome back home.”

DON’T KILL ME OH MY GOD DON’T KILL ME PLEASE!! ;-; You don’t know where I live. I’m safe. : hides under blankie: I’ve had this ending planned…since Connor came into the story. Sorry. To those of you who always disliked Sea because of his whiney, pushoveryness, I’m even more sorry. XD Yeah… I don’t think his reaction was exactly realistic, but I think at this point, Sea was just…brainwashed. Or I’d like to believe that…

So. Thanks so much to all of you who’ve put up with me and my lack of updates for so long… Especially those of you who still took the time to review even though I didn’t always take the time to write… Sorry again… And thanks to Novo for beta-ing these past few chapters. :D

Uhhh… New co-written story on the way? Yeah? If you don’t hate me you might want to read it when it’s posted. ;-;

Review Replies:

Amindaya: Thanks. :D I’d like to maybe do more with Paulo and his childhood, but I’m too lazy.

bambi4real: I’m glad you like Paulo again. But how about now? XD

Sargon: Haha. It’s too late to rescue. BWAAHAH.

Emmy: XD You were close… I suppose.

distortedreflection: Yes, they are crazy. BWAHAHA.

xanthofile: Oh. Sorry. Er. Yes, they are all stupid. Even more now…

the sacred night: Yeah. It’s quite possible that he was lying about his past, but I’d like to think it’s real…just because I like to torture my characters when the situation calls for it. Yeah… Connor was kind of very out of character… I just like to think of him as a stupid pushover…which is why he’s good for Sea…? ;-; You sure know how to make me doubt myself. XD But it’s good. Good points. And Sea knew he was locked into the White Room because…in chapter…three or something (yes, a very, very long time ago…) I mentioned that the room is automatically locked from the outside if it’s shut. At least I think it was that room… Yeah. It was. XD

Rachel: Oh my god, yes.

Love Eternally: Paulo is psycho. That’s why I like him so much… BWAHAHA.

KissMyConverse: XD Thanks… It’s always good to hear that I’m boring. :P It’s okay. I like long, pointless reviews. :P Thanks.

.shiftblue: Haha. Yes, he is… Yes, it is. Yuki, eh? I do love Yuki…though I do believe Yuki was more sane…and nice. XD

Laurena: I do love cliffies. Bwahaha.

Gravilove19: :D Thanks.

And that’s all, folks. Thanks for reviewing. :D