Devils Roses 01 - Cursed

point.
    The pain was too brutal again. I moaned in agony.
    I opened my eyes and cringed at the light. Shane was beside me. His mom looked down on me from behind him.
    He knelt beside me. I was on a couch in his sunroom, the make out room. It was where it all started and it was where it was all ending.
    “ Aimee, can you hear me?” Shane spoke.
    My eyes flickered open and shut. “Yeah,” I croaked.
    “ I’m so sorry,” he whispered.
    I tried to make a smile on my lips. “No, I am the one who is sorry. I love you Shane and I want you to have this. I meant it, every word.” I reached into my fleece pocket and pulled out the crumpled damp letter. “I chose you, I always chose you.”
    He took it from me and bent down to kiss my forehead.
    I realized then and there, that when faced with losing either guy in my life, it was Shane that was killing me. I could live without Aleks, but there was no way I could live without Shane.
    The pain grew in intensity again, making me scream.
    Shane held me, he held me tightly, until I pushed him away. “My skin sucks the life out of you. You can’t touch me, I’m becoming something evil.” My voice was almost gone.
    “ I’ll take my chances.” He wrapped me in a blanket and held me. He wiped my face with something cold. It felt refreshing.
    “ She’s burning up, Shane. Maybe a hospital?” his mom spoke.
    “ No.” His responses had not improved.
    I felt myself black out again, lost in a space and time that didn’t matter. I floated in a black sea of emptiness.
    I woke to someone laughing, I knew the voice. “Aimee, Aimee, Aimee, whatever will we do with you?” It was an evil voice, it mocked my pain. “You foolish girl. You should have stayed with me. It’s taken me a week to find you. Days you’ve suffered needlessly.”
    I felt a finger roughly open my eye. I was on the couch in the sunroom. I recognized the pictures of Shane hanging over the fireplace. My eyes focused to see Dorian’s smiling face. I would have been afraid, but at that point I just wanted death.
    “ Are you ready to end this?” he asked, grinning his evil-villain grin. I nodded.
    He held his finger over my mouth and sliced it with his fingernail. I watched his black blood drip into my face from his other hand. I tried not to swallow, but he forced it in my mouth. I felt like I was drowning. The warm liquid slid down my throat, like the slug it had looked like.
    He picked me up and carried me to the back door. I looked around the house to see no one there. Where had Shane gone?
    I blacked out again, as I felt Dorian jump off the back deck and land in the grass with a thud.
    I felt my face move, I felt cold air. I was outside again. I didn’t hurt anymore. I sensed I wasn’t alone, but I heard nothing. I opened one eye cautiously, to see Dorian bent over me. He was smiling.
    “ Why good morning. Had a good sleep, I assume.” He stood up, offering me his hand. I took his hand, feeling completely disoriented. I was in the forest again, not near the beach. There was no salt in the air, just the cool dampness of the woods. I looked around me, seeing nothing but Dorian. He stood looking at me expectantly.
    “ Am I dead?” I asked slowly. I wondered if he had ended my life with his black goo.
    He laughed. “Yes you are, and yet, you’re not.”
    I frowned at him. I hated him and his stupid riddles. He was as bad as Aleks, he never answered any of my questions.
    “ Where is Aleks?” I asked hoping he had at least killed his dad.
    "I'm not his keeper."
    "What are you?"
    He waved a finger in front of my face. “Does it matter? What I find more fun and interesting is, that there is no one here to save you this time. Nowhere you can run to, that I can't find you. Elevators are tricky for me. Can't wink into moving objects. Not that it matters now, you’re mine.” He started to walk around me slowly, in a circle, as if inspecting me. He looked like a wolf circling a bunny.
    I didn’t feel like a bunny though, I felt strong. I felt like I could kill him if I had to. I frowned, wondering how that thought had popped into my mind.
    I squeezed my hands flexing them, I was strong. I just knew it.
    He grinned. “You can feel it, can't you? You’re reborn and brand new.”
    “ What have you done to me?”
    He looked innocently at me, as he flashed his black eyes. “I saved you, Aimee. You would have been in the ground already, if not for me.” He stepped very close to my face. “Where is