Author: X_tremeroswellian
Email: [email protected]
Disclaimer: Obviously they are not mine. They belong to Melinda Metz, Jason Katims, the WB...*Sighs* This is just for entertainment so please don't sue me. You wouldn't get much anyway because I'm but a poor college student who can barely afford the insurance on her car. Song is by Jewel, and is titled, "Barcelona" and appears on her album, Spirit.
Rating: R for language, sexual content, adult situations
Spoilers: Possible for the first five books of Melinda Metz's Roswell High, up through "Blood Brothers" of the tv series, and my fic, "Matters of Trust," which this story is the sequal to. If you haven't read "Matters of Trust," you're going to be really lost.
Author's Note: This is going to be really long and will deal with a lot of stuff with Liz. It will, of course, deal with all of the other characters...and I'm a total conventional shipper so...it will have a lot of M/L, some A/I, and M/M...If this isn't your thing, bail out now. The book mentioned in this chapter is Jane Eyre, a wonderful classic written by Charloette Bronte (Emily Bronte's sister). It's a mixture of romance, angst, feminism, suspense, supernatural...It's really a fabulous book and one that I'd highly reccommend to anyone who likes to read as much as I do! :)
Thanks to Linda, Mel, Bec, and all the other people who have supported and given me feedback on my stories! :) Thanks, guys! :)
Ghosts (Part Nine)
Liz stretched her arms above her head and carried the container of microwavable macaroni and cheese out the door, down the hallway, and out into the lobby of Jewell Hall, where the dorm's microwave was located. The students weren't allowed to have microwaves in there room because it was too much of a fire hazard.
Liz didn't really care for the macaroni and cheese stuff, but she wasn't in the mood to try and choke down any of the food at Ding, either. She plopped the container in the microwave and set the timer for a minute.
She heard a scream in the distance, and she froze. A second later, Maria came bounding up the laundry room stairs. "Maria! What's wrong?" she asked, alarmed.
"Something's down there!" Maria gasped, pointing.
"What? Rats?"
"No...Someone!"
Liz frowned. "Who?"
"I don't know. They disappeared."
"They?"
"He...She...It--I don't know, but I'm not going back down there."
Liz jumped as the microwave beeped. She turned and removed the container.
"Liz! Oh, my God! You're bleeding!" Maria rushed to her side.
Liz looked down at her hands. One of her fingernail cuts on the palm of her right hand had started bleeding. "Damn." She moved to the sink, wincing as the water hit the wound.
"I'm getting Alex."
Before Liz had a chance to protest, Maria disappeared into Jewell Hall East Lowers. She sighed and reached up to grab a paper towel, quickly realizing the paper towel holder was empty. A second later, Alex and Maria were both at her side.
Alex took her hand gently. "Maria, can you hand me the peroxide and a q-tip?" Maria handed them to him and he glanced at Liz. "This will be probably sting," he warned her.
Liz nodded and bit down on her lip as Alex brushed the q-tip over her cut. She winced.
"Sorry," he said softly. "Maria, can you hand me the wrap, please?" Maria handed it over dutifully. Alex gently wound the ace bandage around her hand. "Are you okay?" he asked in concern.
Liz met his eyes. "I'm okay, Alex."
"Good. Because if anything happened to you or DeLuca, Max and Michael would kill me." He grinned.
She knew it was a joke, but she touched his arm. "Alex, you're the best guardian for the Three Muskateers," she said quietly.
Maria nodded in agreement. "We were really freaked last night, Alex. Thanks for taking care of us."
Alex looked from Liz to Maria, and then back to Liz. "I'm here for you guys. No matter what." He draped an arm around Liz, and the other around Maria.
"So, then, you'll come down with me to wait for my laundry to get done?" Maria asked, giving him a sideways glance.
Alex raised an eyebrow. "Did I say no matter what?"
Liz couldn't supress a giggle. "Yes, my friend, you did." She looked at Maria, who grinned.
Alex gave a sarcastic sigh. "All right, all right. You coming with us, Parker?"
She shook her head. "I have to clean my room."
"Have fun with that, Lizzie," Maria teased.
Liz rolled her eyes. "Right."
Liz finished her macaroni and cheese and walked back towards her room. She paused outside her door and turned to face the door directly across from hers.
Room 202.
No one lived there. In fact, half of the rooms on Jewell Hall West Lowers were empty. Past Maria and Isabel's room, all of the rooms were unoccupied. And the rooms directly across from their's, Liz's, and Tonya's were unoccupied, too.
Jewell wasn't the most popular dorm. It was a non-alcoholic dorm, even if you were 21 or over. Mostly the dorm consisted of freshmen, but after one year in Butler Hall last year, no one wanted to live there again. Butler was overrun with mice, and roaches.
All six of them had tried to get into Jewell, but there was only one room left for one person on the guy's side, and since Max and Michael roomed together, Alex had the honor of becoming Todd's roomate.
It was just safer that way. There was no chance that a roomate could walk in while Max or Michael were using their powers, or discussing their heritage.
Isabel had chosen to room with Maria because they had similar sleeping habits. They both tended to sleep late, while Liz tended to stay up late and get up early.
Liz studied the door to Room 202. She frowned as she realized there was no door knob. She touched the wood surface with her un-bandaged hand, and then pulled away quickly. The door was like ice.
Liz shuddered and turned away, digging her keys out of her jeans pocket. She unlocked her dorm room and stepped inside. She saw the red light flashing on her answering machine. She hit 'play.'
"Hi, this is Liz. I'm not in right now, but if you'll leave your name and number and a brief message, I'll get back to you."
Beep.
"You stupid, fucking whore!"
Click. Beep.
"End of messages."
Liz's eyes widened, her mouth hanging open. She flipped the blinds up so she could see out. The clouds were darkening and slowly moving overhead.
Who would leave her such a nasty message? Alan? Pete? She wasn't sure, but she hoped that Max got back before it started storming. She shivered and wrapped her warm blue blanket tightly around her, staring outside.
Maria shivered and tapped her foot on the floor as she waited for her clothes to finish washing so she could throw them in the dryer.
"So you thought someone was down here?" Alex asked, glancing around the darkened room.
"Alex, someone was standing right in front of me."
"People don't just disappear, Maria," he pointed out.
"You're right. People don't."
He paused. "There's no such things as ghosts."
Maria looked at him with a smirk. "You said the same thing about aliens once."
She had him there. "Well, look, none of us got much sleep last night, and we're all tired--"
"Doesn't account for the tapping noises Liz and I heard last night, or the fact that her Sarah McLachlan cd started playing on its own, or why the lamp was on when we woke up this morning."
"None of which I was a witness to."
"Are you saying you think we lied?"
"Of course not. I'm just saying maybe your imagination is playing tricks on you."
Maria sighed. "Let's just agree to disagree...For now."
"Okay," he agreed.
Maria looked at him. "Does it hurt?"
Alex frowned, and touched his lip. "Not much."
"God help Alan Freedman when Max, Michael and Isabel get back," she said seriously.
"Yeah."
There was a moment of silence. "I'm really worried about Lizzie."
He nodded. "That makes two of us."
"What happened to her hand, Alex?"
"I don't know, Maria."
She sighed as the washing machine stopped. She tossed her jeans in the dryer and hung up her shirts on hangers on the flimsy clothesline. She dumped the basket of white clothes into the wash, and put the quarters in, along with some more Tide.
Alex caught sight of something on the floor. He stooped down to pick it up, and he examined it closely. "Maria?"
"Yeah?"
"You don't have a rose necklace pendant, do you?" He was pretty sure she didn't. He couldn't remember seeing her wear one.
"No. Why?" He held it out for her to see. Maria looked at it. "Looks old. An antique, maybe."
"It's not Liz's either, is it?"
"I don't think so," Maria said, shaking her head slowly. She took it from him and stuck it in her pocket. "But I'll ask her about it later."
"Man, I'm hungry," he said.
Maria nodded in agreement. "But not for Ding food."
"Definitely not for Ding food." He thought for a moment. "I think I have a couple of dollars. Maybe among the three of us we can scrounge together enough to order a pizza from Little Italy's?"
"I just used all my money on laundry," she said with a sigh.
"We could go begging from door to door," he said with a grin.
Maria rolled her eyes. "That only worked when we were ten."
"We were eleven. Sixth grade," he reminded her. "And it did work."
"Yeah, because you said your mother was in the hospital and the three of us were staying home alone and had nothing to eat."
Alex laughed at the memory.
"It was our parents fault. They wouldn't let us go to the arcade."
He laughed again. "Yeah, God forbid we didn't get to play Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles the Arcade game for one day."
"Yeah, but it's kind of ironic that now that we really do need money for food, we're too old to go begging for it and have it work. Must be karma," Maria mused.
"Yeah, or maybe we're just like every other poor college student in America. No wonder there's a lack of college-bound high schoolers."
"Lack of money?"
"No. The food sucks."
Even from three doors down, Max could hear the music blaring from Liz's cd player. He stopped outside her room and turned to look at the room across the hall. Room 202. He frowned and then turned back to Liz's room.
He could hear the vaacum cleaner running, and he knew she'd never hear him knock, so he reached for the door handle, and turned it, pushing the door open slightly.
He stood in the door frame, watching her for a moment. She was faced away from him, singing along with Jewel while she vaccumed.
"Barcelona
Where the winds all blew
And the churches don't have windows
But the graveyards do
Me and my shadow are wrestling again
Look out stranger, there's a dark cloud moving in..."
Liz swept the carpet under her window, concentrating on the music. She'd taken the bandage off her hand so she could grip the sweeper easier.
"But if you could hear the voice in my heart
It would tell you, I'm afraid I am alone
Won't somebody please hold me, release me, show me
The meaning of mercy, let me loose
Fly
Let me fly
Let me fly..."
Max stared at her as she sang along so passionately.
"Super paranoid
I'm blending, I'm blurring, I'm bleeding
Into the scenery
Loving someone else is always so much easier
But I hold myself hostage in the mirror
But if you could hear the voice in my heart
It would tell you, I'm tired of feeling this way..."
Liz's eyes stung with tears. She was tired of feeling this way, of feeling like she was running from everything that went wrong, but she felt so powerless to change it. She couldn't force herself to feel differently. She was trapped.
"God, won't you please
Hold me, release me, show me
The meaning of mercy
Let me fly
Let me fly..."
Max couldn't take it anymore. He stepped inside her room and shut the door behind him. He walked up behind her and shut off the sweeper. Liz screamed and spun around, her eyes filled with terror. He put his hands on her shoulders. "God, Liz, I'm sorry! I didn't mean to scare you."
She nodded and swallowed hard, forcing herself to breathe. "I didn't mean to...scream at you. Sorry."
"It's okay. Are you?"
"Yeah, I'm fine."
He didn't buy it for one minute. He wrapped his arms around her. "I know you better than that, Liz."
"I just missed you, Max," she whispered against him, burying her face in his shoulder. She wasn't ready to tell him she was having nightmares about her uncle again. She wasn't ready, and she didn't want to bring up that part of her life again. It made Max feel bad and there wasn't a reason to do it. She could handle it on her own.
Max pulled away and studied her. He reached out and took her hands in his, squeezing them gently. When she winced, he frowned and brought her hands up so he could look at them. He flinched at the sight of the angry red marks. Then he gently brought the palm of her right hand to his lips and kissed it softly.
An image of Liz, Alex, and Maria huddled together asleep flashed through his mind.
The mark disappeared. He brought her other hand to his lips.
An image of Alex cleaning and bandaging the wound flashed into his brain.
That mark disappeared as well.
"Thank you," she said softly.
Max gazed into her eyes, frowning. "What happened this weekend, Liz?"