Chapter Fifteen

“Here he is!” Mike yells amidst the thumping bass. Jenny spins round, noticing Stu’s troubled look. Her rotation swirls her cocktail, a little spilling free. He has his hands driven into his pockets, turning his arm inward to hide the scarring.

“What happened?” Jenny yells, yet to notice the distinct stench of burnt meat.

“He’s gone. Tried to fight me, didn’t get him far. Had a chat, calmed him down, sent him on his way. Hopefully he won’t trouble Aimee anymore.” Stu shouts toward her ear, grimacing at the level of noise in here. Jenny nods the whole way through, not quite catching it all. Aimee turns to him, having heard her name. She has her mobile in hand.

“He’s sent me a text - he apologised for everything and told me he won’t bother me again!” she yells with a half-smile, content to see Stu back rather than Matt. “What did you say to him?” she shouts.

“I just told him to sort things out. He took it surprisingly well, once he’d stopped trying to hit me.” Jenny smiles at him, but Aimee leans in and pecks him on the cheek.

“Thank you!” she admits, relieved. “Let’s go elsewhere, this place sucks now.” She tells him, almost nibbling his ear lobe. She scoots past, Stu locking eyes with Jenny.

“Are you ok?” she asks, trying not to yell.

“Yea - all fine now.” He replies. “What happened to the other girls?”

“They left when we came back in - I understand why, considering Matt pretty much ruined the evening. No matter - at least we can try and salvage some of it.” Jenny smiles, considering sliding her hand between Stu’s arm and torso. He spots the move and quickly backs away, trying his best to avoid her touch. Mike notices a slight scorch mark on Stu’s arm as he shifts, instantly linking it to the burnt smell that he had been struggling to place. Jenny looks at him, puzzled, wondering if he did that on purpose.

As they exit the Afterburner, Stu gazes over to the ambulance, and he exchanges looks with one of the paramedics that attended to him the weekend before. His face must have taken the brunt of the impact, as they don’t offer a second glance. Stu keeps it as a fleeting glance.

“Everything alright with you?” Stu asks Jenny, content that he can now hear again.

“I guess. It’s not been a great couple of weeks, considering I only get to turn twenty-one once.” she replies. “If this whole thing with Erica hadn’t happened, well...” Stu muses for a second, looking towards the others.

“Where are we headed?” he calls to Aimee, making her stop and turn round for a moment.

“The Dome, I reckon - Jen?” she asks as the pair catch up.

“I think that’s a safe bet. Hopefully the queue won’t be that bad - we are earlier than normal, after all.” She briefly checks her watch.

Mike starts conversing with Aimee as she starts off again, Stu turning to Jenny and drawing close. “Do you think she’s going to be okay?” he asks, looking towards Aimee.

“Yea, she’s made of pretty strong stuff. But what about you? Matt was such an idiot tonight.”

“Heh.” Stu smirks. “I’m not sure what his problem was, but at least he’s going to leave her alone.” he adds, checking behind as if expecting Matt to be there. Jenny herself looks back as well, intrigued by that motion. She looks up at Stu briefly, countless thoughts coursing through her mind. Now would be a good time to confront him. There’s enough alcohol snaking through her veins to give her the required propulsion. Or is the alcohol misleading her?

“Just what is it about you?” she queries, having made her decision. Stu instantly looks at her.

“What do you mean?”

“Well, you show up at the same time as my life starts to get a little random. I hate to say it, but whenever something goes wrong, I seem to think of you.” Stu’s eyebrows raise and he slows his pace. “I don’t mean it in a bad way, maybe I do actually, but the two seem to fit. Just what is it that keeps troubling me?”

Stu merely shrugs his shoulders; hands still drilled into his pockets and straightened arms tight to his torso. “There’s a ton of stuff I can tell you, but not yet. If we get a lot closer and I feel that level of trust, then who knows? It’s pretty heavy.” he replies. “I’ve lost a lot over the years, so I understand if that sort of baggage isn’t what you’re looking for in a relationship.”

“Whoever said you were boyfriend material?” Jenny laughs, sloppily nudging him. Stu smiles back at her, cautious.

“Just be patient, if you want more from me...” He murmurs, about to pop an arm out when he remembers the wounds scarring his skin. Jenny notices the black mark trailing up his arm.

“What’s happened here?” she demands, trying to grab hold of his arm. Stu pulls away, tucking it firmly away. “Did Matt burn you?” she hushes, trying to keep Aimee unaware.

“No, it just happened in the alley. It’ll be fine, I just need to wash it off. It’s not a burn, or anything like that. Just a dirty mark.”

“This is exactly what I was afraid of. Something like this - that’s clearly a burn. Why are you keeping me in the dark?” she moans, sulking at him.

“I told you - I could tell you someday. Right now please, don’t let it bother you.” Stu informs, trying his best to calm her. Mike looks back at them, noticing an argument brewing. Aimee remains unaware, folded arms trying to keep her scantily-clad upper body warm.

“She was right.” Jenny mutters under her breath, the drunk in her going for it. Stu heard it well enough.

“Who?”

“That medium we went to see. Alicia, Anthea or whatever her name was. She was right - there is something about you. You’re a proper bad boy. What if you’ve done something to Matt, to prevent him coming back? Hey? Sounds to me like, like him never coming back is because of a right kicking. You’re not exactly small, are you?” Jenny unleashes. Immediately she gasps, shocked that she hit him with such venom, wishing the words had come out silent. “I’m so sorry - it was the drink talking... I promise.” She dives into him, forcing him to slip out an arm and comfort her. Looking down at his hand, he notices the singed flesh, bubbled and waxy, and hopes that Jenny doesn’t notice herself.

“It’s okay - I understand that you’ve gone through a lot lately.”

Jenny moves away, trying to take his hand. Instead Stu slips it back into his pocket and bends the elbow, urging her to latch onto it. Doing so, she leans into him again and rests her head on his shoulder. “What that medium said disturbed me. It didn’t help, you running off so suddenly. It felt like you were guilty in a way, and didn’t want to answer any questions I might have.” she comments, snuggling up to him.

They start to catch up with Aimee and Mike, who join the short queue for the Plasma Dome and wait for their compatriots. “I would have preferred not to have visited her.” Stu frowns. “The things she said were totally out of order - and proportion. I should pay her a visit...” he grumbles. The streetlight overhead flickers before returning to static normality.

“Don’t be silly.” Jenny smiles back. “She’s quite clearly a fraud. Like you said once before, they can’t... uhhh... all be telling the troof.” she slurs.

“You alright?” Aimee asks, noticing a slacken Jenny propped up against Stu. She quickly stands tall, stretching her body to alleviate some dormant tension. Mike gawps at the cut between her arm and breast, spotting a healthy chunk of her lacey bra.

“Yea.” She yawns, clinging back onto Stu. “Another drink will sort me out nicely.” They troop forward, the queue slowly disappearing inside. “How come youse has such a high tolerance for tis stuff?”

“What stuff? You?” he smirks.

“No - booze, you tit.” she retorts, slapping him across the belly. “You always sheem to drink absinthe, and no matter how much youse has, it doesn’t go to your head.” Stu just smiles back her, amused by her intoxication.

“You’ve had plenty to drink, so much that it’s affecting your judgement, and most importantly your perception.”

She drunkenly grins back at him. “I called you a tit.”

“I’ll get this.” he says, handing over a crinkled note to cover the entry fee for the both of them. As they approach the double doors, Stu spots Mike scooting off to the bar, his usual tactic when a quiz machine isn’t available. Aimee waits for them right by the door, just inside the darkened alcove. Seeing her half lit in the gloom, Stu remembers the kiss from his last visit here, and the mystery of whoever the phantom lady was. The memory dissolves as Aimee steps forward, revealing a stare of sultry admiration.

“She’s had a fair bit, hasn’t she?” she calls amidst the muffled tune from beyond the door. Stu just smiles back at her, letting Aimee lead Jenny off to the dance floor, where she immediately finds her energy reserves. Stu joins Mike at the bar, noticing just two other people waiting. Their order is already being prepared. Stu produces a ruffled twenty, passing it over to Mike who soundly nods back at him. Spotting an ice bucket to his right, he slyly grabs a few cubes and begins rubbing them down the wounded flesh of his arm. As the cold sets in, the scorched flesh peels away, reverting his skin to its prior unblemished state. Shaking the water from his fingers, Stu looks back to the dance floor, noticing Jenny and Aimee dancing in close proximity, surrounded by a mere handful of other patrons. Smiling at her as they trade gazes, she smiles back, blowing him a kiss. Stu’s eyes widen in shock.

Her skin is pallid, veins pulsing with a fluorescent hum. Her eyes are sunken and shimmering in the twisting light, muscles degenerated and frame almost skeletal. No-one else seems to notice this horrid depiction, and with her gaze now elsewhere, she doesn’t even register his startled poring.

He can only remember one instance where such a horrid vision caused him disdain. That time it was cast upon Sam, and was a warning from one of three malevolent schattengeists.

Jenny suddenly screams at the top of her lungs as scorching gouges sink into her arms. People around her gasp in terror and flee as the black lashes smoke and rip apart her flesh. Crippled with pain, she shudders to her knees, raising her arms out before her to show all what she has been branded with. Her skin flashes black a few times, as dark as the deepest shadow, her exasperated gaze struggling to find Stu as her pouring tears evaporate into steam.

All the lights in the club explode in tandem, showering everyone and everything with tiny shards of hot plastic and glass. The building falls into utter darkness, the speakers banging like drums and squealing from feedback. The only sound left is Jenny’s tortured yelling, a deafening screech that pierces the ear. It is quickly followed by mass panic, scores of people trapped amidst their blackened surroundings. Then, a swirling electrical storm, deep red in hue, appears from within the dark and it crashes into Jenny, skimming her across the floor where she slams into a bench, a twisting barrage of fluctuating electricity sizzling through her fallen body. A towering speaker to her right unexpectedly blows, nearly igniting her frazzling frame. She screams harder, almost losing her voice, and a pulsating humanoid stretches out from her, oozing away as the thundering electrical storm leaves her be and continues to envelope the shape. Jenny’s body lies illuminated nearby, arms still smouldering. The thing tries to walk away, juddering from the punishing flux of electrical fire. It stumbles into seating, torching the seat fabric and shooting flames right up to the roof. The black room illuminates orange, revealing a sea of people locked in frozen fright.

Stu scrambles to rescue Aimee, stricken on the dance floor, and then Jenny close to the burning beast. He hoists the unconscious girl across his shoulder and drags Aimee, not considering the existing contusion across her wrist. As they charge from the room, the fire grows into uncontrollable proportions and engulfs whomever it can, relishing the newfound chaos that has consumed this place. Stu fleetingly looks back, seeing the shape crumble into ash as the electrical binds flicker out of existence.

As they get to the stairs, Stu tugs at a nearby rail, pulling a coat from the rack and throwing it across his cargo. Jogging down the stairs amidst curling, acrid smoke, they hit the cool breeze outside and get to the other side of the road. Laying Jenny down, Stu completely covers her with the long coat, billowing smoke wafting from her seared flesh.

He stands up, realising that his hands are red raw from the intensity of that last altercation. He feels the same warmth cooking his face, realising that people would just associate it with the sudden fireball from indoors.

“What happened in there?” Aimee coughs, looking up as windows smash and grey smoke spews outside.

“Where’s Mike?” Stu worryingly announces, looking around at the bystanders enamoured by the roaring inferno.

“Here!” he calls. Stu spins round, spotting him with a phone plugged to his ear. “I’m calling a - yes! Fire service please!” he shouts, irritated by the distracting noise of bystanders around him.

“Come on,” Stu says to Aimee, scooping Jenny up. “Let’s get her home.”

“What about the emergency services? It looked like she was hit with something, right before the fire! Was that her screams I heard in there?” Aimee coughs, not sure if she should follow. Stu storms off, Jenny slung across both arms. “And we could all have smoke inhalation!”

“If you want to stay and get checked out, don’t let me stop you. I’m fine, I assure you, but I need to get her home. She’ll be fine there.” Aimee goes to speak again, but realises it would be fruitless, and watches him disappear down past the river.

“They’re on the way.” Mike pants, ending the call. He looks up as a menacing orange hue glows from the entrance, unsure how he managed to run so fast to get out. “Where’s Stu?” he asks, wondering how he missed him.

“Taking Jenny home, for some ridiculous reason.” Aimee replies, staring on at the blaze with him.

“Was she alright then? All I heard was screams before that electrical surge...”

“I think so - Stu thinks so. It was so dark in there I could have tripped and be stuck in there, but Stu...” she looks back to where she last saw him. “He saved me.”

***

Stu pauses as he reaches the corner of Stern Way and Akerman Street, hearing Jenny mumble. Holding her tight, trying to quell her soft trembling, he waits momentarily. She quickly falls back into unconsciousness, and he continues on. A car pulls into the street at the other end, headlights bright and blazing. As he reaches the pathway outside Jenny’s home, the car pulls alongside and Aimee jumps out, throwing a random note at the driver and forgetting to thank him.

“How is she?”

“Still out.” Stu replies as the taxi drives off.

“I have a key - I wasn’t sure how else you’d get in.”

“I hadn’t thought of that.”

Stepping up to the front door, Aimee lets him in and she flicks the lights on. Stu motions up the stairs, looking up and instantly remembering the last time he was here.

“What’s wrong?” Aimee asks, hand placed on the banister in preparation of following him up.

“Can you wait down here a second? I’ll get her comfy then come straight back down.” He whispers, checking on Jenny once again.

“Sure.” Aimee smiles and walks to the kitchen, her bare feet padding across the laminate floor. Stu notices a single heel in her hand, presumably having lost one at the club.

Stu shuffles upstairs, trying his best not to catch Jenny on the wall. Repositioning her weight as they get to the landing, he passes Erica inside her doorway, and enters the room at the end. Laying Jenny on the messy bed, he tosses the coat to one side, brushing the hair from her face. In the pale moonlight, he examines the blackened lashes that scorched her arms. The simmering has ceased, leaving nothing but charred lesions.

Her face is pale, eyes closed and mouth slightly agape. She breathes softly, exhaling longingly before falling still. Stu watches her, anticipating her next breath.

It doesn’t come.

“Jenny?” he blurts, voice almost breaking. Not knowing what else to do, he holds a palm out across her chest. Desperate to contain his anger, a surge fires down his arm and electrifies the underside of his hand. Pushing down on her breast, she jolts and dark green energy illuminates her flesh, speeding toward her heart.

Still no breath.

Again he pushes down, firmer this time, sending her body into a frenzied twitch as she briefly sits, coughing hoarsely then dropping heavily, head cocked to the side. The electrical charge crackles and raises strands of hair on her head. His palm fizzles and pops into death, and he stumbles back into the wall.

Instantly he grasps her hand and kisses it deeply, gripping it tight in his warm hand and trying to fend off this emotion. He stifles an anguished gasp, retreating to pull the duvet over her. Returning to the door, Erica is still stood just inside her room, gazing at him. They trade a silent glance as Stu leaves, refraining from looking back at his handiwork.

He rubs his scolded arms, wondering how he could possibly heal Jenny’s terrible wounds. It’s his fault, pure and simple. He couldn’t heed the advice and move on, as he was explicitly ordered. She now has to deal with those scars for the rest of her life.

As he reaches downstairs, he’s scowling as he walks into the kitchen, trying to disguise his agony in front if Aimee. She is at the breakfast bar, leaning over a glass of water. Stu powers over to the sink and douses his arms in freezing cold water, hastily washing away his wounds.

Once clean, he grabs the nearest towel and dabs his skin dry. He looks at Aimee, who in turn shies away from him. Knowing that he’s watching, she smiles wearily. Stu steps closer, rubbing her back.

“How is she?” she softly asks, now looking at him.

“She’s okay. I’m going to stay for a little while, just in case. I can hang around for a while so I won’t -” Aimee cuts him off, locking her lips with his. Stu doesn’t react, eyes wide open, staring at her. She stops, realising it was all one sided, and turns away. Stu stands astonished. Aimee nervously holds her fingers to her lips, smiling out of sight.

“I need to go.” she mutters, quickly exiting the kitchen without once looking back. Stu watches her go, unsure if he should stop her leaving.

He waits too long - she’s gone.

***

Morning breaks through the drawn curtains, brightening the room with golden rays. Jenny stirs, opening her weary eyes and wondering how she managed to get back here. As she rolls over, her arms burn with a dull ache, doubling her over in pain. Sitting up and checking on them, she gasps in horror, the words failing to form and express her anguish. Scrambling over to the mirror, she stares back at herself, feeling the emptiness inside begin to churn her stomach. Her arms are scarred by deep, black crevices, burnt away almost as low as the bone. Her blood curdling scream echoes throughout the desolate house, items toppling from the bookcase as she wails.

Stu stands stony-faced by the front door, trying not to accept that he has failed yet again. Gritting his teeth, he slips through the front door and quietly prises it shut.