FicWad

Well, it's been a while. Entirely my fault, because not only was I hit by massive writer's block, but because this chapter irked me. I've written countless versions of it, and I -still- hate it. Let's see how you guys like it, because I honestly hope you like it much better than I did. It's a long one, but hopefully it explains a lot.

Echoes.

That's all Pete could focus on.

The echoes chasing him down the corridor to the beginning of a twisted life, the echoes of what he remembered in his dreams.
He wondered if maybe that's all people really did: chase after echoes of who they could have been, who they wanted to be. Haunted by fading dreams, trying not to realize there was no turning back...

Or maybe Pete was only trying to force himself to believe he couldn't change anything. Well, even that was a half-truth.
He didn't want to think of her. Sweet, lovely, treacherous, heart shredding Gwen. Her laughing with Beckett, him bending to whisper in her ear, her lips pressed to his, her body entwined with his.

A grimace twisted his features, only made worse when he studied the woman pulling him down the corridor. He felt sick, so sick of trying to be a person who didn't care about anything or anyone. Pete didn't even want to be in his own skin right now--he felt like screaming, wanted to stop feeling as anxious and crazy as he did now...the only way to stop him from completely falling apart came in the form of a question.

"Who did this to you?"

Lilith stopped and turned to face him. "What do you mean?" she asked.

"I mean, who hurt you so badly that you've become a vindictive bitch?"

Lilith stopped and turned to face him. "Excuse me? No one did anything to me. I'm who I am by choice."

They stood and stared at each other, neither one believing her words. All lies, myths, legends.

And before he could stop himself, the words tumbled out of his mouth. "What's it like?"

"Oh, Peter, how I tire of your questions that make sense to no one but you."

She whipped around, taking his hand and leading him down the corridor again.

"I mean, living for centuries. Living long enough for twenty lives! Twenty years was more than enough to make me wish I'd never been born." He paused at his unintentional complete honesty.

Again Lilith stopped, but she didn't face him. "The ceremony can wait," she said, her voice wavering.

"Wait, what--"

She didn't let him answer, only pulled him down a different corridor in the other direction, and down a few set of stairs. There was no seduction here, only a desperation that Pete had never sensed in her before...

Lilith suddenly opened a door and entered a dark room. She finally let go of his hand.

"Lilith, what the--"

"Why don't you shut your pretty boy mouth for once and wait?"

He rolled his eyes, but jumped when he heard mechanical sounds of something opening. A crack in the ceiling allowed moonlight to fall in on Pete. He watched as the ceiling continued to open and reveal a glass ceiling. Lights flickered on and he blinked, seeing dozens of flowers positioned around him.

"So this is how Beckett pays for his idiotic plots! Weed!"

She didn't answer, shooting him a cold glare as she held a pink flower to her nose. "Look around you, Peter. These flowers and plants know the pleasure of the sunlight, how good it feels to have it fall on your body...while we hide in the darkness. Isn't it strange, realizing that a vampire, one of the infinite darkness, can take care of them? I could let them die if I wanted. No one here, not even Beckett, understands the beauty of controlling those with the power to destroy you."

Pete stared at her, failing to remember if she always talked like this.

Lilith smiled faintly. "Drink this," she said, offering him a crystal glass filled with the ruby liquid he had come to despise.
He didn't wonder where it came from, and only listened to the gut-wrenching thirst. If he didn't accept it, he realized he'd go on a feeding frenzy.

"Fine," he muttered.

She anxiously peered at him. "Good. Don't be afraid, let it come to you."

Again he didn't question, only quickly drinking. But his eyes fell to Lilith's arms. To her bleeding wrist.

"You crazy--" he started.

He couldn't finish because an intense dizziness came over him, forcing him to close his eyes. Pete felt like he was falling into a dark abyss. Maybe he was dead.

Wait. Is that...giggling?

Whoever heard of giggling in Hell?

He opened his eyes to find himself flat on his back, a bright blue sky above him.

"What the hell?" he said, getting up and scanning the field of wildflowers surrounding the patch of grass he stood in.

The giggling came closer until two young girls ran out in front of him. Pete stared at their expensive looking dresses--ones he was certain placed them in the 1800's. The older girl, looking to be about fourteen, had emerald eyes, ebony hair, and creamy skin. The younger girl who couldn't have been more than twelve years old, was less sophisticated, nothing out of the ordinary.

The pale blue eyes of this one caught Pete's attention.

"Shhh. Eden, Freddie will hear us!" the blue-eyed one told the beauty.

Pete blinked and realized neither one took notice of the oddly dressed, dirty boy before them.

Eden giggled again, but even before she called out the other girl's name, Pete knew it.

"Lily, stop shouting. You're making it easier for him to find us!"

He squinted at the miniature Lilith, who was busy dancing around and picking flowers.

"Well maybe I want Freddie to find me," Lilith said, smiling.

Eden laughed. "Well, maybe we should split up then."

Lilith stopped smiling. "Please don't leave me! I wasn't being serious!"

He almost gasped at the obvious love between Lilith and Eden. It was hard to imagine Lilith being capable of love.

"Lily, calm down. You're my sister, and I'd never leave you."
The sisters hugged each other.

"Never, never!" Lilith replied.

Eden grinned at her sister and pulled her back into the fields. Giggling, Lilith followed but looked directly back at Pete. For a second he stood there, stunned, until he turned to see a dark-haired boy running toward them...

Suddenly the sky shifted, and the fields dissolved into a small room. Pete fell flat on his face, completely unprepared.

"A little warning would have been nice!" he shouted.
His eyes focused, glancing about the room, startled to find a dingy, dark room and a breathless Lilith wearing a black cloak with the hood up. Lilith had aged quite a few years; her face now resembled the cold beauty he knew.

"Frederick..." she murmured.

Pete looked to the ceiling. "Please, if there is a God, please don't force me to watch--"

He was interrupted by the door opening and an older, much more chiseled Frederick entered.

"Freddie!" she breathed.

He smiled, gently closing the door. "Are you sure you weren't followed?"

"Yes, of course not."

And without another word, Frederick crossed the room and ripped off her cloak. They kissed each other roughly and Pete wanted to crawl into a hole and die.

"You are so beautiful," Frederick whispered in her ear. His fingers reached up and pulled down her hair as Lilith kissed his neck.

"I love you," she whispered hopelessly.

"I love you too...just wait, and we'll be married soon. I promise you the world!"

Pete sighed, but couldn't tear his eyes away.

Frederick's hands crept up her back and attempted to untie her corset, but Lilith jumped back.

"Freddie, what are you doing?"

His handsome face turned red. "Apparently nothing! I don't have time for this! I'm going!"

Frederick pushed her back and opened the door.

"Freddie--"

"And stop calling me that!"

The sound of the door shutting faded...

This time Pete braced himself and grabbed onto an armchair to avoid falling. Now he was in an elegant sitting room. He didn't have much time to catch his breath when a shrill voice broke the silence.

"No one has come to see you today, Mother?"
Lilith didn't look like she aged many years, but now she was standing near a much older woman, who was much more graceful than her.

"Lily, what has gotten into you? No one has come today," she answered tiredly.

Pete wondered what had Lilith so anxious...

"Are you quite sure?" she asked, her lip quivering.

Her mother sighed. "Yes."

"But--"

"Madame, a Mister Frederick has arrived. He wishes to speak to you," a servant cut in.

Lilith's face lit up the moment Frederick entered the room. With a childish grin she left the room with Pete following close behind. The doors closed behind her.

"This is it. The best moment of my life!"

She anxiously waited for about ten minutes until the doors opened. Lilith opened her mouth to speak, but Frederick swept past her without a word. A bewildered Lilith and Pete quickly reentered the room.

Her mother was smiling from ear to ear. "Something wonderful has happened!"

Lilith sighed in relief. "So Freddie finally asked for permission?"

Her mother shot her a stiffened look. "You knew about this? Eden never said a word to me."

"What does Eden--"

"Oh, Eden will be so happy. I couldn't find a more suitable match for her."

"Eden? With...Freddie?" Lilith turned pale and immediately fainted.

Pete felt like his insides were being squeezed and the room dissolved into a cobbled street lined with buildings. He fell into the street and only got up just in time to avoid being trampled by horse drawn carriages.

Lilith quickly passed him with a wad of folded papers on hand.

He was shocked to notice Lilith didn't look healthy at all--almost mousey even. Pete also noticed she passed up some cream colored papers.

"Only damned Frederick," she muttered.

A paper sealed with crimson wax stopped her in her tracks. She tore it open, and her face fell.

"Dead...she's dead," she whispered frantically.

Pete looked over her shoulder to read the letter:

Lily,
Ignore my other letters if you must. But it is important that you hear this from me first, and from no one else. Eden... I must tell you. Eden, my lovely Eden, is dead...

Pete read no more, horrified and unable, since Lilith folded it up again. Silent sobs shook her whole body, her hands covered her face, the letters lay in the street, forgotten.

He didn't know how to process Lilith's new found humanity, because she tore down the street. Lilith led them down a dark alley. The sun had just set.

"I lost her."

"What's the matter, poppet?"

Pete froze, not needing to see the most unlikely person.

"Please, just let me be," Lilith pleaded.

A man stepped into the alley and took off his hat. "I can't leave a beautiful girl in such a state all alone. Now why don't you tell me what's wrong?"

Lilith raised her tear stricken face to meet William Beckett's eyes.

"Freddie...married Eden...my sister is dead. How am I supposed to continue living?"

"Now, now. I can make the pain go away."

She stopped crying. "How?"

Beckett smiled at her, brushed away the hair from her neck and lightly kissed it. Lilith didn't protest as Beckett sank his fangs into her neck...

Pete had enough of this--he used all of his strength, trying to break free of her tortured memories. The scene spun out of control, finally straightening out into a room covered in scarlet.

"Worse than a night of tequila," Pete muttered, rubbing his head.

"Well, are you just going to stand there?"

He snapped his head up. Gwen stood to the right of him, but she looked fine--alive, that is. Pete opened his mouth to speak, but Lilith rushed into view. She quickly sank her fangs into Gwen, who only closed her eyes...

Pete was being pulled backwards, his eyes squeezed shut.
"Peter?"

He opened his eyes, flat on his back and Lilith sat next to him, holding his hand.

"You...you bit Gwen!"

"Yes. But you know how she accepted it, how she wanted it!"

Her eyes flashed, and he knew he couldn't deny what she said. Or maybe looking at Lilith sometimes distracted him for some odd reason. One question lingered on his mind.

"So how did you deal with the pain?"

She looked away and brushed herself off. "Well, I had two options. One: let it all tear me apart and give up. Or two: take control of my life and do what I can to survive. Which one do you think I picked?"

Pete studied her again, unsure of how to judge the woman before him. Was she a cold-blooded, remorseless coward? Or was she a hurt woman who overcame her pain?

Loud knocking on the door interrupted his thoughts.

"Urie, go away," Lilith snapped.

Though Pete would have been surprised weeks before, nothing surprised him about Lilith anymore.

"Beckett orders that you come to the Scarlet Room. No more waiting."

Lilith sighed dramatically, and helped Pete to his feet. He gave her a troubled look, anxious about what the night would bring.
No time to panic now.