Stalked by Death

Chapter 18

I couldn’t take my eyes off the corpse. His soul was still inside him. I could feel it, and it was in agony. Leticia and McKenzie backed away in fear, and they had every right to. What I’d done was awful, unforgiveable. This wasn’t what being Ophi was about. It couldn’t be.

“Well, Jodi, I have to hand it to you,” Lexi said. “You’re darker than I thought. I didn’t think you’d actually go through with it. Maybe there’s hope for you yet.”

Leticia glared at me with puffy, red eyes. “You’re no better than they were.” She didn’t need to clarify who they were. I knew. She thought I was as bad as Victoria and Troy. Just as heartless. Maybe I was. Leticia grabbed McKenzie’s arm, and they walked off toward the school. Lucas didn’t say a word, but he followed them. I stared after them, realizing that, to everyone else, it looked that I had done all this. They had no idea that Chase could use his power to control me.

The soul was screaming to me. No one else could hear or feel the souls the way I could. If they could, they wouldn’t do these awful things. I walked over to the body and mixed my blood. “Go back to where you came from. I release your soul.” I felt the soul leave; as it did, it reached out toward me. I felt like a strong wind was blowing me back. That had never happened before. The souls weren’t supposed to be able to touch us.

“What was that?” Chase asked, steadying me.

“He pushed me.” I stared at the corpse. “When the soul released, it pushed me.”

“Souls can do that?” Jared asked. He didn’t look happy with me either, but at least he wasn’t running away.

I nodded. “I didn’t think they could, but it definitely happened.”

“What, he was pissed off and decided to try to fight back?” Chase smirked. “I say we bring him back and teach him a thing or two.”

I whipped around to face him. “What is wrong with you?” My blood started to boil. “I didn’t want to hurt that guy. You made me do it.”

“I should’ve known you were too weak to do it on your own.” Lexi walked off.

“Hey, wait a minute,” Chase said. “You kissed me, remember? You combined our powers. I have to say, I didn’t hate your method. In fact, I’d like to try it again.” He stepped toward me, but I backed up.

“Don’t. Don’t touch me.” I waved him off. “Whatever this is between us, it’s over. I’m done. I don’t want your powers. I don’t want your help. I don’t want you.”

He advanced on me, and I shivered. He was scaring me.

“I bet one little touch and you’d be saying different.” He reached for my face.

“No!” I backed away farther. “I mean it. Stay away from me, Chase.”

Jared put his hand on Chase’s chest, holding him back. “That’s enough, man.”

Chase laughed, which only freaked me out more. This guy was seriously crazy. He was using me to get to my powers, and the truly frightening part was that, if he touched me again, I was going to give in. I couldn’t fight him, couldn’t resist his touch. I did the only thing I could. I ran. Ran from Chase. Ran from the school. I was hurting everyone. I wasn’t a leader. I was a liability.

I sprinted behind the school, glancing back to see Chase following. His running was almost effortless. Nothing at all like mine. I struggled to breathe as I forced my legs to go so fast they were out of control. I ran into the woods and kept going, weaving in and out of the trees. There was nowhere to hide. I had to keep running. If I could reach the road, maybe I could flag down a car, the way I’d flagged down Melodie. Melodie. Her image invaded my mind. Could I really risk running into her after what I had done? She’d probably run me over if she saw me. Oh wait—she didn’t have a car anymore, thanks to me.

“Come on, Jodi, you can’t outrun me.” Chase was closing in on me. I had to do something.

I cut off to the right, remembering the road was closer to the school on that side. As much as I didn’t want to remember what had happened to Melodie’s car or the hiker who’d tried to save me, I wished I’d come across the remains of the fire soon. At least then I’d know I was close to the road. Close to help.

“Why are you resisting me, Jodi?” Chase yelled. “You know you want me as much as I want you. Give in to it. Stop fighting. It’s not like Alex is here to get in the way anymore.”

I was struggling to breathe, yet Chase was having no trouble at all yelling to me while he ran. He was in much better shape than I was, which meant this wasn’t going to end well for me. I knew he’d use his powers on me the second he reached me, and then it would be all over. I’d give in, and he’d have control.

I pushed my legs off the ground as hard as I could, forcing myself to go faster. I wasn’t giving up. No matter how much it hurt. I saw something big and black out of the corner of my eye. Melodie’s car! I headed toward it, squinting through the trees, trying to make out the road. I was still too far away.

“Does it really have to go down like this?” Chase yelled. I turned slightly and saw he was making a beeline for the car. He thought that was what I was running toward. He was going to cut me off. I quickly changed directions, knowing it would take me longer to reach the road this way.

“Clever!” Chase laughed. “Hey, did I mention I’m a runner? I could compete professionally if it weren’t for the whole sweating thing.” He laughed. “I’d kill my competition in more ways than one.”

Crap, crap, crap! I turned to see how much ground he’d gained on me when I saw him hurdle a fallen tree. He cleared it with ease and even smiled at me as he landed. I couldn’t look at him. He was psyching me out. I focused up ahead again and saw the road. I grunted and forced my body into a sprint. I poured everything into it. All my energy was focused on making it to the road. I heard a car coming. If I could get out of the woods, make myself visible, I’d have a chance. I’d throw myself onto the car’s hood if I had to. Anything to get away from Chase.

I stepped out from the trees and waved my arms. The car was getting closer. One foot hit the asphalt, and then I was hit from behind. Chase was on top of me, pinning me to the shoulder of the road. The car drove past, not even noticing us. But I noticed it. The license plate read, MOM1208. Mom. My grandparents had gotten her the custom license plate after I was born. Even though she was only 16 at the time, she was so happy to be a mom. She never regretted having me, even after my dad left. She never regretted the life we had. No matter how much she had to work or how much she hated her boss.

“Mom,” I cried.

“Hush,” Chase said. “I’ll make you feel all better.” He brushed the tear from my cheek and transferred his power to me. My body tingled, making me forget the pain I was feeling. Making me want nothing more than to be with Chase, to feel this power we could create together.

After a few minutes, I felt the power subside. It slowly went away, leaving me feeling content. I knew I had run away, that I had wanted to get away from Chase, but now I had a hard time remembering why.

“Better?” He kissed me gently on the lips.

I nodded.

“Ready to go back now?” He stood up and extended his hand to me. I took it and let him help me up. He held onto me, and we started walking back toward the school. “That was your mom’s car back there?”

“Yeah.” I didn’t want to talk about it. I wasn’t sure if I was glad she hadn’t seen me or if I wanted to be in the car with her right now.

“It wouldn’t have ended well if she had stopped.”

Was he threatening her? “Would you have hurt her?” I stopped walking and stared at him. I tried to take my hand back, but he squeezed it, sending a burst of power, getting me under his control again.

“You don’t have to be afraid of me, Jodi. We were meant to be together. I won’t hurt you. Why can’t you see that?” He pulled me along, so we were walking again.

“If you hurt my mom, it would destroy me.”

He didn’t respond.

“And you made Alex leave. That hurt me. You made me torture that corpse, and that hurt me, too. If you really don’t want to hurt me, you wouldn’t try to control me like this. Using your power to get what you want is cruel.” I should’ve been yelling at him, but with him still sending little surges of power my way, a gentle voice whispering the truth was the best I could do.

“I didn’t make Alex leave. He left because he wasn’t really in love with you. You weren’t in love with him either.”

I stopped. “Yes, I was.” I tried to take my hand away again, but Chase hit me with another dose of his power, but this time it was the poison. I crumbled to the ground, and he caught me before my head hit a fallen tree branch.

“Please,” I whispered. “You have to stop. I can’t handle much more. You’re going to kill me.”

He looked down at me like he was considering what I said. “I won’t let you die, Jodi.”

“Stop controlling me. Please.”

“I will once you admit the truth to yourself.” He leaned down and kissed me again. “You love me. You’ve loved me since before me met. You felt it, too. The attraction between us. Alex left because of you, Jodi. Because you love me.”

No. I wanted to yell, scream, and spit in his face. He was doing this to me. He was controlling me like a puppet. But I knew if I said what I really felt, he’d just dose me with poison again. It really was killing me, whether he wanted to admit it or not. If I was going to survive, I was going to have to play along. Pretend what he’d said was true.

“Say it, Jodi. Say you love me.”

He stroked my face, sending just the slightest bit of poison through his touch. He had no idea how much he was hurting me. I had to make it stop.

“I love you.” I didn’t say his name, and I pictured Alex’s face in my mind while I said it.

Chase wrapped me into a hug and kissed me. It physically pained me to kiss him back. I hated him. I wanted to claw his eyes out. But I had to play along or he’d kill me and leave me for the wild animals. Chase’s hands were all over me, and I instinctively pushed him away.

“Need a little more?” I knew he was talking about his power.

“No! Please, Chase. I’m really in bad shape. I need to lie down. I don’t even know if I’m strong enough to make it back to the school.” A plan was forming in my mind. “Do you think you could go get your car and come back for me?” I laced my fingers through his, trying to play the part of the loving girlfriend.

“No need,” he said. “I’ll carry you.”

“Don’t be silly. It’s way too far for you to carry me.”

“Jodi, sweetie.” He kissed my cheek. “How dumb do you think I am?”

My eyes widened. My acting skills weren’t cutting it.

“I know, if I leave you here, the second I’m gone you’ll run for the road again.”

Maybe not run. My energy level was seriously depleted.

“I won’t. I’m not strong enough to anyway.”

“Alex may have been an idiot, but I’m not.” He scooped me into his arms and started walking. “Hmm, you may be right about one thing. It’s definitely too far to carry you like this.” Chase stopped and looked around. His gaze fell on Melodie’s car, and he walked over to it.

“It’s totaled,” I said.

“A little burned, but not totaled.”

“The whole thing was up in flames. You can’t drive it.”

He smiled, and I followed his eyes. He wasn’t looking at the car. He was looking at the body next to it.

“No! You can’t be thinking of raising him. Chase, that’s going too far.”

“Don’t worry, sweetie. I wouldn’t think of raising him without your help. In fact, I’d prefer if you did it. You know, as a way to show me you’re going to be on my side from now on.” He put me down right next to the corpse.

“I can’t. I won’t do that. He was only trying to help me. I would’ve died if he hadn’t freed me from the car.”

“Well, then you wouldn’t want his death to be in vain.”

I narrowed my eyes at him. “What are you talking about?”

“You’re either with me or against me, Jodi. Believe me, you don’t want to be against me.” His expression softened, and he cupped my face in his hands. “I really don’t want to hurt you. We’d make such a great team.” He lowered his hands to right above my heart. “But I will hurt you if I have to.”

I looked at his hands, poised and ready to send a burst of poison straight to my heart. A burst I was sure would kill me.

“Why are you doing this?” I asked.

“Because I need you to see that you and I aren’t like the others. We’re better. I deserve the best, and that’s you. If I can’t have you, I will kill you. So, you better start proving that you want to be with me.”

My eyes stung with the realization that I was defenseless against him. Part of me wanted to let him kill me, to end it so I didn’t have to become the monster he wanted me to be. But if I died, that would be the end of the Ophi. I was sure of it. My death would mark the end of my deal with Hades. He’d go after the others, until there were no Ophi left.

I stared Chase in the eyes. “If you want me to love you, then you need to be someone I could love. Not a monster.”

“I’m powerful. That doesn’t make me a monster. You fighting me is making me a monster. If you would’ve just come back with me, none of this would’ve happened.”

“Fine,” I said. “I’ll go back with you.”

“No.” He crossed his arms like a bratty child. “Now you need to prove yourself to me.” He nodded at the corpse. “Raise that soul and make him carry you back to the school.”

He was crazy, and I was crazy for not fighting him.

“Jodi, you have five seconds before I dose you with more poison than you can stand.”

I squeezed my fists, feeling my blood already mixing in response to my emotions. I glared at Chase. “Fine, but understand I will hate you for making me do this.”

“No, you won’t. You will love me, Jodi, or I will kill you.” He motioned to the body.

I stepped around him, careful not to make contact. I didn’t need any of his power. I reached out for the soul, muttering an apology at the same time. He recognized me instantly, and when he realized I was forcing him back into his charred body, he screamed in agony. I cried, but I continued to control him, to hurt him more than he’d ever been hurt. I watched the corpse rise and come toward me.

“Good girl,” Chase said. “Now, make him carry you.”

My mouth didn’t want to move. It killed me to say the words. “Carry me to my home. Follow Chase.”

Chase smiled as the corpse reached for me and picked me up. His burned body was wet and bloody in some places where his flesh had melted away. I struggled to keep from throwing up. Chase laughed.

“See, it would be so much easier if you decide to love me.” He walked with a smile the entire way back.

The corpse struggled under my weight, but no matter how much he hurt, he couldn’t stop. He was powerless against me. We reached the school grounds, and I saw Tony was in the cemetery teaching the others. He’d taken over the lesson for me, but he stopped the second he saw us. His eyes went back and forth between me and the corpse. “My God, Jodi. What on earth have you done?”

“She’s a ruthless one,” Chase said. “But man are her powers awesome.” He looked at me and smiled. “Come on, sweetie, don’t you think the poor guy’s had enough? You can walk the rest of the way, can’t you?”

He was pinning this all on me. Making me look like the bad guy. I wanted to punch him in the face. To tell everyone the truth about what had happened. Instead, I commanded the soul to put me down. His flesh stuck to me in several places, and the tearing sound it made was sickening. He stared down at his arms in obvious pain.

“I release you. Please, return to where you were. I’m so sorry,” I choked out. Tears filled my eyes.

Chase came over and put his arm around me. He sent waves of power through me. Not enough to consume me. I was sure he didn’t want anyone else to know what he was doing. “Aw, hon, I know you feel bad about making him do that.” He took my face in his hands and said, “I forgive you.” He kissed me, and I truly wanted to die.

When he pulled away, everyone stared at me in horror, and there was nothing I could do to convince them of the truth.