Hey guys! 

So I found this picture while looking on google images and it immediately screamed Rex and Rose to me. Do yall agree?

Don't forget to comment, vote, and follow!

Sorry for any grammar or editing mistakes!

Buckle up for this "crazy" ride ;D

Enjoy!

-&-

Chapter 43

       There was a gun in Jerome Elliot's office drawer, and I knew he didn't keep it locked. I found it once, when I was snooping through stuff I wasn't supposed to. I had freaked and shoved it back where I found it, too afraid to consider why he had it there in the first place. My only hope was to follow this darkness inside me. To get the gun and do what I had to do. I didn't like guns, but I was good with them.

       I had to get out of that wretched room first though. Thank God it wasn't long before Donni came back in, that full-of-crap smirk plastered on his face. "Boss man will be here in twenty. The Elliots want you to look presentable before he gets here." I didn't say anything as he walked towards me with a switch blade in his hand. I wanted to scream, to shove the chair away as far as I could, but the monster inside of me kept me still.

       Boss man huh?

       I watched his every move as he knelt in front of me and started cutting through the ropes. He wasn't even worried that I would kick him and run as he leaned up and started cutting through the ropes tied to my wrist. Why would he be? Regular Rosalyn wouldn't have done anything. She would have frozen in fear and did as he said. But I was the Rose whose boyfriend those jerk faces threatened.

       Despite that, I still didn't kick and run as he stood up with that stupid smirk. I needed Santiago here first before I could do anything drastic. If I ran and got the gun now someone would warn him, and he wouldn't come. He would haul up somewhere all comfy-coozy and stay there. I didn't know how he got away from the warehouse, or if he did at all. If he was as powerful as the Elliots made him out to be, he could get out of a county jail with a few papers and a pat on the back.

       "Still no comment Rosie, even with the tape gone?" Donni chuckled as he hauled me to my feet and shoved me in front of him. I didn't say anything. I didn't think I could even if I wanted to. This darkness inside of me was in control and it wanted me to stay silent until I was alone.

       "Use the bathroom upstairs. I'm sure you remember where it is." He nodded towards the staircase on our left and shot me wink. It made me want to hurl. He wouldn't follow me up the stairs or guard the bathroom door. He didn't feel like he had to. The Rosalyn he's used to wouldn't break the rules. I turned on my heel and started for the stairs, my steps wobbly from being tied down for so long. "Oh and Rosalyn?" I glanced back over my shoulder as Donni turned back towards me.

       "No funny business, yeah? Rex wouldn't want you to act up now, I'm sure." He patted the gun at his hip for emphasis before walking off in a fit of laughter. I narrowed my eyes at his retreating back. We'll see whose laughing in the next few hours, buddy.

       I didn't bother going to the bathroom. Jerome's office was on this floor and I quickly walked down the empty hallway until I reached the tall oak door that separated the room from the rest of the house. I waited quietly just outside the door, listening for any sign of life on the other side. I figured he would have been downstairs anyway, helping Lisa get ready for Santiago. Just the thought of all those people in the same room made my blood curl, but I pushed that aside as I eased into the office.

       The door closed quietly behind me, and I clicked the lock before heading for the large mahogany desk at the back of the room. My only hope was that he had kept the gun in the same spot after all these years. Humans were creatures of habit, even the most disgusting, despicable ones. I wanted to scream in joy when I opened the familiar drawer and found the gun buried under a pile of papers. I really didn't like guns, but whatever was inside of me knew exactly how to pick it up and hold it. I stuffed it into the back of my yoga pants before closing the drawer.

       Headlights shined through the window across the spacious office, and I quietly snuck over to the side of the wall to peak behind the thick curtains. I gulped when none other than Santiago stepped out of a sleek black Hummer, with ten men surrounding him. I let my fingers brush against the gun pressed against my back and frowned. The clip held ten or twelve bullets at the most. Even if I could take out all of his men and him that still left the problem of the Elliots.

       I needed a new plan, and I needed one fast. Santiago showing up meant I only had a short amount of time before Donni came looking to escort me to my new "owner". I cringed at the thought, but let the curtains fall back into place as I headed for the desk.

       I needed a lighter, or matches preferably. That was the only way this place, and everyone in it would burn. Literally. I found what I was looking for in the top drawer of Jerome's desk. He always kept a few matches handy, not sure why, but he did. I gripped them tightly in my hand and made sure my shirt was covering the gun in the back of my pants before leaving the office. I didn't need anyone catching me with it before I could use it.

       I knew this house like the back of my hand. When I wasn't locked in that room or right under Lisa's hand, I would sneak out of my usual room and go explore. It was the only release I had in this hell hole. I knew there was a back stairway that's supposed to be used for the "help", as Lisa used to say, at the end of ever floor. And I knew it led to the sole place I needed to be.

       The kitchen.

       I peeked over the stairwell just enough to hear laughter echoing through the main part of the house. I wanted to scream as Santiago's voice mixed with that of the Elliots. The man that had caused Rex so much trouble was friends with the people who made my life a living hell for so long. I'm not sure how, but I managed to hold it together as I backed away and headed for the hidden stairwell.

       I had just stepped into the staircase when I heard Donni's heavy footsteps come up the stairs. "Rosalyn?" He asked as he pounded on the bathroom's door where I was supposed to be. "Our company has arrived. Time to get moving." I didn't stay for him to figure out I wasn't really there. The darkness in me wanted to get this done and over with.

       I hurried down the back staircase, thankful no one was using it, and stopped just at the bottom of the steps. Light shined through the thin opening under the door and I paused as a few shadows walked by. The staircase was hidden by a secret panel at the back of the kitchen, and as a child I would often hide there until the late of hours of night before sneaking food out of the pantry.

       When no one walked by the hidden door for a few solid seconds, I cracked the panel open a sliver. I didn't want anyone to know I was there if there were still people lurking in the kitchen. I watched impatiently as a man dressed in a white button down opened the kitchen door, grabbed a plate of the counter and then left once again.

       I let out a sigh of relief as the door closed behind him, and hurried into the kitchen before anyone could come back in. But I couldn't miss the sound of Donni running down the stairs shouting that I was no longer there. I wanted to panic and just run out the back door, but I knew if that happened someone would catch me, and then they would hurt Rex. That pushed the panic to the back of my brain. I needed to do this for him. So no one would hurt him. I needed to protect him, even if it killed me.

       I ran to the stove as I heard the shouts and hollers from the main part of the house. I slammed open the oven door, twisted all the knobs I found till the stove and oven were both on high before throwing the gun into the opened gas oven. I rushed to the only door in the kitchen that led to the backyard as I began fumbling with the matches. Part of me knew that the explosion would kill me, that I wouldn't be able to run fast enough to out run the fire, but another part of me knew that I would try to run anyways.

       I had just started to scrape the match against the match box when the main kitchen door flew open. Santiago and two men stood in the doorway, the Elliots standing in cold fury behind them. I didn't miss the cold calculation in the human trafficker's eyes, or the way his men all reached for their guns. "What the fuck is going on?!" A male voice shouted, but it wasn't Santiago. My eyes were glued to the silent man who told Rex's own father to kill him. That sick part of me, the one the darkness thrived from, the one that turned me into a monster, wanted him dead. Dead as a door-nail, even if I had to kill myself to do it.

       I wanted to do it, I was going to do it, but the red part of the match was barely scraping the box when the sirens started. Like a light had switched on, everyone started shouting and screaming. "Get out! Run!" Was being yelled everywhere as everyone starting surging together, running for any type of exit they could reach. But I could tell by how loud the sirens were, and how bright the blue and red lights looked from the window, that it was too late. I was surprisingly disappointed at the cop's arrival. The monster in me wanted to so desperately light the match and throw it into the gas oven that I debated on doing it anyway.

       I forced the hand holding the match to my side, completely away from anything it could scrap against.

       Santiago's eyes and mine locked at the same time, and even though I had almost burnt down an entire house, I felt myself smiling. So, this was what it was like, to face your demons. To face mine and Rex's demons. The Elliots were gone, they had fled somewhere else in the house as soon as they heard the sirens, but I wasn't too worried. Santiago knew what I had planned to do, he saw the open oven, the match ready in my hands, and his face no longer held that self-imposed glare. For the first time in my life, I felt myself smirk.

       Santiago ran. Ran like the coward he was, but my smile didn't falter as policemen started streaming in through all entrances of the house. I watched as they took him down like a sack of potatoes. More chaos reigned in as what looked like a SWAT team started running through the whole house.

       They ran around me, like I wasn't even there, like I wasn't worth their time. It all made my head spin, or maybe that was the gas still leaking from the stove and oven. I had just started walking through all the chaos to turn the knobs off, when a voice I thought I would have never been able to hear again rang throughout the entire house. Honestly though, I wasn't sure how I was able to hear him over all the noise.

       "Rosalyn! Rosalyn where the fuck are you?!"

       "Rex?" My voice was too small for anyone to hear, but I didn't need to talk any louder since the large figure of the love of my life came storming into the kitchen. His dark chestnut eyes were alight in what seemed like anger and worry, and dark, wind-tousled hair restedly widely on his forehead. When those eyes landed on me everything faded away, the chaos around me, the noise ringing in my ear, the darkness inside me. It all just faded.

       Rex... Rex was here.

       He wasn't supposed to be here. He wasn't supposed to ever find me. If he was here when I blew up the house- If he was standing too close- Oh God.

       He ran at me, ran so fast I thought he was going to knock me to the ground and crush us both, but his arms just wrapped like iron around me and crushed my body against his stone-like chest. I couldn't breathe, but I didn't want to move as he pressed me so hard against his body I thought he was trying to mold me into his skin. Heck, for all I know he probably was. It didn't last long though, and before I knew what he was doing, he had set me back down on the ground and started yelling at me.

       Yes, yelling.

       "Are you fucking crazy?! Why the fuck would you leave the apartment in the middle of the night?! Do you know how fucking worried I've been?! You are in so much shit-eating fucking trouble, you don't even know! You're never fucking leave my side again! Better yet! I'm gonna' chain your fucking ass to the couch! What's that fucking smell?! Is that gas?! Why is that oven fucking open?!"

       I just stared at him with wide eyes as he suddenly hauled me out the back-kitchen door with a strict warning to 'stay right fucking here' before he ran back inside and turned off all the knobs on the oven and stove. My eyes were still as wide as saucers as he came storming back out with the gun I had thrown in the oven in his hand. His eyes no longer held the worry they did before, but I know that anger there was directed solely at me.

       "Why are you holding matches Rose?" He wasn't yelling anymore, but I knew not to go against that tone in his voice. That very same tone he used on Jason and on Tate before he literally beat them to a pulp. I dropped the matches immediately and took a few steps back. That darkness was still there, but it was slowly receding the more I realized Rex was here, the cops were here, and I saw them slam Santiago to the ground. I only prayed they got the Elliots too.

       I didn't answer him as he chucked the gun into the bushes and wiped his hand on his jeans, like that would get rid of the fact it had been there. "Did you turn that gas on?" I wanted to flinch at the tone in his voice, but the truth was that I was just so happy to see him that I didn't care how angry he was at me.

       "Um..."

       "Were you going to light those matches, Rose?"

       "Well, you see-"

       "You were going to blow the whole fucking house up?! You really are fucking crazy! Do you think you could have gotten away from a blast like that fast enough?! You weren't just going to kill them, you would have killed yourself! Do you understand that?! You were going to kill yourself!"

       I dropped my eyes to the ground as he continued to explode in front of me. I didn't want him to see the truth in my eyes. To see that I would have gladly killed myself to free him of those people, but Rex wasn't stupid. His ranting slowly trailed off as he stared down at me hugging myself in the only form of comfort I had at that moment.

       "Y-you were going to kill yourself?" The anger had seeped like water out of his voice, and the furious stare he had once given me was gone. I let out a heavy sigh as he stood frozen in front of me. His large hands shaking at his side.

       "It wasn't like I was doing it to purposely try to. They were going to sell me into human trafficking, and they kept threatening you. I just wanted to keep you safe. Getting rid of them was the only way I knew how."

       "You just... You-" I don't think he could have found anything to say even if he wanted to, but honestly who could in this situation? I thought I had just gathered up enough courage to look up at him, look up into those eyes that always put butterflies in my stomach, when his hand suddenly snatched into my hair and thrust my head up to look at him.

       The look in his eyes made the breath catch in my throat. The horrible, heat breaking, soul crushing, sadness in them made my own throat want to constrict in tears. "Rex I-"

       "Let me make one fucking thing clear." He hissed down at me, his terribly sad eyes turned so icy that I thought they would scorch my own. "If you die, I die."

       A frown pulled at my lips at his words, and the grip he had in my hair made it impossible for me to angle my head differently. What did he mean by that? That didn't make any sense. "What-"

       "The moment I know you're dead, is the moment I take the gun from under my mattress and shoot myself in the head." His voice was such a dark growl, and his eyes were so dangerously dark, that I knew he meant every word he said. I didn't get a chance to try and stop the tears that started pouring down my face. Just the image of that, just the thought of Rex killing himself made me want to lock him in a closet somewhere and never let him out.

       "N-no, Rex don't say that." I croaked miserably as he dragged me away from the house and the police swarming into it.

       "You don't want us keeping shit from each other, right? Then I won't. I'll kill myself if you die and I'll do it with a fucking smile on my face."

       "Rex." I fell into his chest and sobbed like a baby as his arms wrapped around me. The darkness was gone, the monster was locked away somewhere dark and tight where I prayed it would never resurface again. Everything was hitting me all at once. Being taking, me ready to kill them and myself, and Rex saying he would kill himself if I died...

       It was all too much, all caging around me in a suffocation spiral. Rex had to wrap his arms further around my shaking body to keep me from falling flat to the ground as my legs gave out under me. "Don't kill yourself." I cried into the crook of his neck as he pinned me against him with those iron arms.

       "Then don't fucking die on me."

       He had pulled me around the house and between all the squad cars and vehicles littering the street in front of us. For a moment, a part of me wished I had burnt that house down again. That house that kept me a prisoner for years, with the two most horrible people I have ever seen. One look at the boy holding onto me like his life depended on it had that darkness looking itself away nice and tight.

       I was happy I didn't blow up the house. Knowing I would have killed all those lives would have destroyed me. Would have haunted me for as long as I lived, if I did live. I was happy I didn't burn it. I was happy they all survived, and despite the absolute train wreck, crying, clinging, mass of pathetic I was being at the moment, I was happy Rex was there. I didn't want to let him go, ever. I didn't want to give him a chance to act on that hurrying, soul-shattering promise.

       "Rosalyn!" I heard my father's voice shout over the crowd of cops, and neighbors who had gathered around to watch.

       "Dad!" I tried to shout at the giant figure of my father pushing around all the cops, but my voice was a hard croak from all the crying. Rex let me go long enough for my dad to wrap his giant arms around me and squeeze the air out of my lungs.

       "Oh honey, I was so worried about you. I didn't think I would be able to find you again." My dad's voice was a dark rumble as it left his wide chest and filled the air around us. I pushed my face into his shoulder. "Thank God one of your little friends knew how to find you." He pulled gently away from me with a smile, and then another pair of arms were wrapping around me and squishing me against their hard chest once again. I snuggled back into Rex's warmth as his arms wrapped as thick as a tree trunk around me.

       I couldn't tell if my dad was upset at mine and Rex's position, but I didn't hear any grumbling so I took that as a good sign. "What do you mean?" I rested my cheek against Rex's chest so I could glance back up at my dad. He was giving me a small smile, even though I didn't miss the hard glare he shot Rex. Rex's arms tightened around me.

       "Your friend Jax? He remembered all the license plate numbers you told him. Good thing to. We were able to track down that car and get here as fast as we could."

       Jax. Even after all these years that boy was still protecting me.

       "I'm going to go see if those satanic parents of mine have been arrested." Dad laid his hand on my hair gently before pulling away. "Take care of my daughter, Rex."

       His arms tightened around me as he tucked my head back under his chin. "You know I will." With one last smile, my dad faded back into the crowd in search of the Elliots. People I hoped I would never have to see again.

       The tears had finally stopped falling while talking to my dad, but as Rex lifted me up so he could nuzzle into my neck, I felt like crying all over again. I had almost killed everyone in that house, even myself. I never would have been able to see Rex again, and then he goes and tells me he would kill himself if I die?

       God, I didn't do well with stress.

       "I love you so fucking much, Rosalyn. Do not ever leave me again."

        Rex was crying. I could feel his tears against my shoulder, and that only made me want to cry again too. But I didn't, one of us needed to stay strong so the other could break down. I wrapped my arms tightly around his neck and hung on for dear life.

       "I'm so sorry, Rex. I had a bad dream. I only wanted some fresh air. I never would have thought..." I didn't need to finish that sentence. Neither one of us wanted to acknowledge what had just happened.

       "I don't care if I haven't slept in months, you wake me up next time. Okay?" He mumbled against my hair, and I nodded viciously as his heavy arms pinned me against him.

       "Where's everyone else?" I asked a few minutes later as we watched Santiago being slammed into a cop car, followed thankfully by a shrieking Lisa and silent Jerome Elliot. I frowned when I couldn't spot Donni among the arrestees.

       "At your house waiting. They all wanted to come, but the cops didn't think it was a good idea."

       "But they let you come?" I asked with a laugh as he pulled away to shoot me a mouthwatering smirk.

       "You think I was going to let them keep me from you?" He raised his eyebrow, but I shook my head and buried my face into his neck.

       "Rosalyn Summers?" I tried to look up and turn around at the cop behind us, but Rex's arms wouldn't let me.

       "Not right now." He grumbled and held me tighter to him. He really did have a pretty big problem with authority.

       "It's important Rex. We have to ask her what happened." The cop sounded impatient, and fed up of dealing with Rex.

       "Not today."

       The guy let out a heavy sigh and I could just imagine him running a hand through his hair in frustration. "You know that's not how this works-"

       "She will tell me, I'll tell Trey, and Trey can tell you. Kay?"

       Trey will tell the cop? Are they close? I pulled just enough away from Rex to look over at the officer he was talking to. The first thing that I noticed were the eyes, the bright green eyes staring at Rex in such a way you could tell he was trying to calm himself. Then I saw the name badge flashing on his uniform.

       Maguire.

       Trey's dad let out a heavy sigh before snapping his notebook closed. "Alright, I'll leave you alone tonight. But Rose," I looked up at him as he lowered those bright eyes down to me, "Make sure you come to the station tomorrow. It's essential you're there." I nodded before he shot one last glance at Rex, then turned and left.

       "Kiss me Roza."

       I did without thinking, without pause. Rex was here, I felt safe, and as the cop cars holding three of the worst people on the face of this Earth drove off, I felt undeniably happy. Rex's hand wrapped firmly in my hair as I pressed my lips to his, his hard body offering me all the warmth and protection I could ever want. It was a good few seconds before he let me pull away.

       For the first time since he found me, he leaned his forehead against mine with a smile. "Let's go home baby, and you can tell me what the fuck Santiago has to do with all this."

-&-

5 years ago

       "Log entry #12. Date: Tuesday April 6th, 2011. Subject: Rosalyn Maria Summers. Age: 12. Recorded in plain English for easy reviewing." Ms. Daley began into her recorder as she wrote a few notes over her most recent patient.

       "Rosalyn Summers has a switch in her brain. While dormant she lives the life of a normal girl. As normal as any girl in her position could be. In this dormant stage, Rosalyn- although very shy and timid- shows signs for fear of abandonment, major panic disorder, and relies fully on the dependency of a boy by the name of Jax." Ms. Daley grabbed the folder off her desk top and glanced over the notes she had taken of the girl's description over this Jax.

       "Jax Julian Stone. Age 12. Blonde hair, blue eyes. Still in the foster system. Ms. Summers describes him as something close to a best friend, or parent like figure. While in today's session the subject informed me of how she just recently shot one of her previous foster parents in self-defense." The knowledge did not bother the older therapist. She has had many far worse cases then little Rosalyn's.

       "This is where the switch comes in. In the switches dormancy, Rosalyn represents no harm to herself or others- whatsoever. But if the switch were to flip, if something were to trigger that part of her brain, Ms. Summers has the mind-set of a killer."

       This part did, in fact, bother Mrs. Daley. The way that twelve-year-old had looked at her when she talked of the man who was trying to hurt her, who had hurt others before her... It was terrifying. Perhaps it was because the incident was so recent- barely a month before, but the look in the girl's eyes had disturbed the well-experienced therapist. She let out a heavy breath and hesitated before continuing her recording.

       "My theory was proven correct in today's session after her description of the shooting incident that happen four weeks ago, on March 9th, 2011. Subject reported feeling no remorse, nor guilt during the encounter. It wasn't until two days later that what she had committed had its normal affect."

       "The subjects past has made this would-be-traumatic experience into a depressing memory. I need to study her more before I can name a cause for the switch. I do not wish to have Rosalyn committed, but I-" Ms. Daley hesitated as she leaned back in her chair with a sigh. "I fear the day the switch is flipped again. There is no telling what the subject could be capable of."

       "The prescription I'm going to be giving her in the next sessions will work in two ways. First, it will calm her panic disorder and hopefully ease the nightmares she claims to have daily. And second, it will leave her cognitive control mechanisms in her brain, where the switch resides, as dormant as possible without affecting her mental health. Until I can decide what the trigger is for the switch, the prescription will have to do."

-&-

So Rosalyn kinda went a little crazy LOL.

I had originally wrote this chapter with Rose actually blowing the whole house up, and going completely off her rockers koo-koo,  but then I was looking at it and I was like dammnnn baby Rose wouldn't be able to handle all those deaths and I couldn't make her go completely crazy. So I deleted it and started again (laughy emoji here).