Dreamer - Chapter 9

Disclaimer: This story has multiple parts. To read the previous part, you can click here.

My eyes kept wandering from the rearview mirror to the front window, keeping an eye out for a certain truck that could find it's way back behind me just like it had when I first came out here.

"Why did you?" I asked in a concerned tone.

"Don't."

"Why-" My tone of voice started to turn harsh again, "Why won't you answer my question?"

"Just make sure you get as far away from the store as you are able.. he can still find a way back to us."

I slammed my foot onto the brake, pulling the car over to the side of the road, "Don't you dare change the damn subject, Ace."

"Lex," He rubbed his thumb and forefinger in a circular motion along his forehead, "Just stop." I looked over to him, trying to see past everything. I wanted to know him. I needed to know him.

"He followed me." I found myself spilling out.

He brought his head back up, "Who did?"

"Rev."

"When?"

"Earlier. I'm pretty sure that's how he got to the store.. I noticed he was following me since a few minutes after I left my house." I wanted to slap my forehead just now. Why the hell did I just open up to him about that? Why did I even think to open my big, stupid mouth?

"Did he try to hurt you?"

"No."

"He didn't do anything to you?"

Well, he did walk up behind me while I was in the checkout line and whispered to me that I should say goodbye to you, "No."

"Oh."

"Why?" I was hoping he wouldn't change the topic this time.

"You know Rev is a bad person, right?"

I nodded. "I sort of picked that up the first night we met. He held a gun up to my back, managed to trap me inside his car as he drove away from my house, and even chased me down the street the second I managed to escape." I felt his eyes fall upon me.

"What?"

I started to get somewhat uncomfortable with the intense staring he had on me.

"What did Rev do the very first time you met him?"

"What?" I asked confused.

"When you first met him," He began, "how did he first react? What happened between you two?"

"He pulled into my driveway." I said. That one sentence confused me, still. I know I watched him pull into my driveway.. overpowering me.. proving his strength over me. I was there when he pressed the gun into my back the second my father came close to us. It happened just last night, but it still confused me. Why did he choose my driveway out of any of the others? What's so special about me? There has to be a reason. There just has to be.

"What else?" Ace pulled me out of my trance with his question. Without looking back at him, I thought of what I could say without making Ace worried about me.. without making Ace want to find Rev and make matters worse than what just occurred between the two of them. "Was it really that bad?" His tone of voice became more sorrowful than before.

"No." I shook my head. I had to give him some answers. "He just pulled into my driveway in the middle of the night so obviously, he didn't come out to be the greatest guy on the planet. Especially since I did just move into the neighborhood that same night." I replied to him, "His first words to me were just hey.. but the tone wasn't as nice as you'd expect a new neighbor to be."

"How did you find me?" I found myself asking.

"What Princess?"

I ignored the question. "How did Rev find me? It's not like he had to know I had just moved in. He had to just have made a wrong turn or something." A wrong turn? That's the dumbest thought. He took me into his own car. He made the decision to take me on a ride. He was probably thinking of something else insanely graphic to do to me when he had done it, as well. I appeared to him as a weak link and he knew that would be an advantage on his behalf.

"There are some things about Rev that you don't know." Ace told me.

"Like what?" I hoped to God that he would give me somewhat of a helpful answer.

"He's.. different."

"I kind of already picked that up, Ace." I gave off a laugh but let it disappear as soon as tension began to fill up the car.

"Not that kind of different." He answered, "I don't think you're quite ready to find out about who he is just yet."

"I want to." I said out loud before realizing the words that came out of my mouth.

"Not that kind of different."

"What?"

"Nothing.." I bit my lip, focusing on my driving a bit more. I stepped on the brakes and took the turn before I completely missed it.

"What is it that you are wanting to learn about him?" He asked me. I felt the cold stare he had a hold on me, but I just kept on looking straight ahead at the road ahead of me.

"Why does he hurt people.. or enjoy it for that matter?" I knew that I went in a completely different direction than what he had planned to tell me but he did ask me. I wasn't about to let that slide. "I just want to know why he drove into my driveway last night.. or why he held a gun up to my back when I did nothing to him? Why does it feel as if he wants to hurt me? Why did he just behave in the way he did just a few moments ago? Why-?"

""Woah Princess.. slow down." Ace interrupted me, "You can't know everything just yet."

"Why not?" I asked him. Why couldn't I find out everything? I had to know these things. They'll just eat me up inside if I didn't.

"What do you want to be answered first?" He asked me.

"Why did he enter my driveway last night?" I probably could have asked a better question, but I just needed to know the answer to this one.

"He saw it."

He saw it? He saw what? There he goes with those confusing lines once again. What did he mean? What did Rev see? A house? Land? Newbies? ..Me?

"He saw the one who he believed would complete his circle." Ace finished.

"Me?"

Ace stayed silent.

"Answer me, dammit!"

"Answer what?"

"Did he see.. me?"

"I don't know," Ace shrugged. I was starting to regret choosing this question.

"What's the circle?" I asked him, trying to get him to open up again.

"You'll find out one day."

One day? What? How would I find out? He still didn't answer my question. More questions began to flood my mind and I began to wonder if I would've had another question that was more simpler than this one.. with less thinking and more of a straight answer. I just feel like now I haven't even asked one question yet. Soon my thoughts began to fill the silence in the car. Ace had leaned back in the passenger seat with his eyes closed. My memory flashed back and I remembered what he had just been through. The amount of pain that had to come from being shot.. I couldn't even understand. He had already showed me that he didn't actually care about his injury as much, but I still couldn't help but feel sorry for him. If I wasn't too busy trying to pick a fight with that douchebag, Ace probably would have seen Rev raise a gun on him. He would have defended himself.. and maybe even defended me.

"Why didn't you go to the hospital when I told you to?" I found myself asking.

"What's with all the questions?" He chuckled.

"I guess I'm just the question-type of person."

"Don't be thinking up any questions about us too often." He snapped.

Why not? "Alright." I was more confused than ever. The rest of the ride home was silent, but I eventually made it back and pulled into the driveway. Before stepping out of the car, I slipped my phone out from my pocket.

3 missed calls.

"What is it?" He asked me.

"Just a friend." I said, "Mind if I call him back??

"No."

I tapped my thumb on his name and put my phone up to my ear for the first ring.

"No." Ace took the phone from my ear, "Speaker."

My eyes widened, but I didn't feel like getting into a fight with him right now. I just wanted to speak with Michael. My thumb pounded the speaker button.

First ring. Second. Third. Fourth. I began to feel like he was ignoring me but by the fifth ring, he picked up.

"Lex?"

"Hi Michael." A smile spread across my face.

"Lex. Oh my god! Hi!"

"I'm just.. um.. calling back. You called me three times?"

"Three times? Bother much?" Ace scoffed. I narrowed my eyes down onto his.

"Who is that?" Michael asked. I gulped. Shit. I never told him about Ace, and I didn't feel like explaining who he was to Michael now.

"It's no-"

"I'm her leading man." Ace joked.

I flipped him off.

"Oh, Michael you better watch out. This girl is giving me some pristine finger gestures." He said loudly. I so wanted to slap him right now.

"Who is that, Lex?" Michael asked. I can hear the worry in his voice. I was even able to picture him screaming at me to get the hell away from whoever I was with.. even if he was in another state.

"Ace."

"Didn't I just fucking say that!?"

"No, you said you were-" I went to say, "Never mind." I can't believe I actually called Michael with him right next to me. What the hell was I thinking? Stupid Lex. You should've just left it alone. Stupid. Stupid. Stupid.

"How do you know Ace?" I was already able to tell Michael was edging his way to Ace being linked to Rev from the last time I called him.

"We met through someone else."

"Shut the fuck up." I whispered to Ace.

"Rev?" Michael asked. Shit.

"How do you know that name?" Ace's eyes widened.

"Lex told me about him last night. She tells me everything and well.. I heard what he did to her, or at least what he had tried to do, was horrible. He's an asshole." Michael responded.

I knew just by the way Ace's smile turned into a scowl that things were about to end badly.

"Really?" Ace asked.

"Yes.. really."

"He's a what?"

"Ace, please don't." I said to him.

"What?" Michael asked through the phone. I hated how Ace was listening to this conversation. Hearing every sentence. Every detail. Putting his two cents in whenever he can just because he can get a word in.

"No," Ace held his finger up to my face, "Why do you say that, Michael?"

"He tried to hurt Lex. In my book, hurting someone just to get what they want out of someone is ultimate asshole energy."

"You shouldn't have said that, Mikey boy."

"Don't call me that."

"I'll call you whatever I want to call you," He grabbed the phone from me and turned off the speaker, "and if I catch you hanging out with Lex ever again, I am going to kill you."

My eyes widened. "Give me the phone, Ace."

"And if I ever catch you saying about else about Rev again.. I'll find you myself and kill you anyway."

"Give me back the fucking phone!" I shouted. I tried to reach over to grab it, but he grabbed ahold of my wrist first.

"Understood, Mikey boy?"

There was a small pause before he hung up and slammed the phone back down into my palm, "Don't you ever interrupt me again, Princess."

"It was my phone!"

"I was talking to Michael."

"Yeah.. on my conversation.

"Don't get all royal highness on me now.. we can both share."

I didn't even want to process whatever it was he meant by that. Instead, I just found myself flipping him off once again.

"Ooh. More finger gestures from such a pristine princess as yourself."

"I'm not a princess."

"Your father seems to disagree."

"Ace seriously.. stop calling me a princess. I'm not a princess. I'm not even a nice girl."

"Oh? So you're a bad girl?" He licked his bottom lip in what I could only assume was to be a seductive matter, but I just got completely annoyed by it. I didn't want to continue this conversation anymore.

"You just said you weren't a nice girl." He repeated the words back to me and I regretted ever saying them. I just stepped out of the car and slammed my door shut, but he followed me out which caused me to walk in the complete opposite direction of my front door.

"Where are you going now?" He asked me. My feet shifted a little faster.

"You aren't going to try and find Rev's hiding spot again, are you?"

I stopped in my tracks before turning back around. "What hiding spot?"

His eyes widened.

"Ace.. what do you mean by Rev's hiding spot?"

"He doesn't have one."

"You just told me about the damn hiding spot," I took a short breath but it didn't stop me from shouting my next words, "just tell me where the damn hiding spot is!"

He just stood there, a couple steps away from where I stood, staring back at me. I noticed how his chest was rising a little as he let a small sigh escape his lips.

"His hiding spot is over there by some trees," he lifted his finger out to point towards the direction, "out by the side of the road."

"So that's how he found me last night?"

"No. Jesus, Lex. I already told you why he found you."

Barely.

"He just likes to sit in that spot sometimes. It's quiet or whatever.. helps him think or something.

"Helps him think? Or it's possibly the best place to prey on weaklings such as myself? Maybe he uses the spot to find his next targets.."

"No. What is with you asking all these damn questions, Lex?"

"Maybe if you gave me an actual answer, I wouldn't feel the need to ask all these questions."

"I answer in the best way that I can."

"Not really."

"Yes I do. You just aren't ready to know the full answers yet."

"Well your quick and easy answers confuse the hell out of me."

"I just want to protect you from-" His knees buckled as he fell to the ground, landing on his stomach as his face broke his fall by landing in the dirt.

"Ace?" I dropped down by his side, turning him around the best I could to get a look at his face. His eyes were closed. "Ace, wake up."

I patted his cheeks cheeks to try and attempt to wake him back up, "Wake up Ace. Wake up."

My breathing began to quicken as all the possibilities came to mind, "Ace, this isn't funny. Wake up." I leaned back and covered my mouth. Oh God.

"Dad!" I screamed out. I tapped his cheek in the way a person would do in the movies when they try to wake someone who had just fainted.

I took my phone out and texted my dad the words "Outside. Help. ASAP." My eyes went back up to Ace after I pressed send. Now was my chance. I can take off the hoodie and get my full image of him. Not just his eyes. Everything. My palm rubbed against his forehead; over his closed eyes, his nose, his lips.. which were softer than I had expected them to be. But I found my fingers finding their way back at the top of his forehead where his hoodie rested. My palm pushed it off and my eyes couldn't believe what I had been seeing. It felt like a dream. Why did he always want to cover his face when it looked like this? He had a beautiful head of dirty brown locks. His lips were soft and plump; I couldn't help but imagine how they'd feel brushed up against my own. No. Lex, stop. Don't do this. I pushed his face away from my gaze. "You can't be with a guy like him," I told myself, "You just can't."

Footsteps came closer, causing my hand to yank out and come back up to my chest in defense. "What happened, Lex?" Dad asked as he came closer to us.

"He just passed out." I shrugged, remembering that he's already met Ace last night, "Ace just passed out."

My father knelt down to check his body, turning him around to notice the blood staining around a small tear in his shirt, "What's that?"

"It was probably from some kind of accident," I shrugged, "I'm sure people must go hunting around here." It felt weird lying to my dad, but what was I supposed to say? Oh.. that? Yeah, that was from this guy, Rev, who attacked me last night. You met him too, remember? You thought he was some new friend I had made during our very first night in the new house. The two of them just had a big fight after I went shopping for school supplies.. but it's okay, because Ace claimed that he was just trying to protect me and keep me safe from Rev's rage. Yeah.. I was way better off with lying to him. Knowing that Rev and Ace keep bouncing into my life, I should probably just get used to lying to my dad from now on.

Dad grabbed the phone out of my hand, "Stay with him and make sure he doesn't do anything. I'll call 911 for help. They will for sure be able to take him to the hospital for the care that he needs. If he wakes up, just yell-"

"He actually doesn't want the-"

Dad looked at me.

"Actually, never mind. Call for help. He needs it."

My dad walked away to leave me to be alone with Ace. "You asshole," I whispered to him. I began to stroke his hair. It was so soft. I could probably do this all day long if I was given the chance. My fingers ran through it, but I couldn't help but form more questions in my head. Why the hoodie? What was he so afraid of that made him hide his face? Well.. hide it away in the way he hides his face. I wouldn't say a hoodie was the best choice to hide a face behind.. unless you were in a very dark location. My eyes stared back down at the brown curls that fell over his face. My hand still stroked his hair, a smile growing across my face after each stroke.

"Why won't you tell me anything?" The words came out more of a mumble than actual words, but I didn't care. It's not like he would give me a straight answer if he had been awake anyway.

"What was that, honey?" Dad asked as he handed my phone back to me.

"Nothing. I was just thinking out loud." I grabbed my phone, standing up and walking back towards the porch. I unlocked my phone with my thumb and pulled up the recent calls. Should I call Michael back? Explain to him what happened before. Apologize? It wasn't me who told him all those things. He knows it wasn't me. Ace was the one who messed everything up. I pressed the green call button and placed the phone up to my ear.

First ring. Second. Click.

What the hell? "Michael. Answer. Ace isn't here. I won't tell him we talked, I promise." I thought to myself hoping that it would be sent telepathically to Michael's own thoughts. I called back again only to receive the same reaction as before. I decided to just leave a voicemail instead of calling again and again, "Hi. Michael? It's me. What's wrong? Why aren't you answering? I'm sorry for anything that Ace told to you before but now he's-" Beep.

"Damn it."

A siren roared as a truck drove up the driveway, stopping by dad and Ace's unconscious body. My dad had stood up to get the driver's attention. I walked back over to them.

"Is he going to be okay?" I asked.

The paramedic put Ace onto a gurney and lifted him into the truck. I watched as they hooked him up to a bunch of machines, and placed my hand on the door.

"Alexis." My dad said calmly.

"Let me in." I said. I know how stupid it was but I just wanted to be with him. I wanted to make sure he was safe, just as he had done with me when he got into this mess. I hoped he would've done the same thing if Rev shot me instead.

"I'd take you with me in my car. Let them go, Lex."

"No," I answered, "I want to go with the truck."

The paramedic looked at the driver through the small window that opened to the front, "Which part?"

"The back?" My words came out more of a question instead of a simple answer. His hand gestured for me to come up, helping me onto the stairs.

"Thank you," I said politely, sitting down next to Ace. My hand found it's way locked with his own and I bit my lip to stop myself from blushing. I couldn't believe I'm even doing this for someone who would probably never do this for me. I can't believe I'm even going to the hospital for him at all.. let alone having my dad call them for help, instead of just leaving him outside to rot.

The sirens roared once again as the truck sped up. I took one last glance at him. The machines had been pumping blood back into his system after all the blood he had lost. I saw his green eyes again, yet he had them shut. I saw someone happy and glowing, yet he was completely insane. I saw someone weak, yet he was tough. I saw someone caring, yet he wouldn't give a shit. I saw me.