//------------------------------// // Chapter Fourteen // Story: Hearts of Class III: "You, Me… Forever..?" // by ImAPonyXY //------------------------------// The Cabin in the Woods "AAARRRRHH!!!" screamed Sweetiebelle as she awoke with a start from a nightmare that taunted her mind throughout the night. She was in a dark room with only a candle to light the dark. She lay in a soft bed, with a wooden frame and pink sheet coverings; it was a queen sized bed which gave her plenty of room to toss her turn as she imagined the scene of death that had played out earlier. She shivered as a cold breeze howled through the window and flapped the purple, elongated curtains. The door burst open and in rushed Spike and Sheela, getting to her side immediately. Spike help her hand and rubbed her back as Sheela sheathed her blades and sat down. "What's wrong, Sweetie?" asked Spike. It took a while for Sweetiebelle to bring herself to respond and when she did it was simple, "I... I had a nightmare." she managed to say. "Do you want to talk about it?" he offered. But she shook her head and kept shivering in both fear and cold. Spike sighed, "alright then. Do you want me to stay here with you?" Sweetiebelle nodded this time, she wanted him to stay. "Alright then." he smiled and climbed into the bed next to you, laying above the sheets and caressing her cheek as he placed an arm around her and pulled her close. He kept her warm and close, he was there for her. She smiled and looked up at him with joyful, yet tired, eyes. She was glad that he was with her, and now that she felt safe, she gently closed her eyes again and tried to get back to sleep. Resting her head on Spike chest and falling asleep to the sound of his heart beat. A small smile appeared on her face as she drifted off into dreamland as she knew no harm would come to her wile he was near. It was 8:47 am and the dark room that the two teens slept in was no longer dark as the warm rays of sunlight flooded the room and the surrounding forest was clearly visible. Spike woke up first and Sweetie was still fast asleep on his chest, she slept soundly and peacefully; her chest slowly rising up and down as the her hair drooped down over her face as she wore her short, light pink and purple laced night-dress. A small smile formed on the purple dragon's face, "so cute," he said proudly as he slowly got up, trying his best not to disturb the sleeping beauty. Once he was up he left the room, quietly closing the wooden door and walking into the kitchen. The holiday home that they stayed in was more or less just a small cabin in the middle of the woods which was perched in a mountainous valley. It was small and consisted of only two bedrooms, a living room, a bathroom and a kitchen. Since there was only two bedrooms, Sheela and Buzz had to sleep in the living room, but they took it in turns to stand watch, so they didn't get much time to sleep. As Spike entered the kitchen he was immediately greeted by Sheela who was polishing her blades and drinking a cup of what he assumed to be coffee. "Morning Sheela, how did you sleep?" he asked with a yawn. "I didn't sleep, I stayed up the entire night." she answered. "Oh... why?" he asked. "Because its my job to protect you two." "So you stayed up the entire night?" "Of course, its my duty." ... "Now, I'll make you breakfast but I need you to gather wood for the fire. We don't want to freeze and believe me, it can get cold here." "Okay." she replied and did as he was told, he ventured out of the cabin into the cold, and foggy woods to collect sticks and wood. He kept his eyes glued to the ground as he traversed past trees, bushes and a large, omniscient lake. Along the way he picked up at least a dozen or so descent sized sticks and he could certainly carry a lot more. However, his quest was blocked by an intruder who Spike wondered why he hadn't seen her earlier. It had been so long since he had seen his childhood rival and he was hoping to keep it that way. "Good morning, Spike." Tiara greeted, donning her black, hooded cloak to make her face barely visible. "What's so good about this morning?" "Aww, what's wrong, Spiky." "You're here, that's what!" Diamond pouted, "Well that's not very nice of you!" "Nor is sending an entire party of your little cult out to kill us!" Spike argued. "So you know why I'm here then, don't you?" she asked, becoming all serious all of a sudden. Spike nodded, "yes, and you better clear off before I bury a stick in your pretty little eyes!" he threatened and grabbed a rather sharp looking piece of wood. "Yeah, yeah whatever," she yawned, "I'd like to see you try to touch me" Spike didn't reply, he just tightened his grip on the weapon he held. "Now, are we done with the greetings. Because I need to handle a few things. Things that I won't allow you to trifle with!" she began to walk, right past Spike, ignoring the fact that he wasn't done with her. Spike clutched his stick tightly and charged at her, waving the stick like a maniac with the intent of murder. However, even his rapid rampage wasn't enough for the cloaked girl as she merely turned around and caught the stick with her bare hand, stopping it in it's tracks as a puff of smoke flashed in her hand. She smirked and pushed slightly, forcing him back as her eyes flickered yellow. "Time for some fun I guess!" she said with a hint of insanity breaking her speech. Spike stumbled and regained his balance, he then mindlessly charged her again, "I won't let you touch Sweetiebelle!" "You don't get a say in the matter!" Diamond stepped lazily to the left and held her foot out, tripping Spike as he fell to the floor. "Now," she said, "say goodbye!" she grinned and with a heavy foot, she stomped on his head. Luckily, his scales protected him from any serious damage like skull fracture or brain damage, but he was still knocked unconscious from the impact and his body lay softly in a pile of leaves and sticks. When he awoke he groaned, he didn't know how much time had passed nor what had happened at all. He looked up to see that the sun had barely moved positions. This was good, very good, it meant that just about no time had passed and no doubt Tiara was still nearby. He stumbled to his feet and regained focus, he looked around cautiously in hopes to catch a glimpse of a small, cloaked, figure lurking in the distance. There was a sharp pain in the back of his head and he was sure that it was bleeding, but that wasn't going to stop him. He journeyed around the general area, trying to locate his attacker, but there was no sight of her. He had circled the house and back again with not even a clue to where she could be. That was, until her saw that the cabin door was open. Spike was sure that he had closed it when he left to collect firewood, and he assumed that the guards would leave it closed to keep the wildlife out. Out of curiosity Spike took a few steps towards the building to see if anything peculiar was at hand. Nothing. There was nothing wrong. He guessed that he was just feeling paranoid. Diamond Tiara had probably run off to her friends to tell them where Sweetiebelle was. In any case, he figured that it would be best for him to get back to Sheela and the others to report what had happened. He took a few more steps before her froze still to the sound a loud, high pitch, blood-curdling scream that resonated from the cabin. The shriek of pain belonged to a young girl who's voice hadn't fully matured as of yet. It belonged to none other then his cute little flower. "Sweetiebelle!"