DISCLAIMER: Wes Craven owns everyone but my people…at least I think so.

Authors Note: I hope you enjoy this chapter. Thank you again to everyone who's had the time to review and favorite and alert. Those things tell me people are reading, which is always a good thing.

So please review and let me know if you are still reading and enjoying. Also I'm glad to hear many of you think I'm keeping our fave psycho in character.

Billy looked surprised by what I'd said. Yet it was true, I realized sadly. He wasn't mine. Whatever it was that tied him to Sidney Prescott owned him. And until that scene played out, he'd never be mine. His brows knitted together as though trying to think of something to say, to respond to the fact I'd just stated. His arm fell from my side and I moved a step away, turning by back to him. Once again it seemed I was daring him to slaughter me. No one in their right mind would turn their back on Billy Loomis while he was holding that knife in his hand. It probably wasn't smart to do so even without the knife. But I had realized of late I truly wasn't in my right mind at all.

I crossed my arms in front of my chest and stared down at the cheap tile that partially covered the room's unfinished floor. It reminded me of a half-finished set just waiting for the rest of the props to be added, the actors to show up.

"Gretchen…" I heard Billy's voice, low in the quiet of our hideaway. I still didn't turn around. I couldn't meet those eyes of his yet. Another heartbeat and I felt his arms go around me, trapping my own. He still held the knife in his fist. It was a part of him. I stiffened, not able to help it. "Shhh…" His breath was hot against my skin. "You see too much for your own good sometimes don't you?" He whispered against my ear.

I took a breath to keep the lump from my throat. I watched things, it was true. Movies and people, I observed and I learned. I'd been that way since I was a little kid. I'd seen too much, learned too quickly. I withdrew into my movies and my own little world to escape those other people who I could read so fast.

My parents were part of that world I escaped from. My mother blamed me for her delay into becoming a big time doctor. She was instead an ER doc who worked shitty hours and was too old to do much else but grin and bear it. She couldn't hide the fact that she hated me for that, no matter how she sugar coated everything. My dad was just as bad. He was a die hard salesman who let his company move him around wherever they wanted him to be. And that's what had led us to Woodsboro. I sometimes wondered if he remembered he had a daughter, he was so rarely at home anymore.

I wondered if it was my mother that he hid away from or me. In the last couple of years, the few times we actually came together as a family, they seemed…wary of me. Like they realized that something had been blooming inside their only daughter for a long time, something that might not be okay, something they should be afraid of. I watched them as they watched me, and I saw the worry in their eyes but no love or even an inkling of understanding beside it. They didn't want to understand, they wanted distance and the semblance of a family…and that's what they got.

Billy was a watcher too. And he'd seen me doing the same. "You keep looking Gretchen, you watch them act their parts, fumble their lines. You watch them play out their little dramas, their comedies and tragedies…but they never see you do they? But I did. I saw you watching me." He moved to lean his chin on my other shoulder, his lips brushing my other ear. I closed my eyes against the sensation, yet another no doubt suicidal tendency coming to the fore thanks to Billy Loomis.

"You saw me Gretchen, when no one else did. I saw you watching and I caught you." When he said this his arms tightened around me and I felt my breath catch in my throat. His cheek pressed against mine, just as warm as the rest of him and scratchy from the lack of a razor. He hadn't had time to shave for obvious reasons. His voice though was as soft as a whisper. "That makes you mine Gretchen. You're my audience, the one who appreciates my performance because you know what it's like to have to play to the masses. You know the real me…the one behind this fucking fake day to day I have to put up with, that I deal with and live through because I have a finale that's going to be killer, that no one's going to see coming, except for you."

Billy paused and I took a shuddery breath as he kissed my cheek. "Do you know why?" He asked me, his lips against my ear. He didn't give me chance to answer; instead he turned me to face him again. The tip of the knife was under my chin, tilting my face up to his so I couldn't look away. His brown eyes were intense, focused and staring right into me. His hair fell forward, that stray lock that seemed determined to keep half his face in shadow. The point of the knife nearly pierced my skin, but I didn't move away. "Because I belong to you Gretchen, for the same reason you belong to me."

I did try to speak then, because I couldn't help it. I'd seen him with Sidney and there was something there, even if I didn't know what it was. But he shushed me by moving the knife and pressing it to my lips. "Shhh…I know what you're thinking. Stop it. Let the story play out Gretchen, you won't be disappointed with my ending. I won't let you down…and I won't leave. Those are two things I can promise you." His voice held a conviction to it that was frightening as he said the last, but his eyes held something else, a pain and a longing that wrenched at me. He came back to himself as I watched, his gaze studying me and pulling the knife away just a fraction from my mouth. "Can you promise the same?" He asked me.

He owned me body and soul then. And that question could only be answered in one way. I moved my hand to grasp his that held the knife while he waited, watching me again. I held it steady and then pressed my lower lip to the blade, letting it cut the skin. I felt the blood well up and the sting of the wound, but I didn't mind. "I swear on my own blood Billy, I won't leave you and I won't let you down."

He grinned that crazy grin, my grin. "A promise is a promise Gretchen." He said, and then the knife was gone, somewhere hidden once more and he had me in his arms and was kissing me hard. It hurt, the cut was burning from the pressure of his mouth on mine and I found myself wanting more of that pain. My fingers were in his hair pulling him even closer and his teeth drew on my lower lip, making the wound that much more tender. The taste of my own blood was on my tongue and on Billy's and we both savored it. He bit at my mouth a little harder and I whimpered, my fingers digging into his shoulders now…not pushing him away but holding tighter. I truly had lost my mind and it was glorious to know he was just as lost as I was.

Billy moved us across the floor clumsily until we reached a wooden work bench. I heard something fall to the floor as he shoved whatever it was off the top of the table and pushed me onto it. Somewhere in the back of my head I thought this might not be a good idea. Anyone could find us here…walk in on us and we'd both be in deep, deep trouble. But the majority of my thoughts were occupied by the way he'd released my now throbbing lip and was busily licking a trail down my neck while his fingers slipped beneath my shirt…suddenly I didn't care who the hell found us. His recklessness was catching.

My own fingers mimicked his and I pulled until his t-shirt was un-tucked from his jeans and then roamed the hard planes of his abdomen and then his back. I felt him shiver beneath my touch and I grinned my own crazed smile as I heard him growl my name against my pulse. My smile turned into a gasp as he bit down over that same pulse, grinding his hips against mine, and I felt every nerve ending in my body go into overload.

The bell chose that moment to ring as loud as a gunshot. I jerked in Billy's arms; the sensations running through me making me even more on edge. I heard Billy's low growl, felt it reverberate against my skin. He turned and glanced towards where the hall was going to be filling with people soon, his hair falling in front of his glaring eyes. He turned back to me and I tried to breathe normally. "Time for a new scene to start Gretchen." He reached up and brushed his thumb along the edge of my mouth gently. When he drew it away I saw a single drop of blood there. He grinned again and then licked it away. "Go on and play your part." He told me and then with one last smile he walked out and around the corner, into the mass of students that had no idea who it was that was standing beside them.