A/N: Hi again, and welcome to my newest story. I know that you're probably thinking 'how the hell does this guy think he's can begin writing another story when he can't even get his lazy ass in motion and update his existing ones regularly?'
The answer to that question is that I have no friggin' idea whatsoever. However I've played around with this plot in my head for some time now, and felt that I might as well begin writing it since I've rounded another story off.
This story will be A LOT different from the others I've written. It is completely AU and has no connection to the original plot. Characters will be OOC in the sense that I'm taking virtually every likable or admirable trait away from everybody – this is a story with no heroes. I also want to give a word of warning. The rating and the genre for this fic are there for a reason, and this will become as dark as I am capable of writing. Therefore, if you're looking for a sweet mushy romancy story with a splash of humor in it you can stop reading now, because this is not it.
However if you don't mind something a bit darker, and I haven't managed to drive you off with my negative advertisement, then by all means read on – just don't say later on that I didn't warn you.
Disclaimer: If I did own the characters, I'd probably think twice about letting them participate in this.
Antichrist
By Shnoosh
Chapter 1 – The Satanist
"ROSETTE!" The voice of a teenage boy came from downstairs.
"WHAT?" A girl's voice answered through the closed door to her room.
"DINNER!"
"COMING!"
The girl's name was Rosette Christopher. She was the oldest of three siblings, a sophomore in Magdalen high school and really just another ordinary teenage girl.
Her younger brother – the one who had called up the stairs – was a freshman in the same school, and their half sister was a 7th grader in junior high. They all lived with their mother in the town of Pandemonia – and yes it was about as much fun as it sounded like. With the possible exception of non-existing places such as Epidemia or Putreria, Rosette couldn't imagine anywhere she would rather get away from than where she was right now. Sure, the bible belt was filled to the brim with dead-beat villages like the one she was so 'fortunate' to be living in, but they typically weren't named after some obscure disease you'd catch by swimming in a sewer.
"ROSEEETTE!"
"I SAID COMING!"
Christ... you'd think that they'd stop yelling after you've made it obvious that you heard them the first time...
"NOW!"
Apparently not.
The door flew open, and a surly looking blue-eyed blonde stepped out. She stomped her way to the end of the hall, making sure that everybody downstairs could hear her footsteps. At the bottom of the stairs stood a smirking teenage boy with matching hair and eye color.
"Dammit Joshua... could you not be so annoying?"
"Well..." He replied with a satisfied grin. "It did bring you out of your little cave, didn't it?"
"Oh... shut up." She walked past him towards the dining room.
"Arh... come on. You know mom doesn't let us eat until we've said grace, and frankly... I'm starving."
"What're we having?"
"Mom's special."
'Again?' "Great..."
The remaining two members of her family were found in the dining room. Her mother – Kate – was standing at the opposite end of the round dining table looking very displeased with her eldest daughter's tardiness. She was holding a large steak fork, a chef's knife, and combined with her facial expression she mostly resembled someone soon-to-be-serial-killer. "How nice of you to join us young lady... maybe now we can say the Lord's grace and get something to eat."
Oh yeah... did she remember to mention that they lived in the bible belt – and that they did so for a very good (or very bad) reason?
According to the latest definitions by renowned psychologists her mom was... a certified religious fanatic.
Or at least she would be deemed so by anyone with a more healthy approach to the divine.
But since her social life primarily consisted of bible meetings with others from the congregation, or coffee-gatherings hosted by the local minister, the woman would probably never realize that herself. Rosette's mom literally got high on the bible – something normal people would achieve by taking some form of herb or chemical. The girl had played around with the idea of making a joint out of bible paper – that way she could claim to have gotten something out of the book too.
Joshua sat down next to his older sister and folded his hands. So did Rosette's younger half-sister – at least the hand-folding part, since she of course had been sitting and waiting patiently for the teen girl to come down. Little, sweet, polite Azmaria. Always on time... always so helpful... always doing what she was told... always such an irritatingly bratty little suck-up. Always on her best behavior with everybody – a truly sickening sight of somebody doing nothing but pleasing other people so they would think well of her. Always making Rosette look bad too.
The blonde teenager folded her hands as well.
"Lord..." The matron of the house began. "We thank thee for the food we are about to..."
'Dammit... just get the bloody meat loaf blessed, so it can be eaten...' Rosette suppressed a little laugh... making that thing edible was probably too much for even good ol' God Almighty to accomplish, considering her mom's cooking skills.
After the redundant ceremony, Kate began cutting the burnt piece of ground beef into suitable slices, and handed them out to her children. Joshua immediately dug into his portion... he wasn't lying when he said that he was starving. Azmaria ate quietly keeping her table-manners in mind. Rosette sat with her hand under her chin and poked the meat with her fork. Perhaps it would run off the plate and hide if she stabbed it repeatedly...
"Rosette... eat your dinner."
"I'm not really hungry..." The girl replied with her eyes directed at the sad excuse for a meal.
"Suit yourself..." Kate turned her attention towards her own food. "...you're not getting anything else." She was clearly not in the mood to try and convince her teenage daughter that she should eat.
Rosette's eyes were fixated on her slice of meat loaf... truth be told she was hungry... in fact her appetite had built up quite the reputation about her... she just wanted something a little more... tasty for a lack of better word. Her gaze wandered to the other people around the table. How they could eat this so easily was beyond her. For a woman who practically never went out to eat her mom was a remarkably poor cook, which was probably part of the reason she had been left... twice.
Rosette had deduced quite early in her life, that she was no planned child, and the fact that her mom was only 33 years old also served as a hint to that. From what she had found out, her mom and dad had been dating as teenagers and eventually they had a 'mishap' – some people just believe more in their deity than in the term 'safe sex'. The guy had tried to do the right thing: Staying with them, providing for them (at the age of 17...), and supposedly that made him deserve a bit of credit.
Some people just refuse to learn from their mistakes as well.
Her thoughts were interrupted by a coughing coming from her right side...
"Joshua... are you ok?" Rosette asked worriedly.
Azmaria had a fearful look in her eyes, Kate seemed ready to jump up and perform CPR.
The boy coughed again... and smiled... "Yeah..." another cough. "Just got some food down the wrong pipe..." and another cough.
Disaster averted.
Rosette looked at her brother to make sure that nothing serious was wrong, and she noticed how the other two females in the room did the same.
Joshua was only a year younger than her. Of course her mom and her then boyfriend would not stop practicing sex, and for various religious and ethical reasons they did not begin experimenting with the safe kind, or use any type of birth control. A second child shortly after the first was the inevitable consequence.
There were complications during labor however, and that resulted in Joshua getting some form of chronic illness which already had been dangerously close to killing him.
Apparently two kids – one of them requiring constant care – became too much for Rosette and Joshua's father, so one day Jesse Christopher simply packed a duffle bag and took off as fast as he could, not even leaving as much as a letter or a note.
Kate Valentine... being 19, largely on her own, and desperate to find a man who could provide for her children soon fell into the arms of one by the name of Ricardo Hendrick, and from that union came her half sister. Ricardo was not a very nice man, Rosette strongly suspected him of hitting her mom long before the trial. She couldn't understand why somebody would want to stay with a man who hurt her, but when she asked her mom about it she was almost slapped herself. The outraged woman had told (if you can call screaming and yelling that) Rosette to stay out of things she did not understand and sent her to her room. And although the woman never said it, the only nine year old girl had seen it clearly in her mom's eyes.
A look saying 'if it wasn't for you'.
So that was who she was... Rosette Christopher... the cause of all her mother's problems. The one who destroyed all her childhood dreams and all of her future by tying her down.
After the divorce from Ricardo and the following trial proceedings, it was clear that Kate would get custody of the kids, as well as a decent alimony, so at least some good came out of the marriage with him. He was of course furious with the decision – mainly (or only) due to the monetary aspect of it. In fact he could care less about the three kids. Even Azmaria.
Rosette drove the fork into the food on her plate... twisting it menacingly to rend deep into the meat loaf's innards.
Guys...
A bunch of cowards all of them... never willing to stand up for anybody but themselves... never sacrificing anything for anybody...
Well... except...
Her eyes settled on her brother who was finishing up his third slice. He was probably the nicest guy in the world, even though he could be annoying at times. She had once wondered if he was a good person because he was sick, or if he would be so even if he was well. The thought had immediately made her extremely guilty because she discovered that she would rather have him sick and nice than healthy and an asshole. She decided to believe that he would be nice whether or not he was suffering from anything, and that helped her into deciding one of her own major goals in life: Somehow... she was going to help him get better.
The other three were about to finish up their dinner now, and Rosette still hadn't eaten anything of hers, only mutilated it. Nevermind... she'd find something in the fridge later.
"Can I go watch TV?" Azmaria asked after finishing her meal, and rinsing her plate.
Gods... did she have to act so correct all the time?
"Sure... go ahead. Rosette you do the dishes tonight."
"WHAT?" The teenager exclaimed. "No way! It's Azmaria's turn, I did them two days ago!"
"Yes..." Kate responded. "But you didn't help out with setting the table, or cleaning up in the kitchen and the living room like your little sister, now did you? It is only fair that you do the dishes then."
Azmaria was already happily skipping towards the living room, Rosette's eyes followed her with a stare of daggers.
The blonde was about to advocate her point of view again when she was stopped by a hand gripping her arm.
"Hey, if you wash, I'll dry." Joshua said with a little smile.
"Fine..." Rosette muttered and began clearing the table.
She stacked the plates to the right of the sink, grabbed the soap, opened the faucet, and started to fill the dishpan up. She could feel how her hands were already beginning to get wrinkled just by the premonition of being dipped into the hot water...
"You'd think in this day and age that we'd get a damn dishwasher... I think the majority of people in third-world countries have more appliances than us."
"Yeah..." Joshua responded, swinging the dishtowel around like a nunchaku. "But I guess as long as mom can get us to do it for free, she doesn't feel the need to buy one."
Rosette handed him a wet plate. "And they say that slavery was abolished... obviously that's only true outside your own family." She handed him one more. "I betcha she's gonna buy one when we move out."
"And a dvd..." He began stacking the plates on the dining table. "And a nice flatscreen tv, but hey... look at the bright side. When we get kids of our own we get to do the same, and use them as free labor around our houses too."
"Hell no... my kids would never be forced into doing something I'd rather hire a maid for." Rosette threw the cutlery into the pan. "Why can't we get a maid?"
"A maid? Are you kidding?" Joshua grinned. "You'd really think mom would allow such a sinnnnful woman into our home?"
"Bah... she's such a hypocrite. Have you seen how she's looking at the new minister during Sunday mass? I bet she's got more than her fair share of sinful thoughts going through her head."
"Yeah... hypocrisy is probably a family weakness." He put down the forks he had just dried. "I mean... mom trying to be all holy and you saying that you would rather hire a maid than let any future kids you might get do the dirty work around the house..."
"HEY!"
"But... its true." The blond boy regarded his elder sister with fake sincerity. "You're so lazy that you'd make them do aaaall the cleaning and aaaall the cooking. And they would stare at you with these biiiig hungry eyes as you devoured every little thing that they'd prepared for you, leaving only scraps for them."
"You'd better watch it." Rosette waved the chef's knife menacingly. "I'm holding a pretty big knife here, and I'm getting less and less afraid of using it."
"Oh no..." He grinned again. "My sister has finally lost it... HELP! SHE'S GONNA KILL US ALL!"
"Oh quit it..." Rosette muttered. "I'm not in the mood to be messed with right now."
"Too bad..." He nudged her in the side and smiled. "You're the the only person in this house I can mess with... without having to worry that you're gonna break down and cry or strike me down with divine vengeance from the heavens."
In spite of herself, Rosette grinned. "Well, you're very welcome... just don't overdo it or you'll be struck down with divine vengeance from my fist."
Wiping off the last fork Joshua began putting everything in their respective places. Rosette emptied out the dishpan and cleaned the sink.
"So... wanna go watch some tv?" Joshua asked after finishing up.
"Nah... I'm just gonna go back to my room. Got some homework I need to do for tomorrow."
"Alright." He began walking towards the living room. "I won't tell anyone that you're raiding the fridge."
Rosette smiled again. He knew her just about as well as anybody could, and she knew he wouldn't tell when he said so. Besides it was only fair that she took some food as 'payment' for her dishwashing labor. She opened the refrigerator and looked for things to make sandwiches from...
'There any peanut butter left?'
There was, and it was the crunchy kind... somebody must like her after all. Peanut butter and jelly sandwiches – now that was a wholesome meal covering all the important parts of the food pyramid.
With her nutritious loot in hand, Rosette made her way up the stairs towards her room. She closed and locked the door behind her, making enough space on the desk for her to get some dinner tonight too. Numerous pictures lay scattered across the desk – sort of hobby of hers. Ever since she had gotten a cell phone with camera – something she had spent quite some time saving up money for – she had enjoyed taking pictures and printing them out at school. Heaven and hell both knew she'd never get a decent computer at home for something like that. Her mom had been opposed to her getting the camera cell phone in the first place, even though Rosette had promised to pay for it herself.
Gulping down the first sandwich, she went through her pictures. Some were of people from school, some were of her friends... sort of... in reality she didn't like them that much, but in a small town you take what you can get. Some were of landscapes or buildings – those were usually not as interesting as she had expected when she took them. She ate another sandwich. One were of some construction workers erecting a new building 'downtown' – she had thought it would be nice to capture a picture of the building being built so she could look at it afterwards and see that at least a few things changed around here. The main focus of the image was stolen however by one of the workers showing the mandatory butt-crack sticking up from his pants... people were just so utterly predictable. She made a third sandwich. There were also some of Joshua and her. They were taken the very first day she got the cell to commemorate the event. She liked looking at those pictures. She looked happy in them, and she had been – Joshua too.
Finishing her fourth sandwich marked the limit of what her stomach could contain right now and she leaned back in her chair.
'Damn homework...'
But who was she kidding?
It wasn't as if she was gonna do them before tomorrow morning anyway – if she was gonna do them at all.
No, she had more important things to do now.
Perhaps Joshua knew her better than anybody else in the world.
That didn't mean he knew everything.
Checking once again that the door was locked, Rosette turned off the light so that only the desk lamp prevented the room from being completely dark. She went to open the top drawer in her desk. Five large and previously used pillar candles were in the it. With a determined look in her eyes the blonde girl grabbed the candles, placed them on the table, and lit them so she could turn off the desk lamp too. With only the soft candlelight to help her see, she walked to the middle of the room and began rolling the rug covering the floor into a cylinder. Removing the large piece of fabric revealed a figure underneath, sketched in some form of red paint. It was a five-pointed star encircled by two rings – the points of the star touching the inner ring. Five non-roman letters were inscribed in between the inner and the outer ring, one letter next to each of the star's points. The teen went to her desk, and took off her all of her clothes except her bra and panties, hanging the garments over the back of the chair. She grabbed the candles, and went back towards the center of the room, where she sat down in the middle of the pentagram, placing the lights carefully around her. One candle atop each of the foreign letters.
Rosette then closed her eyes, emptying her mind of all outside disturbances, trying to focus her thoughts the way she had been shown by that strange boy she had met 4 years earlier at a catholic summer school in Michigan.
And that's the first chapter done, hope it made for an interesting read. Since this story will be quite the dark one, I'm not exactly sure how it's going to be received, but at this point I am not expecting an overwhelming amount of readers. I guess I'll let it run for a few chapters and see how things turn out. So if you're reading and you're interested in me updating, let me know.