Makes Me Disappear by Quartz Shard Part 1: "I'm pregnant?" The one sentence every girl dreads. "Yes. There are other options than birth..." "I'm having it." Cassie felt numb. When had she and Adam not used a condom? Oh, right All-Hallows' Eve...the merging of Herne and Diana. "Damn, potent bastard," she muttered. They weren't married: she didn't know how he was going to take this news. They had been together seven years with no children, while the rest of the club produced like rabbits. Diana and Nick had one. Sean and Faye had three. The Hendersons and Melanie and Laurel together had four, two sets of twins. Even Suzan and Deb, who fell in love after high school, had a little boy. She felt a little thrill..."I'm having a baby!" She felt this warm glow spread over her. "I've got to tell Adam!" Cassie ran down the hallway, her bare ass showing through the folds of her hospital gown. Skidding past a payphone and running back. Realizing she had no change in her pants, she left the phone hanging in the air and snatched the phone out of the the nurses hand and hung it up. The young man stood up in outrage. "Now listen! You can't just..." Don't mess with me! Cassie pushed the thought in his mind and forced him to sit down. He smiled at the pretty girl who seemed to glow with life and he remembered having a crush on her in high school. "Oh, hey, Cassie, I didn't regognize you for a minute! Go ahead, but only talk for a few minutes. My boss might catch me!" The nurse drooled all over himself. Cassie rolled her eyes, a rudeness and disrespect for outsiders that she learned being in the club. "Whatever, Sean owns this hospital." She turned her back to the nurse, unconsciously showing him her bare ass of which he was polite enough not to laugh. Excitedly dialing Adam's number, she listened as it rang once...twice...then a sleepy voice answering. "Hello?" "Adam! I'm pregnant! I'm going to be a mommy! And I'm going to eat lots of tuna melts like Faye did when she was pregnant! I wonder what it will be? I wonder what cravings I'll have? Adam when I get big and fat will you still love me? Either way we're going to love that baby with all our hearts, won't we Adam? Oh Adam! We can get married now! Should we have a spring wedding or a fall one? Or lets just get a license! No, no, I want everyone there! The whole club in a hand-fasting ceremony on the beach! Yes lets do that! When's the next full moon? Oh, I'm not letting you speak...what would you like to say dear? Dear,..Deirdre! What a fabulous name for a girl! But hurry up and speak! Now, I can't talk long on this line! Oh! You'll never believe it! I got the same room as..." "Er...Cassie? This is Nick...You called the wrong number." A tentative moment. "That's great! You guys are having a baby!...That's just great...great...But Adam is in the back yard playing with Miceal I'll tell him the news..." Some static and background noise, then she heard a loud shout. "Adam! Dude! Cassie's knocked up!...Oh my god!...Cassie...You better get over here...Adam fainted." ********************* Cassie Conant stood on the beach and smiled adoringly at her husband. Adam smiled back. They were married...officially a couple for all eternity. Cassie was now his turf and no other man could touch her...and that included Nick. Adam had always been a little jealous of Nick, even though he was married. Nick had something of Cassie's Adam would never possess. Nick was Cassie's first and as far as Adam was concerned, if he ever touched Cassie again...fight or no...that breath would be his last. Cassie and Nick claimed their affair was long over but Adam knew that Nick's heart would always belong to Cassie and all she would have to do was say, and he would do anything for her. That isn't to say that Adam had been completely faithful to Cassie...A lot can happen in seven years and Faye was very...convincing. He just had not been caught like Cassie...with Nick on the bluff...where she and Adam had first kissed. But all that was over now...He was a married man. "Dark thoughts on your wedding day." Faye smirked at Adam. Her golden eyes glinted in the moonlight. She poured herself a cup of punch that Adam knew she spiked herself. "So, you actually married the mouse! I'm surprised." "How's Sean and the kids?" "Good. We're sending the children off to summer camp in a week...I do hope they enjoy themselves..." and in a lower tone, "Are you...enjoying...yourself?" Faye ran a seductive finger up Adam's arm. "They've only been back from boarding school a day..." Adam said loudly, removing his arm from Faye's grasp. Quietly he whispered, "I'm a married man now, Faye, It's not like before" Faye laughed...the sound of tinkling bells giving the impression of a lioness growl. "Surely a seven months pregnant woman cannot..um...perform to standard?" Fayes golden eyes gleamed into his blue ones. "Some wedding night you'll have rubbing her aching feet when you know she's thinking Nick could do the service just as well...?" "Faye," Adam said loudly, "Did we forget the hot sauce? Come with me...We're going to get some more hot sause Cassie!" "Okay sweetie...pick up some tofu will you?" Faye's eyes laughed, shining like fireflames. "Okay Adam...I hoped the sauce wasn't getting too stale...as it had to do without refrigeration for so long." "It won't if you get chilis," Deborah said over a mouthful of guacamole. Susan ran up, grabbing a chip out of her hand, laughing as they wrestled for it. "Get some more vodka too! We ran out of punch! No Deborah! I love you too much to let you ruin your figure with this junk food!" Laughing triumphantly Faye led Adam away from the party. Part 2: Two months later... "Cassie!" Faye sobbed dramatically her honey eyes full of very dramatic very fake tears, her midnight hair beautifully disheveled, every eye in the club gathering on her...staring. She had their full attention...she was loving it. "I must tell you something! But I don't know if you should know...seeing as you and I are so close...I don't want you to do anything dramatic,...like hurt yourself or the child. I don't know if I should tell you, because..." "What Faye?" Cassie interrupted, voice halting her musical speech like a finger on a record. "You tell her Adam!" Faye swiveled around to Adam her eyes locking with his, golden sky to midnight sea. "Tell me what? FAYE?" Cassie wheezed angrily. At nine months any movement tired her out and just her circle duties made her exhuasted. She had just closed the nine foot circle, daggar in hand, crescent cakes in the other. She was a dog growling over its food...in a word...she was dangerous. "No, Faye, Your better than this..." Adams eyes, now a wild blueberry, his chin set his hair wildly tangled, his face not budging an inch, but his eyes pleaded with Cassie to understand and forgive the truth she was already figuring out. "You'd think so wouldn't you? But Adam I'm tired. Tired of Sean. Tired of the secrets. Tired of hiding..." Faye continued, eyes glowing jealously in the circle's candle-light. "Will you please continue!" Cassies patience breaking with this cryptic conversation. Now...where had she heard something like this before? Faye's eyes slowly turned to Cassie A smile lighted her crimson lips as she continued slowly twirling to cup Cassies double chin in her hand (Cassie had gained a lot of weight in the past few months) "And tired...oh so very tired, of being the other woman." The circle gasped. Faye smiled dropping Cassies fatty head. "Adam has been having an affair with me, Cassie, dear, I thought you should know...I love you too much to continue on" She flipped her hair to hide a conceited smile "First Diana, and me, then Faye. Adam, your setting up quite a pattern among leaders of the coven! Well I did it to Diana...and now Faye's doing it to me. And it hurts,.." Cassie started to sob, her hair every color of the rainbow, becoming brighter and blinding as the betrayal and rage she felt transferred to every fiber in her body. "IT HURTS!" She screamed into the sky Nick brushed past Adam knocking him over "You shitheel, always have to have the prettiest girl in the coven don't you? Don't care about who's the most important or the most loving individual or who you hurt getting her!...just who gets you hard huh?!? Huh! Answer me!" "You shut up! You don't know anything! You've wanted Cassie your whole life and you're just upset because you can't have her! She's my wife! MY TURF!" Adam shouted in Nick's ear. Nick's hazel eyes glowed green. "You think of her as property you stinking..." "Argh! IT HURTS!" Cassie screamed. "I know, I know, I'll never let him hurt you again!" Nick turned his back to Adam contemptuously and pulled Cassie in his arms,...just in time for her water to break all over his pants. "Not that! Stupid! I think I'm in labour!" ****************************** "Birthing you was just a small price to pay for the hell you'd give me later." ~My Mom (Delivery room...Cassie has been in labor for a total of five hours,long enough to give her extreme pain, not long enough to give her morphine. The outsider male nurse has joined the crowd around her crotch waiting expectantly for the boy Adam is sure will pop out. They are privy to a view that only two men and Cassie's gynechologist have ever seen before. They are also privy to some very private club information that most of the club didn't even know,...or wish to know till them) "You cheating Son of a Bitch! This is all your fault I'm here! I don't know what Faye sees in you! Compared to Nick you never were any good! I should have known! I should have known! I mean, how can a man have a vasectomy after his first child and go on to produce two more without a little outside male help ya' know? I knew that Faye was a slut so I figured the little bastards were outsider children and when their powers started to flare I just figued it was because their mother was so powerful... But I never suspected you, Sir Adam the Virtuous! Sir Adam the Virtuous my ass! Sir Adam the hypocrite! To hack a hair ball over Nick and I and you diddling Faye on the side! I heard about you and Susan but I just figured that was Deborah blowing off steam after Susan said she couldn't accept who she was and FUCK! THAT HURTS CAN'T YOU PEOPLE DO ANYTHING ABOUT IT? Faye! You slut! Where is the hussy now? Faye! Faye? FAYE!!!" "Cassie I'm right here for you! Everything is going to be fine! Just push! He he ho. Remember that Cassie? Good girl! We love you Cassie your going to be just..." "I didn't call you over here to hear your bullshit. You can take that push and use it to shove that Lamaze crap up your ass! The classes that Adam couldn't take me to that I had to beg the Henderson brothers to escort me because Adam was 'too tired' every week! Let me ask you, just between you and me? Commere! Let me whisper my question in your ear..." Faye leaned her head down to Cassies lips and Cassie yelled in an impossibly loud voice, one that could crack mirrors and nearly deafened the surrounding people. "DID YOU FUCK HIM THEN? HUH? TELL ME, FAYE! WHEN I HAD TO EXPLAIN TO DOUG OR CHRIS OR SEAN EVERY WEEK WHY ADAM COULDN'T MAKE IT! AND I NEVER ASKED NICK...NO! EVEN IF HE OFFERED I SAID NO! BECAUSE I KNEW IT WOULD MAKE ADAM UPSET! Wouldn't it Adam? WOULDN'T IT" Then it a perfectly normal voice and face she turned to the doctor and said "So, hows it going doctor Doug?" Scaring him because for the last five hours she had acted like a demon from hell stabbing Adam in the thigh with her bolline, just a hair away from his balls, and lunging at Fayes chest before they strapped her down hearing threats and the phrase 'when I get out of labour' many times. They had seen it all but never it all in one delivery room and with such venemousness! "AND WHILE WE'RE ON THE SUBJECT OF DOCTOR DOUG, NURSE TONI I WOULD APPRECIATE IT IF YOU WOULDN'T FUCK MY DOCTOR BEHIND THE VENDING MACHINE TWO FLOORS DOWN! HE HAS IMPORTANT WORK TO DO AND HE SHOULDN'T BE THINKING ABOUT WHAT A GOOD SCREW YOU WERE AND HE IS!!" Both men blushed scarlet, one the good looking Doctor Doug, the other an insignificant little worm of an Italian human being having the gaul to look like Ricky Martin,..in tighter pants and be gay. "Okay,..." Toni's face a-flame, no longer enjoying the show, "Morphine! NOW!" How did she know that? Doc Doug bit his lip How did she know that? Something's weird about this group. The way they didn't act as surprised as apologetic. I'll keep an eye on this group...especially that hot one with the cobalt blue eyes and the hair every color of the leaves in the fall... Part 3: "Cassie has been doped with enough morphine to take out a whole herd of raging cows...wait...Do cows rage?" "This is not very tranquilizing," Suzan muttered to Deborah who snorted with laughter. "You guys need tranquilizers?" Toni looked up from his desk. "I can arrange for some..." Deborah stretched yawning loudly. "No vending boy I think we're set." It was Suzan's turn to snort with laughter. "Do you mind if I put my feet on your lap?" "Uh, wait..." "Thanks." Deborah layed her curly head on the armrest of the couch she was sitting on with Suzan and stretched out till her mud caked combats were on Suzan's pretty yellow silk miniskirt, ruining it. Suzan sighed. Deborah was nothing if not a passionate human being and she swept Suzan up off her feet, but there were times...when Deb was just so...inconsiderate...imperious...imbecile! Their relationship was great but little things got on Suzan's nerves...The way Deb took everything for granted...the way Deb took HER for granted and the way Deb didn't pay enough attention to their son, li'l James. So many times Suzan swears she will leave Deb for good and then he remembers she has a commitment to her family or Deb will take her out on the bike for a spin, a rare treat since Suzan isn't even allowed to touch it most times. Despite all this Deb doesn't even know how she feels, how when Deb touches her, her heart still leaps in her throut and Suzan swears it will pop right out, but the affection has become few and far between and Suzan was becoming sick of it. As far as Deborah was concerned the relationship was doing great! They were just as if not more affectionate as ever! However Deborah's idea of affection was sleeping on the couch and letting Susan hold her muddy boots and if Sue asked, Deborah would do the same for her thinking they were becoming more comfortable around eachother (like the time Sue insisted on watching Deborah pee)...funny...Sue never seemed to ask,..wonder why that is? "Hey! Look alive peoples! We have one boy and a head on its way out and after that only two more to go so lets go in there and give Cass some support!" Nick's hazel eyes dulled by twenty hours in the labour room but he could never get tired of hearing his love announce she hated the bane and block on his existence for the last seven years. Deborahs eyes squinted her hair an un-ruly mess, "You're enjoying this, aren't you and what...three more on the way!!" "That's right!" Nick beamed "Quadruplets!" Remembering how awful lil'James birth was--she had him all natural--Suzan could only imagine...she fainted. Nicks bright eyes widened and his smile froze "Oh no! Not you too! I swear! Almost every girl I tell that to does that!" ****************************** Diana Armstrong sat on the bathroom counter her moonlight hair hung in her face. She used toilet paper to muffle her sobs and catch her tears. The counter was wet with god knows what when she sat down. Now it was all over her pants. She didn't care. She knew what she was getting into when she married Nick. She knew that if Cassie was still on the prowl her love would never be safe. She knew that Cassie was a selfish vindictive bitch who always wanted what she, Diana, had. Cassie, her sister, hurt her over and over and it was so unconscious. Cassie was an innocent, just as Diana used to be. Pain and years of jealousy sullies innocence and virtue. Cassie never lost her innocence because eventually she always got what she wanted. Diana always knew Nick didn't love her; that if Cassie ever left Adam he would be waiting for her, arms outstretched. But what did Diana want? Diana wanted Adam, but everyone had had Adam once he was no longer Diana's. Then Diana had wanted a family, so she married Nick, who was re-bounding after Cassie and needed affection. They married on the concept that it was to make Cassie and Adam jealous and that if anything came up they were free to leave. Ten months after the wedding day Miceal was born. And Nick went back to Cassie. Adam never returned to Diana...instead he turned to Faye. Angry to see everyone happy with their lives and loves but herself, Diana convinced herself that she was in love with Nick. To the point of being delusional, she told herself they were a family. To have a family, you need love, Diana thought. So, she forced to protesting Nick out of Cassie's arms for a week and went to couples' counseling. They read books. They went on "family picnics." On the surface nothing could get better but Nick still couldn't let go of his dream girl. So Diana told Adam about Cassie and Nick and he covered her part in their "discovery" in exchange for her staying quiet about Faye. She sat on the counter...sink...whatever they call those little standthing-ies in the bathrooms and cried. She cried about everything, from the pain of her first child-birth to a man she had no love for to the bad decision to let Cassie rule the club. From the bad decision to marry Nick to the divorce papers in her hands. She sobbed out seven years of jealousy, hate and deceit and now at age twenty-three she was all washed out. Part 4: From underneath Cassie's bed there came a loud bang. Cassie, too doped to care, gave a lopsided smile and mumbled something like "Bwig Cwang No Barbie..." Out from underneath the bed dry ice started to come out in all directions making the professional business-like doctors jump. And out from under the bed came two figures so exactly alike (and totally hot) dressed in black jump suits with red triangles on opposite shoulders that it made the occupants of the room jump and rub their eyes, convinced they were seeing a mirror image of the same boy. "The Hendersons...have arrived!" Chris said ominously raising his hands, stretching his arms to the sky making the shadows and red lights dance. "They have come..." Doug's hair glowing in the red light, enjoying every minute of his grand entrance. "With treats!" Laurel said from the crowd interupting her husband in mid-sentence, not at all embarrassed by his actions. The doctors, no longer scared out of their wits, gained courage. "Listen! KIDS!" The Hendersons turned, mouths protruding with Laurel's home-made rice-crispy treats, shocked at being treated with such dis-respect. Didn't these guy know they were members of The Club? The Club which had been the equivalent to the mob in this town for over a hundred years! The Club which had ran off several rival gangs and even the Mafia back in 1926! Doug remembers...he was there (past life regression or something teci-mystical like that reader, just think of something that sounds good and place it there) Now while the Hendersons slow, very, slow minds were formulating the last paragraph and translating the doctor's words into English in their minds he had already said his piece about how this was a hospital and not a zoo and had them carried out of the delivery room slung over two nurses' shoulders. The one thing that did register was when Adam passed Doug being carried down the hall, butt in air, face in the nurse's back, whose name was apparently Toni,slapped Doug in the ass and said, "Hey good show! What did you use for the smoke?" A compliment! Doug had encountered that before! A long pause. "SMOKE STICKS! I INVENTED THEM MYSELF!" Then all went blank as a transportable X-ray rolled down the hall and knocked him and Toni un-conscious, squashing them flat,...dead as a door nail. *************************** "FUCK YOU FAYE! FUCK YOU ADAM! AND FUCK YOU CHEATING SEX LIVES! BECAUSE OF YOU CHRIS IS DEAD! DO YOU HEAR ME? DEAD! ARGH!" The incessant doped up screaming was paused and drowned out by loud squawling as the last baby popped out,...squirted out?,..squealed out? What's a good word for what happens with the delivery? How did she know that? Doctor Doug chewed on his nails as the father cut the umbilical cord despite the doped up shouting of "I'M GONNA KILL YOU YOU LEAVE MY BABY 'LONE YOU KILL IT LIKE YOU KILLED DOUG? HUH?"This is the second time she has mentioned things she shouldn't know. When Toni had come back an hour later with a broken arm Doug became worried he said that the man had taken most of the impact of the machine. Laurel and Doug had gone hysterical. They had said they were chanting over the body and trying to bring it back to life. Wow. Grief can do crazy things to people. When the attendants carried them off to the psychiatric ward she was screaming something like, "You can't take us away from him it will kill him!" As if he wasn't already dead! Suzan sobbed into Deborah's leather clad shoulder. She couldn't imagine the club without the "crazy Hendersons." Laurel would never be the same. They were so in love. That is the wrong way to lose someone. In fact, it's just wrong to lose anyone you love to something as stupid as a moving X-ray machine! What a stupid way to die but what a stupider reason was she, Suzan, going to hurt Deborah simply because of a muddy skirt? Or not enough affection? They had been together five years! Most married people that long were grateful for any affection! She turned her head and looked into Deborah's sympathetic eyes still holding un-shed tears for their lost friend. "I love you." Suzan didn't know who said it first but they were both sobbing at once and Deborah holding her tightly saying "Idon'twannaloseyou Idon'twannaloseyou Idon'twannaloseyou." So...she knew. Suzan smiled crookedly and choked back laughter. She never could hide anything from Deb. She pushed back her dark curls and kissed her lips and whispered, "You can't." Part 5: Five days later... "Mr. Conant are you sure you wish to put three of you children for adoption? They are beautiful children." "I'm sure they can have a better home than with us." God I sound like I'm giving away a dog! What I mean is,...we can't afford this many children." "Okay, Is your wife okay with this?" The nurse looked suspiciously at the adorable asshole,..the SHIT WRAPPED IN COTTON CANDY,..THE FUCKING BEAUTIFUL WOLF IN SHEEP S..." ******************************** "Cassie! Wake up! It's me, Diana!" Cassie looked up into bright green eyes and moonlight hair. "Wha, WHERE are my children?" bringing her voice down the the loud coarse shout it had gotten used to over the past couple of days. "In good homes...Oh My God! ADAM DIDN'T TELL YOU? Oh Shit! Oh Shit!" Cassie rolled over and cried, "My babies! He stole my babies!" Too hurt to sob she turned on her side and choked tears sliding down on their own accord. She knew he did it for revenge for the stab in the leg she gave him but this was above and beyond and she knew she would never find them. She didn't even know their names or if they were a boy or a girl. "Cheer up Cassie!" Diana's tearful eyes stared into hers. "At least you have one!" "I'm supposed to be happy about one,..WHEN I GAVE BIRTH TO FOUR?" Cassie was wild eyed. She had lost everything, her husband, her children and her right to use firearms in the state of New Hampshire and her right to be within six-hundred yards of Faye or Adam. She was a single mother. Back to square one. Nick held her as she cried, his woolen sweater comforting. She lifted her tear stained post partum depression faced to his and they kissed, swept away by sheer feeling, her sadness, and their mutual longing. They were together and it was right. Epilogue: Diana smiled inwardly. It was a bitter smile but she knew everything was as it should be. It was three months later now and Cassie was getting married to Nick. Sean was making due alone with the children and Faye and Adam ran off to the Bahamas. Deb and Suzan re-enacted their vows. Laurel killed herself and Doug and Melanie are taking care of their children. With the club all taken care of and straightened out Diana's job was done. They could never be a complete circle again but maybe...someday...The children that were born...in total the club had produced enough to replace themselves. Thirteen children. Diana placed a spell on the remaining three so that when they reached eighteen they would return to their rightful place in the circle. And once more the coven would survive. With the future insured Diana had nothing left to live for. Diana stood with her feet in the water feeling the cool waves caress her feet. She walked out into the ocean and dissapeared. All that was left was a farewell note to the club. ocean pulls me close her whispers in my ear the destiny have chose all becoming clear the currents have less say the time is drawing near washes me away makes me disappear Fin