#ahs 1

Julie always awoke in a cold sweat, eyes darting around the room to make sure she was really alone. It was terrified and aroused her to no end; to dream of the blonde man so many nights made her miss the ones where he was gone.

 More nights than not did her hand slip down her belly to her unclothed pussy, already wet from the previous dreams. It was always quick; eyes closed and clit rubbed at a furious pace before a soundless cry left her lips, thighs shaking at the tendrils of pleasure coursing through her.

 She would stay on the orgasmic high for a few minutes, wetness seeping onto the sweat-covered sheets, which would prompt her to get up and take a tissue to the stickiness between her thighs.

 Her brows furrowed at the light redness staining the tissue, grimacing in a childlike manner. “Really body? You’re gonna betray me like this?” There was a strange correlation with her monthly bleeding and the heavier dreams. The ones were he simply touched her and whispered sweet words were fine, but the ones that caused her to bleed usually had him bleeding for her, offering himself to her like gift for a Queen.

 Julie huffed and slumped on her walk to the bathroom, now feeling the growing pain in her lower abdomen. It was times like these that being female became a burden, cursed with the act of bleeding once a month and the pain that came with it was all to burdensome.

 If she could cut out her ovaries, she would. It took her aback when the thought of presenting her bloody ovaries to the man from her dreams entered her head; not today brain. But for now she simply propped her leg on the counter, unwrapped the tampon and grimaced as it slid into her, it was always uncomfortable,

 It was 5:45 in the morning, and seeing as the cramps were starting to set in, it would be pointless to try and get some sleep. She snatched her phone off the bedside table and opened up her Safari, scrolling through the open tabs.

 One was Chloe’s Instagram, displaying her friend in a crouching pose with a peace sign- the pinned location was New Orleans… damn, her friend hadn’t even told her she was out of town- and the white girl she was with was tagged ‘mmontgomery’. Hm, she looked familiar, but didn’t care enough to go to her page.

 Julie flicked the page away, ignoring the pang of hurt that her best friend was drifting away from her. But it wasn’t just Julie’s fault; yes, she may have been spending more and more time with Michael, but Chloe had stopped eating lunch with her, stopped answering her texts… it was like she wanted them to drift apart.

 Her finger hovered over the page titled ‘Church of Satan’- she’d left it open after searching in regards to her ‘Hail Satan’ dream-, and a moment later clicked on it, waiting for it to reload.

 The screen was engulfed in a red hue that made her eyes burn, and the realistic picture of Satan made her uneasy. The texts upon texts spoke about how Lucifer was cast out by God for not loving the creations he called humans enough, that we were the cause of Satan’s downfall. It said that Satan roamed the Underworld for answers of how to escape, how to take his vengeance on the humans who had done this to him, but he never did.

 The next part was titled ‘The Antichrist’, and her eyes read the sprawl with question.

It said the Antichrist was Satan’s son, the one who looked, talked, and walked like us but he wasn’t one of us. He was a special being with powers that people could only dream of and would bring upon the Armageddon; the ender of worlds. Though the ending wasn’t complete and the Church was still waiting for the Antichrist to rise up and smite them all.

 An address was at the bottom, including a phone number and time schedule. She held no regrets in bookmarking that page, though still closed it with a flick of her finger, putting down the phone and relishing in the sound of morning birds.

   One of the only things that sucked about being 17 was having school; the everyday hellscape that seemed to never have an end. It would have been slightly more tolerable if Michael went was there but him and Ms. Mead were adamant that school just wasn’t for him. She wished her mom were like that.

 “Surprise bitch.” Julie turned around and gave a tight smile at Chloe. “Bet you thought you’d seen the last of me.”

 It was a kick to the teeth to see her friend after her 3 week trip to New Orleans, but what was really strange was the usually pink preppy girls attire; She wore a skintight black turtle neck that tucked into high waisted dark denim jeans, a thick belt and black boots. She even had a large circular hat that was just as black as the outfit.

 “You do know we’re inside right?” Julie motioned to the hat, in which Chloe rolled her eyes, “It’s called fashion sweetie, look it up.” Normally, she would’ve laughed and playfully rolled her own eyes, but instead Julie turned and started away.

 “Hey, wait!” Chloe’s boots stomped against the marble floor as she tried to catch up, “Aren’t you gonna ask how my trip was? Aren’t you curious about all the New Orleans juju shit I saw?”

 Julie clenched her jaw, “At the moment, not really.” She tried to turn away but Chloe tugged her back, “Hey, hey, what’s wrong? Did something happen while I was gone? Are you mad about something?”

 “You know, I’m not mad that you took the trip, I’m not mad that you made friends there, hell, I’m not even made that you look like you raided Hottopic before showing up.” Julie tried not to well up. “But I am mad that mad that my best friend didn’t give enough shits to tell me that they were leaving for three fucking weeks. So yeah Chloe, I’m mad.”

 And of course, in a very Chloe like manner, she laughed it off, “Are-Are you actually serious? What are you my mom? I don’t have to tell you every little thing I do.”

 “No, but you could act like were at least some form of friends. You’ve been ignoring my texts, my calls, everything.” Chloe allowed Julie to step away with watery eyes. “I thought we were closer than that Chloe.”

 Chloe let out a cynical laugh and it was like a flip had switched inside her, “Oh I get it, you’re jealous that I met people who understand me.” Chloe grew almost frantic in her speech, hands shaking by her side as her eyes darted around the empty hallway before landing back on Julie. “They can help me Julie, why can’t you just open your eyes?”

 Please, Father! Open my eyes!

 Julie shook away that dream, “I see you Chloe, I really do. But-“

 Chloe stood with fists clenched and jaw tight and the metallic screech that echoed through the hallway had Julie turning, staring aghast the concave locker. Julie turned to her friend; what the hell was happening to Chloe?

 “D-Did y-you-“

 “See me Julie. I’m more than you ever were and will ever be.” Chloe’s voice dropped an octave lower. “Run away little girl, its gonna get ugly.” The tall girl sauntered off with a swagger, paying no mind to the crying fleeing Julie, who ran from the school.

   Michael Langdon was bored. He didn’t think there could be such boredom like this; it would have been more fun to be with Julie. He wondered what she was doing. Was she in school? Was it fun? Were the people there nice?

 A dark look overcame his face; were the people there nicer than him? Better than him? Would they try to steal her away from him? He shook those thoughts away; they were meant to be together and no stupid teenagers could take her away from him.

 An insistent banging at the door had him sitting up in bed, eyes squinting with curiosity. Ms. Mead was off doing unholy thing in his father’s name and his Julie was at school, which meant it was a stranger. His eyes rolled into the back of his head as he used his powers to see into the mind of the person at his doorstep.

 He leapt of the bed and “Ouch!” He shook off his hard slam into the wall from his sock covered toes and sprinted to the door, opening it with a wide smile. A wide smile that ever so slowly deflated at the sight of his Julie standing before him, blood shot eyes and sniffles leaving her wet nose. It was hard to control the rage in his veins at her distressed state and he was slightly glad she was unaware of the shaking tree in his front yard.

 She leaped into his arms and the tree became still. He held her on his doorstep, not knowing how to help. “What do I do?”

 She sniffled and another tear fell, “Hold me.” It took a lot for Julie not to question how one moment they were in the entry of the house and the next his bedroom; she would put that thought away for later. This wasn’t the first time Michael had done something like this and she was sure it wouldn’t be the last.

 He crowded her onto his twin size bed and covered her like an octopus would its prey. Though it did just the trick; his tight hold soothed away her sadness and washed away her tears. The hurt from Chloe’s words was slowly fading away, leaving just her and Michael.

 They lay on their sides, facing each other. He watched her bloodshot eyes and reached one hand up to feel her warm cheeks, “Do you wanna talk about it?”

 Julie thought about telling him everything; spilling all the pain she felt from Chloe’s hatred and the sadness she harbored from feeling alone. So she did, her voice a whisper in his ear that had him gripping her harder.

 “But you’re not alone.” He moved in closer. “You’ll never be alone again.” They watched each others lips and made a kiss an innocent as innocence could be. It lasted only a few seconds long but it felt like heaven. She murmured, “was that okay?”

 And he gave her a smile that made his eyes even brighter, “I love you Julie.”

 It took her aback for a moment, a declaration of love from a boy she’d know for a short amount of time. Did she love Michael Langdon? She wasn’t sure, but there was something inside her that said she did. So she said, “I love you Michael.”

 “You’ll never leave me right?” He was such an insecure boy but he had to know, he wanted to hear it.

 “Never.” Their lips met again, and she started to believe that love was in the air.

   God, being in love was so fun. They were like dating dating and they shared sweet kisses whenever they could and held hands when they strolled through the Hotel on the two Saturdays of the month. It was so domestic of her and he made her feel loved in a way her mom never could.

 And nothing could go wrong it seemed.

 Well…

 A harsh banging on the front door had Michael at his feet in an instant, Julie already making her way to open and see whom it was. Julie grimaced; it was a medium height pale girl with clothes akin to Chloe’s new style, red lips moving in an angry twitch and squinting eyes.

 Wait! She knew this girl- she was the one from Chloe’s picture in New Orleans… but why was she here?

 “Can I help you?” The girl whose name had been tagged ‘mmontogmery’ let out an annoyed exhale and lifted up her phone, displaying a smiling picture of Chloe, “Have you seen this girl?”

 Julie answered truthfully as she felt Michael creep up behind her, “We aren’t really on speaking terms at the moment-“

 The girl cut her off and spat, “I don’t need a sob story I just need to know where she is.”

 “You are rude.” Michael was nose to nose with the girl. “Don’t talk to her like.” The rude girl looked ready to shoot back an insult that would probably make him cry so Julie tugged him behind her so he was out of focus, “I don’t know where she is. Sorry, can’t help.”

 She made to close the door in the girls face, but some force was stopping her; even with both hands, it wouldn’t budge. The girl simply pushed her way inside, ignoring Michael’s death like glare, “Ugh, is this what poor people live like? No thank you.”

 She sat on the couch and crossed her legs. Julie was just in shock and finally was able to slam the door, marching over to this bitch, “Who the hell do you think you are? This is my goddam house and you need to leave.”

 The girl sighed and looked into Julie’s eyes with intensity, “My name is Madison Montgomery and I’m here to find Chloe before she causes a shit show that even the all holy Supreme can’t fix. So either you and that twelve year old are gonna help me find her or a lot of people are going to die.”

 Madison had had the words barely leave her mouth before she started gasping for air, well done nails scratching at her porcelain skin. Julie rushed forward, not knowing what to do. “Michael! Help her! What do i-“

 She fell to the floor and crawled away from Michael Langdon; the boy whose eyes were rolled back into his head with a clenched fist at his side, Madison still choking on the couch.