You Have my Heart

When the world is driven by the insane, can love really conquer through. **for a contest, short story**

Looking back now, he thought it was the right thing to do.  Yet, if he examined the tinier details and got to thinking on the actions he could have done rather than the actions he did do, he began to question himself more and more.  Sitting in this dark, cold alley, Payton knew he was safe to think.  It was out there, there that wasn't safe.  His kiwi green eyes flashed in the darkness as he looked towards the chaos that was only fifteen feet away from him and displaying for public eyes.  He couldn't believe what the world had turned into ever since the forms of government killed one another.  It was almost like everyone had an excuse to let their insanity loose and that is exactly what they did.  He couldn't help but think of a Wonderland that turned into a Horrorland and as he watched an escaped sociopath stab another man in the streets repeatedly, he knew he was right.  The attacker looked down right insane as he plunged the hollow car exhaust pipe into his victim's chest over and over until there was nothing but ripped skin, crushed, cracked, broken bone pieces and what appeared to be lungs that were now just mush leaking out of the wound.  Payton huffed as this was just another day in GloryVille, his home.  Standing up to his full 5'10" height and putting his hands in the pockets of his long, black trench coat, Payton let his combat boot-clad feet lead him mindless further down the alleyway and back to his home.

Once he got to the side of his house from across the street, Payton's upper lip twitched in annoyance.  They were in his yard.  These putrid, psychotic, mentally broken down sacks of rotting meat were in HIS yard and trying to get into HIS house.  With a growl, Payton removed himself from the shadows and walked up to his iron gate.  The gates open for him right away  and he watched as they closed behind him before continuing to head towards his trespassers.  Once he got close, he just stood there with his hands in his pockets, full black eyebrow raised in feigned amusement at how these men were trying to get into his house.  His house was a very old Victorian with painted over lead shudders that he used to his advantage and a sliding iron gate that blocked his door, and watching these putrid monkeys try and open up his house with just their hands and some wooden bats was very amusing.  

Finally, Payton lost his amusement and cleared his throat.  The three men turned to look at him as if they were animals and someone had just breached their territory.  With a slight tilt of his head, Payton just smirked as he removed his hands from his pockets and waiting for one of them to lunge.  He wasn't disappointed and he didn't have to wait long before the stout man of the group jumped towards him, managing to collapse into Payton's chest, but not knocking the taller man down like he had hoped.  This made the stout man wild with anger and his brown eyes seemed to have a red glow to them due to how red the scleras of his eyes were and he went in for another attack without even giving himself a chance to regain his balance.  Payton took the man's moment of surprise to take out the beating stick he stole from a dying cop and quickly moved out of the man's way, watching him trip and quickly hitting the man in the back of the head, breaking his spinal cord from his brain stem with a sickening crack.

As Payton straightened himself out, he looked to the other two men who were looking at their comrade with eyes wide in disbelief before they looked back towards the attacker and murderer of their so-called friend in this day and age.  The leader of the three, though, smelled danger if he or his alive comrade were to even try and be next and he just huffed through his nose like an animal before walking off, his other follower right at his tail as they climbed over the gate and continued to walk.  Payton sighed and bent down, grabbing the dead body of the stout man and hauling him up over his shoulder so he could get the putrid monkey off his yard.  He headed to the woods across the street from his place and dumped the man there for the animals to feast on.

When he reached his front porch again, something caught his eye.  Walking closer to it, he realized it was a sack and it appeared to be moving only slightly.  Taking out his stick again, Payton slowly reached for the bag with a pale, long fingered hand.  Taking off the rope that was binding it closed, the male moved the burlap sack down to see what appeared to be a female.  Payton scoffed in confusion at this discovery as there were no females left since men were starting to kill them all due to their insanity levels peaking.  With a twitch of his eye, Payton continued to remove the burlap from the supposed female and inspected her.  She was passed out due to a bleeding gash on her head; most likely from the goons that were in his yard, looking for a place to rape and then murder the girl.  With a huff in annoyance, Payton picked up the average built girl, who was only about 5'5" in height, easily and carried her inside, motioning for the gate blocking his door to open and then carried the girl into his well-kept house.  Sighing and looking around his living room, he opted to just dropping the female primate on his couch.  At first he thought it was rude and then he just shrugged and dropped her onto the soft, black pile of cushions kept up by a frame.  With a sigh, he went into his kitchen, getting a sponge and wetting it.  Payton went back to the living room and went back to the female passed out on his couch and cleaned up her blood.  He never liked being around primate's blood, the smell sickened him.

When the woman was all cleaned up and yet still passed out, Payton rolled his eyes and walked off to his study hall.  He didn't know how long he was in his study but it didn't feel like long until he was hearing screams come from two rooms away.  Payton cleared his throat and headed back into the living room to see the female up and alert.  Raising an eyebrow, Payton put his hands in his black jean pockets as he watched her freak out right before she turned to him and screamed before lunging at him in full attack mode.  Annoyed, Payton quickly pinned her down and snarled, his teeth transforming into a bunch of sharp, razor-like spikes.  She froze and looked at him with wide, fearful eyes as she waited for her impending doom.

"W-what do you want!?" Alice demanded from the stranger who had her pinned on a couch in a house she had no recollection of getting inside of.

"You don't really have a right to ask me questions....  If you were not so weak, those three men would not have captured you and would not have stuffed you in a burlap sack and tried to take you to my home to dispose of and do with you however they wished.  If I hadn't come here at the time I did, you would have been fresh meat for the insane."  Payton huffed out in a drawn out, calm voice that held an accent from his ancestry.  Alice looked at him confused and he just tapped her right on the spot where she had gotten hit in the head, making her flinch painfully before she watched him get up and start to walk off.

"Wait!" She didn't know what made her say it, but she had sat up and reached out for him as if he weren't a stranger to her.  Her behavior caught her as odd and she put her hands in her lap and scoffed at herself.  "I mean....  You can at least tell me where I am and what YOU intend to do with me." Alice defended, trying to make herself seem annoyed at her circumstances.

"Where you are?  Why just another house in Horrorland, is it not wonderful." Payton muttered to her as he started dimming some of the oil lamps so attention would not be brought to his house again.  As the lighting around the house grew darker, it was as if the house itself transformed.  It was no longer in its well kept manner, in fact the wallpaper was peeling and even looked like some kind of creature had tried to claw its way through the lovely Victorian patterns.  Some of the furniture had the same claw marks and were nearly falling apart, even the couch Alice was lounging on.  She couldn't believe her eyes as when the last lamp was dimmed, she was standing in a wreck of a house with lead shutters shut tightly as windows, which seemed repaired and brand new when the lamps were fully lit, were smashed out and frames were barely holding on to the walls they were attached to.  It was as if some kind of monster had come through right when the shadows were made plenty and quickly trashed the place when Alice blinked.

"Wh...what?"  Was all the smaller girl could manage as she stood up and looked at the dust covered things around her.  Payton seemed amused and he just chuckled.  He didn't think a primate like her would be able to see what truly lurked around the house, and could tell she was confused by what she was seeing.

"Pay no mind to it.  The house is just showing its true self.  It likes to do that to scare primates like you." He muttered as he took one of the brighter oil lamps and began walking again, looking over his shoulder to see the female still in shock as she tried to register the chaos around her.  He guessed she had thought she got away from the chaos by being let into this house, but she was completely wrong.  "Come, I do not like people lurking and if you intend to want to stay safe, it is best to come with me and do not ask questions, or you can go back outside and have fun dealing with those lunatics who are most likely wondering where they left you."  Payton called to her and Alice sighed, seeing she didn't really have any other choice as she walked up to him, a little wobbly at first, falling behind him as he kept leading the way up some stairs and into a hallway that was even more destroyed than downstairs.  Wondering what could have done something like this, Alice made a mental note to explore once she was away from her stranger's watchful eyes.

"I'm Alice, by the way." She decided to be civil even if she was curious and wanting to snoop a bit.  After a few minutes of silence, she almost gave up and hearing for a reply before she heard the male sigh and brighten up the lantern a bit.  It seemed to repair the area they were standing in as the piece of the house that was in the light had fresh wallpaper, lovely crystal wall lanterns that gleamed and weren't covered in the dust that they were bathed in when the light was off of them.

"Payton.  Not that formalities are really important." Payton muttered as his eyes gleamed, a flicker moving like mercury across his kiwi eyes.

"I think you're wrong there.  If I'm being invited to stay, even if it is for the night, I would like you to know my name as well as me know yours.  You have an amazing house with good security, but a lot of bad things could happen to either of us in this world and it'd be nice to know at least one person knows who we are.  Plus, I'm not too fond of staying in a place where I don't know the person's name and they don't know mine." Alice retorted, getting a shocked look from Payton before he leaned in closer to her and sniffed the air around her.

She is definitely primate, but yet...... Payton thought to himself before shrugging and leading the girl to the place where she'd be staying.  They passed a door that really got Alice's interest, and Payton felt it.  "Do not go into that room, ever, while you are here or I'll feed you to the lunatics outside myself." Payton snarled out, crushing most of Alice's curiosity away.  When they got to her room, Payton opened it making Alice gasp.  It was the only room that wasn't in a swirl of chaotic destruction and it was beautiful.  She would have to think on dusting the place and getting oil in the lamps on the wall if Payton would allow her if she stayed more than tonight, but other than that, the place was wonderful.

"This will be your room.  I shall retire, please stay in your room at night, do NOT wander about." Payton fair-warned before closing the door and heading to the door that had caught Alice's attention.  The door was clawed of all it's paint and the wood splintered.  Sighing Payton groaned in pain as he felt the first lurch in his body and he quickly went through the tattered doors, slamming them behind him as his lamp fell with a smash to the ground.

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The next few weeks were a blur to Alice.  Payton had allowed her to stay and she was actually getting really close with him even though he barely shared anything about himself.  She was growing attached to his dark attitude, his kiwi green eyes and his short black hair.  Everything about him was just pure darkness yet well-mannered and she found she couldn't stay away from him.  When he went out to the streets to get previsions, she would sit in the house in the chair closest by the door, waiting for him to return just so they could talk.  She was clueless as to what he really was and what he did.

One night, Alice couldn't sleep.  She stayed in her newly sheeted bed tossing and turning and wondering what sounds she was hearing from the house.  Without thinking on what Payton had told her when she first came to his home, she left her room after grabbing the fire poker from her fireplace.  She felt like something wasn't right and something was in the house.  She heard a noise coming from Payton's room and then she heard him groan in pain.  Frantically, Alice opened his door and was face to face with a beast she had never seen before; not even in books.  She froze in terror until the beast looked to her and snarled.  Its red eyes darted over her and she felt uneasy and decided to inspect it as well.  When she looked to the ground she saw what looked to be blood in the middle of the remains of what Payton was wearing that day.  With a gasp, Alice's eyes filled up with tears and she shook her head before looking at the beast in anger.  When it finally lunged at her, Alice cringed down while holding the fire poker up.  She heard a snarl and then a whimper and then felt warm blood on her hands as the beast impaled itself on the poker trying to get at her.

When Alice opened her eyes and looked up, she was looking into Payton's eyes.  She gasped and looked down and saw that the poker was through his chest and he was struggling to breathe.

"Oh no!  Oh no, Payton!" Alice cried and removed her hands from the poker so she could grab on to him.  She was careful not to push out or impale the poker on him further as she walked over to a pile of furs on the ground and sat down while putting Payton sideways in her lap, all the while crying and not caring about Payton's nakedness as the man shivered and clutched to her leg with his head in her upper lap.

"I'm so sorry, Payton.  Oh, please forgive me!" She whispered as she combed her fingers through his hair, trying to be calm and inwardly praying he wouldn't die on her.

"I-it is all right.  D-do you not get it, yet?  This is YOUR world...." Payton coughed up some blood as he spoke and tried to keep his composure and stay awake as long as he could.  "A-anything you w-..... want.... will... be...." Payton closed his eyes as he felt his world fading.  "I knew I remembered you....  I love you.... creator...." Payton mumbled as he felt like a cold blanket was being placed over him.  

Alice, confused at this information, and distraught by seeing her favorite person die in her lap, couldn't be around him so she stood, being careful of Payton's dead body and ran off into her room.  She thought for a long time of what Payton had said to her right in his last moments and seemed confused until an idea hit her.  If this was her world and anything she wanted would be, she had to try this out.  Sitting up and putting her feet over the edge of her bed, Alice thought of Payton, alive and well and no longer the beast he had turned in to.  She thought of the house being wonderful in the light and in the shadows and she thought of it being their place, only for them.

When she opened her eyes, she looked out her open door and into the hallway.  It all seemed the same in the shadows as it was before.  With a whimper, she brought her knees to her chest and decided to give up until she heard a door open.  Oh no! They actually found a way in this time! Alice ran to the side of her threshold and bit her bottom lip as she calmed her breathing and then dared to peek over the frame.  What she saw made tears come to her eyes again.

Payton looked down at himself.  There used to be a gaping hole in his chest from where Alice had put a fire poker, but now it was gone.  Not only that, but his room was no longer in ruins.  He stood up cautiously from the fur pile and then went to his wardrobe and put on a pair of black jeans and a slightly loose black shirt before heading out of his room, looking around in confusion as his house was changing before his eyes.  He had wondered where Alice had run off to, but a shadow moving in her room clued him off.  He walked over to her door and stopped when he saw her head pop past the frame, not wanting her to have another weapon on her.  When she started crying, he tilted his head to the side.  When she ran to him, his eyes got wide and he soon found himself with an armful of Alice as she had jumped up against him in joy.

"Oh, Payton!  Y-you were right!  I'm so glad to see you again, I thought I had lost you!" She whispered as tears of joy went down her cheeks.  She soon pulled away just enough to look into his eyes and then kissed him happily, mewling after Payton got over his shock and wrapped his arms around her and kissed her back.  When they pulled away, Payton was smirking, his canines still sharper than any others she had ever seen and she wondered if her thought about him no longer being a beast had come through as well.

"I'm glad you figured it out...." He whispered as he nudge his nose to her's, making Alice giggle and blush before she nuzzled back and sighed.

"I'm so glad you're back....  I don't know what I would do without you here.  I love you, Payton." Alice whispered right before he kissed her this time, holding her close and sighing happily through his nose.  When he pulled away, Alice felt like she was swimming she was so happy.

"I love you too, creator.......  I love you, Alice..." Payton mumbled before leading her downstairs where they could sit by the fire and talk just like they always did, only this time, Payton would join in.

Author's Note

**This is my 2nd and last submission for a contest** I'm still rough with SOME punctuation, but hopefully there is not much here.