[deathbycherries]

"You have no idea how many sociopaths are really around you. Literally 70 percent of the people I know are sociopaths. I'm not exaggerating. It's hard to find real friends in this world when everyone is a sociopath."

"Misfits aren't misfits among other misfits."

Lauren woke up screaming. She had had another nightmare; it had been about three years since they started. It seemed that, once or twice every month she would have tactile sensations of **** and murder in her sleep. She couldn't combat the nightmares with anything, because when she had them she was rendered paralyzed. So she got up and tried to shake the hollow chill from her soul.

It was a dismal morning, and leaves lay dormant across the rain soaked earth. Above her, the oil smeared sky poured torrents of angry rain. Lauren believed sometimes that she was cursed. Lately, she found herself caught between a rock and a hard place. Her father, her therapist, her friends, even the local nutcase she met at the bar, all of them knew so well that she was in love with the wrong man.

None of them knew him, though, not the way he spoke to her and the way he made her feel so ok. Sure, he had had his share of troubles and this was no excuse for anything. But, real love isn't selfish, she would plead with herself.

"You two-faced bitch!" Nathanial stammered. "You piece of ****, why don't you ever think for yourself? Huh? I told you the boy was trouble. Didn't listen, did you?" Nathanial slapped Lauren full across the face.

Damian was one of the oddest people Lauren had ever met. So unlike everyone else, unlike those who sat in their comfortable slippers sipping coffee, watching Fox News and agreeing with O'Reilly. And God knew, she was damned near sick of the mundane life.

Yet what was there to do but fuck? He had asked her one day, "Do you see me as the devil?"

Lauren laughed innocently and asked why?

"Because some people see me as the devil," he said.

"Like the impersonation of the devil."

And sometimes Lauren got paranoid. You see, Lauren had a condition that caused her to spiral. She couldn't think clearly sometimes. When she became manic, and her mood was in full swing, she flew from one thought to another and then slipped into a frenzy of confusion.

"Do you trust me?" She begged him between sobs over the phone.

"I trust you, babe." He said, with a trembling voice, "But you need to stop listening to everyone's lies. I'm not a bad person."

Damian had served in the Iraq war before he chose to fake an illness to leave. At least, that's what he said the second time. He didn't like the military, but sometimes he talked of returning. He was busy sharpening his tools when he got a frantic call from Lauren.

"Damnit, you don't love me do you?"

"Hold on Honey, calm down, please tell me what's wrong?"

"I can't tell you..."

"Tell me what's the matter."

Damian wasin the old beat up Subaru singing along to a Dead Kennedy's song as he sped toward Lauren's house. He knew that he was not welcomed there by the family, but that he had to see Lauren. He was willing to take the risk, no matter what. He had to be there for his girlfriend, he had to prove himself a better man. He had to cure himself of his disease...he had to climb into bed and erase all the bad memories so that they could share a life-time of better times.

She wondered if he was trying to fix himself with her.

When he got there, Lauren was outside while her father was screaming like a lunatic.

"Hey! You don't speak like that to a woman, let alone your daughter!" Damian yelled and ran to Lauren. He held her in his arms. "Honey, it's going to be alright. You can come live with me if that's what you want."

Even if his arms were cold and his words were flat, even when his disregard for her welfare sometimes seemed to run deeper than the protective alpha male stance he took now, she wanted him to protect her then.

"Let's go. I never want to see that bastard again." The two drove off racing toward oblivion. Damian started saying that it would all be OK, that she didn't have to have an abortion if she didn't want to. That they could start a life together. Then Lauren looked at him and stopped sobbing, "Let's get married," she said with tears in her eyes.

They had a special wedding; a unique wedding. During the summer, the friends and family set up tents and planted flowers. They had picked a hillside in the Mountains, the view that each had seen for most of their lives, all the while growing up so close together but never knowing the other existed until the past three years.

They decided on a wedding to honor the Norse Pagan Gods of old, since Damian was a Pagan and Lauren had also a deep love for the earth and a deep connection to Celtic spirituality, to the otherside.

Damian had gotten Lauren a beautiful garnet ring that wove in a knot, and he wore his necklace she had gotten him for his birthday the month of the beginning of their relationship, when things had already shown that it would be a rocky ride with her family and friends saying that he wasn't to be trusted.

You see, Damian might have had a rough life, but he brought not only the kindness but the reality out of Lauren. And more than anything in the world, Lauren needed a true mate. Someone who would bring out the reality in her, not the lies, not the facades, not the passive acceptance of life that others had shown throughout her life.

He was a big fan of Punk Music, and she was introduced to the style through him. She learned more about herself with him than anyone, because he was pure...so pure that she realized sometimes how impure others were, because he had proven to her that he would do anything to keep them together.

She didn't know at first what was driving him to her or why he liked her. Then she realized, it was not just him but his fate to be with her, and hers too. She loved him, but she didn't want to be afraid to love him.

When they exchanged their sacred vows, there was a clap of thunder and it began to rain. Thor was clapping with joy. Not before long, the clouds parted to reveal a beautiful rainbow.

"We'll named her after the rainbow." Damian said through a smile.

But things didn't last for long, and although Damian wanted to be a good father, he couldn't stop his outbursts. Late nights with the guys, jamming, drinking until drunk, and coming home to fight with Lauren almost every weekend. And what Lauren didn't know, was that Damian was also the world's worst womanizer, going to strip-clubs when Lauren thought he was just out with his friends.

Fucking whores and spending his last hard earned money for his egotistical sex-drive. What had Lauren gotten into, spending nothing but her love on this worthless piece of shit? She'd thought she could fix him, change him from a sociopath into someone who respected and appreciated the world. She learned sooner or later that he didn't want to change, for her, the world or anyone. And he never would change, not even for his daughter Iris.

Bruises slowly replaced by make-up, but there wasn't enough foundation or powder to cover up all the marks. One day Iris decided that she'd had enough of seeing mommy getting beat up, and the disgusting sex sounds she'd hear from the otherside of the wall.

Iris packed up all her things, then ran away. When Lauren realized Iris' disappearance, she called Damian. He didn't sound panicked, but calm and as usual, the same damn emptiness echoed between the line. "We'll find her," he said.

He didn't care. She knew.

And when they found Iris' body in the river, the only thing running through Lauren's mind was how she was going to get revenge on the man who ruined her life, and killed her daughter. One night as Damian was sleeping, she crawled into his bed with a knife..he woke with a jolt and suddenly she was pinned to the floor of the room.

"Bitch! You've broken my heart, and now you'll have to pay."

With her mouth gagged, Lauren saw him then for the true person he was. The uncaring hidden monster behind the mask.

His split off piece was coming to life. As he twirled the knife in his hands, Lauren prayed to God that it would be a quick kill.

Then he spread her legs and ***** her, breathing in her ears and whispering..."hush now sweetheart. It'll be over soon." He didn't stop ****** her, and then with one quick flash Lauren felt the knife stabbed between her ribs. Blood was oozing from the wound as Damian kept on fucking her and fucking her until she lay cold, like a fish out of water.

He cut up a piece of her skin, and began to eat it. Then he took the blade and cut a scar across the chest. He was cursing her under his breath, fucking her again, the dead lifeless mutant that he never understood.

Oh my sociopath, come to me my psychopath. Murderous lips like ruby sunburst dreams, as my hopes fall apart at the seams. Nothing is as it seems. Look, my sociopath, look at how I scream.

And it was then that he was in his true power, his natural state.
He had a clean slate again before he would move onto his next victim, and believe me, he'd have another one.

He wiped her hair from her eyes, and he was the same man he'd always been.