Preface

"Are you afraid?" Austin growled in a low, scary tone. It was by far the most menacing thing I had ever heard with my own ears. It wasn't his playful little joke. It was real. And it was terrifying.

Austin's fingers dug into my upper arms. He was gripping me so tightly that I knew I would have bruises to hide. I was beginning to freak out more than I ever had before. Austin never acted like this towards me. To other people, sure. But never to me. I was the only thing in his life not ruined by what he was. The only person that he didn't hurt.

Until now.

Involuntarily, I started to tremble in Austin's arms. I looked up, to look into the now bottomless pits that were his eyes. Like his voice, they were filled with anger and hatred. They looked like a portal straight into our own personal hell.

I felt Austin's hot breath in my face. Normally, it would have made my head spin. What, with the way it washed over me, warm and sweet, but not to sweet. But now, it felt like a poison. My head still whirled around, but not in a good way. It was like I was being hypnotized by his very presence. Just like everyone else. I was always immune to his tricks.

Not anymore.

"Answer me! Are. You. Afraid?" he made each word unnaturally distinct. Its own sentence.

Again, Austin's normally sweet voice was tremendously frightening. It was deeper than any human voice I had ever heard of before. If it wasn't me hearing it, someone might think he was using some technology changing it.

But I knew better.

I finally got up enough courage to answer Austin. To be truthful, I was terrified of him. Well, not really of him, but what he had become. Or what he always was…

"I'll never be afraid of you, Austin. What you come from and where you're going, but never of you," I answered.

My voice shook almost as badly as I did when I attempted speaking. I probably wasn't very convincing. I didn't even manage to convince myself of what I was saying to him. And he always knew when I was lying.

All of a sudden, Austin released me and I stumbled backwards, across the grassy field. He dropped his arms to his sides and looked down slightly, as if he was ashamed of what he did. Maybe he learned his lesson? I thought.

The moonlight tossed strange shadows over Austin's face, making him seem almost demonic to me.

But before anything more could happen, there was a sharp Crack! from behind me. I spun around fast enough to see a large split in the earth behind me. My mouth dropped in awe of what I was seeing and fear. But just as the gorge was about to swallow me, Austin tackled me to the ground. We fell, tumbling over each other, into the long and scratchy grass.

I thought we were out of the woods after we stopped rolling and Austin stood up. He pulled my onto my feet, just like the old days. But nothing would ever be like the old days again…

"Austin Marx," came a mans voice from the crag. "You have disobeyed the rules that have been set. You were warned, and now, you must suffer your fate!"

The crack opened wider. But this time, there wasn't anyone to push us out of the way. Not thinking about what just happened, I clung to Austin as we fell into the world unknown to only me.

Chapter 1.

"He's still looking at you," Parker whispered from next to me.

I looked up, through my eyelashes, to see him. The new kid, Austin Marx. Like Parker said, he was staring at me. Again. Throughout lunch he had been doing nothing but watching me and my friends. Mainly Parker and me.

He saw me watching him in return. I blushed and turned my head towards Parker again. It was an excuse to not look at him.

Sitting on my left side, was my best friend, Parker Chace. She claimed she was Asian, but I knew better. She had jet black hair than came below her shoulders. Her eyes were grey, today anyway. Her eyes somehow always changed colors from grey to a mossy, jade green. There was a flat silver hoop ring in her lip. Although, she didn't have her ears pierced, like me.

"Stop looking at him!" I hissed.

"Why? He's hot. And he's still looking at you," Parker said.

"I don't care. Just…stop looking over there, would ya?"

"Whatever you say, Leah."

I turned away from everyone at the lunch table. Picking up my tray of totally uneaten food, I left. I threw everything away, not hungry anymore. I walked into the hallway and up the stairs, to the third floor, where my locker was. It wasn't the most convenient place to have a locker, but it was worth it. I was right by all of my friends, so I liked it enough.

I grabbed my thick math book and binder. On top of the essentials, I put my plain old reading book. Parker was making me read it because apparently, it was "Sha-mazing." I hadn't even started it yet.

I slammed my ugly green locker door closed with a bang. I hoped I hadn't messed up any classes going on in this hallway. That would have been relatively bad.

I stuck around by my locker a few more seconds to make sure nobody was going to come and chastise me for making so much noise during a test or something. When nothing happened, I made my way to my next class. I knew the bell would ring soon enough and I had to go all the way back to the first floor to meet Parker for our class, and then up to the second floor for the class itself.

As always, Parker was waiting by the door of the cafeteria. Another one of our friends that was in our next class, Ricky, was with her. He was pretty cool and I liked him. I thought that he and Parker should get together. They would be freaking perfect for each other. But they wouldn't accept it. Time for me to play a little game of matchmaker…

The three of us walked to our math class together. I usually walked in the middle, but today I put Parker in between Ricky and me. She caught on a little faster than I would have liked.

"This is not the order we walk in!" she said, freaking out. "I am always on your left. And Ricky is always on your right. Not me in the middle."

She stopped and moved so the order was the same as it always was. Parker, me and then Ricky. My plan could have worked so much better than that…

So I settled for a different idea that I had been working on for the walk to math. Lately, we had been doing a lot of partner stuff in math. Parker was always my partner, no matter what. But today, I would go with one of my other friends, leaving Parker with Ricky. I hoped it would work better than changing up the order.

During the first few minutes of class, we were handing in last night's homework. I kept digging through my various folders and binder, but couldn't find it.

"Parker? Where'd I put my homework?" I asked.

In school, she was like my personal secretary. She knew everything I had to do or did for an assignment (and she hopefully knew where I put them as well). While on the weekends or any time we weren't in school, I kept her updated on who was trying to call or text her. It was a fairly good system for both of us.

"It would be in your back pocket, dear. Left side," she answered. She didn't even bother looking up from her own pile of papers.

I reached into my pocket, like she said. And sure enough, my folded up assignment was inside. I wondered how she managed to remember everything I didn't from her memory. Whenever I was working for her, I took a little notepad with me, also in a pocket. I had to write down everything I had to remember.

I un-crumpled my paper and attempted to smooth it out. I didn't think that our teacher would be too happy to receive a wadded up paper that I called my homework. Although, it didn't work very well. It ended up being readable. Kind of…

We all passed our papers up to the front of the rows we were sitting in. I got a mean look from the teacher when he saw what an awful condition my homework was in. I gave a quick apologetic glance back to him before scanning to room.

If I was going to abandon Parker, I had to find someone else to partner up with. They had to be a close friend, or else she would be even more suspicious than necessary.

The only remotely close friend I had in the room (other than Ricky and Parker) was, Troy. He was one of Ricky's best friends, but I had a feeling that Troy would rather be with me; he's had a major crush on me since seventh grade.

"Hey, Troy?" I said in my most attractive voice I could muster.

"What's up, Leah?" he asked. On the outside, he sounded like all of my other guy friends. But on the inside, I could tell he was ready to explode.

"Want to work with me?"

"What about Parker…?"

"She's with Ricky today. How about it?"

"Okay."

Troy moved so he was sitting in the desk in front of me. We opened our very large books to the page we were working on and started doing the problems that we were meant to do. We didn't even write the first problem down when Parker figured everything out.

"Can I borrow Leah for a second?" she asked sweetly.

"Sure," Troy answered.

I stood up and we both moved a few feet away, out of Troy's hearing distance.

"What're you doing? I don't want to work with Ricky!"

"Yes, you do. Or, at least he wants to work with you. I see the way he watches you. Please, do it for him."

Grumbling, she walked away. Although she wasn't a 'people person' exactly, she would do anything for her friends. And other than me, Ricky was her best friend.

So for the hour, Troy and I worked on our math together. Luckily, he was very good at calculus, because I wasn't at all. I was getting a C average and I needed the help.

After class, Troy and I went our separate ways for our last class of the day. I had my history class with Manny, my boyfriend of the last two years. We started dating during our freshman year and have been ever since. Things were a little rocky between us lately, but he still hoped we could fix it. I didn't know if I wanted to or not.

I sat down at my usual desk and waited for the class to start. The hands on the clock moved to slowly for my liking. I just wanted to get home, do my homework and relax.

Two hands came from behind and covered my eyes.

"Guess who?" they asked.

"Not today, Manny. Please."

He took away his hands and took his seat in front of me.

"What's with you? You're not any fun any more."

"I apologize. I would rather go to collage than have sex with you," I snapped.

The bell rang and he turned around so he wouldn't get both of us a detention or something.

The class was shorter than normal. Well, it felt shorter anyway. Maybe it was just me. We mostly took notes, as always, and joked around. Just a normal day in history.

After class was over, I tried to leave as fast as I could. I ran up the three floors to my locker and away from Manny. I shoved all of my books in my bag and turned to leave again, barely after I arrived in my first place. But as I turned and my locker slammed, Manny appeared. And he looked very, very pissed.

"We need to talk, Leah," he said.

"So talk."

"I heard the new kid was checking you out at lunch."

"So? What if he was?"

"I don't want to share you with him or anyone else. What about that Ricky guy?"

"Ricky happens so be one of my best friends! I wouldn't ever date him; it would be weird."

I was starting to get really pissed. He had no right at all to be this pushy and controlling.

"What about the other guy? The one from your math?"

"God damn it, Manny! Why are you such a creeper lately?"

By this time, everyone in the hallway stopped and stared at us. It was a little awkward having everyone witness my meltdown, but I could have cared less.

"I'm the creeper?!" he asked.

"Yeah, you are."

He looked at me like he wanted to shoot me. I wanted to jump at him and choke all of the life from his pathetic body, but I tried not to. It probably wouldn't look very good on a collage application.

"You know what? We're over. I don't date losers," I said.

I pulled my book bag onto my shoulders and walked past him like he wasn't there. The people stared at me like I was insane. Understandably. I had just dumped one of the most popular guys in the junior class. And I called him a loser. I could hear the rumors fly already.

Outside, I saw Parker waiting for me. She saw how pissed off I was.

"What's wrong?" she asked, as if she already knew.

"I broke up with Manny," I said simply.

"You broke up with the most popular guy in the dang school?!"

That was another thing about Parker. She never swore. Ever. She never drank anything alcoholic, did drugs or smoked. I didn't mind, but it kind of bugged me that she wouldn't say damn or anything else.

"Sure did. He's a loser. Are we walking home or not?"

"Not. I have some stuff to do."

Before she started walking towards her house, Jason, the quarterback and hottest guy in school, came up too me. I tried not to blush red when he smiled at me.

"Hi, Leah," he said.

"Hey, Jason."

"I'm having a party tonight. I was thinking that you might want to come."

"I'd love to."

"Great. It's at my house at eight. Bring anyone you want. Except that asshole Manny."

"I wouldn't bring that guy in a million years."

"Good. I'll see you tonight."

He turned and left. As soon as he was gone, Parker and I freaked out for a while. Then, we went to our houses to get ready for the kick-ass party that was sure to come.

At home, my parents were still at work. I didn't mind becuase then I wouldn't have to field their questions until I got home. I got dressed in a jean skirt that went just to my lower thigh. I pulled on a cami and tee shirt that were typical but nice enough for a party too. And then, Just because I loved to wear them, I put on my high heels.

Parker came and picked me up a little after seven thirty so we could get to the party on time. Jason lived on the other side of the city, almost ten miles away from where I lived. I left a quick note to my parents and we were off.

Inside, the music pounded and everyone danced. Jason came up to Parker and I. He handed me a drink. I took a sip of it. It was Coke spiked with rum. Normally, I tried to avoid drinking. But tonight, I found nothing wrong with it at all. I wanted to be numb.

Parker went off to find someone she knew. Apparently, Ricky was there. I knew that they would get together.

A few hours later, the party was still going strong. I was dancing with Jason, by everyone else. I had drunk the entire bottle of Coke, so I was pretty drunk and I knew I would wake up with a hangover.

I wasn't thinking very clearly when Jason started to kiss my neck. I should have known to push him away or tell him to stop. But my brain was too fuzzy and I was trying to forget Manny, so I didn't do anything to stop him.

At one point, he started pulling me up the grand staircase. I really should have noticed something was wrong by then. But I didn't. I was to drunk off my ass to know what way was up, let alone defend myself.

When I woke up the next morning, I felt like someone had attempted to murder me by hitting my head with a hammer over and over again. I had such a bad hangover, I thought I was having a nightmare and was still asleep.

I opened my eyes.

I was in an unfamiliar room, by myself. I tried to remember what happened last night, but couldn't. After effects from the rum, I guessed.

I rolled onto my side. I could feel the bed sheets on my bare skin. I looked down at my body and saw I was totally naked.

Before anyone would have the chance to come back, I got out of the bed and tried to find my clothes. They were all scattered around the room. Except my tee shirt, which I couldn't find.

I quickly pulled on my wrinkled clothes and uncomfortable shoes. I left the room even quicker than I thought possible. And although I didn't know the room, I knew the house.

I was still in Jason's house, from the party.

I ran into the bathroom, glad nobody was inside. I looked in the mirror at my reflection. My makeup was running down my cheeks, making me look like a raccoon. There were several hectic red blotches on my neck that I didn't even want to think about let alone look at. My hair was mused every which way.

I turned away from my reflection stiffly. My whole body ached. Not just from the hangover, too. I felt like all of my joints were detached and slightly like a jellyfish. My ribs ached. But my migraine was by far the worst of my pains.

I slowly went down the stairs, trying to remember what happened.

I finally made my way outside, where I was faced with yet another problem. I was more than ten miles from my house and it was probably six in the morning. I was wearing heels as well. Not the greatest walking shoes.

I walked down the center of the deserted road, knowing nobody would be around this early on a Saturday morning. At least I hoped nobody would be…

I kept walking and trying to remember what happened. I knew I went to Jason's party with Parker. She went to hang out with Ricky. I started to dance with Jason and—

"Oh my god," I said out loud.

I figured out what happened. It was the only thing that explained everything. Why I was so sore, the red spots on my neck, waking up naked in Jason's bed, why he spiked my drink, why he invited me in the first place.

He lured me into his house to rape me. And he managed to succeed.

Before it could truly sink in that Jason had actually raped me, a dark blue Volvo screeched around the corner of the road.

I stood helpless in the cent of its path, like a deer in the headlights. Luckily for me, it stopped before I was made into a road pizza.

A guy stepped out.

I would recognize him anywhere. The messy, jet black hair. Tall and muscular body that any girl would die to date. One earring. Tattoo's of nothing but black swirls and such on his biceps.

It was the new kid. Austin Marx.

"Leah Moone?" he asked. Obviously he hadn't been excepting me.

I nodded, not knowing what else to do.

"What happened to you?" he asked.

Austin stepped closer to me. He was barely a foot in front of me. He very slowly reached to push my hair from my face to see my neck. I flinched away from the contact when his fingers brushed my cheek.

Austin took his hand back.

"It's okay; I won't hurt you. You can trust me," he told me.

And for some reason I believed him. Scary-looking or not, I really thought I could trust him. Maybe I still wasn't thinking clearly from being hung-over, but I didn't think so.

"Let me give you a ride home."

I debated. I didn't know if I trusted him enough to get a ride home, but I wasn't exactly planning on walking ten miles in heels either.

"You live by me. Only a few houses down," Austin persuaded.

"Okay," I said, my voice no louder than a whisper.

Austin got back in his car and I got in on the passenger side. Seeing how cold I was from my clothes, or lack thereof, he turned up the heat.

"Can I ask you something?" he asked out of nowhere.

"Depends," I muttered.

"Did that guy hurt you? Jason or whatever his name is?"

I didn't know how to answer him with words. I nodded slowly.

"I won't ask what he did."

"Thanks," I whispered.

A few minutes later, the ride to my house was over. As I got out, Austin shoved something into the palm of my hand.

"In case that perv ever tries anything again, okay?" he said.

I nodded again and went inside.

And lucky for me, my parents weren't awake yet. I breathed a sigh of relief and tiptoed up the stairs and into my room.

I lay down in my bed for a second before standing back up and putting on pajamas. Then, I lay back down and tried to sleep off my hangover.

When I woke up, my hangover was pretty much gone, except for the little echo of it in the back of my mind. It was pretty late in the afternoon and I knew my parents would be awake, along with my older brother, Alec.

I picked up the phone that was lying on my floor and called Parker. She should be awake by now.

It rang a few times before a familiar voice answered. Familiar, but not Parker's.

"Ricky, why are you answering Parker's cell?" I asked.

"I had to take her home. I found her passed out by the stairs. I tried to find you too, but I couldn't. Where were you?"

He found Parker passed out? Impossible. She didn't drink. At all. She wasn't drunk. She probably tripped over her own two feet again.

"I was….nowhere," I answered. "Where's Parker now?"

"Asleep still."

"Of course. I'll talk to you at school. Have Parker call me."

I hung up my phone and curled back into a ball on my bed. I didn't want to do anything but lay there and sulk. I was stupid, getting so drunk at a party. Leaving Parker and Ricky. Letting the perv take advantage of me like that.

I stayed like that all weekend. In my bed, thinking about everything that I did so, so wrong. I would occasionally go downstairs after everyone was asleep for something eat. Luckily, I always stayed in my room during the weekends, so nobody bugged me at all. They probably assumed I was studying for a test or something.

On Monday morning, I heard my parents leave, like always. They left before I even woke up for school. So without thinking about Alec, I made my way downstairs.

But of course, he was waiting for me. He was in his fifth year of collage, but still lived at home because we weren't very far away and it would be stupid for him to live in the dorms.

"Leah, what happened to you Friday night?" he asked, crossing his arms.

"Nothing. I'm fine."

There was no way I would tell him. Sure, he was one of those totally awesome older brothers that would do anything to protect me, but I just couldn't bring myself to tell him what happened with Jason.

Alec reached forward, like Austin did, and brushed the hair away from my neck.

"Oh really? Is that why you're covered in hickeys?"

I blushed, not in a good way, but I didn't answer him.

"I won't tell mom and dad, if that's what you're thinking. I just want to know what happened."

I didn't say anything again. I still didn't want him to know anything.

"Leah, it'll make you feel better to talk about it. And if you don't tell me, I'll imagine something worse that what it is."

"I doubt you could think of something worse," I snapped.

He put his hands on my shoulders and bent down to my height, to look me in the eyes.

"What the hell happened?"

"You want to know what happened!? Jason spiked my drink with rum or something and I got drunk off my ass. And when I wasn't thinking straight, he fucking raped me. Happy?"

I twisted out of my brother's grasp and ran back upstairs. I slammed my door shut and sat on my bed, hugging one of my pillows to my face so he wouldn't hear me cry.

Alec knocked on my door. "Leah? Can I come in?"

I was sobbing too hard to answer him with a 'no', so he came in. he sat on my bed next o me and pulled me into his arms, like when I was younger.

"Skip school today," he said. "I'll cover for you with mom and dad. Okay?"

I nodded. He left me room and me by myself again. I heard his car start and leave. I wondered where he went, but I didn't care.

I went back to sleep.

I awoke to my phone ringing and afternoon sun shinning through my window.

"Hello?"

"Leah, thank god, I've been trying to call you all day!" Parker yelled.

"You found me. What do you want?"

"A lot. Sorry I couldn't give you a ride from the party."

"Next."

It was her fault any of this happened. If she would have given me a ride home, I probably wouldn't have gotten raped by the pervert.

"You weren't at school today," she said. It wasn't a question, but it sounded like one.

"No. I skipped. Next."

"Your brother showed up here today. This morning."

Damn. Although Alec was the nicest guy on earth to me, he was a bully in high school. Especially towards anyone who happened to give me problems. He was on the football team, wrestled, baseball, everything. He could throw a punch.

"What the hell did he do?" I asked worriedly.

"He freaking attacked Jason! Why would he do that?"

"I don't know." Lie.

"You better find out. Rumors are flying about you already. "

"I'll be there tomorrow, kay?" I sighed.

"Kay. I'll see you in the morning."

Again, without saying goodbye, I turned off my phone and tossed it aside. Then, before I could lose my ambition, I went to talk to Alec.

Our parents wouldn't get home for a while still, so I didn't have to worry.

Alec was in his room, doing his homework. Which reminded me that I should probably do mine. I stood in his doorway, arms crossed over my chest.

"Can I help you?" he asked, not looking up.

"Why'd you go beat up Jason?"

"I've never liked the little creep, and he gave an extremely good reason because of that party he had."

I didn't want to talk to him anymore, so I left. I went back to my room to do my homework from Friday. I only had math, so it wouldn't take me too long, but I still didn't want to do it.

At school the next day, I saw how right Parker was. Everywhere I turned, I was confronted by some stupid rumor. Most were about why my brother showed up and attacked Jason. I knew my Alec was a high school legend for being a super nice guy, and the worst bully ever, but I never knew how popular he really was.

"So will you tell me what happened at the dang party?" Parker asked in math. I was her partner again, not wanting to talk to anyone else.

"Not yet, Parker."

And that was the end of our conversation.

As I was walking to history, I ran into Austin in the hallway. I literally ran into him when I wasn't paying attention.

I was rounding the corner and I wasn't paying attention. I ran straight into him. He caught my arm and kept me from falling over.

"Thanks," I said up to him.

"No problem." He smiled and walked away. I watched him leave for a second before turning back to my class room. A bunch of people stared at me, but I ignored them.

I sat down in a seat I never sat in. it was the one in the front corner. There was someone in all of the desks surrounding me, so Manny couldn't sit anywhere near me.

I opened up my notebook and took out my pen so I could take the notes when class started.

But of course, Manny was being an ass, so he came over to where I was sitting.

"What do you want?" I snapped at him.

"I changed my mind. I'm willing to give you a second chance," he said. He sounded like it was a great annoyance to have to offer me anything.

"First, I dumped you. I don't date losers. Second, even if it was the other way around, I don't like you. Now get out of my sight before I get a restraining order on you."

He gave me a distinct look that told me I really shouldn't have said that to him in front of other people. But I didn't care. I just embarrassed him in front of a bunch of our classmates.

As the class started, I sat quietly and took notes. Like always. This was why I loved history so much at my high school. All we did was take notes and such. It was quite nice. Relaxing.

After class, I went double speed to my locker and got my bag, filled it with books and left. To avoid talking to anyone, I put in my headphones from my iPod and listened to any rock I had.

I felt a hand tap me on the shoulder lightly. I pulled out one headphone and turned around. Standing behind me, was Austin.

"Hi," I said, taking out the other headphone as well.

"Sup. Want a ride home?" he asked.

I glanced around nonchalantly. Everyone had stopped in mid-whatever-they-were-doing and stared at me to see what I would do.

"Sure," I answered.

Austin and I got into his car without a second look at all of the people staring at us.

"Can I ask you something?" I asked.

After a second of hesitation, he said, "Go ahead."

"Why do you even care about me? I mean, I'm glad you do, don't get me wrong, but you've known me since Friday. And even then…" I didn't know how to finish.

"I'm not sure, Leah. But I feel really…I don't know…protective of you. Like the guy that came to the school yesterday and beat Jason up. He's your boyfriend, right?"

I laughed a little to myself. There was no way Alec would ever be my boyfriend.

"No. Alec is my older brother. He has a slight temper…"

"Slight?! He broke the other guy's nose."

"I'll have to have a talk with him…"

We both kind of stopped talking for a while. It didn't really bug me. It wasn't awkward, like it was with Manny. With him, everything thing seemed a little pressured. And not just because he wanted to sleep with me. But even though I knew nothing about Austin other than what he looked like, he had a Volvo, and he lived a few houses away from me, I felt safer with him than anyone else.

"Leah? We're here."

"Oh, uh…thanks for the ride. I'll see you at school?"

He turned to look at me. "Yeah."

Being this close to him, I saw a weird ring around the brown of his eyes. It was like his natural eye color was ruby red and he wore brown contacts that weren't totally covering the red.

Before I could think about it anymore, I went inside my house. I dumped my bag in the dining room and went out the back door, onto our deck. I sat on the porch swing with my arms around my legs, holding them to my chest.

The next month went by slowly. I went to school, came home and did my never-ending supply of homework. I hung out with Parker and Ricky most of the time. Jason came back to school with a bandage on his nose and did nothing but glare at me.

Troy attempted helping me with my math and it worked a little bit. I managed to raise my grade to a C+ and that made me pretty happy. Parker and Ricky went out on a date and clicked, just like I knew that they would. They wouldn't admit that I was the one that set them up. Kind of.

Alec was temped to go back to my school after Jason again, but I talked him out of it. He wasn't happy that I didn't care if he paid for what he did or not. And I convinced him not to tell my parents anything about what happened or call the cops or something.

And Austin. Most days I got a ride home with him. Usually, Parker and Ricky went home together so I went with Austin. He and I got to be pretty good friends over the month. I really started to like him a lot, although I didn't think I would date him. Not because I didn't like him enough or something, but I didn't think I could handle it after Jason and Manny. Then again, I definitely trusted Austin.

"I don't like him," Alec said after school Thursday.

"Who?" I asked back.

"That guy that always gives you a ride home."

"Austin? Why?"

"Have you seen him?!"

"Oh. You mean his tattoos and earring."

"Most people should be afraid of him."

"I'm not," I snapped.

I crossed my arms tightly and shifted my weight from my left foot to my right. Alec was beginning to piss me off.

"He won't amount to anything in life," Alec tried.

"He's smart. And why are you telling me this? I'm not dating him or anything."

He shook his head and sighed angrily before walking away from me. What was his problem? There was nothing wrong with Austin. Sure, he was a little strange looking, with the tattoos and piercing.

School the next day was pretty interesting. Parker and Ricky, still dating, were talking about spending Saturday at Silver Lake. A few of our other friends (Troy and his girlfriend) were going as well. They kept trying to convince me to go too.

"I don't think so, guys," I said.
We were all sitting in the library around a table that was strewn with books and papers. We were supposed to be doing our English projects, but like everyone else, we weren't.

"Why not?" Parker begged. "It won't be as fun without you!"

"Everyone's going, like, paired up. I'll be the fifth wheel nobody wants there."

"Leah," Ricky intervened. "Why wouldn't we want you there? You're everyone's best friend. You were before Parker and I started going out. The same with Troy. Just come with us."

"I'll think about it, okay?"

The bell rang. I gathered all of my books together and left the library quickly. Before anyone could answer me, I was in the hallway and on my way to art class.

Lucky for me, absolutely none of my good friends were in my class. Of course I knew everyone in the class, but I preferred my close friends to them.

Well, one close friend was in my art class. Austin was.

"Something wrong?" he asked as I sat down at our table.

"Parker and Ricky want me to spend Saturday at Silver Lake with them."

"And that's a bad thing?"

"Troy and his girlfriend are going too."

Austin gave me a confused look. Understandably. Silver Lake was an amazing place to go. The sand on the huge beach was totally white. The water a beautiful turquoise. You could see straight through to the bottom of the lake, no matter how deep it was.

"So you don't like Troy and his girl?" Austin asked.

"No, they're nice."

"I don't get it then. Why wouldn't you want to go?"

"Everyone's all, like, partnered up. I'll feel…out of place."

"Gotcha."

I smiled, blush and looked down to hide my face. Just the way Austin was talking made me feel all weird inside. Which made me think of a way I could go to the lake without feeling out of place or make my friends feel awkward for inviting me in the first place…

"Come to the lake with us," I said.

Austin looked up from his drawing.

"What are you talking about?" he asked.

"Come with all of us to Silver Lake. It'll make my friends happy, because I'll go with them. I won't feel out of place, because you'll be there with me. Please, Austin?"

He sat and thought about it for a few minutes. Those were by far the longest minutes of my life. I really wanted him to say yes.

At one point, he turned away from me and started working on his drawing again. I was tempted to look at what it was, but I was frozen where I was.

Finally, after an eternity of waiting and internal suffering, Austin looked back up and sighed.

"Would we be back by Sunday?" he asked.

"I think so. By one or two in the morning, maybe."

He kept considering.

"I guess I'll go," he said.

Catching him a little off guard, I hugged him tightly. At first, he stiffened away from me. But after a second of the contact, his muscles relaxed and gently hugged me back.

"When and where will we be meeting?" Austin asked, pulling away from me. Part of me wished he hadn't moved.

"I'll ask Parker after school and let you know."

"Okay. As much as I hate art though, I would suggest getting back to our projects."

I groaned, but returned to my empty paper. I hated trying to draw, because I couldn't draw anything other than anime. But, I was pretty awesome at it. So creating a mental picture, I made Austin as an anime guy.

The Austin I drew wasn't smiling exactly like the real one, because it would be impossible to capture his cocky, Bad Boy smirk without a digital camera of the highest quality. And even then, I wasn't sure it was entirely possible.

He didn't have the same hair either. Sure, it was perfectly messy and shaded in so it was black. It was just as thick, but didn't have a certain depth to it that would make it real.

I got Austin's body down pretty well though. Body's weren't very hard for me for whatever reason. His arms were crossed. And because he was wearing a tee shirt, I doodled all of his tattoos as well. They were a little tricky, because I knew I had to get them just right. I happened to draw them well enough to make them real.

Then it was time for his eyes. I never was good with eyes. I was okay, but I knew people that could do them a lot better than I could. So I tried them, but they didn't look as real as they needed to be. I couldn't figure out what was missing. They were shaded black and white; the ring around his brown was there…

…but it wasn't red.

I picked up a red colored pencil and very carefully turned the dark ring red. It wasn't the exact shade it needed to be, but it was close enough for me. I flipped it over and put scribbled my name on the back. Before Austin had the chance to see it, I handed it in and the bell rang. I picked up my books and went off to lunch to talk to Parker.

Sitting at our usual table, was Parker, Ricky, Troy and his girlfriend (I thought her name was Kari). I sat in my usual spot on the end. I was across from Troy and next to Parker, like always.

"Did you think about it?" Parker asked, barely before my butt was in my chair. She started nibbling on an Oreo and waited for me to answer.

"I'll go—"

"Yes! I knew you would!"

"—if I can bring someone with me."

"Oh, yeah, sure! Whoever you want!"

"Okay then…"

I stifled a laugh. Parker didn't like Austin at all. In fact, she downright loathed him. Why, I wasn't sure. Austin was an awesome guy when you got past the tattoos and got to know him.

"So who's your mystery date?" Parker asked.

"Austin," I answered simply.

Her jaw dropped. She stared at me like I had grown a second head. While she wasn't paying attention to me, I snuck one of her Oreos from the huge bag she brought for lunch. She still didn't say anything. Even when I ate the cookie, she was silent.

"Ricky? Um…help…" I said.

Ricky, who was talking to, Miles, one of his other friends, turned his head to see Parker and I.

"What happened with her?" he asked.

"I told her I was going with you tomorrow, but only if I brought Austin with me."

"She must really hate him. I'm not a big fan myself, but I guess if you like him so much…"

"He's only a friend!"

"That's what Parker used to say about me. Now look at us."

"This is different. Just, get her to do…something!"

"Don't worry; I think I have an idea."

Ricky walked around so he was standing between Parker and me. I had no idea what he was planning on doing until he bent down and kissed Parker's lips. She sucked in a breath and started to act more…like herself.

"My work here is done," Ricky said before sitting down and starting to talk with Miles again.

"When I said you could bring anyone you wanted," Parker began to rant. I knew I wouldn't be hearing the end of it. "I meant someone that's human!"

I gave her a look. She wasn't being funny. Of course Austin was human. He was a little creepy until you got to know him, then he was fine.

"You know what I mean. The guys a creeper, Leah. Couldn't you bring…I don't know. Even Alec would be better. Bring him!"

"I am not bringing my twenty-five-year-old brother because you don't like person I chose to bring!"

"'Don't like?'" she repeated. "I don't like drinking. I don't like lima beans. I hate that boy with a fiery passion."

"Do you want me to go or not?"

Parker stared at me, looking pissed off. I wasn't really positive she wanted me to go the lake so badly she would sit in a car for two and a half hours with Austin.

"Tell him that he better be ready by seven. Ricky and I'll pick you both up at your house. Be outside when we show up, or else we will keep on driving."

"I'll be sure to tell him. What about Troy and Kari though?"

"They're driving up separately. We didn't want to cram six people into Ricky's car."

"Oh. Okay then."

Having jumped successively over the tallest hurdle, known as Parker, I got myself something to eat for lunch before the bell rang.

When Austin took me back to my house, I told him everything that was Parker's demands. He was fine with everything that she said he had to do to come.

"I'll see you in the morning," Austin said as I got out of the Volvo.

"I'll be waiting."

I went into my house and up to my room to start my homework for the weekend. I liked getting it done on Friday so I didn't have to worry on Sunday night. It made my life easier.

But unfortunately, I had a freakishly large amount of work to do. I had my normal thirty or so math problems from my book, like every night, so I was used to that. I also needed to do a several hundred word essay for English. Another paper for history, along with studying for the test on Tuesday. And a project for science. All of which, would be due on Monday in class.

I sat at my desk and racked my brain for half the night to finish everything that I needed to do. By the time I had done everything hat I had to do, it was well past midnight. In fact, it was basically one in the freaking morning.

I put all of my books and papers and projects back into my book bag. I changed into comfy pajamas and lay down in my bed, ready to collapse from lack of sleep and having my mind reduced to a bowl of mush.

Just as I was about to fall asleep, my cell phone rang, loud and obnoxious. I picked it up unwillingly, giving up on the concept known as sleep.

"Hello?" I yawned.

"Hey, Leah!" Parker said. She sounded to awake to make me want to talk to her at all.

"What the hell could you possibly want at one thirty in the morning?"

"To talk! I'm wide awake and have nothing better to do."

"But I want to sleep."

"No way! You are not going to sleep and leaving me alone!"

I groaned. And then, Parker kept me awake for the majority of the night/early morning. The only reason she let me hang up from her was because my battery died. So hours after we began talking, I was finally able to go to sleep again.

As soon as my head hit the pillow, however, my alarm went off. I turned my head slowly towards my clock. It was five thirty. I didn't get any sleep at all. It was going to be a very interesting day to say the least.

I rolled out of my bed and got everything ready. I needed the entire hour and a half.

I took a shower, as long as I could without making myself late. Then I got everything I needed. I also charged my phone so it wouldn't die. I spent a while trying to pack a bag. Inside, was my favorite bikini, a brush, hair ties, a towel and a blanket to sit on at the beach.

With only a few minutes to spare, I pulled on my jeans and tee shirt. My phone went in one pocket, iPod in the other. And then I was out the front door, waiting for Austin to show up.

Only a second after I sat down on my porch, Austin came and sat next to me. He set his book bag on the ground while I yawned.

"Stay up to late?" he laughed.

"Never went to sleep. Parker kept me up."

"Sleep on the way to the lake."

Easier said than done, as it turned out. Austin and I sat in the back seat, and I tried to sleep on the way there. But if Parker and Ricky's talking wasn't enough, Ricky had the radio on some scream-o metal station. He had the volume up so high I thought it might go deaf. I also couldn't figure out how Parker and Ricky managed to hear each other.

So for almost three hours, I was in a car, going deaf, trying to sleep and not succeeding. I kept my head phones in my ears, but they didn't really block out any sound at all. I tried listening to my music to block out the metal, but my volume was worse than the metal itself.

By the time we were all at the lake, I was going insane. Was it from lack or sleep or three hours of Ricky, Parker, Austin and scream-o metal, I wasn't sure.

All of us went out onto the sand of Silver Lake. Parker, Kari and I all went off to put on our bathing suits while the guys…I wasn't sure what they did while we were gone. As long as Austin didn't kill Troy or Ricky for being stupid, I was okay with whatever was going to happen.

When we came back, the guys weren't arguing. Actually, they were tossing a football around. I was slightly confused, but glad that they weren't trying to kill each other.

"So shall we party it up?!" Parker asked.

The rest of us replied with various answers, but all basically yes. So we started to party it up on the beach, just like Parker said.

For a while, most of the morning, we tossed a Frisbee around. Parker and I, being pretty uncoordinated, kept dropping it or throwing it in the wrong direction... But we all had a blast making fun of each other.

After the six of us were content with Frisbee throwing and such, the guys wanted to play us in football. Kari, Parker and I all agreed to play the guys.

At first, it didn't go to well for us. We never caught the ball and ended up tripping in the sand or something. But after a little while, we got the hang of things.

Parker intercepted one of the passes that Ricky threw to Austin. Having me be farther away and harder to catch, she passed it to me. Unlike before, I caught it. I tucked it under my arm and ran for the end zone, which happened to be mine and Austin's bags.

"Get her!" Troy yelled.

Everyone started to catch up to me. I tried going faster than I was before. I outran everyone but Austin. He grabbed me around my waist and pulled me to a stop. I laughed as he tried to tackle me, but I wouldn't fall.

Eventually, he gave up on trying to tackle me or take the football. Instead, Austin picked me up and cradled me like a baby and ran for the other end zone. I desperately looked around for someone that I could throw the ball to. I saw Kari standing pretty far away, but Parker was right next to Ricky.

So mustering all of my strength and aim, I threw the ball to Kari. Luckily, she caught it and ran into our end zone to score before one of the guys could tackle her or something.

Austin put me back on my feet. I blushed and looked away a little bit. But oddly enough, I smiled, even if he wouldn't see it.

We all went back and sat on the blankets for a while. It was a little past noon so we all decided to eat lunch.

After another hour of sitting, eating, drinking Coke, we were all finished with lunch. But with all of us so full, we all lay on the blankets and stared at the sky.

It was starting to get really cloudy, even though it wasn't going to rain today. It was kind of nice, so we wouldn't have to worry about getting sunburn or go blind looking at the sun. That was definitely something that would happen to Parker and me.

A little while after that, we all got back up and went into the cool lake water. It was a nice relief from the rather hot day that it was.

We all swam and had a good time in the lake for another few hours. Like always, the water was crystal clear. It was weird, being able to see everyone else swimming as well. But it was nice to. In a weird way though.

After a while, I started running out of energy. Not that I had any to begin with. I was just registering it now however. I tried not to think about the fact I was so drained, and kept having an awesome time with my friends.

A little over a half hour before the sun was going to set and make it dark outside, we all went to look for any dry driftwood we could find. There was plenty of it on the beach, but it was almost always wet or to large for Parker, Kari and I to pick up by ourselves. The guys could handle it fine, but we couldn't.

So the three of us tried picking up one piece at a time. With all of us, it was pretty easy to carry to where the rest of the fire wood was. It took forever to move a single piece of drift wood though, because we had to walk in sync with each other.

Eventually, we decided to let the guys do the work while we sat in the sand and talked about random things nobody seemed to care about at all.

The sun was going down, so it was getting dark outside. Austin and Ricky tried lighting all of the wood on fire without gas or anything else to help it. It took a ton of matches, but it finally turned into a nice bonfire.

The six of us sat on our blankets and towels, talking about, again, random things. Conversation didn't last very long though, because the sun totally went down and it was finally dark outside.

All of us stopped talking and looked up at the newly unveiled stars. I lay down on my blanket and tried to pick out constellations that I knew. I found Orion and the North Star and both of the dippers.

While the day had been extremely hot, now that the sun was gone, it was really cold outside again. I pulled my jeans and shirt on over my bathing suit in an attempt to warm up. I wished I brought a sweater.

I sat back up and curled into a ball to conserve my body heat. A shiver rolled down my spine. And if just the air wasn't bad enough, a cold wind blew off of the water at us. I shivered again and almost asked if we could leave.

Still looking at the stars, I was starting to fall asleep. I forced my eyes to stay open. I was still freezing as I moved as close to the fire I could get without getting burnt from the flames. I was still really cold.

I glanced around at my friends. Parker was sitting pretty close to Ricky, but she wasn't cold. She not only had on her clothes and a sweater, but she didn't have good blood circulation so she wasn't ever cold.

Kari on the other hand was snuggled close to Troy's side. His arm was around her shoulders and she was resting her head on his shoulder.

Whether I was totally insane, or I wasn't thinking straight from not sleeping in two days, or I couldn't help myself because Ricky was right that I liked Austin more than a friend, I moved closer to him. He had put on his tee shirt again. I didn't know if I wanted it that way or not, but I didn't argue.

Austin's side was warm and I welcomed it a little greedily.

"Cold?" he asked softly.

I nodded. Very slowly and gently, he put his arm around me. It reminded me of when after the party and he took me home, he tried brushing the hair from my face. It warmed me up quite a bit. Not only on the outside, but inside too. I liked the way it made me feel.

We sat out on the beach until a little after eleven. By then, I was barely conscious. All of us were running low on energy, accept the guys. That was good, because Troy and Ricky had to drive back.

"We should probably go back now," Ricky said.

We all stood up and got our stuff together. It took only a few minutes, but we had another half a mile to Ricky's car. I walked slowly, shuffling my feet. I was surprised I didn't fall over after walking for a few minutes.

Austin stayed at my side, an arm around my waist, supporting me so I wouldn't fall. He took my bag and put it inside of his book bag so I didn't have to carry it. But it didn't really help. I had no energy whatsoever.

"That's it," Austin said. "Come here, you."

Again, he picked my up into his strong arms. I wrapped my arms around his neck loosely and snuggled closer to his chest. As soon as he started walking again, I was asleep.

"Leah," Austin murmured.

Unwillingly, I opened my eyes. I was enjoying my first sleep in two days and Austin just had to wake me up, didn't he? Maybe we were back at my house. Even so, I didn't want to move. Movement required so-called 'energy' which I didn't have any of. It was like trying to start a fifty year old car without any gas in it.

"Leah's asleep right now. Leave a message at the yawn," I groaned.

The next time someone spoke, it wasn't Austin. It was the very unhappy, Parker.

"Get the heck out of the car before I…I don't know what I'll do, but you won't like it!"

"Make me move…" I grumbled to myself.

Following Austin from the backseat of the car, I left the car. As soon as the door we exited from was closed, Ricky and Parker screeched away. Where they were going, I didn't know, nor did I want to. I could care less what they were going to do. As long as I climbed into my bed within the next three minutes, I didn't care if the world exploded and it was Austin's fault. Sleep was now my current life's goal.

"I'll see you on Monday?" I asked Austin, my voice riddled with sleepiness.

I looked up to meet Austin's gaze. He looked slightly uncomfortable. He kept fidgeting and shifting his weight back and forth between his feet. Not only that, but the once thin and hardly noticeable red ring in his eyes was thick and defined.

"Uh…yeah. See you," Austin replied.

Like he was anxious about something, he walked swiftly back to his house. Before I went inside, I stood and watched him disappear through his front door. I saw a light in an upstairs window come on. And I swore I saw small flames licking at the glass. I rubbed my eyes with my palms and decided I really needed to get to sleep. So taking my key off my necklace, I unlocked my door and tiptoed up the stairs to collapse happily on my bed.

The next morning, I just so happened to wake up in time for school. I guessed I happened to sleep the entire day after I got back. Probably because I hadn't slept at all in two fricking days. I deserved a full day of sleep and such. I found it rather enjoyable, even though I was unconscious…

I stood up stiffly. Apparently, I hadn't moved at all throughout the more than twenty four hours I happened to be inactive. I stretched for a second before changing into clean clothes. Nothing elaborate today though, jeans and a plain tee shirt was good enough for me.

Like every other morning, I got ready for my boring school day. I got my books together, grabbed my phone and iPod, shoved them into my pockets and was out the door.

While I always rode home with Austin, I walked to school because…I wasn't really sure. I just liked to for whatever reason. It wasn't a long walk and it was slightly relaxing to me. Gave me a chance to think without my friends or overbearing brother around. Don't get me wrong, I loved all of my friends and my brother, but I still needed to be alone once and a while. And the only time I ever was, was on the fifteen minutes walk to Hell High. It was my alone time.

Finally at my kind of crappy destination, I felt calm enough to start my day of homework, notes and projects.

I went up to my locker and dumped everything that I didn't need for class. What I did need, I kept under my arm. I attempted to clean my abyss of a locker, but it didn't work well. I could be organized if I tried, but I didn't feel like trying that hard at anything at seven thirty in the morning. That was what the afternoon was for.

I worked my way to my homeroom. Ricky was in my class, along with Troy. They were both in the room already. But I was running a little later than usual, so I wasn't surprised. Although, I kind of wished someone besides the three of us was in the room…and of course, I happened to yawn when I walked in the room.

"So what're you naming the baby?" Ricky asked with the utmost seriousness.

Troy stifled a laugh; he never was good at lying or hiding his emotions from people. I stared at both of them. My brain-fog had returned and I couldn't process anything right. Maybe it was just the high school environment that hated me?

"Don't pretend like you don't know! I saw the way you and Austin were looking at each other. Plus the football incident…"

Incident? How did Austin cheating in football that didn't have any rules considered and incident? It wasn't weird or anything. Ricky and I were always like that.

"And we can't forget the fire," Troy added.

"No, we couldn't leave out that! And afterwards…"

Unlike my normal self, I put up both my hands and flipped them off. Guys could be so stupid sometimes. They assumed way to much. Sure, Austin grabbed me around the waist in football and carried me to the other end of our makeshift field. And I had his arm around me to keep me warm. And I kept my head on his shoulder. And he carried me to the car because I fell asleep in his arms…

Oh my god.

I was falling for Austin.

The guy who was only friend.

But so much more.

The guy I barely knew.

But was closer with than any other guy before (he couldn't beat out Parker though. I mean, no one could. Parker was…well, Parker and that explains itself).

The guy I couldn't ever get out of my head. Or heart.

Maybe Ricky and Troy weren't so stupid and assuming. They were right. I was definitely falling for Austin. Damn. That wasn't supposed to happen. He was creepy looking in his extremely attractive way. And I got fricking raped by a guy I thought I knew and could trust. Wasn't I supposed to be, like, suicidal? Not falling in love.

Wow. I never knew high school would turn out so weird.

Then again, maybe the same part of me that trusted Austin and wasn't afraid of him, knew all along. Maybe, just maybe, things were happening just like they were supposed to be. Maybe I really did love Austin.

Ignoring my friends for the first time in a while, I turned on my heel and left. Fits or roaring laughter pretty much pushed me out of the room in the first place.

I walked through the halls, searching for Austin's familiar face among the sea of people I barely knew, but thought they were all my best friends.

It went down to the second floor to look. By Parker's homeroom, were Parker and Austin. They weren't standing by each other at all or talking in any way. In fact, they were making a distinct effort to ignore each other and I found it blaringly obvious.

I walked past Parker, saying a quick hi. When I ignored her, she got pissed. But she wasn't my focus right now. I needed to talk to Austin. Before school started, I had to talk with him.

"Fine, ignore me…" Parker mumbled as I passed.

Again, I ignored it.

I went straight to Austin. He smiled as I approached him. I smiled, very slightly, in return.

"Can I talk to you for a sec?" I asked. I thought I heard my voice quiver, just the minimum amount. I hoped Austin didn't notice it at all.

"Sure. What's up?" he asked back.

I looked around. Too many people were around to overhear me. I didn't really want to be the topic of the latest rumors.

"Maybe somewhere more…private?" I suggested.

We both walked across the hall. In between to classrooms, was a cutout in the wall. Nobody was every there, so it was the most private place we were going to get.

"Something wrong, Leah?" Austin asked.

He leaned his left side against the brick of the wall and faced me.

"No. The opposite, actually."

He looked at me expectantly. I was leaving him in the dark about what I was trying to say. I didn't exactly want to say it, but I kind of had to.

"Austin," I began. As soon as I said it, I regretted it. When attempting to tell a guy you liked him, beginning with a name wasn't smart. It generally made the guy think he was in some kind of trouble.

"Yeah, that's what people tend to call me..." he laughed a little. Making jokes to worm his way out of a situation he didn't like. How…man-like…

"Uh…I wanted to tell you something…"

"Really?" Austin's voice was filled with fake surprise. "And all this time I thought you just wanted to kiss me."

In the back in my mind, I agreed with him. I did kind of want to just go kiss him. I mean, his lips were right there. Mocking me with a cocky smile that they knew I loved. I was forced to chew on my bottom lip to restrain myself from jumping at him. Like when I wanted to choke Manny. But I would rather keep Austin alive.

"You only wish," I shot back.

"Yeah, I do. I am a seventeen year old guy. You have to remember that."

I wasn't sure why, but I wasn't creeped out by what he said at all. It seemed extremely legitimate. Males as a species did tend to keep their brain somewhere other than their head.

"Although, if you really did want to kiss me—"

"Austin! Shut the hell up! I'm trying to have a serious conversation here!"

Again, he gave me that smile I couldn't resist. I tried to ignore it, telling myself that I didn't even know if he liked me or not.

"What were you trying to tell me?" he asked. His cocky Bad Boy-ish voice broke through the facade.

"I don't know if you feel the same way or not. But I know how I feel. And Ricky thinks so to. Along with Troy. Parker doesn't, just because she's who she is and can't really help it at all. But they all think the same way I do, accept for Parker. Especially after the football and the fire and the me sleeping. Know what I mean?"

He looked at me like…I wasn't sure. But it wasn't a look like he understood. I knew what I meant, why didn't he? I thought I was very straightforward and blunt with my answer.

"Now this may sound utterly shocking, but I haven't the slightest idea of the topic upon which you are speaking…" he finally said.

Did I babble that much? I tended to babble when I was nervous. Apparently the butterflies in my stomach weren't from the jazz of first love and all that.

"I. Like. You," I said clearly. Nothing could have made me less clear. Unless Austin suddenly forgot how to speak English. That would be really bad.

"I. Like. You. Too. Now that that's out of the way, are you busy Friday?"

My jaw dropped. Very gently, like everything else he did that involved me, he put one finger under my chin and closed my mouth.

"I'm taking that as you're not busy. I'll pick you up at seven?"

One corner of my now closed mouth raised into a half smile. I nodded. And just as I realized the butterflies were from the jazz of first love after all…

The damn bell rang. Great timing.

Not wanting to make me late, Austin took his hand off my face and I ran up to my homeroom. Troy and Ricky would no doubt be waiting to laugh at me some more. Or they would still be laughing from before…

One week later, on Friday after school, I was staring into my closet and trying to find out what I should wear on my date with Austin. After trying on a million different outfits, I settled on something I should have went with from the beginning. A simple, but still pretty, white sundress.

After I changed, I didn't really have to do much else. I remade my hair so it didn't look like it had all day. I tried to avoid Alec, knowing him and his temper…I wouldn't be leaving my room, let alone the house on a date with Austin.

At seven, like he said he would, Austin picked me up in his Volvo. And while I spent hours trying on outfit after outfit, wanting things to be perfect, what does Austin show up in? His jeans and black tee shirt that he was in at school.

I shook my head mentally and smiled at him. I half walked and half skipped out my door with Austin. We got into his car and drove off to our first date together.

We went to the movie theater. We chose to see just some movie both of us wanted to see. It was an action movie. I only wanted to see it because of the hot actors that happened to star in it.

The two of us sat directly in the middle of the theater. I kept the popcorn in my lap so Austin wouldn't eat it before the movie started; I hated that. Every time he attempted to sneak a piece from the bucket, I would laugh and swat his hand away.

So to make him happy, I gave him the popcorn as soon as the movie actually started. Austin was pretty glued to the screen. I was somewhat bored, but I didn't show it. I liked being with Austin without my friends around or worrying about doing something wrong. I knew he liked me too now, and that made things a lot easier for me.

During the middle of the movie, when the popcorn was gone, I was even less entertained than before. I put my head on Austin's shoulder. I expected him to stiffen or shy away, but he didn't. Which made me immensely happy. Instead, he put his arm around my shoulder. I would have moved closer to him, but the armrest was digging into my side.

By the end of the movie, I was still resting on Austin's shoulder. We stood up with everyone else and left. On our way out, we saw who was leaving from the latest horror movie. Two people I really didn't want to see me like this. And by "like this" I mean with Austin's arm around my waist and me snuggled into his side.

The two people were Ricky and Parker.

"Leah!" Ricky yelled over to me.

I froze in my tracks. Parker and Ricky had caught up to us by now. Damn.

"Hi guys," I stammered.

"Don't tell me you're on a date," Parker asked, semi growling.

"I won't tell you then"

"You are, aren't you?"

"Yeah…"

This whole time, Ricky and Austin were looking slightly uncomfortable. They were past not liking each other, but probably wouldn't be friends yet.

"Pooper scoop!" Parker yelled.

Before anything else could happen that was a little strange (even for Parker) Austin and I slipped away in the crowds. I knew Parker would be even angrier with me on Monday, but oh well.

The ride back to my house was quiet. It wasn't weird or awkward though. We could both think our own thoughts and such, but still be together because…we just could.

When we were back, Austin walked me to me door. We both kind of stood awkwardly on the porch for a minute. Neither of us really knew what we wanted to do. With Manny, things were…different. He wouldn't ever walk me to the door. He usually sped away as soon as I set foot outside the car.

From the look in Austin's eyes, he hadn't felt anything like this before each other.

Figuring out that I really wanted to kiss him, I waited a few more seconds. But I didn't really think that he would kiss me first. He promised that he wouldn't ever hurt me. And I guessed that included moving to fast.

So giving up on patience, I stretched up on my toes to kiss Austin instead. But as soon as our lips were about to touch, my door opened and Alec stood, staring at us.

"Uh…Mr. Leah's Brother…" Austin stammered.

I watched my annoying, overprotective brother, a look of mortification on my face.

"You're past your curfew," Alec growled.

"It's not even ten," I snapped.

"I don't care in the house, Leah."

Like he never heard Alec and I talking, well, arguing, Austin said, "So…You're the one that broke Jason's nose?"

"Hell yeah. And you better not forget that, bub."

"I won't."

Alec pulled me into the house. As soon as I wormed my way out of his grip, I was outside again. I very hastily kissed Austin's lips. Even though it lasted only a second, it was like heaven on earth. But because it was so short, it was my own personal slice of hell.

Before Alec could come and force me back inside, I ran back under my own power and the little free will I happened to have with Alec within a five mile radius.

The next month passed slowly. It should have gone by like the blink of an eye. But Parker was barely speaking to me. We weren't partners in math any more. I was usually with Troy. Not that I minded. He and I and gotten a lot closer in the past two or three months. And he was a genius when it came to math.

At lunch, however, things were pretty much the same. I would sit next to Parker, and we would still talk then. Ricky would be with Troy or Miles and Kari would talk to Parker and me. And like always, I never saw Austin. It was a little weird, not having him around during lunch. But I tried to ignore it.

As for Austin, he and I had been going out every Friday night. Alec didn't get any better with letting my go out with him, but I learned to not care what he thought. He was just my older brother.

Also, whenever I was around Austin, I couldn't help but wonder what was up with the ring in his eyes. I never got up the courage to ask him about it, although I probably should have.

And my favorite part of the month? Jason and Manny got in a really bad car accident. They couldn't go to school for the rest of the year. I wouldn't ever have to deal with them ever again. Well, senior year if they could catch up with us grade wise. I didn't think that they could.

Other than that, nothing but the usual happened to me. I hung out at home. I did homework. I went out with Austin. I went to school. Nothing that weird happened at all. It was a boring thirty days to say the least.

In the way home from a Friday night date, I finally couldn't stand what was up with Austin's eyes.

"Can I ask you something?" I wondered.

"Sure," he answered.

"Why is there a red ring in your eyes?"

Like I never said anything at all, he didn't answer. I waited, but he didn't even acknowledge me. I was confused, but I didn't let it get to me.

When we got back to my house. I asked Austin to come inside for a while. The rest of my family was gone. My parents were working late or at a meeting and Alec had late classes. We sat down in my living room and I was determined to get information out of Austin.

"You wanted to know why I have the ring in my eyes?" he asked.

Maybe I was good at interrogations. I was breaking him. Or he was planning on telling me all along.

"Uh…yeah…" I replied.

"The truth?"

"That would be nice."

"My father is Satan."

I laughed. If I didn't, would cry. My boyfriend thinks he's the devil's son? Yeah, right. This was a prank. There was no way. No possible way. At all. Then again, it would explain why—

No! I am not dating Satan!

"You don't believe me," Austin said.

"No. sorry, but I can't."

"Look at my eyes then. Let me show you something."

I wasn't sure if I wanted to or not, but I looked straight into his eyes. They were brown with the ring, like always. Austin blinked a few times. The brown faded away and left a bright scarlet. There were flecks of glad in his eyes, along with the red.

It had to be fake. He couldn't be Satan. Well, it would explain the creepiness and the flames in his windows and the weird tattoos…

The red shifted back to brown again. I rubbed my eyes with my palms to make sure I wasn't imagining things. I wasn't.

"I still need more proof," I said, crossing my arms stubbornly over my chest. Austin sighed. It wasn't out of impatience, but more of a laugh.

"Can I just try explaining things to you and then give you proof?"

"I guess."

"Okay then…uh…I'm not human. I'm a demon. My so-called 'house' isn't where I live. I live in Hell with my parents. I am actually seventeen, because demons age like humans. And I'm breaking every rule there is right now. I'm not supposed to be alone with any human, let alone fall in love with them. Or tell them anything about me at all…"

Demon? Uh...there was nothing to describe that at all. And living in Hell? Breaking the rules…falling in love for with a human…tell them about anything…alone with a human…

It was all way to much to handle. I was not going to freak out. I. Was. Not. Going. To. Freak. Out.

"Wait. Why can't you be alone with…someone like me?" I couldn't bring myself to say human.

"Because to most demons, humans are food. We eat human energies. Well, some of us prefer animal. Remember my first day at the school? How I probably really freaked you out because of the way I was looking at you?"

Even though I had tried to forget it, I remembered it to well for my liking. The way he looked like he…wanted to eat me…

"You didn't want to…" I began, freaking out.

"Unfortunately, I did. You smell extremely appetizing to a demon. You still do, but I'm more careful now. Do you believe me?"

"I…don't…know…"

It was true. I mean, everything sounded true and it explained a lot, but it didn't make sense. There wasn't devil. Austin wasn't a…demon. He was human.

"Anything else you want to tell me?" I panted slightly. I thought I was starting to have a panic attack.

"Yeah. Two things, actually. I can hypnotize people. Lots of demos can; it's the most common of the powers. And you have to be really careful. While some demos live in Hell, a lot don't. They try to blend in with humans. Most can be very…seductive. Stay away from anyone like that. Promise me."

"I promise…"

"Good. Any questions or anything?"

"Yeah. At Silver Lake, why were you so worried about coming back on Sunday?"

"Leah, I'm a demon and the son of Satan. Sunday is the Holy day. I mean, I can be in the human world on Sunday, but it's harder for me to control my hunger and powers. It's easier to stay in Hell."

"That's why the red was so visible?"
"Yeah."

"I was wondering about that…"

Austin looked at his watch.

"I hate to tell you all this and run, but even Satan has a curfew."

He leaned forward and kissed me. Not like he had before, really, I could barely feel his lips on mine. If it was anyone else, I probably wouldn't have noticed at all.

"Remember what I told you the first morning we met?" he asked.

I nodded.

"I was telling you the truth. I won't ever hurt you Leah Moone. You can trust me."

He kissed one more time and left quietly.

When he was gone, I went up to my room and plopped down on my bed. If nothing else, I was going to go to sleep. I had a lot to deal with. Including the fact I was dating Satan…

When I woke up the next morning, I got up and went downstairs. My parents were in the kitchen, drinking coffee and reading the paper. We ignored each other. I went to the fridge and got a glass of orange juice. It felt good on my rather dry throat.

I went back upstairs and plugged my iPod into my docking station. I started playing my songs on shuffle and dancing around, pulling on clean clothes. Again, I didn't want anything elaborate. A black tee shirt and jeans.

Then, I made my way to the bathroom. When I looked in the mirror, I thought I looked like a troll. My hair was mused every way possible and sticking out like a poorly done afro. I took a brush to my head for ten minutes to straighten my hair out.

When I had nothing better to do, I went back to my room and lay on my bed and listened to music.

Around noon, my cell phone rang. I flipped it open without checking who it was.

"Hello?"

"Leah! Thank god you answered!" Ricky nearly yelled. He sounded like he was freaking out more than I was for going out with Satan.

"I'm gonna take a stab in the dark here, I take it something's wrong?"

"Parker's missing!"

"That's what you called to tell me?"

"I know you're mad at each other, but that's not the reaction I was hoping for."

"When you started dating Parker, you agreed to deal with her random disappearances. She does this once a month and on Spring Break. Deal with it man."

"Who shoved a bee down your pants?" Ricky hung up.

I knew that I would be kicking myself when Spring Break was over for being so mean to my friends, but I wanted to sit and think. I needed to.

For the entire week of free time I had, I stayed up in my room and thought. Austin had called on Sunday and told me that for the week, he was stuck in Hell with his parents. Something about having to run an empire and not being able to leave. But I didn't mind at all. I wanted to think about him…us.

Most of the time, I tried to decide whether it was worth staying with him. He was an amazing friend and boyfriend. I really didn't want to give him up, but did I have a choice at all? I couldn't date the devil.

No. I did have a choice. I could date the devil. He was Austin long before I knew what he was. Demonic or not, he was still Austin. He was the one that found me after Jason's party. He was the one I trusted more than anything.

Then again, he did say that demons could hypnotize you. That if he wanted to, he could do that to me. That before we actually met, he wanted to eat me. He told me demons were seductive. They would try to swipe me off my feet with romance just to kill me in the end. Austin was definitely seductive enough to me to be lying about what he said.

But I still didn't believe it. I believed he was a demon and could hypnotize me or kill me at any time of his choosing. What I didn't believe though? That Austin would lie to me. Just the way he said that he wouldn't hurt me…made me want to believe him.

Not 'want' to believe him. 'Want' wasn't good enough. I was forced to believe him. Lying to myself, telling my mind I wasn't going to trust anything he said…I needed to believe him. Not doing so would tear me apart, limb from limb.

I kind of wondered what Austin was doing right now. Maybe he was being himself, his demon self, with his other demonic friends. Or he really was trying to run an empire, like he said. I was tempted to call him, but I didn't know if his cell phone got reception in Hell.

On Sunday morning, I woke up around six in the morning. I had had my revelation and I was ready to do something, anything, today.

For my revelation, I realized Austin was nothing more than a different kind of human. It didn't scare me at all to know that he was a demon and what he could do to me. If he wanted to do anything to me, it would have been done my now. I was perfectly safe with him. In fact, I was better off with him than another human guy.

After I changed my clothes and got my phone, I left my house on foot. I started walking towards the park that I loved sitting at. Just chilling on the swings was really nice and relaxing. Sure, it made me feel like I was five again, but I didn't care. Reminiscing was enjoyable.

Considering I had left the house around noon, and the walk was a half hour, I wasn't surprised that it was around two thirty when I got bored of sitting and think more. As I randomly walked around the park, my phone vibrated in my back pocket and scared me a little. I pulled it out and answered without checking who it was again.

"Hello?"

"Leah," Austin breathed.

"Hey, Austin. What's up? You actually get reception where you're at?"

"Yeah. It's nearly impossible to loose your signal. And I was wondering…do you know where Muller Park is?"

"Course. It's that one that's like ten miles from where I live, right?"

"That's the one. Can you meet me there around six?"

"Sure. I'll be there. I wanted to talk to you anyway."

"Same here. I'll see you then." The line went dead.

I started back to my house. It was on my way to the other park that Austin wanted to meet at and I wanted to grab my bike. It was a three hour walk, but only a two and a half hour ride.

I quickly grabbed my bike and iPod. I stuck my head phones in my ears and started towards the park, listening to my music.

The ride went by pretty quickly with my music and constant peddling motion. Well, I thought it did. I was going slower than usual, so it still took three hours. I got to the park twenty minutes or so before six. I left my bike on the rack and walked around for a while to wait for Austin.

When I saw him walking from his Volvo, I took my head phones out and put my iPod in my pocket, along with my phone.

When Austin got a lot closer to me, I saw his eyes were totally red again. I guessed either he came straight from…home, or he didn't try hiding them from me any more. I could also see that he wasn't very happy. It scare me like it should have, but I was a little worried something was wrong with him.

"Austin, what's wrong?" I asked.

He grabbed onto my arms and looked into my eyes.

"Are you afraid?" Austin growled in a low, scary tone. It was by far the most menacing thing I had ever heard with my own ears. It wasn't his playful little joke. It was real. And it was terrifying.

Austin's fingers dug into my upper arms. He was gripping me so tightly that I knew I would have bruises to hide. I was beginning to freak out more than I ever had before. Austin never acted like this towards me. To other people, sure. But never to me. I was the only thing in his life not ruined by what he was. The only person that he didn't hurt.

Until now.

Involuntarily, I started to tremble in Austin's arms. I looked up, to look into the now bottomless pits that were his eyes. Like his voice, they were filled with anger and hatred. They looked like a portal straight into our own personal hell.

I felt Austin's hot breath in my face. Normally, it would have made my head spin. What, with the way it washed over me, warm and sweet, but not too sweet. But now, it felt like a poison. My head still whirled around, but not in a good way. It was like I was being hypnotized by his very presence. Just like everyone else. I was always immune to his tricks.

Not anymore.

"Answer me! Are. You. Afraid?" he made each word unnaturally distinct. Its own sentence.

Again, Austin's normally sweet voice was tremendously frightening. It was deeper than any human voice I had ever heard of before. If it wasn't me hearing it, someone might think he was using some technology changing it.

But I knew better.

I finally got up enough courage to answer Austin. To be truthful, I was terrified of him. Well, not really of him, but what he had become. Or what he always was…

"I'll never be afraid of you, Austin. What you come from and where you're going, but never of you," I answered.

My voice shook almost as badly as I did when I attempted speaking. I probably wasn't very convincing. I didn't even manage to convince myself of what I was saying to him. And he always knew when I was lying.

All of a sudden, Austin released me and I stumbled backwards, across the grassy field. He dropped his arms to his sides and looked down slightly, as if he was ashamed of what he did. Maybe he learned his lesson? I thought.

The early moonlight tossed strange shadows over Austin's face, making him seem almost demonic to me. the first time he actually looked like what he was.

But before anything more could happen, there was a sharp Crack! from behind me. I spun around fast enough to see a large split in the earth behind me. My mouth dropped in awe of what I was seeing and fear. But just as the gorge was about to swallow me, Austin tackled me to the ground. We fell, tumbling over each other, into the long and scratchy grass.

I thought we were out of the woods after we stopped rolling and Austin stood up. He pulled my onto my feet, just like the old days. But nothing would ever be like the old days again…

"Austin Marx," came a mans voice from the crag. "You have disobeyed the rules that have been set. You were warned, and now, you must suffer your fate!"

The crack opened wider. But this time, there wasn't anyone to push us out of the way. Not thinking about what just happened, I clung to Austin as we fell into the world unknown to only me.

While we fell, Austin clutched my tightly to his chest. It was tighter than he ever had held me before. Under normal circumstances, I would have told him to stop holding me so painfully, but I could barely feel anything. It was to be expected when one was falling to their death through a crag to Hell with your demonic boyfriend.

Austin curled my legs to my chest and made me into an unyielding ball. He kept his arms around me. One on the back of my head and another wound around my back.

I squeezed my eyes shut just before we both hit the ground. As soon as we hit bottom, the immediate stop jarred me so much I blacked out.

When I regained consciousness, I wasn't even sure if I was alive or not. There was no way Austin and I could have survived that fall. But obviously, from the pain I was in, we did fall.

My face burned, like I was covered in scratches. My entire body ached, worse than when I woke up at Jason's. I could feel the skinned potions of my legs and arms. They were raw and flaming with pain.

I opened my eyes. The light in the room was dim and red-tinted. It bugged my eyes a little, but what was worse is I had no idea at all where I was. Again.

I was lying in a huge, and pretty comfy, bed. The sheets felt like silk, fine and expensive. The bed had four posts and a billowy, sheer canopy that was parted to see out.

The room I was in was just as different. There was a large window, but I couldn't see out because of the dark red curtains hanging in from of it. The floor was a dark wood that was so shiny I could almost see myself in it. There was a flat screen TV hanging high on the wall right in front of me. Under it was a dresser. On one wall was a nice wooden desk with a laptop on it. In the corner next to that, was a large leather chair that looked extremely comfortable.

I looked to my side and saw a side table. My iPod and cell phone were lying on it, apparently unscathed.

Freaking out because I had no idea where I was or what happened, I didn't hear the footsteps the came outside the door. There was a knock before the door opened and someone stepped in. I didn't recognize him, but I wasn't really afraid of him.

"Oh, you're awake. Austin will be pleased," he said.

"Uh…where am I?"

He chuckled. "Hell, of course."

He turned around and left, closing the door behind him.

So this was Hell? I thought that Hell was supposed to be bad and torturous. This was nice and almost relaxing other than the too dim lights. I relaxed farther into the pillows. I just noticed how soft they were. I thought that they were down…

I closed my eyes and waited. I didn't wait long before the door opened yet again.

"Leah?" Austin murmured.

I opened my eyes to see Austin sitting next to me. He had on all black clothes and a black cloak. I was so sore to be confused about it though.

"How are you feeling?" he asked.

"Like I've been hit by a bus. How…?"

"Shh. I'm not hurt because I'm a demon, remember? You're a more fragile human. As for surviving, I landed first and took the brunt of the impact. Although, you still got enough to knock you out. Sorry about that."

"It's fine. How long has it been?"

"A little over a day."

"What?! My parents—"

"I took care of it. I know some very…hypnotizing people. They think you're staying with Parker."

"Thanks. Now what though?"

"You're staying here for a while. Until you're feeling better. Believe me, we have enough extra space."

"Where am I now?"

"Unfortunately, this is my parent's idea of a good bedroom for me."

"Really? It's not like you, but it works."

"Thanks. But right now, we have to do something pretty damn important. We have to get you clothes that aren't so human."

"Do I have to move?"

"I'd like you to stay with me, yes. I don't trust many of the people that work for me to be alone with you."

"I don't want to get up. Again, I feel like I've been hit by a bus."

"Well, you won't if you let me hypnotize you…"

"I'm not sure about that, Austin…"

"I can just take away ay pain from the fall and not do anything else, if you prefer."

"I guess…"

"Okay. Give me a second though. Your mind is kind of hard to…I don't know. Hack, I guess. It's like there's a firewall around your brain or something."

He put his hand on my shoulders and stared into my eyes. His reminded me of when he first showed them to me. At first, anyway. After a second or two, they looked like they were seeing straight through me. And after that, I no longer felt anything painful from the fall.

"Feel better?" Austin asked, taking his hands from my shoulders.

"Much. So where are we going?"

"Like I said. You need decent clothes."

I remembered I had put on a tee shirt and jeans that I always wore and Austin seemed to like before. What was wrong with them now?

"What's wrong with my clothes?"

"If you haven't noticed," he said, gesturing to what he was wearing, "We dress a little differently."

"Okay, then…"

I swung my legs out of the bed and my feet hit the cold floor. When I looked down, I saw that I really did need new clothes. My shirt was okay, except for a few tears I could feel in the back. My jeans on the other hand, were shredded, starting a few inches down my thighs so I was pretty much wearing shorts.

"Follow me," Austin said. "And stay very close."

Right on his heels, I followed Austin from the room. We weren't in a hallway, like I imagined we would be. We were at the top of a spiral staircase. We went down so fast I was afraid I would trip. But I knew if I did, Austin was in front of me and would catch me.

At the bottom of the stairs, we were in a hallway. Kind of. It was open-air, and the same red tint as everything else. There was a stone roof on it, and smallish poles on either side to hold it up, creating glassless windows. However, my eye sight wasn't good enough to see through the dim light to see anything.

I had to run to keep up with Austin's pace. The black cloak he was wearing flew out behind him, like a cape. I wondered what was up with the weird clothes for a second before remembering where I was. I was in Hell, and people were bound to dress differently.

I kept following Austin until I felt like we had gone miles, inside of the castle thing. We ended up in yet another bedroom. Of course. Inside, however, was a girl around my age. She was wearing the same cloak as Austin and I thought they could be related. She had the same black hair that came to just above her shoulders. Her eyes were the same red with gold flecks.

She looked like she would be my height, even when she was just lying on the huge bed. The room was a lot like Austin's, but arranged differently.

She hopped off the bed and walked over to us. However, she kept her distance from me. I didn't know why and felt insulted until I remembered demons ate humans, like me, and I apparently smelled very edible. Then I was grateful.

"I see what you mean about her, Austin," the girl said.

What he means about me? What could he have possibly said to her that involved me? I mean, we were breaking all of the rules. I didn't think he would tell anyone.

Austin sighed, impatiently and regretful. "Leah, this is my sister, Jackie."

"You can call me Jack," she said.

"Uh…okay. Hi."

She smiled at me, her teeth gleaming in the low light.

"Can you get her some clothes, please?" he asked Jack.

"Sure. Then…"

"Dad's gonna want to meet her. Meet me in the usual place."

Without another word, Austin was out of the room. Leaving me alone with a demon I didn't know.

"Let's get you some clothes, shall we?" Jack asked.

An hour later, I was dressed in Jack's clothes. My cuts and scrapes had been cleaned up and didn't hurt nearly as bad as before (Austin had to stop hypnotizing me when he left me with Jack). I was still pretty achy, but it wasn't very bad and I could ignore it.

Jack handed me a deep plum colored, velvet, cloak. It was the same as the one she and Austin were both wearing, but just the different color. I pulled it on and felt kind of stupid…

"It's okay; everyone wears them," Jack answered my unspoken thought.

I knew that demons had powers, but it would have been nice to know that she could read minds. I was starting to get pissed off.

"What's with all the anger?" Jack asked.

"Don't you read minds?" I snorted.

"No…"

Now I was feeling really stupid. Oops.

"However, I am an empath."

"A what?"

"An empath. I can feel other people's emotions. Demon and human."

"Oh…"

We kind of stood around awkwardly. I didn't know what to say to her really. I didn't even know her.

"Time to meet Austin," Jack announced. "Follow me. And try not to act human. Even the cloak might not stop some of the demons here."

Feeling even worse about leaving the sanctuary of the room, I followed her out.

Jack led me through the castle thing again. It was even bigger than I thought. And everywhere we went, was crawling with more demons. They all looked like they wanted to kill me or eat me. It was really starting to freak me out. And it took forever to get to where we were supposed to get to, but we got there.

We stopped in a huge room that reminded me of nineteenth century ball rooms. Huge columns lined the walls and made me feel very small. Austin stepped out from next one of them. He walked forward and I couldn't stand it any more. I wrapped my arms around him, scared out of my mind.

"Austin, the poor girl is on the verge of a panic attack. We should wait to bring her to dad," Jack reasoned.

I was incredibly glad that she could feel my emotions, creepy or not. I was too scared to think about anything else though. While I didn't mind being around only one demon at a time, two or more was definitely enough. But Austin got his wish: I was afraid.

"Is he in a good mood today?" Austin asked.

"So far. He might not be when he actually meets her."

"What are the chances?"

"In our favor."

"Then we have no choice, do we? You don't have to come with us. I can take it from here."

"You know where to find me."

Jack turned around and left as quickly as she tried to make me come. I still clung to Austin, freaking out. He was right though. Demons were scary and I didn't like them.

"Come on. My dad wants to meet you," he said.

I gripped him tighter. "No! Demons are freaking me out right now, and your dad probably wants to eat me. No, no, no!"

"I was thinking you had no sense of self-preservation. It's a very good thing to be afraid of demons. Outside of my family though. You know Jack and I wouldn't hurt you. My mom is almost a vegan. As close as you can be when you're demonic. My dad can be a hot-head sometimes, but he wouldn't ever try hurting you. Despite some beliefs, he actually likes humans."

Losing my battle, I grumbled, "How far away is it?"

"It's really close."

"Good."

Austin and I left the room, again, and went to wherever his dad was. And when he said it was close, he wasn't kidding. It was across the hall.

Austin knocked on the large double doors.

"Come in," a man answered. I guessed it was his dad.

He pushed open the doors and pulled me inside. Again, it was a large room but not as big as the last. There was a desk in the center; Austin's dad was sitting behind it, working on a laptop. He took off the glasses that were sitting on the end of his nose.

"I take it that this is the girl?" he asked.

He stood up, walked around the desk and stood in front of us.

"Yes. This is Leah," Austin answered.

He held out his hand for me to shake. I took it. He didn't seem like he was Satan. He seemed perfectly nice to me.

"You may call me Charles."

"Um…okay..."

A clock tolled somewhere. Twelve times. I couldn't tell if it was moon of midnight or noon thought.

"Now, I would love to get to know you better, but I have work to do. Running an empire and all." He turned to Austin. "I'll see you at dinner."

I didn't even want to think about what 'dinner' was. Obviously, I didn't want to attend.

"I'll see you then."

Austin grabbed onto my wrist and pulled me out of the room, closing the doors behind us. I was really confused. First, he wants me o meet his dad, then he wants to leave as soon as we see each other.

He pulled put his phone and dialed a number. Pressing the phone to his ear, he started walking. Not knowing what else I could do, I followed.

"Can you come get Leah?" he asked and then paused. "Yes…yes…thanks."

He flipped his phone shut and put it back in his pocket.

"What's going on?" I asked.

"Jack's coming to pick you up. I have to have a word with my father." He spit the last word.

"Is something wrong?"

"I can't believe he would talk like that in front of you!"

"Talk like what?!"

Austin kept grumbling to himself. I didn't really get what was so bad. I mean, his dad barely said two sentences.

After a few minutes, I saw Jack skipping down the hall. She looked extremely happy for whatever reason.

"Hello again!" she said.

"Hello, Jack," I said, laughing a little.

"I'll see you both later. And whatever you do, do not allow Leah to join us at dinner."

"I won't! It would scare her."

Austin smiled and walked back the way we came.

"So where are we going now?" I asked.

"You've met the men running Hell, but you need to know the other woman that's behind the scenes."

I was confused.

"My mom. Austin wants you to stay with our mom and me for a while. She is the least demonic demon ever!"

"How far away is that?" I groaned.

It seemed like everything in the damn house was a mile away. How big was it anyway?

"Unfortunately for you, it's on the other side of the house. But, I have a secret weapon at our disposal."

Jack smiled again, this time I saw the demon in her. Not in a bad way, but there was definitely something more than a human in her. She wasn't like the demons of Hell I always pictures, but she wasn't normal either.

She pulled out her phone.

"Can you come get us?" she asked. "Thank you."

Still really confused, I didn't think I could mess things up more in my mind. But when a guy that looked around twenty just popped up out of nowhere, I was even more bewildered. Not to mention he was incredibly hot.

"Leah, this is Adrian. My fiancé," Jack gushed. She wrapped her arm around him lovingly and kissed him.

"How old are you?" I asked.

"Twenty. I know I don't look my age."

"No...And how did he…"

"Appear out of nowhere?"

"Yeah…"

"It's called flickering." Adrian answered. "I basically can materialize anywhere I want to. Human world or Hell."

"Cool power…?"

"It is. It's really rare to have. I'm lucky."

"Yes you are…" Jack interrupted.

"So where am I taking you?" he asked.

"Leah and I are going to see my mother."

"Okay."

Adrian reached out and grabbed my shoulder tightly. Then, in the blink of an eye, we weren't in the hallway. We were standing in the nicest kitchen I had ever seen in my life. Jack kissed Adrian before he flickered away and left us with yet another demon.

"You must be Leah!" the woman said.

She looked nothing like Austin or Jack. She was just as pretty as Jack was, but older. Her hair was curly and caramel colored, unlike everyone else's jet black. Her eyes were brown with the red ring, like when Austin was covering his eyes up. She was a little bit taller than I was, and looked more human than any other demon I happened to see today.

"Yeah. You must be Austin and Jack's mom."

"I am. It's very nice to meet you. I hope my husband didn't try scaring you?"

"He didn't. Although, being in a demonic kitchen it a little creepy…"

Immediately, her expression changed. From happy and motherly to...I wasn't quite sure. Shock, maybe.

"Oh, don't worry; this kitchen is strictly for human food. You're the only human visitor we've had, but a lot of us, Austin, Jack and I for example, like human food more than, well, humans."

"Good to know."

"Are you hungry? You've been unconscious for a while and it's time for lunch. What about you, Jack?"

"Sure," Jack and I both said.

So the three of us sat down and ate lunch. My first lunch in Hell. My parents would so proud…

After we ate, Jack and I talked to her mom for a while. Not about anything in particular, just talk. It was nice, it not a little strange. But I didn't feet threatened of anything. Although, I found out that their mom's name was Jasmine. But I still called her Mrs. Marx.

When the clock tolled five times, Jack stood up.

"I should take you to a room now. It might take a while to get there and I have to go to dinner at six," she said.

"Do you want to be close to Austin or Jack?" Mrs. Arks asked.

I wasn't sure. Close to Austin, meant I would feel a lot safer. I wouldn't be able to find my way in the middle of the night to his room if was close to Jack too. But if I decided to be closer to Jack, I would have another girl to talk to, rather than just Austin.

"Don't be so undecided! You can stay in one of the rooms on the turret; they're right next to Austin's," Jack said, getting tired of my mood.

"Okay. Thanks, Jack."

"No problem. Follow me."

Again, I followed Jack through the halls and such. It was a long walk back to Austin's room. And demons were still a pretty common sight. I tried to act as un-human as I could.

As we got closer to where we were going, I stopped seeing anyone. They obviously stayed away from where the Marx's actually lived.

After we passed Austin's room, we went up a very tight, spiral staircase again. At the top, was a single door. Jack opened it and I went inside. My phone and iPod were already there. Jack must have known I'd want to be close to Austin.

The room was a lot like Jack's, but it was circular. Because it was in a turret, I guessed. It felt oddly like I'd been there before, but I had a feeling it was because it was so similar to Jack's and Austin's rooms.

"In a little while, I'll have someone bring you some more cloaks and some clothes. When you're in your room, you can wear whatever you want. And never leave without your cloak and cell phone. Try avoid going anywhere without Austin, my mom, Adrian or me. We won't try anything to hurt you, but others might."

"What about your dad?"

"He's a busy person and doesn't like it when we bug him during the day."

"Okay. Thanks again, Jack. For everything."

"No problem. You'll need to learn the ropes of living here eventually. Why not sooner rather than later?"

She smiled, as if her own private joke, and left me alone.

And I was confused, yet again. What did she mean by that? I was only going to be here for a few days. I wouldn't need to know anything about living here. She must be mistaken.

I lay back on the bed. My feet ached from walking barefoot all over the house. My head spun with everything I saw. I pulled off the cloak and put it over the back of the desk's chair. It was extremely hot with it on.

I picked up the remote for the TV and turned on a movie that I hadn't seen or heard of. But it was something to watch. It was really boring though, so after the clock chimed six times and I knew Austin would be at dinner, I fell asleep.

When I woke up, it was the middle of the night. I checked the clock on my phone. It was a little after two AM. I wasn't tired enough to go back to sleep, but I didn't just want to sit up either. I pulled on my cloak, glad it was cooler now.

I took my phone from the desk and put it in my pocket, where I could get it if I needed it. Then, I left my room, against what Jack warned. I wasn't going far though. I only went down the stairs so I was outside of Austin's room. Very quietly, afraid to wake him up, I opened the door. The lights were off and Austin was laying the center of his bed, arms behind his head and lying on his back.

I climbed up on the bed and sat on my knees next to Austin. After a second, I lay down next to him. I rolled onto my side, so I was facing him and put my head on his shoulder. I listened to his slow and steady breathing for a second before he woke up.

"Leah?" he whispered. His voice was still clouded with sleep.

Austin raised himself off the pillows and propped his body up on his elbow.

"Not that I'm not glad you're here, but you could have gotten eaten. Why are you here?"

"I can't sleep," I murmured back.

"You were out when I went up to see you after dinner."

"I fell asleep a little after six."

Austin didn't say anything back. I inched even closer to him and closed my eyes.

"What time is it?" he asked.

"Two."

"Then stay here for a while. I have to get up."

"So early?"

"Demons don't need very much sleep. An hour or two a night is enough."

"What are you going to do though?"

"My dad wants to talk to me. It'll take a while. If you need to leave or something and I'm not back, call Jack."

"Okay. I'll probably go back to sleep."

"As long as you're not out wondering."

Austin got up and pulled on a cloak. Then he left his room. I heard his footsteps die away and everything become silent again. I rolled onto my back again and stared at the dark ceiling. After a while, I was asleep again.

When I woke up again, it was light out. Well, as light as it would ever get. It was still dim and red. But I was use to it now so it didn't bug me at all. I got out of the bed and checked the time on my phone. It was, again, a little past noon. It was still a little cold, so I wrapped my cloak tighter and left Austin's room, headed for my own.

I wasn't really planning on wondering at all today, and if I was needed, someone would come get me. I really didn't want to get eaten by a demon, so I wouldn't be leaving my room at all.

I sat down at the desk and turned on the laptop. I thought it was a little weird having a laptop in Hell, but nothing was as I expected it. Satan was nice. There were cell phones and technology. And they lived in a castle not a cave. I really liked it.

I opened up the internet and logged into my email. Although, if anyone wanted to get a hold of me, they would call me first. And like I thought, I didn't have anything in my inbox. Just random chain mail. I deleted it all and surfed the internet for things to do.

After a while, I got bored and turned the computer off again. I was also pretty hungry. I pulled out my phone and looked through my phonebook. Austin said I would be able to get a hold of Jack if I needed to, so I had to have her number.

And sure enough, I had it. Jack answered on the first ring.

"Hi, Leah!" she said. She kept sounding happier and happier to here from me.

"Hey, Jack. I was wondering if you could help me out."

"Sure. What do you need?"

"To find my way to the kitchen."

"It'll take me forever to get to your room, then the kitchen and back again. Mind if Adrian takes you?"

"As long as he doesn't mind."

"He doesn't. He'll be there in a second. I'll talk to you later!"

I shoved my phone back into my pocket. I turned around to sit on my bed and was startled when I saw Adrian standing behind me.

"Sorry I scared you," he said.

"It's okay. Sorry I had to interrupt…whatever you where doing."

"It's fine. To the kitchen?"

"Please."

Again, he grabbed onto my shoulder and flickered us to the kitchen. I grabbed a bag of chips and a bottle of water and we went back to my room.

"Thanks. I should need anything else for a long time," I said.

"Okay then. If you need me, my number should be in your phone."

He flickered away.

I plopped down on my bed and opened the chips. I flipped on the TV and found something to watch. Then, I sat for the rest of the day in my room and did random things.

Around seven, there was a knock on my door. I stood up and went to open it. Standing on the other side, was Austin.

"Nice to see you, finally," I mumbled.

"I'm sorry. Can I come in?"

I stepped aside, not saying anything. Austin walked past me and sat down on my bed.

"My dad kept me pretty busy all day. This morning, I had to talk to him and it took forever. And after that I had meetings. Then I had to go all over Hell to take care of crap for my dad. Plus dinner, this is my only free time. And I'll be just as busy tomorrow, if not worse."

I sat down next to him. How could he dad do that to him? I mean, sure, he was Satan. But he was so nice before. I just didn't see how he could change so quickly.

"Why is he doing this to you?"

"He always does. I have more to do than he does. It's because I wanted to try human school for a while. I couldn't my daily 'chores' because I was always gone, so I have to do it now."

"That's awful!"

"It's worth it. Because if I wouldn't have gone to the human world, I wouldn't have met you."

"Aww! You're forgiven for ignoring me."

Austin gave me his cocky smile that I absolutely loved. I moved so I was sitting on my knees and looking at his face. His hair was hanging in his eyes and daring me to push it out of the way. So that's what I did. And just as I was about to kiss him…

Austin's stupid phone rang.

He checked who it was. I had a feeling that if they weren't important, he would ignore them. But of course, they were very important.

"It's Father Dearest," he growled through his teeth. "Yes?" he answered.

After he flipped his phone shut again, he fell back onto my bed with a slight flop. I lay down net to him, so we were eye level.

"I have a meeting to go to," Austin grumbled.

"Another one?" I asked. I didn't think you would have meetings when you were the devils son…

"Unfortunately. I'm beginning to think my father hates me."

"Or me."

Austin sat up. I stayed like I was, kind of bumming myself out. He looked down at me, a look of something I couldn't place in his eyes.

"I don't want to hear you say that ever again, Leah. This has absolutely nothing to do with you," he said furiously.

I didn't feel like arguing with him. I had better things to do. Well, I didn't, but I still wasn't in the mood to fight with Austin. And not just because of the whole demonic thing…

"Just go to your meeting; I don't want you to get into trouble," I sighed.

"It shouldn't last as long as the ones from this morning. I'll come back as soon as I can."

He bent down again and kissed me quickly before leaving. Again.

I stayed in Hell with Austin until Sunday, and then I decided I missed my world. Sunday afternoon, I borrowed some of Jack's clothes that looked human enough and had Austin bring me home. The portal to my world from Hell was in Austin's house, so I didn't have to go far.

Most of my cuts had healed over. The ones on my face were still there, but I could always say I ran into another tree on my bike. It was believable enough when the alternative was telling everyone I was in Satan's castle.

The school week was pretty normal. Ricky wasn't as upset as I thought he would be. After lunch was over, he was back to his old self again. I liked that he could forgive me so well.

Parker forgave me too and we were back to being totally inseparable. But she did ask where I was for a week of school after the break ended. I told them that I was with Alec because he was doing interviews for different school and I wanted to apply to some of them too. They believed me easily enough.

I had a ton of make-up work to do, but I didn't mind. Parker, Ricky and Troy all helped me with it. It only took a few hours to do.

Although, Friday at lunch was pretty interesting.

Like always, I sat next to Parker. Ricky had been acting a little strange all day, and we were all confused about what it was about. But he wouldn't tell us anything at all.

So while I sat and talked to Troy, Ricky stopped whatever he was doing, took a huge breath and turned to Parker. At the same time, Troy and I stopped our conversation and looked at him.

"I think I love you, Parker," he said.

I stared at him. First, this was not the time to be telling her anything like this. He was supposed to say that during some romantic time they were together, not the lunch room over his plate of tacos and Parker's Oreos. Second, he thinks he loves her? You either do or you don't. It's a one way street.

Parker didn't move at all. That's when I noticed the little black cords in her hair, leading to her ears. I smiled to myself and tapped her on the shoulder. She took out the headphones and looked at poor Ricky.

"Did you say something?" she asked, really confused.

He stared back her, in awe of how oblivious she was. she looked to me, like I was going to tell her what happened.

"I spent three hours rehearsing that in the mirror, for this!?" Ricky asked to no one in particular.

"Seriously, what did he say?" Parker asked me.

"He said, quote, 'I think I love you, Parker,'" I said.

She turned on him. "You think you love me?"

"Uh…there really isn't an answer that'll save me, is there? Either way, I get hit."

"Darn right, you fluff nugget!"

"May I?" I asked.

"You may," she answered.

I stood up, walked around Parker and hit Ricky upside the head.

"Ow!"

"Next time, don't think. Do," I warned.

And that was the last time Ricky would ever be so stupid as to say 'I think' to anything involving Parker.

On Saturday, Parker came over to my house. We spent the day in my living room watching cheesy movies from the forever ago. Dawn of the Dead was my favorite. It kind of reminded me of Austin though, so that wasn't very good.

"So what's been happening with Boy Toy?" Parker asked after the movie was over.

Before I got a chance to answer, my door bell rang, bringing literal meaning to "saved by the bell".

When I went to answer it, none other than Austin was standing outside. Parker came up behind me to see who it was.

"Speak of the devil," she snorted, her voice filled with disgust.

I saw Austin smile slightly. Of course Parker wouldn't know it, but she just made probably the biggest joke in history. Maybe the whole "speak of the devil" thing was true too…

"Nice to see you too, Parker," he said, monotone. "Can I borrow Leah for a minute?"

She looked at me for a hint of what I wanted. I was being so clear with my facial expression, that I all but shouted I wanted to go with him for a second.

"Three minutes," she reasoned. "Any more, and I'll be coming after you with a bucket of cold water."

She gave me a look as if to say, you owe me big time. Then she went back inside the house.

"So what's up?" I asked.

Austin pulled a ring off his left middle finger. It was a silver band with a snake curling around it. I hadn't ever really noticed it before now, but I somehow always knew it was there. He held it out to me.

"I don't get it," I said.

"I have all day meetings tomorrow. From one in the morning to midnight. I won't be able to keep an eye on you. Wear this. I had my dad put some…you don't need to know. It'll keep you safe as long as you're wearing it, okay?"

I slid it onto my index finger. It was a little big, but I thought I would notice if it fell off.

"Don't take it off until Monday morning. Promise me."

"I promise, Austin. I won't take off the ring."

"Good. I had to sneak out to come here though, and my dad will notice I'm gone. I'll see you soon."

He kissed me again before leaving, to go back to Hell.

I went back inside to enjoy the rest of the day with Parker. And her accusing questions about why Austin came and gave me the ring…

On Sunday morning, I woke up later than usual. Parker had gone home Saturday night, so I was alone for a while. Parents were gone, along with Alec, so I was free. So what did I choose to do when I had the house totally to myself for the day? I left. But right as I was about to leave, I picked up the picture of Austin I drew that one day in art. I didn't know why, but I folded it up and put it in my back pocket.

I went out for a walk, just because I felt like it. When most people my age had the house to themselves, they would do anything that they weren't allowed to do normally. But not me. I went for a walk.

My walk wasn't long, only an hour or so going and then the same coming back, but I enjoyed it. I couldn't just go for a walk while I was staying with Austin, for fear of getting eaten, and I had too much homework during the school week. So I felt it was well deserved and worth it.

On my way back, I didn't see anyone's car at my house yet, so I was still going to be alone. I didn't mind though. I could just chill out and relax. Maybe even I would call Parker to hang out or something.

Just as I passed Austin's house, a familiar face greeted me. He was a demon I met while I saw staying in Hell. I was walking from my room to Austin's when I met him. We sat and talked for hours and I thought I got to know him pretty well. His name was Drake, he was eighteen and had known Austin since they were kids.

"Drake!" I said. "What're you doing here?"

"I had some…business to take care of," he answered smoothly.

I looked up at him; his eyes were red and the look to them when they were tying to hypnotize someone. Of course, it wouldn't work because of the ring.

I started backing away from him. Why would he try to hypnotize me? He was so nice before. A perfect gentlemen. In fact, I almost thought he was better looking than Austin was.

That's when it hit me. Worse than after I figured out what happened at Jason's party. He wasn't being nice at all. He was seducing me so he could eat and or kill me.

I really hoped this ring would work if he tried to kill me.

Drake started to walk towards me. Going backwards was my only way to get farther from him. I kept backing away. Until, that is, my foot hit the bottom step of Austin's porch and I tripped up. I fell onto my back.

Drake stepped over me, one foot on either of my side. I was very stuck, and very dead. He crouched down over me and grabbed onto my wrists. He pinned them above my head to the cement ground. And while all of this was going on, I wondered why nobody was going anything. I mean, it was two in the afternoon!

Because my hands were pinned, I couldn't do anything when he took the ring from my finger. I tried squirming my way out of his grasp. But he was way to strong for me to fight off. Even if he wasn't a demon, he would be a lot stronger than I was. And I was in no position to be the weaker one.

"This isn't against you personally," he apologized.

"What is it about then?" I asked. My voice was barely above a whisper and shook even to my own ears.

"I lied. It is actually a problem with you."

"Can at least know what that problem is?"

"If it weren't for you, Austin wouldn't be ignoring me at all. But you just had to make him fall in love with you! Now I'm nothing more than another demon!"

"Who were you before?"

"I was Austin's best friend."

"He's never mentioned you before. Are you sure he felt the same way?"

"Just shut up, you stupid little human!"

Not really wanting to die, I did as he said. Maybe he would spare me if I was a good little human. Who was I kidding? I was going to die and there was nothing I could do about it. I didn't have the ring that Austin said would protect me. Austin himself was in a meeting and wouldn't be back until tomorrow. My hands were pinned and I couldn't get my phone. A demon was standing over me and I couldn't outrun him. I was screwed.

The only thing I could think of was closing my eyes. If Drake couldn't look into them, I couldn't get hypnotized. I could probably still get killed though.

"Open your eyes!" he demanded.

I kept them closed even tighter. It almost hurt me to keep them closed so taut. Drake kicked my side painfully. I swore I could almost hear my ribs cracking. Demons that were pissed off were even stronger than usual and his kick packed a punch.

I sucked in a sharp breath. Out of a reflex more than anything, my eyelids opened. I looked up, in voluntarily, for just a second. And in that second, I caught Drake's gaze and was immediately captured in it. It wasn't like when Austin hypnotized me to help. It was like all the energy of my life force was being suctioned out with a vacuum cleaner.

I didn't know how much longer it lasted, but I eventually went numb. Drake stood up and I lay in a limp pile on the ground.

"See? Death isn't so bad, is it?" Drake said. "Actually, you have the better half of the deal. You die slowly, but you won't even notice. You'll fall asleep and just won't wake up. But Austin will live the rest of his pathetic life without you."

I didn't think I had the better half at all. I still had to die for Drake's stupid plan to work at all. And he got the better half of everything. He got a human to feed off of so he was full; he got back at Austin and me at the same time.

"I won't be seeing you again, Leah. Enjoy your last hours of life. If you can. I'll be sure to mention to Austin that you didn't want to die. It might make him feel worse that I killed you."

Why did he have to tell me that? I was already dying. That was bad enough. Now he had to go and make me feel guilty about it too? Not cool.

Drake picked my rather limp body from the ground and set it on the porch swing that was secluded behind a bush.

"Wouldn't want anyone to see you, now would we?" he said.

Knowing it was useless to me now, he threw the ring at me. It hit my stomach before landing on the bench next to me.

"Goodbye, Leah," he said.

He gently brushed the hair from my face and kissed my lips. I was slightly disgusted be the act, but couldn't do anything about it. Then, like I didn't even exist, he walked into Austin's house and through the portal to Hell.

I lay on the bench of the swing, to lifeless to do anything at all. I could breathe when I needed to, but I couldn't keep my eyes open at well. I felt the sun cool down and then go away completely. It was night and Austin would be coming back soon. But not soon enough. I could feel my life leaving me even as I thought about it.

I remembered the picture in my pocket. It was the closest I would ever get to him again.

I felt like it would have to be after midnight by now. I was almost numb. I could move, if I had more energy anyway. And I could really feel where I had been kicked by Drake.

Just as I felt my life slipping away, something came along to give me slightly renewed hope.

"Leah!" I heard Austin say. There were a few footsteps and then I was being picked up off the swing. I was lying in Austin's arms, not being able to do anything but hang limply and open slits in my eyes so I could see him.

"No! No, no, no!" Austin said to himself as he carried me into the house.

As soon as we were inside, we were back in Hell again. Austin was running, I could only tell from the un-evenness of his steps.

When he stopped, there were other people around and he put me onto a bed or couch or something.

"Leah! Stay with us, Leah!" he said.

"Son…" I heard Mr. Marx' say.

"No! I'm not going to let her die! Do something!" he growled back.

Mustering up the absolute last of my energy, I reached into my pocket for the drawing. I set it in Austin's hand and curled his fingers around it.

"Don't die, Leah. Please, don't die," he whispered.

Again, he pulled me into his arms and held me to his chest. I felt a tear fall onto my cheek that didn't belong to me.

"I love you. Don't die," he said. His voice shook like when you tried to talk when you were trying not to cry.

I would have wanted nothing more than to say something back to him, but I didn't have anything left in me to do it. My mind filled with a peaceful fog. I didn't take another breath. I listened to my heart beat one more, faint time, and then, like Drake said, I fell into an eternal sleep.

Part two. More or less…

I opened my eyes. Which was weird, because I swore I died. In fact, I knew that I died. I physically stopped breathing. I heard my heart stop. Yet here I happened to be, supposedly alive. Again. Creepy…

I looked around, thinking I went to Hell for, well, going to Hell. But what I saw was all too familiar. The dim, red lights. Even the room I was in. I knew it to well. Last time I woke up in Hell, I was here. It was Austin's room. Maybe I didn't die after. Maybe I just passed out again, like the last time I came to Hell. It was probably a few days after Drake tried to kill me, but nothing major.

Feeling totally fine, other than a slight ache in my stomach, I got out of the bed. My movement felt a little weird, like I was stronger than usual. I felt raw power course through my veins. I thought it was because I had been asleep for so long.

I looked down and saw I saw wearing a black cloak, like Austin's. I also thought that I should be in purple, but I didn't really care. I looked around for my phone, but I didn't see it anywhere. I probably lost it when we were still in my world.

I went out to the hall way and looked around. I decided that if my stuff wasn't in Austin's room, it would be in mine. So remembering where my room was still, I went up the spiral stairs. I went straight into my room without hesitation.

Lying on my bed was a person I didn't recognize. I kind of did, anyway. He looked similar to Austin. But older. His hair was a little longer, but just as dark. I couldn't see the tattoos however, because of the cloak. His face was pretty much the same, but looked like it would belong to a guy in his twenties, not seventeen. I thought that maybe Austin had an older brother that I hadn't met.

Not knowing what else I could do, I went and tried to wake him up. I shook his shoulder lightly and his eyes opened instantaneously. As soon as he saw me, for whatever reason, he sat upright and hugged me so tightly I couldn't breath. As soon as he loosened, even the slightest amount, I let my confusion show.

"Uh…" I said. I realize, not the greatest way to ask a question, but it was all I could think of at the moment.

"Don't you recognize me, Leah?" he asked.

If not by the looks but by the voice, I knew it really was Austin. His voice hadn't changed at all from what it was like before. But I still didn't know how he looked so different.

"I do now," I whispered back.

I wrapped my arms around him and hugged him back. I was so incredibly blissful just to be back in his arms, where I belonged. But it would be even better if I understood what was going on.

"What happened?" I asked.

"You don't remember."

It wasn't a question, but I still said, "I swore that I died, but other than that…" I trailed off.

"You did die."

"I don't understand."

"Come here. I'll tell you everything, just give me a second."

Austin cradled me into his arms, like before…everything happened. I was pretty content to stay that way forever, even if it meant not finding out what happened.

"I'm okay now," he said. "You did die though."

"So how am I still alive?"

"Because humans can't die in Hell. When that happens, they turn into demons. So luckily, I brought you back in time for you to die here. Which means you're…like me now, Leah. You're a demon too."

"I'm…I'm a demon?" I stuttered.

"Yes. Is that okay?"

"If it means I'm alive, I guess so. What about you though? Why do you look so…different?"

"You died over two years ago. I'm twenty now. But because your heart only started beating again probably an hour ago, you're still seventeen."

"Two years ago?"

"Yes. I've been waiting for you to wake up. You've missed a lot."

Austin gave me that same, cocky smile from before. It was different, but in a good way. It was even better with him being older.

"Like?" I prompted. I was trying to ignore the fact I was now a demon and had been dead for two years. Austin was freaking twenty and I was still seventeen…

"I took my dad's place; he retired. That happened when I was eighteen. Jack got married to Adrian. Parker and Ricky started collage. They're still going out. In fact, I'm pretty sure that he'll be proposing soon. I've missed some things too."

"Care to elaborate?"

"For one, I couldn't sleep in my own bed because a corpse was using it. And then, I had to go more than two years without…"

He lifted me up higher and bent his head down to kiss me. I think that of everything I missed while I was dead, that was by far what I missed most.

"Just think, I had to finish out my teen years without doing that once," Austin said.

"So you never…?" I didn't finish my question.

"No. The only girl I wanted was already in my bed."

I pulled away from him for a second to smack the back of his head, like I did with Ricky.

"Sorry…" he mumbled.

I smiled and shook my head. "So what else have I missed?"

"More recently, Jack's going to have a baby."

"Really?! That's awesome!"

"Yeah. It is. Other than me taking my dad's place, the wedding and Ricky and Parker, it's been pretty much the same around here. I'm not nearly as busy as I was before. Adrian's been helping me quite a bit, and my dad still feels the need to do some things. But it's been pretty normal."

"What about in my…old world?"

"I had to get some help from pretty much every demon in Hell, but I managed to hypnotize everyone that mattered into thinking you were killed. Car accident."

"Did you go to my funeral?"

"Of course. Even Parker didn't mind seeing me there. I have a feeling you would have been very happy at the amount of people that showed up. You're a very loved and missed person."

"I guess that's good. But there's one more thing…"

"Ask me anything."

I hesitated at first before asking. Not because I didn't want to, but I didn't even want to think about what I was trying not to remember.

"What happened to Drake?"

"When my dad told me you would come back as a demon, I wasn't miserable enough for him. He came and tried to kill you again, and for good this time. I stopped him before he even got inside the grounds. He's gone. You don't have to worry about him anymore."

"Were you really friends with him?"

"No. He liked to think so when we were in elementary school together."

"Good. I can't imagine you and him…" I shuddered.

I curled tighter it Austin's chest. Everything was kind of freaking me out. Understandably. I mean, I wake up in Hell, again, find out I'm a demon, was dead for two years and Austin is twenty, but I'm still seventeen. It was a decent amount to take in over the course of ten minutes.

"It's okay," Austin whispered. "You'll feel better after you have something to eat. Come on."

The two of us crawled off the bed. Austin pulled on his own black cloak and started out the door. Because we didn't want to bug Adrian, we had to walk to the other side of the house to get to the kitchen. He tried to explain things as we went.

"Do you remember how when you came here before, you wore purple?" he asked.

"Yeah…" I agreed slowly.

"Purple is for important visitors into the castle. Human or demon. Black, like I wear, is the highest level you can get. Only my parents, Jack, Adrian you and I wear black cloaks. Get it so far?"

"I think so."

"Okay. And red, like Drake wore, means you're and upper-level demon. You have power, but not as much as black. Then there's green. That means you're totally average. And last is white. Personally, I don't like the idea of the white cloaks, but it is tradition and I can't change that. White is either a servant or…humans that are here simply as food. Which is exactly why I prefer animal energies."

"So it goes black, purple, red, green, white. Right?"

"You catch on very fast. I think that after you eat, you should go see Adrian."

"Why…?"

"Because he has a lot of stuff to teach you. Like you, he was a human. Jack fell in love with him the same way I did with you. Except he died of…other cause's here. He's a demon now though. And that's why he can flicker. Only humans turned into demons can flicker, which is why it's so rare."

"I can flicker?"

"Yep."

"Awesome! Can I do anything else?"

"Probably. If anything, hypnotizing."

"Even better…"

I kept following Austin through the corridors. He took me to a side of the house I hadn't seen at all yet. I thought we would be going to the kitchen I had seen already, even if it was two years ago. But I guessed that in a house so incredibly large, there had to be more than one.

The room we ended up in wasn't a kitchen or even a dining room though. It was more or less a living room. There were couches and big comfy chairs. Except the fact there were a few humans in white sitting around reading and whatnot.

"Austin…?" I said softly.

I didn't want to kill a human. I mean, I was one. I hated the way Drake made me feel. So feeble and insignificant and…human. Even if death that way wasn't painful, it wasn't exactly fun either. I would know, considering it killed me…

"You won't kill them," Austin told me. "One, they can't die. Humans come back as demons if they die in Hell, remember? And two, even a newborn demon couldn't devour an entire humans worth of energy. I don't have any idea how Drake managed to drain you so quickly, unless…never mind."

"Do they know what's happening, or are they hypnotized?"

"They know everything. Why they choose to sustain us, I don't know. I think it might be because it creates a high to both human and demon. And a special connection forms between them. Kind of. Look, its hard to explain and I imagine you're very hungry."

The ache in my stomach had grown considerably worse. Although I had plenty more questions to ask about this whole demon thing, I was too hungry to ignore it any more.

"How do I…?" I began, not knowing how to finish.

"Oliver? Would you come here, please?" Austin said.

One of the humans, a boy close to my own age, came over to Austin and me. He was pretty good looking. His hair was a light, sandy color than was decently shorter than Austin's. Although, they were about the same size. When he smiled at me, his blue eyes sparkled at little.

"Leah, this is Oliver. He's going to be your energy for now. He's one of the few people I actually trust here. He'll take good care of you. I'll be outside."

When Austin was gone I looked back at Oliver.

"You're a newborn, aren't you?" he asked.

"Yeah. I died as a human two years ago and woke up today."

"You're lucky that you came back. Not many humans are lucky enough to die here. If you don't mind me asking, what killed you?"

"A demon. His name was Drake. He fed on all of my energy. It's not a fun way to die, which is why I'm trying to avoid killing you right now."

Oliver chuckled, not tying to hide it at all from me.

"You won't kill me. It's nearly impossible to kill humans just by draining their energy. I'll be fine."

"Still, I don't know how to…do this yet."

"It's not hard. Just look me sit down next to me and look me straight in the eyes."

Oliver sat on the couch that was next to us. I stayed standing, feeling incredibly awkward. I wasn't used to being a demon. Which meant I didn't like the idea of eating a human. I didn't like getting eaten either.

"Come on, sit down."

He grabbed onto my hand and pulled me gently so I sat down next to him.

"Look me in the eyes. And focus."

I did as he said. I felt some weird feeling in the back of my eyes. I didn't really like it, but I didn't hate it either. The pupils in Oliver's eyes dilated, like he was smoking pot or something. Then, I felt the same. A strange euphoria spread over me, the best thing that I had felt since I was actually a human. And the hunger in my stomach was almost gone. But I was finished. I wasn't taking any more energy from Oliver than necessary.

Not knowing how I did it, I stopped. Oliver yawned and smiled.

"See? It's not so hard is it?" he asked.

"No, I guess not. I'll be on my way then…" I said. What else was I supposed to say? I wasn't exactly up on the etiquette for after you feed off a human's life force.

I stood up and hurried out of the room. Austin was standing in the space right outside the door, leaning against the wall, arms crossed.

"I take it you feel better now?" he asked.

"Yeah. And now I have to go see Adrian, right?"

"Yes."

He pulled out his phone and called someone.

"I have a visitor for you," he said, smiling his cocky grin at me. "You'll see…no, I'll walk them. Warn Jack."

The phone went back into his pocket and he turned to me.

"We have to all the way to Jack and Adrian's room, don't we?" I asked.

Still grinning at me, he nodded.

"What if I don't want to walk all that way?"

Austin sighed, like he was trying to hide what he was going to do. "Well then, I wonder what I can do about that…"

Sooner than I could have seen it coming, I was on his back. I was still a little disoriented from the high I got from Oliver's energy. Austin held me in a piggy back type position and started walking down the hallway again. I wrapped my arms in a choke hold around his neck. If it bothered him, he wasn't showing it.

So in the forever it took to get back to where we were coming from, I stayed on Austin's back. It was far easier than walking everywhere. More convenient. I didn't know why I didn't do that before.

When we got to Adrian and Jack, Austin set me on my feet again. He stretched the muscles in his back and shoulders.

"Be warned…Jack really missed you."

Then, he knocked on the door and waited. Adrian opened in and looked at me.

"Long time, no see. Try not to die anymore on us, okay?" he said smiling and hugging me with one arm.

I saw Jack look over his shoulder to see who it was. As soon as she saw it was actually me, she pushed her husband out of the way and hugged me to tightly that I swore my eyes would fall out of my head.

"Leah! You're alive! And you're…here!" she said.

I would have said something witty back, but I couldn't breathe…

Austin grabbed his sister and pulled her away from me. It took a second, but Jack wasn't wound around me anymore. I took a minute to started breathing normally again.

"Hey to you too, Jack. I here that we'll soon have a Jacklet running around?"

She glared at Austin and he back away with his hands up.

"You weren't supposed to tell anyone!" she growled. He ran into the wall and stopped.

I felt the desperate need to stop Jack from attacking Austin. I knew that she kind of had a slight temper and would actually fight him. But because he had morals, he wouldn't fight back.

Then all of sudden, I was in between Jack and Austin. I felt another weird head rush but ignored it.

"What just happened?" I asked to anyone who could give me answer.

"You just flickered," Adrian answered, like it was the most obvious thing in the world. "It's kind of a rush, isn't it?"

"Yeah, little bit," I breathed.

"Looks like I have less to teach you than I thought…but we should still get to work. It takes a while to learn to control flickering."

"Ugh. More work."

"It's worth it." he turned to Austin, who was still backed against the wall behind me. "Out. She doesn't need to be distracted. Jack, you too. Sorry."

Austin left willingly. While Jack…was forced to leave by Adrian. It was a pretty funny sight to watch.

When we were alone, Adrian attempted to teach me flickering. It didn't work at first. I couldn't do it at all. But after I wasn't sure how long, I managed to do it once. And again. But after that, I was too tried to stand, let alone transport my molecules somewhere else.

"We're done for today," he said.

I blinked my eyes and tried to stay awake. I started to sway on my feet, like at the beach so long ago.

Adrian opened the door to the room. Jack and Austin came back in like they had been waiting outside for us to finish.

"You better take her to her room. She's really out of it," Adrian said.

Austin walked over to me and slipped me into his arms, again, like at the beach. But this time, I didn't put my arms around his neck to hold myself up. I didn't have energy to.

"We'll come see you tomorrow," he said to Adrian. I guessed I would have to try flickering again.

Then, he left the room with me in his arms. He took me back to his old room which was apparently my new (well, current) one. He sat me down on the bed and pulled the covers over me.

Austin started prying my fingers front his shirt.

Tired or not, I said, "No way. You are staying here."

He sighed, not like he didn't want to stay with me, more like he wasn't surprised by my asking. On top of the blankets, he lay down beside me. And before I could argue about anything at all, I was asleep. You would think after being 'asleep' for two years, I wouldn't be sleepy…

When I woke up, Austin was again, gone. It seemed like he waited until I was out cold before leaving. I mean, if he wanted to leave, he could.

This time, it was dark inside. And out, I guessed. But I didn't think I would be getting to sleep anytime soon, so I decided to get up. Now I could wonder the house without getting eaten. That was a stupid human problem. Demons didn't have to worry about that.

Kind of wishing I had a cell phone to take with me, I left the room quietly and started wondering the hallways. And if I got lost…I had the time to find my way somewhere I knew or someone would come find me. I hoped…

I worked my way through the passageways and halls for what seemed like hours, whenever I got to a dead end, I went around a corner that led somewhere totally different than before. It was extremely confusing to me.

I didn't see any demons either. It was a little unsettling to be in the castle of Satan and not see any demons at all. I was so used to seeing them as a human, that as a demon, I found it creepy. Wasn't Hell supposed to be filled with demonic activity? Now, when I was lost so badly I didn't know right from left, I could find any one at all. How messed up is that?

As I attempted to try and find my way back, I ran into one demon. I knew him from two years ago, but he looked a little different than when I saw him sitting behind a desk, running an empire.

"Mr. Marx?" I said, bewildered.

"Hello, Leah. And please, call me Charles. I see you've come back as a demon. Do you like it so far?" he asked.

"Uh…yeah. But I'm a tad lost. Could you help me?"

He smiled. "Of course. You're very far from where you should be at this time of night."

"I know. I fell asleep this afternoon and…well, you know the rest."

"Yes. I'll take you back to your room. Then shall I call Austin for you?"

"Please."

I followed Mr. Marx through the house, going down hallways and over those open bridge things for another length of time. When finally, we got back to where I recognized. He walked me all the way to my room and only left to call Austin.

I sat back down on my bed. But I didn't feel like literally 'sitting up and waiting' for Austin to come, so I crawled back underneath the warm blankets. My room was incredibly dark as well, because I didn't turn on the lights, so I closed my eyes. It wasn't like I would be falling asleep any time soon and opened or closed, I couldn't see anything at all.

After a while, my door creaked open and a slit of very dim light came in before disappearing again.

"Leah?" Austin whispered, almost so quietly I thought I was imagining it at first. "Are you awake?"

"Yeah," I answered.

I sat up again, feeling oddly light-headed. Probably from getting up to fast. I couldn't see anyone standing in front of me, but I had very poor eyesight in the dark. I had a feeling that being a natural born demon, Austin's night-vision was better than mine would be.

I felt Austin move so he was sitting on the bed next to me. He slipped under the blankets near to me and I thought that he propped himself up in his elbow. Not wanting to sit upright, staring at someone I couldn't see, I buried myself into all of the pillows again.

"I heard you got lost," Austin said. He gently pushed my messy-from-sleep hair from my face and tucked it behind my ear. His fingertips lingered slightly longer than necessary on my cheek.

"I couldn't help myself. I wanted to see the parts of the house I haven't seen yet and it's not like I can get eaten anymore, so I figured, why not?" I answered.

"You're lucky you ran into my dad. He told me where you were at and you never would have been able to find your way back."

"I could always figure out how to flicker while I'm lost. It would create a good incentive."

"Speaking of flickering, why exactly did it tire you out so quickly?"

"I've been a demon for less than a day. How would I know?"

"It was a rhetorical question. I know why you nearly passed out."

"Why?"

"You didn't take enough energy from Oliver. You have to take enough to fill you up completely."

"I didn't want to hurt him."

"You couldn't, even if you tried to. Even if you did, he would come back as a demon. And you don't feed off him everyday. More like once a week. That's why the other humans were there too. A different one everyday, just to be positive nothing can go wrong. Promise me that you'll feed more tomorrow. You have to learn your powers and it'll take a lot of energy. You'll be tired even if you take more than enough, so you need all you can get. I can't have you passing out everyday, can I? Now, promise me."

What choice did I have? I couldn't lie to him. After doing nothing but telling me the absolute truth, that would be an awful payment for him. And I couldn't not promise him either. I didn't want him to worry about me or anything, so I would just have to make the stupid promise.

"I promise. Happy?" I sighed.

"Very."

Winning our little battle, Austin was pretty pleased. Moving from however he was before, he wrapped his arms around me and pulled me against him. It was more abrupt than I anticipated, but I didn't mind. He pressed his lips to my forehead. I started to feel light-headed and sleepy again.

Finally glad I had Austin back with me, I fell asleep once again. But this time, in his arms instead of simply near him.

The next day was pretty much the same as the one before. I woke up with the one exception that Austin was there with me. I was pretty much laying as close as I could to him. He was still asleep, so I shook his shoulder gently. He woke up soon enough.

As soon as we both had on clean clothes, Austin more or less forced me to go straight to breakfast. Instead of regular food, like I hoped, it was back to Oliver and the other humans. I didn't use Oliver today, but I still didn't take very much. I was still feeling like I wanted to go to sleep. Plus I had to work with Adrian again.

So after I had eaten my very small breakfast that didn't fill me up at all, I jumped back on Austin's back for a ride to Adrian.

Like yesterday, Jack and Austin went off, leaving Adrian and I alone to try and master my flickering and hypnotizing. I ran out of energy even faster than before. This time, I passed out in mid-flicker. Luckily, Adrian caught me before I fell over. Again…

When I regained consciousness, I didn't open my eyes right away. I was lying in someone's arms, yet again.

"She couldn't even flicker once today," I heard Adrian say in a hushed tone.

"She's to attached to her humanity. She won't take enough of anyone's energy," Austin said back. I could tell that I was in his arms (Big surprise) from how close his voice was.

"Well there's no way I can teach her to control her powers if she keeps passing out.

"I'll think of something. But I don't think we'll be back for a while."

"You better. She's worse than a human when she can't control her powers. Don't bring her back until she can understand that she actually is a demon."

Austin started walking away suddenly. I tried to keep my eyes closed so I didn't give myself away as being awake.

I couldn't believe what I heard back…wherever I was. First, Adrian and Austin were talking behind my back. So what if I couldn't flicker very well? I didn't care. Walking worked just fine for me. I had all the time in the world to learn how to flicker. I didn't like the idea of eating some poor human's life force. I died because of that and it was understandable not to want anything like that to happen to someone else. And I wasn't worse than a human without my powers. I found it extremely insulting that Adrian thought I didn't know I was a demon.

The next six months were the worse months of my life.

From Adrian and Austin's conversation that I overheard, I made up my mind to actually take enough energy from the human. I really didn't like the idea of it, but I guess I didn't really have a choice in the matter.

Everyday, I had to go see Adrian again. I tried to ignore that fact he insulted me before, but it didn't work. For the first week or so, all I did was glare at him and not say anything. He didn't really understand why I was giving him the cold shoulder. I liked it that way.

Adrian kept trying to teach me to control my powers. I still wasn't very good at flickering at first. I only managed it a few times. I would always end up accidentally going somewhere in the middle of something. Control was not my thing.

He also tried to get me to be able to hypnotize, but I didn't want to work with him. He wasn't exactly too happy to work with me either. So after only a few days of Adrian teaching me hypnotism, we gave up on each other. I switched to Austin as my new teacher. He made things a lot easier on me and I learned how to hypnotize simple things into human minds. I couldn't hypnotize demons or more than one human at a time, but I was making progress. In the course of the six months, Austin taught me how to hypnotize demons and humans with complex commands that would actually last. I got to be just as good as he was.

As for flickering, it took me a lot longer than hypnotizing. It took me almost five of the six months to be able to flicker on command. But I did learn how to do it though. It was a pretty cool power to have because I barely knew my way around the house.

I could find my way to and from where the humans were so I could eat whenever I wanted to. I knew where the kitchens with actual food were, so that was good. I could find Austin or anyone else if I needed to, because the meeting rooms were one of the first places I learned to find. Other than that though, I had to flicker most places because I didn't need to find my way if I did that.

Oliver and I became pretty good friends, along with the other humans. The weird bond that formed between us made us close, but I still had to feed off him. Of course, no matter how much of anyone's energy I took, I always passed out after a lesson with Adrian and then Austin. It took a ton of energy to learn my powers, but after I got a handle on it, it barely made me blink an eye.

Not only all that, but Jack had her baby. It was a boy that they named Benjamin. He had the same red and gold flecked eyes as his parents and dark curly hair. Sure, he cried most of the night and kept anyone in the entire house awake, no matter how far away you were, but everyone absolutely loved him. He was adorable and we all had to take turns stealing him from his parents. They barely got to see him unless it was night.

During the six months, right after Jack had Benjamin, I went to go see her. Austin and Adrian were at some meetings all day, so it was just the three of us.

"Leah! I'm glad you're here," Jack said. "I have something to tell you!"

I sat down at the desk chair. Like always, I took Ben from Jack's arms and held him myself. Luckily, for once, he wasn't crying or sleeping. He was just lying in my lap quietly, like he was waiting for something to happen.

"What's up?" I asked.

"Well, we chose who's going to be our godparents, and I wanted to run out choice by you."

"Sure. Who?"

"You and Austin, silly! Who else would we choose?" she smiled.

I tried to show my happiness without disturbing the baby sitting in my lap.

"Thank you! I don't know what to say, Jack! But aren't the godparents supposed to be married?"

"Close enough. You live with him, you sleep in the same bed with him and he always gets his way because he's the leader of Hell. You two are the only one's we even considered."

Needless to say, it was one of the best days of my life. The only thing that made me think was what she said about Austin and me. We were pretty damn close to being married. I died in his arms and woke up to find him waiting for me, two years later. And I had a feeling that Satan really did get whatever he wanted…

After I was used to my powers and could control them, I couldn't take it any more. I missed being in my ex-world, with Parker and Ricky. Everyone else, like my other friends, I could live without. They were great, and I did miss them, but Ricky and Parker were irreplaceable. I couldn't take not seeing them everyday any more.

If not seeing my two best friends wasn't enough, I couldn't see Alec. I missed him a lot too. He was always my protective older brother, but he was the best. I couldn't imagine what my death was like for him. Or anyone else for that matter.

"Austin, I have to see my world again!" I complained.

We were walking back to our room from dinner tonight and I couldn't take it anymore. Austin didn't look at me when I spoke.

"You can't go back. You died. You had a funeral and everything. Everyone thinks that you were killed in a car accident three years ago," he answered.

"I miss everything. The plants, the blue sky, everything!"

The one time I went outside in Hell, I saw a red sky, red sun and no plants at all. There were rocks. That's it.

"If you were to go back, what would you do?" he asked, breaking down a little.

I really loved being able to get anything I wanted by begging a little bit. Austin was a pushover when it came to me. And I used it to my advantage.

"I don't know. Sit somewhere and…just sit there."

"Not go see your friends or anything?"

"I won't if I can't."

He kept walking and thinking. A good sign. The longer he thought about it, the more likely I would be to win.

"I'll put a glamour on your grave. If you stay right there, you can go," he said after a long wait.

"Why my grave?"

"Nobody would be sitting on the top of a grave at night. But you."

"So I'm going? Now?"

"Yes. You should be full enough that you won't eat any humans that might be there. And you can flicker back."

He still hadn't stopped walking so I stepping front of him so he couldn't go any farther. Wrapping my arms around his neck, I hugged him tightly. After a second, he pulled me closer and smiled.

"Remember what you said right before I died?" I asked.

"How could I forget?"

"I love you too."

Instead of saying it back, he covered my mouth with his. I closed my eyes and let my body melt into him.

"Come on. I'll put on the glamour, and then you can go see your old world again," Austin mumbled.

"Thank you."

Austin went up to the cemetery and put a glamour to make me invisible on my grave. When he came back, I flickered back to my ex-world.

It was ever batter than I thought. The sun was still high in the blue sky and going behind puffy clouds. In Hell, there weren't clouds or a blue sky. I looked at the trees and flowers that were in full bloom, being it was midsummer.

I sat down on the top of my grave and leaned back against the tombstone. I crossed my legs and just looked around. It was unbelievably nice to be back after three years.

But only a few minutes after I sat down, I saw some human walking towards me. I knew they couldn't see me so I stayed put. If I moved, I would be seen but I didn't want to flicker away because I was enjoying myself.

When the girl got closer, I recognized her. The short, black hair. Mossy green eyes. Silver lip ring. She was three years older, but it was most definitely Parker.

She stopped right in front of my grave and stared right where I was. For a second, I thought she could see me. I fought the urge to flicker away or say anything just because I wanted to see her.

Then, she sat down where I was sitting. And while the glamour made me invisible, I was still there and I could feel it when she fell on me. And so could she…

"Hey!" I said, jumping to my feet. And out of the glamour.

Instead of staring at me or running away screaming, Parker looked at me and looked away.

"Wow. Pranks are getting so stupid lately…" she mumbled.

Totally ignoring my smart side of my brain, I said, "Pranks?"

"Yeah. You're obviously not Leah. You're barely eighteen, I bet. She may not have had the best fashion advice, but even she wouldn't where that. And she died. Which is why I'm sitting on her grave. Shoo," she said.

"Look, Parker, I can prove to you I'm Leah Moone. You think you're Asian. You got your lip ring because you got in a staple fight so you already had the hole. I set you and Ricky up in senior year. You said Austin, my boyfriend that I still have, wasn't human. We ran into you on a date at the movies."

"Easily found out. You could be anyone. Doesn't prove anything."

I thought back to when we were little kids because it was the only time she would have done anything only I would know. And I was determined to get her to know it was really me.

"You broke three laptops in less than a week in middle school."

"Everyone knows that," she snapped.

"You left me at creepy-Jason's party because you fell down the stairs and passed out. Ricky took you home and left me there while I was drunk off my ass."

"Ricky could have told you. Keep trying."

"You thought Austin was hot the first time you saw him. You whispered to me that he was still looking and I told you to stopped looking at him."

That was the only thing I had left that involved just the two of us and it would have to work. She would have to believe me.

Parker stood back up and applauded me.

"I was wondering when you would bring that up. So, I know you're Leah. But why, may I ask, are you so young while I am twenty-one?"

I hadn't thought this out very well. I couldn't just flicker away, because she would tell someone. I could hypnotize her, but I didn't want to. It felt wrong.

"Sorry about this, Parker," I said.

Using my slight advantage (demons were just barely faster than humans) I grabbed onto Parker and flickered back to Hell.

"Austin! We have a problem!" I yelled.

"Where the heck are we?" Parker asked. "And what happened?"

Austin came running down the hall. When he saw Parker, he stopped dead in his tracks.

"What did you do?" he asked.

"She sat on me and figured it out…"

"Damn it, Leah! She can't know about any of this!"

"Any of what?" she asked, breaking away from me.

Ignoring her, I said, "She'll figure it out anyway!"

"Figure what out?!" she yelled.

"I'm not telling her," Austin said.

"I will then."

"Tell me what?!" Parker was really getting pissed.

"You're in Hell. Austin is Satan, if you will, and I'm a demon."

"Yeah, right."

I grabbed back onto her and flickered us outside. We were standing just inside of the gates to the grounds. We looked up at the house, which was really a castle. It was sitting at the top of either a large hill or a small mountain of red and black rock. The crimson sun and sky was darkening. A bat flew overhead, screeched and landed on my shoulder (over the six months, I adopted a pet bat).

"What the heck is this?!" Parker yelled, backing away.

"Like I said. Hell. This is Austin's castle. As for the bat, he's my pet. His name is Lucifer. Ironic, I know," I said.

"You weren't kidding…"

"Nope. Back inside?"

She nodded slowly. I flickered us inside. Then, I got Parker a purple cloak to put on so she was in something other than human clothes."

"No. I want a cape," she said.

"You have to wear it or else you'll get killed. Demons eat humans like you. And even to me, you smell very delicious."

She backed away, pulling on the cloak. Was I really that threatening?

My phone started ringing in my pocket. When I pulled it out and saw it was Jack calling, I remembered that I was supposed to watch Ben tonight.

"Sorry, Jack," I answered. "I totally forgot…something came up."

I glanced at Parker when I said it.

"It's fine. But please try to hurry it up a little. Adrian and I kind of want to actually eat dinner tonight," Jack said.

"I'm on my way. I'm brining a guest with me, so be prepared."

"I don't care, but who?"

"An old friend."

"Is she a human, then?"

"Uh…yeah…"

"You just had to o back to Earth, didn't you?" she hung up on me.

I shoved my phone back into my pocket. Grabbing Parker again, I flickered us to Jack's room so I could watch Ben.

"Fast enough?" I asked.

"Barely," Jack answered. "So this is your guest?" she looked at Parker.

"Yes, it is. This is Parker Chace. She's only the awsomest human there is. Parker, this is Jack. My demonic best friend."

"Oh, thank you!" Jack said happily.

"Don't flatter yourself. I come first, bub," Parker said to Jack.

"I wouldn't ever try to replace you. Leah's still a little bit too human to be a demon. And now, Adrian and I are taking our leave."

Adrian wrapped his arms around Jack's waist and pulled her back against him. He smiled and flickered away, to wherever they were going for their mini date. I left the room, Parker following me, and I went to the next door down the hall. It was the nursery and would be where I would find Ben.

Lying in his crib, reaching up for the air, was little, barely two months old, Benjamin. I closed the door behind us and picked him up from his crib.

"Hi, Benny," I murmured and smiled down at him.

"Who's the kid?" Parker asked.

"Jack and Adrian's baby, Benjamin. He's my godson."

I walked over to her and put Ben in her arms. She kind of stared at him awkwardly before handing him back to me.

"I'm not good with kids," she explained.

While I took Ben back into my arms, I brushed something on Parker's left hand. When I looked down at it, I saw a gold ring with a diamond set into it on her ring finger.

"You're engaged?!" I semi-yelled.

"Uh…yeah…Ricky…"

"I knew it! And all because I forced you to partner up in math!"

"Yeah, yeah, you're a real cupid. Now you better explain all of this to me before…I…"

"I'm shaking in my boots. Let's go to my room and I'll tell you…whatever I can."

It was the best lie that was true that I could come up with. There was no way I could explain everything to her without giving her a heart attack but I had to explain some things or else she would probably tell someone what she saw and about me and that would be really bad…

I led Parker back to my and Austin's room (although, she didn't need to know it was his room too). She was little surprised by how large the castle was.

"How big is this place?" she asked, rather angry.

"Really big. Even I don't know my way around it all. Most of it, but not the entire castle. Maybe another month or two."

I kept walking to the room. Ben fell asleep on the way from the rocking movement.

In the room, I sat in the rocking chair. Austin and I put it there because I had Ben so much of the time. I started rocking so he wouldn't wake up and start crying. Meanwhile, Parker sat awkwardly in the desk chair and looked around.

"Nice room," she said.

"Thanks. Now I imagine I have to start with the explanations?"

"Preferably. Ricky expects me to be home around nine thirty."

I checked the clock; it was a few minutes past eight. I had enough time. So I launched into my story of what happened over the past three years for me. I made sure to skip some details, like how I died. It would creep her out to much, twenty-one or not.

I mostly explained the whole demonic thing to her. And my powers and whatnot. She didn't really say anything, which was unusual for Parker; she was always interrupting me about something when I was human.

Although, while I tried explaining how my powers worked, she asked way too many questions. I couldn't answer half of them because I either didn't know the answers myself or they would scare her to much.

"So you see, you can't tell anyone about what you've seen or heard tonight," I finished. "If you did, I would be forced to wipe your memory or kill you."

"God, this sounds like a cheesy spy movie," she said.

"So you're not freaked out by the fact I'm a demon, back from the dead, and dating Satan?"

"Why would I be? Like I said, cheesy spy movie. Do you have any food around here?"

"Course. I liked human food too you know. I'll take you to the kitchen."

I grabbed onto her shoulder and flickered to the kitchen to save us valuable time. I sat down at the island on a stool and hoped Ben wouldn't wake up.

After Parker was happy and full, we started walking back. I would have flickered, but I wanted Parker to see some more of the castle. But because the walk was one of the longer ones, and Parker was wearing heels, she started to complain.

"You have that awesome sparkle thing—"

"Flicker. It's flickering. Not sparkling," I interrupted.

"Whatever. You have the cool power, and I have what? My own two feet! Can't I have a Segway?"

"Walking is good for you. And we're half way back. Take off you shoes." I shrugged,

Parker did so and walked barefoot. Just as we were going up the spiral stairs, I saw Charles.

"Goodnight, Leah. Who is this?" he asked, seeing Parker at my side. Human visitors were mega rare here. Adrian and I were the only ones before Parker.

"Goodnight, Charles. This is Parker, my human best friend. She kind of figured everything out and…here she is," I answered.

"Nice to meet you, Parker. I hope you like the underworld."

"Hey, Chuck!"

He cleared his throat, annoyed. "It's Charles, actually."

"Not anymore. It's Chuck."

He gave me a look before passing us. Maybe I shouldn't have brought Parker here after all…

Back in my room, I had one question I couldn't stand not asking.

"Do you know how Alec is?" I asked.

"You don't wanna know…."

"Yes, I do. He's my brother."

"He's also creepy-emo-dude now."

"Seriously?"

"More or less. Your death really messed him up. Are you sure that you can't tell him? You told me."

"I'm sure. You finding out was an accident. He can't know."

"You know that you would have told me anyway." She smiled.

"You just keep telling yourself that…"

After that, I went to hunt down Austin. I gave Ben to him so I could take Parker home. Well, back to the cemetery. We said our goodbyes and exchanged our current phone numbers with the promise to call each other (and not tell anyone about anything on Parker's side).

I went back to my room in Hell. Austin was rocking back and forth in the rocking chair, like I had, to keep Ben happy. He was awake, but he wasn't crying yet, and we wanted to keep it that way.

Adrian flickered in a little while after that and took Ben, thanking us for watching him. We told him that we didn't mind and loved having him. The usual conversation. Then he left us alone again, like always.

Austin put his head back against the rocking chair. I thought that it had been a fairly long day for him. It was for me too.

I went and sat on his lap. He wrapped his arms around me and moved his head to it was on top of mine, rather than on the rocking chairs back.

"Are you mad that I brought Parker here?" I asked quietly, waiting for the explosion.

It didn't come. Instead, he sighed, "I guess not. You must miss your human friends, huh?"

"I do, but I guess as long as I can talk to Parker still, it's worth it to stay in Hell with you and everyone else."

"I'm glad you think so."

"And just so you know, you looked kind of hot with a baby in your lap," I joked.

"Just what are you implying?"

"Nothing…I…uh…There's nothing I can say to get out of this, is there?"

"Not really."

"Then I'm going to sleep and maybe tomorrow morning will come and I'll have forgotten all of this."

I crawled off of his lap and got into bed. Nevertheless the lights were still on, I shut my eyes and tried to fall asleep. But it was to bright still. Well, it was until the lights turned off.

Austin pulled the blankets up so he could slide in next to me. He wound his arms around my waist and pulled me against his chest. His face was buried in my hair.

"You're never going to let me forget this, are you?" I asked.

"Of course not."

I figured that I might as well use it to my advantage.

I rolled onto my other side to I was staring at Austin. But even being so close, I could barely see him because it was so dark. I reached up a little so I could kiss him. He pulled me onto his chest and kissed me. Running a hand down the curve of my back, he rolled over. He was somewhat heavy on top of me; it was a good thing that I was laying in a pile of super soft pillows.

But when he started unzipping my cloak, I put my hands on his chest and pushed him away. He put a hand on either side of my shoulders and propped himself up.

"Austin, stop. I'm…still not completely over what happened with Jason," I said.

"I'm sorry. I promised that I would take things slow with you."

He moved for a second time so he was just lying next to me. I still wanted to talk things slow, but not so slow that Austin wouldn't even touch me. So I inched over to my head was resting on his chest. In response, he very slowly and carefully positioned an arm around me. That, I didn't mind.

The next day, I decided that I wanted to take the day off. I knew how to use my powers and I didn't have anything super important to do. Plus, having Parker here made…the day before that much longer. I mean, I liked seeing her after so long and everything, but it made my life difficult.

While Austin and Adrian had more meetings to go to, I sat by myself, in my room. I didn't go see Jack and Ben, like I normally would have. I put on the most comfortable clothes I had, got a bowl of popcorn, a can of pop and curled up in the bed. I turned on one of my favorite movies and settled in for a nice, long day of relaxation.

But a while after five, Austin hadn't come back from his meetings and such. He always came back before five because we had to go down to dinner together at six. He still hadn't come back, so I decided to wait a little while longer before asking Jack if Adrian had come back. It wasn't like they could get into any trouble in their castle, but we liked to be on time.

I flickered down to Jack's room. She was sitting in the chair, Ben in her lap, no Adrian.

"Have you seen the guys?" I asked.

"No. Not since this morning. And it's kinda freaking me out," she answered.

"I'll flicker around for them."

I flickered out of the room, not quite sure where I was going. I was just going to Austin, not a specific place. As it turned out, he was in a hallway that I didn't know about. I'd probably been in it before, but didn't remember.

And he wasn't alone.

There was a girl, maybe nineteen or twenty, standing with him. She was a little taller than I was, but still shorter than Austin. Her hair was short, hanging to her jawbone, and a little lighter than the black everyone I knew seemed to have. She had the same demonic eyes as everyone, but they seemed shallow somehow.

I didn't like the way she was looking at him either.

The look to her face was something that any girl would hate, especially when it was directed at her boyfriend. It was something that only a girl with a death wish would do. Messing with Satan's girl was stupid and not to go unnoticed.

Austin turned and saw me as soon as soon as I had flickered in. He smiled (almost like when a little kid would get caught with a hand in a cookie jar) and came to where I was standing (making it known I was pissed off). He wrapped his arms around my waist from behind me and pulled me up against him.

I looked back at the girl. She didn't look very deterred by the fact I was there. In fact, she stared directly into my eyes and smiled like we were old friends.

"Leah," Austin said, "This is Ava. She's an old friend from middle school."

I didn't say anything to her. Her red cloak was making me think of the last 'friend' of Austin's I met. Drake had the same red cloak and he killed me. So not only was she trying to steal my man (demon or not) but she had to go and remind me of my death? Not smart.

"I've heard a lot about you," Ava said. Her voice matched her appearance perfectly.

"All good?" The first words I spoken to her.

She clucked like a conniving mouse would as he twirled his mustache. "Of course. What would your dear Austin say about you that wasn't a compliment?"

"Well, I've heard nothing about you," I sneered back.

"I'm not surprised."

"What exactly is that supposed to mean?"

She laughed again before kissing Austin's cheek and walking away. It was a good thing he had his arms around my waist or else I would have gone after her.

"What's with her?" I asked

"You were the one being rude."

"Well, I'm sorry! Ever hear of the Girl Code?"

He looked at me like I was totally insane.

"The Girl Code?" I repeated. Same look. I sighed impatiently. "Girls are never allowed to try and take another girls guy! It's like the worst violation ever!"

"Even if she wanted to, I wouldn't let her steal me away from you."

He moved around and kissed my neck. I flickered the two of us back to our room with the definite plan of skipping dinner. Screw what happened at that party. I had Austin now and he was what mattered.

Back in our room, I turned around so Austin was in front of me instead of behind. Now of course, I had to let him in on what I was thinking. I more or less yanked off my cloak, so I was only in my black shorts and tee shirt. Austin started catching on.

"We can wait…" he said, although it was a lie. He had waited three years. I knew he was just trying to avoid something like what happened last night.

I wrapped my arms tighter around him. "I don't want to wait. Not anymore. Now shut up and kiss me already."

Like I said (more like demanded), he clutched me closer to him and kissed me. Eventually, Austin's cloak ended up like mine: on the floor.

But in the end, all of our clothes ended up the same way. Basically strewn across the room. As for the two of us…we ended up lying, twisted together, in the bed, covered in sweat. Remind me again why we didn't do this before…?

Well into the night, I found myself lying on Austin's currently bare chest. My face was buried in his neck and his arms were resting lightly on my uncovered back.

We were sucked from our peaceful little world when Austin's phone started ringing. I didn't want him to answer it though. It was idyllic from where I was and I didn't want anything to disturb it at all. Not answering it, like I hoped, he reached over and ignored the call.

"Who do you think it was?" I whispered.

Austin traced his fingers over my spine absentmindedly. He didn't really answer me, but I could have cared less, really. I was happy. Really happy. In fact, happiness didn't cover it all. I would say blissful, but that doesn't work either. Nothing could truly describe my feelings.

I yawned enormously. We were up a considerable amount later than usual. Even though we didn't need more than a few hours of sleep, I preferred getting a full eight hours, like a human would. Not to mention all of the extra…physical activity I was involved in whilst I normally slept.

"You're tired," Austin muttered. "Go to sleep."

"I don't want to. I'm too comfortable."

He smiled up at me, not using the typical cocky smirk. Instead, it was more like…I wasn't really sure. The only thing I could think of, was that he was essentially saying 'I love you' without the words.

"We have as much time as we need. Go to sleep and I'll be here in the morning."

The corners or my mouth curved up in a sort of a grin. Not having to be told twice, I closed my eyes. But there was something I had to say before I could sleep peacefully.

"I love you, Austin."

Again, he smiled. His hands moved from my back to cup my face tenderly. He brought his lips to mine.

"I love you too," he whispered. He was so close to me when he said it, his lips brushed against mine with ever syllable.

Although I didn't think it possible, I was even happier than I had been before. But like Austin said, I was incredibly tired. Closing my eyes again, I finally went to sleep.

Whenever I woke up the next day, I was curled against Austin's side. His arms were still wound around me. He was still asleep and I didn't really want to wake him up, being he was so at peace. So instead, I checked the time. It was a little after eleven. Luckily, it was a Sunday so Austin didn't have any meetings or anything he had to do.

Rather than wake him up, I gently, so gently I barely touched him, I took his arms from around my body and slipped from the bed. The floor was cold and it surprised me a little. I tried to ignore it and started pulling on my clothes again. But I left off the cloak where it was on the floor because I was more comfortable without it.

After that, I wasn't really sure what to do. Even if I wanted to, and I didn't, I couldn't very well leave him. But at the same time, I didn't want to just watch TV or go on the computer. So I simply slid into the bed again next to Austin. I slouched down the pillows so we were at eye-level. His mouth was hanging open, just barely. Extremely slowly, I reached forward and started stroking his dark hair.

A while later, Austin's eyes opened to see me. He grinned and sat up, stretching out his back and shoulders. His demonic tattoos rolled over hid arms and down his tanned stomach. I never really noticed that before.

He noticed me studying him. "What?" There was a smile in his voice.

I put my index finger on one of the black tattoos on his shoulder and started tracing the lines and curves of it down Austin's side and around the front of his stomach. He shivered at my touch.

"Just looking at your tattoos," I answered, keeping my voice relatively monotone.

"Haven't you seen them before?"

"Yeah, but I never really paid attention to them."

"And you decide to now?"

"I guess."

I kept tracing the patterns of the black tattoos over Austin's body. He kept as still as he could, letting me drag my finger over his shoulder, arms and torso. There were more curves than I guessed there were.

The phone started ringing again. And I had a feeling that he couldn't just ignore it a second time.

He groaned, annoyed and answered, "Hello?"

Nothing was said for a while. But it was reasonably obvious that Austin wasn't to happy about who he was talking to. His jaw was taut, and when words were finally said, he spit them through his teeth.

"No. It's my only day off…I know! You're not in charge any more; I am…maybe."

He angrily flipped his phone shut and hung up on who he was talking to. I guessed that it was Charles.

"Is something wrong?" I asked.

"Just my dad thinking he's still running the empire. I really don't understand why he thinks I'm still seventeen. Sure, I wasn't running things then, but I am now. Not to mention I'm a legal adult."

His body was rocking with tremors of fury. I did the only thing that I thought could even remotely calm him down.

Very cautiously, I edged into Austin's lap. Like always, I found strong arms around me. The tremors gradually slowed and stopped all together. I guessed that my plan had worked. I knew that he always said he wouldn't hurt me, so if he was so angry he wanted to hurt something (or someone) only trying not to hurt me would make things better. And it did.

"Let's go get some breakfast, then we can do whatever you want," he said. There was still some slight irritation to his smooth voice, but it was mending back to his normal quality.

Austin pulled on his clothes, however leaving of his cloak (on Sunday's, no other demons came to the castle. Mainly because it was just a kind of tradition and something that they just didn't do. Thus, we didn't have to wear the cloaks).

The two of us headed, hand-in-hand, to breakfast. Which was a quick stop to have some human energy and then some actual food. Today was Oliver's day to give me energy and I was almost looking forward to seeing him.

"I'll be back," Austin said. He kissed me for a second before leaving to get his own energy.

I sat down on the couch Oliver was sitting on.

"Hey, Leah," he said.

"Back at ya, Oliver."

Quickly, I took the energy that I needed from him. He yawned afterwards, like always. He said that he was going to go and sleep. Leaving him alone, I left and went into the hall.

Austin was waiting for me, like he seemed he always was.

"Ready for actual food now?" he asked.

In a reply, I nodded. I always wanted regular food, even after having energies. Sure, it didn't actually fill my stomach up, but it kept me going longer and I kind of needed it. I think I'm the only demon that needs a human amount of sleep. Maybe it was because I was a human?

Although, he didn't eat anything. It wasn't exactly unusual, because he didn't eat everyday.

Again, Austin's phone rang. He looked at the screen and scowled. Which inevitably meant it could only be one person.

"What do you want?" he asked, angry again. It started to look like me trying to clam him down before was totally worthless. "Not yet. Later, okay...what do you mean, why?" he smirked, but not in the usual way. It was more like a why-do-you-have-to-be-such-an-idiot look. "Naw," he said sarcastically. "What do you think?"

Then, he snapped the phone shut and turned it off. It went back into his pocket, where it would probably stay for the rest of the day.

"What did your dad want?" I asked.

"Nothing of importance. Please, just forget about it." he sounded so pleading that I couldn't help but ignore Charles.

Austin put his hands on my waist and pulled us closer together.

"Now, what do you want to do for the rest of the day?" he asked.

"It's up to you."

This was the point in time when his old smile came back. It was just like it always had been. With a little twist, that is. Do you even have to ask? It said.

I knew exactly what he meant. So rather than walk, I flickered back to our room. Luckily it was a Sunday, so nobody would come looking for us. It would be slightly bad if they did, especially if it was after clothes started flying.

Yet again, I found myself lying across Austin's chest; Not that I minded at all. But unlike before, his arms weren't around me. They were behind his head, and that was what I didn't like.

I propped myself up on my elbow and looked down at him. He kept staring up at the ceiling, eyes vacant and barely glazed over with thought. I would have thought, if anything, he would be as happy as I was. I mean, like he never failed to remind me, he was barely twenty one and had to finish out his teenage years without any sex whatsoever.

"What's wrong?" I asked.

He kept staring past me. It was really starting to annoy me. I didn't like getting ignored.

"Seriously, what is it?"

"I can't take it anymore. The guilt is killing me," he mumbled, not really to me.

I moved so my head was so close to Austin's that our foreheads and noses were touching.

"Look at me and tell me what the hell is going on."

He rolled his eyes forward so he was looking straight up at me.

"Don't be angry with me," he begged softly.

"I'm won't be if you tell me what's wrong," I reasoned, trying to keep my voice cool and even.

"Nothing's wrong, necessarily. In fact, it could be kind of good for you. You know how my dad kept calling me?"

I nodded. "Yeah, but…"

"He said that you have a choice to make. You may either stay here, with me and my family, forever. Or you can go back home and be with your human friends, like you never died. Time would reverse until your senior year again."

"I don't see why you find anything wrong with that."

How could being human and living with Parker and Ricky again be a bad thing?

"There's conditions. If you stay in Hell, you can't ever have any contact with anyone human. Including Parker and Ricky. They would have to be hypnotized into forgetting you're a demon. And if you choose to go back home, you can't ever see or talk to me ever again. No one else will ever remember I went to your school. You, however, will remember anything. Plus, you'll be human again. My dad said that I didn't have to tell you and then you would just stay here. But I couldn't take lying to you. So I'm letting you choose. Whatever you pick, its okay with me."

I couldn't say anything. I was virtually stunned into silence. There was no way I could choose between worlds. I felt like I belonged in both of them. Not to mention it would mean picking sides. Parker-Ricky-Alec or Austin-Jack-Ben-Adrian.

I felt like I was being asked whether I wanted to die of drowning or suffocation. I couldn't live without my human best friends, or Austin.

"I'll think about it," I whispered.

"Really? I thought you would automatically choose home."

"Not necessarily. When do I have to know?"

"My dad said two weeks."

At least I had a while to think about it. Not long enough in my eyes, but it was longer than I expected.

I rolled off of Austin's chest, so I was next to him instead. But I made sure I wasn't touching him at all. I needed a totally clear mind to think. Although, I couldn't take it. I curled up against his side and closed my eyes. He put an arm around me, like always. Then, thinking about my inevitable doom of choices, I fell asleep.

The next two weeks went…interestingly.

I spent most, if not all, of my time, locked in my room, thinking. I didn't touch the TV or computer or any reading material. I left once everyday to get some energy from whatever human's turn it was and a bottle of water or something. Then I would return to pacing around the floors of my room.

I did nothing but think all day and sleep all night. I barely even held a conversation with anyone either. Austin and I would talk at night, but other than that, I never saw anyone else. Not even Jack and Ben. They would come and see me during the first week, but gave up after that because I kind of ignored them. I wasn't trying to be mean or anything; I was just focused on thinking.

I would walk from the door to where the desk was, pause, and turn around again. I managed to do that process all day. If my feet started hurting or I got to bored, I would sit in the desk chair. Then I would move to the rocking chair and the bed after that. I could do that for two weeks straight, and I thought it was pretty impressive.

And while I did that? I tried to make up my mind.

Now, if I stayed in Hell, I would be with Austin. If it wasn't made apparent the second night we had sex, I couldn't stand being away from him. Even trying to sleep when I wasn't physically touching him was impossible. Even for the two weeks, while I was trying to make up my mind, I had to sleep curled to his side with his arms around me.

I wouldn't be able to see or talk to Parker ever again though. After seeing her that one time, I had been missing her and calling her like every night. She would have to be hypnotized into forgetting I was even alive. She would think I died in a car accident, three years before, like everyone else.

Not to mention Ricky. I wouldn't be able to see my best guy friend either. Sure, Parker and I were a little closer. But when she wasn't around, I confided in him. And about some things, I told him before I told Parker, if I told her at all. He understood why I liked Austin, as much as another guy could, and he accepted it. When we went to Silver Lake, Ricky even befriended him as best he could. Then again, he thought I died three years ago and I was still human, along with Austin…

On the other side of the equation, I could go back to Parker, Ricky and my human friends. Including Alec, whom I also missed tremendously. I would be able to go back in time to before any of this happened, so I could change what happened with Jason.

I would be human again too. I wouldn't have to eat other human's energy to survive. Then again, it would be easier to kill me…

And I wouldn't be able to have anything to do with Austin ever again. He never would have come to school with me, saved me after the party. None of my friends would remember who he was, having not met him. I would still be dating Manny and would have to break up with him yet again.

I would have to go without talking to Austin ever again too. Not seeing or talking to him…I wasn't sure if I could actually do it. And sleeping with him didn't make my life any easier.

Exactly two weeks after being told I had to choose between my human of demonic lives, I had made my decision. It wasn't easy, to say the least. It was the hardest thing I ever had to do. Harder than choosing to leave my room after getting raped by Jason. It was excruciating, but I chose where to live the rest of my life.

I pulled on my cloak and left the room that I barely seemed to step foot out of. I walked down to Austin's office that used to belong to his dad. I didn't want to flicker there because I wanted to avoid telling him what I chose. It was going to be harder than choosing in the first place.

When I got there, and was standing in front of the floor-to-ceiling double doors, I felt like barely any time had gone by at all. I took a deep breath, meant to calm me down. It didn't work at all, but I knocked on the doors anyway.

"Come in," Austin said in his business-like tone.

I pushed open on of the doors and closed it behind me. I walked slowly towards him. While I did, he stood up and moved so he was standing in front of the desk. I stopped so I was positioned a few feet in front of him.

"I take it you made your decision?" he asked.

"Yes, I did. Austin, I'm going home," I said.

After a pause, he replied. "I had a feeling and I respect your choice. Now, you're positive? You can't change your mind afterwards."

"I am. I know who I can't live without."

"Okay then. You may leave as soon as we're finished talking. As soon as you flicker back, time will reverse itself to the first Friday I went to your school. You'll wake up that morning, except I won't be there. And please try to avoid going to that party, because I can't find you after what he does."

"I understand. Goodbye, Austin."

I took a few steps forward and kissed his cheek. I was planning on only that, but he wrapped his arms around me, strong but gentle, and pulled me against him.

"I'll still love you anyway," he whispered to me.

"I'll love you too. Forever."

I flickered out of his arms and to the bedroom I only really ever considered to be mine.

I lay back on the pillows and stared at the ceiling. I had made my choice now and was forced to stick with it. I sighed and wished, almost, that things could be different.

Until late into the night, I stared up into the dark, waiting for something to happen. Eventually, when it was around midnight, my door opened, letting in some light. A figure stood, just inside my room and stared where I was lying for a second. Then, the lights turned on and they came inside.

They walked exceedingly, painfully, slow to where I was. Sitting down next to me, they pulled me into their arms and buried their face in my hair, rocking me back and forth.

"Please, tell me this isn't a dream," they said.

"It's not," I promised. "I said I would love you forever and it was the truth, Austin. I know who I can't live without."

We smiled at each other and I knew I had made the right choice. Hell was my home and I was staying there. Forever.