Warning: Contains mature themes. Let's face it. You're on Twilight fanfiction. This story? It isn't what you are looking for. I was just bored, and have to find ways for my sadistic tendencies to not be too destructive. Anyway, most of you aren't old enough to read this, so just head on back a different direction.

Consider yourself warned.

"Mentalward" Contest

Pen Name: Book2romantic
Title: Good Kids
Summary: It's funny how much we judge by how things appear to be. Alice gets some lessons in that, though her anger issues might make her a slow learner.
Word Count: 6098 (well, unless you ask fanfiction. It seems to think it is something different)

"Alice, please, don't," she cowered, trying to scoot away from me. Where did she expect to escape to, farther into the room? I was closer to the door than her.

"Hold still, Cynthia. You wouldn't want me to slip, would you?"

"Alice. I'll- I'll scream. Mom! Mo-" My hand cut her off before she got loud enough that anyone would notice.

"You'll be quiet, Cynth. What would mom find if you screamed for her?" My knife bit into her skin, barely breaking it. It took more precision, more control, than Cynthia realized to do this, to only go through the skin. I took my free hand away from her face, watching her eyes.

"She'd find her perfect daughter, minding her own business." I dragged the knife down. The tear it made in her thigh welled up, the blood dripping down as I pulled the knife away. I moved around so that I was behind her. She shivered as I wrapped one arm around her, blowing my breath across her ear. I pressed the flat of the knife again her crotch, while the blade was still just a twitch away from her thigh. Cynthia whimpered quietly. "She'd find you, the depressed, emo, antisocial child, bleeding to death because she's a stupid little cutter."

"Shhhh. Don't shake now." I pressed the knife in again, drawing another red line. I traced the knife up, over her stomach and her breasts, before letting it rest against her neck. She gulped as I held it there, letting her believe I was considering it. Maybe I was. Mostly though, I just liked feeling her tremble, hearing her breath hitch. I finally whipped it away, folding it quickly and sticking it into my pocket.

"Get dressed. What would mom think if she came up to see if you were ready for school yet and found you playing with yourself?"

***

"This is your last year in high school, Alice. Are you excited?"

"I think it all just hasn't hit me yet, mom." Or maybe you've already asked me that a dozen times. Sometimes I thought it would be fun to just stab her eyes out, but I wouldn't be able to pin that on anyone. Get it? Pin it on anyone. Sorry, I blame that Oedipus play.

I glanced over at my sister. That was the other reason I couldn't do anything about my mother. I'd probably get separated from Cynthia, and what would I do without my favorite plaything? I just love her to pieces. Speaking of her, she was wearing a black hoodie and black skinny jeans. Did she really need to make it that easy for me to convince people that she was an emo freak? I mean, she was, but only because I had driven her to that. She probably would have been a boring normal person if I hadn't done anything to her.

Maybe she would have ended up like that anyway, after what happened to our dear daddy. So terrible that he died in that car accident that the rest of us lived through – just awful. It was amazing that one of us kids was growing and thriving. Two would have been too much to ask for anyway.

"You all need to hurry, or you'll be late for school." As if I was ever late, as if the school would bother to do anything to me, I had everyone in that place wrapped around my little finger.

"Of course. Love ya, mom." It was really funny, the way she actually thought that I cared. Cynthia might have felt something towards mom; I don't know. But, the woman was so sure that I loved her, and that Cynth was angry and hated her.

Me and little sis breezed out to my car. Well, okay, I breezed. Cynthia took her sweet time. It was my senior year, but only Cynthia's sophomore. Eventually she made her way over to the door of my bright yellow beauty. A Porsche, they tell me, is an expensive car. A mark of status, if you will. I must be a big deal, important and rich and powerful, if I have one at such a young age. I thought it was perfect.

"Maybe mom will get you a car when you turn sixteen, Cynth. Then you could drive yourself to school." She didn't answer, of course. I knew she wouldn't.

"Unless you want to keep riding with your big sis. I know how much you enjoy our time together." Still silence. "Maybe I should tell mom that you don't need a car, that I'll drive you everywhere."

"No."

"I bet I could get her to let me take you on some sort of road trip."

"Alice, please." I just had to get that out of her.

We pulled up to school. We looked like complete opposites, except that we were both small and had dark hair. Even her shoes were black, while I was dressed in light colors, white and pink, and a flowery skirt. I'm sure I looked even more like the wonder child who ruled this place next to her.

"Hey, Alice!" called out a tall blond from across the parking lot. Rosalie. She was smarter than most of the people here, at least. She knew I was better than everyone else, even if she thought she was close to equal to me. I bet she would have been a lot of fun to play with. If I didn't have Cynthia, I probably would spend a lot more time with all the other kids in Forks. But really, me and my sister were just so close.

"How was your summer, Rose?" God, she actually was dumb enough to answer. I tuned her out on the way to class. It was the same story it always was with Rose, some guy or other on some beach or other. If one of these guys ever showed up, I'm sure it would turn into the beginning of Grease, and then I would have to kill everyone, consequences be damned.

"Did you hear about the new guy?"

"What?" That was something surprising, Rose having something useful to say for once! Cynthia had already headed of to her own class by now. "What about him?"

"I hear he didn't just move here." She leaned down to whisper in my ear, "I hear that his family had to move to get away from some trouble. A lot of bad rumors about this guy."

"Sounds..." As boring as the next poor sac of shit that ends up around here. "Interesting."

"I don't know, Alice. I heard he might be kind of violent, maybe a bit dangerous."

"I bet you think he sounds fun." Because the highest thing you could ever aspire to in life is to be the dumb girl in horror movies who gets cut up in the beginning.

"Of course not, I think we should-" I looked at her.

"Oh, fine, maybe a little," Rose admitted with a giggle that made me want to strangle her. I giggled back, but she didn't manage to catch the mockery. No one ever seemed to. Why the hell would any intelligent person giggle like that?

"Hey, babes."

"Don't call me that, Emmett." Otherwise, I'll be forced to gut you like a fish. I should kill you anyhow, just because of how much you make Rose do that stupid little giggle.

"Sorry, short stuff." I don't know why I even try to communicate with these people. Emmett had an arm around Rose, who was not in my first class of the day. Neither of them was. One of the pluses of calculus first thing in the morning is that no one bothered me. I had to listen to an idiotic teacher drone on, and occasionally he got interrupted with questions from even more idiotic students. I spent the period carving into the underside of my desk with my keys, and imaging more fun uses for the sharp little metal objects.

All my morning classes went by largely without incident. I had to talk to people more in other classes, both because of the subject matter and because some idiot had decided that I was whatever queen bee all these drones should be following. At least they recognized that I was their better, but it brought extra scrutiny that made me have to act in an "appropriate" fashion more than I might have had to if I didn't have their adoration. Rose and Emmett were in my third period Spanish class before lunch, so, of course, I had to communicate with them, if you could call it that.

I couldn't escape them at lunch either. Sycophants would always crowd around me, sit at my table, and ask me for advice on everything. It was like I was holding court and had to settle all the ignorant peasants' disputes. Every day, it was exactly the same.

Except, I noticed something different today, very different.

"Rose, who is that sitting with Cynthia?" No one ever sat with my morose sister. She was practically monosyllabic at school. I showed how benevolent I was by making sure that none of these cretins touched her at school. No one but me laid a hand on her.

Except that right now, some tall, blond-haired boy had her hand in his. She was blushing, too. Blushing! As if anything here should make her ashamed, just because she's a weak, insignificant freak doesn't mean she is any lower than the rest of this scum.

"That's the new guy I was telling you about. What's he doing talking to that freak of a sister of yours?" Oh, shut up, as if you are any better than her. You'd be fucked up too, if I decided you should be. "He's way too cute for her."

I only barely heard her though, as I was already walking towards Cynth and this boy. Was she smiling at him?

"Cynthia, who's your friend?" She dropped his hand as soon as she heard me.

"Alice," she said – practically stuttered it. She wasn't smiling now. "I, uh, this-"

"Jasper Whitlock," supplied the boy. I could see why she liked him. He certainly was nice to look at. Ridiculously taller than either of us Brandon girls, he had an interesting air to him. He didn't offer to shake my hand when he introduced himself, but it wasn't that he just didn't do that like so few people seem to these days. He just didn't give a shit about me. Hell, he was even dressed in all black to match up with Cynthia's rather nicely.

"I'm Alice." I glanced over at Cynthia again, making sure that I seemed to be smiling in response to her. "I guess I'm a little overbearing sometimes. Cynthia probably wishes that she didn't have to put up with being my younger sister a lot of the time."

"You have no idea," she whispered to him. The bored look on his face twitched into a smirk for a second. At some level, Cynthia must like what I do to her. Hell, she must love it. Because she knew that out in public like this, I couldn't do anything to her, so she took the time to make little jabs at me. Little remarks, that she just had to know would piss me off and make me want to hurry home where I could be alone with my dear little sister. She knew what I would do. If she just shut up and kept her head down, it would be so much better for her. But she never did.

"Well, Alice," Jasper stood up, holding out a hand for Cynthia. He shouldn't say my name like that, like he's mocking me. "I guess Cynthia and I will see you around then."

He led her off before I could calm myself down enough to respond. No one dismisses me like he just had. No one. He would definitely see me around. They both would.

***

School seemed to crawl by. I didn't have any classes with this Jasper, and I had already known that I wouldn't have any classes with Cynthia. I would have to make her tell me everything about this new boy as soon as we got home. Mom wouldn't be back for a few hours, and I'd have lots of time to play before dinner.

I almost hurried to get to my car. I shouldn't be this eager, but something about Cynthia and that boy had irked me more than it should have. I needed to have some fun before I really blew up on someone. I ended up standing there waiting at my car. Me, waiting! I sometimes made Cynthia wait, if it was really cold out, or raining really hard. But no one made me wait!

Finally, that little bitch came walking out. That boy had his arm around her as they walked, and she was too busy looking at him to even pay attention to where she was going. She was making me want to vomit with her stupid puppy dog eyes staring at him.

"I'll take Cynthia home today," Jasper informed me, like he got to call the shots here, like he was in control. I wanted to rip his throat out right there, but I managed to stay calm.

"Well, be sure you have her home before our mom gets back for dinner." He barely nodded as they kept walking by. Cynthia at least cowered against him. She knew I was in control, even if she thought maybe that boy could protect her somehow. For all the stupid slut knew, he was worse than me. If she ended up raped and dead in a ditch somewhere, I'd be very upset. If she were dead, I'd need a new plaything.

I still needed my stress relief when I got home. We didn't have any pets, none of us felt like taking care of them, plus strange accidents always seemed to happen to them when we had a few when Cynthia and I were younger. There was no one home. I screamed at the empty house, before running up the stairs to Cynthia's room. It was practically barren. She didn't have things that she liked. Whenever she got one, it would always end up broken or turned against her somehow, and now that stupid bitch had managed to use that against me! While she was off trying to get some bastard she just met to fuck her, I was stuck here with nothing! I flipped her mattress off of her bed, hoping to find something she'd hidden from me, but there was nothing, just a mess that she'd have to explain to mom. Nothing. I yanked open a drawer on her dresser. Her panties were in it. They were the only things that weren't black in her wardrobe. White and red and pink and green. She wouldn't need these if she was turning into that new boy's slut, would she? I pulled them out, and started shredding them one by one. I left the scraps all over her room. She could figure out a story all on her own, for mom or anyone else who might see her room.

***

Over two hours after I had gotten home, Cynthia finally got back. I heard a car pull up, someone getting out, and the car pulling away. He didn't even wait to see if she had gotten into the house okay. I heard her closing the front door behind her, and a sigh, like she was so enamored with this Jasper.

"Where have you been?" I demanded from the top of the stairs.

"No where. Jasper just took me out to eat. He noticed I didn't eat anything at lunch...and, and- Alice, no-" I pressed my arm against her throat, holding her against the door she had just come through. If she had been any taller, it might have been hard for me to do. But she was as tiny as I was, so instead all she could do was start to try to force my arm away before I shook my head and held a knife in front of her face. This one was from the set in the kitchen, not as small and precise as my knife. Usually, it would be duller, too, but I had spent the last half an hour by myself sharpening it.

"So he just took you out to some restaurant?" She nodded, her chin hitting my arm. She tried to gasp something out, but couldn't. I moved enough that she could breathe.

"We just talked, Alice. I didn't, I don't-" she cut off as I slid the knife down the waistband of her jeans.

"Just talked? Is that really all you did?" She nodded frantically, knowing that her voice would just piss me off more right now. "Then you won't mind if check."

I jammed the knife down, punching it through her jeans, then tore it out. I fell backwards as it finally got through her jeans; I probably looked like as dumb a bitch as all those girls at school as I landed on my ass. Cynthia didn't see. She'd shut her eyes tight, and her lip was shaking as if she wanted to cry. I pulled myself up by her jeans, making sure to yank them down at the same time. I jammed a finger into her, staring at her face as I did. I saw tears start to build up in the corner of her eyes. She whimpered as I pulled my fingers out again. I stepped back, and she collapsed to the floor. She had a shallow cut just below her hipbone where I had nicked her with the knife, and she was sobbing, curling up into a little ball.

Maybe I should do this more often. She hadn't been that amusing in ages.

***

Cynthia had cleaned herself and her room up before mom got home. Next time, I should make it harder for her to clean up everything.

We all sat down for our normal dinner. It was chicken and rice, one of mom's most common dishes. Mom always liked to pretend that we were a nice normal family, or at least think that we could have a normal dinner together every night. We rarely managed to. More often than not, we just sat in silence, with Cynthia managing to kill any conversation we might have had. Mom always made the attempt though. Sometimes I would even try to help mom, when I thought it might be fun, calling attention to something that happened in Cynthia's day that I wanted her to have to talk about.

"How was your first day at school?"

"Good," I answered. Cynth sat there quietly, as expected.

"Did anything interesting happen?" The only interesting thing had happened with Cynthia.

"I met a boy." I wanted to stomp my foot but couldn't in front of mother. What was Cynthia doing admitting anything? I was supposed to make mom drag it out of her. "His name is Jasper."

"Oh? What's he like?" This had to be the longest sentence that mom had gotten out of Cynthia since the last time she had tried to send her to counseling three years ago.

Cynthia cut off any answer I might have given again. "He likes a lot of the bands I do. He actually took me out to lunch today."

She looked nervous about that. As if Mom would care if something happened to her. Maybe she would, at first, but she'd move on, trying, just like after dear father came to that untimely end. It wasn't like Mom was bright enough that we should care. Otherwise, she might have figured out what was wrong with her happy little family.

"Well, I guess it's okay, but you should be careful Cynthia. You just met this guy. What grade is he in?"

"He's a senior."

"Then how did you meet him?" I hadn't meant for that to come out so snidely. Mom glanced at me, but when I didn't act as if anything odd had happened, she let it go.

"He... he helped me with my books after he bumped into before lunch." How cliché.

"Well, he sounds nice enough, but call before you go off with anyone, okay dear?" Mother asked, as if she would have gotten the message in time to do anything.

"Okay, mom. Sorry." Like you have ever saved little Cynthia from anything.

***

The rest of dinner passed without any big events, and I decided to leave Cynthia alone for the rest of the day. I didn't even wake her up. I just watched her, smiling every time she'd catch me and look away suddenly. I could see how frightened she was, wondering what I had in store for her. I hadn't actually thought out anything. I was waiting for inspiration to strike.

We arrived at school, and suddenly Cynthia seemed to change. She immediately hopped out of the car, walking of without even acknowledging me. Part of me seethed, but another part finally saw some inspiration. If school made her feel safe, if he made her feel safe, then he'd end up just like anything else Cynthia had ever liked. Turned against her would be best. I could just imagine if Jasper were to hurt her, betray her. It would be some of my best work to date.

Inspiration had most definitely struck.

Rose, of course, managed to catch me before I was out of the parking lot. "Did you hear about the party the new kid is throwing?"

Did she do anything besides gossip? "No, Rose. Tell me all about it."

She did, at least until Emmett showed up and made it worse, somehow. She did give me lots of fun information, made me think of things I would need to do that day.

***

I walked into lunch late. I'd had to start making preparations, and some things were just much easier at school. Not that I couldn't have managed otherwise, it was just a matter of convenience. The world had decided to be convenient for me, and I let it. It also let me walk up behind Cynthia and her new friend unnoticed.

"Really?" I heard Jasper ask.

"Why would I make it up?" Cynthia retorted.

"I don't know. It's kind of hot."

"You're sick," she said, shoving his shoulder, but she was smiling the whole time. That was until she saw me walking up behind them.

"Whatcha talkin' 'bout?" I felt like I wanted to be able to pop some bubble gum right after I asked that, but for some reason the school would get upset by that. They didn't bust drug dealers, but gum they couldn't stand. I loved the hypocrisy.

"Nothing," Cynthia managed to choke out. Jasper didn't even turn around to look at me.

"Hey." I tapped him on the shoulder. He still didn't turn around. "I heard you were having a party this Friday. Are me and my sister invited?"

He hung his head backward over the chair, looking at me upside down. "Well, I guess I meant it when I said everyone was invited."

He sat back up to whisper something in Cynthia's ear, and she gave one of those stupid piercing giggles. She giggled again grabbing his hand as it started creeping up under the black hoodie that she always wore. I stalked off to my usual table, wondering if there was a way to cut someone so that they couldn't make stupid noises like that. Rose and those other idiots just made me want to cut someone up even more. Everyone was talking about this party. It was only Tuesday, but Jasper had already become the talk of the school, and everyone couldn't wait for his party.

Funny though, I fingered my recent purchase in my pocket; I was actually looking forward to this party, too.

***

Friday finally got here. I hadn't wanted to do anything too extreme in the meantime. Cynthia seemed to be gaining some confidence, some hope back into her life, and it would be all the more fun to crush it out of her.

Not that I hadn't done anything. I left a few lines in her where Jasper wouldn't have to work very hard to find them. I made sure that they were fresh every day, too, wouldn't want his presents to get stale.

Mom had said we could go to the party. Apparently, she was under the impression that there would be a certain amount of adult supervision. I don't know who told her that, but I was pretty sure they had lied to the woman.

I heard feet moving as lightly as possible in the hall. They stopped in front of my door. I was thinking that I might want a more eye catching outfit for this evening's fun, when I heard the floor creak slightly again. It sounded like the person outside was trying to figure out if they wanted to leave, or keep standing there.

"Why don't you come in, Cynthia?" I heard the poor girl scurry away, and chuckled to myself. I changed into a short plaid skirt and a different shirt. This one was a t-shirt I'd seen online. It said "Supervision: not as fun as it sounds." It wasn't some concert shirt or a band shirt like Cynthia might have, but it seemed like the kind of thing that might get Jasper's attention. And, that might come in handy. I thought about make up, but I don't need it.

Cynthia, of course, took forever to come down. "If you don't get into my car in the next ten seconds, I'm leaving you!"

I didn't actually stay in the house to see if she heard. I immediately headed out to my car. I was waiting in my car when she finally came running out. I almost burst out laughing when she did. Had that been why she had been outside my room? Cynth had taken a pair of scissors to what I can only presume was her largest pair of jeans, in an effort to make a skirt. It looked ridiculous, and I doubt I would have been comfortable in something that short. And I don't care if anyone looks at me. Cynthia, with her ridiculously pale legs, had always been incredibly self-conscious. She had on white socks that practically blended into her leg. It was hilarious that the only non-black things she owns are those socks.

She finally got to the car, but I decided that it had been more than ten seconds, and started pulling away. She ran along, yanking on the locked door, before stumbling and giving up. I couldn't just leave her though, not tonight, so I stopped the car, and leaned over to open the passenger door.

"Oh, get in." She climbed in rather warily. She needn't have been worried. The trap wasn't here. It was at Jasper's house.

And, what a house! He lived on the outskirts of our stupid little small town, and his family must have been loaded, because to call this a house was an insult. It was a mansion at the end of a long wind driveway that was more of a private road. I could hear music and voices as soon as we got out of the car.

"You know, Cynthia, mom asked me to keep an eye on you tonight."

"Whatever, Alice. Just leave me alone." She turned and stalked off. I did need her to not notice me for a bit, so I let her get away. I would have to mingle with all the miscreants at this party before I could actually have a chance to enact my plan.

Some random jock stopped me before I even got to the door. "Hey, babe-"

Too bad for him no one was around. I cut him off with a knee to the groin, then kicked him in the head when he was doubled over.

Maybe there could be some fun at this party after all. I kicked him once more in the side before walking into the party.

***

There were two different rooms that had been set up as dance floors, on opposite ends of the house, and I mean opposite. One was on the east side of the first floor, while the other was on the third floor, above the kitchen. The kitchen was set up as a bar with lots of mixed drinks, and there were kegs in at least three different rooms.

Honestly, it was probably the best party that had ever been thrown in Forks. If Jasper hadn't been the talk of the high school before this, he certainly would be now.

Around all these people, I couldn't really do everything I would have wanted to, but there was a little fun to be had. Some poor little freshman girl who had been trying to impress her boyfriend had ended up leaving in tears after someone spilled their drink all over her. Just little things like that. It shouldn't have mattered, but these stupid kids all cared about such irrelevant things that you could get to them so easily. I'd finally managed to wander into my real fun that evening, though. Jasper and Cynthia were sitting on a couch talking near one the east dance floor. Neither of them was facing their drinks. Really, no one was paying any attention to what was going on around them. I pulled out the capsules in my pockets, opening them carefully, before walking quickly up to the drinks and dumping one into each.

I wandered back to the kitchen, planning on getting a refill while I waited for my plan to start taking effect. They'd need a bit to finish their drinks. I went to the kitchen, grabbing some Coke from the mixing table. No alcohol for me tonight. I didn't want anything to cause me to be unsteady. I walked back toward the dance floor.

They weren't there. Damn, I'd need to find them. I had about twenty minutes before anything started taking effect, and I wanted to be ready for when it did. I downed my drink while I thought about where they could have ended up. They would have had to head back towards me if they'd gone any direction but the dance floor. It wasn't a sure thing, but I'd check there first before having to search the whole house.

It was weird, actually. The acoustics of this room somehow seemed to contain the sound. Out sound of it, the base was a nice pulse, but inside, you could feel the vibrations shaking you with each beat of the music. My skin seemed to tingle slightly as I brushed against the moving bodies that crowded the room. I wove through, trying to check each corner looking for Jasper and Cynthia. I didn't see them in any dark corner as I danced through the room, enjoying the music more than I had expected to. As I tried to move through the crowd, I felt an arm wrap around me, pulling me back towards someone I couldn't see as we both kept dancing. For some reason, I didn't mind. Of course guys would want to dance with me, of course guys would want me, it only made sense. Through a break in the crowd I spotted Jasper, and remembered what I was trying to do. I shoved through the crowd, moving through them as best I could. When I finally got out of the room, I noticed Jasper looking at me.

He smiled at me, though his eyes seemed to look past me, as if he was losing focus every now and then. "I like your outfit."

For some reason I was glad that he liked it. I threw my arms around his neck pulling him down so I could whisper in his ear. "I don't like yours. Get it off."

He laughed quietly, stumbling a little as I dragged him down. Then he managed to straighten up, pulling me against him, hard. His arms snaked out to pull me even tighter, and I moaned slightly. Before I realized what was happening, he put one arm under my legs and started carrying me.

"Where are we going?" I twisted slightly, trying to press as much of myself against him as I could.

"My bedroom," he whispered back. He headed up to the second floor, before turning away from where I could hear most of the party. We walked down a dark hallway, before turning into a room that I couldn't see any of. Suddenly, Jasper put me down. The floor was cold and wooden, and I immediately tried to wrap myself back around his warmth.

"Stay down," he said. He shoved me for emphasis, and I was so surprised I felt my head smack into the floor.

"Ow! What the hell?" I heard a bolt slide home on the door. I started to stand up as he flipped the lights back on. I blinked for a moment and Jasper walked over to where I was kneeling. I felt his hand tangle in my hair, and I pressed back against him. He felt nice where I'd just bumped it. He tilted my head to look at him.

"Didn't I just say stay down?"

***

White. When he slammed the side of my head into the ground, I saw white. I'd hit my head before, even had to get stitches when we were all in the accident, but that was nothing like the pain as he smacked my head into the floor again.

"Wh-"

"I like your outfit," he said, reaching up my skirt. "But not as much as your sister's. Did you dress her for me?"

He yanked down my underwear. I tried to get up, but my limbs weren't responding right. I managed to start to lift myself up, but then his weight was holding me down.

"Jasper," I managed to finally say a word. He paid no attention though, hiking up my skirt.

"You were really what I wanted all along." I heard his zipper, then felt him slide his jeans down. He was pressed against me, warm and hard and I wanted to scream at part of me that seemed to like him even though I had never even enjoyed masturbating that much. My rage finally seemed to get me speaking again.

"Why are you doing this? Jasper, stop-" His hand clamped around my neck, and I couldn't speak any more. I gulped convulsively, trying to force any air through.

"Did you really think you could drug me?" he demanded, staring into my eyes as my arms began pulling him, hitting him, anything to try to get him away. There wasn't much force behind it though, not as much as I usually had.

"Did you think I couldn't tell what you were? You must have never played this with any sort of decent opponent." His knees forced my legs apart, and I wanted to beg him not to, to plead or promise or something, anything to make him stop. He shoved forward, and the pain from him breaking into me made me try to gasp. Instead, I just gagged as his hand kept tight around my throat.

I couldn't let him do this. I couldn't die like this. I tried to twist away, but I couldn't move against him. His long sleeves kept my nails from getting to his skin, and he slapped me, stunning me for a moment.

I'm going to die, like Rose or Cynthia or some stupid slut who didn't have enough brain cells to share with her friend. My vision started to go dark around the edges, my hands holding lightly to Jasper's arm. I was going to die.

But if I didn't, I would kill Jasper Whitlock.