Prologue

"First one down, hanging from the ceiling. Little kids shout, can't hide there's no running. Gunshots sound, you all die. There's no running from me, die painfully and slowly." Raven sang while she sharpened her knifes. "Stake your heart, little drops of rubies. Bodies on the floor, blood on all of the faces. They're all dead, no one alive. This is so amusing, you all look like you're screaming." Raven giggled, her favorite verse was definitely the second one. "Midnight sounds, a new day almost here. Moon almost gone, it's time to take my leave. Your screaming faces stay in, place for all to see."

Raven finished her song and sharpening her knife. That was the last of all her knifes, so she could bring them to the nights outing. Raven frowned. She still remembered the last place she looked for her friend. The people there weren't that fun to play with, they screamed at her, so she had to keep telling them to be quiet and that she was there to find her friend. They still wouldn't listen, so she showed them her knifes. She demonstrated how easy it was to slit their throats, and then they were too silent. Maybe they didn't like the scarlet rubies from their necks. She personally thought they were pretty. That was the tenth place she searched for her friend!

"Come out, come out, Friend, I'm bored and you need to come out! It's boring looking for you! No? Then I guess I'll go find you! Where are you hiding? Are you hiding in that house? Ha, I bet you're there! I'll find you this time!" Raven psychotically laughed. Friend couldn't hide forever. She would find him sooner or later.

Raven started to gather up her supplies. Knifes, stakes, guns, check. Gardening shears, lock pick, lock cutter, check. She was all ready for tonight. Her friend was very smart, he was the best at hide-and-seek, but she would find him, even if it took forever.

Chapter one

Raven crept up on the house. She would definitely find Friend this time. She made sure she had everything that she needed to get him.

Click! Raven crept into the big house. It looked very fancy; she was impressed that Friend lived here.

"Who's there?" Raven heard a voice whisper from upstairs. She took out a knife, her guns would be too noisy, she didn't want anyone to know she was here. She wanted to get Friend out safe.

"Friend?" Raven whispered back as she climbed the stairs. She caught a glance at a guy with a baseball bat in his hand, was he Friend? From this distance she thought he looked almost like Friend, he could be Friend.

"Who are you? Oh my god, your that serial killer from TV!" The guy started to panic at tried to hit her with the baseball bat as she approached. Yes, he definitely looked like Friend.

"Shh, I'll get you out of here don't worry, come with me." Raven put her hand over his mouth, why wouldn't Friend be quiet, couldn't he see she was trying to help him get out of here? Maybe they brainwashed him, Raven thought. Yes, that was probably it, that's why he didn't brake out before and keep playing their game.

Friend struggled as she pulled him out of the house, through the front yard, and into her black four-seated pickup. She shoved Friend into the back. She would explain to him later about how she had no choice but to force him in. Raven went around to the other side and started the truck.

"What are you doing? What have I done to you? I demand you bring me back! I don't even know you! Why did you call me your friend?" Friend was usually quiet, but in the back of the car he couldn't shut up.

"Friend, I found you! The game is over and I won. Now, hand over the prize." Raven just wanted to get the prize, then she and Friend would play a different game.

"What prize what are you talking about, I haven't ever seen you in person before this, so just let me go." Friend was trying to unlock the door. Raven sped up and jumped the small river, and then she parked in the entryway to her underground house.

"Listen jackass, give me my damn prize before I blow your head off." Raven pulled out her gun from the pocket of her jacket and pointed it at Friend. Then she realized. "Oh shit, you aren't the right person."

"THAT'S WHAT I'VE BEEN TRYING TO TELL YOU!" The guy screamed at her. Now that she wasn't in a hurry to get out of somewhere, she saw that his face was a lot more angular than Friends.

"Damn that Bastard, he really had me thinking he was you. Damn! Do you have a brother, you look almost exactly like Friend." Yes, that was it, he must be Friend's brother.

"I do have one, but he died a few years ago. He died in a car fire that destroyed his body." The guy's eyes started to moisten and Raven felt sorry for him.

"Listen, I'm looking for your brother. He never actually died; he's been hanging with me for a few years. He said he needed some time away from his family, I total understood what he meant, that's why I made this place, to get away from my family." Raven explained.

"What? You're the reason we thought he was dead, if you hadn't given him a place to stay he would have come back. He never could have survived on his own." The guy was now over his sadness and was looking quite mad at her.

"Please, your brother could bomb china if he wanted to, he's the smoothest talker I've ever known, and he's the one who taught me everything I know about the street and crime. I would have died the day I left home if I never met your brother." Raven thought about Friend. He was her role model, her idol. She wanted to be just like him, to be able to rob a huge house with alarms, steal some guns, and then still have time to relax at home.

"What? That's definitely not my brother. Do you even know his name? All you've called him so far is Friend." The guy paced around her house.

"I certainly do know his name. It's just he doesn't like to be called by his name and he hadn't yet decided on a new one before we started our game." Raven watched him pace around, it was so obvious that he was used to a big house, he paced so closed to the wall that sometimes his nose scraped off part of the wall.

"Oh yeah, then what was his name?" The guy stopped pacing and twirled around and glared at her.

"Easy, his name was Peter. By the way what is your name? Seems like you know my name already from the game your brother and I are playing, but I really want to introduce myself, I don't go by the name you know anymore. My name is Grace Brightday. Everybody I know now calls me Raven Darkblood. Your brother came up with that name for me. He said it had something to do with my hair and my "obsession" with blood." Raven flipped her long, black bangs from her face and giggled.

"Okay, now I'm certain that the person you call Friend and my brother just have the same name. I mean, my brother could never come up with something as creepy as that for someone's name, let alone tell him or her to call themselves that. And, if you really insist on knowing my name, it's Seth." Seth sat down on the small bed in the corner of the house.

"Oh, I get who you are now, you look older than Friend, but actually, you're his younger brother, Seth. He told me all about you and how much fun you were. We're gonna have so much fun together!" Raven clapped and jumped up and down. Friend had told her that Seth was very gullible and hated when tricks were played on him.

"Wait, what? Peter told you about me? I don't believe you, Peter didn't talk to us at home at all, just a one word answer to some of our questions." Seth was now totally against her. He thought she was lying about Friend.

"I have an idea, let's look for him together, if he lets you play our game that is." Raven laughed. Friend would probably love to have his baby brother help he look for him. It would probably be fun, even if he did slow her down a lot.

"I told you, it's not the same person. But, I guess that now I get to prove you wrong, and turn you in after, so that more people don't get hurt." Seth stuck his hand out. "Deal."

"Sweet. We've got to go tell Friend." Raven shook Seth's outstretched hand. "The cops are going to be looking in a town not far from here for us, in little town called Novi. So what we do is we go down and let the cops see our faces and then get away. If Friend agrees, and he most likely will, he'll agree with the exact amount of people. If he has more then it's no."

"What! You can just, say, call him up? Why do I have to let the cops see me? Why do we have to kill people?" Seth was shaking. "I changed my mind take me home!"

"No can do, we've got a lot of work ahead of us, Friend told me your good at running, so getting away won't be a problem. We'll run into the woods after the cops see us and recognize who we are. All the people will be killed with knife except the last one; they have to be killed with a gun to alert the police. The neighborhood the police will be in is Timber Ridge. Don't worry, I'll do all the killing. Just follow me and don't try to go to the police, they'll kill you if you hesitate while running away. Any questions?" Raven started moving around the tiny underground house, getting supplies from hidden spots in the floor, walls, and furniture.

"Yeah, how the hell did you figure all of this out in just a few minutes?" Seth watched her grab all the weapons from around the room. "And how many weapons did you hide in this place?"

"Well, I'm a criminal, I've gotta be able to think on my feet, that's how Friend and I don't get caught. As for your second question, I have over a hundred in here. I know it's not a lot, Friend took most of them for the game. He said it was only fair he had more, because he didn't start with any money. He's probably rich by now though. Catch, don't worry, it's just if you need it." Raven tossed him a gun that had a three-inch blade on the muzzle.

"That's not a lot? Jeez, how many weapons the usual criminal have?" Seth caught the gun with ease and put it in his waistband.

"Well, the normal criminal has about twenty, but Friend and I aren't normal criminals, are we?" Raven laughed at Seth's horrified face. "Just remember, don't judge me. You are doing this just to prove me wrong, that's the worst reason possible for doing this."

"Oh yeah, what's your reason, it can't be worse than mine." Seth challenged. Raven smirked at him.

"My reasons the most sensible of all, I want to win the game."

Chapter two

"Okay you got the plan down?" Raven smiled as Seth shuddered. This was going to be the best segment of the game so far.

"Yeah, I do. You really should get that creepy smile off your face, it makes you look more psychotic than you are." Seth smirked at his lousy comeback, probably thinking it was good.

"Yeah, whatever. Let's just hurry up so the cops come before they are supposed to. That would make the game be postponed, and we don't want that." Raven tossed her backpack over the fence then began to climb. Raven scaled the tall, chain-link fence with ease and dropped gracefully below into the spacious yard of a beautiful house.

"Ouch!" Seth whispered, for he thought that climbing would be as easy as Raven made it look. He rubbed his ankle and looked up at Raven, who was standing above him.

"Hurry up, your slowing me down, at this rate we'll get caught. You don't want to go to jail do you?" That got Seth up fast. They jogged across the huge yard up to the front door. Raven stuck her hand beneath the welcome rug and pulled out a key. "Rich people are idiots."

"Um… why the hell do they have a key under the mat when there are police crawling around looking for a serial killer?" Seth followed Raven inside the house.

"This way, follow me and stay out of my way. Oh, and if you make a noise have no doubt that I will kill you." Raven whispered to Seth as she snuck around the corners that, according to the blueprints she had 'found' earlier, lead to the kitchen.

Raven took out her knife, dropped to her hands and knees and started to crawl into the kitchen. Seth, who was rather happy living, followed her swiftly. Raven glided into the kitchen and snuck around to the back of a person who was drinking so midnight coffee. In one motion she had stood, slit the throat of a handsome man, and covered his mouth so he couldn't scream. Raven set him softly on the floor.

"First one down, hanging from the ceiling." Raven sang softly as she took so twine out of her backpack. She hung the twine like a noose around the man she killed and hung him on the curtain rod.

"Um, that's a little creepy. Do you really have to do that to him?" Seth glanced around nervously.

"Of course silly. This way Friend knows it's me and not just someone who looks like me. I do a different part of my song at each house I go to, so no one knows what I'm going to do next except Friend." Raven placed the twine back into the backpack and zipped it up. "Now, there should be two more to knife, one to shoot, and one to leave alive and alone."

"Um… why leave one alive?" Seth knew he shouldn't of asked right after he finished asking.

"Isn't it obvious? You always have to leave one alive, so someone will always remember what you did to them." Raven licked some of the blood off the knife. "You can tell a lot about people from what their blood tastes like."

Raven dropped back to a crawl before Seth could reply. She darted up the stairs and crept into the first room. There was a young girl with wispy blond hair. Raven slashed an x onto her throat, and held her mouth shut till she died. Then she put four letters on the girl's torso- RGBD.

Creeping into the master bedroom Raven found a woman with the same blond wispy hair as the little girl. She gagged the woman and then started slicing her arm. Raven's blade glided effortlessly through the skin. Raven purred with satisfaction.

"Two little kids can shout, at least at the moment." Raven whispered throatily as the woman's eyes grew wide and she started trying to escape the twine tied around her wrists and ankles. "Shh. I will let you go to the same place as them." Raven plunged her knife into the woman's chest and giggled when the light slowly faded out of the woman's eyes.

"Mommy, I can't go to sleep. Can you read me a story? Mommy?" A five-year-old girl rubbed her eyes as she walked into the room. "Who are you?"

"I'm your mother's friend, and she's sleeping now, so how about I read you a story?" Raven tucked the knife into her back pocket where the little girl couldn't see.

"If your mommy's friend why are you here?" The little girl rubbed her eyes some more. She looked more like what her dad looked like, light brown hair and blue eyes. Raven liked her.

"Because your mommy had a hard time falling asleep herself, so she called me. I sang her a lullaby and gave her some milk she fell right asleep. Do you want some warm milk, too? It really helps you fall asleep. I do it myself all the time." Raven started walking towards the little girl. She made sure she had wiped her bloody hands off before she took the little girl's hand.

"Okay, can you make me some warm milk, please? I would greatly appreciate it." The little girl let Raven lead her to her room at the end of the hallway.

"Yes, may I ask what your name is? Your mother and I are new friends, so we don't know much about each other." Raven tucked the small girl into her pink bed.

"Nate, my name is Nate. Actually my name is Natalie, but you can call me Nate." Nate closed her eyes and Raven swiftly put a washcloth with sleeping gas on it to Nate's face and Nate fell asleep.

Raven moved quickly. She grabbed Nate, shot the little boy in the next room over, and flew down the stairs with Seth on her heels. They snuck out the back door and ran to the front just as the cop cars were pulling up.

"Freeze! Put your hands up! Oh my god, we found the serial killer! Who's that with her? She took a little girl!" The police officers started to call for backup. Raven shot each in the chest and jumped into the pickup. Raven could just see the lights of the backup arriving a little to late.

"I have a question." Seth stared at the girl Raven had on her lap. "What the hell are we gonna do with her?"

Chapter three

"What do you mean?" Raven kept her eyes on the road; you never know when a cop would come by.

"I mean, what are we going to do with her? We can't just bring her along with us." Seth sighed with frustration. This was even harder than he thought it would be.

"Why can't we? Friend will know we took her since it will be all over the news. If he agrees we can keep her." Raven certainly hoped that she could keep Nate.

"How will he agree?" Seth looked down at the little girl in Raven's lap. She had a really cute sleeping face. He also hope Peter would let them keep her. He didn't want another person dying.

"Isn't it obvious? Since he'll know it was you and I he'll kill four people and then take the fifth one. He'll probably just kill them somewhere else, but it's still a yes." Raven pulled down into her hideout. She gently took Nate out of the car and placed her on the bed.

"What are you going to tell her when she wakes up?" Seth asked. He was certain the little girl was going to question being in a strange house.

"Easy, hand me that bottle." Seth handed her a small black bottle. "See, this is brainwashing gas. I have no idea what the actual name is, so don't ask. Anyways, when I spurt this up her nose, she won't remember anything." Raven squeezed the bottle and the liquid sprayed up Nate's nose. "Now help me think of a name for her, we can't have anything she is used to close to her, otherwise she might regain her memory."

"Um… I really don't want to help with that. I think we should just return her to her house." Seth glanced down at Nate, who was sneezing.

"What house, I killed them all. The only way to get rid of her would be to kill her, and if you want to do that, be my guest. How about Eve? Yes, her new name will be Eve. Eve, wake up." Raven watched as Nate's eyes fluttered.

"What? Where am I? What happened to me?" Nate slurred. She blinked her eyes and glanced around.

"Eve! Thank god you're all right! I thought the police's gas had done something to you! We're safe now." Raven hugged eve tightly.

"Who are you?" Eve asked her. She stared blankly at Raven. Seth watched in awe as Raven started to cry.

"Eve, you don't remember me? I'm your sister, Raven Darkblood. The police are chasing us and we have to find master, don't you remember?" Raven hugged Eve close.

"Not really, why are we running from the police, aren't they the good guys?" Eve looked more comfortable as Raven pulled away from her. "And if you're my sister who is he?"

"What, you don't remember Seth? Seth is my friend who is helping us achieve our goal." Raven took out a knife from one of the hiding spots in the house. "Don't you remember? This is your knife."

"Still not ringing a bell. But, if you're my sister you wouldn't lie to me, so who is master and what do we have to do next?" Eve took the black knife from Raven. She flipped it around a couple of times in her hand. She traced the engraved skulls with her thumb. "I do really like this knife though, is it really mine?"

"Of course it is. Eve, even if it was mine, we had a saying that went like this, 'anything that's mine is yours if you want it.'" Raven smiled as Eve traced the skulls some more. It was actually a knife that she had used when she was smaller. It had been the first knife ever she had killed someone with.

"Thanks big sister. What did I call you before?" Eve asked as she flipped the knife some more. Seth was impressed; he didn't realize Eve actually knew how to flip a knife.

"You called me Rave. You don't have to call me that if you don't want to though. You don't have to force yourself, you'll remember at some point." Raven smiled at Eve. She loved the little girl. Eve reminded Raven of what she used to be like.

"Well then, Rave, where is master?" Raven handed Eve a thigh strap for her knife. Eve stuck the knife in it after she put it on.

"We are playing a game with master at the moment, because he told us to play. What we are doing is trying to find him. Every house we search we have to show master we were there, so we kill everyone in it, except one person." Raven explained to Eve. Eve nodded as she listened.

"So we're playing a mix between tag and hide-and-seek?" Eve asked. Raven nodded.

"Yes, and we want to win, because if we win master will treat us to whatever we want. I don't know if you remember, but master is rich. He could buy everything on the earth and still have money left over." Eve's eyes grew wide as she heard this. She wanted to win and get whatever she wanted. This would be fun.

"Sweet, I want to play! Let's go find master! Where is he?" Eve clapped and jumped up and down.

"That's the problem, since master is so rich he could be anywhere. He could have switched clothes with a hobo and acted like he was a hobo." Raven shook her head sadly. "We were looking for master before those cops came with that stupid gas. We almost found him, too."

"Well, then he can't be that far away! Let's start looking right now!" Eve exclaimed. She jumped up from the bed and headed towards the door.

"Eve, he has to give us the signal to start. He has to kill a house first. Then we can start." Raven grabbed Eve's hand and gently pulled her back to bed. "Sleep now, tomorrow we might start."

"Okay Rave. Wait a sec, there's only one bed, where are you going to sleep? Where did your bed go?" Eve looked around, bewildered.

"We used to sleep in the same bed, but if you're uncomfortable with that then I'll sleep on the floor with Seth." Raven smiled as Eve slid into the bed.

"Okay, you sleep on the floor with Seth. Is he like, your boyfriend or something?" Eve asked as she yawned.

"No, like I said before, he's a friend of mine." Raven kissed Eve on the head. "Now go to sleep."

"Okay." Eve muttered as she closed her eyes. Her breath slowed down as she fell asleep. Raven stood up and started to make a bed on the floor.

"Um, where am I going to sleep?" Seth looked around for another sheet of blankets. Raven laughed softly.

"Right here. I've only got one pair of extra sheets. If you really don't want to share with me then you can just sleep on the bare floor." Raven smoothed down the sheet and then laid down on it. Seth sighed and lay beside her. Raven lay the extra sheet over them.

"Good night Raven." Seth whispered. He heard Raven's even breathing. He thought she was asleep, but she replied.

"Sweet dreams Seth. May they be peaceful without hurt." Raven slipped into a fitful sleep.

"Gracie come here." The clouded figure gestured for Raven to come towards her. Small Raven blinked slowly and looked around.

"Mommy!" Raven tripped and stumbled to where the figure was. It reached down and picked her up in its arms. Raven giggled as she became dizzy from the spinning around in her mother's arms.

"I love you Gracie!" Her mother twirled faster and faster. Raven became disoriented from the spinning.

"Mommy, stop, stop!" Raven felt the arms slow, but they didn't feel like her mother's anymore. As she came to a stop she looked at the face. It was not her mother's, it was her wretched boyfriend Sal's. Raven's mother had not even waited a month after Raven's father's death to start dating Sal. Once Raven grew a little she believed her mother had been hooking up with Sal long before that.

"What is it little girl? Are you tired? Do you want your mommy?" Sal sneered. Raven cringed, knowing what came next.

Sal's hand came at her and whipped across her face with a horrible snapping noise. Raven's nose began to bleed and her mother raced into the room.

"What is going on here?" Raven ran into her mother's arms while Sal looked at her, oozinng with false worry.

"She hit her head on the desk over there, her nose started bleeding real bad, too." Sal motion to the desk in the corner of the room.

"I did not, Sal hit me across my face and made my nose bleed!" Raven sniffed and looked up at her mother, who was looking at Sal.

"You shouldn't tell lies Grace, it isn't nice." Her mother grabbe her arm roughly and steered her out of the room.

Suddenly the scene change into a bathroom. Raven's mother coaxed her into the bathtub.

"Get in." Her mother pushed her towards it, running out of pacience. She and Sal where going out in thirty minute and she wasn't even dressed. She pushed Raven into the bathtub and held Raven under. Raven struggled for breath, she was choking, choking. She clawed at the hands that kept her under…

Raven woke up, clawing at her neck and gasping for air. She looked around the crowded room to see that Seth and Eve where still asleep.

She quickly went over to where her laptop was plugged into the wall. She ripped its cord out and started to boot it up. She scrolled through the news and say that Seth was a missing person.

"Nnnnhhmmm." Seth mumbled sleepily. Raven put her computer down on the floor and went over to sit by him.

"Morning, you're officially missing." Raven watched as he digested this news in a way that told her he was definitely not a morning person. She stiffled a laugh then looked over at Eve, who was still deep asleep.

"Why am I missing?" Seth sat up and rubbed his eyes. His hair was going in every direction.

"Because I kidnapped you in the middle of the night and didn't let you say goodbye to your family." Raven walked over to pick up her computer. Seth followed her and say the article.

"Is Peter in there? Did he say yes?" Seth quickly rubbed the sleep from his eyes and scanned the page. Raven shook her head.

"He shouldn't have yet, next week he should. We have to stay low in that time. We don't want to mix him up." Raven shut her computer and shoved it into a small box in the corner.

"So what do we do in the meantime?" Seth glanced around to try to get a clue what Raven had done before when she had to wait. All he could see was Eve, the bed, the blankets that they slept on, a dresser, and the bow in the corner.

"We help Eve feel more comfortable here and we make sure we have enough of the essentials to make through about a month." Raven opened the top drawer on the dresser and counter her clothes.

"Why a month?" Seth followed Raven, shuffling his feet and unsure of what to do. He went back to where the blankets where and started to fold them up.

"Sometimes after a big house they hunt for about a month, never longer though." Seth was awed and disgusted about how much Raven knew about the police searches and how much time they would need to stay hidden.

"So how are we on supplies?" Seth asked to try to get the topic away from killing people and destroying houses.

"We need to get a gig." Raven slipped on combat boots as Seth stared at her blankly.

"What?" Seth had no idea what Raven meant by gig. The only gigs he knew were for musicians.

"We need to go to the mobs."

"This is what you mean by the mob?" Seth dodged the people moving all around him. Raven glidded through, the people parting for her with respect.

"Yup, I'm famous here!" Raven scribbled her autograph onto someone's hand. She grabbed paper out of someone else's hand and scribbled her name onto it again.

"Well if you don't hurry you won't have enough time to get ready for the show." Raven's manager came up behind her and started to push her towards the dressing room door. Raven waved at the crowd behind her, then dissapeared into the dressing room. Seth hurried to catch the door before it swung shut and locked.

"So, what's the game plan?" Raven yanked her shirt of and went over to a rack in the back of the large room. Seth blushed and turned towards the door.

"Well, we have you singing My Immortal first, then My Last Breath, then ending with The Only One." Raven's manager took a black, floor-length dress of the rack and pushed it into Raven's hands. "Now hurry up and go change, you don't want to be late for your show."

"Yeah, yeah, I got it. My immortal, My Last Breath, then The Only One." Raven pulled the dress on and took off her jeans. She pulled on her back boots and zipped them up. "Ready."

"Okay then, let's go!" Raven's manager pushed her out the door towards the stage. Raven stumbled and gave her a dirty look, but continued to the stage.

"Hey everyone! So glad you could make it here tonight! We're going to be starting off with My Immortal by Evanescence!" Raven smiled at the screaming fans. The music started and she began.

"I'm so tired of being here, suppressed by all my childish fears. And if you have to leave…" Seth stared mesmerized at Raven as she sang the music. Her face seemed to have so much emotion and it was so open, like anyone could know what she was thinking.

"She's god, isn't she?" Seth jumped as Raven's manager spoke up behind him. He whirled around with suprise.

"Yeah, she is." Seth agreed. He smiled and glanced at the stage.

"So, how did you two meet again?" Raven's manager winked at him. "How long have you two been dating?"

"Excuse me?" Seth snorted and rubbed his ears. Raven's manager looked confuzed.

"You guys are dating right?" Raven's manager glanced at Raven on stage. "She's never brought anyone here that she isn't dating so I just assumed…"

"You assumed wrong. Raven pretty much hates me, she is just stuck with me." Seth sighed at stared at Raven, who was on her last song. He wished she would hurry up, because he was getting tired of her prying manager.

"Hates you, eh? I haven't ever seen anyone she hates. My name is Julia by the way." Raven's manager smiled. Seth forced a smile.

"Well, once Raven is done tell her she can find me outside, I need some fresh air." Seth hurried away without waiting for Julia to respond.

"Um, hey." A short blonde girl came up next to Seth. He stared dwn at her. She smiled nervously.

"Hi." Seth sighed and closed his eyes. The girl shifted her weight nervously next to him. Seth felt bad for her so he opened his eyes and smiled at her.

"What's your name?" She smiled back at him, more confident now. Seth flipped his black hair out of his eyes.

"Seth, what's yours?" Seth watch as the girl stared into his blue eyes. She was amazed at them, they looked like water, sparkling and swirling around.

"Kate." She said breathlessly. She thought he was so hot. His eyes looked so bright under his black hair. His hair was long, too. Not hippy long, but more like goth long.

"Kate's a pretty name." Seth decided to play with her a bit before he left, he was bored anyways. He pulled her chin gently up towards his face. She blushed a holly red.

"It's short for Katrina." Kate whispered. She closed her eyes and leaned up towards Seth.

"Ah, Kat, kitty Kat, how well can you purr?" Kate looked opened her eyes, her blush growing.

"Hey, who's the hottie?" A tall, tan girl with bleach blonde hair came up behind Kate. Seth let go of her chin and Kate frowned at the newcomer.

"Seth, nice to meet you." Seth held his hand out for the girl. She put her hand in his. He brought it up to his mouth and kissed it. There was a slight blush under the her tan skin.

"Kas, short for Kasey, but you can call me whatever you want." Kas took her hand back and winked at Seth. He gave her on of his best smiles.

"Kas, then. Pleased to meet you. I assume you two are friends?" Seth flipped his hair out of his eyes once more, thinking that he should get his hair cut soon.

"Yeah, we're here to see Raven. She's an amazing singer, isn't she? She comes alive on the stage, her emotions are amazing." Kate lit up as she began talking about Raven.

"That's why you're here too, right?" Kas gazed into Seth's eyes. Seth smiled inwardly. His eyes helped him get many things before, as stunning as they were.

"Yeah, I got dragged here, but I really like her singing now that I've heard it. She's got an amazing voice." Seth agreed.

"Oh yeah? Who'd you get dragged by, girlfriend?" Kas implored. She smiled and shook her head at Seth.

"No, just a friend who it was manditory to be here for." Seth smiled. "I don't have a girlfriend."

"Yeah, I doubt that. Any girl would love to be your girlfriend." Kas snorted as Seth's face became serious.

"You included?" His eyes had a hint of a smile in them, but he kept his face serious. Kas blushed as Kate scowled behind her.

"This always happeneds when we go out!" Kate yelled at Kas. Kas turned around to scold her, but Kate beat her to it. "You always come after me, but you always end up with the guy who was talking to me first!"

"There will come a day when there is a guy who actually loves you for you and not your looks, so think of it as Kas is helping you. There will be one guy that doesn't care if she's there or not, his eyes will always be on you." Seth said quietly. Both girls looked at him. Kate smiled.

"I guess your right, Kas is helping me so my heart isn't broken by some asshole." Kate's smile widened as she looked at Kas. The stage door exit opened behind Seth. All three of them turned around to see Raven standing there.

"Seth, I see you've been enjoying yourself." Raven smiled, her cheeks still flushed with the happyness of being onstage. Her hair seemed alive around her, swirling gently in the breeze. Kas and Kate stared at her in disbelief. Seth cleared his throat.

"Took you a long time." Seth glaned at the two girls behind him, who were still speechless. "This is Kas and Kate."

"Hi, do you guys want autographs?" Raven gave them a dazzling smile and walked over to them. They nodded, still in shock from meeting her. They handed her two pieces of paper and a red pen. She scribbled her name on both of them and gave them back.

"Bye! Nice meeting you!" Kate waved back towards where Raven and Seth were. Kas stepped forward and gave Seth a hug and slipped a piece of paper into his front left pocket.

"Call me, just to talk when you get lonely. I want to be friends, because you are something special, and I want to keep you close, but not have to ever let you go." Kas stepped away and smiled at Seth. He gave her his dazzling smile back, happy to have someone who cared about him.

"Hope to see you guys again!" Raven smiled and waved, but Seth could tell she was getting annoyed with the girls, Kas especially. The girls left, speeding away in a sliver convertible with the music turned up way to loud.

"So, why don't you like them?" Seth question Raven. She just glared at him and spun away. Once she was a short distance away she whirled back around.

"Hurry up, you don't want to be left behind do you?" Seth smiled and jogged to catch up with her. He had a feeling that she was starting to like him.

"Where were you guys?" Eve demanded as soon as we stepped into the room. she tried to look fierce, but her nine year old frame was small and skinny, making the end product a cute kid who looked like she had just gotten up, her hair was knotted and going every which way and her clothes were rumpled.

"We were out doing some work." Raven said curtly. She kissed Eve on the forehead and smiled as Eve wiped her forehead off.

"I never will understand why people like kissing oily foreheads, but okay. Anyways, what do you mean doing some work? Did Friend respond back?" Eve jumped up and down excitedly and whipped her knife out of the waistband of her jeans. She hadn't been able to find any spare clothes of hers there. Wouldn't there be clothes that fit her if she used to live here?

"Hehehehe, you always say the same thing." Raven smiled and affectionately mussed up her light brown hair, not that you could tell a difference from what it looked like before and what it looked like after. "Friend did respond back, but we can't do anything just yet."

"Oh, why not?" Eve slunk over to the bed to pout. Raven followed her and sat down beside her. Eve's small head rested on Raven's shoulder.

"We must wait so the police let down their guard, high security can't last as long as they wish it." Raven gently combed her fingers through the tangled mess that was Eve's hair.

"do you ever get the feeling we've know each other forever?" Eve smiled up at Raven. Raven's heart broke, seeing this small girl trust so deeply in her when in truth she didn't even know Raven at all before she was abducted. She contemplated telling Eve the truth, but she didn't want to lose the small girl's trust.

"Yeah…" Raven shut her eyes, battling the tears that were threatening to flow. She did feel connected to this girl, but she never had someone like that before. It made her heart ache to know how she had betrayed the one person she was close to.

"I love you, Rave." Eve whispered as she gave Raven a tight squeeze. They stayed like that for a long time, Eve hugging Raven and Raven's heart breaking.

"Well I hate to break up the moment, but I think we all might need to spend some of the money we just got…" Seth trailed off as both girls glared up at him for ruining the "sister" bonding. Seth thought it was amazing how similar they were, when they weren't even related at all.

"He's right." Sighed Eve, giving in to the silence. She stood up from the bed and leaned against the wall. "I looked everywhere, but I couldn't find any clothes for me." Seth quietly began to panic. They had forgotten that Eve didn't actually live here, and at some point would want to change into other clothes that should have been there.

"Oh, I forgot to tell you, I'm sorry. I thought you would have remembered by now. It's hard for me to forget such an awful thing." Raven, unlike Seth, kept her cool and went with the flow of the situation.

"What awful thing?" Eve's face softened, going from suspicious scowling to puppy eyes meant to sympathizes. Raven gave a sad smile, tears filling eyes so they could hide the lies beneath.

"It was about six months ago, right when our father got a high promotion." She spat out the word father like it was poisoned. "It was a job wanted by many others, some who found out too late that it already belonged to someone. Those people would do anything to get that job. They came to our house one night. It was rather windy, the sun had been out the whole day with no rain for at least a week." Raven sucked in a deep breath, then continued on. "They broke the windows and threw gasoline soak rags on fire inside. Luckily you and I were watching a movie downstairs, Titanic, and we got out in time. But mother and father never had a chance, they were one of the first things to be burned in the raging flames…"

"I'm sorry." Eve whispered. She went back over to the bed and sat down, reaching her hand up to stroke Raven's silky hair.

"What do you have to be sorry for?" Raven gave another one of those sad smiles where her lips curved up, but eyes stayed sorrowful.

"For not being able to remember, for making life harder for you than it already is, having to bring stuff like that up." Eve buried her head in the billows of black that hung around Raven.

"Eve, I don't want you to remember, even if you could." One of the first truths that Raven had told that day. She didn't want Eve to remember, because that meant she would loose her. She couldn't bear the thought of living without Eve. She had become someone to rely on, someone always there in the background. Someone who could come forward when needed, or melt into the darkness when not. She could brighten Raven's whole world, but dim when it was necessary.

"But pain bared alone is the worst pain of all, because no one every truly understands you."