A/N: Hey so okay first I OWN NOTHING OF THE SHOW MERLIN! I own all characters in this chapter and that is IT. Kay cool now that we got that down. I know there is a similar story idea to this on here. I AM NOT STEALING. I've had this idea on my computer since before I even knew what this site was. I promise it'll be different so read on my lovelies!

OH AND: translations and song titles are at the bottom. :)

Cassie Hayes leaned hard against the wall behind the venue. She dug around in her pocket for her cell phone pulling it out and checking the time. It was two thirty in the morning. She sighed and sank down until she was sitting on the dirty blacktop of the parking lot behind the old warehouse that had been turned into a concert venue.

The all access pass that was clipped to her belt loop dug into her leg and she was nearly positive that her jeans would be ruined after sitting here but she didn't care. She was tired and sore from jumping around on stage for the last hour and her head hurt.

"Cass?" the voice of her drummer and long time best friend came floating around the edge of the building.

"Over here Ryan" she gave in and called out. The dark haired boy she'd known since she was a child came around the corner, a cigarette in his mouth and a set of drumsticks in his hand.

Cassie wrinkled her nose at the smell of the smoke but tried not to let it show how much him smoking bothered her. But of course Ryan noticed he immediately stubbed out the cigarette on the dirty brick wall before walking over and sitting down next to her. "Gracias" she thanked him in the language they both grew up speaking at home.

"Denada, I know you hate it" he smiled down at her. Even both sitting he was much taller than the tiny girl next to him. She leaned her head on his shoulder and he pushed her light brown bangs out of her face "What's wrong now?" he asked her softly.

"Nothings wrong, I'm just tired" Cassie lied. Ryan laughed, seeing right through his best friend "Don't lie, what's bothering you?" he persisted.

The girl sighed "Sometimes I just wish my life was different" she admitted, taking her head off his shoulder and staring up at him, her hazel eyes pleading with him to understand. "I mean don't get me wrong, I have so much and so many people have so little, but sometimes it feels like there's more I'm supposed to do with my life!" she continued getting up and beginning to pace. "I'm a rockstar and I have a fantastic band and an amazing life but more and more I keep wishing I was somewhere else" she said sitting back down.

Ryan stared at her, wondering if she was finished. From years of knowing her, he knew that Cassie got like this whenever the anniversary of her brother's death was near. She started going on and on about how she should do more with her life because he was unable to. "Cass, you're going overboard again, you know you're fine and Alex would be proud of you" he assured her.

The tiny girl sighed and her shoulders drooped "You're right, lets god find some fans to hang out with" she said and stood up again, holding out her hands to her old friend offering to help him up. Ryan took her hands and let her pull him to his feet. The two walked back around the edge of the warehouse and were almost immediately attacked by excited fans.

After signing as many autographs as they could and taking pictures with everyone who asked, Cassie and Ryan made their way to their tour bus.

"There you are!" Ben, the guitarist of their band, Lights In Bold, threw his arm around his singer as he sat next to her.

"I've been here all day, and now you decide to be nice to me?" she asked, teasing the blonde boy. Ben, was a big hit with the fans, with his pretty face and wavy blonde hair he was the perfect image of a gorgeous guitarist and he was talented too. Unfortunately all of that made him annoyingly full of himself even if it was in a joking way.

"Oh but I missed you little Cass" he said hugging her tightly to him so the smaller girl had to punch him hard in the ribs to make him let her go. "OW!" he shouted pushing her away from him and holding his side "You didn't have to hit me so hard!" he said pouting to show her he wasn't really offended, though Cassie was sure his ribs hurt, her dad had taught her how to fight when she was little and she had beaten boys twice her size in high school.

"Well if I hadn't you would have crushed me" she teased back, settling herself into the cushions on the sofa. She chose to sleep there instead of the bunk she was supposed to sleep in because she tended to flail a lot in her sleep when she had nightmares. Unfortunately the boys tended to stay up all night and not let her get any sleep.

As they continued to argue over something about sports she got up and made her way to her bunk, falling asleep in the jeans and tank top she had performed in.

In the morning Cassie woke up with a swollen wrist and a worse headache than the night before. She rubbed her wrist guessing she'd lashed out in the middle of the night and sprained it.

Climbing out of the bunk around the limp arm of Tom who was snoring loudly in the bunk above her, she made her way to the front of the bus where Harry, the driver was just getting seatbelted in.

"Morning Cass" he smiled at her in a way that reminded her of her father. She grinned back, still massaging her sore wrist "Morning Harry, you excited to be rid of us after tonight?" she teased kindly.

Harry laughed "Can't wait" he joked back and started the bus. Cassie got out a pop tart as he pulled out of the RV parking lot they had spent the night in. She slowly munched on her breakfast while trying to recall the nightmare that had gotten her injured.

There had been a castle, which was strange but then again her dreams were always strange. The castle had been dark and a pale, dark haired woman had been with her and she looked angry. They were looking for someone, calling out a name she couldn't remember. A dark haired boy had joined them in the search and they continued, getting more and more frantic until they heard loud bells tolling and someone screamed. Then things started to blur together and Cassie shook her head to keep from passing out.

She stood up and fell back over again due to a sharp turn Harry had taken. Cassie riffled through the piles of their stuff that had been sitting around the tour bus and pulled out a book she had been reading. It was a history of the legends of Europe, a gift from her father who was an ancient history professor at NYU. She settled down for the long drive back to New York, where they would play the last concert of their first ever headlining tour and then go home.

By the time the bus pulled up to the venue Cassie had read two legends from Germany and Italy and had just turned to the rather long chapter detailing the Celtic legend of King Arthur.

"We're here, oh nerdy one" Jon, her bassist, snatched the book out of her hands and tossed it towards her bunk. It missed miserably and fell to the floor in front of it.

"Nice" Cassie rolled her eyes and went to pick up the book. She closed it and put it in her bunk then went to change into something to perform in.

Once backstage the band ran over their set list quickly once before doing their customary group huddle. "Okay guys, we're going to wreck this place tonight" she told the four boys surrounding her "And remember your mothers are here, so don't do anything too stupid" she added, just to be on the safe side.

Breaking the huddle, the five of them rushed onstage to the screams of the kids on the floor. "Hey New York city, how you doing tonight?" Cassie shouted into the microphone. The crowd screamed again and Lights In Bold launched into their first song "Whoa oh oh whoa oh oh" she sang the intro standing at her mic stand and rocking out. "From the get go I knew this was hard to hold, like a crash the whole thing spun out of control" she pulled the mic out of the stand and moved to the left of the stage.

"Oh on a wire, we were dancin, two kids no consequences. Pull the trigger without thinkin, there's only one way down this road"

She moved back to center stage and sang the chorus jumping up and down like the rest of the crowd "It was like a time bomb set into motion we knew that we were destined to explode and if I had to pull you out of the wreckage, you know I'm never gonna let you go we're like a time bomb hey gonna lose it lets diffuse it, baby we're like a time bomb, but I need it wouldn't have it any other way"

The next verse started and the kids in the audience sang along by heart. "Oh there's no way out of this so let's stay in" she sang with them the biggest smile stretched across her face "Every storm that comes also comes to an end, oh resistance is useless, just two kids stupid and fearless. Like a bullet shooting a lesson there's only one way down this road" she held the mic out to the audience and let them sing through the entire chorus again.

Cassie loved the feeling of performing and when the kids knew the words it was ten times as incredible. The rest of the night she jumped up and down like the best of them and truly enjoyed herself on stage.

At the end of the set Cassie waved to the cheering crowd and skipped off the stage as her bandmates stayed to throw guitar picks and drum sticks and bask in the attention of the fans for a little longer.

Ryan was the first one to join her offstage. He hugged her hard and quick, "You okay?" he asked.

Cassie sighed and nodded, the rush she got from performing was wearing off enough for her to realize that it was probably past midnight and that two years ago that day, her twin brother had died.

"Why don't we skip out early and go home, we can go visit him tomorrow" Ryan said, knowing exactly what she was thinking. Cassie smiled up at him "I'd like that, thanks Ry" she said and hugged him again.

Ryan had been like a big brother to her all her life, he had been almost as close with Alex as she had and she knew today was a painful one for him as well "Are you okay?" she asked pulling back and looking him hard in the eyes. Cassie was tough and almost impossible to lie to.

Ryan smiled sadly "It's tough on all of us" he admitted "But we'll be okay" he lied moving to hug her again.

"Don't lie to me Ryan Reyes, I can see through it you know" she said, letting the smallest of smiles creep onto her face. Ryan smiled too "My bad" he said and leaned back so they were no longer hugging "Let's go pack up our stuff from the bus" he said letting the smaller girl lead the way out of the venue.

It was soon enough after the show that none of the fans had come to lurk by the bus to wait for the band members. Cassie and Ryan boarded the bus and began to dig their things out of the messy piles.

It took them a few hours and more than multiple hysterical moments where one of them had issues with finding or getting to something but eventually they had their suitcases packed.

They left the bus and pushed through the mass of excited fans, smiling for the occasional picture so as not to be rude but ignoring a good portion of the people who shouted requests at them.

"Cassandra!" Cassie heard her moms heavily accented voice over the sounds of the fans. "Mami!" she shouted pushing through the last few teenagers and throwing her arms around her mother. Rosa Hayes was a rather round woman who could cook better empanadas than anyone in the world and insisted on caring for everyone who came through her door like they were her own child. Rosa hugged Ryan as well just before he was attacked by his own parents and three little sisters.

Ryan's family had always been like a second one to Cassie, his mother didn't work so she could spend time at home raising her four children and Ryan's father owned the bakery Rosa worked at. Though at night Mr. Reyes would come home and play with his children and the Hayes twins. He taught them how to sword fight with plastic children's toys and they used to call him El Zoro. Ryan's little sisters practically worshiped Cassie and she spoiled them beyond belief. These people were her family and she would always love them more dearly than anyone else.

"Cassie" a deep voice said from behind her. Cassie turned and let her father hug her. They had always been close but after Alex's death the two had fought a lot. Everyone had blamed themselves when his car spun off the road and he hit a tree, and Cassie and her father blamed themselves the most.

"I missed you papi" she said softly, so she wasn't even sure if he could hear it over the noise of the fans who continued to attack the other three members of her band. But then he whispered back to her "I missed you too mi amor" he said and she hugged him tighter. Her father's Spanish was rudimentary at best, he was very American, Irish actually, and the only Spanish he knew he had picked up from his wife and her family. But he tried hard to speak it to his wife and children.

After the greetings were over the two families ushered their children in to their respective cars and drove off towards the small neighborhood just outside the city where they lived next door to each other. Cassie collapsed on her bed the second she got inside and only sat up to pull off the worn combat boots she constantly had on.

In the morning she woke up early shivering from not being under the covers. Knowing what day it was, she couldn't go back to sleep so instead she got up and changed into jeans and a shrug tee and trudged into the kitchen. No one else was up and that suited her just fine.

She stared out the bay window in the kitchen at the small yard that adjoined to Ryan's. Past the peeling white fence was someone else's tiny backyard and house and that's how their entire neighborhood looked. Growing up Cassie had found it hard to live there, she would often get lost with Ryan and Alex all three of them unable to tell which one was their house. Now she welcomed the normalcy of it, her life was crazy with touring and them starting work on a new record in a week or so.

The thought of the record made Cassie remember that she wanted to go visit her brother. She needed to talk to him, even if he couldn't answer her, it allowed her to think through things. She also always ran new songs by him, he had always loved her music and her voice and she knew he would be so proud of her with her music career.

She ran upstairs and grabbed the acoustic guitar that always sat by her bed, her small leather messenger bag, and her keys and ran back downstairs. She left a short note for her parents telling them where she was going and that she wanted to be alone for a while with Alex. Then she left, without waking anyone.

By the time she pulled up at the graveyard where her brother's remains were buried, the sun had just begun to peak over the horizon. She parked her car in the empty lot and walked with her guitar up the hill to the tree Alex's headstone sat under.

"Hey" she said to it smiling and wishing that he could answer her. "I just got back from tour" she said, falling easily into the one-sided conversation. "It was incredible, we headlined and the fans were super nice. I got Scrubs on DVD." She informed the headstone that couldn't answer her.

Cassie turned and watched the sun come up the way she and Alex had countless times when neither of them could sleep. When it cleared the horizon, she turned back to the headstone, "I've got a song for you" she said , putting her bag down next to her and hefting the guitar into her lap, she strummed a few chords messing with the pattern until she had it the way she wanted it when she began to sing; "Somewhere there's a sea that has no other side, somewhere there's an airplane lost beyond the sky, so fly us up above the clouds" her clear voice filled the silent air around her and even the birds stopped to listen Cassie continued to strum the guitar despite the soreness in her wrist from her restless night. "Live your life where you are now" Her singing continued her voice floating just over the music from her guitar, the way it always had. Her mother used to tell her she was born to be a singer.

"And in the darkness round the sun, there's light behind your eyes and when you've lost the will to run, you can feel it start to shine." As she continued to sing, her eyes closed, Cassie didn't notice the crack in the ground that had begun to spread from her brother's headstone towards her, growing larger quickly, by the time she was aware of the hole in the ground over her brother's grave she was falling through it. Cassie screamed and clutched her guitar for no other reason than that it was there.

It was pitch black as she fell for a short distance and then she hit the ground. Hard. The breath was pushed out of her as she felt her back connect with solid earth and opened her eyes. It wasn't pitch black wherever she was, just dark. The night was uninterrupted by city lights and she could see more stars than she'd ever been able to. Looking around at her surroundings Cassie found herself in the middle or a field staring up at what looked like a castle. There were no castles in New York. And as she began to panic and try to sit up, she blacked out.

Spanish translations:

Gracias: Thank you

Denada: You're welcome

Mi amor: My love

Te amo: I love you

Songs: (in chronological order)

Time Bomb – All Time Low

Darkness Round The Sun – Alexz Johnson