Chapter Two

Not watching ahead of me, I ran straight into something. I jumped back and screamed as I realized it wasn't something but someone. I shook a little as I looked up to see who the person was.

"Calm down," he barked. "Its just me."

Relief flooded through my veins at the familiar voice. "Derek? What are you doing out here in the middle of the night?"

He motioned to me. "I heard someone scream, and seeing as there is no one else out here, I heard you scream." He folded his arms across his chest waiting for me to explain.

"Oh, sorry I woke you up." I tried to get away with just that said but Derek kept waiting expectantly. "See, what happened was.." I told him about my interesting night and he listened patiently. If I could have, I would have avoided telling him about it at all. It was bad enough having to go through it once, retelling it wasn't any better.

Liz took a seat beside me and, for once, didn't saying anything. She listened intently, as if she hadn't already known what I was talking about.

When I finished speaking, the muscles Derek's jaw began to work. "We'll find some way to work it out."

"Yeah, okay." I wasn't sure he would fix it. How was I supposed to not raise the dead if I wasn't trying?

"And why didn't you wake me up?" He growled, anger bubbling up to the surface. "I told you next time something like that happened you should wake me up. There was no point in doing that alone."

"I wasn't alone," I corrected. "Liz was with me, remember?" I threw a glance her way and she smiled.

"You said Liz didn't even get there until after you released the spirits."

I averted my eyes to the ground. "Yeah.. But…" I lightly tapped a rock with my foot. "Wouldn't you of done the same thing if you were me?"

He grunted. "That's not the point, Chloe. You need to stop thinking you can handle everything on your own-"

"I handled it just fine by myself" I cut in. "If I needed your help I would have woken you up." Or imagined he was there in my head..

"Chloe," His chest rumbled. "That's not what I meant. Its dangerous out here at night-"

"Dangerous?" I countered. "We're surrounded by a forest!"

"And what if Ramon and Liam had caught a whiff of us as we drove here from Andrew's? Then you would have gone outside all alone and been all too easy of a victim. So next time, wake me up, Chloe. I mean it. Alright?"

I nodded, I probably would wake him up if anything else happened. But I hoped I wouldn't be put in another situation where I would have to wake him up. "Okay."

"I mean it, Chloe. You better wake me up next time."

"Alright, I promise. Better?"

"Yeah." He looked more satisfied and he relaxed, thrusting himself back against a small Pine tree. It cracked from the pressure and with a snap broke in half. The top piece of the tree fell to the ground with a small thump. Derek jumped away from the tree, startled.

We both stared at the tree in silence for a few minutes. Well, silent except for Liz who was still jabbering excitedly, as always. Derek's face was s deep shade of maroon; he raked a hand through his hair mumbling something about how he didn't mean to do it.

"It was a little tree. It would have broken if anyone leaned on it." I tried to placate him.

His lip curled, obviously he didn't believe that. "It would not have happened to anyone, Chloe. Just me." The disgust in his voice was evident. "See how easily I snapped that tree? I didn't even try, Chloe. It just happened. Next time it could be a-" He stopped himself from saying anything more and averted his attention to the ground.

He thought he was dangerous, he'd told me before. Never, did he care about himself. Even when Simon was leaving the Lyle house, he planned to stay because he thought that was where he belonged. When Derek tried protecting Simon from some red neck losers, he had just thrown the guy and now he couldn't walk again. Derek took all the blame for it, and he felt awful for doing it. My insides squirmed and I felt for him.

"Derek?" I made sure my voice was gentle as I called out to him.

"We better get back inside," He grunted. "Its about to rain."

I squinted up at the night sky unable to see the clouds. Trusting Derek's better sense of sight, I told him alright and we lumbered back to the house.

***

Neither of us were tired enough to go back to sleep, well, I was tired but there was no way I was going back to sleep with a graveyard right outside of my room. So, Derek and I settled down in the living room. There was a fireplace and Derek lit it to keep us warm. We sat on a large couch that had a perfect view of the fireplace.

Liz had slipped off somewhere without me noticing. Apparently, she figured she couldn't really be in part of the conversation with only one person who could hear her.

"You okay?" Derek asked after a few minutes of silence.

I refocused my attention away from the fireplace. "Yeah. Shouldn't I be?"

He shifted his position in the couch. "I meant the bodies. Are you far enough away here in the living room? Or is it still bothering you?"

Honestly? It was difficult to not notice the chills that I got from being near a corpse. But here, I was far enough away from the bodies so the chills were now only a prickle on my skin. Enough to make me cautious and wary to fall asleep, but nothing terrible, no.

"Its manageable," I reassured him, but the look he gave me told me that he doubted that.

"Go to sleep," He insisted. "I'll wake you up if you raise any more bodies."

"But what about you? How much sleep have-"

I was cut of by Derek as he threw a blanket from the couch over me. He patted his broad shoulder telling me without words that I could rest my head on him. Seeing that Derek really wasn't giving me an option to sleep or not, I let my head fall on his shoulder and began to drift asleep…

Sorry its not too long, but i'll try and update soon! :D