Chapter 3

Reid woke up once more to Tyler shoving him, threatening once more to push him off the bed. "One sec, one sec." Reid slowly rolled over, feeling like his head had been run over with a train. "Why am I feeling like shit?" he asked as he sat up.

"Because you went over to Jeff's last night and I had to go pick your butt up at one."

Reid looked at Tyler. "What?"

"You heard me. Now get up and get dressed, otherwise we're gonna be late."

Reid stood up, unable to bring more than two thoughts together. "How fucked was I?"

"Throwing up all over the bathroom for two hours fucked."

Shit! "Where was I when you got back?"

"Not here again. I texted you and you said you got tired of waiting around and Jeff came and picked you up. You got a hold of some girl who bought you alcohol and that was that. I didn't get another text 'til almost one, and you were freaking out and I was glad when you finally passed out. I'm assuming you don't remember any of this?"

Reid shook his head. "No. I went to bed right after I called you."

They left the room, Reid barely able to walk straight. On the way outside he slipped on the floor, falling and hitting his elbows hard on the ground. "Today's going to be a bad day for you dude."

"I can't remember anything from yesterday, I get these weird notes, I get more shitfaced than ever and I can't even remember, and now I'm fuckin' slipping and falling. This is a fantastic twenty-four hours."

Reid stood up with Tyler's help, Tyler helping him towards the classrooms. "Well, if it's only twenty-four hours, it should be done soon, right?"

"Hopefully."

When Tyler left Reid to go to his own class, Reid dealt with his hangover and the lecture, even managing to take notes and not pass out. He slept in his second hour while Tyler took notes, and felt slightly better in his third hour. "Any more blacking out?" Tyler asked as they headed out of second.

"Unless I was taking notes all last period, than no more blacking out."

The rest of the morning went as smooth as possible, Caleb commenting on how Reid looked like shit.

"Drop it Caleb."

"Someone have a rough night?"

"No. I'm just trying to figure shit out."

Reid sat down and laid his head in his arms and slept the lunch hour, not having any dreams that he was happy with.

"My Baby!" Melanie called, running out to Reid in her hot pink tank top and short white skirt, wearing white heels with little hot pink hearts over them.

"Hey, how are you?" Reid asked, kissing her on the lips, her long brown hair framing her blue eyes perfectly.

She smiled, saying, "I'm good. I've only been missing you the entire time!"

Reid nodded and looked back over to his truck out of habit, and turned back, seeing Jason in his arms and Melanie in Chase's arms, a knife held to her neck. Reid jumped away, but Jason pulled out his own knife and held it close to Reid. "If you move, she gets it. Now, stand here." Reid complied, Melanie close to tears. "This is for taking my queen away," Jason whispered in Reid's ear, before stabbing him in the stomach with the knife. Reid fell as Melanie screamed, Reid trying to hold off the pain. He grabbed at his power, but he was kicked across the head.

"Ah, ah, ah, that'd be a naughty boy, if you went for your special toy." Reid looked up, seeing Chase above him instead. He kicked Reid square in the back, causing him to yell, and move with the knife still in his stomach. He pulled it out, and tried to stab it in Chase's foot, but missed.

"Silly boy! Where are you learning these stupid tricks?"He was kicked again in the back, before Chase bent down next to him. "How have you been brother? I've missed you dearly these last two months."

"You're dead, you're gone, and you're only a part of my imagination now," Reid said, meeting Chase's eyes.

"That is what you believe. And, because this is all a part of your mind, I suppose you are right. But, is this real too?"

He felt the knife pressed down to his throat, and slice through. Reid went to grab the knife, but Chase pushed his hands away. He finished cutting his throat, Reid gagging and losing his breath, Chase's eyes being the last thing he saw.

The next thing Reid knew was Tyler was shaking him awake. Reid opened his eyes, feeling worse than he did when he woke up. "Hey, you okay? You're looking really white."

"Bad dream," he replied before standing up and falling over onto Tyler. "Shit, sorry," he said, his vision swaying before darkening. "So... I may need some help."

"I'll get it," he last remembered Tyler saying, before all went dark and numb.

When he next was aware of his surroundings, he was sitting on his bed, notebooks laid out in front of him. He looked over and saw Tyler sitting on his bed, doing his math homework. "What...what the hell?" Reid asked, beginning to lose control of his usually calm demeanor.

"Hey, Reid, are you okay?" He felt Tyler rush up next to him as he fell against his headboard, having a hard time breathing.

Reid wanted to know what was happening to him. He was losing control of everything, yet he heard himself respond, "I'm fine. Just... I'm not sure."

His voice was much calmer than he was feeling, and he made himself open his eyes. He saw Tyler above him, looking worried. "Why do I not believe that?"

Reid took in a breath, responding with, "Because you shouldn't. Tyler, what's been going on? What have I done all day?"

"Ah... What do you mean?"

"I last remember talking to you at lunch, saying, 'I'll get it.' What have I done since then?"

Tyler stared at him, obviously confused. "Ah...you straightened up right after that, and you seemed fine. You said it must have been the dream. We went to our classes, finished the day, came back here, then went to dinner, and we just got back. You seemed all eager to do your homework, and you wouldn't stop pestering me about it. You've been quiet the last five minutes."

Reid let out a groan. "I don't remember any of that. Nothing. Fucking hell, what's going on?"

"Do I need to go get Pogue? I think Caleb may be in there too."

Reid didn't know. He felt his mind spinning, and he sat up saying, "Yeah, let's go get them before I do something."

"What're we going to tell them?"

"I don't know. That I've gone more psycho than normal?"

Tyler shook his head as Reid stood up, holding onto Tyler for balance. When he was steady they slipped on their shoes and left, heading towards the end of the hall. Tyler knocked on the door, Reid getting impatient. Pogue answered, and was surprised when he saw Tyler and Reid. "What are you guys doing here?"

"We are your friends. Is Caleb here?"

"Yeah. Why?"

Reid looked over and saw Caleb standing up. Pogue was looking at Reid oddly, causing Reid to say, "What did I do to you now?"

"That's the thing. Nothing," Pogue responded, as Caleb opened the door more.

"What's going on?"

Tyler pointed to Reid, saying, "He's having some problems with memory loss."

Caleb looked at him oddly, before pulling the door open. "Let's check him out then."

It felt weird being in Caleb and Pogue's room. Caleb had moved back in for the last semester, but still went home quite often. Everyone often times met outside of the dorms, or in Reid and Tyler's room. Caleb and Pogue's room seemed a lot emptier, but they mainly didn't have as many posters as Reid and Tyler did. Reid sat down on the end of Pogue's bed, Tyler sitting beside him, Pogue and Caleb sitting on Caleb's bed as Caleb sat across from Reid.

"So, what about these memory losses?"

Reid put his head in his hands, not wanting to meet Caleb's eyes. "Example. Today after lunch, when Tyler woke me up, did you guys see me afterward?"

Pogue spoke up. "Yeah, we all have sixth and seventh hour together, and then you came to dinner with us."

Reid looked up. "I don't remember any of that."

Caleb only looked at Reid. "You honestly don't?"

"No. I last remember speaking to Tyler right after he woke me up."

"You sure were obnoxious enough at dinner..." Pogue muttered.

"Actually," Tyler said, "he was fairly quiet compared to how he can be, and he kept on bothering me about the homework, remember?"

Pogue and Caleb nodded. "How many of these blackouts do you normally have?" Caleb asked.

"They started yesterday. I...should probably show you my notes then."

Reid left the room and went back to his dorm room, grabbing all of his notebooks. He took them back to Caleb's room, and sat back down, flipping through the pages. "This is how my handwriting normally looks," he said, and then flipped to the notes from earlier. "And this is what they look like when I'm blacked out and in class." He showed him all of the backwards words, and looked through the notes from today. He saw more backwards letters and asked for a pencil. He saw the letters O R A G I N D Y L N R F U I E O E W I. He looked for a pattern around the notebook, but that didn't really help. Tyler looked at it as well, and it didn't take as long as it had before.

" 'You're failing now Reid?' What does that mean?"

"I don't know. I don't know what anything means anymore."

"These notes are quite interesting. What's the backwards stuff in your history book?"

"Turn the page."

Caleb did and read the poem, before looking at Reid. "How did you come up with this?"

"I didn't. Or, that I'm aware of. I just saw it, and it doesn't make any sense."

"How often do these blackouts occur?"

"Yesterday every hour, and then today from lunch until we basically came in."

"I'm going to keep this poem and check the Book for anything. If I find any key words, I'll see what they mean."

"Thanks."

Reid grabbed his stuff and went back into the room, Tyler saying something before following. When Tyler caught up to him, Reid looked at him and said with a stern voice, "If I go anywhere tonight, don't let me. I want to stay in and go to bed sometime and I want to be sober as well. If you have to tie me up...just explain before I get up."

Tyler nodded and both entered the room, sitting down on their beds and setting up their homework. Reid relaxed the rest of the night, trying to get his head back together. He looked over his notes from class, and had to rewrite a few of them because the handwriting was so horrible. When it was time for him to for once get a good night's sleep, he brushed his teeth and hopped in bed, Tyler doing the same. "Are you going to try to escape tonight?" Tyler asked before he shut off the light.

"I hope not. I just want to sleep and try not to feel as shitty as I did this morning."

"Sounds like a plan."

Tyler flipped off the lights, and Reid laid there for awhile, wondering when...whatever...kicked in. When I'm tired, I guess. So, what does this mean? Am I going to fade out like I have been doing and go do only god knows what? I hope not... I just want to live long enough to see Melanie.

Reid smiled. He was going to see Melanie this weekend, and it was going to be worthwhile, just because he could make it meaningful. His truck could survive the snow easily, and even because of that, they could have some fun as well. I wonder if she wants to go snowmobiling... That would be a date.

Reid fell asleep to thoughts of Melanie, and when he heard the alarm go off in the morning, he was decently awake. Tyler hit the snooze button and Reid complied, going back to sleep for five more minutes. He heard the alarm go off again and he thought he heard Tyler's voice but the darkness was falling around him again. He tried to struggle against it, but he could barely get his voice out.

The next time he was able to open his eyes, it was lunch and he was about to take a bite out of pizza. He dropped the pizza and jumped back, falling out of his chair. He was trying his best not to panic as everyone began looking over. He sat back on his chair, taking deep breaths and controlling his shaking. When he looked up, the three were looking at him, taking in his looks. "This is the real Reid, isn't it?"

"Yeah," he said, trying to calm down still.

"Thought something was off by how easily you jumped out of bed this morning," Tyler said.

"I was good the first time your alarm went off. Then I thought five more minutes wouldn't be bad. I think I heard it go off the second time but that's when I was slipping away."

"So you don't have any control over this I take it?" Caleb asked, Reid simply nodding. He pushed the pizza away, sick.

"I fucking hate pizza. You guys should know this." Reid looked up and saw the guys looking at each other.

"That's what we said," Tyler said. "But then you said this girl that you've been hanging out with got you back into liking it. You seemed just fine eating it..."

Reid shuddered. He hated the texture of the melted cheese and the taste of the crust. He liked the individual ingredients, but something about them all together always made him sick. He laid his head down on the table before deciding to look at his notebooks. When he opened them, he saw the bad handwriting once more, and the backwards letters. He grabbed a pencil and saw the letters were already fairly organized. Caleb glance over as Reid was switching a few of the letters around, and read, Good luck Caleb.

"Wait, what does this have to do with me?"

"Have you looked at the poem yet?" Caleb shook his head. "That's probably it then."

Tyler looked at his watch. "We got five minutes left."

Reid nodded and put his notebooks away, ready for the rest of the day. He saw everyone keeping an eye on him in each of his classes, which he was fine with. He felt a little better by the end of the day, and went over to the Danvers' First Colony House with Caleb right after school, looking up the meanings for the poem. "Key things...it's all around about a girl. There's the line between right and wrong, how she's your toy, and checking behind you, which can lead to paranoia."

"That sounds about right."

Caleb flipped through the books, using his power to help find certain words. Reid looked around the rest of the basement, trying to find something useful to either do or look at. He found a book that his great-great-great-grandfather wrote, and was about to pull it out when Caleb spoke up. "I think I found something. 'If a girl is mentioned in any sort of rhymes, the first girl of meaning that comes to mind must be ignored.' Random stuff... And... 'Depending on which matter this female is written about depends on which actions the male must take.' For you, since she's referenced to as a toy, or sex item, you basically should just stay away from her.

"It says that if things with this girl get worse between you too, as in, there's more sex and things similar to that, you can create a spell out of this, or even one of us can unknowingly create it, wrap it around you, and basically trap you to her."

"What about the paranoia stuff?" Reid didn't know what to think. How can something like this come out to that?

"Let me look... Got it. The paranoia mentioned in the poem is referring to normal stuff. If this were to become a spell, the early effects would consist of leaving our friendship overall, guarding your personal items, aggressive personality, things like that."

Reid shook his head. "Do you think that any of this has to do with the black outs?"

"Possibly... Blackouts are more of a medical condition, and we can't afford to go to the doctor with our powers. If they do any testing, who knows, with the equipment today, they may be able to pick something up that they can't explain and may want to do some experiments."

"That's fine. I don't care much for doctors anyway."

Caleb nodded. "I think we'll be fine for now, but we just need to keep an eye on you and what you're doing before these blackouts happen."

"I can tell you for sure it's when I'm tired or resting my eyes."

Caleb nodded slowly, thinking. "Well, we're going to Nikki's tonight, and you seem more rested, so you should be fine tonight."

"Tomorrow though? Or even later tonight since its Wasted Wednesday?"

Caleb shook his head. "I don't know. We'll just have to do certain things to see if it's the real you or not."

Reid nodded, not liking the sound of that. And if it's not? What are they going to do? Use on me? Take me in for questioning? Who am I kidding? They probably would. "Look at my handwriting and you can tell for sure."

Caleb nodded and he stood up, putting the Book of Shadows away. Reid followed him out of the house and back into the car. "We'll get to the bottom of this. I'm hoping it goes away soon."

"Me too."

Reid was quiet on the ride back and Caleb dropped him off. "I have to run home and help my mom with a few things before I go to Nikki's tonight. Save some of the fun for me."

Reid nodded. "Will do."

Reid walked back up to his room, annoyed with everything that was happening. He wasn't in the mood to do his homework, and when he unlocked the door, Tyler wasn't in the room. "Great, this is joyous." He laid on his bed, wondering what to do. He still had three hours before they were going to go to Nikki's, and all he had to do was ponder the poem. Maybe I'll call Melanie. I bet she'd like that... But if the poem is about her then I shouldn't talk to her all that much. But that's the thing. I need to talk to her. It's been awhile.

Reid ended up calling Melanie, and he felt at peace while he talked with her. She had another two days before he came down and she couldn't wait, which was the same with him. When he finished talking to her, he felt better and didn't mind lying on his bed afterward.

None of this spell stuff can happen or be real. Why would I set a spell on myself, or why would any of the other guys? They'd rather put spells on me to keep me away from her. All of this is just bullshit. This weekend will be perfect. It'll be Valentine's Day and I'll officially ask her out. She is the only one so far to make me feel, or even think like this for anyone.

Reid sat up, grabbing his backpack. He still had time to kill before going over to Nikki's, and he could redo the notes from the first half of the day. Oh joy, here we go again. Where the hell is Tyler? Reid looked down at his notes, not much of it making sense. He did the best he could to finish the worksheets, textbook questions, and short answers. My grades are going to slip if this keeps up. Tyler needs to look over these... Reid grabbed his phone again, his curiosity rising when he saw they were supposed to be leaving in ten minutes.

He texted Tyler and got up, changing for Nikki's. He threw on a white long-sleeved shirt with a black t-shirt over it, dark jeans, black beanie, and his gloves. He grabbed his jacket and everything else he needed, then headed down to Pogue's room. He heard his phone go off as he reached Pogue's room, and looked at it as he knocked on the door. Pogue answered, first saying, "Where's Tyler?"

"He said he'll meet us at Nikki's. Other than that I'm not sure. You ready?" Pogue nodded, shutting his door and locking it.

They walked down the hall, Pogue saying, "Are you going to take your truck tonight?"

"I'm not sure. Tyler will have his, but I don't know what his plans are for afterward, and you won't go out with me tonight."

Pogue shook his head. "I'll consider it when I'm in college. I want my senior year to be as sober as possible."

Reid shrugged as they reached the doors. "We'll take separate cars then. I'll follow you out." Reid went towards his truck, sighing. It's too cold to party, but it just means that there's more alcohol to go around. Hopefully tonight ends well. He drove to the south side of town, seeing the bar's lights almost right away. He saw some cars that he recognized from the school and chuckled to himself. Some of the only excitement this town can provide for us. He parked on the street and got out while he watched Pogue look for an actual spot. Ha, his Audi's going to have a fun time getting out of here. Reid went up to the door as Pogue found a spot, and they both walked in together.

Reid headed towards the pool table, looking for Tyler. When he only saw Aaron and his friends, he went towards the tables and saw him sitting down, Pogue joining him. Reid headed over saying, "Where've you been all night? I needed you to check my answers."

"Sasha needed help writing a draft of her final paper, and she helped me with mine in return. I asked if she wanted to come to Nikki's as well, but she said she had to go to youth group or something like that tonight."

Reid had a grin on his face. "You like a little Christian girl? How the hell does that happen? That has to be against something in the Book."

"She's not Christian. She only has to play it because her parents are. It's a complicated but funny story, really."

Reid shook his head as Pogue looked away. "Caleb's here," Pogue said, standing up. Reid and Tyler looked over, and saw that Caleb had brought Sarah and Kate as well.

Reid looked at Tyler, asking, "Pool?" Tyler smiled and they both stood up, heading over towards where Aaron was playing. "Is it sad that this game never gets old?"

Tyler nodded. "Yeah, in a way. But it's too much fun to just stop."

"Isn't everything in life?"

Tyler laughed as they walked up to the table, Aaron looking at the two of them. "What do you fuckers want?"

"How's your game going tonight?" Reid asked.

"It's going better than yours has been lately."

Reid looked at Tyler. "Sorry about that. How about a rematch? We'll try to play nice this time."

Aaron smirked and nodded, Tyler saying quietly, "I don't know about nice, Reid. We don't have alcohol this time."

"Well...we'll just have that much more fun then."

The games were even at first, before Reid got bored and started pulling out his trick shots, barely Using. He had gotten better in general, but the power still helped. Aaron, as usual, began getting mad and calling Reid a fake and show off. "How about this. I do a shot, and you see if you can copy it. If you can, than you choose a shot and I have to copy it. We each get three chances."

"You and your stupid games. Fine. We'll do it. If you lose, you have to dress in drag for school on Friday since there's no dress code that day."

Reid smirked. "I like that. I think you'd be more suited for it though since you have longer hair. If you lose, you have to sing to Kristina May tomorrow, and instead of telling her how gorgeous she is, you have to tell her how unattractive she is until you get her to cry."

Aaron looked grim. Kristina May was definitely one of the most gorgeous girls in school, and she was too full of herself to get upset. "Fine. We have a deal." They shook, and Reid took first shot, starting off simple.

Tyler and everyone else watched as they did shot after shot, Reid playing fair. This is actually a lot of fun, and he's better than I thought he was. But...we're both running out of ideas, so how about this? Reid took aim for the one ball, hopped the cue ball over the one ball, and watched the cue ball zigzag back up and hit the nine ball into the corner pocket. He looked at Aaron, who looked pissed. "How the fuck did you do that?"

"I got tired of waiting for you to lose, so I pulled something that's above you."

By the look on Aaron's face, Reid knew he was right. And he only used his power to give the cue ball consistent speed after it had hit the end of the table and was working its way back up. "You're a fucking cheater. I don't know how yet, but you're a fucking cheater."

Reid sighed. Here we go again. "Look, Aaron. Some people have natural skills, and some people don't. I have skills, and you don't. Is that clear enough for you? If you want I can make a list of everything I'm better at then you."

Aaron's face grew red, which was Reid's only warning as he jumped towards Reid, Reid jumping onto the table to avoid him. He got off before Nikki saw, and they swiftly walked outside before they got in trouble again. Aaron followed close behind and got to the end of the parking lot before Aaron jumped on Reid's back. Reid met the snow on the ground and the fight was on. He glanced up enough to see Tyler stopping Seth from joining Aaron, and Tyler being punched across the face for his interference.

Reid threw Aaron off of him, and kicked him in the chest. "Quit being a sore loser. And call your fucking friends off. They had nothing to do with any of this. It's between you and me dick."

Reid shook the snow off of his front, glad there wasn't any breeze. "Fine asshole, let's go. We're off of Nikki's property so he can't stop us."

Reid looked at Tyler, who looked fine, then to Seth and saw a bloody nose. Glad Ty still knows how to fight. Reid looked back at Aaron, grinned, and dodged a fist to his face. He went low and swung at Aaron's stomach with his left hand, hitting him in the side instead. He felt Aaron elbow him in the spine, so Reid brought his head up fast and felt Aaron's chin contact with the back of his head. Aaron yelled, Reid stumbling back, eyes watering. After a few seconds, he ran towards Aaron and tackled him to the ground, punching him across the face. He felt two people grab his shirt and lift him off, and saw it was Seth and Kyle. Tyler grabbed onto the back of Seth, but Aaron was already getting up.

Reid managed to get his shirt out of Kyle's grip, but it was as Aaron kicked Reid across his legs at the knee. Reid lost his balance and felt Aaron kick him in the side, and lost his breath. He was being lifted again and was punched across the face, before being thrown to the snow once more. "I believe I'm better than you at this," he heard Aaron say, Aaron putting his hand on the back of Reid's head and shoving it down to the pavement.

Reid pushed himself up, and brought his right elbow up, slamming it right beside Aaron's nose. Aaron yelled again and Reid stood up, kicking Aaron in the side before seeing Kyle coming after him. Reid ducked one of his punches, and as Kyle tripped over Aaron's body, Reid wrapped his arms around Kyle's waist, dropped his shoulder, and flung Kyle over his back as he stood up. He looked over to Tyler and saw Seth laying on the ground, Tyler on one knee, lip bleeding, face bright pink from the cold and punches. "Aaron, I really think we're better at this. We were outnumbered, and we still beat you." Reid helped Tyler up and they both headed back towards the bar, leaving the three on the ground.

"Do you think Nikki's going to say anything?"

"As long as we did it off of his property and we didn't kill anyone, we're fine. They'll be moving soon enough. We didn't do enough damage to send them to the emergency room."

"Did you want to party after this?"

"I thought you'd never ask." Reid and Tyler went and cleaned themselves up, and grabbed their jackets to warm back up. They joined the table of couples, everyone seeming to have a good time.

"What happened to you guys?" Caleb asked.

"We had to teach Aaron a lesson," Reid replied, looking around for water. He didn't want Nikki to see him yet, since it was obvious he had just come back in from outside. He saw the drinking fountain and stood up, Tyler following him. I must've had some adrenaline rush. I've never been this thirsty after a fight. "You doing okay Ty?"

"Yeah, I'll be fine. Throw some alcohol in me and I won't feel a thing."

Reid chuckled. "You got a party in mind?"

"Tony from chem. is throwing it. I'm not quite sure how's he's getting away with it, but he is."

Reid nodded as he drank the water, relief flooding through him. When he was done he asked, "Do you think Aaron's going to try anything again?" Tyler caught the glimmer in his eye.

"No, not tonight. You surprised him and Kyle. They're not gonna try shit for awhile."

Tyler bent over to drink his water. "What about Seth? I saw that you got him pretty good."

Tyler wiped his mouth, smiling. "Heh, yeah I guess. He wasn't really hard though."

Reid smiled. "Want to hang around for a bit before we head out? Maybe we can be the respectful Brothers for a bit that Caleb's always trying to get us to be."

Tyler nodded and they headed back towards the table, a fun night at the tips of their fingers.

Well, there's the end to chapter 3. Not to bad, right? I personally like it a lot...was really pleased with the fight scene... So... what's gonna happen now? Any ideas? Ah well whatever...just as long as people are enjoying the story. And only excise for not updating sooner... I love partying too much. Plus i had to erase my hard drive, fix my computer back up, figure out internet...which i'm so fucking stoked about. OMG! My roommate wanted to kill me cus i wasn't speaking complete sentences last night XD DORK. Anywho. Hope you readers enjoyed and i'll be updating...sometime soon. (my version of soon...like...in a week or two...haha) :P