I lifted my shaking hand to my neckline, wrapping my hand around the little pendant. It felt like it just happened yesterday, I thought as I lifted myself up from my bed. Everything hurt, my cheeks, my back, my arms- All covered in bruises. I tried to wipe away any memories of that night.

"Hey Rose, I've missed you." I heard a familiar voice say. JAKE! I turned my head quickly in the direction of the door, but no one was there. It was all in my head, I was going crazy. I needed some fresh air, a walk, maybe.

I ran into my closet, and went through some clothes and pulled together an outfit which consisted of a pair of black combat boots, skinny jeans, a black t-shirt and a vest.

After putting it all on, I walked across my room and went to my window. I opened the latch, and took off the screen, and went through the frame, and hopped onto a tree that was close-by. I dug my feet into the nooks and indents the tree had, making my way down to the grassy ground.

What time is it, anyway?

I kept walking, cold air gently blowing against my skin, and the sun a deep orange in the sky. It was either sun-rise or sun-set. I noticed droplets of water on leaves and the grass and I walked on into the forest. Morning. I took in a breath and looked around me as I walked on, going into the thick forest.

I never took it off, the necklace. It never left my neck for the 4 years it's been there. It probably cost more then I could ever pay, but Jake insisted. He was the best thing that ever happened to me. Without him, I would be God-know-where, on a street corner, wasted, high, and looking for business.

What would happen now? Would everyone get sick of me and kick me out? After all, I was just another face to most of them. I'd overheard Nancy talking to some of her friends at school, making up crazy things about me.

I kept on walking, staring at my feet, and the passing ground. I suddenly heard a rustle coming from near-by trees and bushes. I felt myself freeze, but decided to keep on walking. It was just the wind, it was just the wind-

"Hey, Beautiful."

I froze completely. I felt warm breath on my neck, and I felt helpless.

"Did you miss me? You've been crying a lot lately." I didn't reply to him.

"Leave." I spat, not turning around, feeling the rage I felt when he shot Jake, and the helplessness now, that I was done.

"You can't expect me to leave you, you're such a pretty girl." he leered, brushing his hand against my neck softly. I turned around, and faced the masked stranger I knew so well.

"What do you want?" I fumed, in a raspy, shaking tone.

"Rose, sweetie. I just want you." he exposed. I took a rather large step back from him, and smirking, he took one where we were almost touching noses. I took an even bigger step back, and he followed. Suddenly, a rush of adrenaline come over me, and before I knew it I was running away, with him not too far behind.

"LEAVE ME ALONE!" I screamed, as loud as I could, hoping someone would help me. I kept running, and running. I knew this path, it lead behind the houses and in about 10 minutes we would hit the park.

Thump, thump, thump, thump.. My feet kept hitting the ground increasing with speed every second. After about one minute, I came to a halting stop. A huge tree was knocked over the path, along with branches as sharp as knives, and leaves blocking any sight of way. I took in a huge breath and realized I couldn't stop. If he caught me, something bad would happen, and I didn't want to take that chance.

I jumped in the direction of the tree, and grabbed onto one of the sharp branches, and pulled myself up. I felt a hand grab my ankles and sent me crashing down to the cold ground, at least two feet down from the tree. I whimpered and pain, and tried to continue on, but the man's grip was focused, and pulled me down.

"Listen, you are going to do as I say-" he started fearlessly.

"Never!" I cried. "I lost my best friend because of you!" he laughed humourlessly and I glared at him, his hand still tightly gripping my waist.

"Pretty brave…" he trailed off, smirking as he stuck one of his hands into his back pocket. "Too bad it's all going to go to waste," he pulled out a sharp bladed knife. I felt my body go tense and it froze. My heart was pounding inside my chest, and I was sure I would faint any minute.

"Now where did we leave off last time?" he smirked, pointing the knife at my chest. If I was going down, I could at least end in a bang, I thought. What was the worst he could do, kill me? Bring me to where Jake was in heaven? But then I remembered something

"Oh, you mean the part where you killed my best friend?" I asked, shoving my hand into my jeans pocket, and pulled out exactly what I was looking for. My hand gun. "That's right, I went there." He let go of my wrist and my arm dropped, but he and I still remained in position for battle.

His expression was worried. He wasn't expecting this, that's for sure. But then he did something even I didn't expect.

As I slowly pretended to pull the trigger, to scare him off, he took of his mask and disguise. His face, his eyes, his voice… The familiarity hit me. It was James Luthers. My old friend from 9th grade. But here's the thing, he wasn't just a friend.

Back in 9th grade, I was new to school, I was naïve, I relied on Jake to show me everything- How to act, how to dress, how to talk to people there… It was all so new. On the second day, I made a friend. He was James. At first he was nice, caring, talkative… But after a while, Jake started to realize things about James. He knew where I was- at all times. He called me more than once every day, and just knew things I'd never told him. Jake confronted me about this, and I swore it was nothing. He wanted to call the police to investigate, but I didn't. Stupid me. Much, much later in the year, he cornered me, in an emptied hallway. He had a look of evil in his eyes that I had never seen before.

"What are you doin-"

"Shh…" he spoke softly, the evil still in his eyes.

"James! What are you-" his lips were about to touch my neck when I hear it. To me, it was the most amazing sound ever.

"Touch her, I kill you, Luthers." Jake spat, running towards us, and throwing James off me into the lockers.

"You called him!" James exclaimed, with a rather stupid question.

"No! I-" and with that he slapped me. Strait across the face, and it hurt. Maybe because I wasn't even expecting that, especially from him. That was enough to set off Jake. He threw him once more against the lockers and punched him across the face, and resulted in a bloody nose.

"Fuck you, Anderson." James sneered, with blood running down his face from the nose bleed. With that, he left. And that was the last time I'd ever seen him. Until now.

"J-J-James?" I stuttered, in pure shock and awe. His familiar smirk, and look of evil was still there. But then I remembered everything- the laughs, the tears, the fun nights in the city… He was my best friend.

"Go ahead shoot."

I held the gun up, my hands shaking. Then I got it. He took off the disguise because he knew I was weak, only there. My emotions, nothing else. He knew I would still care, and that was the only way I wouldn't shoot him.

I tried to do it- pull the trigger. It was that simple. He wasn't running, he wasn't hiding. He was right there… But I couldn't bring myself to do that.

"What happened to you?" I enquired, in a horrified tone of voice.

"You rejected me." he whispered, evilly.

"You stalked me!" I retorted. "You killed Jake over a rejection!"

"You loved him, I had to. He was my only competition." James replied.

"I did not love him in the way you think!" I shouted back.

"You did. Admit it."

"F-fine. I did." I admitted.

"Exactly. Originally, the shot was meant for you. But then asshole got in the way-"

"Don't say that, shut the fuck up!" I shrieked. But before I knew it, he knocked the gun out of my hand, and grabbed it. He had the knife and the gun. Fuck.

"Now, Rose. I have the gun, and the knife. I'm going to tell you what I want." he demanded. I didn't reply. "You are now my girlfriend. Say yes, you're safe. Say no…" he trailed off chuckling. "You know what happens." Fuck.

I was screwed. I had no way out. There was no possible way I could get out of this unharmed.

"Anything but tha-" I was about to say but he jumped at me with the knife, sending us crashing to the ground. With the knife only inches from my face, I looked him in his eyes.

"Fine" I spluttered out, not even believing myself. He smiled and got off of me, and I stood up.

"Can I leave? I'm tired." I mumbled, hoping I'd get a chance to run away.

"Fine." he inclined. "But you tell anyone, of anything. You are dead." I took in everything, and turned around. I started walking away from him, and started back to the house, sad, alone and helpless to the power he had over me. I was trapped- and no one could save me. I had to date this man, who killed my best friend, and go along with it. It wasn't going to be easy, and I doubt I'd make it through alive.

A M O N T H L A T E R

He's perfect, amazing, kind, sweet, caring… Everything I knew he was. Maybe one day I could be Misses James Luthers, and be even happier then today. I was in love with him, and was enjoying every second with him. We talked every day, went out all the time, and always had a blast together.

No one else liked him though. Kara spat at him, Nancy rolled her eyes every time he was near, Josh didn't even look at him because of the rage he had, and Jason looked ready to spring at him. But I didn't care. I was in love. And he loved me back.

I was in James' arms, and enjoying it. I felt safe, and secure, and alive. I felt useful, and I loved that. I hadn't cut myself, not even once, in a full month, and I didn't even have to take anti-depressants. It was everything I'd ever wanted in my life.

Yet another perfect date, went… perfect. James took me out to dinner at a beautiful part in town, at this cute little restaurant. The food was amazing, he was amazing, and he kissed me. That was amazing.

I pushed open the door, the smile from after the kiss still lingering of my face, and the happiness was still there.

"Did you dump him yet?" Nancy asked, with boredom, as she was sitting down at the kitchen's breakfast nook reading a magazine.

"Nope!" I smiled cheerfully.

"What? Why?" she exclaimed.

"Because," I started. "He's nice, he get's me… And I think I'm in love with him." Everyone's faces changed to a surprised look of shock.

"Rose, please. Do you not remember Jake? At all? Who killed him?" Kara asked, raising an eyebrow. Jake… My hand felt for my necklace, and I remembered. His eyes, his hugs, the way he made me feel- And I felt it. A huge wave of depression, out of no where, come out and brought me down.

"No." I lied, not even myself believing the lie.

"Rose," Josh started, standing up from the couch. "He murdered Jake. Your best friend. How can you not remember him?"

Not listening, not listening, not listening…

"Leave me alone!" I cried, and left to my room, with tears starting to form in my eyes.

Closing the door behind me, I broke down into tears, collapsing onto my knees, shaking, and loud sobs escaped my mouth. Jake- I couldn't forget about him. I wasn't in love with James, I was in love with Jake. I was just pretending James was Jake, not himself. It was all a lie- All the happiness. It was because I was pretending that Jake was alive, and that was him.

I dragged myself over to my end table and seized the knife I hadn't seen for a while. It was still sharp, and glimmered in the dim light coming from outside of the closed curtains. I looked at my pale skin, my wrists had deep, obvious scars. I ran the silver blade against my scarred skin and watched as the blood started to escape my body. I repeated it again, and again, and again, until the pain was gone. This was what my life was turning into. It was slowly going back to the way I was before. I couldn't really be here, there was no way. I wasn't myself without Jake- he was a part of me. When he died, it was like all of my happy emotions, memories and spirit went with him. I was just a soul-less depressed person, trying to find herself. My life was now lonesome, full of hurt, and angst, and most of all, there was no one to save me from myself. And to be honest, I was more scared of that then anything else.

"I really like you, James." I hinted. I was in my room with him, sitting on my bed, and swinging my feet back and forth.

"Me too." he smiled, kissing my lips softly.

"I cannot believe it." Kara said, rubbing her temples with her fingers. She had been stressed out the whole time Rose had been with James. Would he kill her? Would they hear a scream, and find Rose dead in her room? She couldn't handle anymore grief.

"How does she even be around him, knowing he killed Jake?" Nancy barked.

"She's going insane." Jason spoke, simply.

He and his brother had been through hell in the last month. Their parents were absolutely heart-broken when they had called the night Jake was pronounced dead. They had to lie to their parents, something that they never were comfortable with. They had to say it was a fly bullet, an accident. But it was much more then that.

A chiming bell rang through the entire house. At first, everyone was confused, then remembered- It was the doorbell.

"Who's that?" Josh asked, looking up from the laptop he was on.

"Hmm," Jason fake-thought. "Maybe the devil came back to drag James to hell!"

"I'll go check it out." Kara voiced, turning off the stove. She was working on a new recipe. Kara was always cooking, and trying to come up with something even more delicious then the last dish she made.

Kara pulled open the door, and her jaw dropped, and all she could do was scream.

GASPPP! XD

Thanks for the reviews guys. I now feel loved and appreciated. I really love writing this story, and have been working on it for a while.

Thanks for all the support.33

Comments, questions, opinions? Drop a review.