Tom hadn't left his room much in the last few days. His mother and father had both tried to comfort him in their own ways, his mother hugging him until he felt like his lungs were going to pop and his father clapping him on the shoulder and cheerily declaring that everything would be ok. It was easy for him to say, he didn't know the truth. No one really knew the truth except for them. After the debacle with the paper house and the police, they'd all agreed to plead ignorance, hoping the police would assume that… god, that the same thing that happened to Summer happened to Jenny. Not that, that was a solution; now the police were more focussed on them than before. It didn't matter, not to Tom. The police could do what they wanted, he didn't care. He'd fucked up so badly; he was useless and pathetic. He'd tried to give his life for Jenny, not as some heroic act straight out of a fairy tale but because he wanted her to be safe, to be happy, even if he didn't get be a part of that. But he fucked up. The looks on the faces of Jenny's parents, on her little brother Joey, they'd haunt him until he died.

The way he'd felt when the door back to Zach's garage had clicked open, when the crackling blue and black vortex and shrunk then disappeared above them, it was like having someone rip his lungs and still-beating heart from his torso. The others had got excited, Dee leaping up to go through the door, Zach following close behind and Audrey dragging a slightly wary looking Michael by his sleeve through it with her. Tom thought he heard them saying Jenny's name but there was a whistling in his ears that made it difficult to hear, difficult to balance. He staggered through the door, which slammed shut behind him then promptly disappeared, and tried to get his eyes to adjust to the darkness. The others were following behind Zach as he led them out of the total dark and into the garage proper then through the door into the kitchen. Tom didn't hope, tried not to feel as they looked around. He knew what they would find, or wouldn't find as the case may be.

Jenny wasn't there.

All five of them had wandered round the house calling for her, trying to find her. They found Michael's car not too far from Zach's house, its door still wide open, the keys still in the ignition. Michael tried to start the car and found it started easily so they piled in as best they could and set off for Michael's father's apartment. Jenny wasn't there either. Tom would never forget seeing the hope die in his friend's eyes as they all sank to the carpeted floor and stared down at their hands; no one spoke, no one could bring themselves to say it out loud. For a long time they just sat in silence, in defeat.

The next night, Tom had sat cross legged on his bed, his head in his hands, the world around him a strange timeless void where minutes could be hours and days flew past like seconds as he clutched at his head and tried to accept the fact that Jenny was gone.

She was gone. He had her. Julian, that evil, seductive bastard that Tom had had no chance at competing with, no chance at defeating. Tom had known, that day in the turret of the paper house where Julian had him chained up so he could torment him with images of Jenny being scared, anxious, brave, beautiful, showing him all the ways in which Julian could bring her alive. The first thing he'd done after the police finished questioning them and taking their statements, he'd gone straight to the university library and looked at every book that contained any mention of the djinn, the evil genies that could construct the world around them however they wished. Then he'd looked up and read anything about shadows or worlds full of ice and darkness. An encyclopaedia about Norse mythology had told him that, according to their lore, there were nine worlds that existed alongside Earth. Worlds with gold and giants and gods and freezing ice and a darkness no human could truly understand. Niflheim; that was the name of the world that contained creatures like Julian. Tom had checked and rechecked, reading anything he could about the supposedly fictional entities that existed in such place but Niflheim was the only place that seemed likely to have spawned a cruel and ruthless thing such as Julian.

It had been four days since they lost when Tom got the call from Dee. He'd been sat in his room, curled up in the corner, staring blindly at the opposite wall as his mind raced through the impossibility of his situation and his failure to do anything to stop. Tom had never been familiar with self-loathing until recently but now it felt like they were old friends. Failure, another foreign concept to Tom until now, beat against his brain, inside his skull, desperate to burst out and proclaim its ownership of him; he was useless, pathetic and impotent in the face of his loss. Jenny was gone and Tom was helpless to make it better.

He was mired into a particularly virulent bought of self-loathing when his private phone started to ring. Tom considered, briefly, ignoring it but then that evil little spark of hope that was like a sliver in glass embedded in his side made him reach out and pick up, just in case it was her.

It was Dee.

'Tom, Summer's back. Her parents just called me.' Dee's voice was unusually excited as she spoke. 'She appeared in her bedroom, still wearing the same dress. Apparently she doesn't remember anything after the paper house.'

Tom felt his mouth moving as he tried to speak but the ever present tears had only recently stopped flowing so his throat felt cracked, dusty and dry. 'Meeting, Michael's place. Two hours,' he managed to croak out before his shaking hand dropped the phone.

When he arrived, everyone else was already there, talking animatedly amongst themselves. He figured Summer wouldn't be there, that her parents probably wouldn't let her out of their sight for a long time and he was right but Dee had spoken to her again that afternoon and was cheerfully recounting the conversation for Audrey and Zach who were listening with rapt attention, their eyes wide and sparkling. Michael was smiling as he led Tom into the living room and handed him a cold can of some sort of soda that Tom silently accepted with a nod but didn't open.

'…they wanted her to be- Hi Tom,' Dee paused and smiled at him, her teeth bright white against her golden skin, 'Summer's parents wanted to have her checked out at the hospital before they let us know she was back but apparently she appeared the day after we got out of that mural thing. Her mum told me that Summer doesn't remember anything about where she's been or what happened. I spoke to her myself and she said she didn't say anything about the paper house because she wasn't sure if it'd really happened. She does remember the paper house up until she… her nightmare but she's going to plead ignorance and say she doesn't remember a thing; she said she figured that'd be the safest bet for all of us.' The others nodded and murmured agreement as Dee paused to glance at Tom. 'I… I told her, about Jenny being… gone.' Her voice was more subdued when she said this and an answering ache clenched through Tom's body, making his lungs constrict as his head thudded with pain.

'But this is good! Don't you see?' Michael looked around at them like they were total morons, 'If Summer can come back, just like that, then so can Jenny! Maybe Julian got bored with… with the whole thing, maybe Jenny will reap-'

'Summer was an olive branch,' Tom heard himself say in a quiet and bland voice, lifeless in its lack of inflection. His four friends looked at him, confused, as he rubbed a hand up over his face and into his hair.

'What do you mean? To us? So we won't co-,' Tom shook his head more violently than he meant to as he cut Audrey off.

'To Jenny. Ju… He never intended to kill Summer because he knew Jenny would never forgive him.' Tom spoke with his head bowed, his eyes fixed on the carpet beneath his feet. 'He knew that if he returned Summer, safe, unharmed, to us, to her parents that Jenny would… Jenny would…' he tried but he couldn't finish the sentence. The words hung heavy and unsaid in the tense atmosphere of the room; Jenny would be able to love him.

No one said much after that.

Jenny pressed a hand against the screen that hung impossibly in the air in the small dark room Julian had led her to. As her hand pressed against the image, it flickered like ripples of water so she snatched her hand back, watching in fascination as the image stilled and sharpened again. Julian was behind her, leaning into the corner of the room. She could feel his eyes on her as she watched the people in the image bow their heads.

Julian had quietly explained that, because of where they were, hidden from the other Shadow Men, cloaked by Julian's power, that time would fluctuate, usually passing slower here than on Earth, although sometimes the flux would be the opposite. Jenny had just nodded, pushing away the endless loop that time and space facts can create in a person's mind and instead followed Julian into the room where a big rectangular silver shape with a warped mirror surface floated in the air like some perfectly captured still of mercury, poured into this shape and held there.

Now she saw her friends, in Michael's living room, looking crushed and sad as Tom finished speaking, but the screen had showed her Summer being reunited with her parents and her little brother, the family sobbing happily and holding each other close. Summer's parents were rocking their children like they were toddlers and Summer and Cam let themselves be comforted and comforting on Summer's bed, rumpling the sky blue bed covers as they clung to one another.

Jenny had felt an elation she could barely contain and had cried right along with her friend, quietly sniffing at the scene unfolding in front of her. When it vanished, she almost turned to yell at Julian to bring it back but then it flipped over to Michael's apartment, apparently a couple of days later, with Tom explaining why Jenny wasn't going to come back. Jenny wanted to yell and scream that it wasn't true, that she'd never love Julian, but they couldn't hear her, couldn't see her, so she didn't bother, just silently watched them as tears continued to flow down her cheeks.

Tom looked terrible; they all did. Audrey was rumpled in a boring casual black top and skirt, her hair unkempt and flowing. Michael was wearing sweatpants and a t shirt, both of which had seen better days and too many meals. Zach's ponytail was wonky and there were bags under his eyes from lack of sleep. Even Dee looked a little defeated, her shoulders hunched and the sparkle noticeably absent from her eyes but Tom, he was the worst. His hair was unwashed and sticking out in all different directions, his shirt had a torn pocket and the t shirt underneath had what looked like paint on it. His jeans were stiff and wrinkled, like they'd got wet but he hadn't bothered to change them. Her tom, usually so vibrant and effortlessly put together looked like he was falling apart. Jenny had never seen Tom look so pale either and the bags under his eyes were even worse than Zach's, purple and bloated like he'd been hit again and again. Jenny's heart throbbed painfully behind her ribs and her arms ached to reach out and hold hm, to tell him that she love him, not Julian. Never Julian.

'Tommy, I love you, I'm sorry,' Jenny whispered and bowed her head in defeat as the image immediately disappeared and Julian slipped his arms around her waist.

'I told you they were safe. You see? You can trust me.' Julian nuzzled against the soft skin of Jenny's neck, gently inhaling her sent as he spoke. 'You can always trust me because I love you.'

Jenny could only weep.