Chapter 4

Reid yawned and opened his eyes, unable to recognize the scene around him as his panic flared out of control. His hands gripped his notebook tightly, his heart began beating wildly out of control, and he thought he was going to be sick. He instantly controlled his urge to vomit as his eyes came to focus on the classroom, it taking a little longer for Reid to realize he was in his sixth hour math class. He felt something grip his arm, causing his panic to spike and his control almost collapse.

"Mr. Larson, may I excuse myself and Mr. Garwin? I think he needs to see the nurse."

"I can see that Mr. Simms. Go on ahead, and hurry back."

Reid felt himself being lifted, and he concentrated on the stairs in front of him. Once steady his focus went back to not vomiting all over the classroom. He allowed himself to be guided by the stranger and the next thing he knew he was in the bathroom and in front of a toilet. He took in a breath and threw up, his head spinning worse than before.

"Reid? Can you hear me?" Reid nodded in response as he waited for his stomach to settle. "Are you going to be okay?" Reid shrugged. "Do you remember anything that has happened?" Reid shook his head, causing him to throw up again. "Do you know who I am?" Reid shook his head more slowly this time, feeling a little bit better. He began cleaning himself up as the voice said, "Oh shit."

He flushed the toilet and stood up, vision spinning. He took a couple of steps before the person grabbed onto him as he began losing his balance, and forced him to sit down against a wall. "Are you just now getting drunk?"

"What are you talking about?" he asked, his words slightly slurred together. He tried to focus on the person in front of him, but that only made him sicker, so he went back to watching the floor.

"Reid, what do you last remember?"

He tried to think, but his mind couldn't think past the last few minutes. "At this point, nothing." He tried looking up again. "Who are you?"

"Fuck. Reid you are so far gone it's not even funny. How am I supposed to get you outside?" Reid stayed silent as he felt himself sway back in forth. "I can't get a nurses note, because it's obvious you're drunk, and I can't take you back to class like this. Shit."

Reid just let his vision spin, after sometime the circles slowing down. He heard a bell ring, and heard the person take out something. In a moment, he was saying, "Caleb, we have a problem. I don't mean for this to go in any direction, but you need to come to the bathroom near Larson's room. Yeah, it's important. Okay."

Reid just sat there, not wanting to talk or think. His head and body hurt, and he wasn't sure why. If this guy was right about him being drunk, than he knew he shouldn't feel anything. But this time, he did. What happened? He looked up and saw a blurred figure walk away, and someone say, "What happened back in class?"

"The real Reid came back finally and he's shitfaced. He doesn't remember anything, and doesn't know who I am."

Reid looked back up and saw some people moving. He leaned his head against the wall, his neck hurting if he held his head up to much. He shut his eyes, trying to control his breathing. He felt someone come close next to him, and felt something placed on his neck. "Go 'way," he muttered, voice only a breath.

"His pulse is around one-thirty. Reid, can you open your eyes please as wide as you can?" Reid tried, and saw a really bright light. He turned away, confused and mad. "Well, his eyes still dilate so that's good, but if he were to have any sort of alcohol poisoning, it would've happened by now. Reid, this is Caleb. Can you hear me?"

Reid felt his breathing increase as he nodded. "You're going to be fine. You just need to take in some deep breaths and let them out slowly. I understand that you're confused right now, but as soon as you are able to calm down, we'll be able to explain where you are and what happened."

Reid nodded, still breathing hard and asking, "Hurt. Why am I hurting?" He could feel each exact point, and wanted to understand why.

"We kind of got into a fight last night," one of the voices above him said. Reid nodded, still not remembering, but at least he knew. He tried to calm his breathing down and heard a bell ring. Someone cussed, but no one moved. Within a few more minutes, he was able to slow his heartbeat down to eighty-four and focus on things for a short amount of time before everything was swaying. "Are you doing better?"

"Bell. You're late for something," he breathed out, feeling claustrophobic. He began moving, and felt someone help him up.

"Don't worry about it. If you can walk, we're going to leave this bathroom and take you home. Okay?"

Reid nodded, taking a few more calming breaths before opening his eyes and focusing on the floor. With a light support he was able to walk across the room, but too much movement made him want to throw up again. "Are you ready?" a different voice asked, and all he could do was nod.

After the door opened, he didn't remember much. He was being moved, and then had to go up something which caused him to fall and hit his head hard enough to make him black out. "Fuck! He's dead weight now!"

"No one's around and we can get him the rest of the way."

He was being moved again, but it wasn't by his own will. He was finally set down on something, and his pulse was taken again. "He's jumped back up to a hundred, but he'll calm down in a bit. Reid, what is hurting?"

Reid had to take a couple of breaths before he could respond. "Everything. Head. Head. Head."

"Which part of your head?"

"All. Brain, back, mostly side."

"Do you think you can go to sleep to see if your head is going to feel better?"

"Caleb, are you sure that's wise?"

"We're past the worst of everything. There's not much that can happen now. In reality, he should be sober, but since this is the real part, everything is still being held there from his original personality, so this really is all just a mental mind game he's putting himself through."

"What about when he fell down?"

"He should be fine. He didn't make it bleed or anything. It'll just be a headache for a few hours."

Reid felt himself drifting away, the voices putting him asleep. When he next woke, his mind was racing faster than any car he knew could. He felt his head spin as well as his stomach, causing him to run to the sink in the bathroom and cough.

"Reid, you okay?"

He spit into the porcelain, saying, "Sure." He waited a moment before rinsing out the sink and falling back into his bed. He looked at the clock and saw it was just after five in the morning. He groaned, feeling like his body weighed a ton. "What the fuck happened?"

"Are you back to normal?"

"What the fuck is normal anymore? Tyler, what the fuck happened to me? Why is it five and not eleven?"

"Ah...that would be a problem, wouldn't it? So...you basically don't remember the last thirty hours, do you?"

Reid froze. Thirty hours? What the hell is this shit? "Spit it out."

"You sure you don't want to wait until later? Caleb and Pogue can fill in as many different pieces as I can that might make more sense."

"Sure. Sorry man. Go back to sleep."

"Sorry, but don't worry. We'll straighten this out."

Reid was silent, and he heard Tyler drift back asleep. After some time, Reid stood up and grabbed shower supplies, and decided to go clean himself up as much as possible and try to straighten his head out. When he reached the shower, he turned the water as hot as he could stand it and leaned against the cool wall, his head in a rush. What was Tyler talking about? Straighten what out? Have I really been that horrible? Or was I just the opposite—actually helping people out and showing how smart I am that everyone caught on? How can I be missing the last thirty hours of my life? If I was gone for that long, what made me come back? Apparently whatever this is has enough control to do whatever the fuck it wants, and I have none. Reid's thoughts spun and his mind brought up an image of Melanie, which calmed him down significantly. Melanie. I get to drive down and see her tonight. I'll have to buy her something on the way so I can make her grin when I ask her out. His body calmed down and when he could breathe normally he went under the water, feeling slightly better.

When he was back in the room and dressed, he waited until seven to get Tyler up. He wanted to know at least an overall example of what happened. He vaguely remembered something about him in a bathroom with some people, and even then it felt like a dream. He pulled out his notebooks and turned on his flashlight, looking at his handwriting and for anything that was backwards. The handwriting was the same as ever, and he wasn't sure how he was going to get away with turning his homework in. He found a backwards section, turned it forward, and wasn't pleased with what he found. Bye-bye Baby Boy, whom I dub as coy. There is no room for you here except for vast fear, and no more room for you to run and dodge the gun. You are running out of luck and whoops, you better learn to duck.

The first one was attacking Melanie, and now this one is attacking Tyler? How is that possible? What does he have to do with this? I thought this was just whatever was going on with me. Reid was taken from his thoughts as Tyler's alarm went off. A smack later, there was silence and Tyler rolled back over to sleep. "Tyler, wake up." No response. "Tyler...come on...wake up Baby Boy."

"Shut it."

"How late was your night last night?" Tyler groaned in response. He left me here alone while he went and partied? The bastard. "Well, get up. I want to know what happened. And I have something for you too."

That got Tyler to look at him. "What?"

"Get up and I'll show you. It's...not pleasant." He laid back down on his bed as Tyler groaned and crawled out of bed, grabbing the first uniform he saw, glancing at Reid's uniform as well.

"How the fuck can you just be in our school uniform for two hours?"

"It's cold out here, and sadly the winter uniform can keep you warm."

"Yeah I noticed the heat difference from my bed," Tyler grumbled. When he was ready, he sat down across from Reid, Reid handing him the open notebook. Tyler read the simple lines, eyebrows scrunching together. "What's this supposed to mean?"

"Your guess is as good as mine. I've written about attacking Melanie and you now..."

"So, by my calculations, you're going to have two more black outs so you can write poems about Caleb and Pogue?"

Reid couldn't help but grin as he took the notebook from Tyler's hand and smacked him across the arm with it. "Punk. How the hell am I supposed to know? You guys need to tell me what's happened since I've been gone."

"Well, then let's go to breakfast. Caleb and Pogue should already be there."

The two stood up and grabbed everything they needed for the day, Reid glancing out the window to the dreary morning. They left the dorm and walked across campus to the cafeteria, and saw Caleb and Pogue once they opened the doors. "Why do they get up so early for breakfast?"

Tyler only shrugged. "I don't know, but it makes it easy to guess where they are."

The two walked up, Caleb eying Reid. "What's wrong?" Reid asked.

"It's the real you this time, right?" Reid nodded. "Good. I was getting sick of the impostor."

Reid was about to say something, but Tyler said, "So, where do we start in explaining everything that happened? The last thing he remembers was kicking Aaron's ass basically."

Reid looked at the other two and saw them just looking at him. "Nothing else?"

"It's all black."

Caleb nodded, Tyler speaking and saying that they had gone to a party, and Reid had drank so much he should have had alcohol poisoning within the two hours. It was two when they went back to the dorms, Reid throwing up for about an hour before they went to bed. When they got up for school, Reid seemed perfectly fine and was giving Tyler a hard time about having a hangover. Reid had stayed silent through the first couple of periods, and at lunch time he had been nagging on how everyone at the school looked horrible in the uniforms, and that they should just burn the whole place down.

"You were serious about that too," Pogue said. "You had the whole thing planned out in five seconds."

"But you got mad when we were saying that it was a dumb idea and you were going to get caught, and threatened to burn us all up," Caleb said.

Reid just stared at them, forgetting that they were sitting in the cafeteria. Tyler continued with how Reid had 'woken up' in the middle of sixth hour and how he had to be rushed to the bathroom because of how sick he got.

"I guess I vaguely do remember that part. I thought that was a dream though."

"Well, that's how drunk you were at the party."

"Shit." Reid shook his head, not wanting to hear anymore. Caleb picked up this part, telling him how after they brought him back to the dorms, he had passed out for no more than two minutes before the impostor came back, asking what was wrong. They had then taken Reid to the Colony house and had a talk.

"If you're feeling sore at all, that will be my fault. The more personal the questions got, the more hostile you became, and you tried to knock me out and escape. The impostor you isn't as good of a fighter, and he hasn't figured out how to Use." Reid nodded, feeling sick. They hadn't gotten any answers out of the impostor, and Caleb knocked him out so they could drop him off at the dorm. Tyler picked up the rest of the night, saying how they worked on homework the entire time, and went to another party, but didn't drink as much as before.

Reid didn't know what to say after that. He simply leaned his head on the table, not caring to meet the eyes of his Brothers. "Fuck. I'm sorry guys. I didn't mean to cause all the problems again. Tyler's been added in my hit list, below Melanie."

"How Tyler?" Caleb asked, Reid pulling out his English notebook and flipping to the page. Caleb and Pogue read it as the ten minute warning bell rang and handed it back, both looking displeased. "We have to figure this thing out, fast. If interrogation doesn't work, something has to."

"I don't care what you guys do, just as long as it doesn't end in hospitalization and a lot of scars."

Caleb nodded and they all stood up, leaving together before separating to their classes. "See you in a bit," Caleb called, Reid giving a short wave. He dealt with his classes easier than he thought, and was able to stay in control of himself what he considered the whole day. He finished up his first full school day, and was walking back to the dorms with Tyler. Reid was going to head up to Concord as soon as he changed, and he hadn't felt this excited in a long time. Something tells me that I'm not going to lose control this weekend, which would be good. I need this time.

Reid packed and left, calling Melanie on the way. She was a little bit over excited for Reid coming down, but on the inside he was on the same level. He made the drive in less than an hour, and when he pulled up to her house, she was running out to him in a bright pink shirt and jeans, and he couldn't help but smile. She reached him and as he got out of his truck and gave her a hug before kissing her. He felt a spark between them, and knew that this was his girl, his love, his life. He knew he would do anything for her, no matter what happened or what the consequences were. "Ready for dinner?" he asked, and she smiled, going inside for a jacket. She came back out and they left, Reid going to a nicer restaurant that he knew of. If he was going to ask the girls of his dreams out, it had to be in a worthy place.

XX—X—X—XX

Reid could remember each and every little detail of the weekend. He didn't want to leave Melanie's arms, and he could tell it was the same with her. She said an enthusiastic yes when he asked her out, they went snowmobiling on Valentine's Day, followed by an expensive and tasty dinner, and a night that included a lot of skin and touching. Sunday included shopping and seeing the city for once during the day, and a simple fun dinner in a restaurant with a bar, which Melanie slightly took advantage of. "If I'm sober when you leave, then I'm going to start crying, and I won't be able to stop. I hope you won't hate me for this."

"Hun, I couldn't hate you in the slightest of bits. There's not a whole lot that can make me hate you. I know you're not going to run off with any guy, and I trust you with everything. You are the best girl that I've ever met."

Melanie leaned against him. "I'm glad. You're the best guy I've ever met, too."

They left soon afterward and watched a movie before he left. "I'll be back down this Friday. It's not even a whole week, so you'll be fine."

She nodded, but wouldn't let go of his arm. "I love you," she whispered, Reid smiling and kissing her forehead.

"I love you too. I have to go now, okay?" He watched her look up at him, eyes watery. He helped her stand up and they walked outside to his truck, where they had a one of the longest goodbyes that he could think of from anyone he knew. When he was able to get her to let go, he left, and it was a long and sad drive back to the dorms. He became thirsty part of the way back and looked for his water bottle, but didn't see it anywhere around him. He unbuckled his seat belt and reached behind him, found it, and was about to strap himself back in when he saw a bright light to his left, and next was aware that he wasn't sitting in the driver's seat anymore.

Reid caught his breath, not quite sure what happened. His head was throbbing madly, and when he opened his eyes, he had to blink blood out of them. He managed to put his hand on his dashboard to help push him up, but he was tangled in between the seats of his car, which caused him to use more movement than he wanted to get him back into the driver seat. He rested his head on his steering wheel, unable to move anymore. Confusing his senses, he heard the door open, and when he turned to see who it was, he was hit with something very hard on the side of his head. Before he could sprawl all over the other half of his truck a hand grabbed his jacket and he was dragged out of his truck and thrown onto the ground, Reid grunting in pain and slowly rolling over onto his back. He put an arm over his eyes and groaned.

"Well, well, well. If it ain't Mr. Reid Garwin. How's Melanie doing? Is she still the girl I knew her as?"

"What are you talking about? She's fine," Reid mumbled as he moved his arm and looked at the person, taking a moment for him to recognize that it was Jason, pointing a gun at Reid's chest.

"I beg to differ. You have taken her away from me, and I am going to get her back, one way or another. She's my girl! Mine!"

Reid stared past the flashlight and to Jason. He felt his heart begin to race and the cold became a far away feeling as his body fell into its defensive mode. If he stopped that bullet, Jason was going to get curious and know something was up. If he let the bullet hit him, then he was going to risk dying. Reid tried to move, but he heard the click of the hammer. He looked back towards Jason and the gun seemed more prominent. "What's your choice going to be? Are you going to try to escape and end up getting shot, or are you going to just lay here and die?"

Reid felt the blood beginning to freeze to his hair and skin and the winter air pressing down on him. "Jason, let me stand up and we can talk this over."

"Talk? You want to talk? Here, I'll give you my two cents right now!" Reid gasped as he saw Jason pull the trigger, but something in his power kicked in and the bullet swung wide, only grazing the side of his arm instead of his heart.

Reid heard the hammer click back, Reid rolling across the snow as Jason shot again. Reid made the bullet swing wide again, but he knew that it didn't look as suspicious. "Jason! We can be civil about this. All you have to do is put the gun away. I'll even say that you slid into me and it was an accident."

Jason aggressively shook his head, firing the last four bullets in quick succession. Reid dodged, two missing, one grazing his leg, the last one hitting his side, Reid falling into the snow pile his truck created. Reid caught his breath and held his side, hoping he wasn't bleeding badly and that no one would notice. He heard Jason running off to probably reload the gun, Reid quickly grabbing his power and weaving a small spell around his side wound until he was able to inspect it later. At least the spell would hold off most of the bleeding and pain for a small period of time. When Reid heard Jason's returning footsteps, he stood up, regaining his composure before ending this mini feud. I'm going to have to Use. If I don't, I don't think there is going to be any way to get out of this. Hiding behind his truck bed, Reid waited for Jason to come closer, the crunching of snow ruining any surprise. When he was close enough, Reid used to knock the gun away and tackled Jason to the ground, glaring at him when he stood up, now in possession of the gun.

"You should be lucky that I'm most likely going to leave you alive tonight," Reid said, staring at Jason in the eyes.

"How in the fuck did you do that?" Jason's eyes were flipping between the gun and Reid.

Reid kicked him hard in the side and stared into his eyes. "Because I don't want to be charged with murder, you better heed my word. Leave Melanie and I alone, or I will rain unexplainable terrors into your life."

By the look on Jason's face, he knew Reid meant every word. The fear though left his eyes quickly and was replaced with anger. "This isn't going to stop me, fucker. You took her away from me, and I will get her back."

Reid kicked him in the side again and then once more to prove his point. "Just try asshole."

When Reid was finished up with Jason, Jason was limping off towards wherever, while Reid began to feel the cold and pain. He went back into his truck and found his phone, calling Tyler. It took him three tries until Tyler answered, and even then he sounded pissed. "What the hell Reid? Are you aware of what time it is?"

"Actually, not really. I need a ride though. My truck's kind of crushed."

"What do you mean by crushed?" Reid was pleased when the sleepiness was disappearing from his best friends voice.

"I mean that it's almost on its side, pressed up against a fence. If you would be amazing enough to come pick me up, I'll show and explain it to you. I'm a half hour away." Reid gave Tyler directions, and Tyler gave Reid the number for the local towing place. Reid called the towing company next, and the driver who said would come over didn't sound too excited. Reid asked if the owner of the second car had run off, what was going to happen, and the guy sounded even less pleased.

Reid waited patiently next to his truck, smoking. He had been ecstatic when he found his pack in his heavy jacket, and now seemed an appropriate time to relax and attempt to warm up. Reid sat in his truck, jacket wrapped around his torso and legs, waiting and thinking. Why the fuck is this happening to me? What did I do to deserve this? It can't be all about Melanie, though she did explain to me why he's the jealous ex… Whatever. He's going to get his ass beat when he's not expecting it, and everything's going to be worth it. If I could, I'd take the opportunity. I'm sick of this pussy shit.

Reid shook his head, trying to disperse the overbearing thoughts. He would have his opportunity, but for the moment, all he could do was wait. About twenty minutes later Reid saw the familiar headlights of the hummer lighting up the roadway, Reid got out of his truck and began waving him over. When Tyler pulled up, he got out and simply stared at what was in front of him. "What the hell happened?"

Reid pulled out another cigarette, lighting it then saying, "Jealous ex thought it'd be funny to try to ram me off of the road and then shoot at me." Reid touched his side, feeling the warmth of the spell and the blood that wanted to expel.

Tyler only stared at him. "Shoot you? You didn't Use, did you?"

You're beginning to sound like Caleb, Baby Boy... "My powers kicked in on their own because I knew I was going to die otherwise. I may have scared him a little, but he doesn't understand anything that happened."

Tyler shook his head. "Reid, please don't fuck anything up, especially with this jealous ex. Though, on a more important matter, what are you going to do about the cars?"

"A tow truck is on the way for mine, and I don't know about Jason's car. His problem, not mine. I don't exactly know how I'm going to fix it though... Either it's going to take a lot of power or a lot of work, both of which I don't want to deal with."

Tyler nodded and Reid watched him walk over to the wreckage, though Reid knew he wasn't going to be able to see much. "There's blood splatters in here, and I can see where you guys wrestled around in the snow. How badly injured are you?"

Never mind then on that last thought... "Just some minor scrapes that I was hoping he'd accept, but he was a little bit brighter than I expected."

Reid finished his cigarette slowly as Tyler looked around, shaking his head in dismay when he crawled out of the truck. "This truly is a sad sight...though not as pathetic now that the tow truck is here."

Reid looked over his shoulder and flicked his cigarette into the snow, the driver soon getting out and not looking too happy. "Let's get this over with," Reid muttered walking up to the driver, Tyler not far behind.


Hello everyone. Sorry this came out so late for anyone who is enjoying this story. Anywho... :) It's here, and the story still has a ways to go. Hope this chapter is decent, and now that finals week is here, I'm excited because I'm done with school tomorrow! But I'll be out of a job for a month...hmmmm... Anyways. Hope you readers enjoyed and I'll try to have chapter 5 out a lot sooner XD