Chapter 3: The night before the first day of school


A/N: So I just got back from a Lady Antebellum concert in my home town, and am sooooooo excited that I can't sleep. So all of you get to benefit from my excited insomnia! WooooHooo

So I realized that I forgot to do a disclaimer, so here it is, I unfortunately don't own the Covenant. I did have a dream the other night where I did own Tyler, but I woke up and it wasn't true.

BIG HUGS to my reviewers from the last chapter:

.Uchiha

TheWayHeLaughs13

bloody alanna

Evenlight

Y'all are AWESOME!


Payton pushed past Nicky and his baseball bat and quickly moved out of the way of Aaron and his group.

"What were you thinking?" Payton heard Caleb ask, disbelief coloring his words.

"We were just paying 'em." Reid said quietly, walking forward towards Tyler.

"Yea, come on Caleb, they were suckers for it." Tyler said as Reid took another step forward

Payton knew something bad was going to happen as soon as Reid started whispering angrily into Caleb's ear. So she hurried down the steps, only for Pogue to stop her. "Let them try to handle it themselves first, before you intervene."

Payton nodded, eyes never leaving the two feuding brothers.

Caleb put his arm on Reid's shoulder, preventing him from walking away from the impending fight.

When Reid grabbed Caleb's arm to remove it, Payton saw his eye's change from blue to pitch black.

"Reid!" Payton cried, trying to step forward, only for Pogue to shove her into a frozen Tyler.

Before anyone else could make it to the two boys, Caleb pushed Reid into a stack of metal containers. Payton could feel his energy flare with the usage.

"What will it take for you to get it?" Caleb yelled, "it's addictive you moron! You've seen what it can do if you abusive it." Payton, Pogue and Tyler exchanged glances, readying themselves to intervene. This was going to get ugly.

"If you Use out in the open like you did tonight you risk exposing us all." Caleb gestured behind him, "and, that I won't let happen."

Payton snorted with a mixture of disgust and amusement.

Reid began to lift one of the metal containers "Damn it Reid!" Payton yelled, taking a tentative step forward "Stop this!"

Caleb didn't move "My powers are greater than yours."

Reid shook his head "not til you ascend."

"Okay tough guy, bring it."

"No!" Screamed Payton, running forward, releasing her own power. Standing in the middle of the two boys, deflecting the container that Reid had just flung towards his leader, "what the fuck are you two doing?"

She stared at Reid, "you know better than to Use on each other!"

"And you!" Her angry eyes turned towards her ex-boyfriend "what a walking contradiction you are! You're lecturing Reid not to Use in public, yet here we are, in a public alleyway where anyone could see us!" Payton took a deep breath, her head swiveling between Caleb and Reid, "are you done?"

Both boys looked towards the ground sheepishly.

"Good," Payton let her eyes to back to hazel. "I'm leaving now, don't kill each other."

Payton waltzed over to her brother and kissed him and Tyler on the cheek. "I'll see you later." And she made her way back into the smoke-filled bar.


Sarah got out of Payton's car and turned to hold the door open for Kate. Kate just shook her head, "I'll meet you in the room in a few minutes. I need to chat with Payton."

Sarah nodded, and as she shut the door Payton placed her forehead on the top of her steering wheel.

Kate started rubbing the distressed girl in between her shoulder blades, "do you want to talk about it?"

Payton just groaned in response.

"What happened? How bad was it this time?" Kate asked, continuing to sooth her upset friend.

"It was bad." Payton whispered, "I've never seen Caleb lose control like that. Normally they just yell at each other, every once in a while they'll throw a few punches before someone steps in. But, never," Payton trailed off before she could finish.

Kate stopped rubbing Payton's back, "what?" she exclaimed, anger rising in her voice, "you mean Caleb?" she stopped short, not wanting to voice her suspicions

"Payton just nodded, "yea. On Reid, in a public alleyway of all places! I almost wish someone had come out so they saw how stupid they were being."

Kate knew about them. She caught Payton Using the year Mr. Parry forced her to live in the dorms. Kate was her roommate, and Payton was having a hard time controlling her Power. She was forced to tell Kate everything, prepared to erase her memory if it came to that. But, Kate surprised her, and accepted Payton for who she was. And even though Kate loved to gossip, she could also keep a secret. None of the boys, not even Pogue, knew that she knew.

"Oh, sweetheart, next time something like that happens I'll just interrupt. We'll see what they do then."

Payton chuckled at that and raised her tear streaked face to her brother's girlfriend. "I'd love to see how they handle that."

Payton could tell that Kate was proud that she made Payton laugh

"Well, why did they stop? No one got hurt did they?" Kate asked, searching the other girl's face.

Payton shook her head, "no one got hurt. And, I stepped in between Reid and Caleb, yelled at them, told them how stupid they were being. I had to Use on both of them. After that I just left."

Kate pulled her into a tight hug, "I'm sorry you had to do that, I'm sure you're drained now. Are you okay to get home?"

Payton just nodded

"Okay, if you need anything, you call."

Again Payton just nodded

Kate opened the door, "I love you! See you tomorrow at school!"

Payton groaned


Payton was sitting on Kate's bed, after watching a move. The credits rolled down the screen as Kate moved slightly next to Payton. Covering her best friend, Payton settled herself on the bed, preparing to sleep herself.

Before her eyelids could close completely she felt something tickle her knee. Reaching down to relieve the itch, a dark shadow fell over Kate's mocha skin. Turning, Payton gasped as spiders covered her friends face, crawling in and out of her ears and nose.

Panicking Payton shook Kate, desperately trying to wake the sleeping girl.

Her legs felt like they were on fire, almost instantly she threw the blanket off of herself and the other occupant of the bed, tossing the blanket onto the hardwood floor of the dorm room.

Her legs were covered with tiny, brown, spiders. She tried frantically to wipe them off herself, but, every time her hand came in contact with the arachnids they would cling to her fingers and crawl up her arms.

Spiders began to infect the room, crawling out from the folds of the blanket, a never ending swarm filled the floor and began to climb the walls.

Turning to the sleeping girl Payton tried urgently to wake her, shaking uncontrollably with terror.

As soon as Payton's hand touched Kate's shoulder a zit erupted on the sleeping girl's chin, tiny arachnids emerging from the mocha skin.

A scream of terror welled up in Payton's chest as she shut her eyes tightly. When she opened them again, just before her scream escaped her chest, she found herself in the dark room at her and Pogue's apartment.

She flung her blanket off the bed and stared at her legs, covered in goose bumps, but no spiders.

Payton sighed in relief and slowly got out of her bed, silently making her way towards the bathroom.

She splashed her face with cold water, trying to rid her mind of the visions of spiders. As she looked down at the sink, she saw a shadow in the mirror. "I'm fine Pogue; you can go back to bed." She looked in the mirror to meet her brother's concerned eyes.

She screamed


A terrified scream entered the dark subconscious of Pogue's dream. Jumping up, and attempting to rush towards the noise, he got tangled up in his bed sheets and fell loudly to the floor.

"Pay!" Pogue shouted, scrambling to his feet. Terrified for his sister, he ran towards her room, when he notices the bathroom door slightly ajar.

He pushed the door open earnestly, freezing when he saw his sister, water dripping from her face, staring at the mirror, shaking like a leaf in the wind.

A face stared out of the mirror towards the room. It almost looked familiar, but, the face was chalky, eyes glazed over, unseeing. The man, if he could be considered such, began to open his mouth. He couldn't open it completely because of skin stretching from his top lip to bottom lip.

Pogue began to take a few steps into the bathroom towards his sister. As soon as he took his first step, however, the person, darkling Pogue's mind finally figured, moved forward, out of the mirror, towards Payton.

Pogue raced forwards, towards his sister, trying to shield her from the monster. By the time he had reached Payton the darkling had disappeared.

He pulled her into his arms, stroking her hair, trying to comfort her and calm himself down. "Are you alright?"

Payton just shook her head, pushed Pogue's arms away from her and fell down in front of the toilet. She began gagging and emptying the contents of her stomach. Pogue bent down behind her, pulling her hair out of her face and rubbing her back until she finished.

He stood up, grabbed her cup from the countertop, filled it with cold water, and handed it to Payton. Who was still sitting on the tiled floor. She looked up and gave Pogue a tight smile "thanks." She whispered.

She placed the cup on the edge of the counter, and started to stand up. Pogue reached for her hands and pulled her to her feet, embracing her once again. "I'm going to call Caleb and tell him what happened. Do you want to come with me to my room?"

Pogue felt Payton nod against his chest.

After Payton had lain down on his bed he dialed Caleb's number.

"I just saw the same darkling as you." Pogue said, not letting Caleb ask why he was calling.

"I felt something about twenty minutes ago, did you feel it?"

"No, I didn't." Payton looked at him and nodded, "but, Payton felt it."

Caleb stayed silent for a moment, "someone sent you a darkling and you didn't feel it?" He questioned, confused.

"No one sent me a darkling." Pogue started, but Caleb interrupted him

"I thought you said you saw it!"

Pogue sighed, "if you would let me finish, it was sent to Payton. I woke up when she screamed."

"Is she okay?"

Pogue looked at his twin for a moment, taking in her still shaking form and tear streaks running down her cheeks. "No, I don't think so."

Payton looked towards the wall, "spiders." She whispered, "I had a nightmare about spiders."

"Wait, what?" Pogue asked, forgetting for a moment that he was on the phone.

"That's why I woke up, someone was Using while I had that nightmare. But, I couldn't wake up. That's why I was in the bathroom."

Pogue starred for a moment before he repeated what Payton had told him to Caleb.

Caleb stayed silent, "We'll look into it in the morning. I'll ask Reid if he was Using."

"You still think it was Reid? He wouldn't do that to Pay."

Pogue could hear the shrug in Caleb's voice "I don't know who else it could be."

Payton grabbed the phone from Pogue, "it wasn't Reid. Each one of us has a different magical signature. Reid doesn't have enough power to send darklings or nightmares. He won't until he ascends. And, it wasn't a familiar signature."

Pogue strained to hear Caleb's response, not completely surprised by his sister's statement. He'd learned a long time ago not to be surprised by his sister's power.

` "Well, who was it?"

"I don't know," Payton answered, coughing slightly, "like I said, it wasn't magic that was familiar to me. It could be someone from a different Covenant."

Caleb paused, "We'll talk about it in the morning. You guys try to get some sleep."

Pogue looked at his sister and highly doubted she would sleep anymore that night.


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