"It doesn't belong to you!" a voice roared.

"But it was given to me," Derek cried out desperately.

"It wasn't hers to give away. She will be punished."

"No! It wasn't her fault! She was only trying to help—"

"SILENCE!"

Derek fell silent as a burst of flames appeared in front of him. He stood, transfixed, as the fire made its way toward him. He felt something on his foot and looked down. He frowned in confusion as a tree branch poked him repeatedly –of it's own free will-. "That's odd," he said out loud.

"What's odd?"

"Who is he talking to?"

"I dunno, man. Derek!"

Derek groaned and opened his eyes, squinting as the bright sunlight hit his eyelids. "Huh? What's going on?"

"Dude, has anyone ever told you that you're like impossible to wake up!? Sierra poked you in the foot like ten times and nada."

Derek groaned and sat up, staring at his roommate –Greg- who was standing there with his girlfriend, Sierra. "Um, hey," he said uncertainly. "What's up?"

Greg shrugged, grabbing a jacket. "Man, I came in here to get a couple books and you were trashing around in your bed like freakin Big Foot was after you or something. Must've been one hell of a nightmare."

"Oh, yeah…I was dreaming that, uh, some guy was chasing me. With a gun," Derek added lamely.

"Right," Greg said skeptically. "Well, I got class, so I gotta jet. See ya later."

"Bye," Derek yawned as he stumbled out of bed.

He couldn't tell you how he made it through the day. He walked around in a daze, and was only aware of bumping into people when they angrily shoved him back. Nor could he tell you what happened in any of his classes—though he distinctly remembered placing his head on the cool desk and dozing off multiple times.

By the time he got out his last class, it was 4 PM and he was making the trek to hockey practice. He held his cell phone in his hand, fully expecting a call any moment. Sure enough, his phone began vibrating.

"And how's my favorite girl?" he said into the phone, without looking at the caller I.D.

"I just got off the phone with Casey," Emily snapped. "How could you!?"

"Right," Derek said. "So we shouldn't bother with the courtesies?"

"Cut the crap, D."

"Look, I don't know what you're so upset about," Derek frowned. "This is between me and Casey."

"And Casey is my best friend. And your sister. And I'm your girlfriend!"

"I know all of this," Derek said patiently. And then--even though he knew it didn't matter to Emily or Casey- he said it anyway, "And make that step-sister."

"Whatever, Derek. The point is, Casey made a solid effort to fix things and you totally blew her off!"

"A solid effort!?" Derek repeated incredulously. "She only called because you made her!"

Emily was silent for a second and Derek took this as confirmation that his guess was right. "Be that as it may, she is family D! You can't hold these grudges against people you're supposed to care about!"

"Well that works out nicely because as it turns out, I don't care about that bitch!" Derek swore, his short temper flaring to the surface.

"You are one cold hearted jackass," Emily hissed. Click.

Derek took deep breaths to calm himself, but it didn't work. So, it was in a pissed off mood that he arrived at hockey practice. His mind always went completely blank when he was playing hockey –you can't concern yourself with other, less important, things when you play- but he could tell that his emotion was affecting his game.

By the time he knocked down the fourth guy, his coach was staring at him through slit eyes (no doubt thinking Derek was on drugs). Well, he couldn't bring himself to care what these people thought anymore. Honestly, he just wanted to get home and sleep.

As he was leaving, his buddy on the team shouted, "Yo D, you coming to dinner with us, man?"

Derek shook his head, "Nah, I'm beat. I'll see you guys tomorrow." The team nodded to him, some of them looking wary of him and others curious. Well. He didn't blame them.

He got out of the elevator in his building and started walking down the hallway when he suddenly got the feeling that someone was staring at him. He looked up and stopped short.

Casey.

She was standing in front of his door and was --get this—holding a large pizza box. She looked up as he approached. He stopped a few feet away from her and made a show of looking her up and down.

"My my, that's a lovely coat you have on there. Didn't know you could afford that on a student's budget," Derek said, staring at her long, white, expensive-looking wool coat.

She looked down at herself self-consciously. "It was a present."

"From Daddy?" Derek guessed and Casey pursed her lips.

Derek sighed, "What do you want, Case?"

"Um, I was wondering if- well, I mean—if you wanted to—"she swallowed visibly and started again. "Are you hungry?"

"Always," Derek said, grinning slightly. What was up with Casey, anyway? She looked darned nervous about something. He'd never heard her sound so flustered before. Usually she was the epitome of confidence…It was this thought, more than anything, that made him open the door and wave her in. She smiled at him gratefully and walked in slowly.

Derek sighed as he walked in after her and flipped on the lights. So much for going to sleep. He had a feeling this was gonna be a long night.

"Where's your roommate?" Casey asked, glancing over at Greg's side of the room.

"His girlfriend has an apartment," Derek explained as he tossed his stuff next to his bed and flopped into it tiredly. He looked up at Casey who was still standing in the middle of his room, looking unsure. "You can sit down, you know."

Casey nodded and took off her coat, carefully hanging it over his chair. He looked at her appreciatively. She was still beautiful. She was wearing a long, pale blue sweater paired with black tights. A thick black belt was wrapped around her waist, and her hair—"Did you get a hair-cut?" Derek demanded.

She touched her hair slightly, not smiling. "I did a couple months ago. It's growing out again though." She sat at the other end of his bed and put the pizza box in between them.

Derek stared at her for a few seconds before he sighed and grabbed a slice of pizza. He turned on the T.V. so he would have something else to stare at. They ate in silence. Derek had to say that he was surprised. After Emily's tirade, he had expected Casey to be just as furious. But she still seemed nervous, more than anything.

When they had finished the box, Casey promptly carried it over the trash. "You know, I expected your room to be a lot messier," she said thoughtfully. "It's actually pretty clean."

Derek rolled his eyes, "I'm glad I have your approval, Case."

She nodded absentmindedly and walked around his room, her eye landing on the gift he'd received. "What's this?" she asked, picking up the watch.

Derek raised his head from his pillow. "Oh that," he rolled his eyes. "My birthday present from our dear family."

Casey looked confused, "What?"

He sat up in bed. "What's wrong?"

"We didn't—I mean, they didn't send you this."

Derek frowned, "Of course they did. Who else would've sent it?"

"I don't know. But this isn't from them," Casey insisted.

"O-kay," Derek said slowly.

Casey began walking back toward him, still holding the watch, when she stopped at his mirror. Derek rolled his eyes. Here we go. He couldn't understand why some girls just loved to stare at their reflection all day. Get a life! He opened his mouth to tell her this, when she interrupted him.

"Hey, is this one of those funhouse mirrors or something?"

"If you look like a freak, Case, that's hardly the mirror's fault."

"Der-ek!"

Derek grinned to himself and started to get up from the bed. "What are you on about, Casey? It's a perfectly normal mirror—"

He stopped and frowned. He tilted his head slightly, staring at his mirror. It appeared to have…ripples or something in it. As he stared at it, his reflection became distorted and then disappeared completely.

"Whoa, trippy!" Casey said, reaching her hand out toward the mirror.

"Wait—"

Casey gasped in surprise as her hand reached the mirror…and kept going. She didn't know what happened but there was suddenly a huge sucking noise. She dropped the watch in shock.

"Casey!" Derek shouted.

But she was gone.