A/N: Sooo, it's 1:18am here, and I finally finished this chapter. Gahh. It's probably not the best written, and it isn't edited at all. Super sorry. I just wanted to get this one up. It's longer than the last one, and hopefully more entertaining. Sorry for the not-great writing – I get weird when it gets late. You might've (particularly in this one) noticed Stella's getting more, um, nice? Well, that's part of it. At least, it is now. Don't worry, she'll go back to her old self. Unless you like her better this way….?

Sorry for the long author's note. Enjoy the chapter!

We parked my car as inconspicuously as possible along the side of the road. Even I had to admit, though, hot pink wasn't exactly the best color for sneaking around.

Angel and I made it up to the house just fine. All the lights were still on, strangely, but I didn't hear any voices and none of the gross Sullens were in sight. I did, however, hear the distant sound of piano playing. The person was actually, like, good. God, if it happened to be Edworm playing (at freaking MIDNIGHT) I would shoot myself for saying that.

As much as I hated that nasty family, their house was incredibly nice. Big, glass windows, mansion-ish. A big fountain sat in the middle of a perfectly-tended garden. Hm. They must have hired a professional decorator, since, after seeing their wardrobes, I knew none of them could have produced this themselves.

"How do we get in?" I asked Angel when we were about five feet from the side of the house.

"Um, try to open one of the windows?" she suggested.

"Nah, let's try to open one of the windows," I said. Thank God she had me here to come up with all the brilliant plans.

Angel and I tried for about ten minutes, but neither of us could pry open any of the windows. Like, why would you want them to glue them so tightly into your house? And ohmygod – get this – I BROKE A NAIL. I felt tears immediately spring to my eyes, although I was strong and tried not to cry too much in front of my friend. But, like, it was a tragedy.

"I'm so sorry, Stella," Angel said. "Those looked really, uh, expensive."

"They were!" I wailed. "And now it's broken. Noooo! What am I going to do with my life?"

"Maybe getting on with the the revenge-on-Edworm thing would help? You know, before the whole world wakes up?"

I rolled my eyes. "Whatevs. You're right." Then I gasped and put my hand over my mouth. That was the first time those words had ever, EVER left my mouth. I swore to never say them again.

Since breaking in through the windows clearly wasn't going to work, I crept around to the back of the house. There were windows on the second and third stories, but they too were closed. What, was I expected to try to get up there by climbing a tree, just to break another nail?

I glanced at Angel, who was standing silently by the door. She put her hand on the knob, twisting carefully, and then she grinned. "It's open," she breathed, and I squealed with excitement. She shushed me and I resisted the urge to flip her off. No one told me what to do.

I pushed past Angel into the house. The entryway was the size of Barley's living room and dining room combined, and it was – okay, I had to admit, beautiful. I could see that even through the weak slivers of moonlight that spilled into the room through the wide stained-glass windows. Not their choosing, of course. Remember the decorator?

We made it safely into the second, even larger, room. Like, I had this aura that naturally attracted attention, but I could also be sneaky and graceful when I wanted.

Anyway, it was super gorgeous in there. Some of the lights were still on, which made me wonder whether the Sullens were still awake and, stupidly, hadn't noticed the intruder, or if they'd just forgotten to turn off their lights before they went to bed. Either way, it was helpful for me.

Right around then, I realized how incredibly thirsty I was. I made my way to the kitchen. "What are you doing, Stella?" Angel whispered loudly.

"Uh, looking for a cup of water, no duh," I replied.

"Really, Stella, that's not-"

"Can you do this MY way for once?" I said haughtily, and stomped into the kitchen. I searched the cupboards for a cup and located one eventually. It was dusty, I realized, as if it hadn't been used in a while. That was, like, weird.

Then I opened the fridge to look for some filtered water, 'cause tap water around here wasn't so good. I mean, unless you loved your water to taste vaguely of raw eggs. And only one person I knew did: Barley. Well, maybe Edworm too. It would suit him.

There was one problem: THERE WAS NOTHING IN THE FRIDGE. It wasn't like they didn't have a ton of FRESH food. I mean, there was NOTHING. No old takeout containers, no moldy spaghetti shoved hastily into a Tupperware container and thrown to the back, none of those old spray whipped cream cans that grew fungus after a few months.

Nothing.

That was, like, shocking. It was like, like... "They don't use their kitchen," I blurted loudly.

"Shh, Stella!" Angel said. She was standing nervously, hiding halfway behind one of the curtains near their huge windows. As I watched, she tugged worriedly on a lock of her poop-brown hair. "They'll hear you."

Okay, quick distinction here: Angel's hair was not CHOCOLATE brown. It was POOP brown. My eyes were chocolate brown, and though they were nearly the same color, a trained eye could tell the difference. I mean, who else but me is going to know whether they're eating poop or chocolate?

Ew, like, I don't even know where that came from. It must be all the messed-up vibes emulating from the atmosphere here. Blech.

"I'm serious!" I said. Right now my brain was too overwhelmed to comprehend everything that was going on. Later on, after we'd executed the prank, I'd come up with a good explanation for their untouched kitchen, I decided.

I decided to skip the water and we tiptoed towards the steps leading upstairs. I could only assume Edward's bedroom was on the top floor. Plus, I didn't see any hallways or doors on the main level with a distinct odor coming off them. It was kind of amazing we hadn't been seen yet. I mean, Edward had that whole creepy thing going on – it seemed like he'd be waiting for burglars by the doorway every night holding a bat, ready to knock 'em dead (like, literally).

Angel followed me, and together we crept up the stairs. "Stella, I'm not sure this is such a go-" she began.

"Just don't even go there," I said. "I thought you were my friend."

"Stella, it's not a matter o-"

I just rolled my eyes. "Girlfriend, you have got to get yourself together here."

Angel sighed, and continued up the steps.

Once we finished the first flight, I stopped and surveyed the area. It was, well, dark. I didn't have a flashlight except the reassuring glow of my phone. There was one long hallway with several doors leading off it. More steps led to the third floor.

As much as I would never admit it, I didn't exactly know what to do. Like, I figured Edworm would have one of those signs on his door that said 'EDWORM'S ROOM. KEEP OUT IF YOU WANT TO STAY ALIVE' or something. But all the rooms looked the same.

So I decided to peek in each one. Like, okay, risky. But can you think of any better ideas? "You take the left side, and the right, and I'll take this supply closet," I said. "Tell me when you find Edworm, 'kay?"

Edworm wasn't sleeping in the supply closet. Dang it. He would have fit in right along with the spare toilet cleaner and giant black spiders.

I finished wayyy before Angel and whipped out my portable mirror. I was almost done re-applying my foundation when Angel whispered, "Stella!"

I sighed, irritated, but put the makeup away and went to where she was standing. The fourth door on the right was slightly ajar, and she was gesturing eagerly to it. I pushed the door open more widely, glad to see that it swung smoothly on its hinges. Creaking would totally just add to the lame old-horror-movie effect. Like, cliché much?

Inside the room was a fancy electronics center, a piano, several bookshelves, a desk with the light of a desktop computer glowing softly over it, and a perfectly-made bed. With no one sleeping on it.

I sighed, and was about to turn back to tell Angel what an idiot she was for assuming this was his room when there was no proof, like, at all. But then a poster on the wall caught my eye. It was America's current teenage heartthrob, with a pink heart drawn around his face.

Justin Bieber.

This was definitely, DEFINITELY Edworm's room.

"Ohmygod, Angel, you're a genius," I squealed to her. "I just wonder where he is. Maybe night school, 'cause he needs double education just to pass regular high school?"

"I don't know." She looked worried, but I dismissed it. Not my problem, after all.

I stolled inside and flipped on the light switch, taking in what Edworm's gross room looked like normally. It was freakishly, unnaturally clean. If Edworm wasn't here, where was he? Sleeping with his mommy and daddy so they could comfort him during his scary nightmares? If he wasn't around here, and if he wasn't asleep, we couldn't pull off the prank tonight. And then I'd have spent three whole hours in these terrible clothes for nothing.

It gave me the shivers, just thinking that HE lived here, slept here, had probably stood naked in the exact spot I was standing now…

It was too much.

I stumbled out to the hallway, hoping desperately that I wasn't turning into some vile monster for having been in Edworm's bedroom. Then I leaned over and threw up everything I'd eaten in the past twenty-four hours (four hundred whole calories, omygawd!) over their nice carpet. Ha. Edworm's fault for not being there the night we decided to pull a prank on him. In all my confusion, I'd forgotten to be quiet, and I'd forgotten to turn off his room lights.

Suddenly, I thought I heard a noise behind me. Or maybe it was to the left – or the right. What it was, I couldn't tell. I became aware that Angel wasn't anywhere near me. I hadn't, like, seen her since I'd gone into Edworm's room. "Aaaaaangel?" I shrieked, feeling tears run down my cheeks. "WHERE ARE YOU?" This was just too much.

"Did you really think," said a sudden voice, "that you could hide from me?"

I whipped around, looking for it, but then realized who it was as my brain started to spin. EDWORM. Of course. He was probably slithering around the house, being all wormy. "Where are you?" I yelled. "Are you hiding in that supply closet, with your family? Poor Eddie, don't be afraid to come out of the closet! I bet it's all dark and scary in there," I mocked. Mentally, I patted myself on the back. That was, like, the wittiest thing I'd ever said.

"Did you really think," it repeated, "that we would not know the second you got here, the second you planned to come here? People like us do not miss these things; we do not miss ANY things. We were pretending to be asleep, letting you walk right into the trap. And you did it, perfectly?"

"Look," I whined, "it was just a harmless prank. I didn't, like, mean anything bad. We're just two friends playing stupid jokes on each other, right?"

Ohmygod, I could NOT believe I said that. Like, what was up with me? I was saying all this crap I didn't mean this evening, which made it sound like I actually CARED about other people. What the hell? I totally needed to snap out of it.

"Well, if we were really friends, you would've proven that to me earlier," Edworm cackled, which made me want to barf all over again. I did, this time doing so right in the middle of his bedroom floor.

When I spoke again, I'd gotten some of my confidence back. NO ONE treated me like that, not even if it was because they were so jealous of my hotness and the fact that I'd never find them a millionbagillionzillionth as attractive. "Look, if you think you're gonna rape me, you can just, like, go rape the other side of your split personality."

"Oh, Stella, you are so stupid," he said. His voice was rough, like rubbing your hand against sandpaper. No, bad comparison. It was more like someone banging your head against concrete repeatedly. No, not quite. More like… hm… Being thrown into a giant garbage shredder that shredded you to pieces and fed you to giant piranhas. That was what I went through.

So, after that traumatic experience, I turned and saw that Edworm was standing RIGHT BEHIND ME. Literally four inches or, like, less. I screamed and tried to punch him away, but he wouldn't budge. "I swear, I'm going to get a restraining order against you!" I shrieked at the top of my lungs.

"No, Stella, you're not," he said calmly, reaching out to grasp my wrists. I tried to pull away, tried to pry his barfy clammy fingers off my precious skin, but he was too strong. Edworm, strength? This was the guy who looked like he couldn't run half a block without dying. But it was true.

"And why not?" I tried out all the self-defense moves I'd ever learned from my mom (who was a total expert at this kind of thing) but nothing could get me away from Edworm.

Then I saw his family standing motionlessly, spread out across the hallway. They were all glancing at me, unblinking, with cruel half-smiles on their untanned faces. At that moment, all my will went out the door.

Okay, freeze right here. It was totally not my fault I wasn't myself that night. Barley probably had something to do with it – I mean, who purposefully feeds their grandchildren "watery crunchy cabbage soufflé" and gets away with it? Plus, what harm could Edworm possibly do?

So that was like, total crap, but whatever. How was I supposed to know the reasons for why I was the way I was?

I looked back up at Edworm – and veeeery quickly away – to see he was smiling meanly at me too. My cell phone had fallen out of my stupid exercise pants pockets and was laying a few feet away. Oh, God, what did he want now?

"Because you're mine," Edworm said in response to my question. His voice chilled me to the core, and in the absolute worst way possible. Those words would never, ever leave my nightmares, not for the rest of my life. "And," Edworm went on, "because you chose purple. Really? Weren't you taking into consideration how badly it would clash with my eyes?"

I glanced at where the hair dye was in my purse, also a few feet away. I had one last thought before everything went freakishly black. Oh my God, he was totally right.