Author's Note: Wow. I've left this series unattended. The latest episode has the lit the fire in me to continue this. At least until what I had planned for the end. It deserves that much at least- A proper ending.

Anyway, this chapter is a little short, but I'm just going to dive right into the climax/ending from now on. Updates hopefully weekly?


Title: My Hate Isn't Hate (Your Love Isn't Love Sequel)

Chapter Seven: Thoughts...


The room was in complete silence other than the sound of water dripping from the rusty pipes hanging from the ceiling. The stagnant water collected itself on the floor of the dark basement.

Pam leaned against a wall as she tucked her family photo into her pants pocket. She stumbled away from the wall to the lone dining chair sitting in the middle of the room. There was a medium-sized wool blanket thrown about carelessly over the back of the chair. Pam snatched it up and tossed it towards the corner of the room, where a small and ratty futon mattress lay.

Pam knelt down carefully, placing herself gently onto the lumpy mattress and wrapping herself within the wool blanket. She coughed harshly into the mattress, staining it with speckles of deep red. Pam cursed under her breath, looking at the new stain on the mattress. She blinked and soon it was difficult to tell the new stains from the old stains. How long had she been cooped up in this room?

"... C-Carmine," Pam tried calling out, her voice raspy and squeaky. She had rarely talked or called out to anyone. She learned very early on that her voice could not be heard from beyond the basement door. Pam sucked in a sharp breath through her teeth. Her chest hurt whenever she breathed. Definitely not a good sign. Not to mention the coughing up of the blood. How long could she last, being imprisoned to that basement?

Pam closed her eyes as she tried to rest her weary body on the lumpy mattress. At least there was one bit of good news- Sam was alive and well. Nothing bad had happened to her. Pam only wished good things for her children, hoping that they were happy and safe.

A loud banging noise suddenly interrupted Pam's happy thoughts. The basement door slammed open, letting the light into the stuffy and dark room. The opener of the door, a disgruntled-looking man, stumbled down the stairs carelessly reeking of a strong alcohol.

"Y'smell disgussnng," the man mumbled, his words coming out slurred. Pam covered her nose with her forearm, glaring at the man before her.

"T-That's you, Carmine..." Pam whispered harshly, a tone of anger in her voice. Although Pam did not show any sign of fear to her so-called "brother", her voice had a slight stutter to it. Almost as if she were shivering.

"Well, I f'rgot t'get food fer y'again," Carmine grumbled, scratching at the rugged stubble on his face. "Mm'be t'marrow."

Pam just shifted slowly in her mattress, facing away from Carmine. She did not move or speak until Carmine walked back up the stairs, retreating to the pleasures of the outside-world.


Sam sighed.

After leaving in such a hurry the night before- after Spencer had kissed her, Sam had plenty on her mind. Mainly the thing that bugged her the most was what Spencer had said.

"I'm better than Freddie! I wouldn't just leave you alone at night, making you cry and all those other things he's doing to you."

Sam had to agree- Freddie had been awfully distant and never seemed to be around at all anymore. The times they actually got to see each other, Freddie was either preoccupied or too tired to really give his full attention to anything.

Maybe he was cheating on her. The thought entered Sam's mind but she remembered something Freddie had said to the night she found out about her father's escape.

"I will never leave you."

But then again, Freddie had already lied to Sam before. Who's to say he wouldn't lie again?

But then again-again, Sam thought that Freddie deserved the benefit of the doubt.


Freddie grinned ear to ear. He had received his check for the week and after all the projects he'd completed over the past couple of days, working nonstop, he received a hefty-sized check from his boss. He had enough for the stupid deal with Richard. Not only that, he was two days early! This called for a celebration.

But Freddie was celebrating far too soon. His PearPhone began ringing and he answered the unknown call.
"Fred. Y'got the money? If y'do, I'm thinking let's make the trade t'night."

"Tonight? Why?"

"Don't get too nosy. Tell me if y'got the money r'not."

"I got it."

"Good."

There was a long pause.

"... You gonna tell me where we're meeting up? I want this to go as smoothly as possible. No funny business."

"I've actually been havin' second thoughts."

"Thoughts about what?"

Richard chortled."Well, Benson. T'be honest with you, I hate yer guts. I hate t'fact that ye'r together wit my daughter. I want you t'break it off wit'er."

Freddie couldn't believe his ears. "What?"

"Y'heard me. Choose which one's more 'mportant, Fred. A girl wit'out her one and only mother or a girl wit'out you, a boyfriend that she could easily replace."

Freddie cursed into the phone and hung up. Freddie groaned and scratched at his skull, running his fingers through his hair. Break up with Sam? There's no way in hell he'd leave her. After he promised he would never leave her? He's already lying to her about her dad, now he'd lie about that too? Geez.

Maybe Freddie should just tell her the truth.

The phone rang annoyingly again. From unknown number. Freddie ignored the call, sending it straight to voicemail.


Sam lay on the futon, looking up at the ceiling. The rays from the afternoon sun enriched her skin with warmth. The warmth reminded her of a feeling she was beginning to forget. She sighed as she thought about Freddie. She wanted to see him. She searched for her phone and began to dial when the mail slot was quickly jostled open and closed. Sam threw the phone to the side and retrieved the mail.

Sam looked at the mail curiously. She could only remember her household receiving pink envelopes in the mail, but that was when she was living with her mother and they didn't pay the water bill. On the envelope were bold red letters stamped, "OVERDUE".

"Overdue?" Sam said out loud to herself. Odd. With all the hours Freddie were working, you'd think they'd have more money than they needed, not not enough of it. She ripped open the envelope without hesitation. She scanned over the papers and tried to make heads or tails of what it was saying.


Freddie put his phone on vibrate as he lay his head on his desk.

Break up with Sam? How was that even possible? Sam had been the love of his life ever since high school. He unlocked his phone to view the background picture of Sam. He noticed a message on his phone, "4 missed calls". He looked through it and saw most of it was unknown numbers but one in particular stood out to him.

He quickly put the phone to his ear, waiting for an answer.

"Hey."

"Hey, you called?" Freddie asked, slightly worried. "Something wrong?"

"I don't know, Freddie. You tell me."

Uh oh. Sam sounded angry. Not just regular angry, but a sort of "I'm-going-to-kick-your-ass" kind of angry.

"Um, no, nothing's wrong over here..." Freddie replied back, very careful with his wording. He knew that women were complicated creatures and even the slightest of bad wording could hand him his one-way ticket to hell.

"We got an overdue bill notice in the mail today. You didn't pay this month's electricity bill."

Freddie sighed. How exactly was he going to explain this? He wasn't an idiot and he knew Sam wasn't one either. It wouldn't make sense for a man who's been working literally 24/7 to have no money to pay the bills. "Yeah. I've, uh, been busy at work and must've overlooked it. Don't worry, I'll pay it soon."

"Soon? As in, you can't pay now?"

Dammit. How the hell could one word mess this up? "Well, not exactly, I don't have the, uh, necessary funds to, uhm..."

"I want you to come home. Like, now."

"Why?"

"So I can see your lying face when you talk to me. I can tell when you're lying, Benson." With that, she hung up.

Freddie sighed, trying to figure out what he should do next.


"Hey! Git'up!"

Pam received a swift kick to her side and all the air in her lungs escaped in a single beat. She coughed violently, trying to catch her breath.

"Richard called- Guess what?"