Hi readers!

I'm really, really, REALLY sorry for being a slow updater. But this chapter, let me tell you, makes up for a lot. I think y'all will like it a lot! How about we play a little game? First, comment on this story, then comment on Poetry Compilation Chapter 17 by alloutassaulthorizon, my friend needs some help with readers. Whoever has the best comment on his and mine, will win a special PM from me, giving you, yes GIVING YOU some chapter 10 spoilers for this story! How cool is that?! Let's see how many people we can get to participate! So thanks for reading, and as always, ENJOY!

-8tickles


(Thomas's POV)

"To get back at Isabel? What for?"

"Because her father was the CEO of a law office that represented a client whose sister was murdered by her father. Obviously, Isabel's father won the lawsuit. It cost Serena's father life in jail with a bail bond of 6 million dollars."

"Wha?!" I spluttered. "How do you know that?"

"Oh everyone knows, Tommy. Everyone but you, that is. It's common knowledge."

"But it's not Isabel's fault that her father sued Serena's!"

"Serena needs someone to hate on, and that someone is Isabel." Suddenly, a thought occurred to me.

"Oh crap. Oh shit! OH DAMN!" I yelped. Jack raised an eyebrow at me. All this time I'd been sitting out here yacking with my brother, I'd left Serena alone. Free. Unoccupied. I'd just left her an open slot to attack Isabel. I leaped up and sprinted back inside, not caring who saw me, hoping against hope my gut instinct was wrong.

I stopped for a split second at the nurse's desk. "What room is Isabel Allery in?" I asked, breathless and wild-eyed.

"That's confidential information, young man." The older prissy nurse informed me.

"Look lady, this is a life-or-death situation. Tell me now or one of your unconscious patients will die." The nurse looked at me, rather taken aback by my scared-sick tone.

"204." And I was off.

204 was up a flight of stairs and to the left. I took turns at frightening speeds, hardly daring to slow down. I never looked back, just went. I arrived at the door and flung it open with such force that it made a huge crack when it connected with the back wall. The scene before me was so scarring I knew my eyes could never un-see it. My dreams, my nightmares, would be flooded with the horrendous image.

My gag reflex kicked in and I fought the urge to throw up again. The entire room was splattered in blood. It was on the floor, the ceiling, the dresser, the sheets, even the lampshade was caked in it. The light was still on, so the blood on the lampshade threw a sick redish haze across the entire room. The covers were tangled and twisted, showing signs of a fight. A chair in the corner was knocked over and splintered into pieces. That's when I saw the foot. A white Nike tennis shoe and part of an ankle just poked out from around the corner of the bed.

I took a deep breath of air while I still stood outside of the destruction zone, then forced myself to take a step forward. Then another. Then another. The smell of blood was instantly overpowering. The metallic scent that came only when large quantities of blood were involved flooded my nostrils. It looked like something from a dramatic cop show, the kind of thing that could never be real, but yet was here in front of me.

I picked my way carefully across the floor with great precision, only looking down at my feet, never even glancing up in fear of catching sight of something I didn't want to see. I reached the bed in only a few steps and very slowly, with great hesitance, peeked over the edge where I had seen the foot. The foot belonged to a nurse. Or should I say, what used to be a nurse. Nothing could have prepared me for what Serena had done to this poor, innocent woman. From her throat to the bottom of her stomach she had been slit wide open.

Her clothes were blood-drenched, bits of intestine hung outside of her, and several ribs as well as her sternum were broken. Her face had been beaten badly. Her nose was broken and blood dripped down it, and she there was a large bruise from check to cheek, showing that she'd been hit across the face with something. Her arms were tied and twisted at a funny angle above her head, bent way past natural human ability. She hadn't been here long, maybe only a few minutes, so all of the slashes and marks were still fresh and bleeding. It was the sickest thing I'd ever seen one human do to another.

I stumbled backwards, slipping on one of the gigantic puddles of blood and fell down on my butt hard. I had put my hands back to cushion my fall but only ended up getting my hands in the slick and sticky puddle. I sat still for a moment before lifting my palms up off the floor to my eyes. I was covered in the blood now, too. Whose is was, I don't know.

The nurses blood for sure, and probably some of Isabel's, too. Sitting here in a puddle of blood, covered in it, not 10 feet from a dead body, I must've looked like a lunatic. Worse yet, THE lunatic. The lunatic who killed a full-grown nurse, and probably Isabel, too. Wait. Where was Isabel?! In a flurry I was up on my feet, searching the room for any sign of her. Nothing.

I looked around, completely baffled. Just then, a breeze ruffled my hair and made goose bumps rise up on my skin. To my left, I found the source. An open window, covered in bloody footprints and handprints, just big enough to fit two people through. Two of the handprints were side by side, and to say that one was larger was an understatement.

The smaller of the two handprints was most likely Isabel's. The print was ruffled around the edges, probably from her shaky grip on the windowsill after the traumatic experience of being a murder witness. The larger handprint must've been Serena's. Dang. I'd never realized that Serena was that much bigger than Isabel.

As I was brushing my hands against the wall to try and get some of the blood off, that's when I heard the muffled scream. The sound was muted and getting quieter by the second, as if someone were gagged and had been screaming for a long time. I couldn't tell where it was coming from, so I called out.

"Hey! Whoever's making that sound make it louder so I can find you!" I said. The screaming rose a notch, then two, then three, followed by a furious thumpthumpthumpthump. The sound was coming from the bathroom. I crept up to the door and opened it a crack. To my astonishment, there, hung from her arms by the shower bar and gagged, was Isabel. She looked scared and pissed but otherwise unharmed.

Her eyes were alight with struggle, and the thumping was coming from her feet kicking anything within reach, including the walls, ceiling (I still can't figure out how she did that one), and tub edge. When her eyes found mine, her struggle died. She tried to put her feet down but couldn't reach the ground so she just ended up hanging there, breathing heavily. Her breaths came in quickly and with a rasp, indicating a long time of screaming. I opened the door the rest of the way and closed the distance between us in two long strides.

I reached up and untied the gag from her mouth so she could speak.

"Thomas. You remember me!" One lone tear rolled down her cheek.

"I don't know how could I have ever forgotten you." With one thumb I stroked her cheek, brushing away the single tear. As I started working on her bound wrists, she just smiled, but the joyful expression quickly faded away when I asked her, "What happened?"

"Somehow a family member of the man Serena's father murdered found out where she was here and came to get revenge, apparently. She came to kill me, but he was already here, dressed up as one of the doctors. When she..." Isabel faltered.

"When she what?" I pressed gently.

"When she took out the huge, curved knife, the man grabbed her and started dragging her away. That's when the nurse tried to intervene and Serena started shrieking about it being her destiny to be taken or something and slashed the poor lady. Finally, he punched Serena in the face, left her in a corner, took me in here and tied me up before taking Serena and fleeing, I guess."

"Wow. Are you hurt?" By now I'd untied the ropes and she brought her arms down slowly and stiffly, rubbing her wrists once her hands were finally below her head. She shook her head.

"Other than a few cuts and bruises I got from fighting him while he tied me up, I'm fine."

"I'm so glad you're ok!" I told her.

"Likewise." She said. We looked at each other for a moment, unsure of what to do next. Before I could stop myself, I smiled.

"What?" She asked, while smiling herself.

"We're alone…and who knows how long this'll last?" My smirk grew into a true grin.

"Are you thinking what I'm thinking?" Her eyes a mischievous light to them.

"If you're thinking make out session in a bathroom not ten feet from a murder scene, then yes, we're thinking exactly the same thing."

"Well I only have one thing left to say then." She stepped out of the shower and closer to me.

"And what's that?" Now it was my turn to take a step closer.

"Great minds think alike." And with that, I put one arm under her back and the other under her knees, scooping her up fireman's style. She wrapped one arm around my neck and with the other put the toilet seat down so I could sit on it. Our lips met and every inch of my skin that was in contact with hers tingled. Once I sat down, she wrapped her legs around my sides and twined her fingers in my hair. I grabbed her waist and turned my head to the side, deepening the kiss. At a tantalizingly slow pace, my fingers crept up higher and higher, until they reached a spot where they weren't supposed to be, and I hesitated.

"It's ok." She breathed.

And my hands cleared the final inch.


Danggggg! *bird whistle*

See y'all next chapter!