Downtown Heatherfield
12:00 AM

It was raining; water was pouring from the sky as if the heavens themselves were weeping. Dark clouds stretched from horizon to horizon, an opaque blanket that seemed to radiate despair and sorrow. In the distance, lightning flashed; five seconds later, a long low rumble was heard, indicating that the storm was only a mile away. Most of Heatherfield's inhabitants had already fled indoors, the remaining few were either huddled under umbrellas or had their hoods pulled tight against the cascading precipitation.

It was a different story entirely for the Cranal A'k'sl; he personally loved the rain. Or rather, he loved the rain most of the time; of course, most of the time he didn't have an angry Shagon swooping down on him and demanding that they spend some quality time together. And so the shapeshifter found himself squeezed into a side ally with the bulky Knight of Hate; Shagon stood in front of A'k'sl with his arms folded, the very image of a parent about to scold a naughty child. A'k'sl spread his arms as if in greeting, causing the Knight to furrow his brow in confusion.

"Shagon! And how's my favorite Knight doing?"

"I'm not here to exchange pleasantries, Cranal. I'm here to return you to Nerissa; gagged and bound if I have to."

"Well, that's a very nice offer there, Shagon; but um, I'm gonna say no."

Shagon threw back his head and laughed. "You're in no position to refuse."

A'k'sl grinned. "You see, that's where you're wrong. Let me give you a breakdown real quick…" The Cranal walked right up to the winged Knight and spoke in a low threatening voice. "You so much as put one finger on me, and I'll break it off and feed it to you."

And then it happened; as A'k'sl continued to snarl at him, Shagon began to grow. The Cranal watched with wide eyes as the Knight's hair seemed to erupt out of his head; his arms, already bulging, appeared to be…inflating. A'k'sl took a step back; the Shagon standing in front of him was now halfway to becoming twice his normal Cranal raised an eyebrow.

"Well that's a neat trick."

Shagon gave a booming laugh, which echoed down the narrow ally. "I am the Knight of Hate, Cranal; the more hate you feel, the stronger I get."

A'k'sl grinned up at him. "Rrriiighttt; I'll keep that in mind. Listen, I hate…whoops…I strongly dislike running away from a perfectly good fight, especially with you, but I have more important places to be right now. Feel free to threaten my back as I walk away though."

And with that, A'k'sl shouldered past Shagon and began to stroll towards the end of the ally. He was about to turn onto the street when he heard Shagon say something that caused him to come to an immediate halt.

"Nerissa has informed me that the Council of Kandrakar was directly responsible for the disappearance of your race; if you have any pride left, you'll join us."

The Cranal turned to face the Knight of Hate.

"Yeah; yeah they were. The Oracle himself was the one that organized the Great Hunt; he was the one who sent the Heralds of Kandrakar after the remnants of my people. After the war, those who had survived scattered to hundreds of worlds; we thought that the Oracle would allow us to survive if we kept a low profile. Well, we were half right; the Oracle was perfectly willing to let us live, as long as we surrendered our magic."

Shagon did not speak; he could feel the strength of the Cranal's emotions and knew that he was beginning to awaken whatever hate A'k'sl felt, deep down, for Kandrakar. The Cranal's next words, however, were not what he had been expecting.

"It's been three hundred years since I've seen another Cranal; at that time, I hated Kandrakar and everything that it stood for. I wanted to tear the Oracle apart with my bare hands; I wanted to see his face as I personally devoured every single one of his Elders in front of him. But over the centuries, I could feel my hate slipping away from me; I still desired to revenge myself upon Kandrakar, but in my own fashion. Maybe I exterminated a species here or ravaged a world there, but I made sure that the Oracle knew that I still around."

Shagon stood with his arms folded across his chest; he said nothing, counting on the fact that the Cranal would talk himself into an angry but, hopefully, helpful type of attitude. On the other side of the ally, A'k'sl was indeed beginning to work himself into a rage.

"What right did the Oracle have to judge my people? He sits up there and calls himself an observer, but he meddles in the affairs of others whenever it suits him. If he had played a more active hand in the days of ancestors, maybe we could have avoided all of this; the War…the Hunt…everything…"

A'k'sl drew in a breath and then let lose a howl at the heavens, which lit up with lightning as if to affix a physical element to his inner turmoil. The Cranal emptied his lungs and then lowered his head to face the Knight of Hate.

"He left my people to fend for ourselves, but as soon as we encroached on ground he considered forbidden, he chose to punish us."

He pointed his finger at Shagon. "As for you, you can just scurry back to that witch of yours and tell her that I have no interest in joining her; if she thinks that she can boss me around just because she can help me get to Kandrakar, then she's dead wrong."

Shagon remained motionless; behind his mask, however, he was rolling his eyes.

"Then how do you intend to get there?" A'k'sl grinned, showing his teeth. "Oh, I have no intention of going there at the moment; I mean, why travel when I can finish off these current…Guardians to send him a message?"

Cook residence
9:00 AM

Taranee absentmindedly opened another cupboard; the Fire Guardian had poured herself a bowl of Raisin Bran cereal and was currently looking for the sugar so that she could add a spoonful, as she always did. But, for whatever reason, her mother had a bad habit of always putting the sugar in a different place; an inconvenience, even a minor one, this early in the morning did not fill Taranee with much rest-of-the-day zeal.

'Jackpot!'

Taranee reached in and grabbed the box; she pulled it out and opened the top…and saw that it was completely empty. Taranee closed the cupboard down and then promptly smacked her forehead into it.

"Fuck my face."

Taranee sighed and then walked to the refrigerator and opened that; she poked around a little before emerging with a plastic jug of milk, which she poured over her cereal. She picked up her bowl and carried it over to the table. She then ran into her room and emerged a few seconds later with a book, which she set next to her bowl before running to the kitchen again for a spoon. She returned and began to eat, her hand bringing the spoon to her moth while her gaze was concentrated on the book.

She heard someone coming down the stairs and glanced up; as she expected, it was Cornelia. Taranee had always admired how her friend could look glamorous in the morning; even Cornelia's bedhead looked adorable on her. Taranee nodded towards her friend, a greeting Cornelia returned with a lovely grunt. The blonde reached the table, pulled out a chair and sat down; Taranee didn't even glace up as she answered the Earth Guardian's question.

"Is Hay Lin still asleep?"

"Cornelia, we burned her shoulder closed yesterday; I think she's earned the right to sleep in a little."

"A simple yes would have sufficed."

"I'm sorry, Cornelia; I'm always cranky in the morning."

Cornelia yawned. "Yeah, you and everyone else; where's Peter?"

Taranee gave Cornelia a do you even have to ask me look. "Him? He'll probably sleep in later then Hay Lin."

Cornelia nodded absentmindedly. "So what's on the menu?"

Taranee gestured towards the kitchen. "Well, my dad usually makes a big Sunday breakfast for all of us; you know: french toast and eggs and stuff. But since they're gone, it's whatever you can find; we're out of sugar though, so you'll have to do without it."

Cornelia nodded before pushing her chair back and walking into the kitchen. Taranee could hear her opening cupboards and then the fridge; she heard eggs cracking and then Cornelia walked back out of the kitchen. Taranee raised an eyebrow.

"So what did you find?"

"French toast sounded good, so I raided your supply of eggs and bread. Now I'm just waiting a bit for the frying pan to heat up; would you like some?"

Taranee nodded. "This cereal is so disappointing. Would you please?"

Cornelia gave a mock bow. "Don't worry, Chef Corny is on the case."

"I thought you hated that name."

Cornelia sighed. "It's starting to grow on me; but don't you dare tell Irma. " The blonde pointed her finger accusingly at Taranee, who laughed.

"Come, on Cornelia, would I?" Cornelia raised and lowered one shoulder. "Besides, I think Irma would get a kick out of it."

"Don't you…dare." hissed Cornelia, narrowing her eyes. A second later both girls erupted in giggles; Taranee actually fell off of her chair, holding her sides and gasping for breath. Cornelia managed to keep her feet, but just barely. Taranee picked herself up and sat down again; she flashed Cornelia a grin.

"That was probably the first real laugh I've had in a while."

Cornelia's only response was a nod because she was preoccupied with dropping a piece of egg battered bread into the frying pan; it began to sizzle and the aroma rose to permeate the air. Suddenly both girls heard a door open upstairs and Peter's voice drifted down to them.

"Hey, are you guys eating french toast down there?"

Cornelia shot a confused look at Taranee and nodded towards the stairs.

"Wasn't he asleep, like, a second ago?"

Taranee shrugged. "I dunno…he's a freak?" she offered.

Cornelia blew a lock of blonde hair out of her face and yelled up to Peter.

"We're just about to; do you want any?"

"Is it ready yet? I have to go to the bathroom, but if there's french toast to be had…"

"Peter…" shouted Taranee, but was interrupted by Peter, who seemed to be talking to himself more than to them.

"I mean, I'm a guy and I can hold it in…"

"Peter! Just go to the bathroom and there will be french toast waiting for you when you get down here."

Except for the opening and closing of another door, there was silence from upstairs. Cornelia slid a spatula under a piece of toast that was finished and transferred it to small pile forming on a nearby plate. Taranee walked into the kitchen and leaned back against a counter, her elbows resting on the surface behind her.

"Before he gets down here, Cornelia, can we talk about Will?"

Cornelia plopped another piece of toast in the frying pan before turning to face her friend. She folded her arms across her chest.

"You think I was too hard on her, don't you?"

"Of course I do; how can you even think that what happened to Irma was Will's fault?"

"Oh, I don't know; maybe it was because we had plans that night…plans that she obviously didn't care about! Because of her, we decided to go our separate ways that night; Irma would never have been alone that night if Will hadn't been so selfish."

Before she knew it, Taranee was shouting.

"How can you even say that; do you honestly think Will did that to herself just to spite you or Irma? Obviously she did it for a reason, but instead of trying to figure out why, all you've been doing is blaming her for everything that's happened."

Cornelia was taken aback; in the year or so that she had know Taranee, she had only ever heard her friend talk like this on one other occasion. To be on the receiving end of it was, to say the least, not pleasant. Cornelia opened her mouth to reason with Taranee, but the Fire Guardian held up a hand. When she spoke, her voice was calm, even though she had to struggle to hold back some of the things she wanted to say.

"Before you say anything, Corny, I'm going to tell you the same thing that I told Will; what happened to Irma was not her fault. Think about it for a minute…that man could have been waiting for Irma anywhere. He could have attacked her after school or something."

"And…" Taranee added as Cornelia opened her mouth, "…as long as we're pointing fingers, why didn't you walk Irma home Friday night?"

"Well, because her house is in a totally different direction then mine."

"So? Why should that matter?"

"I guess it shouldn't, but she insisted that she was fine on her own."

"And since when has Irma ever been fine on her own?"

Cornelia nodded. "This is true."

"Look, my point is, it didn't feel so good when I was blaming you, did it?"

The Earth Guardian shook her head.

"Remember what I told you when you came to visit me in the hospital? If Will was already blaming herself for what happened to Irma and I, which in turn led to her drinking to deal with her guilt, what kind of things do you think she would resort to after you screamed at her last night?"

Cornelia's eyes turned upward as she contemplated Taranee's words; she was quiet for several seconds before letting out a panicked 'eep!' and pressing her hand to her mouth.

"No; there's no way Will would do that."

"Why not? You said some pretty mean things to her."

Cornelia lowered her gaze to the floor and spoke in a low voice.

"I didn't mean a lot of what I said; I was mainly angry at myself."

"About Hay Lin?" Cornelia meet Taranee's gaze and nodded.

"I hope this doesn't sound too self-pitying, but imagine how bad it was for me; she was pleading with me mentally the whole time, begging me to stop. Cornelia, if you had heard her…"

"I know, Taranee; having to stare into her eyes was bad enough."

Vandom household
9:30 AM

Will was half asleep when her alarm went off; which was weird because she could not remember turning it on in the first place. The redhead elected to let it buzz, mainly because she felt so weak she didn't think she could reach it to turn it off. Like her disastrous attempt at drinking her pain away, Will had made another potentially fatal mistake: she had let herself bleed until she had felt woozy, and then had let the blood seep out for several minutes more. Finally, she had staggered out of the bathroom, the edges of her vision already fading to black.

She had barely made it to her bed before she had lost conciseness.

Her second mistake was far less harmful…unless her mother saw it. The sleeves of her white and orange striped pajamas now looked like they were striped red and brown, practically around the wrists. Since she slept on her side, blood had slid down her arms and formed a large stain on her bed sheets, which in turn had soaked into the shoulder of her pajamas. Will didn't consider it, but the fact that her blood had clotted overnight had saved her life.

Will finally summoned the strength to slap her alarm clock into submission; as she brought her arm back to join the rest of her body under the covers, she glanced at it and saw the saturation of blood surrounding her wrist and leading downwards. Panicking, she threw off her bed covers and gazed at her blood-soaked bed sheets in silent horror. Beginning to hyperventilate, she focused on taking short, deep breaths.

'It's okay; I can wash my P.J.s and the sheets and mom will never know.'

With that, Will pulled her sheets off of her bed in one solid motion and let out a gasp; blood had actually permeated into her mattress. Knowing that she couldn't possibly get it out, and that she absolutely couldn't ask her mother for a new one without revealing her secret, Will decided to leave it.

'After all, it's already dry. I can just wash the sheet and hide the mattress…but what if mom wants to wash my sheets?'

Suddenly, Will's phone rang; the redhead dropped her blood stained sheets in surprise. She picked it up and put it to her ear.

"Hello?"

"Hey, Will. It's Cornelia. I wanted to call and apologize for what I said last night…"

Will's eyes began to water up at Cornelia's words. She pressed her ear to her shoulder, sandwiching the phone, and pulled back her sleeve, revealing the abhorrent laceration in her wrist.

'I'm sorry, Corny. It's too late.'

A/N Alright, so here's chapter 10. Enjoy, and I'm sorry if any of you feel anger toward me because I made you wait a little while.
I personally like to think it actually makes the story better if you have to wait a while to read it…it makes you anxious or something

Don't have time to write reviewer responses for chapter 9 because I really have to study for my geology midterm tomorrow. I can always come back and write them later though. So thank you to the seven of you who were good enough to review, and please do so for this chapter. See you later.