Disclaimer: I do not own the Bloodlines world or characters.

I told Sydney and Adrian they could have their night together. I'd wait outside. In the car if I got cold or something. When Sydney said that was fine, we could just go, I told her I had to call Zoe anyway and left her there in Adrian's kitchen.

The passenger seat wasn't cold. Maybe to someone who has been living here for months, the night air should chill me. But it's only chilly when there's snow on the ground. This is nice. This 'cold' is what I'd rather live in all year round.

When I pull out my cell phone, which I had put on silent before the lessons started, I see a list of texts.

5 o'clock- Going 2 library

5:23- r u running late?

5:47- Wats up?

6:01- going back 2 room. Reschedule?

I feel guilt knot in my stomach. All I had to do was one thing. All I had to do was be on time for one thing. And I failed.

I just hope no one paid a price for my idiocy.

I slide the keyboard out and write a text back: omg sorry! W/ Adrian. Lost track of time. Can we try again? Plz?!

I read it over. It sounds like I'm begging. I suppose I am. I delete the message and try again: srry I missed the session! W/ Adrian for spirit lesson. Lost track of time. Can we try again?

It didn't sound much better, but I sent it anyway. My phone buzzed a second later: Set an alarm nxt time.

I sighed with relief. There would be a next time. I typed back: will do!

She typed back: Sydney w/ u?

If Sydney had told her anything, it better be the library excuse, because I'm using it: no. w/ terwilliger right?

Zoe: Ya. Just wondering.

Then she sent me another: g2g. Later?

I typed a quick: k.

She didn't write like she was suspicious, but wouldn't you want to sound nonchalant if you were investigating something?

Zoe is getting suspicious.

Too early.

…

It is two o'clock in the morning. Too late, or too early, to be awake when you have a roommate. But I am not about to go back to sleep. Not after that.

Careful not to wake Sydney, I slip into the closet and bury myself in the clothes. It crosses my mind that I'm getting them dirty, but I don't care.

I just cry.

Having a dream within a dream is weird. Usually it's made weirder by the contents of the dream. These are my only dreams that don't send me on book journeys, so they're just my subconscious. Apparently, I have a weird subconscious. The dreams are usually really strange and random.

This one wasn't.

This one was a nightmare.

Apparently, I had tried to stop the end, but it didn't work. It wasn't even that I couldn't get it better, I'd actually made it worse.

Sydney was taken. Adrian still was overtaken by spirit and emotions. And- They shot Eddie. Eddie didn't make it.

Eddie, who trusts me. Eddie, who chauffeured me. Eddie, who gave in to even the most mundane and idiotic wish just to make me happy.

Eddie, who was bloody and dead.

I barely keep myself from screaming. I'm already sobbing way too hard. I try to muffle the sounds into whatever t-shirt was hung here, but-

The door opens again. I can't see past the shirts in front of me at first, but Sydney pushes them out of the way. She had turned on the light in our dorm room and was rimmed in it, her hair sticking up in odd places. She kneels in front of me.

"Evie, what's wrong?" She looks honestly concerned.

This only makes me more upset. I might let her down. I an the one thing that can keep her from trauma she may never shake.

"Evie?" She is confused and a bit shaken by my hysteria. I try to calm down enough to answer her.

"I- I'm sorry I- woke you u-up."

She tilts her head to the side. Her eyes lose their confusion. "It's okay. What's wrong?"

"S-sorry. It's just- Bad d-dream." I take a shaky breath in, trying to contain the next sob that wants to come out. "You can go back to- to bed. I'm f-fine."

She doesn't look sure about that, and she doesn't move. "You can tell me."

The sob escapes. "No, no. I can't. The- the ending."

"Is it that bad?"

I nod and curl tighter in on myself. "I'm trying so hard to stop it, but- what if I can't? What if it happens anyway?"

"I won't blame you."

"You don't even know what happens."

She shakes her head. "But you're trying so hard for us. You could just sit here and watch it happen, and-"

"No." My voice cracks as I say it, "I could never do that."

"My point exactly." She lays the pads of the fingers on her right hand on my knee. "Do what you think you need to. If it doesn't work, then you tried."

I just nod. She gives me a small smile. "Now, do you have any idea that it's two in the morning?"

I laugh a little. "That's why I'm in the closet."

She puts out a hand, but I pull myself up. By the time I sit on my bed, she's laying in her's, but I hear her say, "Just go to sleep."

I spend the rest of the night staring at the clock.

Sorry this chapter is so short. I didn't know where else to end it. Hope you liked the bit you got though!