Disclaimer: I don't own Darkest Powers. But I do own some of the following content.

I was sitting in the dining room, doing some math work, thinking about if Chloe actually used the jar. Probably not. Simon, Rae, and the nurses were at the pool. I had to stay home because of my condition, Tori didn't want to go, and neither did Chloe.

That's when I heard her scream. I ran into the basement, up into the crawl space. She was crawling as fast as she could.

"Chloe. Stop. It's—"

She kicked me hard on the shin. I hissed in pain and swore. Damn, that girl could kick.

"Chloe!" I took hold of her arm and she swung at me. I caught her other arm.

"Chloe, it's me, Derek."

She collapsed into my arms and I held her close, as if protecting her. I took the tape off her mouth and blocked out the sounds of the dead.

"Th-th-there's…"

"Dead people, I know. They must've been buried down here. You accidently raised them."

"R-r-raised…"

"Later," I said, stroking her hair. I knew we both heard the clattering and clicking of their bones, the scratching of them moving. She seemed more focused on that then sending them back. "Chloe, focus!"

I held her tighter against me. "They won't hurt you. They aren't brain-eating movie zombies, okay? They're just dead bodies with their spirits returned to them." Once I said that, I realized how bad it sounded.

"I-I-I need to send them back."

"That would be the general idea."

"O-okay, so how do I send them back?"

I didn't say anything. I didn't know.

"Derek?"

"I…I don't know You summoned them, Chloe. Whatever you did, undo it, reverse it."

"I didn't do—"

"Just try."

She closed her eyes and kept repeating, "Go back. Back to your afterlife. I release you."

She was concentrating so hard that she was sweating. I rubbed her back soothingly. I let out an oath and my arms tightened around her still. She opened her eyes.

"Keep your eyes closed, Chloe. Just remember, they won't hurt you."

A skeleton touched her elbow and she jumped.

"It's okay, Chloe. I'm right here. Keep going."

"You're doing fine, Chloe. Good…"

Everything froze. The spirits were back in the afterlife and she was safe.

"They're gone, Chloe," I murmured.

Her eyes fluttered open and they looked up into mine.

"Thank you," she whispered.

I didn't say you're welcome.

Instead, I leaned down and pressed my lips softly to hers. As I pulled back, I looked at her face. It was shocked, but not angry, scared, or upset.

She got up slowly and cautiously on her tiptoes and pressed her lips back to mine. Her arms went around my neck.

It took me a minute from shock that she loved me too, but I kissed her back softly, the jolts of electricity from the first kiss not going away, but intensifying. I bent down, tangling my fingers in her hair, my empty arm going around her waist, pulling her closer to me.

She kissed me harder and I returned the favor. After about ten minutes, we had to pull away for air. I let out a long breath and ran my fingers through my hair.

"I love you," I told her. "God, I've been in love with you since the first day you stepped through that door."

"I love you too," she whispered, burying her face into my chest. I placed a kiss on the top of her head.

"Are you okay?" I asked her.

"I'll live," she told me.

I looked down at the body. "Looks like we've got work to do."

Chloe and I started hauling the corpses back into their graves. The graves were really shallow, a foot at the most. The bodies had been here for quite a while and they were all adults, as far as I could tell.

"How did you find me?" Chloe asked.

"I heard you scream," I said and looked over at her worriedly. "What are we going to do about Tori?"

"Nothing."

"Huh?" I asked. Nothing?

"I'm going to act like it never happened."

"Yeah. If you blame her, things will only escalate. Better to ignore her and hope she gives up."

"Pray she gives up," she said as we made it out the door.

"Is there still clean clothing down here?"

"One load in the dryer. That's it. Why—? Oh, right. Better not go upstairs covered in dirt." She made it down the ladder and I followed. "Most of what's in the dryer is yours, so—"

"Chloe? Derek?" Talbot stood in the laundry room. "What are you two doing together? Derek, you know you're not supposed to— Dear Lord, what happened to you?"

I didn't say anything but kind of felt guilty.

"I was doing laundry, and D-Derek came down, looking for—"

Gill came into the room. Nosy little bitch.

"Go on, Chloe."

"H-he wanted his shirt. I-I asked about the stain stuff, because I couldn't find any and I opened the closet to look, and Derek said it was usually l-locked. We f-found the ladder and the crawl sp-space and we were curious."

"Oh, I bet you were curious," Gill said, crossing her arms. "Kids your age are very curious, aren't they?"

"I-I guess so. We were exploring—"

"I bet you were."

Chloe realized what she thought and looked at me quickly before sheepishly dropping her gaze, shuffling her feet awkwardly. "Yep, you caught us. Sorry I lied the first time. It was a little awkward to admit…"

I was shocked that she even did this, but I kept that off my face and embarrassedly stuffed my hands in my jeans pockets.

Gill crossed her arms and Talbot's face had disappointment all over it. I didn't say a word.

~~~Squiggles~~~

Chloe stormed into the house, upset. I took her into my arms and told her it would be okay. I stroked her cheek and pressed a kiss to her forehead.

We walked to Gill's office hand in hand, her head resting on my bicep, since she was too short (or I was too tall) for her to rest it on my shoulder.

As Chloe had put it, we were going to the trial. Gill and Davidoff as judge and jury, me as her codefendant.

Through the whole trial, Chloe and I sat in our separate chairs, arms hanging off the armrests, fingers intertwined.

"This isn't the first time you two have… tangled. And I have a feeling it won't be the last. We need to nip this bud, and the only way we're going to do that is with a transfer. One of you will have to go."

"I will," Chloe said.

My head twisted her way, a shocked look on my face. "No, Chloe…"

"No one's going anywhere. For now, I'm putting you both in notice. But don't give me a reason to revisit this discussion. Is that understood?" For once I felt happy that Dr. Davidoff, the vulture, was there. Otherwise, Chloe would've been gone…

We both nodded. It was very understood.

How'd you like that? I couldn't wait, so I wrote this chapter. Man, you sure are some lucky duckies.

Xoxo.

autumncs98