It's been too long for the hiatus of this story. I blame writer's block…No seriously. It's a pain. Two years' worth of nothing for this story. Sorry I let you all down. Not that anyone would care…I don't really have a lot of reviewers for this shit. I might stop writing this one, since I've lost a bit of inspiration. :/ But here it is!

ALDEN'S POVr

(sin x + cos x)2 = sin2 x + 2 sin x cos x + cos2 x = 1 + 2 sin x cos x = 1 + sin2 x

I read on my Trigonometry midterm exam paper. How the hell is this even legal? I know I'm in my senior year of high school, but it's not like I'm ever gonna use this shit in Mangled Metal or a different band.

You're probably wondering what happened back at my house with Sharon after we both encountered attacks, right? Sharon told me about the little demon baby and I told her about almost getting raped by a woman with a fucking shark for a vagina. Ever seen the movie Teeth? Don't. It's horrible.

That being said, we've decided to go back to square one with our relationship. As in, all the way back to ninth grade kind of square. Nothing will be different, Alden. Just act more cute and less immature. Time to take this relationship more seriously. No, I'm not talking about marriage—although it wouldn't hurt to try that option.

All thoughts aside, I need to finish this test. How the hell am I supposed to figure this out? It's like damn alien language! Needless to say, I tried my best. Let's just leave it at that.

Walking through the hallways with Brock, I didn't notice someone coming around the corner, so we walked right into each other.

"Hey, watch it!" they exclaimed.

"It's not my fault—wait, Sharon?" I delivered with surprise. "What happened? I thought you were supposed to be at home."

"I was," she shrugged. "But I'm not. I'm not missing out on my senior year because of all the stupid stuff that's been going on lately in my life. I'm still human, you do realize that?"

I blinked once. Twice. Brock hit me in the back of my head to get me back to my senses. "Uh, yeah. Sure." I brushed past her to get to my locker."

"Hey, dude! Wait up," Brock called after me.

After crossing the sea of overly chatty students and their groups, I finally made it to my locker, surprisingly out of breath. Man, I've been surprised a lot lately.

"What was that, Al?" Brock turned me to face him.

"What was what?" I questioned.

"You totally gave your own girlfriend the cold shoulder," he pointed out.

"C'mon. I can't give her a cold shoulder if my body is burning up." I turned back to open my locker.

"You know what I mean," he said. "Now tell your ole buddy Brock what's really going on. You've been infatuated with this chick for YEARS, what's changing. Are you guys going back to how it was before camp?"

"Ugh, don't remind me," I sighed. Camp was the worst part of the whole 'getting back together' thing. I can't believe I thought I was competing with a guy who wasn't even in the competition.

"So what's going on? You've never acted this distant towards her," his voice took a serious tone.

"I can't just tell these things, Brock. I need you to understand that." My voice got a little loud.

"What do you mean 'you can't tell me these things?' I'm your BEST FRIEND. Remember? That's kind of what we do."

"Look, do I have to tell you everything? No!" I yelled. I don't know what's wrong with me. Why am I acting like this all of a sudden?

"What's up with you?" He rested a hand on my shoulder to calm me down. However, I was just getting started.

"Don't touch me!" I pushed his hand off and took him by his shirt. "You don't know the first thing about any of this! Stay out!"

Stop, Alden! A voice screamed in the back of my mind. Stop this now!

"Alden, stop!" a voice yelled at me from behind.

"Stay out of this, Sharon!" I yelled back, keeping my angry eyes on Brock.

Suddenly, I was pushed to the ground by him. A fight ensued afterwards. I can't remember much. My vision went dark.

SHARON'S POV

I sighed as I rested a cool towel on Alden's forehead. What was he thinking, picking a fight? With his best friend, especially.

A muffled noise came from Alden as he attempted to sit up. I laid a hand on his chest to keep him down. I gotta hand it to Brock, the guy can fight. Nevertheless, he was pretty bad, too. A busted lip, both eyes bruised, a sprained wrist. It was brutal. I can't believe the teachers didn't notice any of the commotion going on.

"What happened?" he asked, pulling me from my thoughts.

"You got into a fight with your best friend," I explained calmly.

"WHAT?" He sat upright quickly, regretting the motion as he laid his head back down. "Where am I?"

"You're at my house, silly," I giggled.

"Look, thanks for taking care of me or whatever, but I need to leave." He slowly rose up from the couch he was previously resting on.

"What is up with you, Alden?" I stopped him. "First the hallway, now this? What is going on?"

"Nothing is going on," he groaned. "I'm just really stressed with these midterms and all the extra practices I've been doing with the band and all and I—I just want to go home."

"Alden, I'm your girlfriend. You can tell me these things," I comforted.

"That's exactly what Brock said, but look what happened to him. It's best if we keep our distance for a bit."

No. No, he can't be…

"Are you saying we should…" I choked.

"I'm saying we need to spend a little time apart from each other." He looked into my eyes and gave me a look that meant business.

I felt my eyes fill up with tears. So this is it. He's going to break up with me. For what, exactly? What did I do wrong? Everything was going perfectly, and suddenly it's not. All because of this stupid haunting. It's ruined my life in a matter of days! It can't go back to the way it was before. But, if that's what he wants, then it's fine with me. I can handle myself. After all, I'm a big girl. A senior in high school. Who needs boys anyway? I have my best friend Maria to tell about all my troubles.

"Yeah," I breathed out. "That's fine. After all we've been through, I mean, it's best. Isn't it?"

He looked a little shocked. "Uh, yeah. See ya tomorrow." Then he left.

I immediately called Maria.

Hello?

"Hey, Maria." I heaved out, as if I had just come from a race.

What's up, Sharon?

"Can you come over? I really need you right now." I thought I had convinced myself that letting go of Alden was totally fine, it wasn't. I broke down a little during the conversation.

I'll be right over.

We said our goodbyes, and I waited. While waiting, I heard some noises coming from upstairs. That's funny. Josh wasn't supposed to be home in another few more hours, Adam was over at Heather's, and Mom was working late tonight. Could it be Alden coming here to apologize romantically?

I walked upstairs slowly, trying not to make much noise, holding a metal bat. Even though I was hoping for the most impossible explanation, I still needed to defend myself in case of a robber or a culprit. I guess they could be the same thing.

"Hello?" Oh, yeah sure, Sharon. Go ahead and greet a trespasser. Nice move.

Little clicking and animalistic sounds were coming from my room. Things were being moved around. I couldn't see much. Holding the bat close to my chest, I peeked through the crack in my door.

I almost screamed. There standing in the middle of my bed, was that thing from the bathroom at Life Cycles. It had the same, monstrous feet. But it was in more full of a form. It had that type of alienatic face from the movie Alien and its claws were like giant falcon talons. Its eyes were like large, red beads of lava that bore into my soul as I stood there. I knew it had seen me. I was sure of it.

The doorbell rang, gaining a startled gasp and a swift look down the stairs from me. When I turned back to gaze at the monster in my room, it was gone and everything was back in its place.

Walking down the stairs, I felt eyes on me. I didn't want to look behind, but I did. As I turned, I saw something quickly lurk back into the shadows, then vanish. I shrugged it off to the back of my mind, and made my way downstairs to greet whoever it was there.