Elsa was still a block from Olaf's house, but she stopped the car anyways. She hurriedly opened her door, leaned out, and heaved with her stomach as though she would vomit, but nothing came out. She spent a few seconds coughing in agony, hoping with all her might that she actually would vomit, as though by doing so she could rid herself of the terrible burden now placed on her.

While Elsa was keeled over in the front seat of the car, John worked his way over to the driver's side of the back seat of the car. He reached over the seat and grabbed Elsa's hair he pulled backward with all his might, pulling the girl's head backward with it. The girl let out a wail of agony as her head slammed against the headrest of her car's seat. John then pushed her head forward again, slamming her face into the steering wheel. As Elsa tried to regain her composure, the boy climbed over the seat and hit the switch to unlock all doors before opening his own door and stumbling out of the car as quickly as possible.

Elsa looked backward to see that John had escaped. Instead of running back towards the school, however, Elsa noted that he had taken off in the direction of Olaf's house.

It's only one block. If I can get him to run that far I could get Olaf to help me.

Elsa jumped out of the car and followed after John. As she ran she frantically pulled her phone out of her pocket and called Olaf.

"Hello?"

Elsa was now in a full sprint after John, adrenaline in charge once again. She could hardly talk. "Olaf!" she said.

"Yeah?" he asked.

"I need you… to stop… John!" the girl stammered between breaths.

"What?"

"Just… go outside! You'll… figure it… out!"

Elsa hung up and shoved the phone back in her pocket.

I sure hope this fucking works.

She had gained no ground on John. In fact, she had lost ground on him. He was running for his life, and Elsa knew there was no chance she could catch him. Olaf's house was now within view.

Just as John reached the house neighboring Olaf's, Olaf himself ran out of his own house, a baseball bat in hand.

John saw Olaf running towards him and he tried to swerve away from him. Olaf, however, opted to throw the baseball bat directly at him. He threw it like a frisbee, causing the bat to spin as it flew threw the air before finally striking John directly in the chest. The boy collapsed onto the pavement, his face literally grinding into the asphalt of the street. The bat skittered across the ground before bouncing off the curb with a solid metallic "clang."

Olaf ran out into the street to pin John to the ground. Elsa collapsed. The scene that had just played out in front of her shook her to her core. John wasn't guilty. He didn't deserve this. But here he was, beaten and battered by those he had offered to help just moments prior. Given the speed at which the bat had hit him, he undoubtedly had some broken ribs, and possibly internal bleeding.

Olaf turned the boy over onto his back. His face was covered in blood and chunks of pavement. His nose appeared to be broken.

At this point Elsa did vomit, but it wasn't the relief she had previously yearned for. It came more as a painful reminder of just what Elsa had gotten herself into.

It was too late to back out now, and ten minutes ago it wasn't.

As the girl regained her composure once more, she stood and steadied herself before making her way to Olaf and John. As she caught sight of John's disfigured face, she nearly vomited once more.

"I don't know if he's knocked out or what but he ain't responding," Olaf said. The ordeal had had next to no effect on him.

Elsa crouched down beside him but remained silent.

"What happened?" Olaf asked.

Elsa opened her mouth to speak, but she fell into empty tears as she began to articulate her thoughts into words. The idea of trying to defend her actions sickened her. The girl's virtues had almost completely dissolved within a few minutes and she could hardly bear the moral consequence.

"Alright, well, let's get him inside," Olaf said. "Get the bat," he added.

"Olaf, wait," Elsa choked out.

"What?"

"Why did you do that?" Elsa said, her voice frail from crying.

"I don't know," he said. "I knew something was seriously wrong so I stopped him."

"But… You didn't even know what he did."

"I don't need to."

After dragging John inside, Elsa fled to the bathroom, ashamed of her own existence. She slammed the door and collapsed against the shower door. As she cowered in the bathroom, one thought haunted her: there was no way out. For the first time in her life she seriously considered suicide.

Meanwhile, Olaf busied himself with the task of restraining John. Clearly the subject of what to do with him would be one of hot debate, and John could easily escape within the time it would take if he was not restrained.

After finishing his task, Olaf sat down on a couch not too far from his captive student. As he waited for Elsa to emerge from the bathroom he began to piece things together in his mind. Even with his limited perspective, Olaf knew there was only one definitive solution to their problem: kill John. He also knew that neither he nor Elsa could bring themselves to do such a thing.

After a few minutes had passed, Elsa made her way out of the bathroom, her eyes red and her soul all but shattered. Elsa took a seat on the couch, sitting as far from Olaf as possible. She didn't dare look back towards John. Neither Elsa nor Olaf spoke. The only sound in the room was that of a ticking clock.

It was nearly five minutes before Elsa or Olaf made a sound. At that time, Olaf built up the courage to clear his throat.

"So…" he began a while after, "what do you want to do now?"

Why don't you be blunt about it you insensitive fucking asshole?

Elsa merely shook her head, choking back tears.

"I was thinking," he continued, " we should…"

He decided against continuing his thought.

The room fell silent again for another minute or so. This time it was Elsa who broke the silence.

"We have to kill him, don't we?" she asked.

"No!" Olaf said, falsely reassuring the girl.

"Then what do we do?"

"I don't know."

Elsa bowed her head in shame.

"We can't just let him go, can we?" she asked.

"No, not exactly-"

"So then we do have to kill him," Elsa said. "Ya know, you said this wouldn't work out like Breaking Bad but it sure seems a hell of a lot like it to me right now, I mean we have a guy held prisoner at your house and we have to kill him but neither of have the guts to do it so we just-"

"Just shut up."

The room fell silent again.

Eventually John began to stir in his chair. Time was now ticking away.

"How about we just ask him what he'd do if we let him go?" Elsa suggested. She knew it was a hopeless cause but at this point optimism was about all she had.

"Yeah, whatever," Olaf agreed. He too knew it was pointless but at least he would know later that he tried to find an alternative solution.

In agreement about what they would do next, Elsa and Olaf took a few minutes to collect themselves while John regained his consciousness.

As he realized where he was he began to cry.

"Please don't hurt me!" he pleaded. "Just let me go! I won't tell anyone!"

Well that answers that question.

Neither Elsa nor Olaf believed him, though. In any case, it didn't matter whether or not he intended to tell anyone, his condition would require an explanation, and that explanation would almost definitely reveal the truth.

They still had to get rid of him, somehow.

"Listen," Olaf said.

"I'm all ears," Elsa replied.

"How about we take him out into the middle of the desert and leave him? He'll never make it and then that way we don't have to actually kill him. It might leave us with a clearer conscience or something."

That might actually work.

Elsa agreed. She didn't want to dwell any longer. Between John's wailing and her own self-loathing, she could hardly bear the waiting. She left to fetch her car while Olaf prepared John for the trip.

"Alright, we're gonna let you go," he said.

John's eyes lit up. His crying faded. "You… You are?"

Olaf felt horrible about lying like this. The joy in the poor boy's face tugged at his soul.

"Yea, now, come on," Olaf said. "The car will be here soon."

Olaf then untied him from the chair, but left his hands bound behind his back, as well as his ankles."

Elsa honked the horn of her car from outside.

Olaf gulped, then guided John to the front door of his house. He then led him to the car, putting him into the back seat before getting into the car himself.

"Alright, John," Olaf said as he buckled his seatbelt, "I want you to give Elsa directions to where you want to go, alright?" he said.

"Uh… Ok, Yeah!" John said. The joy in his voice nearly brought both Elsa and Olaf to tears.

Elsa followed John's directions perfectly- left, right, straight- all the way to his house, but she did not stop. where John indicated.

"Hey," he said, "you went past it."

Elsa made no attempt to slow down, stop, or turn around.

"My… My house is back there," John insisted, the joy in his voice fading.

A single tear escaped Elsa's right eye as she continued onward.

After a moment John began to understand. "You're not taking me home," he asked, or rather stated.

"Are you?"

Elsa and Olaf both remained silent, as did John, for the rest of the drive. It appeared that their prisoner had accepted his fate.

It was sunset by the time they arrived in the desert. The drive had taken over an hour. Elsa drove off the paved roads and onto the dirt, heading off farther into the barren landscape. She stopped in an area at least five miles from any house. Olaf was the one who retrieved John from the back seat. The boy didn't resist.

Olaf guided him a few metres from the car before leaving him. He didn't untie his bindings. Olaf's eyes glazed over as he pulled away from John for the last time. Though he said nothing, there was no doubt about what Olaf was feeling: sorrow.

As Elsa drove off, she looked back at John in the mirror. He simply sat and watched as they drove off, his image shrinking in the mirror as Elsa drove farther away.

Neither Olaf nor Elsa spoke to one another the rest of the night.

A/N Chapter 10! Hell yeah! Sorry it has to be such a depressing chapter, but still, ten chapters already! To those of you that have been here since the beginning, I love you guys. You're the reason I keep finding motivation to write this, and you're the reason I still enjoy it. All the other readers rock, too, but you guys will always hold a special place in my heart.

Happy reading,

for-the-first-time-in-never