It took Amy a very long time to get her eyes open. It felt like there were weights tied on to her lashes, weighing her eyes down so much that they hurt. Her head was absolutely pounding, and the rest of her body felt stiff and cold. Oh God, she thought as she took a deep breath and finally managed to get her eyes open. Her vision was blurry at first, but it cleared up after she blinked several times. Fuck, I feel like I just got hit by a truck. She was in a dark room, so she couldn't really see everything around her. "What the fuck..." she mumbled. She remembered leaving the concert with Trish, Ashley and Candice...Trish had almost gotten into a fight with a bunch of dudes...Candice had been her usual annoying self...then they had been attacked by in the park by three people. Oh man, that one crazy bitch hit me on the side of the head with a rock. No wonder I feel like shit. Bitch probably gave me a concussion.

Amy blinked several more times before looking down and seeing that she was strapped down to a chair. She immediately tried to pull free, but the restraints on her were too tight. "Fuck," she said hoarsely, her stomach churning unpleasantly because of the pain in her head. This situation just kept getting worse and worse. "Trish?" she called out. "Trish?!"

"She's not in here...at least I don't think she is."

Amy looked around. She knew who was talking but she couldn't see her. "Candice?"

"Yeah, it's me." Candice's voice cracked. She sounded like she was near tears. "Amy where are we? What do those crazy people want from us?"

"I have no idea," Amy replied. She began trying to move her wrists from side to side, hoping that there was some way that she could slip them out of the leather restraints that were holding them down to the arms of the chair. Unfortunately, all that did was take start taking some of the skin right off of her wrists. "Ow," she said unhappily. "Damn it."

"Oh God, we're probably going to die," Candice said miserably. She wasn't even bothering to try to keep a hold of herself. "Oh god oh god oh god..."

"Would you shut up for two seconds?" Amy snapped. Candice's freaking out was making her start to panic too. "I need to think!"

Candice managaed to stifle her whining into somewhat quiet whimpers. It didn't really help that much though. Amy's head hurt too much for her to concentrate on trying to come up with some sort of plan. I wish Trish was here. She always knows what to do.

Amy heard the door open and not two seconds later, a light came on in the room. It wasn't all that bright, but it was enough to make her head hurt more. "Oooh, you're awake!" Daffney said happily. "Goodie! I've been waiting for you two to wake up!"

Amy winced as her chair was spun around way too fast by the insane Goth chick. Every sudden movement made her feel like she was getting shot right in the temple. A bunch of white dots began dancing in front of her eyes, and it took her a couple of minutes to get her vision back. Once she did, she saw that Candice was strapped to an electric chair. What the fuck? she thought as she tried to take a closer look at her own chair. As far as she could tell, she was just tied down to a regular one.

"You know Candice, I'm not surprised that you don't remember me," Daffney said. She sat down on Candice's lap and began running her nails through the shallow girl's long, brown locks. "People like you never remember people like me. You were the "perfect" little popular girl with a million friends that would have stabbed you in the back if they had the chance and you had a whole bunch of boys lining up around the block to get a taste of your herepes infected cunt."

"I--"

Daffney grabbed a hold of Candice's hair and pulled at it. "I WASN'T FINISHED TALKING YET BITCH! DON'T FUCKING INTERRUPT ME!"

Candice and Amy both flinched. Daffney giggled and let go of Candice's hair so she could gently rub her nails up and down the side of Candice's face. "You looked down at girls like me," she said, her voice quiet and sweet now. The change in her demeanor actually sent chills up Amy's spine. As bad as the yelling was, there was just something really frightening about Daffney acting like she was nice.

"You thought we were trash," Daffney went on, bitterness creeping into her voice. "You didn't like us because we weren't as rich as you were and we had to wear hand me down clothes while you got to wear whatever the fuck you wanted." Her long nails began inching their way up towards Candice's eyes. "And you really didn't like me because you thought I was a freak. Every day you and your little friends would make my life a living hell. Did you think I was going to forget just because you did? DID YOU?!" She scratched Candice's cheek violenly, leaving long, bloody scratches behind.

Candice began to cry. It wasn't her usual loud, obnoxious crying that she did to get attention; she sounded genuinely scared at the moment. "Please, I don't--"

Daffney shut her right up by slapping her across the face. "I don't want to hear your excuses!" she hissed. "Bitches like you are just programmed to be mean. No matter how many times someone makes you sorry, you'll never stop." She suddenly grinned evilly. "Not until you get the shock treatment anyway." She got off of Candice. "STEVIE! GET IN HERE NOW!"

Ow, my eardrums, Amy thought unhappily. And my head...the bitch has a voice like a fucking banshee.

The door opened again and this time a somewhat nerdy looking guy with long hair and a white doctor's coat on entered the room. "Dr. Stevie, at your--whoa!" The so called doctor tripped over his own feet and barely avoided falling flat on his face.

Daffney rolled her eyes. "Stevie! You idiot!"

Stevie regained his balance and shook his head. "I'm okay," he said like someone cared. "I'm good."

"Great." Daffney pointed to Candice. "Set up the treatment," she ordered. "I need to talk to Amy for a minute."

Amy immediately began trying to somehow scoot her chair back, but it was no use. Daffney was on her lap in an instant. "You are just so pretty," Daffney cooed happily. She wrapped her legs around Amy's waist and the chair while playing with her hair. "That barbie doll that was holding your hand when I found you in the park doesn't deserve a girl like you."

Amy scowled. She didn't like it when people compared Trish to a barbie doll. Trish was so much more than that. "I love her," she declared. "Now where is she?"

Daffney smirked. "Raven is talking to her. He needs something out of her...I don't know what though, so don't ask."

Amy gulped. She didn't like the sound of that. "I want to see her," she said. "Please..."

"I don't know..." Daffney drawled out. "That's an awfully big request...and I don't know if you've been a good enough girl to get that kind of privilege." She put her hands on either side of Amy's face. "Aw, don't be sad baby girl. Daffney's here to make you feel all better."

Before Amy realized what was happening, Daffney was kissing her right on the lips. She tried to yank her head free, but the insane woman just tightened her grip and shoved her tongue halfway down her throat. She choked on it, and the noise she made seemed to make Daffney think that she was liking the kiss.

"Daff? I think we're ready for treatment," Stevie said.

Daffney reluctantly broke the kiss so she could get up and walk over to the other side of the room. Amy watched her go, finally noticing the generator that was in the corner. The generator was connected to the chair Candice was sitting in, and Candice herself was begging and pleading to be left alone. "No way," Amy said, shaking her head despite the pain it caused her. Even though she didn't actually like Candice, she didn't feel like the snobby girl deserved what she thought Daffney was about to do.

"Yes way," Daffney said. "It's the only way she'll be cured."

Candice started sobbing harder. "Please don't. Please please please--"

Amy shut her eyes just as Daffney pulled the switch, which prevented her from seeing Candice get electrocuted. However, she couldn't block out the smell of Candice's burning flesh or her screams...or Daffney's shrieks of insane laughter. Oh God, I need to get out of here. I need to get Trish and we need to get the fuck out of here right now..

.....

"Wakey wakey Blondie. No more sleepies for you."

Trish coughed violently as the water that was dumped on her got into her nose and mouth. She leaned forward as much as the restraints would allow her to and started spitting it all out. As she gasped for breath, she looked up and saw a man kneeling down in front of her. "What...who--"

"Ssshhh," the man said, putting his finger on her lips to shush her up. "You don't need to speak. You just need to listen." He gently moved some of her hair back. "I'm looking for someone special, and I think you know how to get in contact with him. He was mine once...a pretty little thing that I had so much fun playing with. But then he ran away from me and I haven't seen him since. Now--"

"Raven!" someone yelled. "Where are you?"

"I'm busy Richards!" Raven yelled. He rolled his eyes before resuming his conversation with Trish. "Now I know you have at least some clue to where he could possibly be. You were his friend at one time after all. I used to watch you two together...you two were always so playful...if I hadn't known that both of you were gay, I would have thought you were dating."

Trish wasn't completely sure who Raven was talking about and she had no interest in finding out. All she wanted to do was get free, kick this guy's ass for kidnapping her, find Amy and the others, kick more ass if she had to and then get the fuck out of there. There was no helping this psychotic looking asshole in her current agenda.

Raven chuckled as he watched Trish tried to break free from the chair. "You're not going anywhere Blondie," he said, ruffling her hair and messing it all up.

"Wanna bet?" Trish replied. She didn't care how tightly she was tied down; she had the will to escape and she was going to make sure it happened, one way or another.

"Yeah, I wanna bet," Raven said before backhanding her across the face. Trish winced, feeling her lip bust open on impact. A small amount of blood entered her mouth, coating her tongue with it's warm, metallic taste. She spat back at him, wishing her hands were free so she could punch him instead. "I don't know who you're after, but I'm not helping you," she declared. "So just forget about that."

Raven just smirked. "Oh you will be helping me Trish. You want to know why?"

"Yeah. Why don't you tell me why?"

His smirk got bigger. My Abyss has your step-sister. My Daffney has your girlfriend. They're not too badly hurt...yet." He grabbed a handful of her hair and yanked on it. "But if you defy me...if you refuse to help me get what I want...they both die. And you will watch as it happens."

Trish scowled, but it was more for bravado than anything else. She could sense that this guy wasn't fucking around, which scared her more than she wanted to admit. "Who the fuck do you even want anyway?" she asked.

Raven smirked. "I want your dear friend Jeffrey Nero Hardy. You remember him, don't you?"

She did remember him...Jeff had practically been like the brother she never had at one point. But she hadn't spoken to him for awhile and it had been even longer since she had last seen him.

"Now please, make this easy for yourself bitch," Raven said, staring at her with his cold eyes. "Tell me where he is."

"I don't know," she replied honestly.

"But you know how to find out, don't you?"

She refused to answer him. She didn't want to sell Jeff out to this crazy asshole. He didn't deserve that.

Raven grinned and pulled a large hunting knife. "Oh Trish...so stubborn...let's see if I can fix that."

.....

Matt shifted around in his seat, trying to think of something cool to say. When Shane had called him and told him that he should meet Evan for lunch, he had gone along with it becasue he had liked the idea. Between taking care of Jeff for so long and then getting wrapped up in the whole Murder City Saints thing, he hadn't really ever had a chance to really get into the whole dating scene. But now that he was at Burger King and staring at Evan (who was sitting across from him) he had absolutely no idea what to say.

"So uh...what do you do for a living?" Evan asked. He seemed just as nervous as Matt was.

I'm a vigilante who kills bad people. "Right now I'm working at my friend's business," Matt answered, which technically wasn't a total lie. Legally he had a job with James's porn company; the others all did too. But none of them actually went to work. With James being the owner of the company, he was able to make up positions that didn't even have to exist and pay them for it. It was actually pretty cool.

"What's his business?"

Matt started to blush. "Um....oh boy, this is kind of embarrassing."

Evan leaned forward a little bit. "You can tell me. I won't laugh."

"Alright...I uh, I'm the head of the distribution department for Likansuk Porn."

Evan blinked several times before giggling. "What?"

"Yeah uh...it's not my finest hour, but it pays the bills," Matt said sheepishly. He ate a french fry while studying Evan closely. "At least you find it funny. Some people look at me like I'm the devil when I tell them what I do."

"They're just prudes," Evan said. He took a drink of milkshake. "My friend Shannon has some DVDs from Likansuck. He keeps trying to get me to watch all that stuff with him but uh...I'm not down for group porn watching. Watching porn by myself is one thing but uh...yeah, I'm afraid Shannon might rape me if we watch porn together." He was silent for a second. Then what he just said seemed to sink in and his eyes widened. "Did I really just say that out loud?"

"Yeah," Matt replied honestly. "But don't worry. I know people like that too. Them wanting to rape you while a porno is on in the background is just their way of telling you that they love you."

Evan laughed. "Shannon is definitely that way." He glanced down at his food before speaking again. "So uh...your friend Eve has been calling Maria pretty much nonstop. And I caught them making out the other day...like fifty times."

Matt smirked. "Eve isn't shy about that kind of stuff. If Maria goes along with it, they'll probably be having lots of sex in public places."

Evan turned bright red. "Are you serious?"

"Uh huh. So if you're not a fan of lesbian sex, you need to either gouge your eyes out and break your eardrums so you can't see or hear it, or you need to have lots of public sex of your own to counter it." Matt was speaking from personal experience. Those things were the only defense Eve's friends had from her public sexcapades.

"Oh," Evan said, his face turning even redder. "That's uh...wow."

Damn, he's kind of innocent...it's so cute. "You got any brothers or sisters?" Matt asked, deciding to get the conversation back on a more innocent path.

"Yeah. I've got a brother named Mike."

"Older or younger?"

"Younger. Back when we talked at the club, you said you had a brother named Jeff."

"Yeah, he's younger than me too."

"And you guys are from North Carolina?"

"Uh huh."

"Why did you move?"

Matt sighed and picked at his food a little bit. "I uh...I wanted to get Jeff away from the foster care system. We lost both our parents when we were young and we didn't have any relatives that would take us in, so we had to live with strangers. I didn't like it all and I know Jeff hated it too."

Evan nodded sympathetically. "Maria lives with foster parents too. She hates it." He didn't ask Matt what happened to his parents. Whether it was because he didn't think it was his business or he rightly sensed that Matt was uncomfortable with the topic, Matt didn't know. He was just grateful that he wasn't getting grilled about the matter.

"What does Jeff do?" Evan asked after several minutes of them just eating.

"He's an artist," Matt replied. "He sells paintings that he makes on the internet. He actually--" He was suddenly cut off by Cooper, who pretty much launched himself at him and nearly knocked him over. "Matt Matt Matt Matt Matt!" Cooper said loudly, shaking him a little bit. "What ya doin Matt?"

"I'm trying to have lunch," Matt replied. He looked at Cooper's eyes and saw that they didn't look normal. "You okay?"

"Yeah," Cooper said, talking much louder than usual. It was almost like he was trying too hard to sound normal. "In fact, I am fucking fantastic."

Ron sat down next to Evan and shook his head. He was eyeing Cooper carefully. "He's been like this ever since he came out of the bathroom at Taco Bell," he told Matt. "He went from being kind of broody to being one crazy ass white boy. It isn't natural."

Cooper waved his hands around wildly. "You shush," he ordered. "I'm natural. I'm all kinds of natural." He smashed his fist on to the table, making them all jump. "You know what we should do? We need to go to the arcade. I have not been to the arcade in forever and that is where we need to go."

Evan glanced at his watch. "I don't think I should...I'm supposed to go back to work after I'm done here."

Cooper smacked the table again. "No no no no no no! No! Forget work. I'll talk to your bosses for you and tell them that you need to come with us. You are here with us, which makes you a part of the arcade going group. Matt, tell him he's going."

Matt blinked, not sure what to say. "Uh..." Before he could finish, Cooper was taking off, muttering something incoherent under his breath.

"Fuck me," Ron muttered. He began chasing after the wired Lawson. "Cooper get back here now!"

Evan stared at Cooper's retreating form before looking back at Matt. "Wow, that was interesting."

Matt just nodded, kind of concerned about what the hell was going on with Cooper. He had never seen Cooper get like that before. Cooper wasn't the type to act like that. Something is definitely not right. "Yeah," he said absently. He looked at Evan. "Want me to drop you back off at the store?"

"Yeah," Evan said. "I'd appreciate that."

"Okay." They finished eating and then they left the restraunt. Note to self: tell James about Cooper, Matt told himself. He can deal with whatever that was Cooper just did...and also, I must get Evan's number. I need to set up another lunch that won't involve us getting interrupted.

....

Jeff tapped his pencil against his blank drawing pad impatiently. He wanted to draw something but he didn't know what. His inability to make that simple decision was driving him crazy, and in the process of being driven crazy, he was driving Tom and Glenn crazy as well.

"Would you quit doing that?" Tom finally asked. "You keeping moving around like you're gonna piss your pants right there on the couch and it makes me think that I need to go find a newspaper to smack you with."

Jeff pouted. "I can't figure out what I want to draw."

"Just draw me and quit fidgeting," Glenn said. He was trying to find something to watch on TV but he kept having to look over at Jeff. "You're driving me nuts over there."

That just made Jeff pout more. "I don't want to draw you," he said. "I've drawn you like a thousand times and you're not fun for me to do anymore."

Glenn sighed. "Ouch. Those were my feelings Jeff."

"Sorry." Jeff looked down at his drawing pad and sighed. The blank paper in front of him was mocking him, and he was tempted to toss it across the room just to punish it. Before he could do that though, he heard the front door open. Seconds later, Connor came running in, which caused Snoopy and Thor to jump up and start begging for attention. "Look what I have for you!" Connor said happily. "I gots you guys doggy treats!"

Glenn looked back at Mark and James as they came in. "You guys are done killing the shooters already?"

"No," Mark replied. "Connor put up a fuss on our way out of the hospital and decided that he didn't want to be our backup. So now we need one of you guys to do it."

Jeff shook his head. "Marky I don't want to. My tummy's upset." That was a lie, but he was willing to say anything to get out of work today. He just plain didn't feel like going and killing anyone today.

Mark sighed. "Fine." He looked at Glenn and Tom. "Which one of you is it going to be?"

Glenn and Tom exchanged looks. "Heads I go, tails you go," Glenn said.

"Fine," Tom agreed. He took a quarter out of his pocket and handed it to Mark. "Flip it Calaway."

James crossed his fingers. "No whammy no whammy no whammy no Tommy no Tommy no idiot asshole that needs to die--"

Mark flipped the coin and then quickly elbowed James in the ribs before catching the quater. "It's tails," he announced.

"Fuck!" James said unhappily.

Tom stood up and smirked. "Guess you're stuck with me after all Lawson."

James flipped him off while glaring at Mark. "You made it go on tails on purpose," he accused.

Mark looked at him in surprise. "I did not!" he denied. "Why would I do that?"

"Because you can't resist me," Tom said, purposefully trying to rile James up.

Jeff quickly got up and vacated the room as James attempted lunge at Tom. There was too much chaos in the house. He needed to go somewhere quieter. So he slipped on his shoes and walked out the front door. He walked down the street, heading to the park that was near their house. There was a tree that he liked to climb up in sometimes because it allowed him to watch everyone and not be seen. It made him feel like a spy...or a stalker. But I would be a nice stalker, he told himself. I wouldn't be a creepy one that shot the people I was watching. Well...maybe I would shoot them if they were bad. But that's a different story.

"Hey cutie, how much for a ride?"

Jeff turned around and saw a whole bunch of gang bangers gawking at him like he was some sort of prize. Oh wonderful. This is now what i need right now. "Not interested," he snapped as he kept walking.

"Oh come on," the ringleader of the idiots said. They were all starting to walk after him. "Don't act all prissy on us. We know what boys like you love."

Jeff scowled. He hated it when people said things like that to him. It made him want to start shooting people in the face. "Leave me alone," he growled.

"Why? You were out here hussling the other night? Do you think you're too good for that now just because the sun's up you stupid skank?"

Jeff whirled around and punched the guy right in the face. He didn't know who the hell this guy thought he was and he really didn't care. All he knew was that this guy was going to get it if he didn't shut his fucking mouth.

The punch stunned the guy for a moment, but he quickly shook it off. "You fucking little bitch," he said. "I--"

"You get back right now! You touch one hair on his head and I will have you all arrested."

Jeff turned around. His eyes widened as he saw that it was John that was coming to his rescue. Wow...usually I hate getting saved but I think I can forgive him for this. John looked too hot right now to stay mad at, even if he did hate having to be saved like a damsel in distress.

"Hey man, he hit me!" the gang leader said, glaring daggers at Jeff.

"All I saw was him defending himself," John replied. "Now get!"

The idiots looked like they wanted to put up a fight but they backed off. Jeff flipped them off as they went before looking at John. "Thanks," he said.

"No problem," John replied. "Fucking savages in this town." He shook his head and sighed. "So uh...how have you been?"

"Okay. How have you been?"

"Alright I guess." John suddenly looked kind of nervous. "Do you wanna uh...go somewhere and hang out?"

"You don't got to work?" Jeff asked, a little surprised.

"Not unless we get a major crisis," John replied.

"Oh." Jeff smiled. "Okay. I'm in."

John grinned. "You are?"

"Uh huh."

"Great...I have absolutely no idea where we should go."

Jeff giggled. At least John was man enough to admit something like that. He actually found that to be very charming. "It's okay. I think I know the perfect spot for us."