A/N: Wow. I've gotta say I'm surprised. This story has got a lot more attention than I thought it would get. Thanks to everyone who reviewed the last chapter and I hope you like this chapter...though I didn't think it came out too well. Anyways, enjoy!

DISCLAIMER: Use your common scence, of course I don't own. If I did I wouldn't be writing on FAN-fiction.


Chapter 11

(Rosette's POV)

I can hear their footsteps following behind us. When I have Billy in the hallway I stop and let go of his arm, then start towards the stairs, the girls hesitantly follow after me, holding tight to each others' hands and whispering. I turn right when I step into the second floor hallway; I wait for them on the landing. They come up behind me and ask what I'm doing. Well, I don't know where exactly the room is so I ask them.

"O-okay. I'll show you." Nelly says hesitantly and starts leading me to a room. She opens the door and I step into the room, beckoning the two girls to follow. I fall backwards onto the bed, letting out an exasperated sigh.

"Okay, close the door please." Nervously Nelly closes the door. 'Why the hell are they so nervous? It's not like I'm going to try killing them.' "Come over here, Nelly." I search through me backpack for the slip of paper Sarah had written on. Nelly is standing in front of me, she is nervously fidgeting, "Give me your hand." I order. She does this and I stick the piece of paper in it. Nelly looks down with surprise and then looks back up at me questioningly.

"Open it." I say laying back on the bed, and bringing my hand up to cover my eyes I sigh.

I hear her stutter, "S-S-Sarah?" she tugs at my shirt, I raise my eyes lazily, "This is from Sarah?"

"Yeah." I mutter, "What were you so nervous about anyway? What did you think I was going to do? Kill you?" now I turn my full attention on her.

"Uh-uh," she's blushing, "Uh-w-well a-a-after B-b-Billy said th-that thing about y-you being a ch-ch-child p-p-predator…well-uh-uh…" she pauses and looks away blushing as I ask, "You didn't really believe that clown did you?" she blushes redder than before looking down ashamedly she nods her head. I laugh. Oh, god, do I laugh. That is too hilarious.

She looks at me confusedly and timidly while Ally walks up to her grabbing her hand and walks to me her face defiantly looking up she says, "See, Nelly, told you he wasn't bad." She makes a face at the word 'bad.' I laugh even harder. This is probably the most I've laughed in a while and, god, does it feel good to be able to laugh again.

I wipe the tears from my eyes and say, "No, Nelly, I'm not bad." I try to imitate Ally's face, she starts laughing at my face and I giggle back.

When I finally pull myself together I say, "Sarah wants you to write to her. She said she's sorry, she couldn't write to you because she accidently lost the address and phone number a while ago."

"Oh, really?" then the two girls smile happily and Nelly turns back to face me with a look of total shame, "Um, I'm sorry I judged you like that. And…thanks for giving me this." She holds up the slip of paper. I smile and nod, "No problem, I brought you up here because I didn't know if this was something private or not, I didn't want to invade anyone's privacy. And uh," it's my turn to smile sheepishly, "I didn't know where my room was." I paused to think of what to do next, "Now. You should probably go finish what you were doing before, I'll come down in a minute. Oh, Can you introduce me to the other kids better? I want to get to know all of you."

Ally lets go of my hand and smiles then says, "Okay, hurry up." then she's out the door, dragging her sister with her. I smile and say to her retreating back, "Yeah. I'll just be a minute." Nelly turns around and waves a little then closes the door behind them.

I fall back onto the bed.

"AH!" I jolt back up. What was that? It felt like someone was calling me and I was dying to answer. It felt like my heart was being pulled out of my chest to some other place.

My insides were twisting nervously, my heart pounding. What was happening? What the hell was going on? My heart gave another wrench and I grabbed at my chest. Something was wrong, very wrong. But…what? My breath is starting to get uneven and my hands are steadied on my legs, I need to get downstairs, what if something was seriously wrong?

I suck in a breath and I start gasping. I try to steady my breathing and I collapse onto the floor of my new room and suddenly my room is filled with children fretting…what was happening? This had never happened before? What was wrong? The edge of my vision is turning dark; the darkness is slowly taking over my sight. The last thing I see is Ally's panicked face, but what about Joshua and…Chrono…was he okay? My heart lurches as I think about him ...oh god…maybe he was hurt…I didn't even get an answer on what he'd done to himself…maybe he was hurting right now…Chrono…what's wrong…Chro…no…

……

I stared at the white. Where was I?

I heard voices around me, some were crying. What's wrong? I sit up, blinked and turned my head to the side, "What's wrong?"

Suddenly little arms were thrown around me. Around my neck were the arms of Ally, she's sniffling, "C-Christopher. Are-are you 'kay?"

"Uh, yeah." I say rubbing her back and getting onto my feet. What had happened? I remember feeling a pain, someone calling me, and…Chrono! Was he alright!? I start in a hurry towards the door but stop. What am I thinking, of course he's okay. He doesn't need me. And he's not here either. I should be worrying about the children.

I turn back around and walk towards said bunch of children, "Is everyone alright? What happened?"

Nelly speaks up, Ally clinging onto her hand, sniffling, "We-we don't know. I was downstairs and heard a loud sound so I came up." the children around her nod their heads in agreement, "And-and," she has a panicked look on her face, "and when we came up you were on the ground. You were breathing funny. And I didn't know what to do. I was going to go and get Billy and the bigger kids but I didn't want to leave you alone. I-I was so scared." I can see tears starting in the corners of her eyes, "I-I'm sorry."

I rush up to her and wrap her in a hug, "Oh, it's okay. You did nothing wrong." She bursts into tears as all the other kids also start crying. Great.

They all gather around me and say that they're sorry they didn't know what to do, that they were so scared, I try to wrap them all in a hug which doesn't happen but they cling onto me so that works too. I pat their heads and repeat the words, "It's alright. You did nothing wrong." They're still children; they wouldn't know what to do.

When I finally quieted all of the children down it was time to start preparing supper and I rushed the bunch into the dining room to start setting up.

………

I had made all the children go to bed and I was sleeping alone in the main house now. Kind of spooky. What happened to those two other assistants that were here when I was here with Joshua? Maybe they left, who knows? They were really horrible though, they didn't look after us very well. They left us to cook our own meals and never watched the little kids when they were sick. That's how Sarah had grown so good at cooking, and me, at watching kids. Those two girls always hated Joshua, too, because he was sick so often. They would say such mean things about him, and within my hearing too. I always got so mad and wanted to beat the guts out of them for saying those things. I hated them for hating my brother just because he was sick.

My face is marred by anger now, because of the thoughts of the two horrible women. Gwen and Olive. Or as they were introduced, Miss Gweneth Lamberski and Miss Olivia O'Conner. Nice names for horrible harpies.

My heart jolts again. What's happening? Chrono? My heart bolts again. Was something happening with Chrono? What could've happened? I hope he isn't cutting himself. I'm so worri—I jerk up, sitting. He…was also one of the reasons I came, wasn't he.

CRASH!

KA-BOOM!

I bolt of lightening lights up my room. Then the sound of heavy rain starts pitter-pattering on the ceiling above me, this is strange weather for October. I wrap my arms around my knees and curl into myself. I've always hated thunderstorms and the dark…because I always felt so alone. It wasn't so bad when Joshua was here…and it wasn't so bad when I knew Chrono was here…but neither of them were here.

I here a door open and a scramble of feet walking around downstairs. My eyes widen in horror as I hear little voices sing ring-around-the-rosy. I pull the blanket up over my head. I was just imagining things. There were no such things as ghosts! There were no such things as ghosts!

The sound of wet feet are climbing up the stairs and the voices are getting slightly louder.

KA-BOOM!!!

The room was lit in white light as I try to curl further into the blankets. It's dark again, the rain outside is pounding on the ceiling, the voices are getting closer. There's a soft thudding of multiple feet standing outside my door. I start shivering. There are no such things as ghosts! The door knob is creaking, as if being twisted and turned.

CREAAAK

The door slides slowly open. The hallway is dark, I don't see anybody.

CRASH!!!

KA-BOOM!

KA-BOOM!!!

My room is bathed in light and as I stare at the doorway I see little bodies dressed in white. Suddenly they're rushing towards me.

"AHHH! Christopher!" a little girl has hold of my waist and won't let go. I let out a relieved sigh, there are no such things as ghosts, only scared little children who want to sneak into my bed.

A boy is snuggled deep into my side. More children are snuggled in around me and the blankets; among them I notice Nelly and Ally. Ally is one of the little girls who are holding my waist. I pat them on the head, "Don't scare me like that again." I say.

Ally looks up at me, "You-you were s-scared?"

I smile sheepishly, "Y-yeah. Of you guys. I thought you were little ghosts out to get me or something." I try to laugh lightly. Ally and the other children snuggle closer to me.

"Can we sleep here?" a voice asks.

"And who are 'we'?" I ask back.

Ally answers, "Me, Nelly, Sonia, Ashley, Kelly, Anny, Nina, Betty, Ellen, and the boys." I look questioningly at one of the said boys, "So, do you want to introduce yourselves, boys?" I ask.

The boy smiles shyly and nods saying, "I'm Andrew, he's Danny," he's pointing at some of the other boys around the bed now, "Eugene, Ethan, Adam, Ben, Ja—"

KA-BOOM!!!

The kids scramble under the blankets as the room is once again bathed in white light for a second before everything turns dark again. I wait, then get up and hesitantly put my feet over the edge of the bed. I start towards the light switch and turn it on. The room is immediately lit. I turn back towards the boy who I think said his name was Andrew, "Better?"

He nods and starts again where he left off, "That's James, Johnny, and Ken." Okay, so practically all the kids had come. Andrew yawns, the other kids fallow suit.

CRASH!

KA-BOOM!!

The kids don't try to hide in the blanket this time, instead they look at me. I start back towards the bed. "Aren't you going to turn off the lights?" Danny asks. I shake my head, "Nah. It's better with them—" I stop mid-sentence as the lights start to flicker. I look up at the ceiling light. It's shaking, as though being blown in a wind and it's flickering on and off. It flickers one more time before it turns off completely.

I hear screams from outside and rush towards the kids sitting, tightly holding each other, in my king size bed. This must be the reason it's king sized. Suddenly there are feet pounding up the stairs and the children around me start shaking, terrified. I pull the blanket up around us and they squish closer to me.

The door to my room is thrown open as the lightening flashes from outside. In that instance all I see are silhouettes of two people. Then the room is veiled in darkness again and the two silhouettes move towards us.

"What the heck happened to the lights!?" one of the silhouettes yells. I sigh, what's with all the dramatic entrances anyway? Billy.

"Yeah. Do ya know what happened to the lights, Christopher?" a much quieter voice asks.

I finally look up and snarl, "Did you have to make such a grand entrance, Billy, Ryan? You scared us half to death with that scream of yours." The children around me look up and nod at the other boys. Billy says in an indifferent voice, "We were startled. We had the lights on and we were playing cards. Then the lights just suddenly turn off. How do ya think we felt? Calm and happy?"

"Well," I say calmer now, "I don't know what happened to the lights. Probably has something to do with the thunderstorm outside, though."

"Oh." They say and start towards the bed. Ryan's the first to ask, "Uh-um, Christopher?"

"Yeah?" I say, I'm searching through the drawer for some candles. "Uh-uh, um, can we uh…stay in here…tonight?"

I turn around, five candles in hand, "Why?" I push, I start towards my backpack for the pack of matches.

"Well…uh…" he nudges Billy, "You tell him Billy." He hisses.

Billy looks annoyed at him then his face pales when Ryan leans over and says something in his ear, "Yeah, Christopher, can we stay in here tonight?" he says eagerly, desperately.

I strike the matches and light the candles, laying them around the room, "Are you going to tell me why?"

"Why do we have to?" Billy snaps, "The little kids are sleeping here, too, aren't they?"

I nod, "Yeah, they are. But they told me why. They said they were scared. Now didn't you, kids?" I turn back to face the little children still huddled together in my bed, Billy and Ryan were sitting on the edge of the bed, they nodded looking at the other boys.

"Fine." Billy says darkly, but his face pales as he starts talking, "But I didn't want to scare the little kids. Anyway when me and Ryan were alone in the dorms after you guys left," he said pointing at the bunch of little children, "and it was just after you guys left. We heard singing. Of course we dismissed it as, ya know, the wind. We thought we were just hearing things. But then the singing grew louder and we could clearly hear the words."

I frown at them as I start towards the bed, "Stop right there if you're just trying to scare the kids." I say.

Ryan shakes his head, "He's not lying, Christopher. Listen, okay?"

"Fine," I say, "So what were the words then."

Billy looks shaken and he turns away, "I-I don't want to say." I'm starting to get really scared but I'm not going to fall for it if it's just a lie, "Repeat one sentence of the song or else I'll know you're lying and kick you out." I say.

His head turns sharply towards me, "Okay, okay. This was what we heard okay. I've never heard it before," Billy starts in a sing song voice, the melody is sad and…somehow nostalgic, "When stars fall, love, I'll catch every one for you. When the day ends, darling, I'll die for you." Billy doesn't stop, "and when the rain falls, dear, I'll shelter you. And we'll be together till the end of time, yes, love, we'll be together till the end of time, through life and death. The good and the bad times we'll share for all eternity. And, yes, darling, when the stars fall I'll catch every one for you. When the rain falls, love, I'll always shelter you. Butdear, when the day ends we'll die too, and I'll die for you. Then we'll be together for all of time, forever and always. I'll be there." Billy opens his eyes. There are tears in my eyes, I wipe them away. What was with me today? I didn't even know the song, never even heard it before.

Ryan is looking right at me as he talks in a hushed voice, "Yeah, that happened to us too. We just started bawling. We were frozen to the spot and couldn't move, and we just kept crying. Then the voice was right outside our door."

Billy's talking again, "The door kept jiggling, like someone was trying to open it, and the whole time the voice kept singing. Then the lightening struck and the lights started flickering. We just got freaked. We dropped the cards and ran here. Okay? Happy?"

I stare at him, "You're not lying are you?" I say.

They both shake their heads violently, "Uh-uh, man, we're not kidding about that. We can stay here, right?" I nod and they let out a relieved sigh.

I go over the words of the song in my head as the others lay down and start to fall asleep:

"When stars fall, love, I'll catch every one for you.

When the day ends, darling, I'll die for you,

and when the rain falls, dear, I'll shelter you.

And we'll be together till the end of time,

yes, love, we'll be together till the end of time,

through life and death. The good and the bad times

we'll share for all eternity. And, yes, darling,

when the stars fall I'll catch every one for you.

When the rain falls, love, I'll always shelter you.

But, dear, when the day ends we'll die too,

and I'll die for you.

Then we'll be together

for all of time,

forever and always.

I'll be there."

"You sound just like the voice did, when we heard it. But…we couldn't tell if it was a girls' voice or a guys…" Ryan whispers. He startled me, I didn't notice I was singing the song out loud either, "So, you weren't just kidding then." I say.

"Of course we weren't kidding." He says, "I really heard that voice. I cried. It was so sad and…" he pauses to think, "and…hopeful…in a way…" he drifts off and I'm left to ponder his words and my thoughts. And…what about Chrono. A voice in my head asks. Yes, and Chrono.

What Chrono left me wondering was if he was really going to be alright without me. I scoff at myself, why was I thinking like this? He was doing just fine before I came along, he would do just fine after I disappeared…right? It would've been like I never existed. But…did I want him to live like I never existed? Like I never came into his life? Like I never met him? Did I want to live like I never met him?

No. I would never want to live like that. In this and any life I'm sure I would have been more than happy to have met Chrono. No matter what happens, I'm sure I would never regret meeting him. Never.

…What I'm more worried about is if he regrets meeting me.

--END CHAPTER ELEVEN--

A/N: So...um...How'd you like that? I didn't like this chapter too much but...yeah, I guess I'll just have to deal for now. Well, anyways be kind and REVIEW! They're always appreciated!