A/N

Hey guys, I just wanted to tell you the news about Back Together. The story is going to have a new schedule.

It will be updated on Mondays and Fridays from now on.

Also, people have been PMing me and asking how many chapters the story will have. Usually, I like to keep things about my stories secret, in order to surprise my readers, but this detail won't give much away, so I'll tell you. Back Together is going to have 15 chapters, and an epilogue.

This chapter is brought to you by: April243.

Hope you enjoy! And remember, Amber is allergic to raspberries!

Also, keep in mind, this chapter is a month after the last one.

I was outside the house again, near the brick wall covered in ivy.

It was very cold, frost seemed to cover the wide-spread trees just as it had in my last nightmare. My breath billowed in milky, misty clouds. Goosebumps spread up my arms and legs. I, being the young adolescent that I am, was terrified of what was to happen next.

The voice from my previous consciousness, louder than a crack of thunder setting off a nuclear bomb in my ear, rang from the fast darkening sky.

"CHOSEN! FROZEN! CHOSEN! FROZEN!"

I shut my eyes tightly in fear, but something made me open them. The sky was different from the last dream…

The voice was now barely a whisper. Then it swiftly rose in volume just as suspected:

"Chosen… frozen… chosen… FROZEN! CHOSEN! FROZEN!"

It was getting colder and colder, and Anubis was very far away…

"CHOSEN! FROZEN!"

I looked up as the frightening voice blasted the message into the sky. What I saw chilled my blood…

It was the outline of a sword—no, a tooth!—but it was merely a silhouette, so I couldn't make out much detail.

It switched to the outline of a girl. It was like watching a shadow move fluidly across a blank screen. She was running, the hair of unknown color streaming behind her.

'Running from what?' I wondered. Much to my horror, I got my answer.

The silhouette of the tooth-sword lashed out at the girl, slicing into her side. Then a stream of thick, red liquid poured from the sky. It was blood. I gasped and ran out of the way as the head of the shadow-girl whipped back and let out a bloodcurdling scream of agony. Then she crumpled, and the voice began to overpower everything else.

"CHOSEN! FROZEN! CHOSEN! FROZEN!"

The blood was coming down in little droplets now. It was fast and there was a lot. I couldn't escape it this time, and there was so much. It dripped on my head and shoulders, then slid down my face, somehow managing to get into my mouth. I shook my head, and screamed.

I sat up with sweat dripping down my face and onto my blanket.

"Oh my god…" I looked over at Fabian. He slept without so much as a snore. "Lucky bastard…" I muttered, deeply disturbed from my nightmare.

There was no doubt now; no hesitance. Tomorrow, first thing in the morning, I would call a Sibuna meeting.

"What do you mean—RIGHT NOW?!" Amber exclaimed incredulously, placing her nail-filer down on the breakfast table and pushing aside her plate of low-carb pancakes that Trudy had especially made for Amber's picky dietary needs.

"He means: RIGHT NOW!" Patricia retorted, picking at a raspberry. Her fingers were covered in the pinkish-red juice, so Patricia stuck the "toxic sweetness"— according to Amber—at the blonde's face, making her shriek and scoot her chair back in panic.

"PATRICIA WILLIAMSON, DON'T YOU DARE!" Amber cried, arms flailing.

The red-head began to laugh, blue eyes twinkling with humor. She threw her head back as she laughed, and my heart stopped. Fabian gave her a look. Alfie was struggling to keep a straight face. I was staring at her with an odd mix of awe and a pang of fear. The way she threw her head back was frighteningly familiar. Like, nightmare familiar.

But, no… it must have been because we had dated each other and, before that, studied each other's every move, looking for strategy to piss the other off. It must be.

Alfie got up without complaint, but Fabian looked annoyed and flabbergasted. "Guys! We just avoided death by parent only a month ago! Now you want to cut class?! We'll be screwed for sure!"

"If we go to the Sibuna Clearing…?" KT suggested, trying to fix her puffy hair.

I nodded agreement. Too many teachers were around to have a safe meeting in the house.

"Yeah." Patricia shrugged. "Our excuse can be I got hurt or something, and you guys needed to stop and help out." She looked over at me and gave a tiny smile.

KT wiggled her eyebrows at the glance, and Patricia, flushing scarlet, looked over at Amber. The stylish girl was still flailing about, convinced of death by raspberry.

"Gosh! Your allergic to raspberries! Calm down—I was kidding! I wouldn't actually touch you with them!" Patricia scoffed as she wiped the raspberry residue off onto her black skirt. She was super pretty when she was annoying people… She really was…

"…So… Sibuna Clearing?" KT asked again, making an unattractive expression while she pointed toward the foyer.

It seemed Fabian was okay with the location and excuse, so we grabbed our bags and told Amber to get up and stop whining.

We got on the trail leading to the not-so-famous clearing and walked with some forced chatter. KT and Fabian were discussing all the possible places Nina could be living. I knew where, but I made a promise to the Chosen One, and I would keep it.

Alfie and Amber—mostly Amber—were talking about cosmetics. Alfie looked ready to shoot himself.

Patricia and I walked side-by-side, arms every once in a while hitting each other. It was a comfortable, yet awkward silence. I wasn't going to break it, though, and neither was she. I kept thinking about how I'd told her I was in love with her. That had been a month ago now... She hadn't really said anything about it since. I was a little worried. Like, I didn't know if she was really 'weirded out' by me now. Being in love with someone is some pretty serious stuff.

At the end of the trail was the Sibuna Clearing. It was also where I would have to tell my friends of the terrible nightmare that plagued me. And would it change anything? Maybe. But I had to hope that I wasn't endangering my club-mates by sharing this with them.

"I guess there's only one way to find out," I said under my breath, taking the last two steps into the clearing, with only the almost undetectable reassurance of the stubborn, yet beautiful Patty-Frickin'-Talks-A-Lot beside me.