A/N: FuckTheReaper has returned. Thanks for coming out and with a whole new story. If you haven't started reading "Never Let Me Go" I suggest you go there ASAP. It's really good.

Sorry this is short. I've been crazy busy. Hope to make the next one longer.

Please read and review

;-)


Nick clopped loudly down the stairs leading to the basement. The blood continued down the thin wooden steps, but the trail grew thinner and thinner until it almost vanished. And right where it did laid the body of Marilyn Valentine. She was out cold and tied up with three strand white nylon rope. About a few feet from her was her husband, also bounded by rope. They both had pillow cases over their heads.

He walked over to Marilyn and pushed her body with his foot until she was on her back. Nick could make out the very faint rising and falling of her chest. Still alive. Then he checked over to Bernard whose bag was stained with dark red. Nick gave the body a kick and no response. He aggressively gave another jolt and got again nothing in return. Nick knelt down beside Mr. Valentine and checked his pulse.

"That's a shame," Nick matter-of-factly said aloud. He called the death of a man with the same vigor as someone who made that first bad pancake.

Nick bounded up the steps and turned off the light before closing the door behind him.


Jade woke up with a start at the sound of the door shutting. She looked up with squinty eyes, making out Harry putting a plastic bag on the kitchen counter.

"Morning," he said not making eye contact. "Sleep well?"

"Fuck!" Jade groaned. "Feels like my head weighs a thousand pounds."

Harry moseyed on over and handed her a hot cup of java. She blinked erratically as if giving some kind of silent Morse code for thanks.

"Well, you weigh considerably less than that" Harry grinned. "So it doesn't take much for you to get fucked up."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah" Jade muttered between sips. "Do we have aspirin?"

"Yep," he said shaking a new bottle of Tylenol in front of her. It sounded like tic-tacs. "Here's two" he said opening the lid.

"Better make it four," added Jade holding out her hand.

Harry nodded and obliged. Jade swallowed the pills with relish and chased them with her hot beverage.

"Did you..." Jade hesitated for a moment, one overcome by her migraine and also savoring the Columbian Roast. "Did you stay here all night?"

"Uh-huh," he nodded in reply.

"I'm so sorry," she said biting her lip.

Harry waved his hand. "Don't be. Since you crashed on the couch I took your bed," he smiled devilishly.

Jade raised an eyebrow. "Oh really?"

"Yeah, it was really comfy. Good thing you sprung for the high thread count."

She shrugged. "What? I can't have nice things?"

"Hungry?" he asked.

Jade nodded. "Yeah, actually."

"Well, the fridge is filled with leftover Chinese."

Suddenly Jade's memories came flooding back about the night before. Cat left. She cried so hard then.

"Jade..."

Harry was getting more concerned about her shortness of breath.

"Where's my phone?" Jade asked.

He looked around and picked it up from the coffee table. "Here," he said handing it to her.

Jade looked at the glowing screen, shaking her head. "No," she whispered.

"No what?" Harry asked.

"She hasn't called or messaged me since yesterday, Harry"

"She didn't call all last night either," he commented.

Jade looked up at him, teary-eyed. "I know that! But we've never gone twenty-four hours continuous before. No matter how angry I was or how sad she got, we never let more than a day pass."

Harry stood up, serious. "What do you think?" He could see the wheels turning behind those blue-green eyes.

"Something's wrong," she said.


Cat had struggled with her straps but she couldn't get herself loose. She almost yelped when she heard the approaching footsteps.

He's coming back. Shit.

They got louder and louder, her body stiffened.

All Cat could think of was Jade.

She wished with every ounce of her being that she was here right now. If not for comfort but that she knew how to fight and would give this asshole a slashing with her sharpest scissors. While Cat understood her mom's coddling, she never accepted it. With Jade it was different. Her overprotectiveness came from a deep bond that continues to grow rather than a preconceived sense of duty (parent) coupled with a small shred of arrogance. Cat's mom was the kind of woman who thought that everything she did was right.

Jade fancied herself as perfection throughout high school but she was quite often hoisted on her own petard. Same with Tori Vega. If either girl didn't get humiliated from time to time, they wouldn't be grounded with the rest of us. Jade has softened somewhat in college, clearly taking a cue from the lessons that came her way. But deep down she was still that Goth who stormed through the halls, ready to pounce on some unsuspecting victim. She just took her out of her box when the time was right.

And this was a time when Cat needed that bad girl.

Cat bit her lip at the sight of Nick standing in the doorway. He grinned his crooked smile as he took heavy steps toward the bed, each one echoing through the empty house.

"Sorry I took so long, baby"

"I'm not your baby," Cat thought.

"But your pops won't be joining us."

Shivers passed through Cat with the way he said that.

"Too bad," he continued. "I was planning to tie him to a chair and make him watch."

"You're fucking sick!"

"But, you know, the dead can't see much," he winked.

"NOOOOOOO!" she screamed.

Suddenly, Cat felt the wind get knocked out of her when Nick jumped onto the bed, mounting her. He took a hunting knife out of his back pocket and touched her throat with the very tip of it.

"Don't worry, baby" he breathed. "When I'm done with you, you'll see him soon enough."