Sorry it took me so long to update. It's been quite the busy week! BUT don't despair, I've got you chapter 13! I hope you enjoy this chapter as much as all of the others! :)

Chapter 13: Finn Whitman II-Free Day

10:40 A.M.

When Amanda left with Marcus to go to the grocery store, Finn didn't know what to do. He finished cleaning up their mess from breakfast. He watched called his mom, just to check up on her. He wasn't sure how long Amanda and Marcus were going to be gone. He was planning on leaving after breakfast, but he wanted to be here when they got back—however long that took.

He plopped down on the couch and turned on the TV. On the coffee table, he saw Marcus' cell phone lying there out in the open.

Finn held it in his hands, deciding whether or not he should even bother looking through it. Something about Marcus seemed fishy. He didn't want to stoop to such a low level, but something inside of him urged him to do it. It was almost as if he was trying to convince himself that going through someone's phone was a good, necessary idea. Finn would never do that to Amanda, because he trusted her. But he didn't trust Marcus, was that justification enough?

Finn took a deep breath and turned his head to see if Jess had woken up yet, but of course she hadn't.

Finn looked back at the phone and pressed a button. The screen illuminated, but didn't ask him for a password.

Finn looked through the phone calls, but none of the numbers were saved. His contact list only consisted of about three people: "work," Domino's and a contact labeled "her."

Finn really wanted to call "her" but if she was who he thought she was, he definitely did not want to call that number.

Finn went through the text messages and saw something else altogether.

One text conversation from "her" immediately drew all of Finn's attention.

Her: Draw the victim out from hiding. I will dispose of him then.

Marcus: What do I get in return?

Her: Exactly what I promised: Amanda.

Marcus: Tell me where you want him, and I'll deliver.

Her: Alley behind Frozen Marble, midnight.

Marcus: Done.

Finn really stopped caring after the third text message.

What did Marcus want with Amanda? He was Jess' older brother. It didn't make any sense. Did he want to hurt her? Amanda had mentioned knowing all about him selling drugs illegally. Did that have anything to do with it?

Finn slammed the phone shut. He didn't want to read any more. He fished his phone out of his pocket and dialed Amanda's number. He wanted her as far away from him as possible. Now.

He was about to hit the call button when Jess walked into the room.

"Morning," she murmured as she walked into the kitchen, grabbing a box of cereal. She didn't even bother to grab a bowl. She plopped herself down on the couch next to Finn and shoved her hand into the box of cereal, eating it with her hands.

"Amanda's going to kill you when she comes back." Finn commented. "You know she hates it when you eat cereal with your hands."

Jess rolled her eyes and reached for the TV remote with her free hand. "It's half my house too. If I'm too lazy to grab a bowl and pour milk, so be it."

Finn rolled his eyes. He knew better than to start a fight with Jess when she was tired.

Jess saw Marcus' phone lying on the coffee table.

"Who's phone is that?"

"Uh…mine."

Jess glared at him. "Your phone is in your lap Finn."

"Oh," Finn glanced down and saw that she was right. He mentally slapped himself. "It's Amanda's?"

Jess rolled her eyes and focused on the television. "Whatever. Where's she anyway?"

"Grocery store."

"She went two days ago. Why the heck is she going today?"

Finn shrugged. He needed to change the subject so Jess didn't start asking questions he couldn't answer. "I don't know."

"Then why are you here then?"

"I can't be here to hang out with you?"

Jess snorted. "You spent the night, didn't you?"

Finn shrugged. "It got late."

"Sure…whatever. If she gets pregnant, don't think I won't say I told you so."

Finn rolled his eyes. They hadn't done anything, Jess just liked being annoying about it. He had been dating Amanda since freshman year of high school, almost four years ago, so he had gotten used to her annoying little sister.

"Any news from the police about Greg?"

Finn shook his head.

"You didn't kill him, right?" She asked him. Finn snapped his head in her direction.

"You seriously think I did it?"

"No! Of course not! I was just wondering! Amanda said you two had a fight that night, and you did kill Maleficent, so it's not like you killing people is anything new—"

"Shut up Jess."

"I'm just saying—"

"I'm not a killer, so shut up."

"Whatevs."

Jess glanced down at his phone, checking the time.

"Oh crap," Jess stood up and started to clean up her mess.

"Where are you going?"

"I told Willa we were going to hang out today at eleven." Jess scurried out of the living room to her bedroom and slammed the door shut.

Finn glanced down at his phone with curiosity. He saw that it was 10:45 A.M. and started laughing. Leave it up to Jess to be late.

2:30 P.M.

Amanda checked her phone and scowled at the time.

"I've got to go. If I'm going to get to that meeting at the station on time."

She turned to Finn and gave him a strange look.

"Are you two going to be okay here alone?"

"Sure thing baby cakes," Marcus said with a wink. Finn felt his anger growing inside of him. He had been making strange remarks like that all day and Finn had had enough. But he wanted to talk to Marcus alone, so he let it slide this time.

Amanda rolled her eyes and grabbed her purse. Even though it was her apartment, Finn walked her to the door.

"Call me when you're done?" He asked her.

She gave him a weak smile. "Of course. Don't hurt Marcus."

Finn pretended to be saddened by that, for comic relief, but in reality he wanted to punch Marcus' face in. "You take all the fun out of everything."

"You sound just like Jess."

"Oh, that's even worse."

Amanda leaned up on her tiptoes and kissed him. He remembered the first few months of their relationship, when she had been taller than him. Over the past four years he had grown to be at least a head taller than her. He thought it was cute that she had to get on her tiptoes to kiss him.

She ended the kiss and gave him a smile. "I should be back soon."

"I'll miss you," Finn kissed her once more, wrapping his arms around her waist.

She ended the kiss, putting her hands on his chest as to push him off of her. "I've really got to go now, Finn. I can't be late."

"I know, I know."

She opened the door and Finn snatched one last kiss on the cheek. He winked at her and she blushed. He felt proud of himself that he could still make her blush after four years.

He made sure she got out of the driveway okay and closed the door. He turned around and saw that Marcus had made himself home already, watching some dumb show on TV.

Finn walked over to the TV and stood in front of it.

"Whoa bro! What are you doing?" Marcus yelled.

"You need to explain those texts on your phone."

"You went through my phone?"

"It says in there you want Amanda. What does that mean?"

Marcus stared at him for a few seconds before calming down. He let out a quick laugh. "Who doesn't want her, man? She's hot."

Finn resisted punching him in the face. He was going to be the better person. "She's my girlfriend. Don't you dare talk about her like that."

Marcus completely ignored that comment. "She was just as hot five years ago too. Man, I wanted nothing more than to spend a night with her, if you know what I mean."

Finn's hand started shaking. He clenched them into fists so that Marcus couldn't see.

"Oh, who am I kidding? You know what I'm talking about! You two have been together for four years. Of course you know what I'm talking about!"

"You're twenty-six! Get over yourself! She's nineteen!"

"So? She's not in high school anymore. It's perfectly normal."

"She's my girlfriend. You lay a hand on her and I swear—"

"You'll do what? Kill me?" Marcus laughed. "Let me guess, Greg did the same thing. He made a move on your girl and now he's dead."

"I didn't kill Greg!"

"Sure…" Marcus stood up. Finn was glad the coffee table was between them.

"You're going to get out of here and leave now. And if you ever try to make contact with Jess or Amanda again, you'll regret it."

"Oh, is that all you've got?" He gave him a challenging look. "Look, man, it's cool that you like Amanda a lot and everything, but she's nothing like you. She's more like me. She doesn't deserve a goody-two-shoes guy like you. She needs a rough guy like me...a troublemaker, per se. She can't handle being good. She's a naughty girl who's done bad things."

His grin was unnerving to Finn.

"She deserves the best! She's the best thing that's ever happened to me! I will not stand here and let you continue to put her down like that!"

Marcus spread out his arms. "What are you going to do about it?"

Finn lunged at him, knocking him onto the couch. He got one good punch to the face before a shriek stop them both cold in their tracks.

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING FINN?"

Finn jumped off of Marcus and saw Jess standing there in the doorway, staring at her with wide, shock-filled eyes.

"Jess, he…he was saying crap about Amanda…"

"Who is he?"

Marcus sat up, saw Jess and another wily grin grew on his face.

Jess froze. "Y-y-you!"

"Hey there little sis."

"But you're dead! Amanda said you were dead!"

"So I've heard."Marcus looked back at Finn as to say can you believe these girls?

"Finn…why are you punching m-m-my...brother?"

"Like I said, he was saying crap about Amanda."

Jess' shocked expression turned to pure rage. She walked up to Marcus and slapped him.

"Don't you dare even look at Amanda ever again! Not after what happened five years ago!"

Marcus stared back at her with confusion. "She told you?"

"She didn't have to! I might have been thirteen, but I'm not stupid!"

Marcus continued to give her the deer-in-the-headlights look.

"What's going on?" Finn asked. "What happened between you and Amanda?"

"He had an unhealthy thing for her!"Jess pointed at him accusingly. "And I'm guessing he still does! You better leave before she gets here! If she sees you…"

"They've already talked," Finn added softly.

"WHAT?" Jess slapped Marcus again. "GET OUT!"

"It's not your apartment!"He protested.

"It's half mine, thank you very much!" Jess pointed to the door. "NOW GET OUT!"

Marcus scrambled to his feet and hurried for the door, grabbing his phone on the way out.

After he slammed the door shut, Jess and Finn stared at each other in silence for a few minutes.

"Did he…you know…do anything to her?" Finn asked in a shaky voice.

Jess hung her head. "No, but he tried…a lot."

Jess' phone rang.

"I…uh…I've got to take this." Jess put the phone to her ear, stepping out of the apartment to answer the call.

Finn sat back down on the couch and stared at the TV. He didn't say anything. His mind was on overdrive, trying to process everything that had just gone on.

4:30 P.M.

"So why did they want you to come in?" Finn asked his beautiful girlfriend.

They were driving from her apartment to Charlene's house, where Willa had called a last-minute emergency keeper meeting. Even though Willa didn't specify why they were meeting, Finn was pretty sure he had a pretty good idea.

"They asked questions about Marcus…at first…"

"Then what?"

She hesitated before answering. He reached over with his right hand and placed his hand on top of hers. She seemed to relax a little after that.

"They showed me a forensics report. It basically…" she took a deep breath. "It basically had enough evidence to incriminate Greg's murderer."

"They think you did it? That's ridiculous! You were with me all night!"

"Not me, Finn." She took another deep breath. "You."

"Me?"

"Yeah."

A few minutes of silence dawned on the couple. Finn tried to let the news sink in. The police were about to arrest him for a murder he didn't commit. Who would frame him for something like that?

At first, no one came to mind, but then the light bulb went off over his head.

"I think Maleficent is coming back."

"Excuse me?" Amanda turned to face him.

"It only makes sense. When we all shared our stories of our encounters with Greg…"

"You can't be serious."

"We can't just forget all about her! It's very possible that she is alive!"

"Finn…"

Her voice trailed off as they pulled up to Charlene's house.

5:05 P. M.

"Uh…okay…" Charlene looked at Philby, who was now sitting in a chair next to Willa. "Philby, last night at the hospital I…uh…saw Maleficent. She walked by my hospital door at least twice."

Philby said nothing, but his expression turned sour. He looked to Willa for answers, but she obviously had none.

"I saw her too," Maybeck chimed in. "She is very much alive. Still freezes everything, still creepy as ever."

"Impossible! Finn killed her last year!" Philby turned to Finn, but again received no answers. Finn hadn't said a word since Charlene had told him ten minutes ago when he had arrived.

Finn took a deep breath and walked out of the kitchen. He couldn't believe this was actually happening. Maleficent was back. It was official.

He sat down on the bottom step of the staircase and put his head in his hands. He was trembling with fear.

This cannot be happening. She's dead.

He felt a hand on his back. She knew immediately it was Amanda's. He picked up his head and looked at her.

"Finn, I'm sorry I didn't believe you earlier." She reached up and wiped a stray tear from his cheek. "I should have known better than to believe that we were rid of her forever. People like us weren't meant to have happily ever afters, I guess."

Hearing her say that broke his heart. He took a deep breath and realized what a horrible boyfriend he had been. If she couldn't believe that they would have a great future ahead of them, what was he doing? He was wasting his time.

"Amanda," He placed a hand under her chin and gently raised her head so that they were at eye level. "Don't you ever think like that. You deserve the best happily ever after of them all."

She gave him a weak smile and kissed him on the cheek. "You deserve one too. If she's really back, you'll just have to defeat her again, right?"

"As long as you're by my side, we will get rid of her. You're staying, right?" He returned a smile.

"I'm never leaving you, Finn. I guess you're stuck with me." She winked and he pulled her in for one quick kiss.

"I love you, Amanda."

"I love you too."

Hmm...so Finn's their number one suspect? Anybody surprised? I mean, Greg and Finn weren't exactly BFF's...

So, just as a heads up this story has 1-2 more chapters (depending on how long the ending turns out to be). "Born for the Sunrise" also only has 1-2 more chapters left too. After that, I'll be focusing on REBEL and it's going to be EPIC! I'm so excited :)

Please review! How have y'all liked this story? So on a serious note, if anyone would like to take this idea and expand on it and make it their own awesome little story, please do! I'd love to read it! This story ended up being shorter than I wanted, so I'd love to see somebody take it and run with it!

Have a wonderful week! :)