Disclaimer: The Show Victorious, its characters and other associated copyrights are property of someone else and not me.

The Bet

Chapter 25 – Rock Bottom.

No One's Pov

In all of this, Jade's guilt driven nightmares didn't stop. After being rejected by Trina, Jade went home and collapsed into bed. Later while asleep, another nightmare began to form. She found herself in medieval clothes, walking on a dirt road through a forest. As the road exited the forest she could see what appeared to a kingdom with a tall castle in the distance.

But as Jade walked further down the road, she quickly noticed something was amiss. The trees were dying, the crops stood withered in the fields and what animals she saw looked sickly and weak. It was as if the land and everything on it was dying.

Jade kept going and came to the small village that surrounded the castle. The buildings were old and run down. The few people she saw, quickly went into their homes and shut the doors as she approached.

Night was falling as Jade reached the castle, which appeared bright shiny and new. The drawbridge was open and Jade calmly walked inside. After wandering through the empty castle she found what appeared to be the throne room.

The room was empty except for a large fireplace which was not lit and a few tables and chairs. A faded tapestry of musicians hung on one wall. Though at one end of the room, sat an opulent throne.

As Jade expected, she found Tori sitting on the throne. She was wearing fine silken clothes but they were all black. Jade was quick to notice that this Tori had cruel eyes and an even crueler smile.

"Hello Jade. Enter." Tori said from the throne.

Jade walked in and stood before the throne, saying nothing.

"I expect you're wondering why everything is dying. Isn't it wonderful?"

Jade stood stone faced and glared at Tori.

"I know what you're looking for." Tori said as she hopped off the throne and walked towards the tapestry.

"What am I looking for then? Since you're so ahead of me." Jade snapped back.

Tori pulled back the tapestry to reveal a small alcove. In it stood another version of Tori. Her features were soft and a look of pain was etched in her face. But this Tori was frozen solid; a thin sheet of ice coating her skin.

"Behold the old me, soft, tender, caring, not to mention horribly stupid and naïve."

"Bitch" Jade quickly snarled.

Tori laughed. "You should talk witch, you're the one that sent the curse of ice to begin with. Me, I just keep her like this."

Jade walked and touched Tori's right cheek. All she could feel is cold. "Tori." She said softly.

Tori pointed at her frozen self. "The villagers wish I would free her, you wish I would free her. So the land would grow and live again."

"Please!" Said Jade in a heartbroken voice.

Tori's eyes narrowed. "She represents hope you know. Just the fact that she's standing here means that she could unfreeze. But that wouldn't be very good for me now wouldn't it."

"Please Tori" Jade pleaded.

Tori bent over to pick something up that was lying on the floor behind frozen Tori. "There you go with that hope again. There is no hope, that's the first thing you need to remember Jade."

It was at this point, Jade noticed that the object that Tori had picked up was a huge mace. With a cruel laugh and to Jade's horror, Tori swung the mace at her frozen counterpart. As the mace slammed into the frozen Tori, she suddenly exploded into a thousand pieces.

All Jade could do, was scream in anguish as she picked up a single piece of what was one Tori. It was the cheek she had touched earlier. "Nooooo….."

Once again Jade woke up alone, heartbroken and guilt-ridden. She could only reflect on how far she had fallen from the devil may care, Goth girl she once was.

Jade continued her normal routine for the next several days. Seeing Tori once in the morning as she went into to work then spending the rest of the day in her room. She had fallen into a deep depression that she couldn't or didn't want to get out of. Her parents didn't notice; her dad was on a business trip and her mom was busy with a project at her work.

It was on Friday of that week at about 6 in the evening when Jade's phone chimed. Normally she wouldn't bother to look at it but, Jade did anyway. Her eyes opened in shock when she saw it was Tori.

She quickly read the text.

"You want to apologize and I haven't given you the chance. If you want to talk and I think we should please be at Karaoke Dokie at 8:00 PM this evening."

Jade's heart instantly soared and she texted back immediately.

"I'll be there. Thank you."

Jade ran into the shower and immediately proceeded to get ready to go. She picked an outfit which she thought Tori might like and went to the club, getting there 10 minutes early. She ordered two sodas, and waited with a growing anticipation.

8 O'clock rolled by, then 8:10, than 8:20 than 8:30. Jade wondered what was keeping Tori. She was tempted to text Tori and ask but didn't want to rock the boat. She figured Tori got stuck at home doing chores or something.

So Jade kept waiting at her table. But as it got closer to 9 her spirits fell more and more. But desperate to make things up to Tori, she waited. At about 9:17 she spotted what appeared to be a familiar Latina figure in a crowd of people near the doorway. Jade stood up and began to smile but stopped when she saw it was Trina with a few friends.

Trina did see her and gave her a strange look. Trina noticed that for a moment Jade seemed happy but once she recognized her whole demeanor quickly changed to one of despair. Part of her wanted to just ignore the annoying Goth, but her conscious quickly nagged her. After the other night she knew that Jade was very busted up inside. She told her friends she would get back to them and headed toward's Jade's table.

"Jade? What are you doing here?

With a defeated sigh, Jade said. "Tori texted me about 6. She said she wanted me to have a chance to apologize and talk. She said be here at 8."

A very puzzled look grew on Trina's face but as she opened her mouth Jade's phone chimed with an email. She picked it up, hoping it was Tori. It was.

"Jade,

Hope is for fools. And while you wait at Karaoke Dokie like one. I'm fucking another girl, a girl better than you. Does anyone even care about you anymore? I wonder if your parents do, or were you just an accident. I'll bet you were.

Tori."

Trina watched at Jade read the text. As she did all the color seemed to drain from her face.

"Jade, I'm not sure what that says, but Tori stood you up on purpose. We ate dinner about 6:30. One of the few things my sister said is that she was having the start of a migraine and would be in her room all night."

Jade just handed the phone to Trina as the first tears ran down her face. With a feeling of horror and revulsuion, Trina read the email. It was horribly cruel. More and more Trina didn't know who Tori was. Now she was really worried and knew she couldn't stand by any longer. Something had to be done.

"I don't know if she knew, my dad never wanted to have kids. I was an accident." A now sobbing Jade said as she ran towards the exit.

Trina had never liked Jade, she thought she was mean and rude. But seeing the broken woman flee after her sister's cruel taunt changed something in her. Trina ran to her friends and said she had to take care of something, then chased Jade out of Karoke Dokie.

She spotted Jade running across the street towards a park and followed. Jade was a bit faster and had a head start so Jade got a good lead. All of a sudden she stopped by a small lake and pulled something out of her purse.

As Trina ran up, she could see moonlight reflecting off the blades of the gleaming scissors in her hand.

"That stupid wench has flipped." Trina cursed as she closed the final few yards. Jade had just put the scissors to her throat when Trina tackled her. They both fell to the ground and Trina quickly pinned Jade. The first thing she did after that was to pull the scissors out of Jade's hand and toss them in the lake.

"Jesus fucking Christ, what the hell are you doing Jade. You think that ending your life, will solve anything. Just how fucking stupid are you? That's never the answer and you should know that." Trina yelled as she got off of Jade.

"I messed up Trina. I hurt her and I never meant to. She's….." That's all Jade was able to say before she completely melted down. Jade's whole body started to shake and seemed to have trouble breathing.

"I…I…I…having an Anxiety…" Jade blurted out as she collapsed into Trina's arms.

Trina quickly realized she needed to get Jade some help and was having some kind of anxiety attack. She would worry about her sister later. Right now she had to start undoing some of the damage her gank sister had caused.

She carried Jade to her car and took her to the hospital. It must have been a slow night in the ER as Jade was seen very quickly. The doctor said she was suffering a severe Anxiety attack. He admitted her for the night and gave her sedative to help her sleep for a few hours.

Trina waited by Jades bed but did let, Cat, Andre and Robbie know. Cat and Andre showed up about a half an hour later. Trina said she saw Jade at Karaoke Dokie and saw her have some kind of attack or seizure in the parking lot. She then said Jade was diagnosed with a anxiety attack.

"She has those on occasions. She doesn't like people knowing about it. It doesn't happen very often but sometimes Jade just freaks out. " Cat sad as she stroked the sleeping Jade's hair as they all stood in Jade's room.

"I've barely heard from her in the last few weeks. Kind of unlike Tori. What Gives?" Andre asked.

Trina wasn't sure if she should tell, part of her really wanted to. "I'm not sure what's wrong with vampira here, but my sister is just working a lot. When she comes home she's usually very tired and just stays in her room. She'll call you in a few weeks and things will be back to normal."

Andre gave her a look indicating that he didn't quite believe the story but otherwise just nodded.

"Where is Tori, Anyway? I figured she'd be here." Cat asked.

Trina thought quickly. "She said she had a migraine at dinner and went to bed. Hers get pretty bad sometimes and I didn't want to disturb her. I'll let her know in the morning what happened."

"Do you want us to stay?" Andre asked.

Trina wanted to speak to Jade alone. "No, As much as I hate spending time with this dark cloud, I'll make sure she's ok. You guys can go home. I brought her here."

"You sure?"

"I'll regret this, but Yes, go home."

They then said their goodbyes to the sleeping Jade and left. Trina just sat reading a 3 year old issue of Elle that she found in the waiting room down the hall. But her mind was on Tori. She knew that Jade seriously burned Tori. So much so, that Tori had a little breakdown and became a cold heartless bitch. But then Jade breaks up with Beck and falls apart.

"What in the fuck is going on?" Trina said to herself.

An hour and a half later, Trina spotted Jade's eyes flip open. She jumped off her chair and walked to Jade's bed.

Trina got right in Jade's face and began to speak in rather harsh tones. "You are and always have been a royal pain in the ass, do you know that Jade? You're like this dark cloud that just hangs over everything. But I thought you were smart. Instead I find you, about to cut your own throat with a pair of scissors. I'm not sure who's more nuts you or my sister. You're both driving me up the wall. So for starters don't ever try that suicide shit again. That was the stupidest fucking thing I've ever seen you do. AND I DON'T WANT TO SEE IT EVER AGAIN! GOT IT?"

Jade nodded.

Trina stepped back a bit. "Ok I believe you you're sorry. For what its' worth, what my sister did tonight was across the line for me. I'm sorry she did that to you. Ok, now you are going to tell me what happened and don't leave out any details. I want to know exactly what the fuck is going on. From where it started to your little anxiety attack tonight."

Jade nodded again and spend half an hour explaining in every detail what happened. Trina sat down, paying close attention and with only an occasional question listened to Jade's story. When Jade finished, Trina remained silent for a moment as she closed her eyes to think.

Then she sprang out of her chair and threw up her arms. "God you're both total fucking idiots. Oh and by the way, she was messing with you about being with another woman. When I left, she was in her room and if she was going out I would have heard the shower and I didn't."

"I'm sorry." Jade said in return.

"I know you are Jade. It's not 100% your fault."

Jade looked puzzled. "Huh?"

"My parents marriage is breaking up. They've been fighting more and more. There's tension galore in our household. Not to mention Tori's bedroom is right next to my parents and she hears most of their arguments. It's put a lot of stress on her."

Jade's jaw dropped. "I didn't know."

"Of course you didn't know. Tori is or at least used to be a person who didn't want to bother others with her problems. But that said. I told Cat, Andre and Robbie I found you in the parking lot having an anxiety attack and took you here. That's all I said. I further said my sister had a migraine and couldn't come. Are you going to tell them anything?"

Jade shook her head. "No"

Trina thought again and made a decision. "You two boneheads are just going to destroy each other unless something changes and I'm going to half to pull your buts out of the fire. So I'll help you."

Jade closed her eyes as a look of relief crossed her face. "Thank you."

"But there will be a price." Trina said.

Jade could only imagine what Trina would want for her help. "What?"

"Remember when I said you were going to paint my toenails a few weeks ago. When this whole bet nonsense started?" Trina said with a devious smile.

Jade had a sinking feeling. "Yes."

"You'll be doing that, when I come by tomorrow night and help you win Tori's heart back. You want Tori's heart back and I want my sister back. It's a small price to pay. Are you Game?"

"Yes" Jade said instantly. That was how desperate she was to win Tori's heart back. She would do anything, if it meant painting the horrible Trina's toenails than she would do it.

Well, Jade has pretty much hit bottom and Tori has just turned plain mean. But on the plus side, Trina has had enough and has agreed to help Jade. But with a small price.

Here is a question. Trina kind of wants to tell Andre, Robbie and Cat what's going on. Do you think she should?