Chapter Seven: Morally InCorrect

A shiver ran down her spine as she caught sight of the bundle on her bed. What the hell were those?

She stepped closer and her eyes widened.

With pursed lips she looked down at the offending package, trying to decide what to do. Gaige could throw out the creepy flowers without making a huge deal out of it, or she could get Caleb or somebody to throw them out. She was inclined to be swayed in neither direction and just stood there, beside her bed, glaring at them.

They really were creepy.

A bouquet of wilted, dead, creepy red roses lay on her bed, resting on her pillow. She didn't know how or when they got there, but she had a feeling of the why they were put there; only one word was needed to explain the creepin' roses - Chase. Who else would leave her freaky flowers? No one!

Well, Pogue's mother hadn't exactly taken a liking to her - she was definitely a possibility. But not a strong one. Seriously, why would either of the Parry's have sent her eerie flowers? So what, they didn't like her; that didn't mean they were ready to send her death omens; right?

She shook her head and rolled her eyes. Even if Chase - or one of the Parry couple - had sent them, they were just flowers. It's not like they were about to kill her.

Gaige reached down to grab the flowers and just as she was about to wrap her hand around the base of the stems, she screamed and stumbled backwards, falling flat on her butt in her hurry to get away.

Within mere seconds, Reid - who was probably the nearest by - raced into the room, eyes ablaze. "Gaige? Gaige?"

He spotted her cowering against the back wall, farthest from her bed. "What happened? Are you okay?" His hands rest on her shoulders, trying to gather her attention, but her glassy brown eyes were focused on the bed. Her lips stuttered and moved to form words, but no sound came out. "What?" he asked again, but received no reply. He turned and followed her gaze to the bed. "Holy fuck!"

From that single bouquet of a dozen wilted roses, hundreds of black and brown spiders had appeared, crawling all over the flower's stems and petals, even going as far to cover her pillow and bedding. They spread like wildfire over her purple and blue comforter, turning the blankets a disgusting shade of writhing, moving brown and black within less than a minute.

"What the hell are those?" Caleb asked from the doorway, pushing a shuddering Sarah behind him.

The blonde still remembered her senior year's spider massacre, where they had invaded her mind, body, even her dreams. Those spiders had almost killed her best friend, and she wasn't exactly happy to relive the experience.

"Spiders, dumb ass, what does it look like?" Reid retorted cockily, despite his shaken up demeanor. The shakiness of his voice was enough to tell Gaige that yes, even the big, bad, Billy Idol-blond was scared, too.

Tyler entered the room next and shoved Caleb aside, going to stand beside his two best friends. "What happened?" he asked semi-calmly, hoping to restore some order to the bedroom.

Gaige glanced warily between the spiders and her friends, thankful that the spiders hadn't yet gotten off the bed. Apparently, they had boundaries in spider-etiquette.

Caleb asked Ty's question again, and she swallowed, trying to go over exactly what had happened.

Pogue had driven them home - to the Danver's mansion, at least - then she'd snuck up the stairs to her bedroom, attempting to avoid being called into the parlor to visit with the elder Covenant members as much as possible.

She entered her bedroom.

She saw the flowers.

She reached for the flowers.

Spiders attacked.

She screamed.

"Who the fuck would do creepy shit like this? It's so.." Gaige trailed off, knowing exactly who would do this. There was only one person; one candidate that would stoop so low as to attempt to frighten her and the Sons with dark magic.

"Chase," Caleb growled angrily before letting his eyes flash black. The spiders all shriveled up and disappeared at his command, withering away and leaving no mess.

All that was left was the sick, twisted bouquet of dead roses.

Gaige clenched her jaw and her fists in tandem. Of course; Chase. He was making his reappearance, all healed up from last week's escapade.

She wanted to scream again. Couldn't they go just one day without his trouble? No. Every day that passed had to be tainted with the Power, whether she liked it or not. What had started out as a great day was quickly turning into a shitty mess. Unknowingly, she let out a soft whimper - almost of pain - alerting the Sons occupying her room to her stress.

"Hey," Caleb comforted, stepping forward with an arm stretched out, almost as if to embrace her. She pushed him away with a growl, but his solid form didn't stumble or fall back.

"No. This isn't - no! This isn't okay!" she exclaimed, flinging her hands about wildly. "Things aren't supposed to go this way! Couldn't I have just one normal day?"

Her brother's eyes softened upon her and he once again reached out for her. "Gaige, we can figure this all out. Chase'll be dealt with and then everything will go back to normal. We just need time."

"Too bad 'we' doesn't include me. I'm sick of this, Caleb; isn't this about me? Shouldn't I get to know what's going on?"

"Yeah," he paused. "You will."

"I will? I should know now. I can help - I'm not going to screw things up in the Covenant; I'm part of it! Don't I get a say? Don't I get to know what the plan is?"

The elder Danvers stayed silent. He didn't know how to answer that - it wasn't his decision to lock her out of the meetings. He didn't have the right to allow her in, either, though. Caleb's eyes shifted back to where Sarah stood with a fleeting glance. She should get to know, too, shouldn't she? The wives of the Fathers were part of the Covenant. He and Sarah were obviously getting married, and she knew the secret already, so what was holding her back?

The blonde girl's eyes were dead set on her boyfriend's - no matter how lacking that word sounded compared to her feelings for Caleb - sister's face. They'd fought about the meetings once before, and it was a weighty topic. Both of them wanted to join in, but one of them hadn't been allowed to attend.

What the brunette girl didn't know was that Sarah had been invited to the meeting; she just hadn't attended, out of courtesy for the person that should've been invited - Gaige.

"There is no plan, Gaige." Reid spoke up from behind her.

She whirled to face him and looked between him, Ty, and Caleb. "What - no plan? You mean - that meeting..." Her eyebrows furrowed. If they hadn't been discussing a plan, what had they been discussing?

"Reid, don't-" Tyler whispered hoarsely.

From the corner of her eye, she could see Caleb shaking his head at Reid. She glared at the blond. "What? What is it? What aren't you telling me?"

"The meeting wasn't about Chase, Gaige. It was about you. They don't think you're stable..."

Her head snapped up. "They don't think I'm stable, or you don't think I'm stable?" she hissed harshly, eyeing the three of them. Wait, three? Where the hell was Pogue, anyway?

"It's not like that, and you know it. There's more to it than that; you know you've been a little out of whack lately." Caleb rushed to say, attempting to soothe and failing.

"Then what exactly is it like, Golden Boy? Please, enlighten me."

His mouth opened to respond, and for a moment - she thought he just might do that. But as the seconds passed, she realized that he wasn't going to. None of them were. Her glance wavered between Tyler, Reid and her brother - Sarah knew none of this, either - and they all shied away from her gaze.

She huffed and pulled away from the group, glaring the whole time, and pushed past Sarah as she hurried away from her bedroom.

Tyler called out after her and followed her out of the bathroom but she stopped and whirled around to face him, planting a hand against his chest. "Leave me alone!" Gaige growled, Using to shove him back and away from her.

He hit the wall with a loud smack and stared at her retreating back in shock. What if the fathers were right, and Gaige really was unstable? Ty couldn't believe it at first; but she'd just shoved him into a wall with the Power. Would the Gaige he knew have done that?

The youngest Danvers sprinted down the hall to the only place she knew she'd be safe - Pogue's room.

Sure, it was predictable; running to the strapping young man like a lame version of a damsel in distress - but Gaige had nowhere else to go. She had no friends outside of the Covenant, and the Danvers were her only family. She didn't have the money to run away and she couldn't get the keys to any of the Danvers family cars; hot wiring with the Power was no longer an option after she'd accidentally blown up a car's engine once.

And it's not like he'd be in there anyway. He was probably still downstairs, chatting it up with his freaky parents - maybe. If he'd heard her scream wouldn't he have come running? Yes. So he was probably down the stairs still, she thought.

Gaige didn't want to decide if that was a good thing or a bad thing. She was a little peeved that Reid had been the one to tell her the fathers thought she was unstable and not Pogue, but part of her wanted him to say she wasn't crazy - to tell her that she wasn't unstable, she was perfectly normal, or as normal as a damned to Hell witch could be. The brunette girl wanted his comfort, she wanted to get mad at him, and she wanted to hide from everyone else. The last of the three seemed like the best choice for now.

She went into the guest room that he'd occupied for most of his life and shut the door behind her. It was a mess. Clothes were everywhere, food and garbage were strewn about, and it smelled like sweat, leather and cologne. There was a faint scent of oil coming from under his bed, but Gaige wasn't about to search it out. She climbed atop the bed, ignoring the bowl of stale popcorn, and crawled under the heavy blankets.

The bed smelled like him, too, like that cigar smoke that seemed to trail behind him everywhere he went combined with the smell of strong alcohol, like whiskey. Gaige rolled over and buried her face in his pillow, allowing a few tears to slip out before falling asleep, completely exhausted from that single, tiny Use of Power against Tyler.

Pogue had to clench his fists and lock his jaw to keep himself from releasing a growl and letting his Power destroy the entire Danvers estate.

He could not believe those idiots; what had Reid been thinking, telling her all of that? If she really were unstable, then telling her so wouldn't help any. The biker wasn't sure she was unstable. Sure, she wasn't entirely normal, but none of them were - they were witches with magical powers that could be traced back to before the move to the New World.

With a sigh he stepped up the stairs and into the room he'd stayed in for most of his life; the room Tyler had watched Gaige run to.

"Gaige?" he half-murmured, unable to see her anywhere in the room because the lights were off. He almost turned them on, but when she didn't reply he hesitated. She could be sleeping, or something.

He'd witnessed her sleep for hours at a time but still be exhausted; the fathers suspected the Power took it out of her, draining her body of its energy. They theorized it was the reason she needed her 'twelve hours'.

He stumbled into the bedroom, tripping over the clothes and garbage he had left about the messy room. When he arrived at the bed, he let his hands trail over the bedding in hopes of locating her under the massive amount of fabric. Pogue's fingers encountered a mess of her curls, strewn over his pillow. He smiled.

She rolled over and blinked her sleep-ridden eyes at him. "Pogue? D'you think I'm-" Her voice faltered and in that moment, Pogue hated Reid and the fathers for making her doubt herself. "Am I unstable?"

"I don't know, Babe." He shook his head, hoping she wouldn't ask again. He didn't want to lie to her, but he'd hate for her to know the truth.

The brunette sat up against his head board and he followed suit. Pogue's eyes were focused on the dark, blurry shape of her face, and he was willing to bet her eyes were focused on the wall across from the bed.

"Chase left me fucked up flowers." she said simply, toying with her finger idly as she thought.

His fists clenched tighter, sending his fingertips digging into his palms. "How sweet of him," Pogue said bitterly.

"I think he's trying to woo me."

"Is it working?" he asked sharply, acid lacing his tone, although it wasn't meant to be directed at her.

Gaige spun to face him, eyes flashing like midnight diamonds in the dark. "What? You think - you think I'd actually fall for him?"

He shook his head again. "I honestly don't know anymore. Our world's so messed up, it's nuts." His hand reached up to hold her face and angled it towards him better. "Chase is a monster. He is sick. Addiction rattled his brains. Don't let anything he says or does get to you, alright?"

"Mmm," she agreed, eyes focused on something behind him. Pogue glanced back, but there was nothing there. "So," she began, looking straight back at him with heavily-lidded eyes, "There's no plan, then?"

The brunette biker sighed and shook his head. "The Fathers are being all indecisive; they aren't even sharing their plans with us. Fucking secretive bastards; hell," he murmured unhappily, rubbing at a tense spot between his brows, "I doubt the Moms even know. Ty's mom is all jumpy.. But she's kinda always been that way."

She nodded along, noting the ease in which he changed the subject effortlessly. If there was one thing Gaige knew how to do after seventeen and a half years of being lied to, it was how to detect a lie. Pogue was definitely keeping something from her, and she was about to find out what. "Really? Hmmm. That's interesting. She must know the same thing about their plan that you do."

"Wh-what? I don't-" he cut himself off, growling as he threw his head into his clenched fists. "Things aren't going good, Gaige." Pogue mumbled through his hands, causing the words to come out slightly muffled. "They're considering things that aren't ethical." His hands flew away from his face, flinging about wildly as he grew more and more frustrated. "The whole reason for the Covenant was because of stuff like that - doing things that needed to be done, but weren't exactly right. We strut around thinking we're gods, playing with people's lives - it's not right, and it's why we were cursed in the first place!"

"I never figured you as a morally correct person, Pogo." He rolled his eyes but nonetheless appreciated her subtle way of lightening the tense conversation. "What kinds of things? This time around, I mean; what are the Fathers planning?"

He stiffened and shook his head back and forth. "I never should have mentioned it. I never should have even known about that stuff!"

Her eyebrows knitted together in confusion that he was the cause of. She told him so.

"The others don't know. It was your mom; Evelyn-"

"What about her?" Gaige asked him icily, not enjoying this new topic at all.

"She was worried - about you. She asked me to, ah, find out some stuff about the Fathers. Like what they were planning - without our knowing - to do about Chase." he ground out, spitting the last word cruelly.

Gaige didn't say anything. Evelyn was worried? About her? That was a serious shocker. Mrs. Danvers didn't worry about anyone other than herself and her precious Sons of Ipswich - nowhere in there did that include Gaige. Whatever her mother suspected the Fathers of planning must've been pretty friggin' bad, to worry about it.

"What are they planning, Pogue?" Her words came out soft, hoarse, and whispery in the dark light of the room, making their conversation seem more eerie than it had been just moments ago.

"They want to use Sarah's idea, and put you up as bait. He'll take you to his lair, or whatever, and Ty and Reid will track you on your way there. Caleb and I will meet up with them there and kill Chase while they make a getaway with you..." he trailed off, leaving out mass parts about how the Fathers figured she was so unstable that as soon as Gaige came into contact with Chase again, he'd be able to force her into the world of black magic all too easily, perhaps even killing her if she didn't become of use to him.

He really, really didn't like that plan.

Gaige rolled out of the bed, Using to slip out of Pogue's arms without awakening him.

They'd fallen asleep shortly after he revealed the shit-plan of the morally incorrect Fathers; she had decided to lull him into a sense of false security before ripping it out from underneath him by waking up later, once he'd thought she disapproved of the plan.

Unfortunate, yes. Harsh, yes. Necessary? Absolutely.

He'd kept secrets from her, and she was entirely willing to do the same to him, if it would finish things off once and for all.

Seriously, did he honestly think she would give up that easily? Chase was getting on her last nerve. He was antagonizing her at every corner, going as so far to send her freaky attempts at wooing and send apparitions of himself into Pogue's room.

She shuddered at the memory. Pogo had just been telling her how she couldn't let Chase under her skin, when all of the sudden, right behind his back, there Chase was - grinning and smirking at her like the fucking maniac he was. He was a creep - a creepy creeper that creeped along - that was starting to get under her skin. She couldn't let Pogue know and freak out further, so she tried to hide it, only to flip when he turned to look too.

Except, he hadn't seen the apparition. Not when he turned around to look at him. Not when the apparition stood there for most of their conversation, as though it were listening.

Thankfully, it had drifted away before long and then he'd fallen into a deep, snoring snooze, leaving her to wait until he was knocked cold out. She twisted around to look at him as she made her way for the door and grinned; nope, no movement on the home front. Pogue was long gone.

Soon enough she'd tip-toed out of the room, across the hall, down the stairs, and into the lit study. Three deep, male voices could be heard from inside, arguing over some important life or death matter, but they quieted as she pushed open the door and intruded upon them.

"Good evening, gentlemen." She nodded to each of the three older men, trying to hide the spite she felt grow inside her as she did so to Pogue's dad. Ty's dad - Glenn - smiled at her, eyes crinkling in amusement as he looked over her attire.

She held in an impudent huff. It wasn't her fault she felt the most safe in Pogue's over-sized shirts! Although, Gaige could be to blame for the knee-high socks, but she guessed it was better than what she usually wore to bed.

"Can we be of service to you, child?" Joseph Garwin questioned her, in a polite yet condescending tone. She resisted the urge to slap Reid's smirk off his father's face.

"Actually, yes.."

She closed the doors behind her and stepped further into the study. "I'd like to take you up on that offer - I'll be your bait."

AN: This one always makes me sad; the Sons' betrayal against her had to hurt. How would you feel if your closest friends thought you were insane? Not good, I'd imagine.

Edit: 7/20