Woah.. Okay, wasn't expecting that many reviews so quickly! Thanks so, so much guys! I love you =] And I'm gonna shut up now and get on with it xD

Erik

Erik was sitting in Grandma Redbird's living room. He was staring at a blank TV screen, next to a warm fire that made the room feel very cosy and comfortable. The last few days had literally been hell. He had spent most of his time in here, just sitting, and staring at nothing.

He wished that Zoey - or any one of them, for that matter - would just hurry up and call him already. He was really worried about them, and too scared to ring them in case something big was happening and he would get the blame for spoiling everything in their big, ultimate defeat of Kalona.

So here he was, just sitting, alone with his thoughts. And he had recently discovered that being alone with your thoughts was a very dangerous thing indeed. Everything he did his best not to think of, he thought of. Like Kalona, and how he had somehow managed to hypnotize Erik. Erik could remember with clarity the sensation that had overcome him while Kalona rummaged through his mind. And always at the back of his mind was how he was feeling a trickle of that sensation all over again, several times a day.

Kalona was supposed to be gone, banished, whatever. Erik had sort of assumed that whatever Zoey had done to him had weakened him in some shape or form, but obviously he wasn't weak enough to stay out of Erik's head. And why could he do this? How could he get inside Erik's mind and do whatever he wanted? Was it only Erik he could do this to, or could he do it to anyone? If it were the latter, he should probably warn Zoey.

Zoey. That, right there, was the reason he was so annoyed. Scared. Confused. Angry. While the Kalona problem was cemented at the very back of his mind, Zoey Redbird was what was always at the forefront of Erik's mind.

And he still didn't know what it was exactly that he felt for her. He thought that he loved her, but he didn't know whether it was as a friend or as more than that. And sometimes he just downright hated the girl who haunted his dreams. He loved her because she was beautiful, powerful and totally in control. But he hated her for those reasons too. And for what she had put him through, with Heath in the beginning, always there, clouding every memory - then Loren, probably even worse than Heath, and now with Stark. Even though Erik and Zoey weren't together anymore, it still hurt. Just as Zoey had given up on Stark and had gone back to Erik, Stark returned to her life and planned on permanently staying there, taunting Erik with what he had almost had.

Heath was gone. Loren was gone. The path would have been clear, so to speak, for Erik, but no.

Who would have thought that Erik Night would be so obsessed with one girl, just like that? Because if he was honest with himself, he could admit it. He had always loved Zoey. He had always wanted her. From that first moment when their eyes met that day in the corridor, he knew that there was something special about her - and that was before he saw the filled in Mark. No, he had known that there was just something, well, differentabout Zoey. She had something, and he wanted to know what exactly it was. After knowing her for a couple of months, he still didn't know what that was, but he was still eager to find out.

Erik didn't realize how hard he was clenching his fist until Grandma Redbird came in.

"Erik! What are you doing? Your hand!" she exclaimed, rushing towards him.

He followed her eyes, almost in a dreamlike state, and realized that his hand looked like bone. It was pure white, and even after he unclenched it and relaxed it remained white for some time. "Sorry," he said.

Grandma Redbird studied him closely. "Are you alright, Erik dear?"

He blew out a long breath and nodded. "Yep. I'm fine. Have you heard anything ... ?" he trailed off as Grandma Redbird shook her head sadly. Erik asked that question every five minutes, and the answer was always the same. No, she had not had any contact with Zoey and the others.

Erik nodded again. "Right."

"Well, no news is good news, I suppose."

"Yeah," Erik agreed, not really listening. Because that sensation was coming over him again - Kalona. Whatever Zoey had done, it hadn't worked. Kalona could still get to Erik, still attempt, if not succeed, to hypnotize him.

Great. As if he hadn't been worried enough. Zoey and the others, for all he knew, were in huge trouble. And now Kalona was trying to hypnotize him. What if Kalona was angry about what Zoey had done and wanted to get revenge by using Erik to trap her? Erik didn't want that. Even if he had been hypnotized and it wasn't really his doing, he would still have to live with the guilt of the aftermath for much longer than a normal, non-vampyre person.

Zoey

Now that I actually thought about it, yeah, of course Stark would have been the right choice. I loved Heath. But realistically, what could he do to help us? Remind me of Stark and what I did to him every time I turned around? Because of me, he was trapped in that horrible, horrible place full of Darkness.

And Stark? He could kill people with his mind - kill mortals with his mind, which, admittedly, wouldn't have worked for Kalona. But he could have taken Neferet out of the picture for us! What the hell had I been on? Why hadn't I thought it through before I jumped to conclusions and assumed that Neferet wanted Heath?

Yup, from all the signs she'd given, anyone would have assumed that Neferet was trying to trick me. Anyone with common sense, that is. But common sense, as they say, isn't that common. I knew that I couldn't trust her, but I'd let her trick me, just like she did in Italy. Had I learned from that huge mistake? No. Of course not. Because I suck.

"Zo, did you decide who you're gonna keep here?" Heath asked, getting up from the floor.

Eight pairs of eyes flashed at him and he shut up quickly.

"You picked me? But ... why? I thought ... " he trailed off and my heart squeezed. Why was I such a cruel person? Both Stark and Heath had assumed I would choose the other. They both loved me so much that they were willing to sacrifice themselves for me, and I hadn't given them anything in return.

"She thought Neferet wanted her to keep Stark, so she picked you," Aphrodite said, giving Heath a somewhat dirty look. "But Zoey was, once again, wrongand Neferet actually wanted you to stay here 'cause you can't do anything to help us. No offense," she added after a warning glance from me.

Heath shrugged. "Yeah, I can't do anything, I know. I'm not a vampyre, I can't - wait, am I a vamp now?"

I thought about it. "Well, I guess you would be, wouldn't you? You've got a vampyre's body." As I said it I could feel my throat contracting. Yeah, a vamp's body. Stark's body. How I could even have considered torturing myself by choosing Heath I will never know. I didn't want to turn around and instantly be reminded of Stark and what I subjected him to every five minutes. It was just too much.

"So what do we do now?" Stevie Rae asked. "I mean, we can't get Stark back, can we? No offense Heath, I mean, it's great that you're back and all, it's just that with Stark we might have a slightly better chance of taking Neferet out of the equation, and possibly Kalona, I don't know, but -"

"Yeah, I totally get it, Stevie Rae," Heath interrupted her. "And I agree, we need to give Stark his body back." He looked at me, and seven pairs of eyes followed his steady gaze.

Yup. Once again, everyone said, 'Let Zoey figure it out. She knows what to do.' Well, guess what? I didn't know what to do. I never did. So why the hell did everyone always just assume that I did? Because of the Marks Nyx gave me? They meant virtually nothing. They didn't make me any smarter, wiser more powerful. They were just there. Another feature of my weirdness.

I shouldn't have been the one left in charge of these important decisions. They had all already seen that I never made the right one. So why not just accept that I wasn't Amazing, Perfect Zoey and get on with making the choices themselves? The right ones, no doubt. Because if we knew one thing for sure, it was that I sucked at these things.

So for once, I didn't push that persistent thought to the back of my mind and try desperately to think of something, anything, to satisfy my friends. I just decided to go straight for it and ask them. "Why do you guys bother asking me again and again when you see me making the wrong choices every day?"

They all looked shocked. "Why wouldn't we, Z?" Damien asked quietly. "Sure, you make a couple of wrong decisions now and again, everybody does. But you've got the right intentions. And they always work out for us in the end."

There were faint murmurs of agreement.

"Plus, you've got that whole instinct thing, remember? The sort of gift thing?" Erin added.

For some reason, at that time Erin startled me. I hadn't had much time to think about it properly, but I wasn't really sure that I still had that feeling anymore. I don't know, maybe Nyx transferred it to Stark or something, but I really didn't think that I still had it. I hadn't had a warning for ages . . . That was why I had trusted Neferet in Italy and that was why I was in this dilemma right now. If I had had that feeling in Italy, my best guess is we would have demolished Neferet while banishing Kalona and I would be here now, with my friends and Stark without the obstacle of Neferet in our way. The path would be clear to Kalona.

However, admiring my boldness of asking them the first question, I decided to ignore this hunch and get on with forming a plan. Looking back, yes, I should have told them. But it wasn't a major worry back then. At that time, I knew two things for sure.

One, if we were to get rid of Kalona, we needed to get to Neferet first.

And two, I needed to get Stark back. And fast.

Stark

Although Zoey had chosen Heath like Stark had wanted her to, he couldn't help but feel a little upset. Rejected. But he tried to block out that feeling - it's what had stopped him from saving Zoey's soul and Heath the last time. If he wanted to be a successful, good Warrior, he had to try his best to ignore his feelings for Zoey when he had to and not let them get in his way.

Stark quickly closed his eyes when Zoey whispered, 'I choose Heath,' waiting for that familiar, sinking feeling to overcome him. And it did, just as he had expected. Still, like the last time, he didn't end up in the Otherworld. He was in that place again. Stark's stomach dropped as hopelessness overwhelmed him. He fell, broken, to the floor and just lay there for an unknown unit of time - it could have been seconds, minutes, hours, days. Then, just when all hope had abandoned him, he saw it.

First he thought it was his eyes playing tricks on him - there was no one else here. He was surrounded by Darkness, there was no way that was a light in front of him. How far in front of him he didn't know. It was his eyes - they were still adjusting, that was it. He shouldn't get his non-existant hopes up.

However, as it came closer, he had to accept that what was coming towards him was an admittedly faint, but definite glow. He wasn't scared. He embraced the light. Anything was better than this Darkness.

But as the light came nearer and nearer, it's form rapidly changed. Stark was not frightened of the Darkness anymore; he knew that here he was alone and no one could hurt him. Besides Neferet if she really wanted to, he guessed. But this was either Neferet's doing, in which case, yes, it would definitely hurt him, or it wasn't supposed to be here, which was even worse. What if it was worse than Neferet?

As the light came nearer, it started to resemble a person. A woman.

A woman that Stark recognized as his goddess, Nyx.

"Nyx?" he asked, completely dumbfounded. Was this some sort of dream or hallucination? A trick, even? Because there was no way the goddess that resembled everything about Light could ever be in a place so absorbed in Darkness.

"Hello, Stark," Nyx replied, smiling at him. Her voice sounded like the tinkle of wind chimes.

"What are you doing here?" Stark blurted before he could stop himself. "I - I mean, this is so Dark, and you're so ... not?"

Nyx nodded. "I know. It is a terrible strain for me to be here, if I am honest. Neferet's powers are much stronger than I thought - in some ways, almost equal to mine, but for the wrong reasons."

"I knew she was powerful, but I had no idea it was that much." Stark said quietly.

Nyx smiled sadly. "That is why I decided to come to you. I initially temporarily took away the gift I gave Zoey - the one that helped her know whether something was right or wrong. I had her best intentions at heart, and I wanted her to have the confidence that she could make the right choices without my guidance. However, Zoey has yet to find this confidence. So I passed her gift to you. Zoey, thankfully, took some notice of what you said, but when I gave you the freedom of an opinion untainted by me, you also made the wrong choice, and therefore so did Zoey."

"Wait ... What do you mean?"

"I mean," Nyx stressed, "That Zoey was supposed to save you. Not Heath Luck. Think about it, Stark. You can help them much more than he can. Zoey doesn't know the extent of her own power yet. But if she sets her mind to it, she will be able to take you out of here and bring you back to her. Heath will return to me in the Otherworld, where he rightly belongs."

Stark smiled. "That's great. Then we just need to defeat Kalona."

Nyx's smile faded. "Yes, but there is a time limit."

"What? Why?"

"Neferet set this up. She makes the rules. And she has set a time limit. If you are here for a certain amount of time, you will disappear."

"You mean die?" Stark asked reproachfully.

Nyx shook her head, and her long hair swung sadly with it. "No. You will just disappear. Dissolve into nothingness."

"How long will this take?" Stark was getting very anxious.

"Only Neferet knows that. Besides, it won't have an impact on you. Only on the outside world. There is no time here. You will have no way of knowing."

The tiny flicker of hope that had risen when Stark saw Neferet died out.

"I am very sorry, Stark, but I must leave now. Neferet's power is already so great that it is actually hard for me to remain here. Don't worry, I am confident that Zoey will figure out how to bring you back very soon. And when she does, do not forget to tell her that Kalona will not give in until she is his, or until she is dead. Since I doubt very much that Zoey will willingly go to him, she has no choice but to kill him."

"Does it have to be Zoey?" Stark asked, longing to finish Kalona off himself.

Neferet grimaced. "Yes. To completely defeat Kalona's will, he must know that the woman he loves is the one who will kill him. And he won't believe it until he sees it carried through. Tell Zoey that I am very sorry."

"I will," Stark said as the glow that was Nyx began to shrink. "And - Nyx? Thank you."

Nyx only smiled as she disappeared.

This was just under 3,000 words =] I made it longer because of all the reviews I got, and since I had hardly any free time it took a couple of days longer to update than it should have, so sorry =[

I wrote this while listening to Nigahiga's parody of Like A G6, it's called Like A Good Boy. Youtube it =]

'Get get get get, Get those bottles right now I can recycle those
Taking off my shirt so I can DONATE SOME CLOTHES!' - Nigahiga xP

~TOB
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