"Come on," Vinnie said, grabbing my arm and pulling me out the front door. I didn't fight her.

"Where are we going?" I asked. My back was throbbing something fierce and I wondered if I was going to have lines like Vinnie did.

"Fire pit." She whirled around to face me. "You hide it," she ordered. "Don't let anyone know how much it hurts." She dropped my arm and strode around the house and into the backyard where the barn was. We passed several people working on the house, painting and nailing. They each greeted us as we approached.

"Good morning, high priestess, priestess."

Vinnie made sure to slow down and smile at each one, saying, "Good morning." I followed suit, but my words were more mumbled than hers. After the second mumble, she turned around and glared at me meaningfully. I straightened up and tried harder after that. By the time I spoke to the fifth woman, I may have even managed to fool her.

When we reached the fire pit back behind the barn, Vinnie looked all around and then let out a deep breath. "Ok, you can relax now. They aren't allowed back here, but they can still see us," she said.

"So what if they know?" I asked. She whirled around and looked like she was going to hit me again. I held my hands up in a placating gesture. "No, seriously. Why does it matter if they know or not? Don't they know what she does to you, to us?"

"God, you are so stupid! How did you manage to stay alive this long?" Vinnie exclaimed, throwing her hands up in the air and pacing in front of me. She flipped her black braids back over her shoulder.

"Vinnie!" I started.

"Don't call me that!" she screamed at me.

"I'm sorry," I said, still trying to calm her down. "Vincentia, I just don't understand..."

She strode toward me, but I held my ground until she was right up in my face. She whispered furiously at me, her eyes full of tears, "They don't know. If they knew, they might try to stop it, and you know what that means?" I kind of leaned back and shook my head. She pushed me away from her and then whirled back around to stalk back towards the pit. "That means an angry goddess, and the angry goddess kills the followers who displease her."

My mouth dropped open, and I jogged after Vinnie, ignoring the soreness in my back. I caught up to her and put my hand on her shoulder. "If she kills them, why do they stay?" I demanded, afraid of the answer.

"They don't know that she kills them," Vinnie said, then hugged herself with her arms. Tears filled her eyes. "They think she sends them away, but she doesn't. She burns them for the power it gives her. Don't anger the goddess." She was sobbing now, and she couldn't stop. I tried to wrap my arms around her to comfort her, but she shoved me away. "Don't," she snapped, her mouth twisting. "Don't you know it makes it harder to stop when someone... when someone is... nice to you?" She walked away from me, and I let her go, my mind reeling.

She sat down next to the pit and dropped her legs in, using her apron to wipe her face. I left her alone to collect herself and checked on myself. Gabby had laid that rod down hard across my shoulders and upper back, but she'd been beating me over a thick embroidered shirt and a thick vest. Yeah, I was sore, but my back didn't hurt any worse than my butt did after a spanking. I probably didn't even have any marks from it. I thought about what Vinnie said about Gabby killing the followers who displease her for their power. Something didn't seem right about it, but I couldn't put my finger on it.

But Vinnie was sliding to her feet now, dropping the apron to cover her skirt. I stopping thinking and went to stand next to her. "What are we doing first?" I asked her.

Thus began one of the most frustrating days in my entire life. Vinnie tried to teach me; she really did. She tried to explain how to make the tendrils smaller and how to throw a fireball, but I just couldn't get it. She went on to making a fire without burning the thing the fire was on and forcing a stream of fire, hoping I'd be able to get something, anything, but I couldn't do what she wanted. I just didn't have the kind of fine control that she did over her fire. We started and stopped the fire in the fire pit over and over.

We didn't go to lunch and we didn't take any breaks, although the acolytes brought us bottled water a few times. By the time the sun dropped behind the horizon, Vinnie's furnace was empty. She threw her hands in the air she burst out, "What is wrong with you? You have no control, no finesse. You just push fire at things, and they light. You can't do anything, and you can't learn. Why does she want you as the high priestess? Why? You're an idiot! What use are you?"

It was a mistake. I was just as frustrated as she was, and I'd spent the day listening to her make similar snide remarks under her breath, pretending not to hear them. I shoved her away from me. "You know why she wants me to be her high priestess?" I demanded. "It's because after an entire day of practicing with my fire, you're empty and I can still do this!" I turned to the fire pit and threw my fire into it. All the wood in the pit burst into flames at once, exploding outward from the pressure of the flame I'd thrown into it. Fiery wood and clods of dirt and grass flew up ten feet up into the air from the explosion. Vinnie gasped and jumped backwards as they tumbled back to the earth. One of the pieces of wood came straight at my head and I grabbed onto it with my tendril, pushing into it until the wood poofed into hot ash and fluttered harmlessly to the ground around me. Pulling the fire back into me, I stared at Vinnie who watched me with wide eyes. "She wants me because I have power," I growled at her.

Vinnie's lower lip trembled. "But why do you want her?"

I didn't have an answer for her, so I dropped my eyes and didn't say anything. Before either of us could do anything else, a bell started ringing.

"Shit," Vinnie said. "That's the dinner bell." At the look of annoyance and confusion on my face, she continued. "We can't miss dinner and we'll have to meet up with Gabby afterward. Come on."

I kept my mouth shut and followed after her dejected figure. I felt bad for her, but what could I do? I'd tried, and believe it or not, I'd wanted to learn. As we got closer to the house, Vinnie straightened up and molded her face into that serene expression that I was finally realizing was a mask that she hid behind to keep Gabby's followers as safe as she could. Sometimes I really am an idiot. I followed her example, swearing to myself that I wouldn't let Gabby kill anyone if I could possibly help it.

Dinner was very similar to breakfast, except there was no sacrificial bread before we ate. We stood in a line before the fireplace and sang the song, or at least the rest of them did. I hadn't learned it yet. Gabby appeared out of thin air, praised us, and then led us into dining room where we waited for her to sip her coffee before we began eating. After dinner, we were summoned to her den again.

"Well, what did you learn?" she demanded as we stood with bowed heads in front of her. I glanced at Vinnie and she glanced back at me.

"My goddess," I began. "I am so sorry, but I was not able to..."

"Silence!" Gabby shouted. I snapped my mouth shut. "You have wasted an entire day..."

"We tried," I interrupted and she swung her arm at me, knocking me to the ground. Then she grabbed my blouse and pulled me up until I was dangling from her arm by the shirt, my toes barely touching the ground.

"You dare interrupt your goddess?" she demanded. She shoved herself into me then, forcing open my furnace and tearing through me. I screamed and screamed, the pain in my head and in my belly too much for me to bear. I blacked out.

When I opened my eyes, I was staring at a single bulb in the ceiling and someone was weeping off to my right. My head was throbbing, my insides felt raw, and my stomach was upset. I tried to open my furnace, and it hurt so bad it made me want to scream. It took me a second to remember everything, and once I did, I sat up, taking in the bare white walls and gray tiled floor. I was a little dizzy, my eyes not able to keep up with my head movements. I slowed down and looked to the right to find Vinnie curled in a ball in the corner. I struggled to my knees and crept over to her.

"Hey, you ok?" I asked, putting my hand on her shoulder. She shrieked and jerked away from me, but I didn't let her. I touched her shoulder again. "Are you ok? What happened?"

"She did the same thing to me as she did to you," Vinnie whimpered. "But I didn't pass out. Lucky."

"I don't think it's lucky I passed out," I muttered. "I've never felt that kind of pain before."

"Get used to it," Vinnie said. She turned accusing eyes on me. "Why'd you have to interrupt her anyway?"

I sighed. "Maybe I am the idiot you keep calling me." I leaned back against the wall and started undoing my braids. "Sam and Dean are always telling me I need to work on keeping my temper."

Vinnie stopped hugging her knees and leaned against the wall across from me. She played with the end of her braids. "Stick around. You can't help but learn here."

"I dunno," I sighed. "Sometimes it feels like the furnace inside me feeds my temper, like once I start getting mad, that's it. I can't count the number of times I got in trouble for it." Vinnie didn't say anything; she just unbraided her own hair, staring at her lap. I looked at her. "Why do you stay?"

Vinnie rolled her eyes at me. "And where the hell am I gonna go?" she asked.

"Somewhere else?" I suggested. "This is no way to live."

"What do you know about it?" she growled at me.

I pulled my legs up to my chest. "Vincentia," I said. "I don't want to be her priestess, and I don't think you should be either."

Vinnie looked at the door in alarm. "Shut up. Don't say things like that here!" she hissed at me.

I slid the short space to the door and lay down on my side, peering under it. We were locked in a closet, and the room outside was mostly dark, but I could tell by the light of the moon through the windows that there was no one anywhere near the door. From the placement of the windows, I'd guess we were in the basement. I sat back up. "No one's out there."

Vinnie closed her mouth buried her head in her knees. I took a chance and scooted over to her. She didn't resist when I slid an arm over her shoulders. Instead, she burst into tears and clutched me to her, soaking the front of my vest in her tears. I held her for a long time until her tears wound down. I stroked her hair. "It's going to be ok, Vinnie,"

Vinnie started crying again. "Please don't call me that," she whimpered. "My parents used to call me that."

My eyebrows went up. "What happened to them?" I asked.

"Nothing," she replied and lapsed into silence.

I made a decision then. I was going to get out of here, and I was going to take her with me when I went. I couldn't leave her here. "My parents are dead," I whispered. "Over a year ago, I woke up to my house on fire. My parents burned in their beds, but I didn't. I was completely immune, and I walked out. I thought I killed them for a long time."

"You didn't?" Vinnie whispered.

"No. It turned out that I had the furnace deep inside me and eventually, it probably would have opened on its own, but Gabby wasn't sure it would and wouldn't wait. Once she found out about me, she used the last little bit of her powers to basically rip the cover off. She caused the house fire that killed my parents. Then she hunted me and tried to trick me to serve her, lying to me the whole time. I fell for it, hook, line, and sinker. If it weren't for Sam and Dean, I'd've been at her mercy a long time earlier."

Vinnie frowned. "What are you doing here now, then?" she asked.

I flushed and looked away. "Stupidity."

Vinnie chewed her lip. "Will you tell me if I tell you what happened with me?"

I thought about it. Without Vinnie's help, I didn't have much of a chance of getting out of here. If I told her, she could turn me over to Gabby, though, and Gabby might kill me. Or she might hurt me so bad I wished I was dead. I shook my head. "I can't," I said. She dropped her head so I couldn't see her face, but I could see the tears dropping and splattering on her apron. "Unless you promise to help me," I said against my better judgment.

Vinnie looked up at me, her face earnest. "I promise," she said. "If there's any chance of me getting out of here, I promise."

I put my finger to my lips and lay down to look under the door again. Still no one was there. I took a breath and sat back up, scooting close to her and dropping my voice as low as I could. "I have a way to kill her," I whispered. "But we didn't know where she was. I was worried she'd somehow come after Sam and Dean and kill them, so I took off the ring so I could find out where she was. Now that I know, I just need to get back to them and we can get rid of her, but I can't get away without that ring and I have no idea where it is."

Vinnie chewed on her lip. She was only a year younger than me, but she looked a lot younger than that just then. "It's in the locked room," she whispered. "It with all the other stuff that she takes from her new followers. You can't get in there without the key, though, and even I don't know where that is."

I sighed."What about a phone?" I asked. "If I could get to a phone, then I could call in reinforcements."

Vinnie gave me a half smile. "There's one in the den, in the drawer of Gabby's desk. We can get to that, as long as we know where she is."

"I guess that's the first thing we need to do, then, get to that phone."

Vinnie leaned against me again. "We should get some sleep," she said. "Tomorrow's going to be a hard day."

"What's with the light?" I asked. "Can we turn it off?"

Vinnie shook her head. "It's to punish us more. We have to sleep with it on."

I snorted. It was going to hurt, but we needed the rest. "Scoot away from it," I said, and we both scooted backwards until our backs were against the door. Bracing myself, I opened my furnace and extended a tendril towards the light, pain searing through my body. I winced, struggling not to scream until I finally touched the light bulb, pushing just a little. The bulb melted and dripped onto the floor, plunging us into darkness, except for the faint glow around me as I pulled the tendril back into me, the pain fading with my glow.

In pitch blackness, we rested against the door for a while. It was wooden and I could've burned us out, but that wouldn't have helped our cause. Tomorrow we were going to have to pretend to be good little priestesses while we waited for our chance to get to the phone. Trying to flee now would just get us killed.

Vinnie was still leaning on me, and her breathing had evened out. I started to think she'd fallen asleep when she started whispering. "My parents think I was kidnapped, but I wasn't. I went with Gabija of my own free will, and it was such a stupid reason." She paused, her breath hitching a little. "I met her at the LIthuanian-American club and she seemed really nice. She kept telling me that she thought I had the potential to become something great, but I didn't believe her. I thought she was just being nice to me because my parents wouldn't let me do anything." She lapsed into silence.

"What do you mean?" I murmured after a second.

"I was born with a hole in my heart," she scoffed. "It wasn't a big deal and it closed on its own after a while, but my parents were so over protective because of it. They wouldn't let me do anything. I couldn't even take phys ed at school. Then they did something I thought was unforgivable. There was a field trip to a rope climbing course and I was so excited to go, but they wouldn't sign the permission slip, no matter how hard I begged. All my friends were going and it was going to be so much fun. I hated them for not letting me go." She sighed. "They tried to make it up to me."

"They took you to an art museum, didn't they?" I asked, remembering the article about her abduction. "And Gabby showed up."

She nodded, her head moving up and down against my shoulder. "I didn't want to go to a dumb museum. I wanted to go on the rope climbing course. So my parents were looking at the art and I was just looking for a way out. I told them I had to go to the bathroom and left them in front of some painting of some old guy. Then I just left. Gabija showed up and offered me a place with her again. She said she wouldn't coddle me, that I could do anything I wanted." She snorted ruefully. "She certainly doesn't coddle me. God, I was so stupid. A couple days later, I saw them crying on the television for me. I felt so bad, but it was too late. She'd already done the ritual that made it so I could set fires. I couldn't go back to them, then."

"You were lucky," I whispered. "She killed four other girls that way, trying to make them into her priestess."

"Yeah, lucky," Vinnie mumbled. "I'd rather be dead."

We both shut up then, the room cold and dark around us. We cuddled together for warmth, and I was just drifting to sleep with my head on one arm and the other over her waist when Vinnie said into the darkness, her voice cracking. "You know, I lied to you before. She doesn't burn the followers who displease her." She swallowed hard. "She makes me do it, as a sacrifice to her."

"Oh, Vinnie," I whispered and this time she didn't object. I hugged her harder as she cried herself to sleep.