Well guys, his is the final stretch of this fanfic left with 2-3 chapters. I hope I can finish it this weekend and I've already started the sequel so hopefully I can get the first chapter of that posted this weekend too. Thank you all for sticking with me and my story! :)

**Claire**

My phone buzzes, rudely jolting me awake. I sigh when I see the time on my clock; 3:15 a.m. Really, couldn't whatever it was wait till the sun was at least up? Yes, I decide, it could and I let it buzz until it falls silent and I drop back into the warm comfort of my bed. But, immediately, it resumes its annoying call, I guess it was useless to try to get some sleep in this town.

"What?" I snap, angrily punching the button to talk on my phone.

"Claire," Amelie's cool voice answers. "Is this a bad time?"

"A bad time?" I repeat in disbelief. "Amelie its three thirty in the morning! What couldn't wait until you know the sun was up?

"I apologize," She says sounding insincere. "But this is quite important."

"Well tell me already!"

"Shane has been detained. And Jason was disposed of while trying to escape after several rebels attacked us on the way to prison."

"What?" I ask, so shocked that all traces of exhaustion evaporate. "Jason's dead? Seriously?"

"What reason would I have to lie? I killed him myself. We were willing to give them both leniency, several decades in prison, but once I was distracted and had recaptured Shane, he tried to run. I had no choice but to kill him, he was always going to be a problem."

"Meaning it was convenient to kill him." I say not bothering to hide my disgust.

"No, I mean what I said. He was never going to be on my side, not fully. He would always switch sides when it suited him."

"So you just decided to kill him, because like I said, it was convenient for you."

"If you insist on putting it like that then yes," Amelie says her growing impatience clear. "It needed to be done eventually, and the situation was convenient."

"I can't believe this!" I practically shout, outraged. "You can't just decide things like that! Jason was a creepy jerk yeah, but now my best friend has basically no family! And who's to say that a couple of decades in prison wouldn't have changed him, huh? You can't know that!"

"I can do as I wish Claire," She says voice cool and laced with a barely hidden power. "It is my town no matter what you and the other residents want to believe, all final decisions are mine. I hold everyone's lives in my hand, including yours Miss. Danvers and I suggest you remember that."

"Are you threatening me?" I ask coldly.

"Yes," She says simply, stunning me. "I am thoroughly done with the behavior of everyone in this town, including you and your friends. Be careful Claire, be very careful."

"After all that I've done for you and this damned town you're going to do this?" I ask still in disbelief and my anger close to the boiling point.

"Yes, I will. You are a valuable asset to this town Claire, but make no mistake; you are dispensable and can be replaced." And with that, she hangs up.

"Well shit." I say staring down at my phone. I could tell it was going to be a very long day.

**Eve**

My world was never ending pain with brief moments of painless bliss when I managed to drift away. They all thought I was unconscious, unaware of what was going on around me, but they were wrong. I could hear things, like how people whispered about how I might die and how I even heard my mother crying. I just couldn't move, no matter how badly I wanted to, the best I could do was my make my fingers twitch, and that felt like running a marathon. I can also taste, when they feed me after forcing my mouth open, but it doesn't give me any strength, it doesn't ease the pain.

I know things aren't looking good for me, but I definitely don't want to die. Sure there are times when the white hot, pure agonizing, all-encompassing pain intensifies, and all I want to do is scream, but my lips won't work, my voice won't come. Then I wish for death briefly, I just want the pain to end, I just don't want to feel like my entire body is being stabbed repeatedly by multiply knives while I'm set on fire and my skin is peeled with a potato peeler, but that intensity of pain doesn't usually last long, thank God.

I don't know how long I have been like this, but it feels like years. The last thing I remember is a crazy guy hopping through my bedroom window while I was taking a nap and stabbing me. Things get pretty hazy after that, I vaguely remember being tied up, and seeing Claire, but after that is blackness. I don't think Michael is doing much better.

"Eve," A cool voice suddenly says, surprising me. It's Amelie. Why the heck was she here? "I do not know if you can hear me but I have a message from your brother," Jason, since when were he and Amelie besties? "He is dead. But he told me to tell you something." I briefly go numb. Jason was dead? How why? What the hell did he have to tell me?

"He said that he was sorry and the he did not blame you for anything, that it was not your fault that he turned out the way he was. He said he loved you and then, I quote, that you're my mother could burn in hell with him."

Jason said he loved me? He apologized? Maybe, there was still some good in him after all. The thought brings a cool tear down my cheek. And that last part was pure Jason, at least the Jason I knew. Maybe there was more to him then I and everyone had thought.

"My message is delivered and I see that you hear. Get well soon, young Eve."

And she leaves, leaving me alone with my pain, misery and regret.