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I sighed, making my way out of the office, my desire to support Liam in his argument was no longer present. Perching myself on the bottom step, I placed my head in my hands, wincing as my brain explored possible outcomes of my situation. The present was already troubling, therefore I had no desire to also have the burden of the past and future on my shoulders. I looked up at the sound of a door slamming, I watched rather shyly as Liam closed the office door behind him and after spotting me, made his way over to me, taking a seat on the step beside me.

"What are we gonna do?" I sighed, glancing across at Liam and quickly locking him into my gaze, "I can't lose you now," he nodded, linking our hands, in attempt to comfort me, "Mike doesn't know anything," Liam grinned at me - a grin which I could fight the urge to return. We lingered in an awkward silence for a few moments, until Liam nodded at me, opening his mouth, hopefully to say something useful and not just to spit out a bad joke in order to keep me from breaking down into tears.

"He doesn't own us," I sighed, shaking my head - there was no point pretending. We were care kids, basically owned by the council, "believe me Hayley, he doesn't. Tha's just what' he likes to think," I grinned, but Liam's comment still remained a joke to lift the mood and not what I guessed he had intended it as - an inspiring speech. No, that was too serious for Liam O'Donovan.

I bit my lip, unsure whether to go along with Liam's blatantly false hope or to keep my grip on reality. What would you pick - euphoria, even if you knew it was fake, or reality, even if it was hell? "Mmm..." that was probably the worst response I could have thought of - demoralising, careless and lazy, "yeah," I nodded, beginning to bit my fingernails as I turned back to face Liam. He laughed a little, obviously aware of my skepticality. He leaned forward, making me blush ever so slightly and pressed a kiss to my lips - heaven. I'd picked the fake euphoria and knowing me, I would have made the wrong chance. The one that gave instant benefit, but was complete and utter shit in the long run.

We parted rather reluctantly, still not breaking our gaze as if it was the cord that kept us tied to the cliff we were dangling from, "wanna go out?" I shrugged, slightly puzzled at his sudden decision, watching as he stood up reaching his hand out towards me, "why not? I mean ya migh' not be 'ere that long," I rolled my eyes, taking his hand and standing up beside him, "better enjoy it while it lasts, huh?" I shared a grin with him, as I slipped my feet into my converses. We rushed out the door, keeping the tradition of neglecting informing Mike of our whereabouts. To be honest, I'm sure he had more on his plate when it came to the two of us - double trouble.

We took the usual route into town, arriving at the city centre at approximately five in the afternoon - wait who was I turning into, Gus? Liam entwined his hand with mine, grinning across at me as we made our way to the cafe that we knew so well - this was home. For once in my life everything felt one hundred percent trustworthy and homely, well maybe except Rick, but I'd decided to push him away into the darkest and deepest corners of my mind.

As we walked towards the cafe, we passed through an alley that appeared to be darker than the rest of town. From the moment I saw it, I felt that there was something wrong about this alley, like a keep out sign that was only visible to me, leaving me unsure as to whether it was real or not. My natural instinct was of course to steer well clear of this alley, however Liam appeared to be dragging me towards it. Obviously, that wasn't his initial intention, but in that moment, I really didn't stop to think. Glancing up at Liam, I flashed him a worried expression, causing him to stop in his tracks, locking his gaze into mine, concern in his eyes.

"Hayley, wha's up?" he smiled reassuringly and I sighed, glancing towards the alley, he tossed me a puzzled look, presumably unsure as to the cause of my sudden fear, "ya not scared of the dark are ya?" he grinned at me, I sighed, trying to push my instinct from my mind, filling it with what I called 'rationality', however coming from me, it was most definitely anything but. I clung tightly onto Liam's hand as we entered the alley, fear and dread attacking me from all directions, however I chose to ignore them - that was my first mistake and boy, it was an enormous one.

A loud bang, which seemed to be coming from somewhere further along the seemingly never ending alleyway of what I could only describe as trouble, startled me slightly. I glanced up at Liam, suddenly feeling extremely conscious of fear that I was certain lingered in my eyes, he grinned at me, squeezing my hand reassuringly. I jumped straight out of my skin as a figure jumped down from presumably the roof tops and stood before us. Their identity and gender cloaked by the blanket of darkness that hung so closely over this alley.

I glanced up at Liam, who appeared to be biting his lip in an attempt to hide his fear and presumably fight off the figure with words - a plan that would most definitely fail, leaving us in an even worse situation than we were previously in. The figure took a step forward, still remaining at such a distance that meant his (or her) identity remained hidden. Panicking tremendously, my eyes scanned my surrounding, searching desperately for the none existent escape route - we were cornered. We had the advantage, didn't we? Two against one. That statement felt so much like a lie - a lie to make this situation better. False euphoria.