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Fear has the ability to make you live through millions of 'what ifs' in a couple of seconds. It slows down time and speeds up the heart. It allows you to see everything in such bright color that all you want to do is shut your eyes and have someone sing to you. Fear makes you want to run until you can't breathe anymore, until everything is blurry and all you see is dull again. Fear makes you want to scream. It makes you want to cry. It makes you want to laugh at the sheer stupidity of it all.

It makes you want to do a lot of things that you can't do because ultimately fear freezes you. Paralyzes you and leaves you vulnerable to the horrors of the world. It leaves you cold and alone, wishing for comfort from that old friend you should have called so many years ago or that new friend that has progressively become one of your best friends.

Needless to say, I was afraid as soon as those words left Will's mouth. Vaughn, on the other hand, was angry.

"What the hell did you do?" he asks, through gritted teeth while I just stare at Will. Once best friend, now the death of us.

"Don't judge me," Will warn. "You don't know me."

"Do you know what you did?" he ask. "Or are you just stupid enough to not thing about what's going to happen?"

"You don't understand, Agent Vaughn, that I don't care."

We're going to die.

"Tick, tock. You've got five to ten, tops," Will says. "I'd run if I were you."

It's crazy that the nice guys always end up being the ones to ruin you. They're the most dangerous of them all. You never suspect that they'll do anything to hurt you and when they do, it just smacks you upside the head.

"We've got to get out of here, Syd," he says.

"No, she can't go. Sorry. She has to be here when they come. They want her. You can go, though."

"I'm going and Sydney's coming with me," he says, grabbing my hand.

His comforting hand breaks through the fortress of fear. Everything is still slow though. I see Will pull out a shiny, black gun and point it at Vaughn. His finger is about to squeeze the trigger when out of nowhere my cell phone rings. The ring breaks straight through the monotonous sound of rain and I hear a shot go off. Before I even get a chance to frantically look around, I hear another shot and then someone pulling me.

"Let's go," Vaughn says.

"Vaughn?"

"Syd, let's go," he says.

Oh God, he's alright. Vaughn is ok. Somehow, my legs manage to cooperate with him and we make it to the parking lot.

"Wait," I say, stopping abruptly. "What about Will? Is he---"

"Your phone startled him and he missed."

"Did you shoot him?"

"In the shoulder. Syd, we have to go."

"We can't leave him, Vaughn."

He looks at me as if I'm some crazy person.

"We have to go back."

"They could already be there," he says.

"We have to go back," I repeat.

I let go of his hand and start to run back for Will. I can't leave Will. I hear his footsteps run after me. Back to square one.

We make it behind the bleachers and I'm about to call his name when Vaughn puts his hand over my mouth. He points to the track.

Will's standing, clutching his right shoulder while being surrounded by Sloane and a couple of SD-6 guys.

"Where is she?"

"She got away."

"Where did she go? Which way?"

He squeezes his eyes shut.

"William, which way?"

"I think I want out," he says calmly. Who ever knew Will could stay so calm?

"Tell me where she is and you can go."

He looks straight out and I swear he saw straight past the bleachers into my eyes. This look of secrecy is passed between us for about five seconds before he straight at Sloane once more.

"Bite me."

Not a moment can pass before the guy next to him pulls out his gun and shoots. A deafening noise that rings throughout the entire track and ripples through the night sky, matched only by the thud of Will hitting the ground.

I feel a sob---it's actually half way between a sob and a scream---escape my throat and the tears flow down my cheeks. The stinging tears that I can't blink away. The accompaniment of a sharp pain in my heart and churning of my stomach. My legs suddenly feel very weak and if Vaughn weren't behind me, I'd definitely have fallen.

"Will," my whisper becomes muffled against Vaughn's sweatshirt. "Will…"

I hear Sloane tell his men to "search the perimeters in case William wasn't lying" and then leave the track the other way.

Vaughn practically drags me back to the parking lot, into the car, and away from the track.

"He went crazy, Syd. He went crazy," he says when we stop a safe distance away from the track.

I nod. I know he's right.

"He saw me. He had the chance to turn me in, but he didn't. He couldn't because he couldn't stop caring, no matter how hard he tried."

I look out the car window to see that it has stopped raining. I want to cry all over again because it reminds me of him.

"You know Syd, I've always loved rain. I love the sound of raindrops hitting my umbrella. I love watching them fall from the sky in their perfect, slanted lines---lines that probably took years to perfect. But most of all, I love the comforting cold it brings---one that lingers even after the rain has stopped and washes all the bad away."

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