A/N: Okay everyone, this is the last chapter. I kinda like the way it ended, but it's so not the way I'm used to my stories ending. You should all be proud of me...I didn't kill anyone in this one. Lol. AND my main girl was normal...

Wow. Different...Seriously! Anywho. I think this came out well. The prose is good, it makes me happy (I think), and...I lost my train of thought. Yay.

Everyone wish me luck - for those of you who know music, I'm auditioning for the Rejoice solo in Handel's Messiah on sunday. For those of you who don't, that's basically like...four or six pages of really fast notes. It's fun.

-Cali :)

Kieran realized absently when she pulled the covers over herself that she hadn't taken off her makeup, and sighed. She didn't care anymore. She just wanted to sleep and never wake up. To think, she had come so close to becoming immortal, and never having to fear death. Now, though...that was all gone.

So is Stanton, part of her mind said. "No," she whispered to it, insisting. "He's not gone...he...he'll come back. He'll miss me." Once she listened to herself talk, however, she realized she was just trying to convince herself of that. It wasn't until her tears had begun to soak her pillow that she realized she was crying.

A few short minutes later, she drifted off into restless dreams. In her mind, she ran from the Daughters of the Moon, her former friends. Chasing her, they jeered, "mortal! Go back into the fire where you came from!" Kieran pumped her legs harder and harder, but got absolutely nowhere. Soon, the daughters caught her and lifted her, forcing her back into the freezing flames.

"We'll see who gets the guy this time," Serena told her, and shoved her headfirst into the flames. The freezing blaze turned quickly into a pool of water as Kieran dove, trying to swim away from something. She couldn't even see what was chasing her, but she could feel it pull her down again and again.

Coughing and panting, Kieran kept swimming harder and harder. "Let me go!" she screamed, the sound tearing at her throat. "STANTON!" she called, and he appeared in front of her as a shadow.

"Why should I help you? You're not my girlfriend anymore," he reminded her, swirled around her once, and then disappeared again.

"Help!" Kieran screamed, panicked, and whatever it was under her pulled her down again, but this time it didn't let go. She held her breath as well as she could, and, panicked, finally let out a scream.

Her dream scream turned into a real one as her mother burst into the room to find her daughter sitting bolt upright. "Kieran?"

"Mom?" Kieran's voice shook, and she herself was shaking uncontrollably. "I-I guess it was a dream..."

"It's about time you woke up," her father said with a smirk in the doorway. "You all right, kiddo?"

Kieran looked at him and tears filled her eyes. "Uh oh," she heard her mom say, and looked down. "Don, you'd better go. Girl talk time," she warned him.

"Oh no, not girl talk..." he teased, and Kieran's mother shooed him out of the room, closing the door behind them.

"Okay, sweetheart, talk to me. What happened?" Kieran's mom touched her shoulder gently, and the girl flinched. "Are you okay?"

Kieran pulled away from her mom. "I'm fine, mom...I just...I just had a bad dream, that's all. What time is it?"

"It's four in the afternoon, Kieran. When did you get in last night?" Her mother's tone wasn't as accusatory as she had expected it to be, and it took her by surprise.

"I don't know," Kieran answered honestly. She hadn't looked at the clock before she'd slipped into that horrible nightmare. "It must've been late," she said with a sigh.

"I'll bet. I went to check on you around two and you weren't back yet. You're lucky I'm not like other mothers who assign their daughters curfews on prom night. Speaking of that, how was the dance?" she asked with a smile, trying to lighten Kieran's mood.

"It was fun," she said with a forced smile.

"Kieran, I always know when you're lying to me," her mother reminded her, giving her an expectant look. "Why don't you tell me what happened? There's obviously something that's bothering you. You know I never judge you, Kia - "

"Don't call me that!" Kieran snapped before realizing she'd completely given it away. "That's what Stanton called me..."

Her mother nodded knowingly. "I thought so," she said, pulling a tissue out of a nearby box and handing it to her daughter. "Don't cry yet, your mascara will run and your face will turn black," she told her, and Kieran laughed a little wetly. "Hang on, let's take your makeup off." Kieran swung her legs over to the side of the bed and winced - her whole body ached like none other, and she was surprised to find that her gashes hadn't bled through the sleeves of her shirt, or her pant legs.

Together, mother and daughter walked into the bathroom and soaked cotton balls in makeup remover, wiping them gently across her eyes. "So tell me," Kieran's mom started, and Kieran's stomach sank. "What happened with you two?"

Kieran paused in the middle of drying her face and looked at her mom. For one wild minute, she actually considered telling her mother everything. About Stanton being evil, the Atrox, how he'd turned her, how she'd become an immortal...but then it hit her that her mother would never believe her, and she decided to sugarcoat it a little.

Kieran sighed as she spoke. "He...broke it off with me because he was afraid of hurting me," she said simply, and her eyes flooded again. "But I don't understand," she said as her tears spilled over. "He told me he loved me tonight...and then he broke it off. I - I don't...Why are you smiling?" she asked her mom, frowning. She was crying and her mother was smiling? What the hell?

Kieran's mom looked down, still smiling. "That sounds familiar. Did I ever tell you your father and I were high school sweethearts?"

"Yes." Kieran rolled her eyes. "Several times, but I don't - "

"Shh. Listen," she said in that motherly way of hers. "About a year and a half into our relationship, we got into a huge fight and broke up. What I never told you was that he broke up with me because he was afraid of what he was feeling. He said he was afraid of hurting me-" she looked at Kieran with raised eyebrows, emphasizing her point. "- but he was afraid of getting in too deep. We stayed apart for about a week and kept passing each other in the halls, giving each other miserable looks. He always looked like he wanted to run to me and sweep me off my feet again, but for that week, he held back. I'm sure I looked awful - I cried myself to sleep every night until one day in the middle of school, in the middle of an extremely crowded hallway, he passed me, then yanked me back in his direction and kissed me in front of everyone. He knew I would take him back. It wasn't a question of going back to him or not - he broke up with me for stupid reasons, and we both knew it."

Kieran stared. She'd never heard this story in so much depth. Her mother had never told her about the breakup, just mentioned it momentarily.

"A week after he did that, he proposed to me. He told me he realized I was the best thing that had ever happened to him, and that life without me wasn't a life at all. He realized that he needed to be with me, and that he wanted to be with me for the rest of his life...three years later, we got married." Kieran couldn't help but smile. "We've never been so in love, either of us, or so happy. Kieran...don't lose faith in Stanton," she told her daughter.

Kieran shook her head. "You don't understand, mom...he was so final about it..."

"So was your father. In fact, I think he actually said 'stop fighting me, Theresa. It's over. That's it. No more.' You don't get much more final than that," she added with a bit of a laugh, as it if was just a funny memory - and after 25 years of marriage, it was just a funny memory to her.

Kieran stared. "That's what Stanton said...I tried to get him to change his mind, but he..."

Theresa shook her head. "It doesn't matter. Men never know what they want. Right, Don?" she asked her husband, whom she knew was eavesdropping as usual outside the door.

Sheepishly, he answered, "Er, right dear."

Kieran's mother giggled, and Kieran felt a pang. She missed being able to giggle at things Stanton said already, and they hadn't even been apart for a full twenty four hours. "Mom..."

"I know, sweetheart," her mom said, and hugged her. Kieran had to bite her tongue to stop from crying out as her mother pressed the fabric of her pajamas into her various gashes. Her tears, this time, came half from pain. Her skin burned under her clothes.

"Ow," Kieran whispered.

"Did I hurt you?" Theresa asked, jerking back and looking her daughter over. "Are you okay?"

"It's nothing, I'm just a little sore," she said, pulling at her sleeves to get them off her arms.

"I'm sorry. Hey, do you want dinner?...Or breakfast?" she added with a smile and wiped a tear off her daughter's cheek.

Kieran bit her lip. "I'd kind of like to take a bath first. I didn't shower last night and I feel like I need to," she admitted with a smile. "After, maybe?"

Kieran's mother kissed her forehead. "I love you sweetheart. Stanton does, too. He'll come around, I'm sure. If not," she added, hands on her hips, "I'll find where he lives and kick his ass."

"Mo-om!" Kieran whined, and her mother laughed, walking out of the bathroom. She'd let Kieran take her bath and then come down for food. She had to be hungry after all that dancing and who knew what else.

"I expect more details about the party when you come down," she said with a smile.

Kieran smiled back at her and assured her that she would give her details when she got down, but once her mother left the room and was out of sight, Kieran's smile dropped quickly, and she closed the door. Carefully, feeling rather like she was peeling something glued together apart, she took her shirt off. "Ow," she whimpered as her slashes began to throb a little. Turning on the faucet, hot water first, she peeled off the rest of her clothing and checked to see if she was still bleeding anywhere. She saw the everything had scabbed over, and heaved a slight sigh of relief. When the water turned the temperature she wanted, Kieran plugged the drain and poured strawberry body soap under the running water so it would form better suds. How am I going to explain these to mom?

"You're not," she whispered to herself, and turned off the water, climbing into the hot water and suds.

She soaked for half an hour, and then got out, wincing as her legs still ached. Smelling strongly of strawberries, she peeked out the door to make sure her mother wasn't out there waiting for her. Sure enough, she had gone downstairs to make dinner as she promised. Kieran, wrapped in a salmon colored towel, walked quickly to her room, closing the door behind her. After letting her towel drop, she looked in the mirror and winced at her slashed up skin. She would have to dress warmly for awhile, she realized as she put a different pair of pajamas on, with long sleeves and long legs. Wringing her hair out into the towel and shaking it out a bit, she hoped to help it dry faster. On her way out her door, she stepped into her fluffy slippers.

She walked downstairs gingerly, putting a lot of weight on the handrail once she reached it. Wordlessly, she flopped down on the couch in their living room. Her mom soon came and sat next to her. "Your father and I are having hamburgers. Would you like one?" Kieran grimaced. Food didn't sound any good right now. "Maybe not. Pancakes?" when Kieran shook her head, Theresa stared. "You love pancakes, sweetheart...Don't make yourself sick over this Stanton thing," she warned, guessing that was the problem.

Well, that was half of it, and Kieran sighed, letting her mom see that she was at least partially right. The other half was the pain she was in. It was making her a bit queasy, as her body throbbed. "Please, no food, mom," Kieran said quietly. "I think I'm just going to go sit on the porch for awhile and compose. Come get me before you and dad go to sleep," she said with a smile, and walked into the "piano room" as she always called it, where her mother's grand piano sat happily in a corner, well-played and perfectly tuned. Kieran's manuscript book sat open to a half finished sonata on the piano, and she grabbed it, along with her pencil, then turned and walked out the front door.

She liked their porch. It was...cute. Small, with a roof over it, and a floodlight. It had two little pillars that she loved to lean against and draw, or write, or compose as she was doing now.

Two hours later, it was almost getting nearly too dark to write comfortably, so she slipped the pencil behind her ear and looked through her notebook. Coming across a composition she hadn't sung through in awhile, she hummed a scale or two to warm up her voice. Once she felt confident, she opened her mouth and, with a little sigh, began to sing quietly. Halfway through, she closed her eyes and the book and leaned her head against the pillar, singing to no one in particular in the night.

The wind ran its long fingers through her hair and caressed her face. Kieran sighed in the middle of a rest, and closed her mouth, simply humming the tune, which, at this point in the song, was low enough in her register to resonate throughout her body.

As she held her whole notes, tilting her head to the night, the wind drew lines around her throat. Suddenly, the wind changed course and whirled around her body as she finished the song. The breeze stopped as suddenly as it had begun, and Kieran opened her eyes, wondering if she was right in feeling as though someone was watching her.

Sure enough, she saw a very familiar figure step from the shadows under her tree. "I haven't heard you sing in awhile," Stanton said quietly, his voice as soft and gentle as the night.

"I've been busy," Kieran told him, turning away and picking up her manuscript notebook from the porch. She stepped onto it, ready to walk in, and Stanton spoke.

"Kieran, don't...can...can I talk to you?" he asked, sounding incredibly awkward.

"About what?" she asked, pretending to look for her pencil that she knew very well was behind her ear. "I didn't think there was anything to talk about."

"Kia, don't - "

"Don't call me that," she said, sounding pained for the first time, and watched him out of her peripheral vision. In a guise of searching for her pencil on the ground, she stepped off the porch again and looked around, then sighed. "You wanted to talk? Talk."

"Can we sit?" Stanton asked, gesturing towards the porch, and Kieran raised her eyebrows expectantly, hugging the notebook to her chest. With a sigh, Stanton began. "Look...I...haven't been able to...Since I...we..." he sighed. "Why can't I get this out? Kieran, I'm an idiot."

"Yes," she said, vaguely amused, and allowed a bit of a smirk to cross her lips. Stanton gave a little laugh. "Care to continue, or shall we just leave it at that?"

Stanton stopped smiling and ran a hand through his hair. "I'm an idiot for breaking up with you. Ever since I did, I haven't been able to get you off my mind at all. I couldn't sleep, I can't eat, I can't...I need you in my life, Kieran. I love you. You were right - trying to kill a relationship just to avoid causing pain to you was...stupid. Ridiculous. Moronic. I want to be with you, and I'm ready to take back everything I said...that is, if there's still a place in your heart for me," he said more quietly, hesitantly, and caught her gaze.

Kieran frowned and hugged her book tighter. "You hurt me, Stanton," she told him, her voice hoarse and a bit strained. "You hurt me a lot. I loved you. You can't just break up with me every time I get 'tangled' in your life. What didn't you get? I wanted to be tangled in your life. I knew who and what you were and I loved you anyway, but you killed it, Stanton. You killed it, and you killed me." She was surprised at how harsh her tone was, especially with tears running down her cheeks the way they were - she knew now.

Stanton watched her for a few more seconds, and nodded. "I understand...I just came...I came to apologize," he said smoothly, "and to explain myself. If you're not willing to take me back, under the circumstances, I understand." As he spoke, he turned away.

"Stanton, wait," Kieran said, and he stopped, turning to face her again. "I...want you back," she admitted, her voice softer and shaking now.

As soon as the words were out of her mouth, Stanton walked closer to her, relaxing quite a bit. "You do? Are you sure?"

Kieran nodded. "Yes. As long as you don't try to break up with me if I get tangled in your life again."

"Kieran, I would never - "

"And one more condition," she added a little slyly, looking up at him as he brushed her hair behind the ear holding her pencil up.

"Name it, Kieran," he said gently, longing to kiss her again, to take her in his arms and never let go. To show this, he moved closer, until their lips were almost touching. Her soft lips brushed against his as she named her last request.

"Call me Kia."

"Kia," Stanton whispered against her lips, teasing her, and she, this time, was the one who stood on her toes and forced their lips to meet and his arms to wrap around her once hers wrapped around him. He pulled away a little, and hugged her closer to him. "I missed you."

"Can we go down to the beach?" she asked gently, and Stanton nodded.

"Ready?" Before Kieran had time to answer, Stanton had leaned back and shifted both of them into shadows. He'd bring her back by midnight...or maybe closer to one.

A/N: The End...

What did you think? Tell me!

-Cali :)