I'm happy to see the chapter was well received. I thought people might actually find it a bit... something but it wasn't so I'm good. I bow to all of you graciously.

This goes out to "Guesssttt" (whoever you are!): I don't think you're weird. In fact, I'm flattered beyond flattered. WHO ARE YOU! LOL

Oh the twists and turns and falling of leaves
Pull the magic from rolled up sleeves
Rumble tumble stumble CRASH
See the stretched tape, sprinting mad dash
Partook and swallowed – partook and flew
The journey starts far from what you knew

Nothing really A/N worthy so... yeah... Just thought I'd drop a few bars because... they're crazy and that's where my mind stays and... WOOT!

Wait wait, I forgot to add this: This chapter is just a transitional one. Short, but pushes stuff forward. I'll inevitably write chapter 26 at like... midnight. lol

Enjoy...

PS: Crash, you cheating heifer! (Ok... so maybe not a heifer...) You were correct, though: Soul Asylum's "Runaway Train". This is the hottest song since TOAST. theEND. If you haven't D/Led it yet, do it. It's like... the driving force behind this story. I swear...

Chapter 25 / Middle of the Night, I'll Call You When

Jude's hands shook. She'd been going at it with herself all day, always on the losing end of the deal. The house talked to her. Her voices screamed at her. The indigo night shook its head and enveloped her in a deathly stare. It was all getting too much for her take. She'd run from her problems only to be confronted with her biggest yet – herself. She was alone and afraid, the only thing left wanting to kill her. She couldn't take it anymore.

She dug through her bag, strewing its contents all over the living room floor. She held her only hope for redemption between shaking palms, coveting its silvery body. It was a dead thing, having been abandoned in a moment of temporary clarity. She flipped up the cover of her cell phone, holding the power switch down. It vibrated, jingle jangling to life. 67 missed calls. Speed dialing 071, she anxiously counted the rings. 1, 2, 3, 4...

"Jude?"

Her world flipped and flopped, the sound of her name freezing her in time. He called out again. She took a deep breath, focusing on the reasons she'd broken her vow of departure.

"Kwest..." Her voice creaked into the receiver.

"Jude, is that you? I can barely hear you."

"H-how... are y-you?" Her shaking intensified, her jaw chattering viciously.

"Girl! Where have you been?"

"I'm... dead." She lazily fell to her back, the stained rug beneath her pricking against her back. She tried to clear her throat, her voice still etched in the silence she'd sentenced it to. "I was dead. I still am dead. I'm something."

"What are you talking about? Jude, where are you? Everyone is going out of their minds here."

She laughed into the phone, his rapid fire questions amusing.

"I went away... the solution to the Jude problem."

"WHERE ARE YOU?"

"Shhh... you're so loud... It's all so loud..."

"Are you ok? Have you taken something?"

"No... They've taken something, though."

"Girl... Have you called anyone else? Your parents? Tommy?"

Air rushed between her clenched teeth, hissing at Kwest. She stretched out her left arm, marveling at her hand and the way it contrasted the carpet.

"He's dead, too."

"No, he isn't. He's been going crazy trying to find you. And after his fight with Georgia..."

"Fight?"

"They got into it over you two. He basically told her to fuck off."

"My Tommy?" She dreamily repeated his name, each consonant and vowel lulling her into a state of lethargy. "Tom...my..."

"Yes, your Tommy. When he hears I've talked to you..."

Jude bolted upright, perspiration forming along her hairline. The thought of him knowing and finding her terrorized her.

"NO! No... no... he can't... no... he can't see me like this. He can't see me like this... Don't... no... no..."

"Jude, chill out. I won't tell. Just calm down."

"I'm going to go now..."

"Just tell me where you are."

"Hold your horses but they run free... Sing a little song for me..."

"JUDE..."

"Bye, Kwest." She closed her cell and turned it off. She threw it into the fireplace, ashes burying it in pseudo-ceremony. The sounds came louder now, her hands to her ears once again. She rolled to her side, crying against the floor. "Stop it... Please..."

Kwest's mind reeled. Jude called him, no one else, and made absolutely no sense. And what was up with her whispering? He thought over what he said about not telling Tommy, Jude's desperation when he'd mentioned doing so sitting wrong with him. He was a man of his word, but something like this called for a change of heart.

"Kwest, it's 2 am, man."

"You weren't asleep anyway."

"I know but..."

"Jude called."

"WHAT! When? What'd she say? Did she call you? Is she ok?"

"Just now; I just got off the phone with her. She wasn't making any sense. Remember what you told me about her losing it? She's lost it, man. She kept going on and on about some crazy shit – she's dead; they took something; they're too loud. And her voice was really low and kind of scratchy."

"Oh my god. Did she tell you where she was?"

"No."

"DAMMIT! Did she say anything about where she was? Anything at all?"

"I tried to get her to tell me, man. All she said was, 'Hold your horses but they run free; sing a little song for me.' I don't get it at all."

"I GOT IT! Thanks, man. I gotta go. Thank you!"

"FUCK!" The line went dead and for the second time, Kwest was left confused. "WILL SOMEONE TELL ME WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON!"