A/N: so I know a lot of you didn't really get some of the last chapter, but it will all be revealed in due time. And also, I can't promise a happy ending for this fic and I'm pretty sure there will be another character death.

Marissa carefully put Verity back in her pram and began walking back to the apartment as the sun was setting.

1 hour, 57 minutes

She pulled the keys out of her pocket and walked into the apartment. The walls were painted cream and were covered with pictures of Verity, Ryan, Summer, Seth, Sandy and Kirsten. Only two pictures had Marissa in them. Her wedding photo and a photo of the day Verity was born. She slowly walked to a photo containing Seth, Summer and Ryan. She had taken it a perfect day that happened to long ago. That perfection didn't exist anymore. She touched the frame and whispered to her lost friend and love of her life.

"Allan Chalmers said 'The Grand essentials of happiness are: something to do, something to love, and something to hope for.' But I have all those things and I'm not happy." She touched each of their faces.

"Please come back," Verity started screaming from her stroller and her mother rushed over. Nursing her bawling baby, she glanced at the clock.

1 hour, 42 minutes

Marissa had called the Cohen's from the men's bathroom, unable to leave the trembling Ryan, or tear her eyes form the slowly spreading puddle of crimson blood coming from her friend. Her dead friend. She bit the inside of her cheek as the tears came. She closed her eyes and breathed in. she held her breath and felt the lump in her throat and the fast, reluctant beat of her heart. She couldn't bear the smothering grief that had descended on her. She couldn't breathe. Suddenly tears were streaming down her face, and then they stopped, as abruptly as they had started. It was like when you cut yourself really badly. All you feel at the beginning is a second of the intense pain, then numbness. She couldn't feel anything at all. The pain would come later. She pushed herself into the place where the numbness coursed through her whole body. It was the equivalent of putting up a wall and you couldn't think while you were holding it up. But you could breathe. She shuddered and gasped in a lungful of air. Numb fingers dialed the Cohen residence and a tight voice told Sandy and Kirsten to get to the restaurant right away. When the wall is in place, it's hard to do anything. Anything but curl up in a ball and wish the darkness would just swallow you, instead of slowly gnawing. She sank down next to Ryan, barley registering the sounds of sirens. She didn't remember calling paramedics. She didn't offer him comfort, as he curled into a ball, resting his head on her lap. He was too far away for that and so was she.

The baby had stopped crying and was watching her mother who was looking into the past. The eyes are the windows to the soul. And Marissa Cohen's would've brought a man to his knees with the pain they projected.

1 hour, 34 minutes

Verity.

1 hour, 30 minutes

Truth.

I hour, 28 minutes

Her daughter.

I hour, 24 minutes

The only truth in the lies. Sanity in an insane world.

1 hour, 19 minutes

A world where their daughter was growing up without a father.

1 hour, 13 minutes

Without an uncle.

1 hour, 8 minutes

But she would he loved.

1 hour, 2 minutes

Love was a kind of truth.

58 minutes

Truth never perishes.

55 minutes

True love never dies.

51 minutes

Verity would always be there. Verity wouldn't leave her. She would be there to keep Marissa sane. To show her to truth from lies, the beauty in a world devoid.

46 minutes

And Ryan. Their love was true. His love for her had been her truth. He had been the strong one. But sometimes he couldn't be strong, and her love hadn't saved him.

40 minutes

Summer's love hadn't saved Seth. Summer thought it had killed him. That she had. But she hadn't. Seth had.

37 minutes

Marissa hadn't moved for an infinite amount of time. She couldn't remember how long she'd been sitting there, with an ashen faced Ryan lying in her lap. Mesmirised by the advancing sea of blood, crimson and lifeless. Seth's blood. She was used to blood. Her right hip carried the scars of her intense fascination with blood. But she had never really seen other people's blood. And now she was sitting back pressed against the cold tiles of the bathroom wall while the lifeblood of her brother in law surrounded her. She saw Sandy and Kirsten and her wall cracked, letting in trickles of pain.

25 minutes

Verity was silent. She looked up at her mother through a dark fringe of lashes. Complete trust and absolute love were evident in her expression.

18 minutes

An expression that wasn't often seen. Capable only of the innocent.

12 minutes

They had all lost their innocence too early.

7 minutes

She wasn't exactly sure when she lost hers, but she knew it wasn't the drinking or the partying. It was loving. And the hurt that came with it.

4 minutes

The hurt that meant she was bleeding inside.

3 minutes

The hurt that caused the crimson puddle.

2 minutes

The hurt that was sometimes too much to bear.

1 minute

Exactly a year since Seth had died. Of a broken heart. The inner bleeding had finally led to something much worse. And now Summer was bleeding. And so was she. And maybe Verity would one day bleed inside. But sometimes bleeding is all in vain.