Hello all! This is definitely the last chapter that I'm posting before I go and for that I am dearly sorry ( Looking on the bright side, I should have a lot of ideas to post when I get back! Anyway, I hope you find this a little more interesting than the last chapter. Enjoy!

Doyle

P.S. I would also like to dedicate this chapter to Roger Federer because I believe he should have won the French Open (darn Nadal!) Speaking of sports, if any of you are watching the World Cup, keep your eyes open for a player called Cisse, who plays for Trinidad, he's so cool! (Wales didn't qualify… (…)

Chapter Six….

It is cold, windy and raining and I'm walking to church. Praise the Lord, Amen, Amen… right. I can have not seen Ann or Felicity this morning on account of taking breakfast in bed like the previous night, but when we finally reach the small church and hustle in I can only find Ann and Fee is nowhere in sight.

I take a seat in one of the very back pews, and to my surprise, Ann sits down next to me. She says nothing to me and I say nothing to her. Before either of us can work up the courage to say anything at all, the Mass begins and Father starts ranting about how we are all weak and easily led to sin. I can only sit there for so long until I have to ask. I turn my head slightly to my left to whisper to Ann.

"Where's Felicity?" She doesn't respond right away and I begin to think that she won't talk to me at all, until she scoots a little closer to me.

"I do not know, she wasn't at breakfast." After saying this she takes out her hanky and dabs at her nose and watery eyes. When she lifts her hand to her face I notice that blood has seeped through her sleeve, but I don't mention it to her. Is she really so incapable of being independent and confident that she has to cling to absolutely anyone he can find? Felicity, her life vest, is nowhere in sight so she has to cling on to something else before she drowns, and it's quite pathetic. Even though I am thinking such cruel thoughts, I cannot help but feel bad for her. I don't say anything to Ann, but I do stare absent-mindedly at a candle on the altar for the rest of the Mass.

The weather has only worsened by the time we start heading back to the school, the rain is now coming down in sheets and the win is howling in our ears. I see Mrs. Nightwing at the front of the group and I leave Ann to join her. I walk evenly to her until she asks me what I want.

'I have not seen Felicity this morning and I am starting to become worried, do you know what has befallen her?' She pauses but only for a moment before she responds.

'Miss is still in bed ill at the moment. I will let her know that you worry for her." I mumble my thanks and drop back to the end of the pack. Ann quickly joins me but she doesn't say anything.

Once inside the warm building of Spence Academy for Girls, I quickly run up the stairs to my room so I can change into drier clothes, Ann follows quickly at my heels. As soon as I enter the room I know something is wrong. I immediately look for all my personal things like my mother's diary, but it is exactly where I left it.

"What are you doing," Ann asks from her position on the bed as I continue my search on her side of the room.

"Someone was in here when we were at church. I know it sounds really weird, but I just know…" I stop digging through Ann's books and stand up. What am I doing? Nothing has been moved and I am only making a fool of my self.

"I'm sorry Ann, I just haven't been sleeping well again and I guess I am just getting paranoid." I smile sheepishly and she doesn't respond, she doesn't say a lot anymore, not that she was ever a chatterbox. She suddenly gets up and says she's going to go find Fee and I explain to her what Mrs. Nightwing said.

When she leaves I lie back on my bed and listen to the wind and rain pounding on my window. I would really hate to be out in this storm. I jump off the bed. Kartik! He's all alone in the rain without his cloak! I open the drawer that I had but the cloak in the night before and found it empty. So I was right! But who…

I can feel the blood drain from my face before I even finish my question. Felicity. I let out a string of very unlady-like curse words and dash to the door and down the hall.

I don't even bother knocking but barge right in. Felicity is sitting on the edge of her bed looking as right as rain talking to Ann, Kartik's cloak in her hands.

"Give-that-back." She just laughs, gets up, and walks over to put her hand on my shoulder.

"Oh lovely Gemma, I'm so glad you came, we were just talking about you." I jerk away from her touch.

"Give me back my cloak," I growl. Felicity doesn't miss a beat.

"Your cloak? Ann and I just agreed that we have seen this very cloak on your little Indian friend. Is that not so?" She's smiling broadly at me now and my hand itches to slap it off her face.

"What were you doing in my room?" I ignore her question completely. Her smile broadens even more if that is even possible.

"Our dear Pip told me not to trust you, that you are being led astray and that you don't want to spread the power but keep it all for yourself! But do not worry, dear Gemma, I don't expect anything more from a little whore like you anyway. Let me be so bold to ask, do you bring your "friend" to the realms for a good fuc-"

The room goes dead silent and my ears are ringing from the sound of my hand hitting Felicity's rosy cheek. She is so stunned that all she can do is bring her hand to her face to fell the large welt that is forming there. Before she can get her tongue back, I am out the door and racing down the stairs. I am so angry that I could cry but after the last couple of days there are no tears left to shed. I keep running until I hear a short from behind me.

"Miss Doyle! Where are you going in such a hurry?" I stop dead in my tracks and turn around to see Mrs. Nightwing come marching out of one of the sitting rooms. The closer she gets the more I notice that she, surprisingly enough, does not look all that mad.

"Is where you are going so important that you cannot receive a visitor?" A visitor? I shake my head and follow her back into the sitting room. Right, just great. Mr. Middleton… perfect timing. He smiles and kisses my hand and all that high society stuff. I do not respond until I can feel Mrs. Nightwing's glare on my back, I dip slightly. He seems to take no notice of my rudeness and invites me to sit on the settee across from him; Mrs. Nightwing takes her usual place in the corner and works on her knitting. Please God, why do you torture me so. I mean Simon is a really nice guy and everything but just not now! Simon breaks the silence and asks the same boring questions but my mind is still thinking of the conversation with Felicity on moments ago.

Just when I think that I'm going to fall asleep, there comes loud footfalls coming from the hall way and all of a sudden a head pops through the door without even knocking and tells Mrs. Nightwing that Alicia, a girl of about eight, has just fallen down the top flight of stairs to the landing below. Mrs. Nightwing jumps to her feet and casts us a quick look, and I assume we win her trust because she turns around and leaves the room faster that I have ever seen her move.

I look awkwardly over at Simon. We have been alone together before, but never at Spence. He smiles at me when he notices that I'm looking at him and I look away.

"It is amazing what people will say for some money?" I stare at him.

"What?"

"You see Gemma, I have been talking to some of my friends about something that is of interest to me and they told me that you would be able to help me on the subject. But I really did not want to ask in front of her Headmistress Mrs. Nightwing."

"Wh-what is it," I stammer, not liking where this is going.

"Tell me Gemma, have you ever heard of the realms?" I could swear I feel my heart stop.

"What? Um… No I have not heard of such a thing. Your friend must have me confused with someone else." The smile he was wearing falls from is face and he makes an exasperated sigh.

"Come on Gemma, work with me here, I know you know what I'm talking about."

"I'm sorry Mr. M-" I let out a gasp in pain as he grabs by wrists and twists me so I'm looking him in the face.

"Now Gemma, we don't have a lot of time, so I will tell you what we're going to do. Tonight at midnight you are going to sneak out and meet me at the back of the church and you're going to take me to the realms. Okay?" I do not answer because I'm too much in shock. "Okay? Gem-" I do the only thing I can think of, I kick him as hard as I can in the groin. He lets me go and I bolt, but I don't make it to the door before he grabs my arm and flings me to the ground. I open my mouth to scream but before I can even get a sound out I feel my head whip to the side and a pounding pain in my right ear as he hits me across the face with the back of his arm.

I lie still, trying to make the room stop spinning, and to my great relief he must think that I'm unconscious because I can hear him swear and take a step away. When he attempts to pick me up I smack him across the face and he is so stunned that I am able to slip from his grasp, and this time, I make it to the door. As soon as I'm in the corridor I run for all I'm worth on to the grounds and into the pouring rain.

I run until I reach the edge of the lake, which has already started to flood. I look at myself. I have red and purple welts around my wrists and when I put my hand to my cheek it feels warm and there is a little swelling but it probably isn't bruised. Okay, lets recap. Fee and Ann are no longer my friends because they believe Pip, they both think I'm a whore, Simon somehow found out about the realms and tried to force me to take them there, and to top it all off, I'm standing in the pouring rain and absolutely soaking wet. I shiver, and even when I think I'm all cried out for a lifetime, I feel warm tears slide down my cheeks. I look around and decide that I must talk to Kartik.

I reach his little camp and I feel guilty about coming without his cloak, but unfortunately, it's still in the lair of the evil Felicity. I walk up to the entrance and knock on the frame like I did the night before.

"Who's there?"

"It's me, Gemma," I shout over the howl of the wind. I hear rustling on the other side as he unties the flap.

"What do you think you're doing out here? Can't you see it's raining?" I smile and thank him as he hustles me in. Surprisingly, the tent is unbelievably warm and I immediately notice that the heat is coming from a fire he has crackling noisily in a metal pot, there is also a kettle hanging over it to boil.

When he is done tying up the entrance, Kartik turns and inspects me and I know I look a fright. His eyes stop on my right cheek.

"Gemma, what happened?" The next few minutes I spend explaining the events of the day, leaving out the part about Felicity stealing his cloak and calling me a whore, instead, I told him that I just forgot to bring back his cloak, but he didn't seem to mind.

"I told you the Mr. Middleton was up to no good. And the fact that both of your friends are listening to something from the Winterlands isn't exactly good news either." I look away ad my teeth start to chatter. He notices this and gets up and walks to his pack. When he turns around he hands me some dry clothes.

"I know there not exactly made for a women and they will be a bit big, but you can't stay in those wet clothes I go in the corner and shut my eyes." I took the clothes and looked at them. I wanted to refuse because it was so improper but I was so cold, even with the fire. I got up and went to the other corner and peaked over my shoulder to make sure he wasn't looking. Satisfied, I started to strip of layer by layer my soaking wet clothes and put his dry ones one, I was amazed by who comfortable they were.

"Done," I said and he turned around and opened his eyes. He nodded and then handed me some blankets. The kettle whistling broke the silence and he jumped up to pour two glasses off tea. We drank in silence.

By the time we both had finished it had started to thunder and lightning. Though the tent was waterproof, I feared that we were going to blow away or get struck by lightning. But when Kartik got up and started to get ready to bring me back, I didn't want to go.

"Kartik wait…" He stopped what he was doing and looked at me. I looked at the ground and blushed.

"I really don't want to make you go back out in that storm and then have to come all the way back. Would you mind terribly so if…I just stayed here to night." He didn't answer at first but after a moment's shock he spoke.

"If you feel comfortable, then of course." I smile at him and he smiles back. We each got wrapped up in blankets and laid next to the fire. And that night, I had the best nights sleep I have had in months.

-Okay I did this all in one sitting and it's really late. I know that I should really go back and proof read, but I am way too tired. Another thing that I want to say is that I reread some of my chapters and I don't think I have been doing so well lately, I have had a lot of things on my mind. If it isn't just me then I apologize. Hopefully I will make it up when I get back. With that being said, I will miss you all over the summer and I will try to update as soon as I can when I get home!

-Doyle