So, this chapter was going to be a lot longer, but yesterday there was an earthquake on my country, so… yeah. Also, this one has way less care on the edition, so please comment on any error you spot.

Thank you for all the reviews, the follows and the favorites!

'It's because I've been smiling?' I thought grimly as I tried and failed to ignore the pungent smell of the filth and the odd and disturbing sensations crawling through my legs.

A few weeks before winter's break, the bullying had stopped almost altogether, no one had shoved me, or stole things from my locker, or... anything, really. At first I thought it was too good to be true, that they were up to something, and so, I would be ready for the other shoe to drop, but, as days passed by and things keep quiet, with the trio just ignoring me and their claque doing the same, I started to think that Emma had finally got bored of torturing me, or at least that she finally realized that she couldn't break me after I didn't crumble to pieces when she had stolen mom's flute.

'And now she finally succeeded'.

I struggled in an attempt to shift myself to a less uncomfortable position, but all I achieved was an intense cramp running through my body and an unforgiving sensation of itching in my legs for the lack of circulation. I whined in pain.

Rationally, I knew that it couldn't be more than a period of classes since they had shoved me in there, given that I had heard the school's bell ringing only once, but it felt like an eternity, my pleads for help having ended way earlier, when I noticed the noise of the crowd on the halls slowly fading, I had tried a few more times, but no one had come to let me out.

No one had bothered to help the poor, nerdy Taylor Hebert, not even Sam…

I stopped that train of thought, shook my head and tried to center myself, "O-okay Hebert, self pi-pity is not going to get you out of here, so think productively, put to use that big head of yours for once." I said to myself, barely a whisper. If I could, I would have wiped my tears off, but as it was, my hands were kind of caught against the bottom wall of my locker, so I let it slide and began to think how to get out, I took a deep breath and tried to even my breaths, it wasn't perfect, but after a few minutes I felt at least a little 'better'.

"G-good, you've got your shit together, now, assess the situation… Uh, I'm st-stuck on my locker, which is… locked, and… uh," I trailed off for a moment, feeling the tears accumulating behind my eyes, " is made of metal?, yeah, that, and metal is… hard, so I can't precisely just open it with force…" but again, this was Winslow, which meant that the safe was probably a cheap and crappy one, 'or can I?'

I put my hands against the wall of the locker and I thrust myself against the door of the locker with all I had.

"Ugh!" And it didn't work, fuck.

"R-right, back to assessing it is." I huffed after another pained gasp.

"So, my bag is outside in the hall, well, unless they are that much of a lot of bitches and they stole it a-again, and, they kind of are, so… anyways! either way, I don't have access to a-anything!" I tried hard to maintain the desperation that I felt at that moment, 'fake it 'till you make it' and all that, but it was difficult, and I really just felt like crying at that moment, giving up and just let the time pass until the janitor found me or something.

The only thing that kept me going at that point was the knowledge that if I did that, I would be letting won Emma once more. And I simply couldn't do that, she had stripped me of my self-esteem, of my grades, she had ripped y family apart as I couldn't bring myself to tell dad what was happening at school ―and how I regretted that at the moment―, and she had drive Sam away from me, the only person in the entire school that had tried to be kind to me, even if only after the trio began to ignore me, my best friend, my only one, reall―

I freeze in place, that wasn't true.

'But I suppose you can contact me if it is an emergency.' An overjoyed smile plastered itself on my face as I remembered the words in the note, "I don't know what is an emergency if this doesn't qualify."

After the incident with mom's flute, I take a part-time job at a small bookstore near my house, just so I could afford a cell phone, nothing fancy, a cheap one, and a 'pay-as-you-go' plan, but it was enough so I could use it on a situation like this. The fact that it only had one number in the contacts section might have been depressing for someone else, but for me, it was a reason to be immensely grateful, that I had someone other than dad who could help me.

I began to struggle once again, this time trying to reach the interior of my bra ―it wasn't as if I had anything else to put in there, and it was a lot more secure than my locker or my backpack― with my hand, it was difficult, but it was my best shot.

"Yes!" I chirped when my hand came in contact with the plastic surface of the phone, and I withdrew it out of my baggy clothes as fast as I could, eager to make the call.

Unfortunately for me, the abrupt movement caused te pain in my legs to resurface with a vengeance, making me stumble, and my hand brushed against the rusty, pointy little hook in which I usually hung my bag, tearing my skin open whit a nasty sound and a burning ache.

"Shit!" I hissed, my phone slipped my grip, hitting against the side of the locker whit an audible 'crack', and falling atop the pile of waste, "No!, f-fuck, please no!" I pleaded to any deity that was listening.

I crouched as much as possible to try and retrieve it before it slid to the bottom of the locker, but it was a difficult task given the reduced space and the intense pain that once again filled my legs. I stretched my arm until it started to hurt, trying my best to just ignore the warm blood running down my hand.

Eventually, though, I managed it, the tips of my fingers made contact with the cell phone, and whit a last tug it finally rested in my hand again. "Got it!" I mumbled with a strained smile, just for my hopes to be finally smashed when I noticed that the back cover and the battery where absent.

I tried to stop the tears, I really tried, but I just couldn't do it, warm, salty drops of water streamed down my face, I didn't let go my grip on the phone a second time as I put my arms around myself in an awkward self-embrace, pressing my warm and sticky had against my shoulder, letting my hoodie damped with blood, resigned to stay alone in there once again, maybe if I was lucky, the loss of blood would make me pass out before long.

And then, I heard him.

"…er?... are you …ing here?"

It was a warm, even voice, completely calm, vaguely familiar, more like someone that I had heard talking on the halls than anything else, I was trying to remember who it was when another voice spoke.

"…amian!, I- I was just..." "…going to help Taylor." …Greg?

In any other moment, the sound of his voice would have been annoying at least, but right there, whit my face soaked in tears, my hand bleeding and the flit on my legs, I could have kissed him if he let me out, and then was that the name he had pronounced hit me.

Damian, I was so fucked.

Damian Hofstadter was the same age as me or Greg, slightly taller than me, and just a little more fit than average, but you could ask almost anyone on the school about him and obtain always the same response.

There was something wrong about him.

It wasn't only that he was Empire, he always seemed calm, his reactions always subdued, and spaced out frequently enough to make Sparky appear normal when compared to him. I had overheard someone talk about having seen him burying a cat near the school, and the rumors about him being a psychopath were something even I, the target of preference for the rumor mill, didn't discard automatically as bullshit. Greg had confided to me that he was terrified of the guy some time ago.

"Taylor?... she the one… locker then?" I flinched a little, if he knew someone was here then that meant…

Then Greg started to talk again. "I don't… what Emma or Hess told you to keep you …ere―"

I stopped paying attention.

Damian was here because of the trio? Sophia was black!, for fuck's sake!, how had she convinced someone from the Empire to do something for her?, was this some kind of statement?, 'We can fuck you as much as we want and there's nothing you can do, we can get you from everywhere'?

In the end, it didn't matter, with Damian here there was no way that Greg could do anything, they had… they had beaten m…― No!, I wouldn't let them win, not like this, not here, and not ever! A torrent of rage and desperation filled me in a way I had never imagined was possible, and…

[AGREEMENT]

Everything faded to black.

"…ylor?...hear me? Taylor?" It-it was… dad? when had he came here… where was 'here'?

"Ugh…" My head felt like someone had opened it and played with the contents using a mixer, my throat felt sore, and my eyes ached like hell when I tried opening them, so I just lied there in the dark, feeling the soft mattress against my skin and muttered a quiet, "D-dad?"

"…s okay, Taylor, I'm going to bring you water and then call a nurse, okay?, your friend is going to be here with you while I return."

Friend?, I didn't have any. I tried to open my eyes again and managed to see dad turning to look to a blonde blur that was sitting next to him, at the side of my bed. Greg? was he talking about Greg? how had he given Damian the slip?

"S' okay, Mr. Hebert, I got her." Said a warm… even voice.

I froze, that wasn't Greg.

Okay, that is. Hope you liked it!

The next chapter is going to be Taylor again since I didn't finish all I wanted on this one, and also, it's going to be the one where an explanation of her power is given, at least superficially.

Please review!, and don't hesitate to point any grammar error or typo I missed!