I heard the rustle of the dead leaves, felt the chill of the freezing winter air. Where was my jacket? Surely I had had one when I left the house.

It was calm, but it was too quiet. Eerie.

I shivered, and without seeing a thing, I knew to be afraid.

He was here.

No, no, he couldn't be! There hadn't been a sign!

I began to run. I heard the cold air whistling by my ears, felt the sting of twigs slapping my bare arms and the wind whipping my hair around wildly. It was too dark, I could barely see a thing!

I took two precious seconds to glance up at the sky, and spotted the full moon, the stars winking at me. Frantic, I ran, but everything, everywhere, looked exactly the same as where I had been. Where the hell was the road?!

Then I heard him. As sure as though he were right beside me.

"Oh, Cassie…"

His voice flowed through the limbs of the dead trees, floated through the wind effortlessly. "No!" I cried.

I couldn't let him catch me. If he did, it would be the end!

I tried to run again, but I tripped over something heavy, and fell face first into the cold dirt. I hurried to get up, then turned and looked to see what I had tripped over.

I felt tears spill down my cheeks.

There they were, just as I remembered them.

Bloody, lifeless, eyes empty.

"I'm sorry," I said to them, a sob escaping my lips.

My mother's eyes never blinked, but her lips whispered, hauntingly, in a terrified voice.

"Cassia…run…"

I ran, faster than I ever had before. I felt my lungs burning, my legs giving out. Just a little further!

Suddenly, Damian jumped down from the tallest tree in the middle of the forest, and I spun to run away, but my legs stopped and I fell to the ground again. He was going to kill me. His hand reached down and gripped my neck.

"Times up, Cassie. I'm here to keep my promise..."

"NO!" I screamed, sitting up suddenly. My heart raced, my blood roared in my ears and I couldn't catch my breath, I could only manage panicked, quick pants.

"Who is Damian?"

I screamed and threw a pillow into the area that the voice came from. Cora appeared from the darkness of the left corner of my room and I couldn't stop my tears of relief. Then suddenly, it wasn't just relief anymore, it was tension, fear, sorrow and more.

Hearing my true name on my mother's lips once more. Seeing her and my father laying there in the same heap they had been so many years before. Damian's voice, as clear and dangerous as the last night I'd seen him, two years previously.

Cora sat on my bed, and reached out to hold me. It didn't take me long to get my bearings thankfully. "Thanks," I said, wiping my face. "Your name is not Rachel," she said to me, watching only my eyes, "you're scared of someone, aren't you?"

Was it really worth it to hide it from her anymore? She already knew I was a sham, and she had known it from day one. I'd known her for almost two months now, and she had never failed to keep my secrets, as little as they were. Could I trust her with the biggest in the existence of my life?

"Cora," I began. "No more lying, I mean it. Whatever it is, you can tell me." For whatever reason, I trusted her.

"You cannot tell a soul. One word about all of this, and it could mean the end for me. Cora, please, do you understand?" She nodded solemnly.

I sighed. "My real name is Cassia Whittaker. I am from Georgia, though I haven't been there for six years. I have been on the run since I was sixteen years old." She nodded, taking the information well. "Why have you been running all this time, and under a fake name?"

"…I have a brother. His name is Damian." I said, and watched the recognition dawn in her eyes, "He's very dangerous. He's eleven years older than me, and he was always mentally unstable. That's just him, and we figured with the right help, he could be normal."

I could see the horror story of my life playing out again as I spoke.

"I had gone out to study at the library that night. Keeping up with any part of life wasn't easy when Damian was home, and I had had a big test the next day. When I left, everything was fine. I came back at almost nine o'clock, and the house was…too quiet."

She leaned in closer to me. "I came in to find my parents on the floor, murdered, with Damian standing over them. He wore their blood…like it was nothing to him…" "It's okay, you don't have to continue." Cora said. I held my hand up and took a deep breath.

"From the second I caught him in the act, he vowed that he would kill me too. The police arrived too quickly for him to finish me off right then. But I'll never forget the words he threw at me as they drug him away. He said, 'I will find you, Cassie, and when I do, I'm going to make what happened to them look merciful'. I've been running since that night. Telling no one, staying in no place, leaving no trails. But somehow, he always seems to find me. And he always seems to know exactly how to get out of prison. He's escaped so many institutions and jail cells that I've lost count…and it's all because he's driven with one need, and that's to kill me."

Cora had not moved from her position once in my long spiel. I was terrified of what I had just done. I had been very stupid to let any of this out. Even if Cora didn't say anything, there was no telling who was listening.

"I would…also really appreciate if you could continue to call me Rachel, Cora. No one else can know about any of this. I just gave you the very key to my death."

"You will not be found. I will keep your secrets." "Thank you. But Cora, I can't stay here much longer. I've been pushing it like crazy anyway, what with a job and talking to the cops and letting people get to know me. I ditch places pretty quickly."

"You're safe here. There's no need to run off anytime soon." "That's sweet of you to say but-" "Rachel," she interrupted, a small smirk on her face, "you're in a place that is easily monitored, and you just happened to make friends, or at least friendly acquaintances, with important, powerful people who live here, like me and Liam. We aren't going to let anything happen to you." "Cora, they can't know. You can't tell them. Telling you was dangerous as it is." "I'm not going to tell them. But you should. At some point."

I opened and closed my mouth probably five times before she stood up and went to the door. "I'm going to crash now. Get some rest and take a load off." And with those words, she left shut the door, and I heard the springs in her mattress squeak with her movement.

There was no way I was getting back to sleep tonight.

**I know, it's a short chapter! But it was necessary and opened a lot of truth to Cassia's/Rachel's hidden, scary world. There will be more soon! Have a good day!**