When I woke up next I thought about the night's events for a moment before I quickly got to my feet, nearly falling over at the wave of dizziness that crashed over me. Probably shouldn't have just gone to sleep last night after taking a serious hit to the head, I chastised myself, but I knew I didn't really think sensibly when I was angry about something. It was a serious flaw of mine.

Quickly changing into a new outfit - faded blue jeans, scuffed converse sneakers, and a little bit too big black sweater with the words 'Life's a Lie' scrawled across the front. Today I didn't care about how I looked. Why should I? My life was pretty much going to hell anyways, so why worry about it?

With that, I hurried downstairs and burst through the front door, slamming it shut behind me as I purposefully left everything I'd need for school behind at home. I was throwing it all in, maybe when I got expelled I could have at least a little bit of free time.

When I reached the school, I received several looks that told me just how weird everyone thought I was and then I pretty much just got ignored, until I got to class and didn't have my homework, then I got detention. I was secretly very pleased at this thought. This meant that I wouldn't have to deal with Giles and his training for at least an hour.

At the end of the day, I had managed to get myself a detention every day for the rest of the week. Just wait until tomorrow, I thought as I settled into my chair, propping my feet up on the desk and reclining back.

I ignored the teacher when he walked in though unfortunately my plan didn't work as Giles walked in behind him. I sighed and rolled my eyes as the teacher came over to me. "You'll be going with Mr. Giles, you're off the hook."

"Joy." I said monotonously, not moving to get up. "I think I like it here though. It's better than having to lie to everyone, right?"

Annoyance crossed Giles's features as he spoke. "Unfortunately, you have a few things you forgot to finish earlier. Would you please come with me? I wouldn't want to have to call your mother."

I glared at him and got to my feet, walking out the door and walking in the opposite direction of the library. "Do you think I care about what my mother has to say?"

"I know you do." Giles said, keeping pace with me. "I take it you woke up late."

"On purpose because I don't care about school or my life." I snapped. "I mean, that's the proper thing for a Slayer, right? Dedicate our lives to killing vamps and not having any fun..." I brought my hand off and began ticking things off on my fingers. "...or free will, or friends, or any life to speak of. That about sums it up, wouldn't you say?"

"You can continue acting like a spoiled brat and we can argue about this or we can get to training." Giles said as we came around full loop and stopped in front of the library. "Your choice. If you choose wrong, you won't like it."

"And what will you do exactly?" I inquired, crossing my arms across my chest and leaning against the door. "You gonna kill me? Might as well. I'm heading there anyways. Gonna get my mom to send me back to the psych ward? She's probably going to do that anyways. Or, I know, get my mom to just kick me out? But wait, that wouldn't do anything either since I'm pretty sure I can survive on my own."

"And what are you planning on doing to deal with the things that come after you?" Giles demanded. "If you don't know how to fight them then they will kill you."

"I think I'll take my chances." I answered, without hesitation.

"Look, I don't want to deal with you, honestly I couldn't care less about you." Giles said, coldly. "Fine. Go ahead and get yourself killed, maybe the next Slayer will be more agreeable."

"Sounds good to me." I said, putting false cheer in my voice as I pushed away from the wall and turned to head away from the library. "See you later."

Giles didn't say anything, but the sound of the library door swinging shut told me that he had accepted my answer and left it at that. I didn't go back to detention, but rather headed home.

Unfortunately, I guess my mom hadn't been kidding. When I reached my front porch she was setting my large shoulder bag out onto the front steps.

"You can come back when you're ready to deal with your responsibilities." She said. "I'm very disappointed in you."

With that she turned and went back inside and I heard the distinct click of the lock on the door. Pain clawed at my chest and I blinke back tears as I scooped my bag up off the step and stormed away from the house. Not looking back as I headed for the cemetery.

I still had my phone. She would eventually call, realizing she'd made a mistake, I told myself as I dashed away a few escaped tears.

"Yeah, just keep telling yourself that." A cheery voice said from my right. I glared at her and pulled my blonde hair down to hide my face.

"Go away, Madeline." I snapped, walking faster, but of course she was capable of keeping up. She was after all just in my head. She was one of the reasons I'd been sent to a psych ward in the first place. Her curly silver locks framed her tan face and her blue and brown eyes only added to the image.

"You need to realize the truth, Caroline." She said, not as cheerful as before. "She's not going to make things right between you two, no matter how much you want her too. She's always going to expect more from you and she's going to do terrible things to punish you if you don't comply. Like this. She kicked you out because you don't want to be set up for slaughter. She doesn't care about you."

"Yeah, well this all started because of you and all of your friends." I hissed at her, stopping by an empty crypt. The sun was nearly set now.

"Why'd you come here, Carrie?" An annoying voice said in a British accent from behind me. I only just managed not to jump.

"Where else was I supposed to go?" I demanded of Jhon. His hair was dirty blonde and was wavy, he looked like a supermodel. The only thing off about him was the thin white scar that ran down the side of his neck.

"Anywhere, but the place where you've almost died two nights in a row, would've been fine." Madeline said, looking around with her plump lips pursed.

"Who are you to judge me anyways?" I snapped, throwing my hands up. "You're just hallucinations."

"We are projections of parts of you, Carrie, so basically we aren't judging you." Jhon said, flipping his hair out of his eyes. "You are."

"Yes, well thanks for summing that up." I said, sarcastically. "It's really made my day."

"Who are you talking to?" A familiar voice said and I turned to face Angel. His voice was filled with more warmth than before.

"Um..." I stuttered as I tried to come up with an answer that didn't completely make me sound like a looney. "..myself. Yeah, I was just talking to myself."

Angel raised an eyebrow at me. "And what are you doing here?"

"Didn't have anywhere else to go." I murmured. "Well, I did, but no where to get away from people trying to control me all the time."

"You have a bag." He noted, motioning to it.

"Yeah. My mom kicked me out." I explained, making my tone casual though it broke slightly at the end of my sentence. "Nothing to worry about."

After a moment of silence, Angel spoke."You aren't safe out here."

"Why does that matter to you?" I snapped, glaring at him. "You tried to kill me last night."

"I told you, I didn't have a soul then and-"

"Oh, and I guess that's a good excuse, is it?" I interrupted, throwing my arms up. "Soul or no soul, it doesn't change the fact that you did it."

"I know." He mumured, looking down. "But I do care. I don't want people to die. Not any more. It's wrong."

"It's good that you feel that way, but it's not going to get me to forgive you which is the real reason you decided to come talk to me, isn't it?"

"It's part of the reason, but I am mostly just looking out for you." He said.

"A stranger." I pointed out. "The only reason anyone ever tries to help a stranger is because they want to feel better about themselves. In your case, you tried to kill me and you don't want to deal with that so you're blaming it all on the fact that you were soulless at the time and then coming to me saying you want to help."

"He's kind of cute." Madeline cut in, leaning on my shoulder. I nearly rolled my eyes at her as I subtly tried to push her off.

"Maybe you're right, but it doesn't change the fact that you aren't safe out here." Angel said. "Why don't you come stay at my place tonight. You'll be safe there."

"Again, you tried to kill me." I said, hoisting my bag higher up on my shoulder and turning to leave. "And you haven't even done the one thing most people do when they've made a mistake."

"Look, I'm sorry. I'm sorry that I hurt you. I'm sorry that I wasn't myself." Angel said, reaching out and grabbing my arm. "Please, don't walk away. I don't want you getting hurt."

"Isn't that cute?" Jhon murmured as Madeline moved away from me, admiring Angel.

Sighing, I turned to face him, ignoring Jhon and Madeline. "Fine, but only for one night and only because you apologized without too much prompting."

With that Angel let go of my arm and turned to head to his place. I quietly followed, quietly glad that I wasn't sleeping outside with the other vampires tonight.

(Enjoy. And please review and give your ideas. I get writer's block really easily so ideas and suggestions really help my writing. If you give me your ideas I will be sure to give you credit for it as a side note after I post a chapter. Thanks for those who've already reviewed and read this.)