Bryce hated Saturdays, teenagers were some of the most obnoxious customers and he wasn't in the mood. At all. Bryce wasn't sure what made him so volatile and he didn't mean to attack Blake like he did but he just couldn't stand how pompous and self-righteous he sounded. Then there was the issue of what happened to his victim, he didn't even remember making contact with him yet he flew through the air like a rag doll. As Bryce weaved in and out of tables refilling coffees and waters, the vision of Blake propelled backwards seemed to keep replaying. A bell had rang in the back, which summoned him to retrieve an order for a table. After filling the table in front of him, he shifted in a half circle and headed back to the kitchen.

"This goes to table six," a pair of green eyes pierced him, "And there's people waiting to be seated when you're done."

"You know Tara," Bryce said with a smile, "If you didn't have me, you might go insane."

Tara cocked her eyebrow as she placed her crossed arms onto the bar that connected the kitchen to the main room, "Yeah, well now if you can just be on time, that'd be awesome."

Bryce placed the plates on his forearm and his palms. Across the restaurant didn't seem nearly as far now as it did the first day he started. He smiled to himself as he could remember dropping plates, spilling coffee and tripping over a table practically warranting a lawsuit from the people who occupied it. As he delivered the plates to the young teenage couple, he remembered a particularly bad day from a few months back when his father first got sick; the tray he was holding was tilted because he wasn't particularly paying attention. After he tried to compensate by tilting his wrist towards him, which caused the daily spaghetti special to cover him from head to toe. Any day that followed, he vowed to have an extra pair of clothes in his cubby at work.

When Bryce had taken care of his table he rounded towards the entrance. Bryce closed his eyes to wipe the sweat from his brow with his wrist, he had the cafe' etched into his brain. With his right hand, he grabbed two menus from a slot in the wall and looked over to the entrance. The sight of what stood there stopped him cold in his tracks.

Her smiled radiated the room and her long blonde hair was down, which she was pulling over her right shoulder, "...Hi"

Bryce raised his brow, "...Liz, hi..."

"Do you have a break coming up soon?"

"I, uh..." Bryce hesitated; he didn't need this today, "Liz, what do you want?"

The sentence seemed to slap her across the face, "...I wanted to talk about us. About what happened."

Bryce rolled his eyes and put a finger up in her direction. The pace at which he reached the pass was lightning quick, Tara already had a cynical look across her face.

"Save it," Bryce said, putting up the palm of his hand towards her, "I need to go on break"

Tara shook her head with a smirk, "That girl's going to ruin your life; take ten and come back, I'll have Dylan cover you, he just got here"

Bryce turned on his heel and went to the front where Elizabeth was standing. Motioning with his hand, she followed him to a closed off area of the restaurant. Bryce sat down first; back when they were dating he would always pull out the seat but he was past formalities. Elizabeth sat down across from him at the quaint table in the corner.

"So," Bryce said with an obvious tone of annoyance in his voice, "what did you want to talk about?"

Elizabeth was looking down at her hands, one of which was picking the cuticles of the other, "I heard about Joel... I'm sorry."

"Is that all?"

"Bryce, look," Elizabeth said, "I was scared, I was having issues when you came out and then that stuff with your Dad came up and I--"

Bryce shot her a nasty look, "That 'stuff'? What stuff would that be? The one where I had to prepare to bury him?"

"That's not what I meant," she said, dejected, "We were just going through a lot and I got scared."

"What the hell were you going through?"

"You knew I was having issues coming to terms with"

Bryce narrowed his eyes and held up his hand, "I liked men and women before I met you Elizabeth, I told you about Robby because I felt like I needed to be honest with you."

"I get that," Elizabeth said, defending herself, "I never stopped loving you, I just"

"You just what?"

"...I miss you."

"That's convenient, now that I don't have my father to deal with anymore, right?"

"Bryce, c'mon," she lamented, "You know that's not fair."

"What did you think was going to happen? You were going to apologize and everything was just going to be alright again?"

"No, but, I want to work it out"

Bryce rolled his eyes, and folded his arms across his chest defensively, "I have a lot of stuff going on right now."

"And I want to be there for you. I don't think we should throw out everything that we've built."

"Bryce!" Tara called from the other room, "We need you, hurry it up!"

"Will you call me?" Elizabeth asked, "please?"

Bryce breathed a heavy sigh, "We'll see, do you want something to eat before you go?"

Elizabeth could only shake her head, "I'll get going, I'll see you…"

Bryce got up and walked with Elizabeth towards the exit. Bryce turned on his heel and went back to the pass to serve his demanding customers.

* * *

Brett parked the vehicle along a curb and mindlessly placed some quarters in a metal block embedded in the cement. His legs walked on their own accord, though he wasn't sure where to begin. It was mid-afternoon, he'd have some time to find the girl in his vision as he could distinctly recall it not happening until sundown. But where? Downtown was fairly large and the epicenter of Carmel. It was difficult to pinpoint where the incident took place and even though the image flooded his head just an hour before the details and even the general images were fading from his mind. The only image that remained was that of the terrified girl.

Walking along one of the main arterials, Brett wracked his brain trying to figure out what he could to ease his search. He took the newspaper from his pocket and searched the names for a clue. There was so much to cover that it seemed impossible, until he flipped to the back page, a woman named Elizabeth Gonder.

"…That's her," he said to no one in particular. Without hesitation, he reached for his phone, "Hi, Carmel, California…"

The automatic voice on the other side was directing him through some database sure to be thousands of miles away, "Elizabeth Gonder"

A human picked up the receiver, "I have an Elizabeth Gonder, on Monte Verde and 4th"

"I'll take it, thank you."

The woman hung up and an automatic voice played back a number, which Brett quickly jotted on the newspaper. Brett walked back to his car and drove for the destination, unsure of what to find.

* * *

"He's a good guy, he's just never had an easy life, you know?"

Blake raised his eyebrow, not taking his eyebrow off the road. Of course he'd known people with a difficult life, he'd seen them all the time. It wasn't commonplace to see at least ten or fifteen kids who lost their way, get lost in the system. Who reacted just the way that Bryce had earlier. How he ended up halfway across the street he still couldn't quite figure out. The events replayed in his head over and over again and nothing seemed to make sense. To throw him that far Bryce would have to be the size of a small van, and while he had good tone and musculature he was nowhere near strong enough to toss Blake's hundred and eighty pound form halfway across the street.

"He's just lucky that he attacked me instead of someone else," Blake said, returning his companions comment, "I've seen a lot of people a lot worse off than him get a ton of time for much less than he did."

"Thank you," Taylor said, his short bushy hair not moving with the wind that flowed through the convertible, "When things calm down for him, I'm sure he'll appreciate it."

"How do you guys know each other?"

"Me and Bryce? I knew him from high school, he dated a friend of mine and we became friends after we figured out that we had more in common."

"Like what?"

"Well, we're both kind of loners, we've had shitty relationships with our parents, if at all. And then we understood each other as we came out in high school."

Blake didn't flinch much to Taylor's surprise, "Have you guys…?"

"Me and Bryce? Oh lord, no, I mean there was a long time I really liked him, but it could never work out between us, you know?"

"Why not?"

Taylor chuckled, "That boy's got too many issues, not one of the biggest one being his ex-girlfriend."

"Is that the friend from high school you were talking about?"

"No," Taylor shook his head as Blake rounded a rather sharp turn, "Elizabeth came after that. It was when he started college. She got messed up in some shady stuff"

Blake raised his eyebrow, "Like what?"

"Bryce never told me," Taylor went on, "said that he would one day, when I would understand, but that I couldn't know yet."

"And that never struck you as odd?"

"Well, yeah, but Bryce has never really had it easy."

Blake's face twisted, "I don't necessarily think that gives him a right to withhold things from his best friend."

"You don't know us," Taylor said, with a tone that slapped Blake across the face, "I trust him, alright? He'll tell me when he's ready."

Blake rounded another turn, the car filling with a silence that seemed to encapsulate them. The term 'a deafening silence' didn't make so much sense as in the last few days with Blake's constantly insensitive tones. With Brett, with Bryce and now with Taylor, it bothered him how much he was just callously passing judgment.

The dashboard on his car flipped over, two o' clock. How the hell did the morning pass by so quickly? Bryce had been at work for almost three hours already. Luckily there were no cases on the weekend unless it was an emergency. Things seemed simpler when dealing with delinquents, there were rules set up in place that dictated how an offender should be treated. With relationships, friendships… those rules didn't apply, everyone seemed to be so touchy, so emotional. Blake liked rules, that much he knew for sure, but what happens when you can't apply rules to everyday situations? It was a lot to process but he brushed it off, now was not the time or place to delve into his own neurosis.

"Turn here," Taylor said pointing. It irritated Blake, he knew how to get to the café, but he let it roll off him.

* * *

Brett pulled away from the house with an irritated look on his face, not only was this girl not answering her phone, she wasn't home either. As he looked back to pull out of the driveway, he slowly put his foot on the gas and exited to the right. Now that the lead had run cold, he wasn't sure where else he could go. Driving mindlessly back to the city center he thought he would get out and just look for her on the main streets, it was still light out and his vision, from what he could remember, took place in the evening.

Brett came to a stoplight and pressed his foot on the brake. His head rested on his hand that was propped up by the car door. What was he doing? This was crazy; he was tracking down some girl he had never even met before, yet everything seemed to be pointing him in this direction. A car turned from the right and as though it was in slow motion, it drove past him and he saw the girl in his vision, her hair flying in the wind. Brett waited for his light and made a quick U-turn, following the tiny red BMW as it flew down the road. Brett already knew where it was going but he felt compelled to stay on her tail.

Brett pulled up on to the curb and ran up to driveway to meet the girl face to face. She was stunning, her long blonde hair flowed past her shoulders and her green eyes were stunning. Brett stood there looking at her when she turned to look him in the face, as if she was analyzing him in just the same way. Neither knew which to speak first but she circumvented that.

"Uh, hi, can I help you?" she inquired incredulously, clutching her purse closer to her.

"Hi, uhm, I'm Brett," he extended his hand, she did not meet him halfway, "I… uhm, can we talk?"

"I'm not interested in whatever you're selling."

Brett looked to the side with a note of disconcerted confusion on his face, "I don't really know how to say this, but I think you may be in danger."

The girl's eyes widened, "Uh, I don't know what Lorelai has said, but I'm working on it."

"Lorelai? Who's Lorelai?"

"You mean," she said, shaking her head, "Lorelai didn't send you, look, you need to get out of here."

"I can't explain it," Brett said, pushing everything from the bottom of his stomach, "but I think I'm supposed to help you."

The girl walked away in the middle of his sentence but Brett relented, "Wait, you're Elizabeth right?"

She stopped dead in her tracks, pulling her shoulders uptight, "How do you know my name if you don't work for Lorelai?"

"I've had a vision of you," Brett said, noticing how insane he sounded with each word that escaped his lips, "of someone killing you. Like you were being drowned."

Elizabeth walked back to face Brett, "C'mon, we should go somewhere."

Elizabeth took Brett's hand; a flash of light flooded his head.

"Hey, what's wrong?"

Brett could see himself. Bushes obscured his eyesight but he could very clearly make out Elizabeth and himself standing there. Why was he standing there with his head to his chest? Elizabeth kept trying to wake him

Brett came to, with Elizabeth tugging on his arm.

"Hey, are you ok?" she asked, unsure of what happened.

Brett looked around, "I had another vision. I think we're being watched…"

He narrowed his eyes towards the bushes he was sure someone was watching from, "Over there…"

"C'mon, kid, let's go, we need to go now, you're in danger," She said, tugging on his arm towards her car. As she did a beautiful woman emerged from the bushes Brett was just staring at. Something was off about her, her skin seemed almost ethereal and had a hue of blue tinting her skin. Brett jumped into the car, Elizabeth followed suit, fumbling for the keys to the ignition. The woman approached the car, extending her palm towards the car. Jets of water sprayed out of her palm shaking the car and denting the hood upon impact.

"What the hell is that thing?" Brett screamed, panicked.

"That's what you saw killing me, Fuck. Fuck these keys!" she screamed, finally finding the right one and placing it into the ignition. Effortlessly she turned the keys to the ignition, pulled out of the driveway in lightning speed and drove off. The mysterious woman stood in the driveway for just a moment before evaporating into thin air.

"What was that?" Brett shouted at Elizabeth as if she were across the street.

"Just shut up, I have to think. We have to go somewhere crowded."

"What? What are you talking about? Let me out, I'm in over my head."

"Look," Elizabeth said, slamming on the brakes, "If you get out now, you're as good as dead anyway. She saw you with me."

"Who saw me with you, what is she?"

"Later," she screamed, forcing her foot down on the gas, speeding off down the road.

* * *

The lunch rush had died down, finally, Bryce kept recalling the mantra he played in his head: 'I hate Saturday, I hate Saturday, I hate Saturday". There were still some stragglers, teenagers who couldn't find anything to do for the weekend. Bryce didn't mind the teenagers, they were loud sometimes but they were always polite. And patient. Lord were they patient. Bryce hated the older folks the most, they were impatient, stubborn, ridiculous orders and then to add the cherry to a shit filled cake, they tipped like they were living off of welfare. Bryce almost felt bad for thinking it but he'd rather just the younger crowd came in. They might not have tipped well, but at least they weren't impossible to deal with.

Tara gave him another order to take out to a table; though it had slowed down he was on his toes because he was serving and hosting. The plagues of working at a small establishment like this. Bryce bobbed in and out of the tables delicately handling his tray with ease. After delivering a few delicious looking plates he made he way to the front podium. A heavy sigh escaped his chest.

"What are you doing here?"

Taylor held up his hands, as if to surrender, "It's not my fault, he wanted to come here and make sure you were alright."

Bryce took notice of the taller man standing next to his friend. The strong jaw line he had was twisted into a frown, unsuitable for someone who was as attractive as him.

"Give me a sec, I have a ten coming up, I have to talk to you anyways"

Bryce went in the back and notified Tara he was talking his break. The look she gave him was saying 'You already took your break, but whatever'. Bryce knew he was bending the rules, but knew deep down that Tara could cover and that he worked his ass off his entire shift. Bryce grabbed a few cups and filled them with fountain soda before heading back to the foyer and guiding Blake and Taylor over to a table that was seated in front of a window that was still shining sunlight through into the room. Taylor sat next to Blake and they both sat across from Bryce.

"Look," Blake said, "I'm sorry about earlier."

Bryce interrupted him, "Look, no, I'm sorry. I'm going through some stuff right now, I didn't mean to attack you, I honestly didn't even think I had. I must not know my own strength."

"Yeah," Blake said with a smile, "You knocked me on my ass, I have no clue how that happened."

Bryce shook his head and looked down at his soda, "This week just keeps getting better and better."

"What did you want to talk about?" Taylor said, breaking the path Bryce was sure to go down.

"Oh," Bryce exclaimed, as if he had just discovered oil, "Guess who came in to see me?"

"Uh," Taylor paused for a step, "Joe DiMaggio?"

Bryce's face twisted into a confused look, "Who's Joe DiMaggio?"

"Well," Taylor laughed, "It wasn't him. Who was it?"

"Elizabeth," Bryce said, staring back at his soda, "I think she wants to get back together,"

"You're not thinking of doing it, are you?"

Blake interrupted, "It's not really my place, but, you have a lot on your plate right now, is dealing with an ex a good decision right now?"

Bryce frowned and there was a long pause, "No, but… I mean, after all this time…"

"Yeah, now that things have started to settle down," Taylor projected loudly, "Where was she when you needed her? That's bullshit."

"I know, but she still loves me."

At that moment, a loud obnoxious technologic noise came from Blake's direction. He turned a fierce red color as he fumbled around his pockets to find a small cell phone. As he answered it, he pointed a finger upwards as if to say 'just a moment' to his companions.

"Hey, what's up?" Blake said, coolly.

Bryce and Taylor both pretended like they weren't staring at him as his face turned from calmed to concerned.

"What? Wait, slow down, where are you?"

Bryce couldn't help himself, "What's wrong?"

Blake put up his palm in a futile attempt to silence Bryce, "What? What are you talking about? That doesn't make any sense…"

Blake got up and began fishing for his keys, "I'm coming to get you, stay there."

Blake bolted for the door with Bryce right behind him. Bryce reached for Blake's shoulder and turned him around, "What's going on?"

"Brett's in trouble, he thinks someone's trying to kill him."

Bryce would've laughed at the ridiculous statement Blake had made if the last week of his life hadn't been so off kilter, "Well, I'm coming with you."

"Bryce, that's not necessary, you have to work here and—"

Bryce cut him off, "Look, you and your brother came out of nowhere to help me, it's my turn to help you now. Just give me a second."

"But—"

"No buts, if you leave without me, I'm going to be pissed."

Bryce walked towards the back, undoing his apron in the process. As he reached the back, through the wide double doors, Tara was about to give him orders when she looked at him and noticed what was taking place.

"Oh no, no no no," she said, pointing her finger at Bryce, "You're not leaving me, no."

"Sorry, Gotta go," Bryce said, reaching over to hug Tara, "I'll owe you forever, promise."

As he let go, Tara swatted him with a big planner, and shoved him out of the way, "I swear to God, if you weren't such a good worker I'd have fired you."

Bryce walked back out the double doors, clocked out on the meter that was sealed to the wall and walked out the front door with Blake and Taylor. Without a word, they all got in the car, not sure of what awaited them but drove with one mind towards downtown.

* * *

"Who was that?" Elizabeth asked, getting out of the car

Brett shoved the phone in his pocket, "It was my brother, he might be able to help us."

Elizabeth noticeably rolled her eyes, "I doubt that, we're so fucked. C'mon."

Elizabeth and Brett walked down the crowded street. Brett wasn't sure which direction they were going but followed Elizabeth anyways. There was enough wacky shit going on today that Brett didn't question things anymore, he bit his lip and stayed on Elizabeth's heel.

"Where are we going?"

"I don't know, we just have to keep moving. And…"

The woman was standing mere feet in front of them, though Brett wasn't sure how. Elizabeth screamed, "Run! Brett, C'mon"

Brett's hand was taken by Elizabeth as they ran away from the being in the opposite direction. Brett still wasn't sure what it was but he knew it wasn't good news. The sunset was splashing dazzling colors across the skyline as Brett and Elizabeth rounded a turn down an alley. As they were running, Elizabeth pushed Brett into a pile of rubbish that lay on the side of the alley.

"Stay there, no matter what happens, stay there."

Elizabeth kept running to the end of the alleyway that was sealed off by a large fence, the being gliding towards her victim.

"You don't have to do this," Elizabeth said, with a sickening realization crawling over Brett's face, "We can both just let this go and go home."

The creature laughed at her, as Elizabeth raised her hands and placed her palms out; water began spewing from her hands. The creature raised her hands and redirected the water back towards Elizabeth.

"You foolish girl, you think your strength is enough to replicate my power?"

The cackling continued as Brett watched Elizabeth drowning in the water. Brett ran towards the creature with a brick in tow. Brett hurled it at the being.

"Hey!" he shouted, "Come and get me instead."

The pool of water surrounding Elizabeth collapsed and she fell to the ground choking. The creature turned around and locked eyes with Brett. At first her glance was angry, one could deem it evil. The next, her look was gentle, soothing. A tune escaped from somewhere, one that was beautiful.

"That's it? You try and drown her, but you only sing to me?"

The being frowned and extended her palms outwards to jet water towards Brett. He placed his arms in front of his face as fluid surrounded him; enveloped his lungs and what felt like down to his very soul. Brett couldn't breathe and he did everything he could to hold any oxygen he had left.

"Hey!" a voice shouted, sending the creature flying into the wall. Brett collapsed to the ground and turned to see Bryce and his brother coming down the alley.

"Go get the girl," Brett said, choking, as Bryce helped him to his feet. Blake went and grabbed Elizabeth, the creature getting up just as quickly as the boys were.

"I wasn't expecting you to bring them straight to me, good girl," the creature said in a voice that sent chills up Brett's spine.

The creature's eyes began to glow a dark blue and she began singing as she did before. Taylor, Blake and Bryce all stopped dead in their tracks. Brett stood there, watching everything happen as if it were in slow motion. Elizabeth looked Brett in the eyes, as she fell back to the ground. What was she trying to communicate? The boys started walking towards the woman as she forced her palms outward which sent water to all three of them, drowning them without a fight. There they stood, allowing the water to encompass them with no sense of fight from any of them.

Elizabeth finally gasped, "You're immune to her powers, break her trance over the boys so we can get out of here."

Brett wasn't sure what to do, so he rushed the being, pushing her into the brick wall, surprising her. The alley way was tight and she threw Brett off of her into the other wall. The other boys had broken free of their water prisons and had come to, seemingly broken from their trances. Brett got up, sputtering from the impact when the creature turned towards him.

"You," she said, drawn out, slowly, agonizingly, "shall be first."

Her palms faced in Brett's direction. The other boys reacted, watching the scenes as they unfurled before them.

Blake shouted, "No!"

His arms extended forward towards her. There she stood. Motionless. Everyone looked around. Taylor was motionless too. Elizabeth didn't hesitate.

"C'mon, we have to get out of here." She grabbed Brett by the wrist and ran back to the main street. As they ran out, Blake and Bryce followed suit, although unsure of everything that had happened. Elizabeth touched Taylor, snapping him out of his perpetual stalled motion and without question he followed suit. As the group reached the main road, they ran toward the car. Questions filled their head, but one answer did stand. Where they were heading next: Their home.