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"Oh Ka, rough night?" Alexis sarcastically asked Erika while they headed to their first class, referring to the cut on her eyebrow.

"You have no idea" She answered in the same tone.

"What you have now? Dear maths?"

"Hell no! English"

"Lucky, I got History. I'll see ya back in Geography then, ok?"

"Sure, see ya Alex"

They broke apart and each girl headed to their respective classes. Erika silently walked in her English class and sat on the 4th desk, her usual spot.

"Hello Erika"

She looked up from her notebook to the guy standing in front of her.

"Oh, hi Nate" She answered not meaning to be impolite, but she really wasn't interested on his talk.

That was Nathaniel Queen, rich spoiled boy whose father was friends with Dracon. That was enough for stupid Dracon to think that Nate was the perfect match for Erika, and enough for her to think he wasn't. He wasn't a bad kid and was even somewhat handsome, but had the thought that all that matters in this life is money and for Erika's sadness, he also thought they matched.

He took his brown hair off his blue eyes "How was your weekend?"

Erika gave him a small smile "Nice, yours?"

"It was good. I went to play golf with my uncle"

She raised her eyebrows and tried to hold back a laugh "Sounds exciting"

He probably just chose to ignore her sarcasm "You should come with us someday"

"Trust me, you don't wanna leave me by myself with a golf club and a ball… it's dangerous"

He laughed "It would be no problem to teach you"

Luckily, she didn't have to answer since the teacher walked in the class and told everyone to sit down so he could begin the class.

"He really invited you to play golf?" Alexis asked in disbelief as the two girls headed to the parking lot.

"Ridiculous, I know! Me, playing golf? Give me a break!" Both laughed out loud as they got into Erika's Jeep.

They had planned to go to a nearby park after class and play with the video camera Erika had brought.

Alexis started filming "Come on, introduce yourself"

"Hi! I'm Erika and I… I don't know what else to say!" She laughed

"How old are you?"

"Seventeen and counting to turn eighteen, that means one month!"

"Are we gonna have some kickin' ass party then?"

"Hell yeah!"

"Now Erika, tell us, who's your crush?"

"Where the hell that came from?"

"It's just a question! Don't curse, I'm filming you"

She rolled her eyes "Sorry mom! And I have no crush"

"Ah come on!"

"I'm serious!"

"So, how would the perfect guy look alike for ya?"

"Hmm… Something close to Brad Pitt?" She laughed a bit embarrassed.

"Tall, blonde and green eyes?"

"Yeah, that's pretty much it"

"Whoa, guess today is your lucky day then!"

"Why's that?"

"Cuz there's a guy like that walking towards you right now" Alexis answered smiling while recording everything.

"Cut!" Erika said before turning her back to the camera to check what her friend was talking about and she ended up seeing the last person she expected to see there: Jack Mercer, with Dan right behind him.

"Hey" Jack greeted first with a smile

"You lost?" Erika asked with a grin

"Yeah. Maybe you can give me some directions?" He played along

"Where to?"

"Never mind, you're too young to hear those things" He smirked at her, what caused her to instinctively slap on his arm and as a consequence of all that, he laughed out loud. "What you doing here anyway? I thought we were going to eat?"

"What?" Erika frowned at Alexis "You planned this? And can you please stop recording this already?"

"Aaww what's up Ka, don't feel comfortable in front of the cameras?" Dan teased

"No, I'm not as much Paris Hilton as you" She snapped with a sarcastic smile

"Ouch! I agree with her Alex, turn that thing off. That's embarrassing."

"Fine!" Before finally calling an end to the video, Alex zoomed on a laughing Jack. She then turned to her friend, Erika was still waiting for an answer. "I just thought it'd be fun to have them around"

"What's up Erin? Got a problem?" Jack grinned

She never thought for a second about stop seeing any of the Mercers just because Dracon told her to, but they were in the neighborhood and there was a big chance of getting caught, and after that night, that scared the shit out of her.

"With you? Hell yeah" Once again she hided her worries with sarcasm "Call me Erin again and I might break your legs"

"Yeah right! Are we gonna eat or what?"

"Can we go somewhere far from here?"

"Why?" Alexis asked confused and Jack eyed Erika suspiciously. The cut above her eyebrow surely caught his eye and now she didn't want to be around her own neighborhood, something was up with her.

She shrugged "Just wanna go somewhere new"

"Let's go to the Falcon" Dan said and the two girls looked up at him with questioning eyes "It's a coffee shop, good place to hang out and it's a safe distance from here, if that's what you want"

"Sounds good"

"Then let's go, I'm starving!" Jack cried

"Damn, Jack stop thinking about food!" Dan laughed

"Kinda hard to do that when your stomach keeps reminding you with weird sounds that you're hungry"

Erika chuckled "Let's go kill Jack's monster"

They all started walking to the cars, just when Erika was about to get into hers that she noticed Jack had followed her.

"What you doing?"

"Going with you" She raised an eyebrow at him "Alexis is going with Dan, you really didn't expect me to go with them, did you?"

She laughed "No. Come on"

Erika drove slowly as she followed Dan's car.

"What were you doing with the camera anyway?" Jack asked while he took the object from the dashboard.

"Just having fun"

"Oh yeah? Say 'hi' Ka" Jack said while focusing the camera on her, she had just stopped the car on the red traffic light.

She couldn't help but smile when he called her Ka, she looked over him "Ah Jack, turn that thing off!" She cried half laughing

He turned the camera to himself "She's shy" Then turned it back to her "What happened to your eyebrow?" He asked with no smile and the one she had on her face soon faded away.

"Turn that off Jack, please"

"Did your step father do this?"

Erika lost her patience and took the camera from Jack's hand, soon turning it off. "No, and I have no idea where you took this idea from. I hit my head on my nightstand"

Jack was kind of taken aback by her reaction, she got pissed before he could blink his eyes.

"Got an attitude there for someone who just hit the head"

She fully turned her body to face him "What you mean?"

"You know what I mean"

"No I don't, you're delusional!"

"I'm just trying to help you!

"Thanks, but I think you can't control my dreams and neither can I. There's no big deal Jack"

Someone pressed the horn behind her and just then she realized she had been stopped in the middle of the street, disturbing the traffic, so she soon started driving again.

"You can trust me" Jack said with all honesty in his heart.

He didn't know why he was pushing her so hard, he just felt like she needed his help and he really wanted to help her, by some reason he felt impelled to. But she didn't want to let him get into this, it was all so new for her, she felt ashamed and didn't want to share with anyone else.

"Ok Jack, I was fighting a red dragon, I ran away from him but them I slipped and hit my head on a rock. When I woke up I realized that I had really hit my head but it was on my nightstand. There, satisfied?"

"A red dragon, huh?" Jack didn't believe a word of what she said. He just wished she could open up with him, but then again, he never did when he was in the same situation. Maybe he should take a new approach to that.

"We're here" As soon as she parked the car, she jumped off it. Jack's attitude was really confusing and bothering her.

"Hey! Had a nice trip?" Alexis asked smiling as soon as they met.

Erika gave her a small smile in response "Let's go in, I gotta use the bathroom" She passed through everybody and got in the place.

Alexis looked up at Jack, searching for an answer "What did you do?"

"Me?! Nothing!"

"She wouldn't turn like that out of the blue!"

"I just asked if it was her step father who gave her that cut"

"Damn Jack, don't ask her about her step father"

"Why?"

"Not of your business" Alexis quickly got in the place and raced into the bathroom to her friend.

Dan and Jack stood outside, staring at each other totally confused.

"Come on, let's wait inside" Dan finally said.

Erika was drying her face by the time Alexis came in.

"Hey, you ok?"

"Yeah. I am" Erika tossed the paper into the garbage and leaned her body against the wall.

"He did this, didn't he?"

Erika exhaled hard "First time. It wasn't that bad. It's just a cut and a bruise, no big deal"

"Ka, you gotta tell you mother this!"

"You think I haven't tried?! She's totally blind! He knocked her down with pills so he could show me his lesson and she still stands up for him!" A tear fell from Erika's eye, but she soon ripped it away. "I'm fine. Can we please not talk about this again?"

Alexis got closer to her friend and hugged her tightly "Sure. Come on, let's get something to drink"

After, by coincidence, meeting his two band mates at the Falcon, Charlie decided to get himself a drink. He was in the line when he spotted two girls standing not too far from him, both beautiful, but the one using a dark green jacket caught his eye. Just then, Jack joined him on the line.

"Slap me"

"What?" Jack frowned his eyebrows

"Slap me!"

Still confused, Jack did what his friend asked and slapped him on the back of his head. After a laugh Charlie looked over to the girl quickly and turned to Jack.

"It's still there. I'm in love!"

It was Jack's turn to laugh "Who's the lucky girl then?"

"Alright, I'll show you. But before that, you gotta remember our pact, right?"

"What?"

"The one I get first dibs on the next new girl I found"

"Oh, that"

"Take a look on what makes certain schools worth going"

Jack's eyes grew a bit, Charlie had just checked on Erika. He couldn't disagree with his band mate, on the right girl, those school uniforms were a free ticket to a trip in a front row sit of any guy's naughty imagination, and Erika just happened to be one of those girls. He couldn't deny it, he did checked on her and liked what he saw. But Jack scared himself while thinking that this 'checking' resulted in finding more than a nice ass on her, he sort of… cared about her? Damn. Jack didn't even notice that Charlie was already getting the drinks while he just stood there.

"Hi" Erika approached

"Hi" Jack barely smiled

"I'm sorry about… the attitude"

"It's ok" He glanced at her

"What's up? You might look a bit pleasant by seeing me. After all, you followed me to my car, remember?" She smiled playfully

"Well, I follow a lot of people to their cars" Jack said before getting away from her.

"What the hell is his problem?!" Erika frowned and asked out loud to herself

"Jack? Oh, he's alright. He's just moody" Charlie said after getting near Erika

"You know him?"

"Oh you know, we're band mates. But if you ask me, he got an attitude problem"

"So it shows"

"Here, want one?" Charlie offered her a Coke.

"Yeah thanks" She took the can from his hand. After that, Charlie leaded them to a table, where they could talk. None of them saw Jack glaring at this.

After half an hour talking, well, actually Erika had merely said her name and age, because Charlie couldn't just shut up and from time to time she'd look over where Jack, Dan and Alexis were sat.

She looked over her watch, Dracon would be home in fifteen minutes.

"I don't mean to be impolite, but I really gotta go. Bye!" She quickly got up scared of what might happen if he ever suspected that she went out after school.

"Bye!" Charlie half yelled while raising his hand.

"Alex, you mind going with Dan? I must go home now" Erika said in one breath as she reached their table.

"No problem. You alright?"

"Yeah. Bye guys!" She rushed off to her car.

Jack's stare kept on the door where the girl had just passed through. Again, something was up, he could do nothing and just to make things even better, Charlie decided to be attracted by her. But he actually shouldn't mind about it… too late.

"Erika, where have you been?!" Loren asked worriedly, she had also realized what time it was.

"If he asks, I was here the whole time Lo. I'm gonna take a shower, tell him it's because I was working on a school project and got all dirty with paint!"

"Alright, go!"

Erika placed the video camera on her nightstand along with her bag on the floor and rushed inside her bathroom. After half an hour, she went out and headed to the living room, assuming that her mother was there.

"Hi" She said in a low voice when she met Dracon sat on the couch "Where's my mom?"

"She is at friend's house" Erika's blood froze

"What about Loren?" Erika asked in the most casual way she could

"I sent her home earlier"

"Oh" She simply said before turning to go to her room.

"Wait" Erika swallowed hard before turning. "Did you happen to forget the little talk we had about not meeting the Mercers again?"

"No" She defiantly looked at his face

"No? Hmm… So you decided to meet him anyway?"

"Him? Who's him?" She played dumb. He couldn't know about what happened during the afternoon, there was no way he could have! "I don't know what you're talking about"

"I think you do" He inclined his body forward and took something from behind his back. Erika saw something a bit shiny and her heart skipped a beat as she thought it was a gun. But she was wrong, it was nothing more than her own video camera.

By the time Dracon got home, he walked in her room to see where she was, saw the camera on the nightstand and quickly turned it on to see what Erika had done with it. There was one single video, the one Alexis had made that afternoon, including the part Jack recorded inside Erika's car. She was screwed.

"You have no right to take my stuff! And that isn't from today!" She tried to argue

"Oh no?"

"No"

"Then why you have a cut on your eyebrow just like you have now?" Damn, she totally forgot about it.

"Coincidence?"

Dracon left the camera on the couch, quickly got up from it and walked towards Erika like a lion attacking a poor baby antelope. By reflex she tried to run away but it was too late, he grabbed her hair and sent her flying to the couch, at least it smoothed the fall. But he surely wasn't over yet.

"Don't play smart with me Erika!" He turned her body and pressed her head against the coffee table "You're going to lose"

"STOP!" She tried to get rid of him and kicked his left knee.

After a small groan, he lifted her up and slapped on her face "You shouldn't have done that"

She really shouldn't. He smacked her head on the wall two times, that was enough for her to get dizzy, lose her balance and fall on the ground with a painful groan. He kicked her stomach and this time she didn't fight to suppress the yell and left it out. He kneeled beside the girl and grabbed her jaw, squeezing it.

"I'll be nice to you just this last time. You're hitting my nerves and I'm losing patience. You do not get near of any Mercer, ever again! You got it?" Erika didn't answer, she couldn't move a muscle "YOU GOT IT?" He shook her head, making her to almost throw up.

"Yes" She weakly whispered.

"You better! Now go to your room!" As she didn't stand up, Dracon took her by her underarms and dragged her into the bedroom. There, he simply tossed her like if she was a dirty t-shirt and closed the door. He didn't see that her head hit the corner of the bed and she passed out on the floor.

"Jackie, is everything alright?" Evelyn asked to her youngest son after peaking into his room.

Jack arrived home and headed straight away to the bathroom after barely saying hi to his mother. He was totally disturbed and the fact that he didn't know why he was feeling like that, only made it worse. After taking a hot shower, he locked himself in his room.

"Yeah" He answered in a low voice, not looking to his mother, just at the ceiling.

Evelyn wasn't convinced at all, she walked in and sat by the edge of his bed before softly massaging his foot, which was warmed by a soft gray sock. Jack knew she meant that she was there for him, that he could feel confortable to talk about whatever he wanted to with her. He couldn't resist to the old lady's warm small smile.

"Have you ever made a promise to someone and then realized that you can't keep it?" He spoke in his usual deep voice.

Evelyn nodded softly "Yes"

"What you do?"

"You do your best"

"But… how?"

"Jackie, what promise you made?"

"I don't wanna talk about it Ma"

She took a deep breath "But you know you can, right?"

"Yeah. Thanks Ma"

"Hey Cracker Jack" Bobby walked in

"Not now Bobby. Do it some other time" Evelyn spoke softly

"Why?" He contested

"Do what?" Jack became curious

"Jackie's not alright now" She said to Bobby and then turned to Jack "You'll know later"

"I wanna know now!"

"Aww Fairy, your boyfriend dumped you, sweetie?"

"Fuck you!"

"Jack!"

"Sorry Ma! Just tell me what's up!"

Evelyn and Bobby eyed each other and then looked at Jack, who had already sat down, prepared to listen whatever his brother wanted to tell him.

"Alright Cracker Jack" Bobby took a deep breath "Erika needs help" Jack opened his mouth to speak but Bobby didn't give him a chance to "Maybe she doesn't know yet, but she does. Her step father, that motherfucker ain't that plain cute rich daddy's boy that everybody thinks he is… He was already married once"

"What happened? The woman realized he was an ass?"

"Yeah. But when she did, it was too late. He's violant, she threatned to leave him and he hit her… Hit her so bad and then choke her to death"

Jack's eyes grew "What?! How you know that?!"

Bobby scratched his chin "She was my girlfriend before marrying him. She told me what was going on, she'd live with me after leaving him"

"Holy shit!" Jack was totally shocked by that. "We gotta do something! For Erika and her mother!"

"I found out her mother's pregnant, he probably won't do a thing to her as long as she lows her head to him. I'm more worried about Erika, she needs to visit us and we gotta tell her"

"She already knows" Jack spoke in a low voice

"What?"

"I don't think it was too bad, but he already hit her and she's got some issues with him, that's clear for anyone to see. Bobby, we gotta take her outta there!" Jack suddenly became desperate.

"We can't take her out Jackie. She's underage, we're gonna end up going to jail by kidnapping her"

"YOU PREFER LETTING HER THERE TO DIE BY THAT FUCKER'S HANDS?!"

"Hey, calm down!" Bobby censured his loud tone

"Jackie, we'll do whatever we can to keep her safe" Evelyn tried to calm her young son down.

"While we're here talking, he may be already beating the shit out on her!"