Chapter 2

"Erik..." I blurted. I was speechless. What was I supposed to say to him? I continued to stare at him frozen with my mouth gaping. Jeesh, I must have looked like a complete idiot.

"Tell me what's going on with you and Neferet." He spoke lifelessly.

"I-I..." I started to stutter "I wish I could but believe me when I say I can't tell you because I'm trying to protect you."

He paused for a moment, looking confused but he shook it off and continued speaking "Bullshit. I'm tired of your lies Zoey." His words felt like a cold spike impaling me through my stomach. The pain reached my throat and then without warning puke was pouring out of my mouth and onto the floor. I must have sucked in one single breath of air before the next mouthful of puke left my system. I moved my head up to see Erik's face but he was already at my side on his knees. His face looked as shocked as I felt.

"Zoey? Zoey! No!" He cried out.

Was I dying? Was my body rejecting the Change? Wait, no. There was no blood and I'd defiantly stopped puking. Then it hit me. Erik still cared about me. He had just cried out for me when he thought i was dying.

"I'll get Neferet!" He cried again.

As he got up I grabbed his sleeve and pulled him back. "No." I said bluntly "I'm not dying."

An understanding look crossed his face as he returned to his knees at my side.

"You still care about me." I breathed, feeling like crap.

He looked down at his hands "I can't not care about you Zoey. Somewhere in my heart there is still a place for you. But my mind is telling me I don't want to care about you. You hurt me so much Zoey."

Rage filled me and I blurted out something I wish i had never said. "I didn't want you to find out that way!" I snapped. "If it wasn't for Neferet and Loren planning for you to find me you wouldn't resent me this much!" as soon as the words escaped my mouth i wished i could have pulled them back into my damn fat trap.

"Neferet... Loren... What?" He said looking even more confused than before.

I sighed and decided it was now time for Erik to know absolutely everything if he ever was going to trust me again. I explained to him all about the so called ghost sighting of Elizabeth No Last Name and that creepy Elliot kid and the whole Stevie Rae becoming undead dead and also Neferet's plan to isolate me as she called it. I didn't leave out a single detail about the last couple of months. Erik didn't speak once. His face was unreadable.

"You cannot tell anyone about this. Especially Neferet." I said finally finishing my oh so long story.

Erik sat next to me silently. His superman style hair was gently blowing in the breeze. I didn't want to be the one to break the silence but the suspense was killing me. I needed to know what he was thinking. Needed to know if he believed me and didn't think I was a complete and total freak.

"Talk to me." I plucked the courage to speak.

His eyes never met mine. "I need to go." He practically whispered. Pulling away from my grasp which I still had on his sleeve, he walked away swiftly from the oak tree and me. I cried out his name and begged him to return to me but my cried were ignored as he sped further away and then out of sight. My eyes let out tears without my permission and my body started to shake uncontrollably. Gurgles of pain screamed from my stomach as another unexpected mouthful of puke escaped. What's wrong with me! I shouted to myself. Managing to make myself stand, I started to walk back to the dorm. I felt like crap! I probably looked like crap too. I told myself all I needed was a goodsleep. Yeah, a good sleep. I entered the dorm to find Shaunee, Erin, Damien and Jack sitting around our favourite TV, all giggling at how hot Christian Bale is in that Batman movie. (And he was a complete and total hottie.) How long was I out for anyway? But that was not important now. All I needed was to focus on getting past all of them without noticing my presence. I started to walk as quiet as i could toward the stairs when Nala came bouncing down them complaining.

Shhhh! I screamed out mentally but it was too late. Jack turned his head and his bright eyes spotted me and my name came from his mouth. At that moment they all turned around and I had four pairs of eyes staring onto me.

"Zoey?" Damien questioned as he noticed how crap I looked.

I stood there feeling awkward, not sure what to say to them. Shaunee and Erin twisted their heads about to the TV.

"Do you see anyone there, Twin? Shaunee spoke loudly

"No. No one that we need to worry about." Erin replied to her.

Damien also turned his head back to the TV while Jack had an apologetic look on his face and mouthed the word sorry to me. Unable to hold in my tears I quickly ran up the stairs, into my room and slammed the door shut while another bucket load of tears fell. Nala jumped in throught the cat flap and starred at me with the bright green eyes then she jumped up at me. I caught her in my arms.

"You couldn't have kept quiet could you?" I questioned Nala. She wagged her tail ferociously and jumped out of my arms onto my/her bed. Once again I changed back into my sweats and crawled into bed.