"Ema?" A voice muffled by the red faintly reached her ears. "EMA! EMA WAKE UP!" She opened her eyes wide tears flowing freely over her face. She coughed violently her lungs burning. Her whole body shrieked at her, it felt like every nerve was being snapped. Her eyes finally focused and fell on Damien; there was horror plain on his face. His eyes where panicked. She screamed at his touch on her upper arms. Shakily she looked down and saw she was covered in blood. It poured from numerous gashes staining her tattered clothes. She whimpered no longer able to scream or ask for help. Her whole body shook with fear and she could not stop her eyes from darting from one place to another. All the bite marks… the bruises…

"Oh god Ema…" He gently lifted her off the ground as if she was a delicate glass ornament. Her shadow, still on the defensive, lashed at him leaving large welts on any exposed skin it touched. He ignored it without even flinching. Even though he was careful it still hurt. She flinched and leaned away a bit limply. "Ema can you hear me?" He scanned her face. She nodded as best she could, her heart pounding in her ears. She was too busy trying to remember how to breath to try an speak.

"Oh not another one…" She heard Genesis' familiar voice along with the crunch of running footsteps on the, now dead, grass. "What the hell!" She looked up to see Austin kneeling beside her. He was glaring down at Damien. "What'd you do?" He growled already his characteristic temper flaring up, though his eyes were filled with worry."It's happening to all the students, Austin." Genesis waved off his behavior with the tone of her voice and moved to take a closer look at Ema. Shade, Ema's shadow let off a loud hiss in warning. Austin and Genesis took a step back. "Damien get her inside?" Genesis put a hand on Austin's shoulder giving him a 'come along' pat. He turned his dark eyes grudgingly away from Damien and nodded. "I'll go notify the nurse." He grumbled with one last look back at his sister he bolted off and disappeared inside the school.

Damien looked down at Ema, golden/amber eyes housing worry and fear. "I know you're hurt but I have to pick you up okay." She swallowed hard and closed her eyes, bracing herself for the pain to come. Everything was happening so fast. She couldn't seem to get her head on straight, everything was spinning and she couldn't focus correctly. Damien carefully lifted her trying not to cause anymore pain as he did so and cradled her close to himself. She groaned involuntarily in pain, letting her body go limp, and hung ragdoll like in his arms her head lolled to the side and she saw through heavy lids the small crowd that had gathered around. Her shadow retreated finally; dissipating in every direction and she closed her eyes.

There were no dreams this time just quiet peaceful darkness. It cradled her and she, in turn, let it engulf her gladly. The dark had always been her friend. It never hurt her and she was at peace with it. Her private sanctuary where she was safe from the shadowy hands that had somehow found their way into her dreams. Just peace and rest.

When she eventually opened her eyes again she was home on the couch in the game room. Aston Hall was, as usual, empty of people which, oddly enough, were what she wanted right now. Being alone…in the silence, she shook her head and sat up gingerly, swinging her legs over to rest on the cool floors. The high ceilings, chandeliers, tall windows, and even the pictures of family on the walls seemed daunting now with the all too real dream hanging over her like a shadow. 'At least it's over…' She thought to herself and sighed in relief. All those things she saw… especially Connor.

She swallowed dryly at the jumbled memories of that horrific… nightmare. Could it even be called that? The people, the places, the feeling of fear and guilt, the…blood. She froze at the thought of all the blood before looking down at herself. Nothing but a miles' worth of bandages. She sighed in relief at not having to look at the bright red, oozing, dripping, foul smelling, coppery- "Ems! You're up." She snapped out of her inner thoughts and looked up at the ever smiling face of her best friend. "Hey D." Her voice sounded like she'd been gargling acid paint-thinner and broken glass, felt like it too, and managed to give Damien a half hearted smile. "What I miss?" He shrugged, not looking to good himself. Haunted eyes with dark circles… even more than normal that is. "Not too much. I was just…Um.." He trailed off, moving his gaze to the floor, absently rubbing the tattoo on his arm.

Ema watched him cautiously, her brown eyes moving from the pained look on his face to the black tattoo of thorn covered vines that wound haphazardly up his arm from his wrist. "Just…?" Her gaze was drawn down to the glinting silver cross pendant in his hand. Her heart gave a painful jolt and her breath caught in her throat. "Connor." She hadn't thought that anything that happened yesterday had actually happened. It was all a dream… Connor wasn't… couldn't… "I'm so sorry Ems…" By the time she registered that he had actually moved her was already kneeling in front of her, wiping her tears and whispering things like "I'm sorry" and "I'm here" and "Please don't cry." She hadn't even realized she was until he said so.

"B-but it was a dream... It was a dream… H-he's n-not…" She felt her heart crack open and she wrapped her arms around his neck, burying her face in the crook of his neck as she slid into the floor on her knees. He wrapped his arms around her, gently rocking her back and forth. He felt somewhat guilty. He didn't really know the guy, but he was a real jerk to him most of the time… But he always had a bad feeling about Connor. He was… bad. Damien always trusted his instincts, and they screamed at him every time Connor was around.

Elsewhere in the world the same darkness that had tried and failed to bring an end to its biggest threat was furious…

"I TOLD YOU KILL HER!" Blair grabbed the collar of Ghost's shirt and shook him violently, her claws digging into his skin causing small rivulets of blood to trickle down over the bruises and scars from the other times she'd become furious with him and be absorbed by the white cloth of his shirt. She fumed at him her dark eyes glinting like the edge of a blade, causing his green eyes to widen with fear. He knew she had no mercy or pity and wouldn't deal tolerate screw ups. That and the fact that he had seen what she did to people that failed her must have been what was causing his body to quiver with fright. "Y-Yes, I-I k-kn-o-ow… b-b-but her f-friend"- He was cut short by a low animalistic growl as another presence emerged from the darkness in the room.

"You're pathetic… I practically give her to you on a silver platter and what did you do?... SCREW THE WHOLE PLAN TO HELL." Connor growled as he fully emerged from the shadows. "All those months of work and planning and YOU FAIL." He lunged forward in one lithe motion, snatching Ghost's frightened form from Blair's hands. "I ask for ONE simple thing"- Blair cut him off with a low hiss. She was in charge here and Conner was constantly over stepping over the line. "BOTH of you… are worthless." She grabbed Connor's hand and roughly pulled it from Ghost's person before waving the fearful boy off. Ghost of course had no trouble tearing from the room. He ran so fast he thought he slid and fell in the hall trying to make it around a sharp turn.

He didn't stop or look back as the corridor where his room was flew past him in a blur. He ignored the angry shouts of the numerous servants and soldiers as he bumped into them and almost sent them sprawling to the ground. His heart pounded in his ears so fast it made the sound of his booted feet against the marble floors sound like something in slow motion. Skidding to a stop in his room, he turned, almost falling again, and slammed the door shut. He locked it and barred it as best he could even though deep down he knew it wouldn't stop either of them if they wished to come for him.

He wiped the tears out of his eyes and leaned his back against the door before sliding down into a sitting position, drawing his knees up to his chest. He looked down at the blood on his shirt and let a choked sob escape him then ran his hands back through silver hair. He got lucky that time. She would've done so much worse if Connor hadn't distracted her. She was supposed to be his mother, she was supposed to take care of him and love him, and she had been different before… He sighed and wrapped his arms around his knees then buried his face in his arms. "I just want to go home." The fifteen year old closed his eyes and tried to forget the horrid events of the past few weeks, eventually picking his weary and battered body up off the floor to flop down on the bed in a futile effort to sleep it all off.

While Ghost was being tormented by the grisly task of murdering his friends in their sleep and being beaten half to death by his adopted mother, his best friend was out searching for him still. Bones scanned the map in his hands, crossing off yet another of the places Ghost could be. The tell tale dark circles under his brown eyes showed he hadn't been sleeping. Bones and Ghost had been best friends since middle school when a group of bullies had shoved Ghost face first down the slide into the gravel.

Bones smiled sadly at the memory. He had been playing dodge ball and saw the whole thing happen. After the first kid had been shoved in the mud it was an all out war on the play ground; Ghost and Bones against the rulers of the jungle gym and sandbox. No one won because the teachers interfered, but the duo had put up a hell of a fight and got to play together while on OSS.

"Where are you Ghost…?" He pulled his helmet from under his arm and started his Harley. If anything were to happen to Ghost, Bones would be a broken soul for a long time. Everyone at the academy said it was pointless to look and that whatever had been getting the rest of the students had got him too, but there was something he knew that no one else did. Ghost /was/ the cause, but he couldn't just let his best friend go. He knew the guy better than /any/ one else and there was no way in hell he'd use… whatever that thing he had was to hurt anyone. He guy couldn't make it though Dracula without crying… He always said it was a love story for the ages. He placed the helmet on his head with a sigh then started off down the road. I'll find you Ghost…

Yo! Sorry this is all so vague I'm trying to introduce the center characters before going into depth on the real plot of the story and shizz. I'll get better as soon as the pieces are all connected. Thanks for reading! Please review if you liked it!