Just as she expected, her mom had already left for work by the time she finally made it back home.

Being alone in an empty house was almost like a death sentence. Especially these days. As much as she loathed it, however, she was way too exhausted to go anywhere else.

She dropped her bags by the door then bolted straight up the stairs and into her room. She plopped directly onto her bed, not even pausing to change or to take her shoes off.

She stared at the ceiling: white and bare. Don't think about it, Chloe. Don't think.

Grabbing her iPod Touch from its usual spot on the nightstand, she plugged on her earphones and turned up the music to full blast. It was the easiest way out—the best distraction.

Seconds turned into minutes, and minutes turned into hours. Before she knew it, it was nightfall—but she was still exactly where she was, listening to her playlist for exactly the thirteenth time in a row.

She hadn't fallen asleep though, not once.

Every time her eyes came close to finally squeezing shut, she would just pinch herself. She needed to stay awake. She had to. Sleep was almost too terrifying a place.

Now though, she was on the verge of just giving in. Her eyelids were beginning to feel heavy, and they were drooping slowly, oh so slowly...

All of a sudden, a cool breeze entered her room and a she heard a loud thud that instantly made her jolt up into a sitting position.

Alek.

With great timing, like always.

"Hello," he said, slightly breathless.

She tugged off her earphones angrily and glared at him. "What do you want?"

"Ooh, feisty, are we?" He replied, leaning back against the window sill with a smirk on his face.

"Get out."

"Okay, look. I know I've been gone a while. You missed me. I get it. No need for the cold shoulder." He said, raising both his hands innocently.

She rolled her eyes and lay back down; turning the music back on. She didn't want to deal with this right now. She didn't want to deal with him if he wasn't even going to have a decent conversation.

"Get up. We have to train."

He continued talking, but she just turned the volume up louder and louder, drowning out his words.

Finally, he sighed, "Don't ignore me, Chloe."

She closed her eyes; doing just that.

"Okay, so you really want to do this the hard way?"

The next thing she knew, it was quiet. The music was gone—despite the fact that her earphones were still intact. She opened her eyes to find her iPod in his hands.

"David Archuleta?" He asked, with an interested expression on his face, successfully hearing the song playing without even having to put the iPod up to his ear.

She gritted her teeth, "Give it back."

Alek raised his eyebrow, "Really now? Where'd all your manners fly off to, young lady?"

What was he trying to do?

She flared her nostrils. "Fine then. Please."

Slowly, he began to turn towards the window. She didn't like where this was going.

"Just give it back, Alek!"

He looked back at her, with a mischievous twinkle in his eyes. "Come and get it then."

Then, he jumped out the window.

Chloe bit back a frustrated yell, quickly scrambling up to run after him.

He really wasn't going easy on her.

That pissed her off even more—and she wasn't even in a good mood to begin with.

By now, they had already run probably ten miles or so, easy.

She focused her vision on the head of shaggy blond hair that was ahead of her, and she unleashed her Mai instincts full-on.

If that was how it was going to be, then she wasn't going to hold back either.

She powered forward, and as soon as she was just a couple inches away, reached over and tackled him down.

Things like this came easy too her—almost too easy when she was particularly annoyed.

For the next minute or so, their heavy panting was all that could be heard in the silent night.

"Hm, you're enjoying this, aren't you?"

She stared at him in confusion as he placed his arms behind his head in a relaxed manner, looking smug as ever. It wasn't until then that she realized she was actually straddling him, and hadn't even bothered to move for a whole five minutes now.

"You wish."

She felt warmth beginning to creep into her cheeks; so she snatched her iPod away from his grasp and stood up before he could notice. She began walking down the direction they came from, when he grabbed a hold of her wrist and whirled her back around.

"Where do you think you're going?"

"Home, if you really feel the need to know where I like to go at two in the morning."

"Well, that's too bad because I'm not letting you leave."

She narrowed her eyes.

"I know you heard me back there. We need to train."

"I don't want to. Leave me alone, Alek."

He scoffed at her, "Oh, cut out the attitude, Chloe."

"Why are you acting like this?"

He crossed his arms over his chest, raising his eyebrow questioningly. "I believe I should be the one asking that question."

She shook her head, closing her eyes, "Stop acting like nothing happened."

"Stop acting like you're the only that got screwed over," he shot back. "Believe it or not, we all lost someone that night, Chloe."

Tears started welling up in her eyes. She looked at him, saying in a broken whisper. "Don't you think I know that? It's all my fault. They're gone. They're gone, and it's because of me."

"You know that's not true." His expression softened, "What happened...what happened was messed up and twisted and terrible. But it's not your fault. It doesn't mean that you don't deserve to live or to be happy ever again, Chloe. That's not what it means."

She sniffled, quickly wiping the tear drops that were beginning to fall from her eyes. "Then what does it mean, Alek? Because they didn't deserve to die either. If anyone did, it should've been me."

He placed his hands on either side of her shoulders and pulled her closer to him. "Don't say that. I know it doesn't feel right to be here, while they're...not. But you're not alone."

He sighed, "Look at me."

She had nothing to lose, so she did. She looked up at him, into his eyes, sincere, serious, and pained all at once.

"I'm not forgetting them, Chloe. That's not what I'm doing." He swallowed, "While I was out there, hunting down Zane, I didn't want to do anything but curl up in a hole and lock myself away. I wanted to just sit there…and cry. And that's what I did. I cried for hours. You say I'm the one who's forgetting, but it's not me who's forgetting…it's you." He looked up at the dark, night sky for a moment. "It hurts, and I don't think it will ever stop hurting, but...I'm not going to put my life on hold either. That's not what they would've wanted. So, you living your life like this, pushing everyone away and not even living at all. That's the bigger joke to their memory, don't you think?"

He paused for a moment,"That's not what they would've wanted for you, Chloe. So, we need to do this together, alright? We need to train and fight and train even more if that's what needs to happen. We need to not let them die in vain. Okay?"

His words hit home.

And so, for the first time since everything that had happened, she let down all the walls that she had been working so hard to hold up.

She didn't know who took the first step to close the space between them—maybe it was him, most likely her, she didn't really know—but in the very end, it was the two of them. Just like the night before. Except this time, they were both in the moment. This time, it wasn't just him holding onto her. This time, she was clutching back just as tightly, as she finally cried all the pain away.

A/N: Hey! Long time no update. HAHAH. School just started, so I've been pretty busy. :3 Hm, there's not much to explain about this chapter. Just that I hoped you like it and that you guys need to review or the world will end. ;] Heheh. Okay, bye!(: