Dear Anon who left me the spanish review, thank you. You made my life. And also, you're right. I did use google translate to figure out what it said, haha. I laughed so hard over that. And also thank you to all of my wonderful reviewers. You guys make me happy XD. So happy, that I got a third chapter posted. Of course, i'm kind of tired. and i took a benadryl earlier, but i'm fighting the sleep to write this, so i'm not actually sure if it makes sense or not. but. yeah. i'm going to post this now. yeah. okay. bye.

Later that night, we were gathered in the living room. Now that Travis has decided I'm not such an Earth-Tard, he was sticking around and we were actually getting along pretty well. He was still gloomy and depressing as shit, but he was tolerable. He was also the only one of the group that still had a home to go to, besides Jon. Seth and Sara's, as well as Stevens were under watch. (A/N: Holy Hufflepuff. I just realized how many "S" names I have. Seth, Sydley, Sara, Stella, Steven. Manohman. Oh Well.) A map of The Capitol was spread out on the coffee table.

"It will take two days to get to the Capitol. When we do, we can go to our Aunt's house... Here." Seth pointed to a place in the middle of the huge city, a few blocks from Capitol Square. "She can hide us and help us. Help us with what to say, and to give Syd her best shot at being listened to. As a Capitol worker, she will be able to get us a meeting with the President and get Syd in safely."

"Good. Getting Syd in safely was one of our main concerns. Syd, when you're in there, you just have to stay calm, okay?" Jon was speaking to me softly. "Be calm, and be convincing. Show them the experiment, let them know of the other options, then just hope for the best. After you do your talking, there's nothing else you can do. After that, it's up to them."

Okay. So be calm, forget that the future of two planets is resting on my ability to be convincing and persuasive, and shut up. I can do that. I nodded.

"We've got a long time ahead of us. There's not telling what we will encounter on our trip to The Capitol." Steven reminded us. "We've best get as much sleep as possible tonight. We should leave fairly early tomorrow morning."

Travis was staying over at Jon's since we were leaving so early, and he was sharing Jon's room with Steven. Jon was staying in his parents room, apparently they were both teachers at a boarding school, and rarely came home. Seth and I would be in the room I was in last night, and Stella and Sara would be sharing another of the guest rooms. We went to our separate rooms and readied for bed. I was crawling into the bed and Seth was going to flip off the lights when there was a knock at the door, and Stella walked in.

"I just wanted to say good night, and I'm happy the two of you have worked this all out. I know this must be a rough time for the both of you right now, and fighting amongst yourselves will only make it harder. Especially being each others Xanadu." She had come over to where I was sitting up on the bed and sat beside me. She pulled me into a hug, and I allowed it. Her hug was warm and comforting. I felt her body tense up, but she didn't let go, so I didn't either. When she finally pulled away, I felt oddly violated and she had a sympathetic look on her face.

"I'm sorry. About your parents."

"How-"

"Good night, guys." And she was gone.

The fuck? How the hell did she know about my parents?

Seth flipped the lights off and we slid into the bed.

"Her powers. She can see your past through touch."

Oh! I'd forgotten. I was a bit upset that she had done that without asking, but what could I do? She can't unsee what he saw.

"How are you holding up? Still doing good? Do you need a sleeping pill?"

"No, I'll be fine with you here." I smiled into the darkness, and felt his arm tighten around my waist. "And yeah, I'm great. This feels so much like Earth, it's not even bothering me. How are YOU holding up?"

"Honestly? I'm scared out of my mind. If ANYTHING happens to you-"

"Seth. Stop worrying about me! I'm going to be FINE. I'm more worried about what will happen if this doesn't work."

"Yes, but I've noticed you have no self-endangerment alarm. You never seem to worry about yourself and the danger you're getting into."

I knew that there was no point in arguing, so I did what any girl does to end an argument. I leaned over on top of him and pressed my lips to his. This kiss was unlike any other he and I had shared before. I could feel the passion, the desire. The want. The love. The tenderness of his hand sliding from my cheek to my neck, pulling me in closer. As close as possible. His warm breath against my face when we finally broke apart and lay, face to face, wrapped up in blankets and each others arms.

There was no silence that night. Our hearts were beating loudly, making a song of their own. I fell asleep, listening to that song. Perfectly at peace.

I woke up the next morning to Sara and Steven, standing over the bed, smiling creepily.

"Guys?"

"You two are just so cute!" Sara squealed.

"Even I have to admit, you're pretty adorable." Steven laughed.

"Shut up." I stuck my tongue out at them. I felt Seth stirring under me.

"What's going on?" He asked as he kissed my temple.

"Oh, not much. Just Sara and Steven being complete creepers and watching us sleep!" I teased.

"Guys... C'mon. That's weird." He laughed.

"Oh, we were only watching for a few minutes. We just came in here to wake you guys, and decided we just couldn't."

"Well, at least our adorable-ness got us a few extra minutes of sleep!" Seth and I crawled out of the bed and went downstairs, where everyone else was already awake.

"Bout time you two got up. What, did you two keep each other up all night last night? Do we need to keep you in separate rooms? Were you safe?" Stella joked. I laughed, hoping everyone didn't seriously think we had sex. Not that the idea of sex with Seth repulses me, just the fact that we had only met a few days ago... And we were in a strangers house... and I just didn't want everyone having that idea about me.

"Shut it, Stell." Seth threw an apple at her, that she caught and bit into, sticking her tongue out.

"Alright, guys." Jon walked in. "Are we about ready to leave?"

There were nods around the kitchen. I went into the living room with everyone else, where I saw that, while Seth and I had been asleep, they had been working on packing bags for everyone.

"Clothes. Food. Flashlights. A tent. Matches. Protection. Everything we might need." Jon passed a bag to everyone. "Alright guys, let's go."

We walked out through the front door, and began down the driveway to the road Seth and I had walked to the day before. I looked back at the beautiful house. It really was quite homey. I'd miss the feeling of safety and home that I got from it. But we were on to try and save some planets! Seth grabbed my hand, and I held on tightly as the realization that this battle, the one that I had thought was won just from retrieving the experiment, was far from over hit me. But I had faith that everything would be okay. After all, if I keep telling Seth not to worry, how could I?

The road was still as deserted today as it was yesterday.

"Does no one drive this road?" I asked.

"Oh, no. Not anymore. Cars were made illegal when the government realized how harmful they were to the atmosphere. Thought that just cutting out cars would make it better. Obviously, it didn't. That nasty smell? Kubla Khan didn't used to smell like that. It used to smell amazing, like summer. Until everything died." Stella explained. "We're not likely to run into very many people along the trip."

"I wouldn't say that." Travis warned. "Driving has been made illegal, but there are still trackers out."

"Trackers?"

"Capitol workers. They roam around the islands, looking for anyone who might be breaking the rules. It's not just driving that's illegal. Certain fire-objects are illegal, hunting is illegal, with the way that everything is dying, they want to be sure to keep the food for themselves, and sell whatever they don't want to us at outrageous prices, traveling without documentation, like we're doing is illegal, because they don't want people staging uprisings. We're likely to run into a few of them. And it's not really the trackers or people that I'm worried about."

"What are you worried about?"

"The beasts. The Capitol began experimenting centuries ago, trying to create robots or slaves or something, no one knows exactly what they were going for. But at any rate, they messed up. A lot. And when they messed up, they just dumped the beasts off on a random island, and left them to do whatever they might. Some died off, but many adapted, and bred. Some are harmless, no more danger than a stray dog, some are actually good, and are nice protection to have around. But there are also some that will kill you the minute they see you."

"Trav. How about we not talk about that, eh? Not this early on, especially." Steven stopped him. But I wanted to know more.

"What kind of beasts are around here?"

"Well, we've seen a few chupacabras. They eat goats. Don't really eat them, but they suck the blood and leave their empty bodies laying around. They don't normally harm people, but there's always a chance, I suppose."

"Ooh, and there's the Ninetails." Stella added. "It's a beautiful dog like creature with pure white fur and nine tails, which is where it gets its name from. They're gentle when undisturbed, but when they get scared, they burst into flames and attack anything that isn't familiar to them. They're my favorite. I ran across one once, while I was walking in the woods. Maggie, I called her. I took her home and tried to keep her as a pet. I begged for days, but eventually my parents won out, and I had to let her go. They were afraid that she would get scared one day, whether it was from a thunderstorm or visitors or just a creature in the woods, and burst into flames, burning our house down. Kind of ironic, isn't it? I couldn't keep Maggie, because they were afraid she would burn our house down, and in the end, it wasn't her at all, but the house was still burnt down. Maybe if they had let us keep her, she could have scared off whoever set the house on fire."

"Yes, Ninetails are nice, but it still would be bad if we ran across a pack and scared them. We have to watch out everywhere."

It was interesting, hearing about their planet. The experiments from the government, the laws, and how life used to be before everything turned to shit and died. I learned that Jon's parents taught at a school that kind of reminded me of the school in X-Men. They had classes that they thought everyone needed, Math's and Sciences and Histories, but they also had classes just for your powers. You could learn how to use them, make them stronger. It was kind of tripping me out, how similar our two planets were. There's just no way that Earth and Kubla Khan were this much alike, is there?

Hours passed, they told me about their planet and asked me about mine. They were all very interested, having only heard what the Capitol wanted them to hear. We were walking at a decent pace, not running but not just moseying along either. We were making good time. Around three, we stopped and ate a quick lunch before we were on our way again. I was disappointed that we hadn't seen anything that they had mentioned to me earlier. No trackers, no experiments. The conversation was nice, but this had been an uneventful trip so far. More time was passed, we had gone across two islands with no problems, and as it started to get dark, Travis decided to tell ghost stories. Alright, if we couldn't have real action, then ghost stories are the next best thing, right?

"We're coming up on the island of Sander next. It's supposed to be the most haunted island on the planet. They say that there's one part of the woods, a part that we will be heading straight through, that once you go in, you're lucky if you get out. The woods are haunted by a trio, two young girls and a young guy. Around our age, maybe a year or two older. There were four of them, one more guy, and they were walking, trying to find a supposed witches house out in the middle of the woods when they disappeared. Legend had it, only a few can find the witches house. She chooses her victims. And if you find her house, you don't come back. She keeps you there, not in body, but in soul. Forced forever to roam the woods, attempting to lure her next unlucky victims in. These kids were just so lucky enough to be her next victims. They were lured to her house by a child, appearing to be twelve or so in age. Said that his mom had fallen sick, and he needed their help. They were only trying to be good people. When they got to the house and walked in the door, it slammed shut. They hadn't thought to question the house alone in the middle of the haunted woods until the slamming of the door. That's when they realized that they had found it, the witches house. The boy disappeared as a woman came into the kitchen, smiling. Only, she wasn't a woman. She was beautiful. She was seductive, and she was hungry. Hungry for the mind, body and souls of these four kids.

The first to go was the guy. He thought he could fight her. She quickly cast his lifeless body to the side, already feeling it's energy seeping into hers. She would come back to it when the others were taken care of. Distraught, the boys Xanadu ran to his body, where she was also taken care of. The other two, the girls sister and her boyfriend, ran. They escaped the house and were out in the woods in no time. But it was dark. They were turned around, not sure of which way they came, which way they were going. The witch, however, knew these woods. These were her home. And she found them in no time. She had a taste for girls, their beauty made her more beautiful, so she naturally went after the girl first. But this girl was a fighter. She fought tooth and nail, and used her flame powers to temporarily fight the witch. But her powers were no match for the old hag. In no time, she was weak, out of power.

Her boyfriend had ran for it. He knew there was no point in trying to save her, so he made a decision not many could make. He made a decision that would haunt him until the day that he died. He made it to town eventually, and told his story. How they were simply looking for fun, when three of them ended up dying. How they had fought, but in the end, the witch won out. How he had abandoned his love to suffer the witches mercy alone. He went off, became a hermit on the outskirts of the haunted woods. Rumor has it, if you're in the haunted woods after dark and you hear a young girls voice calling out, 'Samuel! Samuel, come back!', then it's already too late. You're as good as dead. The abandoned girl still roams the woods, searching for her lover that left her to die. If she comes across a couple, she kills only the girl, forcing the male to spend his life in misery, forever guilty over the fact that he couldn't protect his love."

There was a silence, and Seth's grip on my waist was only getting tighter every second.

"Bull shit." Steven laughed. I couldn't tell if he really found it to be bull, or if he was just trying to ease the feeling of unease that had taken over.

"No, I swear. If you don't believe it, why don't we just keep on going, and go camp in those woods? They're some of the few woods that haven't died out yet."

"NO!" Sara, Stella and I all shouted.

Travis laughed. "That's what I thought."

"Scared?" Seth whispered, teasingly into my ear.

"Yes, actually. I'm a very firm believer in ghosts. Always have been. And now that I know that there is life on other planets, my belief in ghosts has just been solidified. I'd rather not die, thanks. Unless, of course, that's what YOU want. Let the girl kill me, then you'll be free of me, forced to live your life forever regretting your inability to save me."

"Never." Seth growled. "Don't even joke about that. If you die, then I'm as good as dead. I'll have no life without you."

Gah, he's so damn mushy. But it still makes my heart skip a beat or five every time he says something like that.

"It's getting pretty late, guys. Why don't we camp out here?" Jon suggested. "We're not close to the haunted woods, girls. So don't worry about that." He joked. We found a pretty thick patch of trees with a small clearing in the middle and set up our two tents, with a small fire between them. Travis, Jon and Steven would be in one tent, while Seth, Sara, Stella and myself would be in the other. While the guys had set the tents up, Stella, Sara and I had gathered the rocks to make the outside of the fire ring as well as the starter branches and some larger branches for burning. We had a fire going in no time. Jon brought out hot dogs, and we all roasted a few. This was my first camping trip. I hoped it wouldn't be my last. It was nice, just being outside.

The ghost stories continued, with Travis being the main contributor, but Steven and Seth both throwing a few in there. The stories were all pretty convincing and could all easily be true, but with Seth by my side I felt no fear. How could I, with his arms wrapped around me, pulling me into that weird position where you're not sitting, but you're not laying, and you're amazingly comfortable? There's nothing to fear. I have my Xanadu.

maybe i shouldn't write under the influence of benadryl anymore.