It was about 1:30 in the morning, Eli jerked up in his bed, tangled in his bed sheets trying to free his arms to fight off his non-existent attacker. He finally woke up enough to realize nothing was there and pulled one arm out from under the cover. Looking around the room frantically, he calmed himself down finally,

"God…", he covered his face with his hand, "so stupid…"

It was Vegas Night all over again, only he wasn't so lucky. And he was alone. Just him, Fitz, and a knife.

He vividly remembered it, he felt the pain like he imagined it would feel. Well, in this case, dreamed.

He swung his legs off the bed, he still had a steam engine in his chest. He quietly walked downstairs into the kitchen, grabbing a cup from the cabinet. Not wanting to wake his parents and aunt with the icemaker, he opened up the freezer, grabbing the ice himself. He pushed his cup against the small lever, watching his cup fill with water, cracking the ice as it went.

He let out another small sigh of relief as he sipped it. Walking up the stairs and continuing down the hallway, he stopped. The door to his parents room was open. He saw them both asleep, hanging off either side of the bed. His mother was doing her usual sleep mutter and his father was snoring.

There was definitely no waking them up. Especially his father. When he was tired, forget it.

Eli also got that trait from his father. Once he was out, he was out.

Eli wondered if he had yelled or anything in his sleep. He remembered crying out right before he woke up. He wasn't sure if he dreamed he cried out, or screamed himself awake. He only thought this because when he was 14 he recalled repeatedly having a typical dream of being chased and right when they'd catch him, he'd wake up. His father would tell him the morning after that he was moaning and mumbling in his sleep.

He plopped back down on his bed, staring at the pitch black ceiling. He realized how fucking damp his pillow was from the sweat. He flipped it over, turning on his side. He wrapped himself in his sheets, feeling the -13 degree weather of the outside hit him. He closed his eyes, waiting to fall back asleep.

Unfortunately he simply tossed and turned for another 3 hours until he finally gave in and decided to lay awake until dawn. By 4:32 AM however, even though he didn't realize it, he fell into a sleep. Too deep for dreams.

Clare was up at 6 AM, taking a freezing walk around her neighborhood. Wrapped in multiple sweatshirts and a large jacket with the thickest pair of jeans she could find, she felt she was making no progress. She had her arms wrapped tightly around her breasts as her teeth chattered and her body shook. She looked at her watch, it was now 6:50. Her parents always woke up at 7 to get started on work early. Luckily, she was just heading back to her home.

She slowly turned the knob as she closed the door. She tip toed up into her room taking off her jacket and shirts until she was back in the tank top she slept and pajama pants she slept in. She was about to wrap herself in her sheets again since she was sure she was about to freeze, but then her mother opened the door.

"Your up early."

"Yeah, I forgot there was no school today…"

Her mother snickered, "Your father and I have a few drive bys and inspections today, you want to come or-"

"Oh no, I'll be fine here." she slowly worked up the courage, then unwrapped herself.

"…ok," she walked out, then stepped back in, "DO NOT, leave this house, or open the door for anyone!"

"Yes mom." Clare was getting a warmer shirt to wear over her tank top.

"Make SURE, the doors are locked."

"I will." she responded nodding.

Her mother clicked her tongue, "Ok." she walked in, kissing Clare's head, "We won't be long."

Her father called from downstairs,

"I know, I'm coming!" her mother walked out, Clare watched her from the top of the stairs, grab her purse and keys before they walked out the door into the biting cold. Clare rapidly walked down each step and turned the two locks. She watched them get into the car through the peep hole, and waited until the car was gone. She walked into the kitchen, rummaging through the snack drawer and grabbing one of her Slim Fast snack bars. Not the meal bars, the snack bars. She ate it in less than a minute. She looked at the oven. Normally, there'd be a breakfast biscuit in there right now….

No. Not today. She thought.

She went upstairs, playing The Nutcracker soundtrack as she stretched to the rhythm. She stretched through the Overture, the famous Nutcracker March, and Snowflake suit. She paused her music player, as her legs, sides and back ached. She walked into the downstairs bathroom.

113.4

Damn It!

A few ounces out of the 23 pounds she had to loose in 3 days. "That won't do Edwards, that won't do."

She stretched through the rest of the entire soundtrack. By then, her entire body was worn out, but she still wouldn't rest. She was thrilled that her hair was drenched with sweat. It was possible that standing right underneath her air vent with the heater on 83 degrees helped. That had taken up about 20 minutes and it was only 8:02 in the morning. She anxiously paced down to the weight scale,

112.9

Yes! 22 more to go.

She felt a little light headed after all the stretching, but her being proud seemed to overpower it. She then went to walk over to the staircase, stumbling a little as she did. Her legs felt wobbly as she grabbed the rail.

Just tired…

She walked up to her room and laid her head down on her pillow. For some reason the sunlight irritated her and she propped it over her head.

-X-

Eli woke up around 10 AM. Quite early for him on a no-school day. He could hear his parents and aunt talking downstairs. He couldn't figure out about what, but he absolutely wished he wasn't awake right now. He pushed himself into an upright position. The ice in his water cup was fully melted and he bet it was probably warm and bland tasting. However he wasn't sure, with the snowy weather and all. He wasn't fully awake yet, he groggily stood up from the bed wiping the sleep dust from the corners of his eyes.

"Anyways thank you so much for coming, Linda." he could hear his mothers voice call. It was apparent his aunt was leaving.

"I'll try to get dad down here as soon as possible."

"Thank you so much." His father's voice went.

As he passed the stairwell to go into the bathroom across the hall. He saw his mother hugging her sister who had a rolling bag in her hand.

"Do you need me to drive you to the airport-"

"No, I'll be fine. I rented a car remember?"

He walked in and closed the door. He looked at himself in the mirror, his eyes were exhausted, mostly due to how tired he was due to getting merely three hours of sleep. He went ahead and brushed his teeth and washed his face. He still had that look in his eyes and still had a bed head. He heard the front door slam.

Elvis had left the building he thought. Out of no where like a spark of electricity, Clare came to his mind.

Now he was awake.

He'd figure out the rehearsal schedule and do one of his 'surprise show ups'. He'd probably end up doing microphones or lights or something but as long as he was with Clare, it didn't matter to him.

Fuck it was early he kept thinking. For some reason he found himself sitting on the bathroom floor, leaning up against the sink counter. He began to ask himself so many questions, why didn't he talk to her sooner? And when the hell did he get so weak? He'd do anything just to get the feeling of strength back, that old confidence and unpredictability back.

The three main things that Clare fell for…at least he thought. He heard someone coming up the stair case. He quickly stood up, then he heard the footsteps pass the bathroom and come to a halt. He cracked the door open, peering down the hallway, his father was looking at some of the framed portraits on the walls. They had nearly 30 pictures on each of the walls. All family, all memories. Most of the left wall was made up of Eli as a child,

There was one of Eli's first smile when he was about 2 months old, him at about 2 years old, walking properly for the first time. His 3rd birthday party, etc, he saw a picture of him riding a horse. He didn't remember riding a horse at all in his life…then again, his dad was next to him holding him up on the horse's back and he looked about 3.

He saw a picture of himself at six when he took karate. He had his father's old white belt wrapped around him about twelve times and the rest was from his teacher. Nothing special in the picture, except he was showing off what he could do with nun-chucks.

Did all his parents do when he was younger was take pictures?

Probably were trying to make the most of it before Eli would literally hide from the camera.

He then saw the picture his father was looking at. The family portrait. He remembered a photographer coming to their house once when he was 6. Over 2 hours of photos. Eli in a little suit with his mother and father dressed both beautifully. Although the picture only showed the three of them from the mid-section up, Eli knew he was sitting on his mother's lap, she was in a white dress with her hair pulled in a perfectly messy bun. His father in a tuxedo, his hair was still black at the time and was cut in an, almost too perfect manner. He noticed something about that picture, Eli had an angry look in his face. In fact, his parents both had serious expressions.

Did the photographer ask them to do that? He couldn't remember. The background was completely black. Eli couldn't remember if he was tired of taking pictures…or if that's simply how he looked right when the photographer hit the switch. He was snapped out of his thoughts when he heard his father sigh as he gazed into it, almost like he was coming out of a trance. His father closed his eyes and turned away, walking into his room.

Eli was growing apart from more things than his girlfriend at the time…and yet for apparently the same reasons he couldn't talk to them either. Eli walked out into the hall and observed the photo as well. The photo…was almost perfect.

The two, dark, somewhat sinister expressions on his parents face and the anger in Eli's…it was perfect.

Strange things can be found in photos he thought. And that one described him and his family…it defined the Goldsworthy family.

It was now 11 in the morning and Clare's parents were finally home, a long drive to the inspections, then one realtor talked them to death about what a rotten neighborhood she lived in, another didn't show up until 15 minutes late. It was quite aggravating, but they were home.

"Clare?"

She was still laying on her bed, the light-headed feeling wouldn't go away. Every time she sat up it got worse. "I'm upstairs!" she called.

"You ok?" her mother called from the bottom of the stairway.

"Yeah! I'm practicing my dances!" she lied. She didn't hear her mother walking up so she was sure she could get away with it.

Her mom didn't seem to question it and went towards the office, "Did you eat?"

"Yes Ma'am!"

Crap…now what?

"What did you eat?" suspicion in her tone.

"I ate one of my meal bars, but I'll eat something later on for lunch!"

Ok…not really a lie.

"…ok."

Clare threw the pillow off her head and onto the floor. She couldn't look at her ceiling fan or she felt like she was going to throw up. She put a hand over her eyes as nausea took over.

"Fuck it was just one meal, and only a half hour of working out!"

Waiting for it to go away, she enjoyed the cool air inside her house, not like the outside, but not like the cruel summer either. She felt her hands shaking and her heart racing a bit, but at the same time she was calm…it racked her nerves a bit as she carefully pulled herself up. Her legs were shaking as well. She barely made it down the stairs and into the kitchen. Her parents were in the office so they didn't see her walk down.

She grabbed a yogurt, something filling and at the same time, healthy and practically swallowed the entire thing in one spoonful. The light-headedness started going away and she felt less shaky. The nausea however remained as it was. She went to go weigh herself, but she figured she didn't loose any more pound from laying around feeling sick. She dropped herself onto the couch, swiping her bangs out of her face and switching the television on.

It was rare when Clare got to be lazy. But she wanted to work out some more so badly. She knew it was almost impossible to loose 22 pounds in a day…let alone 3 days. But that weird little spell she just went through bothered her…she thought maybe a little break wouldn't hurt.

However, a few minutes later she was back on her bedroom floor, doing sit ups.

20...she told herself.

20 sit ups.

She barely made it to 14. Her stomach, back and chest hurt unbearably but hopefully that meant she was really getting there.

"No! Your not done! 20! Don't stop! 20!"

The sweat must've really meant something. Her heater was barely on.

"15..."

Back down,

"16..."

Back down,

"17..."

She plopped down onto her back…"Three more…come on Edwards…for your family!"

She breathed in, grunting a little,

"18..."

Down on her back,

"19..."

Suddenly, she just couldn't. She lost all mobility in her arms and legs.

"Please! Come on! Please!"

She felt hopelessly weak and tired as she had to grab the edge of her desk to pull herself up. She couldn't stop panting, sweat poured from her face. She stood up and, wobbly, made her way to the kitchen to get water.

It was the most relieved she had ever felt in her life when she took a sip. She relentlessly wiped the sweat from her hair….

Then she had an idea.

She walked to the weight scale…hoping for at least a few ounces.

111.1

"Point one!"

Soon she'd only have 20 pounds to go. She however wasn't seeing the difference…of course, when was the last time she looked into a mirror?

Then she made up her mind…although she'd hate herself for lying about it later, no lunch…just work. She sipped her iced water again, and went to truly laze about for the day.