My computer was (still is) acting up so I'm glad I was able to post this now. I hope you guys enjoy, this is kind of an emotional chapter so keep some tissues nearby... jk but seriously this is a pretty sad chapter.

Chapter 12 Blackened Memories and Souls

October 12, 5:40 P.M.

Alfie's P.O.V.

I knocked on the door several times and hid behind one of the many bushes outside of Odin House. I laughed softly, pulling out my squirt gun and pumping it to make sure it was ready to fire. Alan knew that I was coming over today and I decided to have a little bit of fun before I met him. I don't think he'll mind getting a little bit wet, Jerome does it to me all the time and I'm ok with it.

The door opened up and I jumped out of the bushes, soaking Alan with water. I stopped my menacing laughing when I heard an unusually high screech from him. That's when I realized that it wasn't Alan…

It was Sophia.

"Oh my god! Oooh my God! I am so sorry! I thought you were Alan!" I said flabbergasted. I rushed up to help her in any way I could as she wiped the water out of her eyes.

"What the hell Alfie!" Sophia screeched as she began to shiver from the cold. "Why did you squirt me!"

"It was an accident! I thought Alan would answer the door! I didn't think anybody else would!" I pleaded, taking off my sweatshirt to give to Sophia. Inside of wrapping it around her, she used it to dry herself off.

"There are eight other people living in this house! Why would you think that a person like Alan would be the one who answers the door?" I tried to say something but somebody was moving quickly down the stairs behind Sophia. It was Nina, who looked pretty deep in thought and on a mission. I haven't seen that look since Sibuna last year.

"Nina!" Sophia said, pointing an accusing finger at me, "Look what your friend did to me!"

"Sorry to see that, can't talk right now!" Nina sputtered out before looping around the stairs to go to the back of the house. Sophia looked shocked by Nina's lack of concern, and I was also.

'What could possible cause Nina to go all cold like that?' I thought to myself. I didn't have much time to think on it as I felt the water gun being ripped out of my hand and blast of cold water hitting me in the face. I stumbled back a little bit and Sophia tossed the gun into the bushes before going back inside, not even bothering to close the door behind her.

Without any hesitation I walked inside and shut the door. Sophia had gone down the hall way to the back as well, so I decided to follow her because that's where Alan's room is along with Michael's.

I don't have anything against Michael personally, he seems like a great guy, but the general mood of Anubis House is to treat him like a pariah and if we have to talk to him to keep it to a minimum of five sentences. Still, Mara and I disregarded that rule all the time and nothing happens to us. It was only Jerome, Fabian, and Amber who follow that "rule" to a tee.

As I turned the corner I saw Alan kneeling next to the door to his room with that smooth kid Tony standing next to him, along with Sophia who was still drying herself off.

"Hey guys!" I called out lightly, but all three of them turned around and shushed me lightly.

"Whisper." Alan said even lighter, backing up a little bit from his door. I looked at him confused.

"Why are you standing outside your door?" I whispered as lightly as I could. I guess it wasn't soft enough, because Sophia scowled at me. Though I think that's her natural look, she'd look so much better with longer hair… almost like Amber except taller, sterner, and more muscular.

"Nina and Michael are in the same room together." Tony smiled ruefully, obviously excited by the drama. "Nina looked slightly off her rocker and locked the door when she entered." He bent a little closer to me so only I could hear what he said next. "There only one time a girl looks like that, and that's when she's about to-"

Tony never got to finish his statement because we heard Michael's voice rise a bit and Nina's did too. "I don't think their loving each other in there." Sophia said icily to Tony. Tony looked unfazed by her comment, smiling instead.

"Speaking of love, you look stunning when you're all wet Sophia!" Tony said smiling and pointing seductively. Sophia's cheeks flushed red and wrapped herself tighter in my sweatshirt, covering up most of her upper body which was just a sports bra and a cropped shirt for running in.

"Someone should go look for Charlotte." A voice said behind us. We turned to see Mitch leaning against the door frame to his room. "If she saw, she'd be pissed. Then it get loud. And I won't be able to sleep." He turned around and entered his room, closing the door behind him as he did so.

"He scares me." I said aloud. Everybody nodded absently, deep in thought.

"I'll text Tori to watch out for Charlotte upstairs. If she comes downstairs she'll text me." Alan said, pulling out his phone. Tony grabbed it to stop him.

"Perhaps I should be the one to do that." He said. Alan looked at him with disdain, but resigned and put away his phone.

"All right, can we just listen?" Sophia said. We all moved slowly in front of the door and put our heads to it. I prayed silently that they weren't doing anything that could jeopardize Fabina. That could really turn out bad…

5:44 P.M.

Nina's P.O.V.

Michael took a few breathes, trying to gather his thoughts. He was pacing back and forth, his eyes looking dark and pale. I sat silently on Alan's bed, waiting for him to start.

Michael let out a deep breath and turned towards me, opening his eyes and put on his most passive face ever. "Charlotte came to this school in the 9th grade. She was a scholarship student, just like you, and it showed. She wasn't proper like many of the students, she didn't flash around money, and she didn't have any stories about horse rides through the forests or attending high ended parties after a world cup soccer game." Michael's eyes looked saddened and far off, remembering something painful. "I was the first person to really welcome her into the school. I introduced her to many of my friends and she began to hang out with us. But she wasn't content."

He began to pace around again. "She always wanted to prove herself, to show everybody that even though she wasn't rich she could still be popular. She was desperate and no amount of words could persuade her from her desired path to popularity. She tried desperately, until finally she got a break." Michael looked right at me, fury in his eyes and he uttered the next sentence with utter contempt in every syllable.

"Joy Mercer offered that break."

I bristled at the mention of Joy. 'Of course it would be her that would ruin everything. She's a poison that destroys everything around her.' I thought to myself. Cautiously I asked Michael softly, "What did she offer?"

Michael paused for a little bit, continuing to collect his thoughts. He sat back down on his bed to relax, exhaling loudly almost like a grunt. After a few more seconds he continued.

"What I couldn't give Charlotte, Joy could. She took her to parties, to town; almost everywhere Joy went Charlotte went. I wouldn't be surprised if that Goth Pixie friend of yours, Patricia, knew her. Charlotte was having a blast, and then after a couple weeks she started doing things for Joy."

"Doing things?" I questioned. Michael glumly nodded his head.

"Ya like doing her and her friends homework, buying their lunch and clothes, even doing some of her dirty work." Michael looked pained physically as he said the words 'dirty work'; I can't even image what it must have been like, or what it is like, for him mentally.

"I tried to show her what Joy was doing," Michael said, "but she wouldn't listen to me at all. She was so wrapped up with Joy and her cronies. She had convinced herself that she was one of them. That she could become popular and people could forget that she was a scholarship student." Michael shook his head, chuckling a little bit "She thought that because she was on scholarship she was somehow 'inferior' as she called it. She even thought she wasn't as good as me because I have some rich parents across the sea who pay a ton of money for me to be here."

I sensed some hostilities between Michael and his parents, but that was something that could wait for another time. Right now I had to hear the rest of the story.

"By this time I was madly in love with Charlotte, I already was before Joy came into the picture. Her and I had so much in common and she was the one person in this whole school I felt totally comfortable around, not even Alan could compare to it." Michael laughed a little bit, "Maybe because he lacks the parts." I laughed a little bit at Michael's corny joke, but it was more to make him more comfortable. Michael would never talk like that if we were talking about something else, but he wasn't, this was something deeply personal.

"Charlotte was being mistreated at every turn." Michael continued, "But she was so blinded by the scant chances of popularity and acceptance that Joy offered her. One night of partying for two weeks of labor. I was practically begging her to see sense but she still wouldn't listen."

"She was desperate for acceptance for something that she had created herself." I said aloud, realizing how bad this actually was. Michael simply nodded again as I remember on the first day of school how Joy had talked down to Charlotte after I bumped into her.

"At the end of the school year, Joy came to me. She said that I should stop hanging out with Charlotte, to forget about her and move on. The nerve of that witch! I told her what I thought about her quite loudly and colorfully, but she just smiled and said to end our friendship and whatever thoughts I had about romance with Charlotte or she would."

I tightened up when Joy's confrontation was mentioned. She was the devil. No question. This only brought personal questions to my mind. 'How could Fabian not see this side of Joy? Was he that blind?'

I shook my head, that was the past. Now I had to worry about the future, where Joy was still ever present and not going anywhere.

"I was going to talk to Charlotte before school ended but she was already gone. Joy had her somewhere close by and I wasn't able to find her. I don't know why I didn't do it, but I didn't talk or text Charlotte most of the summer. I think I was just was bummed. Bummed about Joy's threat, bummed about Charlotte being so thick, I was just bummed about everything." Michael gathered his thoughts again before continuing.

"The next year I came back, and Joy was gone. It was if God himself had sent me a message, and I wasn't going to waste it. I immediately went to Charlotte and began to pull her away from Joy's friends, who sadly hadn't gone anywhere. I was only half-successful." Michael sighed again, burying his face into his heads before continuing. "She went to Joy's friends, who weren't as good as Joy with manipulating people, but Charlotte was at a point where she didn't care. She would do anything to stay popular. And they made her do exactly what Joy did, except with no reward."

I couldn't keep the bubbling question in my head, "How could Charlotte do this? How could she not see what was happening?" I asked shocked. Michael smiled sadly.

"Joy was Charlotte's ticket into the 'popular world', and with her gone, Charlotte thought she had to work even harder." Michael said. "I was losing her day by day, but I still loved her. I decided to do something about that. I decided that I would confess that I loved her, and tell her that she didn't need Joy or her friends if she had me. After winter break I came back with a gift for her, something that I thought she would like a lot. But things kept coming up and I was too shy to make my move. Finally in late spring, almost near the end of the school year I made my move."

I did not like where this was going, but I stayed silent and continued to listen to my friend tell his sad tale. I let out a low gasp as Michael raised his face to me. His eyes had turned a little bit red, the pain written all over his face.

"I told her what I thought about everything. I told her that I cared for her so much, that she didn't need Joy or the rest of them. That the two of us would be great together. I presented her with my gift, a necklace with a clam shell attached to it. I got it for her on one of my dives in Florida, and had a pelican engraved inside the shell." Michael laughed again, "It was one of her favorite animals for some reason. She liked the beak and how they are always by the sea. One of her favorite places is the sea." He explained to me. I fought back some tears, because I knew what came next.

"But she didn't like them," Michael said, his eyes fully red, "she took it from my hand and threw it away into some bush. She told me that she was offended that I would ask her to be my girlfriend. That she was to good for me!" Michael was shouting now, and jumped from his bed. Involuntarily I reclined a bit in Alan's bed to move away from him. "She said that I should never have asked her, because I would be hurt by her answer. She thought she was better than me! I was the nicest to her all those times, I was the one who held her hand when she complained about the stuff Joy and her friends made her do! I was there all the time!"

He shouted the last three words and angrily hit the lamp off his desk next to his bed. I sat there, passive and trying to show no emotion. But I'm sure the disgust and horror where there on my face. Once again I felt a connection to Michael; his pain had been mine last year as well. I knew what it felt like.

He calmed down finally and continued his story. "I called her all kinds of stuff, while pleading with her to see things my way. But she just laughed at my pleads, she wasn't impressed. So I stormed away leaving her alone. But as I was leaving, I saw something, no someone nearby. Joy was standing nearby, just out of sight, smiling as if she had just one a million dollars. I was too angry to do anything about it, so I just let it go and went back to my room. I stayed there a while, not wanting to leave. But I did, two weeks before school ended. I took the early flight back to America, and now I'm back here, that blackened memory following me around everywhere."

Michael began to shake and then sniffle a bit. I jumped off the bed and I wrapped my arms around him. I rubbed his back to comfort him, patted him gently and whispering comforting words into his ears. But all the while I thought about one thing, 'Joy made her do it, I know it.' I thought to myself. The guilt was bubbling up inside of me, even though I know that there was no way I could have known what saving Joy could have done. But I still felt bad about it.

'I saved Joy. I caused this.'

6:01 P.M.

Alfie's P.O.V.

We had been standing outside Alan and Michael's room for a while now, listening in as best we could. I personally only caught about a third of what they said, and that's only because Michael had raised his voice a couple of times. Now it had been silent for about five minutes and there was a soft sound coming from inside. What it was, I have no idea.

"Alfie," Alan said, grabbing my arm. His face was glum and all the joy was gone from it. "I think you had better leave now. Maybe we can hang out tomorrow or this weekend."

"Um… Ok. Ya sure. No problem." I said awkwardly. Sophia looked upset, and even Tony wasn't cracking any wise jokes or comments. They seemed to know what they were talking about. I excused myself and left the house for Anubis.

Once I arrived, I went upstairs and knocked on one of the girl's doors several times. Finally I heard a small voice respond.

"Come in!" The voice said. I entered quietly, closing the door behind me so nobody would hear. I turned towards the speaker. "Ah Alfie! Good to see you! What news do you have for me?"

I sat down on one of the stools in the room, before starting to talk. "Michael and Nina were in his room together for almost twenty minutes." I started, "I don't know what they were talking about."

She gave a small 'tsk' sound, disappointed, but not flaming with rage. "That's too bad Alfie, any ideas?"

I shook my head. "No, there was some yelling though." She nodded her head several times and then leaned forward towards me.

"Well Alfie, don't worry about it. Just keep getting me some info and I'll live up to my side of the bargain."

"How much longer do I have to wait? I've been doing this for almost two weeks now!" I complained. It wasn't fair, I had done more than enough and she still wouldn't help me.

"This is the first promising thing that you've brought me this entire time, Alfie Lewis." She responded matter of factly, "I need something extremely juicy before I can help you." In defeat I hung my head and nodded. She leaned closer to me smiling, "Hey don't look like that! Just get me something good, and I promise you that Amber will be yours!"

I looked up hopefully, "You promise?" She looked right into my eyes, kindness and grace showing through them.

"I promise." Joy said.

Hope you guys enjoyed, I hope that I caputred the emotions correctly.

Yes Alfie is a spy, and I'm sure you guys can figure out what the deal was that him and Joy made. If you guys have any questions then post a review and I will get back to you.

I want to thank all of you for +100 reviews! It feels great to know that people really enjoy my work! I hope that you will continue to read! It will become more positive I promise!

With that said... please REVIEW! I love hearing your guy's thoughts and feelings about the story!

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