Night settled. The hectic atmosphere of the busy hospital; with doctors running amok for distressed patients, dwindled away into peaceful and collected, with the only chatter and footsteps being of the few third shift nurses. All patients were sleeping; their heart monitors echoed throughout the halls like a lullaby. Tweeting birds turned into chirping crickets, orange horizons faded into navy skies. Yumi had gone back to her home, fearing the ridicule of her parents if she had stayed out too late. Odd and Ulrich had rushed back to their dormitories, knowing they couldn't escape the wrath of Delmas if they were to miss classes tomorrow. Jeremie, as expected, was the one who stayed behind. A small wooden chair coated with green cushion sat solemnly in the corner of the room, and Jeremie had taken it up as his cathedra for the night.

Aelita lay curled into a ball under the mountain of white sheets tightly tucked beneath her, the heated blanket spreading warmth throughout her fragile body. Jeremie was uncomfortably hunched up against his seat, and for the first night in a while, he was actually sleeping. For Aelita, though; well, as usual, it was a different story. Timid, high-pitched whimpers escaped from her firmly pressed lips as she writhed in her sleep, clutching onto the blankets. "No," she quietly begged. "Let me go!"

As she continued to squirm throughout her nightmare, silent yet ear-piercing creaking filled the room as the window slowly slid open. An unknown presence grazed it's hands against her ruffled mess of hair, almost viciously tugging at the waves. "Wake up," hot breath swept across the soft skin of her ear lobes. "I said wake up," the voice sternly repeated.

Aelita popped one of her eyes open, turning towards the direction of the voice. "Jeremie?" she whispered as she sat up in her bed, peering into darkness. Wind blew into the room, causing the lilac tinted curtains of the window behind her to brush against the sides of her face. She swatted at the tickling sensation.

"Guess again."

As she began to shake from both slight fear and cold coming from the open window, Aelita gripped the sheets of her bed and held them to her nose, half-way hiding her body from the suspicious entity. "Who's there?" She called, seeing no one but Jeremie snoozing across the room. There was no answer, and she squinted her eyes as she glanced harder into the dusky corners of the room. "Hello?"

The man cleared his throat and he politely tapped her shoulder from behind, causing Aelita to gasp and turn around. Before she could say anything, he clamped his strong hand over her mouth.

"No screaming," he playfully ordered, shaking his finger at her as he made a 'tsk, tsk' sound. The pink-haired woman obeyed and stared speechless upon the man with terror stricken eyes. "That's two more people you've revealed your secret to. One was bad enough, Ms. Schaeffer."

"Why do you keep calling me that?" Her lips vibrated against his fingers, her mumble sneaking through the gaps between his digits.

"Well, because it's your name of course. I'm wondering how it is that you don't remember yourself." Aelita mumbled again, but he shoved his hand harder against her mouth until her teeth were cutting into her lips, urging her to keep silent. "Hush," he demanded. "I'm also wondering how it is you are 12 years old today. When your father disappeared, I distinctly remember from photographs that you were also 12 at that point in time… which was 10 years ago." The man quirked his thick, albeit well-trimmed eyebrow at Aelita. He smirked. "If only you blabbed to me as much as you blab to your friends."

Tears welled in Aelita's glossed eyes as she trembled beneath his grip with fright. The chill from the blast of gale blowing from the window gave her goose bumps, her dainty pink arm hairs standing on edge. She darted her quivering pupils over to the other side of the room, anxiously trying to see if Jeremie was still in his spot. She couldn't strain her peripheral vision enough to see that far, but surely he would hear the intruder if he were still here.

"I've been good to you so far," the man gently spat at her as she fidgeted in the bed. "But my patience is wearing thin, and it seems I can't trust you anymore. I'll have to do something to put you in your place."

Aelita wriggled her lips that had been shoved under the pressure of his hand until she finally managed to free her upper jaw, clamping her teeth down on his index finger as hard as he could. The man jumped back and screamed, smacking her across the face in reflex. Aelita yelped.

"Jeremie!" She cried out, rolling off of the bed as she desperately backed away from the furious enemy. "JEREMIE!" she screamed again. Silence. She peeped over the edge of the bed to see the man was no longer there, and that the window had been shut. Was she dreaming? But then she felt the salty, warm taste of blood inside of her lips from where her incisors had been forced against her mouth. It couldn't have been a dream. The door slammed open, and, thinking he had returned, Aelita crawled underneath of the hospital bed.

"Aelita?" Jeremie called out, noticing she wasn't in the spot she had been when he left. "Where are you?" He turned on the light and scratched his head, noticing the sheets had been tossed around and thrown on the floor. He got on his knees and peeked underneath the bed, his eyes meeting the sight of a trembling Aelita huddled on the floor.

"Jeremie?"

"What in the world are you doing under here?"

"He came back," she timidly said, looking around to make sure he was gone. A tear trickled down her cheek.

"What do you mean?"

"He knows I told Ulrich and Odd." Her lips began to shudder and more water steadily began to drift from her eyes. Jeremie pouted and joined her side under the bed, letting her rest her head against his chest. He wrapped his arms around her.

"He was here?" Aelita responded by nodding her head against his sweatshirt. Jeremie sighed, rubbing his hand up and down her back for a moment. Neither of them made noise, just silently sitting in the obscurity of the shadows below the bed while tears quietly dripped off of Aelita's jawline. "Aelita, are you sure it wasn't just a dream?"

Aelita titled her head upwards, almost glaring at Jeremie. "It wasn't a dream! I saw him! He pinned me against my bed and made me bite my own lips! Look," she flipped her upper lip backwards, revealing the grooves implanted from her teeth that were lightly coated with salty blood. Jeremie sighed again.

"Maybe you just did that in your sleep."

Enraged, Aelita stormed out from underneath the bed. "I can't believe that you don't believe me," she hissed as she crossed her arms and angrily tapped her bare foot against the stony linoleum. Jeremie strolled over to her.

"Aelita, it's not that I don't believe you." Aelita refused to make eye contact, and she pulled away instantly as he tried to join hands with hers. "But, there's no evidence that anyone was even here."

She chewed against her bottom lip as she felt herself growing warm with rage. She turned to face Jeremie, spitting at him with a feeling of betrayal and rejection. "Yeah, because you like to disappear without reason!" she shouted into his face, her fists clenched against her hips. "He's not going to walk in the room when there are other people around!"

Jeremie leaned backwards as Aelita's words spewed against him. His only reaction was to retort, and without even thinking the stabs began to flow consistently with no intention of stopping. "What, I'm not even allowed to get up and use the bathroom?" He violently asked, jabbing his pointer finger against her chest. "Look, I shouldn't have to be your freaking guardian! I understand you're scared, Aelita, but maybe you wouldn't be in this mess if you would stop being so stubborn and just tell someone who can actually do something about it!"

As soon as his sentence came to a close, he regretted it. Instantly. The anger that had so briefly overcome him had been replaced with guilt, but most importantly, fear. Fear that Aelita would never trust him again as she looked upon him with shock, hurt, and disbelief. She had no words to respond with. Her bottom lip began to shiver. She sniffled as she dabbed her wrist against the corners of her eyes that were rapidly overflowing. Jeremie puckered, attempting to reach out to her.

"Aelita…" he softly and apologetically cooed. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean…"

"I think you should leave." Her words were unfriendly and coated with both despair and enragement. She did not make eye-contact, and she did neither whisper nor yell. Jeremie also remained silent, and he simply nodded before grabbing his coat and walking out of the door.