She found herself sitting in the boat house. Something was on her left foot. She looked down to find a brown dog lying there, grinning up at her. It was the dog's head resting on her foot. Something was familiar about it, something about the gentle brown eyes.

"Hi," she said, bending down to pet the dog.

"Greetings, Blonde One," the dog said in Spinelli's voice.

Her hand jerked back and her breath caught. What was going on here?

"Don't worry," he said reassuringly. "I'm not really The Jackal; I'm just your interpretation of him."

"What?"

"I'm The Jackal you wish Spinelli was."

"What are you talking about?"

"You want him to be me."

"That doesn't make any sense!"

"It will."

The dog stood up and Lulu saw that there was a leash attached to his collar.

"Take the leash and let me lead you."

"Why not?" Lulu thought. "This couldn't possibly get any stranger."

The dog led her to Kelly's, where she saw herself and Spinelli having an argument.

"I'm telling you the truth!" Spinelli pleaded.

"If you keep this up you're gonna wreck our friendship!"

"Logan Hayes made out with Maxie Jones!"

Lulu left Kelly's in a huff.

"Why didn't he just keep quiet?" the dog demanded.

"You mean why didn't he just let me go on thinking what I wanted?"

"You went on thinking what you wanted, anyway, but he shouldn't have tried to change your mind!"

"Why not?"

"You didn't want him to."

"But I was wrong."

"It doesn't matter. I mean, you wanted to be right."

"What kind of friend would he be if he didn't try to get me to see the truth?"

"A loyal one, like me!"

He led her to Jason's penthouse, where Lulu was screaming at Spinelli.

"I can't believe that you would do this!"

"I am truly sorry! I would never intentionally cause you a nanosecond of pain or embarrassment!"

"Well, did you think for a nanosecond that it would completely humiliate me?"

"He looks so hurt and confused."

"Well, of course he is; he's too dense to know that you didn't want anyone to know and that was why you ran away!"

"Don't talk about him like that!"

"It's true! I would never do that to you! The Jackal you want The Jackal to be would never-"

"Why do you keep saying that? Spinelli is The Jackal, not you, and he's the best friend I've ever had!"

"But he doesn't support you!"

"He's been my only real support over the past few months!"

"Yeah, but what about there? Why would he tell everyone what Logan did?"

"I was the one who ran away! I made everyone worry, including my best friend, and all because I couldn't face up to my part in the deal! Spinelli and everyone else tried to warn me, but I had to be right, so I refused to listen. It was my fault Spinelli was put in that position, not his!"

He led her to the Wyndemere Stables, where Lulu was arguing with Spinelli again. She wanted to go after Anthony Zacchara and he was trying to talk some sense into her.

Lulu wanted to slap her other self as she headed for the door, completely ignoring Spinelli as if he mattered nothing to her.

"You can't leave," Spinelli said, sounding firm but looking hurt and scared for her.

"Watch me," she said in a defiant, uncaring voice.

"Why doesn't he just let you do what you want?" the dog demanded, frustrated.

"You want him to let me get myself killed?"

"He took away your freedom of choice when he knocked you unconscious!"

"Well, it was a good thing for me that he did or I'd be dead now!"

"Isn't that what you want?"

"What? No! Why would you think that?"

"You keep putting yourself into situations like that, no matter what anyone tells you. I mean, if that's what you wanted, I'd be obedient and loyal enough to let you do it, but if Spinelli can't do that-"

"Then he's the loyal one, not you, and I don't want him to blindly obey me!"

"Are you sure?"

The brown eyes looked hurt, and it was exactly the same look of hurt that she saw in Spinelli's eyes every time she became angry with him for trying to protect her from her own stupid impulses.

"I mean, you don't want Spinelli to do everything you want? You don't want him to think, feel, say and do what you do?"

"Of course not!"

"But if he doesn't obey your every order, how can he be your friend?"

"Good friends try to keep their friends from doing something they know will hurt them or someone else. Good friends don't do what I did; they don't hurt their friends just so they can have their own way! I was a selfish brat and I'm lucky that Spinelli didn't throw me away months ago!"

"But I would have done anything you wanted!"

"If Spinelli had done everything I wanted, I'd be dead! Anthony would have killed me if Spinelli hadn't knocked me out, or maybe Johnny's handlers would have killed me to keep me away from him if Spinelli and Jason hadn't come looking for me."

"But he humiliated you!"

"Logan humiliated me! I was a game to him and then instead of going to Spinelli, my best friend, like any normal person would do, I decided to punish Logan by running away. I not only punished Logan for what he did to me; I punished everyone who loves me for being right. I was wrong and I was lucky it didn't get me killed, on several occasions."

"What about this?"

He led her back to Kelly's. This time Spinelli was telling her about the evidence he and Maxie had that pointed to Logan as the Text Message Killer.

"The Wounded Blonde One?" Lulu asked incredulously with a laugh in her voice. "She's really done a number on you!"

"She is wounded," Lulu said.

"Please," the dog said. "How can she possibly be wounded? Hearts get wounded and she doesn't have one!"

"You can't possibly be any kind of representation of Spinelli," Lulu said angrily. "Even when Spinelli and Maxie hated each other he never would have said something so cruel and untrue about her!"

"But it's what you used to think."

"It is," Lulu admitted with shame, "but I don't think that way anymore. Spinelli saw then what I see now. Maxie is hurt and scared. She lost her sister and her boyfriend, and her boyfriend before she got involved with my brother was killed right in front of her; she's lost so much! Spinelli saw that and managed to make her become the person he knows she can be. Maxie was a better friend to him in the months between Georgie's and Coop's deaths and my accident than I ever was. Georgie was there for him before she died every time I punished him for being the good friend I kept telling him he was when I wanted him to do what you do and always agree with me and always let me do what I want, regardless of the consequences."

"Then he's a better friend than me?"

"He's the best friend I could ever ask for. You're a pale imitation of a human! Even when he was in love with me he would never have been like you."

"Spinelli is The Jackal. I'm his Jackal side, at least in your mind. I'm the obedient one, the one who would never defy his Fair Lulu. Spinelli is the one who defies you at every turn."

"Spinelli is The Jackal in Cyberspace, and when he's unsure of himself or trying to protect himself. He's not a real dog; you are."

"So I'm a good dog, but he's a good human and you don't want him to be like me?"

"That's right."

"Then you don't need me anymore," he said sadly.

The leash disappeared. She bent down to pet him again.

"Thank you," she said.

He licked her face, turned around and walked away with his tail between his legs.

She turned back, but Kelly's was gone, and so was Spinelli. She was in a dark void. She was lost! Suddenly afraid she would never find her way back, she willed herself back to the boat house, praying that she could find her way back in the dark.