I slept soundly as the hum of the engine soothed my sore body. The many small wounds made from Angela's transcripts were finally starting to heal, and with her there to hold me as I slept, only made things better. All of her worry and fear for Nick and I that I'd felt before our conflict was dead and gone. Replaced by the serenity and peace of mind of knowing that we were finally safe.

Nick's wounds were doing the same as he slept in the passenger seat, leaving Emily to drive. She was still changed. I'd asked her to try and keep it going for as long as possible. Hopefully she'd be able to keep it up until we made it home… I wasn't taking any chances.

On the ride up, I slept one out of the twenty five hours it took to make it to Canada. And twelve of those hours I was driving. And now, as I slept quietly against Angela's soft body, I finally had my peace.

And when I'd finally awoken, I was greeted with a passing sign that said, "Keep Right for Baton Rouge". I'd never slept more than ten hours, so when I'd realized I'd spent almost the entire trip sleeping; I chalked it up as a definite personal record.

"How close are we to the house?" I asked Emily.

She was the only one awake. The other two must've fallen asleep recently, because Angela was still fidgeting against the door she sat at, and Nick was twitching a little in his sleep. But I soon found out that it wasn't because he'd just fallen asleep, but because Emily was keeping herself entertained by letting her hair run loose in the car. They were all softly grazing Nick's skin, making his muscles spasm slightly.

"Oh, that's mean." I whispered to her, making her smile through the rear-view mirror.

"It helps me stay awake." She said, turning her gaze back onto the road. Still the red lines hung over him, tapping his nose and poking at his cheeks. She was having fun.

"How far do we have until we're at the house?" I asked again.

"About thirty minutes, why?" Her red eyes were shooting from the road and into mine from the mirror. He better not have to use the bathroom! Twenty four hours of sleep and he waits until now to wake up!

"Whoa! Calm down, I'm just anxious to get something to eat." I said smiling and holding my hands up in defense. I did, however, have to use the bathroom, but I wasn't about to tell her that. I could hold it until we got home.

"Sorry. I'm just tired." She said, rubbing her eyes.

"Well, pull over and I'll take over." I said looking for my clothes. I was still naked, but not too worried about being seen through the tinted windows in Claire's car. I was more than protected from the outside world in this vehicle.

Without any warning, she did. The wheels squealed in protest at first, but eventually we gained back our traction and straightened out evenly along the empty interstate. I was so glad there wasn't a cop around.

Grabbing my shirt and blue jeans, I opened the door and hid myself with both as Emily passed me, laughing at my modesty. I ignored her as I rounded the car and made my way into the woods to go change.

"Where are you going?" She asked. I knew that she knew what I was going to do… but I wasn't about to let her have the satisfaction of being right.

"Put on my clothes!" I yelled back at her as I entered the forest. There wasn't much to this place. The ground was without foliage, but the trees were thriving. It looked like the place where I'd fought Emily. A dangerous memory to have.

As I slipped my shirt over my head and rolled down the curled up edges of my sleeves, I heard the opening and closing of a car door.

And within seconds, the beautiful figure of my Angela came tauntingly towards me….

Forty minutes later…

"Where the hell have you been?!" Emily yelled as we neared the car, both of us tried to stifle a smile. "Really?" She complained.

It took me twenty minutes to speed all of the way home. I found that after two, the cops in Louisiana just seem to disappear, leaving the streets to the motorists. I pushed the Nissan Sentra well past ninety as I sped into familiar territory. The long, winding road that led off into our home was in sight. We'd probably be there by now if Emily hadn't asked for Burger King! I complained to myself as I sped up to our final destination.

The speedometer was slowly inching its way to one-twenty as turned into the opposite lane for more room to play in as we passed the first few bends in the road. How Nick stayed asleep through all of this, I'll never now, but as soon as we passed the third bend, as soft thread found its way under my seat and yanked my foot off the gas.

"I'd like to make it home alive, Michael. If you don't mind." That polite Georgian accent was strange to hear after a while. It was almost contradicting itself with every syllable. It was like listening to a southern accent try to speak with a British dialect. It wasn't something you get use to easily.

"Fine." I said, feeling the thread unwrap itself around my leg. I pumped the breaks and slowed back down to fifty-five as we finally came up into our driveway.

I was so excited to finally be home! Every inch of my skin was crawling for the warm Louisiana air to take hold of me and guide me into my house. My safe haven.

As soon as the car was stopped, everyone was out, even Nick, who at the time was trying his best not to collapse under his tired exterior. But all of that halted as soon as Emily walked around to him and pinned him up against the car. She kissed him harder than I'd ever seen before… not that I watched them. But it was definitely a change from the peck on the lips they'd rationed themselves out on.

Angela punched my arm after she opened up the trunk. "Are you going to help?" She asked, smiling at the two lovers who still hadn't let go of themselves.

"Yeah. I just wish little miss hot-stuff over there would grab her Burger King." I said loud enough for her to hear me. And when she did, she let go of Nick, grabbed her food angrily, and stomped away towards the house, Nick was hot on her trail.

"It's about damn time." I said to Angela, who I'd noticed didn't grab a single bag. When I looked at her puzzled, she just cocked her head, "What?" She asked innocently.

As she walked away, after closing the trunk, I stood there. I held the luggage under both my arms and with both of my hands. "Oh, that's mean." I called out after her, quickly catching up.

After the first three dispersed, all that was left in my way to comfort… was my brother.

Call me childish, but as I stared at him, I felt guilty. When Claire had first told me what had happened, I had envisioned him to be a monster. Just like Emily, he had succumbed to the immense power that burned harshly inside of him, and just the same, his innocence was shattered. The pain that he felt when he tried to look up into my eyes hurt even me. His cautious choice of words that lingered on the edge of his lips were chaos in a bottle to his soul. And as he opened his mouth to speak, I ran up to him, and wrapped my arms around him tightly in a hug.

"I'm so proud of you." I whispered to him. My brother wasn't a monster. He was a scared child who'd lost his mother in the worst of ways. The pain that we both shared seemed to bring us together in that moment. And I prayed that he'd forgive me for the mistakes that I'd brought onto his life. "And I'm glad you're safe."