Hey guys! I don't really have much to say, and I gotta go to bed so I can't do another disclaimer. They take too long and my mom's gonna get mad. I'll try to do one next time, but for now, you obviously know I'm not cool enough to own A&A.

I Hate Pendulums

(Austin's P.O.V.)

"Sarah won't hurt her if she thinks I can't see it, right?" I ask Piper when Ally disappears. She shrugs.

"I have no idea. Let's connect to her senses," Piper says. I nod and give Piper the sound headphones. Ally imagines up another pair for me.

"Thanks, Als," I say. I connect to her senses.

"-and it seems that you've been holding up fine," I catch Sarah saying. "So I've decided to wake him up and give you more physical torture. That's the worst for Austin's mental strength. The poor thing just can't watch you hurt," Sarah continues, reaching out to touch Ally's face. She slaps Sarah's hand away.

"Yeah, 'cause he has a heart. Unlike you," she snarls. Great comeback, Ally. Note the sarcasm.

"A heart that will soon break," Sarah says, shaking her head. "He won't be able to take much more of your pain, and he'll be so weak the physical torture will most likely kill him before I planned. But that death will be much more painful than the one I had planned, so I don't mind."

"Austin will be fine," Ally says through clenched teeth.

"Oh, I don't think so, dear. He's breaking slowly, but still breaking. The boy cares about you more than is healthy, and that is leading to his demise," Sarah says with a grin.

"He's not gonna die," Ally argues, slowly getting desperate. "He's not, you hear me? My boyfriend is strong, and brave, and he will not die because some Shadow tortured him!" she exclaims.

You're not gonna die, she thinks to me. I nod and Piper sighs dreamily.

"I wouldn't be so sure," Sarah replies. "You'd be surprised at just how much you're pain hurts him. I wouldn't be surprised if he died within the next three days."

"GO AWAY!" Ally screams at Sarah. Suddenly, Sarah disappears. Ally's jaw drops, and Piper's and mine soon follow.

All I had to do was ask? Ally says.

"Ally, I don't think Sarah did that on purpose," I say. Piper and I disconnect from her senses

"Obviously not," Piper says, rolling her eyes. "Because I'm in her head, some of my powers transfer into her, so when she speaks a command, my power takes effect, somewhat. Her commands aren't as powerful as they would be if I spoke them, but they do have enough power to affect Sarah."

"That's awesome," I say.

That's scary, Ally argues. How long do you think she'll be gone? Piper shrugs.

"Few hours," she decides.

Well, then I'm going back to sleep, Ally says. After a few minutes, she appears with us. She immediately jumps into my arms and I stumble back in surprise. I brace myself on a table with one arm and hug her with my other arm.

"Really feeling the love, Ally," Piper says sarcastically. I roll my eyes at her, and she sees and rolls her eyes back.

Ally and I pull away after a while, but she's reluctant to lose contact. I grab her hand and hold it to my heart, where she can feel my heartbeat. I can see hear visibly relax.

"Don't listen to Sarah. I'd never leave you. No matter how much it hurts seeing you get hurt, I know dying will hurt you more. I'll stay with you till the end," I tell my girlfriend. She nods and kisses my cheek. I take her hand away from my heart, but I still keep hold of it.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah, you guys are real cute. But there's another person in the room, remember?" Piper says. She's not as peppy as she used to be. She's a lot snappier, and she gets annoyed with me a lot easier. I decide to confront her on that.

"What happened, Piper? You used to be all peppy and happy, and now you're all snappy and scoffy," I say. "Is scoffy even a word?"

"No," Ally says. "But I agree with you. What happened?" she asks Piper. Piper sighs.

"I dunno. I guess it's the stress that you guys are in my grandma's hands, and that isn't too great, obviously. I'm afraid you guys really won't make it, and that I'll lose the two people who actually became my real friends, even though we met in really bad circumstances.

"And even though I'm stoked that you two are back together, and I am, don't get me wrong, Ally was right when she said that my fangirl crush has me a teensy bit jealous. But I'm not gonna, like, kiss you or anything. You only make that mistake once," Piper says, directing the kiss part at me.

"You better only make that mistake once," Ally warns.

"Calm down, Ally," Piper says. "The ratio of my jealousy to my happiness for you guys is, like, one to a million. I won't be kissing your boyfriend any time soon."

"Besides, I obviously wouldn't let her," I add. "I'm scared from what happened last time."

"What, when your hormonal teenage mind shut down after one kiss?" Ally says, mocking me.

"That was scary! I didn't know if I'd ever be able to function again!" I exclaim.

"And yet you were fine," Ally says.

"Yeah, so anyway, Ally, I'm really proud of you for standing up to my grandma like that. Even though you sounded like a desperate girl in a young adult fiction novel, it was still really brave of you," Piper says. Ally shrugs.

"Thanks," she says.

"Well, I better go," Piper says. "It's harder to conceal myself from Sarah than it is to conceal the communication between you two, and I can't hold up my concealment much longer. I'll try to talk to you guys soon, but I can't make any promises. Bye."

"Bye," Ally and I say. Piper disappears in her usual puff of black smoke. Ally hugs me again, and I hug her back. We don't say anything more, because everything has already been said. And besides, we don't really even need words in the first place. We know each other too well to waste time speaking when our actions and eyes can speak for us.

Suddenly, Ally disappears. I groan and quickly connect to her senses. Just as I thought: Sarah woke her up.

"Cry yourself to sleep?" Sarah asks. "Look, I don't know how you did what you did to make me disappear, but I do know that Austin is gonna pay for it." Uh oh. I look through Ally's eyes and see Sarah disappear and reappear in my cell.

I'm sorry, Ally says to me.

"No, don't apologize," I tell her. I watch Sarah say something and snap her fingers. Then, I suddenly open my eyes and I'm back in my cell. I quickly look over at Ally, who is more or less freaking out. Well, she's standing still, but I can see it in her eyes.

I'll be fine, I tell her. She doesn't believe me.

"Have a nice sleep?" Sarah asks me.

"I had a fabulous sleep, thank you," I say. "I feel so rested. Am I glowing? I think I might be glowing, I feel so good. I probably look good, too. Beauty sleep does well for me. I mean, I'm already hot, but now Ally's probably dying just looking at me." I smile and wink at Ally, not only to keep up the weird act, but to comfort her as well.

"What are you planning, Blondie?" Sarah asks.

"Nothing," I say. "You asked, and I answered. Anyway, can we get this torture over with? I want Ally to sleep. She's probably exhausted from worrying about me."

"She slept while you were out," Sarah says.

"Yes, but Ally needs at least ten hours a day. Whatever you're gonna do, make it snappy so my girlfriend can sleep. Trust me, you do not want to see her when she's tired. She-" suddenly, I stop making noise. I feel my mouth moving, but no words come out. If this is torture, she's gonna have to do a lot better than that.

"Finally," Sarah says. "Gosh, you talk a lot. Now I can finally think. Now, let's take a look in your mind and see your biggest fear." Her eyes turn gold, and she says, "Regardez dans votre esprit et voir vos craintes."

She doesn't move for a few seconds. I don't dare say anything to Ally, for fear that Sarah will see through the concealment spell. Suddenly, her eyes go back to normal and she blinks.

"It seems that you've put up a strong wall that doesn't want to come down. You're lucky this time, Moon. But I will find out your biggest fear. For now, I guess I'll just have to do this." Sarah snaps her fingers, and I'm suddenly looking at the ceiling of my cell.

I'm tied by my wrists and ankles to a wooden board. A huge, curved blade suddenly swings over me like a pendulum, almost cutting me. Then, it swings back. It keeps doing this, and I think it's getting slightly lower with each swing.

AUSTIN! Ally shouts in my head. I shut my eyes so I can act stronger. If I don't see it, I can pretend it's not there, and then I won't be scared. 'Cause right now, I'm terrified. But Ally can't know that.

I'm fine. It didn't cut me, I tell Ally. I just have to suck in my stomach when it gets lower.

Well, how low is it gonna get?

I dunno.

Exactly. Today's probably the day. I know it is. I don't know how I know, but I know you won't make it, and I'll be all alone, just like I knew I'd end up. Ever since I was little, I knew that I'd die alone. I knew it. I don't even know how I'm gonna-

I'M GONNA BE FINE! I shout, interrupting her. She stops talking. I'm gonna be fine, I say in a much softer voice. That's when the pendulum slices my shirt, barely missing my skin. Ally saw it.

I love you, she says.

Don't say that as a goodbye.

But-

I'm not leaving you. You said so yourself. You screamed it at Sarah. I. Will. Not. Leave. You. I don't know how to convince her, but I know my best isn't working.

The pendulum grazes my skin. And surprise! It's poisoned. Well, whoop-de-do, that's fantastic. Fan-freaking-tastic.

I know it's poisoned because it feels like it did when that monster scratched me during Princes and Princesses. But Ally doesn't know it's poisoned, so I'm definitely not telling her. Unfortunately, she sees the blood when it cuts deeper into my stomach.

Are you okay? she asks. Why am I even asking that? Of course you're not okay!

It only hurts a little, I lie. It slices me again, and I bite my lip to hold back a scream. It's cutting by the millimeter, so it'll be a long time before it cuts me in half or anything like that. But I'd obviously die of blood loss before that happens.

I don't believe you. Another slice. This time, I let out a yell of agony. I saw that, Ally says worriedly. You are not okay.

Yeah, thanks, Dr. Dawson, I say sarcastically. I feel the pendulum cut deeper. I scream again.

"SARAH, IF YOU'RE GONNA KILL ME, I'D LIKE YOU TO DO IT SOONER RATHER THAN LATER!" I shout.

"No thanks," Sarah says. Another slice. Another scream. Another AUSTIN! from Ally.

I'm fine, I tell her weakly.

Yeah, and I'm in love with Dez, Ally says sarcastically. Hey, we both get sarcastic when we're nervous.

No, really. I'm okay, Als. I could perform a concert right now. How many slices is this? I don't even remember. I'm just happy I get the worst of it, and not Ally. Love you, I say, just in case. I don't know whether I'll die or not, but I want my last words to be telling Ally I love her.

I love you, too, she says. And even though we're speaking in each other's minds, I can hear the tears in her voice. One, two, three more slices. And then everything stops.

The wood that I'm tied to disappears, and I fall on the ground. I groan loudly and clutch my stomach, but then yell out in pain when I touch the wound.

"Until next time, Austin," Sarah says cheerily before disappearing.

"Can't wait," I manage. I groan again and just lay there on the ground. Ally doesn't talk to me. I painfully maneuver myself (while screaming in pain) to be able to look at Ally. I send her a weak smile, which makes her start crying. That was supposed to comfort her.

Cover the wound with your shirt, she instructs. I do as she says. That Phlegethon fire will help, obviously, but Sarah hasn't sent any yet, so just go to sleep for now. I guess I'll see you in our dream-room-place-thing… And you better be okay so I can hug you without hurting you.

It'll be fine, I tell her. But for now, am I allowed to complain?

No, 'cause you're sleeping. I sigh and close my eyes, knowing my girlfriend is right when she says more rest is what I need.

Gosh, the ending sucks. Anyway, I'm really sad cuz my good friend is moving to another state and today was her last day at school. And KELLINGTON FREAKING BROKE UP LIKE HOW ABOUT NO IS ANYONE ELSE CRYING?! I listened to Popular from Wicked but even THAT didn't help. :( Anywhoozles, if you liked it, put POPULAR in a review. If you thought it was okay, put KELLINGTON in a review. If you hated it, put KYLEE in a review. (Kylee is the name of my friend who's moving) :( Well, thanks for reading and please review! Love you all more than life!

~Maddie (I'm too sad at the moment to do a smiley face. It's been a hard day.)