Yes, it has been so long, I really need to work on this more, but writers block has really struck again and I'm trying and failing to work through it. Please be patient with me as I work with the WB and I'll try to type faster. Please enjoy this chapter and don't forget to review at the end! Mollie

It has been almost two months since Grant and Nikki and dropped back into our life. And to their credit they were pretty sneaky. We never say them around the house. The only trail that they were even there was the fresh pot of coffee that was still hot when I came down. The shower was also a hint that they were there, but that was impossible to sneak around with how old the house was the pipes seemed to rattle the whole house when the shower started. Every week there was a little envelope on the kitchen counter with Michael's name on it.

"This week's rent," Michael said as he slid the money into his back pocket.

"How much longer do you think they are going to stay?" Eve asked worshiping her bowl of coffee.

"Who knows. We asked them to keep us out of it and so far they have. Let's just be grateful for that." I said carefully.

"Hey I'm not looking that in the mouth, but I just want to know," Eve sat down with a large sigh.

We all nodded and enjoyed our morning. Shane had already left for work when I was still asleep meaning I had yet to see him today.

I was so lost in my own train of thought that when a sudden crash from the second floor mad me drop my coffee.

"What the hell?" Michael asked already heading for the stairs. Both Eve and I scrambled to catch up.

When we reached the landing we ran right into Michael. I peeked around his arm to see Grant slammed against the wall. The door of my old room hung off its hinges at an odd angle like a bulldozer had run into it head on.

"What the hell happened?" Michael said going over to look into the room but before he reached the door Nikki stumbled out.

"Grant." she grabbed the door for balance but pushed off to take even more unbalanced steps towards Grant. "Grant," she sounded disoriented, or drunk even.

She crumpled to the ground next to Grant and placed her shaking hands on either side of his face.

"Immoaky," Grant slurred his eyes opening slightly. "But next time I vote we do it in a different place. Maybe without walls."

"Yeah without walls," Nikki laughed and rested her head against his. It was such a cute moment I'd almost forgot that they weren't our best friends.

"Are you okay?" Grant asked

"I'm fine just a little shaken. Don't worry though it worked," Nikki said.

"What worked? Blowing up part of our house, cuz it worked?" Eve said looking into the black room.

"We'll tell you later," Nikki said as she helped Grant to his feet. Neither of them where to stable but together they went back into their room.

The whole room looked like someone had spray painted it black. Even the bed seemed destroyed but they didn't seem to mind as they curled up together. They seemed to have forgotten we were even here but suddenly Nikki turned her head and raised her left hand and snapping her fingers. The door reattached to its hinges before slamming shut and locking.

"I get this odd feeling that they're not going to let us ignore them anymore." Eve said heading back to the stairs.

"Probably not, so let's enjoy this silence while we can." Michael said following her. They'd both disappeared and I was just about to follow when I heard voices. I looked around before stepping carefully to the newly attached door.

"What are we going to do now?" Nikki asked.

"I don't know, Nik," Grant said sounding defeated. "Lets just think about it for a while. A day or two to really let it sink in. Let's not be rash."

"Rash? Grant if what we saw is true, we don't have a hope in hell in surviving. The door will break and we won't have the power to do anything," Nikki sounded truly afraid.

"Shh, just go to sleep now, we'll talk about it later. Just sleep," Grant's voice became quieter and quieter until there was nothing.

I backed away from the door, but I couldn't go down to be with Eve and Michael. I walked calmly to the bathroom and turned on the shower water to warm up. I began pacing the tiny room until the room started to fill with steam. I stripped down and showered quickly. I had just returned to the room I shared with Shane for the moment and pulled on clothes for my later shift at Common Grounds.

"Claire," Shane said. I ran over and unlocked the door. Shane stood there smelling of the morning coffee run. "Morning."

The kiss was sweet and more than anything just what I needed.

"You okay?" He asked leading me over to the bed.

"Yeah. I'm guessing you haven't talk to Eve or Michael," I stated.

"No, they were locked in a pretty intense make out session, I didn't want to interrupt." To show his point he started his own little session and it took almost five minutes for me to realize that I needed to actually talk to Shane.

"Shane," I murmured and he knew to pull away. "Hate to be a mood breaker, but Grant and Nikki blew the door off my room earlier."

"They what?" Shane focused in an instant.

"They were doing some spell and then there was really loud noise and suddenly the door was no longer there."

"Are you guys okay?"

"Everyone's fine, but once they had returned to their room I heard them talking. I don't know what was happening but whatever they saw, or did, really scared them."

"What do they want?"

"They said they would talk to us later. And when I was eavesdropping Grant said to let whatever happen sink in for a day or two," I said resting on his shoulder.

"Well then let's let them think about it. We shouldn't try to speculate because we'll end up making it worse than it really is." Shane said reasonably.

"Okay what have you done with my boyfriend? That is way to calm for you," I said pushing away and looking him in the eye.

"Claire, I just want to spend time in the moment with you. The future matters, but with something like this you have to take these things one day at a time."

"Nope, still just a little to much."

"Hey, I can be smart sometimes," He said pulling my close and tickling my sides.

"I give, I give!"

"Good, now, come on, let's go kill some zombies and interrupt the make out.," He grabbed my hand and pulled me out of our room and down the stairs. Luckily Michael and Eve had taken a break and were watching TV. In other words Shane had no problem challenging Michael to a zombie showdown.

I had learned that when Shane started to make sense it was a sign of the apocalypse, but I wasn't ready to deal with that idea, not yet. Not when the day seemed so perfect with my makeshift family cheering at the TV.

The apocalypse would just have to wait till tomorrow.