You guys should check out my poll *wink wink*. Are any of you out for summer? Tomorrow's my last day.

A game maker voice cuts through the silent night. "There will be a feast. A feast at the spring, I'm sure you all know the place. At nine o'clock this morning. There will be delicious food. I strongly recommend attendance." Well we're already here, so I don't have to move. I'll just sharpen my knives and wait for Allison.

A small voice in the back of my head tells me it's not just how they left the alliance. My dream. I'm more mad at Allison than Sheen. She took Vincent in the dream and I get an uneasy feeling that she would in real life, too. But not just Vincent, she'd be all too willing to take my life. That's not saying much, though, considering I'd take hers in a heartbeat. (No pun intended.)

"Should we just stay here and ambush them, then take what's left from the feast?" Fiona asks. "Sounds like a good idea," Cliff says, "What about you guys?" "Let's do it," Ares and Vincent say. "Whatever you guys do, I have to stay here, so whatever," I say. We snuggle back into our tree branches, content with our plan.

After a while, everyone seems to be asleep. "Are you asleep, Crystal?" Vincent whispers.

"No," I say.

"Can I come up?"

"Sure, but please don't fall!"

He laughs, "I'll try not to."

Vincent climbs up and straps himself to a branch next to mine. We sit there quietly for a minute. I get a burst of adrenaline and blurt out, "Vincent, I think I love you."

"You don't have to say that if you don't really."

"But I really think I do. I've never been in love before, but I think this is it." I tell him about my dream.

"Imagine life without me."

I do and my heart pounds painfully. "I don't like to; it hurts."

"How badly?"

"I would feel like I failed you. I would hate walking around and not seeing you."

"Would you want to get in bed and never wake up? Would you hate the feeling of food, because you would think of it as nourishment that keeps you away from death, where I would be? Would you give up on loving all together?"

"I- I don't know. I guess," I stammer.

"Then you don't love me as much as I love you. Because that's where my mind goes when I think of life without you. Even though I just met you a couple weeks ago."

"Well, it's not like I have any experience! You're the first boy my age, other than Ares, who I've met! How am I supposed to know what to think when I think of you?"

"That's just it. You've got to think of these things without experience, know they're true, not just think so. I'd rather you never love me than you love me in a way that isn't real."

"But-"

"Please just wait. If love comes, it will. If it doesn't, it's not meant to be."

He climbs back down and goes to sleep. Why do I have to love a philosopher? But maybe he's right. What if I don't really love him? What is love?

-Theuglyduckling492