AN/ Hi. Hope you all had a great Christmas:)

I wanna say thank you Bluedog270, StupidlyGenius, We are all Imperfect, popie92, September14Fall, TeddyBear98, 1379, Dreaming2BAWriter, datgirl11065, taylor, Randomgirl111111, ADayWithNoLaughterIsADayWast ed, Awesomeuoossss, MrsCharlieAckles, PersonNatalie, StripedFuzzySocks, Melody Midnight, Heywhatsup, hgirl, Guest, 10pandasrule10, Gueast, Kat-May, 88Keys, krc93 and Nerdygurlk13 for all your reviews. You're amazing:)

It took a while longer than I'd planned to get this chapter done. Sorry for that... But it needed a lot of editing and it turned out to be really long... and slightly weird...ok really weird...haha... I might as well put in a warning here: It's a pretty rough chapter (you should be used to the Jack chapters by now though...)

DISCLIMER: I do not own Kickin' it.

Chapter 21

Meeting Tess

Jack's pov.

My arms had gone numb from being held above my head for so long and without thinking I tried to pull them down into a more comfortable position. I immediately flinched as my sore wrists had to pay the price for that, the cuffs cutting into the thin skin that was left around them. The flinch caused my body to ache even more. My back felt stiff and swollen from were he'd hit me with the chain and my elbow was throbbing with pain, not to mention the sting from the wounds on my knees and the bruises and scratches covering a larger part of my torso… and the headache I'd been accompanied by ever since he'd slammed my head against the floor. My injured arm was swollen and hurt like crazy every time it came in touch with something and the chain wrapt around my legs was most certain to leave bruises, that is if it ever would come off. The tears burnt in the corners of my eyes. I quickly closed them, trying to trap the tears behind my eyelids. Everything hurt and the only thing I could do was to bite the bullet and try to endure. The pain must fade eventually…right? It has to…

Alan had left after finishing his dinner. I didn't know where or how long he would be gone. Not that I really cared, as long as he wasn't near me. Hours had passed though and it was starting to get both dark and cold in the cabin. Alan hadn't left any lights on and the darkness consumed my surroundings as the minutes passed. The wind played with the trees outside, causing them to creak. Growing super hearing in the dark I tensed at the sounds. I'd never been afraid of darkness before. Frankly I'd never really been afraid of anything before. Sure there's been stuff that freaks me out like clowns and such. But this was different… I was scared all the time now, believing that everything was out to hurt me.

Still lying on my side in the same position as he'd left me in, time was dragging by real slowly. I glanced up at the cuffs that secured my wrists to the wall above my head. There's no way I would be able to get free from those on my own. Feeling very discouraged I let my gaze fall. Why wasn't anyone coming to my rescue? Why couldn't they find me? A sudden fear of not being missed hit me. What if no one cared that I was gone? What if no one cared to go search for me?

I swallowed, trying to dismiss the thought. Someone's gotta be missing me. Kim had. She had searched for me and she'd found me. A small wave of warmth washed over my heart, knowing that she had cared for me. The feeling was soon replaced though, with an indescribable deep grief, when I was reminded of the fact that I would never see her again. I knew my life would never be the same, even if I made it out alive. How could it, when the reason why I woke up every morning with a smile on my face was gone?

I didn't notice my eyes finally flooding, as a single tear trailed down my cheek until it hit the floor.

In the darkness I could imagine her sitting next to me. She was giving me that smile that I adored and I could almost bring myself to return it. Her shape got clearer and I could now easily make out her deep brown eyes looking down at me. She looked so real. In an attempt to touch her I pulled on my restrains, without achieving anything but causing the small wounds around my wrists to sting.

"Kim…?" I whispered, looking at her, hoping that she would answer me, although I knew she wasn't really there. Lifting my head, I tried to get a better view of her. She smiled shyly, pulling a few strands of hair out of her beautiful face.

Suddenly something lit up the forest outside, as the sound of a car grew louder. Kim vanished before my eyes just as quickly as she'd appeared.

"No Kim…please don't lea…" I caught myself talking to her and quickly stopped. She wasn't there. I knew that I had just imagined her, even though she'd seemed so real. Reminded of the fact that I needed to stick to reality and leave her behind if I didn't wanna end up like Mark, talking to people inside of his head, I tried to concentrate on what was actually happening in my surroundings.

The car stopped outside the cabin; as I let my head slowly fall back down on the floor. Someone was coming. I hoped with all my heart that it was someone that would help me, but I knew that it would most likely be Mark or worse yet; Alan. Feeling extremely vulnerable, I hid my face in my arms and pulled my knees up towards my chest, as I heard the door being unlocked. I knew that curling up like this wouldn't keep him from seeing me, but at least I felt safer and by doing so I could pretend that he wasn't there yet, if just for a moment or two.

The door opened, letting the cool night air into the room, before it closed again. I shivered, hearing the familiar footsteps as he walked over to the kitchen. I let myself relax just a little, listening to whatever he was doing. It sounded as if he was fiddling around with some small packets and a plastic bag. After he was done he started to approach the spot where I was lying on the floor. I tensed and buried my face deeper into my arms. Waiting for the pain I knew was coming, I started to shake. He stopped right in front of me. On the verge of crying, I prayed that he would leave me alone, still not daring to look at him.

He let go of the thing he was holding and let it fall to the floor with a thud. I jumped by the sound, letting out a small whimper. My heart had speeded up and I had to fight the tears that threatened to fall. The fear grew for every second passing by, as I waited. The fact that he just stood there without doing anything freaked me out. What was he planning?

Suddenly I felt a touch on my head as he placed his hand on it. I flinched pressing my head, if possibly, even deeper into my sleeves. Not the head again…please not the head...

I expected him to pull my hair, but instead he let his hand rest on it, rubbing my temple with his thumb. I let out the breath I'd been holding, still not daring to move. His hand trailed down my cheek, pressing itself in between my face and my arms, until it found its way around my chin. I tried to turn my face down towards the floor to cause him to let go of me. He had already taken a firm grip around my jaw though, and was now trying to turn my face up towards him. His movements were gentle, but assertive and without any struggling I let him lift my head up to face him. I squinted slightly at the bright light, my chin resting in his hand. Meeting his green eyes, my heart skipped a beat and I quickly broke the eye contact, looking down. Those eyes scared me like nothing else. He inhaled deeply, carefully touching the patches of dry blood on the part of my face I'd previously kept hidden from him. His fingers followed the blood trail until they found the cut just above my hairline.

"What did he do to you?" Mark asked concerned, breaking the silence. I didn't know what I should answer him. Wasn't it obvious? He'd hurt me physically so bad that I thought for a moment I was going to die, before chaining me to the freaking wall.

When he realized I wasn't going to give him any answer, he let go of me and stood up. He went over to the fireplace, to light up a fire, which was needed. The place started to get really cold. Relieved that Mark was here again and not Alan, I closed my eyes, resting my head against the floor again. Maybe I didn't have to go through more tonight after all.

It didn't take to long until the calming sound of an open fire filled the cabin and the temperature started to slowly rise. But I couldn't bring myself to relax, too anxious about what might happen.

I listened carefully to him pouring up water into a bucket, before walking over to me again. I once again refused to look at him, keeping my head down and squeezing my eyes shut. Why couldn't he just leave me alone?

I jumped as I felt him grab a hold of my ankles and quickly pulled on them to straiten out my body. Opening my eyes at the sudden tug, I moaned in pain as he turned me onto my sore back. My swollen muscles were screaming, as they were forced strait. A small cry of pain escaped my lips when we finally hit the end of my restrains, my arms painfully stretched out as far as they'd go above my head. I barely had time to resister what was happening before he'd let go of my legs and moved up next to my extended body. He grabbed a hold of the hem of my shirt and with one swift movement he pulled it up towards my head, exposing my torso.

"What are you doi…?" I didn't get to finish before he pulled the shirt over my head and up my arms. He couldn't get the shirt completely of off me without removing the handcuffs though, so he left it lying in a bundle around my hands. I eyed him worriedly, feeling beyond uncomfortable. He seemed to have got caught up in his thoughts as he studied my upper body. Meanwhile all kinds of horrible things he could do to me flashed through my mind. He wasn't gonna…? Was he? He wouldn't… right?

I soon realized that unfortunately he would, as he started to unzip my jeans. I quickly twisted my hip away from him though. He looked at me surprised.

"Please don't." I begged. He gave me a small smile when he saw the fear in my eye.

"It's okay." He said. "We're not gonna hurt you. Right Tess?" I swallowed past the lump in my throat. The fact that he was a mad man talking to someone that wasn't here, made my hopes go out. I would never be able to stop him and the chances of him listening to me would be equal to none, but this still didn't prevent me from at least trying.

He took a steady grip of my hip and forced it back down.

"Please…" I desperately struggled to get my hands free to stop him from continuing. "Please." The first few tears of the many to come started to streak down my face, knowing that I had no other choice than to go through this. He put his knee on the top of my thighs, preventing me from pulling my legs up as he undid my pants.

"No…please." I continued to beg, without any results. "Please…"

"It's not going to be that bad." Mark reassured as he pulled down my pants as far as they'd go before the chain tying my ankles together stopped them. Thankfully he left the boxers on, for now at least "…you might even enjoy it…" He mumble as he reached for the bucket he'd put next to me.

I shook my head 'no', crying now. "Please…don't do…this." My voice was shaking as I tried to get the words out in between the sobs that had started to come. "I can't … take it." It was true. If he went any further he would destroy what was left of me. "Please…don't"

He sighed, looking at me. A flash of pity passed his eyes.

"I really don't see what you're getting so upset about." He was sitting on the floor next to me. "I'm not gonna hurt you. There's really no reason for you to cry." Leaning forward, he tried to wipe away a few tears from my cheek. I turned my head away from him, not wanting him to touch me. He'd probably meant to calm me down by the gesture, but at the moment it had quite the opposite effect on me.

"L..l..leave me alone, please." I stuttered.

"But this is for your own good…" he tried to reason.

"No…it's not…" I said, hoping that he somehow would listen to me. He turned to the bucket again and fished up a soaking wet rag from it. With both hands he squeezed the majority of the water out of it, before placing it on my chest. I tensed as the wet rag came in contact with my bare skin. He gently rubbed the dirt and the dry blood off my chest.

"What are you doing?" I asked confused, raising my head slightly, tears still coming from my eyes.

"I'm cleaning you up, boy." He said it as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. "You're a real mess… and some of these wounds need to be taken care of if you don't want them to get infected…"

"Is that all?" He gave me a questioning look before answering.

"Yes, why?"

I didn't answer, instead I sighed letting my head fall back to the floor. Relieved that his intentions weren't what I'd thought they were. I closed my eyes, the sobs dying out slowly. It was still hard to breathe properly though. The shock of what I thought he was gonna do to me lingered in my body for quite some time and I couldn't relax fully.

After a moment of silence Mark cleared his throat.

"What did he do to you?" He asked soaking the rag in the warm water again. I swallowed, thinking about what had just happened hours earlier.

"He…he pulled me behind the car." I said, staring at the ceiling as I waited for his response. He shook his head slightly.

"I'm sorry Jack. I never meant for you to get hurt." He said truthfully. "Alan has some problems controlling his anger sometimes. You have to forgive him; otherwise we're never going to work as a family." I looked at him sceptically, not believing what I'd just heard. "And you have to admit, it was partly your own fault. Alan's just trying to teach you that you really belong here with us."

"What?!" I exclaimed, before I was able to stop myself. "I don't belong with you. I belong with my family and friends…"

"But we are your family and we care about you." He looked upset, as he continued to clean me up.

"Care about me?! Look what he did to me…look what you're doing to me!" I jerked on the handcuffs a little for emphases. It's been a while since I'd been brave (or foolish) enough to speak up like this to him. But at that moment I was mad. "If you'd cared about me you wouldn't have killed Kim! If you'd cared you would've let me go home!"

"But you are home." He argued, grinding his teeth a little. I didn't notice though.

"No, I'm not. I ne…"

"YES, YOU ARE!" He screamed, cutting me off. The fear immediately filled me again, believing that I'd triggered Alan to come out. "You are home if I say so!" He was leaning over me, making me cringe. "And you're never going to leave us again, EVER!"

Seeming to have let all his anger out, he continued to clean my now trembling body, without saying another word. I remained silent too, realizing they had no intentions of letting me go, and after all my attempts to leave they'll probably gonna make sure that I never get another chance again. I closed my eyes. My only hope now was if there was someone who cared enough to rescue me…

Mark cleaned my upper body and my legs and knees, before moving up to my arms and head. The warm feeling it provided me was almost nice, even though occasionally it would sting when the rag came in contact with an open wound. My swollen arm hurt the most and I was grateful he was being extra careful cleaning that area. Once he was done cleaning, he applied some gels and other antiseptic stuff, which he took out from the plastic bag he'd brought earlier. I didn't bother to ask what it was since he probably wouldn't give me any answer anyway. On some of the bigger wounds he put on bandages, like the ones on my elbow and my knees. He then pulled my pants back on and was about to do the same with my shirt, when something stopped him. He traced his fingers gently over the injury the ricochets had caused me. Without a word he stood up and I could finally relax, believing this was over. And it hadn't been that bad actually. I couldn't have been more wrong though.

Looking up at the ceiling I heard him coming back to me again. I shot him a sideways look and my eyes immediately widened.

"No please!" I tried to inch away from him, but the chains kept me in place. The tears found their way back again as I watch in terror Mark crouching next to me. The things he'd brought with him, made me shake with fear. "Please…" I struggled to get free, ignoring the pain that was pulsing through my body.

Mark put the things down on the floor next to me. I swallowed, nervously eying the items. It was a leather belt, a couple of tweezers, a few cloths and the most disturbing of them all – a knife. I felt my heart rate increase, as my imagination was running wild with all the horrifying things he might do with all of that.

Before I had time to react Mark grabbed a hold of my body and turned me, so I was lying on my left side with my injured arm in the air. Pushing me as far away as possible from the wall, he made sure I had as good as no possibility to move my arms as they were stretched out to the max. He then sat down on top of my ribcage, almost knocking the air out of me when doing so. I hysterically tried to get free, but soon realized that it was impossible. I continued to struggle though, for each try I was becoming weaker, which caused the tears to well up until I couldn't hold it together anymore and I broke down crying again.

"Please…" I sobbed. "…leave me alone…"

Mark wrapt the leather belt around my right arm, before tightening it right above my injury. He then started to push and squeeze my arm with his fingers, almost as if he was trying to pop a zit, ignoring my cries of pain. Pausing for a moment he mumbled.

"I know Tess… but it's necessary." In the corner of my eye I saw him holding up the knife. "No!" I cried. "..Don't…Please!" Panicking I tried to get up, using all the strength I had. The more I tried though, the harder he pushed me down. I pulled my legs up, trying to get him off of me, without any success. "…please no…"

Mark finally had enough and slammed me back down onto my back, before putting a hand over my mouth while his other was holding the knife against my throat. I stopped struggling, breathing heavily, Mark still sitting on top of me.

"Now Jack, I'm going to make sure this gets done, whether you like it or not." He said pushing me down against the floor. "And if you're gonna keep fighting me I'm gonna need to get Alan to help me. And trust me he wont be as gentle as I." Slowly he removed his hand from my mouth. "Are we clear?"

"Yes…" I answered shakily. Mark quickly got both me and himself in position again. I kept still this time, crying from fear of what he was gonna do to me. Knowing I would have to let him do it, otherwise Alan would show up and everything would be ten times worse.

"Now where were we?" He said. "Oh right you are Tess." He grabbed one of the cloths and shoved it into my mouth, half of it was left hanging outside though. "You probably wanna bite down on that one." I choked on it and my first reaction was to spit it back out, but he kept a firm hold over my mouth to prevent me from doing so. "Keep it and you'll do us both a favour. Trust me"

I did, but only so that he would remove his hand. I had no intentions of keeping it any longer that necessary. But before I had the time to even try to get it out, he had brought the knife to my poorly healed wounds and started to cut right trough them, reopening them. I screamed at the top of my lungs as he carved his way deeper into my flesh. My screams were muffled by the cloth that filled my mouth though and they didn't stop Mark from continuing. The excruciating pain caused the tears to pour out of my eyes as I sobbed loudly. Mark had started to dig around in the wounds with the tweezers and pretty soon, he found the first small shot. The blood was running down my arm and landed on my face underneath it. I bit down on the rag in my mouth, now grateful that I had it, as Mark started to dig for yet another shot.

The torture continued for almost half an hour, leaving me completely drained from energy. I was shaking violently when Mark finally wrapt the bandage around my arm, before pulling my shirt back on again. My eyes were probably red and swollen and my cheeks were completely soaked with tears as I lay there panting so hard that I started to feel dizzy.

Mark began to clean up around me and put some more wood on the fire, making sure it wasn't going to die out anytime soon. I was still crying as I tried to get rid of the cloth in my mouth. Sniffing, I carefully pushed myself with my legs closer to the wall, to ease the tension in my arms. I knew that he'd probably made me a favour when he got rid of all the ammunition that had been lingered in my arm and cleaned the rest of the wounds. It was just the way he'd done it that had shocked me. I felt violated by his actions. I let out a sob as I thought of what had just happened. My arm was hurting so bad after the rough treatment it suffered, that all the other pain in my body faded.

In an attempt to calm down I inhaled deeply. The air never had the chance to get to the bottom of my lungs though, until I had to interrupt the breath as new sobs forced themselves out. This fight to calm down continued for several minutes. I went inside of myself, trying to hide from the world that only was out to hurt me. By doing so I completely lost track of time and what was going on around me.

It wasn't until Mark took hold of my legs and pulled my body in a ninety degree angle from where I'd lay previously, placing me parallel to the wall, that I snapped back to reality. Still chained to the wall, I lay facing my restrains. My hands were in about the same level as my face, with not more then about five inches of chain to move around in. I leaned my head closer to the wall so that I for the first time in several hours was able to wipe away my tears. New ones kept coming though. I searched my hairline with my fingertips. I whimpered when I found what I was looking for. The cut was much larger than I expected it to be. The realization caused me to sob again. I felt sorry for myself, that's something I never really done before or thought that I would ever do, but I couldn't help myself..

I really tried hard to accept the fact that I might never gonna go home again. It turned out to be impossible though. I had to go back; otherwise I might as well die…

"Found this in the car." Mark's deep voice came from behind me. I glanced over my shoulder. "I think it belongs to you." He threw Kim's cardigan to me. It landed right on my hands. I grabbed it and hugged it tightly, needing all the comfort I could get.

Behind me I could hear Mark, getting ready to sleep, while I continued to cry hopelessly. Just before going to bed, he walked over to me, and placed a blanket on top of me.

"I'm really tired Jack and I want to sleep, so no more whining or whimpering. Is that understood?" He said.

"Yes…" I sniffed.

"And no sniffing." He turned off the light and climbed up in his bed. I tried my best to keep the crying to a minimum. It was hard though. I was forced to lay on my injured arm, and the throbbing pain was driving me crazy. After an hour of battling the seemingly never-ending tears and sobs I finally fell asleep…

I stirred, the faint sound of someone crying reached my ears. I was warm, almost too warm. Opening my eyes to the complete darkness, I felt something resting on me. The 'thing' moved suddenly. I froze as my senses took in the information about what was going on around me. The sobs were really close. In fact they were just behind my ear and I could feel the weeping person breathing on the back of my neck, just as clear as I could feel their body pressed up against mine. Realizing that the person must be Mark and that he was at that moment crying, lying under my blanket and hugging me from behind, I was suddenly wide awake.

"I'm scared Jack…" He sniffed, crying into my shoulder and tightening his grip around me. His voice sounded childish and the behaviour wasn't like him at all. Not really knowing how to deal with the situation, I kept still, pretending I was still asleep.

"I saw him Jack." He whimpered. "He's coming to get me. Please do something. Jack, wake up." He shook me weakly. Now I really didn't know what to do. "Jack." He tried again.

"…yeah…" I mumbled after some hesitation.

"Jack, he's coming."

"Who?" I wondered, not entirely sure I wanted to know.

"The big monster." He whispered. "…with the big glowing eyes and the honking horn." I frowned; what was he taking about? This was so out of character for both Mark and Alan. Was it possible that there was a third person? Come to think of it, he had acted really strange the night before… His behaviour had been very childish and too friendly… Back then I'd thought that he was just fooling around with me, but now I wasn't so sure.

"Who are you?" I asked, still staring into the wall.

"My name is Tess."

I sighed. O'boy…

"No one is coming." I reassured. "And if they do… I'll protect you…" Can't believe I just said that. I just wanted to calm him (or her) down so that we could go back to sleep. I didn't really care about protecting him from anybody, besides I wouldn't be able to even if I wanted, being in an even more helpless position then him…

"You promise?" His voice didn't sound so sad any longer.

"Yes, I promise." I answered, hoping that he would go back to his bed and for this awkward moment to be over. He was silent for a while, making me think that he'd fallen asleep.

"Tess?" It was really weird calling him that.

"…Mmm…" I didn't like to have him so close.

"You should go back to bed." I said. "It was probably just a nightmare…"

"Jack?" He said in a sweet voice.

"Yes"

"Can I sleep down here with you?" I swallowed. I didn't want to sleep next to the most dangerous man I knew. What if he would wake up as Alan and find himself on the floor, holding me? At the same time I didn't wanna upset Tess, remembering all to well what happened last time I did that…

"Are you sure you want that?" I asked. "I mean the bed's way more comfortable and warmer."

"Yes I'm sure" He said, hugging me even tighter. I held back a moan as my bruised body was being squeezed. "You're safer and you smell so good, besides you're a lot warmer and cozier than the bed." He said, cuddling his face down in the back of my neck, making me feel very uncomfortable. I inched away from him and closer to the wall, to no use really, since he followed.

"Tess?" I started, trying to keep myself from freaking out. "I don't think Mark would approve of this."

"Why not? He's the one who brought you to me." I tensed at the disturbing answer, beginning to understand what this was all about.

"Tess…would you please tell me why I'm here?"

"You're here because I love you, and we belong to each other." It took me a moment to comprehend what he -or she actually- had said.

"What about your revenge on me?" I asked nervously, not liking where the conversation was going.

"What revenge?"

"The one Alan was talking about. Isn't that the reason you took me and…" I still had trouble saying this out loud. "…killed Kim?"

"Don't know what you're talking about. I've never killed anybody." Right…forgot I was talking to Tess…

"Sorry…" I muttered. "It was Alan who did it…" I corrected myself. "But I wanna know why. What did I do to deserve that?"

"Like I said, I have no clue what you're talking about. All I know is that you're the cutest boy evaaa." He shrieked in delight and before I knew it his hand had made it up to my chest as he leaned over me and kissed my cheek, his stubble scratching my skin.

"What are you doing?!" I jerked away from him. Unfortunately there was almost no room between me and the wall and pretty soon I found myself pressed up against it. His grip of me had loosened as he hadn't expected me to move away. He made an attempt to close the gap between us again.

"Stay away from me!" I demanded, hiding my face in Kim's sweater.

"Why?" He wondered, hurt clearly showing in his voice.

"Because, I don't want you to touch me."

"Why?"

"Just because." I said more sternly, wishing he/she would listen. "Now go back to bed. Please."

"…Okay…see you tomorrow…" He said to my surprise and relief. But before he left, I felt his fingers running through my hair, sending unpleasant shivers down my back.

Once he finally was back in his bed, I relaxed and pushed myself out from the wall again. He had brought the blanket with him by accident while he stood up and it was now lying in a pile on the floor next to me. It was impossible for me to reach it though, the handcuffs not allowing me to move my hands more than four or five inches from the wall. Sighing, I closed my eyes and tried to go back to sleep. It wasn't easy though. The pain in my right arm was back and being deprived of my only source of warmth I was now freezing. Not to mention the creepy way Mark had acted, which was really freaking me out and had left my head full of unanswered questions…

I'd been awake for a while, listening to Mark or whoever he happens to be at the moment, eating breakfast. I was hungry, but I didn't know if I'd be lucky enough to get anything to eat and I didn't dare to ask.

Thankfully Mark came over with a plate carrying two sandwiches, though. He placed it next to my hands, just close enough for me to reach it. He didn't say anything; instead he sat down on the edge of the bed, watching me. I hesitantly took one of the sandwiches and slowly started to eat, trying to ignore Mark hovering above me.

It was pretty hard to eat from a lying position, but the chains were too short to allow me to bring the food to my mouth if I held my head any higher.

Once I was done, Mark took the plate again.

"That a boy." He smiled, before taking off with the dishes. Silence filled the room for a while, but it wasn't awkward, in fact it was almost peaceful and Mark seemed to be pretty relaxed.

I rolled over on my back as far as the handcuffs allowed me, turning my head so that I could see Mark. He'd sat down by the table with a cup of coffee in his hand and was now reading the newspaper. I didn't know if it would be safe for me to ask, but I've been thinking about the whole 'Tess incident' all morning. Mark had become her too, but I knew that Tess was a real person. I've met her myself. So why was he talking to her when she wasn't here and even more disturbing, why was he acting like he was her?

I finally brought up the courage and opened my mouth.

"What happened to her, Mark?" He looked up from the newspaper and gave me a questioning look, causing a nervous feeling to stir in my guts. I pushed the feeling aside though and asked again, slightly louder this time. "What happened to Tess?"

So what did you think guys?

I'm probably not gonna be able to put the next chapter up until next year... So I wanna wish you all a

Happy New Year:)

Of course there'll be sneak peeks of the next chapter for those of you who review:)

/MJ