*VERY important A/N at the end, pertaining to the future of this story*

Chapter 35

"I... uh... well... um..." I stuttered. I looked at Bex for help. She smiled, shaking her head a little, and I glared at her. I felt Zach's body heat on my back, and soon felt his warm skin make contact with mine when he wrapped his arm around me, as if to cover my body. Only then did I realize that I was cold.

"She was just modeling for me!" Zach said, his breath tickling my neck. I suppressed a shiver. The officer, who name was Officer Rudolf (he did have a slightly red nose) eyes went wide.

"Modeling?" He asked, and I saw the shorter officer, Officer Randy, write something furiously down.

"Yes sir, is there something wrong with that?" Zach asked. Now, it would've sounded mean, and disrespecting if it came from anyone else's mouth, but from Zach, it just sounded like a small curious boy.

"Uh, no." Officer Rudolf said, and he scratched his belly. He looked at the window net, and back at Bex.

"And, how is this net supposed to help us in any way?" He asked, looking at her.

"The net came off, and it was installed in the window, securely. Plus Liz and Cammie saw a red car speed away." Bex looked at Liz as she said this. Liz looked frightened out of her wits.

"Hmmm." Officer Randy said, writing down everything said.

"Do you know what the license plate number was?" Officer Randy asked, his voice even deeper, and scarier then Officer Rudolf's. Liz trembled as she spoke, and I couldn't figure out what she was so scared about. Yeah, this was all sudden, and freaky, but she acted as if this was a murder or something even worse than that.

"K98-OKJ." She said. The officers nodded their heads, and looked back at Bex.

"Well, we'll go report this in. If there's anything else, please contact us." With that, the officer's nodded their heads, again, and left. We were all silent. My gaze went towards Liz's and she looked like she would pee in her pants any second. Her body was trembling, and I felt sorry for the petite southern girl.

"Liz?" Zach said, walking towards her. I missed the feeling of his arms around me, but I just sucked it in, and took a jacket and wrapped it around my body. Zach wrapped his arm around Liz, and I felt a tingling feeling in my stomach when he did that.

"What's wrong?" Zach asked his voice calm and soothing. When those words came out of his mouth, I felt like wrapping my arms around him, and telling Liz that he was mine, and only mine. Liz started shaking even more. Zach tightened his hold on her, and a possessive growl almost escaped my lips. Sure, Zach and Liz were practically brothers and sisters, but, he's mine. From my peripheral vision I could see Bex's gaze on me.

"Liz, everything is fine." Zach soothed.

"I-I-I-" Liz wasn't able to speak coherently, her words fading out. This whole time, I saw Macey looking at Zach, studying him, or, more like studying his hair. She walked over to him, and moved some of his hair out. By this time, the creature in my stomach was thrashing wildly.

"Macey." I said, trying to make my voice even and light, but there was -with no doubt about it- a warning tone.

"Zach's got a big ugly bruise on his head, to match his big ugly face." She said, nonchalantly. She touched his head, and Zach flinched, causing Liz to move, making her start to cry. I got up and walked over to Zach, as he tried (key word tried) to calm Liz down. My heat faltered at I saw the big, and no doubt about it ugly bruise that sat on his head, his hair covering most of it.

"Zach..." I was for lost at words. No doubt about it, the bruise was ugly. It was turning a purplish-blackish color, making it bled into his hair even better. He reached up, and felt around, till his hand touched the bump. He flinched, even at his own touch. He locked eyes at me, and sent a silent message.

I'm fine.

I nodded my head. I wanted to fuss over it, but, right now, Zach seemed more concerned for Liz. Sure, she was the most sensitive one, but crying over something like this, was a little, off.

"Liz, what's wrong? If this is something concerning our safety, you need to tell us." Zach said, rubbing up and down her back, something he always did to me, knowing it calmed me down. She nodded her head, and wiped away her tears.

"That car-" she took a deep breath,"- those listens plate, I've seen them before. I remember seeing them at school, and I noticed it because the car was black, and shiny, and I thought it'd be strange for a student to have a car like that. It almost looked government owned. Then, I saw it outside your house, on your birthday. I got a little freaked out, but thought nothing, because even I knew I could freak out over little things. But, seeing them again..." Liz trailed off.

"... there's something going on with this. And the fact that was see a gun bullet, and the netting to the window is off, it can't be something good." Liz was looking at me by the time she finished.

I closed my eyes. Now, I really wished I could've just done the fashion show, with no interruptions. Zach looked as if he wanted to come to me, and tell me that I wasn't the target of some sickening plot, that this was all just a little joke, a nasty one at that. But, I knew something was up. And something deep down inside of me, made me believe this was related to my dad. I mean, all of a sudden, when I start looking for my dad, people start looking, no, stalking, me, and trying to break into my window, and do who-knows-what. I closed my eyes, and took a deep breath.

I jolted up. I had no nightmare, there was no sun coming through my window, nothing. I glanced at the clock.

2:47 A.M.

I looked around me. I was in my pajamas, no doubt about it, Zach's doing. The screen was put back into its place, and, everything looked, well, normal. Yet, I woke up, at an hour like this. I felt a foreboding felling, one that made my heart race, one that made me panic. I crept out of my bed, slipping on my bunny slippers, and slowly made my way towards the door. Where I got the courage to do something like this, after I find out that I could potentially be stalked, was a mystery to me.

I reached out to the doorknob, and turned it slowly. The door opened smoothly, and I felt like something was wrong, because although the house was new, the door should have creaked, in the mind of me, and I felt as if this was a trap. I walked towards my mom's room. I stood outside it, debating whether or not I should invade her privacy, and, in the end I decided to open it. The door, again, opened without a sound, and there was my mom's sleeping figure. Her suitcase was lying on the floor, a signal that she had come late at night. I wanted to crawl into her bed, like I was when I was little, like I did when I found out my dad was dead, but something stopped me.

I backed out of the room, and closed the door. The click of the door assured me that the door was closed, and I made my way towards my bedroom. I didn't feel safe. I didn't feel as if my mom was safe. In fact, I felt as if someone else was in this house, someone that didn't belong here. I abruptly turned around, making sure no one was behind me, with a knife or gun, threatening me, trying to kill me. I mentally scolded myself for the childish thoughts. I turned around, facing my bed and the window, the window facing Zach's room.

Zach!

Without thinking, I took my phone from the side of my bed, and entered Zach's number. It ringed a few times, and then went to voice mail. I panicked, calling again, hoping everything was alright at Zach's. The light was off in his room, and the blinds were closed. Soon, on the last ring, I hear his soothing, tired voice.

"Gallagher Girl? Everything alright?" His voice was thick with sleep, making him sound half conscious.

"Zach, I'm scared!" I whispered desperately.

"What? Cammie, are you alright? Are you hurt? I'm coming over right now." Zach was panicking.

"No, Zach, please don't come through the front door. I feel like... like someone's here. Zach, I'm really scared."

"I'll come through your window." I wanted to object, but I saw his window blinds get pulled up, and he was pulling the glass up. He pulled the long board out, and he put it between our two windows. I disconnected the phone, and held onto the board. He frantically climbed across, and once he reached my room, he got off, and hugged me tightly.

"Gallagher Girl." He mumbled.

"It's gonna be okay. I'm here, your Prince Charming." I smiled, remembering when he'd first said that. My smile faded though, when I remembered why he was here.

"Zach, what should we do?" I whispered quietly. He looked at me, pondering.

"Do you want to search the house?" I'll be honest, I didn't. I was scared. From the things that had happened yesterday, I didn't feel safe, anywhere. Here, in Zach's arms, I felt protected, but not safe. Zach waited for my reply, but I didn't say anything.

"I'll go. I search the house." He unwrapped his arms from around me, and headed towards the door.

"Zach!" I called. I didn't want him to go alone. I reached out for his hands, and once I reached him, I squeezed his hand tightly.

"You're not going alone." I said, my voice slightly shaking. I thought he would object, but, he seemed to feel the foreboding felling in the air, for he held onto my hand, and squeezed back, as if me being present beside him would reassure him that he wasn't alone.

"Come on." He said.

We opened the door, and stepped quietly out the room. I held onto Zach's arms, as if it was the only thing anchoring to the Earth. Our footsteps were soft, our breathing was light, contrary to the situation. We got to the stairs, and Zach looked at me. His bright emerald eyes shined. We both started descending the stairs, hoping the steps wouldn't creek. They didn't. Once we reached the floor, Zach looked at me, as if debating about something. Then we heard it.

It was someone's footsteps. It wasn't as soft as ours, and, by the sound of it, it sounded as if someone was wearing boots, big, bulky gardening boots. Zach's hands flew up, and in an instant, his hand was covering my mouth. Only then did I realize that my mouth was open, and that I was going to let out a scream. The footsteps were leading away from us, as if it was headed for the door. Zach and I crept forwards, my hand holding a death grip onto Zach's arms, Zach's arm going around my waist. We heard the door open, and I could hear the wind rustling the tree's leaves. A car's engine rived up. Zach quickened his pace towards the door, as we heard the click it made. He peered into the peep hole, and then stepped back, as if he was shocked. I stood on my toes and looked in, well tried to look in it. Zach yanked me back, but I got a glimpse of what was happening on the other side of the door. A man was getting into the passenger's side of the car. But that's not all. I saw something else. The listen's plate of the car.

K98-OKJ

I shuttered.

"Gallagher Girl, come on, let's go." Zach said, pulling on my arm. He walked me towards the stairs, but something made him stop. I looked in the direction that his head was pointed at, and I saw something, in blood red, on the wall.

Mathew Morgan=COC. YOU'RE NEXT.

You all hate me. I know! Probably want to chase me around with pitchforks, and knives. I'm right, aren't I? I knew it! The only thing I've got to say is, SCHOOL. That's my excuse, I know, its lame, its cliché, but that's all I got.

I REALLY want to thank EVERYONE that's reviewed! You guys want to know how many reviews I got? NINETY-FOUR! You read that correctly, 94 reviews! Have I mentioned how AWESOME you guys all are? I can't stress how much it means to me! I know what you all are thinking, "we give her 94 reviews, and she updates 2 months and 22 days later?" I'm SOOO SORRY! I've never really been in the mood to write, and I'm so sick of all the writing, really. All the essays. IT'S INSANE! And, writing essays are WAY different from writing a fun fictional story. Trust me. Doesn't help that I'm in Ap English II.

PLEASE REVIEW! I want to know how to improve my skill! I personally think it went downhill after all that essay writing.

Love,

A Runner At Heart

P.S. DEDICATED TO MY WONDERFULLY, FABULOUS, AWESOMELY, AMAZING REVIEWERS!

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I am currently writing the next chapter. BUT, after that chapter is posted, it will, most likely be the LAST chapter till SUMMER BREAK. School is taking up a lot of my time, and when I take breaks, I don't get on FanFic to type, my brain can only do so much. So, after this chapter, I will post another one, just because I've been MIA for more then two months, but, after that, I probably won't be updating for a long time. I have to focus on school, and if I want to get into MIT, I'm gonna have to work at it. I'm sorry for doing this, but, I have to. The next chapter SHOULD be up by next week (Saturday or Sunday) but, if I get caught up studying for finals, it'll probably be during Christmas break.