OMG. Is dis real life? Am I actually updating within 5 days of my last update? The answer is yes, because I have 3 days off, I'm sick in bed, and I have no life. (Yay?)

*Sighs* Guys, you know what I hate about flamers? The fact that they never give you the chance to answer their rude comments. I mean, if you're gunna rant about how my story sucks because it's exactly like The Reckoning (which apparently also sucks? WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE?) at least do me the courteously of letting me answer you, ya know? And why would you ask about a sequel if you hated it anyway? Don't be a coward, nameless person. I mean, CUMMON! And the fact that you didn't bother leaving anything CONSTRUCTIVE, which is the whole point of a review? Well, that just gives me free reign to make fun of you :)

Sorry guys, I had to get that off my chest.

ANYWAYS. Thank you all SOOOOOOO much for your reviews! Shoutouts to EVERYONE who reviewed (seriously! I love you ALL!), and a BIG shoutout to maveldiaz for putting up with me on twitter (I know I get annoying sometimes...) and to burning for talking me down from my ledge (it's scary up there! :P).

I still haven't picked the winner of the title contest, so keep sending in your suggestions! Remember, the prize is an outtake of your choice OR advanced copies of the next 3 chapters!

Enjoy the chapter, and sorry about the long A/N today!

Disclaimer: Steph and Christina are discussing random fantasies that will most likely never become a reality.

Steph: *Skeptical*
Seriously? Lemme get this straight… you wanna wax all the hair off your entire body and sleep in silk sheets?

Christina: *Smiling*
Yepp! Don't you think it'll feel so good? Like when you first shave your legs and put on a silk skirt, except for your whole body!

Steph: No offense, Tina, but that's just kinda… strange.

Christina: *Offended*
Oh yeah, well what about your fantasies, hmm?

Steph: *Excited*
Well, I'd love to own the rights to DP one day…also, I'd like to go coffee and pastry tasting in France with Peeta and Derek! Also, I'd like to-

Christina: Imma let you finish, but lemme just say that MY fantasy was the BEST fantasy of ALL TIME! I mean, common! Coffee tasting? How boring! And you might as well just give up on the whole Derek and Peeta thing now… THRESH is where it's at, baby!

Steph: *About to cry*
Well you know what? I don't need you! I have my books, my netbook, and my seasons of Criminal Minds to keep me warm at night!
*Hides behind fort constructed of all the books she bought in the past month*

Trust

Each betrayal begins with trust. The trust is broken the moment the betrayal begins.
-Phish

I was shaken awake – rather roughly – by Tori.

"Cummon!" she hissed. "Get up! We have to go!"

"Wa?" I asked, confused and still half asleep.

"Your little escape plan? We have to go NOW!"

That woke me up in a hurry. "What? Are you crazy? We've only had an hour to plan! We need more time – you can't just rush into things like this!"

"We don't have time to pussy-foot around this," she whispered. "We have a plan, Chloe; now let's use it!"

"But we haven't even told the guys yet!" I countered, hoping to talk her out of it.

"We'll tell them when we get there. Now get up!" she ordered. I eased out of bed slowly, still not believing this was actually happening. Tori glared at me, her eyes wild. "Hurry up, blondie! We have to go now!"

It's the insane leading the naïve, I realized, suddenly less comfortable with this than I'd been before. "Tori… how exactly are we supposed to unlock the door?" I asked, knowing there was no way she could've gotten a key already.

"Simple." She walked over to the doorway and laid her hand over the complicated-looking mechanical components. I thought for a moment that she was going to try to pull them off the door; instead she closed her eyes, her brow furrowing in concentration.

"Um… Tori? Don't you think they would have anticipated you using magic to open the door?" I posed, feeling like I was the only logical one in the room. "Didn't they cast a lock spell or something to protect against that sort of thing?"

"They did," she said, her eyes still closed, her hand still resting on the door. "It was a good spell, too – one no normal witch could've broken…" She opened her eyes and turned around, her hand still poised on the lock. I almost jumped backwards at the sight of her – that eerie blue glow had returned to her eyes, and her hands were beginning to glow with that same blue hue. She smiled at me – probably amused by the obvious fear radiating off me. "…but in case you haven't noticed by now, blondie… me and you? Well, we're not exactly what you'd call normal, are we?" The aura around her hands flared for a moment, and it was so bright I had to turn away and shut my eyes.

When I looked back at her a few seconds later, Tori was standing in the open doorway looking smug. "Holy shit!" I mumbled, stepping closer to examine the door – whatever spell she had used had melted the entire lock mechanism and parts of the steel frame as well.

This is crazy! If she can do that to a door, imagine what she could do to—

"Tori, if you could do that all along, why didn't you try to escape before?"

"You know why," she said, crossing her arms. All traces of her smug grin were gone now, replaced by an almost Derek-worthy scowl. "Now let's go spring lover-boy and the asshole," she whispered.

"Simon is NOT an asshole!" I hissed. She pulled me to the door and motioned for me to be quiet as she stuck her head out to look for the guards. When she was sure the coast was clear, she turned her head to the side and whispered, "who said I was talking about Simon?"

She slipped into the hall, leaving me frozen in place by her words.

I followed Tori into the hall a few seconds later, having pulled myself together and telling myself that she must be seeing things.

No, that's you, remember?

Not helping. Like, not at ALL.

No, Simon couldn't still have feelings for me… could he? Surely he'd gotten over me by now…

"Tori!" I looked down the hallway – remembering what I was supposed to be doing – and started to panic; Tori was nowhere to be seen.

"Tori, where are you?" I whispered, hoping she'd hear. If she'd been captured then our escape was over before it'd even begun.

"Right here!" She appeared before me, her smug smile back.

"How'd you-?"

"Cloaking spell," she explained simply. "Any more questions, or can we get this show on the road?"

"Yeah – what about the cameras?"

"I took care of that already," she told me. I looked over at the camera situated at the end of the hall and saw what she'd meant by 'took care of it' – the thing formerly known as a camera was now a dripping melted hunk of black plastic.

"Umm… t-that's…"

"Let's go!" She pulled me down the hall by the end of my sleeve, stopping in front of Simon and Derek's door. A few seconds and one creepy display of power later, the door was 'unlocked'.

She pushed it open.

"What the-?"

"We're leaving boys. Get your shit together and follow me."

Simon looked a little reluctant to listen to Tori; nonetheless, he grabbed his diabetes supplies off the table and made his way towards us, stopping when he realized Derek hadn't moved.

"You comin' bro?"

Derek didn't answer Simon; instead, he rounded on Tori, his arms crossed. "How'd you get out?" he demanded, somehow managing to sound menacing in a hushed whisper.

Tori fluttered her eyelashes and wound a piece of charcoal-black hair around her finger. "How'd I get out?" she repeated, her voice mockingly-sweet. "Well, I was like, 'Hey Dr. Davidoff, can you let us out pretty please? I promise we won't try to escape!' And then he let us out!" She rolled her eyes and dropped her hands, placing them on her hips instead. "How do you think we got out, dipwad? I used a SPELL." She moved her hand and waved her fingers half-heartedly. "Now, let's go already! We don't have time to stand around like morons and ask questions!"

Amazingly, Derek listened, entering the hallway and coming to stand in front of us. "Stand behind me," he commanded. "And you-" he gestured to Tori, "-stay behind me and lead the way."

Tori lead us through a few sets of double-doors and through what appeared to be a deserted wing of Davidoff's little compound, pausing to destroy the security cameras before the rest of us entered each hallway.

Fifteen minutes later, Derek began to grow impatient. "Do you even know where you're going?" he snapped. "There's no way the exit is this far from our rooms, or that it's this hard to find!"

"How about you stop whining and make yourself useful?" she retorted, not missing a beat. "Try scoping out the next hallway for guards – they're supposed to be posted around the exits, so if someone's there, it means we're close," Tori explained.

"And how exactly do you know all of this?" Simon asked, echoing my thoughts like he'd done so many times before.

"I told you I used to flirt with the guards; did you think I was doing it for fun or something?" She paused to look around, missing my eye-roll and Simon's nod. "Those idiots love to gloat about how awesome they are," she continued. "It makes 'em feel macho or some shit. 'Hey baby, wanna screw?'" she mimicked. "'There are guards at every door, so you're not getting outta here… wanna go back to your room and get it on?'"

I had to bite the inside of my cheek to keep from laughing – she had sounded exactly like the douchebags who'd made fun of me at school.

School… will I ever go back? I shook my head to clear my thoughts. You can think about this later. Now is not the time.

"I can smell people in the next hallway." Derek's voice broke through the barrio of my thoughts, reminding me how much danger we were in.

Tori swore under her breath.

"We have to go around them," Simon stated, earning an eye-roll from Tori.

"Thank you, Captain Obvious! I hadn't figured that out yet!"

"Can you concentrate for three seconds?" Derek hissed. "We need to find an alternate exit."

"Go left," Tori directed, sounding bored.

We followed Derek left into another abandoned hallway after Tori had taken care of the security cameras. "That cloaking spell is amazing," Simon whispered to Tori when she'd returned. "Think you could teach me it when we get out of here?" he asked hopefully.

"Not on your life, sorcerer."

"But I could teach you some of mine if you wanted," he bargained.

"I don't need your magic," she barked, still managing to maintain a whisper.

Simon caught my eye and shrugged, then returned his gaze to the back of Tori's head. "Guys, do you think it's strange that no one-" He stopped mid-sentence, and I knew that he'd heard it too.

Voices. Coming from the hallway we'd just passed through.

"Shit, shit, shit! We need to get out of here!" Tori hissed through her teeth.

"Thank you, Captain Obvious! We hadn't figured that out yet!" Simon sneered, mocking her.

"Fuck you, blondie! This is serious!"

"And it wasn't serious ten minutes ago?"

"Not like this!"

"Will you both shut up please?" I snapped. "You can continue this later, when we're not in mortal danger!" They both crossed their arms and faced different directions, looking more like two siblings in an argument than people who were running for their lives.

We followed Derek through a pair of stainless- steel double doors, crashing into him when he stopped abruptly in front of the next set of doors. Tori was just about to open her mouth to complain when Derek motioned for us to be quiet. "There are people in there too," he barely whispered, pointing at the doors.

"Guards?" Tori guessed.

"Two of 'em," he answered. "Sorcerers, I think. They have tranq guns-" he sniffed, "-nothing else."

"What are we waiting here for, then? Let's go back the way we came and hide in one of the rooms," I suggested. He nodded, turning around, his hand poised on the doorknob. He turned it and pulled… nothing happened.

"It's locked?"

He nodded again, backing up. "There are guards in there, too," he said, looking panicked. "We're trapped."

The doors on either end of the hall burst open simultaneously and four guards entered, their guns pointed at our throats.

I was frozen in place again – not by fear, but by what I suspected was Tori's version of a binding spell, although Simon's had never been this powerful… I watched as Tori flitted over to the guards – unaffected, of course, which confirmed my suspicions about it being her spell – picked up one of their guns, and proceeded to shoot each guard in the neck.

Granted, they were just tranquillizers, but the way she had done it – in a cold, calm, and almost detached manner – was a little bit freaky.

The binding spell broke then, and the guards slumped to the ground unconscious. Tori shook her head, staring at one of the unconscious men. "They just don't make 'em like they used to," she said, shaking her head disappointedly. She returned to her position behind Derek. "And you people call yourselves supernaturals," she muttered. "Oh my gosh, we're trapped! What should we do? All we have are these stupid super-human powers to protect ourselves with!'" she mocked. "Pathetic."

"Now," she said, her voice returning to normal. "I'm gunna take out the next set out cameras. I'm pretty sure this is the last hallway until we reach the exit, so we should be home-free after this… no thanks to you guys, of course." She sauntered into the next hallway, grinning from ear to ear.

Simon shot her the finger, and Derek shook his head. "I don't trust her," he mumbled.

"What'd you mean you 'don't trust her'?" I asked, confused. "She just saved our asses AND helped us escape!"

"Exactly. There's no way she could've done everything she did - know everything she knows without being one of them."

"It's not like that, Derek. She's on our side."

He shook his head again and dropped his voice to something even quieter than a whisper. "Look, all I'm saying is she knows too much for a prisoner, okay? I know she says she got her information from the guards, but-"

Tori reappeared in the hallway, silencing Derek. "The cameras have been taken care of. Now let's get the hell outta dodge before sleeping beauty and co. decide to wake up."

Unlike the escape scenes in movies, ours was pretty uneventful. When we finally found the exit, there was no one there – the guards Tori'd taken care of' were probably the ones that'd been responsible for guarding the door. Suckers.

After destroying the last of the cameras, Tori declared us 'home free'. We slipped through the door, elated, but on edge, because in the back of our minds – although we would never say it out loud - we'd known it'd been way too easy.

"You're right," the demi-demon's voice rang in my ears. "You'll be back here before you know it, little necro... and I'll be waiting."

I stumbled, grabbing on to Simon's arm to keep me steady. "Chloe?" he asked, worried. "Are you okay?"

I ignored him and concentrated. Why? I asked, hoping she could still hear me. Why do you care so much about me?

I could hear her chuckling inside my head. "Why, you ask? It's because you're different than the rest, little necro. You're stronger. And that, my darling, makes you my ticket out of here."

Once we were out, we had to make sure we remained hidden from sight. We cut through a few dozen backyards, then detoured into a wooded area, hoping we'd be harder to track that way. We were silent for a long time – each of us lost inside our heads. Only Derek really paid any attention to where we were going, occasionally telling us to wait while he tested the air for the scent of any Edison Group cronies. By mid morning we were all exhausted – the adrenaline having vanished from our systems long ago – but Derek refused to let us stop to rest.

"Why not?" Tori shrieked after Derek'd refused her request to stop the ninth time. "We're far away enough as it is, and we've been walking for hours! They're not gunna be able to find us here!"

"How do you know that?" he demanded, sounding tired and on-edge. "How do you know that they won't be able to find us here?"

"I just do, okay?" Tori sped up until she was walking in front of all of us, shoving her hands in her pocket as she went.

"Just like you 'just knew' the way out, or how you 'just knew' where the guards were posted?" he ventured, directing the question to the back of her head. "How do we know we can trust you?"

Bad idea, Derek.

She stopped in her tracks, still facing the other way. "I told you how I got that information, and it was your choice to follow me, you jerk! You should be thanking me right now! I risked my life to save all THREE of your sorry asses!"

"I'm sure you did," he sneered. "What did they do, offer you a deal or something?"

"Derek," I said, tired of hearing him yell at her. "Tori's on our side, okay? She has no reason to work for the Edison Group, let alone betray us for them!"

"Oh, she has a reason, don't you Tori?" He pulled at the hair on the back of his neck, not meeting my glare. "They probably told her they'd bring mommy back safe and sound is she co-operated. Did they tell you that you'd get off scot-free, Tori? Did they tell you they'd let you go?" He was mocking her now, and to tell you the truth, I was ashamed of him. "Tell me," he continued, "how is it you had both the ability and the knowledge needed to escape and didn't utilize it for three months?"

"Enough, Derek. I'm serious. Leave her alone! You know she was waiting for her mom, and she changed her mind because yesterday-"

"Don't, Chloe; just don't, okay? You don't need to defend me to this prick." She stopped walking and spun to face Derek. "Are you done accusing me yet?" she snapped, obviously livid. "No? Well then, how about you blame me for something else while you're at it? Global warming, world hunger, the unfortunate trend of chunky women wearing brightly coloured spandex pants… go ahead, take your pick, big guy! Get it off your chest! Let 'er rip if it's gunna make you feel better! I don't have all day!"

We were all stunned into silence.

Tori's expression softened. "Look… I know they offered you that deal – they offer it to everyone, but that doesn't mean anyone takes it! I mean, common! I've hated these people my entire life, and you expect me to forget that when they offer me a shred of hope?" She shook her head. "No way man. They turned us all into freaks; I wouldn't work for them if my life depended on it." Derek nodded slowly, agreeing with what she was saying. Nothing about what Tori's said had surprised him, and it was then that I realized something momentous…

"They offered you a deal?" Simon asked, sounding both amazed and offended. "Why didn't you tell me?"

"No point," Derek stated bluntly.

"Wait a second. You've known all along and you DIDN'T TELL ME?" His eyes widened, and he reached for my arm. I jerked back, not wanting him anywhere near me at that moment. "You knew that we weren't normal, and you kept it from me? What happened to 'no more secrets', Derek? You promised me that you wouldn't keep shit like that from me anymore!"

"Chloe, I was going to tell you, I swear!"

"You had years to tell me, years!"

"How was I supposed to tell you? 'Hey Chloe, guess what? We're majorly f-ed up biologically… just thought you should know!'"

"It doesn't matter!" I spat. "When I asked you if it was normal to raise corpses without wanting to, you told me it was fine! You told me I was fine; I'm not fine, Derek! None of us are!"

I stepped away from him and forced my voice down to a calm whisper. "You've been bitching for hours about how Tori can't be trusted, but it's you we can't trust, and I can't deal with that anymore."

Everyone was silent… except Tori. "Aww, is fido in the doghouse?" she cooed, holding back her giggles. She grabbed my hand and tugged me towards a spot with a less dense concentration of trees, calling back, "screw walking! I played superhero and I'm gunna get my 12 hours, got it?"

I felt the brush of someone's fingers against my back. "Chloe, please-"

"Don't. Don't touch me," I growled. I felt him step back in shock, and I knew something had happened in that instant - something had broken between us.

Trust, friendship, whatever we'd had the past few weeks … gone. Broken.

Beyond repair.

OMG, did you hear? Chloe and Derek broke up!

Temporarily.

I think.

:|

OMG guys, guess what?

I'm famous!

Actually, I'm not, but when you google "The Boy with the Emerald Eyes" it's like, the fourth or fifth link! SUCCESS! :D

I hope you enjoyed the chapter! Will you leave me some reviews? Please? I'm sick in bed and need some cheering up… do I have to do the puppy dog face? Do I? :(

Ok, if the puppy dog face doesn't work… how about I get started on the next chapter once we hit 25 reviews? I think it' a fair deal, don't you? You guys usually pass 25 the day after I post anyway, so it's not asking that much…

Please, REVIEW! :) I need to know whether I effed this up or not!