I had another panic attack again, another moment of wavering confidence in my protectors; thus, they thought it would be fitting to lock me in the bedroom until I calmed down. If I calmed down.

In my particularly warped opinion, it seemed like they were no better than my other accursed tormentors. Technically, they were also tormenting me - albeit in a way that wasn't so vulgar and frightening.

Carter came in a few hours afterwards, sans his other half, to see if I had calmed down. Unable to stop myself, I almost knocked him over in my attempt to get to the door. He grabbed me by the shoulders, adjusted my position, and marched me back to the corner of shame. All that was missing was a pointy hat with dunce written on it in big, bold, red letters. That was when Jett decided to come in.

"Any better?"

"Clearly not." Carter shot me a withering glance. "This is the twelfth escape attempt. Any more and one of us is going to have bad luck." Never pinned either of the 'er' brothers as supersticious, but then again, I never really made a thing of paying them much attention. "It's almost so pitiful that I think we should just let her go. All the hassle is starting to make me go grey, Jett! I'm twenty-three. Twenty-three year old men do not go grey. Not in the height of their prime."

I scoffed. Twenty-three? He still behaved like he was a spoilt pre-teen. "You do realise that I'm still here, don't you?"

"Yes. I do." Carter was rubbing his temples for effect, just to give us a visual stimulus for how terribly frustrated he was feeling. "You should understand just how much of a bloody nuisance you're being. Just sit tight, and stop making everyone else's lives a living hell."

"You don't even know what a living hell is." I hissed angrily. Carter scowled back at me, deathly silent.

Oh yeah. I forgot to tell you: by some horrible mistake, they all found out about my incredibly langurous, stomach churning epic (which, naturally, just made everything a thousand times worse).

And if Jett had become more sympathetic, if at all, he wasn't showing it. In fact, he was one of the few who didn't look violently ill upon discovering my secret. "Just let me go." I reasoned, not getting up - because I didn't feel like testing their patience. Not when they were so jumpy. Seriously. It was like they expected a vampire to jump out of the closet at any given moment. "You're not doing yourselves any favours by keeping me here. You know you're not."

Jett's expression was hardly friendly. It had sort of become hardened, darker, as if - somewhere in there - he understood me, but chose not to pay any attention to me. "So you just expect us to let you go, and forget everything you told us?"

Oh crap.

I had unleashed the self-righteous super-wolf upon the world. God, purge me for my sins! I shall repent for the rest of my life!

A small part of me wanted to look him in the eye and say: "but you used to be so nice!" It was highly inappropriate, and incredibly tempting.

But, of course, in the face of adversity the worst in people tends to bubble to the surface. I guess it was flattering that he also felt the need to avenge my friends... or whatever his reason was for this; it was still a ruddy stupid one. He was leading all his men into a blood bath. Not to underestimate them, or anything, but they were dealing with a group of blood crazed vampires.

"Can I at least have some orange juice?" I asked, slumping into a pathetic heap on the floor. "Unless you're trying to starve me to death, too. You probably don't realise it, but I am a living, breathing organism. I do like to see the sun every now and again."

Carter sighed irrately, and Jett visibly calmed, proffering me his hand. "If you run away again, it's on your head."

"I know, I know." I grumbled. "Can I have some juice now?"

"Ha." Some girl, who I didn't recognise was standing at the door. She snorted unsubtly, before quirking a disbelieving brow at me. "You're the bitch that Jett has been wasting all his time with? I can't believe it."

"And you are-?"

"Julia." Jett answered for me. The scowl had returned. "I don't have time for this. Carter, escort her out." I stood their, waiting for him to let me into the kitchen - the patio, at the very least. He did no such thing. He just stood there, glaring at the unwelcome intruder as Carter guided her towards the front door. He sighed, and finally let me out, crossing his arms over his chest as I made for the fridge.

"It's been so long!"

"You make it sound like I've starved you." I shot him a withering glance.

"Technically, you have." He shrugged dismissively, before deciding to join me at the counter island. "What's come over you, anyway? It's like you've just suddenly turned into someone completely different." I anything, I only succeded in making his mood worse. "And what was all that about that Julia bitch?"

It was supposed to be facetious, but he didn't laugh. "Everyone is wondering why the Beta is spending less time with his pack, and more time with a random stranger that barely anyone has even heard of."

"And why is that?" I asked before downing a swig of juice.

He fidgeted a little, almost nervous. The gesture was so unlike him that it was actually kind of cute. "I don't know."

"You're just a big softie." I smiled, poking him in the chest. At least that cheered him up a bit. "A big softie that has some serious control issues."

He ruffled my hair, getting to his feet just before the doorbell rang. Even after about a week or two, I still wasn't used to the idea of heightened animalistic senses. So when he did that, it still impressed me.

"Who is it?"

"The pack." Jett didn't even turn to face me. "You're going to have to go back for a while, Jade. Just bear with me for a bit. If I don't finish this soon, Millie will come and feed you." Way to make me feel like the undomesticated animal you're so ashamed of - hiding me away from view.

"Fine." I grumbled. "But just because you've promised to feed me doesn't make me like it any more than before."

Jett said nothing.

Some point in the afternoon, when the sun was hanging low over the horizon, it started.

Or, at least, a chorus of shrieks rang through the house, startling me awake from my slumber. Well, what actually awoke me from my slumber was the gauntless, rotting face pressed against the glass pane of the bedroom window. Oh, fuck me.

I watched in muted horror as unseeing eyes stared directly at me; a crumpled, broken limb (his hand... I think) pawed at the glass as if it didn't really realise there was anything there. My eyes just widened in disbelief and terror. That was, until a very, very, very, large, red wolf pounced on it, ripping it appart as someone else appeared and tried to set fire to it. The putrid smell of decaying flesh and gasoline crept in from under the window. Black gobs of flesh clung to the glass and the balcony outside. Yeah, that made me feel loads better.

A sort of gluttural whimper of shock and disgust left my lips.

Parker burst into the room, likewise covered in that rancid smelling, discoloured liquid. "We need to get out of here." He said, as if I hadn't figured that out myself.

"What the fuck is going on, Parker?" I was too scared to worry about my colourful language. Too disgusted to even want to believe any of it was real.

Parker shuffled his feet uncomfortably. "Well, it looks like a zombie apocalypse."

"Oh. Okay. Because I totally don't believe you." I waved my arms about like a spaz, trying not to have a hysterical fit. There was a 'zombie apocalypse' outside - or whatever - and he was just standing there! "Why the fuck are we still here, dumbass? We have to go!"

"I thought you were going to try and run away again."

I gave him a look of sheer incredulity. "Of course. My first priority was to run outside and get mauled and mutilated by the undead. Yeah. Great plan. Now let's go!" He didn't hesitate to display his uncertainty before gesturing with his head for me to follow after him.

This was all too much, like something out of a low-budget, clichéd horror movie where there is no real plot and just a lot of killing and a lot of monsters and a lot of blood. I didn't even try to understand how this had happened. I don't think I even wanted to know. A niggling thought at the back of my head told me that it all had something to do with some very evil, very sinister creatures of the night. The ones with the pointy fangs and the fear of garlic breath - according to pop-culture references.

The rest of the town was completely oblivious as we finally escaped the danger zone. "Not much of a zombie apocalypse." I gasped, trying to catch my breath.

"No. But it looks like your friends sent you a house warming gift to go with the little love bite on your neck."

For that, I deliberately trod on his foot. "It's not a love bite, douche. Don't make me hurt you."

He made a face that said he was about to protest; until he noticed I was slowly backing away from him, trying to go unnoticed. "No, Jade. Don't do this to me. Just come along with us."

"And have you lock me up again and act as bait? No thanks."

He sighed, "it's almost sundown. It's not safe for you."

I shrugged, looking over my shoulder at the collumns of rising smoke and howling wolves. "It wasn't exactly safe back there, either. And that stuff is going to keep on happening until I make my timely disappearance. Preferably before someone dies."

"You tricked me, didn't you?" He accused.

"Not entirely." I countered. "Part of it was to check the collateral damage. Maybe a part of it was because of the opportunity - but, honestly, I wasn't going to dawdle around with the possibility of coming face-to-face with whatever they were... if they were even zombies. I didn't want the priviledge of finding out. At least believe me when I say that, Parker."

Parker caught my wrist, trying to communicate some of his stress, his anxiety... but he could see that I didn't want to stay. He could see that, although it was the safest I'd felt in a long, long time... it wasn't enough. It was also one of the few times - possibly even the first - that I had used his name. His proper name. Maybe that had something to do with it. "Jett's going to kill me."

"It's either this or he's going to get himself killed. You're part of his brother's pack. You should understand how important it is that this doesn't any further than it already has."

I could feel Parker watching me, watch the way those twinkly eyes lost their sparkle. "You like him." That was yet another, ambiguous accusation.

But I knew what he meant. "Yeah. I do." And then he let go. Just like that. Like he had lost some conflict that had been raging on in his mind since the day we met. "Thanks, Parker. This means a lot."

"Don't-" I had already out enough distance between us to ignore him - but he had been so good. So, for one last time, I stopped. I stopped and turned to face him. "Don't get yourself killed, Jade. Please."

"I'm not making any promises." I laughed, disappearing into the darkness.

And that was when I finally realised that I had done it. I had gone, and there was no more turning back. There was no wolf waiting to herd me back to Jett's house. It was all over. It was all over, and everyone was all going to be safe. But was it really worth it?

I could feel the darkness closing in as the last remnants of sun disappeared and I was all alone, watching the town from a boulder on a slope that overlooked the residential area. In the distance, I could make out Parker's wolf disappearing further into the city alone. He was going to have a tough one explaining this to his superiors - but it was better this way. Right?

But what if it didn't solve anything?

What if it was too late to stop them from being a part of this?

What if I had just set off some stupid trap?

Shit. I never told them not to come after me, and now the self-righteous super-wolf was going to become shish-kebab because I had been so narrow-minded.

Panicking, I got to my feet - not caring to dust off my trousers - just running as fast as my legs would carry me. I needed to go back there and warn them, warn someone. I needed to get to Parker. But that was becoming more hopeless the further my legs pushed. I was a measley human, and he was running - miles ahead of me - with inhuman stamina and the body of an immense wolf. Most probably. I wouldn't catch him; not even if I was a super-muscled body builder.

The darkness started to cave in, crawling through the last remaining gaps in the trees, leaving me encased in nothingness. The only accompaniement I had was the sound of my laboured breathing, the twigs snapping underfoot, and the creatures of the night.

My body shuddered as a gust of cold air sent chills down my spine. A cold air that almost seemed like the forest was breathing. Alive. At least it wasn't dead. At least I wasn't dead, yet.

"Where do you think you're going?" My body went ramrod straight at the sound of his voice. somehow, the dreams hadn't been doing him any justice.

But I couldn't see him, no matter where I looked. I turned, again, again. Nothing. "Away from here." I choked, taking a few steps forward, only to find myself face to face with a cliff. That wasn't there before... shit!

"You can try." He mused. "But I doubt you'll have much luck - the way you're going, you'd be stuck here for at least a week or so before someone found you."

"Piss off." I hissed, stumbling backwards. My body brushed against something solid, my eyes widened, as I turned around to stare into the familiar eyes of the psychopathic killer that haunted my dreams. I stifled a scream, just about ready to faint. "Oh." I gasped.

"Now that's not like you, is it?" He chided, flashing his fangs like a predator would to it's prey. "Where's the quick witted remarks that I love so much?"

But I couldn't find my voice anymore. All I could feel was the horrid sinking feeling as he stepped closer, cornering me.

"What was that? I couldn't hear it over the sound of your heart beat." His fingers grazing the base of my neck, before sinking lower. I choked, tears beginning to form in the corner of my eyes. "So erratic." He murmured, staring down at me through thick lashes. "Are you scared of me?"

I gulped, unable to make the words form. Forgetting how.

"Because I can think of other things that are much, much scarier." He breathed against the shell of my ear, just as several thousand eyes blinked at me through the darkness. Several thousand, dead eyes.

A/N: Okay, this took a while, and for that I am sorry. Just got a little distracted and self-conscious and was like... ooo... I dunno if this is good enough to post! and all worried and shizzle. So yeah. Zombies. Down right nasty. Don't ask. I don't like them, full stop, so it took a lot for me to suck it up and put them in.

It is supposed to be relatively scary after all.

Is it? Is it?

So tired. So sleepy. Hate summer. It's never long enough. Ever. It just goes by way too quickly, and I have so not done enough to start the term! SHEIZE! D:

But yeah. I'm sleepy. I hope this wasn't too much of a disappointment. x

-oh and before I forget: THANKS FOR READING!