Guys, I felt so bad for the super-short chapter earlier that I decided that review-answering wan't enough. WE NEED ANOTHER SHORT CHAPTER!

So I wrote out this.

Enjoy!

Piper

Ow, was the first thing Piper thought when she awoke. She rose a hand to grab at her throbbing head, only to find both of them lashed tightly behind her back.

I'm tied up, she realized stupidly.

Thank you for that, Mrs. Obvious, her irritated side replied curtly.

Slowly and deliberately, she inched her eyes open. She felt cold water advance and recede between her barefoot toes, and smelled the strong salty ocean nearby. She was sitting on some sort of fine powder.

Not powder, she thought, running her bound fingers through the stuff behind her. Sand.

Took you long enough, her irritated trait interrupted insolently.

Soon her eyelids had opened wide enough to slit her pupils into the space and get a fuzzy picture of what was happening around her. She saw a girl perhaps her age—possibly younger—sitting on a large rock on the beach near the water. She had a knife and was sharpening it the old fashioned way—with a rock. She hadn't realized Piper was awake yet.

One of the Romans, she realized.

We're dead, decided her other personality.

Oh, shut up, replied the first, which wasn't so much stupid as annoyed by then.

A terrible headache hit her then. She winced, squeezing her eyes shut once more, wishing so badly she could grab at her pounding head. Whatever she was resting against shifted with her, almost dropping her to the sand.

Leo, she thought, and before her other side could interrupt with some rude comment, she added to it, Don't even think about it.

"And so they live," noticed the girl sitting on the rock. She struck the blade of her knife against the rock three more times, then twirled it around her fingers expertly as if she had been performing that trick since she was able to lift the freaking thing. Then, as casually as Piper would tell her dad "I'm going to bed now", the girl tossed the rock up into the air and sliced her blade through it, neatly cutting it in half. The two rocks that had originally been one fell on the sand with twin thuds.

Piper could only imagine how easily she could thrust that dagger through her.

"So, let's get the facts straight," the other girl started, getting to her feet slowly and deliberately. "It's been three hours since you were last awake. No one except for our little gang of Romans knows exactly what happened to you two. You guys obviously know what that means, because you were somehow eavesdropping on our little meeting in Cali. I officially can't execute you guys right now because of New Rome laws and stuff, and I can't exactly call them right now 'cause the praetors are too busy getting ready for our attack, but I'll do it tonight. Don't think I won't."

Piper had never doubted her.

"Now," she finished sweetly, as if just finished explaining to a five-year-old how to bake cookies. "Any questions?"

"My head hurts," Leo commented.

The girl just rolled her eyes and turned back to her rock, continuing to sharpen her dagger with one of the rock halves.

"Leo!" Piper hissed to her partner. "We gotta get out of here!"

"I would try to think of something to do just that, but my head hurts too much to think," he replied. "Wake me up later." He lolled his head forward and snored loudly.

"Leo!" Piper hissed more forcefully, shoving him with her back, seeing that that was the only way to shove him. Realizing that it was no use negotiating, she strained at the ropes binding her hands together. She wished she could get Leo to use his fire power to burn the rope, but he couldn't do that without burning her.

"Don't bother," said the girl without looking up from her task, hearing Piper's grunts and struggles. "I spent years studying and perfecting that not. You'll need a little bit more than a chainsaw to break through that."

Piper fumed, knowing that she was probably right. Instead, she took in the surroundings that went past the beach.

There was a dense forest just up the sand. They had probably been carried through the woods to the other side, where no campers dared venture alone. And even if someone did stray, they would have to speak to that girl's twisted knife.

Then there was the ocean. The tide didn't seem too high or too low at the moment. She could sort of see New York in the distance, if she strained and squinted enough. No use trying to signal a passing boat; that would just result in way more problems than she needed. And whoever was on it probably wouldn't be able to see through the Mist anyway.

Piper realized in horror that she couldn't help herself. And no help was coming.

She was going to die.

Told ya.

SHUT UP!

Piper has a disorder. Multiple personalities.

Disclaimer: The same as before.

Review and request! Yeah!