"Maddie, you love wolves. What do we do to stop it from tearing Al's heart out of his chest?"

Maddie (the wolf expert) clenched her fists. "We need to draw it away from his blood. That wolf is an outcast from its pack, and smelled Alois's blood! Quick, make noise!"

We all started doing everything we could think of that would draw the wolf from him. Gabby yelled at it, Cate cursed at it, Maddie clapped her hands and tried making some weird call, while I tried to talk to Alois.

"You'll be okay! Don't worry!" I said, pleading with myself more than anything. "Don't worry, you'll be fine Alois!"

Alois just stared at the wolf, not moving. If I hadn't seen him blink, I would've thought he was dead.

Finally, when the wolf got annoyed at us, we started chasing it away. Our sheer numbers must've scared it, for it ran away without a second thought.

Once I saw it leave I ran back to Alois and hugged him tight, afraid that if I let go, he'd die. "You okay? I'm sorry I took so long!"

"Don't…" He struggled to say, tears streaming down his face. "Just…help me."

I nodded and threw his jacket off. "Just relax. I'll bandage you up! Girls, help me!"

We all started removing his vest and bloody undershirt. Once they were gone, Cate turned around. She couldn't stand blood.

"Give me that." I said, taking the white bandages from Maddie and started to wrap it around his stomach. The wound smelled and was disgusting to look at.

"You happy he doesn't have a shirt on Nic?"

"Maddie, shut the *#&^ up right now. I'm not in the mood."

Sorry Mad. I'm just not happy right now. I talked to Alois the whole time, afraid he'd slip away from me. "You're going to be okay. Just keep breathing like you are now." Alois just kept his eyes on the ground, whimpering quietly.

Once he was good, Gabby grabbed his jacket and threw it over him. His vest and shirt were too ruined to put back on him at this point. I quickly buttoned his jacket and hugged him again. "You're gonna be fine…you're gonna live."

Maddie wasn't bigger than him, but she was stronger. She picked him up and we all started away back to where I had found them.

"The portal is over there. If we want to get back, we need to get to that spot and I can teleport us home!"

I was holding Alois's hand, not even daring to think about letting it go. "What time's it?

Gabby checked her phone, "10:45."

Tears stung my eyes, making my vision blurry, but I kept running.

Alois soon had enough energy to speak again. "So…are you guys' fairies?"

Caitlin looked at him as if he was crazy, "Oh *bleep* no!"

"CAITLIN!" I yelled. I wasn't in the mood for her annoyances.

"Sorry." She said, grumbling. "I didn't sleep for a week. Give me a break!"

No. I was going to die in 20 or so minutes. Be happy.

"Nichole…what we will do once we get there?" Alois asked, squeezing my hand.

"Get you to the hospital. My parents will help you." I said, squeezing back. "Just hang on. Keep focused on something and make sure you don't black out."

He nodded, and let my hand go. Alois rested his head on Maddie's shoulder, and she gave me a weird look.

"I'm a Ciel lover you know." She said, clearly not happy about him with his head on her.

Alois didn't respond, and just continued crying silently.

Before I could say something to him, I tripped on a rock and fell. Dirt got in my mouth and I scraped my hands on the frozen ground. "Keep going."

"I'll help you up," Gabby said, giving me a helping hand, "You guys have to keep going!"

Cate, Maddie and Alois kept going without question.

"Thanks." I said, spitting dirt out of my mouth and sticking my tongue out to clean it. As I did, I saw Gabby's eyes widen. Oh no. She had seen the sign.

"NO! I told you not to go this far! You didn't…" She covered her mouth and stared at me helplessly. "I told you not to…"

I wiped the blood that had started forming on my hand away on my leg that had Alois's blood on it. "Well I did. It's not like I'm hurting anyone. I didn't even have that big of a future anyway other than being a crazy cat lady."

"But with Alois you two could've….Nichole why!?" Tears began to fall from her face. She and I had this conversation before.

"Because Alois Trancy deserves this. Besides, remember the poison from the first day? Hannah didn't get it all out, and she said I would die anyway, regardless if I got back to our time." I said, standing up.

"He'll be a mess without you! Who is going to take care of him!? Not me! Or Maddie or Cate!" She said, looking me in the eye.

"He'll be fine. My parents will take him in as their own…" I paused, and looked at the ground, "But…can you at least tell him something for me…I can't tell him now." I whispered what I wanted her to tell him in her ear then started on my way back to the portal.

Gabby nodded. "Nichole, I would have told him that even if you hadn't asked me."

…

By the time Gabby and I had caught up with the others, they had already opened the weird portal thing that looked like it came out of Star Trek.

"Ready to go? It's 10:58." Maddie said, holding a barely conscious Alois.

I nodded, knowing what was about to happen. "Let's g-"

At that moment so many things happened at once. The first thing was my friend's faces of terror. Between pure shock and surprise. The second was the thing in my back. At first, it just felt like some weird thing was in my skin, but then the pain came.

It felt like a thousand needles had pierced through me, and nothing but red was in my vision. I fell to my knees, and screamed as loud as Alois had. It felt like the sun itself was burning into my back.

There, standing above me was Claude, with a golden knife in his hand. The sharp part was maroon red with my blood. He must've stabbed me.

"HEY! SHE'S MY SOUL TO COLLECT!"

Through my tears and the insane pain, I saw Grell jump up and start fighting my butler.

"You two might be connected now, BUT I've grown FOND of her, SO I GUESS I'LL HAVE TO KILL YOU TOO HANDSOME!"

As the two fought behind me, my friends and stood there in shock. Alois rolled out of Maddie's hands and started crawling to me. His face was in as much pain as mine was.

"Don't…leave me!" He said, finally reaching me. "I won't…let you…"

I couldn't reply. It hurt too much to.

My friends came to me finally, all crying badly. They were yelling and screamed at Claude, but everything for me just meshed together.

Alois put his bloody hand on my cheek and mouthed something to me. I didn't understand everything that he mouthed, but after he did, he fell onto the ground. I knew one word he had said though. He mouthed the word "love".

Searing pain was coursing through me, and I felt like fainting next to Alois. But my friends kept holding me up and shaking me. Time seemed to slow, and every moment just gave me more pain. My whole back felt wet and sticky.

"I'll be taking her." Claude said, lifting me up from my friends and Alois. I turned my head to see Grell, hanging by his hair on a tree and yelling at Claude.

Things blurred as I stared at my friends. Claude must've said something to them, and they nodded and ran off. They were all carrying Alois. Their faces were nothing but tears and sweat.

I looked back at Claude, who was smiling at me. He never smiled. "You're friends are fine now. Alois shall live. The contract is done."

He swiped his finger across my back and tasted my blood. He must've liked it, for he gave an even bigger smile.

"Now, you're payment, My Princess…" He leaned close to me, getting ready to give me my last kiss. Demons needed to kiss the person whom they made the contract with in order to steal their soul.

My second kiss was going to be with an old demon. As he got too close for me, I gave in to the pain and closed my eyes. It was over. Alois and my friends were safe. I was a hero.

A…hero….

Alois…..I…I…

I…love…

…Goodbye.

Don't worry, there is an epilogue ;)