flying mole: haha this makes me very happy :]

Jaybird0508: It's okay. I forgive your laziness, only because I can deeply relate. I'm super glad you're enjoying it though, and thank you for commenting on my writing!

Samantha P: Yes, although there are some abilities that are hard to pick up on, I was hoping they wouldn't be too confusing. There's still more to come! Thanks for the review, and enjoy.

UpsideDownRainbow: Yea, I thought that repeat review was a little different, but I think you should be flattered either way. Someone thought you wrote down their feelings better than they could. And to address the rest of your review: That was beautiful. I shall leave a more detailed message for you in PM.

So guys I have a beautiful gift for you beautiful people for being so gorgeous and beautiful: Since this chapter is kinda super short I shall be posting Chapter 25. YAAAAYYY! (sidenote: I do expect more reviews to come out of this pleaaaaseeee... I feel like they've kinda slowed down.) Enjoy, you wonderful readers (and reviewers) and thanks for being so lovely!

24

Dave took this moment to look his brother in the eye.

"What is that supposed to mean?" Zach demanded to know. He was taking this news surprisingly well. "He must have said it for some reason. He must have known the demon's plans for me. Am I supposed to change teams or go Darkside? What else did he tell you?"

"Nothing, Zach," replied Dave. "I swear."

"Why the hell didn't you tell me?" He cried, obviously starting to not take the news well. "Because Dad didn't want you to? Because it was his 'dying wish'? Here's an idea, why don't you for once think for yourself? You had no right to keep this from me!"

"Hey! You think I wanted this? You think I wanted that kind of thing on my shoulders? Huh?" Dave was beginning to get a little frustrated himself. "I wished to God I could tell you, or that Dad never even opened his mouth in the first place. But he did, and for some reason I wasn't allowed to say anything about it."

"Whatever," Zach said, even though he was clearly not getting over this any time soon. "I just want to get down to what the hell this all means. We've gotta figure this out."

"I don't know, Zach." Dave started. "I've been thinking, and it's probably safer if we lay low for a while. We can take things slow and make sure—"

"That I'm not a killer?"

"I never said that."

"You're probably thinking it." Zach guessed. "Who knows? If you're not careful one of these days you will have to kill me."

"Dammit Zach!" Dave yelled. "No one is killing anyone, okay? Things are just getting out of control! For one, you're immune to this weirdo demon virus, and Cru here is saying that for some reason yellow-eyes wants you to be 'apart' of him, so please, for God's sake, just give me some time to figure this out."

Zach only stood there, quietly fuming.

"Please, I'm begging you here."

"Fine." Zach succumbed. Still furious, he stormed back inside, without another word.

As we all eventually gathered inside, Bobby advised us to get an early night.

"You've been drivin' 'round for hours." He told us. "Y'all should get some rest before you start divin' into this mess."

"Gladly," Dave said slumping his way up the stairs.

I waited for him to disappear before turning to Bobby.

"Something's wrong." I told him. "I know there is."

He shook his head and rested his hand on my shoulder. He looked tired, and all of a sudden I felt bad for making myself turn to him whenever I sensed something wasn't going to go smoothly.

"Somethin's always wrong sweetheart." He said to me. "Life's about learnin' to accept that you can't always do somethin' about it."

"But I can do something about it." I tried. "Why would I be here otherwise?"

"I don't know why you're here," Bobby said. "All I know is that even girls from alternate universes need sleep too."

"I've been sleeping I just—"

"You just need to slow down and take a break, Ella."

"But—"

"Now go get some rest."

"Bobby—"

"I thought I said you ought to go get some rest."

"I know but—"

"Don't make me sedate you!" Bobby's face grew a little more serious, so I reluctantly dragged myself to the bedroom that had all my stuff, and changed into my bedclothes.

But I couldn't even go to sleep.

For one, I was so angry at Bobby for making me go to bed, that it kept me up. On top of that, I kept thinking about how I knew for a fact something was just not right, even though it seemed as though everyone had come to some sort of agreeable resolution. Every single nerve in my body was telling me to remember what it was that wasn't right.

I guess I did end up getting sleepy, because the next thing I knew, I was dreaming of explosions. Well, at first it was just one explosion, and I caught a glimpse of this burned boot. I'd noticed my feather was lighting up again and decided that maybe this wasn't a dream after all.

I somehow woke myself up (or brought myself back to Bobby's) and it took a while for my eyes to adjust from that extreme burst of light to the thick darkness of the room. It almost stung my eyes so I quickly closed them again, letting myself drift off, and this time, finding myself in an actual dream.

The dream seemed surprisingly familiar, but I couldn't be certain. All I could hear were faint, distanced screams, and all of a sudden I was beginning to get really scared. I didn't know what I was so afraid of, but I felt this ugly feeling buildup in my stomach and all of a sudden the loud, bright, bursts of fire began to enclose around me. Why wasn't I leaving? Why didn't I do everything I could to get the hell out of there? I was just sitting down waiting until the fire got me.

I woke up gasping, struggling to breathe for a moment. I got out of bed, that unusual fear still lingering inside my stomach, and immediately knew, that I didn't want to be alone.

I was shivering because of how cold I felt, but at the same time the back of my neck was moist from sweat. By now I was actually tired but there was almost no way I could get back to sleep. Not by myself at least.

Maybe that was what Dave was talking about when he'd mentioned how it was the worst feeling in the world when I'd left. It was scary not having someone to hold after waking up and feeling as awful as I did. Unfortunately, it was something I was familiar with because of the four years of attempts to get back to this universe only to be disappointed.

Now that I was back, I could easily find that comfort in someone who was very willing to give it to me. The only difference was, it seemed that he now had something else in mind.

The loneliness was just not worth questioning it.

I quietly shut my door behind me, and tip toed down to the other end of the hall, before entering the room. Again, I had to be careful of how loud I was, so I quietly opened the door and crept in hoping to go unnoticed, but failed in my attempts.

Dave immediately sat up, and turned to face me.

"Cru?" He asked, as I stood there unmoving, "Is something wrong?"

For some reason this encouraged me to take a few steps closer to get to the bed, but I began growing a little hesitant. I was still slightly angry at him even though I said I'd gotten over the whole "she-might-be-a-demon-zombie" thing, and the fact that he'd kissed me earlier added to my wariness.

"What?" He asked still slightly confused.

I shook my head without saying a word.

"Okay, you need to say something 'cause you're kind of freakin' me out."

"Sorry." I finally mumbled.

"I'm glad you can still talk." He joked. "You should to get back to sleep. I'll see you in the morning, Cru."

I nodded and he turned and faced the other way. I didn't really think it through, but I just climbed in next to him. Startled, Dave turned back to me and simply looked at me as I pulled the blanket over myself.

"I'm not usually good at picking up on these things," He said. "But is something wrong?"

I didn't say anything. I desperately wanted to avoid talking about why I'd come. Dave was persistent.

"Talk to me, Cru." He urged. "If something's throwing you off your game you gotta let me know."

Remaining silent, I began thinking over what he said. This whole situation was throwing me off my game. I had been off my game since the incident in River Grove, and was having trouble finding the proper footing again. Now with these dreams, I felt like everything was falling apart.

"You chose a funny time to stop being talkative." Dave said pulling me back into the conversation. He sighed before continuing. "Are you still upset about what happened at the clinic?" He asked.

"Dave," I started. "I meant what I said earlier. You and Zach were only trying to be safe, and that's fair, I just—"

"No," Dave said looking at me in the eyes. "I'm not talking about that."

"Then?"

"You know, when I…kissed you."

"I'd rather not talk about that portion of the hunt." I told him.

"Well you're upset about something."

I shifted uneasily and thought for a minute before speaking.

"I'm kind of…scared." I said quietly.

"I'm sorry, you're what now?"

"Look, I'm not going to pretend that none of this is freaking me out. I know for the most part I'm keeping quiet, but there's so much happening all at once and I'm scared." I confessed.

"This is kind of funny." Dave said with a slight chuckle.

I scowled, somewhat offended.

"Explain to me why you're so amused by my fear." I requested.

"Admit it," he pushed, "You're not scared of the demons, or the ghosts, or the monsters. You're scared that you won't be able to fix everything now that things are getting a little serious for Round Two of your fight in this universe."

"Well yeah, considering I was hardly able to fix anything during Round One!" I argued. "Anything that I did try just fell apart. Now things are more intense, and dangerous, it's hard to get a hang of anything."

"You're strong," Dave told me. "You'll figure it out."

"I'm not so sure this time." I replied. "I think something bad is going to happen, Dave."

"Something bad is always going to happen," He responded. "It comes with the life."

"No," I insisted. "Something really, really bad."

Dave looked at me with a scowl.

"Like how bad?" He wondered.

"Like John dying bad." I told him gravely. "Only this time it's worse."

Dave's lips quivered before he could say anything.

"How can it be any worse?" He pondered.

"Because I don't remember what it is that's going to happen." I took a deep breath thinking about how scared I was. "I'm getting transported into someone's dreams." I said.

"Like how you did with mine?" Dave asked.

I nodded.

"I don't know whose dreams they are, but they're a lot like the dreams Zach has." I explained.

"How do you know they aren't Zach's?"

"I just do." I said shrugging.

"I hate to be the one to say it, but just knowing isn't very assuring." Dave argued.

Again, with his lack of faith. By now I was starting to believe that I must've been screwing up more than I thought for him to continuously ignore my instinct.

"Can't you just trust me?" I said with a sigh.

There was a silence from him that indicated he picked up on my frustration.

"Sorry," He muttered. "Do you think you can get some sleep?"

I nodded.

"We'll talk about it in the morning," He told me. "And when we're all up we can ask Zach. I'm sure he'll tell us that it wasn't his dream, but it doesn't hurt to ask."

"Okay," I said resting my eyes, silently thanking Dave for at least attempting to calm me down.

He was right. My worries, and 'premonitions' could've easily been erased just by waiting for someone to clarify everything for me.

There was also the possibility that it was just my dream despite how real it may have felt. All there was to suggest that it was someone else's dream was the burnt boot, and the fact that it seemed familiar. But my other dream felt familiar too, so even that wasn't very plausible.

All I had to do was rest, and wait for Zach to give us an answer that would make my anxieties disappear. Maybe I was overreacting, after all.

Only the next morning, Zach was nowhere to be found.