We ended up reading a lot more of it than I had wanted, but that was alright because these were my friends-they'd never judge me. Even the commentary Rose constantly made was just teasing, and she made sure I knew that.

Most entries made them laugh and me blush, but hey. It's my diary. What do you expect?

Adrian was still laughing when he flipped the page for the next entry when he read what was on the page and stopped abruptly, paling.

"Adrian..?" I asked, leaning over to read what he'd read. When I did, I immediately understood and paled as well.

"Well?" Rose asked, "What is it?"

Jill suddenly cried out and clutched her head, "Ow!"

"What is it?" Eddie asked, immediately looking at her.

"Adrian, stop!"

"Stop what?" Asked Rose, clearly upset that she was being left out.

"Adrian!" Jill shouted, tears forming in her eyes. Adrian's eyes were haunted, and I knew exactly what he was thinking.

Not knowing what else to do, I pressed my lips against his. He blinked and came back to the present. He looked at me and then hugged me tight. Just the memory made me shiver and I returned the embrace just as tight, hating remembering.

"Will someone please tell me what is happening?" Rose asked.

Adrian slowly pulled away, but held onto my hand tightly, "It's the entry."

"Read it!" Rose demanded.

Adrian shook his head, "No."

"Come on," Whined Rose.

"Fine, but I'm not listening," He said, getting up.

"No, stay," I said, keeping a tight hold on his hand, "Please, I'll need you."

His expression softened, "Okay. But please…you read it. I…I don't think I'll be able to."

Rose started looking unsure, "You know…if it's that bad…you don't need to."

"No, I want you guys to hear this," I said, "I need someone to know."

Adrian squeezed my hand in reassurance and I began to read.

"Reeducation…" Everyone in the room stiffened, suddenly understanding, "I can't believe they sent me to reeducation…reeducation…just because I love Adrian," My voice broke with tears.

"Sydney, don't do this," Dimitri said, "It's obviously too much."

I shook my head, "I have to. I want you guys to know…the truth."

"The truth?" Eddie asked, holding Jill's hand-who looked very pained.

I nodded and continued, "I always knew reeducation was bad…but I never knew it was that bad. Nothing will ever be able to erase those horrid things from my mind. They are forever engrained in my memory, my body. They've scarred me.

"First they locked my in an empty room with nothing. Nothing at all. Not. Even. Clothes. They took my clothes from me! They even took the light from me. I was blind, naked and alone in the dark, dark room. The only thing that kept me going was the thought of Adrian. He'd save me. He was out there looking for me right then. I just knew it," I looked at Adrian, but he looked away, the deepest pain I've ever seen in his eyes, "They tried everything to get me to tell them what they wanted me to: Starvation, coffee, seeing my family, even the necklace Adrian gave me," Automatically, my hand went to the necklace around my neck.

Taking a deep, shaky breath, I continued, "That's the thing that almost got me to say it-his necklace. It'd be something that reminded me of it. Although, I was kind of astonished that they expected me to want to see my family. As if. They're the ones who threw me in there!" My voice caught, remembering how Zoe had looked at me and the sting of my dad's hand on my cheek. Adrian gave my hand a squeeze, and that gave me strength, "Anyways, the loneliness finally got to me, and I thought I'd go crazy. Finally, I said the words they wanted me to. If I'd known that'd just get me thrown into something worse, I'd never had said those words.

"I got to the 'education' part. It was almost like a real school-one where everyone hated me. They despised me and looked at me as if I was trash…which I was, by their standards. Trash, that threw away my life for some stupid evil creature of the night. If only they knew the way he looked at me, touched me, loved me…then they wouldn't think he was so evil…

"That's when it started getting really bad. They strapped me into a chair and forced my eyes open to watch a series of vampire pictures. They forced me to call those innocent people vampires. It was bad enough that I had to lie and actually call those people I've never met monsters. Then, they showed a picture of Jill and Adrian, who looked happy as ever, and asked me what they were…"

Tears ran down my cheeks as I remembered the moment, "I stayed silent. I couldn't call them monsters. They weren't monsters. But then they tortured me. They tortured me until I couldn't stand it anymore. So I did it. I called them monsters. I called two of my closest friends monsters."

My voice broke into sobs, and I had to take a moment to recollect myself. Adrian wrapped an arm around me.

"Sydney…" Rose said.

I shook my head to silence her, and continued, "That wasn't even the worst thing that happened to me there. A lot of things happened, but I don't want to go into all that. The absolute worst thing was when they found out what I was…when they found out I was a witch. They strapped me onto a table and tortured me. They electrocuted me, burned me, starved me…they acted like I was the monster.

"I can't say how much it hurt or how many scars I have left. They hurt me like no one has ever hurt me before, tortured me until I burned with only hatred, and made the light in my eyes vanish. By then, my hope that Adrian would come vanished, and I was only a shell in my body. My heart was a whole, and my brain couldn't function. I was nothing.

"Then, Adrian came. I couldn't believe it at first. He…he was actually there-"

"I'm sorry Sydney!" Adrian shouted, cutting me off, "I'm so, so sorry! They did all of those mean things to you, and I just let them! I should've found you sooner! I should've looked harder!" He buried his face in his hands, "I'm so…so sorry," He whispered.

Suddenly, there was a whimpering, and I turned to see Jill crying softly, Eddie's arm around her, and I hear her murmuring, "I'm sorry…I'm sorry…I'm sorry…"

"Jill, it wasn't your fault," Eddie whispered.

"It's not her who's apologizing, Eddie, it's Adrian," Dimitri said, and Eddie's face lit up with understanding and he nodded.

"Adrian, it wasn't your fault either," I said, but he shook his head.

"It is! I could've gotten you out of there sooner."

"What matters is that you got me out of there at all," I took his face in my hands and forced him to look at me, "Adrian, I love you. You got me out of there when I thought I was long gone. I thought you'd have given up by then."

"Sydney, I'd never-"

"I know," I said, picking up the diary, "And that's why I wrote this. But even after all reeducation put me through, I still won't give anything for my friendship with Rose, Jill, Eddie-any of them. And I still love Adrian."

"Sydney…" Adrian said, then he kissed me. With that kiss, I wiped away the torture from reeducation, because it was worth it. As long as I had Adrian, anything was worth it.

When we pulled away, I turned just in time to see Jill kiss Eddie. My jaw dropped. She pulled away quickly, her cheeks going red, "Oh, sorry…Adrian just was so…in love and it made me-"

She got cut off by his lips on hers. When he pulled away, he said, "Jill. I love you."

She threw her arms around him, "I love you too, Eddie!"

They kissed again, but this time pulled apart because someone cleared their throat. I rolled my eyes. Rose. Both of their cheeks turned bright red.

"About time you two admitted it," Adrian said.

"I'm sorry, Sydney," Rose said suddenly. With a start, I realized that tears were making their way down her cheeks, "I never realized reeducation was so bad. If I'd known, I'd…" Her voice broke, "I can't believe I just let you live like that for so long…" She broke into sobs, and Dimitri wrapped an arm around her comfortingly.

We fell into a silence that I broke by tearing the entry about reeducation out. I tore it up into a lot of pieces until they were as small as confetti and put them in the fire place.

"You guys want to see something cool?" I asked, meeting their questioning looks. They all nodded uncertainly and I made a fire ball. Taking a deep breath, I threw it in the fire place, and just like that, reeducation was a thing of the past.