Okay. Let's get onto it.

Luckily, once Gwen was set up, it wasn't long before her expectations were fulfilled. She heard the ladder scraping against her half-open window literally half an hour later, just fifteen minutes before the pep rally was supposed to start back at school.

She looked out the window just long enough to see Trent starting to climb up, and only stayed long enough for him to catch a glimpse of her, just so he knew she was there. Then, she flew to the closet, shut the door firmly, barricaded it as best she could, and put her plan into motion. The ghosts seemed to have disappeared for the moment, so at least she didn't have to deal with them on top of the living.

"Knock knock!" she heard Trent joke as he came in. "Sorry I had to come in through the window." It sounded as if he was either laughing or shaky. She wasn't sure which one.

"Get out!" she shouted from inside. As long as she was still alive, she was going to make sure he knew what she was thinking.

"Hiding in the closet, huh?" Trent said, that weird, shaky tremor still in his voice. "Come on out!" he coaxed. "I've given you space. That's what you wanted, right? We can still do this. I'm not mad at you anymore. You're forgiven for the way you tossed me aside. I don't want to hurt you."

"That's why you set up everything so my mom wouldn't question anything when you kill me, right?" Gwen spat out furiously. "Why don't I scream so she'll know you're here and call the cops?"

"I wasn't going to kill you!" Trent went on. "I love you too much to do that. That's why I decided to forgive you. Come on, let's go! I was just coming up here to take you to the pep rally tonight. Then I can show you my amazing plan and we can get back together and be happy."
"What?" Gwen didn't mean to say another word, but she paused. Did Trent mean it? Maybe she didn't need her plan.

Then again, maybe that would be the only way to get him to leave.

As Trent went on, Gwen realized what that shaky tone in his voice was. He seemed to have lost his mind. Since they'd last talked, the breakup seemed to have sent him over the edge. He'd seemed a little bit unbalanced when they'd dated, but now he seemed to have lost his grip on sanity completely. He spoke in a long rant, sometimes pausing for Gwen to answer, but she said nothing. He kept talking about her coming back to him, and she prepared her plan. If Trent ended up breaking down the closet door, he'd see exactly what she wanted him to see.

He was talking about the petition Courtney got everyone to sign, first. It wasn't a petition. It was a mass suicide note, something along the lines of Heather's one, about how society just made cookie cutter people, identically cut paper dolls, and they didn't want to be pawns to that. He was going to make sure the whole school followed through with that note they'd unwittingly signed.

And to do that, he was taking expertise from his deconstruction-obsessed dad. He'd already stocked the gym with thermals. Now all he was going to do was put a smaller bomb he'd built underneath the gym to trigger them. The manual Gwen had seen him reading was about how to build the bomb. When he'd set the timer and it hit zero, the whole school would blow up, with all the kids and faculty inside.

"That's why I need you to come with me," he went on. "I can just see it. Everyone would assume we died too. We could run away together, the only kids who'll survive the blast. We'd change our names, set up home together. You could still finish school and go to college if you wanted. We could go anywhere, do anything. I already set everything up with your mom. I wanted to make it as easy as possible for you. Now you can leave without regrets."

If his tone hadn't tipped her off, Gwen would have known just from this that Trent was crazy. She'd dumped him, but he clearly didn't have the ability to accept that and let her go.

"You know as well as I do that this was meant to be," Trent continued. "I understand why you tried to deny it – you're not finding life easy. You didn't want the extra stress. But that's okay – I understand that. You didn't mean me to think you didn't love me. So I thought I'd take away all that stress for you. Come on, open the door!"

When nothing happened, his tone became pleading. "Please, I don't want to argue anymore. Please, Gwen, just open up! I know it might sound a little scary to you – I've been scared too, but there's really nothing to fear. I'm not going to hurt you, and I won't let anything else hurt you, either. This whole thing will set both of us free. You can't just leave me on my own here!"

There was still no response.

Suddenly, a threatening note came into his voice. "Gwen, if you don't come out, I'm going to come in and get you myself. I don't want to make you do anything, but I will if I have to. Don't make me have to come in. You've got until the count of three."

Again, there was silence on the other side of the closet. Trent almost wondered if Gwen could even hear him. But of course she could. She was just being stubborn.

"One…" Trent began. "Two…aw, screw it!" He managed to get the door open, but then, he stopped and stared.

He saw the dressing gown cord. The loop. Gwen, looking gorgeous in a gothic dress, hanging from the cord. No signs of life at all. No wonder she hadn't responded to his threat.

"Oh my God…" Trent whispered. "Gwen…no…please don't leave me alone like this. I can't do this on my own. What's the point if I don't have you?"

He took a deep breath. "But what's the point of my life? Maybe I should just start over. Continue my crusade. Finish things. Starting with the high school." And then, he slipped out of the window.

As soon as the ladder scratched at the window again, being moved away from it, Gwen raised her head. She untied the cord, gently letting herself back to the ground. She'd untie it later...if there even was a later. She had to get to the school. She'd hoped that if Trent thought she was dead, he would leave the school alone. But that hadn't worked – so now, it was up to her to try and stop him. No one else knew. At least he wouldn't be expecting her.

Gwen left her dress on and makeup off. She wanted to go to the pep rally as the old Gwen. She didn't want to look like a member of the popular clique again, ever. Of course, she'd have to leave her hair red for the moment, but she resolved to dye it back to the way it used to be as soon as the condition was good enough to do it without any risk. Either way, it was time to go to the school, face Trent, stop him, and do it as the old her.

She'll go into school next chapter. Hope you liked this one! And I know Veronica didn't change into her old clothes before she went to school, but I wanted to hammer home that Gwen had changed so much that she barely recognized herself. Now, she wants to move away from that mean, popular girl and become herself again.