I spend the next couple of days doing my best to avoid Alessa, and I wonder now if that's where I somehow made a mistake.

Most of the time, it was easy for me to do, since her job on the city patrol kept her busy every other night or so, and she spent most of the daytime hours asleep.

On the fifth day, though, my luck runs out. I'm alone, something I have been trying to keep from being, when Alessa corners me.

"Who did you tell?" she snarls, leaning down so she can match my height and get in my face, "Who did you tell about our conversation, Shorty?"

Talking gets you in trouble.

I stare at her, shaking my head silently as I decide never to say a word to her.

Don't talk to strangers.

Never tell secrets to people you don't trust, who might end up being bad and hurting you for what you know.

"Give me a name." Alessa hisses, gripping each of my shoulders, "Give me the name, and I might let one of you off without a consequence."

She glares at me, her gaze seeming a bit unfocused as she tries to zero it in on my face.

She really does look crazy right now, and even if I wanted to speak I'm too scared to try.

"Fine," Alessa says, "I can make a guess. Shemik."

She spits the name like it's the worst word she could possibly say.

How does she know?

How did she figure out that I told anyone, let alone who I told?

Alessa is smiling now, and it doesn't look right on her face.

"She is the oldest. It is natural for you to go to her with all your insignificant little problems, isn't it? Don't worry, I won't hurt her. Oh no, I won't do anything to harm your precious mind-reading friend. Tonight, you sit next to me at dinner, or I may change my mind."

Why? What is she going to do to me? Why does she want me to do something that seems so random? She can't do anything in front of the others, can she?

The questions are probably making their way onto my face, and Alessa narrows her eyes at me.

"Don't look so afraid. You'll see soon enough."

She lets go of me, turning away like the conversation never happened. She half limps, half shuffles down the hallway, her bedroom door slamming behind her as she steps inside.

~*~

I follow Alessa's instructions for dinner, making sure to sit next to her as we all gather in the dining room. The curtains are pulled back, the light from the sunset giving the room an almost-eerie look. As I take my seat, Alessa reaches past me, her movement going unnoticed by everyone else at the table. Lili, Theo, and Jason are too wrapped up in a conversation to pay her any attention, and Dimitri is talking to Emilio and Shemik about something.

Alessa holds a small spoon in her hand, and as I watch, she empties it into my glass.

When Mrs. DiLorenzo gives her a weird look, Alessa just smiles.

"Itis nothing, Francesca. Not enough sugar."

Mrs. DiLorenzo just nods, looking like she might be scared to ask any more questions about what the girl is doing.

Alessa leans in close to me as everyone focuses on the meal, her breath tickling my ear in a way that makes me want to move as far away as I can get.

"Wait until Shemik and Emilio leave the table." Her voice is so demanding, so cold, that for a moment I forget to breathe, "If either of them ask you, you wanted to talk to me without them in earshot. Stick to that story as though your life depends on it, and follow the directions. When the two of them are gone, take a drink from the glass. Do not do it before. This will only be as difficult as you make it. Do you understand me?"

My head moves up and down as if acting without my permission.

I'm shaking.

I'm scared.

What is she going to do to me?

I take a deep breath.

Act normal, Rose, act normal or she might decide to punish Shemik too.

Act normal, nothing is wrong.

I force my hands to stop shaking, concentrate on the food in front of me and the conversation between Jason, Lili, and Theo.

"How can you two be so ridiculous?" Lili is saying, "There are so many awesome books in this study, and you two won't even open one for yourselves. Do you know how fun it is to just sit there for hours, to devour every word and actually be able to see yourself in the story? It's amazing, and you just don't see it!"

"I like hearing stories, Lil, but you know I hate reading." Jason argues, "The imagination thing is cool, but looking at all those pages of letters and words just gives me a headache."

"Me too." Theo adds, "I've told you, Lili. I'm allergic to books."

Lili rolls her eyes, looking really annoyed.

"You two are hopeless." she sighs, focusing her attention back on her food.

Mr. And Mrs. DiLorenzo are the first to leave the table what feels like ages later, with Emilio's father complaining loudly that it will take the servants forever to clear the dishes away.

I can't help noticing that there aren't any here tonight, and I find it a little strange. Emilio's parents always have servants at their meals, that way they have someone to get whatever they need when they want it.

Did Alessa tell them to stay away tonight?

Lili and Jason leave a few minutes after Emilio's parents, and I'm starting to feel overly frightened again.

What's going to happen? Will this be painful?

Theo keeps looking at me, at my nearly empty plate and the untouched glass still sitting in front of me. I give him a look of my own, one that hopefully tells him that he has nothing to worry about. He's frowning, but he stops staring and instead starts listening in on Shemik and Emilio's latest conversation. There was something about a peace treaty in the paper again today, Emilio is saying, and he wants her opinion on it. When she asks him, Emilio's gaze falls on Theo and me, the look on his face saying he's not going to discuss it with the younger kids around.

He's probably afraid it would scare us, or make us hope for something that will never happen.

Dimitri is sitting silently next to them, listening in as he finishes the meal.

Emilio stands up, and I catch the words "study" and "be a while" before both he and Shemik move to leave.

As soon as the door closes behind them, Alessa is in my ear.

"Don't worry about Theodore and Dimitri." she hisses, "Do it. Now. They can't help you anyway."

Can't help me?

My hand is shaking again as it moves forward, my fingers wrapping around my glass.

Just do it. Do it, and she won't hurt any of your friends.

Do it, Rose.

Be brave.

The first thing I notice is how sweet the drink is, and at first I want to laugh at Alessa's excuse from earlier.

'Not enough sugar'?

More like way too much sugar.

All of a sudden, the taste is overpowered by something else, something I've never tasted before.

It reminds me of what I would imagine metal to taste like, and I look to Alessa curiously.

Is this what she did?

Theo and Dimitri are talking quietly, and I catch Emilio's name a couple times as they speak. It is while I'm watching them that I first feel the pain.

At first, it's barely there. It's so slight that the ache in my muscles is something I could be imagining. Maybe I'm so afraid that I imagined the flavoring, too?

But that stupid taste isn't going away, and now all I can taste is this metallic flavor.

Foolishly, I reach for my glass again, every bone in my body suddenly feeling like it's on fire.

Oh no.

No no no no no.

I stand up, stumbling as I move for the door.

I don't care. I really don't any more. I'm scared, and I'm no longer worried about what Alessa decides to do to them.

I want Shemik or Emilio.

They always know what to do. They'll know what's wrong with me.

I'm halfway across the room when I suddenly fall, and now I realize that I can't get up again.

Theo is shouting, Dimitri is shouting, and Alessa is laughing like she's more of an Inhumane than a human being.

My left hand starts to twitch. At first the movement only seems to happen in the one hand, then it's everywhere.

My arms, my legs, I'm twitching uncontrollably and there's nothing I can do.

"...Did you ... Poison ... Rosalie ... I swear on my life ... I will kill you ... fiend ... monster ... Knew I could not trust you!" Dimitri is ranting.

I can see him and Theo, both running toward me.

As my twitching stops, I'm forced to deal with the pain again.

I want nothing more than to scream, but I can't. My blood feels like it's boiling, my bones must be melting as painful as they are, and everything feels too heavy to move.

Theo is standing over me.

He looks down at me for a few seconds before practically falling next to me.

"Rose?" He sounds like he's crying. I've never seen Theo cry.

I try to turn my head, to let him know I can hear him, but the movement is too difficult, the pain making my vision go blurry at the edges.

"Rose? Rosalie! Can you hear me?" Theo shrieks, one hand moving to my shoulder as he attempts to move me.

"Yes."

"Rose?"

It takes me a few seconds to realize that even though I thought I had answered, the word never came out.

I'm being lifted now. I'm in Theo's arms, I think, and someone is cursing behind me.

I can hear glass breaking, a girl screaming.

Alessa.

More cursing.

Dimitri.

"... taking her ... find Shemik ... getting out of here tonight."

That's Theo's voice.

I hear Dimitri answer, but I can't tell what he said.

I'm twitching again, and it hurts more than anything I've felt before.

How can this hurt more than losing one and a half fingers?

There are tears on my cheeks.

I hear a door slam, and Theo is running now.

Everything around me is pain, pain, and more pain.

One turn, two, three, and then Theo stops.

"Oh bloody hell!" he shouts, "Get out of my way, Lili!"

"What's going on?" I hear Lili's voice, but I can't turn my head to see her.

Jason must be here too, because I hear him speaking a minute later.

"Oh no!" he sounds like he's really scared, like someone who might pass out from fear, "The vision, crap, the vision!"

"What?" Lili shouts, "You had a vision and you didn't tell me? What's wrong with you? What's wrong with her? Why didn't you tell someone if-"

"I did!" Jason screams at her, "Shemik ... and Emilio. They know about-"

"You should have-"

"Both of you, shut up!" Theo orders, sounding more afraid than I've ever heard him, "Lili, it doesn't matter what he saw. Jason, go with her, get our stuff. We're leaving. I'm going to find Shemik and Emilio."

I hear the Messers' feet thudding loudly against the carpet as they run, then Theo is off again.

Moving doesn't hurt anymore.

Everything just feels heavy. My arms, my legs, my head, it all seems to weigh a thousand times more than it should. I can feel saliva trickling from the corner of my mouth, and it's getting sort of hard to swallow.

Theo opens a door.

More voices.

Emilio? Yes, I think I hear him shouting, calling Alessa a bunch of really rude names.

Someone else is shouting.

Now they're leaning down, over me.

Blue eyes.

Polish accent.

Shemik.

She takes me from Theo, and I stare up at her drowsily.

"Sh- ... Sh-"

I fight to form the word, to say Shemik's name, but my tongue is too heavy, too big for my mouth.

"Don't." Shemik's voice sounds really far away.

I'm scared. I tried, I really did, to be brave. I just couldn't do it. Sometimes it's impossible to keep yourself from being afraid.

Sometimes, when you know you're going to die, all you feel is fear.

Hallways are blending into one another as I'm carried through the first floor of the DiLorenzo mansion. Eventually we stop for a moment. Someone is putting my boots on, but I can't feel it. Someone else is zipping up my jacket, pulling the zipper all the way up to my chin the way I used to hate it.

Everything and everyone around me is a blur, my head feeling foggy as I fight the sleep, fight the dark spots in the corners of my vision.

It's not working.

Nothing is working.

I'm imagining things, seeing double and smelling smoke that I know can't be here. There's no fire, so why would there be smoke? Come on, Rose, you have to stay awake.

My eyes close, and I can't seem to get them open again.

The last thing I remember is Shemik shouting at Emilio, telling him he's the fastest runner and he needs to take me downtown to look for an apothecary right now.

Some time between when she says it and when Emilio takes me, sleep carries me away into nothingness.