*Note* This is a special chapter because it goes into Jared's POV to clear up what's going on. After this chapter it will go back to Katelyn.

Chapter 15: This is it

Jared Morgan

His sharp shovel dug at the dirt around the Lakehouse. Jared had intended to bury his blood stained T-shirt from the night that Wynn's father was killed and his own mother had died. It all happened in a smoky flare of blood and human carnage. Jared remembered it like it was yesterday.

At that point, his father was trying to gauge which son would be better to run the company.

With Jared being older, he was the first to be tested out for the Morgan corporation.

His first mission was with his mother.

His mother had brought him along to the Lakehouse along with him.

Along with him, his father suggested to bring the girl he was supposed to marry, to impress her of his skills. Jared's father wanted him to marry into money, and that's where the Wynn's came from. They were rich for a vast majority of their lives until Wynn's father was killed accidentally.

Their mission was to collect the money from the Bishops…but something happened along the way.

He fell for their niece. Her dark hair swayed at her shoulders while they laid on the dock. Her blue eyes swam into Jared's steel gaze.

Jared’s identical twin brother Jay was the guise he wore to kiss her.

He was immediately taken with her so he pretended to be his brother, Jay, for that night.

He couldn't have been more wrong to do so.

Gunshots broke out in the house as they kissed under the midnight fireworks. Kate tried to tell him that the sounds that he was hearing were just fireworks. For a while he believed this. He wanted to believe this. But when a blood curdling shriek infiltrated his ears, he had to depart from her lips and this is when it all went awry.

Hand in hand he had walked her to that cabin that laid close to the dock. Moss had grown up alongside the sides and wood boarded the whole cabin in solitude. Fear insolated them in fearful silence as they cautiously walked back to the cabin.

From the screen door Jared could see it all occurring.

Kate's aunt yelled out, “Grant, what have you done with all our money?”.

Grant, Kate's uncle, cried out, “Please, Erin, I didn't mean it. I just had some bad luck when I went to Vegas. I tell you, the dice was rigged. I can win it all back, I swear. All that and more, just give me time.” His voice pleaded a with her.

Erin’s tone was hard and harsh, “No Grant. That last shot was a warning. This one will not be. This is the last time you screw me over!"

A bullet sounded and Jared's hands flew to open the screen door.

Erin then pointed the gun to Jared's mother saying, “I know how I'll clear this debt. I'll clear you and your friends from this earth.”

Erin cocked the gun again while fear shook through them all.

As Jared planned what to do next, he felt Kate slip from his hands. He looked over. She was gone.

A tear crawled down his eyes as Erin looked at Jay and his mother, devilishly.

Erin's face crawled up into a murderous smirk as she looked down at Jay and whispered, “You're the first, prodigal son."

Fear had made him stuck him in place, but once Erin had moved to Jay, Jared flung himself into her.

Tussling for the weapon, Erin kicked and screamed as Jared tried to get a hold of the weapon.

Jared's mother held Jay close in fear her son would be hurt.

As they struggled, the gun went off and another body fell limp to the floor. Even on the ground struggling, he caught a glance of his mother lying lifeless with blood pooling at her side. Jay's body fell beside her and blood pulled at his side in a crimson tide of pain and betrayal.

Finally, Jared got a hold of the weapon.

He looked at it with immense fear, but Erin felt confident that he couldn't do anything with it.

Jared pointed the weapon shakily at her while she laughed, “You're not going to shoot me. You're a kid. You're even holding it wrong. You've got to be kidding me—”

As she said this, Jared pulled the trigger. A shrill silence fell over the cabin. This silence was followed by Wynn's father coming back into the house after taking a leak in the woods.

Wynn's father exclaimed, “What was that sound—”

Jared's shaky fingers numbed and pressed against the trigger twice. Wynn's father went down with a thud. Wynn began to cry out. Jared's steel eyes were caught on the gun in his hand. He threw it to the ground. Looking at the shocked look on Wynn and Wynn's mother’s face, he began to run. He ran, and he kept running. Through the brush and through the branches into a secluded opening in the woods.

He had gotten as far as his legs would possibly carry him and then he had discarded his bloody shirt in the woods.

Now limply walking, he discarded the rest of his clothes and called his father from a payphone just outside of town.

When his father rolled up to see his bloody boy, his eyes were stiff and serious.

“Never speak of this again," he issued sternly.

And they never did speak of it. The Morgan's lawyers said that Erin had killed them all…but there was only three people who ever knew what really happened. Wynn, Wynn's mother, and Kate were still alive... and Wynn did not want to let go of him.

Another tear claimed his eyes as he began finishing burying his bloody Superman T-shirt and his blue striped pants.

He had found the clothes that he spread out and then he planned to bury them where no one would find them.

Jared was burying his past to save his future.

Back in these wood after more than ten years was still a creepy feeling though.

The hairs on the back of his neck stood up. 

He felt someone watching him.

Scanning the area, his pulse slammed in his chest with every scrape of the shovel.

Crickets chirped in the distance and the sound of a ring from his pocket, startled him.

He answered it with haste. Then her voice flitted over the other side. Sweet Kate.

In the beginning he had vowed to ignore that he lived in the same city as her, but after a while, it got to be more than he could take.

He had to see her again. He had to kiss her again.

As they continued to converse, a smell of smoke flamed close to him.

Wonder and curiosity filled him as he continued to scrape his shovel again against the hard dirt.

As Jared finally covered over his bloody shirt, footsteps crunched and churned over the Autumn leaves.

With one look behind him, a sharp object gashed at his his head.

He only saw a glimpse of who did it, of course.

But even at glimpse, he recognized himself.

It was Jay, his identical twin. Jay's lips were tinged in devilish smirk as he incapacitated Jared.

Jared was immediately knocked out cold in the pain of the object that had gashed at his forehead.

Blood trickled down from his head and Jay's chuckle filled his ears.

Time spun a terrible melody as the pain enveloped him. Darkness surrounded him and the smell of smoke billowed through.

Jared coughed himself awake and his eyes flamed when he saw he where he was.

He was in the cabin.

Orange flames bit and chewed around him. As he coughed, he realized he was tied in rope to a chair.

As he struggled, a figure chuckled in the shadows.

Jared tried to focus his eyes, and when he finally did, it was apparent.

Jay was alive and a murderous smirk besotted his lips.

Jared coughed and sputtered while Jay continued to laugh and laugh like it was the funniest thing he'd ever seen.

Anger grew in Jared's eager limbs as he tried to escape out of Jay's ropes.

Jay laughed and said, “I'm taking over for you, brother, and I'm doing something you never got to do. Do you remember when you left me bleeding out on the floor, Jared? Well…” he drew it out, “apparently…the bullet hit my skull and messed up something in my brain. I wasn't quite disfigured, but something inside me just wasn't right. The doctors all tried to fix me, but they couldn't. And you want to know what happened next, brother?”

Jared gulped.

Did he want to know?

Looking back at Jay, it was such an amazing but strange experience. His heart vibrated at lightning speed inside of him. Jay just had this strange smirk stuck to his face. Jared became silent at his question in utter guilt. He should have stayed and made sure Jay was okay, but he seemed so liefeless there on the floor that day. Naturally he assumed that he was dead. Now, Jared was afraid...he was afraid because he was looking back at a dead man. Jay's appearance made Jared shake in his own Armani boots.

It wasn't what he thought he'd feel if he saw his brother again.

Jared expected to feel so overwhelmed with happiness…but this…this was pure terror.

Jay took out a can of gasoline and began dousing the house as the silence filled him.

He chuckled at Jared as he struggled.

Jared's brows creased as he answered the question he asked Jared, filling the silence completely with his maniacal voice, “I went to the asylum. Your father hid me away. He said I was the ‘freak' and I was 'uncontrollable'. He wanted me to disappear from the public view. I'd say he did a pretty good job so far. Once I heard about your wedding, it made me want to escape. Can't have you having all the fun, brother. But when I did...I saw you trying to hide your past. Did you really think you would get away with this?”

Jay cackled in the wind as he took the gas can and began to toss it out all over the floor.

Jared winced at the thought of being burned alive as he struggled against the rope.

Jay smirked once again at Jared once he was done with throwing all the gasoline around Jared.

Jay looked at Jared with a tilted eyebrow and said, “Now I've burned all the rooms except for this one. And you remember this room well, I know you do. It's the room where you accidentally killed your mother and that poor old man. Now I'm going to take something of yours by pretending to be you, just like you did to Kate that night. I know all about your escapade because me and Wynn watched it unfold before we heard shouting inside. The only difference was, we actually came in when we heard the noise.” Jay’s eyes glared at Jared at the mention of this.

Jay continued with a clearing of his throat, “What was that saying I heard in all those fairytales? 'Run, run, run as fast as you can. You can't catch me, you'll be dead by then.' Or...maybe it was something else...oh well...I guess you'll never know."

Jay cackled again and fear filled Jared's spine as he looked around.

Dark stains still remained on the floor from that night.

Another tear fell unprecedented down his cheek.

Jay began whistling as he turned on the oven in the cabin and threw three matches all around the dark cabin.

Jared coughed and sputtered at the inhale of more and more smoke.

When the room's walls had completely enveloped in fire, Jay left.

But as he left he muttered, “I hope Annie is right about this," as he slammed the door shut.

Who is Annie?

He asked himself so many questions, but he knew that this was always his fault.

He should have never fought for that gun. He should have been there earlier.

He should have never pretended to be Jay to kiss Kate.

And of all the “shoulds” he had, only one stuck out to him.

He should have never come to Lakehouse that night.

Flames crawled beside him in a swimming swell of heat.

Sweat perspired on his head as his lungs filled with smoke and regret.

He kept fighting in his head. This was not his time to “clock out" of life. He had to get to Kate. He had to warn her.

But he couldn't.

This idea strangled him in a cold resilience as smoke and flames muttered  the word "death" beside him.

Jared tried to force himself out his constraints.

If there were ever dire straits to be had, these were them.

He wanted to be with Kate so bad that it hurt. He wanted her safe. Oh, how pleaded for her saftey with all of his life.

Jared always knew that come Hell or high water he would be with Kate.

But when Kate only expressed her feelings for the “confident” and “cute” Jay, he had to restart his plans.

So yes, he pretended to be Jay to kiss her, but she always knew it was him all along, didn't she?

Jared's head tilted when he knew the reality of this. She never did know it was him.

Struggling against that rope over and over again, one thought prodded him to push further.

If this was the “Hell" part in Hell or high water, he would gladly go through it again to see her.

With that final thought churning inside of him, he broke  free from the rope and began to rushing to the door.

He sputtered and cough as the flames inched themselves up in waves of orange and yellow and they flamed at the shores of his feet.

When he finally got to the charred door of the cabin, Jared thought he was home free.

That was until…he found the door to be locked and the knob from his side was gone.

Jared banged on the door and looked out the window pane where he saw a single shadow flit by.

“Jay!” he yelled out.

When he saw a closer glimpse of the figure through the window, he saw the woman had white hair.

Her electric blue eyes sparkled at Jared's as he begged her with a glance, to open the door for him.

Jared had never pleaded harder for anything in his life.

Then, just as swift as the woman had appeared, the woman left just as quick.

The last thing he saw of that woman was the back of her hair the blue streak that ran through her hair like a lightning bolt.

Wonder filled him as smoke and defeat won his brawl for oxygen.

Jared slumped down at the door and coughed and sputtered waiting for death to come to him.

As he waited, he whispered one phrase in his head.

This is it.

Thank you for reading! So...Jay is pretending to be Jared to get to Katelyn, what will happen? Will Katelyn realize this before Jay hurts her? And how are Annie and Dr.phoenix involved in this? Also, does Jay have feelings for Wynn? Will Jared be able to escape before he dies? Oof...yes I know a lot of questions...but at least this chapter answers what happened that "one night" question.

Thank you for hanging in there, I know the last chapter didn't quite make sense, but I hope it makes a little more sense now. Basically, Jay pulled a switcheroo on Jared and locked him in a burning building. Still...we have no idea where Flint is and what Jay has to to do with Annie and Dr.Phoenix.

Anyways...all comments, votes and feedback is appreciated and helps me move forward with this story. ❤❤❤❤❤❤