Cassie walked along a foggy path. Her feet were bare and there were trees without their leaves on the side of the path. Cassie found this strangely comforting as she walked along, still in the same clothing otherwise from the club. She had a small thought wondering where Kris and Aiden were but continued to walk along.

She hummed to herself when her humming stopped all together as she stared in front of her. There was that man. Black clouds around him conflicted with the fog. She turned around and started walking the way from where she came and stopped short when she saw he was that way as well. She just stared at him for a bit in silence. He finally laughed.

"Cassandra! Aren't you going to say hello?" She didn't speak a word. Just continued to stare. He shrugged and stalked towards her. "Matters not. I can hear your thoughts now. You are wondering why I am here. Well, my dear, I am here because this is a dream. This is your dream, which I now control. Now if I control it that means you aren't leaving this dream until I see fit, which could be forever. I'd start to speak to me if I were you."

She shifted on her feet, looking around and hoping there was an escape. He stepped closer to her, slowly closing the distance and she took a step back and held out her hand, hoping he would take the signal to stop. He reached out and snatched her hand and stepped up to it, placing her hand delicately to his lips, kissing the palm. She shivered and yanked her arm but his grip was tighter than she thought.

"Speak to me, Cassandra. Tell me what you want, my little darling." He circled her waist with his arm and pulled her body against his.

"I want you to leave me alone. Creep." With her wrist in his hand, and waist in his arm, she couldn't pull away. She placed her other hand against his chest and applied pressure, attempting to push him away. He growled in his throat and placed his mouth close to her ear.

"I'd watch what you say to me, Cassandra. You are mine from now on." She furrowed her brows, not understanding. He released her a stepped back a step. She took a deep breath. He placed on a cocky grin and nodded at her and then disappeared. She sighed relief. Cassie looked at the scenery and noticed the fog was much denser and everything seemed to be gloomy, no longer comforting.

Cassie opened her eyes and blinked hard a couple times, surprised to see nothing but darkness. She started to breathe heavily, always feeling very fearful in the dark and reached out her hand for where her bedside table should be. There was no table there. She started to hyperventilate as her anxiety grew with the uncertainty of where she was. She felt for the edge of the bed and flung her legs over the side. She stood up and placed her hands out in front of her, looking for a light switch. Cassie swore that she saw the shadows moving and a figure growing closer to her, a hand reached out. She crashed into a wall, making something else fall and she froze as she heard shattering glass. Footsteps raced up the stairs as she started to sob, unable to reign in the anxiety that has overwhelmed her. The door flung open and the lights came on and blinded her.

"Cassie? Baby? Are you okay?" She heard Kris's voice and she sobbed harder because she couldn't control her breathing anymore. She started to see again and saw it was Kris's room and what dropped was a picture frame. She leaned against the wall and slid to the floor trying to breathe while trying to stop crying at the same time. Her vision was dotting black, which was making her more anxious. He rushed in front of her and grabbed her hands and cooed at her to calm down, that she was safe.

Slowly she slowed her breathing down and sniffled a bit. Kris picked her up and laid her back on the bed. She looked around and couldn't see a black figure. She mentally beat herself up for overreacting to the dark since her mother passed away.

"Cassie, sweetheart, talk to me. What's wrong?" Kris stroked her hair as she laid there and he laid against her. She felt so soothed yet something ached in her head.

"I'm scared of the dark." She took in a couple deep breaths and turned and planted her face into Kris's chest. The ache in her head turned up a couple notches but she didn't want to move. He rubbed her back in their embrace.

"I'm sorry, Cassie. There was supposed to be a lamp left on." He looked over at the bedside table, on the opposite side of where Cassie has her table in her room. "The bulb must have burnt out. It's okay."

They laid like that for a bit longer before the pain in her head got to be too much to handle. Cassie pulled away and sat up and instantly it was gone. She looked at the clock and realized she's been out for about 6 hours. She sighed and ran a hand through her hair, hitting a couple snarls. She looked at the clothing, completely disheveled.

"Shower. Need shower." She mumbled, her mouth feeling thick. She got out of the bed and just took off her clothes and threw them to the ground while walking to the connected bathroom, completely ignoring Kris's heated stares. She walked into the walk-in shower and turned the water on hot, facing the water.

The warm water drizzled down her as she closed her eyes against the water. She sighed and relaxed. An image of the man flashed under her eyelids and she gasped and opened her eyes quickly, almost falling over in reaction. She looked around and placed her hands on the sides of the shower. After a couple heart beats of nothing jumping out at her she sighed in relief. She relaxed and stood up and reached for the soap when it seemed like there was a black smoke surrounding her and she whipped around. Outside the shower was the man. She felt the black smoke caressing her skin as it pulled her and the man into what seemed to be a vortex of just them and a glass door separating them.

"Kristopher!" Cassie screamed in panic as she grabbed a towel hanging over the shower door. The man just smiled as she could hear Kris on the other side of the smoke yelling.

"I'll make this quick. Tell your brother and...lover that you are no longer theirs. They want to think they won with me, they haven't. Not even close." He took a step closer and blew her a kiss, winked, and then was gone. The smoke slowly dispersed until all that was there was the steam. Shaky kneed, she sunk to the floor of the shower. Kris ran up to the shower and opened up the door and grabbed her arm and pulled her to him. He sank down and wrapped his arms around her. For a moment, in her shocked state she let him. Suddenly, remembering what the man said to her, she pushed him away and stood up.

"Let me go. I'll talk to you and Aiden when I'm done showering." Her voice was like ice chips to his heart. He nodded, stood up and shut the door to the shower. Shakily, she finished washing up in the shower. She got out and dried off. Wrapping the towel around her, she walked out of the bathroom, out of Kris's room and to her room down the hall. Slowly she got dressed, not ready to face the boys.

Making her way down the stairs, she heard them in the kitchen. She walked in while they were talking in low tones. They stopped and looked at her. She leaned against the frame and crossed her arms, with an obvious angry look set upon her face. Aiden stood up and reached out to her, obviously worried.

"Hey, sis. Are you okay?" She swatted away his extended hand.

"What do you guys do? Apparently whatever your guy's 'business' is, it is now part of my problem." Aiden and Kris exchanged looks. They were dumb founded on what to say. She just continued to glare at them.

"What we do has nothing to do with you. Whatever is going on we can take care of it." Kris's voice was level, reasonable. Cassie was feeling anything but reasonable. Shaking with rage, she walked over to the cupboards and grabbed a glass out. She filled it with water. She took a long drink of it and set the empty glass on the island bar as she faced the boys, Kris with a guarded look while sitting at the dining room table facing her and Aiden with a worried look in his eyes, still standing by the door way.

"Nothing to do with me? Nothing! You honestly believe that? Are you in my shoes? Were you inside that darkness? You have the balls to sit there and tell me not to worry about it. Oh, that's right because the 'men' will take care of it. Forget you!" She slammed her hands on the island bar, holding back the tears of frustration. "Want to keep me out of the loop? Fine! He says that I am no longer 'yours'. He also says that you guys can continue thinking you boys won but you haven't. Keep your secrets. Keep your secrets and go screw yourself!"

She picked up the glass and flung it in Kris's general direction, missing his head by a long shot, making it shatter against the wall behind him. Kris's eyes widened. He's never seen Cassie this uncontrollable. Aiden jumped at the sound of shattered glass, as if someone had shot him. He looked painfully at Cassie. She stormed out of the room, making her way up the stairs to her room and then slammed the door.

Placing her back against the door, she slid to the floor and brought her knees to her chest and placed her face against them. Feeling so out of whack.

"When do I ever react that way? My god." She took some slow breaths and vaguely heard the boys arguing downstairs. She already knew who was on what side, Aiden would want to tell and Kris wouldn't want to- for her safety he says. She punched the door and they were silent a moment. She heard foot steps on the stairs and knew Aiden was probably outside the door, trying to decide what to say to her- since Kris refused to tell her about anything then Aiden wouldn't want to make him mad by telling her.

She heard an audible sigh on the other side of the door and then a knock. Too tired to even keep up a fight she opened the door. To her surprise it was Kris standing on the other side of the door, looking defeated. He held out his arms to her and she stepped in them, hugging him back and burying herself into his chest. That pain started in her skull again. She stepped back and it stopped again. She furrowed her brow but followed Kris downstairs, back into the kitchen. Aiden was sitting at the table with his hands clasped in front of him.

Her and Kris sat at the table. She noticed that the glass was already cleaned up and she felt some self-satisfaction knowing that she won by throwing the glass.

"Cassie, we cannot tell you our job." She slammed her hands on the table and stood up. Kris grabbed her arm and nodded for her to sit down. He had a no nonsense look and she glared back but sat. "But we need to you tell us everything that is going on. We cannot tell you by a law. If we do tell you what our job is then we would get into a severe amount of trouble, to the point where you may never see either of us again. I understand it is hard to trust us when it is only a one way trust it seems, but what we do protects you and we have been doing it for a very long time. Please understand we need to know what is going on with you to be able to evaluate the situation clearly."

Cassie sat there, staring at Aiden. She grinded her teeth in anger at the secrets they keep from her. She thought back to all the work trips they brought her on, how sometimes she felt like a pawn, and now she is truly in danger and it seems to be as if it barely fazed them. She sighed and stared at the table. They could hear a clock out in the living room ticking as seconds turned into minutes. Cassie was overwhelmed with depression. She was depressed that every part of this situation was out of her control. She stood up solemnly and the boys watched her walk away.

Cassie walked out through the living room to the front door and opened the door and left it open. She stepped out and sat on the front steps, leaning her head on a hand propped on her knee. She stared down the cul-de-sac of the above middle class neighborhood. The night was chilly and the moon was large enough to cast a glow mixed with the streetlights. She let a few tears slip as she only realized this all has happened within a couple of hours. She noticed a black figure standing under a street light. She sighed and just shook her head.

"I don't understand why I can't get a few seconds of peace!" She was irate enough to not even care if there was any discipline that came with it. Strangely, the figure didn't move closer. He just stood there and watched. She tried to ignore him but the longer he stood there the more her anger grew. She was about to scream at him when she heard someone walk onto the porch. She clamped her mouth shut and shut down herself. The person sat next to her, close enough that she could feel their heat and somehow she knew it was Aiden. He shuffled a little bit and then sighed.

"Look, I'm sorry this is a hard situation. Having lived with Kris and I for years and unable to know the whole story." There was a pause. "But what Kris and I do has something to do when mom died. Kris and I were drafted into this when we moved in with him and his parents. Just please help us, Cass. We love you. I'm worried about my baby sister and Kris cares for you. We just want to take care of stuff that we can."

She listened intently to each breath he took and weighed his words carefully. She licked her lips and finally she melted her wall. Tears streaked down her face and she sniffled. She placed her face in her hands.

"Aiden, I don't understand what is going on. Some guy with a bag of magic tricks just shows up and I don't understand how he does it. He says he owns me now and my head feels like it's going to break when I touch Kris. I don't know how he does this. It's almost as if he is truly not human. And then you guys can't even tell me something that has been happening for years and I just blindly walk into these things and I'm just not sure where I'm going or doing. What am I supposed to do? Just trust you and Kris blindly? Try to put a bullet through this guy's head? These things don't make sense. I'm going nuts!" Her tears turned into quiet sobs. She looked up and he was no longer under the streetlight. She turned to her brother and he was staring off into the distance thoughtfully. He sighed and stood up, not looking at her.

"Can you sleep with Kris tonight?" She nodded and stood up, walking back inside with Aiden following behind. She stopped after walking a couple steps pass the doorway and looked around the house. The white walls and white furniture, making them seem rich. She didn't even know if they were. There was plush carpet and the beautiful paintings hanging up. This had been her home since the boys turned 18, her only being 14 at the time. It has always since felt warm and welcoming, until now. Now that the secrets were noticeable it made her wonder how much of an open house it had really been.

Aiden walked around her, presumably to go talk to Kris about what they talked about. He seemed like he usually was on his jobs, very taut, both of his hands in fists, his biceps straining. She just stood there, looking around as if she was 14 again, fairly fresh still from her mother's murder, her 2nd move that year. Her brother and Kris tried to be excited about the move, but they understood it was hard on her. She stood in the doorway for hours after everything was moved in, indecisive about whether or not she wanted to consider it home. Aiden asked her that night if she wanted dinner and she didn't even reply, her eyes to busy being trained on the wall patterns. She stopped talking for about 3 years after finding her mother's bloody body just a few days before her 14th birthday.

Kristopher took his time and exploited any way he thought would make her smile. He got to know her more and more throughout the years, even with her refusal to verbally respond. He went from the brother's friend that she never met before, to good friend, and then somewhere along the way, her love. Not truly in a relationship, but it goes without saying that they are together. He listened to her, held her, and understood her. She thought that they knew everything about each other and that this job secret didn't matter. Now she realized otherwise.

Now stuck in silent state, she just sat on the carpet near the door. She looked around studying every detail about the room, hoping that when she was done that the whole situation would pass. She felt the ground shake slightly with footsteps but she didn't take her eyes off the high ceiling with wooden beams. Kris crouched in front on her, not touching her. He waited for her to get done memorizing the ceiling, used to this happening during her high stress situations. She finally looked at him, her face pale and eyes wide. He offered a small smile and she returned it, unable to think of what else to do.

"How you doing, sweetheart?" She just blinked a couple of times before returning to the real happenings. She shrugged and wiped her face as if it'd rid her of her complex situation.

"Well, babe, how about you and I catch a shower than go to bed? You got class tomorrow still." She shrugged. Kris stood up and offered her a hand. She grabbed it and he pulled her up then led her up the stairs to his room, keeping a hold on her hand the whole time. Her hand was warm from his body heat, but her head started pounding again. She didn't care.

Once they got to his room she removed her hand from his and just walked straight to the bed and crawled into it. She felt him stare at her for a couple moments before sighing. She heard the water running. She closed her eyes and listened to the water, relaxing. The water stopped and after a few minutes the space next to her sagged. She opened her eyes and the room was dully lit from the light in the bathroom staying on. She suddenly felt a strong need to tell Kristopher things she never even told her brother. She turned over and he was lying on his back, staring at the ceiling. She put her head on his bare chest and listened to his heartbeat. He wrapped an arm around her, holding her to his chest as she listened to his heart. The pulsing in her head went almost to the timing of his heartbeat. She lifted her head and he was still staring at the ceiling.

"Kristopher?" He snapped his gaze to her so fast that she felt a little self-conscious.

"Talk to me, babe." She laid her head back on her pillow and looked at his face as he turned to face her.

"The night my mother died, Aiden was gone. I was angry at him for leaving, but he called me a brat and told me to chill out and that he was just going a friends house."

Kristopher's body tensed and he watched her intently. She never talked about her mother or anything in the past before she moved to the house. She never even told the police about the night her mother was killed even though they spent hours, specialists and hope on her. She never spoke a single word about what she saw. Cassandra was silent for a moment as she built her courage up.

"I don't understand what happened that night and I spend every moment remembering that scene. I heard a knock on the door while I was pouting in my room about Aiden leaving. I really wanted to go too, but I understand that he just needed some time with his friends and that hanging with his baby sister isn't the coolest thing in the world. Mom answered it. I heard her yell something; I couldn't understand it, almost like gibberish. I jumped up and looked around the corner. She was trying to close the front door, but this blackness was seeping in. I know it sounds ridiculous, but it's true. A black smoke was filtering in, filling the room, as if the lights no longer were bright." Cassandra rolled onto her back and stared at the ceiling. Kris kept watching her, not touching or speaking.

"She kept screaming at it or him or whatever it was. Just screaming. She was wearing her red dress, about to go out with some girlfriends, I remember. The room got so dark. Suddenly she wasn't strong enough and he pushed the door open and she fell on the ground. I saw the phone on a table just two feet from me so I quickly grabbed it and called the police. I didn't say anything to them, I just let them hear and trace the phone. The man stepped into the house and straightened his suit. I couldn't see his face, the darkness covered his face mostly. He walked towards her and I could hear her crying. I dropped the phone and screamed at him to leave her alone. I stood between her and the man, trying to stop him. It worked. He stopped and he stared at me. He didn't speak at all. My mother stood up and told me to run but I couldn't leave her to face this demonic man. In a flash, my arm was twisted behind my back and I was thrown against the wall. But it didn't hurt, almost as if he was trying to be gentle with me. My mother screamed at him."

Cassandra started to shake a little as the memories come like a flood and she couldn't get rid of the events fast enough. She wasn't even telling the story to Kris anymore; she was just saying it.

"The sick bastard suddenly stroked my hair gently. I tried to push off the wall with my free hand and then he grabbed a chunk of my hair and hit my head on the wall. I was stunned. Suddenly my vision was going black. He lowered me to the ground gently. I was watching, trying to not black out as my mother came running towards me and he turned around and shoved her with such strength that it flung her against the wall opposite from me. He then was next to her in a flash and grabbed her hair and slammed her head against the wall. She was yelling at him as he kept flinging her from wall to wall and slamming her into the walls. Blood was at every wall he threw her into. I closed my eyes for a moment and I heard sirens coming closer. I opened them again and the screaming stopped and he was there again, touching my face, then he kissed my forehead and I got really dizzy and sick and I passed out. I don't know how long passed but I woke up when paramedics were in front of me, about to touch me. I looked around them and saw her on the floor. Blood everywhere. Not moving at all. I screamed and screamed and pushed them away and ran to her and grabbed her and hugged her. There was a pinch in my arm. Next thing I knew, I woke up in the hospital with Aiden next to me, crying." Kris grabbed her and held her close. Her head didn't hurt this time.

"What was she yelling at him?" Cassie looked up at Kris.

"She said 'you can't have her.' Over and over and over again. I don't know what she meant." Cassie buried her face against him and was so mentally drained that she couldn't even cry. He held her tight and she finally fell asleep, happy that she finally was able to speak that words that she hasn't said in so long. Kris stayed up all night watching her and processing the story. He held her tight and prayed that there would be no nightmares tonight.