BY THE TIME I GOT home, it was late. Shutting the door behind me, I locked it and squinted my eyes as I looked around the apartment. All of the lights were off but I knew Olivia was home because her car was in the parking lot. I was able to detect a faint smell of burnt popcorn and my assumption about her being home was correct.

I felt extremely guilty for making her think I left her behind. Of course, I had planned on coming back home with her but my plans had changed right before my eyes. I made a mental note not to tell her anything about what happened tonight. The less she knew, the better. I was only trying to keep her safe and if she knew too much, she would pay for it.

"Olivia?" I called out, reaching out for the light switch. Tripping and falling was not in my best interest at the moment. The smell of popcorn was still fresh enough to let me know it had been popped not too long ago. How long had I been gone? My fingers brushed against the light switch and the living room burst to life. To my surprise, it was empty although I expected to find her passed out on the sofa.

Instead, I found her in the kitchen with a bottle of water and a fashion magazine. Her back was facing me and she flipped through the pages of her magazine, making side comments about how none of their outfits matched and how she could have been a model if all she had to be was tacky. She had changed out of her clothes from earlier, now wearing jogging pants and a shirt that came down to her knees. I assumed it belonged to Billy.

I just stood there, paralyzed, unable to make a sound. Olivia laughed a mirthless laugh and flipped another page of the magazine. An empty bowl sat beside the magazine on the counter and I wondered if that was where she had the popcorn after popping it. She scratched the back of her head and took a sip of her water before turning around.

At the sight of me, she shrieked, dropping the bottle and allowing the water to spill everywhere. She did not bother to pick it up, as her main focus was on me at the moment. I was slightly confused when she hurried across the room and grabbed my shoulders, shaking me slightly.

"Sydney?" her voice was full of worry and concern. "Sydney, what happened to you?" My lips parted but she did not give me much time to answer. "Oh, God. You're hurt!" Her hands moved from my shoulders to my wrists and she pulled me away from the kitchen to the bathroom. Once she turned on the light, the person standing beside her in the mirror was not me at all.

My orange hair was stained with blood—my blood—and my left eye was slightly swollen and bruised. Scratches covered my chest and my bottom lip had split sometime during the fight. By the awkward angle of my nose, it was quite obvious it was broken. I was in too much pain to notice the real damage done to me. I convinced myself I had walked away with a few scratches when in reality, I had walked away with more wounds than I had ever expected.

Olivia forced me to sit down on the toilet and she grabbed one of her good washcloths from the closet, wetting it with warm water and applying it to my bloody face. Although she looked completely calm, I knew she was terrified. She had no idea what happened to me and it must have been eating her alive not knowing the truth. The white cloth soon enough turned red and I closed my eyes, no longer interested in watching Olivia clean my wounds.

"Who did this to you?" she demanded, her voice calm but bitter.

I kept my eyes closed and my shoulders stiffened at her words. As much as she wanted to know who did this to me, I wanted nothing more than to forget. I wanted to climb into bed and close my eyes, hoping to wake up without a single memory of what happened tonight. Slowly, I opened my eyes to look at her and her bottom lip was tugged between her teeth with concentration. She rinsed the blood out of the cloth and squeezed out the excess water before applying it to my face.

"You can tell me," she whispered. "I can help you."

My eyes looked down at my lap and I noticed my hands were shaking. Telling her who did this to me would put her in more danger. Staying in Seattle, in Olivia's apartment, was putting everyone I cared about in danger. However, he told me if I skipped town, he would not hesitate to kill the ones I had grown to love—even my mother and Jett. I had to keep my lips sealed and pretend everything was okay. I had to lie about who did this to me.

"I don't know," I kept my eyes on my shaking hands. "He...He wore a mask."

"It was clearly a man?"

"Yeah," I sighed. "He just wanted my purse."

The lie was convincing because I, in fact, did not have my purse on me. I had it with me earlier at the club but once I was taken away from the bench, my purse went missing. I no longer had my cell phone. He gave me back my keys and wallet, though, claiming I was going to need them in the future.

"Your purse?" she scoffed. "He did this to you for just your purse?"

I looked up at her and weakly smiled, "I managed to put up a fight."

She sat the washcloth down on the counter and wrapped her arms around me, pulling me into a hug. My head laid against her chest and I was able to feel her heart beating faster and faster. She had every right to be afraid. I was terrified. Her fingers ran through my hair multiple times before she reached over toward the shower, turning it on for me.

"Let's get this blood off of you, okay?" she smiled at me as she checked the water temperature. "We'll talk more about it in the morning. I...You should get cleaned up and get some rest."

With her help, I managed to get in the shower and allow the warm water to soak every part of my body. Olivia did not seem the slightest bit bothered helping me wash the blood off. In fact, she told me to stand perfectly still as she removed the blood from my hair and skin. I obeyed, knowing there was not much I could have done. I simply stood there with my eyes glued to the running water before me.

My hands slowly went up to my throat where he had me in a choke hold, his hands threatening to never let go. They then traveled to the open wound on my waist from where he cut me with his pocket knife. Slowly, my hands made their way up to my face and I winced when my fingers ran along my blackened eye. My shoulders heaved up and down as I began to cry and Olivia squeezed my shoulder as a sign of sympathy. I placed both hands on the sides of my head and shook it out of anger.

How could I have been so stupid?

How could I have been so selfish?

Staying here put everyone in danger and I should have left when I had the chance. Everyone was mourning over the death of Jillian and they would not have noticed my disappearance. Now, if I left, they would all die and it would be my fault for, once again, being selfish. If I left all of these innocent people behind to die, it would prove how selfish and inconsiderate I could be and I refused to turn dark. I was going to try to protect them in any that I could. I loved these people.

Olivia helped me out of the shower and she wrapped a blue towel around me before rushing off to fetch some clothes from my room. I stared at my reflection in the somewhat foggy mirror and took a deep breath. My hands tightened around the towel and I winced every time a drop of water fell from my hair and landed on the delicate skin of my shoulders.

I was on edge and I was sure Olivia knew that. She was a smart woman and lying to her was not going to work for long. Knowing her, she was going to catch on and get closer and closer to the truth. Squeezing my eyes shut, I wanted to open my mouth and scream out my murderous emotions. The sound of footsteps made me do the complete opposite and I kept my mouth shut. Olivia returned with some pajamas and underwear for me and she turned her back towards me as I dried off and changed.

"Come on," she smiled, pulling me down the hall to her room. "You're staying in my room tonight."

She turned on the light and led me to one side of her bed, pulling back the blanket and making sure I got in comfortably. When she tried tucking me in, I shook my head and covered myself with the blanket. I felt as if she was doing too much when she did not know the truth. She believed my lie and I was hurting on the inside. Olivia was the only true friend I had here in Seattle. Lying to her was horrible. What kind of friend was I?

One who was trying her absolute best to protect her friends.

"Lights on or off?"

I hesitated before saying, "Off."

There was no need for me to be afraid of the dark. When I closed my eyes, I was going to be succumbed into the darkness. Keeping the lights on was not going to help my sanity. It was only going to mock me, inform me that I was no longer in the light, but in the darkness. I was not a good person and the moment I pulled the trigger for the first time, the light no longer wanted me to be a part of their family. I was banished and the darkness took me in.

I just wanted to return home—to the light, my mother, and Jett.

I just wanted to go home.

• • •

The amount of caffeine I devoured the following morning was ridiculous. Olivia said nothing when I went back into the kitchen to fix my third cup of coffee. I knew what she was thinking, though. Drinking so much coffee was unhealthy and I needed to stop. Perhaps I should have turned to water instead...or possibly a drink without any caffeine. I needed to be wide awake and coffee was going to help me accomplish just that. The amount of sugar I consumed was also, in fact, absurd. Each cup of coffee contained at least six sugar packets but I did not care. I felt energized and that was what my goals were.

Olivia sat in the living room with a bowl of oatmeal and a glass of orange juice. When I woke up this morning, she was chopping up fruit to mix with her breakfast and she even offered me some. She had already done enough for me last night and I did not want her doing more than she had to. I was not in the mood for eating breakfast, anyway. It was obvious Olivia knew this because she dropped the topic altogether.

I joined her on the sofa with my coffee and scrunched my nose when she put a spoonful of instant oatmeal in my face. The smell overwhelmed my nose...she must have added cinnamon or nutmeg. A few chopped pieces of apple sat on the spoon with the oatmeal and I looked at Olivia, sticking out my tongue. She did not hesitate to pull her spoon back before my tongue touched her food.

She sat her bowl on the coffee table and turned her body to face me completely, "I was thinking we could go sight seeing today."

"Sight seeing?" I raised my eyebrows.

Her smile widened, "You've been here for months and I bet you haven't been around Seattle. You just go to work and come home."

"I've been to the club," I said, taking a sip of my coffee.

"That doesn't count."

"Oh?"

"You can go to a club anywhere. I think we should get out of here. Staying indoors on such a beautiful day is never the right thing to do. I have coupons for—"

"Coupons?"

"I may have gotten out of bed while you were still sleeping to cut coupons out of magazines." When I opened my mouth to speak, she squealed and clapped her hands. "I could take you downtown. Have you seen it at night? Wait, no, that was a stupid question. Of course you haven't. It's beautiful! We could get down there and do some shopping while it gets dark out."

"So...we're basically going downtown to see some lights and spend money on things we'll probably never use or wear?"

Olivia pouted, "Fuck you."

"If we go out, can we stop somewhere so I can get a new phone? I kind of...lost mine."

"Right," she patted my thigh. "We'll get you whatever you need. I mean, we can even stop by the police station and file a report—"

"Olivia," I threw her a look and put my mug down on the table.

"What? I think you should report this. I mean, you can't just let him get away with it!"

"But I don't know who he is. What am I supposed to tell the police when they want to know what he looks like? I'll have nothing to give them and they'll think I'm lying!"

"Well, for one, your black eye is very convincing," she said, squinting her eyes as she stared at my wound. "And secondly, I'm sure there were cameras around. All they have to do is check and the video may reveal his face. Then bam! Justice is served."

"Are you still watching Law & Order?"

"Seventh season, second episode," she said, nodding as if I needed her approval. "I'll pay for your new phone if you go with me to the police station."

"Your bribery is not going to work on me."

"Would it work if I said this new phone could be an iPhone?"

"Nope."

"Basic bitch," she growled but I saw humor in her eyes.

"I'm fine, Olivia," I laid my head down on her lap and she rolled her eyes. "Honestly, I'm all right. I shouldn't have left you alone in the club to begin with."

She looked up at the ceiling and laughed, "You left me with Greysen and his new lady friend. They're both horrible dancers but then again, so am I. Are you sure you're okay? I mean, I don't want to pressure you into reporting your attack but I feel like I should play the responsible adult role in this situation."

"I appreciate you for that."

"But you want me to stop nagging, am I right?"

"You're so right."

"At least let me take you to the hospital. Your nose wasn't this bruised last night and it's swollen now."

"Then will you stop nagging?"

"I swear."

"Fine."

She sighed out of relief, "I'll still get you a new phone and you can pay me back with a favor later on, I suppose. Who knows? I may need a kidney or a new finger. Fingers are always good to have."

"I'd donate a finger to you any day."

"And this is why I keep you around," she chuckled. "I'm going to get in the shower and we can go after that. Do you need to shower, too?" I shook my head. "Okay...get your head off of me, loser." Before I had the chance to move myself, she practically pushed me off of the sofa and we were both howling with laughter.

She hopped off of the sofa and hurried to her room to start getting ready. I ran my fingers through my hair before picking my mug up along with Olivia's abandoned oatmeal. Carrying both dishes into the kitchen, I sat them in the sink and stared out the window at the crystal clear sky. There were a few clouds here and there but they did not cover up the beautiful sky. Propping my elbows on the counter, I exhaled slowly and tapped my right foot.

Olivia was such a great friend and I had no idea what I would have done without her. She was special...unlike any other friend I had in the past. Unlike them, she was strong and fierce. I expected her to overreact last night but she did no such thing. Instead, she helped me get cleaned up and she sent me to bed without forcing me to answer any of her questions. Although she was trying to pressure me into going to the police, she was still her normal, goofy self around me. Nothing about that had changed since last night and I was thankful.

He told me he would be keeping a close eye on me from now on to make sure I kept my mouth shut. If Olivia started to not act like herself, he would think I told her and she would no longer be safe. I needed to keep her busy and distracted. Going out today was a wonderful idea. We both needed a distraction. I tugged at the ends of my hair and shook my head. It was hard to still wrap my head around everything that happened. For starters, I never thought I would see him again. He was the last person I expected to see last night and my heart ached knowing he had been alive this entire time.

He was alive; yet, he never came back for me. He switched sides and joined those who wanted to run around with my head on a stick and my blood on their faces. His love for me had vanished and he made that very clear last night. The man I knew would have never done this to me but none of that mattered now.

Elijah was still alive.

And killing me was at the top of his bucket list.