My hand was reaching out to grab her but no matter how desperately I reached for her I couldn't grab her hand. Our fingertips touched and her eyes locked with mine, and then she was pulled down into an abyss of darkness.

"Ava," she screamed as the darkness engulfed her. It echoed all around me and then there was silence. She was gone.

I screamed as I shot up in my bed, drenched in sweat and gasping for breath.

"It's okay, it's just a dream," Jared soothed as he pulled me toward him. My heart hammered in my chest. I closed my eyes and tried to make sense of what had just happened, trying to determine what was a nightmare and what was reality. In my nightmare Kennedy had been gone and I'd been unable to save her, and sadly that was the reality as well. I tried to take a deep breath to calm down my erratic heartbeat.

I took the comfort I needed from Jared. When I'd finally calmed down I moved away from him.

"Thanks," I said, feeling embarrassed at my lack of control of my dreams. I dragged my hand through my hair and rubbed my eyes. "I just can't seem to move past what happened."

"No one expects you to. It will get easier with time but there will still be times you will think of her. Don't let your last memories of her be of her death and pain. Rather, remember her when she was living and happy." He was right. Instead of focusing on her death I needed to shift my focus to the happier memories of her and maybe her passing would be easier to come to terms with.

"Thank you," I replied.

I got out of the bed. His makeshift bed on the floor hadn't been touched. That was when I remembered he'd climbed into my bed while I pretended I was asleep. He'd obviously guessed right that I would have nightmares about Kennedy. It explained why he'd been in my bed.

"You're welcome," he replied, still sitting on my bed. Now that was a sight I wished I could wake up to every morning. Even bed-hair looked good on him--how on earth did he pull that off?

He looked like a model who was ready for a photo shoot. I, on the other hand, looked like I'd been through a hurricane. My hair was everywhere.

We followed our morning routine. Jared climbed out my window to go home and get ready for school. I went and had a shower and got dressed. When I was finished I walked out my front door where Jared was waiting in his Jeep for me.

There was some awkwardness between us. He smiled at me when I got into the passenger side, and I gave an awkward smile back.

"I've got ahold of Emma's schedule for school so I can keep tabs on her," he explained as he started up the car.

"Okay." I wasn't going to ask how he'd managed to get that information.

"Do you remember when you first noticed the symptoms?" he asked with his eyes on the road.

I tried to think back to the first time I'd noticed that empty look in her eyes. It was difficult to pinpoint it exactly when so much had been going on.

"I think it's been about a week but I'm not sure. We don't know when it was initiated so we have no idea how close she is to completing," I said, trying to remember back to the process I'd been through.

"More importantly we need to find out why she has been changed and planted into our group," he said. A feeling of uneasiness settled over me.

"I don't want to lecture you but I need to make sure you understand that you have to be with someone all of the time, especially at school." He glanced my way and gave me a serious look. "No running off on your own. Do you understand?"

"I won't." I understood that doing something like that wouldn't just be childish but it would be putting my life at risk.

"And under no circumstances do I want you anywhere near Emma, do you understand?" he insisted fiercely. I glanced at him and nodded my head. That was the easy one to follow. From the start I hadn't liked her much, so keeping my distance from her wouldn't seem unusual.

"Do you think she might be here because of me?" I asked softly.

He shot me a look before he looked back to the road.

"I don't want to take any chances."

When we arrived at school we walked directly to the Archaic group waiting for us. Stacy wasn't standing with them like she had yesterday. I wondered where she was. As I briefly scanned the group again I realized Danny was missing as well.

Felicity and Neve greeted me with sympathetic smiles. I'd gotten used to those types of smiles from the other students over the last two days. The difference was Felicity and Neve knew the truth about how Kennedy had died. I gave them a weak smile in return.

"We haven't seen her yet," Tyler informed Jared as soon as we joined the group. His eyes were moving through the crowds of students.

"Just keep looking," Jared instructed Tyler coldly. Tyler raised an eyebrow as his eyes settled on Jared but Jared ignored him.

Not wanting to get caught up in whatever was going on with them, I looked around but I still couldn't see Stacy. A slight feeling of anxiety grew inside me. After what had happened to Kennedy, no one could blame me for worrying about the rest of my friends.

"Where's Stacy?" I tried to sound calm when I asked the question although I could feel my level of panic increase.

"She's with Danny. They went to go and get something from her locker," Tyler explained.

I released a worried breath, feeling my anxiousness ease. She would be safe with Danny, since he was more than capable of protecting her.

"Don't worry," Jared insisted as he reached for my hand and gave it a squeeze. It was the smallest gesture but it made my heart thump loudly in my chest. He'd seen straight through my ploy to appear calm. "I've got Archaic watching her."

I nodded my head. I needed to trust that he could keep my friends safe.

The school bell rang and we all started making our way into the school. There had been no sign of Emma yet but everyone remained nervous, including me. As I walked through the hallways of the school I kind of expected her to jump out at some point and say, "Gotcha."

Anyone watching any of the Archaics wouldn't pick up on their agitation but because I knew them I could tell how they continually scanned the area around them, keeping watch for Emma. Jared stuck to me like glue so wherever I walked he would be just a step behind.

I faltered when I walked down the hall toward my locker and I spotted the janitor at Kennedy's locker. They were clearing it out. It wasn't unexpected, I knew they would be doing it, but to watch all of her things get shoved into a cardboard box pulled an emotion of loss from me. Every day she wasn't with us the more real her death became. I held my breath to hold my emotions inside because I didn't want to break down in the open for everyone to see.

I felt Jared reach for my hand. He didn't say anything; he didn't need to. He gave my hand a reassuring squeeze and I took a deep breath and released it, trying to expel the emotion that was rising up inside.

Gently he tugged my hand and side by side we walked past her locker. I was so grateful for his support; I don't think I would have been able to hold myself together if he hadn't been there with me.

By lunchtime we still hadn't seen any sign of Emma. She wasn't at school today but that information didn't seem to ease the agitation of the Archaic and they remained vigilant.

I was relieved to find out that Jared had told Andrew about Emma.

"So she is like what you were before you got altered?" Andrew asked as we walked to our next class with Jared following behind us.

"Yes," I confirmed.

"So if she completes she'll become a synthetic Hue?" he questioned further.

"Yes."

"She'll become like Mason, Jared's brother, the one that attacked you?"

I nodded my head. I didn't like to be reminded about the first attack that had changed my life. It had been such a brutal attack and I could still feel the pain Mason had inflicted on me.