******This is the episode/chapter Nick dies!!!!! I'm literally crying because I feel like I'm actually Tricia right now, losing my best friend. I know how it feels like to lose a parent, and Tricia losing both before she even knew them AND her best friend . . . I guess it's easier to go through losing a parent if you had never known them. It's a lot harder when you actually know them. God . . . Bye!********

I was still a little freaked from what had happened with Heather, but Nick was an awesome buffer. Well, sorta. He had been worrying about Melissa today because she had been acting really, really weird.

I hadn't done much since Heather died. Been kinda creeped, but I had gone to school, hung out with Nick before the first period, and then . . . well, the rest of the day had been pretty boring.

So I had thought that I would check out the witch house, go through Diana's Book of Shadows. I would have asked Cassie, but I didn't want to.

I walked in, Melissa, Faye and Nick already there. "What are you guys doing here?"

"You didn't get my text?" Melissa asked.

I shook my head, raising it up for the them to see the black, drained screen. "Battery died."

"And, anyway, she wouldn't have come if she had gotten the text," Nick said and I smiled. "Tricia doesn't come to this place unless she wants to, not when she's told to."

I smiled wider. "You know me too damn well." I took in a sigh. "So." I looked around the room to Melissa, Faye and Nick. "What's the big deal with a text that I didn't see?"

"I sorta need help with a lock," Melissa said weirdly, her voice smooth as she moved closer to a case on a table. Not just any case. A big, fat case that was really old, with dirty and really, really . . . well, ancient.

"Well, what's the problem?" I asked. "You've got two witches right here."

"That's the thing," Nick said. "The lock's spelled. We can't open it until we despell it."

"What's the deal? It's just some stupid case with some stupid lock." 

Melissa's features looked hard and cold as she nearly snapped, "They're not stupid." I looked strangely at her, then Faye and Nick. I was confused. Melissa wasn't one to snap at people, and she had always been nice to me. "Sorry. Really, I am. The big deal, Tricia, is that my family's Book of Shadows is inside." 

"Another one?" I asked, my face brightening up.

"You're telling her too?" Faye whined.

"Oh, relax," Melissa told her. "You know that Nick wasn't gonna keep it from her. They're best friends. Just like you and me."

"Yeah," Nick said.

"If you had been planning on keeping it a secret, I'd kick your ass," I told him.

"How would you know if it was a secret?" Faye asked.

I didn't answer, Melissa moving over to a table and picking up a plant leaf, and then taking a lighter and lighting it up.

We watched in confusion and fascination as we heard footsteps coming in from behind us. "I got your text," Cassie said.

"You told her?" Faye whined again, but only more so, because, me, she liked half-way. But, Cassie, she hated. "What the hell, Melissa?"

Melissa turned to face us and I asked, "How many witches does it take to open a suit case?"

"Seven," she said. "I think."

Nick leaned his head forward and Faye demanded, "What?"

"I'm sorry." Melissa walked toward us. "I didn't think you'd come if you knew. But I think we need the entire circle for the spell to work."

Faye scoffed, walking away as Cassie stepped closer. "Why? What's in there?"

"Melissa's Book of Shadows," Nick answered.

Melissa tilted her head. "Really?" Cassie asked. "Let's see it."

She stepped closer to the suit case and Melissa demanded, "Why is everyone in such a rush to open the damn suit case?"

I looked to Nick for an explanation to her new attitude, but he just shook his head in response, telling me that he didn't know. "Why don't I just check to see where Adam and Diana are?" Cassie asked.

"Tell them to hurry," Melissa said, completely normal again, turning around and walking back toward the table ."They haven't been responding to my texts."

"Yes," Faye said. "Definitely tell them to hurry."

I could've sworn that I had seen the suit case moving on its own. Nick pointed at it. "Did you see that?"

Melissa turned to face us. "What's wrong?"

"The suit case moved," I said, pointing at the damn thing.

"Suit cases don't move."

She started to turn around as Faye said, "This one did," walking around it and next to me, Nick standing on the other side of me.

The suit case moved again, and she gasped, stepping back. "Woah," Nick said.

"It moved again," Cassie said.

Melissa turned to face us, practically yelling, "Just stay away from it!"

"Melissa," Cassie said. "What's in the suit case?"

She stepped forward so slowly, one step, two, three, four, five. She was looking weirdly at all of us. "You'll see."

Then a snake was slithering inside of her head, on her forehead, where we could see, and I could feel my mouth opening up in shock and recognition, because I had seen that with one other person to one other person.

Cassie and I had seen it happen to Heather Barnes.

And we knew that Nick and Faye saw that too.

Cassie kept texting Diana and Adam as we stepped away from Melissa, far enough away so she wouldn't hear. She was still doing the spell. "What the hell is with her face?" Faye asked.

"That was the same thing that was in Heather," Cassie said.

Nick looked to me and her. "The demon?"

"I guess," I said. "I've never seen a demon before. Do they look like snakes crawling inside people's skin?"

Nick looked back to Melissa as Faye said, "Let's get out of here."

"No, we can't leave," Nick said. "We have to get that thing out of her."

"How?" Cassie demanded. "My mother couldn't help her and we don't know half the magic that they did."

"I don't care. We have to save her."

Cassie sighed, nodding. "You're right."

"Fine," I said. "But how?"

"I don't know," Cassie said.

"Guys?" we heard Diana call. "Are you okay?"

We were all walking back into the room that Melissa was still in at the same time they--they meaning Diana and Adam--did.

Nick took a wooden thing from the table and hit Melissa on the back of the head with it.

Melissa fell to the ground, unconcious, and Adam demanded, "What the hell?"

They looked up to Nick for one hell of an explanation, and he said, "It's not what you think."

I shook my head as Faye said, "Not even remotely."

We had told them about Melissa. Nick dropped the wooden stick, grabbing Melissa and putting her on the couch in a laying position, and I grabbed the rope, throwing it over to him so he could tie her there. He didn't move, rubbing her head, and Faye sighed, walking over and grabbing the rope so that she could do it herself. I sat down at the back of the couch.

Diana said, "I guess it's possible that the demon got out of Heather and found its way into Melissa."

"So what's in the suit case?" Adam asked.

"Well," I said, standing from the couch. "I'm guessing that it's not a Book of Shadows."

As soon as the words left my mouth, Melissa was launching up from the couch, gasping like she hadn't been breathing since Nick had knocked her out.

She knew that we were onto her, with her hands and feet tied, and she was thrashing wildly as she screamed. Nick and Faye had backed away when she had woken up, but once Diana had said, "Get her down!" Nick, Faye and I were stepping forward, and then Cassie, each of us holding her down.

Cassi and I had seen only a little of what Heather/demon Heather do, and she had been strong. Melissa was strong too, and Diana and Adam ran up to help us keep her down. "Let go of me!" Melissa growled, yelling it."Get off me!"

Then she was shaking. All of us let go of her, and Faye said, "Get away, back up, get away."

I backed away with Nick at my side, both of us watching Melissa.

Nick turned to the rest of us. "What just happened?" We didn't have an answer, none of us saying anything, but it looked like Melissa was Melissa again, not Demon Melissa. Nick looked back at her as she moaned in pain. "Melissa."

"Nick," she said, a small smile on her face. She started to sit up and she groaned. "Ow. My head." She looked down at her bound wrists. "What happened?" She looked up at us. "What's going on? Why are you all staring at me like that?"

"Are you okay?" Faye asked slowly.

"God, I can't feel my hands. These things are cutting into me."

"Let's get these things off," Nick said.

I reached out and grabbed his shoulders, pulling him back. "Don't." He looked back at me. "It's not her."

"Of course it is," Nick said.

"Or she's faking," Adam said.

"Nick, don't listen to them," Melissa said, nearly crying. "I'm in pain."

She held out her wrists, looking down at them in confusion and begging for Nick's help because she knew that he was the weakest link there was in the circle when it came to her. He leaned down closer to her, looking into her eyes, searching. Nick might not have cared for much, but anyone could tell that he loved Melissa.

Enough to know how to tell the difference between the faking Demon Melissa and the real Melissa, pulling back away from her, turning around with a sound I didn't know how to describe except for broken, and he turned to look at me, and I felt my heart squeeze, looking at my best friend in that much pain.

"You worthless loser!" Demon Melissa screamed in outrage.

Nick walked past me, and I sighed as Demon Melissa yelled and screamed and thrashed to get out.

I could tell that it was hurting Faye to watch this.

"What are we gonna do?" Adam asked. Cassie walked closer to him. "She's gonna hurt herself."

"We can't just keep her tied up forever," Cassie said.

"I can try the book," Diana offered, "but it's way out of my league."

Melissa screamed and yelled and growled and thrashed, all trying to get out of the feeling of being trapped, and I could barely hear Cassie as she said, "I know what to do. But you have to trust me."

She didn't wait for an answer, running to get out of the abandoned house, to go wherever she was planning or needed to go, and I walked closer to Nick, who was sitting on one of the couches, watching Melissa with agony, and Faye standing next to him.

I sat down next to Nick, looking at him with pain, but I didn't know what to do. I didn't know how to comfort him or to make his pain go away, because, let's face it, his pain wasn't gonna go away until Melissa was the real Melissa again, and she wasn't in agony like she was now.

When the suit case started to move even more, we both stood up, both of us and Faye walking over next to Adam and Diana.

We heard something from only what a snake could make. "Was that a hiss?" Faye asked.

"Ahem," I heard from behind me and Faye, and we both turned around.

Melissa was free, completely free, standing there, and then she was turning to Nick and screaming, pushing him all the way to the wall. She took a pair of scissors and pushed them to his throat, and I stepped forward out of reflex, and Faye's hand shot out to stop me.

Demon Melissa looked back at us. "Do as I say, or I will cut his throat!"

I was trying to keep myself reigned in, because I knew that I couldn't do anything to help, but Nick seemed almost completely calm. "Melissa, don't do this," he said. That got her attention and her to turn her head back toward him. "Please. Melissa, hey, come on. Come on, fight, please. I know you're in there. I know you can hear me."

"Yes," she said. "And I'm killing you to shut up!"

She was already starting to cut his throat, and I yelled, "No, stop!" Nick yelled out in pain.

Faye pulled me back, making us face Adam and Diana. "Come on. There's four of us."

"Faye, don't mess around," Adam said.

"We're not doing what she says," Faye said.

"Faye, no," Diana said.

I turned around, knowing that I would try to do everything to save my best friend, looking at the scissors. "Focus on the shears. Heat of the sun, burn like fire." I looked back at Faye, Adam and Diana. "Heat of the sun, burn like fire."

Next time I said the chant, they each said it with me. "Heat of the sun, burn like fire. Heat of the sun, burn like fire. Heat of the sun, burn like fire. Heat of the sun, burn like fire. Heat of the sun, burn like fire. Heat of the sun, burn like fire." Melissa took her foot and tripped Nick down to the ground, adjusting her grip on the shears so it wouldn't burn. "Heat of the--" 

"Wait, stop, stop," Adam said, knowing that she had found a way around our spell.

"Any other magic tricks you wanna try?" she taunted. "No? My turn. Faye," she nodded to one of the tables, "use that to form a circle around the case." 

"Please, just do it," Nick said.

She sighed, walking past us and grabbing whatever it was that Melissa had told her to grab. 

It was powder in her hands, and she grabbed some, walking over to the table with the suit case and sprinkling it around it.

It was a greyish color. Or was it black with a little white? I didn't know.

Once Faye had completed the circle, she stepped back, next to me again. 

"Now say this with me," Demon Melissa said. "Incepio sepus melum." There was a hissing, all of us turning to the case, not saying anything. "Say it!" 

I looked to Adam, Faye and Diana again, and they knew what it meant. I had already lost my parents. I wasn't gonna lose my best friend too. We started to chant together. "Incepio sepus melum." Melissa joined in with us. "Incepio sepus melum. Incepio sepus melum. Incepio sepus melum. Incepio sepus melum." The lock on the case clicked open."Incepio sepus melum. Incepio sepus melum. Incepio sepus melum."

"I brought help," we heard Cassie say behind us.

We turned to face her as her grandmother walked into the room, "Get back," Diana said.

We backed away as Demon Melissa said with a crazy voice she had had all night, "You're too late!"

With a simple sentence in Latin that Cassie's grandmother had said, the suit case shut itself and locked itself up tight.

Melissa turned to us. "Repeat the spell!"

"No," Cassie's grandmother said.

"Then his blood is on your hands!" Cassie's grandmother didn't even have to say anything before the kitchen shears were flying out of Demon Melissa's hand. She was bad-ass. "You bitch," Melissa hissed. As she rose from the ground, off of Nick, Nick took the advantage to get up and run next to me, and my hand went to his back instantly. "You don't have the power to stop me, you old woman."

Melissa stepped closer to Cassie's grandmother as she said, "I'm not alone here."

"What, them?" Melissa asked with distaste, looking at us. "They're nothing."

"I didn't mean the children."

Cassie's grandmother held out a crystal of some kind that I didn't get, flat on her palm, and for some reason, it took quite an affect on Melissa, who was backing away instantly. "Get that away from me!"

"Cassie, get my bag." Cassie ran to do as said, grabbing her bag. "Someone break that circle. Hurry." Melissa fell to the ground in front of the wall, and Diana and Adam were rounding the suit case and taking the powder away. "Take the three candles," she told Cassie as she got to us. "Place them in a circle. Light them clockwise. Now the sage. Burn some in each candle. Hurry up. We don't have much time."

I didn't see Nick helping us, but I was taking the sage and putting some in each candle while Diana picked up one, Cassie taking the other, and Adam was lighting them in a circle, in the direction Cassie's grandmother had told us to.

"Get her," Cassie's grandmother said.

Nick was already there, and I walked over, both of us grabbing her and pulling her over, and then Cassie, Adam, Diana, Faye helping us hold her. "Stop, please!" she cried, not sounding like the crazy Demon Melissa, but we knew this was just the demon pretending again. "What's going on?"

I was too busy listening to Melissa to hear what Cassie's grandmother had said, but then Cassie was walking off to get something from her bag, and Cassie's grandmother started to pour something on Melissa's head. She said something foriegn, and then she turned to Cassie. "Light it."

"No, please," Melissa cried. She cried even more as they lit the stick in Cassie's hands, and then Cassie's grandmother took it, bringing it closer to Melissa. "No! Stop it! Stop it! Stop!" She looked at Nick next to me. "Come on, Nick. Help me, please."

"She's not possessed, let her go," Cassie's grandmother said, placing the stick aside.

"Possessed?" Melissa repeated, demanding the cry. "What are you talking about?"

I let go as Cassie's grandmother pulled her closer. "Come here. Come here, come here."

Cassie's grandmother wrapped her in a hug, and I couldn't imagine how scared and lost she had been. "The demon's gone?" Diana asked.

"From Melissa," Cassie's grandmother answered. "But it needs a host. It's in someone else. Someone in this room."

I looked at Adam, Diana and Faye as Faye pointed to Adam. "How do you know it's not him?"

"Diana, come on," Adam said when she backed up a step.

"Faye, you know, that's exactly what the demon would say," I said, saying it as casually as she had.

"Well, it could be anyone," she said.

"Yeah, well, I vote for you," Adam said.

"Well, what about Grandma?" Faye asked. "She's the one with all the crazy ideas."

"She saved us," Cassie said.

"Stop," Cassie's grandmother said.

She let go of Melissa, looking at her fondly before, using the crystal, she held it out to Cassie. Nothing happened to Cassie. I remembered that the demon had been affected by the crystal when it had been inside of Melissa.

Cassie's grandmother slowly turned around to face Adam at the end of the group, holding out the crystal to him. Nothing happened to Adam. She held it out to Diana, right next to him. Nothing happened to Diana. She held it out to Faye, next to Diana. Nothing happened to Faye. She held it out to me, right next to Faye. Nothing happened to me.

Then she held it out to Nick.

Who growled and tried to run past her to the suit case.

The demon was inside of Nick.

Oh, God.

Before he could get to the suit case, Adam was running up and pushing him to the ground as the suit case popped open, and Cassie let out a surprised cry. Adam had heard the hissing sounds coming from the suit case, and had been distracted, so Nick pushed him aside and ran for the suit case as Cassie's grandmother grabbed a big box. "Stop him!" Adam said. "Stop him!"

Cassie's grandmother put the box on top of the suit case as Nick ran out of the abandoned house.

"Nick!" I yelled, trying to go after him.

He turned to me with a fierce, crazy look that I had only seen in Heather Barnes and Melissa, pushing me all the way back to the wall. 

I remembered feeling a lot of pain as my head hit the wall behind me, clearly hard enough to make me pass out.

I was having memories about Nick. From the time that we had been really little. We had met each other when we were younger, because of the whole both of us being orphans thing. I had met his brother Jake then too. Jake had been my first and last mistake. I hadn't been mentally stable for most of my life, because of the whole growing up by myself and having no one to help me through it thing, and so he had known that, and, well . . .after that . . .let's just say that Nick was visiting me inside a mental hospital for about two weeks. 

And Nick . . .he was my best friend. Nothing more, but he meant everything to me, because he had been there for me my entire life when nobody else had. 

And now a demon was inside of him, and, other than Melissa, we knew of one other person who had had that same exact demon inside of them.

Heather Barnes.

She had gone crazy and tried to kill Cassie and me, and then when Nick and Melissa and Faye sowed up to help, she'd run out into the middle of the road and got hit by a car, killing her, but not the demon. 

Yeah, Heather had ended up dead, because of that demon.

Nick couldn't end up dead too. 

I felt myself being pulled closer to conciousness as someone rubbed a hot, wet towel over my bleeding forehead. The name I heard was mine, but it was echo-y. Distant. "Tricia." Was that Faye's voice. "Come on, damn it. Melissa's out. You can't be too."

Yep, definitely Faye.

I took in a long deep breath as I woke up fully, my hand going to my throbbing head as I opened my eyes, and then I looked around. The only people I saw were Faye and Melissa, passed out on the couch. "What happened?"

"You'll remember in a few," Faye said.

Visions came flooding back. Melissa, with the demon inside of her, the snake thing crawling along the inside of her skin, and then I remembered a suit case, and Cassie, Melissa, Faye, Adam, Diana and Cassie's grandmother and Nick being here.

Nick.

My eyes widened. "Oh, my God. Nick. The demon--" 

"Yeah, I know," Faye cut me off. "Cassie, Adam, Diana and Cassie's grandmother went after him, at the boat house, but--" 

I was already standing up, not caring that I was dizzy to hell. "I have to go after him." 

"But you're--" 

"I'm fine," I cut her off, running for the door.

"You're being stupid." 

"No, I'm being a best friend." 

I ran out of the door, knowing where everybody was, because Faye had told me.

The boat house.

As soon as I got out to my car, I was getting in, slamming the door and starting the engine, and then speeding away from the abandoned house straight for the boat house.

When I pulled over in the parking lot, jumping out, I heard Cassie demand from behind me, "How did you get here so fast?" She didn't wait for an answer. "Why are you even here?"

"Do you seriously need an answer for that?" I asked, stepping up next to her and her grandmother. "Where . . .is Nick?" I could've sworn I heard screaming. Water splashing. I knew who that was even though he sounded completely crazy and demonic. "That's him."

Cassie, her grandmother and I were running for where the sounds were coming from.

Last thing I expected to see was him, soaking wet, laying on the slanted ground next to the water.

He wasn't moving. Blinking.

I slowly shook my head, barely noticeable at first, not even blinking. "No," I whispered.

"Tricia--" Cassie started.

"No," I said louder, running down the way to Nick, sinking next to him. "Nick? Nick." I took him by his shoulder, shaking it hard enough that even my blood from my forehead got down onto it. "Nick," I said louder, shaking harder. He still didn't move. "No. No. No, you can't be dead. No." I sniffed, my hand going up to my nose for a second before my eyes started to sting. "No. No, no, no."

Cassie was running down next to me. "Tricia."

My breathing got heavier, faster, and I knew that I was probably gonna have a mental breakdown after today. "No. No, no, no, no. No!"

"Tricia--"

Tears were coming from my eyes, down my cheeks as I started to shake him harder. "Nick. Nick! Please, God, wake up. Wake up. You gotta wake up." Flashes of us as little five years olds down at the bay crossed my mind, then I saw the older version of him, soaking wet and dead on the ground. "Nick, please." My voice sounded so desperate, so weak, something I hadn't felt in a long time. "No."

I was starting to freak out enough that Cassie was trying to pull me back. "Tricia." I sobbed louder, sounding like a complete psycho as I cried.

Or maybe sounding the way I was supposed to sound.

Like a 16 year old losing her only true friend.

"Tricia," Cassie said as she tried to pull me away. "Tricia, please."

I stopped trying to fight against her, just crying out loud, sobbing.

I heard Diana and Adam running to see what all of the crying was about. I didn't even have to turn around to know it was them, I just knew.

Especially when I heard Adam say, "Oh, my God."

There was no sound for a second, even I had stopped, I was still crying, but not sobbing. Diana finally broke the silence. "I'll call Faye and Melissa. Just . . . get her home."

I knew "her" meant me.

And Adam had gotten me home. He had said the lame things guys or girls or anyone said to anyone who had just lost someone.

And I was still crying. Not the loud, explosive and freaking out sobs I had been sobbing, but just the tears.

Nick and I had had the worst deck of cards out of the circle. We had grown up with no parents, none at all, not ever knowing who we were really. Not our family, not our identies, nothing.

And that was what had kept us so close for so long. For our whole lives.

Yeah, Nick had had Jake, his brother, when I had no siblings, but . . .

Now Nick was dead. I wasn't in denial, even though every part of me wanted to be. I couldn't be, not after everything that we had been through.

God, I thought. I didn't even know how I was gonna tell Jake. I mean, I still had his number and everything, he had given it to me before he had ditched me at our freshman prom. Had it been prom? I didn't know. I didn't care. I just . . .

All I cared about had been him and Nick. He had been a dick and left town for no apparent reason, and Nick . . .

I let out a broken and strangled sigh.

I hadn't been this weak in . . . never. I had learned to block out every piece of pain I had felt even before Diana had told me that I was a witch.

All I wanted was to be numb. I felt terrible, grieving over Nick. Which was what I was supposed to do. I was supposed to grieve, honor his memory and not let him be forgotten, ever.

But I didn't want to feel this pain.

So what was I supposed to do?

My head felt like it was gonna explode, because I had gone through hell in my 16 years of my short life. No parents, no family, just Jake, who had taken off after acting like a total douche, and Nick, who I had been best friends since before we could even walk.

And now none of that mattered, because none of it was here. Both were gone, in very different ways.

I felt so alone, and that this was somehow my fault, even though I hadn't started any of this.

Well, that was half a lie.

Cassie and I had been the ones to let Heather Barnes come back with her demon, who had jumped into Melissa, and then into Nick, all except for Melissa dying.

So, technically, yeah, this was partially my fault.

I didn't want to feel this.

I wanted to be numb.

I tried to calm myself, stop myself from crying, to freeze over everything that I had ever known and to stop feeling pain. Just for the night so I could at least get some sleep.

I was already in my bed, sitting up. Now I was laying down, tears still on my cheeks, but none coming from my eyes anymore, feeling like a zombie that wasn't feeling anything anymore, blocking it all out, just for the night.

And then I closed my eyes, seeing if I could fall asleep.