PLEASE PLEASE READ!

Heyo sweet readers! I have a new chapter for you, but please let me warn you:

THIS CHAPTER HAS A GRAPHIC-ISH SCENE.

It was kind of tough writing it, simply because I have never written anything like it before, and so far, up to now, this story has been suspenseful but also lighthearted.

You will be able to see how it will still be lighthearted at times, but how this story does have a pretty serious plot.

Hopefully this chapter will keep you on your toes, not scare you away!

Love you all, and enjoy a long overdue chapter.

***

"Ms. Phelo!"

"Hmm?" I muttered questioningly as I attempted to get a feel for my surroundings. My eyes fluttered, but I was still struggling to keep them open.

This was becoming a daily struggle.

"Since you think sleeping in my class is more important than a strong education that impacts your future, you can sleep all you want in detentions."

My ears began ringing as a tidal wave of sound flooded my being. My vision instantly cleared, and my eyes slowly travelled up the form of Mrs. Evans.

Her plump form was leaning over my desk, casting an intimidating shadow over my small form.

"But I-"

"Just happened to get bored with my lesson? I've been a teacher for seventeen years Ms. Phelo. I didn't tolerate disrespect then, and you can bet I won't tolerate it now. Detention!"

A sharp slap echoed threw the room as her ruler came in contact with my desk, skimming the contours of my face.

She turned sharply on her heel, and made her way back to the front of the room.

I grumbled, as I flipped through a few pages in my textbook, making sure I was currently on the same page as everyone else.

Why is it that lately every class, especially this one, has made me was to kill myself? I love school, well, the actual learning part anyways.

But on the bright side, I was working my way out of the nerd stereotype.

When the bell rang that let me out of the bottomless pit of Mrs. Evan's classroom, I realized that I had five minutes to get my books on the East Side of the school and make my way to the South Side.

I began to power walk, which I knew would bring evil consequences to my hips in the morning. I turned a corner, bumping into a freshman, and continued on my way without so much as a word.

I passed the cafeteria, and slowed to think about food, but then sped back up after checking my phone and seeing I had three minutes left.

I pumped my arms faster because I read somewhere that if you pump your arms faster, your legs move to match that speed.

The amount of noise in the hallway had almost completely diminished by the time I reached my locker, threw my previous class's books away, and pulled out my books for Biology.

My quick power walking footsteps echoed against the tile floor, as I pushed through doors, I had about one minute and thirty seconds left. Usually I am prepared when I have a class all the way on the other side of school, my my mind has been miles away lately.

Judging by the circumstances I think it should be understood that I am not thinking straight.

Every night since my mom and siblings were taken, I have been calling and calling my mom's phone to no avail. I always get the same gut wrenching feeling when I hear my mom's voicemail, but I feel helpless in how to find them.

Just as I was about to round an the next corner, my backpack was yanked back by an unknown force, pulling me back with it. I tried to turn my head in shock, but a rough hand came over my mouth with bruising force, holding my head in place.

My failing arms were being pinned to my sides as I tried to free myself, and I bit into any skin I could sink my teeth into.

The person, now notably identifiable as a man, cursed, and a piece of cloth hand replaced his hand in less that a second, giving me no time to process a scream.

I felt warm breath eerily crept over my shoulder, as I was pulled back further and further from where I wanted to be.

Even if my screams weren't muffled by the rag that had replaced my captor's hand, everyone was in class, and the hallway was deserted.

I kicked my legs to a point where the man picked my body up and my legs were failing in the air, never coming in contact with their target.

I was dragged into an empty and dark storage closet. My throat was raw from the silent screams that no one could hear even if they tried.

As the familiarity of the bright hallway turned to darkness, my sight reduced to nothing but the surroundings that my eyes had previously seen.

I desperately tried to recall anything that Jacen had taught me during training, but only bits and pieces flashed through my mind, as my captor's strong arm tightened around my waist, pinning my arms as well.

I was trembling ferociously, as fear numbed my body, but I knew I had to do something, or else...

Well, I'd rather not think about what might happen if I didn't get out of here. I wrapped my leg around the back of the assailant's leg and quickly bent my knee, dead legging him, and bringing us both down.

As we were falling to the ground in a tangled and struggling heap, I threw my elbow into his side, and heard the person release a grunt, and release their grip on me.

I sprang up with a cry, and scrambled to the door; only to be yanked back down just the tips of my fingertips brushed the cool metal. My body crashed to the ground in a harsh thud. Tears were streaming down my face and soaking into the rag that covered my mouth.

I frantically looked around to get a view of who was doing this to me, but it was too dark in the closet to see anything except for the crack of light that came from under the door.

I was turned onto my back forcefully, and I clawed and scratched whatever skin I came in contact with, but nothing release his grip. I felt him crawl on top of me, and cold, raw fear washed over me. This couldn't be happening. I shook my head and fought harder as the tears poured harder from my eyes.

My eyes went wide as I heard the person pull something from his pocket, and felt cool metal being pressed against my arm.

"Hold still," he struggled to say in a whisper. The knife grazed my skin and I lost it.

I bucked up into him trying to throw him off and I screamed in muffled desperation to deaf ears. He managed to pin me down to a position where I was physically unable to move anything except for my hands and feet.

I gasped as I felt the knife dig into the skin right below my shoulder, and unbearable pain took over.

"No," I sobbed. "Please."

My arm started trembling as the man dug it deeper and slowly pulled it diagonally across my arm, retracing his gruesome actions, before crossing over and doing the same thing in the opposite direction. I felt my blood pour down my arm and onto the floor beneath me, and I wanted to vomit at the metallic stench that filled the air.

I began heaving as the blood from my arm formed a large enough pool that it soaked into my hair that was no longer in a messy top bun, but falling around my shoulders.

I felt like the pain was never going to end, and I began to lose feeling. Not just in my arm that was being carved into, but everywhere. My brain began shutting down involuntarily, going against my pleas to fight back.

I was numb. I was numb as the person carefully let up, and the pressure was relieved off of my body. I just lay there in a puddle of my own blood, staring up at nothing but darkness. Time faded away into bitter nothing, as my perception of how long I had been submerged in darkness became muddled in my head. My body went into shock moments before light flooded the small space and blinded me.

"Oh God, Zaph," I felt myself being supported into a sitting position, and the gag was gently untied from around my mouth. I opened my mouth to speak, but nothing except carbon dioxide was being released. "Oh God," I heard Jacen choke out, as my eyes finally connected with a gray and dingy ceiling. I heard more footsteps accompany Jacen's voice, as I melted into his arms.

"I'm sorry Zaph. Oh God, I never meant-" Jacen cut himself off, as his grip tightened on me.

He never meant to?

He never meant to what?

I heard Finn and Luke swear, and my eyes finally travelled down from the ceiling to look at all of them. Spencer was pacing as he worriedly looked down at me. Finn was looking back and forth down the hallway. Luke crouched in front of me, and I winced.

He held up his hands, signaling that he meant no harm. He kept eye contact with me as he reached for my arm, but I shrunk away. Jacen's grip around me tightened, as he whispered to me. "He needs to see your arm, Zaph. He won't hurt you; you know that."

I nodded warily, and Luke reached forward again, except this time I didn't shy away. Pain shot up my arm and I hissed as he moved my arm closer to him. He eyed the wound closely, my blood dripping from his fingers. I wanted to vomit, and I couldn't look at my wound. I knew I would surely vomit if I did. Instead I kept my eyes on Luke the whole time, and watched his expressions. He looked worried and he paled, but tried to hide it when he realized I was staring at him intensely.

I saw Spencer get on a phone call, and was staring at the scene before him, before turning away and responding to the person on the phone. I felt Jacen move and I heard him rustle behind me, before a small rag was placed around my arm. I bit my lip to keep from crying out as he tightened the cloth around my wound.

"Sorry," he whispered, glancing up at me.

I watched him intently. "It's not your fault. You didn't do this to me," I returned quietly.

He looked down for a long moment, but not before I saw a look that resembled guilt flash across his features.

I bit my lip. Jacen hadn't really given me much room to doubt his sincerity to helping me.

He just had a lot of secrets.

The thing about that is that secrets can build up so much that a person becomes someone they aren't. I didn't want whatever Jacen and I had to simply be me just believing I had some false sense of security.

I felt myself being pushed forward, and pulled myself out of my thoughts. "Let's go," Jacen said.

I nodded somewhat reluctantly but he didn't notice. Maybe I was reading into the situation too much. Regardless, if I was going to be suspicious around Jacen, I needed to be careful. I couldn't let him know that I was on edge around him.

***

I woke up in my room at Jacen's house. After going to the hospital to get stitches, and hearing more questions than I cared to answer, Jacen drove us both back home.

I sat up, gingerly placing slight pressure on my arm to get comfortable. I brought my hand up to my neck, working out a creak. As I turned my head to the side, a smile danced across my lips.

I reached over to my bedside table and picked up the Uglydoll that was resting against the lamp, and the note that came along with it.

It was a cute pink Uglydoll, which was confusing because they are supposed to be ugly. I played with it for a moment before picked up and unfolding the note.

Found your look-alike. You're welcome.

Heart, heart, heart, all things girly,

The boy who crawled through your temporary bedroom window.

(P.S. Try to stay alive a little longer. You're too ugly to die.)

I laughed quietly at Axle's oddly sweet note, knowing that deep down he was probably actually worried about me enough to buy me a get well present.

Even if it wasn't a normal get well present.

Placing the Uglydoll against the pillow next to me, I slid out of bed, shivering as my bare legs met the cool air.

I entered my bathroom and stood in front of the mirror. I just stared at myself as I thought about something that had been bothering me.

How did Jacen know I was in that supply closet earlier today?

I shook my head. I needed to trust him. Right now, he was one of the only people I had. Still, little seeds of doubt were being planted in my mind.

I unraveled my white bandage so that I could replace it with a clean one. I stared at the X that had been carved into my arm, but quickly looked away, the scar of being forcefully imprinted didn't exactly bring happy memories along with it.

I finished up, and made my way out into the hallway and down to Jacen's room. I was bored and he was the only one in this giant house, so he would have to be the one to entertain me. Hopefully he wasn't in one of his "I will smite you if you look at me" moods.

Those get annoying.

I knocked on his door three times waiting for an answer, but didn't get one.

I knocked again, this time making up a little beat to annoy him into opening the door. He still didn't answer.

I turned to knob after a moment if contemplation and crept inside. I heard the water running in his bathroom, so I assumed he was taking a shower.

I spotted a chair near his desk covered in clothes, so I tossed them off and was about to sit down, when those little seeds that were planted sprouted forcefully.

I bit my lip. Yes, this would be the perfect opportunity to snoop, but that was wrong. Very wrong.

My eyes zeroed in on his shelves, and my fingers gripped the desk in front of me.

Yep, very wrong...

But sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do.

I sprang forward, leaping across the room as quietly as possible. I picked up an envelope lying on the edge of the second shelf from the bottom.

"What are you doing?"

I scream tore from my throat as I whipped around, hiding the envelope behind my back. I stared at Jacen with wide eyes.

At first it was because he had just caught me snooping, but then I realized that he was shirtless.

My eyes scanned the ink on his side in disbelief.

That tattoo that I had been worried about before? Well I could see it clearly now.

And I wanted an explanation for why it was a giant X.

***

Dun dun dunnnnnn!

Haha sorry I am a terrible person and haven't updated in, what, two months?

Anyways do you think Jacen has a reasonable explanation for why he has the letter of her stalker tattooed on his body?

I guess we'll find out next chapter!

Xoxo,

Jean margaret <3