"They let me out." Aleena studied me, her amber eyes glinting in the dimmed kitchen. To her left was a half drunk cruiser bottle. It was midday.

"I thought the hospital had to keep you under surveillance."

She narrowed her eyes. "No, they said I was free to go as long as I attend my check-ups."
I nodded slowly, moving from the narrow hallway to slowly sit on the opposite end of the table. Her house, although familiar, seemed irregular. Like a distorted reflection, something was off putting. I wasn't sure if it was Aleena's out of place pale face, or the absence of Ethan.

"Why did you call me?"

Aleena blinked, her pupils flitting to the half empty bottle then back to me. From her diluted pupils, I knew it wasn't her first. "I've been having dreams."

I felt my lips quirk into a frown. Was this what she called an emergency? "Dreams? About what?"

She regarded me, her eyes tracing the lines of my face, my eyes, my hair. "You," she answered. "The wolves, the Parade, your parents and Isaac."
I swallowed numbly, taking in her blank face. She was yet to crack a smile. Her lips remained sealed, her eyes numb. Sunken veins carved across her face, thinning across her hollowed skin. "What happened in the dreams?"

A muscle in her jaw jumped. "Death happened. In my coma, I saw a lot of you." Her gaze slid to a place far away, her eyes clouding over. "I saw you with an arrow through your heart, a bullet in your head, a sword wedged in your ribs and poison on your lips. They were possibilities of your future, I knew that." Her eyes shifted to mine, filling me with a void of uneasiness. "I heard you at times. When I was drowning in darkness I could hear you. And then I felt you, I felt your fingers around my neck—"

"Aleena I'm—"

"Don't," she interrupted. She blinked her widened eyes. "Don't apologise."

Remorse inflicted guilt to form tears in the back of my eyes. I remembered her then, the prints on her neck from my fingernails. The bruises that swelled her windpipe. I had nearly killed her.

"I nearly killed you," I said, voicing my thoughts.

Aleena only stared, her face a blanket of nothing. "I wanted you to."
My heart soared, forming bile in the back of my throat. "What?"

"I wanted you to," she repeated, as if her words were nothing more than a confession. "I couldn't bear it. The constant torture, the replayed nightmares. At first, I felt nothing. But then the dreams began more pointed, more targeted and realistic until every day I would see you die. And every day the culprit would be a different person." Her bottom lip quivered. "At times, your father would be strangling you. Aaron would drown you, Isaac would tear you apart. But the worst murderer wasn't any of them." A single tear slid down her cheek, sliding from her jaw to where her hands lay in her lap. "It was me."

Her words brought forwards images to press against my eyes. Aleena's hands covered in blood, her fingers clutching a gun, her hands around my neck. I couldn't imagine her taking my life. I couldn't imagine her as a murderer.

"It's just a dream Aleena," I said in reassurance. Half of me registered I was reassuring myself.

"No, they aren't dreams," she replied back, her voice seething with certainty. "They are possibilities Renee. I dreamt the dagger in the courthouse. I saw Isaac throw the knife. It wasn't until Ethan told me what happened when I realised my dream had become reality."

I shook my head, disbelief surging through me. "How could you dream the future? You were in a coma; you shouldn't remember anything."

"But I do Renee," she persisted. "I saw the war. Only flickers of it, and at some points I'm sure my dreams were nothing but dreams. I saw you kill Lola, and I saw Miss Anderson murder Colton."

I dropped my gaze to stare at my shaking hands. I clenched them into fists to halt the movement. After several seconds of silence, I finally looked back up to her. "What do you think this means? What are the dreams telling us?"

Her fingers idly reached for the cruiser bottle, tapping lightly on the glass. It was a casual movement, but her fingers continued to tap. Once, twice, three times; in a slowed, sinister tone. "It's not the dreams telling us," she said. "It's the Parade."

"The Parade?" I repeated, incredulous.

Her fingers didn't stop there tapping. "It took me some time to understand the meaning of my visions. I would see wolves, a sea of them. After the dreams of you, the wolves would come. They would pin me down with their bodies and tear me limb from limb. I felt every inch of their teeth in my skin. It would repeat until I expected them to launch for my neck. I expected their hot breath on my face." Her fingers paused mid tap. "It was fine until you turned into one of them."

I swallowed, my throat as dry as sandpaper.

"You killed my brother first, then my parents. You left me to rot, without a family," Aleena continued. "You destroyed everything I had, including what was left of me. You would always leave me, barely alive and screaming. I always knew you would be back."

Her eyes were pinning me, trapping me. I felt like a mouse in a snare, desperately scrambling for affirmation. "Aleena," I began, my voice shaking. "You know I would never do that to you."

Her cat like eyes narrowed. "How?"
I felt my face tilt into shock. "How?" I echoed. "Aleena you've known me for years. You know you can trust me."

Despite everything, despite the five years we've known each other, she shook her head. "You lost my trust when you suffocated me in my sleep."

"I told you I didn't mean it. I was delirious—"

"You were dangerous." She clenched the cruiser bottle in her open palm, her fingers brimming white. "I may have wanted to die, but not at the hands of my best friend."

I began to feel the dread settle into my bones. The foreboding that this conversation was creeping into the shadows. Like a tiger stalking a fawn. I wished more than anything I wasn't the prey.

"I'm sorry, and I know that's never going to be an excuse. I know nothing will ever allow you to forgive me, but you have to understand the situation I was in," I said, conscious of her unwavering gaze. "I was just released from the court house, Isaac was jailed for a crime he didn't commit and Aaron lied to me," I searched her eyes, desperate for the girl I had left behind in the woods those many months ago. "I broke. And I regret it every time. I didn't know what came over me. I just wanted to escape and I needed you but you weren't there." I felt the tears begin to dust my eyes, hot and guilt ridden. "You weren't there through it all. When I was stabbed, held at gun point, sliced apart; you weren't there. When I first found Ambers body I wanted nothing more than to tell you. When Fin died, I wanted you to hold me. I wanted to tell someone of the pain I felt. And when my mother left, and I was alone in a house dusted with death, I wanted more than anything to stay with you." I leaned forwards, ignoring the tears slip down my face. "But I couldn't, and it killed me to know the reason you weren't there was because of me."

Something passed beneath her gaze. It was just a slight light, dulled instantly by the darkness in her irises. However, it was gone in an instant, and her face remained as passive as always.

"That only proves my point," she hissed. "How many people did you get killed Renee?"

I sucked in a sharp breath. There was no pointed hatred in her eyes, just blankness.

"How many?" she prompted.

"I don't know," I finally answered.

"You don't know?" she said in an echo. "You don't know? That boy, Fin was it? He's dead now. Colton, Amber, Sarah. Dead. And what about me? You nearly killed me out of what? Greif? Madness? Your mental state doesn't clarify your actions."

"I know—" I began but she cut me off.

"You're not even a Night Child yet and you're already a monster."

My words rushed out of my parted lips, like the whisper of a cry. I was left in silence to watch Aleena. A monster.

"Is that what you think I am?" I whispered.

Her pupils slitted. "You've killed people, innocent people. You sacrificed children's lives for the sake of your own and never once looked back."

"How could you say that?" I hissed, my voice unsheathed with surprise. "I never meant to hurt anybody—"

The glass bottle shattered in her hands. "BUT YOU DID!"

I stared in horror as her hands began to bleed, dripping crimson on the marble table.

"A coma is nothing compared to what you put those kids through! That war was because of you! That bloodshed is on your hands," her eyes glinted. "Every death is your fault! And while you sit here, crying but breathing, bones are being buried." She took a deep breath, what was left of the bottle falling from her hand. "That vision of you transiting into a Forsaken and killing everyone I love isn't a dream," she blinked, clenching her jaw. "It is a possibility."

"I'm not turning into a Night Child," I argued, frustration and fear etching into my voice.

In one abrupt movement Aleena had risen from her spot, reaching to clutch a jagged piece of the bottle. She took a step towards me, holding the glass like a weapon.

"Don't lie to me," she shouted.

I hastily pushed myself out of the chair. "Aleena, what the hell are you doing?"

She advanced, her pupils as wide as saucers, blocking out her irises entirely. "You can't kill me if I kill you first."

I backed up, adrenaline seeping into my bones. My legs began to shake. "Stop, Aleena you don't want to do this."

She struck out with the bottle. I barely managed to duck under the attack before she swung again. This time, the tips of the glass cut across my forearm. I hissed in pain.

"You killed my brother. You killed my entire family," the whites of her eyes shone with fury. "I should cut you into pieces and feed you to your kind."

I dodged another swing. "I haven't killed your family Aleena. They are right here. Ethan is still alive!"

"No!" she screamed, backing me into a corner. "You're lying!"

I stared at her, terror seeping into my heart so it thumped painfully. What was happening to her? Her eyes were frenzied, her teeth bared. Blood from her cuts rained down her hands but she didn't seem to feel the pain.

"Aleena, I promise I haven't hurt them. I haven't laid a finger on any of them."

"Stop talking!"

I felt my back press up against the far kitchen wall. There was no escape. In one effortlessly movement, she had the edges of the bottle pressed up against my necks, its razor edges slicing through layers of skin. Another noise of pain escaped my lips.

"You're just like the rest of them," she hissed, her voice as lethal as the bottle she held. "You merciless beast. I hope you rot in hell. I want to hear your cries of mercy."

"Aleena, snap out of it," I spat. Her response was to dig the bottle deeper into my neck. I felt it press up against my windpipe.

"You're just like your father. Killing innocent people, taking their lives. I'll break every bone in your body just like you did to Ethan."

Blood poured into my mouth, staining my teeth. "I would never hurt Ethan. I love him Aleena. I couldn't ever bring myself to take his life."

"Shut up," she replied.

"I'm not a murderer. I'm not like them, I'm not like my father—"

"I SAID SHUT UP!"

I bit my tongue, feeling the glass cut deep into my skin. I felt liquid dribble down my neck to stain my shirt.

Aleena hovered over me, the glass bottle shaking in her hands. Tears ran down her face, mingling with my blood that had sprayed on her cheek. She stared at me, her pupils deathly black. But then her face slackened, her jaw lost its stiffness, and her irises began to seep back into her eyes. The bottle loosened and crashed to the floor. Aleena's eyes widened, and she took a shaky step backwards to lift her bloodied hands to her face.

"Renee?" Her voice shook. "What is happening to me?"

I watched her in dread as she stared at her shaking hands, then to the bottle on the floor.

"Renee," she repeated, the tears flowing back into her eyes. "What did I do to you?"

I attempted to straighten myself, forcing my legs to stop shaking. "You attacked me."

There was a moment where a look of utter horror washed across her face. "I did?" she studied my face for clarification before realisation dawned on her. "It happened again," she murmured.

I took a step forward towards her, thought better of it, and then shifted back to the corner of the room. "What happened again?" I asked unsteadily.

She let her hands ball into fists, moving to wipe away her tears. "I lost control."

"What do you mean you lost control?" I hissed. I didn't understand anything. My throat burnt from the deep slice, still frothing with blood.

"I'm sorry Renee," she breathed. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean it. I thought it wouldn't happen. I thought it would be okay this time."

"You need to tell me what is going on," I said. She continued to stare at her fists, her bottom lip trembling. Finally, her eyes shifted to mine.

"I lose control of my humanity. The first time it happened was when I was alone with Ethan. He called the doctors and they told him it was a side effect from the drugs," she swallowed a sob. "I didn't think much of it until it kept happening for longer periods of time. I would black out, and then wake up hours later. Ethan wasn't around for the worst of them. But yesterday I found a dead terrier in my room," she paused, biting on her lip. "I'd snapped its neck."

I took in a sharp intake of air, barely managing to contain the shocked gasp that fled my lungs.

She blinked, dislodging more tears. "I nearly killed you, and I don't remember a thing. I don't even remember calling you." She took a few steps towards me. I forced myself not to flinch.

"You need to go to Idin Library Renee. I need to know what's happening." She pressed her fingers against my wrists. They were cold to the touch. "Go to Idin Library and figure out what is wrong with me. Please," she begged. "I can't keep this up any longer. Next time I might not resurface before I slit your throat open."