meh. i kinda dislike this chapter...

vote/comment/fan!

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Jason held onto Eliza's hand while he drove out of the hotel, a soft, chilly breeze filling the car due to the broken window on the drivers side of the car. He grasped the car wheel tightly, getting a bit nervous of how Eliza would react. 

"I found out a lot of interesting information…" Jason began, feeling Eliza's gaze on him. He purposefully ignored her stare and focused on looking at the highway, as if it was the most important thing in the world.

"What is it?" Eliza pipped, squeezing Jason's hand to reassure him that everything was fine.  Jason sighed. 

"The guy I spoke to, his name is Hunter." Jason said, shutting his eyes for a quick moment before re-focusing them on the road. "At first I thought he was my dad—"

"Wait," Eliza interrupted, her innocent brown eyes going wide. "That guy was our dad?!' 

"No," Jason shook his head, smiling a little bit. "He's my dads twin. To prove it, Hunter told me to call my dad. And he was telling the truth."

"It must've been scary," Eliza said, frowning slightly. "Talking to a killer that looked exactly like your dad…" 

"Technically Hunter isn't a killer." Jason corrected, slowing the car down at a red light. "He said that whenever someone calls him on that specific cell phone, he says who do you want me to kill, or something similar to that." 

"Oh," Eliza said dumbfoundedly, half-believing Jason while he smiled. 

"You remember that paper? The one that Amber wrote about killing three people?" Jason said, visibly getting pale at the thought of kissing someone who killed three people. 

Eliza nodded, motioning for him to continue. "From what Hunter was telling me, Amber used to be a really sweet, loving and caring girl." Jason explained, half-believing what Hunter told him. He just couldn't picture Amber being sweet. Not like the way she was acting before, saying that she wanted to kill Amber. 

"They went out." Jason said, frowning. "Hunter said that he was Alexanders confidante while in the gang-"

"Alexander was a leader of a gang?!" Eliza interrupted, her eyes becoming wide with fear and worry. Even though she hadn't met Alexander, she was still afraid of him after what she hard from Jason. 

Jason nodded, getting a bit uncomfortable himself. "He hid Amber from him for a while. But soon Alexander found out, and he started hanging out with her. More like brainwashing." 

"She ended up falling for him." Jason continued, making sure his eyes stayed on the road while he quickly spoke, wanting to get this explanation out of the way. "One day they were walking to his home and there were five people in his home, aiming to kill Alexander."

Jason felt Eliza tense up. "While Alexander killed two of them, he forced Amber to kill the other three." 

"Oh my god," Eliza gasped, furrowing her eyebrows together in shock. Her hand was removed from Jason while she raised her hand to her mouth. "So Amber isn't the bad guy here, sort of. Alexander brainwashed her, and she didn't even realize it!" 

"Are you defending her?" Jason almost spat, his eyes widening in disbelief. "After she sent a guy to kill you and Chase?!" 

"No!" Eliza almost shouted, recoiling into her seat. She sighed frustratedly and ran a hand through her messy hair, getting annoyed. "I'm just saying. Amber is the way she is now all because of Alexander. If Alexander didn't force her to kill those people.." She trailed off, biting her lip. "None of this would be happening." 

Jason's lip twitched slightly, disagreeing with her. If he was in Amber's position, he would have ran from Alexander as soon as he forced him to kill those people. Not stay with him and fall in love with him. 

Eliza realized Jason disagreed with her because of the sour expression on her face. "Jason." 

"Just forget it." Jason almost snapped. He bit his tongue, trying to control his anger. "Anyways, after that incident, Alexander forced Amber to not say anything. I guess the guilt tore her sweet-self away, turning her into the cold-heartless monster she is today. Since she couldn't tell anyone she wrote a note." 

Eliza didn't say anything, still a bit irritated that Jason didn't agree with her. Instead she just motioned for him to continue, to annoyed to speak to him. 

"I gave the note to Hunter." Jason blurted out, grasping the steering wheel tightly. He braced himself for Eliza's reaction.

"You WHAT?!" She shrieked, his hands moving the steering wheel on accident. His car moved on the wrong size of the road while another car was speeding straight towards them. Panicked, Jason swerved the steering wheel just in time. The car span in circles a few times before it skidded to an abrupt halt on a small grass clearing. He blew out a shaky breath while his heart raced, trying to comprehend what just happened. Eliza seemed to be having the same reaction Jason was.

"Are you okay?" Jason asked, his eyes widening with worry. He tried to make it seem as if he wasn't freaked out to make Eliza calm down a bit. She looked like she was on the verge of passing out. 

"I'm fine," She replied a little bit too quickly, blinking a couple times while breathing heavily. Jason frowned at her abrupt change of behavior and sighed, unbuckling his seat belt and getting out of the car. He walked out of his seat and walked towards the passenger side of the car, opening the door and engulfing Eliza into a hug. 

She wrapped her arms around him as he held her tightly, tears falling down her face rapidly. Jason didn't know what happened to her, so all he did was just hold her in his hands, telling her soothing words and phrases. More tears clouded her vision as disturbing, graphic and almost realistic images over-threw her mind of that guy, touching Eliza and saying foul, disgusting words that made her want to hurl.

Jason's touch only made it worse, as cruel as that sounded. Eliza's mind made her think that Jason was the guy that tried to rape her, which made her recoil from his touch in fear. 

"Eliza what's wrong?" Jason demanded softly, wiping the never ending tears from her eyes with a simple brush of his fingers. 

She sniffed and tried to compose herself, swallowing a couple times to remove the large lump in her throat. "I'm fine," She mumbled, although Jason didn't believe her. 

"Eliza." Jason deadpanned, staring into her trouble eyes. "What's the matter?" 

"Nothing," Eliza said, sniffing and wiping her cheeks with the edge of her sleeve. "I was just scared of everything that's happening at the moment. Hunter, Amber, Alexander... The car crash..." 

'The attempted rape..' Eliza almost said, biting her tongue while tears threatened to fall down her face again. 

"I'm sorry," Jason apologized, pulling her into a hug again. He was telling the truth this time. He sincerely and truly was sorry for causing all of this to happen to both of them, all because a simple and silly mistake that occurred during the summer. "I really am." 

"Why?" Eliza asked, hearing Jason's heartbeat which slowly calmed her down. "Why are you sorry?" 

"For bringing you into this mess," Jason sighed, resting his chin on Eliza's head. At the moment he felt so guilty and responsible for everything that happened in the past few months. 

"It's okay," Eliza whispered, almost inaudibly. "It wasn't your fault." 

"But—" Jason protested, frowning. 

"You didn't know that this was going to happen to either of us, right? We both didn't know." Eliza removed herself from Jasons chest and looked at him with a firm gaze, determined to prove that what happened these past months werent intentionally his fault. When Jason didn't answer, Eliza's frown deepened into a scowl. 

"Well?" She said.

"No." Jason said incoherantly, although Eliza managed to hear him say it. "We didn't know." He said a bit loudly. 

"So its not your fault." Eliza said softly, her mouth quirking up into a smile as she poked his chest. Jason returned the smile and kissed her forehead, resting her head on his chest. 

They stayed like that for a while. Eliza listened to the familiar thump of Jason's heartbeat, making her feel more calm, safe and secure. Jason focused on hearing Eliza's soft steady breaths, glad that she didn't blame him for everything that happened. 

After what seemed like hours, only it was about fifteen minutes, Jason separated and kissed her head, bringing her back to the car with a disappointed expression. He didn't really want to seperate from their embrace but he had a two hour drive ahead of him and wanted to get home already, after what seemed like forever. 

Eliza entered the car, trying to control her uneven breathing as her mind was swarmed with thoughts and vile images of what happened the previous night. She didn't want to admit it, but the attempted rape had shaken her and scared her to a point that she was hallucinating and having images popping up in her mind. 

Was this how Eliza was going to be for a while? Until she forgot about it? 

Even thinking about having these images and hallucinations in her mind for a while had her fidget around in her seat uncomfortably. 

Eliza couldn't wait to get home. 

---

Amber tsked and sighed furiously, slamming her keyboard with her hand. Right now she had downloaded a program that took her three hours to get that tracked anything down, as long as she had the correct information. Now that she had the program, though, it was taking forever to download and at 7:00 AM in the morning, she had little to no patience. 

Another frustrated sigh escaped Ambers lips as she stood up, walking out of her room and running downstairs. She decided to go outside and get some coffee to get her senses more awake. Amber only hoped that there was a coffee shop nearby that was open this early. 

Just as she entered her car, she felt her phone buzz in her pocket. 

'Is the DiH finished downloading?' 

It was Alexander. Amber had told him of the program—which initials were DiH— sometime during 5:30 - 6:00 AM and said that she would see if this program would work. 

'Not even halfway finished.' Amber sighed as she typed the message. 'Im heading out for some coffee now, wanna come?' 

Amber didn't know why, but something inside of her told her to invite Alexander with her to get some coffee. She hadnt spoke to him recently — not about his personal life and how he was doing. Lately they only spoke about Jason and that bitch, Eliza. Never about themselves. 

Frowning at the thought of that, Amber felt her phone buzz with its odd tone whenever she got a message. She entered her car and started it, opening the text message while she drove out of her driveway. 

'Sounds nice. Meet me in the café next to my building in ten.' 

Amber smiled and drove to Alexander's apartment, which was five minutes away from hers. She hummed a random tune and tapped her fingers on the steering wheel, suddenly excited about drinking coffee with Alexander. Honestly, it seemed like forever since they done something like this and she missed it. 

While Amber stopped at a red light, she forced herself not to think of the note and the cell phone, and to think of how fun her morning was going to be because she was with Alexander. A smile appeared on her face as she parked in front of the small café. It seemed to be open and empty of customers. 

She could vaguely see Alexander inside of the shop, checking something on his phone with a frown on his face. Amber still kept the smile on her face nonetheless, and exited her car, making sure to lock it in the process. She put her keys in her front pocket and entered the café, an overwhelming aroma of caffeine filling her nostrils. 

For some odd reason the coffee seemed to calm Amber down and make her even more relaxed as she approached Alexander's table, poking him while she sat down.

"Hey." Amber greeted. His head snapped up, the frown still evident on his face. 

"Hey." He said flatly, looking terribly moody. This time Amber frowned, albeit it was a small one at that. 

"What's the matter?" Amber piqued, her eyebrows furrowing in curiosity. Alexander sighed, although it sounded more like a scowl, and rolled his eyes, running a distressed hand through his oh-so-messy hair. 

"Nothing." Alexander snapped, a mixture of a scowl and a frown forming on his face. Oddly enough Amber felt a bit hurt that he didn't trust her enough to tell her what happened with him. He seemed like he was becoming distant with her, ever since she asked him to get Jason to go out with her. She remembered the day she asked Alexander for Jason like if it was yesterday. 

' Amber strode down the park, staring at everyone and everything. There was this couple that looked so engaged in their conversation that they seemed to have forgotten about their surroundings. Amber noticed how the girls eyes twinkled with some excitement, happiness, and most of all, love and adoration. The guy across from her seemed the same way as well. 

Ambers heart swelled with jealousy, wishing that she had something similar to that. She had that with Hunter, but he broke up with her once he found out that she liked Alexander instead of him. Of course during that time she didn't really know what she was doing, or how she felt about that, so now was one of those moments where she regretted everything she did. 

Amber tore her gaze away from the couple and kept on walking, glancing at the birds who were eating some bread that an elderly lady was feeding them. 

A loud cry and sniffle interrupted her, as she snapped her gaze towards another couple. This one seemed different from the previous couple. The girl was crying, with over what seemed like a million tears falling down her face. She had a guilty and heartbroken expression on her face while the guy held her. 

When Amber turned to look at the guy, she found herself not wanting to look away. What she found more interesting was how brown, almost hazel his eyes looked like and how they filled with such warmth and softness. His hair was tousled to the side in almost a messy yet attractive way. 

What made Amber frown was how the guy had a somewhat solemn expression on his face, mixed with a hint of depression and sadness. She stepped behind a tree and tried to listen on their conversation. 

"I'm leaving today." The girl said, her voice cracking. Amber cocked her head to the side and tried to listen to the guys reply. Maybe this was his girlfriend and she had to move away, or something similar along those lines. 

The guy mumbled something, but Amber couldn't catch it. She was too entranced by how deep, and alluring his voice sounded, making her heart swoon with flutters. '

From that moment on, Amber had forced Alexander to get all the information on that guy as possible. In a matter of a week, she found out that his name was Jason, his parents were divorced, and that girl, (which she didn't bother getting the name out of) was just an important friend of his. 

Then she made someone watch Jason for a while, to see what he did while living by himself. Amber realized that he struggled, and of course she made Alexander do something about it, which led them to where they were today. 

Alexander had turned distant with her. She didn't realize it until now, after three months. Ambers head whirled in disbelief as she registered this information. 

"Tell me what's wrong." Amber demanded, her voice firm and cold. Alexander's head snapped up in shock, surprised that Amber was talking to him this way. To him, she was happy, and calm and then in another second she seemed angry and demanded. Amber figured he thought she was bipolar. 

Alexander sighed, shaking his head. He mumbled something before speaking, his words loud and clear: 

"My girlfriend broke up with me." 

At first, his words didn't reach Amber for a while. And when it did, her mouth dropped open in shock. It wasn't the shock where you felt bad and said your condolences— oh no. This shock that amber had was one that was filled with happiness, relief, and okay, a twinge of sadness.