I sit in a chair in the corner of the room, staring blankly up at a very elegant crystal chandelier hanging above the room.

I can hear a discussion going on around me. I can hear voices speaking, but I am unable to comprehend what they were saying. In my haste, I'd left my brother and friends vulnerable to Nora's attack. She'd come here, to Charlotte's account, and snapped Micah's neck during the ritual. Charlotte says that Porter held her off until she nearly drained him and left him to die.

Charlotte had apparently gotten off easy.

"What do we do now? There are two bodies?" Eva panics.

"Isn't that obvious?" Lucas asks as he rolls his eyes, "We ditch the bodies and—"

"Lukah!" Finn says casting a concerned glance over at me, "These aren't just bodies. We can't—"

I numb.

"Well, big Brother, what do you propose we do? Make them a grave in the backyard?" Lucas asks as he looks to Eva, then to Finn and then his eyes find me. He chuckles, "You're serious?"

The room goes silent. The words he is saying aren't hitting me. I have to comprehend these words. I search my brain for words. I have to put together the words.

Porter is dead.

What is he saying?

He's not alive. He's not coming back. I have to tell my parents. I have to take his—

And there it is.

"He's dead! He's a body now! We need to just chuck him—"

Electricity crackles above us. It surges through the chandelier above us. The chandelier acts like a conductor and lightning shoots through the room. As the chandelier crashes to the ground, Lucas narrowly avoids being smashed. Lucas' eyes return to me, an apparent rage building.

With fire in his eyes, he marches towards me and I stand ready. Finn appears between us and holds his Brother at bay.

"You could have—"

"Killed you? You're already dead." I say with no emotion. I can hear myself speak and it's like there's nothing in me. I can feel the shock wearing thin on my body and when I speak, it's starting to sound angry, "You're just a body."

Lucas is about to say something when his eyes go wide. Finn wears the same expression as his Brother does. The two of them whip around and stare Porter's body. I follow their gaze to see what they are seeing but I can't.

"Do you..." Finn asks Lucas, who nods. Finn realizes that I'm staring too and explains, "He died with vampire blood in his system. He's turning."

I know I have to do something.

I stand beside Porter's bed as I stuff his clothes into a duffle bag. My house has become a veritable dead zone as of late. Dad no longer lives here, Mom is at work a good chunk of the time and Granny...isn't here.

And now Porter won't be here.

I think about this as I finish packing the bag. I hear the front door open and close. I hesitantly pick up the bag and turn to the door to see Eva standing in the doorway. She gives me a pitiful smile and looks around, opting to be silent. I am grateful for her silence.

Anything she said now would be punishable by flaying.

"He was always like a big Brother to me." Eva says softly as she ventures to his dresser. She looks up at the corkboard filled with pictures of Porter and his friends and family. She spies the Maxim posters. She turns to me, "I'm sorry he—"

"Eva, why are you even here?" I ask.

"We're friends."

"Are we?" I chuckle.

"Come on, that's not fair! We're fighting but—"

"This isn't a fight."

"It's a fight, but—"

"But?" I ask, "But nothing has changed. As a matter of fact, a vampire did this. She used your phone which I'm assuming you left while you were with her vampire Brother. She'll pay first."

A look of rampant anxiety runs the length of her face, making her look much older than she is. She asks, "What are you planning?"

"The end of all this." I say as I pull the duffle bag close and head towards the door. As I pass her, I mutter, "Let yourself out."

Going to class was never an option, so showing up here means something.

I approach the school with the aforementioned duffle bag and make a bee-line directly for Nora's office. There is a huge football game tonight and there is an even bigger pep rally, so there is no one between us. I spy her standing down the hallway talking with a couple of teachers.

I slam the bag down on the floor and she immediately looks up.

By sheer force of will, the teachers leave the hallway. Nora and I are the only ones left. Nora watches as the teachers leave and chuckles as she addresses me. She walks towards me but stops a few feet away, again by sheer force of my will. Her amusement causes the anger inside of me to rise higher.

"The itty-bitty Bennett... I guess I don't have to ask if you got my gift." Nora asks with a smirk.

"I got it. I have one of my own." I lift my hand over the bag and it unzips itself, "You do know, here, they used to hang and burn witches. They would put them on trial."

A demented sense of pleasure invades my being.

"This, Lenora Laureen Christiansen, is your trail. How do you plead?"

"Fashionable." She says as she tries to move towards me. It's as if she's stuck in quicksand, "Let me go!"

"Okay." I say as I gesture towards her. She flies back against a couple of lockers and I watch her stand again. She dusts herself off and I continue, "I find you guilty. Punishable by death."

I lift my hand again and the clothes scatter out of the bag as three of my Father's ceremonial knives lift into the air.

"Who says TV never teaches you anything, right?"

A distinct look of excitement and fascination comes over her. The knives launch themselves at her and she catches two. The third sticks in her stomach. With a rather ferocious growl, she drops the knives and pulls the third from her stomach.

"This wasn't a waste of time." Nora seems to regard me with annoyance rather than anger, "You really are the one he's looking for."

I stare at her. I decide I don't really care what she's talking about nor who she's referring to. It isn't the first time she's said something like that. This isn't about him. She killed my Grandmother and my Brother.

She will burn.

A pulse of energy echoes through the hallway, slamming open every locker on the way. Nora flies off her feet and rolls to a stop. I walk towards her and kneel down, taking one of the knives in my hand.

Nora laughs as I make my way to her, "Go ahead, you'll be doing me a favor." She says as she spits blood on the floor.

I pause at her words.

"If he finds out I failed yet again, he will kill me anyways." Nora says as she frowns up at me.

I bend down and take her face in my hand, "I won't kill you. I'll give you the gift I promised. I give you the gift of not knowing." I say as energy shoots from my hands.

Nora's body begins to convulse in my hands and once she stops, she slumps over to the ground. I stand and without a word, the knives as well as the clothes fly back into the duffle bag and it zips itself. I slowly pick up the bag as I turn the corner, heading back to the Witch House.

When I make it back to the Witch House, I walk into an argument. Apparently, David has joined Eva, Charlotte, Finn and Lucas. David is very agitated, even more than usual. He is shouting at the top of his lungs, asking about me. I believe he is under the impression that something has happened to me.

And he's right.

At my entrance, everyone grows quiet. David moves to me, asking if I am injured. I shake my head, opting not to speak. My eyes quickly turn to the very still Porter.

My eyes traces the contours of his body. I try to see any hint of life but there is literally nothing there.

Charlotte stands in the corner, seemingly shell-shocked. I haven't heard a word from her since she was resuscitated.

"I think it's time for everyone to go home." I say softly.

"But—" David begins.

"Get out, please." I say in a quiet tone. When no one moves, I scream, "Get out!" and the front door flies open.

They all seem a bit taken off guard and reluctant. Eva convinces Finn to leave and he in turn drags Lucas away. David follows them with much resistance. Charlotte, to my horror, leaves too. She states that she has a headache.

Eva stands behind me, watching as I sit down next to Porter's body.

I'm glad she's still here.

"What—what are you going to do?" She asks.

"That is entirely up to him." I say trying to fight off my fatigue. I feel calm for the first time all day and I look up to her, "You can go, if you want."

"I'm not going anywhere." Eva says as she puts her hand on my shoulder.

We wait.

For an hour, there is no talking. It's not an awkward silence. I find myself petrified of what's going to happen when he wakes up. I wonder if he will be Porter at all. I wonder if he's going to go full-on vampire right away. I know he wouldn't want that.

The thought occurs that he wouldn't even be a witch anymore.

With a sudden and loud breath, Porter sits up and stares around the room. His eyes find me quickly and I pull him into a tight hug. I can't feel his heartbeat or his breath.

I ignore it for now and just savor hugging my Brother.

"What happened?" He asks.

"You tell us," I say as I pull away from him, "What happened when I left?"

Porter's brows furrow as he thinks back, "Micah...she is working for Nora. Or with. They seemed friendly." His face darkens more than I like, "Nora snapped her neck but we—we did the spell. But—" His eyes go wide.

I can practically read his mind, which is why I'm not surprised when he throws his hand towards the door. When nothing happens, he pulls his hand back, looking at it with confusion. I can see the realization pour over him.

I see the tears accumulating in his eyes and I can't fight the tears from falling from mine. I take his hand in mine.

"She killed us. Me." I nod to him and he takes a deep breath, "I'm so hungry. I feel like—am I a vampire?"

I nod again.

"No! I don't want this." He laments, "You have to end this."

"Port..."

"You have to let me go."

"We can work with this, Port. We can deal with this and—"

"No! I don't want this!" Porter snarls, "You have to—you just have to."

Within seconds of saying these words, he disappears and reappears beside the wooden chair where Charlotte sat in the corner. He breaks the leg off the chair and pulls it to his chest. I stand with Eva holding me back.

I watch him, trying to temper his movements. He stares at me and Eva. I know his mind is already made up.

"There's a way you can help me. It's in the book. The book is in plain sight, where the horses roam. I would only wish that you find the entry of Finding. It's the only way to help me." Porter says softly.

"Porter...I don't think I can do this." I can feel the grief overwhelming me.

"You can." He says as his eyes go wide, "I remember. I remember how it all happened, Perry. Micah didn't die. She hopped."

"Hopped? Hopped where?" Eva asks.

"Into Charlotte." Porter says as he jams the chair leg into his chest.

His whole body goes white as he drops to the ground, his words fresh in my mind.

I can continue standing anymore and I drop, too. Eva engulfs me into a hug as I watch death take over my Brother.

Nora sits in a chair by the window of Goode Mental Asylum. She babbles to herself absentmindedly as she watches the world go by. Every three minutes, she involuntarily jerks her whole body. She only looks away from the window when someone sits down beside her. She looks over at the girl with strawberry blonde hair.

"I know you! You—you! I know you!" Nora says growing more and more agitated.

Charlotte smiles as she runs her hand down Nora's face, "Nora, that's one helluva spell, isn't it?"

Nora grabs the girl's hand roughly as she studies it. She brings it back up to her face and rubs against it, not unlike a cat would.

"The plan worked...for me at least." Charlotte smirks, "Don't worry. Your sacrifice will not be in vain. I'll break this spell one way or another. We have to keep him from falling into either of their hands. Just rest assured that you will be avenged."

Nora smiles at the girl before breaking into a maddened laughter. The two women stare at each other, unaware that a figure watches them from a camera in the corner.