Slow, steady steps could be heard in the distance. A shadow with dark, flowing clothes appeared, her blue eyes piercing through the darkness and her blonde hair glowing, almost flying as if there was a breeze. She looked around disturbed, searching for something she lost, but he was frozen, not wanting to find out what it was.

She turned straight towards the only other person in the room, him, and smiled, "There you are. Come here, sweety."

She extended her arms and wrapped them around him, squeezing all the air out of him. Suddenly, he couldn't breathe at all. All the air was escaping him, and it was making his life slip away from him. "Help me, Josh. Get me out of here. Help---"

Josh looked around, searching desperately for the woman, catching his breath subconciously. He touched his chest to make sure he was breathing. He wasn't even aware of himself right now. But when he thought about his breathing, it was harder to do it. For a moment, he forgot about inhaling and exhaling and searched for the woman desperately, longing her embrace again. Longing to hear her voice again. She seemed to be in his head, calling his name.

He stepped forward, not really seeing anything. A pair of blue eyes appeared in the darkness and a hand extended towards him. He extended his hand, his eyes filling with tears, he touched the hand. He felt a warm feeling he hadn't felt since what seemed like forever. He tripped over something, he never found out what it was because he blacked out for a few minutes. He woke up cold, scared and sweating the next time. The voice had come back.

"Josh? Josh? Josh?" the voice was frantic, but it wasn't the same one. It was younger. Like Alex. Her hand was extended like the other time, her tone was less urgent now. "Follow me. Your mom wants to see you."

"W-where is s-she? H-How did you get here?" he asked, not aware of his own voice. It was like he was watching everything and not controlling himself. "Alex?"

Alex smiled, her dark hair was in front of her face, her frame made a shape in the darkness, but he could see the brightness in her chocolate eyes. She smiled sweetly at him and said, "Come with me, through here. She's here. She really, really wants to see you."

"She's out there?" he followed her towards the window. He looked down then at her. "Where?"

"Open it," she said, and he did. "She's there."

It seemed impossible to him. She was pointing at the moon. She stepped over the frame of the window and floated out. Josh stared up at her, her skin and the moon were the exact same color. She extended her hand, as in to say, Come. He accidentally kicked the nightstand and it fell on his attempt to follow her. He barely realized this and reached out for Alex. She kept whispering that it was okay. He stepped on the frame, still reaching out. Without warning, she looked afraid and disappeared at the sound of someone's voice.

"Josh, get down from there!" a force pulled him backward, but he never hit the floor.

Surprised, Josh kicked and screamed, his eyes filled with tears. "Let go! I have to see my mom!"

"Josh," the voice was soothing, he knew he had heard it before once, but he didn't care about who the person was. He reached for the window, but another figure closed it, disappeared and the light turned on.

"What's going on?" one of the voices asked, scared. It was a woman.

The other voice responded, "I think he might be delusional."

The voices were gibberish to him, especially because his mind was set on one thing only: reaching the window. Eventually, he came to and suddenly recognized the voices, but not what they were saying. "Dad?"

"Are you alright? What happened?" he was way too fast when he spoke.

"What happened? Where's Alex?"

"Alex? There's nobody here," Sara said, looking around. She had a glass of water in her hand. When Josh hadn't realized, she had left to get it because his father asked. "Did somebody sneak in? Who's Alex?"

"She was here, I saw her. She went through the window," he pointed to it, wondering where she had gone. His father frowned.

"No one was here, Josh. You were seeing things," he said gently, holding his wrists in a loose grip. He whispered in his ear, "It was a dream. Go to bed."

"I have to find her," his father's grip tightened, forcing him to stay. Josh looked at him, pain in his eyes.

"Come drink some water, okay? Come on," he took the glass from Sara and handed it to him. "Drink it, come on."

Josh looked at him confused. He wanted to throw the glass at the floor, but with a backwards glance to the window, he drank it, not even realizing the pill that hid inside. He felt drowsy suddenly and stumbled. Thanks to the grip his father had on his wrists, he didn't fall. His father guided him slowly to the bed and he felt sleepy suddenly. He felt gentle strokes on his forehead until he finally fell asleep.

The footsteps were soft, like in his dreams, except a little louder and more realistic. He opened his eyes and glanced at the clock, realizing it was noon. Turning to the other person in the room, he frowned, "I'm really late."

"It's Saturday," Savannah turned to him, sometimes he couldn't stand how much she looked like their mother.

"How long did I sleep?" he asked, sitting up, almost as if waking up from a comma.

"You slept last night and yesterday," Savannah smiled, sitting next to him on an empty space on the bed. "Not too long. The p--" She didn't want to mention the pill had sedated him, so she stopped herself. She shifted her eyes towards his, "Did you lose notion of time or something?"

"They gave me a pill last night?"

"No." Yes.

"Savannah, if they did, tell me."

Right then, Laser came in. He ran towards the bed and slammed himself between Josh and Savannah. Josh laughed as he settled in between both of them, "Don't hurt yourself."

"I'm comfortable, thank you," he said, trying to sound grown-up.

Savannah laughed, mostly because she was relieved and her little brother's attempt of sounding older.


Alex bit her lip at the thought of what Kaylee was telling her over the phone. Her tone just sounded so genuine, but she knew it was fake. She was just about to give in because she believed her. It was true she had promised to mess with Josh, but now that she knew more about his past it felt impossible. The more she got to know him, the more she was glad that Kaylee wasn't her friend anymore. Yet, here she was, faced with the decision of breaking his heart when she just had this feeling that after these past few weeks, she had this feeling in her chest that... She was too scared to even say it.

"You promised," Kaylee was crying. "You told me that you would hurt him."

"I don't even understand you," Alex said, pacing around the room. "Why are you asking me to do this when you know that I'm not even your friend anymore?"

"I'm sorry. I'm sorry I traded you that way, it's just that..." she trailed off, obviously she was waiting for Alex to cut her off, but she was willing to listen to the rest, and she kept quiet, waiting for Kaylee to speak. Kaylee was amazing at faking things, but she sucked at improvising which always was a major flaw when manipulating. "Look what he did to me and my best friend! He tore us apart, Alex!"

"He never did anything to our friendship! You did this, Kaylee. You traded me for those girls!" Alex exclaimed, feeling her eyes get hotter. "I'm better off without you."

"You promised and if you don't follow I'll tell Josh everything!" Kaylee was yelling, the fake sobs gone.

"You have no right to tell him," Alex was trying to keep calm. When she saw that blackmail was the game, she decided she was going to play the card under her sleeve. It was a dirty deal, but she had to do it. "If you do, Kaylee, I will, mark my words make your life a living hell. I know things about you no one else knows. I'll make sure they go around the school so fast. In fact, they'll be so horrible you won't have to convince your parents to homeschool you anymore like you did in sixth grade."

"I know things about you, too," Kaylee shot back, but in truth, she really didn't. Alex wasn't the kind of person to open up to just anyone. The only thing she had on her was previous crushes and a few nasty things she said about Miley Cyrus. That wasn't really anything that she could use. Plus, she knew what Alex was saying was true. If she had the guts to spread the word about Josh's mom, she had the guts to tell everyone about her dad's double family and his affair with a prostitude. Even worse things about her and things that could send her every chance to remain socially stable. "I will use them, Alex."

"Oh please," Alex laughed, she was scarying herself right now. "You have nothing on me, Kaylee and you know it. You spread that around and I will tell people about your family's history. What do you have about me? Just what you offered me before. When Josh knows that, it won't matter what he or anyone else thinks about the rumor. Everyone will be busy talking crap about both of us. Since I don't care about where I am in the social ladder or what people think, it won't affect me. But I'll send you to social Siberia. What about the things you said before about your new best friend? How you called her a slut before? Don't play games with me, Kaylee."

Kaylee didn't know Alex was trying to keep her soft spot, Josh, out of Kaylee's reach. As long as Kaylee didn't mess with that, Alex was clear. By offering the blackmail charges, they were both at stake and Kaylee was never a risk taker. Alex knew that Kaylee would most likely ditch her at any moment presented before, as long as it was risk free. Sadly, she was right about that.

"I don't believe you right now. You've changed," Kaylee said, obviously trying to manipulate her again.

"Me? Changed? I've always been like this, Kaylee, and you know it. You just never been in my wrath before. You need to stop calculating so much, Kaylee. It won't work."

"I'll get you back for this."

The call ended. Alex didn't know what she meant, but she wasn't ready to shrug it off.


Okay... let's see. I was being chased by Zeus because he thought I stole his lighting volt. :P Okay, I ripped Rick Riordan off. Don't kill me. Anyway, sorry for the long wait. I'm going to work on a oneshot called Black Sheep, not sure if I might make it a chapter story since I'm stuck with Goes to the Grave. I really want to make a statement with that story. And with this one, too.