"Aw, don't do that. She's such a buzzkill," she whined, a trace of a Colombian accent.

I mentally cursed at myself for the fluttering in my chest. Garren stood in front of me protectively, keeping me pressed against the wall.

"Aw, you've got your guardian now. It sucks that you're stuck with someone as lame as him." She smirked at the nauseous Elena and Belmont. "Oops, do I still have that nasty effect on baby ghosts? Sorry. It goes away when I leave...or you get used to it after like ten minutes."

"Don't speak to any of them, Vivienne," said Garren, raising his hand. "I don't know how you escaped but—"

She pouted at him. "Poor Oliver not in the loop. I was released on good behavior. The doctors at Erinyes said that I'm better. I'm surprised your daddy didn't tell you that I've been out for months. We both know how much he hates me. The feeling's mutual, by the way. I'd gladly get sent back there if I got the chance to snap his neck."

"Months?" I asked, speaking for the first time since she entered the room. "When did you get out?"

Vivienne's face softened when she caught the sliver of my face not hidden by Garren. She admitted that she had been released during the first week in October and planned to visit me until she discovered members of the council spying on her. The council was watching her as a precaution, still undecided if she was fully rehabilitated, so she had to resort to holing herself up in hotel rooms.

Despite being secluded from the rest of the world, she managed to catch up on what she missed and when she heard about my accident, she headed to Belmont Falls and even visited me at the hospital. Garren denied her claims, insisting that the council would never let her within ten feet of another reaper.

"If you had a real guardian instead of this coward, you wouldn't have gotten hurt," she said, wagging her finger. "I've been watching you for awhile...you and your ghost pals. I kept my distance because I didn't want the council up my ass."

"Then why show up now?" I countered. "Why are you dating Rhys Belmont?"

Her eyes sparkled with mischief. "Is my muñequita jealous?" ("Hardly," I replied, avoiding Elena's gaze) "It's not dating. Well, he thinks it is but he's just a way to pass the time until I get what I really want. He gets the job done...mostly."

"How do you know Tessa?" asked Garren, sensing that her visit was about more than a desire to connect with a fellow reaper.

"Oh, we go way back," she said, sweetly. "I'm her first. First friend, first—"

"Um wrong, dollar store J.Lo," interrupted Elena, angrily. Vivienne raised her brow in amusement. "That would be me. We've been friends since second grade and she's never even mentioned you so don't go bragging about something that isn't true."

"Let me rephrase then. First friend that would actually acknowledge her in public."

Vivienne's comeback was like a knife in the gut to Elena, who lowered her eyes to the floor. I always considered her my first true friend, having met her at the park a week before starting second grade, and even then, I knew that our friendship would not be easy. I remembered how she worried that her friends would never approve of me, whether it was because of my lack of wealth or my clothes, and at the time, she cared about maintaining her popularity.

It meant a lot of sneaking around after school and passing secret notes to each other during class. Though I never cared about hiding our friendship, deep down, it bothered Elena that she felt ashamed for letting her friends bully her into hiding a part of herself.

Vivienne was someone who thrived off of that shame. "You must be Elena," she said, peering down at the short, curly-haired girl. "Hmm, you're not that pretty. You think you know Tessa better than anyone, don't you? Well, you're wrong, cheerleader Barbie."

"Get out now, Vivienne. I want you out of this town or I'll go to the council to throw you in Erinyes for good," threatened Garren.

"You have no power over me so cool it with the empty threats. I'll stay as long as I like." I heard Rhys calling her name from the hallway. "That's my boyfriend. We must be leaving. I'm so excited for this trip."

She whispered in Elena's ear before leaving the bathroom and in the reflection of the mirror, her lips twisted into her infamous mischievous smirk. Once she disappeared from the hallway, acting all lovey-dovey with a naïve Rhys, I bent down to Elena, who had her knees pulled up to her chest.

"What did she say to you?" I asked, placing my hand on her knee.

"Just because you're a ghost, don't think I can't make you suffer," she muttered. "You were friends with her?"

I struggled to find the right words. "It's...complicated. Finding out what Rhys knows is our priority. Maybe we can use Hilton as a distraction to keep him and Vivienne apart."

"The only place you are going is home, Tessa," said Garren, unnerved from our encounter with Vivienne. "Until I speak with the council and have actual confirmation that they agreed to her release, you are staying as far away as possible. My father would have told me if they were even thinking of releasing that monster. I can call him and straighten out this whole—"

Garren was silenced by a swift blow to the head. I placed the toothbrush holder back on the sink and reached into his jacket, taking out his cellphone.

"Byrne, did you just—are you nuts?" Belmont's eyes tore away from the unconscious guardian and towards a stunned Elena. "Why did you do that?"

"This is our chance to get close to your brother," I said, slipping the phone into my bag. "Vivienne is doing this on purpose. It's no coincidence that she showed up now, pretending to date the one reason we're going on this stupid trip. Maybe she really couldn't visit me but it doesn't mean she wasn't spying on me...on all of us."

He looked hopeful. "You think she's the reaper we're looking for?"

I shook my head, seeing Mr. Hilton and the rest of his club climbing into large, black cargo vans. "No, she's been in Erinyes too long. When you get released from there, your abilities are restricted for a bit, to keep you from going into old habits. She had no reason to attack you anyway. You're not her usual target."

Catching up to the group, I waited behind Danica and Isabelle, who were arguing over whether to replace Principal Hilton's shampoo with hair remover ("Dani, I'm a cop. I can't break into someone's house," hissed Isabelle) as revenge.

Parker glanced at me, in the midst of wrenching his arm away from Hilton, and gave me a helpless glance that said 'I can't get away from her'. Hilton yanked him into a van, along with their fathers, Dr. Baxter, Rhys, and Vivienne.

"Whatever that means. What's the story with you two?" he asked, catching Vivienne wink at me before pecking Rhys on the cheek. "You've mentioned that place before. What is it? I thought bad reapers get sent to a meadow prison."

"Erinyes isn't a prison. Well, the people there think it is but it's somewhere that young reapers get sent for rehabilitation," I whispered, following Danica into the van. "It's easier to believe that kids are capable of change than adults. If they prove that they've changed their ways, they can be released but most of the time, they're hopeless cases. My mother says it's common for the reapers to die there, either by the council's orders or their own hand."

"So it's like an insane asylum," he deduced. "How did she end up there? If the council puts you on trial for having a knife, she probably did something lame like calling them a bunch of names."

"Not for that," I said, shifting anxiously as I thought back to how a nine year old Vivienne was sent to Erinyes, supposedly for the rest of her life.

Explaining Vivienne's history was not an easy task when we were stuck in a van, surrounded by a dozen older men, some eyeing me like a juicy steak. I pretended to be listening to music on my phone, as a way to avoid their lecherous stares and to talk to the invisible ghosts on either side of me without being seen as crazy.

Vivienne was not the first young reaper to be sent to Erinyes, the institution well-known for its pre-pubescent patients, and she was not even the youngest, that honor belonging to a seven year old boy with a mountain of rage issues, but her story was a cautionary tale to reapers beginning to learn about their gifts.

She was considered a prodigy, having developed her abilities quicker than most, which was attributed to her parents both being high-ranking members of the council. To the public, she was nothing more than an innocent girl with vast potential: popular, sweet, friendly, the star of her soccer team, and a girl scout. Her picturesque life was revealed as nothing more than a perfectly crafted facade on the morning of her ninth birthday.

With her parents often gone for council business, her father hired a fellow reaper in their hometown of Santa Fe to monitor Vivienne's training. The reaper, a girl in her early twenties named Carmen, never reported any suspicious behavior to the council.

That morning, she had gone about her usual routine, stopping by the local bakery to pick up a birthday cake, and when she arrived at the Torres house, she found Vivienne cooking breakfast (scrambled eggs, pancakes, and sausage) in the kitchen. Carmen was pleasantly surprised when the young girl claimed that her parents decided to skip council meetings for the day to be there for her birthday but when she went to greet them in the dining room, they were not putting up party decorations.

Vivienne's parents were sitting at the table, broad smiles on their faces, and at first glance, it seemed normal except for a minor detail: they were tied to the chairs with rope and a pair of forks kept their hands pinned to the table. Underneath their clothes, a fancy suit and tie for him and a long-sleeved floral printed dress for her, their flesh had been terribly burnt, the skin on her mother's cheek hanging on by a mere thread.

Gashes ran along her father's face from one side to the other, as if he had been scratched by a beast, and the blood under her mother's fingernails indicated that the scratches and bruises all over her body were of her own doing.

The vacant expression in their eyes made them look more like zombies and the only sign of life were their eyes (well, only her father's left since the other was shoddily ripped out and lying on the plate before him) slowly moving back and forth. Carmen would have saved them, or at least alerted the council, if it were not for a boy, one of Vivienne's teenage neighbors, plunging a knife into her back.

According to Carmen's report, when questioned by the council, she told them that the boy's eyes were just as vacant and he forcibly tied her to the chair beside Mrs. Torres. Carmen recalled how Vivienne walked into the room with plates on a tray, blissfully humming the lullaby her mother sang to her every night.

Four days had passed before a member of the council was sent to check on the family. They were sitting at that same table, Vivienne taunting Carmen with a 'sausage that her mother always raved about to her friends'. The council discovered that Vivienne had been playing with her parents and Carmen like puppets, which explained why her mother, now missing half an ear, was repeatedly stabbing herself in the leg with a steak knife, the blood dripping into a massive puddle on the floor.

Carmen was not much better off, the left side of her face partially burnt (the muscles of her jaw visibly moving as she chewed a piece of overcooked meat that was definitely not from a cow) and bone sticking out of her left arm. Vivienne herself was enjoying her food, acting like it was a normal day.

The council member managed to knock her out when she was busy yelling at Carmen for not chewing with her mouth closed, breaking her control over the three captives, but the damage was too severe: her parents succumbed to their wounds while Carmen was left in a catatonic state, only able to communicate through her memories.

The day of Vivienne's trial, the room was fraught with tension as the people about to decide her fate remembered her as a sweet, talented girl. Each shocking truth revealed, from how Vivienne lured her parents by pretending to be ill then paralyzing them with a potion to the intimate details of the torture, chipped away at the face she presented to the world until all that was left was the soulless monster. Vivienne showed no remorse for her actions, only wishing that she had more time to 'play' with her parents.

Elena and Belmont were rightfully disturbed by the gruesome tale.

The vans stopped at the entrance to the woods for the expedition. Climbing out of the van, I continued the story of Vivienne's dark past. When the trial concluded, the council deliberated for three days, many ready to throw her in Erinyes for life but others still seeing her as that innocent girl. My mother always claimed that the council was unsure if the innocence was an act or something made Vivienne snap that day. News of her confinement spread throughout the reaper community, the council responding to her deeds by enforcing stricter laws on young reapers and their teachings.

To cover up the terrible tragedy, the entire town had their memories wiped of Vivienne, her parents, and Carmen. Only Carmen's parents, who were reapers, retained their memories and it was rumored that their daughter had not moved once since being rescued, due to the trauma or because she blamed herself for the incident.

Carmen's guilt stemmed from the fact that she indirectly taught Vivienne such violent methods. Seeing that the lessons were not challenging her, she began to bring the young girl books from her family's library, including a book on the paralyzing potion used on Vivienne's parents. It had been banned in the eighteenth century, after reapers misused it to toy with regular humans for their enjoyment.

Another thing she taught her was how to control people, a dangerous gift that all reapers possessed but did not learn until they reached their eighteenth birthday. Some reapers never developed the skill, out of fear, weakness, or being judged too immature by their guardians. Carmen knew it was forbidden but was manipulated by Vivienne, who played on her compassion.

Vivienne constantly called her 'the sister she always wanted', aware that Carmen had lost her two younger sisters to a terrible fire barely a month before becoming her teacher.

Elena sided with Garren, that Vivienne had escaped the institution. "Someone like that...wouldn't the council keep her under lock and key?"

"I don't know what to think," I said, honestly. "I wouldn't put it past her to manipulate the hospital into letting her out but after being in there for ten years, they must know all her tricks. Vivienne is the council's problem, not ours. We need to get Rhys alone."

"I don't get why you didn't mention it," said Belmont, avoiding bumping into Danica. "If you could mind control my brother into telling us about the night of the party—"

"No." Before he could even argue, I smacked his chest with the back of my hand. "This is why some reapers never get to learn how. It's not something to take lightly. I've done it on accident before on animals...sometimes on Purrsephone when she freaks out at the vet. It's violating a person and it's disgusting."

"Byrne, it's one time," he urged. "I'll seduce your crazy ex-friend away from him and you get him to talk."

"Three things wrong with your plan. One, you're not her type." Elena rolled her eyes when he bragged that he was every girl's type, his head swelling from his enormous ego. "Two, she'll see what you're doing from a mile away because unlike you, Belmont, she's not an idiot. Three, I'll never use that power on an actual person. We'll get him alone somehow. It's not like they'll be attached at the hip 24/7."

I could not have been more wrong.

As we hiked along the winding trail, to the tune of Hilton's incessant whining, I wondered if it was possible that Rhys and Vivienne's lips were surgically sewn together. Hardly a second passed between them breaking apart after a passionate kiss and her lips moving somewhere else on his body.

For the first time, Hilton and I were in agreement, her face looking just as disgusted as mine. When she was not whining about the long walk or sickened by Rhys's attempts to swallow Vivienne's face, she was flashing a seductive smile at Dr. Baxter, their spat at school inexplicably in the past. Belmont encouraged me to use my abilities to force Vivienne away from his brother, promising no judgment if I made her walk into a tree or off a cliff.

"What color is your dress?" Parker walked beside me, tossing the football between his hands as his friends watched us like we were part of a reality show. "For the winter ball. My mother says it's essential that the corsage matches the dress."

The mention of a corsage distracted me from Vivienne sliding her hands under Rhys's shirt.

"The—oh, I'm not going. I haven't gone to a school dance since like fifth grade," I said, searching for any chance to separate the two lovebirds. "They're not my thing. Will and I would usually hang out, bingeing old sci-fi shows or sneaking into the chemistry lab. Last year, we were trying to make a new element. It didn't end well. We're...sort of the ones that made that big hole in the ceiling."

The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

Parker grinned, remembering how Mr. Simpson, the high-strung Chemistry teacher, almost had an aneurysm at the sight of the gaping hole the morning after the dance. "I thought this year might be different. Nelson's still in the hospital and it's our senior year."

He shrugged when I brought up that Belmont, the former 'king of the school', always brought Claire as his date to the dances and, before her accident, that honor was reserved for Elena.

"Am I Fin? Technically, I'm supposed to take the hottest girl and that's you," he said, tapping my shoulder with the football. "If you need money for a dress, I've got you covered."

"I don't need you to—"

I was about to reject him until I noticed Vivienne finally stopped humping Rhys's leg. Her dark eyes were burning a hole through Parker's skull. It was like a light bulb switched on in my head, the pieces of a plan forming, and I looped my arm through his, batting my eyelashes.

"You don't have to do that. I have plenty of dresses but I'm not sure which one to pick. Maybe after the trip, you can come to my house and I can try them on for you." ("Babe, tone it down a little. You're starting to draw blood," uttered Rhys between kisses) "To be honest, I'm kind of worried that they're too revealing. Don't worry about my parents. They're going out to dinner and my brother has a sleepover tonight. It'll be just the two of us...unless you don't want that."

He was surprised yet excited by my flirtatious tone. "Is that a trick question? I'd love to help you out. Being friends with Claire all these years pretty much makes me an expert when it comes to fashion."

"Can't wait." Mr. Hilton shouted that we were less than a mile away from the caves. "Wow, Rhys and his girlfriend really like each other. You know what would be funny? If you made it look like he peed himself."

"Watch this."

The football struck the canteen in Rhys's hand, knocking it to the ground and spraying both him and Vivienne with water. Her first instinct was to chuck the canteen at Parker, who was failing to hold back his laughter along with his friends, but she managed to stop herself, choosing instead to cry into Rhys's shoulder. He cupped her cheek and whispered softly to her, pressing his lips against her forehead.

His loving smile was replaced with a snarl when he overheard the boys' raucous laughter. "Dick move, Chace!"

"Sorry, man. I thought you two needed to cool off a little," he said between laughs.

"I'll try talking to Rhys. You two keep an eye on Vivienne," I whispered to Elena. "Knowing her, she might rip Parker's heart out."

Pretending to need to re-fill my water bottle, I walked in the same direction as Rhys. He muttered under his breath though the bits I heard involved shoving the football down Parker's throat. I was startled by a loud snap and soon, leaves were raining down all around me.

A shirtless Dr. Baxter was leaning against a tree, a dent in its trunk, shaking off bits of bark from his hand while holding a phone to his ear. A familiar red blouse, black skinny jeans, and a pair of ankle boots were in a pile by his feet.

"It would be easier if you were here to calm him. He's growing impatient. He's been talking about silencing her and I don't mean with tape over her mouth." Listening to the other person's angry muttering, he grumbled to himself. "No, I know that's not what you want. I'll try talking to him again though it's like reasoning with a brick wall. You weren't wrong to trust me. Everything will go on as planned but there may be a problem if she—"

Hilton, a men's henley covering her body, joined him, playfully planting kisses on his neck. He ended the call and slid the phone into his pants pocket.

"Finally. That call took forever. You better not be cheating on me, Brendon," she said, drawing small circles on his bare, sculpted chest.

"Who?"

She giggled. "You, silly. Are we playing a game?"

"No. I um was distracted by that call. Some mother complaining that her son doesn't have the grades to get into my class next year." He pulled her closer by tugging on the waistband of her panties. "You have my full attention."

"Good." She poked his nose. "We have a few minutes before my dad notices that I'm missing."

I continued down the path to the nearby river, blocking out Hilton's increasingly loud moans. Rhys was filling his canteen with water.

"Hey...Tessa, right?" he asked, as I opened my empty water bottle. "You were at Fin's memorial."

"Surprised you remember me," I said, playing dumb. "Your brother never really did and we were classmates for years. Sorry about what Chace did earlier. We were goofing off and I dared him to try to hit one of the trees. Guess his aim isn't that great."

"I've seen him in plenty of games," he said, with a chuckle. "His aim is fine but he's a teenager. I was one not that long ago. No harm done...and I'm sure Viv is already over it."

"You two are cute together." Even if her feelings were a lie, they were both extremely attractive.

"How long have you been dating?"

"About three weeks. She just moved to town and we met at the café. She forgot her wallet so I offered to pay, we started talking, and now we're dating. My parents weren't happy about it since she's not from what my dad calls 'our circle' but it doesn't matter to me," he said, his naive nature breaking my heart. "Even my mother's saying it and she's never sided with him about that stuff. Vivienne's a little different from the girls I usually date but once you get to know her, she's a sweetheart. Between you and me, her accent kind of sealed the deal...there's something about hearing her speak Spanish. She calls me her little bicho."

It was obvious that Rhys remembered little from his Spanish classes over the years. I feigned a smile, knowing that Vivienne's pet name for him was more insulting than cute.

"Seriously, you two are like relationship goals," I said, sounding like Hilton. "I want something like that when I'm older."

"Chace isn't the one?"

I almost spilled water on my hoodie. "Ch—no, no, we're not—we're friends, sort of. It's not really defined. Before this year, we barely spoke to each other. We don't run in the same circles at school. I'm sorry about what happened to your brother but between you and me, he was..."

"A prick?" Rhys, like his brother, was very blunt. "You don't have to sugarcoat it because he was my brother. I know Fin was hard to deal with...try living with him. Not that he deserved to be killed—"

Did Rhys have his own suspicions? "I thought the police said it was an accident."

He sealed his canteen. "My brother was an idiot most of his life and no matter how much I tried, he never had a plan for after high school. He's thrown parties at the Falls and taken countless girls to that bridge for reasons I'm sure a smart girl like you can guess. He's done plenty of dumb things but the cops are saying that he somehow tripped on the bridge and fell to his death. It's not like he couldn't swim and even if he was hurt, no one heard him scream for help?" His voice choked up as he spoke, tears welling up in his eyes. "If my dad wasn't such close friends with Chief Parker, I would go down to that station and raise hell until he told me who made him say it was an accident. My brother deserves better than to be mourned as a stupid teenage jock who got too drunk one night."

"If you really think it wasn't an accident, then the killer is still out there, possibly someone in this town," I said, no longer seeing him as a possible suspect. "Do you remember anything from that nigh—"

Rhys's eyes rolled to the back of his head and he fell to the ground, Vivienne standing behind him. She licked a spot of blood from her fingertip, left from the cut on the back of Rhys's neck. I checked my surroundings for any sign of Elena or Belmont, a feeling of dread creeping up inside me that she was the reason for their disappearance.

"What did you do to Elena?!"

Vivienne smirked. "Ooh, does someone only care about what happens to a certain curly-haired cheerleader? I'll keep that in mind for the future. They'll live...as much as a ghost can. I taught them an important lesson that ghosts aren't invincible. I used to think that Rhys exaggerated when he said his brother could be an annoying little shit but he was right. It's cute how they thought they could hurt me. You should be more worried about yourself. I'm doing you a favor."

"Pfft, yeah, I remember your favors. No thanks," I said, relieved when I saw Rhys's chest rise. "Why don't you do Rhys one and leave him alone? For some reason, he actually likes you...or he likes the act you put on for him. You must love having him as your toy. He's so clueless that he doesn't even know you consider him nothing more than a bug. Go away."

I inched back as she hopped over his unconscious body. "Let me spare you the endless hours of boring stories about his adventures. I already checked his memories the first day we met with the help of an old guardian friend who owed me a favor. That whole night, he was busy painting a nursery with the little brother and he only spoke to Fin once. He was telling him about a college program before the dad stormed in, snatched the phone, and started bitching about a big secret. Cross him off your crazy suspect list."

"If anyone's crazy, it's you...hell, maybe I am too for all that time I spent believing you. You'd think I would've learned my lesson but I was thirteen and gullible, something you loved to take advantage of over and over." She crossed her arms, looking more entertained than hurt by my rant. "Is that how you got released? They looked back at past memories and thought 'Hey, if this thirteen year old thinks she's changed, then she definitely has'?"

"Wow, your parents did a number on you, Tessie." ("Don't call me that!") "Did your mother have someone from the council mess with your memories? Because from what I remember, it wasn't bad. The three of us had so much fun together. You enjoyed it."

"Because you made me!" I shouted. "I was nothing more than your puppet. You used me just like you use everyone else. Carmen, your parents..."

As Vivienne stepped closer, I resisted every urge to run away, even if it meant witnessing Dr. Baxter humping Hilton against a tree. The alarm bells were ringing in my head, screaming for me to keep running until I was back with the group but I firmly stood my ground, to show that I was no longer that gullible thirteen year old girl. With each step closer, my resolve was weakening.

"Tell me something. If it was all so horrible, why did you keep my jacket? I saw you wearing it when Rhys was going through pictures from the party on his laptop. It still looks good on you." Her eyes traveled up and down my slim, hourglass figure. "Even more now that you're all grown up."

"Why are you here?" I asked, exasperated.

"For you," she stated. "I thought that was obvious."

Her smirk faltered at the tiny giggle that slipped from my lips. "If you had said that four years ago, it probably would've meant the world to me. Back then, you used to seem so cool. There I was, the awkward, artsy girl who everyone thought had some terminal disease because she fainted randomly in the middle of class, and here you were, the sexy rebel in the leather jacket who didn't give a fuck about rules or what people said about her. I should've realized then what you were doing the minute you started talking to me but I was all caught up in your act...because it fulfilled this secret desire that younger me had to be like Belmont and his friends, so I could actually talk to Elena at school without having to orchestrate all these convoluted ways to just ask how she did on a math test. I'm not thirteen anymore so I won't fall for your tricks. Do you know how long it took for me to put myself back together after what you did to me?"

Vivienne was oddly silent. Recalling a time in my past that I had spent years trying to forget created a giant lump in my throat. Every word out of my mouth was a word I had written in my diary for four years, everything I wanted to tell Vivienne once I was no longer under her thrall.

"You were my dirty secret so I could never tell Will or Elena why I was so broken and miserable," I said, my voice wavering. "Hilton and her minions were loving it. You gave them plenty of ammunition to make me feel like shit every day and right when I'm starting to move past it, to figure out who I am when you're not in my head, you're back again...like a fucking bulldozer ready to tear it down."

"Tessa—"

I shoved her roughly, causing her to stumble on her heels and against a nearby tree. Before she could say a single word, I pushed her again, this time keeping her pinned with my hand curled tightly around the collar of her leather jacket.

"No, I'm talking," I hissed, not letting her win this time. "If I were like him, you would've been dead the second I heard you laugh. I could've let Oliver call the council but you don't want that. If they learned you were in Belmont Falls, anywhere near me or my family, they'd send your ass straight back to Erinyes. I would love to watch that happen but unlike you, I'm capable of compassion. I can just as easily change my mind."

"I'm warning you—"

She groaned as my elbow dug into her throat. "Let's change it up. I'll be the one warning you. You are going to stay the hell away from me, my family, my friends, and everyone else in this town. If I find out that you're helping the other reaper and someone else gets hurt...I don't care if it's that piece of garbage Chief Parker, I'll send you back to that padded room."

"Other reaper?" she asked, puzzled. "What are you talking about?"

"Nice try." Vivienne may not have killed Belmont but she was somehow part of the reaper's game. "Is it a secret society of psychotic reapers that get a sick thrill out of destroying people's lives? They probably helped you get out and sent you here. You can tell him, her, whatever the hell they are...that they can send all the monsters they want. They don't scare me."

I cried out as her fingers pinched the underside of my arm and in an instant, we switched positions. My face was pushed against the tree, with my arms pinned behind me.

"Look at my little doll, dishing out threats," she said, impressed. "It was hot. I'm not here as your enemy, Tessa. I've never been your enemy. Everything you're saying is what your parents beat into your head."

"You don't listen to a word anyone says, do you?" I said, struggling against her grip.

"It'll take time for you to see that but I'm a patient girl. You only have to remember one thing. It's what I've held onto for the past four years." Her breath tickled my ear. "The last night we were together, under the stars and drinking that cheap whiskey I stole from Dr. Sergei's office. That's proof that it wasn't bad. I know you remember that night...when you—argh!"

The weight of her body on mine shifted and I turned around to see Elena on her back, yanking her long, wavy hair. Belmont dropped the log in his hands, cheering Elena on instead of arguing with her. Vivienne threw the persistent teen off of her, panting heavily.

"Oh, that's it, you ghost bitch," she snapped. "You're going to find out why they put me away for ten years. I'll start by making you cut off your precious hair."

I acted as a barrier between Vivienne, who was thinking up a creative way to murder a ghost, and a nervous Elena. "It wasn't an empty threat, Viv. You come anywhere near her again and I'll make sure the council gives you the punishment you deserved."

Her lips curved up into a manic smile. "Viv, huh? See, it's just a matter of time before the truth comes back to you. Don't feel too bad when that happens, pom poms."

I glared at Belmont, who snickered quietly to himself. He shrugged, muttering, "What? That was pretty good"

"Pom poms? I've heard better insults from a preschooler." In the midst of holding onto Elena, her legs kicking the air, I heard a soft pounding in the distance. "Come on, give it another go, psycho."

"Elena, don't. She won't bother us." The pounding grew louder then went completely silent. "Let's wake up Rhys and get out of here. I'm not about to be attacked by a bear."

A few light slaps on the cheek did not wake Rhys. If I was not able to feel his pulse, I would have thought that Vivienne killed him.

"Hit him with the water bottle. He likes it rough," she suggested playfully.

Twisting open my water bottle, I tilted it over his face when I spotted a set of paw prints that stopped right next to his body. The tracks looked brand-new (I blamed a trick of the light when the closest prints deepened, revealing the worms hiding beneath the dirt), as if an animal had passed by the river. I was distracted by something wet dripping onto my fingers but instead of water, it was a long string of drool.

Being winter, no one would find it strange to see their breath. The only problem was that my own putrid breath was not hitting my face. I fell backwards, the bottle striking Rhys's chest (proving that he was a heavy sleeper when he did not even flinch), as a giant dog, nearly eight feet tall, with mangled black fur and glowing red eyes appeared across from me. With a sharp tug on my sleeve, Vivienne made a dash for the forest.

"Keep moving!" she cried, a fearful quiver in her voice. I had never seen her this frightened, except for when the doctors forced her to sit in the 'black room' at Erinyes. "Would you stop caring about ghosts? We can't teleport."

My heart skipped a beat when I heard its paws pounding into the dirt. Vivienne helped me climb up a tree, refusing to let me stop until we were on one of the highest branches. I breathed a shaky sigh of relief as Elena and Belmont appeared on the branches below us.

"Since when do wolves get that big?" asked Belmont, checking for any sign of the monstrous dog.

"Shh. It's not a wolf. It's a hellhound and they can hear ghosts," I whispered, my heart racing at a thousand beats per minute. Vivienne rocked back and forth on the branch, her eyes shut and her hands over her ears. "A—are you okay?"

"Who cares? She probably brought it here to scare us, Byrne. Well, I'm pretty sure I shit myself when that thing was running after me so mission accomplished." He clapped in Vivienne's face. "No wonder they put you in a loony bin."

"It wasn't her," I said, knowing Vivienne was not that crazy. "A hellhound bite can kill a reaper. They're not supposed to be above the surface."

"T—the council sent it. That goody goody was right. They didn't actually want to release me," she murmured. "This is how they handle problems now. They pretend that they believe you're cured and then have you killed. I should've known it was a trick."

"Oh, shut up. You're not much of an actress so the council must be full of morons," said Elena, not the least bit sympathetic. "We're not buying it, bi—Tessa, come on. She's

faking it."

I let Vivienne rest her head in my lap to comfort her. Having visited Erinyes several times, I understood Vivienne's fear. The hospital had a reputation for its extremely harsh treatments, no leniency shown for the children.

If a patient broke the rules or was considered too disruptive, they were sent to The Black Room. The experience was different for each person but from what Vivienne had told me, the room was able to change based on a person's fears. If facing their fears was not enough to break them, which was difficult when dealing with people guilty of heinous crimes, the doctors would put them in near-death situations to teach them a lesson about their own mortality. One of those situations involved releasing a pack of hellhounds in the confined space and the doctors gave the antidote when the patient agreed to follow the rules.

"You don't get it," I said, allowing Vivienne to grip my hand. "It's...a reaper thing."

She did not seem convinced. "Putting her head in your lap?"

"El, you died in a car crash. It was quick," I argued. "Being bitten by a hellhound is like being stabbed by a thousand knives over and over and when you think the pain is gone, it gets ten times worse. The doctors at Erinyes use them to get patients to comply. It's not fun to feel like you're dying while the people who could help just stand around and do nothing."

I seized the branch as the tree shook violently. The hellhound, somehow looking bigger than before, was on its hind legs and pushing against the tree with its paws. With each push, the tree was tilting more and more and I scrambled to find a way out of this mess that did not end with my death.

The trunk snapped in half, falling rapidly towards the ground. I braced myself for the impact, hugging the trunk for dear life. The tree crashed with a resounding thud and I rolled across the wet ground, lightheaded and seeing dots dancing in front of my eyes.

"I've got you, Te—"

The hellhound knocked Elena aside, like she weighed nothing, with a swipe of its paw. Before I could so much as stand on one leg, its paws pressed down on my chest, putting its weight on my ribcage. Drool trickled onto my face like rain drops as it hovered over me. I winced from the sting of its claws digging into my chest.

As it opened its massive jaw, wide enough to swallow me whole, I closed my eyes, accepting that there was no escape. The heavy weight was suddenly lifted off my chest and instead of the sound of a jaw snapping shut, I heard a series of growls.

Too afraid to move, I turned my head. There were now two hellhounds but the newest arrival, slightly smaller with darker fur and a x-shaped scar on its back, was fighting the other. The smaller hellhound knocked its opponent down the hill and I scooted back as it ambled towards me.

With just its nose, it was able to nudge me across the ground until I was hidden behind a large boulder. I peeked over the top of the boulder as the two hellhounds fought, thinking that it was a hallucination.

"Where's Vivienne?" I asked as Elena and Belmont joined me at my hiding spot.

"I offered to take her while Ellie got you. She punched me and ran off," said Belmont, rubbing his jaw. "Why are we not doing that? Especially now that there are two..."

"The smaller one saved me," I said, watching the intense fight. "I don't know why."

"So it could eat you by itself?" he suggested.

In any other instance, I would have agreed but that was not the case. "No, it pushed me over here...like it was protecting me."

The smaller hellhound howled in pain as the larger one dug its bloodstained teeth into its shoulder. No matter how much I wanted to help, I doubted that I could do much damage. The fight continued on, each getting in blows and suffering some, until the larger hellhound suffered a bite to the neck. Its menacing red eyes darted towards me before it disappeared down the hill.

"Is it over?" asked Elena, peeping through her fingers. "Did the nice one win?"

"I think so," I whispered. "Wait here."

I chased after the smaller hellhound limping on its front leg. The tracks led me back to the hiking trail towards the caves. As I followed the tracks, my feet dwarfed by their size, I noticed that they slowly began to be shaped less like a dog's. I stared down at the final two tracks, just outside the caves where I could hear Mr. Hilton's voice. The prints were not much bigger than the ones made by my sneakers and definitely human.

"You've got to be fucking kidding me."