I gasp loudly and sit up so fast that I actually see black dots. I look around to see I'm in Jake's bed ounce again. So it was just another dream. I let out a sigh of relief as I bring my breathing back to normal. There's sweat moistening my whole body. The bedroom door opens and Jake's worried face instantly is replaced with a look of relief when he sees me.

"Hey princess" Jake greets with a small smirk curving on the side of his lips. He strides up and sits down on edge of the bed, facing me. Jake, I'm not even sure if I believe that Jake is Slyder anymore. After everything I've heard and saw, it seems so hard to believe that Jake could be Slyder, yet at the same time, Jake admitted it, multiple times to my face. It's all so confusing.

I slowly sit back up and rest against the backboard of his bed frame. "Jake" I groan, squeezing my eyes shut, my mind reels with everything that had happened before I was knocked out, but the memories are morphing with the dreams.

"Are you okay?" He asks. I nod as I try to lift my right hand to my forehead, but an intense sharp pain pricks my arm and I stop trying to move it. I quickly open my eyes and look down at my arm to see aqua glowing markings. "What the hell is that?" I screech so loud Jake puts his hands to his ears "would you calm down?" He yells "it's just um, uh, I-I got bored, and I wanted to prank you, so I colored on your arm, that's all" he explains lamely. I look away from my arm to give Jake a 'seriously?'Look "you don't honestly think I'm falling for that do you? That may very well have been the most pathetic, lame excuse for a lie that I've ever heard" I inform dryly.

Jake rolls his eyes "why couldn't you have been blonde?" Jake mumbles quietly. "Jake! I have glowing symbol thingys on my arm and I can't move it! Tell me what this is!" I scream "man, you just love to yell, don't ya?" Jake asks annoyed "I-I don't know how to explain them" he says.

I try to cross my arms, but the sharp pain comes and I stop, instead settling for a quirked eyebrow and what I'm hoping looks like an impatient facial expression.

Jake rolls his eyes and runs a hand down his face "you are one persistent girl" Jake mumbles "excuse me, I am not a 'girl' I am a lady" I snap "oh I'm so sorry m'lady" Jake mocks bowing slightly. I put on a satisfied smile "much better" I say once again earning an eye roll from Jake.

"Now enough dodging the question, tell me what's going on" I say. Jake moves from the bed and sits down on the chair next to it, resting his face in his hands "It's a long, long, long, story" he says, his voice muffled "I've got time" I say. Jake shakes his head no in his hands. Okay seriously? He's not going to tell me? I am so sick of this game where he tells me tiny little tid bits, and then says he's not allowed to tell me anything.

This is my life, everything that's going on has to do with me, and yet I want allowed to know? I wasn't allowed to know but he was? "Tell me!" I demand loudly, Jake ignores this. I get out of the bed "tell me!" I yell, again Jake ignores. I take a step closer "tell me!" I scream, Jake ignores me. I'm now standing directly in front of him "tell me!" I scream even louder. Suddenly Jake stands up, so abruptly that I take a few surprised steps back "I can't!" He back loudly, his voice is powerful, strong, his face red and determined, he actually scares me when he does this and I feel myself coward back a little.

My voice is small as I talk now "But that isn't fair, why do you get to know everything about my life, but I'm left in the dark? Don't you know how scary this is? I keep trying to stay strong, to act like I'm not scared, that I'm sure of myself. I try to stop myself from thinking about what's going to happen when Slyder murders my own mother in front of my eyes and then tortures and kills me.

I'm trying so hard to be this courageous, fearless woman that I've seen my mom be so many times, but I'm not my mom, I'm scared, I don't know what's going on. Slyder keeps telling me that I know nothing about my life, and then I try to ask you, and you say that I'm not allowed to know, that you're not allowed to tell me. I don't even know if you're Slyder anymore" I say, by the end my voice has cracked twice and tears are running silently down my cheek.

Jake's face immediately softens and he looks regretful as he steps toward me and wraps me into a soft, comforting hug. I only cry for a little while longer because soon I'm lost in his peppermint-orange smell, and cozy hug. When I'm done Jake pulls away with a sigh "I can't tell you anything Bethany" he says and winks at me. Seriously? He's trying to flirt with me while saying that he's not going to tell me what he knows about me and my life. Instead of anger like I expected, I'm just exhausted, I'm a little sad, and I'm a little annoyed, but mostly I'm just exhausted.

I'm exhausted with trying to convince Jake to tell me stuff, I'm exhausted with crying, but mostly I'm exhausted with caring, about anything. Jake must notice my deflated expression, because he grabs my left hand, and says "come on, I'll make you some breakfast" I'm not hungry, I don't feel like eating, I don't feel like anything, but denying food is like saying no to...well, free food. So I nod my head but I don't feel like I really care about food, and trust me, this is a big deal.

He leads me out of his bedroom and down the stairs. I start walking to the kitchen, but he pulls me away from there "but I thought-" I start to say but he presses his finger to my lip, shushing me. Normally, that would only make me want to scream as loud as I can, because there's no way I'm letting this guy push his finger to my mouth, basically telling me to shut up, but this time, I listen and keep my mouth shut as he pulls me down the hallway and to the basement door. Is he Slyder? Is he bringing me here to his basement to murder me? I'm thinking this yet I don't let it affect my decision to follow him down. He shuts the door behind us and locks it.

"Why did you take me to your basement?" I ask grabbing my sore right arm "because it's soundproof" Jake says simply. Oh great, so he is going to kill me. "And why would you need to bring me down to your soundproof basement?" I ask "because, I paid money so that somebody would come and build me soundproof walls down here so that I can talk without them hearing" Jake says "who's them?" I ask curiously. Jake bites his lip "just forget I said that. We can't be down here long, or they'll figure out that something's going on, so you can ask three questions, I'll answer with one hundred percent honesty, but I get to decide if I answer it or not" he offers. Excitement bubbles up inside me along with curiosity.

Three questions, I'm going to have to be wise about this "can I ask four if I ask quickly?" I ask persuasively. "No. That's your first question, now your second one" Jake says "what?! No way! That doesn't count!" I exclaim and Jake laughs "I'm kidding, now hurry up" he rushes nervously. I'm interested as to why Jake is so jumpy and nervous, but I don't want to use that as one of my questions so I keep myself from asking. I have to ask my original question "what are these markings on my arm?" I ask. Jake bites his lips as he considers his answers.

"When S-when the guy that I was fighting with in my room shot out his...illumination, it was a Necrif light, and you're a Eribiss, so it burned your skin, and reveled your, um markings" Jake expains, talking slowly, I can tell he feels awkward.

My mind is trying to wrap around what I just heard but none of those words apart make any sense to me, so together they were that much more confusing. "Yeah I have no idea what any of that means, can you explain that better?" I ask Jake runs a hand down his face, frustrated. "I don't know how without telling you everything" he grumbles. "Great, then tell me everything" Jake rolls his eyes "we don't have time, and I don't have the permission. Next question" Jake hurries, already moving on.

I huff out an annoyed sigh "well I can't even move my arm, what am I supposed to do?" I ask. Jake combs his hand through his hair before sighing. I watch silently as he walks over standing less than a foot in front of me. He looks down at my arm and then up at me. "This is gonna hurt" he informs me. I bite my tongue suddenly worried and nervous. How bad? I nod my head and squeeze my eyes shut just as he presses his hand against the markings. Suddenly there's a painful heat erupting in my arm, the pain is extreme, close to being as bad as when the light burned my arm. The feeling escalates and seems to spread from the inside out. A scream pours out of lips as the pain only intensifies more and more by the second. My left hand reaches out and grabs onto Jake's shoulder, squeezes it with all of my strength, Jake grunts out in pain.

I feel guilty for hurting him when he was only trying to help him so I begin to pull away but Jake stops me and puts my hand back. Finally the pain starts to dwindle ever so slightly, eventually, after what feels like forever, the pain is gone and instead there's a slight buzzing, like when your arm falls asleep. I slowly open my eyes and am surprised to see that there's no tears in them. I take a deep breath "thank you Jake" I say, my voice coming out quiet like a whisper. Jake nods in response. I want to move on so that we don't get into an awkward silence "okay, second question" I say.

Of course this next question is inevitable, it's the one that I've recently been second guessing, it's the one that's practically constantly on my mind "are you Slyder?" I ask. Jake locks eyes with me and I can feel his hesitation. His eyes look nervous as he bites his lips, not talking for almost two minutes before answering "No, I'm not Slyder" he concedes, his shoulders slumping as his eyes fall to the floor.

"This doesn't count as one of the questions, but how do I know you're not lying?" I ask. He locks eyes with me once again "I'm not Slyder, but I guess it's really your decision whether you believe me or not" this whole time I was so sure that Jake was Slyder, there was no doubt in my mind, he even admitted it, but now, after everything he's done for me, after all those comforting hugs, and sweet words, and all the times he's helped me,-it's as if I'm only now remembering all of the things he done for me, a total stranger.-Maybe this is naive, I guess someday I'll find out if I'm wrong for doing this, but I trust him. I trust that Jake is telling the truth and really isn't Slyder.

"Then why did you tell me you were?" I ask. Jake sighs deeply at this and walks over to the small table, I follow and sit down across from him. "Slyder read your thoughts one day, he was sure that you knew he was Slyder, he was planning on torturing and murdering you the next day, my...co-workers found out about this and told me, so I had to make sure I convinced you that you had the wrong guy. I didn't know how I was going to do it, I was still coming up with a plan during that night in the woods, but then it kind of fell into my lap. You asked me if I was Slyder, at first I was going to tell you no, but I started to realize that convincing you I was Slyder would be so much easier than convincing you anybody else was. So I used my...uh...hallucinating powers, and made you think you saw me shifting into Slyder. But that wasn't me yesterday. I don't know what happened between you and Slyder, but that was really Slyder, all of the other times it was me." Jake explains.

I feel my mouth fall down slightly, I can barely even blink as I stare at him in astonishment. If anything, that explanation only made more questions come to mind. Slyder read my thoughts? Who's Slyder? What did Jake mean by co-workers? Where does he work? Jake has hallucinating powers? What other powers does he have? My mind it reeling with a thousand questions a minute. Of all the questions, I know which one I'll die without knowing.

"last question, who's Slyder?" I ask. Jake gives me a teeny tiny smirk "you already asked three questions" he says and stands up, he begins walking towards the basement door. No! He can't not tell me that, I can't live the last few days of my life without knowing who Slyder is. What if I know him? What if I hang out with him everyday? What if he's somebody I'm close with?

"Wait!" I exclaim, running forward. I grab Jake's shoulder and turn him around, looking into his eyes. "Jake, I need to know, please" I whisper. I can see Jake contemplating this with a wary look, finally he lets out a sigh "you're not going to believe me" he claims. "try me" I challenge, taking a step closer so that our faces are only inches apart.

"It's Abigail" Jake says "what?!" I scream yanking away from him. My breath gets caught in my throat as my brain spins through the possibility. Jake suddenly starts laughing. I look at him with confusion and anger "how can you be laughing right now?" I yell "I'm kidding, it's not Abigail." Jake says, laughing harder. I stomp up to him and smack him as hard as I can in the back of the head "ow" He whines rubbing where I had hit him. "That wasn't funny" I growl. His lips form in a mischievous smirk "tell me, please Jake, tell me." I beg. Once again Jake sighs and looks away before locking eyes with me again "Brandon is Slyder" he tells me and I hear my sharp intake of breath.

How can that be? Brandon has gone to this school all of his life, I can read his mind, he's friends with everybody, my mom-along with everyone else-loves him, he's so kind, and sweet, how could he possibly be Slyder? "Are you sure?" I ask Jake scoffs lightly, not mockingly, but humorously "trust me, I'm one hundred percent, without a doubt sure" he says. I squeeze my eyes shut as I rub my temples "this is insane, I'm dating the guy who's planning to torture and kill me" I say trying to wrap my mind around it "I have to break up with him" I say thinking out loud.

"No!" Jake exclaims, "you can't. Slyder can't know that you know, if he finds out then he'll move the murdering date to the next day again. You have to act completely normal, you can't even think about it, if you find your mind starting to think about it, then you have to force yourself to think about something, anything else. Do you understand?" Jake asks urgently. "So let me get this straight. You want me to continue dating Slyder?" I ask baffled "I wouldn't have told you if I thought you'd break up with him. You must keep dating him, please" Jake says.

My mind is buzzing with all of this new information, I don't know how to process it all, I don't know how to compute everything. It's all so confusing and mind blowing. I don't know what to think, or how to wrap my brain around everything I've been told. I can't stay here any longer, I need to see Abigail, I need to talk to her about all of this. "I have to go" I tell Jake before pushing past him and running out the door, racing to my house and grabbing my keys before getting in my car and zooming away. There were still so, so, so many questions that were left unanswered.

Still so, so, so many questions that I need to be answered, but at least I got the answers to three of my questions. I'm freaking out kind of at the moment. Finding out that my own first ever boyfriend is Slyder, as in the Slyder. The same Slyder that's been haunting and ruining my life, the same Slyder that left me that note and picture, the same Slyder that is planning to torture and murder me. That Slyder is the guy that I've been dating. The guy that calls me babe, the guy that holds my hands as we walk down the halls every day, the guy that walks me to all of my classes, the guy that I've made out with more times than I can count, the guy that made that huge gesture to ask me to prom, the guy that met and charmed my mother, the guy that made out with me in my bedroom, the guy that groped my butt in front of Jake, this very same guy is Slyder.

If I weren't driving, I probably would have passed out from the thought. I taste bile in my mouth as my breathing fastens. Finally I get to Abigail's house. As soon as I park, I race out of my car and run to her front door, not bothering to knock as I run in. Finally I can talk about everything to someone before my mind implodes.

"Abigail!" I yell "we have a lot to talk about"

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