I hear a soft chuckle and whirl around, barely seeing a ripple of air before the illusion is back in place.

"Good to see you, Ashley. Are you enjoying the show?" Only now do I notice the illusion still playing, Mrs. Clark's hand trailing down Zero's bicep. I groan and cover my eyes, mentally trying to banish the picture from my mind.

"Really gross Sylvia. This is an all knew low, even for you."

"And here I thought it would work." Her snide voice comes from a corner to the right.

"I never took you for the type to play dirty. I thought if you were going to pull something you'd defenitely take ownership immediately for it."

"What do you think I'm doing now?" She asks, infering to how she has revealed her presence.

I have kept my eyes focused on the corner, studying it for any more ripples of movement, but Sylvia takes my bait and unveils herself, her true form melting into form from the shadows. I watch as the image or Mrs. Clark and Zero fades, leaving only us.

"Where's Zero?" I demand, scanning the room empty cell.

"Oh he's fine. Experiencing one of my illusions, but fine."

"What are you doing to him?" I say, my tone rising as I take a step forward.

"See for yourself." She says with a smirk.

Suddenly, Zero appears in the opposite corner of Sylvia, sitting agaisnt the wall, his entire face a deep shade of red as an almost pained rumble sounds from his chest.

"Zero!" I gasp, standing up in my wheelchair even though my back screams in pain. But then Sylvia is in front of me, and Zero has disappeared again. I can still hear his groans though, coming off every few seconds.

"Ah, ah, ah. Trust me, this is an illusion he should be enjoying."

"Would you stop skirting around the subject? Leave, Sylvia, I'm not scared of you." I say, trying to keep my eyes level with her and hope she doesn't call my bluff. The girl almost suffocated me to death with a heel afterall. She glowers, stepping forward.

"I could show you your worst nightmares. I could make you relive your death over and over again. I can make you watch as I rip your heart out, and then do it for real."

"Then do it." I challenge, not backing down.

I really need to learn how and when to keep my mouth shut.

She smirks, raising her hand, probably to do exactly what she promised she would, but then a strange expression comes over her face. She snarls, but then jerks her head to the side, as if being slapped an invisible force. She whimpers and lowers her head in submission, and I'm standing there, gaping.

It has been confirmed. Sylvia is a lunatic.

Taking this as my chance, I whirla round, gritting my teeth in agony as the skin on my back is shifted around. My dad has taught me a few moves over the years about self defense, not really a lot, but enough to know how to throw a jab straight at her neck.

It knocks Sylvia out of her.....whatever that was she was going through, and she focuses back on me.

"Didn't think you could use that much force." She says, rubbing her neck and letting out a slight cough, as if she's in awe.

"I didn't know you could attempt murder. guess we can't judge on appearances." I glower. "Now leave."

"Do not tell me what to do. You may think you're so high and mighty now, but I'll pay you back for that jab ten times over, just you wait. She snarls.

We stare each other down for a few seconds, until finally, she smirks turning towards the door. "If it as up to me, you would be dead by now, Ashley. Be glad you have very important allies." Is her final words.

Allies? What allies? I don't even have many friends......yeah I'm past the point of being ashamed of that by now. I watch her leave, and tense when she pauses by the door.

"He said not to harm you physically." I hear her mutter. She glances over her shoulder at me with a smirk. "Enjoy my goodbye present."

Suddenly, searing pain shoots up my leg and I look at it to see black veins trailing up the length of it. I scream, kicking my leg out and sending pain flaring through my upper body. The veins don't disappear.

What has Sylvia done to me?

Then, the black veins vanish, leaving my leg looking perfectly normal. It takes me a few seconds to realize what has happened and a few seconds more to relaize my eyes got a bit watery.

Damn it, I think while wiping at my eyes. You just had to fall for that again. Can you get any more stupid, Ashley?

Then I remember Zero.

I turn to find him still sitting agaisnt the walls, knees to his chest and staring up at the ceiling while panting.

I slolwy start to walk over to him, trying to keep the upper body movement to a minimum.

The little noise of my foot steps must have snapped Zero out of whatever state of mind he had been in, because he turns his head to the side to face me. He stares at me for a few seconds, and I stare back, paralyzed by his furious, grey eyes. I've seen Zero mad before, but nothing like this.

Zero looks lethal, no, he looks like an animal. A predator.

I wince when my aching arms and back distract me, and Zero's instatnly up and by my side, a hand that's so gentle I barely even feel it brushing agaisnt my back.

He leads me to the cot and helps me lay me down on my stomach, and I'm grateful that he has enough sense not to put me down on my back.

There's a few moments of silence, in which we both try to collect ourselves, but when I twist my head to look back at Zero, he still looks a bit on the frightening side. I swallow, but my throat is too dry, making the air bubble travel slowly down my throat.

A thought suddenly pops into my head.

If Mrs. Clark's office is empty, and the Mrs. Clark that was just on top of Zero was fake, then where is the real Mrs. Clark? Zero seems to have the same thought, because he stiffens, before sniffing the air, making me do a double take. Did he just sniff the air?

Zero seems to relax when he catches no other scents besides us, and walks over, sitting on the floor beside my head so we are almost eye level.

"Explain." I demand. I don't specify in what I want him to explain. There's so many questions, with so few answers. It feels almost as if I'm being strangled.

"Where to start?" He mumbles to himself, before coughing into his fist. "First of all, why have you stopped talking to me?"

"I thought I requested you explain first." I say, lifiting an irritated eyebrow. "Besides, I was.....upset. Seeing you all cozy on the ebach with Sylvia was quite a....shock."

"What?" He growls, staring me dead in the eyes, making me gulp. "I was in the water the whole time! You and Shy were building a sand castle!"

"I did no such thing!" I nearly shout. Is he blaming me for this now?. "Just own up to it and stop denying it like a jerk!"

"Have you considered the fact that maybe she tricked us both? He growls again, leaning his head closer so he was glaring at me from only a few centimeters away. "Have you given it any thought that Sylvia might have whipped up another illusion and fooled us both? Or are you just going to decide to take her side over mine?"

I freeze, letting it sink in and becoming speechles as I realize that yes, i can get more stupid,a dn this is a good example of how.

Zero's completely and utterly right, and I feel horrible.

"I didn't know she could even weave illusions until the night of the party," I whisper, cringign when i realize how much it sounds like some petty excuse. He sighs, shaking his head.

"No, it's my fault. I should have told you what she was in the first place." I feel like pushing him and asking why he didn't tell me what she was in the first place, but then a more important question comes to the forefront of my thoughts.

"What does she want?" I ask softly, hoping for a better explanation than the one Sylvia gave me.

Zero's silent for a second, before-

"A long time ago I made a deal with someone. I'm afraid it's come back to ruin me, now." "What deal?" I ask, growing frustrated with everyone's vagueness.

"Remember how I told you about the Darkling High Commander?" He asks, and I nod. "A few years ago, he asked for something, something I thought I could give, but recently I realized I couldn't follow through with it. I left the island, searching for an alternate way to complete the deal, and ran into one of the teams you scientists keep sending to the island. I could have killed them all, but I thought of it as an escape, a way to get extra time off to figure out the deal."

"And Sylvia has come to collect the payment in place of the Darkling High Commander." I finish for him. "But you still won't tell me what deal you've made. Maybe I can help you figure it out."

He shakes his had, sadness falling over his features. "Sometimes ignorance is bliss."

"And sometimes it's a pain up my you-know-what." I retort, annoyed, but Zero only lets out an amused chuckle.

Then I remember a specific piece of information that has me angry at Zero again. "Kinling High Commander? When were you going to tell me this?"

He winces, rubbing the back of his neck. "Right. I would have told you, eventually, maybe once we were on the island."

"What do you mean 'once we were on the island'?"

Before he can answer the curtain is suddenly yanked open, and my eyes shoot to see my dad standing there, mouth wide open, headphones on, and coffee in hand. I look past him and see the sound light is on green, meaning my dad has heard Zero talk.

I watch the coffee slip out of his hands, the paper cup hitting the floor and spilling the brown liquid everywhere.

The look on his face says a thousands words, and I realize I'm doomed, probably even more than when I was underneath Sylvia's heel.

Ah, shitaki.



Hello, readers! Hope you enjoyed I'm sorry I haven't been updating as often, and from now on my chapter date all be Monday, or maybe even Sunday. That does not mean that I won't write extra chapters during the week, but I just wanted to set a constant date for you guys. (This is Dangeroustoken from the future editing this author's note, and I would just like to say that this update schedule does not become a thing at all and I'm horrible at keeping updates cosntant LOL) Vote, comment, and drink some hot chocolate cause I don't do coffee (I know what an amatuer). Lots of love,

Dangeroutoken.