Dasey Nation

[DaniLovesDasey]

Wow, this story is just.. amazing. I swear this is the first story I check literally every single day for updates. I barely even read fanfiction, but I'm totally hooked on this one! There are so many times you have thrown me for a loop. You never fail to shock your readers though, so I'm going with my notion that the killer is the one person we'd all least expect. First of all, I think the most obvious choices would be Max and Noel, so I've mentally crossed them off my list of suspects. Kendra was one of my original suspects, but obviously she's out of the question. Sam's death was never really seen, but we know the cops are on their way and will find a body. Ralph hasn't been targetted yet, but I highly doubt he has the brain capacity of an evil genius. He just doesn't strike me as a plausible candidate for the killer of this story. Emily I would think is absolutely out of the question, because she would never hurt Sheldon. That really just leaves Edwin and Paul. Paul, I'm still not writing out, because although we HEARD him 'die'.. we didn't see him die. If he were the killer he could've easily faked his death to throw off Casey, though he probably really is dead. Then there's Edwin, who I definitely suspect, but then again I'm expecting a more shocking plot twist so I'm just gonna go out on a limb here and guess Lizzie because:

1) She's the person you'd LEAST expect behind this. In fact, she's barely even mentioned as a suspect. Lizzie would be the ideal killer for shock value.
2) A really good horror story writer (which our author is) purposely draws attention to all of the main suspects, so as to divert the focus away from THE actual killer.
3) To support this far fetched theory, I've thought up incentive for Lizzie: she's tired of living in her sister's shadow, being pushed around and taken for granted. She torments her sister by killing everyone around her with the intention of eventually erasing the one person she considers a burden- Casey. I know it's totally far fetched and I probably couldn't be MORE wrong, but bear with me here I'm on a roll lol.

Now we know Lizzie is away on vacation with her parents, but text messaging and IMing is a person's best friend. She could easily have an accomplice on the side aka the big bad wolf to do her bidding. This detracts the attention away from her, making her the one person anyone would least suspect. I personally think the wolf himself (Or herself. Who really knows) will turn out to be one of the more obvious suspects like Noel or Max if the wolf is infact only an accomplice. And then there's Edwin. He obviously has a major thing for Lizzie and It would explain why he came home early. But above all else, he too has incentive and this is where the popular Edwin theory comes in - he's tired of Derek dictating him, abusing him, and controlling him like a hand held puppet. He and Lizzie have always been a team, so wouldn't it be something if it were in fact Lizzie and Edwin teamed up against their older siblings? I know my theory is probably TOTALLY off lol, but it's still fun to speculate, so there's my farfetched, last minute theory. Sorry for the long analysis, I'm just WAY into this story right now. Can't wait for the next chapter!

[Lady Azura]

^ You know, I actually really like that theory. It makes sense... in a bizarre way. Most people may argue that a 12 and 13-year-old would be incapable of such... atrocities, but I disagree.

Don't believe me?

Read Lord of the Flies - that'll give you a taste of what humanity is truly like underneath all of our, ahem, civilized ways. I mean, with the right circumstances... we can be pretty horrible.
_________________

Soul x Maka: My [anime] OTP -- /Never has an unoffical pairing been so blatantly obvious. They're soulmates, I tell you!/

~Lizwin: My Anti-Drug~

[Salchichonio815]

Wow I love your theory, a middle kids revenge makes a lot of sense, at least to me, but I've always thought Edwin was behind all of this. So if Lizzie and Edwin joint forces to destroy their elder siblings and have their so deserved revenge, I won't be too shocked by that.
I'd love that ending, but I can't help it I love drama and unexpected plot twists (I should stop seeing so much Tv).
By the way, you know what would be funny? If in the end the stalker turned out being: (drums)... TINKER!!! (In my opinion the most logical suspect, 'cause he's already stalking her (sort of), for crying out loud)
I'm so lame, intead of spending all my time thinking about the stalker's identity, I should be doing something worthy and study for finals, this fanfic it's going to be the death of mine, really WHY IT HAS TO BE SO WELL WRITTEN?

[stephluvvsyou]

AN : Only one more chapter after this oneeee!

Stalking Casey

part 12 –Drip Drop


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"Is this your idea of a sick joke?"

Derek and Casey stood, in the doorway, the entire front of their house flooded with flashing lights for the 2nd time that week, both their jaws dropped open. The police officer that had asked the question was stepping towards them, brows furrowed angrily.

"I mean, first a dead dog and now this?"

Derek was getting angry. His eyes slanted into a glare of their own and he made a motion to step forward off the stairs, but Casey gripped his arm and shook her head, hoping he would listen to her. "Derek, please don't, you're going to upset him further which only makes us look worse than we already do."

Derek sighed, and shook her grip off. He however, did, remain where he was, and scowled, folding his arms across his chest. No one, talked to the Derek Venturi in that manner. He could care less if the police were supposed to have some kind of authority. He would not be made mockery of. Especially in the presence of Casey.

The officer flashed a light in his eyes, "You been drinking, son?"

Derek hadn't even flinched when the officer had performed this action, his eyes were only seeing red. And it'd be getting a lot worse if the officer kept it up. "No."

The officer raised an eyebrow before moving on to Casey, "What about you, miss?"

Casey's eyes were slits as the bright lights shone in them, and she shook her head, "No officer we don't drink."

The officer turned off the light, and stared at them for a brief moment, before nodding his head all knowingly. "Drugs, then, is it?"

Before Casey could stop him, Derek had given the officer a rough shove backwards, and emitted an uncontrolled, “Oh, shut the fuck up.” He'd stepped down after the stumbling officer.

She watched in terror of what she knew was probably going to be a verbal showdown between the two of them. This could be bad. This could be very, very bad.

"I'm going to have to ask you to control yourself, son." the officer spat, trying to remain professional about the ordeal, but nearly failing already.

"Yeah, well, I'm going to have to ask you to stick to doing your job, officer." Derek replied, arms folded over his chest again already. "Stop asking us a bunch of stupid, pointless, questions. You should be more worried about who did this."

The cop stiffened, an even colder glare emitting on his features, and he pointed a finger at Derek, “Are you trying to tell me how to do my job?”

“Well…” Derek glanced around for a few seconds, before his eyes landed back on the officer, “Yes.”

The officer did not like this at all. This boy was attempting to make a fool of him right before his eyes. Not to mention he had a major attitude problem, “You’d better watch it, or you’ll be going down town. For failure to cooperate with the law.”

Derek rolled his eyes and sighed in defeat. He didn’t want to be arrested. Actually, that was the last thing he needed now. “Look, it’s been a long week for her and I.” he made a gesture towards Casey, who had still been watching from the doorstep in horror, “And we haven’t done anything wrong.”

“I’ll be the judge of that.” The officer scoffed at him, before turning on his heel and stalking off towards some of the other officers standing around their cars, examining what they’d pulled from the tree.

A large, life sized, stuffed dummy, was lying on the ground in the yard, in the middle of a circle of other officers, as they discussed the situation. Derek couldn’t quite hear them, but he was pretty sure he might have pulled a ‘damn teenagers’, and ‘don’t they understand we have better things to do?’ out of their conversation.

Casey had remained frozen on the doorstep ever since the police had arrived and pounded on their door angrily. How were they supposed to know that for once – the psycho’s threat had been a fake?

Now Derek was getting into it with the police. Lately, Casey had been learning a valuable lesson. One she would have never used to agree with whatsoever. Simply let Derek be in control. She was still struggling slightly with the entire thing, but had mellowed out about it quite a bit. She knew he had her best interest in mind when he handled things a certain way. And well…he hadn’t gotten her killed yet. In fact, she had felt safer.

Still, it wasn’t a smart thing to do – getting into a scrap with an officer. Someone who had the authority to arrest him on the spot if he kept it up.

She reached into her back pocket and pulled out her phone. She dialed Sam’s number now, for the 2nd time since they’d found out the body hanging from the tree was a spoof. He wasn’t answering, and she knew that at this hour, he’d normally be asleep. But tonight had been far from normal, and she wished he’d just pick up the phone.

She sighed, letting the phone slip away from her ear as the sounds of his voicemail had just picked up. Glancing back out at the officer’s standing around the dummy, then at Derek, who still seemed to be heatedly talking with the lone officer, she just hoped and prayed that they’d leave soon. All she wanted to do was sink into Derek’s arms and…

She cut her own thoughts off and almost scoffed at herself. Maybe Emily had been right.

Was this real love? She’d contemplated the thought several times since Emily had made her statement. She was normally logical , rational, thought clearly. Lately? Not so much. It was like the trauma that was happening, wasn’t really happening. She felt half terrible because she should be feeling remorse and sadness over the friends they’d lost. But when Derek was around? Even thoughts of the psycho were outweighed by thoughts of Derek.

Was this kind of love even right? The kind that admist something so horrible and crucial – she still managed to smile because of his presence?

She sighed again. She didn’t exactly know what was right. She couldn’t figure it out. That right there had been a mental battle over this week. She didn’t know whether it was right or wrong to just let herself fall into the feeling.

It was exhausting, and tiresome, among other things.

Her thoughts were torn away at yet more talking with raised voices.

“So you’re friend Miss Davis is the one that made the false alarm at Thompson High today!” the officer had pointed out, “Yeah I heard all about that! Seems the whole lot of you are nothing but trouble! The guys said it took forever to calm that loony down!”

“Excuse me?!” Derek had snapped, “She was telling the truth! And don’t ever say that about her again, you son of a-“

“Son, I’d advise you not to finish that sentence.” The officer cut him off, almost calmly.

Casey didn’t know how much longer she could stand letting Derek be in control of this situation. Though – he did have the right to say something to the officer that time. How shallow could this one get? First accusing them of drinking and drugs, and now accusing Emily of being ‘loony’?

She had to smile faintly at the fact that Derek had stood up for Emily. Though – he’d grown very accustomed to that. Derek was very protective and defensive when it came to Emily. Even after she’d started dating Sheldon and had someone to play that role for her, Derek had always shared some responsibility with that. He deeply valued Emily’s friendship, and had made damned sure that no one ever did her wrong.

“Mind explaining to me, officer…” Derek leaned over and glared at his nametag, “…Finn,” he paused again and folded his arms across his chest, “What kind of significance do you hold for the department here? Because so far, all I can tell is that you’re a worthless, dipshit and completely incapable of doing your job right.”

That had been the last straw. Before Officer Finn could say anything in reply to Derek, Casey had butted in between them, hoping to nip this argument in the tail. She felt extremely weighed down by the intensity of the glares they both were emitting.

“Excuse me, officer, but, I need to speak with him for a moment.” Casey had cut in, gripping Derek around the arm and pulling him away from the police man with a bit of resistance.

“Casey!” Derek was clearly angered by her actions, “How many times have I told you not to interfere with my-“

“I don’t care what you say Derek!” she snapped, pulling him back onto the front porch, “And you should know I hardly ever listen to you when you’re barking commands.”

He glared at her, seemingly very annoyed with her response. And he was.

“Do you have any idea that arguing with that officer is one of the most idiotic, most stupid, most completely irrational things you could ever do!” Casey spat at him, more so than asked.

Derek rolled his eyes, “Now is not the time to get all rational with me. I’m already annoyed enough with him as it is, I don’t need you contributing!”

“I could care less what you need and don’t need, Derek Venturi!” Casey continued, “Set aside your stupid male pride for a few minutes for the sake of not getting yourself arrested!”

Derek didn’t reply to this, only mumbled a few things angrily under his breath as he turned his glare away from her. Honestly, who asked her opinion on the matter anyway? It was times like these especially, that Derek couldn’t stand one single inch of Casey McDonald.

“Shouldn’t we be trying to figure out why this has happened?” Casey asked a couple minutes later.

Derek scoffed, “I thought you were smart. Obviously you’ve been fooling me all this time.”

Casey rolled her eyes. Great. Now he was going to have an attitude towards her for the remainder of the night.

It was an hour later, before the police left their house. Casey’s phone rang as they were walking back inside, and Derek stormed up to his room immediately, still fuming at both her and Officer Finn.

“Casey its Emily.”

“Em! Hey! I’m surprised all the sirens didn’t wake you up.”

“Wake me up? Casey I never had been asleep! You and Derek both left me hanging on messenger! Then when I seen the sirens and police showing up, I was too afraid to come over because I saw them getting something out of your tree.”

“Yeah. It’s a long story. Come over, please? Derek’s mad at me.”

“Of course. I’ll be right there.”

5 minutes later Emily was walking in. Casey loved the convenience of having her best friend live right next door, and since the police had strictly informed the Davis’ that Emily was to remain home for the weekend, it finally meant they could in fact, spend that much needed time together.

Casey had explained a large amount of the situation to Emily, when Derek sauntered down the stairs again. He glanced at both girls.

“Oh, hello Emily.” He gave her a smile before turning to Casey and glaring. “Hello, thorn in my side.”

Casey rolled her eyes. He was still bitter. Sometimes he could be such a grudge holder. Though – so could she, she supposed.

He mingled onward to the kitchen, and Casey shot Emily a look that clearly read ‘So, what should I do about him?’

“You look so clueless, yet you’ve handled him being in this mood so many times.” Emily began, “Why is it so different for you now?”

“Well.” Casey sighed. Confession time. She lowered her voice to a faint whisper and leaned towards her slightly, “I’ve been thinking about this…love concept.”

Emily immediately brightened her eyes at this. She wanted to shove an ‘I so told you it was coming’ at her, but Derek’s re-arrival back into the room stopped their conversation all together.

He sipped at a soda as his eyes landed on Casey again. Emily observed their exchange for a moment. Oh these two. Couldn’t they see it? They were completely, 100 crazy over each other.

“So Emily.” Derek had torn his gaze away from Casey to look at her, “I know with ‘flappy Mc-flap flap’ over here you must have heard about what happened.” He had made a gesture towards Casey, who in turn, shot him a narrowed glare and an open jawed expression.

Emily nodded, and shifted her position on the couch as Derek sat down in his recliner. “Why haven’t you guys tried to block this person’s IM’s? Figure out if they’ve got any online information? I mean, surely the screen name alone should give something away.”

“It’s a different screen name every time.” Casey replied with a sigh. She had been thinking that same thing after a couple times she’d gotten IM’s. “And I’ve checked for information. Nothing.”

Emily sunk back into the couch again. Derek watched her, so closely it was almost as if he could see the wheels in her head turning.

“I’m just as clueless as both of you. This person is obviously good at what they do.” Emily replied with a disappointed sigh.

“Yet it’s some high school punk.” Derek muttered in a frustrated manner as he chugged some of the cola he’d gotten from the kitchen. His free hand gripped the arm of his chair angrily, and if looks could kill, the glare in his eyes at that moment would have made a crowd drop dead, had one been watching him.

“Are you sure? I mean, obviously this person could be lying about it.” Emily replied, giving Casey a questioning glance.

“Well…whoever it is, was confident enough to say that they see me at school.” Casey responded, shuddering at the thoughts of the first day the nightmare began.

“Yeah.” Emily nodded, remembering her and Casey’s first conversation over the matter. “Still I can’t see anyone at that school doing something like this no matter how shady some of the people there can be.”

Derek glanced over at her with a look of sheer annoyance on his face, “Oh what is with you women??” he threw his hands into the air and stood from his recliner, turning to give an explanation for his outburst, “You have got to watch more movies!”

“But, Derek-“

“Emily I know you’ve seen a few, which gives you a few steps up on Casey – but you should know that some people aren’t what they seem.” Derek interrupted her before she could say anything in reply to him. Casey sighed, and sunk her face onto her hand. After all, she had heard this talk before. She wasn’t saying it wasn’t entirely true anymore. She just didn’t want to have to realize how ridiculously right Derek had been about all of this again.

She decided to dismiss herself for a few moments and go make a snack for them, all the while saying a mental prayer for Sam’s safety.

She couldn’t think of a reason why the psycho would throw a fake in their faces, after they’d killed with no remorse already so many times. It didn’t make sense. Then again, nothing at all made any sense. Why someone would do this. Why they’d actually kill. Why they couldn’t have just said who they were to begin with and left it at that. Why Derek was doing this to her.

She opened the cabinets and grabbed out some crackers and chips. Okay, so maybe Derek wasn’t actually doing anything. Normally it’d be just like him to play with someone’s emotions. Manipulate their feelings. Something was different about the way he was acting towards her this time. Something felt…real about it.

Sure, he was still a slob. An idiot, a huge annoyance to her. Stubborn as can be. Never listened to anything she said. Not to mention he was pompous and had an ego the size of the earth, but…for once she was managing to deal with it. For once, she didn’t mind that he was all of those things. Because for once, she had managed to see that he was more.

She dumped the crackers and chips into separate bowls and made her and Emily a drink, seeing as Derek already had one, and returned to the living room. Derek and Emily had scattered papers all over the table and were mumbling amongst each other.

They both looked up when they noticed her arrival.

“What are you guys doing?” she asked, almost hesitantly as she put the bowls on the table and handed Emily her drink.

“Process of elimination.” Emily replied, as she took her drink from Casey.

Derek then glanced up at her, as if knowing what she was going to say, and added an, “Again.”

Casey took a deep breath, and nodded. She had hated this the first time through. Felt horrible for suspecting her loved ones – and where had that gotten them? Half of them were now dead.

So they talked, discussed, made lists, for another 2 hours into the night. Casey was growing more tired by the minute, not to mention their hope was shriveling away as they went on. Seeing as the list they had made in the beginning, was now narrowed down to only a few people. And they didn’t want to believe that any of those people had anything to do with it.

Derek however, was really hoping it was Noel. Why? He fit the description of a stalker perfectly, not to mention Derek would have the added bonus of kicking his ass, seeing as he’d never liked him to begin with.

Emily was making her own notes, trying to come to some kind of miraculous conclusion, but couldn’t help fighting off yawns herself.

30 more minutes later, Casey had fallen asleep on Derek’s shoulder. Emily had noticed immediately, and had struggled the entire time not to start smiling like an idiot, because when she had slumped onto Derek’s shoulder, it’s like he hadn’t even cared or minded that she had.

He’d done his best to make sure not to talk too loud, or shift too much, so he wouldn’t wake her. He was being caring. He was being courteous. He was completely sprung. Head over heels.

Emily didn’t even know what to do. With the way they had been acting lately, it seemed as if everything else could fall to the way side, as long as they could be together. She knew they were concerned. But love was a powerful force. And they’d both fallen into it.

She couldn’t help but think of herself and the way she acted when she knew she’d fallen in love with Sheldon. Sure, she still loved her friends dearly, knew there were other things to life. But nothing, absolutely nothing meant more, than being with him. She had wanted her every heartbeat to belong to him. Her every breath to belong to him. Her every waking moment to be spent with him. Nothing could ever rob her of the feeling.

“Have you come up with anything else yet, Emily?”

Derek’s voice had stirred her out of her own thoughts, and she glanced over at him. He looked to be nearing exaughstion himself. She shook her head gloomily. “No. Your guess is as good as mine. Noel. But Casey wouldn’t be too happy if she heard me say that.”

He glanced down at her, sleeping softly on his shoulder, and looked back up at Emily again. “Why do you think she cares so much for people?”

“Well, she’s always had a soft spot for people’s happiness. Whether she knows them or not.” Emily replied, watching him shift uncomfortably at the thought.

He glanced at their newly revised version of the list of suspects. The past half hour had been rough especially on Casey. They’d managed to narrow the list down to only one person. Half of Derek thought she was still being annoying and stupid about it all. The other half believed she knew it was true also, and was just struggling to come to terms about it.

It was over. They’d figured out who was doing this once and for all. For some reason, Derek felt stupid he hadn’t known all along it was him. He had been the obvious choice from the beginning.

“I don’t know what’s going to happen now.” Derek said, then noticing the puzzled look in Emily’s eyes, continued, “After he’s caught. After everything’s over.”

Emily still didn’t quite understand, “What do you mean?” she shifted on the couch, finishing off the last of her drink.

“This…entire thing has changed us.” Derek continued. “It’s been stupid, and infuriating, and downright an idiotic waste of time, for the most part. I’m ready for it to be over. But I’m not…I’m just…”

Emily could tell he was struggling with the confession, and decided to help him out, “You want Noel caught, you want suffering to end. But you don’t want what’s somehow formed between you and Casey to end.”

Derek looked at her like she’d read his mind, and nodded.

“It doesn’t have to, you know.” Emily continued.

“How can it not though? Emily I am, and have always been one person.” Derek explained, “I’ve always had a reputation, I’ve always had the same personality, and it’s never changed for anyone. Because that’s not who I am. If what I want with Casey is going to change me forever, I don’t know if it’s worth it to me at all.”

She raised an eyebrow at him. She’d never heard him more confused. “Derek.” She paused, as if she was searching for the proper words to say, “If what you have and want with Casey is real at all, then no change at all should be required. Adjustments? Sure. Sacrifice? Yes. But never change. Because I’m pretty sure, that you and her have felt this way about each other long before this week. This situation has just forced you to deal with it because at any moment, either of you could be taken away from one another.”

Those words had echoed through his head for the remainder of the night. Even in his dreams he could hear them. Did he love Casey? Was it real? Could he really still be himself and be worthy of her love at the same time? Be capable of loving her back at the same time?

This is why, Derek Venturi never dealt with feelings. Never got involved deeply with people. Because all it did was create too many questions that would never be answered. He sighed, and stuffed a pillow on the top of his head, hoping to stop the words from echoing through his head some more. He needed to rest.

Tomorrow would be a big day for them all.

A sound jarred his thoughts away, and he sat up in the bed. His computer screen was glowing brightly, having been jolted out of its screensaver. His messenger had gone off. He yawned lazily, and rolled himself out of the bed, a small smirk playing on his lips. So, the miserable son of a bitch wanted to play games with him now too? Well that was alright. Because not only had they figured out who it was, but Derek wasn’t one that could get as easily upset or scared by words on a computer screen.

He plopped down into his chair, preparing to have one hell of a time. What he read, destroyed every ounce of confidence he’d had in the situation.

‘Stupid cops. Don’t you hate them? They always check the wrong tree.’

He felt his stomach sink and he swallowed hard. His eyes narrowed into a glare at the screen.

‘I know it’s you Noel you son of a fucking bitch.’

There was a pause in between the IM’s, and the user abruptly signed out. Derek pounded his fist on his desk angrily. Not 3 seconds later, a different IM popped up, with a picture. No, more like a live camera. He concentrated hard on the scenery in the camera view. It was the alleyway behind the back of their house. Slowly the camera picture began to move around, and it became clear that someone was carrying it. It moved into their backyard, in the quiet and the dark. As the figure moved through the leaves and bushes, Derek heard it happening. This was a live feed.

“Fucking bastard!” Derek yelled, jumping up from the chair so loudly, that his chair slid into his bed and tipped over at the foot of it. He stormed towards his bedroom door and flung it open, not bothering to pick up his chair on the way out. He tore through the hallway, damn near burning a track into the carpet on the way. He tackled the stairs at full speed and pounded out the back door to the house.

Breathing hard, he looked left, then right. He didn’t see anything. It was dark, and the silence was ridiculously eerie. He was ready though. “Come out and fight you pussy!” he screamed, piercing the quiet around him.

Seriously, he couldn’t wait to beat this guy’s poetic, pathetic, sorry ass.

He heard rustling in the bushes again, down by the edge of the yard and the alleyway, and dashed in the direction it was coming from. All the way there, he could just hear the sound of Casey’s voice in his head. ‘Derek what are you doing? You’re going to get yourself killed! You don’t have a tough guy rep!’

He tried to shake the thoughts away. He’d be no good distracted. Of course, by the time he actually managed to get a hold of the psychotic jerk, there’d be no stopping the immense pain he’d inflict upon him. As he made it to the bushes, he plunged his hands inside of it, ripping leaves off left and right, hoping he’d get more of a handful of Noel than anything. He was cursing loudly as he searched the bush, knowing it was serving no real purpose than making him feel better about things.

Suddenly, a cat screeched, and Derek jerked his hands from the bush, letting out a semi-quiet ‘ouch’ in the process. He watched the orange and white striped tabby rush out from underneath it, and scamper down into the alley way, clearly pissed that he’d either blown his cover while in pursuit of a small rodent, or given him a violent awakening.

“Damn.” Derek muttered in a frustrated manner, as he shook the stinging sensation from the cat’s scratch out of his hand. His eyes jerked around again, looking in all direction, hoping that even in this darkness he would spot something.

He stood there quietly, hoping again to hear rustling or the sound of footsteps so he’d at least have a direction to pursue, he felt a drop on his head. Rain? Now? That’s just what everyone needed.

Drip. Drip.

Two more drops fell on his head, Then a third one plopped itself right on his forehead. He scowled in annoyance, and reached up to wipe the water drop off.

Something wasn’t right. Something didn’t feel right. He didn’t know why, but for some reason he had to look. The water was either really warm, or it wasn’t water. And as he brought his hand back down in front of him, he got his answer.

His eyes forced themselves up, and found that he couldn’t look away. They were frozen solid on the sight. Only when is stomach lurched, and he slapped a hand over his mouth, did he manage to tear himself away. He ran to the bush, and emptied his stomach out into it. Coughing and sputtering, as he heaved every ounce of liquid that had been in his body.

When he was sure he was done he leaned over with his hands on his knees, panting hard, gasping for breath, hoping the stinging sensation in his stomach would go away. He couldn’t look again. There was no way he could look again.

The sight, had been awful. The mangled body of his best friend, hanging from the tree above him, and he hadn’t even noticed at first. What the hell was wrong with him? He had thought for sure he’d have had the chance to end everything now. And just like that, the psycho had slipped away again.

He was angry. Pissed. Frustrated. He had been so close.

Was this how it was going to be? This person killing off everyone he cared for, and managing to slip through every time?

He felt a surge of anger and frustration go through him again, and the same thoughts that had been screaming at him all week were screaming at him again. It wasn’t fair. Something was coming over him. He darted all over the yard, grabbing objects, making noise, throwing and kicking things around. He’d even tripped a couple times, which made him all the more angry.

He stood atop his unsafe stack of cement blocks, and old wood until he could reach Sam, and tore him from the tree. His lifeless body collapsed onto the ground and Derek lunged himself at it, grasping it in his arms, holding it tightly. “Wake up Sam! Stop playing!”

He yelled, and pounded his fist on the ground, and all the while kept the deceased Sam in his arms, hoping, praying that this was all just a nightmare.

It was suddenly hitting him. His tough guy façade was not saving him this time, and even that made him angry, and he yelled again for Sam to ‘wake up.’

He thought of Sally, and Kendra, who’d already gone, with the blink of an eye their lives had been taken. He thought of Paul, Casey’s shrink, who’d met a surprised, unfortunate end. He thought of Sheldon, who’d been robbed of something so vital. He even thought of Max, who, while he’d never liked him, maybe after all hadn’t deserved to really die. He thought of Ralph, who, when he also found out about Sam, might never laugh or make another joke again.

He thought of Emily, and how she was suffering over her boyfriend’s injury, and the trauma of seeing Kendra being nearly murdered in front of her. He thought of Edwin, his brother, who thank God, had stayed safe through the entire thing. He thought about George, Nora, Lizzie, and precious Marti, who hadn’t witnessed a thing.

Now his best friend, who’d never play another hockey game with him. Never come over to play ‘Babe Raider’ and just hang out. Never be partnered with him as ‘Sneaky’ anymore. Never breathe another breath.

He thought of Casey. The one who from the beginning, had never deserved such trauma. Who had also lost loved ones. Who was fighting and trying so hard to handle it. Who had never wavered from his side in the midst of it.

His light.

The girl he was completely in love with.

And at that moment, as all these thoughts had been hitting him, as he felt the grief coursing through his veins, Derek Venturi began to do something he had never once done in his life.

He began to cry.

He shook with anger and emotional pain as tears rolled down his face. He clutched Sam’s body even tighter as he buried his head onto his chest, and let all the weight that had been on his shoulder’s spill out of his eyes.

He needed to get a grip. “Stop fucking crying!” he sobbed angrily, “Derek you damned pansy!” He didn’t understand why he couldn’t stop himself from turning into an emotional puddle. Everything he stood for. Everything he had always fought for, was now going down the drain.

Derek Venturi did not cry. He was not meant or made to produce tears.

He couldn’t stop.

He needed her.

He ran. Ran as fast as he could back into the house. Away from his best friend, away from the moment that had destroyed his entire identity.

She was up already. Just making her way down the stairs, obviously having been woken up by his screams. She rubbed her eyes tiredly, a yawn escaping her, but when she noticed that something was gravely wrong, and he looked extremely deeply upset, her eyes shot open with worry and concern, now completely wide awake.

“Derek, are you okay, what hap-“

That’s all Casey had managed, before Derek had sped towards her and thrown his arms around her.

Casey was in shock, to say the least. Was Derek…crying?

A heavy sob dispersed onto her shoulder.

He was. She didn’t know what she was supposed to do, but he gave her the answer, in an edgy sounding voice, “Just stay like this with me.”

“Okay.” She responded softly.

She stood there holding him, and they remained that way for a good 10 minutes before he’d stopped.

He was so completely repulsed by his own actions. He was supposed to be a man. Yet he’d just cried all over the shoulder of a girl he’d worked so hard to convince that he was made of steel. Would be her strength, her protection, her rock.

All of that was fallen to shambles now. Crashed, burned, up in flames, gone in a puff of smoke. And he hated himself for it.

“Derek…” Casey said softly, as he lifted his head off of her shoulder finally. Her hands rested on his arms, as he wiped the last remaining tears off of his eyes. “Derek, what happened?”

She couldn’t believe a moment like this had ever entered her life. Derek was an emotional, vulnerable, tearful mess. That was something that for the rest of her days alive, she thought she’d never get the chance to see. She could see that there was anger in his eyes. But more so than that, she could see hurt, pain, confusion, and exaughstion. Something had shaken him. Something had shaken him really hard.

“I just…” Derek had began, but there was a knock at the door.

Casey shot him a weary glance, but remained there. She was not going to leave his side. She let her arm rest on his arm again as she gave it a slight squeeze, “You just…what Derek? Tell me.”

Derek shook his head, “You should get the door.”

She sighed, and let her hands fall away, as she stowed towards the door. Seriously? It was at least 4 in the morning. Who could be here now? “Who is it?!” she called out, hoping that whoever was standing on the other side, would give a safe answer.

“Emily!” came the muffled voice.

She sighed in relief and opened the door up for her friend.

“Are you guys okay? I heard yelling outside and it scared me.” Emily was absolutely livid with concern as Casey shut the door behind her and locked it.

Casey motioned her head in the direction of the stairs, and Emily let her eyes fall upon the tired looking Derek with puffy eyes. She put a hand to her chest as she exchanged a concerned look with her. “What’s wrong with Derek? Does he have a temperature? He looks like he’s been crying. Maybe I’m so tired my eyes are playing tricks, I don’t think-“

“Em.” Casey said, stopping her babbling friend from going any further, “I’m not sure what happened, but I’m scared for him.”

Casey wasn’t going to say any more than that. Derek crying on her shoulder was not something he’d probably want her blabbing to anyone in this lifetime. So unless he felt like telling Emily himself, she wasn’t going to.

Emily walked towards Derek, almost reluctantly, wishing that if her eyes were playing tricks on her that they would stop. There was no way in reality Derek could have actually been crying. He did look rather under the weather though.

Casey went into the kitchen to get Derek a glass of water, while Emily did her best to converse with him. Though, he wasn’t in the mood to talk. When she arrived back with the glass, he only sat it down beside him on the bottom step of the staircase, where he’d finally decided to sit down. Casey and Emily exchanged a glance, not knowing what to think, do, or how to help.

“Uh, I think I’ll just…go upstairs to use your restroom Casey.” Emily said, shooting her a look that said ‘help him’, as she made her way up.

Casey stood for a good moment, just watching him. He looked completely unhinged and unstable, and she wasn’t quite sure how she should approach this at all. While she wasn’t willing to just let him sit there and be miserable, she was quite sure that if anyone had encountered the crying Derek, they’d be reacting the same way, if they hadn’t died in shock already at the sight of his tears.

She sat down beside him, moving the glass of water over. Still though, she hadn’t thought of something to say to him yet. Another few moments passed by and they remained side by side, sitting in the silence. Finally, Derek cleared his throat.

“I’m sorry you had to see me like that.” He mumbled, as he folded his arms to rest on his knees.

Casey struggled with herself on how to respond, finally settling on a, “Why would you be sorry for that?”

“Because I don’t c…cr….” He was stumbling and struggling to admit it to himself. To even say the word.

“Cry.” Casey admitted for him.

“Yeah that one.” He responded, mentally thankful he didn’t have to say it himself. He paused again and there was a brief moment of silence between them before he sighed. “I’ve pushed you so hard to be strong. To not cry. To keep yourself together. Then I go and do the one thing I hate more than anything else. Something I put other people down for doing.” He paused again as his voice dropped a bit lower into almost a quiet whisper, “And I’ll never forgive myself for it.”

Casey sighed. Oh boy. This was going to be one long talk. “It’s okay, you know. To cry.”

Derek glanced at her like she’d gone mental. “Maybe for you it is. But I-“

“Am human.” Casey interrupted him. “What rule book did you read from that said ‘Derek Venturi is not allowed to cry’?”

“Mine.” Derek almost snapped back. Didn’t she understand? It was absolutely not by any means acceptable for him to cry.

She scoffed in response, “No such thing exists.”

‘The hell if it doesn’t!’ he thought for a brief minute, but he didn’t feel like arguing with her. Believe it or not, for once the mental strength just wasn’t there. There was another moment of passing silence, and he turned to her again. “Casey?”

“Hm?” she turned to him with her full attention, ready to help him with whatever was still bothering him, and feeling priveledged that he would talk to her in the first place about it.

“It’s…Sam.” Derek began, already immediately wanting to slow down because the look in her eyes was quickly turning into sadness.

He didn’t have to say anymore, as he watched her already struggling to fight the tears. She looked at him with a serious glint in her eyes, “Is…he…” her voice was almost shaky, “…he is, isn’t he? It’s…not a joke this time…is it?”

“What have I missed?” came Emily’s hesitant voice, clearly streaked with fear, as the two turned around to glance at her returning from the top of the stairs. She could tell that whatever had been talked about, had been a very grim topic.

Derek tried to keep his voice steady as he shot Emily a knowing glance, added with a simple, “Sam.”

“Oh no…” Emily let out a strained whisper, before collapsing on the stair she’d been standing on. She buried her face in her hands and sobbed hard into them.

‘Crap.’ Derek thought. ‘How the hell do I handle them both at the same time?’

He noticed that Casey was still struggling to force her tears back, and urged her to go sit with Emily. Better they cry on each other’s shoulders than cry on his. However, he was still quite miffed at himself for becoming so vulnerable at such a crucial time. He was now no better than anyone else who cried.

And even though Casey had told him crying was a human thing to do, he was pretty sure that if there’d been anything left in his stomach to hurl, he would have by now.

He stayed where he was. Not bothering to glance back. He could hear them crying to each other. Asking each other ‘why’, ‘when’s it going to end’, and muttering Sam’s name.

He felt an absolute miserable mess right now. He couldn’t seem to get himself back to normal. No matter how hard he was trying to turn this strange mood he’d seemed to fall into, into anger instead, he couldn’t shake it. He didn’t understand how some people could do it. Be depressed. Be that emotional. It just wasn’t for him.

He continued trying to lighten himself up, and ignore the girl’s soft cries from further up on the stairs. It was more difficult than he’d ever imagined.

All the thoughts in his head, all the sobs from the girls stopped suddenly, when they heard the front doorknob turn. Casey was at Derek’s side in a split second, grasping his arm, while Emily remained glued to the spot she had always been in. She stood to her feet, but that was all she could do before fear had completely petrified her.

They doorknob shook, and turned again, then stopped for a moment, and the three of them held their breath. They heard the jingling of keys, followed by the clicking sound as the door was being unlocked.
It swung open.

“Where’s the fire??”

“Edwin?!” Derek narrowed his eyes towards his younger brother standing in the doorway.

“What happened? What’s the emergency?” Edwin asked in a panic, as he took a few steps forward towards them. He glanced up at Emily, who had a confused look on her face, before looking at Derek and Casey, noticing that they had one on their faces as well.

“Edwin, what are you talking about?” Casey asked, puzzled. Sure there had been plenty of emergency going on tonight. But how did Edwin know? He had been at a friend’s house.

Edwin rolled his eyes, and threw his hands into the air, “My friend got a text from Derek saying there was an emergency at home and I needed to get here now.” He then narrowed his eyes at Derek, “Just how did you get Johnny’s number anyway?”

Derek stepped down towards Edwin, clearly thinking his brother had lost his ever loving mind. “Edwin what are you talking about? I didn’t send…” his voice trailed off as Edwin’s eyes detoured beyond him towards the top of the stairs again.

He grunted and folded his arms over his chest, “You guys are having a costume party?” he then turned his eyes back towards Derek. “You guys have been drinking too, haven’t you? You drunk texted my friend?”

Derek grabbed Edwin by the shirt collar, “What the hell are you going on about Edwin? I didn’t send any texts, and what’s this about a costume party?!”

Casey and Emily both had been puzzled about that statement as well. Did they look that out of sorts to him?

“That guy! Standing up there behind Emily with the wolf mask!” Edwin snapped back, “God, what have you guys had to drink?? Or maybe I should be asking what you’ve had to smoke!”

Derek dropped Edwin and spun around on his heel, along with Casey. Emily, was now shaking uncontrollably. Edwin had been joking right? There was no one standing behind her, right? Couldn’t be!

“EMILY WATCHOUT!” Casey shrieked, but it was too late.

The wolf was there, and as soon as Casey had opened her mouth to make a sound, it’d sunk its claws into both of Emily’s sides.

Emily’s legs went out from underneath her almost immediately as the most painful, excruciating pain entered her body. Her vision went black quickly. It hadn’t taken long.

The wolf held her up for a few moments with its claws. Edwin’s jaw was dropped open and his eyes were so wide he thought for sure they might fall out of their sockets. Was this really happening? Had they called him home to play some kind of crazy prank on him? It wasn’t like his brother wasn’t known for such things. And he never assumed anything until he knew the facts. After all, assuming made an ass out of you.

Derek had snatched Casey back from the stairs quickly, knowing full well that someone in a wolf costume with claws wouldn’t stop her from rushing to Emily’s side.

“Okay Derek, who have you pissed off now?” Edwin snapped, as his eyes stayed glued to the obviously very angry wolf at the top of their stairs.

“Your guess is as good as mine, Ed.” Derek replied in annoyance. Honestly, this was no time for Edwin to question anything that was going on.

Casey was in so much shock she couldn’t cry this time. The moment had finally come.

After a week of suffering, losing loved ones, mysteries, and trauma, the time was here. And it was rushing towards them fast, as they watched the wolf toss Emily aside, and start descending the stairs.
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[Lady Azura]

*Dies*

Nooooo! Sam! Emily! D:
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Soul x Maka: My [anime] OTP -- /Never has an unoffical pairing been so blatantly obvious. They're soulmates, I tell you!/

~Lizwin: My Anti-Drug~

[PinkJelly]

OMG.

NO, EMILY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

*Goes into hysterics*

So not sleeping tonight... :x
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Signature by me

[EarthToMe]

=(((((( HOLY COW. I got chills reading this chapter. Please update soon.
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[DaniLovesDasey]

OMG! This chapter was by far the most morbid of all. Derek's crying was VERY in character, considering the circumstances. He tries to play it off like he's made of steel, but as Casey said, he is human. In fact, if you ask me, it would've been extremely out of character for him not to mourn the death of his best friend. How does one, no matter how strong, not break down at the sight of their best friend's mangled corpse? I mean, really. That scene was not only very well written and extremely in character, but necessary.

Btw, I loved how you had Derek chastising himself for allowing himself to become vulnerable. It's SO Derek Venturi and you wrote that scene perfectly. I could vividly picture the entire scene playing out in my head, and it was one of the most pivotal moments in this story by FAR. Fantastic writing.

Emily's death (?) gave me chills. Knowing seconds before he dug his claws into her, that he was behind her and that she was going to die - you're a true master of the horror genre. I just really hope that the killer doesn't turn out to be Derek with a split personality (the thought has crossed my mind countless times) or Noel. I really hope the evil genius turns out to be someone totally unexpected, because a story this well written just wouldn't be whole without a MAJOR plot twist. However you choose to wrap up the mystery though, I'm sure will be amazing and very satisfying for us all.

You know, I STILL haven't ruled out Edwin because again, the wolf man himself could easily just be an accomplice of the mastermind behind the entire operation, and Edwin could've been putting on an act. I really hope there are two perpetrators, because it makes the unraveling of the mystery more exciting! I cannot wait for the exposing of the killer(s?)

Please update soon before I lose my mind lol

[ericaxelectric]

OMFG! That was INTENSE! I started FREAKING OUT when Edwin mentioned the wolf at the top of the stairs! I can't believe Sam/Em are gone! *tear* I'm in total shock now. I guess we'll see if my suspicion was right. I seriousy/literally CANNOT wait until you update again.!

~Erica
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Myspace. Youtube.

[evil gigglez]

Wow I loved this chapter. I also reviewed on FF. Here's a theory of mine that I thought of last night. The killer could be Ralph.

He does hit on Casey alot and considering Casey told him everything she mentally crossed him off her list. Also everyone thinks he doesn't have the brain to pull this off so no one would suspect him.

I don't know call me crazy I just want to figure this thing out. I also think it might be Noel. Even though it seems really obvious to be him. Our author may have written it that way so we rule him out as too obvious.

Things that need to be considered are that this person needs to be fairly strong. I'm mean he/she picks kendra up by her leg and drags her off. He/She throws Sally out of her window. Another thing is that only one person calls Paul Casey's shrink and that's Derek. So this person would have to know Derek pretty well too.

That's just my theory so feel free to prove me wrong.

[stephluvvsyou]

Thanks everyone for the awesome feedback here and at ff.net for chapter 12!

I love reading the theories, and all the nice comments! It makes me smile!

I'm also glad everyone didn't find the scene with Derek OOC - that was something I was a bit afraid of! But you guys have been amazing! And the last part should be up soon!
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[stephluvvsyou]

Last Part Guys!!!
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Stalking Casey

part 13 – That’s So Punk Rock


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"Edwin!" Derek snapped as he jerked Casey behind him, "Get Casey out of here! You guys need to call the cops!"

"I"m not leaving you!" Casey screamed, grasping his arm more hard than she ever had before.

The wolf was coming. Like they really had time for a quarrel now.

"Casey." Derek tried to sound calm. This incredible rush was coursing through his veins. "You need to go. Go with Edwin, you guys need to get help! We could still save Emily!"

He whipped his head around. Why had the wolf stopped descending? It was tilting its head back and forth at them, as if listening to what they were saying. Derek couldn't believe that the time had finally come.

"Would someone please tell me what the hell is going on?!" Edwin snapped in a frustrated manner. He was beyond annoyed. How long had they kept him in the dark? What was really going on? Had that wolf really just killed Emily? This would definately explain their wierd behavior as of lately.

"Later Ed, GO!" Derek shoved both him and Casey towards the opened front door, and watched them stumble at the door frame before turning his glare on the wolf. This fight was his.

But the wolf was gone. What the hell? Where could he have possibly gone to for the split second he hadn't been looking? "Where did it go?" Derek glared back at Casey and Edwin, who were frozen on the spot. Gone? It couldn’t be. They hadn’t even heard it.

Derek stormed up the stairs hoping it'd retreated, and at the same time, hoping he'd catch it. "NOEL YOU MOTHER FUCKER!" he screamed as he tore upwards and disappeared into the upper hallway, leaping over Emily's crumpled body that laid in a heap at the top. His heart cringed as the flash of Emily’s motionless body entered his mind. He couldn’t let it stop him though. Not now. Not when he was so close.

Casey took a few steps back inside the house. What the hell did Derek think he was doing? He was going to get himself killed! She spun around to Edwin, and took him by the shoulders. She looked like she wanted to say something to him, but she was struggling immensely with saying anything at all.

Edwin raised an eyebrow, all the while his eyes darting in every direction. He didn't know what was going on, but he knew it wasn't good. For some reason, his stomach was twisting and turning in ways it’d never had before. Well, maybe the sight of his current crush had some kind of similar effect. But that was more of a blissful heart pounding. It was a good feeling. This, was not. Should he be afraid for his life?

Casey felt tears coming to her eyes, as she struggled to think of a safe place to send Edwin. The wolf had disappeared. If she sent him running to a friend’s or even next door to the Davis’, he could be intercepted. At the same time, if he stood where he was, he could be attacked at any given time. Obviously, she was an unsafe person to hang around with. It was even dangerous to associate with her. And if he came with Casey to find Derek…well…

Nowhere was safe. She couldn’t keep him safe, and it was more than upsetting. Still, she couldn’t just stand there. She had to get to Derek. She needed to be by his side. This whole situation had started with her – and yet, Derek was the one looking for the wolf. He was putting his life in danger, and it really wasn’t even his place to do so. “Edwin?”

Her voice was shaking. Edwin wasn’t used to hearing this terrified Casey. He was used to the annoyed-by-Derek, super confident Casey. “Yeah.” He said, more so than asked, his eyes still darting around the scenery.

They could still hear Derek yelling obscenities every few seconds. They heard the sounds of slamming doors as he was opening closets and rooms up to find the wolf.

“I need you to be brave, and…” Casey paused, and almost choked out her next words, “Please keep yourself alive. I have to help Derek.” She stopped again, as a horrible thought raced through her mind. If she left Edwin here alone, would it be the last time she seen him? “We need help. You have to call the police, and-“

Her sentence was cut short as the entire house went black. She felt her stomach completely drop. It was pitch black. As if on instinct her hand shot out and gripped Edwin’s shirt sleeve. He jumped upon impact – but it wasn’t like his heart hadn’t already started standing still as soon as the lights had went out. Both of them darted their glances towards the front door, which was still standing open. They’d managed to walk a few feet inside from it, and quite frankly, they didn’t know whether to shut it and lock it – or keep it open as it was providing their only bit of light by the moon.

Casey was panicked, “DEREK!!” she shouted. “Derek please come back down here!”

No response.

“DEREK!”

“Ow! My ears!”

“Sorry Edwin.” Casey apologized in a strained breath. She was too concerned about the fact that she didn’t know where Derek was, she couldn’t see a thing, and the wolf could be anywhere at this point. She glanced wearily towards the front door again.

“Casey.” Edwin began, “As scared as I am to go anywhere, I think we should go get the flashlight. I’d rather see something than nothing at all.”

Casey didn’t answer him, and he knew why. He could feel her eyes were still glued towards the upstairs. He tugged on her sleeve briefly, hoping he’d gotten her attention because he couldn’t see her face, “Trust me, I’m worried about my brother too, but lets-“

He was cut short as he felt a sharp searing pain go through his ribs. He coughed and sputtered, and wheezed.

Casey had heard it. She just didn’t want to look. She was too terrified to look. She felt Edwin’s warm presence beside her slowly fade, and heard his body slide to the floor. The wolf had managed to sneak up on them again. Forget walking anywhere and it not being safe. They hadn’t even been safe standing where they were.

She heard the sound of heavy breathing behind her, and a body come against her backside. It was hoarsely breathing on her neck. Chills shot up and down her spine, and 5 sharp claws touched her shoulder, “Casey…I’ve waited so long for you…”

The next thing she knew she’d darted faster than she ever had before up the dark stairs. As knowingly clumsy as she’d always been, for once, she didn’t miss a single step.

She heard it laughing as she screamed for Derek. It hadn’t made any attempt to chase her. She didn’t know what to do. She couldn’t think straight. She needed to breathe. She needed to find her cell phone. She needed Derek. She needed him now.

It was in her house. It had come to her house for Christ’s sakes. Now she understood. Now she knew why those scary movies, were in fact very real. That the bimbo girl and the jock boyfriend always did die. Fear was the most paralyzing feeling in the world. You couldn’t think straight. You couldn’t breathe. The only thing you wanted to do was curl into a ball and die, let alone use a phone to call the cops. Let alone try to run away.

Her thoughts came to a screeching halt when she ran into something rock hard, and almost fell backwards. Luckily whatever it was, had a strong enough arm that caught her, and a strong enough hand that covered her mouth, or else, she’d have busted someone’s eardrums. Thankfully, her eyes were now adjusted to the darkness to where she could see tints of colors around her.

“Are you insane Casey? You’re screaming will only tell him exactly where you are!” came the sound of Derek’s lecturing voice, “Why do you think I stopped cursing loudly? I think it jumped out your bedroom window. It was open.”

He released her, though not completely, he kept a slight grip on her arm. Which served no purpose when she plunged herself in the depths of his arms. “I told you to leave the house!” he paused for a moment, noting that someone was missing, “Where’s Edwin?”

Not a second later, she was a crying mess.

And that was enough of an answer for Derek. He took her by the shoulders suddenly, ripping her out of the hug, “Casey look at me!”

She sobbed uncontrollably for a few more seconds, but complied to Derek’s request as fast as she could. She could see hurt, and confusion in his eyes. He looked like he could cry again at any given moment.

“I want you to go into my room. Lock the door. I’ve just been in there and checked it out, it’s safe. I have to go find this fucker. This has to be over.” Derek was trying to talk her into it, but about halfway through his sentence she’d started shaking her head. She still was.

“No Derek. No I’m staying by your side. I’m never going to leave it!” Casey snapped, not caring who or what heard her. The wolf could bring itself and its entire pack up there and she could not have cared less at this point.

Derek sighed, and formed a firm glint in his eyes, “Casey-“

“No! Nothing you can say will change my mind right now!” Casey cried, “Stop acting like you can take on the world by yourself!”

Derek was taken aback by her reaction. For once, he didn’t have a witty comeback. His gaze immediately softened, and she looked like she needed to say more, so he remained quiet, so she could do just that.

“I realize that this is dangerous, and that one of us…” she paused and looked deeply into his eyes, “…or both of us…could…” she paused again, and decided to dismiss the horrid thoughts that were running through her head and get back to the point, “Don’t you understand that I’d do anything for you?”

Her heart began to pound. What was she saying? She was sputtering some kind of foreign language out of her mouth yet, she couldn’t stop herself either.

“I’d do this 1,000 more times Derek.” She had begun lowering her voice slightly, “I’d face 1,000 more secret admirers, and stalkers, and wolves, and dogs in mailboxes.”

She noticed that Derek was now wearing the expression that clearly read ‘You’re more insane than I thought Space Case.’ Still, she continued on.

“I’d do it all over again if it meant that I could stay by your side like this.”

And it was the truth. At that moment she could have cared less if she was told tomorrow it was going to start over again. And 1,000 death notes later she was 1,000 times more fearful than she was now. As long as he was with her, she was willing. Willing to take on the world.

The look he was wearing on his face was indescribable. The Derek Venturi had been stunned into silence. Casey had been seeing a lot of reactions out of him lately she had a feeling she’d never get the chance to see again.

“You once told me that I was your light.” Casey said softly, catching his eye contact again. “But I can’t shine for you if you don’t let me.”

Derek stood silent still, for a few moments. What the hell was this mushy gushy attitude about? There was a crazed freak in the house, and all Derek wanted to do was end whom ever’s life it was for causing so much crap for them the past week. Yet here’s Casey. Being all adorable.

But he wasn’t going to lie. Although it was mushy, and gushy, and he could barely stand it, it was also taking great amounts of strength not to let himself flash her a big goofy smile. There was just no time for him to get mushy in return. He had to keep his focus on what was going on. And…he supposed maybe having her by his side wouldn’t be so bad.

“Fine.” He mumbled, “But when I tell you to leave, do it. When I tell you to run, do it. You should never question what I say.” He urged her back towards the stairs with his arm as he walked.

“I told you I don’t give a damn what you have to say.” Casey snapped back.

She was quite upset over how easily Derek had destroyed that moment. She’d become vulnerable and expressed strong feelings. What did he do? Tell her not to question him. Typical.

“Did you just curse at me?” Derek asked attentively, almost not believing that it had come from Casey, but loving the fact that it had all at once.

“Like that’s really what you should be getting excited over right now.” Casey scoffed, “Did you even hear what I said back there?”

“Of course.” Derek couldn’t help it, he was smirking now. “But you just cursed at me.”

“You know what I don’t even know why I bother with you. I should just hook up with the wolf.” Casey huffed at him.

So she wanted to play this game, did she?

“You know what? You want to hook up with the wolf, go for it.” Derek said with a bitter tone, “Just don’t come complaining to me when he’s ripped you to shreds.”

Derek Venturi would be damned if he was sucked into some kind of scheme in which Casey was trying to make him feel guilty for anything. He heard her huff beside him, and a split second later, the power flickered back on. They stood, silent for a moment, listening intently at any noise they might have been lucky to hear in the house. But…nothing. Just silence. Until…

“DEREK! CASEY! HE’S GOING TO KILL ME!”

The scream pierced the air, and they heard someone barreling into their living room downstairs. “OH MY GOD! EDWIN!”

“Ralph.” Derek whispered, as his eyes stayed glued to her.

She didn’t say anything back, and Derek’s hand shot out and instinctively grasped hers tightly, as he took off down the stairs. “Ralph we’re coming buddy!”

Derek was prepared for the worst. Had Ralph been injured? The way he’d come barreling in seemed that way. Seemed like something had scared the living hell out of him too.

As the two of them flew down the stairs, hand in hand, they seen Ralph crouched down over Edwin.

“Are you okay?” Casey bounded over towards him, breaking the grasp with Derek’s hand as he slid to Edwin’s side.

Derek took his brother in his arms, and hugged him tightly, burying his face in his chest, “Edwin buddy, I’m so sorry.” He whispered mournfully, “You’re a Venturi damn it, and you’d better survive.” He heard Ralph and Casey muttering frantic things to each other, but he wasn’t concerned with that right now.

Now more than ever, with what Casey had said to him upstairs, and now his younger brother, injured and lying in his arms, killing this psycho had never been such a strong longing for him.

Ralph glanced up at Casey, leaning over onto his knees, gasping for breath. He’d been running awfully fast, and hard. His face was beat red, and he felt overheated. “Casey…you…you’re not going to believe this, but it’s Noel. He tried to kill me. The dude had claws!”

Of course, Derek had already known it was Noel, but Casey…this was just confirming everything she hadn’t wanted to believe. She wore a concerned look on her face, in hopes that Ralph would find a way to get the airflow going or he’d pass out. At the same time, she felt hurt, angry, confused. Why had Noel done this? To her friends? Derek’s friends? To her?

He’d always been quiet and soft spoken. A loner in a sense. A poet. But he had been her friend. And now he had turned into a cold hearted stranger. He’d taken away their friends, and hopefully not taken away Edwin. Wait. No. She wouldn’t believe it. Even if all the evidence pointed towards him.

A thought struck her, “Did you see his face, Ralph? Are you sure it was Noel?”

Ralph gazed at her for a moment, his breathing finally coming into alignment, and he glanced over at Derek, who was still crouching over Edwin, a look of sheer sadness on his face, before looking at Casey again. “Yeah dude…of course I’m sure…why wouldn’t I be?”

“Because she’s in denial.” Derek was finally standing up to his feet, an angry look in his eyes, “She still doesn’t want to believe her precious Noel would do such a thing. Right Casey?”

“Are you in love with him or something?” Ralph asked, sounding more like himself for the first time since he’d come in.

“Yeah Casey.” Derek folded his arms over his chest and gave her a pointed stare, “Are you?”

Casey felt the intensity underneath both of their gazes, and immediately snapped, “Have you guys gone crazy?! Who I love is not important right now!” She held her hand over to Derek, “Edwin needs help!” She directed her hand up towards the stairs, “Emily needs help!” She directed her hand then towards the open door, “Not to mention we could have just lost Ralph! And all you can think about is if I’m in love with Noel? All I wanted to know was if Ralph was really sure it was him or not!”

Their conversation was brought to a screeching halt by another figure stumbling through their open doorway. He was sputtering and mumbling things, and Derek was growing rather tired of just anyone walking through their front door. His eyes never did detour to the person that’d come through the doorway. He still had them transfixed on Casey. She’d set his heart on fire. And he was lo