Sapphire Blue? From my neck? This situation was familiar. I felt around my neck. The necklace laid there, untouched since my birthday about a few weeks ago. A few weeks ago. That was when most of the trouble had started. Despite this, I still hadn't pieced that part of the puzzle together yet.

"You don't think that---?" I said, trying to get the words out.

"Let's keep on testing," said Misty.

"Maybe we should leave off until tomorrow. Look at the time," exclaimed MacKenzie.

It was 10:30 at night and still storming out. It seemed to rain non-stop since Andrew had chased me home to my house. No, it was before that. As soon as he had came, it seemed to rain non-stop, getting worse each time I had escaped him. 

"Your parents are probably worried sick. You guys should go home."

"Or we could stay at your place for the night," said Leanne.

"No, it's a school night. My mother won't go for it. How about you each take you bottles home and then bring them for a sleep over tomorrow night at my house?"

"Okay, we'll be there, but I think the bottles should stay at your house."

"Why my house?"

"It seems safer that way. Plus my parents would probably confiscate mine from me," said MacKenzie.

"Ditto," exclaimed Leanne and Misty.

"What makes you think that my mother will allow me to keep these?" I said, indicating to the bottles on the floor.

"Hmm. Good point, but you don't know for sure. Just keep them hidden in your room or something, Grace," said Misty.

"I guess I don't know for sure. Okay, we'll keep them in my room. But we don't take them out until tomorrow night. Deal?"

"Deal!" the three replied.

As soon as they left, I threw on my favorite nightgown. It was a faded Monty green with minty green floral designs. I stuffed the other bottles inside my robe for safekeeping and hung the robe up on the knob of my bed. I was feeling a bit like a little girl now that I was in my safe, warm bedroom, at least I thought it was safe.

When I got into my bed, despite what I was going through, I fell asleep as soon as my head hit the pillow. With the bottles locked away in my room, I thought that I would be safe. It turns out that you shouldn't underestimate the power of your enemies, even if you are asleep.

At around midnight, I woke up to a loud thump. I jerked wide awake. Thinking that it was a burglar, I grabbed my flashlight. I was about to head downstairs when I heard the creaking of a door, my door, and saw a figure in the doorway. It looked very shadowy in the light, or lack thereof, at least I hoped that was what was causing it to look that way.

The figure was very tall in height and in one hand he held something that looked like a bottle and a cloth and the other held a syringe. So I was guessing that it wasn't the lack of light that made it look frightening. At least I was sure that it wasn't a doctor because doctors don't make house calls, at least none that I knew of. 

I began to pull the covers over my head very slowly in hopes that it would go away. It's like I was a little girl again. My father would always tell me that if I saw a monster in my doorway in the middle of the night with a bottle, a cloth, and a syringe, then I should pull the covers over my head and it will go away. Well it wasn't direct to this particular situation, but I think he meant for any monster-related situation. He also said that the monster would most likely be just a figment of my imagination. I didn't know exactly Andrew was, but I knew, for one thing, that he was no figment.

I heard his big, heavy footsteps on my bedroom floor, getting closer to my bed with each step, and I began to hope that this wasn't anything more than a dream. My eyes grew wider and wider and I began to shake. Why me? Why did I have to endure the pain of these ordeals and not someone else? The covers began to open a bit under the bottom, his arm was slowly inching it's way up to my left shoulder, stopping just below it to wipe the cloth there. I figured that it was a disinfecting cloth, the one doctors use right before you get a shot or a blood test. Another quite familiar situation, isn't it?

The arm with the syringe managed to find it's way under the covers. I thought that this might have been my last day on earth if he had held me down. I was free to move. So just as the syringe was about to find it's way into my arm and inject liquid into me that did who-knows-what, I moved my arm out of the way and the needle almost jammed into my pillow. That was when I threw on my robe with the eight remaining bottles inside of it and made a break for the door. 

I had just reached it and had my hand on the knob when I heard fingers snapping and the floor was breaking below me. Andrew was trying to separate me from the door, so that I would haven't a choice but to accept my fate. But after all of these ordeals, do you think that this one was going to make me collapse and surrender to him? Of course not! So I hung onto the doorknob for dear life, literally, as the floor split apart. Fortunately, my door opened in and out, so I snuck to the other side and jumped onto the floor.

I was on my way to the stairs and had just reached the landing when I heard a growl from the bottom of the stairs. The rain had made it completely black, so I couldn't see what was making the noise. But I saw the eyes. A pairs of blood red pupils met my sapphire-colored ones. Another pair, these fiery orange, were next to the red ones. Then a gold colored. And so on. The growling growing in volume each time a pair of eyes appeared. By the time the eyes had grouped together, the growl had become monumentally loud. Oh, please don't let it be coming from where I think it is, I thought. I flashed my light on the eyes and I saw some of the most rabid animals I had ever laid eyes upon.

They weren't common animals, that was for sure. Nor were they from anywhere on earth as far as I knew. They were transparent, yet dark, gray, and their eyes looked even more savage with the light on them. They looked like wolves, only these were transparent and more wild looking than regular wolves. As I backed up, so did the wolves. They obviously wanted me to go back, but why? That was when I turned around and saw him.

I gave a shriek of fright and tried to back away, but Andrew snatched me up before I could get away. He held me by one hand and snapped the fingers of his other hand. The floor gave way and I looked down to see a never ending, shadowy abyss. He looked at me with a look that said "Well?" It looked like I had three choices. I could either go with him, go to the wolf creatures, or be casted into the bottomless pit. To be honest with you, I would have rather throw myself out of a closed window than do any of those three, let alone all three of them.

I tried to yell for help, but something had taken away my voice, just like Misty in her nightmare. I scratched at Andrew's hand and he dropped me into the abyss. I kept on falling, hearing many strange things, until I could stand it no longer. I pinched myself and I woke up. So it had turned out to be a dream! Then I felt a trickle of something run down my upper left arm. I looked to see that it was blood, most likely from a needle. A needle? So Andrew had successfully gotten one of his whack-job potions inside of my blood stream just the way he wanted? And would he stop now? No, I thought. It's not just this bottle. He wants to give me more. Ones that will knock me out until he can steal me away. Or make me fall in love with him, just like that nurse. Or something else just as horrible. I had to talk to the girls about this tomorrow. 

I was about to go to sleep when I felt something on my pillow. It felt like a piece of paper and it was. But not just any piece of paper. It was a letter. I took out my flashlight, read it, and just about fell over in fright. The letter was a threat, baring this message:

"You think you're so clever, Ms. Grace-Marie! You were able to escape me this time, but no longer! If you try to escape me again, one of your friends just might turn up missing, like that boy. And don't even think about taking this to the police. If you tell them about this, I will hunt you down. Try to find a way out of this, my dear Grace! I dare you. But be warned. Things have consequences, mostly horrid. Remember that, don't take this to the police, and give up the fight. You cannot win. I have found you at your school, your house, even the warehouse. You thought that no one knew about the warehouse? Think again! Oh, and I know about the sleepover for tomorrow night."

-A