"A ring?" I asked. Violet nodded, tilting her head questioningly. She blinked her twinkling eyes at me.

"Yeah, a ring." she said,"It's a little too big for me, so it always slips off. No wonder I lost it."

"I might have seen one somewhere..." I lied making sure I didn't seem suspicious,"I'll get back to you later." She smiled at me.

"Thank you! It's really important to me." she said,"See you around, Alice." I nodded and she walked out of the bathroom. I watched as she walked down the hallway and out of my sight. I quickly pulled my pendant out from beneath my shirt and stared at the glistening ring. Hunter was the one who carried me to the infirmary; I'm pretty sure it was him. Along with that thought, I originally thought that this might have belonged to him, but maybe... Just maybe...

I walked into the cafeteria and I saw Alexis and Hunter sitting side by side of each other. Hunter was talking and Alexis laughed and smiled at him. Her eyes landed on me and she smiled at me with disgusting kindness. She's playing super nice now. I rolled my eyes at her. I walked over to them and Hunter looked up at me.

"I need to talk with you." I told him. Hunter observed me for a bit, as if sensing something was wrong, and nodded. He stood up, but Alexis hung onto his arm.

"Why can't you stay here and talk?" she said with as her pink glossed lips turned into a grin. She blinked her big eyes at me,"It's not like you're hiding anything, we're all friends, right?" I glared at her and she stayed her ground. I could see a look of amusement in her eyes and she crossed her legs holding a nonchalant look on her face. Bite me, was what she was thinking.

"I need to speak with him alone." I said rigidly,"It's best to stay out of it, Alexis." I saw her jaw clench, but she kept up with her persona. She tilted her head to the side trying to be innocent and she nodded understandingly. Somewhere inside of her head, I could sense her planning something.

"Of course, sorry if I was a bother." she said with a touch of sadness,"Let's hang out again some time, Hunter... Alice." She nodded to each of us and she gave me a longer stare. She smiled and waved good bye as she walked back to her original table. We walked out of the cafeteria and into the halls where we could talk in private. I made sure that no one was around before I spoke.

"You were the one who caught me when I collapsed, right?" I asked. He nodded.

"Yeah, that was me." he confirmed, putting his hands in his pockets calmly. I nodded slowly, taking down every bit of information that I could and piecing puzzles together.

"Did you drop a ring?" I asked,"A silver ring with engravings on the inside?" He shook his head, proving part of my theory right. I showed Hunter the ring and he examined it. He stared deeply at the engravings and was silently thinking.

"Till death do us part." he whispered.

"What?" I asked confused. He looked up at me.

"The engraving is a wedding vow in Latin... but why would someone have a wedding ring?" Hunter asked. He handed me back the ring and I slipped it back onto my pendant. I read the engravings inside of it once more. I stared at the ground in deep thought and blinked.

"Something... isn't right." I whispered. I looked back at Hunter and smiled,"Thanks! I'll see you later." He gave me a small wave and I dashed off.

Little did I know, someone was watching us from someplace hidden.

The bell rang as soon as I parted ways with Hunter and the hallway was flooded with students rushing to their lockers and class. I luckily made it to class without getting trampled and sat at my desk. I clutched onto the ring with my right hand as I patiently waited for Violet. I needed to confirm something with her and I had too many questions to ask.

Violet never came. It was like she vanished.

I asked the teacher where she could have been and they said she went home sick. She was fine a couple minutes ago, why would she go home sick now? After, the boring day went on, I packed my things and started heading out of the school. Hunter was waiting by the gate and I stopped by him.

"Waiting for someone?" I asked. He nodded with a slight smile.

"Yeah, you." he answered with a sly smile.

"Oh... is there something that you need?" I asked with a slight flush of happiness. I began walking and he tagged along beside me.

"Besides just wanting to hang out with you, I just have this uneasy feeling about something." he said,"It hasn't been confirmed yet, but you can tell that this world is slowly changing."

"Yeah... lately... I've been getting visions of the other world." I said.

"Then that definitely means something too." Hunter said,"This could lead to a whole different meaning of apocalypse. There's a reason why Mirror wants to get into this world and I'm pretty sure it isn't anything good."

"She couldn't possibly be thinking of taking over the world, right?" I asked. Hunter shrugged.

"It's a possibility." he said gravely.

*******

Hunter walked me to my driveway and we just paused standing by each other for a while. I thanked him for walking me home and he waved goodbye. I stood at the doorway and watched him leave and couldn't help myself from feeling a different kind of sadness in the caves of my heart. I closed the door and walked through the hallway to get to the stairs. I saw my mom sitting at the dining table by herself, dark bags surrounding her eyes.

"Alice..." she said with a tired voice. I paused and hesitantly walked to her.

"Yeah...?" I asked quietly.

"Have you made your decision yet?" she asked.

"I still need more time." I said solemnly. She sighed and nodded.

"I understand." she said,"But please, make up your mind soon." My throat squeezed and I swallowed it down.

"Yeah, I know." I said.

"Alice, honey, I just want you to know that I love you and I'm sorry if you feel hurt because of me." she said as her eyes began to glisten from her tears. I clenched my fists.

"I know, mom, it's none of your faults, not you and not dad." I said as I rushed upstairs and into my room,"It's mine."

"Aw, why such the long face, Alice?" a voice said. I turned and saw a hologram of me sitting on the bed; Mirror. She looked a lot more solid than before, but her feet were slightly faded.

"It's none of your business." I snapped and threw my backpack on the ground. She tilted her head and raised an eyebrow.

"Is it because of your parent's divorce?" she asked smiling and kicking her legs to and fro.

"How-" I began.

"I know everything, Alice." Mirror still having her creepy smile plastered on "my" face. She giggled at me,"Now now, no need to get tense." I eyed her and she slowly began to fade back into the mirror. She pouted, crossing her arms like a little kid, and appeared at the other side of the glass. I rolled my eyes and turned facing the other way to get my act together.

"Sometimes, I just wish that they could disappear... or I could disappear... I need time to think." I sighed quietly. I turned back around and Mirror was still there, watching me closely. She stared at me for a bit then vanished leaving my real reflection. I tapped the glass and it wavered like it usually does. I entered and appeared back in the rural place that I left off at.

"Hi, Alice!" Eclipse greeted me. I smiled.

"It's good to see you again, Eclipse." I said back.

"Where to now?" she asked. I shrugged and pulled up the map. It showed that we weren't that far from a town.

"I guess we'll keep walking until we reach here." I said and pointed to the picture of the town. She nodded and I began walking again.

As soon as we reached our destination, we saw many players buzzing around the area. The people talked loudly and excitedly as they quickly walked over to one place and to another.

"There's a lot of people here..." I said to Eclipse. She nodded in agreement.

"Must be because of that." she said and pointed over to a large crowd of people. I went over to see what was happening, but I couldn't see from the back.

"There's an open spot over there." a voice behind me said. I turned around and saw Hunter in his black trench coat.

"Oh, hi." I said a little surprised.

"Hi." he said then pointed to an open space not too far,"Want to go watch from there?"

"Sure." I said and smiled. It was awkward seeing him in the Land of the Dead, but I'd manage. We walked together to the open space and before us was a large ring. Waiting on the outside of the ring were two players.

"How did you find me?" I asked raising an eyebrow at him. He pulls up his screen and goes to his contacts. There were a list of some other names, but he quickly pressed onto my name before I could see much of it. A profile of me popped up and a map of where I was showed.

"Friends can see where friends are in case if they want to meet up or something." Hunter said,"You can turn it off if you want if you don't want anyone following you." I nodded.

"Cool." I said grinning. I turned my attention back to the ring,"Do you know what's going on?"

"It's a competition that they hold here." Eclipse answered,"The ring allows no permanent damage to the player, so they can use their weapons to fight each other. You will feel all the pain when fighting, but when you step out of the ring, the pain goes away and you return back to the state you were in before."

"Sounds interesting." I said.

"On this side, our current champion, Alec Watson." the announcer, a tall man with a club on his forehead, excitingly said. The crowd cheered as the name was said,"And on this side, we have our challenger, Matt Rivers!." Less cheers were heard from the crowd.

Alec was a tall, slightly buff guy. He wore an arrogant smile and swished his auburn colored hair to the side. He winked at the female bystanders and I couldn't help but laugh. He stood outside of the ring waiting for the announcer to tell them to step in the ring.

Matt was a lot more skinnier and had a smaller build than Alec. He stood awkwardly by the side lines and wore wide rimmed, black glasses and ruffled up light blonde hair. He stuck his hands in his sweatshirt pocket looking at the distance and avoiding the looks of the crowd.

"Now, if our fighters would please step into the ring." the announcer said. Matt pushed up his glasses and stepped into the ring as calmly as could be. There was a blue light surrounding the ring like a force field when Matt stepped across and then it quickly vanished when he had finally entered. He waited on the right side patiently, observing his opponent. The blue light appeared again when Alec stepped through and crossed into the ring.

"Like I said many times before, the fighters in the ring cannot die from the injuries that they receive in the ring, but they can still feel the exact pain that they should have if they were not inside the ring. Once they step out, the injuries that they have obtained from their fight will vanish." the announcer explained to the newcomers, "Once a player is unable to fight anymore, they are declared the winner and are greatly rewarded." The crowd cheered loudly once again and were getting impatient. The announcer smiled and held out his hands to quiet the crowd. The crowd immediately quieted. The announcer raised his hand and the force field around the ring lit up instantaneously. It glowed an illuminating blue as if charging its power. As the force field glowed, large numbers glowed just above it. It was a countdown.

"Five... Four... Three... Two..." The crowd counted down along with it and everyone was getting riled up. I could hear people making bets from the sidelines and most were rooting for Alec,"One!" There was a bang as the countdown finished and the force field returned to being invisible. The fight had begun.

☆★☆★☆

And back with another veeeeeeery late update! I really need to update more... Hope you enjoyed it! ^w^