' So tell me where I should go,

To the left where nothing's right,

Or to the right where nothing's left.'

Chapter Thirteen: Tell me something I don't know.

Daniel's POV

Recap: He could feel his heart pounding like a tom-tom in his chest.
It had been years since he'd been in a fight, but he figured he still knew how to hurt someone if he had to.

His outstretched hand hit the surface of the door. He found the handle. Took a deep breath. Jerked the door open.

"Oi! What the hell do you think you're doing?" he bellowed at the top of his lungs.

Two flashlight beams swung toward him, blinding him, then suddenly it was dark. Daniel blinked furiously, trying to force his eyes to adjust. He heard the scuff of footsteps and braved himself. He was standing in front of the only viable exit; they wanted to get out, they had to come through him.

He squared up. All he had to do was keep these guys occupied until the cops showed up. Five, six minutes, max.

A dark shape came at him. He dropped his shoulder and lunged forward, aiming for the solar plexus. Something hard hit him in the chest- the flashlight, maybe- then he was on the ground grappling with someone who felt a hell of a lot bigger and heavier than him.

His fist connected with a jaw. He took a blow to the gut, another to the neck. He gasped for air, caught a handful of greasy hair with one hand and a fistful of clothing with the other and attempted to force his assailant onto his back.

Pain exploded in his side and he shield away from it. A kick. How. . .? Another blow landed on his ribs. Then he understood the second guy had joined the fray.

He released his grip on the first guy, shoved him backward. Tried to scramble to his feet- and stepped straight into a swinging fist. "That is definitely going to leave a bruise." He muttered to himself. Disoriented and winded, he struggle to keep his feet.

A sign split through the night, then a flash of blue whipped past as a cop car sped by the front of the house.

"Cops! Go! Go!" someone yelled.

Footsteps pounded down the corridor toward the back door. Daniel started after them. Dizziness hit him when he was halfway up the corridor. He wavered on his feet. Must have knocked his head harder than he'd thought. He found the wall with an outstretched hand. The world still swung crazily.

He put his back to the wall and slid down until his butt hit the floor.

Better. The world was much better down here.

If he could catch his breath. . . He closed his eyes.

His jaw felt like it had been hit with a sledgehammer. Something trickled down his face. He took a swior at it with his fingers.

Footsteps scuffed in through the front door. He opened his eyes just as a brilliant flashlight beam found him. Hr flinched from the brightness.

"Police! Stay where you are and put your hands on your head."

Dumbasses. Took them long enough.

"My name is Daniel Miller," he said. "I'm the guy who called it in." Still, he put his hand on his head.

It took five minutes for him to tell his story. The cop waited until he had confirmation from his radio before relaxing his vigilant stance.

"You need me to call an ambulance? Looks like you're bleeding," the cop said, playing the beam over Daniel's face.

"I'm fine."

"Should have waited for us to get here. Stupid coming in here alone."

Daniel fingered his sore jaw. Tell me something I don't know, buddy.

The cop's radio crackled to life. Daniel strained to understand what was said but it was too garbled.

"Did you catch them?" Daniel asked.

The cop shook his head, looking as disappointed as Daniel felt. "We're still in pursuit."

The cop aimed the beam up the path toward the hallway.

"There much damage inside?"

Daniel braced his arm against the wall and pushed himself to his feet. Mr and Mrs Winston were going to be furious when the saw it. Not to talk of Char.

"Dont know."

The cop strode forward, his powerful flashlight beam cutting through the darkness. Daniel was close enough to hear him swear softly under his breath when he entered the living room.

Daniel stopped in the door way, speechless. The couches were upside down. The paintings on the wall were torn out and on the floor. Picture frames had been ripped from the wall and were hanging unsteadily, their glass shades shattered on the floors. Ugly graffiti sprawled across the walls leasing to the hallway in vivid red paint.

Char was going freak when she saw this.

As if on cue, "What the hell is going on here?"

*********************

She walked into Kingsmille high. She was five minutes late, as usual. She couldn't get over her stupid habit of waking up at 7:30. Blame it all on SpongeBob and his stupid early morning episodes.

She strolled to her locker and took out her Literature and Math textbooks. She looked around for any sign of Daniel. Knowing him, he was probably in class or with her. He hadn't even bothered a to pick her up, so much for having a best friend.

She closed her locker with a bang and glanced around. She was the only one in the school's hallway. She was so going to get detention for late coming.

Just as she turned around to head off to Literature, she felt a hand pull her back and she slammed her back against a row of lockers. That hurt. Thinking it was Daniel and getting ready to punch some sense into him for hurting her, she looked down at the hand and came to the conclusion that Daniel didn't have beautiful long manicured nails.

She followed the trail to the face of her captor.

"Hey loser, how's it going?" Abby gave her a fake smile. Behind her , her minions stood smirking at Char. They were all wearing red. It was like they had dresscodes for everyday. To Char, it seemed stupid.

"What do you want, Solace?" Char asked, pulling away from Abby's grasp. She never called her by her first name. She knew it agitated Abby whenever she used her last name but she didn't care. It was her way of showing she was the bigger person.

"Shut it. Where's he?" Abby asked, her smile gone replaced by a scowl.

"Where's who?" Char knew exactly who 'he' was. She had thought they were together but Abby didn't seem to know the whereabouts of her precious boyfriend and neither did she, but she wasn't about to let her know that.

"Don't play dumb with me. I know you know exactly where he is. You always do. Now tell me." Abby took a step forward in an attempt to intimidate Char but Char kept her stance. If she was fazed, she didn't show it.

"Don't you find it annoying that I always seem to know where your boyfriend is even when you don't? 'Cause I find it amazing." she replied with a smug smile.

"Shut up," Abby said. She looked up and down at Char. "What on earth are you wearing?"

Char looked down at her outfit. A blue and white floral tank top and black skinny jeans with a white converse. She didn't see anything wrong with what she was wearing. "What's wrong with what I'm wearing?" she asked, taking in Abby's outfit. A black and red lace dress with ruffles that got up to her knees. All in all, it was breathtaking.

"No wonder nobody wants you." Abby said.

Char wouldn't admit it but that hurt. Maybe it was why Daniel didn't want her.

"At least I'm not the entire school's booty call." She retorted.

"At least when the entire school want some fun, they come to me." Abby replied, using air quotation marks on 'entire school'. "You're so bland." She let out a loud laugh. Char wondered how they were still alone in the hallway with all the noise she was making.

"How's my two favorite girls doing?" Char looked up to see Daniel walking towards them from the front doors. He had his bag hung over one shoulder. He was in a black T-shirt that hugged his body really tightly making the outline of his abs visible, black jeans and black timberlands and a blue beanie.

Swoon.

He walked causally toward them, oblivious to the fact that they had been arguing and were almost about to rip each others hair out.

Key word being almost.

"Hey baby." Abby gave him a smile and kissed him intensely as he got closer to them. Char gagged internally.

"I don't know if you guys noticed but some of us just had breakfast and we're trying to keep our food down." She spoke up knowing that Abby's minions were not going to say anything.

"Right. Sorry." Daniel said, looking somewhat shy. Abby just smiled. "How are you?" he asked Char.

"I'm fine. I'm a little mad at you for not picking me up. I'm late again and Mrs Richards is going to kill me." she said referring to her Literature teacher.

"I know, I'm sorry. Mom asked me to run some errands for her, I couldn't refuse. SpongeBob again?" he asked, chuckling.

She laughed. "You bet."

Their conversation was cut short by someone clearing their throat. The two looked up to Abby frowning. "Baby, we're already late for class. I'm sure Char has to go to class too. Let's go."

"You're right," he turned to Char. "I'll see you later."

"Okay." Char watched them walk to class hand in hand. She was about to turn around when something caught her eyes.

"He's mine." Abby mouthed to her, looking over her back as she walked. She smiled before turning and rounding a corner.

Char stared after her. What exactly had he seen in her? She was a fake. She walked to class. From the window, she saw that Mrs Richards already started the lesson. She was in so much trouble. She walked to the door and turned the door knob, opening it slowly, almost there, just a little more, and-

"Oi! What the hell do you think you're doing?"

Char woke up with a start. What was that sound? She heard another and jump on her bed. Someone grunted in pain.

Maybe it was that guy with the mask from Scream coming to kill her with his huge shiny knife. But she hadn't watch the video. Or maybe it was Mama from Scary Movie. Beads of sweat tickled down her face. She really had to stop watching horror movies.

Thank God she was alone in the house. Her parents were out for the weekend. She was home alone.

Well, not anymore.

Something crashed downstairs. She knew she had to go see what was happening. But she was too scared to move.

"Oh God, I'm just 24. I'm not even married yet. No first kiss , nothing. I can't just die like this. I'm a good girl, you know that. This is the part where you give me some kind of super power because I really don't know anything about fighting or making someone bleed." She finished her rant and got out of bed. She had to do something at least.

Another grunt ran through the hallway and she fell on the floor with a thud. "Shit." she cursed under her breath.

Getting on her feet, she grabbed the nearest thing she could reach, a pillow and made her way down the stairs.

"Cops! Go! Go!" she heard someone yell.

What the hell was happening down there?

She waited for some minutes before she stepped out of her room and into the hallway. 'Slow and steady wins the race,' she told herself as she took gentle steps toward the living room.

The horrid sight in front of her made her gasp. She saw Daniel and another guy in uniform leaning against the wall.

"What the hell is going on here?" She asked, confused as hell.

--------

So I'm having a bit of writer's block. Can't really decide what comes next. I know, I know, it's something I have to figure out on my own and I try not to bore you guys.

Any who,

follow me on Twitter @gift_Leigh

IG @iam_Leigh.

~love,

Leigh.