A week had passed since Vanessa made her threat to Alex, which Jessie had told me about later, and even though I had still been angry at the time, I was genuinely concerned about what would happen to her once Vanessa opened her mouth.

I wasn't angry anymore. In fact, the more I looked at things with a clear mind the more I was able to appreciate what Alex had tried to do for Dallas and me. I was no less upset that he had to leave, but I knew full well that Alex was not to blame for that. Because of that, I was finally ready to forgive her.

Currently, I was sitting in one of the guys' apartments with Johnny, Ponyboy and Dallas as we took turns playing through the rest of the first Dead Rising. Ponyboy and Johnny had already finished what little homework they had – the teachers had seemed pretty lenient that day.

As I observed the three, I noticed that they seemed to love the game for different reasons. While Dallas loved to find all the different ways you could kill a zombie (or multiple) and going through each of the boss fights, Ponyboy and Johnny loved it for its highly interesting story. Personally, I enjoyed all these aspects.

And unlike Dallas, the other two would try their best to lead survivors to safety.

Darry, Sodapop, Steve, Two-Bit and Abigail were all present as well. Darry and Abigail were playing a game of chess, Soda and Steve were watching us play our game with interest (and we occasionally gave them turns as well), and Two-Bit was busy grabbing a beer out of the fridge. He joined the rest of us just in time to see Dallas, at the entrance leading from the Entrance plaza to Al Fresca plaza, aim a hunting knife at a nearby propane tank. The tank then exploded and killed a bunch of the zombies around it in the process.

I was honestly surprised Darry and Abigail's focus on their chess game didn't break due to the reaction this got from the others.

"That was awesome!" Two-Bit exclaimed.

"Checkmate!" I heard Abigail cheer right after that.

Darry looked impressed. "Well-played," he told her, "Rematch?"

"Maybe later. I think some music is in order," replied Abigail, "Before that, though, I'm going to see if Alex wants to come over here."

"Tell her I need to talk to her," I called to her, and she nodded as she left to go get her.

"Finally forgave her, huh?" asked Soda.

"Yeah."

"That's good Hey, Dal, do those parasols work as weapons?"

"Yeah, they work...like shit," Dallas responded, "All they do is shove the zombies aside, they don't impale them or anythin' like that."

Abigail and Alex chose that moment to come in, Abigail playing a Paramore song on her phone and singing along. I grinned when I heard it, since 'Playing God' was one of my favourites by them. "Hey, Alex," I greeted her, getting up off the couch to see her as Dallas handed the controller to Darry so he could try the game for the first time.

"Hey," she replied somewhat awkwardly, "How, um...how've you been?"

"Better," I replied, "Listen, I'm sorry for how I reacted to everything. For getting as upset as I did. I get what you were trying to do for us, and the stuff with the spell isn't your fault. What I'm trying to say is, I forgive you."

Alex looked surprised, then relief flooded her eyes. "It's okay, Lana," she said, pulling me into a hug, "You had every right to be upset. I'm just surprised you forgave me so quick."

"You know me, I don't have in me to hold a grudge for very long," I grinned at her, "Oh, wait - unless it's against Vanessa."

"You heard about that?"

"Oh, yeah. Jessie let me know. You guys have a plan yet?"

"Yes, we do, thank God," Alex answered. "And by the way, Josh knows about me. Not about the guys, though."

"I'm not worried. I know Josh as well as you do, so I know he's trustworthy."

"Just letting you know." She glanced at the living room area. "How far in are you guys?" she asked.

"The military just got here," Johnny told her, "Wait – does this mean those convicts are finally gone? They kept runnin' over all the survivors we found."

"Yeah, they're gone. But a helicopter's there instead, now." Alex and I joined them back in the living area. "It's still not as annoying as the convicts were, though, don't worry."

A knock on the apartment door interrupted the conversation, and when Darry opened it Jessie and Josh strolled inside.

"Hey, there, strangers!" Two-Bit greeted them, "How've y'all been?"

"Pretty good, thanks," Josh replied. "Oh, hey, Dead Rising!"

Pretty soon, all of us were taking tu5ns playing the game until finally, Dallas managed to beat it. The main game, anyway – Johnny was the one to beat Overtime Mode.

"You guys wanna start the second one?" I asked.

Dallas, Two-Bit, Steve and Sodapop responded at once with, "Hell, yeah!"

"I'm good to just watch for now," Darry added, while Abigail nodded in agreement with him.

By the end of the night, we had reached the part where Chuck Greene, the new protagonist, realized he'd been framed for causing the Fortune City outbreak. And everyone agreed that, so far, the second game was more enjoyable than the first.

"The survivors aren't morons anymore!" Dallas happily pointed out at one point.

Abigail and Darry made dinner for everyone when the time came, with Ponyboy and Johnny helping here and there. All in all, it was a pretty good night.

And the next day would be even better.

When we got to school in the morning, Abigail and Annabelle were there waiting. They had met us there because they were involved in the Vanessa plan. Abigail had already called in and mentioned Alex would be late to her first class, so that was already one problem down.

Vanessa, looking smug as always, was in the bathroom fixing her makeup when we found her.

"Vanessa," she heard someone whisper from somewhere behind her. "Vanessa," the voice repeated, a bit louder this time.

The voice was Alex's.

"Okay, Carmen, where the hell are you?" growled Vanessa, "You can't scare me."

As she proceeded to search all of the empty stalls, then peek under the doors of the only closed one (earning her a rather colourful protest from whoever was inside), Alex appeared behind her, near the sink where she'd set her makeup bag down earlier.

"Jesus Christ!" Vanessa jumped nearly a foot in the air when she turned to see Alex there. "Why are you even bothering to use your powers on me like that? It's not like I didn't know you had them already, you moron!"

"Not a fan of the invisibility trick?" Alex smirked, "Maybe you'd prefer something like this."

With a flick of her hand, she sent Vanessa flying back so far that she almost hit the wall. She didn't, and I figured Alex probably avoided the collision on purpose.

Then, to her surprise, Jessie appeared beside Alex. "We're giving you one chance to promise, of your own free will, that you won't expose Alex and her family as witches."

"Or what?" sneered Vanessa. "You're not going to stop me. I'm not promising you bitches anything."

"Fine. Sorry it's come to this, then," Alex told her.

Then, Abigail and Annabelle stepped forward and the three of them read aloud a spell that, undoubtedly, Annabelle had written many years ago for occasions like this. As they read, Vanessa seemed to glow a little bit, but then the glowing stopped when the spell was finished.

"There," Alex continued, "Now you physically can't reveal my secret. If you try, your voice won't work. The words will get stuck in your throat and they just will not come out. Good luck telling anyone at the festival now."

She concluded by giving Vanessa a mocking version or her own smug expression. And the expression on Vanessa's own face in that moment was nothing short of priceless!