[ 42 ] 2013

-

"You were sleeping and you had a nightmare. You're going to go back to sleep, and when you wake up tomorrow, you're going to want to return to Perth."

-

There was a frown on Phoenix's face as Luke stormed off. But she felt worse about the fact that John had gotten hurt because he had nothing to do with anything. She had never said anything to Luke about John, and she didn't know where he had gotten it in his head that John was her boyfriend.

Holding the pack of ice to his face, she said a stream of apologies to the university student from Mexico. "I'm so sorry, John. I honestly don't know why Luke attacked you. He's really been bothering me ever since he broke up with Hazel." Michael, Jack, and Hazel stood towards the back. The three of them didn't quite like Phoenix because she was the type who liked attention from boys. She had done that with Luke although he hadn't been totally innocent.

The nineteen year old shook his head, shooting her a smile. "Don't worry about it. I'm fine. And if he bothers you again, I'll gladly defend you."

Harley crinkled up her nose and spoke up, "This is probably my fault. I told Luke that Phoenix didn't want to go out with him because she had a boyfriend. I needed to tell Cindy that in order to reassure her that Billy wasn't cheating on her. But I don't know where Luke got it into his head that you two were dating. It must have been when he saw you together. I'm so sorry, John." When she told Luke the lie, she didn't think it would get that much out of hand. Harley Quinn was already beginning to see the dark side to Luke Hemmings. He was vengeful and didn't care how many people he screwed over to get what he wanted. The exact opposite of Cindy who was sweet and caring.

"Like I said," The young man smiled confidently. "I'm fine. I won the fight, and I feel great."

"You're such a good sport, Jay-Jay." Dempsey smiled at him, placing a hand on his shoulder. Since he had given her a nickname, she had thought up one for him as well.

He gave her a thumbs up. "Of course, tacos."

"Maybe we should get home now." Paúl suggested.

"Lets stay a bit longer." John pleaded. "Its only ten, the party has just started."

-

The teens had decided to stay at the party, but the atmosphere was tense. Luke continued to glare at John and Phoenix, who spent the rest of the night together. He was one of the few in the group that actually liked talking to Phoenix, and she was very interested in the things he had to say.

She had learned about his literature classes, the poems he liked to read. John told her about his minor in music that he was working on. And he told her that his costume was his real mariachi outfit, that he was in a mariachi band in Guadalajara with some friends from the university. They did it because they loved music and it gave them some extra money for their expenses. And it was where he had met his current girlfriend Marializ.

Harley spent the rest of the night with Calum and their group of friends.

When Harley and Phoenix returned home that night, it was almost one in the morning. People were leaving Niall and Andrea's house because it was a school week and they didn't want the neighbors to complain of the noise.

Harley didn't see her brother Billy and assumed he had gone home with Cindy, which meant everything had gone over well between them.

In her bedroom, Harley unstrapped the belt with the holster around her waist, where her Diamond Rose was. She set it on her bed and went to her bathroom, to change into her pajamas, clean the make up off her face, and get into bed for the night.

Phoenix had gone to lock Harley's door and grabbed her close. While Harley was in the bathroom, Phoenix quickly changed out of her costume and into her pajamas. As she approached Harley's bed, she saw the silver gun, shining in its holster. Most of it was covered, but she could make out half of Harley's name engraved on it. Her eyebrows narrowed in confusion. Why would her friend have a personalized toy gun?

The girl with black hair reached for the gun on her friend's bed, to look at it more closely. She picked it up in her hand just as the door to the bathroom opened and Harley walked out.

Before she could warn her, or take the gun away, it was already in Phoenix's hand one second, and the next, her hand holding the gun was pulled down to the ground as though by an unseen force. It was too heavy for her to lift, and Harley remembered something that Michael had said to her. Human's can't hold a Diamond Rose, only shifters can. I'd be too heavy for a human.

Just as soon as the memory crossed her mind, she heard her friend cry out in pain. And in her panic, Harley extended her hand, the gun shot into her hold instantly like a magnet.

Phoenix lifted her hand carefully as she straightened her body. Her eyes watched in horror as it looked like the gun had crushed some of the bones in her hand when it fell on her. "What the hell, Harley?" She cried out, seeing her friend hold the gun without a problem.

Harley threw the gun on her bed and rushed to Phoenix's side. Placing her hands on her friend's shoulders, she looked into her eyes and said to her, "Stop crying, we're going to Dempsey's house and everything will be fine." She said slowly, to which her friend nodded. There were no more cries of pain coming from her lips, it was like Harley's order had made her go numb.

Harley hoped that Jack would be willing to help heal Phoenix, since she had been the one to separate Luke and Hazel.

-

Harley rushed Phoenix out of her house, in the dark so as not to wake her parents, and raced to Dempsey's house with her friend in tow. She banged on their door several times. All the lights were out inside the house, and it seemed like they were all asleep. But Harley wouldn't give up. Her heart was racing and she was on the verge of freaking out at the sight of her friend's crushed hand.

She had never seen a human attempting to lift a Diamond Rose and it wasn't something she wanted to witness again.

After a couple of minutes, John came to the door. "What is it?" He asked sleepily. Looking from Harley to Phoenix, he was startled awake by the condition her hand was in, "For fuck's sake, what happened to her hand?"

"She tried to hold my Diamond Rose." Harley informed him. "Is Jack here?"

He nodded slowly, "Yeah, he's here. Go wake him."

Harley pushed Phoenix into John's arms gently and told him, "Take her to the livingroom while I go wake Jack."

John did as he was told and Harley ran up the stairs towards the bedrooms. As she passed the doorway that led to the living room, her eyes saw for a moment that someone was sleeping there, most likely John. The couch pulled out into a bed, and there was a blanket on top of it. There were many people sleeping in that house. And it seemed they had no more rooms for John to sleep in.

Based on all the time she had spent in the house, she found Jack's room easily. He was fast asleep, and she switched the light on before going to shake him awake. "I need you to help me." Harley said to him.

He blinked back a few times. "Harley?" He asked.

The two hadn't talked much since she had been back to her old self.

"I need your help." She repeated.

The urgency in her tone shook his sleepiness away quicker. Harley had never asked him for help, and if she was doing so in the middle of the night it meant something was terribly wrong.

Jack sat up in his bed and pushed the covers aside. "Sure," He nodded, "What's wrong?"

Harley grabbed his arm and pulled him out of bed. "Follow me."

And he followed her out of the room, down the stair case, and into the living room. There, they saw Phoenix sitting down and staring off into space, while John just talked to her and tried to keep her mind off the pain. Jack took one look at Phoenix and said, "Isn't she the girl that messed with my sister's boyfriend?"

"Please help her." Harley pleaded.

Jack groaned, "Couldn't you just take her to a hospital?"

"And tell them what?" Harley challenged, "That her hand was crushed by a special gun that I own?"

"That sounds about right." John spoke up.

Jack took a few strides to the couch and knelt in front of Phoenix. Taking her battered hand in his, he closed his eyes and concentrated. In a matter of seconds, her hand was back to normal. And Phoenix was back to normal again.

"What the fuck?" She gasped, looking at the front and then the back of her hand in awe. "How did you do that?"

Before Jack could reply to the question, Harley grabbed Phoenix's hand and led her back to her own house after thanking Jack.

Once in Harley's room, Phoenix asked again.

"Harley," She began, "How did you pick up that gun? It was way too heavy. And then when it shot into your open hand like a magnet...What the fuck is going on?"

The blonde haired girl shook her head, "You're imagining things, Phoebe." Harley scoffed.

But Phoenix shook her head. "I know what I saw. And then Jack healed my hand. Are you guys some kind of vampires, werewolves, and witches like on The Vampire Diaries?" The girl from Perth wondered. She hadn't seen anything suspicious in any of them until that night, but she guessed that they were probably acting normal around her.

Harley hated having to lie to her best friend, as well as forcing her to forget everything. Looking into Phoenix's eyes, she said, "You were sleeping and you had a nightmare, but everything is okay now. You're going to go back to sleep, and when you wake up tomorrow, you're going to want to return to Perth."

Phoenix nodded her head absently and obeyed, getting under the covers of Harley's bed which they were sharing. She immediately closed her eyes and drifted off to sleep.

-

phoenix may finally be returning to perth! yaaaaah. party. i literally have the rest of the book written up alredy, and a plot established for the next one. so i'm very excited and i hope you all like it. also, above is the new cover for the third book. let me know if you like it ^.^

question of the day: what is your favorite scary story legend? mine is la llorona (the weeping woman). we dont know exactly where it originated from, a lot hispanics claim it as their own, no matter what country they are from. but in mexico they say it originated in the jalisco area, when the spanish first invaded. there was a beautiful woman named maria, and she was very vain. she married a foreign man, and had two kids. he quickly got tired of her and left her for another. when he told her he would take the children as well, that was the last fucking straw. so, wanting to mke him suffer, she drowned her children in the river. she immediately regretted it and jumped in after them. but it was too late and she drowned as well. they say that now she wanders the lake in jalisco, searching for children to take, to make up for the ones she lost.

so yeah, thank you for reading. and don't forget to give this a nice vote and comment!

i love you.

-clary xx