Five to ten in the State Pen. Five to ten in the State Pen. Five to ten in the State Pen.

Isabeth couldn't get the words out of her mind as she prepared the mojitos in Gidget's kitchen. She was committing a serious crime. The vial was heavy in the pocket of her polo dress. A boulder dragging her morality deeper into the muddy trenches. Sullying up her shotty morality that became much clearer after discovering she didn't kill Fulton.

It was just assault. Was an assault for an assault justified in a court of law? She knew Faith and Alex thought so. Deep down she did too but would a court deem it to be? She shook the thought out of her mind knowing if the Good Doctor told a soul what she did to him, her parents would have the best lawyers that money could buy and she'd get off with a plea of temporary insanity.

"Red or white?" Gidget called from the comfort of the white cushioned chair on the patio just mere feet from the spacious kitchen where Isabeth stood.

The O'Malley beach house was an oasis away from the nosey, gossiping eyes of Evening's elites. With the glass doors opened, the patio and kitchen became one room. The whisper of the waves crashing into the shore could faintly be heard under the music streaming from the speaker on the massive ottoman near Gidget's dancing feet. It wasn't a song Isabeth was familiar with but it wasn't her house, she couldn't make the rules concerning genres.

"Hmm." Isabeth set a sprig of mint in one of the glasses trying to decide how to answer her new friend's question.

The City Twin's Sinner and Saints party was in a couple of weeks which meant now was the time to start planning outfits. Isabeth was going to sit this year out but when Gidget brought it up during lunch, she knew it was the perfect opportunity to do the task she didn't want to do.

She didn't know what color she was going to wear but as she dropped two droplets of the concoction The Messenger gave her, she knew she was far from a saint.

"Fire brick," Isabeth said sauntering over to the patio. She handed Gidget the glass with the mint and kept the glass with the lime dangling on the edge for herself. "Shorts."

"So, red?" Gidget set the straw between her pursed lips and pulled. She gagged with disgust and Isabeth stalled over her chair.

"What?"

"There's something wrong with this?" Gidget studied the glass, the murky clear liquid swimming with crushed ice. "Where's the rum?"

Isabeth felt the airflow back into her lungs as she plummeted into the chair with a huff. "We have work tomorrow."

"Virgin mojitos." Gidget frowned at the glass then took another long sip. "That's just unnatural, Isa."

Isabeth flinched at how easily the girl uttered her nickname that only close friends called her but since she was drugging her, she let it slide. It was the least she could do.

"A break from alcohol never killed anyone." Isabeth held up her glass with a sweet smile. It was easy for her to seem like a good girl even when she wasn't.

Gidget swallowed another sip before tossing her blonde hair over her shoulder, "Ginger and lime. It's refreshing." She shook the ice in the almost empty glass before settling her eyes back on the iPad upon her lap. "I'm in love with this dress. Wait! Oh My Gosh!" Her voice with up high and her eyes shot to Isabeth. "You're wearing red! What!!!"

Isabeth stopped pulling on her straw as she sat on the edge of the chair ready to leave, "Not red. Fire brick."

Gidget shrugged peering at her like she was a shiny new toy, "Have you been naughty, Isa." The words were sealed with a yawn, which she covered with her hand.

"Haven't we all," Isabeth gave a sad smirk. "We're humans. Sin is inevitable."

"But not you." Gidget fell back in the chair sucking the last bit of liquid out of the glass. "You're the second coming of Mother Tess or Jess or whatever her name is."

"Teresa?" Isabeth hoped it was the drugs making the girl confused and not something else. "I'm not perfect like everyone thinks. I have a life. I do things I'm not proud of."

"Like dating Alex." She sleepily muttered, her eyes fighting to stay open. "I'd be upset if I had sex with him too."

Isabeth's eyebrows drew together. That was rude. Although she wasn't surprised. She was getting used to being the girl dating the 'crazy' boy. The looks. The comments. The confusion. No one understood how could she, Nobel-beautiful-kind Isabeth be with that wretched Alex.

They didn't care that he came from a family as wealthy as theirs or went to the same academies they or their children attended. He did the one thing that was taboo in their exclusive circle. He went to a mental hospital. An action that should have been applauded—getting help when you did it, thrust him on the outside of his community.

Isabeth burned with contention as she watched the girl's head loll back on the frame of the chair and the cup slip from her hand. She wanted to let the glass clash to the stone floor, and break into hundreds of pieces but she couldn't.

Gidget couldn't think she was drugged. She'd had to think she was drunk. Black-out drunk.

Isabeth grabbed the glass before it slipped out of Gidget's hand, "This is my sin." She shook the sweating glass before trotting back to the kitchen to get rid of the evidence.

She tossed the ice in the sink and splashed water around it. She didn't need anyone sniffing around and sending Q-tip samples to any lab. She looked in the cabinet under the sink and lucked out. There was a bottle of Lysol. She poured some in the sink and sloshed more water around. Being safe was better than having to worry.

"Done." She let out a low sigh. She wafted her eyes over the clean kitchen and Gidget's sleeping form curved in the chair.

That was her cue, she grabbed her purse off the table in the breakfast nook and hurried to the door.

She whipped the door open and hopped back with a gasp.

"So, kind of you to let me in." The man she'd seen before on that stormy night gave her a pleasant smile with a duffle bag at his side. "Led the way," He gestured for her to start walking.

Isabeth cleared her throat as she reminded herself why she was doing this. "She's on the patio." She gestured down the hall without taking her eyes off the man, she didn't want him to get any ideas and make her his blood bank.

His smile graduated to a grin, "I need a nurse. Didn't he tell you?" He stepped into the house and she quickly stepped back. "I don't need one but I like you. The Maker is captivated by you and I want to know why."

"I'm a skilled equestrian, that might be why." She gripped the door handle, peering up at him.

"No," He wagged his spindly finger at her taking a look around the quaint, modern abode. "The Maker always has a deeper reason." His eyes snapped back on her and she felt a lump grow in her throat. "The boy and the other girl I understand but you... I have yet to understand why it wants to recreate you."

"Recreate?" She questioned. "What do you mean?"

He ignored her question and pointed down the hall, "Is she down there.?" He shook his head. "Where's the bedroom? We need to be in the bedroom."

"The stairs are on the right. The rooms are up there."

"Good. Good." He snapped his fingers and she jumped. "Let's go. I can feel my head getting light and I don't want to take all her blood."

Isabeth clenched her fist and slammed the door. She twisted on her heels and stormed to the patio. She was about to be the nurse to The Vampire, this was not how her summer was supposed to be going. But she wanted to get Faith back.

As she watched him toss Gidget over his shoulder like a bag of feathers, she wondered if she was doing the right thing. Was all this worth getting Faith back?  

What do you think, is it worth doing to get Faith back?