The world was ending.

...and she was the reason why.

It was an effort for Sammie to get any words out, it was like she was in a nightmare where she could neither speak nor scream. She was trapped and afraid. While she had some magic, it not enough to save him, or get him away.

Her voice, when it finally cooperated, was weak, breathless. "Alex, run."

"What? Who the hell is this?" A wary scowl clouded Alex's face as he picked up on Sammie's distress.

"Please," Sammie pleaded, softly, gripped with terror at what might happen if she made too much noise, if she disrupted whatever fragile spell was keeping Samuel from making a move. "Run. Alex, please."

The arm around her shoulders tighten. Panic was fighting for control, begging her use her magic. Save him. She knew it was pointless, she didn't have enough magic to save either of them.

Samuel laughed, his arms pulled Sammie closer to him. "Yeah, or use your weakass magic. It would be good for a laugh, don't you think?"

Stepping forward, Alex regarded Samuel carefully, his eyes focused on the arm Samuel had around Sammie.
Alex looked was pissed. "Who are you?"

Sammie wasn't fully recovered, she couldn't breathe, couldn't calm down. It was still too soon. She really needed more time to build her magic back. What if she couldn't build up her magic? What if she couldn't sav-?

No, she had to win this time. She will win.

"I told you you'd hate yourself, didn't I? I tried to tell you, baby." Samuel said, ignoring Alex's face when he called Sammie 'baby'. "So much for your compromise."

Samuel shoved her off, she stumbled by managed to stay upright. Be rational. Think straight. She couldn't though. Rationality had left Sammie's mind, all thoughts of magic and probabilities and worst-case scenarios evaporated in an instant.

Magic itched her fingers as turned to Samuel, to lunge. No longer did she care if she lived or died. So she had nothing to lose..

Samuel laughed, he twisted her arm behind her. She should have been able to take him on, but her energy was zapped. What was the point of all her training? She felt her life drain away as she kicked and struggled. She could have swore she heard faint whispering.

She saw shades of pink, yellow, and purple all around her. Did they see this too? She could almost touch them. Them? She felt three sets of arms hug her, pull her away. They were whispering to her.

"Come to us, you're safe," One whispered.

"Come with us, Viridis, we'll all be together" The other chimed in.

"Come as we wait for the others," The third begged.

"Stop!" Alex voice cracked, pulling her back to reality. She let out a gasp, like if she had been holding her breath until now. Her lungs were on fire or so they it felt. Her breathing came with difficulty.

Only then, did she let out a heartbroken wail.

Sammie felt cold, and alone. It felt like a newborn being forced into this scary, huge, cold world. She wanted to go back to their arms. To their embrace. It felt like being ripped from her families embrace.

Eventually her wailing died down into whimpers. Samuel loosened his grip, and let her fall to the ground.

Semi-conscious, she tried to lift her head head. Sammie blinked.

Not one but a trio of magic bats surrounded them, snapping their jaws at Samuel. Sammie felt off. It was like as if she was a pushed into the pool only to end up in a ocean. How did she get here? She tried to get up, but her arms refused to support her. Standing next to her, Samuel stared at Alex, his mouth in a twisted grin.

"You know exactly just what I was going to do, don't you?" Samuel's eyes were fixed in a strange look. That could not possibly be good. "You knew I was taking the soul for myself"

"Oh, Alex, I've had you pegged all wrong! Here I thought you were the stupid one." Samuel's laughter, sent chills up her spin. No! Leave him alone. "I heard that there was one soul who could remember all their lives, is that you?"

Sammie staggered to her feet, the world still spinning. Soul? She reached for Alex.

"What-" Sammie started, only for her to be grabbed by Samuel. Her back was pressed to Samuel's chest, she yelped. Her head was felt hollowed out. What did Samuel do to her?

"Shut up, Samantha. You're still on thin ice." Samuel hissed. Sammie felt nausea overwhelm her. Soul? He was about to take her soul?

The three frost bats screeched overhead making her flinch, they seemed antsy to attack.

"Stop it," Alex hissed. "Let her go."

"Nah, I think I'll hold on to my samitch just a bit longer. Also, we both know you're not going to do anything while she's in the way," Samuel said, grinning. "Or do you want a free shot, a chance to let it all out. You can even have her first, since I don't mind sloppy seconds."

Sammie shivered as she felt Samuel slide a finger from her hip to her neck. She was going to use that Samuel only had on hand on her to her advantage, but the heat from the other hand made her stay still.

"We kill it after, and bury it. I won't snitch. No harm done!"

She knew Alex would never hurt her, but this was still a very unsafe place to stand. The bats flew by, looking for any moment of weakness.

"Are you sure you're not the least bit curious, Alex? She really is quite as sexy little piece."

Sammie felt like they spoiled a movie but she was too slow on the uptake. What was she missing? This wasn't the time to be caught off-balance. She felt her magic returning slowly.

"This whole time, you're the one who's been hurting her.." Alex kept his gaze fixed on Samuel, staring daggers at him. "What else did you do to her?"

The hand around Sammie's neck flexed as Samuel laughed.

"Nothing she didn't love!" Samuel threw a pity look at Alex "But you wouldn't know anything about that, huh? She's got a nice feel to her."

Alex face was a flat mask. The bats started to circle around to get to Samuel.

"I'll fucking kill you, you sick son of a bitch!" Alex yelled, making Sammie flinch. She wasn't used to his yelling, she only ever heard him talk is soft tones.

Samuel laughed again, genuine and childlike. He dragged Sammie closer to himself. Either to shield himself, or perhaps just to taunt Alex further.

Alex paced like a beast in a cage, growling low. Sammie reached out to him, to comfort him. Mid reach though, she dropped her hand. She had to save her energy.

"You know, I'd used to envy you," Samuel said, his face half buried in Sammie's neck. "You used to have her all to yourself, what chance did I have?"

Why was Samuel goading Alex? Why? Something about Alex had Samuel totally enraptured. This was strange. Everything about the last few minutes felt unnatural and wrong.

As much as it made Sammie's insides crawl to think of Samuel focusing any amount of interest on Alex, it opened up a chance at gaining a slight advantage. Every minute Alex kept Samuel talking, Sammie magic recovered a little bit more. She clung to that knowledge, praying that it would make any difference at all when the baffling conversation ended, as it inevitably would.

"Your roommate is a neat toy. In fact, she's my favorite toy," Samuel said, his grip on her tightening, "but I'm always willing to upgrade."

Carefully, Sammie shot Alex a pointed look. She needed to regenerate her magic.

Keep him distracted, she pleaded with her eyes.

Once Sammie made her move, there would be no second chances. Her timing had to be right. If she couldn't save herself, she'd save Alex. She owed him that much.

Alex summoned his magic, making it crawl up his arms, ice crawled up his sleeves off. What was he doing?

"Well, well," Samuel said, mocking. "Who would have thought lazy Alex had a violent streak? But then, you must be pretty pissed to call up three of those things."

He gestured to the bats still circling overhead, lethal but useless as long as Sammie was close enough to be caught in the crossfire.

"I mean, Sammie can barely manage one, even with my best encouragement." Samuel continued. Sammie could practically hear Samuel's shit eating grin.

Alex's hands were now wreathed in blue frost. Now that Sammie could actually see them they looked like semi-frozen water. It reminded her of Katara from the Avatar anime she saw with Angela.

"Stop hiding behind her, and I'll show you how fucking violent I can be."

"Now that I would like to see," Samuel said, straightening up. "What exactly do you intend to do?"

Sammie bit down on a curse. What the fuck did Alex think he was doing? He was supposed to buy her time! Not attack Samuel.

Sidestepping to get a clear shot, Alex threw a wave. Samuel pulled Sammie as a shield, having her take the hit.

Sammie hissed, the icey cold attack made her magic try to rise. Alex flinched when he saw he hit her. Desperately, she pushed her magic down. It wasn't his fault.

Samuel laughed, his laughter sounds strange. His voice sounded too high, it hurt her ears. She really wanted to cover her ears but he had tightened his grip on her.

"That was lame. That's it?" Samuel shook his head. "Welp, my turn now."

When Sammie felt him pull magic from her she wanted to scream. No, I need my magic!

Samuel sent a flame wall at Alex, who dove to the side. The attack hit a pair of trees.

"Pretty quick for a lazy slob! Let's see how you handle change!" Samuel exclaimed, sending yellow flowers looking attacks at him.

Alex cursed and dove behind a tree. Samuel seemed to find this hilarious. Laughing, he brought out a few more yellow flowers.

The Yellow's souls attacks! Why did he have them? How did he have them?

It was then Sammie noticed that Samuel had let her go, all his attention on Alex. Slowly, cautiously, Sammie backed away. She froze still, waiting for Samuel to notice that she'd slipped away.

He didn't. His attention was fully occupied by his new victim.

It's now or never, Sammie thought. She should kill him, stop him once and for all. She should..

She couldn't kill him ..why couldn't she?

Instead of summoning her soul to kill him. Sammie sprang forward to Alex, as two flame birds flew close to Samuel. Spinning around him, as a spinning wall to keep him in. Samuel let out a startled yelp as he nearly walked into one. She felt herself grin, she had him trapped for once.

Desperately, Sammie was already running, trying to close the distance between herself and Alex. Alex ran to her, just as desperate.

She heard Samuel's angry yelling behind her, she knew what was coming. She threw herself over Alex, letting out a scream as a spray of flower bullets peppered her back.

Alex wouldn't have been able to take that. He wasn't as strong as she was.

"You okay?" Alex asked, letting himself be dragged along with Sammie. She pulled him towards where she assumed Misaburn was.

The walking around from before had left her lost. Anywhere was better than being here, though.

"I'm fine," Sammie said, dodging a stray flower bullet. "You?"

Keeping her fire birds active left her tired. She wasn't sure how long she could keep it up. The tree whizzed by them as they ran for their lives. She'd force herself to do use the bird to hold Samuel back, until she had no magic left.

Movement at the corner of Sammie's vision caught her attention. A vine came out of nowhere, tripping her. Alex stopped short, reaching for her. A huge winged yellow thing flew at them, too fast for them to get away.

Alex stopped, suddenly. Sammie turned slowly, watching his magic form. A blur of blue flashed past them, colliding with yellow. The blast sent them all flying.

Sammie landed by a tree, not far from Alex. She heard Samuel to her far right. Fear stuck her hard.

Suddenly, the world went white.

"No, go back the other way! Your going away from the town!" A voice hissed in her ear.

Sammie staggered to get up, traces of soft whispers in her ears. Sammie blinked. They were familiar somehow.

The other souls..

Alex tugged her into running left, and let out a cursed. "Fucking bastard!"

The area behind them was torn up. Sammie only got a glance before Alex all but dragged her into motion. Samuel was hot on their trail. Alex sent a huge, screeching bat his way.

"Just go with it," Alex said, "Freak out later."

The sound of shattering glass (ice?) was heard, but she didn't dare turn to look or she'd fall.

"Is he still behind us?" She asked.

"We can find out later."

A vine caught Sammie, causing her to fall back down.

"You're not trying to run away, are you? That's no fun." Samuel yelled.

Sammie replied by sending her mirroring soul at him. Samuel wasn't moving, and it was headed right at him.

It was going to burn him, kill him. Finally, it was going to end all this.

Sammie let out a scream, ripping the attack apart. It fell harmlessly around Samuel, like soft snow. He grin, like he knew she couldn't hurt him. He was right.

Alex was not so kind, the bat attack hit Samuel in the arm. Samuel fell to his knees clutching his arm. It was pale, almost blue-ish. How-?

Sammie wanted to run to him, run to help him, run to save him. She couldn't even save Alex or herself. Alex turned to run again, he grabbed Sammie's arm. Tugging her desperately.

"Alex," Sammie said, pulling her arm away. "if you can get away, then please-"

She stopped talking, no longer sure what she was going to say.

Summoning another mirroring attack, Alex fired again, a quick burst of cold that bought Sammie back to the scene before them. She had to get Alex away.

"No way in hell!" Alex snapped, tightening his grip on the hand that Sammie tried to pull away. "I may have failed Mary and Frances ...but I'm not leaving you behind. We deal with this together."

Mary? France? Sammie took in the information she was given. Did that make them the other souls? Which ones? How did Alex know them? Sammie shook those thoughts off for later.

Samuel grinned at them, Sammie recognized that look. She just then realized something horrible. Samuel wasn't even attacking in earnest yet.

He was just playing with them. As if they was his toys..

"He's dangerous," Sammie pleaded, pushing Alex away. "I can't let him hurt anyone else. If you can get away, and warn the town-"

"Like I give a shit about the town right now," Alex snapped. "Kinda doubt he's gonna let either of us go, anyway."

Alex's teeth ground together, his eyes on Samuel who was summoning a huge yellow tangle of plant life. Samuel sent it towards Alex, who made it freeze with his magic. It cracked and fell apart before their very eyes.

"Just a hunch. Is this the person that's been messing with you?" Alex said, his hand gripping Sammie, tightly.

It was phrased as a question, but Alex had clearly made the connection already. Nothing she said would change his mind. Not that she wanted to change his mind.

Sammie looked back, Samuel wasn't in sight. Where could he be hiding?

"Yes."

There was no point in lying anymore. At least she could die honest.

A wordless, ugly noise bubbled up from Alex's chest. Sammie looked over to see his hazel eyes were so full of anger they were almost glowing.

"Then this fucker's gonna die today," he growled, his eyes on a now closer Samuel.

Samuel's laughter was heard as Alex fired another attack. It was a solid hit, the short, blinding burst freezing his side for only a second.

"Ha, even your attacks are weak! Do you even lift bro?" Samuel trailed off, grin slipping as a look of confusion spread on his face. Sammie's eyes widen, the bat was different this time. It was huge!

It's was like his bat attack evolved. This bat- No, this beast, was what power truly looked like. Sammie heard Alex snicker.

"Weak, huh?" Alex laughed, Sammie shivered. "I'll show you weak."

Alex's grasp on Sammie hand had tighten. She caught Samuel's eyes studied their hands, his eyes cold.

Alex summoned another huge bat attack, it was the size of small car. It seemed to freeze the very air around them. Sammie saw her own breath in soft puffs for a second.

Gratefully, Sammie let Alex use his own magic. She was barely able to keep her eyes open. Just holding Samuel back for a brief time had taken more energy than she could spare.

Whatever Samuel was pondering wore off, his eyes tracking them with sadistic glee as his trademark smirk spread across his face once again.

Sammie let Alex go as she jumped aside. A yellow butterfly looking attack clumsily flew past them, knocking down a tree behind them.

Splitting her concentration between avoiding Samuel's attacks and defending Alex was exhausting. She couldn't let him get hurt, he wouldn't be able to-

Her thoughts were cut off by a tree branch falling right in front of her. Sammie stumbled back, her hold on Alex was gone.

Alex was too busy attacking to notice the gap between them now.
Samuel, however, did notice. He inched to the side, possibly trying to get to her. He was moving slower than normal, and Sammie had fought him enough to know his habits and tells. Samuel was getting tired.

Samuel sent a huge vine her way, with no more magic at her expense, she had no choice but to take a hit. It knocked her to the ground. She let out a yelp.

Alex took care of their offense, while Sammie (the weaker of the two) dealt with the defense.

Sammie was left wondering if this was really the same guy that she'd criticized on the hill. There was no way Alex had so much stamina.

Yet here he was, the king of the magic that he possessed. This couldn't be the guy that she made her mission to protect.

Alex took every advantage, and attacked viciously. As if he was a cornered animal, which in a sense he was.

Sammie forced herself to summon some sort of magic. She shot a flame to a vine slipped around a tree and shot out at an unexpected angle.

A huge hit suddenly knocked Sammie towards the trees, it wasn't magic. It was..

A monster?!

She caught Samuel's grin, he must have summoned it. Why didn't she know he could do that? Or did she forget?

She gasped as the feathery monster connected with her midsection, sending her staggering. She kicked it off, hearing as it let out a screech.

"Babe! Are you okay?"

Sammie twisted, and with a spin kick, sent the monster flying.

"Just fine!" She grunted, pushing herself back into motion again. She ran towards the monster. Her magic was weak, but ready.

"What the fuck," Alex asked, "What is that thing? Are you hurt?"

Samuel leaned out of the way of Alex's attack. He was too slow or maybe he wasn't really trying. The blue wave grazed his side. It barely fazed him.

"I'm fine," Sammie repeated. "Just stay on him."

The way the monster was moving, so slow and sluggish, it was obviously a newborn. Something she could easily handle.

She forced herself to use magic as she was still gathering it.

She let out a yell as she threw herself at the monster. All thoughts of failure far from her mind.

☆☆☆☆☆☆☆Samuel's POV☆☆☆☆☆☆

Samuel was moving sluggish. Even though he didn't feel the pain, his body was quiting on him. The sudden change of heat and cold was too much.

No, he was stronger than this. Sammie may have had training but Alex was still a shit fighter.

Seeing Sammie lugging around a sack of trash pissed him off. Two vs one wasn't exactly fair, but it added an element of interest to a fight that would have been boring and one-sided otherwise.

Samuel watched like a cat stalking a mouse as she finally gave up running away to right him. Alex as the offense was obviously, since Sammie probably didn't want to dirty her hands in fighting Samuel. Her blood-free hands.

Slowed down too much to dodge, Samuel simply let some of the attacks hit him. Alex was still an absolute joke. So weak! Wasn't even worth dodging his attacks...

Even as Samuel thought that, he felt his arms go numb from cold. He ignored the pain.

He observed the monster he sent to attack Sammie, it rolled backwards after taking another kick from his favorite.

He grinned, better late than never.

Laughing, Samuel went out of his way to maneuver an attack into Alex's path. There was no way he'd be fast enough to connect, but it was worth the effort just to watch his favorite practically fall over herself (and the monster) to get Alex away from it. Why she's willing to risk her life for his, Samuel will never understand.

Sammie was working so hard to keep her worthless roommate out of harm's way. No matter what Samuel tried, he knew for a fact that Sammie wouldn't allow Samuel to land a hit on Alex.

Samuel didn't know if that fact pissed him off, or impressed him.

☆☆☆☆☆☆Sammie POV☆☆☆☆☆☆☆

She ran, half dragging the monster behind her as she made a mad dash to Alex. She ran to take the hit herself, and keep Alex out of the line of fire.

Sammie pushed him aside, and fell against a tree. She felt something sharp in her pocket. Pulling whatever it was out, she realized it was the jar of pink goop. It had cracked due to collision. Maybe it can be of use later, she mused.

She quick went to drop it by the base of the burnt up oak-looking tree. She didn't know much of trees, just flowers. Sammie was so caught up in looking for monster, she almost missed Samuel's eyes on her.

A loud roar was heard from behind her, throwing her off. Shit! Where's the monster now?

"Okay, so," Alex said, his voice oddly calm. Sammie hadn't notice him get closer to her. "Now is our best bet to run, since I may have froze him."

"What?" Sammie exclaimed.

Alex sighed. "Babe, we gotta go. Uh, like now!"

Sammie's suddenly stood, nodding."Yeah, but-"

"Let's go," Alex snapped. "Look, I need to know you'll be able to roll with it. If you freak out like you did the last time I attacked him, we're gonna get killed."

She didn't want to get killed, and she didn't want to kill. This was altogether too much for one day. Sammie shrugged helplessly, her shoulder flaring with pain.

"You mean," she said, wrestling her mind back on track when it started to wander back to the thought of killing someone, "can I handle harming someone, even if it means it may kill them?"

"That's exactly what I mean, yes."

She couldn't handle it, she couldn't kill Samuel, but the longer they were in this forest the less likely they were going to survive this fight. Alex was right, she couldn't just give up.

Sammie sighed. "It's worth trying."

"Okay." Alex was quiet for a few seconds. "I freeze his legs, and you hit his chest."

Forcing herself not to think, Sammie darted to the left, putting her right in front of Samuel. They were now completely on the other side of the small clearing.

She was definitely not freaking out about possibly killing someone, but she was losing focus and this was not the time for that. Right. Sammie got moving again, resolving to just roll with it, as Alex put it. Alex knew what he was doing, right?

Right.?

☆☆☆☆☆☆Melissa's POV☆☆☆☆☆☆☆

A small group of people stood at the western edge of town, staring out over the road that led into the woods. The teenage girl (Jane? Joan? Melissa always sucked at names) leaned dozing against one of the buildings, steadfastly refusing to rest inside the inn. Melissa was very grateful to her, if she hadn't shown up to point them in the right direction who knows what could happen to Sammie.

Groups of dotted-line footprints stitched patterns in the mud and disappeared past the treeline where the search parties had split up. One set of tracks belonged to Angela.

Melissa jumped as a brilliant flash of light broke through the forest canopy. She rubbed at her eyes to dispel the colored spots dancing in her vision. Though it had been miles away, the unnatural brightness of the light had dazzled her. Like a giant camera flash.

Green, blue, and yellow lights swirling up in the sky. Melissa shivered, unsure what those lights could possibly be.

A low grumble rolled through the air, seconds after the light had faded.

One of the police dogs let out a soft growl, ears pinned back, and Jane (or Joan) startled from her nap. Martin remained as unruffled as ever, but sidled closer to the road. His shotgun in his hands.

Hopefully, he wouldn't need to use it.

_______________________________________

Sorry it took so long to update!

A mixture of writer's block and lack of motivation hit at the same time..