Chloe saw the “good luck” Elle mouthed to her as Nero drove off in front of her big, white house.

I’m gonna need it.

Sneaking into her house, she felt strange not going straight to her room. That was where she had learned to stay all day. It was safer there. The only time she ever came out was if her parents demanded her presence.

Trying to find her housekeeper Lana, she hoped to find her before anyone else.

Lana had been hired when her father had become mayor, and frankly, she was the best thing to come out of it. She was certainly more of a mother to her than her own mother ever had been, and Chloe could trust her with anything. Lana had cared for her since day one, picking up pretty quickly that her parents wouldn’t win any awards.

A sigh of relief escaped her when she found Lana. She was sure to keep her voice down as she said, “Lana, I need your help.”

“What’s wrong?” Lana whispered back, concern showing on her face.

“My tires got slashed at school, and when someone offered me a ride home, they wouldn’t take no for an answer. They said it would be too dangerous to drive it with all four tires out. I didn’t want them to think—”

“Okay.” Lana nodded her head understanding. “I’ll tell them my husband drove your car to get fixed. I can drive you to and from school till then.”

Relief flooded Chloe. “Thank you.”

“Do you know who did it?”

Shaking her head, she could tell Lana didn’t believe her for a second, but there was nothing she could do. Lana had questioned her parents in the beginning about Chloe, and they had told her, if she kept asking, they would easily replace her. Therefore, Lana had stayed on, keeping her mouth shut, figuring she could at least help Chloe in some way.

“Okay, go on upstairs. I’ll bring your dinner up to you later.”

“Thank you,” Chloe told her again before quickly heading upstairs to her room. Thankfully, she made it without seeing her parents.

After setting her book bag on her bed, she quickly ran to her attached bathroom to relieve her bladder that she had held all day. Elle and she hadn’t used the school’s bathrooms once since becoming friends. The girls’ bathroom was unmonitored, so the chances of them coming out alive were slim if they ever met Cassandra or any one of her friends. If it ever came to it, pissing yourself was a better option.

Once she was out of the bathroom, she took a seat on her bed, looking around her blank white room. The bed and nightstand were the only pieces of furniture present; nothing else was needed as she had a big closet to house her clothes, and her bathroom held her makeup and other girlie stuff. Chloe had never cared to decorate her room because this house wasn’t a home, and her father broke anything she ever cared about. To her, it was just four walls and a place to lay her head at night.

Keeping the walls white made it easier for her to watch the nightmares play out, like a TV screen, then close her eyes to star in the show.

I know you can talk, Chloe.

Amo’s voice entering her head froze her in place. She was used to hearing a voice in her head, but not that one.

Rinnng.

The ringing of her cell phone made her jump, scaring her half to death. Shaking off Amo’s voice, she answered the phone, seeing it was Elle.

“Hey.”

Elle didn’t bother saying hi. “Did you tell your dad?”

“No. No point. I told Lana, and she said her husband will take care of it for me.”

“That’s good.”

Chloe paused, not wanting to tell Elle about the fact that it meant Elle would have to ride the bus again until she got her car fixed. “Lana will be driving me till I get my car back, so …”

Elle knew what she was getting at. “That’s okay. Nero said he would give me a ride tomorrow morning, and I always have the bus.”

“Oh, really?” Chloe smiled, thinking about her friend’s new love interest. She could tell they were getting close pretty fast by the way he would hold her hand every chance he got.

For once, Elle was getting protection, so Chloe was definitely rooting for him, though his friends made her uncomfortable. That was something she was going to have to get used to if they planned to survive the semester.

“Tell me how the car ride home was.”

“Fine.”

Hmm. “Just fine?”

“Yep. Fine, Chloe.”

Her mouth dropped to the floor. “He kissed you, didn’t he?”

When the line remained silent, she knew she was right.

“Oh, he totally did! Tell me, how was your first kiss?”

“Well, it technically wasn’t my first.”

What! “Oh, my gosh, what?”

Elle didn’t seem like she wanted to tell her the next part. “He kissed me earlier, in Art, in the supply closet.”

I knew they were getting close fast.

“That is so freaking sweet.”

“Yeah, yeah, yeah,” Elle retorted. “Listen, Chloe, if you get to school before me, I can’t help you.”

She liked the other subject matter better, not wanting to think about getting to her first period by herself. “I know. I can figure out something, I guess. I’ll be there at the exact time we always are.”

“All right. I’ll try to be there at the same time, but we know Nero is late practically every morning.”

“I know.” She hoped her voice sounded stronger than it was.

The pause over the line showed her it didn’t.

“I’ll see you tomorrow, then.”

“Bye.” Chloe went to hang up, knowing her friend not only needed to head to work, but wouldn’t be able to say bye back.

The night was spent trying her best to keep busy with plenty of homework. The only break she took was when Lana brought dinner to her room, but after finishing it, she went straight back to her school work.

When her phone dinged later on, she read the text message from Elle.

Amo will be at school before you get there. Stay with him till I get there, okay?

No freaking way! She was happy her friend was concerned, but the last thing she wanted was for the beast to get more opportunities to walk her to class.

Quickly, she typed Elle a message back. Please, no, Elle. I’ll be fine.

Chewing on her nails, she waited anxiously for her reply. Finally, when her phone dinged again, she read the message. Cassandra could be back tomorrow. Amo will meet you at your parking spot, all right? You know it’s the best thing.

Dang it! She hated when Elle was right like that.

She typed in her regretful answer and hit send.

UGHH FINE!!

Falling back on the bed, she tried her best not to think about tomorrow. She slowly started drifting …

You thought I wasn’t going to actually sit beside you, didn’t you?

Chloe shot her eyes open, expecting to see the beast, but no one was there.

Shivering, she remembered how close his arms had come to touching her during class …

She shook her head, trying to keep the thoughts of him away.

Too afraid to close her eyes again, she stared at the ceiling where a pair of black depths flashed before her. At first, she could tell they were Amo’s because they had a sort of sparkle to them. They were black, but not so black the person didn’t have a soul.

Then the pair slowly became darker, growing abnormally large. These eyes had no soul behind them. Only evil lived behind those depths.

Unable to stare into the wicked eyes a moment longer, she had only closed her eyes for a second before the whisper of hands gripped her wrists.

Fighting to open her eyes again, she didn’t have much time until—

Stay still, little girl, he whispered to her, or it’ll just hurt worse.

It was too late; the devil had come for her.

* * *

Getting to school early the next morning, Amo hadn’t expected to see Chloe’s car still there. He had thought her father would have taken care of it ASAP, not wanting to leave a BMW sitting in a parking lot.

Exhausted, he leaned on the hood, rubbing his eyes. So fucking tired.

Yesterday had left him stressed out of his mind from dealing with those ridiculous girls. One in particular had crawled deep under his skin. Therefore, he had decided to call up Christa, a girl he had met who went to public school, to help calm his nerves. And make me forget about that fucking crazy-assed Chloe.

Needless to say, it hadn’t really worked. Right when he had almost forgotten about her, Nero had called, interrupting his fun to tell him to be at the school early in the morning to babysit Chloe.

Several different feelings of dislike arose again, and Amo couldn’t help thinking it was a bunch of bullshit that he was getting the shitty end of the job. Nero looked like he was off playing the fucking hero with Elle, and the likelihood that he was going to get laid out of it was pretty high. Amo, on the other hand, had to deal with her best friend who clearly had too many problems to count on one hand, just so Nero could stick his hand down Elle’s panties.

Dammit, that fucker made me the damn babysitter, didn’t he?

Well, he wanted to know why in the hell Vincent hadn’t been nominated. He loved watching girls, and the more damaged, the better it was to him.

That was it. He was getting pretty boy to watch her.

Amo didn’t like the way Chloe made him feel. He felt like he had done nothing except constantly think about her since he had stared at her in Health class just a few short days ago. The only reason he had looked at her was because Nero had gone over to their lunch table, and Amo had been trying to figure out why he had gone up to them in the first place.

After he had taken one look, he had kept going back for more glances without even realizing it. Never had a girl brought up such strong feelings in him, whether they were good or bad. Whatever they were now, he wasn’t going to figure it out.

That girl needed to find one of two things: a nice momma’s boy or God. The last thing she needed was a made man.

Noticing Chloe nervously coming up to him now, he believed she thought he was the devil. It looked like she was about to pull the fucking skin off her hands. He realized the only thing that could possibly help that girl was… the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.