JOSS

The Collector leaves the room, but I can't.

I'm trapped by what we found.

How can I walk through that door, to the barrage of questions, and not cause everybody else's world to fall apart?

They need to know. They will know. But I can't say the words; I can barely repeat them in my head.

Do I speak to Vee first?

Should I explain to her what I've found? Or when we're all together? She gains strength from us being around her. Will that be enough?

I turn back to the text, to our notes, and reread them. This has to be a mistake. This can't be who Vee is.

Isn't everything open to interpretation? A theory? Nobody can see the future.

This doesn't need to happen.

But what if it's the only way?

* * *

VEE

I’m half-asleep, the afternoon growing late, and I’m woken by someone walking into the lounge room. The Collector won't look at me and fear seizes my heart. Where's Joss? I watch the door, but he doesn't appear.

"Are the others here?" he asks.

"No. Why?"

I've waited here all day unable to leave. We’re aware the storm gathers in the Atlantic as we listen to the news stories about how quickly it moves and how far the devastation could spread.

Seth, showing his might, warning us.

He can destroy us.

He can hurt the world.

And then he can end it.

Seth also sent a message saying he has something special to share, and that if we didn't meet up with him, and bring him answers, he'd begin picking off countries and people one by one.

Does he know we have the stones now?

The Collector glances over and when I catch his eyes, he's forced to approach me. I look back as he takes on his game face, like that of a doctor.

"Where's Joss?" I ask.

"I think he's still reading."

"Did you find anything?"

His face remains impassive, but eyes flicker concern. "Yes."

"What? What did it say?"

He scratches his cheek. "I think we should talk when everybody is here."

I swallow. The other guys need to come back now. I’m surprised they left, but Heath persuaded Xander to walk with him in the nearby park. His pacing and anxiety wasn’t helping mine. Ewan hasn’t returned from looking over what’s left of our house yet.

"Joss will tell me what's happening." I stand and push past him, ignoring the nausea. Why didn't Joss walk straight out too?

The door is closed to the room where Joss sat with the Collector all afternoon, and I hesitate as I close my hand around the smooth metal handle.

Inside, Joss sits with his head in his hands, motionless, quiet. An open book is spread across the table in front of him, beside pens and a notepad covered in scrawled writing.

He looks up as the door clicks closed and when I see the look on his face, I almost turn and run. He's as hollow as the Joss I lost to the wraith.

"Joss?"

He hastily pushes everything into a pile and closes the book, and I walk over and place a hand over his to stop him.

"What did you and the Collector discover?"

"I don't know," he says hoarsely. "I don't know."

"Surely you must've found something. Does it say who I am? Where I'm from?" My mouth dries before I add my biggest question. "Do you know why I'm here?"

He nods and folds his hands beneath his arms, but he can't hide the shaking.

"If you can't tell me, can I read what you've written?"

He glances at the table. "I'm double-checking if this is all correct." I reach out but he stops me, clutching my fingers until they hurt. "Let me tell you what the book says."

"This is bad, isn't it?" I whisper. "How you feel is flooding from you. Is what you’ve found bad for me, or us?"

He blinks. "Both."

"And for Chaos? Do we stop him? Does this say how?"

Joss lets go of my hands and stands. He turns away, digging hands into his hair and holding his elbows at right angles. For a moment, he's motionless and I watch, stomach churning.

I'm about to ask him again to talk to me when he spins around. I recoil as he swipes everything from the table and swears, shouting, his despair replaced by rage. I'm the most terrified I've been for days. Calm, measured Joss who holds us all together entered this room, and has disappeared leaving this man behind.

I reach out to Joss, but he's lost in whatever grips him. Is he being influenced by something again? Was this the book?

Joss slumps down in his chair and leans forward, head in his hands again, muttering an apology. I approach and wrap my arms around him, instantly feeling the truth.

No, he's just Joss.

"You're scaring me." He looks around as I stroke his face. "Don't hide anything from me."

He nods and strokes hair from my face. "I'm sorry. I should hold things together. That was selfish of me."

"You can't help how you feel."

Joss pulls me onto his lap, the way he's done so many times before, when we sit and chat and joke. When we're Vee and Joss, sometimes whispering and annoying the others, and being the relaxed 'us' we can be when we help each other unwind.

Only the secrets he whispers now destroy my world in a way Seth never could.