A.N SORRY it’s taken me so long to update again. It would be an understatement to say I’ve had a lot of school work. Who knew exam year would be so busy? Plus, I’ve had my college applications and stuff and now I’m starting interviews so I have been really busy! I’m currently off school with an eye infection so I thought I’d take the time to finally update my story. I really hope you guys have enjoyed it because we’re nearing the end now. Anyhow, on with it…

When Will and I finally reached my house, the storm was at its pinnacle. Rain and hail stones bounced off of our soaked bodies and the thunder paused only for the flashes of lightening. Inside, everything was dark. I hesitated, unsure what I would find or if indeed we were even at the right place. I needed to find Nancy. She’d come all this way to visit me and there she was, thrown right into the midst of some fucked up fairytale that was anything but a fake.

I opened the front door and the reason for all the darkness became apparent immediately- the power was out. There were torch beams up ahead and I moved towards them slowly. A hand reached out and grabbed me from behind and I smothered a scream.

“Elle, it’s only me. Don’t scream” Will whispered in my ear. “I don’t want you rushing into anything. For all we know it could just be your parents home with a torch on.” He made sense but I strongly doubted it and I could tell by the shake in his voice that he doubted it too.

“Will, why would my parents sit in the dark with just a torch on? What sort of a King are you?” I joked but it wasn’t funny. I could hear my voice shaking too. Whatever this was, it wasn’t part of the plan. Whose plan I had no idea but it still wasn’t a part of it.

I was startled suddenly by voices coming from ahead. They were muffled, but they were definitely male. Will and I edged closer to the open door of the living room, pressing our bodies to the wall and tip-toeing softly yet never losing contact with one another. The voices definitely belonged to Lance and Marco. They were urgent and one, Lance’s voice, maybe, was hesitant and slightly fearful. He didn’t know what was going on either. It gave me a strange sense of relief that Lance hadn’t planned everything out but also fear. If it was unplanned, anything could go down. There would be no limits. If Marco had a plan, well, anything could go down. There would be no limits.

“What if they don’t come? What is she doesn’t bring Will? What if he doesn’t bring her?” Lance questioned Marco in an urgent whisper.

“Of course they’ll come. Together. He would never leave her and come here alone. She couldn’t do it without him. They’re their own weaknesses. If only they’d known.” Marco replied. His voice was cold and calculating. Chills ran through my body whenever I heard it.

“Of course, we have her,” Marco continued. “And we’ll have to get the other girl, little Jenny, if we want this to work.”

“Jen? We don’t need her. She has nothing to do with anything. All we really need is Will, Ellie to get to him and Nancy to get to her. Jen doesn’t need to be involved.” There was a hint of fear in Lance’s tone now. I was so confused. Why was he concerned about Jen? He broke her heart and started chasing me. But now he sounded like he truly cared for her. In his own warped, twisted whispers.

“Lance. You’ve got to forget about her. She’d never take you back, anyway. I thought you wanted Arthur’s power. You can’t have both, can you?”

“No, I know but she doesn’t need to be involved. I never wanted to involve her. You knew that, you still do!” Lance had raised his voice now, no longer worried about being over heard. Clarity was coming to me now. Lance never cared about me, wanted me. Well, that much was obvious but he had made it so clear that he didn’t want Jen at all and now here he was trying to protect her. That was all he’d done all along, tried to protect her. And of course, he needed to get to me to get to Will. He couldn’t have done that with Jen around him. It was all so complicated. Much more complicated than I had realised. Now I understood that, I started to worry more about Nancy. Where was she? What was her part in all of this, if she even had one. Lance had said they needed her to get to me but Marco hadn’t mentioned her at all. She couldn’t be in the room with them but she had to be here somewhere. Was it possible for me to sneak past the open door without them noticing and rescue her, wherever she was.

“Will,” I whispered, nudging him. “Will, we’ve got to find Nancy. You stay, find out what’s going on. I’ll look for her.”

“No!” he whispered back, his tone fearful. “We’re not splitting up. We have no idea what is going on here, I’m not leaving you.” He said, grabbing my hand.

Swiftly, the voices in the living room stopped.

“W-Will?” Lance called out, hesitantly.

“Will!” Marco echoed, with confidence. His shape appeared in the darkened doorway and he shone the torch straight at us. My whole body seemed to flinch but Will stayed firm, using his grip on my hand to steady me and pull me closer at the same time.

“What? You don’t think your little girlfriend can look after herself in her own house? Or are you worried for your own safety?” Marco scoffed. “Don’t worry, Ellie, your little friend is safe. Lance took care of her, didn’t you?”

“Uh, yeah” He mumbled. His confidence was shot to pieces. This was the Lance that had gone red when we were paired up to give a report when I first joined Avalon High, not the Lance that broken up with Jen, kissed me and demanded Will’s power. What was Marco’s game? He was messing with Lance just as much as he was messing with Will. I didn’t let on that I knew this, of course.

“What have you done with her?” I demanded, staring straight into Lance’s eyes.

“She’s, um, she’s fine. Safe. Don’t worry…” he trailed off. I glanced at Will and there was understanding in his eyes, too. His deep blue eyes and never held so many emotions as they did today. I almost couldn’t tare my gaze away but now was hardly the time for romantic declarations.

“Where is she? Lance?” I demanded, turning back. The shake had left my voice but it hadn’t left my body.

“Safe, I told you. We gave her a drink. She’s sleeping.”

“Where, Lance?”

“Upstairs.” He gave in. His body seemed to slump as he said it. Confusion filled me again. What had Marco done to him? Then again, this wasn’t the time. I could solve that one later, when Nancy was here to help. I pulled out of Will’s grip with only a hint of unwillingness and made to dash for the stairs but Marco was faster. He blocked my way, catching my arm in his ice cold grip, burning my skin.

“No!” Will called out and I span round to see him dart forward.

“Not so fast!” Marco’s cold but strong voice was dominant. Everyone froze, almost as if he had done it to us.

Except Lance. Lance appeared to be shaking involuntarily, his body resting heavily on the wall.

“I’m sorry, Ellie.” He whispered. I had no idea what was happening and I could tell by the look on Will’s frozen features that he too was full of confusion. Lance appeared to be giving in, bending to us when just minutes before he had been standing strong, battling against us with Marco. He was so set on being anything but second best to Will but now his resolve seemed to have disappeared along with his ability to stand straight and talk above a whisper. Something had to have happened. Something bad. I needed to get to Nancy.

“Marco,” I squeaked girlishly. Something I had never really done before. “Marco, let go. Please” I batted my eyelashes and Will looked at me with an almost unreadable expression. There was fear, puzzlement and so many other emotions I couldn’t even begin to try to unravel them from each other.

“Elle, what are you doing?” He questioned.

“Nothing,” I attempted to fill my eyes with tears but they wouldn’t come. The damsel in distress thing really wasn’t easy. “Just let me go, please.”

Marco, however, wasn’t as dumb as he looked. His grip on my arm tightened and I knew that my ploy wasn’t working. Well, I suppose I couldn’t really get away with it after I’d chucked Will and sword last time he’d ignored my ‘role’. Maybe Jen would have been more believable. Correction- Jen definitely would have been more believable.

As if she had taken the thoughts right out of my head, there was a tentative knock at the door.

Everyone Froze. I stopped trying to pull away from Marco and he stopped struggling against me. Unfortunately, that didn’t loosen his grip in the slightest.

Lance was the first to react. Rising up from the wall he was slumped against he glared at Marco, fire in his eyes.

“What did you do?” He growled, fists clenched in preparation. Marco seemed to take it all in his stride. Keeping his hold on me tight he took a step towards Lance and grinned lazily.

“Nothing, Lancelot. Nancy just gave Jen a little call and invited her over, that’s all.” He said it smoothly easily but there was that twinkle in his eyes that suggested otherwise. He turned to me. “Now, Ellie, I’d like you to let Jen in. See, she’s getting impatient, knocking again. Tell her you couldn’t hear her over the music.”

“There is no music, Marco.” I commented, keeping my voice steady and emotionless. “What are you playing at?”

“There you go again, expecting the worst in me. I just want to have this little get together. Now let her in.” He squeezed harder on my arm as he said it. His voice was low but unlike mine it was full of hidden threats. I didn’t want to involve Jen in any of this but who knew what he would do if I refused to answer. He would get her here be any means possible and this was probably the safest way to do it.

And it was my chance to get away from him. What I would do then, I had no idea but surely something would come to me. I just had to play along for now.

“But, isn’t it going to look odd with you three standing here? How am I supposed to pass that one off?” I questioned in the same emotionless tone. I didn’t want to give him anything. He seemed to feed off any emotions. He loved to know that he’d affected someone. He loved the control it gave him.

“Well, Lady Lake,” he replied. “You promise no funny business and I’ll take these two boys into the living room and wait for you. There’s a good girl now.” He was so patronizing. Lance and Will were fuming and yet they both remained frozen to the ground they stood on. It seemed it wasn’t just Marco’s grip that was ice cold. There must be something in his gaze too, or his voice.

“I’m not leaving Elle alone, Marco,” Will said. It was the first time he’d spoken, even acknowledged the situation since the knock on the door.

“What the HELL have you done?” Lance demanded, louder this time.

“Ah the bittersweet taste of realisation, Lance.” Marco said serenely. I had not idea what was wrong with the boy but somehow, I didn’t want to know. There were more pressing matters to sort out.

“Will,” I said calmly. “Will, I think I’ll be ok answering the door in my own home. Just go in there. I’ll be safe it’s only Jen.”

“You don’t know that,” He growled, glaring at Marco.

“Oh stop it, lover boy.” Marco snapped in response. “Stand in the doorway then, watch. It won’t make a blind bit of difference.” Will didn’t say anything, just moved into position, accepting it. Lance, however, wasn’t as happy to stand by and do nothing. I had no idea whose side he was on anymore or even what he was fighting for. All that was obvious was that he cared about Jen. A lot.

“Lance,” I used the same calm tone I’d used with Will. “She probably won’t even be there anymore with all the time she’s been waiting. It’s chucking it down out there, I wouldn’t stand around for so long if it were me. But if she is, there’s nothing you can do to stop it now. Just go into the living room. I’m not going to do anything to Jen.”

“But he is.” Lance imitated Will’s threatening growl, his hands balled into fists.

“Please, stop all this time wasting!” Marco bellowed, suddenly. “Get the girl, Ellie. The lover boy’s are coming with me!” He released my arm, which I’d almost forgotten he was crushing in his ice cold grip, and took Lance by the collar dragging him into the living room. Will didn’t budge and when Marco made no complaints, I started towards the front door making sure to walk slowly enough to whisper

“What the fuck are we going to do, Will?” as I passed. Pulling the door open I saw a soaked and bedraggled looking Jen on the doorstep.

“Hey J-“ I started but she too grabbed my arm, pulling me outside.

“Oh my God, Ellie!” Was all she gasped as an explanation.

A.N Ok so I’m leaving you on a bit of a cliff hanger but I promise to try to update as soon as possible. I know I’m rubbish at updating but it’s a year now since I published this story and I want to get it done before my exams start (7th May, AHHHH). However, this isn’t a promise that I will. I know what will happen over the next few chapters but I don’t know quite how long it will be.

Anyway, hit that little button and tell me what you think. I’m never that sure about the action-y chapters. They’re a little out of my comfort zone.