Oh. My. God. I know, I know. I swear, all of my author's notes are all apologies for not writing more. I'm horrible. Just horrible. Plus, I think my writing has been just retched, and I'm quite disappointed, especially in this, and a few other stories I've got. I can't believe I haven't updated this since 2007. But I refuse to completely give up on my stories. I don't care how long it take, I WILL finish them. I'm so sorry, guys. Please don't have abandoned me!

.I own nothing. (Especially not an actual ability to write well, or efficiently.)

x—x

As soon as she was plunged into a darkness so smothering that it seemed to envelope her Casey began to regret her split second action.

Now, not only could she not see anything, there were two armed psychopaths ready to kill her and her friends. Great, Case. Good job.

She immediately moved back from where she had been standing in fear that Joe or Clarence would plunge toward that spot.

"DAMMIT!" Joe's voice broke through making Casey shake. "Can't you just be weak and accept your fate? This defiance thing isn't amusing, you stupid little bitch."

Casey gasped when she felt a hand on her wrist, her heart pounding harder than it already had. But when she heard Derek's voice whisper into her ear she found herself able to release the breath she hadn't realized she was holding.

"I've got Emily." He whispered. "What do we do?"

Good question.

Holding on to Derek's arm who was holding onto Emily, Casey walked them slowly away from where they were, trying to sense where the others were. It had become dead silent, and Casey's whole body tingled with an anticipation mixed with fear and lingering paranoia. Casey feared that Joe had already found Clarence and they were inching toward them.

Cautiously, Casey bent down and carefully pulled out a pocket knife that she had hidden in between her shoe, sock and pant leg, which she had shoved there during the car ride when she remembered that she kept it tucked in the glove compartment for 'just in case' protection. You could never be too careful. Especially, it turns out, when you have premonition-like dreams and a psychopath out to get you with a deadly need for vengeance.

Who knew, huh?

Derek must have sensed what she was doing, since he leaned closer to her so that she could feel his unsteady breath on her skin.

"Casey, don't be stupid." His voice was small and seemed far away, leaving Casey almost straining to comprehend his words. Hopefully this would mean that their enemies wouldn't be able to hear them at all.

"I'm not being stupid. I gotta say, I'm being pretty smart." Casey murmured, truly believing her words even though her voice shook slightly as she said them.

"Yeah, plunging us into darkness was real smart." Derek quipped.

Casey, chose to ignore this, though his words gave her a strange comfort. Derek and sarcasm was something she knew well. Warm and familiar, if only slightly.

She continued to inch them slowly toward what she hoped was an exit. The room remained eerily silent until the sound of a rock being scraped across the floor somewhere not far behind them caused them to stop. Casey's blood seemed to run cold.

"Casey." She heard Joe's voice coo and it overwhelmed her senses so much that she could not tell where it came from. It sounded like it was all around her.

Derek reached down and laced his fingers with hers. She found herself looking down at her hand, even though she knew she couldn't see it.

Taking a deep breath she began to move again as silently as she could until her hand reached out and felt the wall. Her breath caught again when she thought she heard whispering, but then it was even more unnerving how quiet her foes were being. Joe could have been right in front of her face and she'd have no idea until he struck a blow.

Casey continued to walk with one hand in Derek's and one trailing the wall in front of her. She tried to keep her breathing light, which wasn't really a problem since she was barely breathing anyway.

And then, suddenly, just as Casey's fingers touched the door was the exact moment that Emily's scream pierced the darkness. As Derek let go of her grasp to help Emily, Casey lunged for the handle, pushing it open. Dim light from beyond the room was just enough to see what was happening around her among the screaming and yelling.

Derek had pushed Emily out of the way and was struggling against Joe as Clarence headed toward them. Officer Spencer was on the ground in the far corner of the room. Clarence, instead of going for Joe and Derek neared her instead.

"Come here, girlie." He said ruefully as he closed in on her with a glint in his eyes.

"Back off, jackass." Casey warned, waving the pocket knife in front of her.

Clarence smirked before pulling out a long, sharp knife from where he had had it tucking in a sheath near his belt.

"I think I've got you beat, missy." He said.

Oops.

Thinking quickly, Casey glanced behind him and said, "Officer Spencer, how'd you get loose?"

Just as she had hoped, Clarence's eyes widened and turned to see where Officer Spencer was still on the ground in the corner.

Casey's dancing background came in handy as she swiftly kicked the knife out of his hands. Clarence turned and glared at her and then began to head toward her once more, but once he was near enough, Casey swung out her leg and kicked him in the groin.

"Holy shit!" He groaned as he dropped to his knees.

Casey took the opportunity to lunge for where she had kicked the knife. She moved swiftly, but then felt something heavy come in contact with her legs. She stumbled and threw out her arms to try and regain balance, her own knife tumbling from her grip and skidding across the floor.

She turned to see that Clarence had thrown his body toward her and stuck out his heavy arm while she had been moving. Then he reached out and grabbed a hold of one of her legs. Before she could react, he pulled her down to the ground with a thud. Moving his hand farther up her leg as he pulled, he dragged her closer to him.

Casey threw out her hands in front of her, beating against him as he let go of her leg and grabbed one of her wrists. She screamed as he looked her in the eyes. He was smiling gleefully, obviously gaining a sick pleasure from the whole thing.

Unwilling to yield, Casey continued to strike blows to Clarence's head as he pulled her torso of the ground by her wrist. In turn she twisted her head so that she could sink he teeth into the soft flesh of his hand that was wrapped around her wrist. He let out a yowl of pain, relinquishing his grip causing her to fall back on the hard ground once again. Casey took this opportunity to clench her hand into a fist, immediately drawing back and them slamming it into Clarence's nose.

She was extremely satisfied by the sickening crunching sound she was greeted with as soon as her fist hit his nasal cartilage, causing his head to fly backwards.

Casey pushed herself from the ground, stepping away from her assailant. He was crouched on the ground with his hand to his face, blood gushing from his nose. As he was distracted, Casey again took advantage by stepping forward and kicking him in the gut with as much force as she could muster. She followed this action with several more blows to the stomach and one to the head. When she stopped she realized that she had managed to knock him unconscious, an extreme relief.

She realized that as she had been defending herself she had been completely unaware of anything going on around her. All sounds had been muted and now they were back in full blast. And it didn't sound very pleasant.

She turned to see Emily pressed against a wall, silently crying. Several feet away, Derek was straddling Joe, trying to both pin his arms down and swing at him simultaneously. His hold on Joe didn't seem very strong or look like it would last much longer. Taking in the scene before her she also noted that during their struggle they had gone through a situation seemingly similar to hers and the knife. Only it wasn't a knife they had struggled for control of.

It was a gun, if the one tossed not far behind them was any indication.

Before Casey could make a move to assist Derek, though she had no idea what to do, Joe had managed to push him off. He clambered to a standing position as Derek pushed himself from the ground as well. Joe's first move was to jump in the direction of the gun, but Derek shot himself in front of him, taking a blow to the side as Joe tried to move him from his goal.

As Derek doubled over from the hit Joe made another attempt for the gun. This time Casey lunged forward, throwing herself at Joe. Instead of falling over as she had hoped, he remained balanced as she wrapped her arms around his neck and her legs around her back. He swung his body in an attempt to throw her off, but she retaliated by reaching up and scraping her long nails across his face, digging in as hard as she could manage.

Joe screamed, managing to thrust his elbow back into her hard enough to cause her grip on him to fail so that she fell. When she opened her eyes, Joe was on top of Derek, who was belly down on the ground, stretching his arm out to try and grab the gun. Joe pushed Derek over onto his back and punched him in the face.

Casey, who wasn't far from the gun, either, began to crawl toward it, but she came too close to Joe and Derek, and Joe was able to reach out and backhand her while he was on top of Derek. Casey fell backward and Joe got in another punch to Derek's face before jumping off of him toward the gun. He grabbed it.

He stood up as Casey and Derek did. Neither step-sibling thought as they rushed toward Joe. Thinking wasn't a huge priority of the moment. They both struggled to disarm Joe. They were huddled together, swaying, fighting for control of the gun.

One shot was fired.

A second followed in quick succession.

All three wide-eyed with fear, drifted slightly apart, staring at each other.

And then Joe pitched forward, causing Derek and Casey to move farther apart in order to avoid being taken down by his weight as he fell. He landed face first in the floor, Clarence's deadly long knife sticking out of his back, wedged in to the hilt. Emily stood behind him, breathing heavily with a panic-stricken, tear-stained face.

Emily slowly looked up from Joe's body, and at Casey and Derek who stared at her in disbelief and relief. All she managed to do was sink down to the ground and place her head on her knees as she began to sob.

Derek breathed in a full breath, feeling oxygen hit places within his body that it had not reached for the last few hours as he had scarcely been breathing. His gaze turned to Casey, and he smiled. But his smiled turned into a look of confusion as there was something not right about the look on her face.

Casey pressed her hand to her side tightly. When she withdrew to look at her hand she saw it covered in her own crimson blood. Unsure of what to do, Casey smiled weakly at Derek.

"We did it." She murmured, her head beginning to swim as the reality of the pain began to hit her. The feeling was so bitter and aching that Casey could only find it as somewhat humorous.

But one thing was for sure: For once, she managed to not pass out.

x—x

Alright people, I desperately tried to make this better than the crap that I have been prone to submit, however long ago it may have been. I sincerely hope that you guys like this, and I'm hoping I get reviews. Oh, how reviews would make me glow. Seriously, when I hear from you guys I feel like I'm doing something worthwhile. I may suck, but you guys are great!

Review, loves.

-Tarryn