• After breakfast, Flame disappeared upstairs, supposedly to his room, while Jonah came down, his shirt on backwards, his hair extremely messy, and looking very rumpled. The mysterious Trance still hadn't appeared. Nobody seemed to notice the strange way Jonah was acting. When Ash asked Cham what the deal was with Jonah, she replied that this happened often. A few minutes later, Jonah seemed to realize his shirt was backwards and took it off, leaving it on the kitchen table, then led Ash to the back room that was being used as a testing room, combing his hair with his fingers. Jonah told Ash to try to stop the time around the clock that he placed in front of her. After a few hours, she only managed to stop time within the house. After she finished testing, a black streatch limo pulled up to the house. The driver got out and opened the back door, but nobody came out. After a few minutes, Ash got bored of watching him and waiting, so she went up to her room. She found the master controller and turned on her TVs, putting Looney Toons on the left, CSI on the middle, and a live screamo concert on the middle. She turned the volume up full blast on all 3, making the room full of screaming, meep-meeping, and gunshots. She laid on her bed and hung upside down off the foot of it, watching the Roadrunner. Surprisingly, nobody came in to tell her to turn it down. She left her room, leaving the TVs blaring. As soon as she closed the door, the hallway fell silent. She opened it and the hall was filled with the chaotic sounds coming from her room. "The walls and doors are all sound-proofed." Ash jumped and turned, finding Flame fight behind her. He watched her, his red-orange eyes flickering with amusement. "You startle easy, don't you, Ash?" Ash's heart skipped a beat and she nodded, then quickly ducked back into her room and closed the door. Despite the chaos on the TVs competing for her attention, she only thought of Flame. He was taller than she was, about 6' 3", with beautiful eyes the colour of fire. He had a nice tan, and his strait, blood-red hair was nicely tousled. He had been wearing black jeans, a dark-red long-sleeved shirt, and was barefoot, she remembered. Oddly, his nails were painted, all of them black, including his toenails. He had been so close to her when she had turned, Ash could have counted his long eyelashes and could smell his sweet breath. They could have kissed. Flame's voice was soft and quiet, like the whisper of a tongue of flame. Ash thought of when he had said her name and shivered. When he had said it, it had sounded like he was savouring it, like a fine wine or rare, sweet delicacy. Ash went into her bathroom and turned on the faucet, splashing cold water on her face. When she looked in her mirror, her reflection scowled back. She didn't like him. She didn't. A minute later, she noticed her makeup looked as though she had been crying ink. She cursed colourfully, then washed her face and reapplied her makeup: kohl-black eyeliner, and 3 different eye shadows, one the colour of ash, the other of soot, and the last the colour of shadows. Just as she finished, she heard the lock to her bathroom door set in. She looked over in her mirror and saw Willy. His glassy, pale-blue eyes were settled on her butt, but looked up when she stood upright. He was only about 5' 4", much shorter than him. He was so scrawny, he was bony. His mouse-brown hair was wild and his grin was very creepy. "Hey, baby. Daddy wants some fun." He reached over and pinched her butt. Ash slapped Willy hard across his face. A crazy look entered his eyesand his smile widened. "You like it rough, baby? I can do rough!" He grabbed ash by the throat and slammed her against the wall, pinning her with her feet off the floor. Despite his scrawniness, Willy was surprisingly strong. Ash couldn't breathe, nor could she summon her Gift to stop time. He tore at her shirt, then yelled in pain and rage. He pulled his hand away from her shirt with burn marks all over it. Ash saw black fog surround her vision. She couldn't understand anything but the fact that she desperately needed air. All of a sudden, he threw her hard against the wall opposite of the mirror. Ash hit her head hard against the wall, but gulped up sweet oxygen. Her vision was fuzzy, and when she looked up, she saw the mirror turn into a wall of flames. She saw an angel walk out of the flames, onto her counter, then jump onto the floor. The angel grabbed Willy by the throat and threw him through the bathroom door, breaking it. Ash slowly turned her head, still dazed and dizzy from lack of air and hitting her head, and watched Willy run from her room. The angel gently turned her head so she was facing him. She stared into his eyes, twin orbs of fire. Just before she sank into the black wave of unconsciousness, she heard him whisper, "Sleep now. I won't let anyone hurt you. Ever."

    When Ash woke, she was laying in her bed, with Jonah leaning over her worridly. "Are you alright?" He touched her forehead. Her thoughts clearedand she bolted upright. "Willy! He... He...!" She couldn't say it. Jonah gently pushed her down. "Relax. He can't hurt you anymore. I'll make sure he doesn'y come into your room again." Ash nodded gratefully, and Jonah left, saying, "If you want anything, just ask." Ash got the master remote and turned on a screamo concert on all 3 plasma screens. She noticed something that looked like a laptop with a glass top. She turned it on and closed the lid, which turned on. It was another remote. There were several icons on the screen. She selected the one called "Gaming Systems", then looked up. The middle TV was showing what was on the digital controller. Ash saw a series of gaming consoles, and she selected the latest one to come out, the Master G 576. Then, a new tab opened, this time with game types. She selected 1st person shooters, then a game that hadn't even come out yet, Death's Kiss VII. Next thing she knew, the Master G 576 slid out of the wall with a controller on it, and Death's Kiss VII was ready to go.