The world was spinning. She laughed, as her vision blurred with the excitement she felt. Stumbling along, she felt as though she could fly. Full of the power she had felt, as she had seen his face. The flames eating his world around him, she could still see his eyes, his face, and the horror in them. She had caused it.

She was powerful. And it was all his fault. If only he hadn't got in the way, she would have had what she wanted. But the brave and powerful man just had to come between her and her goal. Shaking now, she stumbled and fell to the ground, the rain falling all around her. He would be laughing now, if he could see her, crawling in the muddy puddles on the ground.

Oh, he would pay. He interfered and made her see. He had made her look into his eyes and see. He wanted to make her feel powerless and small. He wanted to do it. He got pleasure out of it. He would enjoy seeing her, now, crawling, shaking and weak. He wanted her to be weak. But she would have the last laugh.

Soon, she would hold all the power, and he would be the one broken and crawling through the mud. It was just a matter of time.

* * * *

The sky was the one constant thing in his life. Through all the travelling he did, and all the different places that he saw, the one thing for him that always remained constant was the sky. The clouds changed, as did the stars he could see, but it was always there. It was always there, shinning and comforting, a stable force in his turbulent life.

Where his mysterious stranger had brought him was far enough away from the city that the pollution in the air didn't affect the night sky, and he could clearly see the stars. The air was fresh and cool, and smelled of rain. He closed his eyes, and listened to the quiet night sounds. Beth had been right; he felt safe here.

As he turned around to voice this thought, out of the corner of his eye, he saw Beth, who had been walking towards the kitchen, suddenly reach out to steady herself, and then collapsed with a slight cry. Jumping up, he ran to her.

Kneeling over her, he checked her breathing. Her face had no expression, almost as if she were asleep. Her pulse was fine, she was breathing normally. But there was something weird about the whole thing. As if she wasn't really there, that it was just an empty body lying in front of him. After a few minutes of trying to wake her, he sat on the floor and watched her carefully.

About ten minutes after she had collapsed, her eyes popped open, and she gasped. She shot up, holding her head in her hands.

"Beth, are you alright?" Brian asked, leaning forward, and grabbing her shoulder. She jumped away from his as if his touch burned.

"I'm fine…I'm sorry, I tend to do that…" she trailed off, staring off into the distance. She was very quiet, and very pale. Brian clued into what had just happened.

"Who did you see?" he asked quietly.

"Jessica…she has everything backwards in her mind. She thinks you want to hurt her and that's why she wants to hurt you. It was so confusing. Everything was garbled and messed up. Her voice echoed through my mind, screaming and crying. It was horrible," Beth whispered quietly. She shook herself.

"I don't know why I'm telling you this."

"Because I asked. You…connected…to her?" Brian asked. She nodded.

"That's what happens to you? It was so weird. It was like you weren't here at all."

"That's because I wasn't."

Silence followed, as they both sat with their thoughts, heavy with the everything that had happened, and threat that still faced them.

"You should get some sleep," Beth said to Brian.

"I don't know how I possibly can. Too many thoughts. And there isn't any furniture in this place," Brian added, chuckling slightly.

"A night on the floor never hurt anyone. I didn't know my parents had cleaned this place out before they moved," Beth shrugged.

"Don't worry. You were right about this place, Beth. I feel safe here," Brian said. She looked down.

"Are you going to call your people soon, let them know that you're safe?" she asked softly.

"No, not yet. Not until I'm sure that Jessica will leave them alone. I just have a feeling that if I call them, she'll get to them, you know? Just a feeling," he explained.

"Okay. Well, tomorrow, we have a lot to do, and you've been through hell and back, so you'd really better get some sleep." Brian smiled, and began to spread out his sleeping bag on the wooden floor. He paused for a second and turned to Beth.

"If I've been to hell and back, what have you been through?" he asked. She met his serious eyes for a second, and then shrugged.