Skylar's POV

"So all you have to do, Caden," I said, "is let Blake go."

Caden eyed me with a frown that had somewhat appeared as he'd listened to me speak for the past few minutes, gaze intense and fixated on me.

"Why would I do that?" He asked.

"Well, because Alexis is right." I waved my hand around. "Your sister's alive. I saw that video. She was...she was right there. And as much as I don't like Blake either, I think he deserves to know about this too."

Caden's frown deepened. "No, he doesn't."

I sighed and stood up, walking towards my tiny closet.

"And how do you know that all wasn't a setup?" He still sounded a bit bewildered. I guess I couldn't blame him. "Why would you even go after her, Sky?"

"I thought I could get some answers."

"You also nearly got killed."

I turned towards him with a dry hoodie in my hand and widened my eyes. "I know. I stabbed that man. God, I still can't believe that. There was all this...this blood on the knife."

Caden raised a dark brow, totally unamused.

"I've never really stabbed anyone before." I turned back around and stuffed the hoodie back inside before picking up a larger, much-softer one. "And I don't think it was a setup, though. Alexis would've left me there if it was a setup. Instead, she made sure to drag me out alive." Unless she was trying to play the good part.

Caden was silent.

I gave him a look over my shoulder. "I think she fears you."

"I would've hunted her down and killed her if something had happened to you." He sounded tense, agitated, angry. Like he wanted to kill someone right now. "I'd have killed her for good this time."

Wasn't it funny that I'd been dying to sleep just minutes ago, while now all I could really think about was kissing him? Really really bad, the urge was.

"What do you think happened to the East gang?" I asked instead, fidgeting with the hoodie in hand. "You know, after Blake was put in prison?"

Caden tipped his head back against the chair and ran his hands through his hair. "I don't...Well, I think the ones who were done with Blake's shit left. Or got themselves killed. Or they were murdered. Or...in Alexis's case, they came after you."

I raised my brows and huffed out a laugh. "Sounds practical."

It was anything but practical. Impractical, more like. That's how my life usually felt sometimes. Unreal.

"Who do you think would do such a thing?" I shook my head. "You know, with Rena?"

I could see him clenching his jaw, I could see that he didn't meet my gaze but kept it fixed on the bedpost.

"I don't know." He finally said. "It's fucking killing me that I don't know, Sky."

Throwing the hoodie aside, I went towards him and stopped in front of him, leaning down to place my hands on either side of the chair he was sitting on, all until his eyes were on me.

"You can't always, Caden," I told him. "Blaming yourself for not knowing is pretty stupid, especially when you had no idea all this was even going on behind your back."

He was staring, the green of his eyes darkening.

"I'm not blaming myself." He said, but there wasn't any honesty behind those words, because he was doing just that. Blaming himself for things that hadn't been in his control.

"I know you still blame yourself for that fire." I leaned closer and his gaze softened. "Now that you know Rena's alive and you haven't been looking for her when you could've, I know you'll blame that on yourself too."

"How can I not?"

"You can't." I widened my eyes a little. "Not everything's on you, Caden."

He blinked and it felt devastating because he looked surprised. As if what I'd just said wasn't something he'd ever considered before.

"Not everything, yes." His brows furrowed. "But things that matter are on me, Sky. Ever since my parents died, they're all on me."

"Well then, Blake's to be blamed too just as much as you blame yourself."

He breathed out a laugh and it was tense. Sad. "No. Blake doesn't even think of them as his parents. He had only one father and that was Kevin. Blake hated my father."

And there was this glint in his eyes--the hardening of his eyes--that said so much more than his words alone. Hatred, it showed so much poorly concealed hatred.

"You didn't love your father either," I stated softly, watching, hearing my heart race. "Did you?"

Caden never really talked about them--his parents. Never willingly. He never willingly spoke anything about his father. I knew bits about him that felt enough. Bits that told me his father had been the one who'd dragged Caden into all this. Gangs and blood and murder. I sometimes wondered what his childhood must've been like. I sometimes wondered why Caden's biological mother had left.

Caden never liked talking about her either.

I watched as his features hardened, I heard the seconds tick by, and I felt, I felt the moment he chose not to answer, grabbing the front of my turtleneck and yanking me close. And I felt the tension in his muscles, the stiffness of his shoulders, as I nearly straddled his lap, and his lips smashed onto mine.

A tiny, surprised noise left my lips before I was kissing him back, with a need that had been growing and growing inside of me for days now. I pulled away an inch, breathing heavily with my hands tugging at his shirt.

"You're shivering," Caden murmured against my lips, eyes so dark with need, hands settling just above my hips. And that alone was quite frankly starting to drive me insane.

"Yeah. Yeah, well, I was just in the rain." I said. "Can't you just...take it off?"

He smiled, and all the tension from just seconds ago was gone. Forgotten. I slid my hands inside his shirt and kissed him, and I felt it draining away.

"'Course, I can." He brushed a hand in my hair and angled my head to the side, lips and teeth grazing just below my jaw. "But I also said I'd take off yours first."

I think I blurted out something in response, something incoherent and muddled, because I needed, and couldn't he just stop talking and kiss me?

"You did." I breathed in, eyelids almost fluttering close.

Caden's smile morphed into a smirk, a knowing one, and I was seconds away from leaning close to kiss my way through it, especially that dimple on his cheek, when he stood up, hands grabbing my hips before stepping towards my bed and dropping me down on it.

"I think I promised." He crawled over me, before finally, finally, taking off his shirt in one go, and tossing it on the floor.

"Yeah," I whispered, squirming a little beneath him, hands trailing up his shoulders and his neck and into his hair. "I think you did."

Caden grabbed my wrists and pinned them on either side of my head, lips finding mine in the deepest of kisses, exploring every inch of my mouth until my mind just blanked.

My turtleneck came off next and a shiver went down my spine at the sudden cold. "Oh fuck. It's...I love you."

Caden kissed down my throat and my fingers dug into his back, muscles shifting as he went lower.

"Cold?" He asked and he pushed my thighs apart, green eyes glinting with a deep, dark hunger. And it was just the moonlight that lit up the room. "I'll warm you up."

The tiniest of noises left my lips--one so needy that I watched a slow smile curve on Caden's lips.

"Is your roommate home?" He pulled away a little and his hands found my hips, fingers settling too dangerously low. A hot thrill went through me.

"No. I mean, yes. Yeah."

"Too bad for her then." And he didn't really look like he meant it as he pulled down my leggings.

•••••

"Isn't it awful that I was dying to get some sleep before you showed up," I murmured into his hair, looking over at the window right across. "And now I just can't."

It was dead quiet in my room and my apartment and most probably the whole goddamn street too. And way way past midnight.

Caden softly ran the tip of his nose along the length of my neck. I shivered.

"Awful." He repeated.

I shivered again and he pulled me a bit closer under the duvet.

It wasn't really, though. Awful, I mean. I hadn't expected to see Caden so soon--tonight--and I wasn't complaining. This was nice. Normal. I wanted to have such nights with Caden, minus the earlier stabbing and the escape run from that scary library.

"Do you ever wonder," I whispered, "how it must be like to have a normal day out? The both of us together?"

A tiny beat of silence passed by. "Normal." He said.

And since it seemed like he'd only be giving me one-word answers for now, I elaborated for him.

"Like how a boyfriend and a girlfriend usually spend their time," I told him. "Watch a nice movie, spend the day out at the beach, visit a nice exhibit, see the sunset together."

Caden shifted up until he was eye-level with me, hair tousled in a mess, thanks to me.

"Like a date?" He asked, and confusion shouldn't have looked so adorable on him.

Was this the post-sex haze talking?

"Bake cupcakes together!" I whisper-shouted, then smiled. "We should make pasta and we should bake Nutella cupcakes together, Caden."

He had the nerve to roll his eyes. "Or you can just shut up and we can have a round two of--"

"Hey, now." I cut him off. "You love me, so you'll have to do things that make me happy."

He stared at me. He stared at me for a long time.

"I do love you."

"See? Knew it." I grinned.

"I am madly in love with you." His gaze was soft and warm. And it was so absurd that it scared me. To even think of ever losing him.

I won't, I told myself and pressed a little closer to him. Warm and safe.

"A date where we bake cookies then?" I asked.

He wrapped an arm around my waist, fingers softly trailing up my spine. "Is this you asking me out, Anderson?"

"I guess so." I slid a hand into his hair. "I do really want those cookies."

He breathed out a soft laugh and my heart skipped a beat--happy and warm and wanting to reach out to him.

The sudden pattering of fresh rain overtook the silence and I watched as Caden's eyelids fluttered close, not really asleep, but at peace.

And I wanted to know.

"What was your mum's name?"

A slight, confused furrow formed between his brows and he opened his eyes.

"Not your stepmum," I added. "Your birth mother, what was her name?"

The furrow went away and his hand stilled on my back. I saw cautiousness slipping in. Not so much, but I saw it. It made my heart ache.

"Why do you want to know?" He asked.

I exhaled softly. "You never talk about her."

He went silent again and I let my fingers brush through his midnight black strands. He seemed to be looking at me, but not at me at the very same time. Lost in thought. Memories.

"Aletta."

I stared at him, not moving even a little in fear of breaking this.

"That was her name?" I asked him in a whisper.

He blinked and looked at me, finally looking at me. "Yeah."

Aletta, I repeated in my head. Such a beautiful name. "Do you miss her?"

"More than my father? Yeah." One corner of his lips tugged upwards. But it was a sad smile. "I do remember travelling a lot with her. It was always everywhere in Europe. She grew up there and...I think she felt like I should too."

I must've looked a lot sadder than I felt since Caden tugged me closer to him.

"Is she still...there?" I asked him. "Could you contact her if there was an option?"

"I don't know, Sky."

"No?"

He shook his head. "She left. She didn't want to be contacted by my father or by me ever again."

"You," I gave a gentle tug on one of his locks, "were just a child."

He closed his eyes. "But I wasn't enough to make her stay, was I?"

It was all silent, save for the pattering of rain, as I watched the raindrops cascading down the glass window.

"Why did she leave?" I asked then.

And Caden didn't reply at first. It made me think he'd fallen asleep. But then he opened his eyes and looked at me, really looked at me, as if trying to tell me something and everything.

"She grew tired of my dad and his lies."

•••••

"Oh Chicken, guess what?" I spoke up right as I entered my empty apartment with a big brown parcel in my hands.

Chicken appeared out of the kitchen with a loud meow as a greeting for me. I closed the door behind me and trudged towards the couch, placing the parcel down and my bag aside.

"Guess who's gonna show up in a few minutes?" I told her and looked over at the clock. "Your second favourite person in this whole entire world."

Chicken purred and rounded near my feet. I leaned down and gave her a scratch below the chin. "First one being me, obviously."

Chicken meowed loudly as if disagreeing--at what I just said or at the fact that I'd just called Alex her second favourite person, who knows?--and jumped up on the couch.

"Well, someone's bound to get hurt by that attitude of yours, Chicks," I murmured and took off my coat, groaning at the relief of the warmth in here. Classes had been just as tiring and the cold really wasn't helping.

By the time I'd taken off my shoes as well, Chicken had already started taking a sudden interest in the brown box that I'd found outside my apartment door, addressed to me.

I had no clue who it was from. Especially when it had no address or name written over it either. Just a box wrapped in brown, chalky paper.

My phone buzzed with a text notification and I took it out. It was Alex.

Allie: I just came across some broccolis covered in chocolate. Am I to buy them for you?

I frowned and typed a reply.

Me: is this supposed to be a fucking joke, Alex?

Alex: no. It's a date <3

I glanced over at Chicken. "I was kidding. He's too much of an annoying-fuck to be your second favourite person."

I had barely switched off my phone when I saw another text from Alex.

Alex: please let's pretend i didn't just ask you out on a date. Because that's disgusting. And your boyfriend can be a bit sensitive too.

I rolled my eyes, wondering why I was still friends with him, as I scrolled past the two missed calls I'd gotten from Nova. Like I'd said numerous times before, it was rare for Nova to call me once, let alone twice.

But since my phone's battery was about to die, I couldn't call her back just then as I placed my phone aside.

"Aw, Chicken, for fuck's sake." I groaned and pulled her away from the parcel as she chewed on the paper. "Can you not? That's not something you eat."

Since Chicken was acting like a brat, I sighed and switched on the television instead--in hopes of getting her a bit occupied.

Since the parcel was almost open now, thanks to Chicken and her sticky drool, I peeled the rest of the paper and saw a black box inside it. A shoebox. I didn't think I'd ordered any new shoes.

And I would've opened the lid if I hadn't sniffed and been hit with the sudden stench. Coming from that very box.

"Oh fuck," I scrunched up my nose. I glanced at Chicken to see if maybe she'd noticed it too, but she was fixated on whatever was playing on the TV. I looked over at the screen and saw a familiar face showing up on it. On the local news channel. It was a picture.

Eyes wide and heart racing, I picked up the remote and raised the volume.

"...a break-in at her house, a few days back, was reported to the same officers that found her in her house today. Unfortunately so, there wasn't much action taken against that complaint. The police department has not issued any updates on this matter yet. But here we have some pictures taken from the crime scene..."

I tuned out the reporter's voice as I looked back at the picture on the TV screen.

Mrs Marshall. It was her.

A small, horrified gasp left my lips as another picture was shown. This one much different from the previous smiling face of old Mrs Marshall.

And there was blood. Lots of blood across that very familiar lounge. I'd been in that lounge countless times when I'd visited her at her house. I'd even stood on that rug which seemed matted with blood now. And there she was--Mrs Marshall--lying on the floor with blood smeared on her face.

I could barely almost recognise her. Dead. She was dead.

"Fuck." I whispered, blinking out of the horror and dread I felt right then, and looked down at the box in front of me.

The smell had somehow increased tenfold now. And none of this, none of what was happening right now seemed to make any sense.

I saw my fingers moving like they had a mind of their own, reaching forward and pushing open the lid of the box. I opened it and I saw it, what was inside of it, and the lid fell out of my hands in pure terror.

And then I screamed.

-------
whats the worst thing you can think of that might be in the box?

CrystalXx.