"Don't listen to them!" I exclaimed. "You can't do it, Margaret, please..."

My red-haired friend turned her icy blue eyes on me. "You aren't in charge of me," she sniffed. "Besides, at the beginning of our journey, you said you'd always support my choices."

"I never thought it would come to this..." My voice trailed off, and I knew I was fighting a losing battle, but I would not back down. "You aren't the same person as you were before," I said. "Before, you would have known this was wrong."

"Ah, yes, before you killed my mother, I believe," Margaret hissed. "I don't think I should listen to a murderer."

The Team behind her nodded in agreement.

Grief and rage almost made me smack her, but I kept my cool. "I didn't kill your mother," I said, trying to keep my voice from shaking. "You know that. You just want somebody to blame."

"Shut up," Margaret mumbled, but her eyes were flashing with doubt now. If I could just persuade her to come with me...

But the Team saw my plan.

The Master coaxed, in a sickly sweet voice, "Margaret, dear, that girl is not your friend. She is your enemy. At the next chance she gets, she will kill you."

Margaret stared at me as if I really would betray her. "Is that true?" She whispered.

"What? No!" I yelped. "YOU'RE that one betraying ME! But I would not KILL you for that? The Team are liars! A few days ago, we were insulting them, and now you are joining them! Who do you trust more, me or the Team who tried to kill us because of our power but now is trying to recruit us because of it?"

Margaret now looked confused, as if she was trying to figure out who her loyalty belonged to.

The Master did not give up. "Dear," she said, "this girl lied to you about your mother being dead. Why couldn't she be lying to you now?"

I sighed in exasperation. "I lied to you for your own good! So your heart would not be broken until the end of the journey, because it would slow you down! Anyway, the Team lied to us countless times, as they are doing to us now. Margaret, I'm your friend, not them."

"They--they promised me that I'd get my mother back, if I joined them." Margaret's voice came out high and squeaky.

"Yes, your mother would be whole and well," the Master purred.

"Nobody can be brought back from the dead," I protested.

Margaret moved toward me, and then stood at my side. "You're right," she whispered. "I don't know what I was thinking."

The Master let out a howl, "Join us! Join us NOW!"

But Margaret looked her straight in the eyes and answered, "No."

"Don't listen to them! You know this is what you have to do, Jess. You cannot fail the teacher,"

My fingers played with the trigger of the handgun, which I could see daintily shaking in my outstretched hand under the light of the full moon. "I know!" I shouted back at Will. "I know,"

The sea water around us was moving the dock violently. If I shot the men in front if me, no matter where it hit him he would for sure fly back into the dark waves.

I looked from my hand to Will and to the two men at the end of the dock. "P-p-please, Miss, let me go!" The one on the left stammered. I took aim and his face went pale. "I swear I don't know where your sister is, we do not have her! You have to believe me,"

"Don't listen to him!" Will warned me a second time. I nodded and glanced at him.

"Will, I know what I'm doing," I looked back to the men. I took aim at the other man, well, more of a boy, who was shivering in the wind in his t-shirt and jeans. He must've been around my age.

"You," I called to him. He stared at me. "What do you know about the disappearance of Kiely Holmes, kidnapped two days ago?"

"I don't know nothin'!" He lunged against the ropes tying he and the other man together. "Lady you ain't doin' nothin' to get her back if you're holdin' a gun up to two men who clearly don't got her,"

His words cut like ice in my heart. "Shut up!" I screamed.

"Jess, shoot him!" Will called to me.

"I. Don't. Even. Know. Her!" The younger guy shrieked again. "I know you think you've found evidence but you're wrong... And not only would shooting me be murder but I haven't done nothin'- nothin'!- to deserve it!"

"Shut! UP!" I clenched my fist and a gunshot echoed across the night. I looked up through tears at the kid, who was gripping his chest as he fell backward into the sea taking the other man, and my confession with him.

"Don't listen to them! You'll do great." My mom says to me as she straightens my gown. I had my doubts. I was no beauty queen. I knew that already. And if it was up to me, I would be at home locked in my room wearing a tee shirt and jeans instead of a ball gown and high heels. But it wasn't up to me. It was up to mom how I spent my time and ever since Lily died I didn't have the heart to tell her no.

The beauty pageants had always been Lily's thing not mine. Mom and her would travel the country winning trophies. We were twins but we couldn't have been more different. I know secretly mom wishes it would have been me. I see it in her eyes every time she looks at me. Deep down I wish it had been too.

"Perfect!" My mom exclaims as she finishes the last round of hairspray. "Now go out there and remember to smile!" I put on my biggest smile hoping no one will notice how fake it is. And stroll out on stage as my sisters replacement.

"Don't listen to them!" exclaimed Kylie. "Their lies are hollow and shallow." She looked up from the table to me, her gigantic, incredibly blue eyes peering into my soul. "Please, for me. Don't do this." Her eyes began to water, and I knew I had to do something to calm her nerves.

"Listen, baby," I said as I sat down beside her, "I love you. You know that. I want what's best for us, and this is what's best. Think of how much more money I'll be paid, and we'll grow to like Minnesota." I held her cold, dead hands in mine and looked into her gloomy eyes. "We can start a family there, a new beginning to our lives. Isn't that what you want?"

"No, what I want is to be happy, for us to be content with what we have, Ethan. I," she breathed out a heavy sigh, "don't wanna keep chasing after these things that are empty. I don't want to become another one of those stereotypical and fake soccer moms who lives every day like the day before. I want to be myself, and here is where I feel myself. Please turn down the job offering..." She looked away from me and stared at our hands together and patiently waited for me to reply.

I rubbed her chilled hands with my thumbs and tried to comfort her. "I know how you feel, Kylie. You're scared." I raised her head up by the chin like I've seen people do in movies when a woman is sad. Our faces were inches away. "I can tell you're scared so badly. You don't want change, but change is necessary in life. I wouldn't do this if I didn't think we needed to."

She sniffled. "Really?"

I smiled. "Really really." Then we hugged for what seemed like an eternity. I could feel so much stress and pain being released from her in our embrace, and it made me feel glad to be able to help her. Then in that moment I realized that she was damaged and in need of repair.

"Don't. Listen. To. Them!" I panted, as they dragged me away.

"That's not what's right for the world!"

"I know. But it's what's right for me." Alexandra cried, as if she didn't have a choice. We had been friends since age 3, so I could practically read her mind. Right now, I wish I couldn't.

"You do TOO have a choice..." But it was too late. She had faded from sight. Around 5 minutes later, I heard a

"You're right," That's when I found out we could also hear each others thoughts.

"I'm coming."

Alexandra ran into view, and I knew no matter what happened, I had her on my side.

"Don't listen to them!" A voice called from the depths thin and pale, a whisper. "They lie, their forked tongues taste the air, scenting your weakness."

Can this be true? No.

These are my friends. Right?

"Wrong!" No! You are the liar, they wouldn't do that to me!

Harshly I stifle the voice. It doesn't know...

It doesn't know how fat, ugly, short, stupid and alone I am.

"Don't listen to them! Kate! Don't listen!" I screamed at my friend who was walking to the side of the road from the sidewalk. He voices had started again, coaxing her, trying her sanity.

I ran to her from where I was. I grabbed her arm and turned her around, but it wasn't Kate. Not in there. Her light had dimmed to allow their light to shine. I stepped back in shock. She was gone. It's over. I had lost her...