Gomez hurried me into my bedroom as soon as 7'o'clock rolled around. "Stay in here for the rest of the night and don't come out until I come to get you."

I lifted a brow. "And when will that be, Gomez?"

He shrugged. "Most people should be done trick-or-treating at around midnight. I'll come let you out then if you're still awake."

I nodded and laughed in my head. That gave me an enormous window of time. And the plan that I had was glorious. Infallible. Perfect.

Earlier on that day, I had been snooping through the cabinets and cupboards while Gomez was outside setting up decorations for Halloween. While I was snooping, I found something interesting in there. Ipecac syrup.

I remembered that Gomez once told me that he had it, in case someone would try and kill him by poison, so he could throw it up before it took effect. Before Gomez could come back inside, I swiped it from the kitchen and hid it in my pant pockets.

Gomez left the room and locked it from the outside. I looked up towards the ceiling inside of the closet, as I heard trick-or-treaters already come to the door. Gomez answered the door, greeted by the muffled sound of children screaming the juvenile request.

I moved the chair back over to where I had put it earlier that day when I first discovered the new exit. I climbed onto it and opened up the ceiling as I did before and climbed through. I popped open the skylight, hopped onto the roof and climbed down the ladder that Gomez had previously positioned on the side of the house. I heard him close the door and watched as the trick-or-treaters left the house and walked along the sidewalk to the next one.

Quickly, I pulled my hoodie over my head and walked along the side walk over to the next neighborhood over. I went into my old house and dug out a small, yet very sharp knife. I put that into my pants as well and walked in the direction of the school.

As I was walking, Ava's car drove by me. I covered my face with the hood so that she wouldn't see me. I smirked to myself.

So easy.

After about 15 minutes of walking, I arrived at the school. I saw the group of boys dressed as me walk inside of the school. I waited about a minute after they went in before I too walked inside.

A man and a woman were sitting at a table taking money to get into the dance. I had assumed that they would need some form of ticket to get in, so I brought with me a 10 dollar bill. I handed it to them.

"Student ID please," the man requested.

"I didn't bring it with me," I said. "I'm with those boys who just walked in."

"I think he's fine," the woman said. "Let him in."

The tired looking man rolled his eyes. "Fine," he admitted. "Go on ahead."

I nodded at him and walked into the dance. People were acting completely brainless: twerking, spilling drinks. I even saw one guy crowd surfing. Amongst the hordes of people, I spotted Ava and Nate nearby. I scowled at the sight of her smiling at him.

Quickly as I could, I took out the ipecac syrup and stealthily poured the contents of the bottle into the giant bowl of punch. I took the ladle, mixed it into the drink, and stepped away. I hid behind a corner as I watched Nate drink some of it. I waited to see if Ava would drink any as well, but she didn't.

The two of them walked into the gymnasium together and started to play a game. I glared at them through the doors, even though they couldn't see it.

Suddenly, someone tapped me on my shoulder. "Hey," a feminine voice spoke.

Agitated, I turned around to look at who it was. Her name was Alyssa, and she was a hard-core emo girl. Someone I might be into if she didn't mind my stench of death. And if she was Ava.

"You're one of Jesse's friends who dressed up as Luther, right?" she asked.

I lifted an eyebrow. "Uh, what does it look like to you?" I rasped. She chuckled, taking my rudeness as a joke.

"Do you want to dance with me?"

I stared at what she was wearing. A tattered, black dress and black, mesh contact lenses. On either side of her mouth, she had bloody makeup looking as if someone had cut her face from the sides of her lips, like how the joker was supposed to look. But clearly, she was supposed to be the Black Dahlia. I had always admired whoever murdered her. It was a rather beautiful murder, mutilating her face and then severing her body into two. And I liked the way Alyssa portrayed her. I smirked.

"Why not."

I offered her my arm. She smiled and graciously took it. The two of us walked out to the dance floor.

"Do you want any punch?" I asked her.

She nodded. "Sure."

I went over to the punch table and poured her a cup of it. I watched intently as she gulped it down, smiling to myself as she did so. She threw the cup away, and the two of us went out to the dance floor. I had no idea really what I was doing as she rubbed herself up against me. She noticed this, took my hands, rested them on her rear, and continued what she was doing. Seeing that this was some sort of invitation, I began lifting up the back of her dress. She sharply turned around.

"What the hell!?" she exclaimed. "What makes you think you can-" She suddenly brought a hand to her mouth. "Oh god." She ran off into the direction of the bathrooms near the gym.

At this point people had started to stare at us. I shrugged at them and rolled my eyes. Something then caught my eye; it was Nate running off to the bathroom too. I smiled in relief that my plan had worked. Ava just stood there, a lovely look of horror on her face as she watched several other people come from the dance and run into the bathroom.

All I did was stare at her until Nate came out a few minutes later, and they exchanged a brief exchange before he left. So as not to seem conspicuous, I made my way over to the group of boys dressed as me. Ava talked to Alyssa and a girl who was with her as they exited the bathroom. I looked on intently as she did this. She suddenly looked across the room. I stared at her, and she at me.

A look of realization crossed her face, and all of a sudden, I became a bit nervous. I hadn't planned on seeing or speaking to Ava that night. I simply wanted to ostracize Nate and terminate him.

I turned my head back around and waited to see what she would do. The group of boys didn't seem to notice my sudden appearance and that was helpful to my cause. I turned to leave the dance to find Nate, when someone grabbed my shoulder.

Aggressively, I turned around to see who it was, but then my face softened.

"Luther..." she spoke in a whisper. "What the hell are you doing here?"

I grabbed Ava's hand off of my shoulder and squeezed it painfully tight in mine. Her face contorted into pain, but she held her composure. "What am I doing here?" I repeated. "I came to dance." I looked to the dance floor and grinned. "Oh, won't you dance with me, Ava dear?" I asked breathily and almost half kidding. I lowered my head and lifted a brow, looking to the hand that I had clutched in mine and brought it up to my lips for a kiss. She shuddered at my touch.

"Uh...sure..." She reluctantly nodded.

I pulled her by the wrist out to the dance floor just as a slow song began playing. I pulled her close to me and wrapped my arms around her waist as she put her's onto my shoulders. We swayed gently to the beat of the music, that was a waltz in C minor, making it ever so more creepy.

"Luther," she said. "If you try anything..."

"I'm not going to try anything," I assured. "I was just here to socialize. Fancy seeing you here, however. I had expected that everything you had endured this week would've stopped you from coming."

"I'm not the weakling that you make me out to be. I happen to be a very strong, independent woman."

I lifted a brow. "Ah, and that's why you're with Nate so much?" I sarcastically rasped. She glared at me.

"It's none of your business."

"But it is my business. Everything is my business in this town. And I know everything about everybody. And when there's something that needs to be discovered, I damn well find it out."

She gulped. "What did you do to make all of these people throw up?" she asked out of the blue.

"What makes you think that I did anything?" I asked innocently, putting a hand to my chest. She gave me a discerning glare. I cracked. "It's just a bit of fun," I lied, concealing my true purposes. "It's just ipecac syrup. No ones going to die or anything."

"They'd better not," she said. "Because if I start throwing up..."

"You won't." I smirked. "Trust me."

"What are you doing, Luther?" she asked about nothing in particular. "What is it that you're hoping to accomplish?"

I looked up at her. "You." Her eyes widened. The song ended and I pushed her off of me. "I will see you soon, Ava Lane." I walked off, starting out of the school. "Very soon."

I walked in the direction of Nate's house. I had to remind myself of where he lived in order to find it, for it was a bit tricky to get to. It was secluded, but not far from the school. About a fourth of a mile.

I walked down a long, dirt path, surrounded by a forest. Nate's house was at the end of it. A single, solitary light was lit on the second floor. So he was home alone...even better.

I slinked around the back of the house and opened up the sliding glass door with great stealth, and closed it silently behind me. From upstairs, I heard Nate walking about. Smiling to myself, I crept up the wooden staircase ever so slowly, so as not to make the stairs creak.

I snuck down the hallway, my back against the wall, slowly, quietly, creeping along. I reached into my pocket and gripped my knife. From the other side of his half-closed door, I heard some sort of sound. It sounded like liquid swishing around in a bottle. Curious, I peeked my head around the corner and peered into his room.

His back facing the door, I could tell that he was gulping down a large bottle of vodka. I raised an eye brow. This was something that I didn't know about this boy. I never would've guessed that goody-two-shoes, church boy Nate was secretly a blossoming alcoholic.

I straightened my posture and pulled the knife from my pocket as I strode into his room. He set the half empty bottle onto his desk and let out a groan.

"Hello, Nathaniel." I greeted. He let out a shout as he turned around and pointed the bottle at me. I stared at it. "Is that supposed to frighten me?"

"Luther White..." he said. "What the hell are you doing in my house?"

"Oh, I am not entirely sure anymore..." I stalled. "I never would've guessed that you consumed that much alcohol on a daily basis." He looked down at the bottle, his brows furrowed."

"It's Halloween, you prick," he spat.

"I can tell an alcoholic when I see one," I replied. "Especially at this young of age." I tsked my tongue against the roof of my mouth. "It's not healthy. Does Ava know about it?"

"No one knows about it," he defended. "And no one will ever know about it."

"Well, it matters not to me. I did not come here to dig up secrets." I lowered my head and looked up at him.

"Then why did you come here?"

"Oh, I think you know the answer to that question." His eyes widened as I pulled out the knife and eyed it. "Tell me, what organ shall I harvest first?"

He suddenly broke into a sprint, trying to run past me and out the door. I stopped him, grabbing the bottle out of his hand and smacking it across the side of his head. Stunned, he collapsed to the floor, blood slowly beginning to trickle from his head. He laid there very still, his eyes still open, fluttering each time he tried to blink.

I picked up four, long socks up off of the floor and hoisted Nate onto his large bed. I took each of his limbs and tied them so tight with the socks around the bed posts, that his circulation would surely be severed in no time.

He slowly started gaining back his consciousness. Once he finally realized what was happening, he began squirming, trying to escape the trap that I had put him in. But it was far too late.

I walked up to him and looked him in the eyes. "You shouldn't have touched Ava," I condemned. "None of this would've happened if you would have just stayed out of the way."

I climbed on top of him and sat at the base of his torso as he grunted and wiggled, still trying to escape. I held the knife in front of his face. "This is your punishment."

"Luther, stop!" I heard a new voice cry. Startled, I looked up at the door. Ava was there, standing before us, looking on in horror at the broken glass that was shattered on the floor along with traces of Nate's blood.

"Ava, help me..." Nate wheezed out. I glared at him and wrapped my fingers around his neck, causing him to gag. Ava held her hands to her mouth.

"Stop it, Luther," she said sternly, tears in her eyes. "It's no use. The police are coming."

From across the room, I smirked at her. "The police won't get here before I kill him."

I lifted the knife and prepared to plunge it down into his bare chest. Ava screamed. I squeezed my eyes shut and brought the knife down. It certainly pierced something. Both of their cries lingered in my ears.

"Ava!" Nate screamed. I opened my eyes and looked on in horror of what I had just done. Ava had jumped on top of Nate and taken the blow for him. I had stabbed her right in her left shoulder.

"No..." I whispered as I retracted the blade out of her shoulder. She brought a hand to it and started to collapse onto the broken glass. I caught her mid fall. "No...no, Ava, NO!" I shouted.

Her hand, sullied with blood, reached up and touched my face. Her grey eyes seemed cloudy instead of bearing the crystal sharpness they normally had. A tear trickled down my cheek and onto her fear-stricken face. "Don't leave me; you're going to be okay. It was just your shoulder."

"Luther..." she whispered. "Get away."

"I'm sorry," I said, kissing her forehead. "I didn't mean to, please, Ava."

"I said go," she repeated. I suddenly heard sirens coming up the road. In a panic, I gently set her down on the floor where there wasn't any glass and got up. I sprinted down the stairs, drying the tears from my eyes. I opened up the door, only to find myself completely surrounded by police car lights shining on me as well as several guns.

"LUTHER WHITE, PUT YOUR HANDS UP!" An officer shouted.

Squinting at the lights glaring into my eyes, I reluctantly did as I was told, and raised my hands into the air. Several officers ran towards me and cuffed me.

"Luther White, you are under arrest." They began scurrying me to the police car as more of them went inside of the house. "You have the right to remain silent. Anything that you say can and will be used against you in the court of law."

The car zoomed off towards the police station. I looked in the rearview mirror as they brought Ava out on a stretcher. It made my heart ache. I had been caught for the first time ever. There was no getting out of this one.

This was it. This was the end of my outlawry.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

So that took an unexpected turn...

Please comment and vote!! I want at least 300 comments before the book is over and I would love for it to be back on the what's hot list. Thanks you guys! Sorry it's been a few days.