It was him. He had shown up out of no where and somehow convinced me to dance with him. Internally, I was shaking the entire time.

As the song drew to a close, I had not gotten the information I wanted out of him. "What are you doing, Luther?" I asked him, seizing the moment. "What is it that you're trying to accomplish?"

He looked up at me and tossed me a devilish grin. "You."

The song ended and he pushed me off of him. "I'll see you soon, Ava Lane..." He started to walk off. I heard him mumble under his breath. "Very soon."

"Me?" I whispered to myself. What does killing my friends and poisoning everyone here have to do with getting me?

But then it struck me. He was going to take away anyone who cared about me so that I would have no one else but him. Then that means...

Nate. He's going to kill Nate. That's why he tricked him into taking the ipecac syrup. It must have been in that punch. He did it so Nate would leave early and be alone.

I have to stop him, I thought. I chased after Luther out of the dance, but when I left the school, there was no one in sight. Nervously biting my nails, I ran out to my car. I quickly started it and pulled out my phone to look at Nate's address. It was a street name I was not yet familiar with. Squinting at it, I started out of the parking lot and put it into my GPS.

On my way there, I dialed 911 and informed the police of what I knew.

"Luther White is planning on killing my friend Nate," I explained to them. I told them Nate's address. "He is on his way there right now. He has someone who is harboring him. I believe his name is Antonio Gomez and he lives on East Mountain Drive. I do not know his exact address."

"Thank you Miss Lane. We are on our way. Please do not exit your vehicle."

"Thank you." I hung up the phone. "Yeah right."

After a few more minutes of searching, I drove down a long, dirt driveway and up to a large, cabin-like house. Nate's car was parked in front of it. I got out of my car and ran to the house.

There was some sort of commotion going on upstairs. I'm too late... I thought. I sprinted up the stairs and ran down the hallway to where the light was. I opened the door to find Nate tied to his bed and Luther holding a knife to his face. Broken glass and liquid lay on the floor, clearly not broken by accident.

"This is your punishment..." Luther rasped to him.

"Luther, stop!" I screamed. He looked up, a look of pure and utter shock spread across his deranged face. The insanity in his eyes overwhelmed me as I looked onto the scene in horror.

"Ava, help me..." Nate wheezed as he tried moving his hand toward me. I turned my attention toward him. The side of his head had been badly injured; blood was leaking out near his temple. He would surely pass out in a few minutes if the bleeding didn't stop.

Luther glared at Nate, and wrapped his fingers around his neck, choking him. I brought my hands to my mouth and gasped.

"Stop it, Luther," I said, hoping to convince him to let Nate live. "It's no use. The police are coming."

Luther smirked at me, making me shiver at the sight of him. It was at that moment that I was truly afraid of the boy that I thought that I had grown rather fond of. The boy who I had grown to trust. The boy who I kissed. The boy who loves me. And in a single moment, all those feelings were broken by a single sentence. "The police won't get here before I kill him."

As he said the words, he lifted the knife and prepared to plunge it into Nate's chest. Nate looked up at him, bug-eyed, preparing for his doom. Panicking, I started towards him. I had an insane, spur of the moment idea to stop Luther, to put myself before Nate and hope he would realize that this is not the correct way to my heart. I hadn't realized that Luther had closed his eyes, however. And as soon as I did, it was too late.

A screaming pain erupted from my left shoulder, feeling like it had been punched, bursting through my skin, all the while like a hot iron resting on it as well.

"Ava!" I heard Nate scream my name amidst the chaos. Luther opened his eyes and sat there frozen, not believing that he had just stabbed me.

"No..." he whispered. He took the knife out of my shoulder. I felt it leave, feeling as though I was a sheath a sword had been removed from. I clutched my shoulder with my free arm and began to slip off of the bed. Luther caught me in his arms and cradled me against his chest. "No, no, Ava, NO!"

He sat down on the floor, holding me in his lap. The room became very blurry. The wound was closer to my chest than I had thought. I reached my bloody hand up to his face and caressed his cheek with it. A tear escaped his eye and trickled onto my cheek. "Don't leave me. You're going to be okay. It was just your shoulder," he gently, but uselessly tried to comfort me.

"Luther..." I whispered sternly. "Get away."

"I'm sorry," he apologized, kissing my forehead. I did not want him to kiss me. I did not want him to touch me. I did not want to feel the touch of a serial killer. "I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to. Please, Ava."

"I said go," I repeated. That was when I heard the blurred sounds of sirens and Luther's gasps. He set me down on the ground and ran from the bedroom. My vision then started to cloud over.

"Ava?" I heard Nate's voice shout to me. "Stay with me; don't close your eyes!"

But I already had. My eyes were closed as I laid there, clutching my bloody shoulder, Nate screaming at me.

"We got two up here," an unfamiliar voice said. "We are going to need two stretchers, ASAP."

I remember feeling like I was being carried outside, for the wind's chill blew against my cheeks, causing a bit of relief from the burning situation of which I had been in. But anything after that, I had completely forgotten.

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

I woke up to the sound of a steady, electronic-monotone beeping. There was a cannula sitting outside my nose and leading down my chest until it draped off the side of the bed I was on. I opened my eyes and looked around me. I was in a hospital bed. There were curtains surrounding me. I was wearing a blue, hospital robe, and had tubes sticking out of my arms and wrists. I was about to freak out, but then I remembered what had happened.

Luther had stabbed me in the shoulder in an attempt to murder Nate. Speaking of which, where was Nate?

"Hello?" I called out. "Is any body here?"

A nurse entered my room and pulled one of the curtains aside. I gasped and looked up at her. She smiled at me and looked behind her shoulder. "She's okay. You two can come in now."

My mother burst into the room, followed by Uncle Michael, who still wore his suit and clerical collar. Oh yeah, I remembered. It's sunday.

"Ava!" my mom exclaimed, pulling up a seat and grabbing my hand. "Honey we were so worried about you!"

"Mom..." I said tears coming to my eyes. "Is Nate okay?"

"He's just fine," the nurse said, pulling back a curtain on the other side of me. On the other side, Nate sat in his own bed, sitting up. My uncle walked over to him and examined the wound on the side of his head.

"Are you alright, Nathaniel?" he asked him.

Nate nodded. "I'm fine, Father Lane. It's Ava that you should really be worrying about."

He walked back over to me and stood next to my mother. "Ava, what happened?" he asked. "How did you know that Luther was going to try to kill Nate?"

I gulped hard and held back the tears that threatened to spill from my eyes. "He...Luther...he came to the dance."

The two of them looked at each other with a confused look. "Wasn't he a wanted outlaw? How could he have gotten in?"

I shook my head. "He had the perfect plan. I still can't believe every thing went so swimmingly in his favor." They stared at me, still waiting for an explanation. "Nate's cousin and his friends apparently dressed up as Luther every year for Halloween as some local joke or something. Since Luther knew this, it would be the perfect way for him to get into the dance. God..." I muttered. "I should've guessed that he would pull something like that..."

"Then what happened?" Mom asked me.

"He poisoned every one who drank the punch by putting ipecac syrup into it. But he was really only targeting Nate. I don't think I was even supposed to be a part of his plan that evening. So, once Nate left, I spotted Luther from across the room. Most people couldn't, but I could tell the difference between him and the other boys dressed as him. I talked to him. He told me a lot of weird things, and about how he poisoned everyone with the ipecac syrup. And that I was his ultimate goal. Then he left. I knew deep down that he was going to kill Nate. So, I called the police and rushed over as fast as I could."

"Now, Ava," Michael began. "The police told you not to get out of your car."

I nodded. "I know. But I knew that if Luther was in there, he wouldn't hesitate to kill Nate. If I was there, I could at least distract him until the police came. I never thought he'd kill in front of me. I wanted to prevent him from killing him by stepping in front of Nate, but Luther had his eyes closed. He didn't see me."

"Ava," Nate said to me. "I'm sorry this happened to you. You saved me. I owe you my life."

I rolled my eyes. "Don't go all dramatic on me, Nate."

He chuckled. "Hey, it's true. Luther would've killed me if you hadn't leapt in front of me."

"I couldn't let him kill. Not again. It was worth the risk." I looked back to my mother and uncle. "Speaking of which, what ever happened to Luther?"

"Oh, honey..." my mom began. "Luther was arrested."

My heart skipped a beat. Luther? Arrested? He's never been caught by any one before. Well, except by Gomez when he...

"Did he resist arrest?" I asked.

"I don't think so," she replied. "But I don't know all the details. A court date has been set up for next Friday."

"So soon?" I asked. "Why?"

"He confessed to the murders of over 30 people," my uncle answered, crossing his arms. "Did you know that he killed that many people?"

I gulped. "Um, well...yes."

"Why didn't you tell us?" My mother exclaimed.

"Melissa!" My uncle whispered.

"I'm sorry, mom," I apologized as I began to weep. "I should've just called the police from the start. I don't know why I did it. I thought I could change him. I thought I could make it better, especially with the help of Gomez."

"And who is this Gomez?" Mom asked me. "You never mentioned him before until to the police last night."

I nodded. "He was trying to protect me from Luther, but not because of my best interests. To protect himself. You see, Luther killed his parents. And if I were to tell the police anything that Luther did to me, his arrest would result in the bust of Gomez's drug chain."

"Well that's a pity," Michael said, pacing the room. "Because when they went to the house last night, Gomez had fled. He's gone. They don't know where to even begin looking."

I clenched my fists and pursed my lips. "God Dammit!" I exclaimed.

"Do not speak the Lord's name in vain!" he rasped at me. I bowed my head.

"I'm sorry. I've just waited so long for this to be over. And I feel like it's going to be much longer until it actually is."

"We caught the main culprit," he assured me. "Your problems will all disappear once Luther is put behind bars for good."

"Here," my mother said as she handed me a book. "This is the book you checked out, right? Outlawry?"

I nodded and took it. "Yeah that's right."

She smiled. "I thought that you might want to read it while you're in here."

"Thanks, mom." I set it next to me. "How long am I going to be here?"

"The doctors said until Wednesday, but they might let you out sooner if you don't need any more special treatment," My uncle explained.

"Okay," I replied. "I'm glad to know that everything is going good. I'm glad I'm not...dead, or anything."

"So are we, sweetheart," my mother assured.

"Me too!" Nate chirped in. I looked over at him and gave a weak smile. The nurse can back in.

"Okay you two. It's time for her to rest now. You can come see her in a little bit, she'll be fine here." They nodded and left. She walked over to Nate. "And you, young man, are free to go."

He nodded as she helped him take off anything that was attached to him. He got off of the bed and disappeared into the bathroom to change. The nurse walked over to my bed and adjusted it so that I was lying down instead of sitting up.

"Thanks," I said. She nodded and left the room. Once Nate said goodbye and left, I opened up Outlawry and continued reading where I had left off.

About three quarters through, I found another one of Luther's pictures. It portrayed him again as Hades and me as Persephone. He was embracing me in his arms as I clung tightly to him, my eyes shut, and a look of pure content on my face. He, on the other hand, had a reassuring hand resting on my shoulder as he suspiciously looked to the side, as if to protect me from any impending threats.

I teared up again. I couldn't fall in love with Luther. Not now. Not after he had tried to kill Nate. He was too dangerous, too immature to understand how the world really worked. You can't just kill your way through life.

My heart heavy, I used the picture as a bookmark and adjusted my self into a comfortable sleeping position. As I drifted go sleep, I dreaded of what Friday would bring.

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

Sorry it's been like a week. I'm behind schedule on this and it makes me angry.

Is this summer going by way faster than it should or is it just me? I've literally done nothing.

I saw Jurassic world for the 4th time and I am so sick of it already lol I only watch it because of Nick Robinson

Please vote and comment! I want Outlawry back in the what's hot