"ELLIE!" a frantic voice screamed out to me, jolting me from my fiery anger and making me snap my eyes open in shock. Still living in the ebbing after-affects of the dream, I screeched savagely and whipped my right hand around to the figure infront of me, raking my long nails down their cheek and neck.

"Not again!" I screamed, lunging from my spot and wrapping my arms around their torso in an iron grip, successfully knocking them backwards off the bed with a heavy thud. Sitting up and straddling them, I proceeded to scratch and claw at their face despite their attempts to lift me off.

"Elenore! Elenore!" they pleaded, gripping my shoulders and holding me immobile. "Elenore, look at me. Wake up."

Their words stuck in my mind and I felt a pressure being released in my mind. "Wake up."

Suddenly, the veil that was shielding me from being aware of my actions, what made me think it was Tiberius I was attacking, lifted. Soft light flooded my vision, and beneath my body was a panting, bloodied Eric.

I gasped in horror. "Er-Eric?" I whispered, tears starting to pool on my lower lashline. Lifting both hands to my face, I saw blood caked under my fingernails and in the creases of my hand, creating an irritable, uncomfortable itch all down my body. Looking back down to Eric, I took note of the horrifying scratches running down his face, some starting from his hairline and extending down to his lips and chin. "Eric, I'm so-" I choked on my words and tried to take a deep breath, but failed. Shaky inhales and exhales stuck smothered my throat and my heart started to beat faster. The words I tried to say didn't make it past my lips as the thoughts in my head knotted together into an indistinguishable mess. Beginning to hyperventilate, I swore I could see the walls around us caving in and dark shadows reaching their nightmarish, bony fingers towards me, brushing my cheek with their clammy chill.

"Elenore? Calm down, everything's okay!" Eric said, lifting him and myself up from the floor and setting me back on the bed.

"Er..Er," I breathed, clawing at my chest in hopes of taking away the weight, the impending pressure crushing my lungs.

"Elenore? Ellie, listen to me. Listen," he repeated, both of his hands on either side of my face while he held my stare. "Calm down and breathe. If you had a nightmare or bad dream, it was just that: a bad dream. If this is about Haley, she's gone. She's watching over us right now and would probably be worried to death over you right now, no pun intended," he added a bit ashamedly. "If this is about Tiberius-well, then I just have one thing to tell you: do whatever you want with him when you leave here, but just remember that he's your mate, and if you've already completed the mating process, which I don't think you have, then you won't be able to live afterwards if you kill him. You know the consequences of mate separation, Ellie. Be smart."

Nodding, I managed to calm my racing heart and let air into my lungs. "Good, now I'm going to go bandage these scratches and make you some breakfast. The bathroom in right down the hall there," he said and pointed down a hallway to my right, "and the living room is right around the corner. I'll be right back."

Retreating out of the small room I assumed was for a guest without closing the door, I kneaded my temples with my fingertips gingerly, trying to massage the building migraine away. I need some fresh air.

Sliding my legs from the fluffy mattress and pulling the large sweatshirt that Eric had apparently dressed me in down closer over my body, I avoided the mirror on one of the walls and simply combed my fingers through my hair. I didn't want to see how bad I looked, because despite knowing that Tiberius was the one who killed Haley, I still felt guilt eating away at my stomach like acid.

'Stop it. You couldn't have done anything differently, even if you tried. You have nothing to feel guilty about, Ellie, so stop living like you could've done anything,' Nikita whispered to me, slightly scolding-slightly consoling-my feelings and thoughts.

'I know, I know! It's just hard..she was my best friend, Nikita, and she's just gone. Almost 12 years of friendship, just..destroyed,' I swallowed, trying desperately to hold back the flood of emotions. 'I don't want to feel the guilt, or the grief, or the hatred. I just want it all to be a dream. A horrible, hellish nightmare where when I wake up, Haley will be alive and breathing and smiling and saying some sarcastic remark about how awful I look in the mornings,' I started to sob as my voice broke at the end.

"And it's all because of HIM!" I screamed aloud, suddenly reeling around and punching the nearest wall full-force. My clenched fist broke straight through the thick wooden wall, sending splinters and dust flying out towards my body and face. Without flinching, I let the wood scrape my cheeks, nose, and eyebrows because it seemed to be the only way to take my mind from the emotional pain bubbling inside me.

'Don't let it control you, Elenore. I know you're stronger than this pain and suffering. Push through it, baby, we'll do it together.'

Sighing and dropping my head, I slowly retracted my bloodied fist from the wall. Inspecting it closer, I saw drywall particles and chips of wood lodged deep inside the cuts, and after unsuccessfully trying to pull them out myself, I decided to try and find Eric so he could help me clean my rage-triggered wounds.

Stepping out of the room and into a hallway, I was surprised by the amount of family pictures lining the walls. In every one, there was a young boy, probably around seven years old, a beautiful woman with shining gray eyes, and Eric, always standing beside her with his arm around her waist like a prize. His family.

Continuing down the hallway I was lead to a spacious living room with lush brown couches and curtains overlooking a yard to match.

"Eric?" I called out, not hearing any response but the constant buzzing of cicadas and singing of birds. Calling for him one more time but hearing no answer, I took that time to look over more pictures on the wall under a large wooden sign saying "Family". Enjoying the happy, smiling faces of his child and wife and chuckling at a few of their silly pictures, I stopped dead as one caught my eye.

Right in the middle of the wall, hanging innocently beside a picture of his son and wife at the beach, was Eric with his arm wrapped around a man, hugging him boyishly-hugging my dad.