Melly tried to push down the nausea in her stomach as she tried hard to not think about what had just happened in the dressing room — and just as she was about to leave, too.

She tried hard to not think about her brother's weakened, malnourished form the rest of the week. With Hoco coming up, Melly was more distracted with helping Madisyn with the decoration (she told Melly that she wanted to become a party planner when she was out of college). Other than school and Hoco plans, all Melly could do was worry.

It was an uncommon thing for Melly to do, as she almost never worried about her family. The Howards and Monroes were always smart, headstrong, and sometimes stupid. But that didn't make them any less different.

By the time Hoco started that week, Madisyn begged Melly to let her do her hair. At first, Melly refused. But when Madisyn wouldn't shut up, she eventually gave in, and almost immediately regretted her decision.

"But I get to do my own makeup," Melly declared in a blunt tone. This made Madisyn pout, but she didn't complain. It was fair, she supposed. Madsyn was doing her makeup, and that made her worried about how much makeup would be put on her already-decent face.

Melly reluctantly allowed Madisyn to sit her in a chair and began to work on her hair, curling and styling. It was then that her roommate finally noticed the scar on Melly's clavicle on her left shoulder. She frowned and gently touched it, making Melly jump slightly.

"What?"

"Is that the scar that Celina gave you?"

Melly's hand flew to her neck where Madisyn was touching it. She frowned as she finally noticed the two, slightly colder puncture wounds on her neck.

"Hmm. I guess that I just never noticed it before."

"Do you think you want to cover it up tonight?"

"I probably should, just in case. People don't want to know that I'd been attacked by a vampire."

Madisyn shuddered. Her eyes had gone dark.

"That was a mean thing for her to do."

Melly laughed darkly. "Tell me about it."

"But, seriously, though. It was also a dumb thing for her to do, too."

Melly gave her a wry smile. She examined the two punctured scars on her neck in the makeup mirror, frowning.

"I suppose that I'll hide it with some concealer when I do my makeup."

Madisyn nodded, looking satisfied with the idea. She went back to doing her hair.

"That sounds like a good idea."

"I can't believe that I never noticed the scar before until now."

"Well, you have been wearing long-sleeved shirts lately since it's early-November. It gets cold at this time of year."

Melly laughed softly. "You don't say."

Madisyn finished Melly's hair and she made her way to the bathroom to put on her makeup. She got a better look at the slightly cold scars. She ran her finger over them, frowning slightly. Then, without a second thought, she grabbed her Too Faced concealer and hid the scars with it.

Looking satisfied, she went on to her other makeup stuff, going with a light makeup look. When she came out of the bathroom with Madisyn standing there, looking ready, her roomie pursed her lips in disapproval but didn't say anything.

"Should we meet up with our friends?" she finally asked, her tone bubbly.

"Absolutely," Melly answered enthusiastically.

They grabbed their dorm keys and walked outside. Madisyn skipped ahead with Melly locking the door firmly behind her before following after Madisyn. She was thrilled that she had gone with a nice pair of Nikes for her to be comfortable while standing and cheering her boyfriend on.

It was weird, thinking that her boyfriend was on the football team. She was nervous, wondering how Glenn would behave towards him during their game. It was a casual event with many people attending, so she hoped that he wouldn't be too much of a problem.

In the lobby, they met up with their friends. Madisyn was going with some boy named Austin Milos, a boy she recognized from Josh's friend group. Josh accompanied Lacey, who looked eccentric about the whole thing. She had her arm looped through his. Melly was surprised when Sophie's French beau, Antoine Devereaux, linked arms with hers.

While Melly was thrilled that all of her friends had dates who could sit in the bleachers and not have to play football, Melly felt slightly left out. She then brushed that aside, remembering that Dante would accompany her later after the game was over when they had their party.

The game was fun. Of course, Avalon won. Melly couldn't believe that she was about to admit it, but she was grateful that Glenn was on the team, for once. He was the one who scored the last touchdown in the entire game, with Dante catching the second-to-last touchdown.

Avalon students began to pour in on all sides. Despite the weather being cold, Dante stood there in the crowd, drenched in sweat that dripped down his hair. He looked exhausted, and Melly couldn't blame him. He brightened the moment Melly came into view, practically glowing with pride.

He engulfed her. She didn't care how sweaty he was, she was just thrilled to be back in his familiar presence. The smell of him was relaxing to her. Over the smell of sweat, she could catch the familiar, comforting whiff of sandalwood, Madagascar vanilla, and musk.

"You were fantastic," she beamed, her hands on his shoulders. He gave her a glowing look, something that he wouldn't have given her in the beginning when they had just met weeks ago.

"Thanks," he breathed. His chocolate, dark-brown eyes bore into hers making Melly's heart skip a beat. "I need to take a shower, love. I'll be waiting for you in the gym."

Melly pressed a gentle kiss to his lips, catching him slightly off-guard. He blushed slightly before stepping away. He gave her a kiss on the cheek before leaving, waving slightly as he left.

"Well," said Lacey with a sigh as she approached Melly's side with a grin on her face."That was quite a hell of a game, wasn't it?"

"Yeah," Melly breathed in return. "One hell of a game."

Linking arms together, Melly and Lacey made their way towards the bleachers again where Madisyn, Josh, Antoine, and Sophie were waiting patiently for them, talking animatedly to each other.

"Let's party!" Sophie cheered enthusiastically as she linked arms with Antoine.

The gym was crowded by the time they entered. A DJ was playing in the corner, head nodding to the beat of the music as students danced in the center. Someone accidentally kicked a balloon in their direction, making Melly jump out of the way with a shriek of surprise. Josh laughed raucously at her reaction, throwing his head back, his eyes glittering.

They chattered to each other enthusiastically, with Melly keeping her eyes out for Dante. Finally, cheers began to slowly ring out throughout the room as the football players began to make their way inside. Dante looked around for Melly, who was frantically waving for him, catching his attention. His face relaxed, easing into a smile, and he made his way over towards Melly and his friends — a group of people who had finally decided to trust him and not think of him as an evil person.

"Wanna dance?" Dante asked breathlessly once he caught up to them.

Melly smiled at him. She set her drink of lemonade onto the gym floor. She eagerly accepted his hand, and they made their way towards the dance floor.

The music had gone from loud and ear-splitting, to slow and romantic. Melly blushed at the tone of the music, and she suddenly became aware of how close she and Dante were. She wasn't used to being so close to this caring, misunderstood boy. The only other time they'd been this close was when they'd shared their first kiss just last week.

Melly found it hard to believe that last week, she'd received her first kiss. Now she was here, dancing with her sweetheart. Her heart pounded against her chest, and she was relieved when he wasn't able to hear or feel her pulse pounding.

"I've never been to Homecoming," Melly hummed, her forehead pressed gently against his. She had to stand on her tiptoes in order to reach his height, as he was slightly taller than herself.

Dante looked surprised, pulling back slightly. Melly pouted a little, immediately missing his contact. His warmth. His gentle touch. She was ecstatic, however, when he rested his forehead gently against hers. They continued to sway on the spot.

"Really? You didn't have Homecomings in Savannah?"

"I wasn't interested," Melly admitted, grinning sheepishly at him. And in truth, no other guy had caught her attention the way Dante did. The feeling was foreign, yet pleasant to her in the strangest way. He held her with great care as they continued to sway around the room to the gentle, waltz-like music that put her in a trance-like mood.

Their noses brushed lightly against each other again. Melly was about to lean in to close the gap between them, but they were interrupted. She jerked away, glancing over towards the horrified voice of Lacey Douglas.

"MELLY! DANTE! OVER HERE! QUICK!"

The two of them glanced over at each other, horrified, wondering what could make Lacey panic so much. Without another word, they rushed towards their friend group, which was left exactly the way it had been. The only thing that was different was that Josh was now on the floor, his body twitching. His eyes rolled into the back of his head.

Melly felt sick as she came to a halt at Josh's side, clutching his hand desperately. Dante took off the blazer that he wore and carefully folded it before placing the blazer under his head for comfort.

It looked as though Josh was having a seizure.

"What happened?" Melly demanded, watching Josh's face in horror.

Lacey now had her fingers combing through his blonde hair. Tears were in her eyes and she looked concerned, as any girlfriend would be if they found their boyfriend on the floor, twitching, and having a seizure.

"I don't know," Lacey wailed, attracting attention from nearby dancers. Madisyn, Sophie, Antoine moved over to block the curious ongoers from view so that they wouldn't be concerned. "We were just talking, and he suddenly collapsed to the floor."

Melly glanced down anxiously at her friend again. His seizure-like actions seemed to be slowing down. His body seemed less tense. His eyes were rolling less frequently in his head. His breathing seemed to become more steady the more he slowed down. Finally, his eyes flickered open. He smiled upon realizing that his friends and girlfriend were surrounding him, anxious looks on all their faces.

"Thanks for making sure that I'm okay," he finally rasped. Melly noticed that he was trying to keep up his teasing attitude, despite just now having a seizure on the hard, gym floor.

"Quit fooling around," Lacey scolded, swatting him playfully on the shoulder. She scowled, arms folded over her chest. Her eyes were bright with anxiety and fury.

"Sorry," he whined, rubbing his shoulder. "I didn't mean to scare anyone."

"Well, you did," Lacey sniffed. "You almost gave me a heart attack when you collapsed."

Josh winced, looking absolutely clueless.

"I collapsed?"

Lacey nodded. She eyed him carefully. "Do you think you can sit up?"

"As long as I'm leaning against a wall, I should be fine," he tried to joke.

"Think you can stand?"

"Why are you trying to challenge me when I just had a vision?" Josh whined, clearly not amused with Lacey's concern.

This sparked Melly's interest. Her stomach plummeted. Did this have something to do with what she had just seen in the mirror at the dress shop not too long ago?

"Vision?" Melly echoed, trying hard to not sound so eager.

"Oh!" Josh jumped slightly. He relaxed slightly when he saw Melly at his side. He smiled slightly. "Melly. I was just about to call for you."

"You can tell her what you saw when we get you sitting up and you have a glass of water," Dante tried to joke.

Melly waited eagerly for Josh to be settled against the padded gym walls. Lacey skipped off to the buffet table to retrieve a bottle of water. She came back seconds later, uncapping the drink and handing it to him. He took it gratefully and took a sip of the fresh water, a relaxed look crossing his features.

"Thanks, Mads."

"Of course!" She frowned. "Are you going to tell us what happened now?"

"Don't pressure him, Mads," Lacey defended. She had a protective hand on Josh's shoulder, shooting Madisyn a murderous look. Josh looked amused by Lacey's sudden protectiveness over him. "Let him answer when he's ready to."

"Alright, nosy," Madisyn grumbled, clearly not amused.

"Whatever," Lacey muttered under her breath. She turned her attention to Josh again, her gaze full of love and concern. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah, give me a minute," Josh answered before taking another drink. Melly watched, amazed, when she saw that he was chugging down half the bottle of water. Lacey tried to snatch it out of his hands, scowling.

"Don't drink yourself to death."

Josh only clung more tightly to the water bottle, frowning.

"You don't know what my visions can do to me, Lace," he admitted, his voice above a whisper. He shook his head, frowning. "I can't remember the last time I had a seizure as bad as this one."

"Excuse me?" Melly asked, almost appalled.

Josh opened his eyes, which had been closed with relaxation. His blue eyes sparkled.

"How old are you?" Melly blurted out before she could stop herself.

Josh's eyes glittered again. An unfamiliar, mischievous look filled his gaze.

"Girl, I'm older than Abe Lincoln, himself," he tried to tease. Dante rolled his eyes.

"Now's not the time to joke around, Josh," he reminded him. "You can quit stalling, now, and tell us what you'd just seen."

Josh sighed. He knew that his roommate was right. He set down his half-finished bottle of water. His eyes were glazed over. Melly bit her lower lip nervously, wondering what news he had now.

"This is really bad news, Melly," he finally admitted in a hoarse whisper; so much different from the joking tone he had used moments ago. Melly had to strain her ears slightly over the pounding dance music that had now been changed by the DJ. Josh took a deep breath, as though he was mentally preparing himself. "I think . . . I think it's almost time."

Melly's face paled. She knew exactly what that meant. Unfortunately, Antoine didn't have a clue what was going on. He frowned, glancing over at her.

"Time?" he echoed.

"Shit," Melly breathed, fumbling for her phone in the clutch that she'd brought.

"9-1-1 won't do anything, Melly," Josh sighed, giving her a look.

"I'm not calling 9-1-1, Josh," she snapped. "I'm getting an Uber."

"Can't I drive you?" Dante asked, his tone anxious. "I don't want you to get hurt."

Melly was flattered by his offer, but she ultimately shook her head. She smiled apologetically at him. Her head swam with uncomfortable thoughts.

"No. I — I think that I need to go alone. Besides! You have your 'gut feelings', don't you?"

"Yeah?"

"Use that when you feel that things are about to get too intense for me. Then you can come. Just don't . . . . don't do anything stupid while I'm gone." She turned to Josh, her phone clutched tightly in her hands. She desperately tried hard to not let her hands tremble. Her mouth was dry as she tried to swallow normally. "Do you know where Eli is being kept?"

Josh looked startled. He frowned, eyeing her in concern.

"You're going after him now?"

Melly rolled her eyes. "Of course, I'm going now, Josh. He's my brother. He needs me. It's my fault that I got him into this mess, anyways. So, where is he being held prisoner?"

"I'm sure you're familiar with the Cathedral Basilica of Saint John the Baptist?"

Melly nearly dropped her phone in shock. She managed to retrieve it before the phone fell to the floor. She straightened, horrified.

"The Cathedral Basilica of Saint John the Baptist should be closed at this time of day by now!"

"Not to us Gifted folks, it's not," Josh answered quietly. "It'll be open to any of us. Holy places, such as churches, etc, can recognize a magical person's ability."

"Thanks, Josh. You're a lifesaver."

And with that, she took off, not caring if she received weird looks along the way. She called and paid for an Uber to meet up with her at the dorms. In the meanwhile, she changed and took off her makeup, hastily putting her hair up in a braid while she had the time. Then, she was down to meet her Uber driver by the time she had finished in fifteen minutes.