She introduced him, "Oh this is Vladimir, he's an exchange student from Romania."

"It is a pleasure to meet you, Ian. I am sorry to hear about your injuries, but I am glad to have learned that you are better now."

"Uhh...Yeah thanks, nice to meet you," he said as he extended his hand.

He avoided the handshake and concluded his remarks, "I do not want to disrupt your conversation anymore, and as I've a headache, I believe I shall leave in search of some water," Vladimir then took his leave and vanished into the crowd.

"He's odd..." Ian stated.

"He's infatuated with Rachel, from what Jordan tells me," Drake said with a smirk.

Rachel punched her boyfriend on the arm fairly hard and told him to keep his mouth shut. She slid into the booth next to Drake and allowed Jordan to join her.

Ian asked, "Is he with the group of exchange students that are all going to Both.e.l.l High next year?"

She shrugged, "I barely know him, so maybe."

"Either way, I don't think that it matters," Jordan broke in, "We're here to party, not to solve mysteries."

"That is exactly right!" Coop boomed, "I mean c'mon! There are probably twenty, thirty, maybe even forty women here that none of us have met, and who probably don't even know who Ian is!"

Wally shook his head, "What's your point?"

"My point is...I'm wasting my time here talking to you guys, see ya," he said as he quickly made his way to the dance floor.

"He does raise a valid point," Wally said as he followed his friend's example.

Drake looked across the room and found a familiar young man and his date enter the building. They stood near the entrance and talked by themselves. "They're here," Drake announced.

Jordan grinned when he saw them, "Good, Amy's with him."

Drake looked at Jordan and asked, "Did you set that up?"

"Not entirely. I had hoped one of them might mention the party, since they both knew about it."

Ian frowned, "What do you mean?"

"I mentioned it all the time at work so Amy might remember it. I knew she liked Nick and I kinda hoped they'd end up seeing each other." He frowned, "Nick's always such a downer; I hoped dating someone might cure him of that."

"We'll see," Drake muttered.

Rachel recalled the last time she and Nick spoke and found a sudden urge to go and dance. She convinced Jordan and they left together for the dance floor. Drake and Ian left the table they sat at and waded through the crowd to meet Nick and Amy at the entrance. Nick introduced Amy to his two friends and they gave Ian their sympathies for being struck by lightning as well as congratulated him on both his recovery and his impending relocation to London.

Ian laughed nervously, "It wasn't like it was your fault."

"I-I know. I j-just feel s-sorry for you," Nick told him.

Drake changed the subject and asked, "So what do you two think of this place?"

"It's pretty cool," Amy complimented. "How'd you manage to book it though?"

Ian explained, "His father's rather wealthy, so it wasn't too much trouble."

Drake confirmed it, yet he grew bored of the conversation, and tried to convince his friends to go and dance. "We can all catch up later."

"Are you sure you wouldn't rather" Ian began.

Drake cut him off as he surveyed the area. "We have all night to talk, and as for this moment, I want to be out there and I think they do too," he said as he glanced at the awkward couple.

Ian agreed and slowly walked back to the table he and Drake left earlier while Drake headed for the dance floor and lost track of Nick and Amy. Drake looked about the dance floor in search of a young lady he could use his charm on to trouble her for a dance. He peered through the crowd and found many young women whom he already knew, but froze as soon as his eyes fell on a young j.a.panese girl. Drake believed she was an exchange student, as he'd never met her before. The girl stood amongst others he thought must have been with her from her homeland right before the dance area. She wore a black and red plaid skirt, and a black shirt with j.a.panese kanji printed next to a familiar character from a videogame Drake knew well. She wore her black hair up and she seemed like she could never be unhappy by the way she smiled. The thin gla.s.ses she wore gave her an even kinder look about her.

Her friends must have seen the way he stared at her as they pointed in his direction, so Drake composed himself and approached her. He walked up to her and said, "Hi I'm Drake, would you like to dance?"

The girl giggled, "I only dance on the slow songs," she told him.

Drake paused, "Hmm...How about we head down to the dance floor right now? By the time we get there a slow song should be playing," he told her.

"How would you know that?" she asked.

"There hasn't been a slow song in twenty minutes, so it's about time there was one or two."

"There isn't a way to tell that!"

"Then call it a guess. Watch," he paused, "Okay, five...four... three...two...one...now." Once he had finished counting the song tempo changed and slowed. "See?"

She laughed and followed him down to the dance floor. "How did you know it would change?" she asked.

"I asked for them to play a slow song after that last one," he lied. (In all truth he guessed and was surprised himself at the accuracy).

She smiled, "That's not a guess then."

"No it's not. So what's your name?" he asked.

"Hiromi Tsukahara."

"Hiromi," he repeated quietly. "So you're an exchange student then?"

"Yes, how did you know?"

"I could tell from your accent and your shirt."

"My shirt?" she asked, puzzled.

"Yes, you couldn't have bought that shirt in America unless you bought it from a j.a.panese retailer or imported one. That shirt was a preorder bonus for anyone who purchased the deluxe edition of Creeping Darkness in j.a.pan."

Impressed, she asked, "Why do you know so much about that?"

"I work for the company that makes the game," he admitted.

"You work for Winchester Enterprises?" her eyes widened, "How?"

"My father got me a job there."

"Wow! That's very interesting."

"What about you," he said as he diverted the subject away from himself, "How long have you been here in the States?"

"Two weeks."

"How do you like it so far?"

"I like it, but I miss my home."

"You're homesick?"

"Yes."

"So are you with the group of exchange students who are going to Both.e.l.l High?"

"Yes, are you going to school there too?" he nodded, "Great! That means we might see each other more there."

"I'd like that."

"Me too."

11:51 PM.

Baltimore, Maryland Detective Felton found three volunteers to help evacuate Mario Evanston. Bryce Maguire and Mia Hendricks were both officers and somewhat green in the field. Bryce had only been an officer and a part of the force for six months, while Mia had only a month's seniority on him, solely because she took the training through another academy and transferred into the city. Their third recruit was a veteran, Sergeant Geoff Murdock, who had been a part of the Baltimore Police Department for longer than Detective Sage could recall. Felton debriefed them, geared up, and the whole group, including Mario Evanston, headed for the garage.

"Are you sure about this," Felton whispered to Sage. "It's not like Cladis hasn't stopped a moving vehicle before."

"I know, but we're out of options and we're running out of time," he reminded his partner. "We're lucky he hasn't tried to attack him at all, considering he is probably aware of his location."

Mia Hendricks intervened, "Even if Cladis knows where this guy is, do you really think he'd try to attack him here? Is he that nuts?"

Felton frowned and told her Cladis wasn't a traditional serial killer. "We really do think he could try to attack him here."

"And you think moving him will make him more secure than in the heart of the station?"

"Yes."

The six arrived at the garage and Detective Sage broke them into three pairs, "Hendricks, you're with Maguire, Sergeant Murdock will accompany Detective Felton, and Evanston's with me. Now we all know the route, right?"

The group nodded, with the exception of Mario. They split into pairs and started walking toward their vehicles when Detective Felton shouted for everyone to drop to the ground. One of the police cruisers flew past the group and crashed into a nearby wall.

They all went for their guns but failed to find a target.

The ground trembled as the asphalt near the exit of the garage was torn into rubble. Mia and Bryce watched as a second police vehicle was raised off the ground by an unseen force. Cladis threw it toward them again and the two officers managed to dodge the vehicle, however one of the side mirrors collided with the side of Officer Maguire's head. He was down and Mia tried to help carry him away, but something slammed into her and knocked her into a wall.

Sage and Evanston hid behind one of the vehicles. The detective heard gunshots from his partner and Murdock, but couldn't tell if they managed to hit Cladis. The earth still shook and the sound of more twisting metal pierced the night.

Tears streamed down Evanston's face. He whimpered to Sage, "We're not making it out of this, are we?"

The detective couldn't answer him. A lamppost impaled Evanston through the vehicle and dragged the car along with it and into another vehicle. It pinned Sage down and within a moment the car crumpled under what Sage immediately realized was the weight of the killer. It collapsed onto Sage's leg and an audible snap along with the screams of his fellow officers was the last thing he heard.

11:46 PM.

Seattle, Washington As the party neared its peak the numbers began to dwindle. Rachel a.s.sumed her uncle was behind the imminent curfew, as nearly all of Drake's gatherings ended promptly at one in the morning. She didn't mind though, as Jordan spent the whole party talking to his friends rather than focusing on her.

She and Jordan sat with Ian, with whom Jordan chatted with while Rachel merely waited for another opportunity to drag Jordan out to the dance floor, though the couples' songs felt drastically spa.r.s.e. She knew he wanted to spend time with his newly recovered friend, but it still pained her to be second place in his thoughts.

Her young Romanian friend approached their table to tell her of the lovely time he had. "I really must be leaving though."

She frowned, "You haven't even danced once yet. You can't leave without dancing at least once," she told him.

"Well I am uncomfortable with most of the dancing I have witnessed thus far, and the couples' songs are...well, I do not have anyone to share that dance with."

"I'll dance with you."

At that moment Jordan returned to Rachel. "Wait, what if I"

Rachel stopped him. "It's only one dance. Just stay here and talk with Ian and I'll be back once the song's over."

Without letting Jordan have another say in the matter Rachel took Vladimir by the arm and led him down to the dance floor right as another slow song began.

He admitted he didn't know how to dance. "It's easy," Rachel told him, "Place your right hand at my waist, I'll set mine here on your shoulder, and we hold hands" she shivered once she touched his hand, "You're freezing."

"Yes, I'm anemic," he confessed.

"Oh." She returned to their dance and told him, "Normally the guy leads, but since this is your first time I'll lead."

The two slowly turned while they quietly talked and Vladimir nervously tried to follow her. "Are you still worried about your bracelet?" he asked.

She nodded, "I'm really afraid that I lost it on the bus."

Perplexed, Vladimir asked, "You do not trust in Jordan's word?"

"No, it's not that...It's just that it's been in my family forever and if I lost it I'd-I wouldn't know what to do," she told him.

"Well if you brought it with you, you would still have it with you, right?"

"I don't know...I never leave home without it, so I don't know if he's right and that I just didn't wear it, or that I did and it slipped off my wrist on the bus."

"I understand. Jordan did not sound entirely sure when you two talked about it earlier," Vladimir spoke, "He may not have been paying attention."