"I'm cold," I lied. He quickly removed his coat and tossed it up to me. It was extremely warm and the scent was intoxicating-like sleeping on a bed of flowers on the first night of Spring.

I felt safe with Marcus, but there was also an intensity about it-an excitement from being near him, and often times it would even linger when he wasn't around, and make me want to be with him more. The feeling was becoming more and more addicting and I wasn't sure I could live without it.

Marcus raised his violin into position, looked up into my eyes and then...a bewitching tune melded onto the airwaves and spread over me like the afternoon sunset that flared through the trees and sank into the graves of the dead, never to be seen again.

Even with his coat on, I felt chills. The tune he played was sad at first. And then it flirted with a tune that sounded like love. Those two frequencies made a bittersweet melody that burst into a cry of pain, a wailing of war. Finally, the heartache subsided and silently imploded onto a string of notes that were unsettling. The sound that ended the melody was a sound that was unsure of itself. It was equivalent to reading a book and coming across a page that abruptly stopped in the middle of a paragraph and did not continue on. This sound was definitely not the ending of his tune. It wasn't happy nor sad. It was just unwritten.

I realized tears trickled from my eyes. I quickly wiped them away. The sun faded and night began to descend. The sky was a deep navy blue. Marcus sat his violin aside and dropped to one knee, as though he were about to propose. His eyes flickered with seriousness. He took my hand into his. "Ellie, would you frolic in the land of forever with me?"

"What's the land of forever?"

There was a long pause and then he said, "We're sitting in it."

"But we're always here together." Just then I saw how his jaw muscles tightened and I realized that's not exactly what he'd meant.

"Marcus, is your life really that bad?" He dropped my hand, stood up, and looked away from me.

He submerged his hands into his pockets. "Let's forget I even said that, please." He hid his face.

I stood up on the stone wall. "Marcus, look at me. I wish you'd tell me something rather than nothing at all."

He slightly turned to face me, his eyes ablaze with emotion. "I can't stand being away from you, Ellie."

"Then don't."

"It's not that easy." He looked away from me again.

"It can be. I'm right here." I looked down at him, hoping he could see how much I longed to be with him.

He turned back around to face me, his eyes saddened. "I should get you back."

I paused a moment before saying, "I'd rather be with you."

When he didn't respond, I added, "It'd be nice to lay atop your car and watch the stars."

"Not tonight," he said, and it felt like I'd been given a death sentence. That's how much my heart sank. As he drove me back, the ride was silent. The entire time, I wished I knew his thoughts or for him to know mine. I wanted so much to spend one entire night with him. To lay in his arms in a warm bed and feel him next to me. I wanted to entwine my body with his.

He wanted that, too. But we knew that one night wouldn't be enough. We'd want it forever. And ever. And ever.

A deeper part of me was concerned for him. Did he hang out in graveyards because he longed for death as I once had?

Surely this wasn't the case. I took a side glance at him through my peripheral. He glanced back, his eyes sparkling. He had too much life in him to just die. That wasn't something I needed to worry about.

But I did want to come to a mutual understanding of one thing, even if I never figured out the rest. Were we even dating? Were we boyfriend and girlfriend? I had to know.

"What are we?"

He looked at me with pa.s.sion in his eyes. "Well, I don't know about you, but I'm in love." His face was serious, but his eyes smiled.

My breath caught.

I wasn't sure how I'd ever be able to go to sleep now. I wasn't even sure how to respond, and I was afraid my silence might dishearten him. After a moment, he noticed I was struggling for a response. I wanted to tell him I loved him, too, but it was lodged in my throat and wouldn't come out in words. He smirked. "You're not required to say anything, you know. But, if you feel the same, then just take my hand." He turned his right palm up, and placed it near my left one. One heart beat. Two heart beats. Three heart beats.

His eyes stayed focused on the road ahead. My eyes were on his hand. When he went to move his hand away, I stopped him by taking it into mine and entwining my fingers with his.

Electric volts shot through my veins. That was the loudest silence I'd ever heard and it wasn't silent at all. Nothing, and I mean nothing, could replicate how I felt that night. And I can't even describe.

I felt my heart unbreak.

Evermore Something always drew me to the woods. They were vacant. They were Eerie. They held a promise that I couldn't quite place.

I didn't want to go there that afternoon but I couldn't control it-I had to go. Every sound, the wind rustling leaves, snapping limbs, the crunch beneath my feet-caused my skin to p.r.i.c.kle. My heart beat in antic.i.p.ation.

I would not be satisfied until I found what lay hidden in these woods. What secrets did these woods whisper to the wind? When I breathed the air, it left a deep impression in my entire being.

Something was definitely here. I stuck my hands deep into my coat pockets and inhaled. Before I could exhale, I saw Marcus, leaned against the tree, hair in his face, eyes ablaze with emotion, and my breath caught in my throat.

"I need to tell you something, Ellie."

"Okay." Inhale. Exhale. "Speak." I tried to steady my voice.

"Before I do, you have to promise me that you won't run away."

I really wanted to know what he had to say. He looked serious. I was curious. "I promise."

He pushed himself off the tree and inched closer to me, closing the s.p.a.ce between us.

"Have you ever noticed anything....different about me?"

"Besides the fact that you seem secretive? No..."

"Maybe you should pay more attention." He now stood only mere inches from my face. I couldn't breathe. "I don't have a shadow."

I closed my eyes and gulped, hoping my pulse would return to normal. He raised my hand to his chest. My pulse rapidly thumped. I felt the hardness of his body. "My heart does not beat."

I quivered. He was right. He had no pulse. The only beating between us was my heart.

"Ask me where I live." I didn't want to look him in the eye. A nervousness I'd never experienced until now, bubbled up in my gut. My lips trembled. My breathing, unsteady.

He repeated the question. "Ask me where I live."

I took a deep breath. "You're dead. You live in the cemetery." It came out in a winded rush. I might've accepted this reality for what it was if he'd stopped there. But he didn't.

"You wanna know what else?" He circled me.

"No..." But he wanted me to know anyway. He pivoted and ran at superhuman speed, then exploded into a white raven and flew overhead.

This was unreal. He'd been the raven that had watched me the entire time. I was afraid. Very afraid.

Before I realized what had happened, my feet rose off the ground and I ran. My heart beat out of control. My limbs, numb. My body shook from disbelief.

He swerved down in front of me and exploded back into human-like form. I skidded to a halt, breathing rapidly.

"No, you love me! You promised not to run."

"I lied." I spun around and ran the other way.

He stopped me again. "There's nothing to run from. I would never hurt you."

"You're, you're not human," I stammered. "You're the Evermore. I'm supposed to kill you."

"Likewise," he said. "I was supposed to have already ripped your entire body apart, but I have other plans for it." He stepped closer. "I need to ask you permission."

"For what?" My heart beat out of control.

"To haunt you, to be in your life." His eyes bore into mine. "I want to infiltrate every part of your existence."

"This isn't normal. This isn't real."

He raised both my hands to lock with his. "It's very real." My world stood still, but at the same time it spun faster than it ever had.

"Things like this just don't happen."

"But things like these do." Then he kissed me and it felt like the world was ending and beginning all at the same time. When our lips parted, and my vision returned to normal, I saw three people in red robes approach us. They had pale faces. They removed the hoods of their robes from their head.

The girl spoke first. She appeared to not have slept in months. "h.e.l.lo."

The two guys had black eyes that glowed with what appeared to be vengeance. The red figure that'd been watching me had been real. I just didn't know if it had been one of the three who now stood before me.

I looked at Marcus, whose defense muscles flexed. His face tightened. He took my hand into his and gripped it tightly. I knew this meant trouble.

Escape to Nevermore "We're from The Society," The girl spoke. Marcus eyed the guy with the s.h.a.ggy brown hair as though if he made a wrong move, Marcus would attack.

"I sensed your arrival," Marcus glanced quickly at the girl, but put his gaze back on that guy, who eyed me with a slight smirk on his face. I felt my body tremble. Marcus squeezed my hand tighter, and narrowed his eyes at him.

"You're with a mortal, Dear Marcus. She now knows about our world. Don't you think she's in danger? Did you not tell her the truth?"

I looked at him. "The truth? What's the truth?"

His face was tight and he didn't reveal anything. I looked back at the girl whose eyes glowed. "Do you know who he is?" She asked me. She knew I did not entirely know. "Not all guys like him are tragic romantic heroes. There's a great possibility this could end badly. That he could grow sour and turn on you, which would endanger us all."

"Well that's a chance I'm going to take."

"Really? Even at the expense of your own life, you're willing to continue to be with him?"

I didn't have to think about it. "Yes."

"I don't think you understand how serious this really is. We're here to stop this absurd romance before our existence is annihilated."

"I don't care about you," I told her. "Any of you." I could feel Marcus telling me to stop. To not push them any further.

"We don't care about petty little Ellie Piper, either," she said, calm and even. "I think you understand what would happen if you become a problem."

"Well, if you're going to kill me, I can just become one of you. Marcus will change me." He gripped my hand again and I tried not to let the pain show in my face.

That guy looked at me again, with interest flickering in his eyes and a smirk inching around his lips.

"You don't understand any of this. There is no way to become what we are. We are d.a.m.ned. Outcasts. The undead, resurrected from the grave, to live a most miserable of existences. There is nothing worthy about what we are. You could never be one of us. We're monsters." Then she looked at Marcus again. Hard. "And don't you ever forget that, Marcus Marble," her eyes twinkled. In unison, they placed the hoods of their red robes on their heads and vaporized into the air. Disappeared.

The sky was inching toward darkness, with a deep blue afterglow lingering above us.

"I have to show you something," Marcus said. And before I could ask him what he had to show me, he tossed me onto his back in one quick motion, and told me to hold on tight. My heart pounded. Then, at superhuman speed, we were running. Everything around us blurred. Looking at it made me motion sick. At the end of the woods, he leapt into the air and rose above the trees, sky rocketing us higher and higher.

Then he ran on the air and leapt again, landing on a skyway. He sat me down. Clouds swam around us and I could see the stars, the milky way spinning.

"Get ready to hold your breath."

"Why?"

"Because we're about to drop."

At that moment, faster than any roller coaster had ever moved, the sky dropped us at the speed of light and landed us in front of a black Gothic castle on top of a mountain with an ocean roaring below.

In front of the castle entrance, two gargoyles sat guarded on either side of the entrance way.

"Where is this?"

"My version of heaven," he said.

I felt sick. I needed to close my eyes. I needed to lay down. I dropped to the ground and laid on the cool turquoise gra.s.s. I could hear the ocean. Waves crashed against the bottom of the mountain and sounded like a thousand whispers being played on a high frequency. There was no way off this mountain, just like there was no clear way to get on it.

When I opened my eyes, I caught a glimpse of glittering white light. I raised my head off the ground and saw Marcus standing above me, with gigantic fiber-optic angel wings. I wanted to touch them. He bent over and extended his hand to help me off the ground.

I stood to my feet and gazed at him. His dark hair hung down in his face and his expression was tragic.

"You're beautiful," I breathed. He flapped his wings three times.

The castle doors creaked open and gargoyle mouths opened and breathed blue fire. Marcus turned his attention from me to the castle. I turned around. A perambulating skeleton emerged from inside the castle and walked a few feet toward us. "Welcome home, Sir," the skeleton bowed.

Marcus took my hand gently and we walked toward the castle entrance.