After Cassie had left the room with urgency, Eric wondered who the call could be from. Conversely, Chase had already figured out who it was. He continued to stare down at Eric, stonefaced. He shook his head, laid back on the desk. The words: "More than Chase, more than Chase, more than Chase. I love you, more than Chase..." Kept replaying in his head over, and over. He clenched his eyes shut, trying to wipe it from his head, but he couldn't get over it. He was used to Cassie, without her romantic feelings coming into play, at least not picking a favorite so definitely.

Eric was a bit worried about the call, and wondered what could be so important that he didn't need to know about it. He noticed the look on her face, it couldn't have been another guy she'd have been keeping from him. Why would she even need to? There would be nothing he could do about it. He thought back on his life, and their life. Eric wasn't the most sociable person, but he knew a hefty bit of people, and wondered who it could be. He looked over to Chase, laying on the desk, and yelled across to him. "Hey! Chase, any idea who that could be?!"

Chase didn't look at him, he kept laying there.

"Chaseeeeee!" Eric yelled, once more.

"I heard you, leave me alone!" Chase responded.

Eric paused for a second, and remembered. He wasn't paying any attention to the room, and wasn't aware that Chase was there the whole time they cuddled, and made up. Their confessions of love to each other, right in front of him. Duuuuuude, he must've been PISSED. "Listen, Chase, I-"

"Save it."Chase turned over, and looked at Eric, in the distance. "Why don't you ask her, I'm sure she'll tell you." He said. Looking directly at Eric, with cold, soul-piercing eyes before turning away.

Eric knew he couldn't get it out of Chase right now, he decided all he could do at this point was wait.

Meanwhile, a little bit of the way down the call, Cassie had answered the call. Neither person spoke at first, there was a moment of silence, and Cassie decided to lead off the conversation.

"Hello... father. What do you want?" Cassie asked in an already irritated tone.

On the other end, a harsh sounding man responded. "Daughter." took a pause for a bit, and continued. "Is the specimen still in your custody?" He asked.

"He's not a specimen, and I'm not giving him to you, so don't waste your time." She replied, coldly.

"Mind your manners, you fucking shit. I don't know why you insist on defying the works of your family for that lesser class simpleton. You constantly shame us with your mediocrity, and at this point cease to even be an asset to our operation." her father responded. "Best watch it, child, you ARE expendable."

"I'm not afraid of some coward who spends money to handle his dirty work, and threatens his own flesh and blood for making her own choices. I love Eric, you are not going to harvest him for the sake of some stupid family rivalry from ages ago. You don't even see how stupid this all is. I just want to live my life, and let him live his." Cassie took a deep breath. "You're a piece of shit."

"You speak as if you're so righteous, when you yourself were the won to volunteer to take away his freedom, and subject him to torture for the sake of our research, and now you act as if you're letting him "live his life". You will GIVE ME THE SPECIMEN, or I will TAKE him from you. If need be, I will exterminate you, you've been nothing but a smart-mouthed, entitled cunt since you came out of your mother's worthless taint."

"I made sure I was the one taking charge of this because I didn't want anyone to end up killing him, that's all there is to it... That being said, fuck you! Mom already has precautions set for you! Try to come near me, or Eric, and I'll make sure that your psychotic ass is 6 feet under!" She took in a deep breath, and yelled. "I HATE YOU!!" loud enough to be heard in the room, as well, before hanging up the phone.

"I hate you, I hate you, I hate you... You never loved me, you never loved mom, you think everything, and everyone is just some experiment for you... and I was even a pawn in this shit..." She said to herself, weeping, quietly. "Eric, I'm so sorry..."

In the room, Chase, and Eric both jumped up after hearing those words being screamed out. They looked at each other briefly. Chase was certain he knew that she was on the phone with her father. After all, they had spoken about this a few weeks before. Chase knew Cassie's father wanted Eric, he had also known about the situation Eric was in for a little while as well. He kept well to Cassie's request of keeping things quiet.

Things were getting bad, though. Cassie had kept up the front with Eric, and kept him in the dark for a while. He had to take action when she stopped showing up to school. Cassie assured him that she had had the situation under control, but when carbon monoxide leaks, and "accidents" started to become all too prevalent around her, he decided he was going to have to do something.

He informed Cassie that he was going to get the police involved, because at the very least, something needed to be done, he didn't want to see the girl he loved ending up dead because of her crazy father's ambition to steal Eric away for some reason. Cassie's father had had a history with Eric's family, in particular, his mother, with whom he had become obssessed, but was denied repeatedly. Chase thought that he wanted the first born son to get revenge for having his heart broken by her, but that was merely speculation. There were a lot of things that he didn't know about her father, and even their history together.

Cassie sat against the wall, sobbing to herself, thinking. "What would Eric say if he saw his Goddess like this? A complete mess..." She shook her head, and went to the bathroom to clean herself up.

"I need to be strong... Keeping him safe is top priority." She grabbed her phone, and made a call...