-SEQUEL TO THE REPLACEMENTS- Vengeance (YouTube FanFic)

[Chapter 14] Never Expected

-Anthony's POV-

I couldn't sleep all night. Too much was going on in my head. And sleep was the least of my worries. I sat downstairs, on the couch, staring at the lighted Christmas tree with only a few presents beneath it.

Around six o'clock, Natalie rushed down the stairs and into the living room, only to whimper when she didn't see any stockings filled above the fireplace or presents under the tree. She walked around the couch and sat beside me.

"How long have you been up?" She asked me quietly.

"All night," I replied, not making eye contact with her.

"Oh..."

"You know, Ian and I wanted to take you and Rach on separate vacations," I mentioned out of the blue, "We were going to propose to you guys."

She gasped, "Really?"

I nodded my head, "But now it can't happen..."

"OH MY GOD!" She shouted, "HE WAS GOING TO PROPOSE TO ME!?!"

"Shh!" I whispered, "There's people sleeping, you know."

She stood up, "Well excuse me if I'm getting a little excited, but Ian Hecox, my crush since I can remember, was going to propose to me!"

I rolled my eyes, "I shouldn't have told you..."

"This is amazing!" She continued, "Ian really loved me!" She ran off screaming like a maniac as quietly as she could.

I pulled out my phone and popped in some earbuds, putting on Pandora. I started listening to Christmas music, but that reminded me of Rachael because she used to love it. I changed the station and started swiping through pictures in my camera roll. Then I came across a video that I didn't know where it came from. I clicked it open and it showed a picture of the waves crashing up against the shore. Then the camera panned to Rachael in the water wearing her black bikini and Ray Ban sunglasses, playing with our Golden Retriever puppy, M.C. Lars (Rachael picked the name, I forgot why...).

"Hey, Rachael!" My voice came in from behind the camera. Her head turned toward me and then I splashed a huge wave of water at her. She shrieked as she tensed up. She calmed down and started to laugh.

"You're so mean!" She shouted teasingly.

I walked up to her and gave her a kiss. Then our dog ran through the water between our legs and ran up to Ian and Natalie, who were laying on their sides facing each other on the beach on a blanket under an umbrella. M.C. ran up to them and started licking Ian's face.

Natalie fell on her back and burst into laughter. Ian sat up, "M.C.!" He shouted, starting to wipe his face of the drool.

I closed the video and threw my phone down on the couch. I closed my eyes, covered my face with my hands, and took a big breath in. Why did Rachael have to die? Why!?!

-Natalie's POV-

Christmas this year wasn't anything what I expected it to be. What we planned back in California was that we were going to just spend the day together opening presents, going over to Shane and Lisa's for brunch, and then send our parents a Merry Christmas over the phone or Skype. Maybe even record a special Christmas vlog or new Nachael video.

I never expected that I'd be back home with Rachael and Ian gone and Shane's and my parents in the hospital. Nor did I ever expect that I would be as upset and revengeful towards Melanie and Kalel as I am right now.

After the ten of us ate something for breakfast around ten in the morning, we all took a break from all of this chaos and watched A Christmas Story on TBS.

Anthony looked even more upset than he did when I saw him this morning. I wonder why...

Then, after the movie was over, we decided to work on a plan to try and defeat Kalel and Melanie before any more of us are taken down. What's peculiar though is that Melanie hasn't seemed to cause any trouble since she came to see us in the hospital. Maybe she meant what she really said...and I know for sure she wouldn't kill Ian. It had to be Kalel.

And though Joey highly disagreed with it, we all planned to go back to California. At least there, all of us would know our way around and we wouldn't be freezing our asses off or running out of clothes or sharing rooms with five other people.

We visited our parents once again and told them that we were leaving. Shane's mom said that she'll come back when she's released from the hospital. After we left, we went to the airport to get our tickets for the next flight to Sacramento.

While we were sitting in the waiting room, Anthony tapped my shoulder.

"Yeah?" I asked him, turning my head to look at him.

He averted his eyes and said, "Would Rachael have said yes to me?"

I raised my eyebrow, "What?"

"If I proposed to her, would you know if she would've said yes?"

I scoffed, "Of course she would! Why on earth wouldn't she?" He shrugged his shoulders. I laughed slightly, "Anthony, she really loved you."

"It's just...she was mad at me before she got killed," He sighed, "I feel really bad."

"She wasn't mad. She was...overwhelmed by everything that was happening."

He looked at me, "Ian really loved you too. He would constantly tell me over and over again."

I smirked.

Just then, the announcement for the flight sounded and we all got up to walk over to the gate. The ten of us boarded, and luckily we all got seats relatively close to each other in second class. I sat between Anthony and Toby. Anthony fell asleep, so I only had Toby to talk to. About a half hour later, a flight attendant walked by. I watched as she past, and under the pilot hat she wore, I noticed the recognizable brown hair and blue eyes. Oh no. What was she doing on this plane?