Minutes to Midnight.

There was an extremely awkward silence as Sasuke, Itachi, Mia, Bella, Draco, and I all sat around the dining room table. I felt the need to say, "A gay baby was just born," but decided against it so Sasuke wouldn't blow up another table. Poor trees.

"So," Itachi broke the silence, "you've been talking with your mom, have you Ren - Isabelle?"

Bella just about choked on her french toast upon hearing this news (seeing as I hid the penant carefully under my shirt from anyone just to be safe) and I could see Sasuke resisting a glare as he dug his fork into the table. Damn poor trees.

I nodded slowly, taking a sip of my apple juice. No Coke in the morning for once, was I crazy? "Y-yeah...She sent me a letter, I responsed, Howl - her husband - responsed, and I sent one back again. Now I'm just...waiting."

"Howl?" Bellatrix said curiously. "As in Howl Brimstone, Howl?"

I cut my eyes at her. Mia gave me a, 'something-smells-really-fishy-here' look. I nodded in response to her.

"I dunno, maybe. Why?" I replied, trying to act casual. "How would you know if his last name is Brimstone?" Which in conviniently was.

Bellatrix was caught off guard by my casual suspicion. "Oh...uh...just...just curious is all. I used to know a boy named Howl Brimstone. Just wondering if it was the same one."

Bullshit. We all knew that. Even Sasuke and Itachi did. Hell, Sasuke and Mia even shared mutual feelings about Bellatrix - she was cold blooded murderer, that was it. But we needed her for info. For three fifteen year olds, that was pretty good for us and she didn't even see it coming. She was using me for an escape, and I was using her to find my mom.

Damn, I must have gotten some of her bloodline in me too. Uck.

Mia, Draco, and I exchanged suspicious looks all knowing her story was shit and she was lying through her teeth. There was a few missing puzzle pieces here, and somehow, someway, by any means necessary, we would figure it out and find those fucking pieces.

I stood up abrubtly, grabbing my plate. "Excuse me everyone but.." Come on inner evil Renee, give me a good excuse! "But I really should go get dressed for the day. Quick shower too. I feel like I slept in a jar of cheese puffs!"

Everyone gave me questioning looks, except Mia and Draco who knew my intentions.

Stupid Itachi, suspicious Sasuke, and unsure Bellatrix waved me off and went back to their awkward breakfast as I put my plate in the sink and headed upstairs.

Once I was at the top of the stairs, I checked to make sure I wasn't being followed and made sure no one knew my true intentions.

I took my hairtie, pulled my hair back into a messy bun, and sensed the door in front of me to be locked. I smirked at my perfectly sharpened nails and picked the lock with ease, stepping into Bellatrix's room and immedietly picking up a feeling of dread. I felt almost like Rose from Vampire Academy does around the Strigoi - sick.

"You can sense us, than." A voice said in the shadows of Bella's eerie room.

I gasped, taken off guard, and stepped in, closing and locking the door behind me.

"Who...who's there?" I said shakilly.

A shadowed figure came before me. I squinted and made it out to be a girl not much younger than myself. Thirteen, maybe?

"My name is Kora Bourdain. Your cousin." She said, her full figure coming into view.

I gaped at her. "K-Kora?" She nodded. "But you're--"

She nodded again. "Dead, I know." For dead, she looked pretty good.

"You're all in white, does that mean you're--"

She shook her head this time. "It's not exactly Heaven." I raised an eyebrow. "People like us cannot get into Heaven. But for people like us that are good, we go through Heaven's Gate. Sort of a mock Heaven for people with magic, or vampires, or shape-shifters. Only the pure mortals can go to Heaven itsself."

"What about wrong doers?" Did I just say 'wrong doers?'

"Those who have done bad like rob or cheat or whatever go through Hell's Gate. It's a bad place, much like Hell itsself. But it's nothing like the last."

"What do you mean?"

"There are three Gates: Heaven's, Hell's, and Spirit's. Heaven's Gate is for all those who lead life just fine with peace and little trouble. Hell's Gate is for the trouble makers. But none such as yourself." Kora frowned and another figure appeared just behind her.

"You might as well tell her." Came a boy's voice.

"I was somewhat getting to that, Matthew." Kora replied. Soon enough, I could perfectly see Matthew Bourdain, dressed pretty much the same.

"Isabelle, you're looking...alive." Matthew commented, nodding to me.

I nodded back. "Ah, thanks. What's going on here?"

"Isabelle," Matthew said, his face serious, "each of get a locket for our birth month when we die," Kora and Matthew held up lockets indicated their December and January months, "because we made it into Heaven's Gate."

"Where are you going with this...?" I asked uneasilly.

"You wouldn't make it into Heaven's Gate, Isabelle." Kora replied sadly.

"You would be stuck at what's known as like an inbetween - Spirit's Gate." Matthew replied, a hint of pity in his tone.

"What's that mean?"

Kora and Matthew looked at each other, Kora's expression sad and Matthew's serious but pitied when Matthew replied, "Spirit's Gate is almost like a place of torture for those who's magic is strange. Much like Dark attributed magic. Or souls who have plagued. You could be on the good guys' team, but if your Soul is fucked, than so are you."