It was late, dark…the only light in the room was the soft red glow of the numbers on his alarm clock. 3:21…3:22…3:23…the minutes passed slowly. The world was silent…asleep…but Max lay awake, another restless night filled with dark thoughts that plagued his mind.

To sleep would be to find peace, and that was something that Max didn’t think he could understand anymore.

He remembered what peace was like…back before Tess came to town, and the whole destiny fiasco began.

Peace was Liz Parker’s embrace.

Peace was trust in his friends.

Peace was gone.

Suddenly it seemed as though his entire world was filled with nothing except lies and betrayals.

Lies from Liz.

Lies from Isabel.

Betrayed by Michael.

Who was left for him to trust? Tess? No. He couldn’t trust her. She was the one who started all of this mess. Maria? No…she was Liz’s friend first and foremost.

He had nobody…no one was left for him to count on.

It was amazing how quickly everything could fall apart. Two years earlier, alone was just a part of who Max was. He had Michael and Isabel…but his world was empty…meaningless. He would spend each day going through the motions of a life, but never really living…never getting involved…never caring about anything.

Then there was the shooting, and he had Liz. Suddenly the dark, lonely cavern that had been Max’s world opened up, and the light that was Liz Parker suddenly streamed inside. His world became so beautiful. Max knew then and there that he could never be trapped away in his cave again.

Alex and Maria had found their way into his little world, and together, as a group they had learned to lean on each other…to rely on each other. They formed a family.

It was wonderful.

And now it had all gone to hell.

First Tess came, and she had cracked and eventually shattered everything that had developed between he and Liz. He had pushed Liz, begged her to come back to him, but she never relented. Although he never voiced it aloud…Max blamed Tess. He decided to try being her friend…who knew what could happen? But deep down inside, Max would never stop resenting Tess for the rift she had created between him and the love of his life.

Liz…

His heart ached at the thought of her, and all of the still young pain inside of him came rushing back to the surface. A haunted look flew into Max’s eyes, and a single, lonely tear slipped down his cheek, as the image of her and Kyle flashed into his mind’s eye.

First she broke his heart, betrayed him for one night with Kyle, and now she continued to lie to him about it.

Max knew it could never be true. He knew it!

Max knew Liz better than anyone. He knew her soul intimately, because it was the same as his own. She would never, could never be with anyone besides him, just like he could never be with Tess.

There was something going on with her. Someone or something must have scared her into doing this to him. As angry as Max was with her, as hurt and betrayed as he felt, Max was scared for her, for her safety. He desperately wished that she would talk to him. Maybe together they could work through it.

But she lied.

Everything was a lie.

His world ended the day that Liz Parker started lying to him.

And then Isabel started acting strangely too, and things grew even worse, if that was even possible.

The Vilandra Project.

Vilandra…

Isabel was Vilandra.

What did all of this mean? What was the skin’s interest in Vilandra? What did they know that Max didn’t?

Max knew one thing for certain. Isabel abandoned him in a time of crisis. She betrayed him to the skins. She could have gotten them all killed.

Max couldn’t remember ever being this angry with her before.

And this hurt…

She had betrayed him.

And then there was Michael. Michael was just stupid. There was no other way to put it.

Michael put his trust in a skin. He divulged information to a skin that should have stayed among the group. They couldn’t trust anyone else.

Michael risked all of their lives by trusting Courtney.

Michael…who had been like a brother to Max, who he had always trusted.

Michael betrayed him.