a work in progress-

This is a small piece from a story that I am working on. Enjoy.

Loud, packed, and full of teenagers. Sally-Anne's Party. Organised, of course, by Mel, who just happened to be performing a cha-cha style chicken limbo with what Cali was quite certain were very-expensive curtains tied to chairs at each end of the room. Not surprisingly the nearest window was missing a pair of curtains.

'I'll find Sally, you try and stop Mel'

'Like anythin' can stop that girl'

'Marissa...try not to be mean.'

Marissa rolled her eyes and started off in the direction of the nearest chair, 'Fine, fine..'

Poor Sal, Cali was sure she'd find her whizzing around the house trying to protect breakables instead of enjoying her own party. Where to start looking?

'I think I saw her go upstairs about five minutes ago.'

Cali jumped at the voice at her shoulder. Delos had come completely from nowhere, an annoying talent of his apparently.

'Umm who went upstairs?'

Delos answered 'Sally', he clearly meant 'Duh'

Cali raised an eyebrow in response, 'How do you know I'm looking for Sally?'

He just looked down at the small gift bag she was holding and responded with a casual smugness 'Sorry Sherlock, I guessed'

Wow, could I look any more lame? She cringed inwardly.

'So what did you do to your cheek?'

Yes,Yes I can.

'umm nothing, burned it with straightners, anyway thanks, I have to go find Sal' with that Cali headed for the stairs , becoming redder with each step. It was going to be an interesting night.

She found Sally whizzing around upstairs locking doors as she went,

'oh, guess I probably shouldn't lock the bathroom' Sally laughed unlocking the door she had just locked.

Cali smiled and gave her a hug 'Happy Birthday'
She helped Sally lock a few more doors before persuading her to come down stairs and enjoy the party. Marissa should have at least had the curtains hung on the window by now. They entered the living room and and the window was curtained and surprisingly the music was off and everyone was sitting down, on the floor , on couches, on the window sill and Marissa and Mel were in the middle of the room.

'Why should I be the one to look for everyone?' Mel was clearly indignant over something.

'C'mon Mel, it's just a harmless game of hide and seek, don't make a big deal, and anyway it was you that invited everyone, why shouldn't you look for them?' Marissa answered innocently.

Mel glowered at her.

Cali decided to intervene, 'How about Michael helps you look Mel, I mean he is really competitive..' she smiled at Michael assuring him it was a compliment and continued 'so i'm sure it won't take you long to find everyone and then you always to get to hide in the following games.' Her persuasion worked but she knew it wasn't her best diplomatic feat and the icy look Marissa shot her cofirmed it. Mel and Marissa both liked Michael. She had some making up to do and she sighed inwardly.

'Well why don't we make it interesting' , said Marissa taking centre stage once again. Let's draw partners. Cali recognised this as punishment for pairing Michael and Mel together, Marissa was making it clear that they would not be hiding together.

'Fine' thought Cali feeling spurned.

Everyone's names had been written down and drawn out in pairs. Cali was paired with Stuart Tax , she felt relieved , Stuart had always been nice to her and he was quiet and mild-mannered, she didn't mind hiding with him. Marissa on the other hand had landed herself with Troy Letterman, with whom she swapped insults on a regular basis. Cali allowed herself to feel a little smug.

'Umm Cal?.. Im sorry but I can't hide with you, I have work tonight and I really should have already left ..sorry'

'Don't worry Tax, we'll call you up for some pizza later, and this many of us you should get a good tip' Troy winked at him.

Marissa calmy ground her stiletto heel into her partners foot, 'oh i'm sorry, didn't realise your foot was there' she said with a dazzling smile.
'I'm sure I can find Cali and I a place to hide for a while' said a velvet voice from the doorway, everyone turned, it was Delos.

Cali smiled at him nervously while Neil rumaged through the paper names strewn across the table.

'Sorry man, was sure I had you written down...s'pose it don't matter now anyways..' Neil trailed off, still searching for the missing name. Delos just shrugged.

'Guess it's time to hide' He said looking at Cali.

She shivered.

Finding most of the upstairs rooms locked a few pairs hid outside; near the pool ,the garage, Sally's little brothers' treehouse and dotted around her mini peach orchard, the rest hid downstairs. Cali, remembering the upstairs bathroom was unlocked , suggested it to Delos and was now sitting on the side of the bathtub while Delos lounged by the windowsill.

After not finding a dress she liked at the mall Cali had worn dark jeans and a strappy red top with matching red kitten heels. The top left her shoulders bare and she gave a little shiver in the cold bathroom.

'You do that a lot' Delos said handing her his zipper, revealing a dark blue shirt underneath.

She noticed the outstretched zipper and hastily but politely attempted to decline it,

'Oh, thanks but im fine, it's just a little chilly in here, but we'll be out soon' Cali smiled, she felt like she was reassuring herself, being alone with Delos was making her feel awkward.

'Well just wear it in here then' He replied and draped it over her shoulders and was back by the window before she had registered the movement.

'Well I am pretty cold.' She reasoned to herself.

'Thanks' Cali gave a shy smile, slipping her arms inside the arms of the zipper.

'It's cool, looks good on you' Delos replied nonchantly.

Cali blushed.

'You do that a lot too' He smirked, clearly amused at her discomfort.

Cali spent the following minutes staring at her shoes and waiting for her face to return to its normal shade. She mentally kicked herself realising that as everyone else was downstairs or outside, she and Delos would probably be the last pair found. She could here a few screeches from outside and some muffled laughter and wondered if Sally was enjoying herself. Suddenly Delos went completely still and motioned for her to be quiet while he opened the window and carefully peered out.

'Yeah , beacuse I was totally loud moments before you did that' Cali thought to herself sarcastically.

Delos closed the window before quickly yanking Cali to her feet by the hand.

'We have to move. Now.' he told her quietly.

'Umm.. Delos, you don't have to take it this seriously, it's just a game' She replied, deciding he was probably even more competitive than Michael and also kinda weird.

'It's not that.'

There was a loud tinkling crash from downstairs.

Delos swept her to the bathroom door in one swift movement,opening it and surveying each end of the hall.
'Is there a basement?' He asked.

'What'?

'Does this house have a basement?' Delos' voice had a steely impatient edge to it which made Cali stammer out 'Its under the kitchen', while trying in vain to pull her hand from his grasp.

He did not seem to notice which infuriated her, Cali was about to protest when she heard the screams. They were all coming from downstairs and each ended as abruptly as it had started and there were numerous thuds in between.

'Tyeler' Delos muttered to himself. He closed his eyes just long enough so that the action was too long to be considered a blink and when he opened them each iris was a startling silver colour, Cali gasped in horror.
Delos clamped a hand over her mouth then lifted her in a fireman's lift, Cali struggled and bit and kicked but she may as well have been a lump of play-doh trying to push over a brick wall for all the good that it did her. Delos turned a full 360 degrees so quickly that Cali got an instant throbbing headache and then he was bundling her into a hole.

'What,Wait,What the Hell Delos!' she growled, scrambling to get upright and glowering at him, matching his unaturally bright gaze with a dark glare of her own.

Delos lowered her further into the hole before closing something above her, Cali was in complete darkness, she made her shaking hands fish her fone from her pocket and then she adjusted its camera flash to permanent. She was in Sally-Anne's basement.

Steadying herself against the stair railing, Cali tried to rationalise what had just happened. The bathroom.Delos going total weird comando mode.The smashing sound. The screams. Delos' eyes. Moving from Sally's upstairs bathroom to her basement far far far too quickly. Cali was fighting the urge to be sick. she slowly made her way up the basement stairs that she had no recollection of coming down and pushed the door above her head. It wouldn't move. He had locked her in. she started pounding on the door, 'MARRISSA! MARRISSA!'

Delos was trying to come up with a plan. He had made Cali as safe as he could hope for but it wasn't enough. He had sensed two switchers along with Tyeler, mercifully the switchers were outside, but he could feel Tyeler moving in his direction, he sprinted. Back in the bathroom he smashed the window and jumped. He glimpsed the two fatal looking Puma's as he sprinted, deliberatley trailing his zipper behind him. He knew he would be too fast for the Twins eyes to percieve, and Tyeler,despite her numerous deadly talents, couldn't sprint, she could barely run faster than a human athlete. He smirked as he completely disappeared from view.

The twins sat statuesque below the smashed window at which they knew Tyeler would soon appear . She appeared then jumped, seemingly floating to the ground from the window but in too fast a manner for it to be called floating. The Puma's could feel the fury emanating from her and quivered with deep warning growls. Even furious, Tyeler would be no match for the Twins and she knew it, Delos had got away and with the girl, she had picked up her scent in the bathroom and the Pumas picked it up as he had fled wih her.She aimed her fury at the nearby luxurious looking swimming pool. Throwing out her hand towards it there was a sharp whistling sound as billows of searing hot steam rose in the air.The pool was bone dry.
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Tyeler gracefully lifted herself from the tiled floor of the throne room of her home, she could hear the tourists making their way through the museum above her, she felt dizzy, after a few deep breaths her thoughts turned to her borther.

'How long was I out?'

'Long enough that the floor has transfered a nice little part of the mosaic to your face.' She heard Morgan reply unsympathetically.

'How.Long.'

'Two days'

'JESUS MORGAN!!'

Tyeler's eyes searched him out and found him sitting looking amused on the platform steps at the end of the room, she concentrated on boiling all the moisture in his mouth. She saw Morgan's lips crack before she hit the floor again.This time it only took her an hour to regain consciousness.She heard Morgan's voice above her when she woke up.

'Two days was O.T.T but I was pissed at you, you're fine, Paul checked you over.'

Tyeler took the arm he offered to help her up.

'What happened to her? Has she been found? She asked once she was steady on her feet.

Morgan dropped her arm, ' No , Delos doesn't want her to be found,but the wait won't be long, he'll come to us, he knows he can't run for long. The twins are downstairs if you want more info, it still... irritates me to speak.'

Tyeler smirked and headed for her quarters, it wasn't an easy feat to injure her brother and she had managed to actually make him feel pain.

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