The Lost Part 1

Prologue:
The lights were bright, almost blinding if you looked directly at them. They hovered over a smooth table with a thin white paper sheet spread over it. Around it were counters with cabinets over them, filled with supplies no one could see. The tile was covered with towels to soak up any remaining water covering them. A door opened, and a man entered the room. Several people followed him; their hands were gripping the arms of a thirteen year old boy. He struggled against them, but they were stronger.

"Put him on the table," the man said. No emotion came through in his voice. Not even disappointment, which was what the boy had expected.

His fellows obeyed, forcing the kid onto the table. The man pulled ropes out of his bag and handed it to one of the strangers. Some of them tied the ropes around the boy, while the others kept him still. He managed to fidget, but the ropes were string and hard tp break.

"Do you understand why we're doing this?" the man said in that same expressionless voice. "Do you understand what you've done to yourself?"

The boy knew the man was not expecting a reply, so he kept his eyes on the bright lights above him. It hurt, but it was better than staring into the cold, disdainful eyes of the man. His hands shook, and his stomach churned. It hadn't been long ago since he'd eaten breakfast, and now he was afraid it would come up, all over him and the people.

"You disappoint me," the man continued, pulling out a very thin knife. A scalpel. "What will happen will be your fault, and you will deserve it. Are you listening to me?"

The boy continued to stare at the lights. His breathing was speeding up. The man, who had expected a response, slammed his fost on the table. The boy flinched, a startled noise forming in his throat but never coming out.

"I said," the man's voice was angry now, "are you listening to me?"

The boy nodded, trembling even more. "I am," he whispered, because he thought the man wanted to hear him say it.

The man, satisfied, nodded to one of his companions. They pulled something out of their pocket, but the boy could not see what it was. Frightened, he looked at the ropes to see if there was a weak point he could struggle against. There wasn't. He was trapped.

He could feel the thing prick his skin. His heart sped up with the fear of what they were going to do. It wasn't long before the world dimmed out of view.

Chapter 1:
The sky was crying. It's tears fell down fiercely. The road turned into a river, and the sidewalk was covered with puddles. The bus moved slowly so it wouldn't spin out of control. Raindrops were streaming down the windows. A girl sat alone in the backseat of the bus. Her face was covered with the hood of her thick black hoodie. Her hands were tucked in her pockets, and she paid no attention to the pounding rain. Her phone lay beside her, unmoving. She glanced at it occasionally, but it didn't make any noise.

It had been months. Why was she still trying to get through to them? If they hadn't replied ages ago, they wouldn't reply now. The girl's eyes stayed on her shoes, her tiny hope withering like a flower's petals in fall. Blinking back tears, she grabbed her phone and harshly shoved it into her backpack. She leaned back into the seat and pulled her hood farther over her face.

Everyone was talking without a car in the world. They sounded so happy. The girl was jealous. They had their friends, but she had no one. Her last friend had gone and forgotten about her. If he hadn't, he'd be talking to her. She wiped the tears and looked at the window. The gloomy sky and its tears calmed her. It was like the world shared her pain.

The bus stopped, and kids slowly moved to get out. No one wanted to be out in the downpour. No one wanted to get soaked. The girl didn't understand why they didn't hurry up. Most of them needed a shower anyway.

When the bus began to move again, the girl decided to check the time. She pulled out her phone and was surprised to see a text message. Quickly she typed in her password, a spark of hope reviving.

The number was unfamiliar; she didn't have it in her contacts. She was going to read it, but the bus stopped again. She looked up and saw that they had arrived at her bus stop. Stifling an annoyed sigh, she slipped her backpack on and headed out. She noticed the bus driver give her a concerned look as she passed. Not surprising. Several months ago, she would never wear thick black hoodies and sweatpants.

The girl did not have an umbrella, and the rain soaked into her hoodie. She hurried through the rain, reflecting that she wouldn't mind getting sick. It would mean she wouldn't have to go to school, where almost everyone hated her and avoided her.

The front door was locked, so she took out her keys. It opened to a dark house. Her parents were busy working. She went straight up to her room. Expecting silence and familiar bleakness, she reached to turn on the light.

"Hey, Yana!" a voice said as a hand fell on her shoulder.

Yana shrieked and jumped around. Behind her was a boy with short brown hair and a saggy T-shirt. He was holding a bag of chips in one hand.

"Jacob, what are you doing in my house?" Yana asked, angry.

"Why are you so surprised? I told you I was coming," Jacob said, looking insulted at her coldness. "You do check your phone, right?"

So it was Jacob that texted her. That still didn't explain the why.

"Do my parents know you're here?" Yana said, ignoring his sarcasm.

"Uh..." Jacob tapped his chin thoughtfully. "I... actually don't know. I think Dad told them. Unless he forgot."

An awkward silence hung over their heads. Yana didn't know what to say. Jacob didn't go to school anymore, not after Isaac pulled him out to homeschool him. Just another sign of the change that had gone over them since that day. And it wasn't just Jacob that had left her all by herself at that horrible school. Ed had disappeared without a trace or a word, and when Yana had gone to the principal to ask where he was, he had told her that Ed had transferred to another school. Yana had been so shocked. Ed would have told her something important. The past months had been spent with her praying that her friend would come back. She couldn't handle being bullied on her own.

Eduardo, Ed's older brother, had left too, but his buddies still hated Yana and treated her so badly that Yana had considered begging her parents to homeschool her. The only thing keeping her back was the fact that her parents had become very busy over the months. She didn't know what they were doing.

"I actually came to ask you something," Jacob said softly. Yana's quietness unnerved him, and he shifted on his feet, the only indication of his uncomfortableness. She used to be very talkative, so her not leaping into a conversation was deeply unsettling. "We're having a party."

"A party?" Yana said skeptically. "You came to my house to invite me to a party? Couldn't you have just texted me or sent me a card?"

"You blocked me," Jacob pointed out. "Besides, I wanted to see how you're doing."

Yana headed over to her desk to increase the distance between her and Jacob. She set down her bag and pulled out her homework. She didn't ask what the party was. Jacob watched her and decided he should just give her the details anyway.

"Amethyst's birthday is coming soon, and we're throwing a party for her. Dad thought you'd want to come, so he sent me to invite you."

Yana's attention suddenly snapped to Jacob at the mention of his cousin. "Amethyst? As in Miriam's little sister?"

"Yes," Jacob said, pleased that Yana was showing interest now. "The party's on April 13th. She'd really like to get to know you."

April 13th. A week from tomorrow. Yana kept her eyes on her desk, her fingers drumming its surface as she considered the offer. She didn't know whether or not she should go. She had nothing against Amethyst, but they barely knew each other. The girl had seemed very shy when they had met, and she didn't seem like the type of person to have a big party. Unless, of course, it wasn't a big party. It could be a small one. Yana would go if there were barely any people. She wasn't in the mindset for huge social interaction. Her parents would approve of her going.

Jacob's phone buzzed. He picked it up and frowned to see a text. "Dad wants me home," he said. "He's going back to work." He sighed and put his phone back into his pocket. "It's been too long since we've spent time together," he muttered, a hint of resentment in his voice.

Well that was something they could relate on. Yana's parents had been gone until eight the entire week. Still, she didn't say anything to Jacob.

"Please come," Jacob said as he headed out the door. "It would make everyone happy." With that, he was gone.

***

Jacob still felt uneasy when he walked back into his house. Yana's attitude was making him realize he probably should have talked to her more, especially since they shared the same loss. In his defense, he had barely known her until Miriam and Malcolm had come along. She was younger than him, and he secluded himself so that few people knew him. He regretted it. His and Yana's experiences should have made them support each other. Their parents had no idea, since they were so busy with their work.

Jacob headed into the kitchen and saw Amethyst sitting at the table, gently brushing her pet rabbit. His eyes were closed in content.

"Hi," Jacob said.

Amethyst waved and continued. Jacob grabbed a soda and left, wishing his relationships weren't so complicated. His mom had left, Dad was too busy to spend time with him, Miriam had seemed to dislike him, Yana had taken that feeling, and Amethyst was extremely quiet and didn't want to do anything. It was his dad that had basically constructed the party. Amethyst had just wanted to spend it by herself. Jacob heavily sat on his bed, feeling the stress and pain of the months hanging over him. He took a sip of his soda, relishing the fizz. He felt so, so tired. Sugar would wake him up.

He wished that day hadn't happened. It had ruined everything. If only he could summon a genie and fix everything that had gone wrong on that horrible, memorable day.

Chapter 2:
The office was empty. The desk, chair, and filing cabinets were still there, but the things they had contained were gone. Not a trace of Antonio Cortez remained in this cold, dreary office. Isaac, Alexei, and Victoria stood in the place still reeking of a broken bottle of air freshener. The air freshener's existence puzzled them. There had used to be a plug in air freshener, so the bottled version was just confusing. Two were completely unnecessary. But there was a more pressing problem. Antonio hadn't been seen since that day, but his office had been cleared out and they knew the head of the lab hadn't ordered it.

That meant Antonio himself or one of his goons had cleared it out. Whatever the case, it was incredibly suspicious, and the adults were determined to figure it out. Why would he dare come back knowing that there were people who could expose him? The answer eluded them, and they hated it.

Isaac opened a drawer in the desk, disappointed to see it empty. He crouched down and looked at the bottom side of the desk. He was hoping to see a slip of paper or a sticker, but there was nothing. He touched the wood, using his senses to find anything strange. It was smooth and slick. No bumps or other textures. Isaac pulled his hand away and got up.

"Nothing?" Victoria asked. She had paused from looking through the empty file cabinets. Somehow Antonio had had the time to clear those out.

Alexei huffed angrily, looking up from the floor. "This is a waste. Antonio is too careful to make a mistake like that."

"Except he was in a hurry," Isaac said. "He must have been. He had to have left something."

Victoria shut the cabinet with a sigh. "We can't hope for that much, Isaac. It might not be true."

Isaac didn't say anything. He knew it would be bad to keep false hope living. They left Antonio's old office, unsure what to do. They needed to find out where he had gone because they were confident he wouldn't leave them alone. They knew about his secret project. They thought he would try to eradicate them so his secret would be protected. They needed to find him as soon as possible to protect themselves and their kids.

It was a quiet day at the labs. It was noon, so almost everyone was either out or in the lounge eating lunch. It had been easy to walk in, even though Isaac had his job there two years before. Nobody cared. It wasn't like he would mess things up.

They left quickly, hoping whoever was watching the cameras didn't find their behavior suspicious. There was no way that person would think that because people obviously snooping around and looking under desks totally isn't suspicious at all.

On his way home, Isaac stopped by a large plot of grass and stone. It was a quiet place filled with a silence broken only by the wind. It held a solemn mood and a tension so thick it could only be cut by a knife. Isaac went to his trunk and opened it, refusing to look at the stones. There were only two he needed to see. He opened the trunk of his car, grabbing the flowers tucked inside. For four years he had done this despite the arguments that had split them apart months before the accident happened.

He went into the heavy air, letting regret and sadness creep out of it's hole. Everything should have been different; if it had, their current troubles wouldn't exist. He stopped in front of a pair of stones, together forever. He knelt down and set the flowers on the ground between them. He brushed the right one with his fingers, remembering the past.

He had thought they would have a chance to reconcile, but it would never happen. Their divides had gone into the grave. Isaac's heart longed for those lost chances. He realized his knees were on the ground; he stood up and self-consciously wiped off the dirt, looking around nervously. No one was around. He looked back at the tombstones, reluctant to leave. These were the only snatches of moments he could have with his dead brother and his wife now. He shifted on his feet, suddenly aware of something in the corner of his eye. He turned his head, and the movement stopped. Tension tightened his muscles. He had been on edge for a long time, always thinking something might get him.

The movement didn't start again. Isaac didn't relax. He hurried out of the cemetery, ready for any trouble. As he was approaching his car, a glint caught his eye. An oddly shaped piece of metal lay next to his car. Isaac frowned. That hadn't been there before. He picked the strange thing up and examined it. His eyebrows shot up in surprise. Etched onto the metal's slick surface was a horribly drawn face. The nose was a triangle, and the face was a rough circle with disproportionate eyes. It scowled at Isaac in a very grumpy way. Isaac turned it over, and a chill froze his bones. The word beware was messily carved into the back, every letter capitalized. Isaac was confused. What was this doing next to his car? Had someone left it here?

He put the metal into his storage compartment and hastily climbed into the driver's seat. What he had seen disturbed him. He needed to get away. He turned on his car and drove away, wishing he wasn't alone. Urgency almost made him speed, but he controlled himself with deep breaths.

The second he stepped foot in his house, Isaac relaxed. He had been tense the entire time. He had left the piece of metal in the car. He didn't want Jacob or Amethyst to find it. The sounds of video games were coming from the living room, and Isaac smiled, relieved at the familiarity of home. He headed into his kitchen and filled up a nice, cold glass of water. He leaned against the counter, remembering that Amethyst's party was coming soon. He still had to buy candles for her cake since they didn't have any.

Once he had calmed down, he went to the living room to check on Jacob and Amethyst, if she was there. She liked to be alone in her room with her rabbit.

"Hey, Dad," Jacob said as Isaac walked in. He never took his eyes off the TV. He was furiously pressing buttons on his controller. The game must be hard.

"Are you going to do your homework?" Isaac asked, trying to enforce the school schedule they had followed for exactly one day.

Jacob nodded, never breaking his stare. Isaac knew there was no point in trying and was going to head to his room, but then his son spoke.

"Yana's coming to the party."

"She is?" Isaac was surprised. Alexei and Victoria had told him that Yana was becoming a depressed, antisocial couch potato. "That's great!"

"She's very different now," Jacob warned. "I don't think she's doing well."

"She'll cheer up after the party," Isaac said. "All she needs is time with friends, and she'll be okay."

Jacob doubted that, but he wasn't going to say that. He smiled triumphantly as he killed the boss on his screen. He set down his controller and stretched. He would do his homework now, if only to keep his dad happy, though Jacob suspected Isaac actually didn't care.

An awkwardness had filled their conversation. It had been like this since that day several months ago. They didn't know how to speak to each other. They all thought it was their fault. The guilt was eating them alive and isolating them all.

A silence settled over Isaac's house. It would stay like that all week, until Amethyst's birthday finally came around.

Until then, Isaac and Jacob didn't know what to do.

Chapter 3:
Amethyst paced excitedly on the sidewalk outside Isaac's house. It was now her birthday, and she couldn't stop bouncing around in anticipation. Compared to her, Isaac and Jacob seemed like gloomy storm clouds. She had been restless all day, waiting for this moment. Inside the house, Isaac was baking the cake, and Jacob was napping on the couch. Nothing could have stopped him from flopping face down on the couch.

A silver car appeared around the corner. Amethyst stopped pacing and used all her self-control to not bounce up and down like a crazy person. The car came up to Isaac's house and stopped in front of Amethyst. The backdoor opened, and a girl jumped out of it and embraced Amethyst tightly. Amethyst returned the gesture.

"I'm so glad you're here, Margie!" she said happily, letting go of the other girl. "I thought you wouldn't be able to come!"

Margie laughed. "Girl, I'd travel across the world if my compadre needed my assistance against crazy fifteen year olds."

"Well, let's go!" Amethyst said, turning to the door. Margie prepared to follow.

"Margie, don't forget your suitcase!" Margie's mom called.

"Agh! Right!" Margie took out her suitcase then opened the passenger door and gave her mom a big hug. "Bye, Mom!"

"Have a good time!" her mom said. "And behave!"

"To do the opposite would be impossible," Margie said, grinning. As her car began to drive away, she said to Amethyst, "Does the cake have chocolate?"

"Of course!" Amethyst said, pretending to be insulted. "No desert is complete without chocolate."

Margie's grin grew wider. "Excellent!" she said excitedly. "We will have a great chocolate feast as we beat your cousin at fighting games!"

She bounced up the steps, radiating cheerfulness. Amethyst could feel it penetrating through her, bringing up energy lost in the past few months. Margie went straight to the living room and looked at Jacob. She sniffed the air.

"Mmmm, I can smell it," she sighed.

"It won't be long until we can eat it," Amethyst reassured her.

Jacob suddenly opened his eyes and sat up. He waved to Margie. "Hello," he said. "You're Margie, right?"

"Yes," Margie said, looking at the TV pointedly. "I was promised fun things would happen."

"I can show you our games," Jacob offered. "Do you want to play, too, Amethyst?"

"Some are not three player though," Amethyst said, surprised.

"Yes, they are," Jacob said. He was already next to the pile of game cases. Margie stood a bit away, not taking her eyes off the games. "And it's your birthday. You need to play."

"Wait, I'm not getting a choice?"

"Are you saying you don't want to play?" Jacob asked, astounded.

"On the contrary," Amethyst said, grabbing a remote, "I do."

"I'm going to destroy you," Margie said, grinning widely. "Face my wrath, pathetic mortal! You will never have peace again!"

"You're the one who's never going to have peace again!" Amethyst said. "I've been getting better at games. And I vaguely recall you losing to me multiple times."

"Stating the truth won't save you from me," Margie said.

Jacob laughed. "I like your friend," he said to Amethyst. "But you will both lose to me. I could probably take you both on."

"Oooh, getting arrogant, are we?" Margie raised an eyebrow. "Alrightie then, we accept your not-thought-out decision."

Amethyst laughed. "You're so dead."

Jacob didn't. "I'll get the trophy," he said, determined. "Tonight I will have it on my shelf to remind me of how I destroyed you!"

"Is there actually a trophy, or is that figurative language?" Margie asked.

Amethyst smirked. "You'll see," she said. "As for the game..."

***

Cartoon jumping sounds echoed around the room. It was dark, but the cold concrete floor shone under the light of the TV. The roof of the room was low, giving a confined feeling like the person inside was in a box. A person did sit on the floor, shivering. He had no jacket, and he had been forced to wear a thin shirt and pants. He was practically freezing. As if that wasn't unbearable enough, he was hungry and thirsty. Dinner hadn't come yet.

As this person played his game, Amethyst, Jacob, and Margie played theirs. As they were together laughing and having fun, this person was suffering.

This person was all alone. Occasionally he had company, but they would soon go. He knew where they went. There was an unbreakable window on one side of the room. It looked down on a room where the other captives went.

He had seen a bit of what happened to them, but it had been so disturbing he had looked away quickly. He didn't think he'd be able to stomach it. Seeing the red brought back that... that...

No, he wouldn't think about it. It was too chilling. Kind of like this room. The air vent was very wide and let in extreme amounts of freezing air. The person shivered, feeling like he was about to turn to a huge human shaped block of ice.

A heavy door creaked open. It shrieked against the movement, and its hinges were partially rusted. Light poured in and threw a shadow across the room. Another person stood in the doorway, staring directly at the currently freezing person. The air seemed to grow colder. His end was coming. He looked around desperately for something to hide, but the shadow would see whatever he did. There was no hope for the poor person. He was doomed. He closed his eyes and fought back his fear as the creepy person in the doorway approached him. He ignored the voice mocking him and tried to hold onto the last strands of his thought before it was taken away from him forever.

***

The game ended sadly for Jacob. Just as the girls had predicted, he had lost to them. No, he hadn't simply lost. He had been completely and utterly destroyed, decimated for all eternity. He stared at the screen with his mouth wide open as Amethyst and Margie celebrated their victory behind him a bit too loudly. His pride as a gamer had been wrecked. He had underestimated the girls. To make it worse, Isaac was secretly watching from the kitchen, but Jacob had seen him when he had gone to pick up his game controller. He may or may not have thrown it across the room the second he lost.

But this competition wasn't over. There were many more games to play before the final winner was decided. He would beat his cousin and her friend no matter what happened.

"Dad!" Jacob called. "Is the cake ready yet?"

"Five minutes left!" Isaac replied.

Jacob looked at Amethyst and Margie, who were now dancing around. "The cake's almost done," he told them.

They stopped dancing immediately. "What are we going to do after we eat it?" Amethyst asked, who forgot most of the activities for the day.

"We eat more cake!" Margie answered even though the question was not meant for her.

Jacob was going to tell Amethyst the answer, but then his brain decided to deflate and forget. Instead of speaking, he shrugged to show he didn't have a clue. Amethyst made a face at him for forgetting and went and got her bunny. She brought it to the couch, where she and Margie admired his "beauty". Jacob glared at the bunny like it had done him a great personal offense. Which it had. His poor left pinkie had been a victim of the rabbit's very strong teeth.

It was the day of forgetting things, so naturally the kids forgot that they wouldn't eat the cake until it was cool. When the oven went off, Amethyst and Margie practically teleported into the kitchen and watched excitedly as Isaac took out the cake.

"Calm down," Isaac said, amused. "I have to decorate it."

"So we'll just starve," said Margie.

"You can have some snacks while you do the next game," Isaac said while admiring his delicious creation.

"Oh, yeah. Dad, what is the next game?" Jacob asked, just coming in.

Isaac stared at him. "How on earth did you forget?" he asked, amazed.

Jacob shrugged again. Isaac rolled his eyes and pointed upstairs.

"Board games," he said.

Jacob felt his heart drop. He was not good at board games. He would definitely lose again.

Isaac noticed. "Don't worry, Jacob," he said. "The real competition doesn't start until Yana arrives."

Jacob brightened. The board games would not be a part of the competition, which meant he could win by a landslide!

"A competition?" Margie echoed, excitement filling her eyes.

"Yes," Isaac said. He laid the cakes out on the counter with towels over them. "The winner receives a special trophy, and the honor of sleeping on a bed."

"What happens to the losers?" Margie asked.

"They get punished for all eternity," Jacob said.

Margie tried to get Isaac to explain more, but he kept his lips tight and sealed. Realizing he would never reveal his secrets, the kids went off to play some board games. Amethyst wanted to do cards, but Jacob wanted to do puzzles. Margie didn't have a preference. Since it was Amethyst's birthday, Jacob consented to do cards.

They were just finishing their game when the doorbell rang again. They hurried out of Amethyst's room to see who had come. Isaac had quickly gone to the door, and Yana stood in the doorway with her father, Alexei. Isaac greeted his friend with a hug. Yana hung behind them awkwardly. She looked surprised when she saw Margie.

"Hi, Yana," Jacob said, very pleased to see her. He was glad to not be alone in dealing with the thirteen year old children.

"Hi," she said. She seemed to be mildly uncomfortable. She was unused to social interaction now, and she had no idea what they were going to do at this party. Would she be able to handle it? A part of her told her she wouldn't and that she had been better off staying at home.

"The water balloons are outside," Isaac said. He and Alexei walked to the kitchen. "Have fun."

"We're doing water balloons?" Yana said, surprised. She liked water balloon fights, but she didn't really know Amethyst or her friend. Besides, at the moment, she didn't feel like getting slapped in the face with a cold, wet balloon.

"We're having a competition," Jacob explained. "Whoever wins the most activities gets a trophy and a prize."

What was that, thoughts from earlier? You didn't want to participate in a water balloon fight? Well, then, time to participate in a water balloon fight!

"How many activities are there?" Yana asked. She was formulating her best plan of attack to win the water balloon fight. Amethyst seemed like she was the weakest of them all, so Yana would go for her first.

"I didn't count," Jacob said. "I actually might have forgotten most of them."

They headed outside, where the balloons were set up. The rules were clear: Last person standing won. If you got hit by three balloons, you were out. Yana hoped her opponents hadn't worked out these past few months. She certainly hadn't been getting lots of exercise. Someday that was going to get her.

Soon they were all running around like they were on fire. Amethyst was the first out, hit twice by Yana and once by Margie. She sulkily sat down on the porch, soaked and dripping water onto it. Margie almost tripped over nothing and got hit in the back by a balloon from Jacob. He laughed as he danced away from the balloon she threw at him.

"Would you mind if I asked you to stay still?" Margie said jokingly.

"Like I'm losing for your manners," Jacob said, gracefully spinning away from Yana's red balloon like a ballerina. The sight almost made Margie stop moving.

They all had their own colors. Jacob's was green, Margie's was blue, Yana's was red, and Amethyst's was purple. She had only managed to use one, and that one had hit the fence.

Yana was annoyed at Jacob's constant avoidance of the balloons. He was literally ballet dancing across the yard. She had no idea how he was managing to not get hit. He was perfectly dry despite some of his dance moves being really slow. Then again, Yana was also dry. The yard was soaked. Margie, hidden behind a tree, aimed at Jacob and threw a balloon towards him. He saw it and tried to spin away, but it hit him directly in the stomach. His shirt was now soaked.

"AAAAAAAH!"Jacob screamed as Margie hurled more balloons at him. Abandoning his fancy dance moves, he ran away from the onslaught, screaming his face off. Margie got out from behind the tree and ran after them. She carried a large amount of balloons in one arm and threw them with the other. Jacob was terrified.

Yana took this as the opportunity to strike. She threw balloons at both Jacob and Margie and managed to get both. Jacob turned to face her, feeling insulted, when Margie dropped a balloon on his head. He was out.

His spirit was crushed. He went over to Amethyst, the water dripping off his head a physical representation of his tears. Dejected, he fed his dad's bell pepper plant the water chilling him.

But then Margie beat Yana, and he had to stop being overdramatic.

With the balloon fight over, the kids headed back inside. Isaac waited patiently in the kitchen. He and Alexei were hiding the cake from view. It wasn't finished, but they didn't want Amethyst to have even a peek of it.

"Who won?" Isaac asked.

"Margie," Amethyst said, giving her friend a proud hug.

"I won because I tripped," Margie said, shrugging.

Isaac handed Alexei a clipboard, and he marked a tally under Margie's name. Isaac handed the kids towels, and they dried themselves.

"So what's next?" Jacob asked. He was determined not to win.

"I hid a coin somewhere in the house," Isaac said. "Whoever finds it first wins."

"What type of coin?"

"A penny."

"Do we get to keep it?" Amethyst asked.

"Sure, I guess." Isaac turned back to the cake. "Now get going. The sooner this cake is done, the better."

The kids went off. They looked under anything they could find. Jacob took off the pillow covers on the pillows to see if the penny was in them. It wasn't, and he left the pillows without covers to save time. Isaac would get mad at him later for that, but it was a necessary sacrifice.

Amethyst went into her room and gave Bun-Bun a few pets. She looked all around but there was no sign of the penny.

In the kitchen, Isaac laughed to himself as he put icing onto the cake.

"Where did you put it?" asked Alexei who was looking at the weather. He could tell Isaac had mischief on his mind.

"You'll know soon," Isaac said. "If they ever find it." He stifled another laugh. "I just hope it doesn't move."

Alexei did not even try to question that weird statement.

Margie and Yana had ended up in Isaac's "office". Margie was carefully picking through the papers while Yana looked under the furniture.

"This is harder than I thought," Margie said after dumping an entire drawer of papers on the floor.

"It's weird," Yana said from the ground. She was looking under a file cabinet. "Wow, this thing is so clean. I didn't know Isaac could be this meticulous."

Margie looked at the desk again. There wasn't a speck of dust on it. It shocked her to her bones. "Not even my mom can get our things that clean," she said, amazed.

"A reminder that our goal is to find a penny, not admire furniture!" Jacob called as he walked past. "Also, put those papers back or Dad is actually going to kill you."

Margie doubted that, but she put them back anyway. Yana got up and headed out of the room. Her next destination would be the laundry room.

They were not allowed in the kitchen, so that was off limits. But after an hour of careful searching, the four of them hadn't found any sign of the penny. They went back to places they had searched, but they still couldn't find anything. They were at a loss.

Amethyst and Margie went to ponder this weird circumstance while admiring Amethyst's rabbit. He was eating.

"Where do you think it is?" Margie asked Amethyst. Her friend shrugged in response.

"I can't believe he made it this hard," she sighed. "What if nobody finds it? Then what's going to happen?"

"Everyone loses, and we all die in misery," Margie said, hoping to be helpful.

"That's not reassuring," Amethyst said.

"I am very aware of that." Margie looked at Bun-Bun. "Aw, look at his little nose twi- what's that?"

"What's what?"

Margie crouched down next to the cage. Something shiny had caught her eye. "He's sitting on something. I think it's metal." She looked at Amethyst, not sure whether to feel excited or concerned. "I think your uncle put the penny under your rabbit."

Silence fell after this statement. Amethyst and Margie stared at each other. Then Amethyst moved and took Bun-Bun out of his cage. The penny sat among his things, shiny and obvious. Amethyst set her bunny down and picked up the coin.

"Well... I got it?" she said, unsure who technically won.

"You picked it up, so I guess you won," Margie said.

They went to the living room, where Jacob was angrily pacing. He was furious at his eyes because he was thinking he needed glasses. He stopped as Amethyst and Margie walked in. His eyes widened at the sight of the penny in Amethyst's hand. She had won. This clearly wasn't a day of victory for him.

"Amethyst got the coin!" Margie yelled to the kitchen.

Isaac came out. "Great! Just in time, too. The cake is ready."

"You should be careful about what you put in Bun-Bun's cage," Amethyst said, scowling at her uncle. "What if he had tried to eat the coin?"

Isaac began to sweat nervously.

"Did someone find the penny?" Yana interrupted, saving Isaac.

"Amethyst did," Jacob said. "Apparently it was under her rabbit."

Yana, like everyone else, did not know what to think about that.

"Well," Isaac began, thankful to avoid the subject, "it's time to eat. Don't want the food to get too cold." He had ordered stuff, and it had come while the kids were searching for the penny.

They ate, had cake, and were ready for the final activity. However, Isaac forced them to watch TV until night came. He said the next activity was in the dark. To make even more suspense, he wouldn't tell them until it was dark. So they sat and watched TV, eagerly anticipating the reveal of their next activity.

Chapter 4:
The sun slowly slid down the sky. A painting of orange, pink, and yellow cast awe on those who looked at it. The clouds flushed with color, a last spectacle before they would become a part of the night sky. The sun itself was bright, and it hurt everyone's eyes to look outside.

Jacob, Amethyst, and Margie sat on the couch, passionately debating whether or not putting the penny under Bun-Bun was fair. Amethyst was still mad about it, but Jacob thought his dad had been cunning and defended him. Margie tried to get them to stop.

Yana sat in a chair, far enough to not get forced into the conversation. She felt sad; Amethyst acted a lot like Miriam when she got mad. It made Yana feel nostalgic. And she hated feeling nostalgic.

Soon it was dark enough for their next activity, which they still didn't know, and Isaac came in with four flashlights. He set them down on a table and let the kids stare at them in confusion before explaining. After all, why not give them some suspense? It's not like they'd had to wait five hours for this.

They actually had waited five hours for this, so they kind of wanted to punch Isaac for terrible planning.

"Is this going to be as hard as the penny?" Amethyst asked suspiciously. Isaac would pay if he put another thing under her rabbit.

"Do you like hide and seek?" Isaac asked. "Because it's hide and seek in the dark except with flashlights."

No one said anything. The kids stared at Isaac for a long time. Slowly, they started laughing. Isaac rolled his eyes. He had predicted they would react this way. In his opinion, they were acting pretty childish to laugh at something they thought as childish.

"This is the last challenge," he said. "The overall winner receives the trophy and a bucket full of candy. Got it?"

They stopped laughing at the reveal of the other prize. A bucket full of candy was nothing to laugh at. It would be worth it to consent to playing this version of hide and seek.

"All four of you get a turn as the seeker. Whoever finds everyone in the shortest time wins. My phone is here with the timer ready."

They nodded, now taking the game seriously.

"Now if you need anything, come to my room," Isaac said. "I'm going to bed." Then he walked off, leaving the kids to sort out themselves. As he did, he turned off the last light.

"Why did he do that?" Yana complained as she turned on her flashlight.

"Who's going first?" Jacob looked at them all.

"Amethyst," Margie said. "Birthday girl goes first," she added as Amethyst glared at her.

"Count to sixty," Jacob ordered his cousin. "And close your eyes. Dad will know if we cheat."

"He just said he's going to bed though," Margie pointed out.

"It doesn't matter where he is. He always knows," Jacob said, shuddering at the thought.

Amethyst closed her eyes and listened to the others scrambling to hide somewhere. They could hide anywhere in the house. She'd have to look very carefully. At least none of them could hide under Bun-Bun. She would never forget that. Never.

Sixty seconds passed. Amethyst opened her eyes and turned on her flashlight. The darkness creeped her out, but the light made her calm. She'd be fine. She totally wasn't scared of the dark. She totally wasn't traumatized of the night after watching a scary horror movie once.

Margie hid under a bean bag. It actually felt kind of comfortable, but her face was pressed against the floor. It smelled like carpet. Did the carpet have different smells? She held her breath as she heard Amethyst pass. Luckily she didn't look. She must not think anyone would hide under a bean bag. There was a lot of air in the bean bag if Margie had shaped it over herself.

A little bit later, she heard Jacob lament his loss as Amethyst discovered him. Why was he so loud? From the sound of it, he was across the house! Lifting the bean bag a little, Margie dared to peek out. Amethyst must have only found Jacob. The only ones left were Yana and Margie. This would get interesting.

The lock on the back door, which was close to Margie, began to emit suspicious clicking noises. She looked at it. To her amazement, it turned, and the door slid open. A figure stood in the doorway, but it was so dark Margie couldn't make out the details. The figure turned and closed the door silently. Margie tensed, hoping it wouldn't see her.

It slowly moved down the room. Clearly it was not a friendly thing, otherwise Isaac would have known about it. It would also have used the front door. It must have thought that everyone was asleep. Margie stayed as still as possible, watching the figure head to the stairs. A glint of spare light caught on something, and Margie squinted, trying to see it more clearly. The figure suddenly stopped. Slowly, it turned in Margie's direction. Margie stiffened even more, suddenly scared. It headed towards her, its steps slow and silent. Margie couldn't hear them, but she could see the figure moving closer. Scared, she tucked the bean bag back over her face. To her great relief, it did not rustle. She held her breath, wishing someone was around to catch this strange person.

The encasing warmth of the bean bag was suddenly taken away, leaving Margie vulnerable. She slowly moved her gaze up from the ground, shaking in fear. She had been discovered. It was over. This stranger would kill her. They glared down, and Margie tried to slide away as the shadow of their hand reached for her.

Leather brushed her skin as the hand gently grasped her throat. Terror filled through Margie. Pressure made her gasp. Her air was being cut off. Was this when she died? At a birthday party?

But Jacob had been right. Isaac always knew what was going on. He broke through the darkness with his phone in hand. Its light caught the figure off guard, and their black clothes shone under the beam. Isaac menacingly took a step forward and revealed the knife tucked in his hand.

"Get out of my house," he snarled, venom in his voice.

The figure's main purpose was to not get caught, so they scurried away like a frightened rat. Isaac ran after them, taking the role of the hungry cat. Margie watched, tears of gratitude and relief filling her eyes. Soon Isaac came back, dialing a number on his phone. As he did, he helped Margie up and led her to the living room. She could hear the receiver of the call pick up. A quiet, muffled voice spoke from the phone.

"Bad news," Isaac answered whatever the other person had said. "Someone just broke into my house, and I think I know where they were from."

The voice replied in a scolding tone. Isaac rolled his eyes then glanced at Margie. He didn't want to get her involved, and if she heard his suspicions on whoever that stranger was, she would want to know. It was best she didn't know at all.

"One second," he said to the person he was talking to. He put his phone down on a counter and focused on Margie. "Go find Amethyst, Jacob, and Yana and tell them what just happened. I need to talk to Alexei in private."

So that was who he was talking to. Margie nodded and dashed off, eager to be among a group of people. She felt like she was going to be scarred for life. At least Isaac had saved her in time.

Unease was taking hold of Isaac once again. He held his phone up to his ear again. Alexei was humming impatiently on the other side.

"I think Antonio sent the intruder," Isaac said, hoping his worry didn't taint his voice.

"What?" Alexei sounded shocked. "But there hasn't been any sign of him for months!"

"I know," Isaac said grimly. "He must have sent someone to kill me, to get me out of his way. And that means..." His voice trailed off. He did not want to finish that terrifying thought.

"He knows," Alexei finished it for him.

"We will have to be extra careful," Isaac warned. "He might try and pull off anything."

"Then we must prepare for anything," Alexei said. He sighed angrily. "I wish we could have a break from him for once. No matter how hard we try, something about him keeps coming up. It's making me lose sleep."

Isaac could understand Alexei's frustration. He was losing sleep, too, and not just because of Antonio. The grief poisoning his mind refused to let him rest. It was always there, a constant echo, but he was used to it now. Regrets would forever be a part of his life. Okay, he should really stop thinking such depressing and dramatic thoughts. It was quite unhealthy. Maybe he should get therapy.

He said goodbye and hung up the phone. Anxiety pressed down on his head, a familiar dull ache from stressful months long ago. He rubbed his forehead, trying to soothe himself. It wouldn't do him any good to have an anxious breakdown before doing anything. He slowly headed to the living room, where he assumed the kids were. As he approached, Yana and Margie came out from the hall. Yana was biting her lip, and Margie was still trembling.

"Do-do you think it was-was..." Yana's voice trailed off.

"Maybe," Isaac said, wondering how Yana had been feeling about the events of that day.

Jacob and Amethyst heard them and hurried out of the living room.

"What's going on?" Jacob asked his dad, looking very confused.

"Someone just broke into her house and almost killed Margie," Isaac explained. "Alexei and I think Antonio sent them."

Jacob suddenly went very still. "Yo-you think he would do that?"

"He might."

"Who is Antonio?" Margie asked, who was cooking up a San Antonio joke.

"A terrible person," Yana answered bitterly. Her eyes had darkened when Jacob had said Antonio's name, and she scowled deeply. "He almost killed us."

Margie stopped thinking about jokes and became as serious as the rest of them. Amethyst, who actually hadn't known who Antonio was, shared Margie's reaction. Silence fell over them as they all went deep into thought. Isaac eventually came to the decision that they should go to bed and sleep on this problem. They locked the doors, everyone cautious if the stranger came back and tried to finish what they started.

***

A clattering noise from the kitchen woke Margie up. She sat up, blinking fast. She had been having a nightmare of her almost-murdered experience, and her heart was beating fast. She wiped her eyes, breathing heavily. Another noise echoed through the house. Had everyone else heard it? And what was it? She opened the door, aware of Amethyst still sleeping in her bed, and peeked out. The sun was just starting to rise, and little light came through the windows to show what was there. Margie's throat felt tight, and she swallowed, fear making her light-headed. She should get Isaac. She quietly stepped out through the door and sneaked in the direction she thought Isaac's room was.

Without warning, a person stepped out from behind Amethyst's door and grabbed Margie by her shirt. Margie was tugged backward, and she almost shrieked if the person hadn't slapped their hand over her mouth. Her muffled cries barely made a noise over the sounds from the kitchen. Wait- if there was a person here and someone messing around in the kitchen, did that mean there were two people? Margie tried to elbow the person holding her, but they shifted their body to a position where Margie couldn't hurt them. Which meant there was nothing she could do. Would someone come out and save her? She struggled again, but the person was unbelievably strong. How was someone that strong? The person began to carry her to the door. In one last attempt to escape, Margie slammed her foot down onto the person's foot. Unfortunately, she was barefoot, and the person barely flinched. Anger at her failure overrode Margie's fear, and she tried to bite the person's hand.

The other person in the kitchen came out, and they both headed out the door. A normal looking car was parked across the street. There was nothing suspicious about it, and Isaac would never have guessed the owners of the car would try to break into his house. Margie wriggled all the way to the car, muffled sounds managing to come through the person's hand.

"Shut up," they hissed. It was a woman from the sound of her voice.

"MM!" Margie glared up at her.

The other person took out a rope and tied Margie's hands and feet together. It wasn't easy as she was thrashing her limbs all over the place, but they managed to tie it. Next they tied a piece of cloth around her mouth. The car door opened, and the woman roughly shoved Margie inside. She sat up, shaking her hair out of her face, and gave the people a huge scowl visible even through the cloth. They blinked, unaffected, and went into the front. The woman got into the driver's seat, and the other person took off the mask they had been wearing. It was a man, and he eyed Margie from the mirror.

"You're a feisty one," he observed. "I like that. It makes our experiments all the more fun." He grinned and nodded to the woman. "Let's go, before they realize this child is missing."

Margie's stomach did a one hundred eighty degree turn. No one had come out yet. Everyone must be asleep. This wasn't good. Not good at all.

The woman began to turn towards the street when a very loud scream came from Isaac's house.

"WHERE THE HECK DO YOU THINK YOU'RE GOING?"

The strangers froze and looked towards Isaac's house. Isaac was running down with a robe tied over his pajamas. He was vibrating with rage and clutched a... gun? Why on earth did Isaac have a gun? Had Amethyst known about it? Margie was never going to look at Isaac the same way ever again.

"Oh, shoot, not him!" the man groaned. He glared at the woman. "Why are you just sitting there? Get moving!"

"Uh, yes, sir!" The woman began to move the car.

"EXCUSE ME, I'M TALKING TO YOU!" Isaac shouted. "GET OVER HERE, YOU COWARD, AND FACE ME LIKE A MAN!" Then he started yelling profanity.

"Dad! There are little children here!" Jacob said from behind him, looking pointedly at Amethyst.

"I DON'T CARE! THAT LITTLE-" Bad word inserted- "IS GOING TO GET IT, I TELL YOU! I-"

"DAD! They're getting away!"

"Oh." Isaac began to run after the car. "GET BACK HERE!"

"Shouldn't we, uh, you know, drive after them?" Yana said from behind Jacob.

"I'M STILL TALKING TO YOU!" Isaac shrieked as he ran after the car, which was about to turn out of the neighborhood. "YOU MURDERER!"

A house's door opened, and an old lady stood glaring out at them.

"Pipe it down! An old lady's gotta sleep!" she snapped.

The car had disappeared around the corner, and Isaac ran around it, too.

"Uh, how are we going to go after him?" Yana asked, looking around at Jacob and Amethyst.

Jacob just ran down his front steps and raced after his dad.

"Please don't tell me we have to follow them," Yana said.

Amethyst followed Jacob without saying anything. Yana sighed in exasperation and ran after her.

Isaac caught up to the car as it stopped at a stoplight. He was about to march up to the door and yank Margie out of it when the man stepped out of the passenger seat. The streetlights illuminated his face clearly. Isaac stopped. He had thought he'd recognized him, but now it was confirmed.

"Hello, Antonio," he basically growled.

"Isaac," Antonio said pleasantly. "I must say, it's amazing to see how you have the maturity of a ten year old."

"You're going to pay." Isaac's hand with the gun twitched as if it wanted to lift it and shoot Antonio immediately.

Antonio noticed and laughed. "Shooting me in public? Surely you should know that's not going to work." He abruptly stopped laughing. "Especially since that little girl's life is on the line." He gestured to Margie, still tied up in the car. "If you even dare hurt me, my driver will shoot her. She'll be dead. Like Miriam."

All Isaac's muscles turned to stone at the mention of his niece. He was still as a statue, but a fierce fire burned in his eyes.

"How dare you talk about her," he snarled like an enraged predator. "You caused her to die!"

"But you left her there," Antonio replied. "You could have tried harder to find her, but you didn't."

The fire suddenly died in Isaac's eyes as if water had poured down from a bucket. He stared at Antonio, not knowing what to feel or what to say. Antonio smiled at the effect he created.

"Don't worry, Isaac," he said. "You can join her and Lydia and Isaiah." Before the sentence finished, he drew a gun and fired at Isaac's chest.

Jacob arrived just in time to see Antonio fire. Panicked, he pushed Isaac down along with himself. The bullet missed, but it was the perfect distraction. The stoplight turned green, and the car moved on after Antonio got back inside. Isaac and Jacob sat up, staring after it in dismay. Amethyst and Yana arrived to join them.

"Did they get away?" Amethyst asked, voice shaking.

The father and son didn't reply. Amethyst's eyes filled with tears, and she began to shake. Yana knelt down beside Isaac and Jacob.

"Did you see who it was?" she asked, dreading the answer.

Isaac nodded and met their eyes. "It was Antonio. He's back."

Chapter 5:
The bedroom was boring and sparsely furnished. There was only a bed, couch, and TV, but the TV had nothing interesting on it. The channels were unimpressive. The carpet was new and very soft. There were no windows, and it was usually very warm. Actually, the whole building was very warm, except for the rooms where the experiments were done.

A boy sat on the couch, tracing the pillows. He was bored. Very, very bored. So bored he might die of it. He had no company in the time slots he stayed in here. Life had become a cycle of routines. He was only allowed out of the room for breakfast, lunch, dinner, and, occasionally, to watch... No, he did not like to think about it. It terrified him, and he had nightmares about it almost every night. He wished he could help, but there was nothing he could do without getting caught.

The pillows turned out to be very uninteresting. He stared at the ceiling, wondering what was going on outside of this prison. He knew this was a prison, no matter how many times his dad had insisted it wasn't. He had never believed his dad's lies, and he never would. If only his brother was less gullible. The boy swung his feet, kicking the floor. He was starting to get hungry again. Breakfast had been very unappetizing, and he wished lunch would come faster. He even wished he could watch what was going on with... well... anything would be better than staying in this boring room.

The door suddenly opened. The boy sat up, focusing on the door. Was it lunch time already? He wouldn't know; he didn't have a clock. His dad stepped into the room, and the boy crouched down. He didn't want to give his dad any idea that he was excited for something. If his dad knew he really wanted to go outside, he would be kept in here for longer periods of time.

Behind the boy's dad was a girl. Her hands were tied, and she was being dragged inside by his dad. She was very pale, and she trembled from fear.

"This is your new roommate," the dad told the girl. "If you ever try to escape, you will be punished severely. He can confirm that I'm serious." He pushed her forward into the room and closed the door, locking it.

The girl looked surprised to see the boy. "How did you get here?" she asked, unable to be silent anymore. "Did he kidnap you, too?"

The boy did not reply. He thought for a moment then shook his head.

"Then how'd you get here? And why are you a prisoner, too?" the girl asked next.

The boy hated questions that couldn't be answered with a simple yes or no. He didn't know how he could respond to the girl's questions. He didn't have a paper or a phone he could write something down on. He picked at a pillow, wondering how he could tell this girl anything. He wasn't really in a mood to explain what had been done to him to the girl, so he opted to stay silent.

After a few moments of no response, the girl frowned at him. To the boy's relief, she didn't say anything, only sitting on the bed. She looked down at the ropes around her wrists and back at the boy.

"Could you take these off?" she asked. "They're getting very uncomfortable."

The boy hurried over and untied them quickly. The girl watched him work in silence. It was a relief to the boy to be around someone who didn't persistently question him about everything. Talkative people were the bane of his existence. When he was done, he went back to the couch and turned on the TV, hoping that would prevent the girl from talking to him at all.

There was no reason to talk at all. They would never escape. The security system was too strong. So they sat in silence, each alone in their own thoughts and ignoring each other in the awful prison they would never escape from.

***

The chair was freezing. His skin tried to squirm away as it touched the material. The cold air caused him to shiver. People surrounded him, dutifully chaining him down to the chair so he wouldn't try to make any movements that indicated escape. Standing next to the chair was a man he passionately hated with all his heart and soul. He didn't help the others tie the chains, but he did unsettle the poor subject. When the subject was successfully tied up, he nodded to his companions.

"Take one last sample of blood," he told them. "We must compare the results before and after the experiment."

"You suck," the subject said to him a bit too passionately for such a little line. He glared at the scientists as they withdrew blood from his vein. "Are you going to suck me dry like you did with my sister?"

"Oh, no, no, no." The man shook his head. "You will be honoring her memory, if what we do succeeds. You'll even be carrying part of her with you."

The subject, to the man's surprise, didn't react at all to what he said. He took note of that, storing it away to compare the subject to that annoying Isaac. Clearly the subject had more control of himself than Isaac, who was the most hot-headed person the man knew. Still, the subject would have to get punished for talking back. The man's mission required obedience, something the subject clearly lacked. It would take lots of patience and work to subdue the subject.

Out of the corner of the man's eye, he could see a person escort a child up to the glass. The kid stared in horror at the subject in the chair.

"Where did you put her?" the subject asked after the silence had stretched too much. "What did you do to her body?"

Another chance to poke the wounds. "That information is unimportant," he said. "Now stay still. This is going to hurt."

"If you're going to kill me, I'd at least like to be with her," the subject said, feigning bravery. The man could tell, though, that he was shivering from more than the cold. He was scared.

Oh, the man loved seeing the terror in his test subjects. The feeling of pleasure rushed through his veins and sped up his heart. He smiled at the subject, and it made him shudder more fiercely.

"I'm not going to kill you, Malcolm," the man said. "Quite the opposite. You will be very much alive when it is over. Now don't struggle," he reminded Malcolm as the boy started to pull at his restraints. "It will only make our job harder."

"Good," Malcolm said, struggling harder.

The man rolled his eyes. If Malcolm wanted to give himself more pain, so be it. He nodded to the other scientists. "Inject it," he ordered.

Malcolm froze as one of the man's scientists held up a syringe. It was filled with a midnight black liquid that reflected no light. That wasn't the scariest part, though. The needle was scarily big. The scientist stuck the needle into Malcolm's arm, and he winced. They pressed the plunger, and the sting of the liquid felt like fire. It spread quickly through Malcolm's blood, greedily taking hold of him.

"WHAT THE HECK DID YOU PUT IN ME?" Malcolm screamed at the man, so mad he didn't even feel the pain.

"Calm down, the change is about to happen," the man said, undisturbed.

"THE CHANGE? WHAT CHANGE? WHY DOES THIS HURT SO MUCH?"

The man didn't respond; instead, he walked out of the room to the boy standing behind the glass. He had closed his eyes as if he didn't want to watch Malcolm's pain. The man rolled his eyes. The boy was too soft. He stood beside him, simultaneously watching Malcolm suffer and the boy's reaction to it.

If this experiment succeeded, he would go on to use it on the girl. He smiled, already tasting his victory.

***

A fog of uncertainty clouded Isaac's house the next morning. Amethyst had collapsed on the couch, and Jacob and Yana stood to the side, not speaking to each other. Isaac had gone to get Alexei and Victoria. They were officially back in the drama from six months ago. Yana rubbed her eyes which were dry from lack of sleep. None of them had gone back to bed after Antonio's car had escaped with Margie. They couldn't find it in themselves to go back to sleep knowing she was in danger. It didn't help that Isaac had had to take a moment to let out all his anger before going to get Yana's parents. Like what was he, a toddler?

Amethyst had been crying for two hours before her tear ducts ran out of water. She was holding her bunny, pressing her face into his white fur. She was still in her pajamas, unlike Jacob and Yana, who assumed that the adults would force them into the car immediately once they walked into the house. Yana's legs felt weak, and she wondered how she was even standing up. The thought of having to deal with Antonio again made her stomach flip. She took deep breaths, trying to calm herself.

Jacob was dealing with similar feelings. He kept glancing at the windows, afraid someone would try to break in and try to kill them. He twitched at every sound and at every small, unimportant movement. Eventually he had to get a glass of water to calm himself down.

What was more concerning was the idea that they would never find Margie. They had no idea where Antonio had been hiding or where he was now. How could they rescue Margie if they didn't even know where she was?

The dull sound of the garage made them all jump. Yana exhaled sharply, annoyed that her heart had spiked so much. It was just Isaac and her parents. A stranger wasn't going to burst through the door with a gun and shoot them dead. Next to her, Jacob sat down on the floor, angrily shaking out his hands. Amethyst went back to petting her bunny while staring off into the distance.

The door slammed open, and Victoria hurried into the room, greeting them a huge frown. "Come on, guys, we need to get moving," she said, disappearing as quickly as she had appeared.

Amethyst stood up and followed at once. She seemed to forget that she was still holding Bun-Bun. Yana forced herself to head to the car, ignoring the deep churning fear inside of her. Isaac was sitting in the front, and Alexei was in the passenger seat. Victoria got in the back first and let the kids sort out how they were all going to squeeze in. Yana had to sit next to Amethyst, who was sitting next to the left door. Her rabbit's nose twitched as it smelled her. Yana tried to shift away, but there was no more room for her to move. Jacob winced as Yana's elbow hit his side.

Isaac drove in silence. He was quietly suffering inside, relieving the grief of the weeks after Miriam and Malcolm's disappearance. He refused to let Margie die or disappear because of Antonio.

"So you know where Antonio is hiding?" Yana asked.

"Of course not!" Isaac snapped. "But we're going to investigate until we do."

The plan was to rummage through Antonio's practically empty office. The adults had discovered that Antonio had moved away, and his house held no useful information anymore. They decided to give his old office one last look before searching the entire lab building.

The building hadn't opened yet, but Alexei still had the key to the front doors. They walked in, looking around cautiously. Nobody appeared to challenge them.

"You three stay here," Victoria ordered. "Text us if anyone suspicious shows up. And hide if they do."

"What? We're not going with you?" Jacob's mouth dropped open.

"You can search down here," Victoria said. "But at least one of you needs to keep watch."

The adults left, hoping they would find something. Jacob scowled at the floor.

"I can't believe they forgot I was the one to find the map to that secret floor!" he mumbled angrily.

An idea sprang into Yana's mind. "So why don't we go down there? Antonio must have kept loads of information there!"

"It flooded," Jacob reminded her.

"But what if it's all gone? Antonio must have had to come back for anything down there." She started walking towards the other elevator without waiting for Jacob to reply.

Jacob was left to stare after her helplessly. He looked at Amethyst. "Here, take this." He handed her his phone. "Make sure you warn Yana and I, too, if someone shows up!"

Amethyst's eyes narrowed as she glared at Jacob running toward Yana. The elevator was opening. Huffing, she managed to slip in just before the door started closing. Yana and Jacob stared at her in silence.

"I told you to stay there," Jacob said.

"Margie's my friend," Amethyst pointed out, furious about almost being left behind. "It's my self-imposed duty to find out where she is."

"Okay," Yana said.

"What if she gets hurt?" Jacob protested.

"Stop sounding like your dad," Yana shot back.

Jacob bit back a snarky remark. The elevator smoothly went down its path to that dreaded place. It wasn't a long trip, but it was surprising how far down from the ground level it was. The air in the elevator was practically buzzing from Yana and Jacob's nervousness when the doors opened.

The carpet in the entrance to the basement floor was crusty, probably from the water that had soaked into it. It crunched under their shoes as they stepped out. Yana wrinkled her nose. The chair that had been in the corner was now lying on its side, a leg broken off. There was a dark brown stain on the cushion, and it stood out from the pale fabric. Amethyst walked over to the chair and looked at the stain. Jacob went to the door and carefully turned the knob. Breathing deeply, he opened it. To their relief, no water poured in, but then the chilling realization that Antonio must have been there to get rid of the water hit them almost a second later.

They went through the doorway. Yana looked at Amethyst's bunny, wondering if she brought him to keep herself from getting scared. She seemed to rely on her bunny for emotional comfort more than anything else. Yana remembered that Amethyst had had her bunny with her the first time.

The lights were off. Jacob felt around the wall until his hand hit a light switch. When they turned on, they were blinding after the few seconds of darkness. The tile was grimy from whatever the water had spread everywhere, and the kids stepped carefully, not wanting to slip and fall onto the floor. It was cold, and they shuddered, regretting not wearing anything warmer. Amethyst adjusted her grip on Bun-Bun, putting most of her arm over his back. They stopped at a fork in the hall.

"Do you remember where to go?" Yana asked.

"I think so." Jacob squinted. "Ugh. Everything looks so similar."

"Why don't we just... explore?" Amethyst suggested.

"No, no, I think it's this way," Jacob said, pointing down the right hall.

"So we're just going on assumptions?" After their previous experience here, Yana doubted the effectiveness of that tactic.

"I'm sure my nightmares are right about the layout," Jacob said, walking down the right hall.

"Why would you trust your subconsciousness?"

"My subconsciousness is smart. It knows how this place looks."

"Yeah, sure," Yana muttered.

"Don't judge it! It's sensitive!" Jacob glared at her.

"Your subconsciousness is sensitive? How?" Amethyst asked, confused.

"He means he's sensitive," Yana explained. "Except he's not, so don't believe that spiel."

"I was joking!" Jacob turned around.

"I know! Do I look like I have no brain cells like you?"

"I have brain cells!"

"No, you do not!"

"Yes, I do!"

This went on for the entire walk through the halls. Amethyst tuned it out and focused on looking around at the walls. The water had not filled up to the ceiling, as evident by the working lights, but it still smelled terrible. There were occasional places or things that had been filled up with water. Some places of the halls were cleaner than others, and lots of things had clearly been moved around. Someone had been there.

Jacob's subconsciousness had apparently preserved the way to where they had last seen Antonio six months ago. They found a metal door, and Jacob did a fist bump and triumphantly gave Yana the smuggest grin Amethyst had ever seen.

"Say I told you so, and you're dead," Yana said.

"I told you so," Jacob said. He pushed open the metal doors, and his smile fell. "Let's hope something's in that storage thingie."

The door opened to a huge room with a metal walkway stretching across it to a platform with another door embedded in the wall. Jacob and Yana hesitated. Amethyst took the first step onto the metal walkway, surprised that she was the one who did it first. She carefully walked across, shuddering at the awful creaking sound. It hurt her ears. She looked down at the ground below and was shocked and scared to see how far down it was.

The room behind the door was empty. There was a big pipe on the ceiling, with a closed opening. But the most interesting discovery was another door across from them. It was open, and it led to a tunnel. They approached it and peeked through the doorway. The lights were automatic and turned on immediately when they stepped in. The tunnel was made with concrete, and it extended long past their vision. They all exchanged excited looks.

"Should we go back and get my parents and Isaac?" Yana asked.

Just as the words left her mouth, a shape dropped from the ceiling onto Yana, growling fiercely. Amethyst and Jacob jumped back, startled. Bun-Bun's ears twitched, and he huddled closer to Amethyst. The shape was a big creature with gray fur and sharp claws on human-like hands. Its sharp eyes glared at Jacob and Amethyst as it crouched on Yana, keeping her in its deadly grip. It was clearly trying to tell them that if they tried to hurt the creature, Yana would die.

"Oh, shoot, it's you!" Jacob backed away. "We're not your enemies! Didn't we try to tell you that?"

"PLEASE LET ME GO!" Yana was panicking. Her thoughts were spinning. She didn't want to die like this!

The creature snarled in reply and gripped Yana harder with it's claws. She squirmed in pain. The creature turned its head to glare at Jacob and Amethyst. They shivered under its hostility but didn't run away.

Jacob took a deep breath and said, "We're looking for Antonio. He kidnapped a friend of ours, and we are trying to find his location." He held up his hands to show they were empty.

They didn't expect the creature to understand, but when Jacob finished speaking, it relaxed. It still eyed them distrustfully, but it let Yana go and stepped back. They watched in silence as it began walking down the tunnel. Assuming that they were not following, the creature turned its head and hissed impatiently as it beckoned them to follow. They hesitated.

"Do-do you know where Antonio is?" Yana asked. Her arms were starting to bleed, but she didn't notice, still shaking in fear.

The creature nodded and resumed walking. Holding their breath, the kids followed. They didn't trust the creature almost as much as it didn't trust them, but right now it was their only lead to Antonio. The tunnel seemed to go on forever, and they wondered how long it actually was. Time stretched, and soon it felt like they had been walking down the tunnel for hours.

"How long do you think this is?" Amethyst whispered to Jacob and Yana, looking behind them to see if the entrance was still visible.

The creature suddenly froze; its fur spiked. The kids stopped, too, and tried to figure out what had startled the creature. It must have been something that only it could hear or feel. They didn't have to speculate for long, though. The concrete ground began to vibrate, and the sound of a car sounded from the tunnel. It hadn't appeared yet, but it was approaching fast. The creature darted to the side of the tunnel and crouched down fearfully. The kids followed, pressing themselves into the wall.

Who on earth was coming down this tunnel now? Was it Antonio or one of his minions?

The lights appeared, and the car rumbled down the tunnel. The person inside spotted Yana, Jacob, and Amethyst and started to slow down. Shoot. That wasn't good. The kids bunched together, wishing that they could be invisible. The car came to a stop, and the person in the driver's seat climbed out. The person was unfamiliar, and he scowled at the sight of the kids.

"This isn't a safe play area," the person began then noticed the creature crouching behind the kids. Fear and anger sparked in his eyes. He pulled out a gun from his belt and cocked it. He pointed it at them.

"AGH! PUT THE GUN DOWN!" Yana screamed, throwing up her hands. "THIS IS LIKE THE SECOND TIME I'M GOING TO DIE TODAY! WHY IS THE WORLD DOING THIS TO ME?"

The creature shot out from behind the kids and tackled into the person. He screamed and tried to fire at the creature, but it sank its teeth into his hand and tore it off. The person tried to push it off with his other hand, but the creature quickly killed him. It chewed on the hand in its mouth and looked back at the kids. They just stared at it. The creature crawled into the car and turned on the car again. It motioned for the kids to get into the backseat.

"How do you know how to drive?" Jacob asked suspiciously.

The creature narrowed its eyes as if to say Do you?

It would be faster to use the car. However, none of them had any driving skills. They should get Isaac, Alexei, and Victoria.

"I'm sorry, but we're going to have to get our parents," Yana said. "Can you guys wait for a bit? I'm going to go get them?" she asked everyone.

"Please do," Jacob said. "At least they have driving skills."

Yana ran back down the tunnel. She needed to hurry. The creature didn't seem to possess any patience. Time was ticking, not just for Margie, but for everyone.

Chapter 6:
"You found a tunnel? Really?" Isaac exclaimed, staring at Yana in excitement.

She nodded in conformation. "Wherever it leads, it might take us to Antonio."

She had gone up to where she remembered Antonio's office was, where she appropriately ran into Isaac, Alexei, and Victoria. They had looked incredibly shocked to see Yana. She had had to speak quickly or else they would have started lecturing her, which was annoying and a time waster.

Now they were leaving the office almost immediately after Yana had finished speaking. She took the lead, feeling a bit awkward to be guiding adults and not fellow kids. When they got back in the elevator, Yana tried to will it to go faster. The elevator flatly refused to do so, cheerfully sliding down at a normal rate. Everyone was fidgeting, their nerves sparking like a broken wire. They could face Antonio at the end of the tunnel, and that was nerve racking. The number 1 on the panel that showed the floor number changed to B, and the elevator stopped and opened with a ding.

They passed through the halls, through the metal doors, and into the tunnel. Isaac, Alexei, and Victoria stopped walking abruptly when they saw the creature lounging on the concrete chewing an arm bone of the driver. They glared at it; the creature, feeling their hostility, snarled at them.

"They're our friends, too," Jacob said hastily, stepping in front of it. "They're not going to hurt you either."

The creature growled and turned its back to the adults in response.

"We're working with that thing?" Isaac backed behind Alexei.

"What if it attacks us?" Victoria worried.

"Then we die and be sad," Yana said, wanting to slap them. "It saved us from one of Antonio's minions. What do we have to lose from trusting it?"

The adults exchanged words, still looking at the creature distrustfully. Yana joined Jacob and Amethyst, who were spoiling Bun-Bun with affectionate cuddles. They tried their best to be patient as the adults made up their minds. They finished talking and turned around.

"Get in the car," Alexei said. "We're going." He got into the driver's seat. "You need time to relax," he told Isaac in response to Jacob's dad's I-thought-I-was-driving look. Isaac shrugged, trying not to look disgruntled, and got into the car next to his son. Yana and Amethyst joined shortly after, followed by the creature who carried a couple parts of Antonio's minion.

"Does it have to eat in front of us?" Isaac complained. He took a closer look then froze. "Uh, is that a person?"

"Thinking about it makes it worse," Jacob said, looking like he was about to be sick.

Alexei turned the car on and headed down the tunnel. Victoria took out her phone and connected it to the car. She clicked a couple things and pulled up which music to listen to. Eine Kleine Nachtmusik began to play over the speakers. Yana raised her eyebrows.

"Can we play my playlist?" she asked her mom, putting on her best begging face.

"Nope. It's not good traveling music," Victoria said. "And I can't see you, so don't try to make a cute face."

The creature and Jacob laughed. No one else saw it as funny, so they just got weird looks for making sounds. And also because the creature laughed. It sounded like a dying cow, which was pretty funny, but they hadn't thought the creature had a sense of humor.

Hours passed. That entire time all they saw was the concrete floors, walls, and ceilings of the tunnel. Eventually they became hungry and thirsty, and everyone started wishing the tunnel would end soon.

But it did not. It went on and on and on... and on and on and on... and on some more... is the tunnel ever going to end? It was getting hot, too. If the tunnel didn't cease, they would all give up and try to figure out a quicker way to get out.

Just as the tight space became unbearable, the light at the end of the tunnel appeared. Their spirits soared, but they were too weary to cheer. They passed through the exit, emerging into a parking lot full of cars. There was nobody around, and no cars exited or roamed the lot. Alexei pulled into a parking space and turned off the car. Isaac threw open the door and jumped out, enjoying fresh air after four hours in that tunnel. Jacob staggered out after him, legs weak and sweating. The poor kid had been stuck in between Isaac, the creature, and Yana; he gasped for fresh air and laid down onto the cold parking lot.

The creature suddenly growled and tugged Yana's shirt. Her eyes widened as it forced her behind a car. Isaac almost screamed when it did the same to him, but it quickly slapped its hand-paw-thing over his mouth. Realizing it must want them to hide, everyone else scrambled to hide behind the car.

They were just in time. A person walked into view. They got into a car, and the group watched in silence as it rumbled into the tunnel and out of view. The creature crawled to another car, and the group followed as silently as possible. They made it halfway across the lot without encountering or almost getting caught by another person. The creature occasionally stopped and sniffed the air before nodding and continuing on.

Their direction was to a large, plain building at the edge of the parking lot. They noticed that weeds and grass poked out of cracks in the parking lot. In fact, it seemed to have been neglected and was very dirty. Still, there were cars everywhere. As they came closer to the building, Isaac, Alexei, and Victoria spotted a car near the double doors that must be the entrance. They exchanged dark looks.

"That's Antonio's car," Victoria whispered to the kids, pointing at it.

"So he is here," Yana said grimly. Her voice was so dark everyone stared at her. She had never sounded so angry and bitter in her life.

"Ooookaaay," Jacob said, turning his gaze back to the building. "Sooooo... how will we break in?"

"His minions must be all over the place," Alexei added, eyeing the building with worry.

Isaac opened his mouth to give his thoughts, but a cold voice interrupted him.

"Don't move."

***

"MY BONES!"

Margie was sitting in a cold cell with the boy prisoner. She had been trying to get him to open up to her when the door had opened and a man had thrown a fox inside. She had ignored it, thinking it was just a normal fox, when it began screaming about its bones.

"MY POOR BONES!" the fox screamed. "THEY ACHE SO BADLY!"

Margie, white as a piece of paper, scrambled away as it started to spin in circles. It was panicking like a person would, but it wasn't a person. The boy approached it cautiously; as it started spinning faster and faster, he leaned down and slid his hands under the fox's belly.

"OW!" the fox howled. It glared at the boy. "BE CAREFUL! Wait- EVEN MY INSIDES HURT!"

The boy stroked the fox's back with his hand, trying to calm it down.

"I AM NOT A DOG!" the fox screamed. "STOP PETTING ME! I SAID STOP- ooooh, that feels good."

The boy smiled and continued to pet the fox.

"How-how is that fox talking?" Margie asked, regaining her voice at last.

The fox's fur suddenly puffed up as it twisted its head around to glare at her. "I am NOT a fox!" it snarled furiously. "Don't ever call me that again!"

Margie pushed down her shock and snapped back, "You can't tell me what to do, you small idiot!"

The fox gasped. "I'm not an idiot!" he exclaimed. "You're an idiot! I guess... I actually don't know who you are. Who are you?"

"How are you talking?" Margie asked, ignoring the question.

"Why are you asking me?"

"Because you're the talking fox."

The fox immediately went back to being angry. "I told you I'm not a fox!" it snapped. "So stop it with the fox calling!"

"Yeesh, calm down," Margie muttered. "It's not that big of a deal."

The fox suddenly wriggled around in the boy's grip. "I... need... to find... Antonio," it said as it tried to jump to the ground. "He... needs... to pay!"

"I thought we were talking about you not liking being called a fox," Margie said, startled by the sudden change of subject.

"Antonio is more important," the fox said as it finally tumbled to the ground. "AGH! MY KNEECAPS!" it scream-added as it landed on its feet.

"Do you even have kneecaps?" Margie questioned.

"DO YOU THINK I KNOW WHAT MY INSIDES LOOK LIKE?" the fox snarled.

"No, and please stop screaming," Margie replied.

"Okay, okay, fine, I'll stop screaming," the fox said, sitting down. It flicked it's tail and then stared at it in shock. "I have a tail..." it whispered to itself, flicking it again.

The boy patted its head as though trying to tell it to calm down.

"What do the people here call you?" Margie asked the fox curiously.

"My name is Malcolm," it said, still experimenting with its own tail. It nodded at the boy next to it. "That's Ed."

"I'm Margie." She watched it move around curiously. It was very strange. Why was it so surprised by its own body? More importantly, why was she not freaking out anymore? It was still a talking fox, which didn't exist!

The door opened again, and the fox immediately ran at the door, growling. A man stepped inside, and it sank its jaws into his leg. The man, to Margie's surprise, barely flinched; instead, he reached down and grabbed the fox by its neck. Holding it up to eye level, he smirked.

"Now, now, you should be grateful to me," he said, poking it’s nose. It did not appreciate the action and tried to snap at the man's finger. "I've fixed you, after all. And I'll fix her, too," he added, shooting a pointed look at Margie.

Margie, offended, demanded, "Are you insinuating that I suck?"

"Everyone does," the man replied. He eyed the fox thoughtfully. "I should get something to restrain your jaws. Don't want you tearing off my leg... or worse."

"I'd love to do the worse option," the fox said, now trying to claw the man's face. "Tell me what it is."

The man's arm was beginning to tire from holding the fox, and he dropped him. The fox hit the ground with a yelp. Worried, Ed darted forward and picked it up. The man gave him a scowl, and Ed backed away quickly, a scared look forming in his eyes. The fox groaned in pain. The man turned to Margie, who finally realized he had to come to get her. He approached her, and she glanced around in a panic, trying to find a way to escape. But there was no way to escape.

"I'm sure you'll be thankful when we're done," the man said, observing her like she was an object on display. "Now, be a good girl and come quietly. We spent enough time trying to quiet him down," he added, shooting another glare at the fox.

Another person walked up to the man and whispered something into his ear. The man's face contorted in a weird mixture of pleasure and fury. He looked at Margie and back at his companion.

"So they really were foolish enough to come after her," he muttered to himself. "Congratulations, girl. It seems we have another, more immediate use for you." He moved to let the other person in. Understanding what he wanted, the person headed to Margie.

"Who is 'they?'" Margie asked. She had heard what he had said to himself.

No one replied. Margie tried to fight down the terror building up inside her. If she let it consume her, she would never be able to get out of this situation alive. She took deep breaths, trying to still her speeding heart. She looked over her shoulder at Ed and the fox as she was forced out of the room. She mouthed a desperate help me at them, but of course they couldn't do anything.

Just as they entered the hall, a big gray shape leapt down from the ceiling, teeth bared and claws flexing. Blood flecked the fur around its mouth. Growling, the thing crouched down, preparing to pounce. Margie screamed in fright and closed her eyes. The thing was going to eat them. It was going to eat them. It was going to eat them! Alive! NO, NO, NO, NO, NO!

The last thing she would ever see was a flash of gray fur and claws.