Author's Note: Ah, yes, 'A Treacherous Path', the second story in my Nightmare trilogy. And don't worry, there's a lot more going on in this story, so it will be longer than the last one.
Disclaimer: Dis is to claim dat I don't own AmDrag
"Whoo-Hoo!" Jake whooped as he and his three best friends burst out of Millard Fillmore Middle School. "It's not summer vacation, but it's the next best thing. Spring Break has officially started!" By an unspoken agreement, the four teens headed torwards Canal Street Electronics, whizzing down the sidewalk on their skateboards. As they passed Lomardo's Pizza(yes that's the correct name, I spotted that when I watched Hong Kong Nights), Rose veered off torwards it. "I say we celebrate with some pizza." she suggested. "I'm all for that!" Jake agreed enthusiastically. The friends bought three pizzas to go, then headed on to the shop. When they arrived at the shop, they were met by Jake's grandfather, Lao Shi. "Jake," he said. "I have decided to give you today off from dragon training." he smiled. "I figured you would want to celebrate Spring Break."
As they sat around the coffee table, they talked, just hanging out and having fun. After Spud mentioned a monkey riding a unicycle, and Jake made up a mindless rap, Trixie said, "You boys are insane." "Trixie, we do not suffer from insanity," Spud objected. "We enjoy every minute of it!" For a while, they all sat around, laughing and joking. After a while, though, Rose stood up, and walked into the back room. Spud quietly got up and followed. He found Rose sitting on the stool; she seemed distracted by something, and maybe a little sad, too. Spud raised his eyebrows, cleared his throat, then said,
"Roses are red,
Or at least they should be.
But this Rose seems blue.
Care to talk to me?"
Rose couldn't help but smile at Spud's poem. Then she said, "Well…" she hesitated. "Remember when the four of us went into the dream realm to capture that chimera?" Spud cocked his head to one side. "Yeah…" "Well, when I lead the chimera off to distract it, I unknowingly went into my own subconcious. I-I saw the day I was born. I saw that my parents didn't die, as the Huntsman said, but that I was taken by the Huntsclan because I had this mark." she held up her right hand. Spud thought for a minute. "What are you going to do now?" he asked at last. Rose shook her head. "I don't really know," she admitted. "First thing would be to tell the others, I suppose." The two friends went back up to the front, where Rose repeated what she had told Spud. "I want to find my family," Rose concluded. "We'll help." Jake said immediately. "Not a good idea." Rose replied with an emphatic shake of her head. "The Huntsman might not be too happy if he finds out I'm trying to find my family, and I don't want to put you guys in danger." Jake stood his ground. "We're going to help." he insisted. "Look, Trixie and Spud and I once made a commitment, 'Friends for life, friends for real', and now that you're one of us, you're a part of that, too." Rose smiled. "Well," she mused. "I suppose Spud's computer-hacking skills would come in handy…all right, if you guys really want to help, you can." "Great!" Jake said. "Where do we start?" "That's the hard part." Rose answered. "We have no place to start. "All I know is that I was taken from my parents and twin when I was born." "Why don't we go into your subconcious and see this for ourselves." Jake suggested. "Maybe you missed something."
"Why the video camera?" Jake asked as they headed down the dream corridor. "If I get this on tape," Spud explained. "We can watch it more than once, without having to stay in the dream realm for too long."
Spud popped the disc into the DVD player back at the shop. They all sat down to watch. As the others replayed it to see if they could catch anything, Spud hacked into the Huntsclan database to see if he could find birth records of some sort. "I found your record, Rose." he announced. "But there's nothing here about your family." "Of course not." Rose said. "They wouldn't make it that easy." "Wait." Spud said. "Hold up, I think I've got something. This site has the records of every girl born in New York that year." For the next several hours, Spud searched the records, while Jake, Rose, and Trixie watched the clip over and over. "Play it again, Trix." Jake said. "This is insane!" Trixie exclaimed. "It's almost midnight. We've been searching all afternoon and all night, and found nothing. Can't we just call it a day?" "No," Jake insisted. "We must have missed something. Play it again." Trixie sighed. " 'Proof the Huntsman is Cruel' take 656." When they still found nothing, Rose said, "It's getting late. Maybe Trixie's right. Why don't we continue this tomorrow." "You sure?" Jake asked. Rose nodded. The kids decided to spend the night at the shop, so they would all be there already the next day. Trixie and Rose stayed in the front, and Jake Spud, Lao Shi, and Fu went to the back room. The others fell asleep instantly, but Jake couldn't get to sleep. A thought tickled his brain. Something Spud had said. This site has the records of every girl born in New York that year…every girl…every girl…Jake sat up. "That's it!" he barely kept from shouting it.. He went up to the front. "Rose!" he whispered. "Rose!" "What is it, Jake?" Rose asked, startled awake by Jake's whispered exclamation. "I thought of something. Come with me." Jake told her. He played the DVD again, on mute this time. At one part he paused it. "Look." he said. "You never actually looked at your twin. How could you remember something you never saw? Your subconcious mind could've heard the word twin and automatically assumed it was a girl. What if your twin was a boy?" Rose thought about this for a moment. "That would explain why Spud didn't find anything in the girls' records." she agreed. "You may have something there!" Rose hugged Jake.
"It's a strong possibility." Spud said. "I'll see what I can find." He tapped furiously at the computer. "Here," he said. "I think this is what we're looking for. There's about 5oo layers of Huntsclan incryption…." Rose sighed. "So much for that-" "…I'm in." Jake laughed at Rose's expression. "Never underestimate Spud." he said. "Here's something." Spud said. "Says here that a couple named Julia and Thomas (I made those names up) gave birth to twins on, uh, does this date look familiar?" Rose looked over Spud's shoulder. "Yeah, that's the day I was born." she confirmed. "The twins," Spud continued. "were named Adam (I made that up, too) and Rose. According to these records, the girl was taken because of a mark on her right hand. I think we've got what we're looking for!" Spud pressed a button, and a sheet printed out. He handed it to Rose. "This is the address." he told her with a grin. "So," Jake asked. "Are we going there today?" Rose smiled and shook her head. "No. Tomorrow." Jake raised an eyebrow. "Why tomorrow?" "Tomorrow is my birthday." Rose explained. "That makes it Adam's birthday, too. What would make a better birthday present?"