Authors note- Wee! We're back and better than ever...I hope. There's some fairly crazy stuff going on in this chapter. But dont worry. The dark and morbid stuff will come back. Anyhow... in this story, we'll get to know Adrienne better and there'll be lots more suprises. And thats before Blink and Pie Eater come out of the closet...

...The Scoobie Gang...

Book 2:


...Homecoming...

Chapter 1:

...Cease all feeling...

[Charlies Pov]

Its been three months since Dutchy died; three months to the day. I hate this day. I have decided that I shall probably hold a grudge against the 15th of every month, and November especially, until I die.

Yes, suicide has crossed my mind. It seemed the right choice for a moment or two. It would be another chance to see Dutchy. And all this pain would be gone. I wouldn't have to deal with Spot trying incessantly to sneak into my head. I wouldn't have to deal with everyone in this god forsaken place trying to make me smile. So I dont want to smile. Deal with it.

I then became quite overcome with the grief of my situation and walked out of my room. This was generally the time when I would head to either calming room (Pie Eater was sleeping) the library (Spot was in there holding a lesson) or Dutchy's room. Not that there's much point going in there now. Perhaps it could give some comfort.
I walked ever so quietly down the stairs and heaved a sigh of relief at the emptiness of the great hall. Dashed across it and ran up the dark oak staircase. The only problem with this staircase was that it squeaked loudly with every step one took. So I raced up it leapt into the room and slammed the door, locking it. Dutchy's room was just like him. Perfect.

[Spots POV]

I knew something was wrong the second I heard the door slam. Someone was somewhere they shoudlnt have been, I could feel it. I looked for everyone ... well, mentally at least. Charlie was the one out of place. So out of the library I went. The great hall was empty, all the doors were closed. So I called a family meeting. People began filtering out of rooms left and right until the entire household, save for Charlie, was down here with me.
"Whats goin on?" Race questioned.

"Charlie is in one of these rooms, she's locked herself in and she may do something we'll regret," I figured everyone caught my meaning because no one questioned it.
"I heard someone going up the stairs ... they squeaked," Pie eater ventured timidly.

"I heard it too," Scott seconded. Well, at least that's settled.

"Dutchy. His staircase always squeaked. That's why he liked it," Joe said quietly from the back of the group.

"Look, if she's locked herself in there's nothing we can do to get her out. I haven't known her for that long but her telepathy is strange man. Its like nothing I've ever seen before," Jordan mumbled. Glancing up at the door, I merely glared.

[Jordans POV]

"Damn it Charlotte you haul your skinny ass down these stairs right now!" Spot roared from the foot of the stares.

"No!" Came a yell from behind the wood. If spot wasnt such a Jackass, he might have listened to my warning and left her well enough alone. But no... he had to be the big motherfucking hero. Bastard.

"Charlie! Now!" he yelled in two short bursts. Everyone was trying to avert their attention to something other than Spot yelling at the door. Almost everyone knew it was futile. Charlie is that stubborn.

"What the hell kind of authority do you think you have ordering me around like that? I'll stay up here if I damn well please!" she shrieked back. From what I knew about Charlie, which wasnt much, she seemed a very whispery type of person. I could imagine the kind of force she was using to get up to that volume.

"I own this house and If I tell you to do something you do it!" he pulled a cigarette from his shirt pocket and lit it up with a mere blink.

"So damnit, " he continued, "Get down here!"

"Oh for fuck's sake. If she wants to stay up there let her be!" Spot whirls around to face me. Like I'm scared.

"This is my house," he began forcedly, "and that means what I say goes," He shook his hair out of his face and took another draw from his cigarette. "and I say that she comes down and you stay the hell out of it!" My turn.

 
"Okay, well, I'm 6 inches taller than you are, and I say that you leave Charlie be. If she decides to destroy herself than so be it. If we try to force her out, it will only make her more eager."

Spot, satisfied that I had finished with my little piece, turned back around. I looked around the group. Mike was looking emotionless, as always; Adrienne looked frightened, and with fairly good reason, my brother Taylor looked apprehensive as if he knew something bad was going to happen; Joe looked rather embarrassed at the entire thing, as if he should have done something to prevent it.

Scott looked as if he might throw up, Racetrack looked pissed, Specs was still staring up at the door in a worried sort of way. Pie Eater and Blink were standing next to eachother and holding hands. Wait! ... what?

 
As if noting my surprise, the two quickly withdrew their hands and shoved them in their pockets.

"Charlie," he began in a rather menacing tone, "If you dont get down here now I will blow this god forsaken staircase to smithereens!" A crash came from within the room and, with a scream of agony, Charlie flung open the door. She looks awful. And by awful I dont mean any less hot, I just mean that she looks as if she'd been crying for weeks. And now she looks as if she wants to kill someone. Spot I imagine.

 
"What did you just say?" she questioned in a tone so full of wrath that it shook her.

[Blink's POV]

"You heard me," Spot said trying to sound defiant. He knew as well as anyone how much Dutchy loved that stair case. He knew how many times he had said that the squeak reminded him of home. Next to the library, that staircase was his most treasured possession.   

"Yes. I did," she said quietly, gently touching her fingertips to the weathered wood.
"But now you'll hear what I have to say. If you ever touch anything that even reminds me of Dutchy, mentally or physically, I know what you're thinking, I will kill you with no remorse, no regret, and no hesitation," Spot stood unwavering ... on the outside, at least.

"Understood?" her eyes glared around the group. Everyone nodded. Everyone, that is, except Spot. Damn him

.
"Bite your tongue Blink of I'll rip it out," he yelled back at me. This is me hoping I remind her of Dutchy.

"Just what the hell do you mean by that, huh? This is my house! I took you in! I fucking invited you into my home! This is how you repay me?" he roared indignantly.
"Fine," Charlie began almost inaudibly. "I'll leave," She began the short journey down the stairs and was halfway out of Staircase hall when Joe spoke.

"Charlie! Wait!" he ran towards her.

[Joe's POV]

I run up to her and she turns, ever so slowly, to face me.

"I wasnt going to kill myself," she whispered. "I just thought being in there, with his things, might give me some comfort,"

"I know, " I began softly. She needed to know that we didnt think she wasnt a cut- job. Not that I would blame her if she was.

"Sweety, would you like to come to the dark room with me? We could talk a little bit and perhaps sort some of these feelings out,"

"Listen, maybe you're gonna be the one that saves me, but for the moment I'm okay with being mad and sad. I just want to feel something passionate. But when I'm ready, I'll call you," she whispered back. I smiled and wrapped my arms around her. She nodded into my chest and I knew she was gonna be okay.

[Jordan's POV]

I felt the warmth of the hug as if she was sending it to me. It was almost as if she wanted me to have it. I think she might have heard me defending her out here. Well, I feel appreciated.

Everyone walked silently into the dining hall that evening. In fact, it was a silent dinner most of the way though, that is, until Blink started humming. Then the humming turned into soft singing.

"Dance your cares away, worries for another day. Let the music play, down in fraggle rock," Fraggle rock? I remember that show! God, I loved that show!

"Throw your cares away, dancing through another day, Let the music play, down in fraggle rock," I continued for him. It was almost like a musical; when the opportune moment comes, everyone just breaks into song! Well, Spot just sort of looked at us all like we're crazy. But after the first verse, even Charlie was nodding along.

After we finished the song, we went back, most of us laughing, to what we were doing. Charlie went into the library and climbed the highest ladder, settling there with another book of fairy tales.

[Charlies POV]

The mumbling of the lesson stopped and I glanced down at the foot of my ladder to see Spot, looking expectantly up at me.

"Go to bed," he says just loud enough for me to hear. I just dont think he wants to get it into his head that I dont obey him.

 
"No," I said, reminding myself of a child I once knew who never listened to her mother when she told her it was time for bed. "Just one more page!" she remembered the child pleading.

"I said," he began, "Its time for you to go to bed,"

"I heard" I whispered back. He nodded as if taking that in. He then, wordlessly, turned and walked out of the library.

Then next thing I heard was a deafening slam that shook the house.

Oh God. I'm going to have to kill him.

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Someone's in trouble...

Tune in for super swingin' sexy chapter two!

Quote- "Okay Sarah Brown, what's the plan?" "We're gonna go up stairs ... and thats all i've got,"