14AmyChan: I own all of these characters. Well, except for a few, but you'll figure out who they are later. XD Until then, enjoy. *^_^*
"Time for dinner!" the babysitter hollered, calling to attention the two children in the backyard. Two sets of eyes—both around the same age—looked up from their personal machinations. She had been holding a seemingly one sided conversation. He had been very interested in a bent spoon. Hurriedly, they made their way into the house, where their babysitter had already set the table for them.
"Thank you for the food," the girl and babysitter recited before digging into the meal. The younger of the two ate with gusto, the latter was more polite. The boy smiled as he ate his food in silence.
"When's mommy and daddy coming home?" the girl asked loudly, speaking the question for both children for the fifth time that week. They looked to their sitter in expectation, and she could only offer them a sigh.
"They should return from their business trip by tomorrow," she explained. The female child rolled her eyes, as she always did when their sitter called what their parents did 'business trips'. It was obvious that the woman did not believe in the awesome.
Her brother, however, expressed his enthusiasm through a smile and the slight quickening of his eating of food. He was quite happy to hear his parents would return. He had so much to show them!
"Good night, little ones," the babysitter said quietly as she shut the door. The children were to go to sleep instantly, as they normally pretended to do. What the sitter was unaware of, however, was the fact that the two would stay up late, conversing for an hour or so in the quietest of ways possible, and then tip-toe to their parents room a mere hour after being placed into their beds.
"I think we can make it to Mommy and Daddy's room now without Yakuza-san hearing," the girl stated out loud for the sake of hearing herself speak. Her brother was about to reply—telling his sister that such a feat was possible for them, but he did not want to at the moment—when a sudden noise startled him out of such thoughts.
Crash!
The two children sat perfectly still in their beds for a moment, listening. They could hear something going on downstairs, but they knew it was not the TV. Their babysitter, Yakuza-san, did not like it.
Thud, thud, thud, thud!
The heavy footsteps sounded very close. The girl leapt out of her bed and hurried to her brother's, easily pulling him out of his bed and pulling him into the closet. Her intent was to protect him no matter what. Her hope was that the footsteps would not open their door before they made it to their destination.
"I thought you said I'd get half!" Yakuza-san's voice came from the other side of the door. It caused the young boy to halt in his tracks, worry clear on his sleepy face. It was obvious that he was still processing when his sister jerked him forward and into the closet. She began to bury themselves in the clothes and thanked God that she was quite a messy person.
Slam! Sliiide.
The sudden noises startled the children, but they dared not make a sound. A gruff voice—which was unfamiliar to them—began to speak.
"Find them, but don't kill them. The buyers want them alive," it ordered. Numerous thudding boots sounded all over their home. The little girl held her breath when the door to their shared bedroom opened with the stomp of a mighty boot. She held onto her brother, trying to stay strong for both of them.
She thanked her lucky stars that her brother was half-asleep anyways.
The boots walked over to the bed and stopped. She could see from her hiding place that the man bent over quickly and searched under the bed for the children. He looked like a very mean man. She did not want to be found by him.
"Why are we going through so much crap for a couple of brats, anyway?" another voice asked. It was then that she noticed there were two men in the room. She narrowed her eyes, hoping that by doing so she could be brave. What did they want, anyways?
"Superstitious old coot thinks they'll give him good luck," the man by the bed rambled. "Personally, I don't believe it, but if he's willing to pay that much, I'll do pretty much anything."
"I see," the first stated, and the five-year-old girl suddenly felt a patch of cold air hit the top of her head. She looked up with wide blue eyes and saw that a third man had taken her cover and was smiling in cruel victory. As much as she hated to admit it, she was powerless to stop the man from placing a rag over her nose. Her last conscious thoughts were that of being ripped from her brother and having the memories of the past few minutes of her kidnapper flow into her.
Where…am I? were his first thoughts as he came to consciousness. Instinctively, he knew that he had risen with the sun, as he always did. He always rose very early, always encompassed in warm blankets, and always ready to share a morning read with daddy while they waited for mommy and his (slightly) older sister to awaken.
But this time, he was not encompassed in warm blankets. He felt a very cold and hard material through his pajamas. He felt himself being jostled, as though on a very long and careless ride. He opened his eyes quietly.
What met his conscious and alert gaze first was his sister, half-dazed and disoriented. He could tell the murderous thoughts that were in her head as clearly as if he were thinking them himself, even if the thoughts were slowed heavily.
That's not good... he thought, panic slowly rising in his stomach. He looked around, now aware that they were in the back of a car. It looked almost like the van that mommy and daddy used when they went on cases.
Wake up... he silently begged of his sister, knowing that if he could somehow get over to her, she would become alert. The young boy wiggled towards his twin, realizing that his hands and feet were bound, and his mouth gagged. Not like that would be of much use, anyways...
Just another... he thought as he finally made contact with his sister. His intent was to shove some of his alertness into her. However, it worked exactly in reverse.
He got what was running through her mind.
Yakuza-san's betrayal.
The purchase of the twins.
The surveillance of the twins' gifts.
The planning.
The fake case that mommy and daddy were on to lure them away.
How the trap had worked.
How the plan was formed so that way the twins would never see their parents again.
Images and voices flashed through his young mind quickly, each passing before his mind's eye the instant they were understood. He observed everything, taking it all in. It went faster. And faster. And faster. Colors and voices, identities and thoughts all swirled together, causing one large pit of despair inside his stomach.
He panicked.
The first thing she noticed when she somehow got a burst of energy from her brother's naturally awake mind was that something was wrong. Very wrong.
She did not mean the van and the kidnapping and all of the events from the previous night. She already knew about that and was working on a plan to get her and her brother out of there. No, it was something else, a problem that she knew could turn very bad, very quickly.
Her brother was panicking.
She looked around the car, the only difference that her brother's newfound state of mind caused being the slight change in temperature. But she knew it would not be long before the windows would rattle, the men would get scared, they would swerve off the road, and they would all land in a ditch, where the children would be forced to walk with them and they would probably end up in a much worse situation than they already were in.
She had already been inside their minds. At the slightest hiccup in their 'plans', they could very well be killed.
She did the only thing she could do, writhe slightly in the direction of her brother and tap foreheads with him, siphoning the energy away from him. She held it in the pit of her stomach, as her sensei had showed her how. She pulled more and more of the rapidly gathering energy away, keeping her brother at a safe level and knowing that he should stop panicking soon.
But he did not.
If anything, his state of mind only got worse. The energy was coming in droves now, and it was becoming almost too hot for her to carry all by herself. She tried to push some back, but she could not. He was still overflowing, and giving any back would probably hurt him!
"I want you to look after your brother if your mother and I are unable to...There will come a time when you need to remember to do so more them ever."
She concentrated even more, siphoning the energy away from her twin with renewed vigor. Daddy had said something like this could happen, and she had promised to take care of her brother. To always look after him.
She kept siphoning the energy away, kept hoping that her brother would calm down. She tried to send him calming thoughts, but they were for naught. It took her a while to realize that he was blocking her out.
"I thought you said you had this car fixed!" one of the men from the front complained as they heard the windows rattle.
"I did!" the second grunted angrily, slapping the window as if it would quell the sudden tremors. The small girl tried to siphon more energy, but it was becoming white-hot in her core. It was beginning to hurt even worse.
"Make sure the brats aren't awake," another voice ordered, to which several scoffed.
"You actually believe that crap the buyer thinks about those two?" a high-pitched voice asked, a voice which the children recognized instantly. The small boy felt the sting of betrayal while the little girl wanted to hiss at how someone they had trusted would have sold them to a collector!
She let her control on her brother's energy slip a little bit, and the car rocked heavily.
"Did you just hit a pothole?" one of the men up front screamed as several cursed.
"Do you think I just went over a freaking pothole?" the driver returned angrily, joining in the chorus of curses. Some turned to the children in fear, and one of them was holding a gun.
"He didn't want both of them, right? Just the boy?" the trigger happy kidnapper asked as he fiddled with the safety. That in no way helped the young boy's mental state. He shifted closer to his sister and tried to keep all of the men in his sights, protecting her as many of the men murmured their agreement.
"If it makes you feel better, shoot her, but don't blame me when you have to dump the body of a five year old little girl on the side of the road," a deep voice called out, obviously disgusted. "I can't believe you guys are getting spooked by a little pothole."
Still some of the men shifted, and she felt more energy coming from her brother. She could not hold any more. She had to let it out. But she never had this much before! If she let it go all at once, she could blow the car up or worse!
"Shoot her!" one of the men cried, feeling the car jerk horribly one more time. The safety clicked off.
And she panicked.
"Where...?" the little girl asked, looking around herself. She was used to being awake. She was used to being asleep. Heck, every now and again she was used to the Astral Plane, where multiple orbs of light floated around peaceably so long as she did not touch them. She was aware of her right hand gripped tightly onto something, and when she looked, she found it to be the hand of her younger (by four minutes) brother.
So, wherever she was, she had her brother with her. She was not sure if that was a good thing or a bad thing.
The last thing she remembered was releasing all of the energy at once because fear had clouded her mind for a split-second.
Before she could begin berating herself for failing to keep her brother and his energy safe, she felt something. Actually, a lot of somethings. Like pulls, each attempting to guide her in a different direction. She looked around herself, noticing at last the multiple strings that were in front of her, each waggling in the air to be pulled upon.
"Which one am I supposed to pull?" she questioned out loud. Talking out loud helped her to think, and she narrowed her eyes, trying to reach out with her senses which was the safest to follow through on.
Finally, she reached out with her left hand and grabbed a string. It was little more than a silver blue string, waving the most innocently, almost as through a passing thought. She grabbed it, and held on tightly.
And then she saw black.
14AmyChan: Prologues, gotta love 'em. In any event, while I will try to be a constant and vigilant updater, I make no guarantees. XD Wish me luck~! *^_^*