Chapter 2

I was exhausted. My head throbbed, my eyes were dry, my body ached, and over all of that, I was exhausted.

I will never have kids.

Those twins were a handful. Three years later and they were attacking our patience. Sure, some days were better than others. Some days, the kids wouldn't fight with us when we made them take a bath; when we told them to go to sleep; when we said 'no, you can't have ice cream. You haven't even had breakfast yet.' And then some days were just plain horrible.

Trevor was the real problem. Nuala was an angle sometimes. Most of the time. In fact, whenever she did act out – telling us "nuh uh, I don't wanna" and stuff like that – it was because her brother had hyped her up into a rebellious mood. Whenever he didn't try to get her to play his partner in crime, she was a sweet little girl with puppy dog eyes that would melt anybody's heart.

It was just Trevor.

That day, Trevor had decided that he was tired of Abe's home school lessons – Abe's been trying to get them a head start on reading and writing, and Johann's been trying to give them a developing interest in the paranormal. Though neither seems to be doing too good at their goals – and so, he decided to leave. Not just leave the room or the house, but leave the entire lot. He grabbed his toy gun – Red's Christmas idea – his book of maps – Johann's Christmas idea – and his winter gear – my idea, the only reasonable one if you consider the harsh winters that we've had – and left to go outside. Abe thought nothing of it. He was concentrating on answer Nuala's question, a distraction for her brother, he claims. But honestly, even if he was paying attention, he still would have thought nothing of it. Maybe he would have asked where he was going. We all would have, just to remind him that we're in charge. But it wouldn't have been a big deal. The kids often go from one country house to the other, eat at one, sleep at the other, you know? So for a kid to just randomly leave the house to go outside wasn't really uncommon.

I was at our country house, reading on the couch – we weren't all that big of a fan of TVs. Only Red was…and the kids, of course. Spongebob will be the death of us all.

It was about sunset; a peaceful enough day. I was thinking, right at that moment when it all went haywire, that it was too peaceful of a day. Liz had gone to take a nap, Red went to the troll market to see if he can find that gun that he had been wanting to buy for years now, Abe was – duh – at Red's house, and Johann was in his room, working on one of his little inventions that would one day change the world (or so he claimed.) Suddenly, it the quietest of moments, Abe walked into the room. Very casual of course. He looked at me with a tilt of his head and then asked "Is Trevor here?"

I looked at him, then at the little girl that had been standing quietly next to him, and then back up. "No. Why? Can't find him?"

"He left during one of our lessons and he never came back. I assumed that he was here."

"Um…no, he's not here." Abe just stared at me and I stood up slowly. "Are you saying you lost him?" I asked. Abe hesitated. "Well…no, I didn't loose him. He just…walked off. I don't know…"

"Abe, do you know what Red is going to do to you when he finds out that you lost his kid?!" I was at the door now and I could see how flustered my old friend was. I knew that he was picturing an angry, big, red ape looking at him after just buying a brand new gun from the market.

Yikes.

Abe took a sharp turn towards Nuala, who had been silent and unmoving. He crouched to her level, staring at her through his goggles – contacts weren't working out for him.

"Nuala, where is your brother?" he asked nicely. Nuala stared back at him, as emotionless as he was. After a while, she shrugged. "I don't know," she said at last. I stared at her, and then crouched down beside her as well. "Nuala, sweetie, are you sure you don't know where Trevor is?"

Now, even Nuala and Trevor knew of the paranormal bond between the two of them. They both knew that information, thoughts, and physical wounds were transpired between the both of them. So many times before they had proved Abe's first predictions right, like when they were two and they walked out of the room, holding hands, claiming that they had had a nightmare. Red told us about that one. Or like the time when they were a few months old, and both of them, I kid you not, needed to be taken to the hospital, because Trevor had stuck a penny up his nose, so Nuala couldn't breath either.

We must not be all that great at babysitting, but that last one was all Johann's fault. Giving Trevor a head start on his savings account my butt!

Nuala nodded. "I don't know where he is," she stated simply. I could tell that she was telling the truth. She was staring me straight in the eye, unblinking. Plus, Abe had placed his hand on her shoulder and was now heading for the door. I grabbed my coat, ran to tell Johann, and two seconds later, we were both outside. What really worried us was the fact that Nuala couldn't even sense her brother. Their mental connection had a mile radius. If they're far enough apart, they can't sense each other's mind. Sure, their physical connection was unlimited, but their mental was not. I wasn't sure if that was a good thing or a bad thing.

Abe, Johann and I split up. Abe went off on his own, looking down the dirt road that went for miles without anything but fields and country homes neighboring it. Johann, Nuala and I walked through the fields behind us. There was one place that I wanted to go first, just to make sure that he wasn't there, and that was the creek. So far, neither Trevor nor Nuala knew how to swim. We knew that Trevor wasn't in any danger yet. Nuala seemed perfectly healthy and well, but we weren't risking it. So the three of us took the mile walk towards the creek, and all throughout that walk, we were constantly asking the child 'can you sense him now' and the whole time, she would respond by saying 'no, not yet.'

There was one time while we were walking that she suddenly stopped and started complaining that her knees were hurting her. I looked down at her knee caps – she was wearing shorts – and saw that the skin was scrapped and very small traces of blood could be found. Trevor must have fallen and scrapped his knees.

I carried Nuala and walked with Johann, searching endlessly. For hours, we were looking. When we reached the river, we kept on going down the creek, searching. "If he fell in, he would have been carried down stream," Johann informed. I have to say, for the smart one, he had an act for pointing out the obvious. You don't have to agree with me. I know Red does.

So for a whole two hours, we were walking around, searching, calling, and asking for Nuala's help. And finally, we got a call from Abe. He found Trevor, and guess where at? In the troll market underground.

With his father.

All of us got a nasty reaction. Well, Abe and Trevor mostly. Abe was supposed to be watching the kid and the kid knew better than to just walk out and not tell anyone where he was going. However, Johann and I were chewed out by Liz, who was angry that we hadn't woken her up. So ya, we're not the best babysitters in the world.

So anyways, that night, I crawled into bed with a massive headache and eyes dry and burning. I don't know, I guess I've gotten soft and weak. In the olden days, I could stay up for hours, days even, without sleep, and I had been fighting monsters with Red and Abe. But now I can't handle a slightly busy afternoon. Pathetic, huh?

Eyes crossing, I relaxed in my nice, warm bed. It was probably about eleven at night and it was getting cold outside. You'd think that someone like me, someone with ice powers – though most people that know that much about me forget that fact half the time – would feel so comfortable with the cold weather, but honestly, I kind of hated it. The heat was nice. I couldn't take too much of it, but I liked it all the same.

"Awe," I sighed with a smile. Nice, comfy bed. Time to relax.

"Snow!"

I rolled my eyes. "Figures," I whispered as I tried to ignore the call. But of course, Red was stubborn. He came bursting into my room, eyes blazing, and with the door nearly coming off of its hinges.

"Are the kids in here?" he asked, voice high. I sat up immediately. "No," I answered quickly. Red snapped his head. "Dammit! They're gone!"