A/N: JUST GIVE ME SOME FREAKING REVIEWS!!!!!! Pretty pretty please?

My shoulder is killing me right now because of volleyball, (I really HATE serving) so it was kind of painful to type this and I kind of wanted to just be done with it, so sorry if it's not the best.

Until you've slept on a waterbed, you've never really slept. I know that some people think that they're annoying, but I am not one of those people. At first I was kind of paranoid, thinking that with my luck it would probably just suddenly burst in the middle of the night and drown me in my sleep.

But as soon as I laid down, that irrational (well, maybe not entirely irrational) fear went away. I fell asleep instantly in the room that was literally twelve times the size of my room at the Lyle House. And when I woke up, I almost refused to get off the bed. But eventually my stomach started growling, so I decided to get up and wander around, hopefully being lucky enough to stumble into the kitchen.

And I was. After fifteen minutes.

Derek, Simon, Tori, and Autumn were all at the polished table eating pancakes. Simon looked up at me as I walked in and smiled.

"Finally, Chloe. We were starting to think a scary little puppy ghost came and got you in your sleep."

I raised an eyebrow and said, "Puppy? I think it would take a lot more than a puppy to get me. I could just karate chop him and then send him off to puppy heaven......If that's where he's supposed to go."

"Hey!" Autumn said indignantly yet still jokingly. "That's my puppy you're talking about."

"Well if we're talking about the puppy that's sitting over by the window, and I'm assuming we are, I don't understand how he's exactly a ghost. That thing in the corner looks pretty solid to me."

Simon smiled. "Fine. So what took you so long?"

I had gotten a stack of pancakes and sat down at the table, saying nonchalantly, "Oh, I was just busy with my unnatural attachment to the waterbed in my room."

Tori raised an eyebrow and Autumn and Simon both laughed. I doubt Derek even heard anything, he was concentrating on his food so hard.

Who really needs to concentrate on food, anyways? All you have to do is make sure it gets in your mouth and doesn't fall everywhere else.

"So you like the waterbed, huh?" Autumn asked me. I just nodded because my mouth was full of pancake.

When I'd finally swallowed, I asked her, "Are you usually here by yourself a lot?"

"I guess so, but I wouldn't really consider it alone. Most of the time my Aunt Kate and her son Jason come and stay here when Dad leaves. I guess they didn't come this time because Dad and Aunt Kate didn't think this place needed to become hormone central." Autumn said, raising her eyebrows at both me and Tori.

"Hey, don't look at me. I don't exactly have time for that stuff, what with a whole group of crazy scientists after me." I told her.

Tori just shrugged. "Well, if he's hot, what are you gonna do......." I smiled. That's exactly what you'd expect to come out of Tori's mouth.

"Ewww!! He's my cousin. My first cousin, at that. Some of those serious freaks think that anything past a second cousin doesn't count." She shuddered delicately. It almost seemed like delicately was the way she did everything. Although she was tall and graceful, she seemed like one of those people that was always the Damsel In Distress. She was wearing a bright blue tank top with white shorts on and fluffy slippers. Her hair was up and she handled the fork she was using as if it would break at any second.

Truthfully, I thought she would be the one to break.

Not in the way-too-skinny-and-she-looks-like-you-could-snap-her-in-half way, but in the way that if something horrible was about to happen, she wouldn't last two seconds.

Which in our situation is a pretty big liability.

Then again, Andrew had told us this place would be safe, that the Edison Group wouldn't be able to find us here.

But I wasn't so sure I trusted Andrew anymore.

I mean, think about it. The way we'd gotten here, how they'd just shipped us off to Seattle, supposedly because they thought Simon's dad was here since they'd got some weird message. If they'd gotten a message, why didn't they let us listen to it, or see it or whatever. And if they'd had trouble figuring it out, why didn't they come get us to help? Especially Derek, he was good with that kind of stuff. And if the message had been so cryptic, how had they figured it out so fast? And how could they be sure they'd gotten it right?

"Chloe!" Simon's voice snapped me out my head. I was glad; My mind was spinning with all the questions and the longer I thought about it all, the more questions popped up.

I looked at him and smiled sheepishly. "Sorry. I kind of spaced for a second."

He smiled warmly at me and for the first time I realized that Derek, Tori, and Autumn were all gone. I hadn't even known that they'd left! Simon noticed me looking and laughed. "Yeah, I think you spaced for more than a second." He looked back at me, a little concern in his eyes. "So what were you thinking about?"

I contemplated whether or not I should tell him the truth. Simon had looked so excited at the prospect of finding his dad, and I didn't want to ruin that. But on the other hand, Simon really deserved to know. It was his dad we were here for, and we might not even be able to find him. And I had no idea whether this whole thing was a set-up or just a plot to get us out of Andrew's hair. I thought maybe Simon could help.

So I told him everything I'd suspected from the start, watching his face carefully to see his reaction. If he was going to get angry because I was accusing Andrew, I wanted some warning.

But he didn't get angry at all. His brow was furrowed, and he looked like he was really considering what I was saying. When I was done, he said, "Yeah, Derek and I both noticed that too. We were talking about it before we left; We figured you'd noticed too. We were deliberating about whether or not we should go, but in the end Derek said we might as well because it would probably throw off the Edison Group. I'm not really sure what this is all about, but I don't think it's a set up. I just can't see Andrew doing that." He paused and looked at me. "I know that there's a pretty slim chance that my dad's actually here, but I'm going to try to find him anyways. I'm just not really sure where to do it."

This was the perfect opportunity. "Why don't you try one of those supernatural stores? I'm sure someone might even be able to help, make it stronger or something."

Simon's eyes glittered. I'd never noticed how they looked even warmer than usual when they did. "Yeah! You know, you've been getting really good ideas lately. Got any brilliant ghost friends stalking you?"

I smacked his arm playfully. "Hey! Are you insinuating that I can't come up with smart ideas on my own? Because I can. I don't need a creepy ghost stalking me and telling me what to do, and even if I had one of those, do you really think I would listen to it? Although, there was this one time that-"

Simon cut me off me off by putting his hand over my mouth. His eyes still glittered with amusement, but his tone was serious when he said, "I know, Chloe. You can come up with amazing ideas on your own. You always do." I raised an eyebrow skeptically. Well, almost always." He amended with a grin. He finally took his hand off my mouth. "Okay?" He asked. I just nodded. His face was very close, and I couldn't seem to look away from his eyes.

But Autumn's puppy came bounding into the kitchen, jumping up onto my lap with her tongue hanging out. Kind of a moment killer, wouldn't you say? I looked down and laughed, shaking my head. Then I looked up at Simon. "Well, we should probably get dressed if we want to leave before noon." I looked at the clock and it said 12:20. Jeez, I really had slept in. "I mean, if we want to get there before one." Simon smiled at me attempt of being casual about the fact that I'd slept until noon in some weird place.

"We?"

"Well, yeah, we. You think I'd let you go off into one of my brilliant ideas without me?" I asked incredulously. He laughed and walked up the stairs.

After Simon's little speech, I was feeling incredibly guilty about not telling him the real reason why I was going with him. But Tori was right, if either Simon or Derek found out that she thought her mom could find her, they'd probably send her on a plane to Africa.

And the sad part? I knew that wasn't an exaggeration.

***************

After some convincing, Simon and I left to go to this supernatural store or whatever. Autumn was perfectly fine with staying home, but I'd had to convince Derek not to come with us. It would be hard enough to get the cloak without Simon noticing, I would never get it if Derek was there. I think Derek figured that I wanted to be alone with Simon again, so he finally agreed to stay home. I wasn't going to correct him about the Simon thing.

Because, truthfully? I kind of did want to be alone with Simon.

I know, I know, we were supernaturals who had some messed up DNA with a group of creepy crazy scientists after us. But I can't help it! Even with all the weird stuff going on, I was still a teenage girl. And Simon happened to be a very cute teenage boy. One who I could always count on to cheer me up, and one that would listen when I needed him too.

But that shouldn't matter. Like I'd told Autumn earlier, I don't have time for stuff like that. I didn't need any more distractions.

The place was down one of those alleys that even the homeless people wouldn't go down because it was too creepy, but Simon said he was sure we were in the right place so I walked down the alley with him.

Painted on the wall of one of the buildings was a midnight blue Amaryllis. Simon saw me looking and said, "That's how we know this is the place. All the stores in our community have a a flower like that painted near the door. Although it's usually a different color, because otherwise it would start to look like there's some weirdo gang symbol popping up all over the world, so people would start getting suspicious." Suspicious of what? Terrorists?

Yeah, cuz terrorists are gonna paint pretty flowers on brick buildings.

He walked up to the door and knocked. A very small girl who looked to be about eight opened the door and smiled at us. "Password?"

Simon looked at me, a little weary. "Autumn didn't really tell me anything about a password....."

The little girl's smile widened even more. "Oh, Autumn sent you? Come right in."

I looked at Simon and he motioned me to go first.

Right, 'cause sending me into an unknown place in a creepy ally is the just the best idea ever........

Especially considering that little girl's face had gone all creepy when Simon had mentioned Autumn. And I mean really creepy. Her teeth had suddenly shown when her smile widened, and I could have sworn I saw fangs. Fangs.

But that was impossible. I was just hallucinating, because vampires aren't real.

...........Are they?

I didn't really get a chance to ask Simon, because the little girl came back and beckoned us inside. I took a deep breath to prepare myself and stepped over the threshold.

OMG! My longest chapter ever. Which is kind of pathetic, considering it's barely over 2000 words. But I'm still proud! And who knows, maybe pressing that little button down there might make my next chapter 3000 words.......