AN: Thanks to Aradia-Hornbeam, and HughJackmanFan. :D

HughJackmanFan: What's so funny about the names? Just curious

Through the Veil

CHAPTER THREE

Amanda turned the doorknob, and then peeked inside, her friends huddled behind her. "Coast is clear," She said, straitening up and pushing the purple door away. She stepped into the kitchen with relief. The others filed in quickly behind her.

"I'm going to your room," Justine announced, walking around her friend.

"You don't even know where my room is," Amanda protested.

"Not true. I saw you go in there on Halloween when we were waiting for the others," Justine replied. She walked into the foyer and turned down the hallway where the bedrooms were.

"Wait for me!" Stefie called excitedly, racing behind Justine.

Francis shifted nervously, glancing back at Amanda, who was now giving him the evil eye. "I suppose that means if I go in there, you'll skin me alive?" he asked.

Amanda nodded, and Darey smirked. "Oh, she just doesn't want you to see her childish room," She said with a laugh. Francis quickly joined in, while Amanda paled.

"How'd you know about that?" She asked seriously. "You've never been in my room before."

"You mean your room really is decorated like a little kid's?" Francis asked, his eyes lighting up with interest.

"Shut up," Amanda grumbled. Francis started into the foyer. "Where are you going?"

"Argh. I'm off to yer room, me matey. Off to claim me buried treasure of laughs." Then he too disappeared into Amanda's room. Sighing, she turned to Darey. "You see why you guys are never invited over?"

"I'm beginning to," Darey replied. "You go get the movie, and I'll round up the troops."

"Kay."

The two split up, Darey following Francis, and Amanda crossing over to the DVD towers. She searched through all the videos they had, before finally finding 'Van Helsing'. Now she could get her friend's together, leave, and no one would be the wiser. She'd suffer some teasing at her bedroom's expense, but all in all everything was safe. She stood with relief and started for the hallway when a door burst open, and strange sobs filled the room. Shoulders slumped; Amanda looked up to see the recession of DJ, Josh, and Kailyn (pronounced Kay-Lynne, just like Kaelin, but they are two different people), her brothers and sister. Someone shouted after them 'don't come back' before the door slammed shut. Kailyn was watching DJ with irritation, and Josh was whispering comforting words in his twin's ear.

"Hi Amanda," Kailyn said glumly as she walked past. Amanda turned and watched as Kailyn took a seat at the computer chair, and DJ stood in the center of the room, Josh looking at him sympathetically.

"What's with the water works?" Amanda asked; her hands uncertainly at her sides.

"Kaelin broke up with DJ," Kailyn said, being the first to speak. Those five words caused DJ to cry harder.

"And?" Amanda asked.

"And now he's utterly devastated, so he won't stop crying. Aaron, John, and Dommy just kicked us out of the back room because DJ was too annoying. Tell him to stop, Manda," Kailyn whined.

Amanda ignored her, and leaned over to try and get a better look at DJ without moving from her spot. "Kaelin broke up with you?"

DJ nodded his head pitifully. Amanda straitened up thoughtfully, and then smiled. "It's about time. You don't have any idea how hard I've been trying to break you up!"

Josh glared at her. "Don't be an ass," He said.

"Fine, fine. So why did she break up with you?" Amanda asked.

"She said he was too much of a wuss for her, and she was sick of it," Kailyn said as if it were nothing but a piece of hot news.

"If the shoe fits," Amanda said.

"I'm warning you," Josh snapped.

"Oh come on. You said it yourself that – Argh!" She ducked out of the way as Josh's foot came plummeting towards her. He turned at the last minute, his heal catching her arm. "Oww. What did you do that for?"

"Come on DJ, stand up for yourself," Josh instructed, looking back at his broken brother.

DJ simply slumped into a seat and hid his face.

Amanda grimaced, and then caught sight of a fist heading towards her. She managed to get out of the way this time - bending over and then rushing forward and catching Josh in the middle. She slammed her head into his chest and tackled him onto the couch.

Josh grunted, and then took a clump full of hair and pulled it back. Amanda cried out, and then took a hold of Josh's brown locks. "Let go!" She snapped.

Josh jerked harder, and then let go before smacking her arm away from him. She jumped back, ignoring the cries from Kailyn to stop, and the doors slamming as her friends came into the room. Josh jumped back up furiously, and started for her. Amanda took stance, and then threw her arm – fingers out instead of fisted – and rammed her palm into his breast. He tumbled back again, gasping for breath. Amanda jumped back when she saw the evil look in his eye.

"Oh no!" She cried, racing away. But Josh locked his arm around her hip and pulled her closer. The two fell to the floor, and began trading swaps.

"Hey, hey!" Darey exclaimed. She motioned to Stefie and Francis to separate the brawl, since they took karate. The two exchanged a look, and then rushed forward, pulling the siblings apart. Josh relaxed into Stefie's arm, wiping at his bleeding lip while shooting dark looks at Amanda. She was barely being contained by Francis as she squirmed, kicking out in hopes of getting at her brother.

"Enough!" Darey cried. "Don't tell me this is another fight over the vacuum cleaner."

Amanda narrowed her eyes at Josh, and let out a low growl. "Cut that!" Francis said, glancing down at the top of Amanda's head.

Josh pulled out of Stefie's arms, and then turned around to go back to comforting DJ. Seeing his retreat, Amanda yanked away from Francis, and stepped to the side, aching arms crossed over her chest.

"Actually, it was Manda and DJ who got in the argument over the vacuum," Kailyn stated. Amanda threw her a dark look, and then walked to the side to pick up the DVD which had been tossed to the side when the fight began.

"What's this all about?" Justine asked curiously.

"Don't ask," Amanda said. "Come on."

"Where are you going?" Kailyn asked.

"Get me the phone," Amanda replied. She looked at DJ, true sympathy on her face. "I'll fix this mess. If anyone can get through to Kaelin, it's me."

"You couldn't get her to quite smo," Kailyn started. Amanda dashed over, and put her fingers around her sister's mouth.

"You're just full of talk today, aren't you?" She asked. Kailyn nodded her head, and Amanda let go. She picked up the portable phone and walked into her room. Justine, Darey, Francis, and Stefie followed quickly behind her, anxious to hear the whole story of what had happened.

It isn't too important, but for imagination purposes, we'll describe Miss Bahrens 'childish' bedroom. The upper half of the room of the walls were painted a bright yellow blended with orange to make a sun like appearance. The bottom half was painted dark blue – remnants from the time when the room had belonged to Josh and DJ. The only things on the wall were a cork board, a shelf filled with figurines, plush pumpkins, and teddy bears, and three sheets of paper with lyrics on them. The window was covered by a single golden curtain, which blocked out a lot of light. There was a desk, a vanity and a tiny bookshelf. In the doorless closet was a trunk covered with silly stuffed cats and beanie babies. In front of the trunk was a pink bucket full of purses and papers. Next to it was an old Spice Girls backpack she'd gotten back in fifth grade, and couldn't bring herself to throw out. Resting on her bed was a stuffed gizmo doll from the movie 'Gremlins' which her father had won out of the claw machine on a trip down to Buffalo. A bunch of clothes were stuffed in the spot under the desk where the chair belonged. The chair itself was next to the vanity, loaded with clean clothes that needed to be put away.

Justine picked up the Spice Girls backpack and looked it over, a small smile playing on her lips. She looked up to Amanda. "Remember in Fourth grade when we did that dance routine for Father's Day?" She asked. Justine and Amanda had once been the world's best friends. Then in seventh grade, someone who didn't want them to be friend's anymore spread a rumor to Amanda, and she refused to talk to Justine. They just started talking about a year ago.

Amanda smirked. "Yeppers. My Dad was so pissed off that I went to your house on Father's Day."

"Yeah, and then everyone started laughing at us because the routine was so bad," Justine said with a giggle.

"You know, it's really creepy when you two do that," Francis acknowledged.

"What about when we played house with our dolls? You would be Baby Spice and I would be Posh Spice - we were each married to a member of the Backstreet Boys?" Manda said with a grin.

"Over sharing," Francis said, looking with mock fear at Amanda.

"Backstreet Boys?" Stefie asked in confusion. Darey started laughing.

"I remember Justine mentioning that," She said.

Amanda took the backpack from Justine, and set it on the floor, before once again picking up the phone. "Keep it down a moment, will you? I'm going to call Kaelin."

"Oh boy," Stefie said.

Amanda waited a moment as the ringing filled her ears, and then someone picked up.

"Yeah, Amanda?" She asked.

"I hate caller ID," Amanda said conversationally into the phone.

There was a sigh at the other end. "Why are you calling?"

"Would you mind coming up for a bit? Francis and Justine are over."

"Francis is at your house? Your parents said it was okay to have a boy in the house?" Kaelin's voice was filled with slight amusement.

"Are you coming up, or not?"

"… Is DJ there?"

"I think he and Josh walked over to the Elementary School. Took Kailyn with them."

"Really? I'm shocked they can tolerate her."

"Kaelin."

"Right, right. Yeah, I'll be up in a minute, but I can't stay for too long, you know."

"Okay. See you soon. Oh, I'm in my room." Amanda hung up, and looked at her friends. "Sometimes I wonder why I'm friend's with that girl."

"So what happened?" Darey asked.

"Kaelin broke up with DJ, and DJ's really upset about it," Amanda replied.

"So how did you and Josh get into a fight?" Justine inquired.

"Eh, I said some things to DJ about how I was glad they had broken up and stuff. Josh took it upon himself to start a fight with me. He started it though, honest," Amanda said.

"Is that the story you want to stick to?" Said Darey.

"Don't be a wise guy. That's what happened. Anyways, I'm calling Kaelin over to have an intersection," She said.

Stefie blinked. "You mean intervention?"

Amanda lifted her hand, mouth open and ready to say something in return, but changed her mind, waved her arm, and said, "Whatever."

"But you told Kaelin DJ and Josh were gone."

"I'm working on it!" Amanda said with irritation. She stomped over to the door, and pulled it open, stopping short to spin on Francis. "Don't you touch my gizmo," She growled. Francis quickly dropped the stuffed animal - which he had doing the can-can on air - and hid his arms behind his back, whistling innocently. Amanda narrowed her eyes and then poked her head out the door.

"Eh, if you want me to fix things, then you better go hide out in the sun porch for now," She advised to the three out there.

"Why?" Josh snarled.

Amanda rolled her eyes and said, "Because Kaelin's on her way over, and if she sees you, I won't stand a chance at trying to get her to change her mind."

Josh considered it, and looked to Derek who had stood and was walking quickly to the door. "Spose that's a yes," He murmured. Getting up, he quickly followed after DJ. Kailyn frowned.

"Wait guys. I don't wanna get stuck with Kaelin," She said. She jumped out of her seat and followed after them.

Amanda waited until she heard the sun porch door close, before she snaked back into her room and closed the door softly behind her. "Well, I'm about to do my good deed for the day."

"Then we can head back to Darey's and watch the movie, right?" Stefie asked hopefully.

"I hope so," Amanda replied.

"So explain to me the whole point of this movie."

"Don't bother," Said a voice from the door way. Amanda turned to see Kaelin leaning against the door frame, arms crossed over her chest. She was wearing a black leather jacket over a white penny shirt, and beige pants. Her strait dark brown hair was pulled back in a ponytail, a silver band drooping at her forehead and tangled into her hair at the sides. Her dark blue eyes rimmed with thick black mascara turned to eye Stefie and Darey carefully. She was rather tall, and skinny as hell.

"I thought you said it was just you, Justine, and Francis," She said darkly.

"Hello, Kaelin," Amanda said with a sigh. Kaelin had always been a little wild, but lately she'd gone from hanging over the edge to smacking the ground and continuing through to the core – and then some. Yes, Kaelin had gone through some stuff at home, but it didn't mean she had to become a completely different person. Sometimes, Amanda couldn't figure out how they were still friends … good friends at that.

Kaelin turned her penetrating gaze to Amanda. "Care to share?"

"Come in, take a seat," Stefie said with a warm smile.

If possible, Kaelin's face became more sinister. "I think I'll stand," She said.

Darey swallowed, and exchanged a nervous glance with Francis. This was definitely not the girl she remembered trick 'or' treating with last Halloween.

Amanda cleared her throat. "Eh, I heard about what happened."

Kaelin rolled her eyes before stepping into the room and closing the door behind her. "Look, things just weren't working out between us." She stopped, and then looked at Amanda with confusion. "What's with the black eye?"

"Black eye?" Amanda asked frightfully. She ran to the vanity and studied her face. Sure enough, a dark ring was forming around her left eye. There were also several bruises forming on her neck. Not to mention her hair was in a mess. She groaned, and then quickly pulled a brush through her hair and fixed her bun. Then she started searching through her make up for something to cover up her wounds. As pathetic as it was, Amanda cared very much about her appearance.

Kaelin hid a smirk, and then marched over to her friend. She took her by the shoulder and turned her to face her. Shaking her head, she said, "You'll never get that done by yourself." Amanda managed a wry smile. "Josh get at you?"

"Something like that," Amanda replied. "They're in the sun porch, you know."

"I know," Kaelin confirmed. She picked up some cover up and looked thoughtful. "We should probably clean that cut on your eyebrow."

"It's bleeding again?" Justine asked, stepping closer.

"Josh must have bumped it," Amanda replied, gently feeling the small cut she had over looked.

"How'd you get that one?" Darey asked with interest.

"The fight over the vacuum cleaner," Amanda and Kaelin said at the same time. Both started laughing.

"Why'd you break up with DJ?" Stefie asked.

Kaelin, surprisingly, got a very dreamy look on her face. "Ray asked me out," She said.

Francis raised his eyebrows. "Ray? As in Ray Louchello?" He asked.

"As in major drug distributor for the ninth grade," Amanda grumbled angrily.

Kaelin only frowned. "He only did it twice," She said, rolling her eyes.

"He was only caught twice," Amanda corrected. "You and I both know he does it more than he gets in trouble for."

"So you dumped DJ – sweet, kind DJ – for Ray Louchello, whose reputation is for keeping more girls than one? Is that really the kind of guy you want to date?" Justine demanded.

"If you like DJ so much, you go out with him," Kaelin fired back. Then she smiled. "Besides, I'm sure I could tame Ray."

"Nobody tames Ray, Kaelin. Ray tames you," Amanda said, swatting Kaelin's arm away so now only half the ring about her eye was covered. "I don't need your help."

"Fine," Kaelin said. "It was so stupid of me to come here. I should have known I wouldn't get any support from you."

"You expect me to support this decision? Are you crazy?"

"Amanda's right," Francis said. Then he swallowed hard when Kaelin spun furiously on him.

"Ray Louchello is bad news," Stefie admitted.

Kaelin cocked her head to the side with a huff of amused breath. "Maybe that's what I want."

"Oh for crying out loud. I was right when I said DJ was better off without you, Kaelin. Go on, leave," Amanda commanded.

"Fine!" Kaelin snapped, turning and in quick strides arriving at the door. Before she could pull it open, though, Darey jumped up, knocking into Francis and causing him to stumble into Kaelin so that she hit her head against the wall.

"Ahh!" She exclaimed in pain. She held her head shooting glares at Francis.

"Sorry," He said. He turned to look at Darey, who was now staring ahead. "Darey?"

Darey moved forward, and Amanda quickly backed to the side. She followed Darey's gaze to the window, which now seemed to have a shimmering gossamer curtain over it.

"What the hell is that?" Kaelin asked, moving forward, her aching head now forgotten.

"It's normal, isn't it?" Justine asked, looking from Amanda to Kaelin. "I mean, its part of the window?"

A glimmer of light rippled through the strange material. Justine stumbled backwards. "Or not," She said, fear rising in her throat.

"That's … so … cool!" Stefie exclaimed. She got out of her chair and stood in front of the strange curtain. Then she ran her hand through the lively material, and was amazed to see it passed through.

"You shouldn't do that, Stefie," Amanda said nervously.

Stefie looked back at them with a grin, and then stepped through.

"No!" Came five sets of voices. Darey rushed to the strange thing and leaned in. Seconds later she was pulled forward.

"Darey!" Francis cried out.

"We need to get them back," Amanda said, authority in her voice. She moved forward, and tried to see through the strange material, but it was useless. There was no way of seeing through, and it was still rippling with Darey's sudden departure. She gently pushed her hand against it, and was awed by the mild feeling of gentle cold caresses that wrapped around her finger tips.

"Don't touch that thing," Kaelin snapped. She stumbled over and grabbed onto Amanda's shirt. "Get away from it!"

Just as Amanda was about to pull back, someone – or something - gripped her hand and began to tug. Amanda shrieked in surprise before she found herself being pulled through the frightening vortex, Kaelin being pulled with her.

Francis started forward, but Justine quickly gripped onto his arm. "What are you doing?" She demanded.

"Stefie's in there! Along with our friends. We have to go," He said.

"Are you kidding me? You don't know what's in there!"

"Well there's one way to find out, and I intend to," Francis snapped. He pulled out of Justine's grip, and ran through the fabric. It rippled again, and Justine looked around the now empty room. She let out a small whimper, and then murmured to herself, "I know I'm going to regret this later." Then she dashed through the vortex.

The thing flickered, almost impatiently. It was as if it were waiting …

The bedroom door creaked open. "Hey Amanda, DJ said you were -." Dommy Bahrens stopped, and stared at the strange thing which had now spread across the wall. What had once seemed like simple fabric was now leaping with life. Dommy's jaw dropped, as he brushed a hand through his light brown hair thoughtfully. Then he closed the door softly behind him, and approached the strange thing. He looked around it, leaning closer. "Manda? Are you in there?"

There was no response. He sat back on his heels with a troubled expression, when white tendrils shot out and wrapped themselves around the collar of his shirt, as if they were fingers. Dommy let out a surprised gasp, and then was lifted off his feet and flying into the portal. As soon as his shoes disappeared from sight, the portal closed in on itself and the room was once again – permanently this time – empty.

AN: Wow, ten pages on word document. And don't worry, you'll get a better introduction of Dommy in the next chapter. As for Van Helsing, he's coming. Either the next chapter as well, or the one after it. PLEASE REVIEW!