Aww, thanks for the encouragement guys! I just freaked when I realized that soooo many people were reading but I was getting sooooo little reviews. Anyways, here's chapter 3 and I'm hoping to get more reviews for this one even though it's pretty short. Enjoy!
~ Dani

500,000 Dollar Reward For the Return of Three Runaways

Alvin suddenly felt queasy. His half-eaten bagel piece fell to the ground and his eyes became glued to the paper in front of him.

According to the article, the body of a female was recovered from a forest fire. Laura Smith, successful computer programmer, widow, single mother of three. The bodies of her sons, 12-year olds Damon, Ethan, and Michael Smith, were not reclaimed. Investigators assume that they escaped from the fire but got lost somewhere in the city. There were pictures of all of them at the top.

"The boy without a past."

That's what the doctors had called him the first moring he woke up after the explosion.

Other people referred to him as John Doe.

He had named himself Alvin, and that was the name that he stuck with. He was Alvin, despite his "mother's" lies, despite the doctor she had sent him to insisting that he called himself Damon, his 'real' name. Now he wondered about that doctor, Dr. Styron, and his real name. And his real agenda. His mother sent him to Dr. Styron because he was supposed to be helping him remember the past. Instead he had been tampering with his mind, training him to love and trust the woman who was not his mother. Dr. Styron was the answer to his problems. He just didn't know why.

Longtime family friend Dr. Warren Styron calls the fire a terrible tragedy. "We were all so thankful to get Damon, Ethan, and Michael back safe and sound, and now for something like this to happen..." The psychiatrist choked up and had to take a break before continuing the interview.

Investigators have yet to uncover an explanation for the explosion that took down three city blocks almost two weeks ago. Damon and his brothers, the only witnesses, suffered minor injuries but doctors say that they also exhibited a severe case of amnesia, remembering nothing before their rescue from the explosion site. For several days, their identities remained unknown. After a brief hospital stay, Damon and his brothers were claimed by their mother, Laura Smith.

"Laura was overjoyed," Dr. Styron said. "And although Damon, Ethan, and Michael had no memory of their mother, the four of them obviously still shared a bond. There was love there, anyone could see it." Dr. Styron cited the terrifying days after the brothers went missing. "Laura couldn't help fearing the worst, but I told her that Damon and his brothers were strong, and they'd come back to us-and I still believe that. There's a chance that they are all still out there and if they are we'll find them. I love the boys so much that I'm offering a 500,000 dollar reward for their return. Please help."

"Hey, it's going to be okay," Simon said softly, putting a hand over his shoulder. He thought that Alvin was crying. He thought that he was shaking in fear. But it wasn't fear-it was anger.

"There's a chance that they are all still out there," Dr. Styron, or whatever his real name was, had said. It was a message, a message for them. He knew that they had survived and he was going to find them.

"It doesn't matter," Alvin said, pushing his brother away. "We just got to get out of here."

"But where do we go?"

Alvin zoned out for a minute and squinted his eyes at three words at the bottom of the article. "Police suspect arson."

The article didn't contain the word 'murder'. That was only in Alvin's head.

"Um..." he said when he had snapped back to reality. "I don't care where we go." He stepped back into his dark corner. The train station was swarming with commuters, strange faces that stared blankly ahead, but any one of them could have been searching for them. They had to run. "If we stay here, they'll find us. I know it."

"Ok," Simon said and he signaled for Theodore to go ahead. Then he leaned his head closer to Alvin's head as they began to walk.

"Listen, I know you feel guilty," he said in a soft tone. "But it wasn't your fault. She was chasing us, she was going to hurt us, and...it was just an accident."

"We could have gone back for her," Alvin said back in an even softer voice. "We could have pulled her out of the fire."

"There wasn't any time. There wasn't. And besides..."

"What?"

"Do you honestly think that she would have gone back for you?"

Alvin didn't respond. He was staring at the man, the one on the other side of the station dipping a wedge of donut into some coffee. He wore a light brown jacket and had a folded up newspaper under his arm. He couldn't have looked more normal. Except he was watching them.

Alvin knew that he was being paranoid but he had learned to trust his instincts.

Alvin caught the man's eye, expecting him to turn away, but instead he smiled at Alvin and began to walk towards him. His steps were slow at first, almost casual, until Alvin grabbed both of his brothers' arms and began to run with them. Then the man began to run too, pushing though the crowd of commuters, heading straight for them.

"Hurry!" Alvin hissed as he literally dragged his brothers down the corridor and into a stairwell.

"What? What's going on?"

"We're being followed!" Alvin yelled. He risked a glance over Simon's shoulder and for a second, he thought that they were safe when he didn't see the man.

Then the man's face suddenly reappeared through the crowd and he was closer than before.

Alvin ran.