"How are you two ladies?" Ripley asked, walking towards them in long strides.
Diana grumbled angry words under her breath that not even she knew what they were meant to be.
Ripley was the worst kind of bad guy. Because he didn't look like a bad guy. In fact he looked like a kind police officer dressed in the dark blue uniform with the badge on his chest, the small cell phone strapped to his waist so he could use it to call for help if needed and a small black bat like object that neither of the girls had ever seen him use. Another thing was the notebook and pen in his top pocket that they had also never seen him so much as touch. He was quite big and muscular, bulky in the shoulders, but otherwise skinny in the waist with pale skin, high cheekbones, thin lips, a chin dimple and dark green eyes. His hair was such a dark brown that it looked black and was swept back on his head with a clean shave and a big smile that showed each and everyone of his pearly white teeth.
As he approached them, Astrid wondered if they could quickly run inside and avoid him like so many other times before when he had come strolling passed. But as if he read her mind he stepped in between the door and Astrid, blocking her way and making her have no choice but to look up at him.
"You okay?" Ripley asked again when they didn't answer him before.
Astrid glanced over at Diana but she was still growling in some angry alien made up language with a look ready to kill. It seemed mumbling angry made up words to herself was the only way she was restraining herself from attacking him. Astrid couldn't blame her.
"We're fine." Astrid said with stiff teeth and forced politeness. Getting angry and throwing a fit did nothing but earn you time in his office while he lectured you about manners, as Sam had learned many times before. But that didn't make it any easier.
"That's good. I was kind of worried. You see I got a call in for these very buildings that were complaining about you lot. Apparently there was a lot of fighting, shouting and banging coming from your room and then there was a stampede coming down the stairs that upset a lot of people who were trying to relax. Miss McKlusky was really scared. She called me nearly in tears because she didn't know what to do. Poor woman didn't even know what was happening." Ripley sighed and shook his head like a disappointed father. "Poor, poor woman." He repeated.
The two girls shared glances before they looked back at him and waited.
"I came over and checked upstairs. Door wide open and no one was home. The place was suddenly completely quiet with no one home and I was even more concerned and all of you. You girlie's want to tell me what happened?" They said nothing. "No? Come on. I just want answers to give to Miss McKlusky and the rest of the frightened people in the apartment. What about you, Pumpkin?"
Astrid winced at the nickname and scowled up at him. Her patients (and her politeness along with it) was quickly leaving her. "How should we know anything? You literally just saw us come home. We've been out all day."
Ripley nodded and looked at Diana. "What about you, Princess?"
"My name is not Princess!" Diana snarled. "And you better not have entered our room! You had no right!"
"I had every right. I was worried to see the door wide open after someone called in a disturbance." He put fake concern on his face and looked back and forth between the two of them. "What if one of you had been hurt? I had to make sure everything and everyone was okay in there?"
"How did you know it was from our room?" Diana snapped. "There's a floor above us and plenty of other residence all on the third floor. And we're not even above Miss McKlusky so how did you know it was our room where the noise was being made when it could have been anyone? Even with the door open that doesn't actually mean anything. So what made you think of us?"
Ripley turned to her and grinned. He then ignored her and faced Astrid, not answering her question. "Where's Torches?"
Astrid wanted to slap him. "I don't know. Like I said. We just came home. Maybe Sam is still at work. Or maybe he went for a walk. Or maybe something came up and he had to leave."
After a moment of glaring at one another, Ripley shrugged his shoulders. "Is there anything you two can tell me about what happened?"
"How? I already told you. We weren't here!" Astrid said, losing her temper. "You know, why don't you just come back later when Sam is home. We all know you're going to pass our house again anyway because you always do, so when you do decide to wander passed then maybe try knocking and waiting for us to answer the door this time. Maybe if we're in good moods we'll let you in and Sam can answer any questions you have for him. Though if he isn't here now then I doubt he'll know much more than us."
"I think I'll just do that." Ripley whispered. He stared at her emotionless before he grinned and showed all his teeth again. It was amazing how he looked so much like a tiger when he did that.
"Oh shove off!" Diana snarled.
Astrid had just started another glaring contest with Ripley that Diana joined in for only a few seconds before she was grabbing Astrid and pulling her inside. Astrid resisted for not even a second longer before she had shaken free of Diana and was running for the stairs. She was careful to be out of sight before she began running even though he could probably heard her footsteps slamming away anyway.
She had to get up the stairs. She had to see Sam and make sure everything was okay even though Ripley had already told her that no one was home.
The first thought in her mind was that Caine had somehow gotten his powers back like he said he would and attacked Sam while they were gone, then maybe dragged him from the room and threw him in a rubbish bin like the common trash he thought he was. The second thought was that Drake or Gaia had appeared like Caine and had attacked both of them, not even leaving ashes behind after they had destroyed them. And the last thought was that the Fire Breathing Lizard monster had found the two of them and had attacked them in the same way it had attacked the man and his daughters.
She didn't care when none of them made any sense. She didn't care that if the lizard had been here then it would have burned the whole place down. All she cared about was that something had happened and she needed to be there for Sam in case something else happened.
As she rounded up the stairs she threw herself into their apartment. Ripley hadn't even bothered to shut the door behind of him and Astrid barreled inside the room with both of her legs screaming in agony. It was hard enough walking up the stairs but running left her wanting to collapse. But she couldn't just yet.
It looked the same. There were a few plates out and a bit of a mess but nothing much that would suggest a struggle of any kind. In fact if the door hadn't been wide open then Astrid would have assumed Ripley was making it up to mess with their heads. Sam should have been there with Caine. Where was he?
"CAINE?!" Diana called, not caring who heard. "Are you here?!"
"They're not here." Astrid sighed. She didn't bother to look around. They had made enough noise to bring them out if they were there.
"Then where are they?" Diana moaned. "Caine can't just go out and about like this. He'll get seen."
"Something must have happened." Astrid whispered.
"What?" Diana demanded. Now she was looking to Astrid the Genius for answers and that scared Astrid as much as it did Diana.
"I don't know... Let me try and call Sam." Astrid said. She hurried over to the house phone and picked it up off of the wall. Soon it was placed to her ear and she listened to the gentle ringing tone until after ten exact rings, someone picked up on the other line. "Sam?"
"Astrid? Is that you?" He sounded exhausted.
"What happened? Where are you and Caine?" Astrid demanded as Diana walked over and stood close enough so they could both listen.
"It's... It's a long story." Sam sounded nervous.
"Okay, well where are you? I'll come and meet you." Astrid offered. She glanced at Diana who looked scared and smaller than before.
There was a short silence for a moment. "I'm in Quinn's car. We're looking for Caine. I sort of lost him."
Astrid's mind drew a blank and she fell silent for a moment. She glanced at Diana but by her lack of changing expression it seemed she couldn't hear what he had just said.
"Sam... Are you serious?" Astrid said through gritted teeth.
"Look! He caught me off guard and took off! I lost him, okay?!" Sam sounded tired and angry. Under the angry was fear. She could hear it.
"Okay. Come pick us up." Astrid sighed. "We'll help."
"Okay."
Astrid hung up without a real goodbye and hurried to the bedroom where she changed into a pair of loose grey track suits and a white top. It was getting colder and she wanted to be ready to run in the dark. The sun was setting and they had no idea how long it would take before they found him. So she packed a flashlight and pulled on some trainers while Diana still hovered in the doorway, unsure of what happened on the phone.
"Go get dressed in something comfortable." Astrid said as she packed her brown shoulder bag again. "Caine ran off and we have to find him before he gets hurt."
Diana was frozen for just a second before she was running to her room so fast she nearly smacked into the door. The two of them changed and locked the doors this time as they left. They waited outside in silence but when Astrid glanced her way she could see the fear and horror in Diana's eyes. She was terrified. She was guilty. Astrid could see she was feeling bad for screaming at Caine before and now she was desperate to find him and be sure he was okay.
"What if we can't find him?" Diana whispered.
"Of course we will." Astrid said. "Caine's too stubborn to leave us in peace."
G*O*N*E
When Caine next opened his eyes he was in a dark room. It wasn't pitch black but the curtains were drawn and it was hard to see without squinting and even then he only saw rough shapes and blurred lines. He didn't move from where he was lying on - what he assumed was - a bed but when he did move his head slightly to the side he felt a burst of pains and aches much like when he had woken up to find Astrid and Anna leaning over him, only now he was staring at a blank ceiling in a room all alone. After much painful head turning to see if he could shake off the pains like before (he could not), he squinted his eyes ahead and gave a few confused glances around. He was able to guess a lot of what happened to be in the room with him. He was on a bed, the door in the corner, window on the other side with curtains drawn, a chest of draws and a large cupboard on the far end away from his feet.
Every move he made was a careful one. His ribs hurt along with his head and a good portion of his body. Most of it was aching but his ribs actually felt broken and his head was hot from inside out. Caine pushed himself until he was sitting up on the corner of the bed and staring at the door in front of him. He tried to stand but instantly regretted it and sat back down again in a heap but the pain was worse when he bounced down and sent shocks through his torso. He sat frozen for a few seconds as the pain subsided before he moved in perfect slow motion, standing and half limping, half falling towards of the door. Only when he grabbed it his head spun and he could see himself falling down before he even made it out the room. He leaned against the wall and took several slow breaths but he couldn't even take proper deep breathes because that hurt too.
"Oh God..." Caine moaned. He felt like he was going to throw up but he didn't dare because to leave over with his head pounding would cause him to black out completely.
The breaths were cold in his throat and he felt like he wasn't getting enough air. He wanted to fight and stay up, to get out and figure out where he was but it was too much. He was dizzy, tired and sick and he needed to lie down before the pain caused him to just crumble and collapse on the floor in a heap. Somehow he managed to get himself back on the bed and lying down.
It was hard to tell but Caine might have fallen back asleep, it was so dark in the room so he might have just been lying with his eyes half open. Only then the door opened and Caine hissed and squinted at the sudden burst of light coming from outside. A shape blocked the light and quickly shut the door again.
"Sorry," a woman's voice whispered. "Sorry, so sorry. I brought you something to eat and drink and some ice for your bruises."
"Wha... Who... When... Who are you?" Caine moaned. He tried to sit up but immediately gave up on that idea.
"My name is Abana Baidoo." The woman whispered with a smile on her face.
G*O*N*E
"I just don't see how you could lose him. You're twice his size, older, and yet he throws you across the room and then knees you hard enough to leave you pathetic as a crumple on the floor." Diana snorted. "I seriously cannot understand what is wrong with you!"
"Diana, shut up!" Sam snapped. "He didn't throw me across the room, he tripped me up. And he kneed a sensitive area so sorry if I didn't immediately jump back up."
Quinn was staying silent for most of this. His mother was following his league. Astrid had squished in the middle and was now actually feeling sorry for Anna from earlier. Now she was stuck between Diana and Sam as they argued over whose fault it was. Diana said Sam shouldn't have let him go so easily and Sam was telling Diana that if she hadn't been screaming then she wouldn't have had to leave and Caine would never have left in the first place.
In between all the screaming Quinn repeatedly sent Astrid looks of pity and Astrid tried to slide down and disappear between the leather seats. It seemed like an awkward time to bring up the monster lizard even though Astrid was desperate to hear Sam's opinion. She would have to tell him later. After they had found Caine and hopefully before the police and news crew did. Oh God, Ripley had watched videos of the FAYZ constantly. He knew exactly what Caine looked like and none of them wanted Ripley to have any more excuses to hurt any of them.
Quinn wasn't feeling much better. Just moments before Astrid had called Sam, he had been shouting at Sam for not telling him earlier about Caine when he had dropped him off just that evening. He claimed he was just trying to make sense of it but somehow it felt like the FAYZ all over again when he had the power and he never told his best friend. As the years had gone on they had somehow remained friends again but somehow this secret seemed to bring back all resentful feelings and he wondered if they could ever be as close as they were again. But it was hard to keep telling him off with Diana doing it for him and Astrid looking extremely uncomfortable in between the two of them.
"Where are we suppose to be searching? He could be anywhere!" Diana shouted.
"Let's think like Caine." Astrid insisted, hoping to bring some peace and thought to the people in the car. "He comes back and now he's looking around a random street. What would he do?"
"How should I know?" Sam grumbled.
Every eye turned to look at Diana. She noticed but purposely didn't react and instead tried to think. She knew Caine best so it was up to her to think where he would go.
"Diana?" Astrid pressed.
"I'm thinking." Diana hissed.
They all fell silent once more. Quinn's mother was driving in circles all around town and half of her wanted to suggest pulling over until they had an idea but at the same time while the three were thinking in the back, her and her son were keeping eyes out in case they came across him.
"It's hard to say." Diana said finally. "Mostly he'd probably wander and get a look of the place but he might see about food or a drink."
"It's not much..." Astrid mumbled.
"It's a start." Sam said firmly. He leaned forward, "Could you take us to the town centre?"
"On my way." Quinn's mother said with a smile.
G*O*N*E
It was hungry.
Not for food.
It was hungry for chaos.
The lizard slithered down the pathway and glanced with beady black eyes left and right before it turned and made it's way further down the street. It had no idea where it was going, it had no idea where anything in the world even was, just that it needed to follow this pathway because a path led to people and people led to pain. Pain was sweet and satisfying. Pain was it's food.
The further it walked the more excited it got because it saw people. It saw things. Some part of it found itself drawn to the women around it, mostly the young girls barely older than children. It supposed it was a female of sorts. But it wasn't. It was an it, something these things could not understand. These things, these humans were nothing more than toys. They were food. They were screams that needed to be heard. It needed to make them scream and feed from their fear and their pain.
The lizard glanced around and spotted a teenage boy. No more than fifteen trying to light a cigarette while glancing nervously around the corner where fellow teenagers were already lounging and smoking. As the lizard crawled closer, it saw his eyes were particularly stuck on one of the girls who laughed and flicked her cigarette with such casual waves that she must have been smoking for years now. The boy hurried and continued to try and light his cigarette.
Maybe it should help the boy.
The lizard opened it's mouth and directed towards the boy. A female shriek already building in it's own throat as it prepared to let go of the flames building inside of it's small body. The boy... The handsome dark haired one had escaped. This boy... This skinny shaking boy would not.
The fire was in it's mouth. It was burning it's tongue in such a pleasurable way and ready to release every burn to melt this boys skin down to the bone...
... And then a light appeared. They were standing beside of an empty lobby of a run down flat or hotel. It was practically falling apart and there could only be one - if any - people still living in there but the light was coming from the open door. It came in a beam like lasers, bright and painfully hot like the lizard's fire but this was different. The light burnt the boy's elbow and he shrieked in pain, dropping his things before he fell out into the open where the other teenagers gathered.
The lizard, it turned it's head. She turned her head. She looked into the doors and scowled at those who had threatened her prey. The light, it seemed familiar. It seemed so familiar...
It was dog. A German Shepard. A big one at that with soft brown fur and frightening unnatural eyes. It stepped forward let out a bark and a growl that was directed towards the lizard. She stepped forward and prepared a flame of fire straight ahead when the dog opened it's own mouth and light came. It was meters away from scolding her scaled flesh and she hurried backwards out of his range. The dog growled but stepped back. It wasn't after a fight. It wasn't trying to kill her it was just protecting it's home. A territorial light breathing dog.
The lizard sneered and turned, hurrying away. She wasn't stupid enough to pick a fight with the dog. No, she was just going to continue to travel and kill.
Why fight a dog when there were so many people to hear scream as their skin burned.
She didn't give the dog a second thought.
16) What do you think of the dog?
17) Was there anything that really shocked you in Light?
