"Peter! Olivia!"
The kids stirred from their sleep hearing their names being called out in the distance. Olivia was the first to realize what was going on. "Peter, your mom and dad are looking for us."
Peter got up and looked out the window. "We should go before they find the secret house."
"But where, Peter? There isn't another place for miles."
"I'm sure we'll find something. I think if we keep going that way, there's a clubhouse that's closed in the winter. We can stay there."
Peter grabbed their things and the two headed down the secret house back to the ground but as Peter started leading the way, he turned back to see Olivia not moving. "What's wrong Olivia?"
"This is a mistake. I shouldn't have left the house."
"Olivia, did you hear what I said? My dad is going to put you in a tank. He nearly killed me with his test. What if you drown in that tank?"
"I…I can't go, Peter. He'll know that I left. He told me to never leave or…"
"Who are you talking about?"
But before she could answer, the voices were getting closer. Peter quickly grabbed Olivia's arm. "Let's go, 'Livia. Hurry."
"Peter, I said no!"
The fear of running away was met with the fear of getting put into the tank by Walter. Olivia didn't want to do either of those things but now she felt cornered, trapped. Olivia placed her other hand on Peter in an attempt to get him to let go as a blue light blinded them both.
Suddenly their feet were soaking wet. Looking down, the children had found themselves standing in the middle of a cold creek that had not been there before. They hurried out and looking up they found that their secret house had completely disappeared. Their stuff was gone as well.
Peter noticed that they were in the backyard of someone's house…a house he didn't realize was there before. "What's going on?" said Peter. "Where are we?"
They walked around and saw other houses in the area that never existed before. Reiden Lake was supposed to be a quiet place, the Bishops being one of very few residents here.
"Peter…I…"
"Hey," Peter ran ahead. "Look over here."
Olivia followed Peter to a covered swimming pool. "I remember this pool. It's Bobby Steeler's. He'd invite me over to go swimming with him in the summer before…"
Seeing Peter's eyes suddenly widen, Olivia asked "Before what?"
"Before I got sick with the flu. Mom and dad told me they moved away like everyone else." Peter started running and Olivia quickly followed. They were heading back to the Bishop house, which surprised Olivia because that was the very place Peter wanted to run away from. He didn't go into the house but instead looked into the windows and noticed some familiar changes. It wasn't until Olivia came upon a pile of buckets and metal did she finally realize where they were.
"Peter, I think we should go."
"Olivia, do you know what this place is? It's my home, my real home! I'm back!"
Peter then ran around to the front of the house just stopping short when she saw a woman stepping out onto the front porch. A car was pulling up to the front.
"See her?" Peter pointed Olivia to the woman on the doorstop. "It's my real mom."
He was one second away from running ahead towards his mother with open arms, when the two kids, saw a man step out of the car. The man was taller, younger looking, and had dark hair and was carrying a bouquet of flowers. Elizabeth came to greet him with a hug and then they kissed.
Peter didn't move. He only watched with his jaw dropped as the mom he knew was leading another man that was not his father into the house. "That's…that's not my dad." He curled up into a ball on the floor. "But this is my home. This doesn't make any sense."
"Peter…"
"How did we get here?"
"I did it, Peter."
"You?"
"I believed you when you told me about this place because I've been here before, Peter. On my birthday when I fell into the lake, I came here by accident. Your mom and dad were getting a divorce."
Peter got angry. "A divorce? They would never…"
"I'm sorry, Peter."
"Why didn't you tell me before?"
"Dr. Walter said we're supposed to keep it a secret. I didn't want to get in trouble with him."
"My dad can make you do that?"
She nodded. "At least you're home."
Peter looked through the window and saw his mother with the man on the couch all warm and snuggly together. He started to cry. "No." he said. "This isn't home."
"But Peter."
"It's never going to be home again, Olivia. My parents are separated now because of me. What if they forgot about me?"
"They would never forget you, Peter. I heard them talk about you. They want to find you."
"Maybe they've changed their mind. Besides, if they really missed me, they would've never gotten a divorce." Peter reached out for Olivia's arm. "Can you take us home?"
"I'm not sure," she said. But suddenly she felt herself starting to fade. Peter could see that Olivia's presence was slowly started to disappear. "Olivia!" He quickly grabbed her arm tight and started to fade with her.
Inside the house, Elizabeth suddenly sat up. "Elizabeth, honey? Something wrong?"
"I thought I heard someone at the window, Travis. Just a moment." She hurried over and saw no one outside but she did see what looked like small child's footprints.
She sighed. "I think the Steeler boys are causing trouble in our yard again."
…
Peter and Olivia fell backwards into a ground filled with snow. They were now literally right next to the house. Their cheeks were getting red from the cold and they could see their puffs of breath.
"Peter?"
She looked over and Peter was crying. "Are we back home?"
"Peter! Olivia!"
Walter and Elizabeth hurried over to the kids. "We spent the whole night out here looking for both of you!"
"Elizabeth." Walter was inspecting Olivia. "Let's get them inside, quickly."
They got the kids wrapped up in blankets on the living room couch. "Explain yourselves, children."
"You were going to experiment on Olivia. I heard you."
"Now, Peter. I take the utmost care of all of the children that I work with."
"But you hooked ME to a car battery!"
"Walter?"
"Elizabeth, it was merely a test." Walter could Elizabeth was fuming, ready to burst at the seams but she wasn't going to let it out infront of the children. "We'll talk about that later. But you two, you can't be out there at night when it's below freezing. You could've been killed."
"I don't care." Peter stood up and stormed away. "Anywhere's better than here."
"Peter! You shouldn't be so ungrateful. Olive was forced out for her own home and all you can do is think about yourself?"
"You took me away from my home and now I can never go back. I have nothing to go back to! You ruined my life, Walter!" Peter went up the stairs.
"I can't do this anymore." Elizabeth turned and angrily headed to the kitchen. Leaving Walter and Olivia awkwardly alone. Walter was still dealing with the shock of his son calling him 'Walter' for the first time. "I…I don't know what he's talking about, Olive. He was out in the cold for a long time."
But Olivia knew better. She didn't want to debate it with Walter out of fear. She was starting to understand Peter's frustration with the Bishops. Everything was falling apart in this house and yet this was still the only place she felt safe.
When she went upstairs as the parents were fighting again and into Peter's room, he almost didn't acknowledge her. "I'm sorry," said Olivia. "I can you take you back."
"I don't wanna go back anymore," said Peter. "It's pointless."
"Are you gonna run away again?"
"No," he said. "If you're not coming with me. You shouldn't be alone with my…Walter now that he's crazy and doing tests on us. And…you're the only one who even believes me about anything."
"You believed me when I said my stepdad was here."
"Do you really like it here?" asked Peter.
Olivia nodded. "Yeah."
"Then, I guess running away really was a bad idea."
Olivia crawled onto the bed with Peter and gave him big hug. She didn't care that Elizabeth could walk in on them any minute. Neither did Peter. Olivia was the only person left in either universe that Peter had left, the only one left that he really wanted to be with.
…
"Peter? Olivia? Could you come downstairs a moment?"
They stopped playtime and Peter instantly became suspicious. He took Olivia's hand in his as they slowly went down the stairs. They stopped halfway to see Walter waiting for them in the living room with a box by his feet.
"What's wrong Peter?"
"We're not coming down unless you promise not to hurt us, Walter."
Walter was still agitated with his son calling him that. "Peter…"
"…and that you won't experiment on Olivia."
"I…," he said. "I promise. I just wanted to give you children a gift." Finally Peter and Olivia took a few more steps until they reached the floor. "You children need a bit something more than each other to keep you occupied. I think this would be the perfect way to teach you both some responsibility. Open up."
Peter and Olivia carefully opened the flaps only to have a sudden small ball of fur stick out at them.
"A puppy!"
Olivia picked the creature up. He was black and brown with a fluffy white tummy.
"His name is Rufus," said Walter. "And he's a border collie, one of the most intelligent breeds in the world, so hopefully he can be housebroken quickly enough. Can I trust you two to take care of him?"
The children gullibly smiled, happy with their new companion. Walter knew this was the perfect thing to keep the children satisfied in their difficult environment. He hoped there would be no more concern of Peter or Olivia wanting to run away to leave now.
Besides, if he couldn't do any tests on the children, at least there was now Rufus.
Boy howdy! I struck review gold with that last chap! Where were you all in my earlier ones? Ok I kid. But now I got a problem as I've now reached "stuck point" with this fic.
I have a couple of ideas with where to go with this and the ideas do factor in how fast time will speed up in this story and when. Some ideas are darker than others. One might be a bit too traumatizing. I'd share what I got with you but I don't wanna be spoilery. Everything's in the planning phase right now and are not 100% complete in my mind. This will require some time to think about. But as always your ideas are welcome. So please dont be shy...I like listening to ideas that may surpass my own. Teehee.
