"Funny when you're dead, how people start listening..."
-The Band Perry
Fabian paced restlessly around the living room, the sky outside growing darker by the minute.
"Where are they?" he demanded of Amber, who was sitting on the couch, reading a magazine. "How long of a walk are they taking? They've missed dinner!"
"Maybe they walked into town?" Amber suggested halfheartedly, closing the magazine.
"No, no, they would have called Trudy and told her." Fabian said. "I'm just...worried about them."
"Yeah...Hopefully Patricia didn't hurt Nina or anything..."
"She wouldn't do that...I don't think." Fabian stopped pacing and ran his finger through his hair. "Let's hope they just took a really long walk and will be back any minute."
He sank down on the couch next to Amber, who resumed reading her magazine.
An hour later, however, it was completely dark out and neither Patricia nor Nina had returned to the house. Fabian, having continued pacing, stopped next to the window.
"What should we do? Trudy's gone to bed early...Should we go look for them?"
"Uh, no way." said Amber. "It's pitch black out there. You never know what kind of...creatures, or crazy people could be out. I'm staying here."
"Amber," said Fabian. "Patricia and Nina could be in trouble. We have to find them!"
"Yeah, and we could be in trouble too if we sneak out." she replied. "It's almost ten o'clock, anyway-"
"Amber! I mean real trouble!" Fabian said agitatedly. "As in, danger."
"Oh." said Amber, her forhead creasing. She sighed. "Okay, I'll go look for them with you..."
"Great, get your coat and meet me down here in five minutes." Fabian told her. She nodded and hurried upstairs.
Fabian walked in his room, grabbed his coat and went back into the living room to wait for Amber.
He felt a cool breeze wash over him as soon as he walked in. He frowned, and looked over at the window. It was agape, and the telescope was no longer in it's usual spot in the corner, but sticking out the window. Fabian frowned and went over to find out what whoever had done it was looking at.
He put his eye to the lens, and noticed immediately that something was odd. There were black lines scrawled all over the lenses, so it was almost impossible to see out of. Fabian thought this was just one of Alfie or Jerome's antics-until he pointed it towards the full moon, and saw that the lines were actually writing.
Twinke, twinkle, little star. How I wonder where Nina and Patricia are...
-J
Fabian put his hand over his mouth to prevent himself from shouting out. Shaking, he put his eye back to the lens and re-read the message. Did that mean that J had or knew where Nina and Patricia were?
Amber walked into the room, holding a pink coat. "What's the matter?" she asked, noticing Fabian's white face. "You look like you've seen a ghost."
"This-this J person has Nina and Patricia!" said Fabian in a frantic whisper, as not to wake Victor.
"What?"
He gestured at the telescope, and Amber put her eye to it. She drew back almost immidiately, an expression of horror upon her face.
"Right, let's go." she said, and she and Fabian hurried out the door into the chilly night air.
"Where should we start?" Fabian asked Amber as they crossed the moonlit grounds.
"The forest?" she suggested. Fabian nodded, so the headed in that direction.
As the walked, a thought occured to Fabian.
"J was in the house." he said. "They had to have been, to move the telescope."
"Well, they could've done it and left before you came back, right? I mean, the window was open." Amber said.
"I guess...but they were in the house at some point in time." Fabian said as they entered the forest. He checked his watch and saw that it was almost ten-thirty. Nina and Patricia had been missing for almost five hours. "Let's speed up a bit, shall we?" he broke into a run, and Amber did the same.
Once they were deeper into the woods, Fabian thought it was safe to start shouting. "Nina! Patricia!" he called, slowing to a walk.
"Fabian?" Amber panted, falling into step beside him. "There's something you should know."
"Yeah?"
"Well-" she doubled over, hands on her knees, gasping for breath. "One, I hate running. And two...a few weeks ago, J baited me into coming into the attic. I went, and...they almost strangled me."
Fabian let out a gasp.
"So...If J really does have Patricia and Nina," Amber continued. "They...they probably really are in danger."
Fabian swore under his breath, something he didn't normally do. "Well, we'd better keep looking then," he said, trying to keep the panic out of his voice.
Just as he was about to take a step, he heard a ding! come from his phone. He hurriedly pulled it out of his pocket.
You two obviously have no idea where they are. I'll help you-Let's play a little game of hot and cold, shall we? -J
Fabian looked around, his neck prickling. J was watching them.
"What is it?" Amber asked.
Fabian showed her the phone and she gasped. "That means...they're...watching us." she mouthed the last two words.
"I know." said Fabian quietly. "Let's just keep walking."
They walked along the woods a bit more, until the came to a clearing with a dirt road.
"Now what?" Amber asked. "Which way do we go."
Fabian looked both ways. Both sides of the road extended further than he could see, so there was no way to tell where the ended.
"Let's go...right." he said, and they started towards the right side.
When they heard another ding! come from Fabian's pocket, the froze. Fabian took out his phone and held the screen so that Amber could see.
You're getting colder, Fabes. Try the other way. -J
Amber and Fabian glanced at each other.
"Should we do what they say?" Amber whispered.
"It could be a trap." Fabian whispered back.
"But what other options do with have?"
Fabian sighed. "Okay. I guess we'll have to."
They started to walk down the road to the right, careful not to say anything important because they knew they were being watched. After a few feet, Fabian got another text.
You're getting warmer...keep going. -J
He let out a deep breath. "You're sure we should do this?" he asked Amber. "It's probably a trap."
"I know." she sighed. "But we have to get Nina and Patricia back!"
They walked a little more ways, until Amber stopped suddenly.
"Do you smell something...burning?" she asked hesitantly.
Fabian sniffed the air. Amber was right, there was the faint smell of burning wood. He squinted through the trees, and even thought he could make out an orangey glow.
"Oh no." he breathed. "Is that-?"
But at that moment, they heard the dreaded ding! of Fabian's cell phone. Hands shaking, Fabian pulled it back out of his pocket.
You're hot! You're burning...you're on fire! -J
Fabian looked back up at the trees and saw the orange glow much brighter, and his fears had been confirmed-it was fire.
"Oh no." Amber mumbled. "Oh no. Oh no. Oh no. Please tell me Nina and Patricia aren't in there..."
But Fabian had already taken off running in the direction of the flames.
Nina paced restlessly around the warehouse. She and Patricia had been locked in there for hours, and they'd barely spoken a word to each other. Neither of their cell phones were working, so they were stranded until someone found them.
Patricia had taken to going through the many boxes stacked around the room. She didn't seem to have found anything-or at least she hadn't said anything to Nina.
Nina leaned back against the wall, the only sound being the rustling of papers as Patricia shuffled through the boxes.
"Find anything?" she asked, breaking the silence.
"Maybe." Patricia didn't even look up. Nina groaned inwardly. So Patricia still didn't trust her, huh?
"Look, Patricia." she said. "I just want to know-why do you hate me so much? Is it something I did? Is it because I'm American?"
Patricia glared up at her. "You want to know why I don't like you? Okay, fine. Let's see, five minutes after you got here, you were in my room, and touching Joy's things."
"But I didn't-"
"Then, you get all buddy-buddy with everyone, and they all seem to love you, and completely forget about Joy! Not to mention you arrived exactly a year after Joy disappeared, so I think you have something to do with her...disappearance."
"You think I killed her?" Nina asked incredulously.
"Well, I don't know, but I think you had something to do with it." Patricia lowered her eyes to the ground and her tone softened. "To be honest, I have no idea why I don't trust you, you just seem...suspicious. And you replaced Joy."
"Patricia." Nina sat down on the floor next to her. "I swear I'm not trying to replace Joy. I'm just trying to be friendly, and make friends, but...you're making that kind of hard for me. I know that you miss your friend, but...please give me a chance."
Patricia let out a sigh. "Okay...I'm sorry." she said.
Nina stared at her for a moment. Patricia apologizing? She was pretty sure that was almost unheard of.
"It's okay." she replied. "So...do you trust me now?"
"Well..." Patricia gave her a sideways glance. "I guess."
"Good." Nina smiled at her, and Patricia gave Nina the first real smile she'd ever given her.
"Since I trust you now," she said, "Have a look at these." She handed Nina a manilla folder of paper.
Nina opened it up and picked up the top sheet and looked it over. She looked back up at Patricia and gasped.
"But isn't this-?"
"Joy's missing persons report, yeah." said Patricia softly. "Or at least a copy of it. It has everything there-pictures, details of her disappearence, the transcript of everyone in the house's interrogation..."
Nina looked through the stack and saw that Patricia was indeed right. There were pictures of Joy, and everyone else in the house, and transcripts of their interrogations. She shifted through a few more pieces.
"Look-here's her school records." Nina said, handing Patricia a few more sheets of paper. "And medical ones..."
Patricia looked up at Nina, eyes wide. "Who is this person? And how did they get all this stuff about Joy?"
Nina shook her head. "I have no idea...This is beyond creepy. This person would have had to have broken into the police station, the school, and the hospital. That's near impossible."
"No kidding." Patricia nodded fervently.
"What else did you find in the other boxes?" Nina asked curiously.
Patricia shrugged. "I dunno. Junk, mostly. Some of them were empty. This one-" she gestured to the one next to them, of which she had pulled out the folder "-is full of a bunch of old toys."
"Huh." Nina peeked into the box. There were old dolls, blocks and other toys. She looked back up at Patricia. "Where do you think all this stuff came from? And...why did J want us to see it? I mean, they wouldn't have locked us in here if they didn't..."
"I have no idea." said Patricia, examining the friendship bracelet and comparing it to her own. "The person's obviously a stalker lunatic."
"Which is a very bad mix." said Nina, walking away from the box. Suddenly, the back of her neck started to prickle and she looked towards the window. It was dark outside, so she couldn't see anything, but she felt as though someone were watching them. She shivered at turned back to Patricia.
"Someone had better come find us soon, I'm starving." said Nina, massaging her stomach.
"Me too." Patricia groaned. "I'm sure if we don't come back soon, they'll call the police." Her eyes widened suddenly.
"What is it?" Nina asked.
"Well, I just thought...What if J, the person that locked us in here...is Joy's killer?" she mouthed the last two words.
Nina gasped and put a hand to her mouth. "Don't say that." she whispered. "Just-think positively. Hopefully we'll be back at Anubis house before morning..."
"Well, that's comforting." Patricia snorted. "Another eight hours trapped in here with no food..."
Nina opened her mouth to respond, then paused. "Do you smell something? Something...burning?"
"I-" Patricia took a whiff of the air, then looked at Nina, eyes widened in terror. "Yeah."
"Oh no." Nina whispered. The room began to get warmer. She looked out the window again, and to her horror, saw flames licking the outside of the building. She jumped back and ran towards the door.
"It's on fire!" she shouted to Patricia. "We're going to be trapped!"
As she said it, flames started to burn through the interior of the warehouse as well, starting at the opposite wall and spreading fast, burning through all the boxes.
The two girls shouted and pounded at the door, wanting someone, anyone, to come save them.
"We have to get out of here!" Nina coughed on the smoke and leaned up against the door for suppport.
"You think?" Patricia said sarcastically, beginning to choke as well.
Suddenly, the door was wrenched open and Nina and Patricia stumbled out, coughing and choking. Nina felt strong arms wrap themselves around her and pull her away from the burning building, but she couldn't get a good look at who it was because her eyes were stinging badly from the soot.
She collapsed to the ground and felt herself being dragged away from the building, hoping her savior-whoever it was-had gotten Patricia as well.
She sank to the ground when the arms had removed themselves from around her. Taking a chance, she peeked open one eye.
For an instant, Fabian's blurry outline swam above her. "Nina!" she heard him say. "Nina!"
But the world had gone black.
Dunn dunn dunn...Sorry for the long wait, but hope this chapter was worth it!
I'm LOVING season 2 so far, by the way. PEEEEEDDDDDIIIIIIIEEEE! :D They need to get married already okay. Eddie is totally one of my favorite characters, and I'm going to be adding him in here within the next few chapters! What do you guys think of Eddie and season 2?
Oh, and one last note: I'm changing the rating of this story to T because things are going to get a bit more intense. Probably not too bad, but I'm just being careful.
Review? :)
