Chapter Twenty Five

The Long family once again made the headlines in the small town newspaper. The picture they printed was a picture of a twelve year old with long silky black hair and big shining eyes holding onto an eight year old girl with bright eyes and frizzy uncontrollable red hair and a gap between her front teeth. The other picture was of the same girls two years later with the fourteen year having her hair in a long mystical black braid with a bright smile holding to a gymnastic medal and the ten year old with her bright red hair in a frizzy pony tail that reached to her shoulders with a splash of freckles across her nose and cheeks also holding a medal. Dante began reading the article.

Two girls from the Long family were hospitalized yesterday after passing out in the middle of both their classes. Nacari Long, aged fourteen and Iris Long, aged ten had been sick since two days ago and would not eat or drink anything and was very dehydrated, and anything they did try to eat they would regurgitate and have been having dizzy spells. The doctors have no idea why the girls are this ill but they are doing many tests to help them.

Darren Long said that he had no idea how his children got this sick. Only one of his children have not gotten sick, his young son Lance. We asked to interview the boy, but his father would not let us. Darren Long's wife, Lenore says that Iris was always a sickly child and that it was nothing to worry about and is just a small virus that both the girls caught. That is all the information we have thus far.

Dante flipped through the rest of the newspaper clip but that was all it had said. He turned to the other article. It seemed to be more somber because the pictures weren't of both girls, just of Iris. One was a generic school picture of her with an awkward smile and eyes too wide. Her hair was done well in the picture and her freckles stuck out cutely against her cheeks with a gray background. The other picture of her was of her looking sad and surprised as if she had just been crying and someone randomly took a picture of her.

Today, one of the two girls that were hospitalized a few days ago had just died. Iris Long, aged ten was pronounced legally dead at 3:09am in the hospital. The community is taking the death very seriously as Iris Long was the sweet heart of the community. She was always kind and polite to the elderly and helped whenever she could. She had many friends and many adults who admired her, many of which who are shocked and horrified at the current series of events. Children say she was fun to be around and teachers said she was a pleasure in class.

The doctors had confirmed that the two girls had ingested some sort of poisonous substance, but they have not confirmed the identity of the substance. After some complications with breathing, Iris Long went into a semi coma and then her organs eventually failed. The other girl, Nacari Long, had no complications and is confirmed to actually be recovering.

This is not the first tragedy that has befallen the Long family. Four years ago, the family home was set ablaze and two members of the Long family, killing Darren's oldest son and his first wife. The suspicious fire and the poisoning may be connected as suspicious circumstances of death, but the investigation of the fire four years ago turned up nothing, the police said that they are considering digging a little bit more into the case.

The funeral will be held the day after tomorrow if there is anyone who wishes to attend. It will be held at 5:00pm if there is no complication with the weather.

Dante reread the article and sighed. There was defiantly something going on with Nacari's family, and Dante wanted to know about Nacari's past desperately. Dante shrugged and set the articles down. He found it interesting that Nacari's father had remarried and that she had been in the hospital once before.He had found it very interesting that both girls happened to be poisoned by the same thing but not the other family members, but there really wasn't anything he could do about it; he would just have to wait until found out some more stuff.

Dante kind of regretted what he had said to Nacari about her being childish. She seemed really upset by the comment, but it was the truth. She was a good fighter that much was true, but she had an awkward way of fighting and a way of handling herself. Sometimes her movements were graceful, but then there are other times when she is childlike and immature. The first time they met, she had been in shadows and seemed very sophisticated, but after she became more comfortable around him, the more childlike she acted.

Nacari's appearance was childlike too. Her hair was very long for someone her age and the blue at her tips was childish as well, but it had suited her. Her eyes were big and round and always looked eager and there was a faint hint of summer freckles when she was in the right lighting. Her body also hadn't really grown out of her baby fat yet, but she wasn't that chunky, just very childlike. Her body was well curved and very developed though, when she doesn't have her clothes on. Dante blushed at the thought and shook his head.

He got up and looked at the door. I really should go looking for her, knowing her she will probably end up being beaten up or fall into the only radioactive puddle in the whole freaking city, he thought to himself. He rolled his eyes and walked out the door, I am sure she could not have gotten too far. . .