Howdy!

Enjoy!

"Why can't you just leave me alone?" Poppy asked, sitting on her bed. Her room mate, Jenna was out, probably with her new boyfriend. Poppy was all alone.

Jerome stood in the door way, arms crossed, unsure what he wanted to do. "Are you okay?" he managed.

"You don't care, so I don't know why you're asking,"

"Oh, enough with the attitude, Poopy!" he cried, flinging his arms into the air. Eyes glittering dangerously.

"What?" Poppy yelled, standing off her bed to point an accusing finger at her brother "Don't you see that you're not the only person in the world who can grieve!"

"Why grieve? She's not dead!"

"Well she will be!" Poppy screamed at the top of her voice. And it was so loud that Jerome took a small step back, eyes fearful and shocked at the same time. "She will die, Jerome! Maybe not now, maybe not tomorrow! But she will! And what are we going to do then? Huh? We barely get along with her! And when she's gone! We're gonna hate each other!" she breathed deeply, wiping away the tears, she was angry she had told her brother everything she feared. She was angry she was crying, why couldn't she be like Jerome? He barely ever cried, yet she seemed to cry so much more than him. Why couldn't she be strong? Why couldn't she bottle it all up?

"….I will never hate you, Poppy." Jerome stated, watching her, she looked up and their eyes met. "And if you think that I would," he shook his head "I've been a terrible brother," shrugged as if it were that simple, stuffed his hands into his pockets and turned and walked away.

Line Break

"Killed a man," Nina whispered, they were all sitting in the clearing in the wood. The sun was shining brightly through the green leaves, as they sat on the only slightly damp fallen tree trunks. "Killed. A. Man. When has Mara ever killed a man?"

"She hasn't." Jerome stated, "My Mara would never kill a man."

And Patricia didn't even think about commenting on the 'my Mara' bit, because she missed her too much, because this was a serious situation. And she was only now seeing just what they had gotten herself into. She remembered back when Nina had first come, how she had hated her for getting her best friend kidnapped. It felt like déjà-vu. Only now she didn't blame Nina. "If we knew something about whoever took her, we could probably find out where they were." Patricia said quietly

"How are we going to find out about them? We didn't see them, and they've only said about three lines to us," Fabian muttered, it was useless, this was a useless situation, there was no way they could save her. And what would happen to them all, even if they went to the police and tried to get her help, who would believe them?

"Wait." Jerome and Alfie said in unison. They turned to look at each other and their eyes met, for they had both had the same thought at the same time and spoke up at the same precise moment. Everyone watched them in slight awe, but mostly confusion.

"You first, Alfie." Jerome whispered, watching his friends, eyes sparkling

"That guy, that creepy guy Victor brought in-" Alfie began

"The behavioural psychologist analysist." Jerome finished his sentence.

"I bet he could tell us about the man-"

"And I've got his number from Victors address book."

All of Anubis looked at them wide eyed.

"You guys are genius." Nina whispered, everyone nodded.

Line Break

"That poor girl," Hugo murmured, Fabian had managed to get up the previous two videos, it was amazing what you could do when everyone put their minds together, and they were a smart lot. All in all.

"Will you help us?" Jerome asked, leaning forward, hands in his lap "She could die,"

"Yes," Hugo whispered, he coughed once, then looked down at his note pad "Alright, the man he says she killed must have been important to him, and I'm thinking a father, as he talks of him with great respect. The fact he knows you, but doesn't address you formally means that his father knew you, and his father told him of you. I say it's a man for how he's tied up your friend, hands behind her back, on the floor. Women normally place their victims onto chairs with a lot more bindings."

"So where is she?" Joy asked, tucking some brown hair behind her ear.

"Well, it would be easy but…well you see, it's a dim room, which means he doesn't want it to be too bright, so it should be in a relatively dark place, near the woods I would imagine. Which makes sense considering he took her from the park, which is close to the Anubis Woods. But…something doesn't add up. You see these rings around her eyes," he pointed to the paused screen of Mara, that everyone had wanted him to minimize after he had finished watching it, but he hadn't.

"Yeah?" Poppy asked, bewildered

"Well, they imply drugs. And recently taken drugs, which means he gave her drugs, but they haven't done her damage, it looks as if…"

"As if what?" Jerome pressed, getting impatient, Fabian placed a warning hand on Jerome's arm. Hugo glared at the tall blonde, but continued

"It looks as if he wanted to help her, wanted to ease the pain of this. And she's not that much thinner, she could speak to us, she's been getting food and water."

"So what? This crazy person kidnaps her and then keeps her and feeds her, as if she's some sort of animal!" Alfie demanded, stamping his foot. Hugo frowned, before he dropped his pen and it fell with a thump to the ground, he covered his mouth in sheer shock.

"What is it?" Everyone asked, watching him intently

"They're in the attic." Hugo whispered. Everyone turned to each other in shock.

"No way," Poppy shook her head

"Didn't you check their Nina?" Jerome asked, shocked

"No! I thought Patricia did!"

"No," Patricia argued "I checked the basement!"

They all stood still for a moment, before rushing out of the door.

Line Break

The door was locked, Jerome rattled it the handle until it almost dropped off, them rammed his shoulder into it. Trying to break it down. "Move Jerome!" Nina ordered, Jerome stepped aside, watching with eager curious eyes as Nina took out her hair clip and opened the door. It was a rush of people as they all ran up the steps, and sure enough there in the room.

Was Mara.

And a strange man wearing a balaclava.

"I'll kill you." Jerome hissed, stepping forward. Everyone else stayed frozen in the door way, Mara's head lolling to the side. Not quite with it. "I'm going to kill you."

"Hey man," the man raised his hands in surrender. He pulled off his balaclava to reveal his cleanly shaven face, framed with ginger hair. "Calm down, I'm going easy."

"I don't think so." Jerome ordered, stepping forward. Mara's eyes started to open and clear, as she slowly took in her surroundings. Jerome reached for the club in the corner of the room, holding it tightly in his hand.

"Calm down, this was Robert! This wasn't me!" he pointed to himself "I'm Tom! I'm Tom not Robert!" but Jerome didn't listen and he swung the bat once, nice and hard.

"Jerome no!" Mara cried, leaning forward, her voice managing to be loud and clear, despite her growing thirst. Tom fell to the ground unconscious. Everyone now found it safe to run in, Nina and Patricia untied Mara's hands and Mara stood slowly.

"He hurt you," Jerome said quietly, watching as she moved towards the body slowly. Everyone took a step back, watching. Poppy was intrigued, Mara was…something else.

"He did." Mara whispered, and she reached out a shaking hand. Jerome watched her curiously but she kept her hand out. And then Jerome got it. He handed her the bat, and she threw it to the other side of the room, away from everyone. "But he didn't mean to," she wasn't crying, this was shocking. This was all shock.

One moment earlier, one second before, And she could have saved Tom's life.

"Mara," Jerome reached out, and he wanted nothing more to hug her, hold her in his arms. Snog her senseless, remind her just how much he loved her and that he never wanted her to leave, and that this was the first time in days that he could breath properly.

"I know, Jerome." She managed to give him a small smile "It's okay, but can I…can I have a moment?"

Jerome nodded, stuffing his hands guiltily into his pockets, and they all filed out. All apart from Poppy.

"He was trying to help," she defended her brother. Mara looked up in surprise, one hand clutching her sore elbow.

"Hmmm? Oh yes, I know Poppy. I know," Mara knelt beside Tom, and stroked his forehead.

"He hurt you." Poppy stated, much like her brother hand. Only she sounded stronger, she stood and watched the tanned girl.

"No, Poppy. Tom never hurt me. Tom only helped me."

"You have a strange meaning of help Mara, he drugged you and kidnapped you and starved you for no reason and accuses you of kill-"

"Stop." Mara snapped, eyes flicking up to meet Poppy's eyes. And they reminded her so much of Jerome. She could never truly be angry at Poppy "I'm sorry," she sighed "He has multiple personality disorder Poppy, Tom was his good side. Robert was his bad side. Robert hurt me, Tom only ever made it better."

"Oh." Poppy said quietly, looking down, ashamed .

"And Tom's father, was Rufus Zeno."

Poppy looked up in shock, everything suddenly clicking into place "But he said you killed him…I-I..I mean we thought he meant…Mick,"

"So did I," Mara whispered "At first, but no. Rufus Zeno, he looked me right in the eyes as he fell, Jerome thought he was looking at him, but he was looking at me. Right at me…"

And suddenly Poppy was hugging Mara, hugging her and trying to make her feel better. Mara gave her a small squeeze back, and half smiled "Poppy, I love you, you know that?"
Poppy grinned wildly.

"Love you too, Mara," and the two girls hugged.

I think the next chapter will be the last, let's see how it goes!

REVIEW!
x