AUTHOR'S NOTE: I know it's been a while since I updated, and for that I am sorry. However, the events of this chapter will make much more sense if you go back to chapter one and refresh your memory. There are a lot of little details that, as the story progresses, will prove vital. Thanks for reading, and thanks for your patients as I have struggled to finish this second chapter. BTW, feedback is always welcome and greatly appreciated!

          Veronica woke up. She hesitated to open her eyes.

          It's going to be lighter than usual today, she thought, I think I slept in.

          Taking a few deep breaths, Veronica slowly opened her eyes, and sure enough, she found that she had indeed slept in about two hours later than normal. She had always kept a very consistent routine, and did not sleep in. There was no reason for Veronica to need more rest today. However, that was not what concerned her.

          How could I possibly know that without opening my eyes? she wondered.

          Veronica shook off the unusual feeling and promptly got dressed and walked into the kitchen to get some fruit for breakfast. Malone, who was sitting at the table, bolted up immediately when he saw Veronica.

          "Veronica," Malone said excitedly, "I took your advice and made some abstract sketches to go along with my journals to add depth and all that stuff we were talking about. Wanna see?"

          Veronica was about to reply, when Malone quickly continued.

          "You've seen these already. Haven't you?" Malone somehow knew.

          He looked up to see Veronica nod, a look of déjà vu bringing a spooky atmosphere to the scene.

          "But that's impossible," Malone reasoned, "I just finished them this morning, and nobody's seen them yet."

          "It's strange," Veronica agreed, "I… I can't explain it, but I swear I've seen your sketches before."

          "And I could swear that I showed them to you, even though I know that I didn't." Some frustration was present in Malone's voice, but he decided to clear that out of his mind and focus on the strong déjà vu feeling that he and Veronica shared. "Here," Malone said picking up a piece of paper, "this was the first sketch I was planning on showing you. Can you tell me what's on the other side of the paper?"

          At first, Veronica gave Malone a look as if to call him crazy, but then, amazingly, she realized that his idea might not be so crazy.

          "Actually," she told him, "I think I can." She closed her eyes and focused, "It's centered around a tree, and is very detailed with the background images—trees, flowers, other plants, slopes in the terrain and all that."

          "That's incredible, you've just described my picture with complete accuracy," Malone said in awe, but then regained his curious composure, "how about the next one?"

          "It's the waterfall," Veronica said, her eyes still closed as she put forth concentration to pull the image from deep within her mind, "The site where we… where we lost Summerlee."

          "I don't believe this," Malone said in shock; both of them knew that Veronica's description was right on once again, "this can't be just a coincidence."

          "It's not," Veronica said, "it's… Well, I don't know what it is."

          Malone shook his head, still in disbelief, "And I suppose you can tell me all about my last sketch too?"

          "Yes," Veronica confirmed, closing her eyes again to focus, "it's of a dinosaur—a Raptor. It looks so real… it's almost terrifying—just like the real thing."

          "Pretty good review," Malone said, pleased with the compliment.

          "Especially for a picture I've never seen before," Veronica told him.

          "Maybe we should tell Challenger about all of this," Malone offered.

          "Yes," Veronica agreed, "hopefully he can tell us what's going on."

          After bringing Challenger up to speed, the three explorers had to figure out what to do next.

          "That is curious," Challenger told them, "you know, when I was working in my lab, I was able to successfully predict the outcome of all my experiments…"

          "That's not so unusual," Veronica mused.

          "Yes…" Challenger trailed off, "but it is highly unlikely. I wonder if Marguerite and Roxton are experiencing these feelings of déjà vu as well."

          "Maybe we should go find them," Malone suggested.

          "I think that would be the wisest way to proceed," Challenger agreed.

          "Speaking of those two," Veronica said, noticing their absence for the first time, "where are they?"

          "Hm… oh," Challenger responded, "the went out on a picnic."

          "A picnic," Veronica repeated uneasily, "uh-oh…"

          "Do you suddenly have a sick feeling in your stomach?" Malone asked Veronica.

          "That's it," she told him, "but how did you…"

          "I've got the same feeling," Malone said quickly.

          "Well," Challenger said, "I've got a feeling that we better hurry."

          The explorers gathered their supplies and rushed out of the treehouse to look for their friends.

          Roxton and Marguerite were sitting in a quiet, shady spot of the jungle near their picnic basket. Their breakfast picnic had been done for several hours, and the two were just talking now, and maybe more amazingly, as the conversation went on, they were getting along. Still, after many hours, the dialogue had started to lag, and there were casual silences in between topics of small talk. During one of these gaps in the conversation, something happened. Marguerite coughed, gagged, and made a very sour face. Roxton looked at her, startled and alarmed.

          "I think I just swallowed a mosquito," she gasped.

          "Here Marguerite," Roxton offered, "why don't you have a little water."

          Marguerite rose and backed away from Roxton.

          "Well," Roxton asked, "what's the matter?"

          "Don't you come near me with that water!" Marguerite exclaimed.

          "Well, I just thought that some water would help you…"

          Marguerite rolled her eyes, "It's not that. You were going to spill that water all over me."

          "Now why would I do that?" Roxton asked, "Come on, Marguerite, don't be ridiculous."

          "Ridiculous?" Marguerite repeated, "Fine. Go ahead, reach out with the canteen as if you were going to hand it to me."

          "This is crazy…" Roxton was saying.

          "Just do it," Marguerite insisted.

          Roxton sighed and obeyed. Sure enough, as he reached out with the full canteen, using both hands to support its weight, he violently bumped his right forearm into his knee and splattered water all over the ground where Marguerite was just sitting.

          "How did you know that was going to happen?" Roxton asked her.

          "I don't know," Marguerite told him, "I just did."

          The two would not have much more time to discuss the highly improbable incident that just occurred. Before anything else could be discussed, a high-pitched sound came flowing into their ears.

          "Is that a flute?" Marguerite asked, hearing the high-pitched tone.

          "I think it is," Roxton agreed, rising to his feet, "the question is, where's it coming from?"

          "There's nobody around here is there?" Marguerite asked.

          Roxton looked around. "Look," he pointed, "there's a cave over there at the base of that hill."

          "That must be where it's coming from," Marguerite reasoned.

          "Let's go find out," Roxton ventured.

          The two walked toward the cave, but something was not right. At first, neither of them noticed it. Then they each got that sickening feeling in their stomachs, a natural warning of sorts. They stopped in front of the cave entrance, and Marguerite finally put their awkward feeling into words.

          "The sound isn't getting any louder," Marguerite said, "it still sounds so distant."

          "Yes," Roxton said, realizing she was right, "you stay out here, I'll go look around and make sure it's safe."

          Marguerite sighed, rolled her eyes, crossed her arms and leaned against the rocky border of the cave. She would wait for Roxton to check things out. Even though she came off as being incredibly annoyed, Marguerite found it touching (in a way) how Roxton was always working to protect her. Over protective, sure, but it was flattering, and she knew that she was lucky to have someone who cared so much.

          She waited patiently, but found that she was actually incredibly impatient by nature. Of course, she wouldn't just go busting in there for no reason; Roxton would go insane.

          As she was standing there, Marguerite was hit with a wave of panic. Something wasn't quite right. Roxton was the one in danger, not her. She didn't know how or why, or what it all it meant, but she knew that Roxton was in some kind of danger. Marguerite did not know what she could do, but she couldn't just stand there. So, she walked into the cave.

          "One and three?" Roxton asked, not understanding what that meant.

          "Yes," the Pied Piper repeated, " you will bring me one person alive, and three persons dead."

          "Roxton," Marguerite said in shock, "what is he talking about?"

          "Why I," Roxton said, "I don't know Marguerite. What are you doing here?"

          Marguerite looked at the Piper, and she got another "bad feeling." "Roxton," she told him, "we've got get out of here!"

          "Yes," Roxton agreed, getting a similar sense of dejá vu, "we must get away from this man."

          The Piper smiled cynically, and shook his head slightly. He put his flute to his lips and played a few simple notes.

          "John," Marguerite said, "he's not playing, but the sound's still there. It won't stop. I…"

          "The music," Roxton said, "… it just keeps repeating… those five notes, over and over."

          "Yes," the Piper said simply.

          Roxton became uneasy; he took a few steps backward. Marguerite put her hands over her ears and dropped to her knees.

          Marguerite on her knees, Roxton thought, there's a new one. But his thoughts quickly returned to the five musical notes that stuck to his brain like cobwebs.

          "Make it stop," Roxton pleaded, "I can't… I can't take it. Make it…"

          "…stop," finished Marguerite, although equally frantic in her tone of voice.

          The Piper laughed. Roxton was becoming increasingly aggravated, as was Marguerite.

"Do not fight it," the Piper instructed them, "embrace it. Let the music control you—guide you. You must pay; I am owed. 'Marguerite' here is the one I got alive, but you must both work together now to bring me three dead."

Roxton and Marguerite walked out of the cave, and headed to a place where they knew they could find three people, their only guarantee, the treehouse.

          Before arriving at the treehouse, Roxton and Marguerite heard familiar voices. It was their friends. Ordinarily they might be interested as to why they had left the treehouse, but at this particular time, the only thing on these two's minds was following orders; bring these three, Malone, Challenger, and Veronica, back to the Piper so that he could kill them.

          Veronica, Challenger, and Malone walked along the jungle path, and were surprised when Marguerite and Roxton popped up out of the surrounding jungle.

          "Marguerite, Roxton," Challenger said, not hiding a sense of relief he felt in the tone of his voice, "thank goodness you're alright."

          "Yes," said Roxton, thrown off because he had expected to be greeted as the enemy.

          "We're doing just fine," Marguerite added.

          "Now," Roxton said, "why don't you come with us? There's something I think all of you should see."

          "Where are we going?" Veronica asked suspiciously; something did not seem right.

          "It's a surprise," Marguerite baited.

          "Why don't you just stop playing games and tell us?" Malone demanded.

          "We're taking you to a cave where you will be killed by the Pied Piper," Roxton said plainly.

          Challenger laughed and Veronica and Malone cautiously smiled, clearly not amused by the apparent joke.

          After a few seconds they noticed that Roxton and Marguerite did not join in on the laughter of the others.

          Malone clutched his rifle and hesitantly began to raise it. "I don't think that's a joke," Malone said.

          Roxton was not so hesitant in bringing weapons into the conflict. He raised his rifle and shot at Malone. Malone jerked his head to his left to dodge the bullet, but got hit in the ear and collapsed to the ground.

          Veronica kneeled down to tend to Malone. "Malone," she asked frantically, "are you alright?"

          "I'm fine," Malone said. However, after he gingerly touched his ear and was the blood on his hand, Malone's facial expressions did not support this declaration.

          Roxton was quick to gloat, "You are weak compared to us," he said, "you cannot resist us, so why don't you allow Marguerite and I to escort you to the site of your brutal deaths?"

          First he shoots Malone and now he's going to brag about it, Veronica thought, it's—it's like he's not even human anymore!

          "You monster!" Veronica shouted at Roxton, who merely laughed in response.

          In a flash of rage, Veronica pulled out one of her knives and struck Roxton in the heart.

          Roxton fell to his knees, but his face was illuminated with a devious smile. "You can't win," he told them. Only Roxton realized, as he fell to unconscious to the ground, that the Piper's influence changed him so that it was virtually impossible for him to die.

          "Veronica," Challenger gasped, "what have you done?"

          "I defended us!" Veronica replied sharply.

          "You killed Roxton! And why, is it because Malone was shot?" Challenger asked angrily.

          "Yes," Veronica said, "it's always been about survival, Challenger, and I definitely value Malone's life over whatever it is that's turned Roxton into that.

          "Now don't you go defending yourself, Veronica," Challenger lectured, "the influence over Roxton and Marguerite could be reversible…"

          Veronica shook her head, and cut off Challenger, "Look," she noted, "Marguerite's slipped away."

          "I've got to go look for her," Challenger said, "Veronica, use Malone's vest to bandage that wound. I'll stop Marguerite."

          Challenger ran off, and Veronica swiftly cut up Malone's green vest and wrapped it around his head.

          "Are you okay?" Veronica questioned, "Can you walk?"

          Malone nodded. "Good," Veronica said, "but I'm not taking you back to the treehouse. I've got to find Challenger before Marguerite hurts him."

          "I'm right behind you," Malone said, rising to his feet.

          Veronica smiled, "Let's go."

          "Wait…" Malone said, beginning to look around.

          "What is it?" Veronica asked, concerned.

          "There's your knife," Malone pointed out, "but where's Roxton's body?"

          The two need no words to know that they had both concluded that Roxton somehow survived Veronica's "fatal blow."

          "We've got to hurry!" Veronica exclaimed uneasily.

          Veronica and Malone began to walk swiftly, heading in the direction of Challenger and Marguerite… and perhaps Roxton too.

Challenger's eyes widened, and his jaw dropped. A look of fear settled in on his face, and he gulped.

          "No," he shouted, anxiety stricken, "not you, you can't be alive!"

          "Come on, old boy," Roxton said with a smile, "time to pay the Piper."

          Roxton cocked his pistol, and his finger started to pull the trigger as he smiled treacherously. A bead of sweat rolled down Challenger's face; he could not actually believe what his friend was about to do.

          Just feet away, with only a few trees and bushes separating them from Challenger, were Veronica and Malone.

          I hear voices, Veronica thought to herself, very faint, but not far away. And one of them is Challenger. It sounds like he's screaming or yelling. That can't be good. I don't have much time.

Malone jumped back, as Veronica swiftly left his side and dashed off into the jungle brush.

          "Veronica," he called, "wait!"

          Sorry, Malone, Veronica thought, hearing him, but unable to sacrifice Challenger's life to make Malone feel more at ease.

          Roxton threw his head back and laughed wickedly—pulling the trigger of his pistol ever so slowly, reveling in the moment.

          I've got to time this right… Veronica thought as she leapt into action. She came swinging from a vine out of the trees and into the clearing.

          "Oh no you don't!" she shouted.

          Letting go of the vine, Veronica swooped down and was able to knock Roxton's hand to the side, just as the gun discharged. The bullet narrowly missed Challenger's head. Challenger remained on the ground, breathing heavy, trying to regain his composure, but his old muscles wouldn't let him move.

          "You lose!" Veronica shouted at Roxton.

          Roxton's eyes widened, a scowl forming on his face. How dare this woman interrupt him. The old man could not get far, and Roxton would put this wily little thing in her place first.

          "We'll see about that," Roxton responded bitterly to Veronica.

          Yes we will, Veronica thought, betting heavily on her ability to beat Roxton in battle.

          Seconds later, they heard a gun shot. Then Marguerite emerged from the jungle and into the clearing, cocky in demeanor and blowing the smoke away from the tip of her rifle.

          Marguerite came from the jungle, Veronica began piecing together what must have just happened in her head, the jungle between me and… Malone! Oh no… He probably tried to follow me and stepped in there. And Marguerite was waiting.

          "Malone," Veronica shouted, "No!"

          This distraction was enough for Roxton to move. He quickly raised his pistol and fired at Veronica, aiming for her heart.

          Veronica reacted quickly—working strictly off of instinct now, but she did not react quickly enough. She managed to dodge the fatal hit, but still took the bullet in her calf. She limped to run from Roxton who walked toward her cocking his pistol again. Marguerite kneeled down and began to take aim with her rifle. Veronica quickly pulled out one of her knives and threw it at Marguerite. Her accuracy was perfect, and the knife smacked into the wooden handle of the rifle, knocking it from Marguerite's hand.

          Roxton was next. He fired a shot at Veronica's head, but she was able to duck and avoid it. She quickly rose, pulled out another knife and threw it at Roxton, but as she threw it, the pain from her wound caught up to her, and she faltered just as she released the knife. Roxton had cleverly arranged himself between Veronica and Challenger. The knife came at him quickly, but was a little off target, and easy for Roxton to side step and avoid. The knife kept going with a deadly velocity, and hit Challenger instead, right near the heart.

          Veronica gasped, wincing in pain. Tears began to form in her eyes. She failed; Challenger and Malone were dead. She was too wounded to run anywhere, and she was fresh out of knives—while Roxton and Marguerite, had plenty of bullets.

          Then, all of the sudden, as if in a fairy tail, everything changed; the sky became dark as the moon eclipsed the sun, and all of her friends vanished in the blink of an eye. Veronica was alone. She rose to her feet, her wound still there, but no longer hurting. She heard the faint sound of a flute playing. She strained her ears to figure out where it was coming from, but it seemed to come from everywhere. Then, as if not in control of her body, Veronica stared up at the eclipsed sun. Seconds later, everything went black, all became silent, and finally her thoughts simply shut off.

To Be Continued…