Chapter 15: Lose Ends

Duncan pulled up his CD case from underneath the front passenger's seat. He flipped through a few pages pulling out a CD and showing it to Zaltana. "What do you think?" He held out the Something Corporate CD "Ready… Brake." Zaltana smile and nodded giving the signal to play it.

"Zaltana, turn off at the next exit." Moxie said from the second to last row of seats.

"Why?" Zaltana glanced back through the rear view mirror at Moxie and Maddie.

"Maddie and I want to get some of our cloths and see if mom will let us take the van with us." Moxie explained.

"If I got this far, driving in my car, and then I started holding on to these I couldn't keep." Was heard from the speakers in the car. Andrew of Something Corporate's voice was heard through the car before Duncan turned off the CD. He quickly put in a Smashing Pumpkin CD. Zaltana vetoed the CD as quickly as it was put in. This continued for about five minuets when Duncan put Something Corporate back in.

Following Moxie's request, Zaltana turned off the highway. "Okay guys you have to tell me where to go." She pulled off to the side of the road. "Duncan switch seats with one of the twins."

"Got cha." He opened the door and left the front seat. He opened the sliding door. "Which one of you two can get us from here to your house without getting us lost?" He asked the two twins.

"Maddie's better with directions. She'll get us there faster." Moxie said with all honesty.

"Maddie up front." Duncan commanded. Maddie made her way to the front of the car and hopped out. "Rowen, move back with Moxie."

"Why do I have to move?" Rowen protested.

"Because its my car. And if you don't want to walk you should move next to Moxie." Duncan glared at Rowen.

"Fine, I'm moving." He unbuckled his safety belt and moved to the seat where Maddie was sitting. "Ya happy, ya big oaf?" Duncan climbed in and slammed the door. Before he took his seat, he made a point of messing up Rowen's hair. Which was not hard because Rowen looked like he just woke up but Duncan made sure it looked worse.

"Yeah, I am." Duncan took his seat and buckled up. "Okay Zalie baby lets head out!" Zaltana nodded and started driving. She turned up the stereo during the song "If I die." Maddie pointed out where to turn and everything. They pulled into a small neighborhood where there the houses were the cut out of the same mold. The twins lived in your standard two story tall house with a white picket fence that needed painting. There was a tired old dog lying under the tree when Duncan's Van pulled up.

"This the place?" Zaltana asked looking over the house.

"Yeah this is the little hell hole we like to call home." Maddie said climbing out of the car. Zaltana followed her lead. Soon the rest of the group followed the lead of the two girls riding shot gun. Maddie and Moxie lead everyone up to the house. "Okay if mom and dad are home, watch out for flying dishes."

"Should we ask?" Rowen said eyeing the dog like it was about to attack at any given moment.

"Their about to divorce." Moxie sigh. "Constantine won't hurt you. She's about 91 dog years or something." She walked over to the dog and scratched it behind its ears. "You're a good little old doggy aren't cha girl?" Constantine gave a halfhearted bark. Moxie lifted the welcome matt and pulled out a key. She unlocked the door and walked in. "Come on in."

The group of them walked into the house to see that the living room had pink flower wall paper falling off the walls in spots and the hardwood floor was in need of being polished and cleaned. There was a cute rug where you could easily see where two children sat pretending they were on a magic carpet. The couches had duck tape over spots and were well faded. The wood tables needed dusting and there were coffee rings on the tables next to the chairs. There was a glass coffee table placed over the throw rug, old newspapers and Teen People, People and Time magazines were thrown un-ceremonially over the table. The curtains wouldn't fully closed so they let just a little light into the room which let the light bounced the glass table. The light bounced onto the walls to show that the baby pictures that hung on the walls were slightly tilted and smutty. Everything was covered with a fine layer of dust.

"There isn't much here." Maddie said pulling everyone's attention away from the room. "Come on. I'll bring you over to the TV room." Maddie walked down a hallway and lead them to a room which was quite the opposite of the first room. There was a beautiful throw rug in the middle of the freshly polished wood floor. Against one wall there as a leather corner sofa. Instead of the corner sofa being against two walls it was against one while the second side of it flared out into the room making the room seem smaller and cozeyer. There were two sliding glass doors which lead to a patio set on the back deck. The walls were painted in an off white cream color while along the top a hand painted flower ring lined the room. There was a computer off to the side of the couch where it was out of the way and wouldn't block anyone's view of the TV. The television was housed in a beautiful oak TV case with a bookshelf off to the left side and a DVD and VHS holder on its right.

"Why is this room much nicer and stuff then the other one?" Rowen asked.

Duncan's fist met quickly with Rowen's stomach "Don't be rude." Rowen fell onto the end of the sofa holding his stomach.

"Sorry." Rowen breathlessly stated.

"Duncan, its alright. It really is. That room is left like that because that where grandma died and we haven't the heart to change it." Maddie said. "I'll wait here with them while you grab your stuff. That way if dad gets home he won't freak."

"Got is sis." Moxie ran up stairs where you could hear her ever move. Her steps echoed through the house. After a few minuets there was another set of feet moving up stairs.

"Oh no that's dad." Maddie ran over to the back door and opened it quickly. "Duncan, Cyrus, Kedem and Rowen go out the back door and get to the van quickly. Dad will freak if he sees you four here. Hide on the side of the house!" Without another word the guys made a dash for it. Greer followed too. "Greer what are you doing?"

"Your father will think I'm with Child Services if he sees me. I'm going with the guys. I'll meet you back in the car." With that she left and closed the door behind her.

"Zaltana, dad doesn't know you so he's going to question you and everything. So bear with it. You're a friend of Isis from the reservation. Are you even Native America?" Maddie was starting to panic.

"Maddie calm down. Go help your sister we'll wait for you in here." Isis put her hands on Maddie's shoulders. "We'll be fine." Maddie nodded and her foot steps could be heard as she ran down the hall.

"Are you sure we shouldn't help her?" Kineta asked watching where her friend ran.

"Its her family, we shouldn't intervene." Isis said. The three girls had their eyes set on the way Maddie ran. The sound of someone falling to the floor radiated from the hallway.

"Zal, lets go." Kineta was half way to the hallway when she said that.

"Right." Zaltana was right behind her as she ran to help the twins. Zaltana and Kineta stopped in stun silences when they saw that Moxie was on the floor holding her arm close to her while Maddie was being lifted off the ground by the front of her shirt. "STOP!" Zaltana focused her powers to pry Maddie out of her fathers hands. Maddie was now free floating away from her father who was now floating a few feat off the ground.

"Zal, put me down!" Maddie cried from mid air. Zaltana slowly lowered Maddie onto the stairs.

"Maddie get your stuff, we're out of here!" Kineta said running over to Moxie and grabbing her bag off the stairs. "Isis! Get in here I need some help!" Isis ran to see Maddie running up the stairs, the twins father floating in mid air and Moxie nursing a broken arm.

"Oh my god!" She said before she ran to help Moxie.

"Who the fuck do you little whores think you are?" the floating man questioned.

"We are the protectors of sisters and friends alike. We're the Outer Four Daughters teamed up with the Daughter of the Sun and we don't like how you treat your daughters." Kineta said draping Moxie's bag over her shoulder. Isis had gotten Moxie to her feet. "Get her out to Greer." Isis nodded and left with Moxie. Maddie ran down the stairs.

"I can't hold him much longer!" Zaltana stressed. The twin's father was starting to shake in the grasp of Zaltana's mental grasp.

"Right." The sunlight that was seeping through the window in the living room started forming a ball in Kineta's hand. The ball grew to about the size of a soft ball. "Batter's up." Kineta said before she threw the light ball at the floating mass. He flew back into the wall. "Lets go Zal."

"Yeah. Sure." Zaltana looked at the twin's father life less body. The two ran out the front door into the car. The teams had left the front passengers seat open for Zaltana and the seat behind Greer open for Kineta. Once the two had closed the doors Duncan speeded off.

"We're bringing her to the hospital. Zal, we need your health insurance card. The twins don't have cards." One of the guys said.

"Right. Find it." She grabbed her wallet and threw it behind her. "I'm wiped."