Chapter Two


After knocking on the door to the Kiriakas Mansion several times, Lucas grunted impatiently and tried turning the doorknob. Finding the door unlocked, he and Sami stepped inside. Lucas looked around for Brady and frowned when he didn't see him. In fact, Lucas didn't see or hear anything that indicated the presence of anyone on the first floor. He couldn't remembered the last time he had seen the mansion look this deserted.

"Oh, I forgot, Brady said that all the servants have the day off. He also said he'd be downstairs though." Lucas took a few steps into the living room, annoyed with Brady's unreliability.

Sami heard muffled thumping noises above her head, "Lucas, he's probably in his room. Come on, I know where it is, Belle and I came over to see him a few days ago."

Lucas and Sami made their way up the stairs, listening as the noises became louder. The hushed sounds of people talking could be heard when they reached the top of the flight of stairs. Following the noises, Lucas and Sami made their way down the hallway. They watched as a tall, hooded figure in black stepped out of one of the rooms, carrying a speaker from a stereo system. When he turned around to face Lucas and Sami, Lucas noticed that a ski mask covered his face.

The man groaned, sounding irritated, "Oh, great. More people to get rid of." another man came out of the room, carrying another speaker in his arms. He was dressed similarly to the first man, other than the fact that his ski mask was red instead of black.

Both men set down their speakers and started towards Lucas and Sami, "What do you think you're doing?" Lucas sounded more pissed off than scared.

"Well, we were trying to clean this place out before you two came along. And now we are going to have to make sure you don't get away. Because then you'd call the police and we really don't want that." the first man explained. The second man jumped out and grabbed Sami's arm, then began trying to pull her in one direction. With her free arm, Sami swung around to try and hit him but he intercepted the attempt and wrenched that arm behind her back.

"Come on, lady, this way." the man ordered in a gruff voice. The first man was approaching Lucas with more than a little caution but Lucas ignored him. He pulled Sami away from the second man, then shoved the man against the wall. After a few well-placed punches, the man fell on the ground and Lucas turned his attention back to Sami. She had taken a candlestick holder off of one of the end tables and was holding it like a baseball bat, regarding the first man guardedly. Lucas tackled the first man, who let out a few angry protests.

Sami started when two more men came out into the hallway. Before she even had time to react and warn Lucas, one of the men brought a large vase down on top of Lucas' head. The glass vase made an angry shattering sound when it made contact with the back of Lucas' head. Sami let out a horrified cry and started towards Lucas but when she saw the gun the fourth man had cocked in her direction, she stopped abruptly. Lucas was lying in a crumpled heap on the floor and Sami watched helplessly as he struggled to his feet. The man that had hit Lucas over the head with the vase pulled out his on gun and pointed it at Lucas.

"We don't want any more of that, now do we?" the fourth man, whose ski mask was a navy blue colour, seemed to take charge. The other three men nodded in agreement. The first two men had also gotten back on their feet and the man in the red ski mask took hold of Sami by the shoulders and began steering her in one direction while the man in the black mask was pushing Lucas in the same direction as Sami. The last two men followed closely behind with their guns still pointed towards Lucas and Sami.

The men reached one room and pushed Lucas and Sami inside. Shutting the door firmly behind them, one of the men called, "You can stay in there until we're finished." Sami listened to the faint clattering of something she was almost sure was keys, then listened to the retreating footsteps outside the door. She turned back to Lucas. He was already sitting down on the bed, holding the back of his head with one hand. Sami flinched as she remembered the horrible sound of the vase hitting his head and hurried over to him.

"Did they hurt you?" Lucas asked hoarsely, his voice cracking painfully. Sami stared at him in disbelief. He had just been the one hit over the head with a vase and all he seemed to be thinking about was whether or not she was okay.

"I'm fine, it's you I'm worried about." she pulled his hand off his head and noticed that his hand was covered in blood. She swallowed hard and battled against the wave of nausea that passed through her. She didn't do well with blood. The sight of it was enough to bring back memories of so many things that had happened over the past year. Blood made her think of the way she had fallen through the glass doors at the Dimera Mansion and severed her vocal cords. Blood make her think about all the serial killings. It brought back memories of seeing Kate's wedding gown soaked in her father's blood on the night of his wedding. And blood made her think about how her mother had- no, she wasn't even going to go there.

Despite the fact that even the idea of blood made her feel like throwing up, she knew she had to do something about Lucas' head injury. She quickly scanned the room for something to put on his head. They were in a guest room, one that looked like it wasn't used very often. It didn't even look like there were any light bulbs in the lights. She eyed the blankets on the bed doubtfully. They were made of an expensive-looking blue silk and she didn't really want to get them dirty, especially if she and Lucas were going to be stuck here the entire night.

"I'm fine." Lucas responded, shifting his weight slightly and Sami watched as his winced, as if even that small movement had hurt.

"You're not fine at all. You just took a vase to the head. Here, take off your shirt." Lucas gave her a funny look as she began tugging on his shirt, "Lucas, could you please help me out? We have to use something to stop the bleeding." Lucas understood and helped her pull the shirt off. Before putting the shirt over the injury, Sami began lifting up parts of his hair, checking to see if any shards of glass had stayed lodged in his skin. His hair was already slightly damp from the blood and Sami barely resisted cringing every time her fingers touched the thick, dark red substance. She closed her eyes for a moment, trying to calm herself down. She was going to end up fainting if she didn't get a hold on her emotions and memories.

After doing a thorough check on his head, Sami sighed with relief and picked up the shirt, which had been lying next to her. She was glad that none of the glass had gotten stuck because she would have died if she had to somehow get it out. She gently pressed the t-shirt against the back of his head.

"Lie down." she ordered him. He slowly lowered his head onto the pillow, holding the shirt against his head securely. He looked up at Sami gratefully who was already biting her lip nervously and looking over at the door.

"I'll be right back." she got off the bed and went over to the door. She tried twisting the doorknobs both ways, then sighed in frustration and kicked the door.

"They locked it from the outside." Lucas informed her, "And since Victor only bought the best, the lock probably can't be broken. The windows are too small for either of us to climb out of and we are left our cell phones in the car. So, until the robbers come back, I think we're stuck in here."