"Hey, Ron. I wanna apologize for what I said before. I didn't mean for it to sound so, well harsh. You forgive me?" Ron stood; drying his hands on the only dry towel left in the kitchen and grinned, holding out his hand. Hunter took it shaking generously only to stop, grabbing the refrigerator handle for support.

"Is anything wrong?" Ron asked going to help support Hunter, but the teen pulled away, sliding down the appliance.

"You-You can't go back out with Kim." He said in short huffs. "If you do-she'll die."

Engineer

Chapter 4

"Do what?!" Ron's shout was heard throughout the house. So was Hunter's laughter as he got up, brushing himself off.

"Gotcha. Oh man, that never gets old. Hey, what do you say we…what?" Hunter tried to walk from Ron's glare. Ron just stood there, his face red.

"You stupid--How could you do that!? I'll get you back for this! MARK MY WORDS!" Hunter frowned, heading towards the living room.

"Jeeze, it was only a joke." He waited until he was alone in the vast living room. "Besides if anyone got anyone it would be you in my trap, Ronnie."

"…And that's it." Kim walked into the room with Mrs. Turchan, Hunter's mother. She turned her eyes to Hunter but before she could ask him what happened, Ron rushed into the room. "Is everything alright, Ron? I heard yelling."

"He said that you…never mind. It was a joke and it wasn't funny." Kim sighed as Ron crossed his arms and she walked to him, placing a hand on his shoulder.

"Ron, turn down the drama, ok?"

"But Kim! Hunter-"

"I know you and Hunter don't exactly get along, but please. Let tonight go ok, for me?" Ron sighed, defeated by the puppy dog pout.

"Alright, but if he pulls another one of those pranks-"

"Just what did he do?" Kim asked, getting both her and Ron to sit on the couch. Ron opened his mouth to answer but shut it quickly. What if Kim believed Hunter? He didn't want anything to hurt his chances, not tonight. So instead he sighed.

"I spooked him is all," Hunter answered for Ron. "Poor guy can't take a joke. I won't do it again, I promise." Mrs. Turchan walked up behind Hunter, her hand hardly reaching the boy's shoulder.

"You must forgive Hunter. He is unused to having friends and as such does not yet understand."

"I know plenty about friends, mother." Hunter snapped, pulling from her touch. "Just, there's just something about Ron that, I dunno. I just like." Mrs. Turchan took a deep breath, smiling.

"I see what you mean, but Hunter, dear, you must not over do it. The taste fades the more you tap it; it's something to be favored, savored and enjoyed. Not exploited by foolish games."

"Wait, taste? That is beyond sick and wrong." Kim nudged Ron and Mrs. Turchan sat next to the blonde teen.

"It is a saying from where we come, it speaks of not taking one's…trust for granted. Like your boy who cried wolf tale, yes?" Mrs. Possible stepped out from the kitchen, a smile on her face.

"Dinner is done."

"Wow, Mrs. Dr. P, that was fast!" She laughed at Ron's delight.

"We only needed more milk for the mashed potatoes, Ron." They all gathered around the table, Hunter making sure he got the seat next to Kim, and on her other side was Ron. One side setting her on edge, the other a soft reassurance.

The food was brought out. A beautiful ham, wonderful sides prepared with such flair it was strange to think it came from anyone but a professional. As Mrs. Possible confessed most of the food was prepared by her husband, and like Mr. Possible he was incredibly modest. The twins were behaving only because they were promised ice cream if they behaved through the dinner, and as strange as it may seem the Turchans seemed to even intimidate the young boys. The conversation had been small talk about the weather, and chitchat between the Possible parents. Everyone else ate in close to silence…until Mrs. Possible finally began the evening's predicted round of 20 questions.

"So, what do you do, Mrs. Turchan?" The woman looked back at her hostess with cold eyes before returning her gaze to the meat on her plate.

"I am…a collector of sorts. An enforcer of a sort as well. It is complicated matters. You are a brain surgeon, Mrs. Possible, and a rocket scientist is your husband. The boys are prodigies yet to be discovered in the way of inventing, your daughter a hero. I hope I saved you some trouble in further introductions."

"You mean socially bragging." Hunter scoffed before taking a sip of his water, raising an eyebrow at the other's cold looks. "What, you can't tell me you Possibles don't get tired about telling everyone how cool you are."

"Please, Forgive my son. He is perhaps too frank for his own good. He is not used to social outings of this nature."

"It's ok." Mr. Possible beamed. "No offence taken. So, what brings you two to Middleton?" Hunter twirled his fork between his fingers, boredly.

"We're here because there's someone who-."

"On business." Mrs. Turchan cut off her son. "There is a person with whom we have been asked to deal with. We shall do so swiftly, and if permitted we stay." Everyone else was lost on words to respond to that, everyone a little hesitant to pry further, everyone except Ron.

"Who's the person?" Ron asked, looking at only Hunter, knowing he'd get a straighter answer from the boy than Mrs. Turchan.

"Not a concern of yours, Stoppable. Hunter will not speak his name, though I have a feeling you will find out in time no matter our efforts. It will matter not. Nothing will get in our way." With that Turchan stood. "Possible family, and Stoppable, please excuse me, I have to tend to business. Hunter will stay until I return for him. Is that ok?" By now everyone just nodded, her presence overshadowing the otherwise cheerful atmosphere. And the woman stood and left without another word to anyone. Hunter stood as well.

"I'm finished." He stated and left, plopping on the couch, arms resting behind his head. The rest left at the table looked around uneasily and finished their meal with little discussion. Kim and Ron both went to take their plates into the kitchen.

"That was majorly weird." Kim said, gently placing the china into the sink.

"Think we should check it out with Wade?" She took his plate and placed it on hers before nodding.

"But we should wait until Hunter leaves." There was a moment of silence before Ron walked to the refrigerator to refill his glass.

"You still wanna talk?" He asked, closing the fridge door. Something in Ron's stomach turned, some voice in his head trying to tell him something he couldn't quite decipher. He watched her blink suddenly looking a bit more flustered.

"Oh yea, umm… Do you think we can go out back?"

"I'll meet you out there after I finish this," Ron said with a smile, swirling the half-cup's worth of liquid in his cup. Kim nodded and headed for the back door.

The night air was refreshing and she swallowed a little heavily. Why was she so nervous? Why in the world was her heart racing like this? Honestly Kim didn't even know what she was doing.

Normally, everything was black and white, all things planned and scheduled. She knew where she was going and what to do next. Why then? Why did everything seem so confusing in this case? What did she even want to talk about? Did she want to tell him about how her mother's talk? More important than that…did she want to get back together with Ron?

After all, she had hurt him before…maybe she didn't deserve him. And what if her mom was wrong? What if deep down she just couldn't return Ron's feelings? Surly he'd never forgive her a second time. There was a lot on the line, now that she thought about it.

But what about before, when she was setting the table? What was making that happen then, if not love? Was it loneliness? Was it perhaps even lust? It was so very confusing. She sighed and looked at the back door. Any moment now he'd walk out and expect her to tell him something or another and she didn't even know what to say. Kim closed her eyes trying to sort through the jumble of thoughts.

Ok, how did her mother do this? Before, all her confusion over the break up seemed so clear. What were her mother's questions? All Kim had to do was apply the same questions to what happened earlier that night and try to figure it out. One of the questions was if she was scared or not. No…Kim didn't feel scared. Maybe a little unsure seeing how she had just finished talking with her mother. She wasn't scared at all, and she didn't feel guilty when he held her. All the things that caused her to doubt her feelings were gone and now all there was, was nervousness. And a little fear, but more of his reaction and what the future may bring. She smiled, her words finally found.

But where was Ron?

----

"Mom have you seen Ron?" Mrs. Possible turned her head to her daughter as she worked on the dishes.

"I thought I saw him go out back with you."

"No." There was a sudden lurch in Kim's stomach. "I went by myself. Are you sure you saw him go out back?"

"Positive, Kimmie. He even said goodbye-why is something wrong?" Kim didn't answer her mother, instead choosing to run into the living room, and every other room in a search only to find that indeed, Ron wasn't there. More than that each person last saw him at different times, in different places. Jim last saw him leaving the bathroom, Tim saw him leave through the front door, her father told her Ron left through the garage and had thanked him everything. Enough was enough. Kim whipped out her Kimunicator.

"Hey Kim, what up?"

"Wade, I need you to do a trace on Ron." Her words were rushed and filled with clear urgency. By now he knew not to ask questions, specially dumb ones like 'is everything ok?' and 'is he in trouble?' The scan finished and Wade wasn't happy about the results.

"I can't find it. What happened?"

"He just disappeared!" Kim shouted, climbing to her room and sitting on her bed. "One-one moment he was here and then he's gone, and everyone has a different story of how he left."

"Whoa, Kim. Take a deep breath. Try to think of why he might leave. Did he have a curfew, or something to go to?"

"No, we were supposed to meet to talk and he never came, but it wasn't very long, maybe 10 minuets, maybe more." Her heart skipped a beat. What if he left because he didn't want to talk? Ron's been known for skipping out of things he didn't want to face, like detention, parent teacher conferences…no. No, that couldn't be it, he'd never skip out on her about this, he had to have known what they were going to talk about. Even Ron wasn't that dense.

"Did anything weird happen earlier?" Wade offered when Kim didn't reply further. Her eyes widened.

"Our neighbors. The Turchans next door, they came over and Mrs. Turchan talked about being here to deal with someone, and they claim to be psychic. Kinda freaked out everyone at dinner." Wade's fingers were busy flying over the keyboard.

"Wait. Did you say they, as in more than one?" He asked, fingers still going at high speed.

"Mrs. Turchan and her son."

"This is weird."

"What is?" Kim was on the edge of her bed. Wade displayed his results on the screen.

"There's no record of Mrs. Turchan having a son. No record of a husband either, she's listed as married, but there's no certificate to certify that. What was the name of her son?"

"Hunter." Kim could just feel her mouth run dry. This was beyond weird. Ron disappears, Hunter doesn't exist? What the hell was going on?

"Nope. No Hunter. I have more information about Mrs. Turchan. She just moved from eastern New Jersey and works as an art teacher during the school year. Get this; she collects occult books and rare items associated with divination and the dead." Wade shivered, the woman's picture, her eyes seemingly burning into him. "Her real age is unknown, her birth place unknown."

"She had a weird way of talking, but there wasn't an accent." Kim said quickly trying to aid Wade in his search.

"What do you mean weird?"

"I mean her speech pattern was strange-like she was foreign. Ended questions with yes, and skipped a few words here and there."

"But no accent?"

"None." Wade didn't like the way this was going. From what he had read the woman moved a lot, which might explain her lack of an accent or dialect. Wait.

"Hey Kim. Check this out. Turns out she's connected to this group 'Ego Quidnam Caedo Letum'"

"I who hunt death. It's Latin." Kim blinked, for the first time thankful she had to sit through that stupid class.

"It's crude though, like the translation is word for word, not as a sentence; having no grammar at all." Wade tapped his finger as he skimmed through the information on the screen. "Apparently it's an organization that hunts people who should be dead. Zombie killers. What would Mrs. Turchan want with Ron?" Kim didn't answer, seemingly trying to make sense of it. "I-I'm sure he's ok, Kim. Who knows, maybe he just got tired and left or something. Why don't you just take it easy and I'll stay on it ok?" He knew better. Of course Kim wouldn't take it easy, she was one who couldn't just sit there when something was wrong. It would be a long night for both of them.

"Ok. Let me know if you find anything." Even when the little screen went blank Kim stared at it, as if waiting for Wade to flash back on and tell her he found Ron and Ron had just…stepped out for Bueno Nacho or something. Not kidnapped by some zombie killer cult art teacher from eastern New Jersey and her non-existent son. She sighed, letting her poor white knuckles to relax, the death grip on the Kimunicator released. Air. She needed air. Kim walked to her window and opened it, blinking at a sudden realization. Right there was the Turchan's house. She could just go over and ask if Ron was there. That was it, duh, why hadn't she thought of that before? Kim spun around only to notice her clock, which read 10:45pm.

Ok, she'd ask tomorrow. But…what if Turchan really was some strange cult-following psychopath? What if Ron was in danger? What if right now she was sacrificing him on some alter in some satanic ritual? Kim shook her head, holding it as it throbbed with a mild headache. Reality check. For all she knew, Ron could have just gone home. Kim picked up the telephone and called the line to his room.

No answer. Ok, so what? Maybe he's asleep. Yea, he was just asleep and tomorrow, Kim thought as she yawned. Tomorrow she'd tell him how worried she was…and then. Then they'd have that talk. And after that grab some nachos and a movie. It wasn't long before she had fallen asleep, curled up against a pillow, the Kimunicator in arm's reach on the nightstand.

Tomorrow everything would be ok.

Jao: Uh-oh. What's happened to Ron? There are a lot of weird things going on…
There's a good chance the Latin is wrong. I had to use a not-so-good online translator. Well, the plot thickens. And a chapter up within 3 days of the last one. I think that makes up for the long gap between chapters 2 and 3.

Chapter 5 coming soon.