Chapter 6

It was dark and cold that night. There were rumbles of thunder and flashes of lightning. It was beginning to rain. Seth felt himself shiver as the first rain drop touched his skin. He looked over at Lillian, she was shivering tooand tears were running down her cheeks. Seth was crying as well. He couldn't understand why the world was doing this to him. Did the world hate him so much that they were punishing him? Dread began to fill his heart as the saw a black car approach them. "You better say goodbye now," A cruel voice said behind him, "because this is the last time you're ever going to see each other." And he laughed; Seth felt his ski crawl as Graft laughed at their sorrow. Lillian didn't say anything, but she gave me one last hug as the black car stopped not two feet from where we were standing. A monstrous man with beady black eyes stepped out of the car with his minions. His minions grabbed a hold of Lillian and dragged her to the car. "We will see each other again Lillian, I promise." Seth looked into her blue eyes then, as they were carrying her away, there was no sparkle and there was not even a flicker of happiness within the depths of those eyes. She didn't believe his promise. She whispered "I love you," and then the car door slammed shut and the black car drove away while Seth watched Lillian disappear from his life. "I will see you again, Lillian. I promise," Seth vowed to himself. "I don't think so," Graft whispered into his ear. Seth shivered and Graft pushed him against his car and then he…

"NO!"

Seth threw himself out of the dream not wanting to remember what happened next. Still in the throes of the dream Seth saw a hand reach towards his face. Expecting the worst, he violently flinched away from the hand and rolled off of the bed and on to the floor. Bad mistake. Seth felt the pain flare up in his shoulder and his vision began to swim.

Zoe cautiously approached Seth not wanting to terrify her brother any further.

"Seth, it's me Zoe. We are in the hospital. You're safe here." Seth looked up at his sister, ashamed that he had acted that way, but every time he had that dream, it felt so real.

"I know that Zoe. It was just, I had the dream again and I freaked out for a second. Sorry."

"There's nothing to be sorry about. Let's just get you back on the bed before Shane comes back and he starts to freak out because you're on the floor."

"So how did I end up here?"

"Well, after you passed out, I called an ambulance. Shane drove to the hospital and I rode in the ambulance with you.Everybody isdown at the cafeteria now because we noticed that you were waking up and I wanted to talk to you, alone."

"About what?"

Zoe hesitated at this. She didn't know how to bring the subject up to her brother and she didn't know how he would react to it.

"I wanted to talk to you about Lillian. Seth, you can't be sure that it was really Lillian. It could have been anyone. You didn't even see her face. Are you going to base your decision solely what you saw in her eyes."

"Yes."

"Seth…"

"Zoe, you don't understand. That was Lillian. When you loose someone that is extremely important to you, you don't forget things about them. I know those eyes and they were Lillian's eyes. You didn't see the look she gave me when I said her name out loud. Zoe, I don't expect you to understand this, but I know that it was Lillian that I saw and nothing that you say will change my mind."

"If that was really Lillian, why did she throw a knife at you?"

"I don't know. I don't think that she meant for it to hit me."

"Seth…"

"Zoe, I appreciate your concern, but you might as well drop it, because you're not going to change anything."

"Alright, but when Mom gets back you are going to talk to her about this."

"Fine."

"I'm going to go find Shane; he wanted to talk to you. I'll be right back. Okay?"

"Okay. Hey Zoe?"

"Yeah?"

"Does Mom know about all of this?"

"Yeah, she knows," and with this statement Zoe left the room.

As Zoe left the hospital room, she didn't notice the stranger that was lingering by the door of Seth's room. It would be a mistake that Zoe would come to regret.

Seth heard footsteps approach him, figuring that it was Shane, Seth didn't look up.

"Hello Seth, glad to see that you are awake." That wasn't Shane's voice, it was…

"O my God. You can't be here. You should be in prison. You can't be here. I must be dreaming." Seth pinched himself and realized that this was no dream. He was in a hospital room, alone, staring at the face of Graft.

Graft pulled out a knife and roughly pulled Seth to his feet, Seth felt the color in his face drain and his breathing became labored. This couldn't be happening, but it was. All he could do was push the panic button on his bracelet and pray that Shane would get there in time to help him, but Graft noticed that he had pushed the button.

"You little brat." A vicious blow to his check sent Seth sprawling to the floor. At that moment Shane made his entrance into the room, but Graft was behind Seth with his arm pinning Seth to his chest and a knife at the boy's throat.

"Let the boy go."

"What are you going to do if I don't?" Shane made a move towards Graft, but the man pushed the knife into Seth's flesh, cutting the skin on his neck, and forcing Shane back. Graft began walking backwards toward the window. Upon reaching the window he opened it and looked down from the two story window, he smiled when his eyes reached the van parked directly under the window.

Shane was torn. Red 2 was clearly terrified, but if he attacked now, he risked the chance that Seth could be hurt, or worse killed. But if he didn't attack the man, then Seth would be forced to go with that maniac. For the first time in any mission that the lieutenant had ever had, he didn't know what to do. The decision was soon made for him though.

"I will send you a video tape of my demands, but until then Adieu." Graft jumped out of the window and landed in the van. Shane ran to the window, but all that he could do was watch as the van sped away with Seth in it. He had, once again, failed to protect the Plummer family.