Charlie sat in his room listening to the radio. At the moment, Dr. Miller of Oxford University had lapsed into a long monolog about his theories on the paranormal. It amazed Charlie how close the doctor had actually come to hitting the nail on the head, as it were. But something soon distracted Charlie. A strange noise reached his ears. It sounded as if someone had scaled a gate, Darkwood's gate. He turned down the radio and walked to his balcony and a new, even stranger sound reached his ears. This one sounded like someone rubbing leaves between their fingers, and then, he heard a crackling sound. None of this made sense until the smell came. Fire! Something had been set on fire. But how? What? And by who? He turned to run from his room to warn the rest of the house but felt heat on his face. Had it already reached his room? The initial fire had seemed close by, but he had not realized how close. How would he warn everyone? How would he get out of his room? He was three floors above the ground! The only way down was to fly, and that sure was not going to happen. He backed out onto his balcony as far from the flames as he possible. Maybe someone would realize that he could not get down and come help him.

To his relief he heard David yelling for everyone to get out. The pounding of feet down the stairs echoed in his ears and he heard shouts on the lawn as the students and families poured out of the building. He felt the fire grow closer and his face burned. Among the shouts no one seemed to realize that Charlie was missing. He turned to yell but choked on the smoke. It burned his eyes and filled his lungs. He fell to his knees gagging and coughing. He could not let out even a whisper.

Help. He thought, and then blackness took him.

Bethanie looked up at the burning building tears stinging her eyes. Jason held her tightly. Why, why, why? She wondered. But a new problem drew itself to her attention.

"Charlie? Has anybody seen Charlie?" It was Bailey, Charlie's girlfriend. And that was a very good question. Where was Charlie? Bethanie searched him out with her mind. Suddenly, she gasped and ran towards the building.

"Bethanie, Beth!" Jason yelled. "What the heck are you doing?"

But Bethanie ignored him and jumped into the air. The smoke rushed past her as she flew to his balcony. Flames nearly consumed it as she cleared the railing. Charlie lay on the concrete covered in black. His face and arms were slightly burned as well. She tried to pick him up but realized she had a new problem. She could not do it. Charlie was thin but still too heavy; all her years of gymnastics were not enough to help her lift him. The flames licked the ground as they drew closer to her. There was no way she could pull him over, she would surely drop him. But, like an answered prayer, Bailey leaped over the railing. With her amazing vampire strength she carefully picked Charlie up and flew back to the ground with Bethanie behind her.

Bethanie marveled. Bailey only reached four foot nine, but she had unbelievable amounts of power in her. Bailey laid him on the ground gingerly. He lay still as if dead. She brushed the thick ashes from his face. Still no reaction. She took a hold of his chin and shook his face. "Come on Charlie wake up."

Bethanie bent down beside him and put a hand over his mouth. Thin air flowed out. She connected to his mind and urged him to wake up, but no response came.

"He's not waking up," Bethanie said.

"No crap Sherlock," Bailey replied out of frustration. She pressed her fingers to his neck feeling for a pulse. She only heard a faint heart beat. "Don't die on me now Charlie come on."

"You don't have to be nasty." Bethanie said offended.

"Look, little girl, Charlie's about to die here and I sure as heck don't have time to argue with you, nor do I have time to worry about whether I'm being polite to you or not." Bailey snapped.

"Then," Bethanie said, "Why are you arguing with me?"

Bailey glared with hard brown eyes and returned to Charlie. She touched his burnt face again. This can't be happening, Bailey thought. Not again.

But David came running up. "What happened?" He asked.

"What's it look like?" Bailey said.

"He got trapped on his balcony," Bethanie said. "He's still breathing, and his heart's beating. He just won't wake up."

David picked Charlie up and walked over to the park. Dakota and Julia had started herding all the kids into that area, helping those who were physically and emotionally wounded. Some of the other adults had broken down but were soon convinced that they had to help the children.

When Dakota saw David and Charlie he grabbed some blankets he had saved from the building and laid them down. David put Charlie on them carefully. Julia bent down with some medicine and a cloth, and dabbed his burns.

"He's going to be OK," she said to no one in particular. "It'll just be a while before he wakes up."

David and Dakota walked away from the group to the edge of the park.

"We caught him," Dakota said. "The one who started the fire. He's over here." In the clearing, a boy with burning red hair lay on the ground, his eyes shut. "Don't worry though, he's not going anywhere. I put a shield around him."

"How was he caught?" David asked, staring at the boy.

Dakota explained that, when Pearl realized Sterling had not come out she went in after him. Sterling was upstairs having a little stand off with the other boy. After the boy knocked Sterling to the ground, Pearl took his powers. They would have all died but Josh had seen Pearl go in and he and Kristopher ran in and dragged them out.

"Is Pearl all right?" David asked.

"Yeah, but her hands are severely burned and she is severely grounded." Dakota replied.

"So," David said. "I guess it's time for a Counsel meeting, and this time, I think we need to let the parents in on it."

Dakota went in search of Darron. He found him staring up at his community, his dreams, all that he had worked for over the past ten years, burn to the ground. For a moment, Dakota did not say a word. It seemed Darron needed his space.

"You know, it's been three hundred years since I decided to start Darkwood Community," Darron said still looking at the inferno. "I had been wandering around trying to mind my own business, doing my own thing for 99 years. But it finally hit me that not everyone was like me. That not everyone could adjust the way I had to this new life, and that society would probably never accept them. Us. So I joined the Counsel. I didn't even have to battle anyone because one of the members wanted to retire. But after a few weeks I realized how corrupt the Counsel was. So I went back to college and got a business degree. It took me nearly one hundred and twenty years to get comfortable. Paul was against me at every turn. But ten years ago I finally had enough." He stopped and smiled, then looked back at Dakota. "I don't know why I'm telling you all of this."

Dakota put a hand on his shoulder. He understood. He had felt the same way when his parents had first died; it was all he could talk about. They walked back to the park where the adults had gathered for the meeting.