SUSPICIONS

Annabelle wandered through the forest; heading in what she thought was towards the town, which was in fact away. Far, far away. Annabelle began to tire, and sat against a tree. All the trees looked the same, and it was dark, but she surprisingly wasn't scared. Well she might've been if she hadn't have been tired, hungry and feeling as though her annoying little brother was hammering away at the back of her head like he had been a couple of days ago...

A drop of water fell on her knee and Annabelle realized she was crying. Pulling her knees up, she rocked against the tree and fell into uneasy sleep.

"Eeargh!" Siana jerked away from the plate of 'food' Jack offered. "Yuck! Don't' be disgusting!"

Valary stared sceptically at the platter Jack put onto the table, wondering whether it was normal to think that the food actually looked delicious. Jack put the food on the table and disappeared upstairs. Valary warily approached the food. The mouldy cheese with maggots' emerging from it looked...appetizing. Valary found herself reaching out for it, and quickly snapped her hand back.

"Valary. Valary!" Siana said in a low voice. Valary came to her as she drew her head out from a cupboard.

"Look at this!" She pointed at the jars. Instead of a variety of spreads, the jars were labelled as such things as 'dried spiders', 'newts' and 'wormswart'.

"Do they actually eat this?" Siana carefully picked up a jar and studied its contents, but quickly put it back when Jack reappeared.

"Well what did you expect? Candy cane?" Valary whispered back. To Jack she said, "Are we going soon?"

"Yes, best to go before-"

Suddenly a shrill scream echoed through the house as the Mayor pulled the doorbell. Siana jumped and grabbed Valary who was nearly knocked into the platter of food. Jack peeled the curtain back and snuck a peek before quickly putting it back in place.

"It's the Mayor," he whispered.

"What-" Jack put his fingers to his bone of a lip and beckoned them to the back of the house.

"Sorry, but why the Mayor?" Siana said.

"He always comes here. I shouldn't be so listening to him." Jack rubbed his temples. "What to do, what to do?" he said to himself. "If he knows I'm here he'll never leave!"

"But we need your help to find Annabelle," Siana pleaded.

"No we can look for her ourselves," Riks said.

"Someone better answer the door-"

The doorbell rang again, and the person called for Jack.

Sighing, Jack went to greet the Mayor. They heard the door open and Jack talking to someone.

"What do we do?" Siana asked no one in particular, but Jack soon reappeared by himself.

"I'm sorry I won't be able to help you," he said quickly. "Today's Halloween and the celebrations on tonight. If I don't-"

"It's okay, you be King, we can find Annabelle," said Riks.

"Well if you want help find Sally, she'll be around, check the lab-"

"Jack!" someone called.

"I have to go, are you sure-"

"We're good, you'd better go!"

"Right."

He left, and they heard the door close behind him.

"Poor Jack," said Siana.

"We'd better go too," Riks advised. "Just getting my stuff." She ran up the stairs, her greyed-olive dress swirling around her. Siana turned to Valary.

"So…does she really, I mean, she's really going to stay behind?"

Valary avoided looking at her, but focused on the platter of food left untouched by the girls. A worm popped out of the cheese and burrowed back into it.

"She didn't want Jack to help us," Siana stated.

Valary chose her words and said slowly, "Well Jack probably has better things to do than look around for Annabelle. Besides Riks knows her way around here."

"Maybe…" Siana sat down on the floor and rubbed her furry ears. "But, what if she doesn't want to find Annabelle?"

Valary looked away from the food to Siana. Her head was down, her hands fiddling.

"Why wouldn't she want to help us?"

"Maybe she doesn't want us to leave." Siana lifted her navy blue eyes to Valary's emerald eyes.

"Maybe she wants to keep us here with her."

Heh heh heh I'm back! Sorry, school work and sport and art and I was starting to get bored of TNBC so I took a break. I also re read this series Pumpkin Gate and I found so many errors I was really feeling ashamed of myself by the end of it! for instance I said that it was a person named Spencer who tied the radio to the roof, and then later on I said it was Riks' uncle and oooh sooo embarrassing I kept getting Siana and Valary confused when they were talking! Soo my writing style might have changed a bit BEWARE.

Thankyou to those faithful reviewers! THANKYOU