Hello my adoring fans! ( imagine I said that really theatrically! ) No pressure you don't have to be my adoring fan if you don't want to. Well sorry for taking so long to update, but hopefully you will agree with me that this chapter is totally worth the wait!

sine ulteriori turbamini star drippings chapter three! ( that's latin for without further ado! ) hee hee I'm learning a dead language!

Charlie furrowed his brow at the electric air. He cautiously poked the air. He felt a strange tingling sensation snake up his arm, raising his arm hairs. Charlie shivered.

Maisly and Elise frowned up at Charlie with confused eyes.

"It's the air, it's electrified," Charlie explained.

Maisly stared at him with the most weirded out face ever. " I know you hit your head, but I didn't think it was that hard! "

Maisly seemed to think he was joking; that scared him.

Maisly noticed this distress and her expression softened. She touched his arm lightly, "Why don't you sit down."

"No, I'm fine. Really. Feel for yourself! " Charlie raised his voice defensively, and waved his arms.

Charlie stared wildly as Maisly nervously reached out her hand. He was really making her nervous.

When Maisly brushed her fingers across the supposedly affected area, she felt nothing. As much as she hated to admit it, things weren't looking too good for Charlie.

Elise jumped up and down and waved her hands behind Charlie, trying to get his attention. Why wasn't he paying attention to her?

Elise stomped noisily to the other side of the clearing. Did the air just waver? Maybe it's hot, Maisly said once that something was so hot that she could see the heat coming off it. Didn't she? Elise was about to try to draw Charlie's attention again, but the words died in her throat.

Elise tentatively reached out her hand towards the supposedly heated area. It felt like she had dipped her fingers into a tingling pool of water, it was what she guessed it would feel like if she submerged her fingers in Coca-Cola. Elise found it strangely comforting, like the presence of a deer friend. She turned her hand over and marvelled at the wonderful sensation in her fingers. It took her a moment to realize that when she touched the invisible barrier, her fingers disappeared. A smile tugged at her lips, and she stretched out her hand. Upon touching something hard and smooth she pressed in further and grasped what seemed to be a glass ball the size of one of those mini bouncy balls that teachers put in prize boxes. Elise closed her fingers around it to pull it out but it began to tug her in. Elise tried to let go of the ball but her finger stuck . She was so far in now that she had to lean her head back to keep her head out. Realizing that she should call for help, she screamed Charlie's name.

as the tingling air hit her eyeballs, mouth and nose, Elise started to panic. trying to breathe was like trying to suck molasse up a straw.

The ball pulled her faster through the sunset colored world until it suddenly stopped.

That was when the world went dark.

Maisly didn't know why Charlie thought that this was funny, because it most definitely was not amusing to her.

'I mean a freak earthquake with no wireless emergency alert or anything? A suspicious clearing in the basement that has been off limits to the Arcane kids for as long as I have known them for? What is going on here?' Maisly worried as she paced around the room.

Charlie was sitting on the floor staring wildly at her. He didn't look like he understood any of this any more than she did, but he also didn't look completely sane either.

She turned to face him decisively. "What's going on here Charlie?"

When her words seemed to unfaze him as though he was in a trance, Maisly kneeled herself in front of his umber eyes. Her hands rested uneasily on her thighs, tracing the fabric of her jeans.

"Charlie," Maisly gasped with sudden conviction, "where's Elise?! We forgot all about her!"

That was when Maisly heard Elise's cry of terror for Charlie. It must have snapped Charlie out of whatever stupur he was in because he stood up, but then he started toward Elise.

"Wait! We'll go to the police! Yes, that's what we'll do!" under different circumstances she would probably have blushed at saying the word 'we' when she was alone with Charlie. Not right now though, not when everything was riding on her. She had the overwhelming sense that maybe the fate of the entire universe was resting on her shoulders. Maisly sighed, admitting finally one more thing: that she feared she was exactly the wrong person for the job. Not that she had a choice. Choices were not something she was usually granted. Her parents never consulted her before giving way to selfishness and driving each other way, until the rift between them was irreparable.

She shouldn't be thinking about this right now. She needed to stay focused on here, now, on Charlie.

Maisly grabbed his forearm in protest, but he shrugged her off. Maisly watched as he walked towards who-knows-what. Her feet disobeyed her command to stay put, and followed him.

Charlie walked toward the clearing, and then walked right into the middle of it. His body was contorting and shaking as he made contact with the 'electrified air' as he had put it.

And then he was gone.

Maisly knelt to the ground, sobbing. Probably a belated reaction to everything that had happened today.

She sat like that for a while. Tears and hot breath fogging up her red cat-eye glasses. Maisly sat there for a long time, and may have continued to sit there in shock had she not heard footsteps. Maisly looked up and her eyes locked with a face that was painfully similar to his brothers. Adrian's steps faltered as he took her in. Her face was probably all red and blotchy. Her makeup wasn't waterproof and her glasses were fogged by her tears.

"Oh my gosh, what the heck did you do?" Adrian looked at her with an expression between disgust and wonder.

Maisly panicked at the accusatory look in his eyes, "you don't understand! It wasn't me! I didn't do it! It was the earthquake! We're lucky the house is standing at all!"

But Maisly noticed that Adrian's eyes were focused on one spot in the room. Maisly followed his gaze wearily and saw the bloody corpses of Charlie and Elise. Maisly looked down at her hand and saw that she was holding a bloody knife from the kitchen.

shout out to KittyBellissima and Eclipsedstars for following! Please feel free to point out any grammatical errors or suggestions that you think would make this better!

have an absolutely fantastic day!

- AspiringAuthor101