This chapter takes place where the kids are. Begin!

~Normal POV

"Nikki, Lizzie, wake up!"

The two girls awoke to the sound of Sam's panicked voice and looked around. They were in a cage, not the warm comfort of their family home. Lizzie was now thankful that she had forgotten to take off her glasses before bed last night so she could see. They could tell they were in a cave based on the rocky walls behind them. The only source of light in the area was a few lit torches on the wall across from their cage. The last thing the three kids remembered was waking up in the middle of the night to three masked strangers breaking into the room, via the window, and knocking them out before they could call for help. They had fallen asleep in their day clothes as well, due to staying up late the previous night.

Lizzie immediately started to tear up, "Where are we?"

"I don't know... I just woke up," Sam replied, "My head is killing me."

"Mine too," Nikki said, rubbing the back of her head.

"Oh, Aunt Sunny is probably so upset..."

"Hey, Liz I'm sure Aunt Sunny and Auntie Beatrice will find us in no time," Sam patted Lizzie's back comfortingly.

They sat for a short while in silence together trying to keep their spirits up. Lizzie was fighting back tears, and Nikki was scared beyond belief. Sam was worried for their safety; he would never let anything happen to his family. And yet here they were, in a dark, cold cage inside some kind of cave all alone. What had they done to deserve this, they thought. After a while of silence, a voice interrupted it from the side wall of their cage.

"Hey, you're finally up," The voice said quietly.

Nikki, Lizzie, and Sam turned to see another cage close beside theirs with three other kids inside. The voice that spoke belonged to a girl just their age who was sitting at the cage bars closest to them. The three crawled over to her, and noticed the two other kids were asleep. She had long dark red hair that went down over her shoulders gracefully, pale skin with a few freckles across her face, and hazel eyes. In the dim light, they could see she had a pleasant smile on her face despite their situation. Sam couldn't help staring; she was actually pretty cute.

"Hi, I saw you guys get dragged in and I was hoping you'd wake up soon."

"How long have you been here," Nikki asked.

"I've been here for at least a week now I think... It's not like we have a calendar or anything. The other guys in my cage got dropped in around the same time as me. It's nice to see other friendly faces though. I'll see if I can wake them up."

She turned to the other two boys in her cage and gently shook them awake. Once the two woke up they joined her at the side of the cage. One was a pale boy with messy black hair and blue eyes, and the other was another pale boy with messy dark brown hair, and green eyes covered by black-rimmed glasses.

"What are your names," The red haired girl asked.

"I'm Nikki Quagmire."

"I'm Elizabeth Baudelaire, but everyone calls me Lizzie."

"I'm Samuel Quagmire, but you can call me Sam. We're all cousins."

"It's nice to meet you guys," The girl reached her hand through the bars politely; "I'm Lily Taylor."

When Sam went to shake her hand he did something unexpected. He had seen his father Quigley do it many times to his mother Fiona; she seemed to really like it too as it always made her happy. When he asked about it once, Quigley had told him that it was simply a gentlemanly greeting for when you meet a pretty girl. With that thought in mind, Sam decided to greet this pretty girl the same way.

"It's nice to meet you too," Sam replied; he gently kissed the back of her hand.

Lily's eyes widened at the gesture and her face turned a dark shade of red. She averted her eyes to the floor shyly and started playing with the hem of her black skirt as the other two boys introduced themselves.

"I'm Drake Hyde," The black haired boy said, smiling warmly at Nikki.

The boy with glasses smiled shyly at Lizzie and said, "I'm Lucas Shepard."

Lizzie shyly averted her eyes from Lucas. She wasn't allowed to talk to boys yet, and her naturally shy nature didn't help the situation. Neither was Nikki, but it seemed that now wasn't the time to be concerned about their parents' rules.

"Do you know why we were brought here," Nikki asked looking at Drake.

"Ransom apparently," Drake replied, "The other day I heard a few guards talking about one kid's family giving in and handing over a ton of money for his return. They just let him go after that. I guess our families aren't backing down."

"Our parents went on a vacation for a few weeks," Nikki said dejectedly, "They don't even know what happened to us; they just left yesterday. We were being watched by our aunt, and she's probably worried sick."

Drake sighed, "I know how you feel; my mom probably hasn't slept in days worrying about me. Wish I had something to listen to in here."

"You like music," Nikki said, quizzically.

He perked up a little, "Music and musicals. Are you into those too?"

"I like them, but I'm an artist actually," She replied, she reached into her jacket and pulled out a dark purple sketchbook and pencil. She was now thankful that she had kept these items on her when she fell asleep. Nikki never went anywhere without her book.

Drake smiled, "That's really cool; can I see your drawings?"

Nikki smiled and handed him the book through the cage bars; Drake eagerly started flipping through it.

"So where are we exactly," Sam asked, still looking at Lily.

"I'm not sure," She replied, "But I know there's a stream that goes through this cave. I saw it on my way in when I was brought here. Every now and then a fish from the stream will come out of the water and cough. You can hear it if you listen hard enough. I feel so bad for those poor creatures; I wish I could help them."

Sam gave her a confused look, "You want to help the fish?"

Lily smiled, "Yeah I do, I want to be a veterinarian someday for marine animals."

Sam's eyes widened, "That's awesome; I want to be a marine biologist..."

"Cool," Lily replied; the two smiled at each other.

Nikki smirked at her cousin. She'd never seen him act like this around a girl before and she found it amusing.

Lucas reached into his jacket and pulled out a small novel, which caught Lizzie's attention.

"You have a book," The young Baudelaire girl commented quizzically.

Lucas blushed a little and pushed his glasses up his nose, "I never go anywhere without one. I love reading; I want to be an author someday. My family even named me after a book character because they love reading too."

Lizzie smiled, "I was named after a book character too. Which one did they pick?"

Lucas nervously averted his gaze from her, "It's just my middle name: Jess, after the main character in Bridge to Terabithia. It's one of my parents' favorite books."

Lizzie's eyes widened and her smile got a little bigger, "My middle name is Leslie..."

Lucas' eyes went wide and his cheeks turned darker red behind his glasses, "You... you're named after Leslie?"

Lizzie nodded shyly in response. The six of them were about to continue their individual conversations, but they were interrupted by the sound of a door slamming shut, and footsteps coming their way. Drake handed Nikki her sketchbook back and she hurriedly tucked it into her jacket. Lucas quickly put away his book, fearing their captors might take it from him. Two adults came walking down the rocky hallway talking softly to each other.

The children weren't able to hear what they were saying clearly but it seemed they were frustrated about something. The two men looked at the kids as they passed, but didn't stop to speak to them. Instead, they went further down the cave and stopped at a distant cage and opened it before grabbing the child that was inside and dragging them back down the hall they had come in from. The six children couldn't do anything except watch as a boy, who looked only a couple years older than them, was taken away. Once the two men and the boy were gone the children heard the loud slam of presumably the same door they had heard previously.

"How often does that happen," Lizzie asked quietly.

"Not very," Drake replied, "And whenever it does they never come back."

Nikki swallowed nervously, "Will that happen to us?"

Drake looked at her and gave her a reassuring smile, "I don't think so; you guys just got here. I suspect they do it if you've been here too long."

"The sooner we get out of here the better then," Nikki said.

Drake looked down for a moment, contemplating how he could help her feel better, before perking up a bit and saying, "I really like your drawings by the way. They're really good..."

Nikki smiled warmly at him, "Thank you..."

These six children may have been in a desperate situation and needed to be rescued, but they at least had each other to talk to while they waited.

~End of Chapter!

The next chapter will of course go back to Sunny and the others as they prepare for their mission. See ya!