Chapter Three

Tyler looked down at Ashleigh as his tears fell. It had been hours since they had found her. She'd been in surgery again to repair the damage she had done to herself, and he had just now been allowed to see her. He'd waited patiently while her parents got to see her. He felt a hand on his shoulder and he turned to find his brothers there.

"Why won't she wake up?" Tyler asked.

"The doctors say she may have slipped into a coma." Pogue answered.

Tyler paled and Caleb moved closer to him supporting him. "We'll get her to come back to us. I promise Tyler. We need to talk to her as much as we can. Let her know that we're here for her."

Reid frowned looking at Tyler. He knew it would be a long haul, but he'd be there every step of the way, as he knew the others would be also.

Amelia walked into the room setting a picture on the bedside table. She had found it on Ashleigh's camera after they had gone home. She smiled a little through her tears looking at it. It was of her Matthew, and Marissa taken only hours before the accident. Ashleigh loved to take pictures. Her walls we're covered in them. They we're all of her family and the sons of Ipswich and their families. She turned seeing all of the boys looking at it with tears in their eyes. "Ashleigh took that picture only a few hours before the accident. I remembered her taking some shots, so I hooked it up to her computer and found it."

Caleb felt his heart tearing again, as he looked at Marissa in the picture. He felt arms wrap around him and hug him. He breathed in the scent, and it reminded him so much of Marissa he broke down sobbing again in her mother's arms. Amelia held him for awhile, before taking him out of the room, and down to a private waiting room.

Pogue ran his hand through his hair sitting down in a chair. "I can't believe this is happening."

"Neither can I." Reid said sitting down in another chair, looking at Tyler was sitting in a chair beside the bed holding Ashleigh's hand crying.

Matthew had run home after seeing his daughter to take care of some things, and make sure the staff knew where to contact them. He was sitting in his office jotting some things down when he felt someone using. He looked up gasping as he saw his oldest daughter in front of him. It was all wrong though. She'd been sent as a darkling. She opened her mouth and it looked as if skin was sewn to the top and bottom, before disappearing. He sat there breathing hard clutching the top of the desk. He grabbed his cell phone hitting a number on it. 'Please pick up.' He thought.

"Chase is using." Caleb said looking up at Amelia through his tears.

Amelia was about to answer when her cell phone rang. "Hello?"

"Oh god baby are you okay?" Matthew asked.

"I'm fine. What's wrong?" Amelia started to panic.

"I just got a darkling." Matthew told her still staring at the spot where she had been.

Amelia didn't realize she was holding her breath, till Caleb touched her, and she took a deep breath. "He saw a darkling." She told Caleb who paled.

"I'm on my way back. There's something else you should know also. The darkling he sent was Marissa." Matthew told her.

Amelia gasped and her hand flew up to her chest, and she fainted.

Caleb gasped grabbing the phone before it hit the floor. "She fainted." He told Matthew.

"Stay with her Caleb. I'll be back as soon as I can." Matthew hung up the phone, forgetting what he'd come home to do, and ran out of the house, jumping into his car and speeding back to the hospital.

Caleb frowned looking at Marissa's mother. The door opened and he turned to see who it was ready to put up a shield around Amelia if he had to. He sighed in relief, seeing it was Joseph Garwin, Glenn Simms, and Wayne Parry.

"What happened?" Wayne frowned looking at Amelia.

"She fainted after Matthew told her a darkling visited him." Caleb told the other fathers, seeing them pale a little.

Ashleigh looked around her. What was she doing at the Dells? Misery flooded through her as she remembered the accident. She sank to her knees sobbing. She heard something looking up, and saw a darkling. Fear ran through her, blinking her eyes, she saw it was her sister, and she was reaching for her.

Tyler heard a beeping, and he looked up at the heart monitor seeing her pulse go up, and her blood pressure. "Guys!" He called out as he stood up not letting go of her hand.

Pogue was almost asleep and he jumped up his eyes turning black. "What's going on Tyler?"

Reid blinked his eyes moving his hand up and shielding himself from the bright light.

"Something's wrong!" Tyler cried. He looked down at Ashleigh seeing her shaking.

Pogue's eyes turned back to their normal color rushing to the other side of the bed.

Reid jumped up running over also. He looked at the heart monitor paling as he did.

Ashleigh screamed sitting bolt upright in the bed.

"Ashleigh!" Tyler cried as she pulled her hand away from his. "Ashleigh its all right baby. He used on her to calm her some, and she broke down sobbing. He sat on the edge of the bed holding her to him.

Caleb paled hearing Ashleigh scream. He jumped up running from the room followed by Joseph and Wayne. Glenn watched them go before looking back to Amelia, and he stayed with her shutting the door behind them.

Pogue looked up hearing someone run in the room. He looked at Caleb white as a sheet. He calmed a little seeing his and Reid's father run in behind him.

"Marissa!" Ashleigh sobbed into Tyler. "He sent her to me as a darkling."

Tyler froze holding her to him.

Wayne and Joseph's eyes met, wondering if Marissa had been the darkling sent to Matthew also. Neither of them knew how they would react if that had been their own child.

Pogue and Reid looked at one another then to Caleb who was staring at Ashleigh in horror.

What do you think?