AN: Hey, thanks for your patience guys! (And for the review... at least one person is reading!) Enjoy!

Disclaimer: I don't own any of Scott's stuff, only my own. :)

Chapter Two: Danger, James Howell, Danger!

James Howell stared at himself in the mirror and groaned. Glasses. How could he need glasses and his brother didn't? They were twins for crying out loud!

"Hey, now people can tell us apart," Christian chuckled as he walked by and flicked his brother's frames.

"Shut up, Christian," James grumbled.

"Don't take it personal, J, you were always the smarter one, now you look it."

James huffed and tossed his glasses aside. They were only temporary until his real frames could come in; they figured he needed them right away when he ran into a wall before school.

"Don't tease me, Chris, you know you're next."

"You don't know that, our genes were only the same at birth. Been hanging around the nuclear plant lately?"

"If you don't want to get smacked down you better shut it."

Christian laughed again and flopped onto bed, staring at the ceiling. "What time is it?"

James squinted at his clock and sighed. "I think it's almost midnight. Mom's going to freak when she finds out that we're up this late. It is a school night."

"Yeah, I know. I'll go to bed in just a minute."

James looked over at his brother oddly. "What's up?"

"Huh?" Christian grunted.

"I said 'what's up?' I know something's wrong, no point in hiding it."

"It's stupid," Christian remarked.

"What?"

"Just a weird dream I've been having since around Halloween."

James paused. "About the world going blue?"

Christian turned to his brother with wide eyes. "You've been having it too?"

"Yeah, but I thought it was a dream. I mean, I see clearly in it, and now I need those stupid glasses. Maybe we're having some freaky twin-telepathic thing."

"Yeah, next thing you know we'll be reading each other's minds. What am I thinking?"

"'I want a cheeseburger,'" James answered as he climbed into his bed, ready to go to sleep.

"No fair," Christian muttered.

"It's the truth, though."

"It's still not fair. What time is it?"

"11:59. One more minute then light's out," James grumbled as he pulled his pillow over his head. Lights had been giving him headaches recently: he had even asked for his new glasses to be tinted.

Suddenly, the world seemed to shudder. "What the heck? Was that an earthquake?" James gasped as he sat up, but he froze the instant his room came back into view. He must have fallen asleep again, because once more the world was blue.

"I told you it was going to work!" Christian laughed as he jumped out of bed.

"I must be dreaming," James muttered. "I hate it when I fall asleep like that."

"This is no dream, James." Christian commented as he pinched his brother.

"Ow!"

"Don't be such a baby. Look in the mirror if you want more proof that something's going on."

James rolled his eyes and turned toward the mirror, freezing at his refection. His eyes were different. They were violet. Christian walked toward him and looked in the mirror with a bit of a pout.

"How come your eyes go all cool and mine don't? What do you think's going on?"

James turned away from his disconcerting reflection and stared at Christian.

"What do I think? I think I'm dreaming, that's what I think, and I know that – what are you doing?"

"Exploring. Don't you want to know what's going on?"

James didn't answer. Of course he was interested, but he was also a bit scared. Christian knew it to, and that was what prompted James to do what he did next.

"Of course I am, let's go," he remarked as he walked to his door and down into the living room. His mother would kill them for being up, but if it shut Christian up…

He froze as he reached the base of the stairs. Something weird was going on. The living room was absolutely silent. There was his father, sitting on the couch, watching some late-night movie intently and his mother, already asleep on the armrest. The TV wasn't moving either. What caught James' eye the most, however, was the piece of popcorn suspended in midair by his father's knee.

Christian came running down the stairs, and stopped just as suddenly.

"Creepy."

Christian walked toward his parents, snapping in their faces. "Hello? Mom? Dad? Wake up."

"This is too crazy, Chris. What's happening?"

Christian didn't answer, just ran for the door, stopping on their porch, looking out at the street. Cars were frozen in the middle of the road.

"This is wicked weird," Christian muttered as he walked up to a cloud of leaves blown into the air by a passing car. He reached out to one and it gently fell to the ground. "What's going on?"

James looked around, an odd feeling of curiosity mingled with fear slithering through his blood. Along the sidewalk outside his house, a soft glow trailed along the ground. He knelt beside it and tentatively reached out for it. The instant his fingers brushed the light, he felt a numbing cold seep into his bones, racing along his spine, a sharp taste that reminded him of battery acid flicked across his tongue, intensifying his fear and leaving a sense of pain, adrenaline, and hunger. He gasped and pulled away, falling back to the ground as the emotions buzzed through his body like a gulp of pure caffeine.

"James?" Christian shouted as he ran to his brother. "What happened?"

"Something went this way, something really creepy."

James felt his heart calm, but a sudden desire to see what had made that trail replaced his fear. He stood up.

"Come on, Christian. Let's follow that light."

"Are you crazy? Who knows when this will end? And what do you mean light, I don't see anything!"

"Does any of that matter? I thought I was the one wimping out."

James could sense his twin's indecision. The same feeling urging him on was making Christian nervous. Christian was never nervous. Could his brother really not see the trail? Was he going mad, thinking he saw some weird glow? No, he couldn't be. He felt it too powerfully for it to be a delusion.

James was almost considering leaving Christian behind when a sudden scream caught both their attentions. A girl near their age suddenly fell from the sky, landing just before them, her red hair flying about her face. Bright metal rings clanged against her baggy, black pants like wind chimes. Then, as she landed, she jumped, flying impossibly high into the air.

"Wow," Christian muttered.

"You know her?" James commented with a look at his twin. "Because I don't and I'm wondering what she's doing in our dream."

Hey, don't look at me, I'm into brunettes," Christian answered.

The girl looked down awkwardly and twisted mid-air, spinning gracefully back to the ground before tripping forward.

"Ugh, I hate landings," she grumbled.

"Um, hi?" Christian stated almost like a question.

"Hey, I haven't seen you two before. You just move here? Like, today?"

"No… What's going on?"

"Let me guess, you two thought it was a dream, right?" James and Christian stared at her, neither knowing what to say. Was she just flying? James noticed her eyes were just as purple as his. The girl chuckled. "I guess so, must of us did to at first."

James and Christian exchanged glances. "Who are you?" James questioned.

"Carrie," she remarked.

"Carrie, wait up you freak!" another girl shouted as she ran down the street. She stopped just next to her friend, gasping for air. "Are you insane? You know I don't run, stay on the ground like normal people!"

"Normal? When have I been normal, Nicky?" Carrie rebutted. "Besides, we have newbies in our midst.

The new girl looked up and huffed as she shook her long blonde hair with bright blue streaks out of her face and readjusted the wrap-around skirt she wore over her jeans. "Twins. Cool."

"Yeah, twins not tainted by the jock-heads."

"Now who are you?" Christian interrupted.

"Oh, sorry bud. The girl with the blue streaks is Nicky."

"Nicole," the girl rebutted.

"That's what I said. Nicky, the twins are… actually, I don't know who they are. What're your names?"

"I'm Christian and this is my brother James."

"What's going on here?" James muttered. Carrie and Nicole grinned.

"Nothing but nightly play-time. It's great fun, really. Big 12 has been goin' on since Halloween," Carrie remarked. "About the same time your 'dreams' started, huh?"

"Big 12?"

She rolled her eyes. "What's your watch say?"

Christian looked down at his watch. "12:13. It's about right."

"Really?" she muttered as she walked back to him, grabbing his wrist and looking down at the electrical read-out. "Weird. All our watches stop at 12. Everything stops at 12. Except us, that is."

"How is that possible? I mean, everything just stops? This has to be a dream. You were flying!"

"It's not," James announced as he looked at the glowing on the street again. The minute the words escaped his mouth he knew they were right. Something felt… right. "It's just new around here. We're not dreaming."

"Um, all right. And you know this how?" Christian muttered.

James looked around again and sighed. "I don't know I just… do."

"All right, now my twin's mad too. The world's all gone crazy."

"You're the one who wanted to explore," James argued. "Why all this doubt suddenly? You convinced me it wasn't a dream first!"

Christian huffed and looked around with a shiver. James watched his brother intently. He never did anything without Christian. In fact, Christian was normally the brave one, the one to leap into things. James was the timid one. Something was different.

"Something about this whole thing is spooky. Like some monster is going to pop out of the shadows and eat us at any moment."

"Dramatic much," Carrie commented. "There's nothing bad in Big 12. Just fun. When the mutants come out to play."

"Mutants?"

"You know, like X-Men? What're your skills anyway?" Nicole commented.

"Skills? You mean like Carrie's flying? Are we supposed to be able to do that?"

"Well, not exactly that, but something cool," Nicole responded.

"And I'm not really flying, more like falling with style."

"What about the others?" James wondered.

"Huh?" Nicole questioned.

"You implied there were others. Where are they? What are their powers?"

Carrie huffed and rolled her eyes. "You mean the Jock-heads? Brett Keith, Garret Anderson, and Alison Angel. We don't exactly run in the same crowd. Of all the people to share a completely rad time with…"

"Garret? He's here? Cool," Christian commented. James vaguely remembered his brother mentioning Garret from weight training. Christian loved basketball, but James had never really been into sports. He couldn't count how many times he'd read in the library while waiting for Christian to finish practice. "What can he do?"

Carrie stared at him almost accusingly. "You're a preppie to?"

Suddenly, what sounded like a faint gust of wind whistled past making everyone jump. Carrie floated nearly three feet.

"What was that?" Christian muttered. "I thought you said there was nothing bad in Big 12."

Carrie looked cautiously around the corner and shrugged. "There hasn't been before. Then again, we've only been out here since Halloween."

James stared out into the darkness, a sudden urge to see what had made the rustling flooding his veins. There was something interesting out there. Something he wanted to know. Without really thinking about it, he began to walk toward the sound.

"James, what are you doing?" Christian called.

"Just wait here, I'll be back, I want to know what made that sound."

"James, don't be an idiot, get back here," Christian shouted as James continued to walk. James hesitated at the underlying fear in his twin's voice and looked out into the darkness of the next street over. If only he could see that nothing was there…

He ignored Christian's shouts and peeked around the corner. A small black cat stared up at him, it's eyes glowing violet.

"Hey, kitty," he muttered as he reached down and tried to pat the kitten's head. It turned away from him and ran. He noticed with an odd sense of satisfaction that the cat left a faint glow like the markings near his house. The two had to be connected. He walked back toward the street, nearly running into Christian as he followed. "It's just a cat. Are there many animals in Big 12?"

"No," Carrie and Nicole answered together.

"Then let's follow it, see where it goes," James suggested anxiously. "Maybe we can find out what's going on, see where to go from here. There's got to be a reason this place exists. It's not just coincidence."

"I think you're taking this a little too seriously, J. All I want to do right now is figure out how I fit in here, not why some cat is running around."

James huffed and looked over his shoulder. "Well then you can stay here. I want to know."

He began to walk away. When he heard Christian groan with frustration and stomp after him, he smiled. A lot of people were wrong in thinking Christian was the dominant twin.

"Hey Nicky, want to go kitty hunting?"

"Sure."

James looked over his shoulder and saw the others following. It was strange, being the leader. He followed the glowing trail steadily, leading everyone almost to the edge of town.

"Do you even know where you're going? We haven't seen your kitten yet," Christian grumbled.

"Yes," was James only answer. The cat suddenly came into view, sitting on the last sidewalk of town, staring at them against the background of the desert, the Rocky mountains in the distance. They stopped in front of it and it simply stared at them.

"Um, okay, what do we do now?" Christian wondered.

The cat immediately turned and ran again. This time James followed him as quickly and quietly as he could. He almost forgot the others. His mind was strangely focused.

He left town, the dry grass crackling beneath his shoes. What was out there?

The cat climbed atop a small pile of rocks and waited. He stopped and looked up searchingly. Could he reach the cat? Maybe…

As he stared something softer than mist and colder than ice wrapped around his ankle. He was immediately paralyzed, his breathing caught somewhere between his lungs and his heart, his skin frozen. He stared helplessly as another tentacle wrapped around his waist. He felt as if he'd been stabbed in the heart, ice flooding his veins. His thoughts were suddenly invaded by a creature darker than night, more terrifying than any childhood nightmare. He saw fangs dripping venom, long tentacles seeped with nightmare lashing out at him. He watched as Christian ran toward him, his face contorted with fear, when a long tentacle shot out and stabbing his brother in the chest. Christian stared down at the black spear protruding from his chest and screamed as it retracted. James wanted to scream as Christian fell to his knees, blood pooling around him, dying the dust red. James stared at his twin in terror, trying to run to him, trying to scream, but he couldn't. His body wouldn't respond. He was going mad and he couldn't do anything about it. His brother was going to die!

Suddenly, his nightmare shattered. He fell to the ground shaking, a blinding light flooding his senses. His eyes were burning. He whimpered and turned away from the light, the creature with the tentacles screaming as it incinerated. It wasn't as large as he had thought, it's fangs less menacing, it's tentacles weak. Within moments it was a pile of dust.

"James, James, are you all right? James talk to me for crying out loud!" Christian shrieked as he shook his brother, his face even paler than his brother's.

"Christian? Why aren't you bleeding? You're not dead?"

Christian grabbed his brother and held him tightly.

"He'll be all right. The Darklings make you live your nightmares. At least until they eat you."

James pulled away from his brother stiffly and looked around. The speaker was a girl about his age with redish hair. She was holding a flashlight. Next to her was another boy, and a girl with really short hair. The short-haired girl held a hubcap.

The girl with the flashlight walked forward, extending her hand to him. It glowed so brightly he had to shield his eyes at first. He felt Christian grab his shoulder almost possessively.

"Oh, sorry," she muttered, and extended her other hand. It was normal.

"Who are you?" he questioned, his voice barely louder than a whisper.

She twirled her flash light like a cowboy from an old western. "I'm the mighty bringer of the flashlight. But you can call me Jessica."

"All right, so what's going on here, who are you really, and what was that!" Carrie exclaimed.

Jessica opened her mouth to speak, but the girl with the hubcap huffed and stepped forward. "We can explain later. Your little Seer is safe, where are the others?"

"The others? You mean Brett, Garret and Alison? Probably at the field. They're always at the field," Nicole muttered.

"I mean Madison. Your mindcaster. Where is she?"

Carrie and Nicole stared at the girl in confusion. "Who?"

The girl huffed. "Madison Sachet, your age."

"Maddie? What about her, she's not one of us, is she? I haven't seen her around here before. She's been sick lately."

The girl with the hubcap seemed to stare off into space for an instant before turning harshly to the boy and Jessica.

"We have to get to that girl. Now."

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Madison leaned against her window, laying her cheek against the cold glass as she ran her fingers through her jagged locks. She had lopped her hair off the day before, when her headache had become to intense for her to handle.

She sighed, the night blissfully quiet. She knew she was going mad the instant the blue world had begun descending every night, but madness or not she was grateful for it.

She stared out at the silent city and up at the moon. Her haven was almost over. Soon it would all begin again.

She heard a stiff movement behind her, in her hallway outside her door. She turned to her door cautiously. The knob turned and a flash of fear left a bitter taste in her mouth. Her own fear.

She pulled herself beneath her bed as her door opened and an old man walked in. He was surprisingly fit for a man she could tell was in his sixties. He didn't look it, but she knew. His mind was soothingly blank for her. He walked around her room and sighed.

"I'm not going under there after you, come on out."

Before she really comprehended what she was doing, she had pulled herself out from under her bed.

"Who are you?" she whispered.

He sighed in a very grandfatherly sort of way and shook his head. "Poor dear. You don't know how to block it out, do you?" She shook her head, tears springing to the back of her eyes. He understood what she was going through. "Come on, I can help you."

He reached out his hand to her and she hesitated. She didn't touch people anymore. It hurt too much. He reached out further, and took her hand himself. She winced, but nothing happened.

"You can help me?" she questioned, almost inaudibly. "Make me sane again?"

"You're not insane. You never were. And yes, I can help you."

Suddenly she felt him come to life in her mind, and in moments her world went completely dark.