Author's Note: Looky, Looky, another chapter. Looky, looky...it is once again not edited. My apologies, once again, I know I am being lazy, so scold me if you must, but I hope you'll still read and review.

On that note, I have an announcment. My goal is to reach 50 reviews, and as you can see I am very close. So, help me reach it, and I'll have a suprise for you all. And I won't tell you what it is until I have 50 reviews.

So read and enjoy!!!!

I was running as fast as my legs could carry me, a small flame of hope burning in my chest as I spotted the house up ahead. I would be safe, as long as I got there...

Pain exploded in my head as I hit the ground hard. My vision blurred and blackened as something wet dripped down my face to redden the dirt beneath me. I had a blurry memory of people standing over me, of pain as I was kicked in the side, of being in a small, dark, cramped space, and of being thrown out on the side of the road and left there.

The Socs had gotten me, and were leaving me to die.

"Ponyboy, stop the screaming. For gods sakes cut it out!"

I cried and I cried. I wanted to be home so badly it hurt. I wanted to be far from the Socs, with my family, my-.

CRACK!

I think I got whipslash from that slap as my head was whipped to one side. The screams and cries died in my throat, and so did the pain in my head, to be replaced with a dull burn in my cheek from where the hand had struck me.

"Don't hit him." A worried voice cried as I got my bearings and became aware of my surroundings. I saw endless blakcness surrounding me and I let out a long groan. Not these two again.

"He was breaking my fucking ear drums." The taller one shot back, and he lit yet another smoke and took a long drag from it. One of these days I was just going to bring a squirt bottle here and spray it right in his face when he lit one of those. Of course, it would probably be the last thing I did, but I would get some sick, twisted pleasure from it to be sure.

"You know," I said sarcastically as I rubbed my bright red cheek. "Those things kill yah."

"Little late for that." The guy laughed as he waved the smoke in the air, leaving a trail of quickly vanishing grey smoke. "Already dead."

I could only blink at this new information, and that made the guy laugh again. "So you don't have those memmories yet, huh? Well," He paused, looking thoughtful. It was a weird look for him, really didn't fit his features to well. "I guess that is a good thing." He said after a moment. "Would scare the shit out of me even."

He was dead. Which meant they had been living before. Which meant they weren't some crazy, twisted things I had created in my insanity. I wanted to ask more, but didn't get the chance.

"What did you remeber now, Ponyboy?" The shorter one asked me, and his kind voice was a relief to the other's sarcastic attitude. To tell yah the truth, I was still shaking like a leaf from what had just happened, and I would be anything I was sickly pale at the moment.

"Socs." I said, trying to stop my voice from quivering. "And how I ended up on the side of the road that first day I could remeber."

The smaller one nodded his head, and put a comforting hand on my shoulder. "We know this is hard." He said softly. He hesitated for a moment, but seemed to gather the courage to say. "But if you went back to Tulsa, it could be easier."

I tried hard not to laugh. "Why the hell are you guys so bent on me going to that hell?" I growled, restraining myself from shouting.

"It may be hell, but its your hell sweet hell." The taller one said firmly, pointing the end of his ciggerette at me. "And you're going to have to face that."

"Not if I can help it..." I mumbled under my breath as I looked away from him.

There was a long moment of silence. The tall one just stood there, smoking away, looking out into the distance and acting as if this whole meeting held no real importance with him, but the smaller one looked like he was thinking fast. "Tell yah what, Ponyboy." He finally said. "I'll make you a deal. You go back to Tulsa, and I'll tell you anything you want to know."

I looked up from my sneakers and into his eyes, and I knew he wasn't kidding. The taller one looked suprised, then serious, then looked like he was going to say something but the smaller one threw him a look, and, thank god, for once he shut his mouth and remained silent."But its only one thing." He said quickly as he turned back to me. He held up one finger to make sure I got the picture. "But it can be anything, anything you want to know."

I opened my mouth, clossed it again, and did that two or three times more. At the tall ones sly comment about me looking like a fish out of water I quickly snapped it shut and starred at the smaller guy again. Anything I wanted to know... and sense I was a guy who didn't know much, the possibilities seeemed endless.

But, what did I want to know? That was to broad of a question for me to even think of answering. It wasn't just what I wanted to know, I realized then, but what I wanted to know that would make going back to Tulsa easier. So far it sounded like a place I would want to stay as far as I could away from.

"What is in Tulsa that would make me want to go back?" It had been just a thought, but I ended up saying it instead, and by the time I was done saying it I knew it was right.

The two exchanged glances, and then said at the same time. "Sodapop and Darry."

I quirked one eyebrow, and the taller one burst out laughing. "Wha-." I began to say, but he stopped suddenly and threw out a hand.

"Remeber, only one thing." The smaller one said quickly.

"But if it will help any, I'll tell you something." The taller one added. "But you don't get to pick what I tell yah." He tossed away his smoke and put his hands on his hips. The pose would have been kind of comical if he didn't have a serious look on his face. "Ask Darry for his wallet when you wake up."

I starred at him blankly.

"Just do it." He said firmly, leaving no room for argument.

"You know." I said as an afterthought. "I would like you two a lot better if yah didn't do this pain shit every time I see you." I rubbed my head gingerly. Even the thought of those headaches made my skull twinge. I bet I was getting brain damage from all of this. "I mean, if you want to have a chat, just put me to sleep or something."

"Pains for the bad memories." The smaller one replied. "It won't happen with a good one." He said this as if he was obvious, and I raised one eyebrow again. This just kept getting weirder and weirder. How much did these two know, anyway. I was even begining to believe the tall ones bit about being able to read my mind. Though, if that was true, I was in serious trouble.

"Okay, shut it." The taller one said firmly. "Now were tellin him to much." The smaller one clossed his mouth, and I got annoyed real quick again. Now that the information had stopped flowing I remebered that I was pissed off.

"To much." I barked. "You barely giving me anything to work with here."

"Quit your whinning, you'll do just fine." The taller one said, and pushed me backwards.

Its an odd sensation, to fall and not realize your falling. I sure didn't, until I hit something solid. There was an 'umph', from the solid object and I was falling again, except now I was coherent enough to shout as we hit something again with a thud. More falling, and then a much louder thump as we hit something extremly solid and unmovible.

By the way the ground was twitching and swearing a lot underneath me, I could tell it was not the ground at all but a person. Two of them, in fact. I was at the top of this little heap, laying flat on my back and starring up at the barn's roof.

"Will you get the hell off!" Nick's familiar voice cut through my blank brain and I quickly scrambled to my feet. Nick swore a few more times as he got up to. "What the hell was Alan thinking, putting you so damn close to the edge. Would have cracked your neck if you hadn't had us to land on."

When he first said us, my brain registured the word as Nick and Alan. But the second voice, which was swearing even more colorfully then Nick as he got up, was not Alan at all.

I turned around...

You ever gone someplace you had only gone to when you were really young, and have that strange feeling you should remeber the place, but don't? Well, that was as close as I could come to explaining what I felt as I starred at the guy. It was at that moment, as I starred at this person I knew I should remeber, that it trully hit me how little I remebered, how much of a empty shell I was. It had been easy to shove aside these last couple of days, but now it hit me so hard I almost staggered backwards. I starred and I starred, but all I could see was a guy in his late teens, with movie star looks, a great head of hair, and kind eyes.

As I watched the emotion in those eyes turned from annoyance, to pure shock, and then to a bright and burning joy. He took a step toward me, opened his mouth, but something made him stop. I don't know if it was the unregisturing look in my eyes or the way my face was wearily set, but he stopped just the same. The pure joy seemed to crack as some great weight landed on his shoulders.

He finally was able to gain his voice again and spoke. "Ponyboy." His voice was a cracked whisper, hope and fear riding on every letter. "Its me. Soda, your brother."