(Right, before we begin, I'd like to bitch someone out.

The person who's going around pretend to be MoonCat- you stupid bastard! Do you really think your poor grammar and disgusting reviews would be ignored if you used the name of a relatively famous anonymous reviewer? Bastard! I hope your keyboard falls on the floor and breaks your foot!

And since I'm talking about MoonCat... Yes, MoonCat, I did submit it to that contest on deviantART. Look for the person with the head trauma who calls themself "SomeRandomGirl".

And with that stuff out of the way... chapter... this is five? Chapter six is already in progress as well... along with like five other things. Yay multitasking!

Let's begin.

Leslie, Tyler, Victor © Nintendo

Rylee, boy © Me)

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Days of the Phoenix

Chapter Five- Ghosts

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"Leslie, what the hell were you thinking?! No, wait-- don't answer that. You obviously weren't, were you?!"

Victor, Tyler and Leslie were gathered in the kitchen. The nameless child still slept in the living room.

"Victor, look at him, they never make the children look that desperate..." Leslie began.

"So why wouldn't they start now?!" Victor snapped, not bothering to keep his voice down. "It'd be the perfect disguise- get a kid and actually make them look homeless, and then we'd be willing to take them in--"

"Victor, the kid could barely stand!" Leslie retorted, her voice creeping to a hysterical pitch.

"Okay, both of you just shut up!" Tyler barked, fed up with their bickering.

Leslie and Victor grew silent.

"Leslie... you should have given it more thought before you brought the kid home," Tyler sighed.

Leslie scowled angrily, but said nothing. Victor let a triumphant smirk form on his face.

"And you, Victor, are massively overreacting to the situation."

The smile vanished, being quickly replaced by a sullen frown. Leslie grinned.

"We can prevent this from being a bad situation," Tyler began, "by keeping an eye on him. We don't let him out of the house alone, we don't let him near the phones or the computer... if he is a child spy, he can't do anything about it if he can't contact anyone. Right?"

"...fine," Victor grumbled, his black eyes briefly flashing with anger.

"So, who's going to watch him first?" Tyler asked.

"I will," Leslie offered.

"Fuck that- get Rylee to do it," Victor snapped. "She never does anything but bitch about being bored, so give her something to do."

"You know, not everyone likes staying inside all the time, Victor," Leslie muttered as she walked out of the kitchen, headed for Rylee's room. Tyler and Victor entered the living room, keeping an eye on the young boy, who continued sleeping on the couch.

Leslie had forced him to take a shower, and had given him clean clothes; putting them on was all he had energy for before he collapsed from sheer exhaustion. His soft, blonde hair was matted against his tanned face as he squirmed fitfully in his sleep.

"Doyou think he's really homeless?" Victor asked, watching the boy, peering through his long, black bangs.

"I... don't know," Tyler sighed, running a hand through his blonde hair. "But I don't-- ...alarm bells aren't going off all over the place. This kid, at least to some extent, is telling the truth."

Leslie suddenly came running back into the living room...

Her amber eyes were filled with fear and worry.

"She's not here!"

"What?!"

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Rylee finished clumsily braiding her hair as she walked down the street.

She had found a pair of oval-lensed glasses in the house when they moved in; she had pushed out the lenses and placed the frames on her face. Her blouse and skirt clung to and fitted her shapely body, accentuating her curves...

Yes, she knew that this could be described as a less-than-mature decision...

But Rylee was a wild child, and refused to be told that she couldn't do something.

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"It's been seven hours already..."

"Something's happened, something has to have happened to her... she's been captured, hasn't she--"

"Les, there would be something on the TV if she'd been caught..."

Leslie, Tyler and Victor were sitting on the couch near the still-sleeping boy at two in the morning, tiredly watching the nighttime news, silently praying that Rylee wouldn't appear as a sudden big news break...

"Why couldn't she at least have left her cell phone on...?" Leslie murmured, playing nervously with her green hair.

"Because she doesn't want us calling and nagging her," Victor growled.

"...I'm going to go make sure that Erika's still asleep," Tyler sighed, rising from the couch to walk to Erika's room. "Don't kill each other."

"Ha ha. You're fucking hilarious."

"...where do you think she went...?" Leslie asked softly as her husband walked out of the room.

"Out, of course."

"Very clever, Victor; how about a real answer--"

The front door opened--

In walked a very disheveled Rylee Kasal.

"Rylee, where the hell have you been?!"

Victor and Leslie rose to their feet, rushing to the young woman's side; Tyler reappeared in the living room after hearing the commotion.

"Rylee, where were you, we were worried--"

"What the fuck, Rylee! I'm serious-- how fucking stupid are you?!"

The smug grin never left Rylee's face.

"One-night stands are underrated..."

She danced away from Victor's slap, fleeing to her room to retire for the evening, giggling uncontrollably.

"De pulărie curvă..."

"That woman is something else..." Tyler shook his head.

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"Food?!"

"Name first."

Tyler held a bowl of stew just out of the now-conscious boy's reach. The child stretched, desperately trying to reach the food, his green eyes shining eagerly.

"C'mon, I'll tell you after I eaaaaaat!"

"You'll tell us before," Victor snapped.

"But I'm hungryyyy!"

"Oh, just give him the food!" Leslie sighed exasperatedly.

Tyler slowly handed the bowl to the green-eyed boy as Victor grumbled something about Leslie being too soft.

With great haste, the boy began shoveling food into his mouth. The three adults were almost certain that he was going to choke, he was eating so fast...

"So, what's your name?" Tyler finally asked once the boy finished licking the bowl clean and wiping the stains off of his mouth.

"Alex..."

"You got a last name, Alex?" Victor queried, his voice drawling.

"Yeah... Stiles. My full name's Alexander Stiles."

A stunned silence filled the room.

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(End chapter five.

Not a lot to say. Please review!)