Chapter Five

Fifteen-year-old Hilary Tatibana looked worriedly at her older cousin. It had been a month since the death of their family and she was going to be released in a few days. "Where am I supposed to stay when I get out of here Kenny? I don't have anyplace else to go."

He pushed a brown strand of hair behind her ear. "Don't worry about it, Hilary. When I go home today, I'll go talk to the guys and see what they think about you staying with us. How does that sound?"

She smiled softly. "I guess it could work. I think I might actually like living with them. When will you leave?"

"Tonight, once you fall asleep."

"When will you be back."

He kissed her forehead. "I'll be back by the time you wake up. It'll be like I never left at all."

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Sixteen-year-old Hilary Tatibana rung her hands as she waited for the others to respond to her story. She had told them about her family reunion and waking up in the hospital with only her cousin there and him telling her that everyone was dead. She told them about her cousin telling her that he was leaving to ask if his friends, who also happened to be her new roommates, would mind if she moved in with them for a while. And she told them about how he never came back to tell her if she would be able to move in and how she found out he was dead by watching the news.

Tyson ran his fingers through his hair. "I don't know what to say."

She gave a weak smile. "You don't have to say anything," she looked at the others. "None of you do. There's nothing to say."

"It must be hard on you," Max said after a few seconds. "Having your whole family killed and you being the only one left."

"It is," she said softly. "But I'm not the only one left. My sister and her daughter are still alive…somewhere. They're the only ones that didn't go to the reunion."

"So," Kai spoke suddenly, "you have no idea who could have done this?"

She shook her head. "No. None whatsoever," she sighed. "I mean, it could be a number of people. The Tatibana family, my family, was a very powerful family. It was the richest family in all of Japan and the third richest in the world. For instance, if I were to go into my bank account and get the money that I inherited just from my mother, I could probably buy all of Osaka. That's just how rich my family was…And Mom had the least money out of everyone because she was the youngest.

"So," she continued, "it could have been an assassin assigned to kill us from a rival company or, or…Oh! I don't know. And I'm tired of thinking about it. Can we just give it a rest?"

"Give it a rest!" Tyson exclaimed. "The person who killed your entire family is still out there and you're saying that you just want to forget about it?"

"No! I'm not saying that I want to forget about it. I couldn't even if I wanted to. And trust me, I want to forget about it. But I'm saying that I want to stop thinking about it. It gives me a headache. It's already bad enough that everyday when I wake up, I want to run downstairs and see Mom standing at the stove cooking our Saturday morning breakfast before we go shopping for the rest of the day. Only to remember that she's dead and that's never going to happen again. How do you think that makes me feel? Just about everyone in my family is dead. The only family I have left are my sister and her daughter and I have no idea where they ARE!"

The last word was let out as a scream and, once again, she found herself shaking with sobs.

Tyson reached out his hand and placed it on her shoulder. "Hil, I--"

She shrugged off his hand and cut him off. "No. It's okay," she stood slowly to her feet. "I think I'll go to my room."

Tyson didn't know what to do as a sobbing Hilary excused herself. He hadn't meant to make her cry. Part of him screamed for him to go after her, but another part--the part he listened to--told him to leave her alone, to give her some space.

He ran his fingers through his hair and let out a breathy sigh. This had not been what he had bargained for when he and the guys agreed to let her move in with them for the month.

Max broke the silence that seemed to fill every nick-and-cranny in the room. "Should we go talk to her?"

Kai was the one to answer. "No. Let's just give her some space to think things over by herself."

Ray lifted a brow. "Do you think that maybe we should call Tika? She is Hilary's best friend, after all."

"Maybe. If we call her we might be able to get even more answers because, like you said, she's Hilary's best friend. Hilary probably told her a lot more than she told us," Max offered.

Tyson rolled his eyes and looked at Max. "Even if she did, do you seriously think that Tika will tell us anything without Hilary's permission? I think that we should call Tika over here to help Hilary, not to force her into giving us answers. If we want those, we'll just have to wait until she's ready."

"For once," the two-tone haired Russian said, "I'm with Tyson."

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As Hilary flopped down on her bed she immediately regretted going to her room…Kenny's room.

If she closed her eyes, she could see Kenny sitting at the desk by the window typing away at his computer while talking with her on the phone. She imagined that, on the wall behind the bed, there was a poster of Albert Einstein. And, on the bookshelf, instead of her mystery, horror, and romance novels there were books by famous scholars and journals that Kenny kept, filled with his own experiments.

She could hear him cry out in joy when he found that one of his experiments actually worked. "Yes!"

Or he'd shout "Eureka!" when he found the missing material for something.

She opened her eyes, forcing away the images. She didn't want to remember right now. She didn't want to cry. She didn't want to be sad.

Hilary slipped out her bed and walked over to her dresser. Amidst her sniffles and tears, she pulled out a pair of navy blue Soffe shorts, a white tank top, and a pair of socks. She went over to the closet and pulled out her white running shoes. She dressed quickly and pulled her hair into a ponytail.

Running always helped to clear her mind. While on her run she could decide if she was going to stay with the guys in their haunted apartment, or find a new place to stay.

After leaving the room, she debated on whether or not she should tell the guys that she was going out. A few seconds later she decided against it. They weren't her parents. They didn't need to know every last move she made.