Chapter 3

Kendra shuffled through the papers once more. "Where is it? I knew I gave it to him. Where did he put it? Ah-hah!" she muttered as she whipped out the last Patton Burgess journal. She turned around and saw Dale staring at her wearily. "Oh sorry, Dale! I wasn't going through Warren's stuff! I mean I was but..." Kendra tried to explain.

"Oh, it's okay." Dale muttered cutting her off. He sat on Warren's bed and absentmindedly rubbed the fresh sheet. Kendra noticed that Dale's eyes were red and puffy and he looked like he needed tons of sleep.

"Uh, I'll go, if you want." Kendra said standing, then dusting off the legs of her pants.

"No, it's fine. I need company." Dale said, patting the bed next to him.

"Ok," Kendra said sitting down. "Bet you miss him. I do." Kendra started, then she clapped her hand over her mouth. "Oh, well, I guess you don't want to talk about that. I'm sorry. How about this. Do you like cats?" Kendra said quickly trying to amend her mistake.

"No, cats are annoying. But I need to talk about Warren. I guess I need to get it out of my system or something." Dale said quietly. Kendra opened her mouth but Dale continued to speak. "Why did he have to be my brother? Why do I have the worst luck? Couldn't he have been your brother? Seth would of been so much better than Warren! I mean I love him to death but still!"

"I understand nothing." Kendra muttered.

"Do you know what he did to me?" Dale shouted.

"How would I know?" Kendra answered.

"I was 18 he was 8. And he just disappeared on me! I thought he was dead for THREE YEARS! Three years! Do you know what it feels like to think your sibling is dead?" Dale was on his feet now.

"No, but Seth does." Kendra answered softly.

Dale didn't seem to be listening. "It's horrible. You just assume he's dead and then BAM!!" Dale slammed his fist into his palm for emphasis. Kendra jumped.

"And then he's back! On the front door step asking if he can come in. Of course my parents were ecstatic and they easily forgave him and I did too. But Warren never seems to learn. You just don't go wandering off and get turned into a creepy albino! You just don't! It's not normal! And getting stuck in an extra-dimensonal space isn't exactly the smartest either!!" Dale stopped and punched the wall.

"Last I heard it wasn't Warren's fault he got stuck in there. Go blame Navarog, not Warren." Kendra argued but Dale still wasn't listening.

Dale was about to continue his ranting when Kendra stood up and grabbed Dale's shoulders and sat him down on the bed. "Ok, take a deep breath," she instructed "Now tell me exactly what happened that night you say he dissapeared." She made her voice soft, like she did when Seth was mad at something.

He started to protest, but then his face lost it's rage. In it's place, there was only weariness. "Okay." He took a deep breath. "Well, he got angry at me, I don't remember why, so he ran off. It was really stormy and I was worried so I went after him. I searched and searched but never found him. That is until he came back three years later." Dale said, omitting the experience he had with the dragon. He wasn't quite ready to share that just yet.

"Wow..." then Kendra stared at Dale warily. "You're not leaving anything out, right?"

Dale put on his most innocent face and said "Why would you think that?"

"I don't know. It just seemed like your story was missing something." Kendra said suspiciously.

"I don't know why you would think that." Dale said, then he added, "Actually I lied to you. Something else did happen. I met this..." Dale was interrupted by someone yelling.

"Warren's back!" the voice called.

"What!" Dale whispered excitedly. Then he jumped up and leaped down the stairs where the voice was coming from. Kendra followed closely behind. When Dale got downstairs all he saw was Vanessa laughing. "Where's Warren?" he asked.

"Ha-ha! I totally tricked you! You should have seen your face!" Vanessa said in between giggles.

Dale's face turned red and before Kendra could do anything he had cocked his fist back and punched Vanessa in the nose. There was a loud crack and Vanessa started screaming: "My nose! My nose!" Vanessa grabbed her nose and ran to the kitchen. Kendra saw a bit of red squeezing between her fingers. Dale turned around and ran up to his room. Kendra noticed that he had started crying again.

Fire: I'm not posting chapter 4 until you guys review.

Dawn: Trust me, guys. She is serious. And that means I don't get to read it until you review.