NOTE FROM THE AUTHOR: I love days like this at work, where you don't do anything but get paid to sit on your ass. If you're reading Into The Dark, I put the next to the last chapter up. I'm putting this one up today too, if I can bang it out before the end of my workday.

Chapter Three

"Mike what?" Chase asked as Anna steered the wagon along the freeway through evening traffic. Tempest was fiddling with the radio, and Phil occupied his time by kicking the back of Anna's seat.

Anna arched an eyebrow. "Mike what what?"

"Mike what what what?" Phil chimed in, shaking his head in confusion. "What are we talking about?"

Chase decided to be a little more direct. "What's his last name?"

Anna sighed. "Mizanin. Are you writing a book, Chase?"

Phil sat up straight in his seat and widened his eyes. "Mike Mizanin! Do you know him?"

"They go out," Chase pointed out to his buddy.

"He's got a red Camaro, right?" Phil wondered.

Anna couldn't help but chuckle, and ask, "Oh gee Phil, are you a gear head and a sex fiend?" Chase snorted in laughter, earning him a dirty look from Phil. "Anyway, a lot of people have red Camaros."

"Yeah," Phil fired back. "But do a lot of people have the license plate that reads AWESOME?"

Anna grinned. "That's Mike."

"He's the guy that beat me up last summer for touching his car!" exclaimed Phil. He paused, and then added, "Which I didn't do."

"That was him?" Chase gasped.

Phil nodded. "That was him."

Anna looked genuinely shocked. "Mike wouldn't do that."

"Yes he would," Phil shot back.

"He would not!"

"Yes he would. He did! He kicked my ass!" He smirked. "You guys wanna see the footprint?"

"NO!" shouted Anna, along with Chase and his sister.

Tempest pointed towards the skyline. "Hey, look! That's where Thor lives."

Anna kept her eyes on the road. "Thor?"

Tempest nodded. "Well, all the superhero's live in the city. Spiderman, Daredevil, and Captain America. But Thor's the best. He fights the forces of darkness." Picking up her toy Thor hammer, she announced in her little girl voice, "Forces of darkness beware!"

Anna grinned. It could be worse, she thought. She could be all ga-ga over Justin Bieber.

~~~BABY~~~

"...So the baby sitter goes upstairs, and the sound keeps getting louder. Scrape, scrape, scrape," Anna said to Tempest, as she listened with big eyes at the scary story. In the backseat, Phil pulled a Playboy magazine out from under his hoodie. The model on the cover looked just like Anna, with a bigger chest.

"Check this out," Phil whispered to his buddy, opening up the magazine. "Looks just like her."

Anna continued her story. "The baby sitter stops at the kids room. She reaches for the doorknob. Her hand is trembling. Her heart is racing. Sweat pours down her face. She opens the door. And the kids are safely in their beds."

Phil snorted. "I'd like to be safe in her bed."

Anna furrowed her brow. "What are you guys doing back there?"

"Uh...nothing," Chase stammered as he grabbed the Playboy, rolled down the window and tossed it out.

"Hey!" Phil cuffed Chase on the back of his head. "That was my dad's, stupid!"

"You shouldn't have brought it along, dumbass!" Chase snarled. "God."

Tempest turned to her babysitter. "So what happens?"

Anna coughed, and then continued. "Okay, but see when the baby sitter looks more closely at the kids she sees…they don't have any faces!"

Tempest squeaked. "Oh my god!"

"Just a pool of mushy goo."

"Like Spaghetti O's?"

"Spaghetti O's with meatballs."

Tempest made a face and squeaked, "Oh, yuck!" as Phil began making faces at Chase.

"The baby sitter screams," Anna continued, "And she turns to run, but there's this big giant hairy guy standing right in front of her. And he raises his right arm, and there's a big metal hook instead of a hand, and the hook goes to the baby sitters face…" Anna made a claw out of her right hand and waved it in front of Tempests' face. "Scrape, scrape, scrape."

At that moment, Chase leaned forward and grabs Tempest. She screamed. Just as she did, there was a loud BANG! as one of the tires blew out.

"OH, NO!" Anna exclaimed, her heart racing.

"All right!" Tempest shouted, as the wagon began to swerve. "This is great!"

Chase shouted, "Anna! Pull over!"

"Which way?" Anna shouted.

"To the right," Chase instructed, as Phil began laughing. "Over to the right."

Anna glared at Phil. "This is not funny!" she said, as she wove through three lanes of traffic to get to the breakdown lane.

"Hold it steady," Chase instructed his babysitter. "Pull over. Pull over."

"I am pulling over!" Anna fired back as she brought the car to a stop on the service road and threw it in Park.

Tempest grinned. "That was fun! Can we do that again?"

The kids climbed out and laughed as Anna came around from the driver's side. Sure enough, it was a flat tire on the right passenger's side. A sigh escaped Anna's lips as she unlocked the wagon's tailgate and opened it. A shocked expression crossed her face as Chase glanced over her shoulder.

"Uh, Anna...where's the spare?"

Anna shook her head. "I don't know."

"Maybe it's on the car," Phil smirked as Anna and the Irvine-Hardy kids all gave him a dirty look. "Ya think?"

Anna was running out of patience with Chase's smart-ass friend. "Okay, we are going to flag somebody down and we'll go buy a tire," she announced, as she walked to the front of the Roadmaster. "I've got my checkbook…" she continued, before she made a sudden realization. "My purse!" Anna yanked open the passenger's door and realized that she didn't have her purse. "Oh dammit!" she exclaimed, slamming the door shut. "I forgot my purse." Pacing, she moaned, "I don't have any money. I don't have my license."

Phil couldn't stop himself. "Did you forget your purse?"

Anna turned on her heel and threw Phil a look that was loaded with darts. "Listen you little punkass…"

Phil turned to Chase, undaunted. "She's great."

"Hey wait!" Chase reached in his pocket. "I've got some money." After a little fumbling around, he pulled out some money and handed it to his babysitter.

Anna sniffed. "Oh what, five dollars. You don't have any money. You're a kid for crying out loud!" she exclaimed, as Chase looked a little shocked at the outburst.

Phil smacked Chase on the arm. "She's right, you're a kid for crying out loud. You don't have any money."

Chase gave Phil a look that could peel paint. "See all that traffic on the highway? Why don't you go out there and play?"

Before Phil could think of a snappy comeback, a large diesel truck pulled up behind the station wagon. On the front of the truck was a plate with the initials DCR and a small sign that read Rhodes. The kids jumped in surprise.

"Everybody stay behind me!" Tempest instructed the others.

A young man in a jumper climbed out of the truck. He held his hands behind his back and whistled as he approached the frightened kids. "You kids having some trouble?" he asked, sounding friendly enough. The kids didn't answer. "You got a spare?"

Tempest shook her head. "No."

"Tempest!" Anna exclaimed.

The man chuckled. "You went out on the Expressway without a spare?" he laughed.

"We're history!" squeaked Chase.

Phil added, "Burnt toast."

The man reached up with his right hand to adjust his hat, which wouldn't have been a big deal, but instead of a hand, the man had a hook in its place. The kids screamed.

"Just relax," Anna tried to reassure the kids. "Stay calm. Don't panic." She turned to the man, her voice wobbly. "What do you want?"

"I just wanna help you," the man answered, simply.

"Don't listen to him, Anna," Phil exclaimed. "He just wants to scrape our faces off."

The man shook his head in amusement. "What, you're scared of this?" he asked, motioning to the hook. Laughing, he said, "You kids must be from the suburbs." He turned and went back to his truck. On the back of his jumper, it read Swagger's Garage. Quickly, he pulled his truck around to the front of the Roadmaster, and Anna facepalmed.

It was a tow truck.

"I suddenly feel like a total bonehead," she sighed. "Kids, stay here all right. I'll be right back." Frowning, she went over to talk to the man as he climbed out of his tow truck. "Hey listen, I'm really sorry for freaking out back there," she apologized, as the man hooked the car up to the tow truck. "We just kind of overreacted."

"It's okay, I'm used to it." The man's smile was genuine.

Anna continued, cautiously. "Listen, I appreciate this but…see we don't have any money. I'm stuck baby sitting these kids, and I'm not supposed to be taking them into the city like this. It was kind of an emergency."

"I'll tell you what, I'll tow you town to Swagger's Garage, and I'll buy you a new tire. My treat, okay?"

"Oh no, that wouldn't be right."

"What would be right? Leaving you kids alone on the Expressway?"

Anna glanced over to the kids, and then back to the Good Samaritan. "No, I guess not. My name's Anna. Anna Hollenbeck," she introduced herself, holding out her hand.

"Rhodes. Cody Rhodes." Cody held his hook out, and the two of them shook, as the kids looked on in surprise.

~~~BABY~~~

Later, the kids were seated in Mr. Rhodes's truck as it rolled down the freeway. It was cramped, but they weren't planning to stay in it for too long. Phil watched in wide-eyed amazement as Cody drove the truck expertly with his hook. "Hey, Mister."

Cody glanced over. "Yeah Punk, what?"

"How did …you know, how did you know, lose it?"

"Lose what?"

"Your…your hand. Was it in Iraq?"

Cody laughed. "I wish it was, but no. Afraid not, no. I was changing a tire on a big rig and the jack gave out. The back of the truck fell right on the hand and popped it right off.

Phil cringed. "What did they do with the hand? Did they bury it?"

Cody shook his head. "No, I wouldn't let 'em. I kept it."

Phil snorted. "You kept it?"

"Yep. I got it over in the glove compartment," Cody explained, as the kids all looked at the glove box in horror.

Before Phil or anyone else could say anything, Cody's radio turned on. "Rhodes."

Cody picked up the CB microphone. "Yo!"

"Swagger here." The man's voice sounded tinny over the speaker, and did he have a lisp?

"Yes?"

"I just went by your place."

"What did you see?"

Swagger's voice sounded hesitant. "You won't like it."

"What did you see?!"

"That car was parked out front."

Cody snarled. "She's with that bastard again!" he shouted, shifting the truck into a higher gear and flooring the gas pedal

"Stop, Mr. Rhodes, please! " exclaimed Chase, as the other kids gasped in fright. "Slow down!"

Tempest was more excited than her brother. "WHEEE!" she shouted. "This is great!"

Anna glanced back at the car, and was horrified to see it swerving crazily back and forth.

"CAREFUL!" she shouted. "That's my grandmother's car!"

NOTE FROM THE AUTHOR: Once again, another chapter banged out quickly. Ahhh, you gotta love holidays at work:) Cody playing the tow truck driver worked out better than I thought. I think he has a slightly crazy vibe about him, which translated nicely here.

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