A/N: I don't own anything related to The Lost Boys clearly. I'm sorry if this echoes the film in any way, I've been trying to make it different. Hope the boys aren't OOC.

Hope you enjoy this chapter. :) Don't forget to leave me a review if you'd have any thoughts or suggestions.

Chapter Two

I can't sleep.

I can't close my eyes because every time I do I see him; David. David lunging right at me, David sinking his teeth into my neck, David sucking out my insides, David with my blood dribbling down his unshaven chin. I shiver, and pull the tangles of my bed sheet away from me. I look over at my alarm clock.

The illuminated red numbers read 12.31 through the dark. Mom will be home in half an hour. There really is no way out of this. Unless I take Susie with me and we go far away, so far that they'll never find us. She won't ever be included in any of their bizarre notions again. I stumble over to the door, flicking on my bedroom light. The light is painful and I blink a little, my eyes adjusting momentarily.

I rummage through my sock drawer, finding my secret box. I pull open the lid. It shakes noisily from all the spare coins I've placed in there. I pull out my notes and count them. I have enough for two to take a train out of here, to get out of this place, but I don't know where we'll go.

I'll use visiting our father as a diversion. My mother won't be happy about this, but she'll understand. It's life or death. I creep slowly into Susie's room, switching on the light. To my surprise, she's already fully awake. She scrambles out of her bed and runs over to me, pulling me into a tight hug. She's trembling.

I tell her to go sit in the lounge room patiently and wait for me. She obeys. I go into the kitchen, grabbing mom's black ballpoint pen and notepad. I write her a note in my shaky handwriting:

Gone to visit dad for a few days. Don't be concerned.
Love always,
Ruby and Susie.

Checking once again that I have all my money securely in my pocket, I go into the lounge room. Susie is sitting on the leather sofa, her feet not touching the ground, staring silently at the wall. I kneel down beside her. "Susie, we have to go away for a few days, all right?" I tell her. I can tell she doesn't quite comprehend what I'm saying; she blinks silently, then nods. I hug her again.

I get her hat off the rack and slip it on her head. My mother has always wondered why Susie liked the hat so much. I remember it clearly; our father gave it to her once when we were out together watching a ballgame. It was her safekeeping; something that reminded her that dad still loved her despite what he and mom went through.

After we buy our tickets, we walk into one of the small grocery stores on the Boardwalk for supplies. Susie looks up at me through her thick black eyelashes, her hat sliding down her forehead. "I'm thirsty."

I take her hand. "I'll get you something." She follows me down the back aisle where there is a huge row of vending machines near the staff exit. "What do you want? A Coke?"

Susie shakes her head, no. "It tastes icky."

I'm confused. "You liked it before..." I remind her.

She finally settles on a Coke and we spend the next few minutes inspecting the junk food aisle of chocolate and candy bars. It seems too decadent to spend all my allowance money on junk when real food would be more useful, for a few days at least. I buy a loaf of bread, some Oreos and a Hershey Bar for Susie. After we walk outside into the dry, night air, hand in hand, I pause for a moment, opening her Coke.

While Susie takes a sip, I look at my watch. It's 12.55. We still had half an hour until the train was boarding to Florida. There was no use in getting there and waiting early. It would have bored us to death. I step off the sidewalk and freeze, my mouth agape.

I feel as if my stomach just dropped out of my chest, as though I've lunged from a great height. They were all there waiting; all four of them. I don't know why it surprised me so much. In a way, I knew there was no getting out of this. After witnessing what happened with the poor Jeremy boy, they terrified me more than ever before. I feel the bile rise up in my throat.

They'd slithered silently onto the Boardwalk like slimy snakes. Susie is squirming with joy now. She chants the name David over and over. He looks as if he is trying to hide a grin and shakes his head. "You weren't planning on running out on us boys, was you now, Ruby?" he asks in a clearly mocking tone.

I'm not sure what possessed me, but I kept on walking, Susie straining for me to let go of her hand so she could run over to them. I tighten my grip on her hand and, before I knew what was happening, someone caught my arm, twisting me around to face them. It was him.

"If you do, she'll die," he continues in a repulsive voice.

I remember once reading somewhere that there was a killer in all of us. I felt that if I'd had a gun, I would have killed him without hesitation. I hit him with my grocery bag as fast as I could and as hard as I could. All the contents go flying, spilling out onto the pavement. He had no right to do this to Susie. I didn't even exactly know what the name was for people like him – a monster? Heartless? Cruel?

He just stares back at me with cold eyes, his chest heaving in fury. Susie has started to cry. People have started to look at us, notice the tension between us. I don't care.

"Now, now," he says gently, letting me go and raising his leather-clad gloved hands in a sign of surrender for all to see, retracing his steps. "I know you didn't mean to insult your brothers..." He climbs back on his motorbike, his blue eyes staring.

Brother? That didn't make any sense at all.

I look down at Susie. She looks up at me and I stare back at her. She's trembling, the hat sliding lower down her forehead with every shiver. I couldn't refuse her when she looked at me like that. I let go of her hand and she toddles over slowly to the boys on their bikes.

She has a sudden attack of shyness as David leans down over the handlebars and removes the hat off her head, tossing it over the Boardwalk, but my absence interferes with her concentration. She looks over at me, her face scrunched up in confusion. "Come on over here, Ruby," David says quietly, but in a voice so icy it shook me.

Susie is over near Marko now, standing on tiptoes. "Hey there, little sister," he says as she flings her arms around his neck and he lifts her onto the bike. She pats his head as though he is some kind of wild dog. Dwayne laughs. It's really starting to bug me.

"She isn't your sister," I mumble futilely. "She's my sister."

Marko smiles. "And when you become one of us, you'll be our sister, too."

I open my mouth to say some foolish remark, but then David intervenes. "Not likely boys." He tilts his head to the side, letting his slate blue eyes roam over my tense, shivering body. "I'd rather have her as a meal. Wouldn't you?"

I look away, trying not to gag. My face must look funny, because they all laugh. I shudder at the sound, bending over to pick up the loaf of bread and the Oreos that are now scattered all over the pavement. My hands are trembling. I look over in time to see Marko slipping a helmet onto Susie's head.

"What are you doing?" I ask, shocked.

I drop the food, the wrappers making crackling sounds as I trudge over them, trying to get to my sister.

Marko looks confused. "What?" he asks, holding onto my little sister tightly.

I hesitate. "You're not taking her," I say, my voice coming out small and scared now.

"She's coming with us now," David says. I force myself to look at him. "She'll just be another missing little girl on a milk carton." He shrugs, smirking, stepping on the pedal of his bike. The engine roars loudly and I flinch at the sound.

How could they do this? She has a mother; a mother that will be devastated when she finds out her youngest daughter is "missing". I feel like I'm going to cry. I can feel it in my teeth. My eyesight is starting to go blurry.

"If you wanna see her again," David continues quietly, raising his eyebrows. "You can come with..."

I feel suddenly nauseous at the thought. If I'd have to endure any more of them hurting people, like that poor Jeremy boy, in front of me I'd surely be sick or go insane. Not to mention they – most of all, David – gave me the creeps. How can you live with people who frighten you?

I have a quick idea. "I want to ride with Susie," I say, quickly wiping my face with the sleeve of my jacket to stop the tears from leaking. If I could just take hold of her and make a run for it, then maybe we could escape...

David laughs, shaking his head. "Not so fast," he says softly, rolling the bike forward over asphalt and shielding Susie from view now. "You're with us now..." He says it more like a question than a fact.

I'm sobbing now and I can't seem to stop. "Yes," I nod. "I want to see..." I falter, my voice shaking uncontrollably.

David's harsh face softens for a moment and I think that maybe he's going to comfort me. Instead, he produces a funny-looking black helmet and shoves it into my hands. "Okay," he says, a faraway and distant look in his blue eyes as he thinks this over. "You've stated your position clearly," he says, gruffly. "Now I'm gonna state mine." He lowers his voice and says in a deadly tone, "Get on the bike. Now."

I didn't argue. Not that I saw him as my "brother" or anything like that. I think, deep down, I was finally accepting the fate of my little sister, no matter how much I loathed David and the idea. I slammed the helmet on my head and I got behind him as he started the bike. I didn't want to touch him, but he clasped my wrists in his hands and forcefully put my arms around his waist. I felt like some kind of wretched prisoner. I cried all the way to where ever it was they were taking us.

It was freezing on that motorbike. The wind was biting into my skin and my face and ears ached from the cold. It was too dark to see anything else except for the orange flickering glow of the headlight. I didn't know where we were, but when David stopped the bike, I was hasty to get away from him. My leg got caught on the pedal and I toppled sideways, headfirst toward the dirt, but I didn't seem to hit the ground because the next thing I knew was that someone had grabbed me from the front of my blouse before I did.

I took the helmet off my head quickly, tearing a few strands of hair painfully with it. David is still perched on his bike, waiting for the others. They arrive barely a few moments later, the roar of the several engines making my ears throb. I go straight over to Marko's bike, him lifting Susie and putting her carefully in my arms. She isn't wearing her helmet anymore, but she's sleeping. Her body is heavy in my arms.

"Let's get something to eat," I hear Dwayne say. I follow them blindly. I hear their boots trudging through the dirt, the crackling of leaves, gravel. I realize my nose is running. I really need a tissue. "Chinese again?" I hear David say knowingly through the silence. Someone laughs.

There's a faint orange light ahead and then suddenly Marko is holding a match, the orange glow flickering on his face and making his pale skin look eerily ghostly. He smiles at me, the corners of his mouth shadowed before tossing the match and it goes sailing through the air. There's a startling sudden burst of flames and then the room is fully lit, a big old rusty can burning.

Susie stirs awake in my arms slightly, shielding her eyes from the brightness of the flames by hiding her warm face against my neck. I look around the room, innocently observing. The flames are making dark shadows jump and dance across the stone walls. There is a large bed dominating the room with sheer thin material draping along the dusty, sandy ground and large looming crevices in the corners of the room.

It doesn't look so fit for living. More like an underground cave than anything else.

I move slowly, creeping toward the bed. Located right next to it is a dirt ridden portrait of rocker Jim Morrison, from The Doors, cobwebbed and spray painted on. It was very bizarre.

"How do you like our humble abode?" Marko says from right behind me. I turn around to find him grinning broadly, proudly. "The beds all yours..."

I hesitate, looking down at the bed. It certainly does look very comfortable, if yet a little dusty. I run my fingertips along the thin fabric, appreciating the soft, spongy feel of it. "Thank you," I say appreciatively, reaching up and loosening Susie's grip on my neck. I let her little motionless body fall onto the bed.

Marko watches curiously as I pull down the covers. "Here, let me do that," he says and I move my hands away. He picks up Susie, her head lolling to the side and places her gently on the mattress before pulling the covers up over her. She looks very warm.

Feeling content that she's safe and warm, I turn around abruptly, my knees bumping into something and my body pitching forward, landing on something or someone hard. I realize I've fallen unwillingly into someone's lap. I raise my head slowly, looking up, bracing myself. Oh no.

I scramble back up onto my feet, holding the arms of the chair for support. David is sitting in some sort of wheelchair. I didn't realize he had been there watching the whole conversation between Marko and I, watching me put Susie into the bed. He stares at me, his blue eyes holding mine in. He's so unnerving. I couldn't look away even if I tried.

"Why don't you eat?" he says. His voice is soothing, quiet. He glances behind his shoulder in time to see Paul thrusting a large box at him. He relaxes into the wheelchair, staring back at me, not daring to take his eyes off of me as he takes it from him. He opens the box and the delicious smell of food and steam wafts into the air. I'd forgotten how hungry I was, how hungry Susie must be.

He holds it out to me. I hesitate for a moment before snatching it from him. I look inside the box. There's something black, shining, wriggling.

"You like beetles, don't you, Ruby?" David asks, something cruel and knowing in his icy voice. Dwayne laughs. Paul joins in with some taunting. The sight of the beetles nauseates me. My stomach lurches.

"You're sick," I manage, flinging the box at him.

The contents of the box lands into his lap with a messy, loud splat. The laughing abruptly stops. David looks down at his lap, at the obvious mess. It must have been some kind of trick of the light. I didn't understand it at all. One moment there were black, wriggling beetles in there and now there's just plain, mouth-watering rice?

David sighs loudly. "What a waste of perfectly good food," he says disappointedly, cupping a handful of the rice into his leather-clad gloves and flicking it on the ground.

I feel as if I'm going to cry again. God knows what David will do in return for spoiling their dinner. He meets my gaze and I'm suddenly nervous. I clutch my stomach, shivering. He props himself up out of the wheelchair with his hands and the movement is so fast that I recoil slightly. The rest of the rice resting on his lap falls onto the floor, piled near his black shiny boots.

"You're gonna pay for that," he says, looming over me. I scream.