A/N: I own nothing at all to do with The Lost Boys. Thanks so much for the reviews, I really hope you enjoy this chapter; sorry it took me so long to update. :)

Chapter Six

"Blood type A or Blood type B?" Marko asks Paul in a hushed whisper. "Better make it quick, bud..."

It only takes Paul a second to think about it. "Type B, baby," he says in a sing-song voice, licking his lips. "All the way..."

They both laugh and then Marko nudges him in the ribs, whispering, "What about David, huh?" Paul snorts derisively. "Is he a Type A or what?"

"Will you two shut up with all of that prattle?" David says loudly and we all turn to look at him. He's lining his next shot, a cigarette burning between his lips and his eyes squinted in concentration. "If either one of you was Type A or Type B, I'd still kill you both regardless..." His mouth twists up into a smirk as he sends the cue ball rolling toward one of the corner pockets. It teeters on the edge before falling. End game. He sets the cue stick on the table as he says, "And let's not forget, if Ruby over here was on the menu, she'd be the appetizer."

He struts back over to his seat, stretching out his legs as Marko and Paul laugh hysterically. It wasn't the first time David said such things about me, so it didn't faze me too much. I sigh, fanning myself with the menu. The fireplace is sending the room into scorching high degrees, my blouse sticking to my skin from all the sweat that has adhered to it.

Susie is bouncing around in her seat, her legs swinging back and forth. I realize she's staring right at David, who is opposite her. He leans forward across the table, tapping the tables veneer with a finger to get her full attention. "Simon says finger to your nose..." I watch as she stares at David for a moment, blinking, thinking hard, and then she hesitantly copies his movement, putting a small finger to her nose.

"Very good," he praises her and she looks delighted. She sits up straighter in her seat, waiting patiently for another command. "Simon says finger to your mouth." She puts her finger to her mouth without hesitating this time and David smirks before meeting my gaze, his slate blue eyes darkening. "Simon says... bite her head off."

Marko, Paul and Dwayne erupt into fits of laughter, clutching their stomachs. Susie looks at them all and stares, not knowing what to do.

David takes a deep drag of his cigarette before stabbing it out into the glass ashtray on the table. "All right," he says in a dry voice. "Let's get out of here, boys."

They all get to their feet and bustle out the door, Paul and Marko taunting each other boisterously. I follow closely behind with Susie, who hums to herself distractedly. I didn't know where we were going, but I followed them anyway, not feeling much like being by myself tonight.

Near the railings of the Boardwalk, Marko puts his arm around me, shaking me. "We're going to get something to eat," he says, grinning. "Want to come, little sister?"

I nod slowly. Dwayne picks Susie up and puts her on his shoulders. She giggles.

"Do you hear that?" David asks the boys after a moment, with a faraway, distant look in his eyes.

Paul chuckles. "Somebody's got the boom box out," he says, clasping his hands together excitedly.

I follow them as they stride off through the Boardwalk, their boots trudging against the dirt and sand. I found it difficult to keep up with them. Trudging through the wet dirt and sand was a struggle for me, and I tired easily.

"I'll meet you all back here," I say, trying to catch my breath. I spot an old tree with leaves and broken pieces of bark intersected underneath the branches and I walk slowly over to it, resting my head against the trunk, squeezing my eyes shut.

My heart is pounding and I slide down to the ground, clasping my arms around my knees. The only thing I can hear is the constant whooshing of the breeze in my ears, the rustling and crackling of the leaves.

Suddenly, a piercing scream resounds through the air. Susie? I think in a panic. Were the boys hurting her? Another scream, louder this time, and I cover my ears with my hands. It definitely couldn't have been Susie, I countered. The screams were high-pitched, deep – a man's? I didn't exactly know what was going on down there on the beach and I didn't really want to know...

I wanted to block everything out because, that way, nothing seemed real. Susie seemed the same and that was all that mattered to me now.

When I open my eyes, I see a surprising sight. Susie is over near the sandbank, kneeling down, her head bowed. What was she doing all alone? And without the boys? I stand and stroll slowly toward her, the back of her hair rippling in the wind. She's humming to herself – an unfamiliar song I don't recognize – and she's gathering sand between her fingertips, letting it slip through like an hourglass.

"Susie?" I whisper.

She shows no indication that she heard me. I wonder if she's crying, if something upset her.

"Do you miss her, Ruby?" Susie suddenly asks, her head still bowed, her voice coming out small and scared.

I knew she was talking about mom.

"No," I lie, kneeling down next to her on the sand.

"David says you do." She shrugs. "Did David tell you about mommy, too?"

I'm suddenly nervous at the mention of David and our mother. What did David tell her?

"What are you talking about, Susie?" I ask, reaching out to touch her. I pull her small wasted body to me. I still can't see her face.

She rocks back and forth, her tiny arms clasped around her knees. "Mommy wound up dead," she says in a hushed whisper. I wanted to cry at her words but I couldn't. How could David be so cruel to tell her lies like that? "Mommy slit her wrists and killed herself. David says she doesn't want us anymore and that Max's our new daddy now..."

I felt so scared. I felt as though I could throw up. I stared at my shoes in numb shock; I guess I knew that David could be so cruel sometimes, but could his words actually be true? Is our mother really dead as he said? Surely not.

"Don't be ridiculous, Susie," I whisper, grabbing her shoulders and shaking her slightly. "She isn't dead, she can't be," I say angrily. "David's just a... a..." My hands started to shake first and then I felt as if I couldn't hold it in any longer. I moved away from her and heaved onto the sand. No, I kept telling myself. No, he's lying.

"Ruby," was all I heard Susie's small voice say from behind me.

I tried to remember our mother, the look on her face before she left to go out for dinner, and I couldn't remember her at all. I couldn't even remember what she looked like. My own mother and I couldn't even remember. What a wretched daughter I make!

I wrap my arms around my knees, desperately wanting to go home to my mother. Susie must have toddled her way over to me because she flung her arms around my neck and buried her cool face into my hair.

I didn't know how long I sat there, how long Susie sat beside me trying to comfort me because she could tell I was upset. "Who's Max?" I asked her after a long moment, confused.

"He doesn't want me to talk about him." Of course, he doesn't.

Susie swivels around to my side and I can finally make out her face from the orange flickers of light coming from the bonfires. Although half of her face is shadowed, I can still see something wet and shiny on her chin. I reach over and wipe her mouth with the sleeve of my jacket and her mouth pulls up into a tiny mischievous grin, a gap in her teeth showing. She hugs me and I hold her as closely as I can. "I don't want you to ever die," I whisper to her desperately.

"Well, what do you know about this, boys?"

Susie pulls away from me quickly and emits a high-squeal at the sound of his voice, bouncing up over the sandbank and colliding into David's legs. I sit there for a moment watching, trying to breathe slowly to get over the shock. "Check it out," Paul says, lifting her up and swinging her around. She laughs loudly, tendrils of her curly hair whipping around her.

"You ready?" David asks, eyeing me with his cold eyes.

"Yes," I answer flatly. I quickly wipe my mouth and stand, dusting the sand off my trousers.

Paul is spinning Susie around faster and faster by the minute; I can tell she'll end up being sick by this rate if they keep doing it. "If either one of you makes her sick, I'll stake you both," David says menacingly to Paul and Dwayne to my surprise, grabbing her off of Paul and carrying her along with him toward his bike.

The other boys follow, Paul and Dwayne laughing hysterically. I tag along slowly, staring at the ground as the boys all climbed onto their bikes. I look up and see Susie sitting on David's, her small hands clenched around the handlebars and humming to herself distractedly.

They all seemed desperate to get back to the cave, Dwayne especially, who kept looking over at me as he kicked the pedal of his bike. I found I couldn't entirely meet their eyes. I felt so angry with them that I could cry. I climbed onto Dwayne's bike, resting my head along his back and closing my eyes all the way to the cave.

I felt so drained that I wanted to sleep. I wanted to ignore all the boys and sleep for days. I felt oddly comforted by the thought that it was almost morning, that the sun soon would be up and that the boys would soon have to return back to their hiding places and rest. But the fact that Susie was included in that made me feel saddened.

I went directly to the bed as the other boys started talking about food and eating. I buried myself under the covers, squeezing my eyes shut trying to block their voices out. Perhaps I was futilely hoping with my antisocial attitude this evening the boys would take the hint and leave me in peace. Only I found a moment too soon that the cave had went uncharacteristically silent and I knew the boys were still in here.

The mattress of the old bed lurched and the springs squeaked and I clung onto the blankets for dear life; I had spent long enough with the boys to know what that awful silence meant – a clear indication that something cruel and treacherous was about to happen at my expense.

Someone trod on my elbow painfully with the heel of their shoe and I swiftly tucked my arms to my chest and laid into the foetal position, my breathing becoming shallow as I waited. What was going on? Why did they enjoy picking on me so much?

Suddenly the covers are pulled off me and I squeeze my eyes shut tighter, pretending to sleep. Tears leak from my eyes and my body starts shivering from the biting wind escaping from a crack in the ceiling. I can feel someone staring at me. Please leave me alone, I think to myself.

There's a long moment of peaceful silence and I start to relax, loosening my tense muscles. A second later, someone whispers unpleasantly in my ear, "Wake up, you little maggot!" Someone laughs and sickening shiver passes through me at the sound of it.

Someone grabs my shoulder and shakes me and I reluctantly open my eyes. David is leaning over me with those murderous eyes, all red and bloodshot and revolting and then it hits me that I'm going to be killed and I roll onto my side, leaping out of the bed, and falling onto the dirty ground hard.

I stand up as fast as I could, looking down. Anywhere but at him.

"Stay away from me, David," I say in a wobbly voice. "You make me sick, you bastard."

I didn't quite know what possessed me to say that. But I knew there was no turning back...