Hiya, you guys!

I am so sorry for updating later than my once-a-week quota. Oh my good goshness! Exams are this January and we are finishing up the topics in my four subjects now, so I really, really need to finish TSP before the end of term. Kind of... before December 21, at least. The two weeks of vacation I have will be dedicated for revising the NUMEROUS topics I have to cover.

Oh well.

I hope you are not getting bored with this story yet. I have read your reviews, you guys, and they are... SUPAMAWESTATICSHIZZLE. New word! Woohoo! I hope the succeeding chapters (not this one yet) will be able to answer your questions especially since the rest of the chapters will be for unravelling mysteries.

Huge thank you to this supamawestaticshizzle people (please don't ask me to pronounce that word): TheUltimateArtist (Ooh! Ooh! Congratulate me! I have just recently finished the epilogue – without finishing any of the middle chapters whatsoever – and there is a huge Amian moment there which would probably make you love or hate me. There might be more in the middle chapters, but we'll see XD), JesseCPK (I know, right?! There should a shirt like that!), emmelinekat (I hate inequalities and their graphs! Haha. I am aware that I am leaving a lot of questions which should hopefully be answered before the epilogue), Regina211 (911! 999! SOS! Are you okay now? XD), magicdemi-god223 (oh no. That's kind of the problem when you want to give each of your characters a chance to shine, people would get them mixed up. I hope this chapter would remind you – and other people who became confused – who's who), NatsuDragneel46 (another Wattpadder! Hi, hi! Oh my goshness! Thank you so much for the support! I hope you won't get tired of these stories XD), addicted2reading9 (D'aww! Thank you so much! I'm glad you enjoyed that chapter! Natan shall prosper! Hey, that rhymed! XD), Guest1 (I'm sorry you didn't like the love triangle I made up. :( I actually thought I could pull the whole Hamilton-Sinead-Jake triangle. Don'tcha worry, not much love triangle from now on), CoLoRfUlBoOkWoRm (Glad you liked it! Thank you so much!), Happy girl (Hahahahaha. Oh my good gosh! I should have thought of that! Keeping Ian happy while I feed my Natan needs. That way he wouldn't threaten to throw me down the cliff! XD), Guest2 (Thank you! XD) and Ladyorfthetaj (Thank you so much! Sorry for the later update. XD).

Read on and enjoy 'cause that's what matters most!

oooooOooooo

Chapter 16

Alex sneezed.

Stupid cold, he thought angrily. He glared at the skyline outside his window. It was a rather endearing sight. The glittering lights, the busy bustle on the streets, little children with their parents going home from their nursery...

And he hated every little bit of it.

"Stupid world," he muttered, pulling blinds down as roughly as he could.

There was a tentative knock on his door. "What do you want?!" he growled loudly. He could almost feel the flinching from behind the door which opened very, very slightly. The younger girl – about twelve to thirteen years of age – we called 'Jasmine' peered fearfully inside.

"What is it, Maria?" he asked, trying to keep himself from yelling at the poor kid.

Too late. Maria was already trying to brave her tears as she sniffled them away. "Mr Butler told me I'm s'posed to be the one to look after the pretty Barbie," she said in a small voice, pertaining to Natalie. "I went to the exam room, but she wasn't there."

Alex growled low and menacing under his breath. "The girl is gone, Maria. You're off the hook," he said tightly, his jaw clenched as numerous ways of murdering the wretched boy passed his mind.

Maria looked confused, but she wasn't going to ask questions. "What am I gonna do now?" she asked him instead.

"Go talk to Jared, or paint the walls," he sighed wearily. He rubbed his temples. "Just stay out of my sight."

Maria flinched at the hostility of his tone, but otherwise nodded agreeably. She closed the door quietly and wandered off to find Jared whom we called 'Anthony' before. Jared and Maria had been with Alex during the Human Chess game alongside Victoria and Jonathan. During the chess game, they had been quite passive and were merely present because the Council instructed them to be. Jared had been the angelic boy while Maria clutched at her sketch pad as though it could protect her from Alex' madness.

Maria found Jared sprawled on his bed with his Rubik's cube. His fingers moved fluidly along the cube before he paid attention to her. After a few seconds, he looked at Maria, appraising her tear-streaked face. With one last flick, the cube is solved as he sat down. "Told you he wouldn't like it if you bothered him," he said in a bored tone.

She wrinkled her nose and sat on the other end of his bed. "I didn't want him to think I was missing out on my duty," she said miserably. Maria rubbed at her nose. "He said she wasn't there anymore."

Jared looked at the wall above her head which is where the vent. "So I've heard," he said emotionlessly.

Maria looked at him questioningly. "Were you spying again?"

Jared looked at her listlessly as if she pulled him out of his thoughts. "Hm... No. Not spying. They were talking loudly, is all. What are you supposed to do now?" he asked her, trying to deviate the conversation away from him as he always does. It is not good for people to start talking about you.

She gestured around her. "He told me to talk to you," she said plainly.

Jared raised an eyebrow, not believing it one bit.

Maria sighed dejectedly. "Well, it was either this or I paint the walls. I chose the less boring one."

Jared said nothing. He lied back on his bed and began disarranging his Rubik's cube again. "You should really start looking for a wall that needs a new look," he told her impassively. Once the cube was as arrayed as possible, he began solving it again.

Maria glared at him. She stood up and briskly walked out of his room.

Jared watched her leave with the corner of his eye. "Jonathan is an idiot for thinking it would work," he said to himself, looking at the newly solved cube. He threw it across the room disgustedly, the individual blocks falling out.

"Excuse me for being an idiot, but did you have a better alternative?"

Jared frowned. "Get out of my room," he told Jonathan without sparing him a look.

"Ouch," Jonathan clutched his chest. He sat down the swivelling chair on Jared's seemingly unused desk, looking at the ruined cube at his feet. "After all we've been through? This is how you treat the guy who acted as your older brother?"

Jared finally had to look at him. He laughed darkly. "Sure... Older brother. Whatever makes you sleep at night," he said, reaching for his sketch pad lying on his bedside table which is identical to Maria's only because she insisted. Poor girl needs someone to consider as a friend.

"Why haven't you told anybody?" Jonathan asked curiously, spinning himself round and round with the swivelling chair.

"There's no point," Jared replied as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. Jonathan looked amusedly confused. "Your plan will come biting you in the butt any moment now and it will fail miserably. Therefore, there is no point in exposing you and your dirty little secrets." His charcoal pencil flew over the page as quickly as he had solved the cube. A picture of a snake, its mouth opened wide revealing a pair of sharp and deadly fangs, seem to be straining out of the page. It looked so real; nobody would be surprised if it comes to life and devours anything on its path.

Jonathan laughed at the kid's frank speculations. "And if it works?" he asked, sounding unaffected by Jared's jabs.

"It might," Jared allowed, putting more shadows on the snake to make it more three-dimensional. "But you will pay a huge price."

"Ah... There's always that, isn't there?" Jonathan said, rubbing his chin for a non-existent beard. He stood up. "Well. That's that. As long as you keep your mouth and your little toys," he pointed at the vent above his head, "shut, all is well. I shall be handling my own business and you should do the same with yours."

Jared raised an eyebrow at him. "So, you only came here to give me my nose back?" he said indifferently.

Jonathan nodded happily, but his eyes held seriousness you should not ignore. "Exactly. I found it in my business," he said with the cheerful voice, walking up to the side of Jared's bed and letting debris of what looked like listening devices (bugs) fall on top of the pristine white sheets.

Jared looked at the destroyed bugs he had personally made without any affection whatsoever. "Don't worry. My nose was never in your business," he said dismissively, tearing the page with the snake out of his book and handing it to him.

Jonathan took it. "What's this for?" he asked, looking at the sharp fangs with venom dripping from them.

"For when the time comes that you see everything I told you is right," Jared replied, working on another drawing. "I want you to look at it and let the snake tell you, 'I told you so'."

Jonathan stared at the kid. He neatly folded the A4 paper into wallet size and slipped it inside his leather wallet. He raised his wallet and said, "Thanks." He was the second person to leave Jared's room and the only one with the decency to actually close the door.

Jared snorted. "It's such a shame that I am never wrong," he murmured, shading the finished drawing of a dying girl in a pool of blood.

xxxOOOxxx

Ned smelled something really, really bad and felt something really, really hard on his face. It could only mean one thing. Ted's foot is on his face again. He clawed at the thing without opened his eyes. "Ted, move your dang foot off my face," he mumbled sleepily.

"But I don't wanna move to Alaska," Ted replied just as sleepy as his brother and severelyly muffled. It took Ned his whole life to understand every language his brother has to offer.

That stupid reply snapped Ned's eyes wide open. He glared at his twin, but before he could go all-out on his ranting, the sight in front of him choked the living life out of him.

The living room is a mess.

Having said that, the whole mansion must be thrashed as well. Reagan and Madison are sprawled on the back of the couch, bags of Skittles and Hershey's Kisses cluttered around their snoring bodies. Atticus is curled up in a ball near the grand piano which surprisingly survived whatever hurricane passed by the Cahill mansion. Phoenix and Keightlyn are sleeping soundly over a game of chess. No one seemed to be winning, actually. Potato chips littered the room along with – is that string cheese? There were less than a hundred empty party poppers all over the place, two of which were in Ted's mouth. So, that's why his voice sounded muffled, Ned realized. The thought of pulling the things out of his twin's mouth occurred to him, but he shoved it away. Ned was sure Ted could still breathe anyway. The other couch is upside down and clothes were strewn across the room like huge, colourful confetti.

Wait.

Clothes?

White Armani shirts and slacks were painted pink by what looked like an angry mob of nail polish. Manchester United jerseys had flying pigs with tutus against the red cloth. The same goes with shorts. Khaki sweaters that Ned knew all too well are hung around the room like banners with flowery dresses from tails. Ned felt a strong migraine, stronger than when he had been rendered deaf by the explosion. He shoved a still sleeping Ted with his foot. "Dude! Wake up!" he ordered, closing his eyes as he imagined that the Cahill mansion would be spick and span when he opened them again.

Ted mumbled in his sleep, nearly choking with the empty party poppers in his mouth.

Ned felt his phone vibrate in his jeans pocket. He checked it as he racked his brain about what happened last night. "Oh, sweet mother of –" he spat, dropping his phone on the floor as he pulled Ted up to his feet by the collar. "TED HAVERFORD STARLING! YOU NEED TO WAKE YOUR SORRY BUTT THIS INSTANT! THE OTHERS ARE COMING!"

Ted's head rolled violently side to side as Ned shook him awake. "Wha...?"

Ned repeatedly slapped his brother on the face with the back of his hand. "Wake... Up... You... Useless... Starling!" he shouted, shaking his brother again after he's done with the slapping. The ruckus he's making woke the others up. Reagan and Madison cringed from the unexpected mess around them. Atticus baulked from the grand piano, thinking that it was a giant... something black. "Checkmate!" Phoenix exclaimed, unconsciously pointing at the chessboard. Keightlyn had her eyebrows drawn in confusion as she rubbed her eyes.

"What's going on?" Atticus asked, putting his glasses back on after they fell on his chest.

Ned had this crazed look on his face, like a prisoner having just escaped from Azkaban. His eyes were huge and his face was pale. "They're coming home..." he panted, his hands still tight on Ted's collar.

Ted grimaced at his twin. "What are you talking about?" He made different faces to stretch the muscles on his face. "Oh wow. My face hurts." He shot Ned a really dark look.

Ned shook his head. "Don't you all see?!" he screamed. "We're all gonna die if we don't clean this house in less than an hour!"

Keightlyn sat up from her lying position. Her ribs felt like they were embedded on her chest now. "But we never even messed anything – Oh my Olivia!" She stared in horror all around her. Everybody did the same thing and simultaneously grew pale. As pale as the pristine white Armani shirts... before they were ruined.

Ted swallowed, his Adam's apple bobbing up and down anxiously. "Um... The 'they' people you were talking about... Might our murderous, scary, homicidal, lethal and terrifying sister be in that lot?" he asked nervously.

Ned looked at him with wide eyes. And nodded.

Ted swallowed again. He looked at the others. "We need to clean this crib because our lives literally depend on it," he whispered breathily.

Without further ado, each one of them sprung to their feet like the floor has just been set on fire.

xxxOOOxxx

He looked at the recent reports his worthless assistant – who is currently cowering, the bumbling fool, at his sight... glare, whichever – has brought up to him.

"What is this supposed to be?" he growled, having read both of the paragraphs on the page at least three times. "That little girl who's nothing but a worm turned out to be the worst snake of all?!" He slammed the papers on the desk along with ear-splitting whack of his hands on the mahogany.

His assistant – forty years of age, mind you – flinched further away from his employer. A few more flinches and his back would be touching the door. "Sir... Uh... She... She has been, uh, missing for... almost a week now... And, uh..." He cautiously wiped his forehead with a white handkerchief he has been gripping tightly for dear life. "And, uh... She... –"

"SPIT IT OUT!" his employer exploded, his face turning red from rage. Which is bad because somebody usually dies when he turns all red like that.

"She killed nine guards in The Hospital, sir, and is believed to have run away with... with the Cahills," the assistant blurted out without pausing to breathe.

The employer stopped. He sat down. He contemplated.

The assistant waited.

"Very well, then." The employer laced his fingers together and rested his elbows on top of his desk. The assistant dreaded the next words which would surely come out of his employer's mouth. It always ends like this. The employer sneered with that disgustingly wretched and malicious mocking expression he has. "Let poor, little Victoria die." He raised an eyebrow at his assistant.

"As... As you wish, sir," the assistant replied, backing away and leaving the room with a heavy heart. His son has mentioned such nice things about the girl. Too bad she won't be in this world for very long.

oooooOooooo

Oh Vespers. You and your evil works. I hope you liked that chapter. More characters showing up, it seems. I love how the other Cahills messed up the mansion. Will they clean it up in time? Haha.

I wonder what will happen now. Can't put longer ANs 'cause I still have to revise for my Chemistry exam on Monday.

Sneak Peek for Chapter 17:

"Speaking of girlfriends!" Vikram slammed his fist on his palm as if he forgot something important. He twirled around to look at Amy who was sitting not far away from Ian. The young, reddish-brown haired girl was twirling a stray of her locks into a knot tensely. "You must be Amy Cahill," he told her, looking so fatherly that Amy felt a punch in her gut as she remembered her own dad. "You look so much like your mother, but with a hint of your father as well. Now I see why my son took quite a liking to you. And..." He looked around until he found Dan. Unlike his sister, Dan seemed unaffected – if not, even more annoyed – about Vikram's appearance. "Daniel Arthur Cahill. My, my. Aren't you the little Arthur Josiah Trent?" he said fondly.

Dan snorted. "Wouldn't you know, you murderer," he said just as fondly.

Read, re-read and review.

Much Love, Peace Out!

AngelicSpring.