AN: A bit of an angsty chapter! Sorry for the wait, and for only like 5,370 words too :Pmalthough it really still was a short one for me :L sorry guys. Hope this fandom and my story followers are still alive! I hear Vanessa and Matthew in particular are pushing for a season three! It could still be possible! But BTW am I the only one who thinks Atticus just can not rock a mustache?

As always, thank everyone for their support, some more than others, you know who you are. :S :D

Read on! :D

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"Where are my parents?" Ethan had his head in his hands. He let out a long, worn breath, and dragged his hands down his face. "Where's Jane?"

He, Sarah, and Rory, along with Grandma Weir stood, or in Ethan's case, sat at the Morgan's backyard steps. On either side of them, wood splinters and scorched soil lay everywhere- the grass where the flower pots had been was a bright yellow-green in a perfect circle. Three pots in total were destroyed with no reason behind them- like the house fire, it was just another mystery.

"They weren't in the house, Ethan." Evelyn reassured the distraught boy, squeezing his shoulder. "No one was hurt. We just need to find the person who did this."

"The fire department said they can usually locate and determine the origin of the fire. Stove accident, electrical mishap, arson..." Ethan spoke into his laced fingers, elbows on his legs as he tried to get his muddled thoughts together. "But this time...before they left, they said it was like someone had just thrown a sheet of flames at the entire back of the house. No gas residue, nothing."

"A lot of fires seem to be happening." Rory commented, solemn for once. "Like that one a few days ago."

Ethan didn't nod, but he agreed completely. If Benny had been there, instead of up in his room under a magic-induced sleep, he knew the spellmaster would be filling the air with comforting words and ideas as well. The fire...it had only burned the house, in the same pattern that it had burned the forest when Ethan and Benny were trapped not four days ago.

Ethan's eyes narrowed and then closed as he thought back to what the smoke figure had told him before he fled into the trees.

The glowing eyes of the smoke man had narrowed to slits. "You're too stupid to realize your own mistakes. Funny, I've always found you two to be too intelligent for your own good...maybe I was wrong from the beginning. Maybe you two will prove to be as useless as your predecessors."

Their predecessors? What was Ethan missing?

"I know you better than you may think." The figure smiled mockingly once more, before it began fading into nothing. It growled menacingly. "And that is why you are doomed."

"It said it knew us." Ethan murmured, and then said louder for the others, namely Grandma Weir to hear. "The smoke man in the forest, who had us trapped in that fire prison. He acted like he knew me and Benny...it said it knew our predecessors and that we're doomed."

Ethan looked up into the tense eyes of Benny's grandmother. "Do my parents have magical blood too?"

"I don't believe so." Evelyn answered sadly. "...Sometimes it skips a generation or two. I knew your mother's and your father's parents. Your grandmother on your mother's side was gifted with fire magic but died far before her time, when your mother had just graduated from high school. Your father's great, great grandfather who passed away decades ago, was a great wizard who excelled in dark premonitions, marksmanship, and the healing arts."

"Dark premonitions?"

"He saw the coming of great conflict." Evelyn explained. "The future deaths of the people of Whitechapel, and the darkest secrets of supernatural beings he met in battle. He too died young, just after his first child was born. It was thanks to him, Liam Morgan, and a few others in the magical community of Whitechapel that this town has persevered as long as it has."

Ethan let that sink in for a moment then stood up with a sigh. Well, at least that explained where his magic genes had come from.

"Jesse must have been the one who killed him." Ethan uttered quietly, and his words got the rapt attention of Rory and Sarah, who had previously been listening in silence. "He said once that he knew my grandfather's grandfather, and that he was a loser like me."

"It's very possible." Grandma Weir sighed.

"Mrs. Weir! Ethan's not a complete loser!"

"I meant the part about Jesse and his great great grandfather, Rory." Grandma closed her eyes and wondered nor for the first time how the little blonde boy had made it this long in the world they lived in.

"Oh..."

"I don't know if whoever did this got into the house." Ethan turned towards his back door. "I'm going into see if they left anything...or took anything. I need to check out my room."

"Let me come with you." Grandma Weir said, and Ethan only smiled wearily as he opened the back door and headed in ahead of her.

"E, should I try and sniff around for them?" Rory asked suddenly, and the earnest concern in his voice made Ethan feel a little better, and so grateful that he had the friends he did. "I know my nose is probably nothing like a werewolf's...well, maybe I can just take a look in the trees for tracks or-"

"It's alright, Rory." Ethan answered, and looked back with a grateful look to his blonde friend. Rory was always eager to help and follow directions, but rarely offered suggestions himself. He must've been worried about him. "Thanks. I think I'll just look around here for a minute. Maybe they took off to my aunt Sally's or something. I haven't checked my phone in forever, you know?"

"Alright." Rory nodded. "Just call if you need me."

"I can come and look too?" Sarah offered her help, and Ethan didn't want to feel it...but he hadn't felt right since leaving Benny at the hospital, and suddenly the thought of her caring for Jesse, despite all the things he'd done, sickened him. He didn't want to feel that way, it was so hypocritical, but after hearing what he did from Grandma Weir, he knew...knew in his bones that Jesse had killed his however-many-greats grandfather.

And knew that just as he could not bring himself to hate Sylvan...maybe Sarah couldn't bring herself to hate Jesse as much as she said she did.

"It's alright." Ethan decided to be honest. "I'd feel a lot better if you just went home Sarah. I don't feel right about this."

About any of this, he added in his mind.

"If your sure..." Sarah answered after a moment, looking a little hurt. "I'm sure everything's fine, Ethan. Don't worry about it, thing's will turn out."

"Yeah." Ethan smiled tightly, and before she turned, he leant over and gave her a quick peck on the cheek. "Get home safe, okay? I'll text you tomorrow."

"Maybe then you can tell me what you guys meant about a smoke man and a forest fire." Sarah returned quietly, but gave him a small smile anyway. Then, she disappeared upwards and away, much like Rory had, in a flash of color.

"You know, I haven't seen or heard from your parents in a couple days at least." Grandma commented suddenly, as she walked around the empty house. "Maybe longer. How long has it been since you've spent a night at home, Ethan?"

"A few days?" Ethan answered, trying to recall the exact number of days. "Four? Ugh, I'm such a bad son...I guess, with everything that's been going on, I just...you know, forgot? Usually, my mom blows up my phone if I haven't been around for a few hours."

"They know you're always welcome in our home, Ethan." Grandma turned around and patted his cheek fondly. "You're not a bad son, you're just a teenager who's had a lot on his mind, and more on his shoulders." She smiled and Ethan felt a little better about the whole situation. "You're also like another grandson to me, and I couldn't be happier that you spend so much time with Benny. He needs you."

"Thanks. That means a lot." Ethan smiled back, and accepted a firm hug from the older lady before leading the way up the stairs.

Besides the smell of smoke, the house interior was undamaged, mostly due to Grandma Weir's calling of the fire department before the fire really got going. She hadn't seen who had done it-but had been passing by a window facing the Morgan house when it erupted in flames.

"Oh, thank god." Ethan gasped as he dug through the contents under his bed and pulled out the Cublie Animus. It had been sitting in the same place it had been after Ethan had re-hidden it when Sylvan found it so easily...granted, it wasn't the best of hiding places, but Ethan had sacrificed one of his mint-condition Star Wars collectible display cases in order to somewhat hide it in plain sight.

"If only things were as simple now as they were back then." Ethan sighed and stood up. "Back when we could suck all our problems into a magic box and bury it until we needed it again."

Seeing Ethan's downcast look, Evelyn put her arms around the boy's shoulders and led him back out into the hallway.

"It'll all turn out the way it's supposed to, Ethan. You'll see. We may not be able to change our circumstances, or the past." She looked at the seer wisely. "But we can work to make sure that the future tilts to our favor. Right now, your house is standing, your family is alive, and whoever did this failed to retrieve this magical item. So, let's focus on what we can do. Let's find your parents and your sister."

"Yeah..." Ethan nodded. "Okay."

It was with great care that Ethan checked each and every room in the house, and this is how he discovered the clothes and personal items missing from each of his family rooms. He also noticed the lack of lights turned on and the clean dishes already put away and the front door locked.

"It would seem they left by their own choice."

"Yeah, looks that way." Ethan answered, and reached out to touch the knob of the front door, wondering how long it had been since one of his parents or Jane had touched it last. "But why? They wouldn't leave without telling me- none of this makes any sense."

"Maybe this'll help." Grandma Weir and Ethan startled to hear a familiar weary voice from the other end of the hall. Near the laundry room, Benny stood with one crutch under his arm and a messily wrapped cloth sack in his other hand.

"Benny, you're supposed to be resting!"

"Benjamin, I remember specifically telling you not to get out of that bed." Evelyn sighed. "I remember giving you some tea before I left as well."

"While you sit up all night and worry?" Benny snorted and lazily drug himself over to the Morgan's couch, dropping the filthy package on the little coffee table. "And Grandma, I know what your knock-out tea smells like by now. E, Listen...I think Grandma may be able to open this safely. A lot safer than either of us, anyway."

"Open what safely?" Grandma inquired, and reached for the package, to which Benny and Ethan both reacted quickly and reached out to stop her. "Boys, what is this?"

"Something we found outside of town today." Ethan answered.

"It gives me serious creeps." Benny added. "It talked to me earlier...it whispered things in my mind, and whatever it was sounded like it was enjoying freaking me out."

"Did it sound malicious?" Grandma asked, not giving a second thought to whether or not her grandson had heard a voice coming from the cloth-wrapped object. She could feel already that this bundle held something dark.

"Not exactly..." Benny sat down heavily on the Morgan's living room couch. "It sounded more mischievous. Like it was trying to scare me...but still wanted us to find it. If that makes sense."

"Hmm." Evelyn Weir held up a hand and a white light beamed from her palm in an arc like a rainbow. It hit the bundle, and glowed a bit brighter before fading- the boys both looked at her expectantly.

"It's whispering to me as well." Grandma said after a moment. "It's laughing. It says we're fools to open it. At the same time, I didn't sense anything dangerous inside...it appears that the chest is the one doing the talking."

"How come I can't hear anything?" Ethan asked, perplexed. "Benny, can you hear anything?"

"Mm, it's just whispering rude things." Benny grabbed his side suddenly, and Ethan glanced over worriedly. Benny waved him off and leaned back into the couch cushions.

"Boys, I think whatever is in here can wait until morning." Grandma said firmly, and waved a hand over the chest, which began to levitate. It moved to her side and she gestured to the back door. "Ethan, if you want me to search for your parents, I'll put as much effort into it as I can by tonight. Come morning, I'll gather a volunteer or two and head out to do a more thorough search by more conventional means."

Ethan looked around one more time at his empty house, and nodded, before making sure Benny was able to stand without too much pain, and following Grandma Weir and the floating chest out the back door.

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Benny had dozed off sometime after Grandma's fifth attempt at a tracking spell. She had no blood samples to perform a variety of blood magic, but she did however have a tiny pink hairbrush somewhere in her room that Jane had brought over once and left behind. Wherever Jane was, they were all sure Ethan's other two parents would be.

But nothing had come from the crystal searching, or the tracking spell using a strand of Jane's hair. Nothing except useless spinning, circles and dead ends.

Now, having woken up to discover Ethan missing from his bedroom floor, Benny was feeling awful. His stitches hurt, and so did his eyes from lack of sleep, but somehow he'd woken up. The silence was unsettling.

"He's on the back porch." Benny heard a gentle voice from his doorway and turned to see his grandmother standing there, holding a steaming mug. "Did I wake you?"

"Uh, maybe?" Benny replied sleepily, and yawned "It's okay. How long has E been out there?"

"A while." Grandma replied noncommittally. "You could just see the tension in his shoulders, that poor child. He must be so worried."

I would be too, if you vanished suddenly, Benny admitted in his mind, but didn't voice the thought. He instead swung his legs off the bed and rubbed his burning eyes.

"I'll go check on him." Before he does something crazy, he mentally added, and padded across the room to give a short smile to his grandma.

"There's tea downstairs."

"Thanks."

Benny found Ethan on the back steps, like Grandma said. The seer appeared to be deep in thought, and didn't look up when Benny walked out onto the porch and down the steps. The spellmaster winced as he sat a foot or so away from the other teen, discreetly holding his side.

"Hey." Benny greeted quietly, and thought suddenly that maybe he should have left E to his own thoughts. Then he immediately felt stupid. No, he would stay no matter what mood E was in. If Ethan wanted to take off and look for his parents in the middle of the night, Benny would stop him from leaving, no matter how injured or tired he was. No matter what.

"Hey." Ethan greeted after a long pause, and looked over at Benny wearily. Weary not because of him, Benny was sure...but because it had been an overall disappointing and confusing day.

"I brought you some tea." Benny said, and placed the mug at Ethan's feet. Ethan was still wearing his Nike's, Benny noted.

"Thanks." Ethan gave a twitch of a smile and then sighed.

"We'll find them, E." Benny decided to dive right into the problem. "Come to bed. Stop staring into the trees, man, that's so emo."

"It's my family, Benny." E's voice wasn't mad, just numb. The seer reached for the steaming cup of tea and took what had to be a scalding gulp of the stuff. He set the mug back down and some of it sloshed out to run in a burning trail over his fingers.

"I know." Benny deflated at his attempts at humor being rebuffed. "Sorry, I didn't mean anything by that. Of course your scared, I'm sorry. But like Grandma said, we can do our own searching in the morning."

"I need to talk to him." Ethan swallowed hard and took in a shaky breath. He sat at the bottom steps of the Weir'd back porch. "My family is missing...it's too late to ask around the neighborhood at this hour...but I need to know now.

"E-"

"I need to know, and if even your Grandma can't find them with magic-"

"E, you need to calm down." Benny reached out and out a reassuring hand on Ethan's shoulder- ignoring his own nagging insecurities. Insecurities that asked him snidely him if that was something a just-friend would do.

"I can't Benny." Ethan rocked forward a little, lacing his fingers together, elbows on his knees. He brought his hands forward to bite gently at his knuckles. "I need to know now. Tonight. I need to find them, no matter what it takes...I...I need to-"

"Okay, okay..." Benny fought the sudden queasiness in his stomach and edged closer to his best friend. This feeling he got when being close to E was beginning to get on his nerves...why was he so nervous all the time? Nothing like this had ever occurred before, not in the twelve years they'd known each other. "E, just...j-just stop doing that."

Reaching out, he took Ethan's painfully clenched hands and gently pulled them apart, sad and unsurprised at the same time to see the small bite marks and drops of blood decorating his knuckles where he'd bitten them.

Oh man, E must really be stressed out...he hasn't seen Ethan like this since that time his dad had gotten into a minor car crash and had to be rushed into the hospital for a concussion. He and Ethan had been in science class, and Benny remembers vividly how awkward and sick he felt trying to comfort his best friend back then. He just sort of hovered, offering gentle words and subtle attempts at humor, in inexperienced attempts at comfort.

Now, in the present...here he was. He had just tried to make things better with a bit of humor, and failed. He felt helpless...but he had Ethan's hands in his own now.

Benny's body had frozen as he realized he'd just grabbed his best friends hands. He...had just grabbed someone's hands, not just anyone's, but Ethan's hands. For the first time ever. He couldn't even begin to process what that might of meant...he'd never-

'Oh god...he's looking at me.' Benny imagined his own face right then, with a sort of deer-in-the-headlights expression. He hadn't meant to reach out to Ethan. He just wanted to make him feel better...but who the hell was he to do something like this?

Back then, when Ethan had been silently freaking out over his injured father, Benny hadn't known what to do or what to say...what could he say to make anything better? He'd stood there wretchedly helpless as he hoped and prayed for Ethan's mom to hurry up and pick up Jane from her school, so she herself could come and comfort E.

Ethan's fingers were shaky and surprisingly cold. Benny's hands clenched them gently between his own fingers and the spellmaster's breath hitched somewhere near his stomach. Benny couldn't bear to meet the strange look Ethan was no doubt giving him, but instead pulled Ethan's hands fractionally closer to him, scooting forward slightly and turning on the steps to make it easier.

'What am I even doing?' Benny thought numbly. 'I'm not the right person to be doing this...who do I think I am? Sarah should be here, letting Ethan lean on her strong little shoulder.' The thoughts only made his stomach sink unpleasantly. He fought the consecutive urges to pull away and move closer at the same time. 'Sarah should be holding Ethan with her pretty little hands and perfect skin. Perfect hair...perfect everything. She's so beautiful, and nice...Sarah's great for E.'

Benny was now rubbing soothing circles into the backs of Ethan's hands. His own fingers moved almost without his permission, and he studied the way Ethan's bite marks healed and closed up slowly, slower than his other more serious injuries had.

"I-" The words caught in Benny's dry throat. He waited for the cold moment sure to come when Ethan would pull away from him. Which was only to be expected...Benny, after all, was the one acting weird.

'I've never had the urge to hold anyone's hands before, except maybe my Grandma's or dad's when I was younger.' Benny internally admitted to himself. 'Even with the crushes I've had, or with Della...I just sort of wanted their attention, but...'

Benny's face surely must have been the color of one of his grandma's garden tomatoes. He felt lightheaded...and above everything else, he wanted to comfort Ethan. He didn't want him to be scared or stressed out. What could he do? Was the hand-holding helping?

"I-" Benny began again. His entire body had gone icy and hot at the same time. It took all he had to choke out his next words without stuttering, though he was sure something in his voice still gave his nervousness away when he admitted, "I want to make you feel better."

Why had he said that? That sounded weird! It, however, was the truth. Benny pulled back his hands then as though burned, and fought himself to stay seated where he was and not move away. He didn't feel uncomfortable, no...he was worried that Ethan did.

"I just...don't know how." Benny confessed in a quiet voice. "I know your family is missing, E. I know it's killing you, and you feel like you can't rest until you know they're safe."

'That's the way I felt when you were attacked that night.' Benny didn't bring voice to this thought. "But you have to understand...sometimes you can't do things as certain times. You can't just take off in the middle of the night to see that...monster." Benny sputtered the last couple words. "I can't let you. I can't let you put yourself into the middle of a dangerous situation too. Not tonight, at least. Please..."

Benny hung his head then, feeling embarrassed and irrationally hurt for some reason. Of course, Ethan could and probably would do whatever he wanted...but did he think Benny would just sit back and take that? Hell no! Didn't he think of how Benny would feel, did he even know what it was like for him, when he worried about Ethan? Benny had never told him...never planned to tell him.

Damn, what should he do now?! He hadn't meant to make any of this about himself...what could he do? What had he needed when he'd been so worried and stressed about something?

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"I didn't mean to fire that crossbow, dang it!" Benny fell to his knees and searched frantically along the ground, sweeping his hands through the grass and twigs. "Gotta find it..." The boy muttered, alarmingly oblivious to the odd looks his best friend was shooting him. "Gonna kill me...gut me then sew me back into it!"

"Benny, its okay." Ethan said, holding up his hands in what was meant to be a calming gesture as Benny began tugging on his glistening dark curls. It had started to drizzle now, the air tinted with mist. "Don't freak yourself out."

Benny's intake of air gradually slowed to relatively normal pace. He slumped against Ethan, taking deep breaths. "Okay..."

The seer had thrown one arm around his friend in a last-ditch effort to calm him before he went and did something crazy in his desperation. Ethan's arms shivered from the cold, and he pulled away, rubbing his arms, which were now slippery from the mist.

"I'm such a disappointment." Benny muttered, angry at himself and feeling worse than he had in a long time. As he spoke, his voice broke a little and he drew his knees up to his chest in a rare show of vulnerability. "I'm stupid. I can never do anything right. I screw everything up…"

Ethan frowned unhappily at Benny's apparent loathing regret and low opinion of himself. The shorter of the two teens plopped down on the wet grass next to his friend and again put an arm around him, a bit awkwardly since it wasn't something he did normally.

"You don't mess everything up Benny. You make everything better." Ethan gave a small but truthful smile and shook the spellmaster's shoulders a bit. "You've always been there for me, even when things got really rough. I'm gonna be here for you, okay? Everything'll be okay."

After a minute or two of trying to control the worst of his guilt, Benny allowed himself to be comforted by the one great friend he knew would always stick by him. Hugging Ethan was something foreign to him...but it was as comforting and warm as any hug his grandma could give him.

It felt awesome knowing Ethan would always be in his corner. As they let go of the rare moment of physical affection, they grinned at each other, knowing each other's thoughts without asking.

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Upon vividly remembering the time that he'd lost the wooden-silver arrow, Benny realized that Ethan had comforted him, back then. Either E didn't think much of it, or he went against his own discomfort in order to try and soothe Benny. He'd put an arm around him, and gave a valiant attempt at cheering him up through his self-afflicted despair. The memory gave him a warm feeling.

But still, even that memory didn't compare to the time that Ethan almost lost his life to Ethan's werewolf sire. Benny had been panicked beyond a right frame of mind back then, realizing for the first time how empty his life would be without Ethan in it. Realizing that he'd rather die himself than watch his best friend bleed out.

He'd been inconsolable. He'd not slept properly for ages after that, haunted by nightmares of a world where his best friend no longer existed. He'd slept in the same bed as Ethan, held his unresponsive hand when he'd gotten too scared, and he'd paid less than no mind to what anyone looking would think of it. Was that what Ethan was feeling? Was the worry he felt causing him a sick and cold pain in his stomach? Like it had to him?

There had been so many other times as well that Ethan had offered physical contact...like on Benny's birthday, or that embarrassing time Benny had gotten overly emotional about the way Ethan hadn't been around so much...and E had grabbed him from behind and embraced him as it rained down on them.

A minute or so had passed in a tense but not uncomfortable silence. Benny was just gathering up the courage to reach out again and maybe put an arm or two around his friend, like Ethan had done for him, when Ethan gave a small but minutely happier chuckle. A sound just under his breath that expressed deep thought. And then Ethan was the one to reach out this time, placing one of the very same hands Benny had held just mere minutes ago on Benny's wrist.

"I won't leave." Ethan said simply, and then straightened up finally, from how he'd previously been stopped over at an almost painful angle. He smiled and Benny's face flushed for no good reason other than the fact that Ethan's brown eyes weren't wild and hopelessly frightened anymore. They weren't happy, exactly...but they were the eyes of his best friend who'd once told him that everything would turn out okay.

"E...Ethan." Benny really hadn't meant to say his friends full name as well as his nickname, but that's the way it came out. "Everything'll be okay."

He fought the urge to say that he'd make it okay. He'd make sure this time. After all his screw-ups in the past, he owed it to Ethan. He had a responsibility as a best friend...and he'd never stop wanting to make it up to Ethan for screwing his life up so royally.

Then, Ethan nodded and squeezed his arm one last time. The seer stood on shaky, somehow overly fatigued legs and helped Benny to stand up as well, without causing too much pain to his leg or side. As they walked in the house, leaving Ethan's mug laying forgotten, Benny locked the back door and said a simple intruder alert spell to put his mind at ease. The spell took a lot out of him, because he put a lot into it, but that was okay, because Ethan watched him with eyes like a hawk as he trudged up the stairs afterwards.

'Next time.' Benny thought sleepily, and happily as well as he saw E climb into his usual sleeping bag on the floor. 'Maybe next time I'll get a chance to show him that I care about him too.'

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AN: Sliiigghht filler, but I felt it needed to happen. Anyway, summer is coming to a close and I'm both sad because I'll miss the green adorable trees, fluffy clouds, blue skies and warm breezes...but fuck, I live next to like two lakes and several ponds, and the mosquitoes are hell. Plus, you guys know I love Halloween and all things creepy!

If you wanna hear one personal creepy story that happened rather recently, be sure to check out my story 'Five Nights at Jesse's' or just the AN at the end. The story FNAJ itself is such a joy to write, as it is Rory-centric with a fair amount of Jesse!

Anyway, as always, please review! Expect great things from me in October guys! Or, at least semi-decent things. :L

Hope you're all having a great summer! Stay safe.

Uploaded: August 21st, 2017, 5:00 AM