"Selene!"

The albino looked up from her book, her eyes landing on Aaron, who looked like he was about to have a heart attack. "Are you okay?"

He shook his head and clung to her like a koala. "I have to go on a plane in half an hour."

Her eyes widened. "That's right. You're flying out to see your grandmother today." He nodded and she pet his hair, marking her place in her book. She closed it so she could turn her full attention on him. "It's going to be okay. You're not going to die."

"You don't know that!" He snapped, his anxiety and fear making him more irritable than usual. He sighed. "I'm sorry, I'm just-"

"Nervous." Selene finished, petting him again. "It's fine. I get it. You know I get the same way with snakes." Despite the fact that the rest of her family either absolutely adored snakes or was pretty neutral about them, Selene hated the scaly things. They just creeped her out.

The half hour passed quicker than Selene had been expecting it to and probably quicker than Aaron had wanted it to. He clung to her for a few more minutes, shaking. Finally, he stood up holding her hand. "If I never see you again, I love you." He dropped her hand and walked away.

Selene blinked and stared after him. "I love you too…? I guess..." With that in mind, she went back to her book and put her headphones on, tapping a tune from one of her favorite songs on her thigh. It wasn't until her shoulder was being shaken violently that she realized she'd tuned out the world and school had ended. The albino got up and followed her twin to the main hallway. "Honestly, get a room." Selene hissed, staring at the couple in disdain, her stomach churning and feeling like it was about to explode. The couple being glared at didn't hear her, but Brittany followed her sister's gaze and snickered. "Jealous, sis?"

Selene scoffed at the notion and turned her attention to her twin. "No. They're disgusting."

Brittany chuckled, twisted delight shining in her eyes. "How so?" She was trying desperately to hold back a mocking smile.

The albino crossed her arms, her eyes narrowing at her twin sister. "You know very well how I view couples that make out in the hallways."

"I suppose showing affection would be strange to someone like you." Brittany agreed, grinning widely as her twin sent her an 'I'm going to kill you' look.

"It's not the affection!" Selene protested. "I don't care if they kiss and hold hands and things like that, but don't eat each other's faces in front of me."

"Oh, you mean like this?" Selene looked over just in time to see her sister passionately kissing her boyfriend. The albino groaned, rolled her eyes and stormed away. Brittany released her significant other and chased after her fuming sister, cackling. "You know you love me!" She grabbed her twin's arm.

Selene threw her sister's hand off and glared at her. "You're despicable."

Brittany ignored the insult, grinning wickedly. "You're jealous!" She singsonged.

Selene's ruby red eyes narrowed, her gaze locked onto her sister's. "Is that the fourth or fifth boyfriend this month? Does dad know about your reckless love life?"

Brittany's laughter stopped, the sound being almost snapped off and her icy blue eyes narrowed. "Dad doesn't know jack squat about me in general."

"Maybe if you actually talked to him, he might."

The blonde scowled and followed her sister outside, pushing her way through the crowd of students attempting to leave the school. Her gaze was drawn to a man to looked a lot like her father, but something was off. "Who's that?"

"What do you mean 'who's that?' Can't you recognize your own ex?"

Brittany scowled, the mention of this particular ex bothering her. Things hadn't ended well between them, Selene remembered suddenly. "Not her!" Brittany finally found her voice, grabbed her sister's head and directed her gaze to the strange man. "Him!"

"Oh, that's the guy who spontaneously showed up at mom's, remember?" Selene replied nonchalantly. Was she supposed to care that he was there? "We freaked mom out and she made us stay our rooms until he was gone."

Brittany huffed. "Yes, I remember! But why is he here?"

Her sister shrugged. "I don't know."

"You're no help at all. Did mom ever say what his name is?"

"No. I don't really care what his name is."

"Maybe you should!" She looked again. "Crap."

Selene looked up, her interest drawn. "What?"

"I think he sees us," Brittany replied simply, standing awkwardly as the man spotted them and waved. "Why isn't he coming over here?"

"Do you actually want someone like that to get within arms reach of us?"

"Well... no."

"Then what's the problem?"

"He's being creepy!"

"He does that sometimes." A new voice behind them said and both girls jumped, turning to see a man who looked unsettlingly similar to their uncle. He sent them a shark-like grin, revealing a missing tooth. "Hey, girls. Name's Allen, so don't go and confuse me with your uncle. Porkchop ain't half the man I am."

"Enough Al. You're scaring them." The blond man gripped their shoulders and turned them away from Allen. "You can just ignore him. That's what I do."

"Hey!"

The girls wrenched themselves out of the blond's grip, backing away from him. He shook his head, smiling slightly. "Honestly girls. I'm not going to hurt you."

There'd be too many witnesses. Selene thought wildly, her mind racing. They had to get away from these two. She clutched her sister's hand, interlocking their fingers to make sure she had a good grip.

Allen came over and looped an arm around Brittany's waist. "Nah, he won't lay a finger on either of you. He's too head over heels in love with your mom to do anything to the two of you. Now, me on the other hand," He shrugged. "I just might hurt you, if you don't behave."

The blond frowned. "Allen quit it."

"Why don't you make me?"

The blond sighed. "If we cause a scene here, we're not going to be able to do anything."

Allen shrugged. "You're the one who wants to go through with this, James."

"It was your idea!" James shot back, his eyes narrowing.

Brittany gently picked Allen's arm off her waist and ducked under it to get away. He was too busy arguing with James to girls began to back away, pausing every few steps to see if either man noticed what they were doing. Finally, they couldn't take it anymore. Hearts pounding, they turned and bolted down the sidewalk. "Hey!" They ignored the surprised exclamation from the two men and pushed their way through a crowd of students. Many grumbled in annoyance while others simply ignored them or moved out of their way.

Selene was having trouble keeping up with her sister. Brittany had always been the athlete of the family, leaving the rest of her kin to go run a marathon or hike a mountain. Even now, the blonde girl was outpacing her twin, shoving people out of the way and careening around corners. The albino's foot caught on a rock and she tripped, the skin on her hands and elbows getting scraped off. Her breath hissed out between her teeth as she sat up, but she felt something prick her neck and she reached up, pulling a tranquilizer out of her skin. She stared at it for what was probably less than a minute but felt like an eternity. Her vision swam and then went black.

Maddy jumped as her phone rang. She wasn't used to people calling her, most people she talked to just texted her. She picked the phone up, her mind beginning to race as she saw the caller ID. "Matthew? What's up?"

"Are the girls with you?"

"What? I Thought they were with you. Don't they usually pick their things up from there before they come over here?" To be completely honest, she'd almost forgotten the girls were coming over that weekend. All three of them were coming and leaving their brothers at home because Bell had wanted to spend some time with just her mother and sisters. Brittany hadn't liked the idea but had decided to go along with it.

"Yeah, they usually do, but they haven't shown up yet and I thought, maybe they just took their stuff with them to school and headed straight over there."

She shook her head, even though he couldn't see. "No, they're not here. Like I said, I thought they were with you." Despite how calm she sounded, she was actually freaking out. If the girls weren't with Matthew and hadn't gotten here yet, then where were they? Had something happened to them? Her phone beeped. "Matthew, hold on, I've got another call."

"What? But this is important!"

"The other one might be too." She clicked over to the other line before he could argue. "Hello?"

"Is Bell with you?" Lovino asked. He sounded out of breath like he'd just run all over town looking for something. Or someone.

Dread was forming a deep pit in her stomach. "No, I figured she was still on the plane or something."

"She was supposed to call me when she got off the plane, but she hasn't called yet and she's usually out of the airport by now."

That wasn't completely true. Abelia was usually really good about calling her father to let him know she was off the plane. Every few times, however, she forgot to do it as soon as she left the airport and just called him a little later with some excuse. "Then where is she?"

"How am I supposed to know? I'm not in the same country as her!"

She hung up and sat down before she could fall down. Her stomach churned and she suddenly felt like she was going to throw up. Where were her children? Obviously, something had happened, but what? Despair and anger clashed as she got up, pacing back and forth. She wanted to hurt someone, but couldn't take her mind off the pain curling around her heart. The last time she'd felt like this had been when Brittany had gone missing and that revelation didn't help her mood. Her head was spinning and it was hard to focus. She got up, making her way to the kitchen.

Matthew found her hurling glasses at the wall. Blood was seeping from scratches on her hands and arms, he assumed those were from stray shards of glass. Every step she took left bloody footprints on the tile floor. "What are you doing?" He yelled, grabbing her arm before she could chuck another glass against her wall.

"What the hell does it look like I'm doing?" She snapped, tearing her arm out of his grasp and succeeding in her mission to break the glass. She reached for yet another glass, but her energy seemed to run out or maybe the blood loss was finally taking effect because she leaned heavily against the counter, her vision swimming. "God damn it.." She muttered, pushing herself up and out of the kitchen, a trail of blood following her to the couch. Matthew ran to the bathroom, grabbed medical supplies and crouched down next to the couch. "This is all my fault." She mumbled as he knelt next to her.

"It's not your fault." He snapped, knowing how she got when she was upset like this. The smallest thing became the focus of her logic and somehow, she always managed to make things her fault. He examined her feet, pulling out the bigger shards and applying hydrogen peroxide. "You're lucky these didn't cut deeper. You almost needed stitches."

"I can handle stitches." She replied, not looking at him, not even flinching as he pulled the glass out of her skin. "And yeah, it is my fault." Maddy tried hard not to cry as that realization sunk in fully. This was all her fault. She knew exactly who had kidnapped her children. That was all it could be, after all, because they would've called or shown up by now otherwise.

"How is it your fault?" Matthew asked, calmly finishing bandaging her feet and helped her sit up. He gently grabbed her wrist and began pulling glass out of her hand and arm. She flinched, her breath hissing out through her teeth and she drew her arm back. He watched her, his heart pounding. "Sorry." She shook her head and looked away from him, her eyes unfocused. He resumed his task, trying to ignore the way his stomach was getting all fluttery. He refused to voice his earlier question again, mostly because it looked like she was trying to figure what to say.

"I know who took them." She mumbled finally, still not looking at him.

He froze, her fingers poised out to apply more antibiotics to her arm. "H-how?" His mind raced. "Who took them? Are you suggesting they were abducted because I think you're jumping to conclusions. They may have just gotten into an accident or stuck in traffic."

She shook her head stubbornly. "No, Matthew, that's not what happened. If they had gotten into an accident, we would've heard it on the news or gotten a call from the hospital. If they were stuck in traffic, one of them would've called to let us know."

"Maybe their phones are dead."

"They're teenage girls. Their phones are not dead."

His eyes narrowed. "Alright, fine. They were abducted. By who?"

She looked like she was about to respond, but his phone rang. He sent it to voicemail, mentally decreeing that it was nothing. A minute later, it rang again and he stood, irritation sparking. This better be important. "Hello?"

"Matty, you need to come see this!"

"Al, I'm kind of busy."

"No, Arthur did a spell and something happened. You need to see this. Now."

"Al-" The American had already hung up, leaving his brother in silence.

"That sounded important," Maddy muttered, adjusting a bandage. "You should go."

"Quit picking at it," Matthew replied, watching her mess with the cotton. He sighed and ran a hand through his hair. "Are you… going to be okay?"

"I'll be just peachy." She snapped, the sarcasm and anger dripping from her voice like venom. "Get going."

He rolled his eyes and left, driving until he got back to the house. Why had Arthur been doing magic? Matthew shook his head and pushed the door open, locking it behind him. He didn't really need to worry about that sort of thing, but it was a habit he'd picked up from Maddy and had unintentionally passed down to his children. "Alright, Al. I'm here. What is it I needed to see?" He was nearly tackled to the ground and stumbled, catching himself on a wall. "What is wrong with you?"

Alfred grabbed his brother's arm and dragged him towards the kitchen. "I just- You- you just- you need to see this. I don't know... h-how to explain." He seemed at a loss for words, which was what tipped Matthew off that maybe this was actually a big deal. Alfred was hardly ever speechless. The two made their way into the kitchen and stopped, seeing Arthur gaping at a form on the floor. The figure sat up, brunette tresses falling to her shoulders and caramel brown eyes watching the three of them curiously.

"Hey, guys." She was tackled in a hug by Alfred. Matthew couldn't decide if his brother was about to cry or smile. Arthur was staring at the girl warily, as he wasn't sure she was real.

Matthew's head spun. What had Arthur done? Why was she here? She was supposed to be dead!

"Brittany?"