Salem was old fashioned enough to not have any Laundromats open on a Sunday. I had to fly all the way to New Jersey to find one that was open. After sneaking my things into someone else's wash, I passed the time by trying to salvage my sketchbook. I painstakingly peeled each page apart one by one. It took a little while, but, by the time the lady was throwing her clothes - and mine - into the dryer, I'd saved all the pages in the sketchbook that could be saved. I didn't bother to try too hard with the notebook. I just made sure that the pages whose writing had survived was accessible. After that I basically said fuck it. Not much later, the clothes were dry and the lady was folding them.

I'd chosen an older woman, one who obviously had vision problems. Don't blame me. I knew that they'd become visible during the wash and I didn't want to run the risk of someone noticing my things. So an old lady who could barely see six inches from her nose was perfect. While she was busy folding her own clothes, I snatched mine out of the basket and snuck out the door.

It wasn't quite sunset yet, but it was getting pretty close. Maybe another half hour before the sky started looking like a watercolor palette had spilled across it. I tucked my things into my now clean bag before slinging it over my shoulder. Do you ever take clothes fresh out of the dryer, like right after it finishes? They smell amazing and they're so freaking warm. My shower coupled with the newly clean set of clothing in my bag made me feel cleaner than I had in a while, especially in comparison to how I'd woken up that morning. Or... afternoon.

I hadn't spent much time in New Jersey since becoming immortal, no real need to in my opinion. Honestly, the only thing that had ever intrigued me about the entire state was Hoboken. Or, more specifically, Carlo's Bakery. Aside from Buddy Valastro's baked goods - cannolis! - I'd thought there was nothing cool in Jersey. Then again, I was one of the people who had a complete distaste for 'Jersey Shore'. I had no desire to be faced with 500 Snookies. I may have changed my mind about the place, though. I was supposed to spend the summer after I'd turned 21 here with my cousin. Instead, I'd spent it abroad and invisible.

I took a look around me. In all honesty, the city I was in was didn't look any different from any other American city. In the two decades since I'd become immortal, technology had kept up it's pace of improvement. The world was still run by money, but life was a little easier because of all the tech. However, it was starting to feel like the Jetsons. Don't get me wrong, houses were still built out of wood, roads were still made of asphalt, cars were still formed from metal. There was just a lot more technology. Wherever I was now was no different.

That's why I liked immortal hangouts so much. It was sort of like time didn't exist there. Salem, Legends, Jack's place, the Pole, the Warren, Punjam Hy Loo, Berzee, Shady's castle, the Treehouse - they were all separate from the present, in their own way. On one hand, the majority of them hadn't changed since the day an immortal had claimed or found them. On the other, they also advanced as new technologies were discovered. You could see the entirety of history in some of them, all at once. Best of all, they stayed the same, no matter what was happening with the rest of the world. I'm hopelessly nostalgic, sue me.

Anyway, I called my wings and took off heading back towards Sam's house. About ten minutes after taking flight, the winds showed up. I mean, they were already there, they were always there, but their consciousness wasn't always around. I mean, it was around but it wasn't - I mean they weren't - oh, you know that I mean! Anyway, they started talking to me out of the blue.

"Where are you heading?" Their voice was as breathy and distant as usual, but the curiosity I could usually discern when they were asking a question wasn't there. Instead there was something else.

"To Salem, Massachusetts. Why?" I couldn't figure out why, but they were acting weird. By which I mean the inflection in their voice wasn't how it usually was. I'd figured out what was weird about their tone. They'd asked the question more out of concern than curiosity like usual. What was up with them?

"Jack Frost has been looking for you for a few days. He asked us to find you."

Wait, what? If Jack wanted to find me, he usually just showed up at my house, which is where I spent most of my time. Granted, I hadn't been there since early Friday, but still. He knew I hung out with Sam a lot, and at Legends the rest of the time - if I wasn't out traveling that is. "Okay... Well, tell him that I'll be at Sam's house."

"We will." Without another word they soared off to wherever Jack most likely was.

I shook my head, wondering why they'd been so weird about it. Whatever. If the winds were gonna get all worked up over something, then they could be my guest. What I was wondering about was why Jack would have sent them after me. I mean, the winds kept tabs on where most of us were and would usually tell us where any of the others were if we were looking for someone in particular. They wouldn't tell us if someone was looking for us though. They may have been as nosy as Mosy and as eager to gossip, but they still knew how to keep quiet. And they didn't care one way or the other most of the time. So for them to actually seek out one of us at another's request, and tell us that we were being searched for, was unheard of. So what was going on?

Whatever it was, I could ask Jack later. If he was so eager to get a hold of me, then he was likely to show up at Sam's house within the next few hours. I could address it then. In the meantime, I had clean clothes to change into and hair to finish drying. I still had the towel I'd borrowed from Sam wrapped around my head like a turban. One thing had always been consistent with my hair, and that was that it took forever to dry. I'd probably still have a wet braid whenever I left Sam's eventually, come to think of it. And yes, it would be in a braid. No way was I going to leave it down when I was going to be flying. If I did that I'd get back to my place with a bird's nest on my head, and then no amount of brushing would be able to de-tangle it. The down-sides of having long hair, I suppose.

In any case, it didn't take me long to get back to the old sector of Salem. The sun hadn't even set all of the way by the time I landed in the middle of the street. Well, I didn't actually land in the middle of the street, I sort of touched down out of the way in the shadows... What? I didn't want my believers to see me wearing clothes that obviously weren't mine, with my hair twisted up in a towel and still looking like I was partially hung-over. Even though my headache was long gone, I still looked like I'd become a little too friendly with a bartender. It wasn't vanity that made me hide, but rather the fact that I'd be beyond embarrassed if any of them saw me. I know that any lie I could come up with wouldn't convince them. At all. Just because I don't do regrets, doesn't mean I don't feel shame every now and then. Besides, I didn't want to be a bad influence. Well, not that kind of a bad influence anyway.

I glanced around to make sure no one was around before sprinting to Sam's front door and darting inside. I stood on the other side of it tensed up and holding my breath, praying that no one had seen me. Well, no one that could see me in the first place. After a minute when I was sure that I was good I let out the breath I'd been holding and my shoulders sagged in relief. I turned around to be met with the half bemused, half teasing face of one Halloween spirit. "What -"

I held up a hand to stop him. "Don't even ask." I shook my head. I took another breath and let it out, resetting myself a little. "I'm commandeering the bathroom again." I immediately headed for said bathroom and closed the door firmly behind me. A moment later I was pulling on my familiar clothes and feeling so much better for it. Have you ever borrowed someone else's clothes that, not only were the wrong size, but felt somewhat awkward to be in? I mean, I know a lot of girls go around wearing their boyfriend's clothes, and girls with lots of brothers sometimes get their hand-me-downs, but this was just off. Slipping into my own clothes felt so much more right with the world, you know? Don't get me wrong, I have some 'guy's clothes' back at the Treehouse, but I wore them in a way that felt normal. Not to mention that I'd broken them in by now. But Sam's band shirt was a crew-neck, which I'd always hated. I felt like they were choking me. So I was glad to be out of it, plus the pants would not stay rolled no matter what I did.

I folded Sam's clothes and set them on the rim of the sink. Then I unraveled my hair from the towel-turban. Even hours later, it was still damp, but that wasn't really a surprise. I ran my fingers through the tangled mop as best I could, but since there was no brush or comb, it was a hack-job. I pulled a hair-tie out of my bag and quickly French-braided my hair, hoping that it would stay controlled more or less. Also, knowing my hair, once it dried, it'd be wavy and gorgeous. Once I was all set I emerged from the bathroom carrying my borrowed clothes with me.

Sam was where I'd left him, which was to say, watching something on T.V. "Hey, where do you want me to put these?" I lifted the clothes he'd lent me to bring emphasis to them.

He glanced back at me. "Just sit them somewhere. I'll take care of them later."

"'Kay." I walked over to the table and all but threw the bundle onto the nearest chair. When I turned around I took a closer look at what he was watching. It looked familiar, but I didn't recognize it. It was definitely a Jim Henson movie, though. I could tell from how the puppets looked. I plopped down on the couch next to Sam as I continually tried to guess the movie. A minute or so later, I saw part of a scene that basically told me what it was. I grinned wickedly at Sam and waited for him to notice.

A moment or two later, when he glanced my way and saw my grin, his eyebrows immediately scrunched together in confusion. "Whaaat?" Between me and Jack, Sam knew all too well what a devious grin could mean. And it usually wasn't anything good.

I looked him dead in the eye as I said the one thing I knew for certain about the movie. "You remind me of the babe."

Something flickered in his eyes a split second before a grin appeared on his face to match my own. "What babe?" He said it all jokingly innocent as if he really didn't know what I was talking about. He so did.

"The babe with the power." I said it as as-a-matter-of-factly as was possible.

"What power?"

I leaned closer and narrowed my eyes, even though my grin was still as big as Jack's trademark one. "The power of voodoo."

"Who do?" He leaned in as well as he said his line.

I pointed at him, still grinning. "You do."

He paused for a second and I saw a challenge in his eyes. "Do what?"

I hesitated, knowing he was daring me to continue. It's on. "Remind me of the babe." He leaned back, and started laughing. A lot. Like, he was laughing so hard that he couldn't talk. He almost fell forward but caught himself by flinging out an arm and grabbing the coffee table. He raised his other hand for a high-five and I gladly accepted. I was laughing too. Mostly at how hard he was laughing. "Don't kill me, but I've never seen this movie before."

Just like that, his laugh cut off and he stared at me incredulously. "You've never seen Labyrinth?" I shook my head. "But you know the opening of Dance Magic."

"I know that because it's awesome. And I know the epicness of Labyrinth because it's a Jim Henson film. It's actually the last one he worked on before he died."

"Wait." He shifted a little and braced his elbow on the back of the couch. "You've seen the Neverending Story, you've seen the Dark Crystal, you've seen the Secret of Nimh, you've seen the Black Cauldron... and you've never seen Labyrinth?"

I shook my head again. "Nope. My mom wouldn't let me get it from Family Video when I was younger so I never even knew about it. However, once I got older I learned just how awesome of a movie it was - well, how awesome it's pedigree was - but I just... never got around to actually watching it."

"Yeah, well, you're not leaving my house until you do." He reached for the remote and went back to the main menu. "I'm starting this over from the beginning."

I smiled to myself and laughed a little. I think I'm rubbing off on him. Well, it's not like I was going anywhere anyway. "Oh, hey, that reminds me. Jack might show up relatively soon."

Sam shot me a look. "Why?"

"Apparently he's been looking for me."

He turned back to the movie and proceeded to re-start the film. "And you know this because?"

"The winds told me. They were really weird about it too. Actually, it was just weird that they told me about it at all." I shrugged. "Anyway, I had them pass on that I was heading here, so Jack should be here whenever he gets the message."

"Any idea why he's been looking for you?"

"I'm going to assume it's because I dropped off the grid." I looked at him pointedly.

"Good point." He set the remote on the table after hitting one more button on it. He then leaned back and made himself comfortable. "Now shush and watch the movie that you've never seen but really should have a long time ago."

"Alright, Mr. Passive-Aggressive." He rolled his eyes but smiled anyway. As the movie started playing, I thought of just how lucky I was to have a friend like Sam. Not many people would go as far as he had last night - I mean two nights ago. Actually, most of the friends I'd had when I was mortal would have just dropped me off at my house and called me in the morning to make sure I was alive. My friends now wouldn't have done much different. However, Sam, knowing that he wouldn't be able to do the drop off option, decided to instead nurse me back to health... in a less than pampering way.

It felt like I'd known Sam my whole life, to be honest. Like one of those friends that grew up next door to you and you never once grew apart... I never had one of those friends back when I was mortal. I'd always been a loner, and I was fine with that, I really was, but... I don't know. Sometimes I'd wanted to be able to show up unannounced at one of my friends' doorstep and just be able to hang out, you know? I had friends, but they had their own lives, even when I still had one too. I'd always felt like their world was separate from my own.

I really don't think I was that far off either. I'd spent the majority of my time on earth with my nose in a book, my head in the clouds, a pencil in my hand, and ear-buds pumping music straight to my brain. I guess that's why I was Story Tale now instead of some other legend. But, with my senses so otherwise occupied by stories, the real world sort of faded away, as did the people in it. It hadn't occurred to me back then, but I'd been lonely. I think that's why I was so invested in my stories. But with Sam - and Jack - well... I didn't really feel like that anymore. Yeah, from time to time I still felt a little cut off - and that was with the knowledge that I'd been the one who had done the cutting. But, all in all, Sam and Jack were the closest I'd ever gotten to anybody. Ever. Even including Caeden and Tanya. The thought was equally as depressing as it was comforting.

I was abruptly pulled out of my thoughts when my stomach growled. Loudly. For a moment I was confused about what the sound was... until I realized that I hadn't eaten since the meal I'd had at Shady's castle. Sam glanced at me with his eyebrows raised questioningly. "Hungry?"

"Apparently. I actually just realized I haven't eaten for about five days... so I'd say I'm overdue for sustenance." My stomach grumbled again as if to emphasize my statement. I looked down at the noisemaker that was my digestive system. Shut up, would you?

Sam stood up and started for his kitchen. "I'll make you something."

"Dude, you don't need to do that." I turned and rested my arm on the back of the couch while I watched him ignore me.

"Even we can't live on candy alone. Besides, as nutritious as the hangover mix may be, it's not going to do you any good if you don't eat." I opened my mouth to retort but another grumble from my stomach interrupted me. "See? Watch the movie while I cook."

"I can make my own food, Sam. I'm a grown ass woman and immortal for crying out loud." I stood up and started to follow him. Before I even finished the first step I halted, picked up the remote, and paused the movie. I turned and walked to the kitchen and all but pushed him out of the way.

He pushed me back, albeit with much less force. "Technically, it's my food, considering that I'm the one who acquired it in the first place."

"But who's going to be eating it?"

"Are we seriously fighting over who is going to cook food for you?"

"Yes, because you insist on going out of your way for me when you don't need to."

He paused and stared at me. "That's what this is about."

"I'm up, I'm about, I'm fine now, I can take care of myself. Thank you for basically the entire weekend, but I can handle my own well being ninety-nine percent of the time." I pulled a pan out of the cabinet and set it on the stove top. "That includes preparing my own sustenance." He stood back for a second while I searched through his cabinets for a boxed dinner to make. Once I'd pulled one out and set it on the counter, he basically lifted me off the ground, walked me to the couch, and plopped me down on it. With me struggling the entire way. Sam was seriously strong... then again, I wasn't, so it wasn't that hard. "What the heck!"

He pointed at me sternly. "Sit down, shut up, watch the movie," His finger shifted from me to the television. "And let someone do something nice for you, you frustratingly stubborn woman." Without waiting for an answer, he turned on his heel and strode back into the kitchen to begin cooking.

Meanwhile, I was sitting where he'd dropped me with my jaw brushing the floor, utterly stunned. It was a combination of the fact that I most of the time got my way - not that I expect that to happen, I'm not the center of the universe - the fact that Sam usually stood down in any sort of normal argument - especially with me and Jack, unless it was about something he cared deeply about - and that this was about food. Food. He'd decided to stand his ground against me on food. I sat like that for a few good minutes before I - as much to my surprise as his - did as I was told and shut my mouth. I shot him a glance as I picked up the remote, but he wasn't looking my way. To be honest, Sam standing his ground was just as - if not more than - intimidating as I was when I stood up to people - in a more or less ferocious manner. On second thought, probably more, since he doesn't do it all that often.

The next half hour passed by in silence - if you didn't count the audio from the movie. Neither of us spoke while Sam made me food and I watched Labyrinth. Sam, I think, was quiet because he was focusing on cooking and didn't want to disturb the film. I was quiet because I didn't want to tick him off - well, any more than he already was. Also, because Labyrinth was freaking epic. It was weird having an argument with Sam that hadn't ended with laughter and teasing. I mean, I'd had those sorts of arguments before, but never with Sam. It was... disconcerting.

I liked when arguments almost resolved themselves. You know, when one of the combatants ends up making a sarcastic or joking statement and then both of them are good to go. You had the argument, nobody won, nobody lost, you move on with your life. Arguments where silence was the result - for whatever reason - were... not ideal. And this argument was with Sam. Apparently, I could get mad at him... Well that wasn't necessarily true, because I wasn't really mad at him. But he was mad at me.

Eventually he walked over to me with a bowl containing my food and sat it in front of me on the coffee table. "Here." We avoided each other's eyes at first, but then he deliberately met mine. "I won't say I'm sorry." Without saying anything else about it he went back to the kitchen to wash the dishes he'd just dirtied.

I picked up the bowl and cradled it in my lap as I ate, still watching the movie. After a few more minutes of silence, I decided to break it. "Thanks." He didn't turn around or give any indication that he heard me, except for a slight pause I his movements that I wouldn't have noticed if I hadn't been watching him. "And you don't have to apologize, by the way." I could have said more - god knows I usually would have - but with Sam, as with Jack, I didn't really have to say everything. They got it.

When Sam finally finished and came to sit back down on the couch, my bowl was half empty and my stomach no longer growling. He didn't say anything for a while about my thanks or my following statement, but from the ease in his expression I guessed that we were okay. "It won't kill you to let your friends take care of you, you know." He glanced at me and raised an eyebrow. There was a faint smile that let me know we really were okay. "At least every once in a while."

I smiled back at him. "But I wouldn't want to be a burden, now would I?" He rolled his eyes and laughed at my mildly sarcastic retort. "But thank you, really. I do appreciate the help. It's just that you took care of me for the past few days and I feel like I should pull my own weight now that I can."

He waved it off. "Don't worry about it." I was about to say more but he stopped me. "Really. Now, let's relax and enjoy the rest of the movie. Okay?" He gave me one of those half patient, half no nonsense looks. "Do I have your permission to do that?"

That made me laugh. "Yes, you do."

"Good, because my favorite part is coming up." It was my turn to roll my eyes. With that resolved, I thought that my drama for the day - no make that for the entire weekend - was over. I was wrong. I was proven wrong about a half hour later when Jack finally showed up.

The credits were rolling on the movie when there came an impatient knock on the door. Everyone that ever came to visit Sam knew that unless they knocked and he came to answer the door, they weren't welcome and he'd probably throw them out unless he was in a generous mood or really liked you. So even though whoever was knocking sounded as if they'd rather just barge in, they actually waited until Sam went to let them in. When he opened the door, Jack rushed in looking frazzled, frantic, and like he'd flown at mock speed to get there. His eyes darted around the room until they landed on me.

He visibly relaxed before striding over to me and pinning me with an almost accusatory gaze. "Where have you been? I've been looking the world over for you since early Friday. None of the damn notes I sent you found you and the wind had no clue where you were. What the hell were you doing that the wind couldn't find you?" Now, were it anyone else, I'd have said that they were patronizing me and that they didn't trust me to take care of myself. But Jack wasn't like that. Not by a long shot. Besides, he sounded really freaked out by the fact that he couldn't get a hold of me all weekend.

"Sorry, I went to Legends Friday and I sort of..." I glanced at Sam who looked as confused about Jack's demeanor as I was. "Well let's just say that I was out of it all weekend."

"She was passed out in my spare room until earlier today." Sam was still staring at Jack in confused concern. This was not like Jack at all... He seemed... well, afraid. Jack was never afraid, and even if he was, he didn't show it. Something he and I had in common. He closed his eyes and his shoulders slumped as he let out a relieved sigh. He raked a hand through his hair and slumped against the back of the couch that I was still sitting on.

I shot Sam a look that he mirrored. Something serious was up. "Jack, what's the matter?"

He sat down in one of the chairs before answering, and even then he still looked like he hadn't completely relaxed. "You scared living hell out of me is what's the matter."

"What by being AWOL for the weekend? That's not completely uncommon for us - and definitely not for me. Besides, you know I spend a lot of time at Sam's anyway, so why didn't you check here earlier?"

He shook his head and ran a hand through his hair again. He sighed before answering this time, and glanced between me and Sam like he was deciding whether or not to tell us something. That meant it was probably guardian business. I knew that Pitch wasn't up to anything anywhere near what had happened almost three decades ago, so I knew it was something else, but what I had no idea. "At the last meeting the others filled me in on something that's had me worried." He glanced at me. "Though it didn't really strike any chords until I couldn't find you anywhere."

Sam had taken a few steps back towards the arrangement of seats so that he wasn't speaking from the door. "Jack, what's going on?"

He glanced between us again. "Immortals have been... disappearing. It's not like they're just fading away - that happens, but they're just vanishing out of thin air."

"What?" Disappearing? What the hell did that mean?

"Their believers are still around, and they're still believing in them. Their jobs are still being done, but they're just gone and no one knows where they went... Even the wind can't find them." So that's why he was so scared for me. "The past few months I've been trying to find any of the one's who've gone missing. The others set me on it because of my connection with the wind, but we haven't been able to find even a trace of any of them." He sighed again and looked at me. "So when you seemingly disappeared off the face of the earth, I thought you might of been the latest casualty." He looked down at the floor, away from either Sam or me.

We looked at each other, both feeling a tad guilty for holing up all weekend, now that we knew how much grief it had caused Jack. But I think that both of us were more unnerved by what Jack had told us. Immortals, our friends - hell our kind - were vanishing and no one knew why. Even the Guardians didn't have any leads. I glanced at Jack. "Manny hasn't said anything about it? He hasn't seen anything?" I mean, surely Manny, with his thousands of telescopes, would have seen something... right?

Jack shook his head. "All he told us was that we should look into it. He didn't get into specifics and he really didn't say much at all." He laughed humorlessly. It wasn't a sound I liked hearing from Jack. "Though that's not really unusual for me now is it?"

"Well... he must think you guys can handle it. Either that or he honestly doesn't know what's going on." I'm not sure why I was defending Manny, only that I was and I actually believed what I was saying. "You guys don't have any ideas as to what's behind this?"

"Well, we do have one idea - though it's more of a who than a what." The grudge that I saw in his eyes told me enough. He didn't need to say what he did next, but he said it anyway. "Pitch. He's the only person I can think of who'd benefit from this, though I can't imagine what good it'd do him to capture immortals."

"So you think he's capturing other immortals? Why would he do that?" Sam had sat down on the other end of the couch, in between Jack and I.

Jack shrugged. "I don't know, maybe to keep us distracted looking for them?" Jack and Sam debated more about what the probable reasons could be for Pitch doing this, or any other possibilities. Jack shot down a few ideas, saying that the rest of the Guardians had already gone through them and had filtered them out. I wasn't really listening. I was planning a little visit to a friend of mine to see if I could get to the bottom of whatever the hell was going on. If Pitch had anything to do with this then he'd better hope that Manny and the Guardians were feeling merciful because I wasn't going to be keeping it a secret if he was.

However... I had to admit that it seemed like the Guardians were just looking for someone to blame. If Pitch wasn't the mastermind, then I wasn't about to let him be their scapegoat. I was playing a dangerous and risky game with my alliances, but I wasn't about to let anyone fall to the wayside... at least not anyone I considered to be my friend. I had no idea how I was going to work any of this out, but I knew I was going to have to if I wanted all of my friends to come out unscathed. I guess I'll just have to figure it out as I go. Ha, what else is new?