<missing.in.action>

Nick yawned and walked through the chilled halls, down the cold stairs and into the warm kitchen. Aunt Helen sat at the head of the table. Samantha sat to her right while their butler Jacob stood to the far left of them. BJ was on the other end of the long cherry wood table eating a plate full of eggs and bacon, Leslie sat to her left and picked on a grapefruit. While Angel sat to her right slurping a big bowl of cereal, and Aaron...

Nick looked around for his brother, "Where is Aaron?" He asked slowly.

"We thought he was with you." BJ replied dropping her fork into her eggs.

"No," The fear was rising, Nick could feel it, and he didn't like that feeling. His heart beat faster with every second passing by.

Leslie stood up, "Aunt Helen, where is Aaron?" Her voice was edgy and sharp.

Their Aunt Helen pushed some gray hair from her wrinkled face, revealing a set of blue eyes similar to Nick's. She smiled, "You know boys... Up running around outside at 4 a.m., I believe what he said this morning was, he was going camping, and soul searching."

Nick walked over to her and pounded angrily on the table, knocking over Angel's orange juice at the other end. Jacob moved close to him. "Liar" he growled.

"It's true" she smiled and patted at his cheek. Just at that point Nick felt a pick in his back, but disregarded it. "Soul searching? Where would Aaron get an idea like that, my brother is very smart I'll admit but he could never come up with that."

Aunt Helen opened her mouth to speak, but Nick's quick words got ahead of her again. "And 4 o'clock a.m.? We have trouble getting him up at 7."

Aunt Helen tried again, but couldn't get a word in edgewise. "And both you and I know that Aaron is
allergic to poison ivy, and bees. If he gets touched by poison ivy, he needs his pills within 10 minutes of contact, and what do you call those over there? His pills." He said pointing to a white plastic container on the counter behind Jacob. "And if Aaron gets stung, he needs a shot within a half an hour of getting stung or he dies, now, its summer, why would he be out there? In the summer time he practices his guitar, which is sitting very quiet upstairs." Nick's anger showed through his blazing blue eyes.

Aunt Helen smiled and struggled to speak. "Nick sit down, eat some breakfast."

Nick felt like throwing something, but he didn't move an inch towards anything breakable. "Fine Aunt Helen, But I'll find out the truth." Nick turned around and jogged towards the stairs.

BJ pushed out her chair hard enough to make it fall over, "Nick!" she cried. " Nick!" she called again as she reached the hall. "Nick! Wait!"

Nick turned to her voice. She smiled and ran to him, "Nick what is going on?" she whispered.

"BJ something strange is happening." He held onto her shoulders. "I called Sky last night." He continued.

"And?" BJ urged.

"And she has been missing for three weeks, last anyone saw her, Aunt Helen had called her over to talk, her brother says she never came back."

BJ didn't know how to respond to Nick's discovery, "Nick, I'm scared."

Nick nodded; he could feel her starting to tremble underneath his hands. "That's not all." He said. "Last night I heard noises and I seen behind one of the locked doors. Blood was coating the walls, and candles lit the room up and..." Nick stopped almost afraid to continue, "I think I saw Sky, and I think I heard Aaron being dragged down the hall..."

BJ's eyes grew wide and scared. "Come look at this." He dragged her towards his room and stopped just as they reached the door next to it. He showed her the blood. "I don't know what is happening behind those doors, but I will find out."

"Nick this is crazy we have to leave..." BJ was almost hysterical.

Nick took a hold of his sister, "No, not yet. Listen, go back to the kitchen and act like nothing is wrong. Don't let anyone find out what we know."

BJ shook her head and turned around taking a few calming breaths as she walked down the hall back to the kitchen.

Nick sighed, what could he do to save his family? Nick leaned against the wall. Suddenly a noise was brought to his ears. Some one was yelling, chains were cracking, and the screams, Nick couldn't even begin to describe how they were.

Suddenly the lights flickered out, he could here his sisters screaming. He ran as fast as his legs would carry him to the kitchen. Once inside of the kitchen he didn't realize how dark it really was in there. The kitchen had no windows to let the early morning sunshine come through.

"BJ! Leslie! Angel!"

No one answered him. He called out again. Slowly the lights flickered back on. He looked around, Aunt Helen was standing in the center of the room, Angel and Leslie were huddled underneath the table and BJ was shaking in the corner.

He sighed it was just a power outage, Nick actually laughed in spite of himself. "Aunt Helen, I'm going to take a nap, call me after lunch" Leslie said letting go of her little sister.

"I think that's a good idea," Nick agreed feeling the affects of the hour and a half he stayed up the night before.

"All right children, sleep well."

Nick didn't hear or realize the evil in her voice. He was tired and practically dragged his feet down the hall. Why was he so tired? What had happened to him? He tried to recall the events. His eyes were falling as he entered his room. He wasn't even sure if he made it to his bed, he was fast asleep and already dreaming.

Nick seen the child of no more than four, she was his best friend. He watched her grow up through the pictures she had sent and the letters she had written. She was beautiful. Her hair was softly layered and highlighted, he didn't even know that she could highlight her hair, it was so blonde. She had blue eyes, so blue they looked as dark as the deepest part of the ocean.

Sky, she was lost, he knew she was, he feared for her too and wanted her back to tell her what he had dreamt about. Sky was with him at this moment to tell him what was happening. She stood in a room full of candles, actually she didn't even stand...

She was hung to wall with big chains, only in her undergarments. Whiplashes were across her belly. Tear stains showed on her dirty cheeks. " Nick," she whispered her voice barley audible. "Get out of here, save your sisters before its too late. It's too late to save Aaron and I."

Nick was confused, he tried to walk towards her, but every step he took she was three steps ahead of him. "Sky what is going on?"

"They are crazy Nick, Get out! Just get out! Nick!" Her voice was becoming louder and her eyes widened like she had seen something.

"Sky?" he questioned. Suddenly, the pain seared through him like a hot knife through butter. His eyes opened and he watched motionless as the masked figure stood with the singe slowly poisoning him. Or so he thought. "Wha-what are you doing?" he whispered weakly as the tiredness spread through his body.

"Sleep now boy, you'll know later, its going to be okay." The muffled voice replied slipping a gloved hand over Nick's eyes making them close.

The masked figure stood close. It was true he didn't really want to hurt anybody, but if he didn't, the others would kill him. He watched as Nick closed his eyes obeying him. He felt the lump caught in his throat. He loved this boy and his siblings, he didn't want to kill them, but he knew what would happen if he did. He and the others would get the Carter's money.

Jane Carter's disease was spreading through her body quite nicely, And when the so-called Bob Carter finds out about his dead children then he fly's out on a plane that doesn't exist headed for disaster. And when the woman finds out about her husband and children her disease would take for the worst, immediately killing her.

He uncovered Nick and slung the 6 foot boy or rather man over his shoulder, considering his height he was somewhat easy to carry, just a few feet was all he needed to be carried anyway. The masked man slipped into another room throwing Nick as lightly as possible onto the ground in front of the three others.

"Good work. Now leave us be." The man bowed and left the room. The three women stared at the figure lying on the ground. They began to laugh as the other five began to struggle on the wall.

Nick was clue less to what was happening, how could he know, he was almost dead...

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