Chapter One: Kidnapping (Version Two)

The night started out well. The air was cool and crisp. The trees were bright, with explosions of yellow, red, and brown-tan. Some of the bushes in the front yard looked more dead than alive, but that was always how it was this time of year. Seth was a little surprised when his parents let him and Kendra stay until late in the fall, but they didn't have to be back at school until the twenty-sixth, so it was okay with him. Kendra, on the other hand, wasn't so sure. She was a little anxious to let the two leave. Seth didn't understand why she was freaking out so much, but he didn't worry about that. It wasn't for him to worry about things like that. That's what girls are for, right?

He thought that Kendra thought that maybe his parents were going to have another kid and that's why they were being all playful with each other and that's why his grandparents wanted them out of the house so quickly. He just hoped that he was wrong about that. A little sister? Maybe. A little brother? Great—they'd be thirteen years apart from each other. That wouldn't be more awkward at family parties. A twenty-six year-old sitting next to his thirteen-year-old brother? Yeah, not happening.

Maybe they were going to adopt someone. If that was the case, why were they acting weird?

Sometimes he didn't understand adults.

He walked into the warm house from the cold outside and looked around. Dale was there, Grandma and Grandpa, of course, and Warren, and Vanessa. Out of all of them, she looked the loneliest. Kendra loitered at the entrance, so Seth decided to give the Narcoblix some company while they waited for the food. He walked up to her cautiously, being careful not to draw her out of her day-dreamland. He peered into her face, and, getting bored, plopped down onto the couch next to her. She shook herself out of her trance, and looked at Seth.

"Oh. It's you."

Seth nodded. "Yes. It's the me."

Vanessa's eyebrow furrowed with confusion. "What?"

Seth smiled. "I'm me. Get it?"

Vanessa shook her head. "You and your silly puns."

Seth's smile broadened. "So what are we having?"

Vanessa looked up at him after she stopped staring at her spot on the floor where she always seemed to stare when she was thinking about something. "What?"

Seth repeated what he said. "Do you know?"

Vanessa shrugged her shoulders. "No clue. But I know what I'm having tonight."

Seth frowned. "For some reason, I think I know."

The woman nodded. "Yep. This again."

"Oh no."

"SETH!" Ruth yelped.

He jumped, stood up, and ran into the kitchen, nearly knocking a plate-coved Dale over. He put his hand up to his forehead in a salute. "YES MA'AM!"

Ruth looked at him and smiled. "Oh. You're inside already."

Seth nodded. "Yeah. I was talking to Vanessa in the living room. She said that we're having that again."

Stan glowered at him. "Listen, young man—"

Seth rolled his eyes. The 'young man' speech again? He's told me that one so many times I have the stupid thing memorized!

"—your grandmother is a great cook, and you—"

"—you'll eat whatever she makes, bakes, packages, buries, and buys, right?"

Stan stared at him like he hadn't ever seen him before.

He gave a little smile. "Yeah. Memorization from the last fifty times you recited that thing to me."

Stan raised an eyebrow. "At least you'll have something to remember me by."

"Assuming I don't forget everything you say since you can't be around to repeat everything all the time."

Stan slouched his already slouched shoulders, and cocked his head at his grandson. "Sometimes I wonder if Kendra is really related to you."

Seth smiled. "I blame Patton."

Stan broke into a grin. "You'd better, young man."

"DINNER IS READY!" Warren shouted.

Seth made his way to the dining room and ended up sitting next to Kendra and Dale. The dinner was like a Thanksgiving dinner except a little more elaborate, and half of the food was left for the fairies. To be left out overnight and devoured by scary winged tiny-humans.

Seth squirmed.

All of the others talked and chatted about random things while Seth picked at his food. Kendra noticed, and questioned him about it.

"I'm not feeling very hungry."

Kendra tilted her head. "Are you sure?"

Seth nodded, and rubbed his stomach. "I think I have a stomach ache."

Kendra sighed. "It couldn't be because of all that stuff you got from Newel and Doren, could it?"

Seth looked at her. "I haven't gotten anything from them in a long time. And I finished that off a while ago."

"It was a mushroom that made everything it touched taste like chocolate."

"Exactly. I'm done with it. It ran out. Bang, boom, done."

Kendra rolled her eyes. "Whatever, little brother."

He took his plate and put it in the sink, and then made his way to his bedroom in the attic.

He didn't know how bad his night would end.

Seth fell asleep on his bed, watching the stars and trying to see what constellations were which. He also fell asleep in his clothes. A few minutes after he fell asleep, Kendra made her graceful way up the stairs, and changed into her pajamas, and then noticed the ever-uncomfortable position Seth slept in. And that he still had his shoes on.

She walked over to his bed, pulled his shoes off, and then his socks, and decided to leave his pants on. His shirt would make him hot, so she carefully slipped that off, and grabbed his sheets. On second thought that might make him too cold. Maybe his pants would make him too cold. But he would freak out if he would out that his older sister had done that. She decided that she would just leave him as is, and grab a thicker blanket for his feet.

Seth shuffled around in his bed, and some obscure wording escaped his lips. She didn't understand it all. It wasn't even English. Maybe he spoke in the Dark languages when he dreamed. She shivered. I'll bet those are lovely.

She remembered how he didn't like to go to bed before she did, and wondered why that was. Maybe it has to deal with the fact that he's a shadow charmer now? Her mind thought. She frowned. Her body seemed to shy away from him, and she subconsciously seemed to avoid him, but he was her brother, and she didn't want him to think that she was upset with him or something. Or maybe his Dark side understands what's going on subconsciously, so he does the same thing to you. That was outrageous. Seth didn't have a "dark side." It was just her mind being silly.

An urge escaped inside her to hold her brother in her arms and protect him with all the might she had. She shivered, and put the sheets over her half-naked brother. Noticing something she hadn't before, she took a look at his chest. There was a little scar there from something. She frowned. What was that about? She shrugged and put the sheet over him.

Just in case, she leaned down and wrapped her arms around his neck, pecked a quick kiss on his cheek, and ruffled his hair. He was slobbering now. At least he didn't snore.

On cue, his nose started to snore, but after a few seconds, it stopped. Kendra couldn't help but smile. She climbed into her bed, pulled the sheets over herself, and fell asleep.

Kendra was ripped away from dreamland by the sound of her brother screaming like a banshee.

At first she didn't understand what was going on, but when she saw Seth's face frozen in a look of pained fear, his eyes pressed shut, his hands gripping the bed clothes like he was going to hurl over the edge of a cliff if he didn't hang on tight enough. His mouth would open wide and let out a pained scream, and sometimes he'd clamp it shut, trying not to sound like a dying animal with its lungs punctured, and blood leaking from its dying body.

He let out a pained wail, and his hold on the sheets went tighter, his knuckles white. Kendra got up, still a little sleepy, but shook her sheets off and walked like a drunkard over to Seth's bed. She glanced at the alarm clock. It flashed 12:00. The cord had been ripped from the wall and then reattached. Maybe Seth had to use the bathroom and tripped.

Seth screamed again, and that brought Kendra back into the present. Not knowing what else to do, she put her hands gently on his arms, and whispered that he was okay and that everything was going to be fine.

A pure black spark of magical electricity shot up his arm. She pulled her hand away before the pitch-black spark could touch her. A shadow ripped itself from the wall, bending into a horn-like shape and changing into more like a hand before it grabbed her and ripped her off her feet, slamming her body against the cold glass window.

This time Kendra screamed.

Seth's body jerked upward, and he screamed again, making it look like he was a dead body coming back to an excruciatingly painful life awakening. Or a frog with electricity running through its lifeless limbs. Kendra's lungs were on fire with the pressure, and she tried not to hyperventilate as the glass around her began to crack. The shadow-arm slowly released its grip on her, eventually disappearing all together and letting her drop to the floor, a huge, dark bruise forming across her chest.

Seth stopped yelling and started crying, unable to control his emotions in this subconscious, seemingly delirious state. He whimpered, and turned onto his side, clutching the sheets tighter than he had earlier. His mouth was twisted into an angry frown, and his tears streamed down his cheeks in torrents.

Gripping her now irritated chest, she crouched by her brother, and rubbed his face and messed up his hair even more than she had before, but gently. Her younger brother gripped a pillow like a teddy bear, and clammed up when Kendra started gently trying to calm him down. It looked like he was expecting her to hit him. Kendra frowned. His dreams might be worse than she originally thought.

Seth slowly opened one eye, and looked at Kendra. He opened both eyes when he noticed it was her, and was a little tempted to jump into her arms and let her hold him. He jerked the thought away.

I'm stronger than that. Nightmares can't scare me.

Seth started breathing harder, and Kendra pulled him into a hug. He tucked his head into her shoulder, and lay there, trying to calm himself down.

Softly, Kendra started to rub his back. She stopped she got to the thick pale scar. Feeling the wound, Seth noticed what she was doing and pulled away, his face looking a bit red in the dark atmosphere.

He pushed her away, sitting upright and swinging his legs over the side of the bed. He wiped sweat from his forehead, and looked up at his sister, who was still looking at him, concerned.

If she's concerned, then everybody else is going to be fretting when she tries to explain what happened. Seth shivered at the thought.

He put his head in his hands, and breathed in deeply. It's okay. It didn't really happen. It couldn't have happened.

Kendra decided to break her silence. "So… what'd you dream about?"

That's a nice thing to bring up after your little brother just has a terrible nightmare, she scolded herself. He's a shadow charmer—he deserves it. Why are you even in the same room with him? He tried to kill—

She stopped herself short.

Seth didn't look like he wanted to tell her.

"Seth?"

"Yeah?"

Kendra gulped. "Should I leave the light on?"

Looking unsure, Seth finally nodded. "Yeah. Nightlight, though. Wouldn't want Hugo to worry." He realized how stupid that sounded after he said it. Hugo was a golem. He didn't' have emotions.

But still, he might worry.

"Nightlight it is, then," Kendra answered, turning away but looking at Seth out of the corner of her eye.

Seth nodded, and lay back down on his bed. She switched on one of the toys that acted as a nightlight, and watched as her brother slowly descended into the dark abyss of sleep, eventually following into it herself.