Castouts (Accepting new characters)

He was curled up under a blanket on the back seat of his car, an old junker his dad got him, in one of his extremely rare acts of kindness for his 19th birthday. His old man went very odd whenever he came home after his mom killed herself, he wasn't so tough, his tough love seemed to change to an abrasive love, he still didn't like the risky survival training. Being in the back seat, lying down reminded him of the time his dad drove him, with a sack on his head to the mountains, left him there to fend for himself and come back in five days. He got the drop on the old man and found his way back to the trailer.


He was hearing people walk past his head, through the thin metal of the car door, he hated that, but it was alarm clock, of sorts. They have to be loathsome. He checked his watch groggily, 6am it said. Right on time he thought, sitting up, his muscles stiff and cold from lack of maneuverability in his cramped conditions. He stretched with quiet groans, feeling various microscopic activities going on in his muscles, he thought for a second that maybe the human body could be compared to a city, cells, organs, people, buildings, but then he shook his head to it. If this was a living body, it would be a cadaver, parasite ridden and decomposing. His neck was the stiffest part of his body, he rolled it in circles till it popped, relieved, he clambered to the front seat, unlocked the door and got out of the car, locked the door and turned to the apartment building behind him. Approaching the apartment building, he felt exhausted but resolute he had a job to do. The building was in a very advance state of repair. Then he stopped right before the front door. This associate didn't get up til before noon. So he decided to get back in his car and drive for a while. A long time.
 
Aleka tugged at her hair nervously as she tried to backtrack, but in her fear she'd paid very little attention to where she was going, even though she hadn't left Central Park. Besides, it's not like there weren't enough people walking around... she could easily flag someone down and ask where the closest phone was. She'd tried asking to use a person's cell phone before, but that didn't get the greatest reaction, and she learned pretty quickly that nobody would give her anything if it meant they had to wait and stare at you while some filthy teenager talked on their phone.


Right, so it would have to be a public phone, then. But where was she going to find one anyway? It's not like there were payphones on every corner anymore. Her heart-rate picked up slightly at the thought of having to flag someone down, but it was inevitable at this point.


Her eyes roamed the people in the park slowly, looking for someone that might not give her a lot of trouble and opted for the boy whose back faced her a few yards a way. Sucking back a deep breath, she stepped forward, "Excuse me?" He didn't seem to hear her though, so she continued forward and tapped her on the shoulder. "Hi, sorry... I'm looking for a phone, I uhm... it's an emergency, I guess."
 
Julian had not yet seen Madison anywhere, which he supposed was a plus- the only positive he could claim for the past two days. He walks with slow, uncertain steps, frequently looking side to side and scanning as far in the distance from himself as he can as he searches for her almost as much as for Jillian, because if he saw her, he would have to run. He knew she wouldn't chase him, not in the park, where others would see, but even if she just laid eyes on him again...he wasn't sure he would be able to take it. How could he handle the knowledge that every day, she could find him, that any day she might report where he was to someone and have him dragged home- or worse, to jail?


Madison held power over him that no one else could. She could doom him with a word or a look, and she knew it. She might have done the same to Jillian.


He is thinking all of this to himself with increasing anxiety speeding up his heart rate when a hand touches his back. Julian gasps, wheeling around fast and beginning to scramble backward before he realizes that the girl who has touched him is not Madison at all, as he had immediately assumed. In fact, he doesn't recognize her at all, even in passing. He can tell from the wear and tear of her clothing and the dirty sheen of her skin, however, that she is not simply a tourist or just another average kid visiting the park. She is like he is, though even he has access to a shower now, if he chooses to go back to the shelter.


She is asking him something about a phone, and Julian blinks several times, swallowing, before he can force out a reply. "Uh...n-no...I d-don't have a phone." She had said something about an emergency, though, and he forces himself to continue, "Is...is s-someone hurt, or..."
 
She hadn't been intending to scare him, and did expect maybe a little bit of a jump, but nowhere near the reaction she'd gotten. Aleka lifts her hands up to show that she isn't a threat to him. She watches him stammer out his reply patiently, her face falling slightly when he admits to not having a phone. She shifts her weight between her feet anxiously when he asks if someone is hurt and struggles to find an appropriate answer.


Aleka's mouth falls open briefly, a small sound escaping her throat before it snaps shut again. "Yes? I.. they were, at least."


Standing in one place is starting to make her anxious, though, and she doesn't even really know how to tell this person that there is a corpse lying on a bench somewhere in the park. She doesn't want to cause a panic, or draw suspicion to herself. After all, apparently Aleka is the only one who knows about the body, who's been anywhere near it - heard the person die - and the police will certainly want to question her.


"Is there a public phone somewhere? I-" She wants to stop herself there, but what happens next spills out of her mouth uncontrollably. "There's a body... someone - there's a dead person and no one - nobody's noticing or doing anything and I just... someone should help."
 
*Steven returns with the hotdogs and the water to the spot where he left his car and Chris, both are now gone and his first thought is Chris drove off in his car...A blind girl stole his car?? No way. Is that even possible? No someone must have taken his car with Chris in it. He looks over still seeing Kyle, Kat and Xander so they didn't take it, his car must have been jacked.* UGH I HATE THIS FUCKING CITY! *He drops everything in his hands and runs towards Kat and the other.* Guys we have a problem, someone stole my car and I think Chris was still in the backseat. We have to go now and find Chris. *Steven pulls his cell phone out* Lets hope they didn't have time to disable my lowjack.


*Kyle was still pretending to be nice to the girl when Steven ran up behind them, now Chris is gone to.* What how did that happen weren't you with her? How did that happen?


*Steven looks away a shame of what happen.* I went to get us something to eat, to try and be nice, since Chris and I don't seem to get along to well, I thought we could have a hotdog and talk while we wait, I was only a few yards away I didn't think anyone would dare try to take the car with her still in it. It's my fault if something happens to her.
 
A dead person? A DEAD person?


Julian's heart begins to pound even faster, if possible, than it had been already, and he feels his mouth go dry, his palms sweating. He had seen dead people before. He had caused someone's death, once. To even think of being anywhere close to someone who was dead was very anxiety-inducing, and what if the police saw him near a dead person? Who would believe that he wasn't responsible?


He tries to swallow and almost chokes as he backs away from the girl, already shaking his head. Still...he has to know. He can't let her go without knowing...can he? He's looking for Jillian. Jillian had promised never to leave him. Jillian had always come back before. If there's any possibility...


"Is...they, they...the d-dead person...what...d-do you know them? Do you...d-do you know what they l-look like?"


**


Stole his car? Somebody stole his car...someone who wasn't Xander himself? Stole his car...with Chris in the backseat?!


Xander couldn't fathom this. No, actually he could fathom this all too well...he just didn't want to accept it. This could not be happening, not again. First Alice, then Kyle...they had barely just gotten Kyle back alive, and now this, now Chris too?! How much more could they take, how many times could they lose his siblings?!


He can see Katarina's face drain of color, could see one of her hands move to clinch nails hard into her arms without her even seeming to notice this as she whispered something that seemed directed at no one in particular, her eyes bright with shock. The blonde girl Kyle's age was looking between them with wide-eyed interest and apparent shock as well, but Xander ignored her. He ignored everything but his own slowly growing rage.


This man, this Steven had done nothing but destroy Xander's life since they'd reunited with him. He had gotten his brother kidnapped, his sister kidnapped, and for all he knew, Alice was dead because Steven had refused to let them go after her last night. Kyle was turned against him and worshipping Steven now, Katarina thought herself in love with him...and this was the result. Every single one of them in worse danger than ever, due to him.


"Are you certain that Christina was in the back seat?" Rikarah was asking reasonably, calm, but intent as she attempted to question Steven. "Did you see the person driving off with your car? Perhaps Christina left the car after you did and is still in the park."


"Someone took your car? Wow, that really sucks," Madison piped up. "You should have gotten one of those car lock things for the steering wheel. Did you leave the key in the ignition or something?"


"Xander," Katarina is saying urgently, tugging on his arm. "Xander-"


But Xander's rage has moved beyond anything she can distract him from. Shrugging her off almost violently, he can feel the electricity crackling through his skin, building up like a current inside of him. As he turns towards Steven, he can see sparks shooting through his fingers, not yet striking anything, but one touch at this point from him could have been deadly for most.


"You f******* asshole, you let my sister get taken! You left her ALONE in the place where our mother took our other sister, you left her ALONE when Kyle got taken the day before, you left her ALONE when you know we're in danger due to YOU! What the hell is wrong with you? You say you'll help us and you've done nothing but screw us over worse ever since!"


"Xander," Katarina whispered, tears coming to her eyes. "Stop. We need to find Chris. We have to-"


"SHE COULD BE DEAD, for all we know!" Xander turned on her, and tears did fall for her then. "How are we going to catch up to her on foot, Kat? We don't know where she is, we don't know where Alice is, we know exactly nothing!"
 
She should have just left it alone.


Really, how stupid had she been, thinking that she could just get someone's attention and then disappear? Why couldn't Aleka just leave the body there for some normal person to find it, for someone whose stepfather may or may not be out looking for her, whose face isn't plastered on telephone poles all over their home town?


But here was this boy, stammering and looking just as terrified as she felt, and now he was asking her questions that she didn't know the answer to because, really, she hadn't even seen the body. She had only heard it, only heard the sound of the knife punching through skin, the sound of that person's last breath seeping from their lungs, some of it - by the sound - leaving through the knife wound, and -


She can't think about it anymore. Aleka's stomach soured rapidly, bile and stomach acid rolling violently in the pit of her belly, threatening to inch up her throat and past her lips just off of memory alone. No. She didn't know what the person looked like, and the only way she's able to indicate it is with a dumb shake of her head.


"No." Her voice is thick when she finally manages to speak. "I... I-I just-"


Just what? Really, Aleka, what did you 'just'... she can't exactly tell him that she heard it from as far away as she had, now, can she? There's absolutely nothing she can do. "I didn't... I didn't want to touch it, but... I mean, there's..." People have started to look at them now, and she debates just picking someone's phone off of them, disappearing, making the call and then chucking the phone into the river. Her eyes dart around the surrounding area, looking for someone close enough, and distracted enough, to part with their phone, but it seems like everyone is talking excitedly into theirs, stomping her plans square into the dirt.


"Please just help me find a phone," She settles on finally, her eyes wide and trained on the face of the boy in front of her.
 
The girl was backing off now, trying to deny what she had said. But Julian had heard her right the first time, he knew that he had. Someone was dead. She had seen a dead person.


How had the person died? Exposure? It was cold, but he didn't think it was that cold yet. Starvation? There was always ways to get food, if you knew how. Heart attack? Stroke? Or what he was fearing, what seemed entirely possible, with Madison having been close by so recently...murder?


Julian was aware of his heart pounding so rapidly he could feel his pulse pounding in his temples. He was aware of the dryness in his mouth making it difficult to breathe, let alone think, of his muscles growing so slack and weak it was difficult to stand. Only with great difficulty could he address the girl again, ignoring her second request to help him find a phone.


"What d-did they l-look like? How...how did they, how d-did they d-die? When...w-when was this? I n-need...I have to know. I-I-I n-need to know!"


It couldn't be Jillian. Jillian was smarter than that, Jillian was too smart by far to let anything happen to him. Jillian was fine. He was okay. He had to be. He just...he just had to be.
 
As the boy in front of her grew more and more upset, Aleka managed another step back, suddenly regretting choosing him, of all the people in the park, to ask for help. She watched him suspiciously, as though he were a scorpion that could spring and sting her at any moment.


His speech was rapid and hysterical and a little difficult for her to understand through all of the stammering at first, but she was eventually able to work her way through it. Swallowing thickly, she managed another step back in case he were to lunge at her.


"I don't know!" She finally wailed at him, drawing the eyes of a few passersby. "He might have been stabbed - I don't know what he looked like, okay?! I just... I saw him and now I'm trying to find help and I was a little more concerned with the fact that there was a f**king corpse on a bench to pay much attention to what they looked like!"
 
*At first Steven was ashamed of his part in this he felt awful that Chris was taken but then Xander started in one him and he snapped* SCREW YOU XANDER! IT'S NOT MY FAULT! I was being nice to your sister, I left her to get her something to eat! If you don't trust me why did you leave her with me? *He turns to Kat his eyes soften now.* Kat I'm sorry but *He holds up his phone showing the open app on it* I can track my car Kat, that's how I found you the last time Xander stole my car.


*Kyle pushes pass Xander giving him a dirty look, it was Xander's idea to come to the park, Chris was perfectly safe back at the dojo but that's a fight he doesn't have the energy to fight right now. He stands on his toes to look at Steven's phone* So we can follow them, maybe she'll lead us to Alice. If Xander is right and it's mom or dad that took her. *Kyle is not as mad at Steven as he is the person that took his sister, whoever it may have been.* Let's get going before it's to late. We don't have time for petty fighting.
 
He. She had said he. But...she wouldn't have thought that Jillian was a boy, would she? She would have thought he was a girl. Julian hadn't been sure, after all, at first, and Liselle had thought he was a girl. Anyone who didn't know Jillian would automatically assume that he was a girl. That had to be true. Right?


His shoulders relaxed slightly, and Jillian let out a slow breath, his stammering easing a little as he met the girl's eyes for a few moments, then looked down again, his hands shoving into his pockets. "Oh. O-okay. Uh...s-so...it wasn't...he wasn't b-blonde, or...wearing g-girl clothes...so...it's okay. I m-mean, not okay! Not...just...I thought m-maybe it was..."


He trailed off, shaking his head. "I c-can help you find a ph-phone....but...did...d-did you see a girl? A b-blonde girl...n-not homeless? Or...maybe a b-blonde girl who looks like...like a b-boy?"


Those were bad descriptions of Madison and Jillian and Julian knew it, but he didn't know how else to ask.


**


"I left her with you because YOU said you'd stay in the car and drive around!" Xander snapped back, sparks still spraying off his fingertips, getting closer to coming out as streams of electricity, aimed in Steven's direction, with each word. "You're supposed to be the big tough guy that no bullet can take down, and this is what you let happen? Why the hell didn't you take her with you? You know that your stupid guys and our stupid parents have been looking to hurt us, you KNEW-"


"Xander," Katarina breathed, tears still streaming down her face, but he ignored her, stepping towards Steven with one pointed finger still badly sparking.


"You knew! And you still left, if she dies, it's because of-"


"What the hell are you DOING?" Madison blurted, staring with round-eyed fascination and surprise both at Xander's hands. She genuinely was startled; although she knows that this is the sort of kid that Alicia is looking for, she had never watched them display powers herself. She can feel excitement building in her chest, warm and low within her as she watches Xander, and she prays that he will use his power against Steven, that she will witness the boy burned or shocked. In fact, she decides to push him along.


"So...this guy here, he just left your little sister alone and someone came and kidnapped her? Wow...she really could get killed, this city's a rough place lately. Do you think it was a pedophile? You know, someone was murdered in this park just yesterday, I heard-"


"You are not helping, little girl," Rikarah said coldly, shooting Madison a silencing look before turning to Xander. She does not touch him, seeing as she doesn't want to be electrocuted herself, but she does speak to him softly.


"You must calm yourself, Xander. You may hurt others inadvertently, and you must not hurt Steven either. It was an accident. Perhaps foolish, but an accident still. Put your hands down, others may be watching, and if they see what you are doing, they may harm you or your siblings as well. Put your hands down."


Slowly Xander obeyed, shaking now, his breathing rapid and shallow, as Rikarah continued to speak to him calmly.


"Thank you. Steven says he can track the car. We will do so. Perhaps Max can help as well, he may have resources, if you would like to call him. Let us go. If we are to face them now, the larger crowd we have for back up, the better."


Turning to Madison, she said in a much colder tone, "I suppose you have no car we could use?"


"No, I'm only fourteen," Madison shrugged, hiding her disappointment. "But maybe I should come with you. I saw that lady and your sister, after all. Maybe I could help."


"I doubt it," Rikarah muttered. "But I suppose you are drawn into this as well, how I do not know. Let us go then."


Turning to Katarina, she briefly touched her arm. "Crying will not help your sisters or you. Have strength, Katarina. We are doing what we can."
 
*Steven hands Rika his phone as they leave but he's lagging behind, it's nothing to do with anything Xander was saying to him in fact she just saved Xander's life cause if he had attacked Steven he would have broken the kids neck. No he's pissed at himself he was barely 20 feet away from Chris and the car and someone just took them both, not even the most bravest thief or thug would try something like that, it has to be someone that was watching them. (of course it was blind luck but he doesn't know that) A professional or someone like that. This whole time Kyle is walking ahead of Steven and notices he's lagging behind and stops to talk to him.* Hey it's not your fault Steven, it was just bad luck, it's not like you wanted Chris to get taken you didn't plan that, you were trying to do a nice thing for her and it went bad...Xander is wrong no one is to blame here except the person that took our sister. *Steven listen to Kyle speak, hard to believe this kid was so wise but still it didn't bring Steven much comfort knowing that Chris is out there, blind and alone with someone that could mean her harm.*


Thanks for what you're trying to say but this is my fault and if something happens to Chris I don't expect any of you to forgive me because I won't forgive myself.
 
How was Aleka even supposed to answer this? It's not as if she could just tell him that she heard it from a football field's length away, because who would even believe that? This boy was looking at her like he expected her to know everything about what the corpse had looked like, and Aleka had been, at best, legally blind at the time the murder had even happened.


"I uhm... I really don't know." She answered him finally, "I mean, I just kind of... I panicked, I don't remember what he looked like. I didn't... I don't think anyone was there when I found it, I mean, otherwise I would have tried to use their phone or get their help."


Flustered, she ran a hand through her hair, trying desperately to come up with something. "Can we just walk, please? I can't... I have to do something, nobody is helping me, nobody cares and it... this person deserves better than to just lie dead on a bench."
 
Julian doesn't want to help this girl. He doesn't know her, and for all he knows, she could be lying to him. She could be a friend of Madison's, and Madison could have made her do this. She could be leading him straight to Madison. What if this is Madison's way of finally getting him back, finally reeling him in again? What if this is Madison's way of pinning the blame on him for her own crime?


She could be leading him to the body so everyone would think he did it, if he touched it or was near it. Who would believe him, a gay street kid, over someone like Madison?


But at the same time...if there was even the smallest chance that this was real, and that it was Jillian who was out there, being ignored, even in death...didn't Julian need to know? Didn't Jillian deserve for him to know, so he could...so he could care for him?


"Sh-show me where," he stammered, looking to the ground rather than at the girl. "I'll h-help."


**


"We need a car," is Rikarah's first statement as the phone begins to track Steven's car, her eyes on its coordinates. "We surely cannot move fast enough, as a group, to get where they are going in adequate time without one. That is, we need a car if Xander would be able to get into it without sparking the engine too much and burning us alive."


She cuts her eyes to him pointedly as she says this, making this a question, and Xander, jaw still clinched, makes an effort to answer her politely. After all, as upset as he is, he still likes Rikarah, and doesn't want to disappoint her further with his behavior.


"I may be able to control it enough to just start an engine, if we can find one."


"Then that is what we should do," she stated, looking to the other boys for confirmation. "Help us search, and be lookouts for others watching?"


She too clinches her jaw as Madison continues to follow them, listening with apparent interest. "Xander sparks things? What does that mean?"


Rikarah ignored her, instead addressing Katarina, who is lagging behind. "We will find your sister, Katarina. Both of them. Help us look for others coming, please."
 
Sucking in a deep breath, Aleka starts in the direction that she'd heard the commotion in the previous night. Just the thought of returning even to the spot she had been in when she'd overheard the murder makes her heart rate spike and her palms sweat.


What if she can't find it? What if this person thinks that she's just pulling some sort of rouse to waste his time because she can't find the damn place?


The longer she walks, the more she starts to think that this was a horrible idea. But since she's already got his attention, and they're already en route, she continues walking, not sure what to say to the boy or even if she should say anything at all, so she keeps her mouth buttoned up tight.


As subtly as she can, not wanting this guy to think she's a total weirdo like anyone else would, Aleka begins to smell the air, searching for any smells of early decay, which she's able to follow easily enough. Even from the distance they're at now, she can smell the dried blood in the air, and the chemical reactions that have already started to break the body down. It's not pleasant, but it's certainly effective in guiding her way toward where the corpse is.


When it starts to make her sick to her stomach, she knows that she's close enough to stop, afraid that she'll start vomiting again if she continues to use her sense of smell to guide her. Besides, it shouldn't be that hard to find a body on a damn bench if she's this close, right?


Sure enough, she sees a pale, lifeless arm hanging over the edge of the bench and she comes to an immediate halt in her step, not wanting to press on any further. With a shaking hand, Aleka points forward and manages to swallow the bile creeping up her throat.


"It's... uhm..." She looks over at the boy, face drawn and nervous. "It's there."
 
*Steven speaks up finally to Rika* We don't have to steal a car, this is New York City. *He steps to the curve and whistles loudly holding his hand up.* TAXI! *Not much more then a few seconds a cab stops at the curve, Steven opens the door for everyone to get in before getting in himself despite it being cramped it was still quicker and safer then stealing a car. The driver waits for instructions to where to go, Steven struggles to reach into his pocket and pulls out a wad of 20 dollar bills and passes them to the driver. *Go whereever she tells you to go and don't spare the horsepower! *He's speaking of Rika who has the phone to track with* Yeah drive fast as you can. *Kyle pipes up* We're in a hurry so don't drive like an old lady!
 
Steven's suggestion is obviously much more of the obvious solution, and Rikarah is somewhat irritated with herself for not having thought of it. She has never been in an taxi before, and so as prevalent as they were in the city, it had not crossed her mind to do so. As the six of them crowd into the taxi, they arrange themselves so the girls are sitting on the boys' laps- Rikarah on Xander's, Katarina's on Steven's, and Madison's on Kyle's.


Even in his anger and anxiety, Xander can't help but be somewhat distracted by Rikarah's slight weight against him, and it helps to calm his emotions as he would not have predicted possible in such a situation. Katarina, keeping the bare minimum of control of her emotions, sits with strained features on Steven, both hands gripping his tightly as she shrinks back into him. And Madison, for her part, giggles in apparent discomfort at having to sit with Kyle, even as she subtly shifts her weight against him in a seductive fashion.


"This is so awkward," she says, even as she "accidentally" puts as much weight on him as possible.


As the taxi driver rips after the direction Alicia is going, the girls brace themselves against the sides of the car, the seat in front of them, or the boys themselves, hanging on tight.


**


Julian isn't looking to see how Aleka is looking for the body, let alone that she appears to be smelling the air. He is turning his own head side to side frequently, his heart leaping at every park bench, whether or not it's occupied by someone, at every flash of pink clothing or blonde hair, certain it could be Jillian, alive and well. The more they look without finding a body, the more Julian has managed to convince himself that it could still be okay. This girl was mistaken, or crazy. There was no body, and if there was, it certainly wasn't-


But then she was pointing, her voice dropping. Then Julian was following her gaze, and he too saw the body on the bench. Then he was seeing the blonde hair, the familiar clothes, and even without seeing his face, he knew.


Jillian. This was Jillian.


Almost as though sleepwalking, Julian staggered forward, one badly trembling hand outstretched. He reached to take Jillian's wrist in his, fumbling for the pulse, and the cool stiffness of his skin makes bile rise in his throat. He chokes, tears burning his eyes but not yet emerging as he stares, unblinking, his fingers releasing Jillian's wrist to stroke through his hair. A barely audible exhalation escapes him, and he tries to whisper his name, but can't form sound.


No. No, no, no....


His hands are shaking too badly to be able to manage at first to turn Jillian, but when he finally succeeds and sees his open eyes, his familiar features, as Jillian's wig badly shifts to the side, Julian has to step back, his legs losing strength as he falls to the ground before him. Just before he loses consciousness he sees the bloody wound in his back and pieces together what it must mean.


Murder....Jillian had been murdered. Madison in the park....Jillian in the park....Julian in the park....all this together, and Jillian was dead...two days with him, and Jillian was dead. Julian had killed him. Just by being with him, just by loving him, Julian had caused his death.


(we should figure out what will happen once they find Alicia with Chris and Alice and Anthony...probably kill off Chris, but who dies of Anthony and Alicia, and how? What about Madison, what will happen if Max's dad hears that Chris/Anthony/whoever else died? Inbox it maybe?)
 
The ride in Max's car was mostly silent with the occasional "Are we there yet?" from Shira in the back seat. After a fifteen minute drive ended when they pulled up to a tall white building located a bit past the city limits. It was a clean looking building which provided a great contrast to the grayish dirty surroundings. Shira's eyes widened as she looked upon the tall building and ran through the glass doors before Cas was even out of the car.


The inside of the building matched the outside well. Clean. White. It was like the inside of a hospital or something. "Welcome to the Kennedy Labs," Max said as he came through the doors, supporting Cas. "There are many floors here that are in charge of many different things but the one we're interested in is below us." He turned to the secretary at the desk, a fairly young woman answering phones. "Gloria, can we get a wheelchair or at least some crutches for my friend here." "Right away Mr. Kennedy." And she disappeared into the door behind her desk and came out with a nice looking wheelchair. "Would that be all?" "Yes, Gloria. Thank you."


After setting Cas into the chair, Max lead them to an elevator. Cas studied the buttons. There were the typical buttons, emergency, open doors, close doors, etc, but what caught his eye was an oddly placed keyhole near the bottom of the panel. What could that be for? The floor numbers also worried him a bit. They went from floor 1 to 20, but Max said that they were going down, didn't he? As if in answer to the Asian's concern, Max pulled out a key and inserted it in the strange keyhole from before. "Going down," said a robotic voice and as it had said, Cas could feel the tiny room descending.


When the doors opened again, Cas was sort of amazed. With men and women in lab coats buzzing about large computers and unrecognizable equipment, this place really did look like a lab. Perhaps the job offer was legitimate.


Shira seemed much more excited after seeing the lab, running about and peering into the large glass windows into various rooms. She saw some people exercising. Some were fighting eachother. And some were in chairs with wires strapped to their heads and arms. As she wiggled undetected between a few scientists to look into yet another window, she saw a boy inside. He seemed to be staring intently as a small block. She couldn't possibly figure out why he was so interested in that block. It couldn't have been that interesting. It was just a block.


Her eyes widened in amazement as the block seemed to lift off the table with no visible traces of something physically holding it. The block then flew across the room. "What's he doing?" she asked, catching the researchers off guard as they didn't know she was there.
 
Aleka watches the boy carefully. It slowly dawns on her that he knows this person, that he is somehow connected to this corpse on a bench... of course. Out of all of the people in this god forsaken city, she has to pick someone who knows the person whose murder she overheard the previous night.


Swallowing thickly, she watched him check the pulse of the body, and she wants to tell him it's useless, that the guy's dead and there's nothing to be done, watches him turn the body over and step back. She flinches and starts to move forward when she notices the boy's body start to weaken, his body sinking toward the ground.


"H-hey!" She barks at Julian, snapping her fingers as though that alone will keep him conscious. "Hey, stay with it, man!" When he hits the ground completely, Aleka rakes a hand through her hair, snagging it at the ends that have knotted up during the night. She pulls her fingers through it, the pain keeping her focused and she shakes Julian's shoulder roughly.


When he won't wake though, she lets out a frustrated growl and finally manages to flag someone down who lets her use their phone, probably more out of fear from how aggressively she approaches them than anything else and dials 911. The operator's voice is tinged lightly with alarm at the agitation in her voice. She glances at the unconscious boy nearby after she hangs up and gives the stranger's phone back. Crouching down, she grips his shoulders and gives him a hard shake.


"Hey!" She says, probably too loudly. "The ambulance is on it's way. I don't know what you want to do or if you want to be here or not, but that's what's going on as of now."
 
Julian is vaguely aware of a hand on his shoulder, of someone's voice nearby, but he remains motionless, his eyes closed. Even only semi-conscious, he is able to think just enough to know that he doesn't want to get up. He isn't sure he ever wants to get up again. If Jillian is dead...if Jillian has been killed...then what is the point? Why bother? Why even try to keep living, when the one thing that had made him feel hopeful and alive again has been taken away from him?


He should have known that it was too good to be true. For someone like Jillian to like him, respect him, not be afraid or disgusted by him...even to want to love him...how could he expect that someone like him could have that, could deserve that? How could he not have known it wouldn't last?


It was his fault. If Jillian had never met him, he would still be okay right now. Everything Julian touched was destroyed, and this was proof of that. If this was Madison's work, she had done this just for him, just to make him unhappy...she must know about them, know what he had meant to Julian. That he made Julian happy.


This had to be her...and if she wanted to punish him, to hurt him, then Julian would let her.


But then what the girl is saying filters through, and for the first time Julian really listens. The police...did he want the police to come? Did he really want to be put in jail?


He hesitates, and then fear wins over despair. Slowly he opens his eyes and struggles to his feet, almost limping away.
 
*Kyle couldn't get comfortable with Madison sitting on his lap, shifting around, trying to make him pay attention to her, he kept turning his head so he's not looking at her or smelling her but it's hard and he can't help it when his face and ears turn red, he's never really had time or the opportunity to actually think about girls, he's really only been around his sisters and the women that worked and catered to Calico and they were fall to old to even look at him. He doesn't know if he's blushing cause he might like this girl or if he's just an awkward little boy around girls.* How much longer is this gonna take?


*Steven also not have a comfortable ride, any other time he would love to have Kat sitting on his lap but today all he can think of is if something happens to Chris she'll never trust him again, she won't have anything to ever do with him. He speaks up to the driver* Can you drive any faster? *The driver shakes his head no, he's already pushing the cab risking a speeding ticket that would be more then the wad of bills Steven gave him*
 
“Faster? We don’t want to arrive in pieces,” Madison said to Kyle with some amusement as she settled back just a little more closely against him, even wrapping a “casual” arm around his neck as though to “support” herself. “This poor driver’s going to wreck us into a pole if you push him any further.”


She lowers her voice, turning her lips close to his ear as she adds, “But I understand, Kyle. You must really be worried about your sisters…you must really want to get there as fast as you can.”


Even as she speaks with this understanding and sympathy, she purposely adjusts her position on his lap again, forcing him to feel every small shift of her body against him.


Katarina is not speaking a word, her teeth clinched, her lips pressed into a thin line as she stares at the back of the driver’s head, her heart racing, stomach sloshing so heavily that she felt sick. She hugged her arms against her chest, her hands shoved beneath the sleeves of her jacket, and dug her nails into her skin to keep from screaming or crying aloud. She can still hear Rikarah’s admonishment to her echoing in her thoughts, overlapping her mental envisioning of Chris, of Alice, of Alicia and Anthony, and the possible scenarios floating through her mind.


Have strength…but how easy is that now, when Katarina has never felt so helpless and useless as to what is going on in her life?


She doesn’t dare to look at Xander, who is sitting beside her with his hands balled into tight fists, perhaps to prevent himself from accidentally electrocuting anyone in his current state of mind. She doesn’t dare try to touch him or speak to him, knowing that opening her mouth will either upset him or make her cry. She remains silent, almost choking on her own feelings, and waits for the ride to come to an end.


The apartment complex that they finally arrive in front of is shoddy and rundown, clearly not a place that Anthony or Alicia would have chosen as a permanent dwelling, but rather as a temporary one, a place to hide themselves in until…until what? Until they got their children back? Until they had reclaimed them all, or killed them outright? What did their parents want with them?


Katarina and Xander had never known, and they certainly didn’t now, as the taxi driver pulled up in front of the building. Rikarah exits the backseat first, reaching out a hand to pull Xander out after her, and he reaches for Katarina to help her out too. Her limbs are stiff and don’t to work very well as she follows her brother, holding onto his hand even after she is out of the car. Madison is last to exit of the girls, sliding very slowly off Kyle’s lap and offering her hand for him to be helped out as well. She looks over the building with eyebrows raised.


“So this is where your parents live, huh?” she asked, then said more softly to Kyle, “No wonder you guys ran away. That’s what you did, right?”


She has actually never been allowed to know the location of Alicia’s “home,” and is very much intrigued to now have access to this information. Certainly Alicia will not expect her to show up with these children, certainly Alicia had never told her that they were HER children. The woman has a lot of explaining to do, and Madison is most interested to know what will happen here. So they’re her children…it doesn’t matter, in the end. Madison has delivered them all to her door, regardless of how this happened to come about, and she can only expect to be significantly rewarded for it.


As Steven pays the taxi driver, then signals him off, Xander is already running towards the entrance way, but Rikarah grabs his arm, stopping him. They can all clearly see Steven’s parked car in the lot and know that Alicia must be present in the building, but no one knows the room number, as she points out to him; they will have to have another plan.


“We cannot simply knock on every single door calling for her to come out,” she reminds him. “We must have a better solution than this, and something like setting the place on fire or bombing it does not work either. We must talk to someone here who would know or otherwise convince someone in authority of the building to reveal her room number. We know that her name is Alicia DeSanto, but we do not know whether she is registered here under that name.”


**


“Anthony, if you’re not passed out in a pool of your own bodily fluids, get up and see what I’ve rounded up here for us!” Alicia called as she shoved Chris through the front door, hard enough that the girl stumbled and fell to her knees. She seized hold of her hair and dragged her up again, keeping a tight hold on her as she began to force her forward, intending to tie her up or otherwise subdue her. “Do we have handcuffs somewhere, rope, something? I’m not taking chances with this one, last I knew she didn’t have powers, but who the hell knows now?”


When she sees Alice, having been released from her room by Anthony earlier and now crouching, attempting to hide, behind the couch, her eyes narrow, and she aims a kick in her direction which Alice barely dodges, screaming out at Anthony again. “What the hell, I told you keep that brat in her room! She could have ran right out the door when I opened it, she could have got a knife and stabbed either of us! Why are you so damn incompetent, can’t you do the least little thing right?”


“Get back in your room, NOW,” she snarled at Alice, but for once, Alice does not scuttle to obey; she barely even hears her. She is staring at Chris, who is being held, trembling and crying softly, from Alicia’s outstretched hands, her eyes wide with unbelief before she finally forms one word.


“Chris?”


Hearing her sister’s voice, Chris’s sightless eyes rove, looking to locate its source unconsciously. She can “see” with her echolocation the basic shadows of furniture and bodies, and she can sense that Alice’s body is smaller, that she is a child. But she has never seen Alice in this manner before, having not seen her since having lost her sight and gained this ability, and she can hardly dare to believe it possible that she is “seeing” her now. But her voice is unmistakable, even after all this time, and she knows…this is Alice. Alice is still alive, Alicia has not killed her after all…Alice is alive.


“Alice?” she whispers, her tears coming harder, and Alice starts forward, her hands outstretched, just before Alicia releases one of Chris’s arms to throw a punch at her instead, knocking her down to the ground. Caught off guard, Alice didn’t have time to enact her protective shield around herself, and the blow caught her in the side of her jaw.


“I said GO TO YOUR ROOM!”
 
At first, she isn't sure whether or not she should follow the boy. Having never contended with any sort of serious grief, other than that of what she felt when she'd left her mother back home with Sal, her stepdad, Aleka is unsure as to whether or not it would be helpful to follow with the boy, miserable as he is.


Either way, she follows him... hesitantly, but she follows him. It's really none of her business, but she doesn't exactly want to be seen by the police when they get there, either. It's not that she's worried they will suspect her, it's that they might recognize her from the fliers that circulated when she had first run away. As much as she wants to fill the silence between them, she has no idea what to say. This person is clearly beside himself, and she's tempted to just part ways with him, though she's a little nervous that if she does that, he might do something to follow after his dead friend on the bench.


Clearing her throat, she manages to catch up to him and match his pace. Aleka's voice is low, and she shoves her hands into her pockets, not knowing what else to do with them. "I'm sorry."
 
The girl is following him.


He doesn't know her name, and can't bring himself to care about it right now. Any doubts as to her identity or reasons for bringing him to Jillian, any suspicions about her possible association with Madison are unimportant and almost forgotten by Julian now as he shuffles along, barely able to propel himself forward, one hand still covering his face so he can hardly even tell where he is going or who he might be close to knocking into. He knows vaguely that he should sit down, that this is too much for him to be able to take in now while on his feet, but he knows as well that he cannot stay with the police coming, that Jillian would not want that for him.


Does it even matter anymore, though? And doesn't Jillian deserve for someone to be with him now, until he can be taken care of? Doesn't he deserve that, when no one was with him as he died?


Normally hearing Aleka's voice, when he was not expecting to, would cause him to jump, but Julian is too wrapped in his misery now to be able to so much as flinch when she speaks from behind him. Without looking back at her, he replies almost in a whisper, stopping in his walking and standing still, his fingers digging into his cheeks.


"He...he was s-so good to me...he d-didn't care what I am, he...he n-never should have been with me, this is m-my fault. I...I think I loved him, and he...he c-could have loved m-me...this is my fault."
 
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