★Encore★

[Devyn]

"Just go to bed."
Rose muttered into her hands, unable to have him haunting over her anymore. She was having a hard enough time looking up, let alone at her brother. He looked so much like Thomas, she would keep seeing him get shot in the head-- over and over again, until she cried out.
"Go to bed, leave me alone. Please, Embry."
She gasped out the last few words, desperate.

[Devyn]

He flinched when she shouted but did as she said without saying anything more, but he didn't close his door when he got into his room.



Rose groaned and leaned her head down further into her hands. She was extremely emotionally damaged right now. Although grateful to know the truth, or what she assumed was the truth that her father had showed her, she wouldn't sleep for days-- those images would never go away. Like a horrid movie, she'd have nightmares forever.

The more she thought about it, into the night, the more paranoid she became about who the two people were that had murdered her parents. They had been looking for Rose and Embry too-- they had wanted to kill all of them. What if they still did?

"Oh god..." She moaned to herself, rocking back and forth slightly, though she continued to look over her shoulders into the darkness of the living room.


Embry was fast asleep but after some hours he suddenly awoke, he didn't know why, cause he was still tired. He looked towards the end of his bed and saw a figure sitting on it.
"Jesus, Rose! you scared the hell out of me!"
The figure didn't move nor spoke..
".....Rose?" Embry sat up slowly, his eyes on the figure and when it looked at him with ice blue eyes, Embry gasped and fumbled with his hands on the nightstand to turn on the lights, but when he did, the figure was gone.
He looked around the room, wide awake now with his heart beating heavily in his chest.


Rose heard her brother shout her name from his room and already paranoid enough, she was on her feet and running in there seconds later. She paused in the doorway when she saw him alone in bed, staring forward like he'd seen a ghost.
"Embry?" She asked slowly, padding into the room barefoot, still wearing her dress from when she'd gone to see James hours earlier.


He swallowed and leaned over the bed to look underneath it, feeling silly... he sat up again.
"Nothing...it was just a nightmare" he said to Rose, trying to convince himself of that aswell



Rose slowly walked into the room, going to sit on the edge of the bed with a sigh. She was relieved that he was awake and she wasn't completely alone in the apartment. She sat for a while in silence and then leaned forward to pull the string on his lamp and put them in darkness.
"Go back to sleep, I'll watch over you."


He sighed and laid back, looking at her in the dark and thought about the figure he had seen, sure that it was real and he hadn't been sleeping.
"I believe you" he said eventually, breaking the silence


Rose frowned a little bit, not sure what he was talking about. She leaned forward some, almost over him, squinting in the dark.
"Hmm? Believe me about what?"


"Dad.." he said low. "that....that you saw..I mean that he had..told you...you know"



Rose shook her head, "I don't know what I saw Embry... it was all just... just so confusing. I don't know if I was dreaming-- seeing something I wanted to believe in." She confessed, still so unsure. She needed sleep, but she'd be damned to close her eyes and relive it.
"Just... it's not important right now. It doesn't matter... they're gone, nothing has changed, okay?"


"I saw him" he interupted her. "I saw him, Rose, I swear" his voice trembling a little


Rose flinched a little bit when he said that, not wanting to think about her father anymore-- every time she did, she kept seeing him get shot in the temple. She held back from getting sick again as she was reminded of it.
"Embry, just stop... please..."


He got quiet and the room seemed darker than before in the silence



Rose sighed, frustrated that she kept snapping at her brother that way. She leaned down to lay beside him, stroking her hand against his arm in the dark room.
"I'm sorry, Embry. I didn't mean it like that. I just... I can't talk about it right now."
She found some comfort laying beside him, stroking him that way.


he sighed
"yeah..."
he leaned his head to hers
"I might call the shrink again tomorrow...I mean for my sake..I don't know if I can deal with this stuff.."


Rose frowned a little bit, but she didn't deny him of that. She had always refused to go see a shrink, hating the idea of someone trying to look into her head.
"Okay, just... be careful about it, okay? Some stuff... it should just be our business. You know how people share stuff to the media they shouldn't."
Her voice was soft, barely a whisper, since they were so close.


"I trust Ann though...it's the only one I go to see, you know that..been going to her for a year you know.."
He had stopped going there half a year ago though, but he could still call her.


Rose nodded a little bit, but realized he'd have a hard time seeing that in the dark.
"I know, Embry... I know, it's just, don't tell her about me, okay? I don't want her to know about me. That's my business, ya know?"


"You know I never tell her about your stuff and I wouldn't now either...I promise"



Rose nodded again, this time not bothering to answer out loud. She just lay in silence with him on the bed, breathing softly. It was almost ten minutes of silence before she whispered to see if he was still up.
"Are you still awake?"



"yeah...I can't sleep..." he sighed and tossed and turned



"Just relax... there's nothing to be afraid of. The worst is over."
Rose whispered, reaching out her hand and stroking back his hair gently to try and calm him down.


"I don't know.." he said truthfully.
"It feels like it just started.."



Rose was at a loss to how to comfort her brother anymore. She was confused and exhausted and scared all at once-- but worst of all, she just felt a bit lost. She couldn't begin to fathom everything she'd seen in Thomas's memory and she didn't want to.
Before she thought twice about it, she leaned in in the dark of the room and kissed Embry on the lips, not a friendly kiss, but a real one, looking for some comfort there.


Embry got resally confused and suprised...in a bad way. He pushed her away and sat up.
"God, Rose! What are you doing??"


Rose realized what she'd done and probably just how bad it was for her brother when he sat up and pushed her away.
"Oh god, I'm sorry!"
She shook her head wildly as she clambered out of the bed with him. Her cheeks burned in embarrassment, but it was too dark to see them fortunately for her. She ran out of his room as quickly as she could and escaped into her own, darkened room.


Embry turned the lights on in time to see her run out of his room. He sat there, staring at the door, trying to understand why she had done that, but he couldn't.
He started wiping his lips on his arm, disgusted. He didn't want to be disgusted by his sister, but what she just did was so wrong in his head that he couldn't help but feeling sick to his stomach. He told himself that she was still very mentally unstable and not herself...it was the only thing he could think of that made it somewhat logic..


Rose stood in the middle of her dark room and wept into her hands. She felt so disgusting, but at the same time she'd felt a thrill doing it.
"What's wrong with you?"
She whimpered softly. She suddenly reached out, blindly in the dark of the room, she grabbed her bag and keys eventually. She turned and left the room, not caring that Embry heard the doors-- she doubted he would come looking after what she just did. She was outside the apartment and on her way down the flights of stairs within seconds.


Embry sat in the bed, the closing of the doors making him snap out of his thoughts. He walked out in the hallway.
"Rose?" he checked her room and realized she had gone outside.
"What the hell..."
he got dressed and hurried outdoors. It was pretty cold this night and he folded his arms across his chest to keep warm.
"Rose?!"


Rose had not changed from her dress, not even thinking that it would be chilly out. It didn't matter, she didn't want to go back for a coat. She slipped her arms around herself as she had made it outside and was hurrying down the sidewalk. She didn't have a particular place that she was going, but she'd walk to the ends of the earth to get her head in the right place.


Embry started running and soon caught up with her.
"Rose! Stop! where are you going?"


Rose cringed to have Embry so close to her and she just kept walking, arms wrapped around her body tightly. She didn't look at his face, too embarrassed to right now.
"I needed air."


"You shouldn't walk around in the middle of the night though..." he couldn't help but care for her despite of what she had done, she was his sister and the only family he had left after all


"Please," Rose mumbled in a desperate sounding voice, "please just leave me alone Embry. Go away. Go away! Go away!" She was shouting by the end of it.


He stopped following her, looked around and then back at her walking away. He couldn't do much more anyway,he couldn't force her to anything, so he watched her go until he didn't see her anymore and he headed back to the apartment


Rose didn't come back for the night, she spent the whole thing awake and in the park. It wasn't until morning that she noticed that others were around and even some kids had come to play on the playscape.
"Oh god..."
She hadn't realized how long she'd been sitting out there, but she was damn near freezing. She looked down at her feet and realized they were barefoot and filthy all the way up to her knees. She winced as she stood up, her muscles aching from the lack of movement. Her eyes were red rimmed and had it not been for her cute dress she would have looked like a homeless person.


Embry had slept, not good, but at least he had slept at all. He had nightmares and woken up by every noise.

"Hey, are you alright?" a woman walked up to Rose when she saw her on the bench


Rose looked at her blankly for a moment, opening her mouth to say something, but her throat was too dry. She closed it and swallowed, wetting her lips with her tongue before she tried again.
"I think." She croaked and looked at the woman in confusion, "What time is it? What day is it?"


"It's thursday, 7 in the morning. Did something happen? Do you need any help?" she looked worried.

Embry didn't feel like getting out of bed, but he walked into Rose's room. When she wasn't there, he checked the rest of the apartment.
"Fuck"
he called her cellphone but heard it ringing in her room and hung up.


Rose shook her head a little bit, "NO... no, I don't think so. Thank you." She attempted to stand up, wobbling a bit at first, but managing thanks to her hands out for balance. She looked around, her head beating against her skull and her stomach growling unhappily.
"Which way is my apartment?" She muttered as if the lady would somehow know.


"Don't you have anyone to call, dear?"

Embry took a quick shower before getting dressed and getting out of the apartment. He didn't think he would find her, but he was looking. He hoped she wasn't with James....


"Embr--"
Rose started and then stopped as if she had just thought about last night. She couldn't call her brother, she was still too mortified. She didn't think she'd ever get over that. Her brother must hate her. She'd kissed him.
"I kissed him." She muttered to herself, "What's wrong with me? I kissed him!"


"Excuse me?" the lady smiled, really wanting to help her.

Embry walked the sidewalk, the way he had seen Rose walk last night, he didn't care about paparazzis, he was so sick of caring about things in life right now when nothing seemed logic or good..


"I kissed my brother."
Rose told the woman when she asked, not sure why she couldn't just keep her mouth closed. The woman could be anyone-- could be a reporter, a mom, a murderer. At that though, Rose froze, thinking about the night before.
"Did you do it?!" She snapped suddenly, reaching out to take the woman by the arm in an iron-clad grip.
"Did you kill them?! Was it you!?"


"Get off of me! Let go!" the woman tried to snatch her arm back from Rose.
"Help! Somebody!"

Embry heard the woman scream and out of curiousity followed the screaming, not even thinking that he might find his sister there...but he did. He stopped when he saw Rose holding the womans arm and he ran up to them.
"Stop! Rose! Let go! Let go!" he grabbed Roses hand, forcefully moving her fingers away from the womans arm


Rose let out a gasp as she was wrenched backwards roughly, knocking her out of her half-crazed state for a few moments. She felt terrible when she realized she'd hurt the lady, the same guilty feeling she got after kissing Embry. It was both guilt, mixed with exhiliration and adrenaline. Her heart was beating wildly.
"God, I'm so sorry... I didn't mean to." She explained to the woman, not even seeing Embry yet.


The woman didn't even thank Embry, with wild eyes she just gave him a look and hurried off.
"Rose!" Embry said between his teeth, angry now as he turned her around to face him.
"What are you doing? And you're ice cold! Have you been out all night?"


Rose's teeth chattered together, it must have been doing that since hours ago, but she'd stopped noticing some time ago.
"No... yes... I don't know..."
She shook her head and winced at how much it hurt to move any part of her. She let out a slow breath.
"Embry, I want to go home."


He took off his jacket and put it around Roses shoulders, leading her back home, unaware of the paparazzis who were hiding in cars around them, snapping photos.


"No... no..."
Rose mumbled as they got close to the apartment.
"This is not home, Embry. I want to go home... I want to go to home, not this."


"What are you talking about, Rose? We are home!"


"No... no, this isn't home. This is an apartment. I want to go home. To our house."
Rose knew that they had moved out of there 2 years ago after their parents deaths, but in her addled mind she was dying to go back now.


He stopped and got up infront of her, holding her and forcing her to look at him.
"Rose, look at me! Look at me! This is our home now, please come on!"


"I want to go home, Embry."
Rose said again as she stared at him, her eyes on fire, a deep blue, reflecting Thomas's own eyes when he was out of it.
"Please. Please. Take me home."


He got scared when he saw her eyes, recognizing them too well.
"Shit..alright, wait...we need to go inside first though to get you warm, come on"



Rose let him pull her inside only because he had agreed that they would get to go-- and she really was freezing. Or she had been. She couldn't feel much right now, only a pounding in her head and her voice screaming that she wanted to go home.

It was like a part of her she didn't know had taken over.

[PirateOTC]

Once inside, he took her to the livingroom and wrapped a blanket around her and he picked up his cellphone.
"I have to do this, Rose. I'm scared you might hurt people or yourself okey? And I don't know what to do"

[Devyn]

Rose didn't really hear him over the ringing in her ears. She slowly seated herself on the couch, holding the blanket tightly around her, shivering now and again. She didn't see Embry on his cell phone, still under the impression that soon they were going to go to 'home'.


He dialled the emergency psychiatric clinic.
"Yes, hi, I need to talk to someone who knows what to do with my sister, I think she's in some kind of ...I don't know... schizo-schock-state...I mean yeah..." he went on describing Rose's state for the nurse who picked up


Rose lifted her head slightly as she heard Embry talking from the kitchen and she frowned, trying hard to listen to what was being said.
"Embry!" She croaked loudly, dropping the blanket from around her and heading into the kitchen, "Are we going? I want to go."


"Alright, I'll bring her in..thanks" he hung up and walked into the hallway and grabbed both their shoes and walked back to Rose.
"here, put your shoes on"


Rose let out a sigh of relief to be going and she slowly seated herself down on the floor so she could tug her shoes on over her mud-caked feet. She tied them slowly and then got up again, her whole body still achy and trembling.
"Can we go?"


He handed her a jacket and knew she wouldn't co-operate if he told her where they really would be going.
"Yeah..."


Rose was honeslty just relieved they were going and she didn't have to scream and argue to get him to agree to take her home. She pulled on the jacket, being compliant, trying to calm herself down at the same time.


He knew his sister wasn't stupid and as they drove on the road and was about to turn towards the hospital, Embry locked both doors through a button by the steeringwheel, just in case Rose would try something stupid when she would see the hospital rise up in the distance. He glanced towards Rose and mumbled,
"I'm sorry..."


Rose frowned slowly, confused by the sight of the hospital.
"This is not the right way..." She started slowly and then her voice gained more fire. "Embry! I want to go home! Where the fuck are we going? Please!" She snapped, "I just want to go home... for a little bit. I have to go home for a little bit!"
She reached out to grab his arm suddenly, jerking the wheel and car along with it, turning them sharply at the speed they were going. She didn't think about danger right now, on a one track mission-- to get home.


"ROSE!"
The car spun around in a half-circle across the road and Embry hit the breaks, but they crashed into another car before they managed to stop. Embry looked towards Rose and was about to ask if she was okey, when he saw a car in the passengers seat window, not being able to break in time, coming at full-speed towards them. Embry grabbed Rose, holding her down underneat him, using himself as a shield when the car crashed into the passengers side and everything went black



Rose didn't see the car as she was still facing Embry in the driver's seat and the passenger window was to her back where the car came from. "Embry--" She started, but it was all she got out when he grabbed a hold of her and made her duck down. The crash she felt rocked the entire car and glass sprayed everywhere.
The ringing in her ears got louder and she felt wet stickiness in her eyes and on her face, although she didn't know if it was Embry's or her own. She slowly blacked out.

By the time she came around, it could have been minutes or seconds, there was a wailing of an ambulance nearby. She cracked her eyes open painfully, but it was all a blur. It took her less than a minute to realize her and Embry were laying on the ceiling of the car-- which meant it had flipped over somehow. God, how had she missed that? They must have been hit awfully hard. The glass around them was everywhere, she'd never seen so much glass. Her eyes finally and slowly moved to Embry and she noticed that he wasn't moving, probably just as bloody as she was.
"Embry?"
She whispered, unable to even hear her voice over the ringing in her ears.

[PirateOTC]

Soon there were ambulance men and firemen around the scene, working to get Rose and Embry out of the car.

Embry was walking in a tunnle and he saw someone coming at him from it.
"Embry, sweetie what are you doing here?" it was his mom's voice.
"Mom? Where am I?"
"You're not suppose to be here! Not now...you've got too much to do...like..your career, Rose's career....and helping me and dad"
"Helping you?" the light was so bright he had to shield his eyes with his arm "What do you mean?"
"Help Rose first...then you need to help us...he won't go away otherwise" Alex voice was heard.
"Mom? who won't go away?" Embry had stopped walking, it was like he wanted to walk, but his feet were stuck on the ground, not letting him.
"...Thomas...your dad...I know you've seen him cause he's with you, not with me where he belongs.."
Embry didn't know what to reply..in the distance he could hear men yelling "READY?...CLEAR!" and he felt a sharp pain in his chest.
"What's going on, mom?!" he asked, frightened.
"Don't worry, sweetie. It's just not your time
"READY?....CLEAR!"
a sharp pain shot through Embry again.
"Mom?!"
"Don't worry, just help Rose and believe what you see...you have to help us...and bring dad back to me!"
Embry didn't have time to ask, the light faded, his moms voice faded and he once again felt a sharp pain in his chest.
He let out a huge gasp and started coughing.
"He's back!"
Embry was laying on the ground by and ambulance with ambulance-nurses around him. It was like a circus as the rain was falling down on him from the sky...
"Mom..?" he whispered

Rose had been pulled back from the wreckage when she'd started to scream uncontrollably about her brother. Embry had been laying there, as good as dead really. She was disgusted with herself since it was her fault. Aside from having several glass shards stuck in her skin along her arms and legs from the broken windows, she was virtually unharmed, but her brother had not faired so well.
She sat in the back of an ambulance now, rocking back and forth as they tried to keep her still enough to pull out the glass pieces.

A nurse showed up and said to the one who was getting the glass pieces out of Rose;
"He's alive, but we're taking him with our ambulance to the hospital now"

Another nurse held Embry down in the ambulance since he was trying to get up.
"Rose?! Where's...where's my sister? Is she okey?"

Rose burst into tears at the news, burying her face in her hands and shaking back and forth. She was relieved to know Embry was alive, but this was all her fault... again. It just reinforced that idea in her head.
"Oh God... oh god..."
The ambulance was already on the way, taking her to the hospital as well. It only took a couple hours for them to get the glass pieces out of her skin, but she had to be sedated because of her lack of control-- which most of the doctors and nurses assumed was from shock of the crash.

Embry had to spend the day at the operating table. He had broken ribs among other broken bones and a punctured lung, but now, hours afterwards, he was resting and was stable in a room of the hospital. His step-mom was on his way after hearing about the crash, but the only one Embry wanted to see now was his sister.

Rose woke up with a jolt, unsure why-- like she'd been having a bad dream, but the moment her eyes were awake she couldn't remember anything of that dream. She tried to sit up, but her eyes connected with the person that was sitting beside her bed.
"James?"

James smiled ruefully at her as he leaned forward on his chair now that he was awake. "I heard what happened. I had to come make sure you were going to be okay."

Rose smiled slowly-- this was the first person that had come to see her. "I... I'm okay." She had calmed down some, not on the edge nearly as much as he had been.

James nodded, leaning forward and lightly combing back her hair in a loving way.
"Good. As soon as I heard... God, I didn't know what to think."

"Where's Emb--"

"Don't worry about him right now, right? I'm here... let's just worry about you."
James interrupted her.

"Oh thank god!" Jane, his 'step-mom' (the one who took care of Embry and Rose willingly after the death of their parents) hurried up to Embry.
"They called me at work, oh I was so worried!" she hugged Embry carefully.
"Jane, have you seen Rose?" Embry didn't want Jane here...he wanted his real mom..
"No, I'm going to see her too, she's in the next room, but she's alright. Can I get you anything?"
"yeah..some water.." he actually just wanted Jane to leave, he was too emotional after been seeing his real mother in the near-death experience just hours before..and he missed her badly. He voice was still in his head, her face and her perfume. When Jane went out to get a glass of water for him, he turned his face towards the window and tears ran down his cheeks.
"I can't do this..." he whimpered softly to himself..

Rose opened her mouth to say something more about Embry, but she felt bad going against anything that James told her not to. She closed it and remained silent for a little bit.
"James?" She started slowly, "Would you drive me somewhere if I asked you to?"

James didn't hesitate at all. "Of course. Anywhere you want to go... wait, now?"

Rose nodded, "Now... I'm not hurt."

James wasn't so sure about that, looking her over. Aside from her bandaged arms, she didn't appear to be hurt. And if he took her out of the hospital, she would be alone and he wouldn't have to worry about that brat, Embry.
"Alright."
He offered his hand to her.
"It's late enough, not too many nurses wandering around. Let's get you out of here. Where do you want to go?"

"Home."

James nodded, "Sure, I can take you back to your apartment--"

"No, no, not there. I want to go home. To my house. My parent's house."
Rose explained.

James seized up slightly. The last time he'd been there was with his dad... the night they killed-- He shook the thought from his head forcefully.
"Uh, yeah... yeah, I think I can take you there."

On her way back to Embrys room, Jane saw James, though she didn't know who that was, helping Rose out of her bed.She stopped in the doorway.
"..Excuse me?" she asked confused. "Who are you?"

Embry sighed and looked towards the doorway when he heard Jane

James paused a bit, frowning at the woman he had no idea who he was and he let his personality show toward her-- anything but how he acted toward Rose.
"None of your damn business. Who the fuck are you?"
He knew she wasn't a nurse so he saw no reason to be kind to her. She was being snoopy and he didn't like noisy people.

Rose frowned at the way that James spoke to her step mother, although she had never really connected with her step parents the way that Embry had. She mostly had ignored them and gone off in her own world. She didn't try to be social the way Embry did.

Jane got shocked at the way he spoke towards her.
"I'm Rose's step-mother.." she looked past James and to Rose.
"Are you okey, Rose?"

Embry frowned when he heard a mans voice reply to Jane and he started listening more carefully what was going on in the room next to him. Since his door was opened, it was easier to hear.

Rose just gave her a blank stare when she spoke to her, not sure how to respond. In some way she wanted to impress James and since he'd been rude to Jane, she decided to just not say anything at all. She didn't even nod her head-- maybe because she was far from being okay.
"Can we go?" She asked softly to James.

James nodded, "Yep, we're going." He reached back for the girl's hand, not surprised she was easy to manipulate. He pulled her out and around Jane in the doorway.

"Excuse me, you can't just leave! Have you talked to a doctor?" Jane walked after them

Embry frowned and slowly and painfully got out of bed to walk towards the doorway so he could see what was going on

James didn't reply to the woman, ignoring her as he pulled Rose by the hand down the hallway, wanting to get out of there now. She had given him the opportunity by asking to leave-- it just made it a hundred times more easy to get her alone and away from her damn brother.

Rose followed him like a rag doll, her head hanging slightly and stumbling now and again. She was in bad shape, but most of it didn't have to do with the crash, it was a lack of mental health now.

Embry peeked his head out around the doorway just in time to see Rose and James get out of a door.
"Jane!" he called, terrified that James might hurt her if she approached him.
"Jane, stop! Let them go!"
Jane stopped and hurried back to him.
"Who was that?"
Embry couldn't tell the truth, he couldn't deal with it now so he said:"A friend...he's a friend of Rose and..he was suppose to pick her up since she wasn't in such a bad shape"
he was amazed at how easy it was to lie to Jane.
"Oh...alright...well he seemed kinda---"
"Yeah I know...can I have my water now?"
Jane nodded and gave him the waterglass and after he had been drinking it he said;
"You can go home..I'm aldright I just need to rest, okey?"
"Are you sure, Embry?"
"yeah, yeah...thanks for dropping by, I'll go back to rest"
"Alright...I'll call you later okey?"
"Sure"
He walked back to bed and watched Jane go. When he was sure she was gone, he got up and got dressed in the clothes that were laying on a chair nearby. There was no way he was gonna leave Rose in the hands of James..

Rose let James bring her around the side of her car and load her into the passenger's seat. She was silent on the drive until they got close to the familiar house-- now abandoned, although the for-sale sign was still up. Nobody wanted to live in a house where Thomas and Alex met their bloody ends.
"James..." She started slowly, "how did you know where it was?" Not once has she opened her mouth to give direction.

James pulled into the drive, answering smoothly, "Common knowledge... it's a famous place... not in a good way. Come on, you're the one that said you wanted to be here."

Rose nodded slowly, "But I want to go in there alone... without you."

James looked slightly pissed at that notion.
"Fine."
He gestured forward, "Go then."

Rose felt bad for leaving him out, but not bad enough that she wanted to change her mind. She slipped out of the passenger's door and padded barefoot up to the house. The front door was locked and she frowned, having not expected that.

Embry was sneaking through the halls, hiding and waiting for nurses to pass by before he made it to the fire exit and he snuck out. The fresh air felt good, but he winced in pain after the stitches.
"Fuck! fuck fuck fuck!" he cursed silently at the pain
He picked up his cellphone and dialled Roses number

Rose nearly jumped out of her skin when her cell phone went off in her pocket, scaring her badly. She turned her back to the locked door, pulling the phone out, her eyes going back to James as he sat in the car watching her.
"Hello?"
She didn't look at the number, eyes locked on James. His face was hard to read by the distance, but something about it seemed wrong-- he looked angry. But Rose didn't know why. She just knew the door behind her was locked and she couldn't get into the house... not yet.

"Rose?" he winced again in pain
"Where did he take you?"

"Where you wouldn't."
Rose spoke steadily into the phone. She was still somehow mad at Embry for betraying her. He took her to the hospital instead of home-- all she'd wanted was to go home and he wouldn't even do that for her. She knew she shouldn't be mad at him, but she couldn't help it-- she didn't ask for very much but when she did, Embry had lied to her and he got hurt because of it.

James saw her cell phone come out and he narrowed his eyes. He pulled open his own cell phone from within the car and held down the speed dial for number one, lifting it to his ear.
"Hey... dad, I got a problem--"

It took some seconds before he realized what she meant.
"Is James there? Look, get away from him, Rose, it feels weird that he's so..so attached to you..I got a really bad feeling about him, and I promise I'm not just saying this, Rose!" he winced again as he walked towards the road, needing to catch a ride fast before the nurses would find out that he left.

Rose leaned her back heavily against the door, "What's wrong with someone being attached to me?" She muttered softly into the phone, "What's so wrong with that, Embry? Why can't someone just like me..." Her eyes stayed on James in the car and he looked to be on his cell phone as well... odd. She wondered who he was calling.

James frowned as he listened to his dad after explaining what was going on.
"No... well yeah, her step mother saw us leave. But she didn't know where we were going. Nobody knows we're here."
His eyes landed on Rose at the door.
"She's on her cell now--" He paused as he was interrupted. "Yeah... yeah, I can do that. You want me to keep her here until you come?"
Again, he paused, listening for the answer.
"Okay."

"no, nothing like that Rose, I mean..he just...he just seem..very creepy...we've had enough shit going on now, can you just wait til I come okey?"
He was walking along the road now, hitching a ride with someone who was willing to drive him

Rose grunted, "You should be in the hospital, Embry. You shouldn't leave your room--" She stalled off some as she saw James getting out of the car. She watched him approach her and something about his demeanor had changed.

"Locked?"
James questioned about the door, ignoring the fact she was on the phone.

"Yes... well, yes, I can't get in."
Rose answered him, surprised when he pulled a key from his pocket, smiling charmingly at her.
"How... how did you get that?"
She gasped.

[PirateOTC]

Embry heard the conversation and the rattle of keys
"Rose, I'm calling you back" he hung up just when a car pulled over and a man rolled down the window and looked at him.
"You need a ride?"
"Yes, please!" he got into the passengers seat and told the man where he was going

Rose could not wrap her head around how James would have a key to her house. It wasn't like he had been the music producer to her father, she would have known him or his father if that was true.
"No, James, how did you get that?"
She demanded louder this time.

James unlocked the door, grabbing her arm and jerking her inside with him. "In we go before you make a scene in public." He shut and locked the door after them, pushing her into the dark.

Embry noticed the man glancing at him from time to time and he sighed and looked out of the window.
"You can drop me off here, it's fine" he said eventually when they got to a smaller street, the same street his parents house were on but a bit further up.
The man stopped the car and said before Embry got out:
"I'm sorry but, you're Embry Bradley, right? The son of Thomas Bradley?"
Embry stopped half-way out of the car.
"uhm..yes.."
The man got a notebook and a pen up.
"I'm sorry to bother you...but my daughter has lots of posters of you and if you could just..."
Embry sat back down and grabbed the pen and the notebook.
"Of course"
He signed the paper.
"Very kind of you, she will be delighted"
"Thanks for the ride" Embry got out of the car and walked as fast as his body allowed him towards the house.

Rose watched him lock the door and right then she knew something was wrong-- much more so than James just acting weird. He had grabbed her cell phone already and the way he clenched it in her hand made it obvious she was out of connections.

James turned toward her after locking the door, but the moment he did he was surprised when she darted away into the dark house.
"Get back here!"
He shouted after her, running to follow her.

Rose turned a corner and grabbed a hold of the stairway railing, lifting herself up and running up her own stairs-- it had been two years since she'd been up them.

He saw the house peeking out from the end of the road and he took up his cellphone and dialled Roses number again

James answered the cell phone as he was halfway up the stairs to get Rose. He growled at the blinking light of the phone and Embry's name there.
"Your sister is busy. Call her again and I swear you'll regret it."

Rose turned down the hall when she got to the top of the stairs and tried to go into the room on the left, her old room-- it was locked.
"No!" She gasped, trying the handle a few more times. She moved on to the next door, Embry's-- it was locked too.

"Shit!" he put his cellphone back in his pocket. His body ached terribly now, but he closed his eyes tightly and saw Thomas face in his minds eye telling him what he used to tell him when he was little and had fallen or hurt himself in other ways;
"Embry..it's just pain. Master it and it won't hurt as bad, I promise"
And with that Embry started running, feeling the pain in every muscle, but not trying to push it away.
Soon he stopped by James car. It was empty and he looked towards the house and ran up the stairs but found the door locked. He walked around the house and found an open window that lead into the kitchen and he started climbing inside, surpressing the pain and not letting out one sound

Rose moved onto the next door, although she didn't want to -- her parents room. She was terrified that it would be open.
It wasn't. They were all locked.

James put Rose's phone onto his pocket when Embry got off the line and he hurried up the rest of the stairs. He smirked when he found her standing in front of the door that was familiar to him-- it was where he'd helped Luke two years ago.
"Trapped, huh?"
He asked in an amused tone.

"Get away from me."
Rose turned, pressing her back to the door, wanting to get away, but she was out of hallway and he was between her and the stairs again.

James shook his head, walking forward.
"I have someone coming you need to meet."

The house was dark, no electricity and eventhough it was sunlight outside, it didn't seem to reach through the windows. It was like a ghost house and it scared Embry cause it used to be his beloved home...he snuck around in the kitchen and silently grabbed a knife from a drawer as he continued towards James voice.

James put his hand on either side of Rose, quite a bit bigger than her. She was still just a teenager, barely legal to drive-- he had to keep reminding himself of that. But she looked so much like his mother, except for those disgustingly blue eyes-- those were Thomas's eyes, not Alex's.
"Calm down."
He tried to soothe her, but she just pressed as hard as she could on the door, away from him. James leaned in further.
"Calm down."
He told her in a more angry tone.

Rose felt like she could not breathe, a million thoughts racing through her head. But the closeness of James now and his voice shouting at her to calm down was making it a hundred times worse.

The staircase up to the upperfloor and all the bedrooms was like something taken out of a horror movie; very gothic even in daylight, but in the dark it was even more scary. Just the way their parents had wanted it though. The main colors used to be black and red, but now everything had fallen from its grace and it was all more grey and dusty. Embry snuck underneath the big stairs, hearing James and Rose being intop of them. When he was a little kid, he had some hiding spots underneath the stairs and he could climb them, but now he was older and ontop of it hurt kinda badly, so he needed to figure out some other way

Rose did not calm down, in fact she panicked the more he told her to. She tried to push hims away and for it James grabbed her wrist and slammed her backwards against the door.

"Behave!"
James snarled, losing his temper at her. He wanted her to be good. He didn't want her to end up dead. He had always just wanted Embry and Thomas to die. Never his mother. And not Rose either.
"I said fucking behave!"
He slammed her back against the door again.

Embry was now sneaking up the stairs as quiet as he could and he ended up behind James. He ripped the railing with one hand and the knife with the other.
"Let her go!"

James turned around quickly when he heard Embry's voice, growling a bit. "The fuck did you get here?" The kid looked about to fall over so he wasn't too worried about him.

Rose gasped when she saw Embry, but she didn't move from the doorway of her parents room. She saw something tucked into the back of James's pants for the first time when he faced his back to her.
"Oh god..." She mumbled softly and then louder, "Embry, he has a gun!"

James did, indeed have a pistol tucked into the back wasteband of his pants-- he had started carrying it around lately.

Embrys heart started pumping, knowing he could end up shot, but he didn't let his panic show in his face nor his voice when he repeated.
"Get away from Rose!"
he gritted his teeth together, now being more focused on the intense situation instead of the intense pain..

"Now, this is interesting..."
The voice didn't come from James, although it was familiar sounding. He stood a few steps down from Embry, a big man, probably at once he had been rather handsome and he had grown up into a nice-looking older man, but he was certainly not young anymore. The man had to be close to his sixties, if not in them. His eyes stayed on Embry, watching him with amusement as the kid wavered the knife around, threatening his son.
"Embry Bradley."

Rose looked toward the older man, then at James, not sure what the hell was going on now. But with both men here, she could see the similarity between them. There was something about the older man that caught her attention. He looked so familiar-- something about his eyes.

Embry quickly turned around, facing the older man at the bottom of the stairs.
"Who are you?!"

"Luke Harth."
Luke answered without a second of hesitation.
"I'm your grandfather, actually." He smirked at the mention of the word having never had the opportunity to call himself that yet. He started up the stairs toward Embry, letting the shock sink in.

"mom's dad..." he whispered in shock to himself, staring at Luke
"Wh..why are you here?" he stuttered now

"Unfinished business."
Luke reached forward, quite a bit bigger than Embry and much stronger. He moved quickly for an older man, but he had spent a lot of his life defending himself for all the trouble he constantly caused. He grabbed Embry's forearm and twisted it back, pulling the knife from his hand and tossing it back down the stairs.
"Don't threaten my son."

Rose was watching, terrified, but unable to move. She tried to step forward when she saw Embry getting hurt, but James stopped her. She had to guess James was her uncle if this man in front of them was her grandfather.

Luke glanced toward Rose, letting his eyes eat her up for a few seconds. It was the first time he'd ever had the opportunity to see her in real time.
"You look just like her."


He let out a roar in pain now since he wasn't in the best shape, just coming from the hospital. He tried to get Luke to release his arm, but when he called James his son, he looked up at him;
"What? You're family? Then why do you do this to us?!"

"We're a different sort of family--"
James started, but was cut off by the look his father gave him. It was obvious that Luke was in control of the situation.

Luke glared at James for speaking out of turn and he motioned to the door behind them. "Open that door for the lovely little thing."

Rose felt a sickeness in her just the way that her grandfather looked at her, but she didn't know what it was from. She turned toward James as he went to unlock their parents door.
"No, wait..." Too late, the door fell open and Rose was transported back to when she'd last opened that door. They were still there. The bodies, the blood, the stench. It was all still there in her head.

Embry wanted to follow James and Rose into the room, but Lukes grip around his arm was almost crushing his bones.
"Wait! Let me go!"
He stared up at Luke now, meeting his eyes with his ice blue ones and he growled;
"Let me go...!"

Luke watched him look toward him and he wasn't surprised by those ice blue eyes-- he had gotten used to them glaring at him years ago.
"You really do resemble the man." He mused to himself, not letting go of Embry, "It's sickening, really." He shook his head, "We can only hope you meet the same end."

"What are you doing just standing there? You're the one that wanted to come here."
James pushed Rose into the room, but she grabbed a hold of his arm and clawed to get back out of it.

Luke glanced toward his son and laughed, "Lock her in there while we deal with this one."

Rose nearly screamed at the thought of being in such a terrifying place alone.
"No! No, please! Embry!"
Her brother was going to get hurt and she couldn't allow that to happen.


He tried with all the powers he had left in his body to free himself from Luke's grip when Rose was getting locked away. He clawed at Lukes hand with his free hand and kicked at his legs.

Luke grabbed Embry suddenly as he was being clawed at and turned him around, slamming his back into the nearby wall, not caring if he hurt him. The boy would be dead soon.
"Cut it out, brat."
He snarled, hardly seeing him as anyone but Thomas.

"Embry!"
Rose screamed again as she was shut in the door to her parent's room, hearing the key scrape the door shut. God, she was terrified to be in there. And at the same time, she was more scared for Embry outside the room.
"Help..." She whispered, turning toward the room. The last place she'd seen her parents' bodies. "Dad... mom... please help. Please. Daddy?"

Embry winced in pain, but kept fighting to get lose, suddenly he saw a shadow form behind Lukes back and he stopped and stared at the shadow, breathing heavily and his breath turned into cold mist.
The ice blue eyes appeared on the shadow figure and a hand reached into Lukes back, like it was grabbing a hold of his spine and twisting it.

Luke let out a roar of pain, releasing Embry at once feeling like someone was grabbing his spine from the inside out. He stepped backwards just as a bullet went off near him.
"What the hell!?"
He shouted, looking to the left to see his son aimed at nothing behind him.

James was panting slightly as he had his gun up. He could have sworn that had just been something behind his dad, reaching into him-- it had been a shadow in the dark hallway, but as he shot the shadow it disappeared.
"I-- there was--" He didn't know how to explain.

Rose screamed from inside the room, banging her hand on the locked door. She was terrified by the gun shot-- it could mean her brother was dead.

While Luke and James were distracted, Embry ran up the stairs, throwing himself onto James legs, making him fall and he tried to open the bedroom door, but it was locked. He banged his hands on it;
"Rose?! I'm coming!"
He figured James had a key since the door was locked from the outside and he turned, looking at James who was about to get up from the floor. He knew that if he stood still for a long time, he would be an easy target for James gun, so he kicked James at his knee, making it dislocate just so he would have some time to search his pocket for the key as he kept a close eye on where he had the gun

James shouted out in agony as he was kicked in the side of the knee, hearing the crunch of the bone in a way it was definitely not supposed to sound.

Luke snarled and started up the stairs. He pulled a second gun, always carrying one-- he'd taught his son to do the same.
"Do you wanna die?"
He snarled as he jammed the barrel of it into the side of Embry's temple, reminded exactly of how he had killed the boy's father.

Rose leaned against the door, falling down to her knees, she peeked through the keyhole to see the scene on the other side.

Embry went pale with fear now, but he saw the keys laying on the floor as they had fallen out of James jacket. If he could just...
He ducked as fast as he could, down on the floor, hurting his body more as he landed on his arm and the keys, but he had no time to reflect over his pain as Luke had pulled the trigger just inches away from his head as he had made the move towards the floor. He grabbed the keys but was now scrambling on the floor away from Luke.
"Please help me, help me..!" he whispered to whatever it was..his dad? to help him again cause if he didn't get up off the floor in a second, he would get shot since Luke was aiming the gun right at his face.

Suddenly an unseen force was pushing Lukes gun away from Embry, aiming it towards James instead and Embry swore he could see the outline of a an arm and a hand gripping the gun and pushing it away from him

Luke pulled the trigger a second time, but just as the gun was forced to the side-- he managed to shoot his own son in the stomach.
"James!"
He shouted, hard to tell whether it was from surprise or care. He leaned down, dropping the gun for a moment make sure James wasn't dead, although he was bleeding everywhere.

Rose screamed again at both the gunshots and then Luke shouting James's name. She didn't know what was going on, but she heard the scraping of keys in the door again. She took a step back from it, surprised when it was Embry standing there when it opened.

He reached out his hand and grabbed Rose.
"Come on!" he pulled her out of the room, past Luke and James and almost falling down the stairs with her.

Rose didn't look back as she ran with him, nearly tripping down the stairs. She did her best not to fall over Embry, knowing he was pretty badly hurt. She could hear Luke's angry roars from behind them, still upstairs, he didn't seem to be following.

[PirateOTC]

"Shit!" Embry called out when he heard numerous of gunshots go off and he almost fell on the last step, losing grip of Rose, but instead pushed her infront of him towards the front door, falling behind a bit.

The pistol was spinning around on the floor beside Luke, shooting on its own like it had gotten a life on its own inside the house

Luke reached out for the pistol and grabbed a hold of it, stopping the wild shooting before someone else he didn't intend to get shot did. He looked at the gun strangely, but he knew he had to get James to the ER quick if he was going to live.

Rose stumbled for the door, turning to go back to Embry though, helping him up off the floor. She wouldn't leave her brother behind, not after all of this.

Embry felt a sharp pain by one of his ribs and cried out in pain and fell to his knees, coughing. He felt the iron-taste of blood in his throat and the wooden floor of the hallway got stained red as he coughed. He knew his body would break down by this, but he had no time to let it. He winced as he got back up on his feet, getting support by Rose