You Have Us... Always.

Chapter 17- I See You.

Brynn felt something brush along her face. Her entire body was freezing and she couldn't see anything.

She could, however, feel things on her feet. Dirt, pointy twigs, wet mud, leaves, tree stump.

The twelve year old's foot caught the side of a tree stump, causing her to topple over and onto the ground below. Her hands were scratched and her head smacked against the rough floor.

Wait, hold on. Tree stump?

Brynn weakly opened her eyes, stunned by her surroundings. Trees were all around her, all covering the sky above, and the air was thick making it harder to breath.

Everything was blurry as she made it back onto her feet to try and find her way out. She stumbled forwards onto her knees before finally rising herself to stand normally.

The little Verlice was cold, confused and scared. She was scared.

Suddenly, there were quick footsteps coming from behind her to which she responded instantly, whipping herself around. Nothing.

Then again, on her left. She spun quickly. Nothing.

She could see something dark behind a tree a few feet away, but her attention on it was dragged when footsteps sounded again from behind her. Nothing.

Again to her left. Nothing.

To her right. Nothing.

Brynn's dizziness increased tenfold, black spots appeared in her line of vision. The footsteps sounds getting louder and closer and then decreasing once again. The repetitive cycle making the girl go insane.

All of a sudden, the footsteps got as loud as they'd ever been and closer. Brynn gasped and fell back, into a tree and curled in on herself.

"Leave- leave me alone," she whimpered out, losing consciousness. The footsteps came right in front of her, until a gloved hand held her chin roughly and gripped her cheeks on either side of her face.

"Please," was the last Brynn could mutter out. She was exhausted.

---

The front door alarm rang through the Verlice mansion.

All the Verlice brothers were up straight away, reaching for their firearms and running out their rooms.

The oldest of them was out first, going across to his sisters room and flinging the already open door wider to see an empty bed. His heart dropped as he lunged through his pile of brothers trying to look in their little sister's room.

They all had the same reaction upon seeing the empty bed, hearts pounding as Callan ordered them places to look. Zaiden, Ezra and Silas downstairs and everybody else the second floor.

The eldest, however, had never ran down the stairs that fast in his life. Skipping half the steps, his breath got caught in his throat upon seeing the front door wide open. Not again.

He ran over to the security lock and disabled the alarm, before running out in the driveway.

"Brynn?! Brynn??!"

There was no sign of her anywhere. No footsteps or tracks anywhere.

Growling to himself, he ran back into the house and back upstairs. He took all the twists and turns to the third floor door, shooting the lock off dead on.

The rest of the brothers turned at the sound, none of them finding anything.

Zayne took the steps up to the third floor, running to the security room like his life depended on it. Because really, it did.