The Secret

Chapter 8

Chapter 8

"What's the matter with you," Kimmy asked Dan late one afternoon. Mark and Reagen had given them two hours off of training, and they spent it in the courtyard. It was the only place green and sunny they were aloud to go.

"Nothing."

"Saying that will get you no where. Why are you so sulky?" He turned his back to her, turning to face the wall. "I am not. I'm just....thinking." By now the others had flopped down next to them, listening intently to them.

"Homesick already, Daniel?"

"Sulky isn't the word. Downright rude and angry." Ollie rolled his eyes at Steve. "That's almost saying the same thing."

"Is not!"

"Is too!"

"Stop it!" Dan rounded on them. "You wanna know why? Fine. I haven't been sleeping ever since our first day here. There you go. Laugh."

They stared blankly at him. Dotti shifted weight, leaning against the pale stone wall, narrowing her eyes at him. "Why would we laugh? All of us haven't been sleeping well, anyways." She studied him longer. "Though....I think you may have a different reason."

The dark haired teen got up and walked around. "I keep hearing screaming in the middle of the night. Or crying." They all exchanged glances. "Where from?"

"I don't know. Sounds like outside the walls, but in not sure. I could be imagining it."

"We should stay up and listen," Eli suggested.

"And miss the only rest we can get from Uncle Mark?" Kimmy punched Ollie's shoulder lightly. "C'mon, *girl*, don't be such a whimp. Stake out tonight, settled."

Dotti studied her cousin again before pushing off the wall.

~~~**---**~~~

The stake out had proved a failure. For one, only the girls seemed capable of staying awakening. Second, no strange sounds were heard.

Early the next morning, seven disheveled kids shuffled bleary eyed to the training hall, almost falling in a heap when they got there. To their relief though, Uncle Mark and Reagan had yet to show up.

"Dan, are you sure you heard screams?" He collapsed on the hard ground and moaned his yes at Callie.

"I can't believe you kept us up all night," Eli groaned. Stephen glanced around the room, holding his left arm close to him. "I think you broke my arm, Kimmy." He neatly dodged her flying fist.

"I can break it more if you want," she smiled sweetly.

Eli perked up. "PLEASE DO!"

Dotti rolled her eyes. "Eli!"

"What? He deser- hey Uncle Mark."

The dark haired man barely noticed them laying in a dog pile, so intent on the papers in his hands was he. "Hello....oh!" A few giggles erupted from the pile. Mark shook his head, finally looking at them. "I have some....disturbing news."

Kimmy cocked her head to the side. "What about?"

"All of you."

They immediately entangled and stood up. "What happened?"

He glanced at the papers again. "Well it's not particularly about you, but related. You know those letters we said we would send out to your parents? Well they have yet to get to their destinations. We knew before they got them they would file a missing child report sooner or later. We've been checking for them." Silence.

"And.....?"

Mark sighed angrily. "And what? We found them. Eight of them!"

"EIGHT!"

"That's impossible!"

"Are you sure the last is related?"

"Yes, yes. The report says a- Daniel what's the matter?" Dan had turned deathly white after hearing his uncle's statement. "Small girl, four feet tall, light brown hair, hazel eyes?" He turned even whiter at Uncle Mark's nod. "Tina," he breathed.

~~~***---**~~~~

It took a moment for it to sink into the group. There was a little girl, Dan's sister, barely seven, missing. Somehow she had followed them. Dan, still white faced, ran to the door on the side wall of the training hall. "She's outside!" There was a terrified edge to his voice, urgent.

"How do you know?"

Dotti answered for him. "He's heard screaming, crying, the last few nights. We have to find her quick!" She threw a look over her shoulder and raced after Dan. "Uncle, how do you open it?"

"DNA. Yours won't work though," he said, hurrying after them with the others. "It's not yet programmed for you." He pushed on a decidedly blank part of the wall, where there appeared a key pad. Mark quickly typed in the code and then scanned his thumb. "Do any of you have a weapon?" Seeing they didn't, he disappeared and came back with a long dagger and a sling and stone pouch. Motioning for them to follow, the dark-haired man slipped outside.