"No thank you. I can take care for myself." Gaven sort of shrugged and then turned around, and walked off. Before I thought anything could get any worse it began thundering as loud as possible. The thunder echoed in my ears until I was sure they were going to explode. I covered my ears with my hands and dropped to my knees on the wet, muddy ground. Sat there for a moment and looked at the sky, then dropped on my stomach. I made circles over my stomach with the tips of my fingers until the storm had stopped. There was nothing around me, just mud and dirt. No houses, no trees, and no people. I heard someone scream from behind me and I turned around to see Ryly running twords me with her hands out stretched. "Madiline!" She screamed as she flung her arms around me.

"Where have you been! Are you alright?" She ask me. Shouldn't I be asking you this question? I thought. "Yeah yeah I'm fine. What happened to you?" "Me? Oh, nothing. Nothing." "Are you sure?" She nodded her head, avoiding eye contact. I grabbed her shoulders, forcing her to look at me and then spoke to her directly. "What happened to you when you were taken." "Nothing. I was just tortured for a while and then I was let go." She pulled back her sleeve and showed me her wrists. "See? Just some scratches." She shrugged and pulled her sleeve back down. She seemed more worn out, older, weaker then she was last I saw her but I pretended not to notice the difference. "So. I've noticed the tummy." "What?!" I screamed, looking down at my stomach. "Did you and Gaven finally decide to get married and have a kid?" I shook my head violently and pointed at her, "No! I am pregnant but not with Gaven! With another boy named Greg. I don't know him anymore." She gave me an odd look and then lifted up my shirt and placed her hand on my stomach.

"It's cold." She said. "Yeah. I guess." I rolled my eyes at her and then laughed. She grabbed my hand and started leading me somewhere. "Come on, we're going to go to my car and drive back to my new house to get your baby checked out." "Why?" "I'll explain later. There's no time." I walked to her car with her and got inside, playing along with whatever she thought was wrong with me or my baby. After about thirty minutes we got to a house that had one other car at it and people roaming around inside. When she got me out of the car she opened the front door and lead me to the couch. On the other end of the couch there was a little boy and an older man about in his twenties with his arm around the little boy. "Hey Kyle I need you to take Arthur into another room and call the doctor for her okay?" The older man stood up and took the little boy in his arms and carried him off into somewhere in the house.

An hour later another car pulled up in the drive-way and out stepped a small man dressed in a white cloak. He held a suit case in his left hand and held another silver object in his right. When he knocked on the door Ryly answered it and the small man stepped inside. "Where is she?" He ask. "She's right here, I think something is wrong with her baby." He nodded his head in a sort of slow way and then placed his hands on my stomach. He frowned and squinted his eyes real hard at my stomach for a long time like he was trying to see somthing. "I can't find anything, but I'll come back next week and check it out again." Before Ryly could even pay him he left and got in his car and drove off. The man who Ryly called Kyle sat down next to me and placed his hand on my stomach. "Ryly?" He began, "I don't think anything is wrong with her. I think you just want something to be." Ryly didn't say anything back but we all knew it was true.

"She's too young to have a child. It'll ruin her reputation." "Ryly, it's still not fair to claim that something is wrong with her baby just because you think she is too young. When you had your first child with that Thomas kid you were even younger than her so don't try and pull that." "I'm trying to prevent her from humiliation!" Ryly walked out of sight and into another room with the little boy Arthur I'm guessing.

I spent only about two weeks with them before I left. I planned on going back home, but on the way there I head someone following me. Whispering things behind me and then disapearing when I turned around. I looked around for a long time and then strated walking again. Hands grabbed my sides and whirled me around. One hand grabbed my wrist and another closed my mouth. A quick surge of panic went through me but when I saw his face my whole body relaxed. It was Layne. I smacked his hand off my mouth and then looked at him sternly, "Layne! Why are you here!" "I couldn't stand not seeing you." "Layne, we had a one percent chance of making it anyways." He shrugged and then tried to convince me, "Maybe we could be that one percent." Could we be that one percent that makes it? "What about if we have kids?" "Then we have kids." "But how will we keep them safe from the towns?" He smiled now and grabbed my hand, "We run away."

After that we ran, not stopping for any breaks or food. We ran until we came to a little cottage house. My house. I looked at him as he let go of my hand and nudged me twords the house. I slowly walked up and lightly knocked on the door. Seconds later a little boy with bonde hair opened a crack in the door. Madison. Tears filled in my eyes as I kneeled down to meet his highth. "Madison? It's me, Madeline." His eyes opened wide and the door flung open in a matter of seconds. At that point he was wrapped in my arms and another boy came running ou the door. Ragen. After a long time we stopped hugging and I pulled them back so I could talk to them. "Where's mom?" Madison turned around the pointed inside the house with a scary looking face. I stood up and reached for Layne behind me who was already at my side. I grabbed his hand and walked inside. "Mom? Are you here?" No one answered. I walked infront of Ferris' door and then knocked on the smooth wood. A weak "yes" came from the inside. I opened the door, it creaking all the way open.

"Mom? It's me. I'm back." My mom didn't move, she smiled. But didn't move. "Hello Madeline! Where have you been dear?" She ask in a very slow, weak voice. "Every where. I'm pregnant." I heard someone make a stuttering sound and then turned around to see Madison who was about ten now standing there. Jaw wide open, eyes too. My mom took her weak finger tips and ran them across my stomach. "To bad I'm not going to live to see it huh guys?" Madison and Ragen nodded their heads and they curled up into bed with my mother. Madison grabbed her hair and twirled it around in his fingers. "Mom's going to die soon. She's very sick." "Oh." I managed to say before choking on air. They were this young and already going to lose their mother? "Where are you boys going to live?" Madison shrugged his shoulders and looked back down at the hair in his hands. "It doesn't really matter." Ragen;s tiny voice spoke out. "Gaven comes to bring us food every day. We should be alright."

I held my breath until I started to get dizzy and the world began to spin, I didn't want to be here anymore. Layne grabbed my sides and pushed his lips to my ear, "Breathe." I let the air out of my lungs and began to function again. "So...You're dying mom?" She nodded her head but refused to actually say that she was. "It's a shame that you can't see the baby. It's due in about six months." She nodded and closed her eyes. Ragen covered up to her chin in blanket and Madison led us all out of the room and shut the door. "She needs some rest. You guys can sleep here for a while id you'd like." I looked at the couch, one of the placed that Gaven had protected me and I felt my body getting ready to cry. I landed in Layne's arms and thne began to cry. I didn't care who saw me anymore I just wanted this all to be over.

Madison and Ragen wrapped their little arms around me torso and held me along with Layne. After a while I stopped and sat on the couch with Layne's arm around me and the boys in my lap. "Maddie, we've all been really worried about you because came back here one day and told us everything that happened and we thought you wrre dead." I smiled at how mature Madison had gotten and I hugged him, "No. I'm very well alive."