The Beginning Of The End

Chapter 18

When I got to the Jacobson family section, I walked slowly down the main hallway listening for voices behind every door. Near the end of the hallway, I could distinctly hear voices behind one, but when I tried the door it was locked. I knocked softly, wondering what on earth they could be doing in there to need to lock the door. It couldn't be anything too bad. Like Noah had said, her big brothers were there, and they wouldn't want her hurt in any way.

The voices went silent when I knocked, and now I could hear hushed whispers. Footsteps coming to the door...

It opened a crack, and an eye peered out at me. An eye connected to a face which was partly hidden from me, but that I couldn't recognise.

"Oh!" I exclaimed. "Who are you?"

"Who are you?" The guy at the door asked in confusion.

"Izaac, close it!" Another voice called urgently. I moved as quick as lightning, faster than I ever knew I could, and suddenly I had squeezed through the door and was inside the room.

"Who are you?" I repeated, looking around at the shocked faces before me.

The one who had opened the door, presumably Izaac, had shut it now and was leaning against it looking angry. He looked younger than me, maybe about Charlie's age, and he had light brown hair and a fringe so long it fell right over most of the right side of his face. Looking around the rest of the room, I saw an older girl standing beside the bed, looking as if she wasn't sure whether to attack me or not. Another guy, this one maybe a year or so older than me and impossibly tall, stood beside a shorter boy that was the spitting image of Izaac at the door. Glancing between them, I literally could not tell them apart.

"Is this your house?" The girl asked. I started to shake my head, but then stopped. The house belonged to the whole twelve families, which I was a part of. So technically...

"Kind of," I said with uncertainty. "It's complicated. What are you guys doing here?"

The two older ones, the insanely tall guy and the girl, exchanged a glance, almost seeming to have a secret, silent conversation. Izaac went over and joined his twin; the two bent their heads together and had a very quiet, murmured conversation.

"I'm Tyson," The tall guy said, taking a few steps towards me with the girl still by his side. "This is my family." he gestured around at them and one of the twins did a shy little wave.

"I'm Nicole," the girl said, smiling and holding out her hand. I shook it, though I still had no idea what these people were doing here. Who were they?

But when my hand touched the girls, my eyes went wide and I gasped. I could feel something. There was something in her hand, not physically but inside it, something running through her blood, through her veins.

Magic.

I let go of her hand and staggered backwards, shocked by how strongly I had somehow been able to feel the magic in her. But who were these guys?

"Nicole, Tyson, Izaac," I murmured, and then t hit me. Those names, they were off the list. "Sam!" I exclaimed, turning to the twins. One of them had to be Sam.

One boy, Izaac I think, pushed the other forward towards me. He looked very scared, and it almost seemed like he was hiding back behind his curtain of hair. It certainly looked like he wanted to run away and hide.

"You're Sam?" I asked, and as he nodded a grin spread across my face.

It would appear we didn't even need the Bloedzoeker for some things. These people were right off the list, and if I was not mistaken, they made up one of the families. The Hunt family.

"Do you mind telling us what's going on?" Izaac asked, appearing again beside his twin. "Who are you?"

"I'm Louisa," I said, still unable to wipe the grin off my face. We now had two entire families, plus mine which apparently wasn't entire thanks to our little sister actually being alive, and then there was Jaylon's, but we still needed to find both his brother and sister.

"Should that, like, mean something to us?" Izaac asked.

"Well, no, I guess not," I said. "What are you guys doing here?"

The entire family seemed to exchange a glance, and then Nicole spoke.

"Our parents disappeared a couple of years ago," she said quietly, sadly. "I was nineteen and legally allowed to live by myself, but the others would have all been put into foster care. Tyson would have been eighteen in a couple of months, but still. There's one thing my parents always used to say, and that was that family always sticks together, no matter what." She paused and smiled around at her brothers.

"So that's what we did. We've been running away ever since, taking care of each other and never staying in one place too long. We came here yesterday, and there was no one home, so we thought it might be okay to stay for a bit. We thought it might be like abandoned or unused or something. So we found this room and we've been here since."

"Well, it's really great that you did." I grinned. "It's saved us a lot of trouble, especially if you guys move around a lot."

"What do you mean?" Tyson asked in confusion, looking around at his equally confused siblings.

"Do you guys like..." I trailed off, not sure how to put it. "Do you know what you are?"

They looked at each other, appearing even more confused than before.

"I'll take that as a no," I laughed nervously. "Uh, I'm not very good at explaining this. Do you want to come with me and you can get the full story from someone that's, well, better at explaining all this."

Tyson looked at Nicole and she shook her head.

"Look," she said, "I don't know what you're going on about, but we're just normal people. We just wanted a place to stay, but we can leave now. We-"

"No!" I exclaimed, leaping in front of the door even though none of them had even made a move towards it. "No, please. This will all make sense in a little while. I promise you it's safe, please just trust me. Come with me. It won't take long."

They were silent, looking at each other as if they were communicating in some way without speaking.

"I'm in." Izaac, I think it was him, stepped forward. "Where are we going?"

"Izaac!" Nicole exclaimed. "No, we don't even know her, she'll probably take us to the police."

"Why would I take you to the police?" I asked in disbelief. "You're free to leave whenever you want. I'm just asking you to come because it is very important."

"Why is it so important?" She demanded. "You don't even know us!"

"But she does know who we are," Tyson pointed out. "She knew Sam before any of us said his name."

"Yes, that's right," I said, nodding fervently. "Please, you guys. I promise you'll all be together still, and I'm not taking you to the police or anything. Just someone else that lives here."

"Come on, guys, live a little!" Izaac said exasperatedly, his hand on the doorknob. Tyson was nodding slowly, but Nicole still looked suspicious. Sam just looked scared.

"And you promise we can leave whenever we want?" Nicole asked.

"Yes, whenever you want," I agreed. "But please just hear me and my friends out first."

"Fine," Nicole sighed, sounding defeated. "Let's go."