Prey.

14.

"So she can come now?" Ryan asked over the phone to Damien. "Only if you meet my demands." Ryan sighed, "what are they? Your demands?"

"I want a training room built for you and your brothers. I want two safe place rooms for the girl — I want them indestructible, so you cannot get in. One upstairs and one downstairs. I am also making contracts for you all to sign; I'll be out there with them tomorrow, okay? In the contract, it will detail the rest of my commands."

"The training room is already set up. I was thinking of having her room be the safe room. No one is welcomed in unless she invites them, that's how well protected it is." He tried to show his father that it was okay to just have only one.

"Good, make the other one the same way." Ryan inwardly groaned, hating this. He was so impatient, Ryan was. He felt like he couldn't wait another few months for the room to be built and to get the materials for the room. "Okay." Ryan compromised.

~~

A few days passed and the room is in the beginning stages of being built —their father also came while there were construction workers in the house. "My sons," Damien came by himself. Ethan and Evan are most likely still at the corporation, working. "Welcome, father." The boys welcome their father into their home.

"A few things need promised to ensure the girls safety," Damien's lawyer explains over the phone. Yes, the lawyer is like them also. "If anyone is in fighting mode, the girl must be taken away to the closest safe room immediately." Okay, seemed easy enough. "If Ryan touches the girl, the girl must be moved into the closest safe room immediately."

"Even if he learns to control it?" Sean interrupts, "no. But, he has to have full control of himself."

"The girl must have access to basic learning. Must have a cellphone and or a computer. She must have monthly doctor visits and will be checked for any bruises, scratches, marks, anything that can be considered harmful. And you all must promise your souls that she will be protected while she lives here." These were all simple commands, of course they could do this!

All four boys signed the contracts in the proper places and Damien left after he saw the bedroom for the girl.

~~

Ryan felt that Neela was in distress, so he started his journey while everyone else was working. Her father was home, maybe he could meet her officially. Ryan slowly walked up to the front door and knocked three times. He heard the squeak of a chair and the door unlocked. "Ryan, hello." Andrew smiled. "Please," Andrew moved to the side and welcomed Ryan in.

Neela was sleeping on the couch when he was seated in the living room. Neela was pale, sweating, covered with a blanket. "Is she ill?" Andrew handed Ryan a bottle of water, "yes, sadly. She slept with her window open after having a shower."

"Poor thing," that was when Ryan's phone began to ring. "I'm sorry, I must take this."

"You can go to the bathroom. Out that doorway, right on your left." Ryan silently thanked him and hurried to the bathroom. "Hello?" He quietly answered the phone. "Where are you?" Caleb's boyish voice sounded in his ears.

"I'm at her house, she's sick." Comes Caleb's sigh, "you can't be there. You should come home. The room is perfect to Landon and Sean, but we need your blessing for it."

"I'll be home soon."

~~

Ever since that day that Ryan talked to Neela, she felt different. The mans voice in her dreams sounded uncanny. The dreams also calmed down since their interaction. Neela thought it was only the medication.

She went to school perfectly fine for a few days, but she woke up with a terrible feeling. She felt nauseous, her whole body was hurting, she lost color in her skin.

Just a small case of pneumonia. She was demanded to be on bed rest by her doctor. She had to stay out of school the whole week.

~~

Lightly furnished, the room looked perfect. Her bedroom looked even better — it was perfectly normal. And normal was exactly what he wanted.

The downstairs room had a work desk in it, a small bed, and many notebooks for her to write in. Ryan noticed that she had quite the imagination when she read her dream journal a few weeks back.

Will this finally be the time that he can take her? Will this finally be their moment to love? For Ryan to feel normal?

"Okay, we need a plan," Sean says, "we should contact father."

"Or Ethan," you could hear a smirk evident in Landon's voice. "Who knows what kind diabolical plan he has in his head?"

Ryan shook his head the moment Landon said 'diabolical.' "No," Ryan said sternly. "I want to take her quickly and quietly. Nothing too rash to cause a big scene or scare her."

"Okay," Caleb said and they all thought for a moment, until Sean had an idea. "Caleb. He builds a friendship with her and brings her here. No matter what, we don't let her leave."

"No," Ryan sighed, "her father will know where she is. Trust me, she doesn't lie. I want to take her at night, so no one will see a lot."

"Her father is a police officer, right?" Landon asked and Ryan nodded. "Why don't we just wait until he has to work late night and take her then?"

They probably won't have to wait very long for a late shift. And if they all get too impatient, they can cause some mayhem to force him to work late. She's probably going to hate them all and not speak, but it'll take time. "Landon and Sean takes her. I can't touch her and Caleb is too young for that."