Prey.

26.

A few days had passed since the incident in Neela's room. Since then, everyone in the house was on edge; the whole atmosphere was awkward. Every time Ryan looked at Neela, he looked sick to his stomach he veered away from her. Neela has let no one in her room, and no one has come to check on her. She has only been out of her bedroom twice. If she needed anything, it would be brought to her by Sean, Caleb, or Landon. Ryan didn't want to look at her. He understood it wasn't her fault, but he couldn't help it; someone had claimed his mate. Considering no one was discussing it with him, Neela was the simplest person to be angry with.

As Neela was in bed, she felt something shaking her. She thought and worst and assumed it to be Ryan. Neela had slowly opened her eyes and saw Austin, the little boy she met on a few occasions. "Austin?" Neela sat with a whisper, "what are you doing here?"

Austin's, as always, scared eyes looked up into her concerned ones. "Why are you here?" He said panicking, "this is where the bad man lives." He stood on his tip toes to whisper to Neela. "You told me I could come back if I needed you. Why did you leave?"

Neela felt regretful, but she knew Austin didn't know the entirety of the situation. "Austin, I'm not here by choice. I was taken away from my home." Then, she remembered the bad man comment, "who's the bad man?"

"The second oldest brother," the small boy said simply as he made his way onto the bed. "He badly hurt a lot of people when I wasn't sick." Austin almost shook at the memory, "you shouldn't be here, it's too dangerous for you." Austin said after a few moments of reminiscing.

"I know, Austin. I know the bad person, I think. He's already hurt me, but he said he'll do worse things to me if I leave." Neela lifted her arm sleeve a few inches to show the bruises and mark. Once he gasped, she moved her hair to show the fading bruises on her neck.

"You're a good person," Austin trailed off. "Why do bad things have to happen to good people?"

"I wish I knew myself, Austin," Neela said to herself while she pulled Austin into her side. "Can I stay? I wanna make sure the bad man stays away." Neela pondered for a moment or two, "yes, but if someone wants to come in, you have to hide. And you can't leave the room a lot." Neela said in a motherly tone. "Thank you, should we sleep now?" Neela smiled and laid down while opening the blanket for Austin to join her.

Ryan was awoken to hear Neela talking to herself. She would be silent for a few moments and then speak again. "Who the hell is Austin?" Ryan asked himself. Ryan made a mental note to ask about Austin in the next few days.

Ryan couldn't go back to resting his eyes, because of Sean barging into his bedroom. "There's something really wrong with Neela's father, he was taken to the hospital."

"He's not my problem," Ryan groaned into his pillow, "I had to use him to get more information on Neela, that's it." This made Sean scoffed, "you're going to let her father be hurt, he could die. Neela would hate you if you let it go."

"I'll fucking go tomorrow! Go!" Ryan flashed his red eyes as he quickly sat up in bed. Sean stayed silent for a few moments, "you're lucky Neela is here, or I would fucking drop you."

"Oh, please try it," Ryan stood to his feet, "my baby isn't here right now. Let's scrap if you wanna try it." Ryan smirked when Sean turned away and out the door.

Once the sun came up, Sean got ready to leave. "I'm going out, check up on Neela once in a while," Sean quickly said to Landon as he grabbed his own car keys. "Where are you going?" Caleb asked as he came downstairs, "something that Ryan should be doing, but refuses."

~~

"Andrew, you have to eat," Jackson attempted to shove food into Andrew's mouth. Andrew's state had gotten even worse. He was basically skin and bones and even more pale. He had no energy to do anything, he couldn't even leave his position on the couch.

"You don't wanna eat? That was your last chance." Jackson pulled out his phone and dialed 9-1-1. "Hello, my friend here is refusing to eat because his daughter was kidnapped. Can we, like, get him nutrients and keep him in the hospital for a bit? Thank you."

Andrew was placed in a private room in the hospital, the ambulance came quickly and the EMTs began inserting IVs into his arms and hands. He was silent through it all as he got dizzy; it was like he got up too fast but more intense.

~~

Once Sean got to the hospital, he went right to the receptionist. "Hello, I'm a family friend of Andrew Oh. I've heard he was brought here?"

"Yes, he isn't taking visitors now, though." The young male explained, "he was just brought in and they have to get fluids in his system."

"Can I stick around until he's ready?" The receptionist rolled his eyes, "I guess."