California

The next week was hard. Every morning I had class from eight to eleven-thirty, then I had to rush over to the Emerson's. Then, on Saturday's, I had Tiny Tina's with Nico and Jason.
"Thanks for coming today," I told Micah on the bus to the Emerson's house.
"No problem," he said coolly. Brooke wasn't able to drive me today, so Micah offered to go on the bus with me and help me out at the house.
On the bus (which, by the way, took a while) I found out a lot about Micah. His favorite color is orange for some reason, he hates baseball, loves to read, is super smart with technology, and he used to have a baby sister named Jacquelyn. But, when she was eight months old, she caught meningitis, went deaf, and later died of pneumonia at one year and two months.
"She had the greenest eyes," he said. "Which was odd, considering both of my parents have blue eyes, and no one in my family has green. Oh, and her hair... was soft as ever. Like cotton. Her laugh could cheer up a person in distress, and her smile was... it was magical. Even her sneezes were the cutest things in the world. She never learned to walk, talk, or be potty-trained... never got to see England, which we planned to do when she turned one, but the doctors wouldn't allow her to get on a plane. Never got to really experience life, you know? Half of hers was in a hospital, connected to tubes and whatnot, getting injected by a syringe every hour. But her first eight months... they were the best eight months of my life." a tear rolled down his cheek. "Used to have a snapshot of her in my wallet, but I got mugged, and so did that picture. My parents never speak of her, and neither does my sister. It was our own Great Depression."
I digested all this while we rode to the big estates. When we got there, none of the kids listened to Micah, although he had managed to get on Jace and Mason's good side, which I ever so longed for to do.
"Oh, not over there!" Micah said with a smile as Jace ran half naked to the basement. "There's no bathroom down there!" I laughed and I tried to get a wad of gum out of Gisela's hair.
"Ow.Ow.Ow!" Gisela continued every time I touched her hair. "JC, you're hurting me!"
"Not my fault you managed to get your own piece of gum in your hair. God, this thing is like a beehive." I said. Zander and Juliana started to cry. "Micah, can you-"
"On it," he said.
"Superman!" Vance yelled as he slid down the banister of the staircase. "Ow!" he fell of and banged his head, making him cry.
"Vance!" I said, forgetting Gisela.
"Hello!" she screamed. "My hair!"
"It hurts," Vance sniffled. I caressed his head and carried him onto the counter. I began searching for an ice pack in the freezer. Micah wasn't doing good with the babies. "JC?"
"Yes?" I said, moving aside ice pops and ice cream in the freezer. My hand and arm were freezing.
"Who's that man outside?" he asked. I froze.
"What?" I asked.
"That man outside! In the window" I turned around and looked out the window that made the wall in the kitchen. No one was there.
"Vance, stop trying to trick me," I said, and returned to the freezer.
"Micah!" said Vance. "There's a man in the window."
"Where?" I could hear Micah's voice.
"Do not move." a deep voice growled behind me. I turned around to find a man with a black face mask pointing an AK-47 at me. "If you scream, I will kill you. Understand?" I nodded and looked over at Vance, who was no longer there.
"Where's Vance?" I asked.
"Walk," the man ordered. "Living room. Now." I walked to the living room, where Vance and Micah were tied up back to back. Zander and Juliana were still squealing, but in their car seats. I glanced outside, where the Emerson's' extra car was jacked open. Gisela was shaking in the love seat, and Bridget was crying on the couch, with one of those plastic airplane handcuffs. Jace and Mason were also tied together. "Sit. Next to the big one." I sat down next to Bridget, and the man with the gun tied t-shirts into our mouths, restraining us from screaming. He did the same to Gisela, but also tied her hands together in front of her as well. "Rocco, we good?" the man shouted to the open door. A thumbs up appeared out the window of the front seat in the jacked car. "Get up." He pointed the gun at Bridget and me, and we did as we were told. One by one, the gunman dragged us harshly to the car and threw us inside. There were two rows of back seats in the Hummer. I was next to the window, next to Bridget, who was next to Vance, who was next to Micah. In the front were all the twins.
The gunman sat in the passenger seat, and Rocco, the driver, started driving. No one dare spoke a word as the house disappeared farther and farther from sight. Not too long later, we were the only car on a two-way highway in the middle of the grasslands.
The gunman put some music on, hard rock. Rocco disagreed.
"Come on, man, change it," he said.
"No, I like it," said the gunman.
"Tyler, I said change it,"
"Hey, I'm the one with the gun," Tyler, the gunman, fought back.
"And I'm the one with the steering. I can easily make a sharp right and send this car crashing on your side and kill you just as easily as you can shoot me. And if you do shoot me, you don't even have a license, so you can't drive. You'd probably kill yourself and everyone in the back if you tried," Rocco said. Tyler changed the station over and over until Rocco was satisfied. "Good choice. I'm the one who operated all this, alright? I make all the shots." Juliana started up again. "God dammit, someone make that stupid baby shut the hell up already!" No one moved.
"He said do it!" Tyler turned around and pointed the gun. Gisela screamed, but was muffled out by the t-shirt. "You" he pointed at me, and my heart started racing so fast it was about to burst. "Shut it up." I thought of saying I can't because of me being tied, but I didn't argue. I got up without hitting my head and tried my best to find the pacifier in Juliana's seat. When I found it, I shoved it in her mouth, and she shut up. Zander was already knocked out in the car seat. I sat back down, and so did Tyler.
A good hour later, Rocco killed the engine in front of a run down lake house. Again, Tyler dragged us one by one into the smelly, tattered lake house. Inside there was only a large rug, one small window, and a hell of a lot of flies. He released everybody from being tied up. Gisela and Bridget were crying, and the babies were fast asleep.
"I'm so sorry," I whispered ever so quietly to Micah when both Tyler and Rocco were out of the house. We were on different sides of the rug. He shook his head.
"Not like you arranged for this to happen, right?" he said with a slight smile. How could he smile at a time like this? The corner of my lips refused to turn up.
"What's going on in here?" Rocco came in and asked. No one spoke. "Who was just talking?" Silence. "Yeah. That's what I thought." he returned outside, where a lot of loud crashing was going on.
"I want mommy," Jace started to tear up. Mason did the same. What, was this a twin thing?
"Don't cry," I whispered. "Who knows what they'll do." They nodded, sniffled, and stopped tearing. Some tough four year olds.
It started to get dark outside, and Rocco and Tyler were still right outside. I was getting cold. Bridget and spaced out in her own world, and Gisela, still with gum in her hair, was drawing with her finger on the rug. Jace and Mason stuck together, not saying a word, but I knew they were thinking of Mrs. Emerson just by their faces. Zander and Juliana had woken up, but it seemed they knew not to cry. Micah was staring out the window, deep in thought. Poor Emerson kids. They'll be scarred forever, except for the babies. Jace and Mason will probably never trust anyone in their life again with how young they are. They'll be traumatized forever.
"Knock, knock," Tyler said as he entered the square room of utter and complete silence. With everyone's faces, it might as well have been the Room of Death. "I got food. But you'll survive with no drinks for now, right?" He had taken his face mask off and revealed a large scar from his forehead across his right eye, down to his chin. He got Gisela staring. "Stare longer, and you'll never see another day of light again." She quickly looked down. Tyler threw a piece of bread at everyone, and placed a bowl of berries in the center of the rug. Ten berries for ten people. For Zander and Juliana, a baby bottle with what I was guessing with milk inside.
"See you in the morning, kiddies. We've got a lot of work to do," Rocco also entered and said. With that, he left as well. Tyler waved goodbye, threw a large and small blanket in and put on a smile, then slammed the door behind him when he, too, left.
After everybody ate, Jace lunged for the large blanket and went under. Soon, everyone was squeezed next to each other under the blanket. I put Zander and Juliana quietly on the rug and snugged them right in the small blanket, giving them each a kiss on the cheek, and waited until they were both sleeping until returning to the large blanket. I squeezed at the end, the coldest part, next to Bridget. Jace and Mason were in the center, and Micah was on the other end. Gisela was next to Bridget, and Vance next to Micah.
Worst. Day. Ever.