[M] The Influence of Words [IC] {Ash & Drako}

[Ashen]

[The following roleplay is rated mature for possible scenarios that may include but are not limited to foul language, moderate violence, and mild romance. Reader discretion is advised.]

The faint stars over North Star Cemetery were twinkling brighter than usual. The song of silence was a comforting if not eerie melody. The night was still, though in the distance nearly 66,000 people made their home in Saint Cloud, Minnesota. Most were home, as well as they should have been just past eleven p.m. on a Tuesday in April. Some people couldn't sleep. Some people had more important needs to attend to.

Celestynn Zyskowski brushed her fingers against a pale marble gravestone. There was a red poppy at the grave, the national flower of Poland. The gravestone was carved and, in bold letters, read:
Ziven Aurum Zyskowski
2000-2013
Celly placed a dozen poppies by the thirteen-year-old's grave and bowed a bit. She mumbled a few words and before long she was off, headed home for what might have been the last time in her life.

When Celestynn got home her mother was asleep. She wrote her a note so the woman wouldn't worry and, with the bag she'd spent days packing and the car keys to her car, she pulled her hood over her head and headed out the door.
She was out to Le Mars, a place she'd been frequenting for a while now. The stalking was over, now. She knew enough about him to execute her plan. She knew everything she needed to know and probably more. This would go down beautifully.
At least, that's what she hoped.
Celly wasn't as confident as she looked. Her bright grey eyes sparkled in her rearview mirror but her hands were shaking. What if she got caught? What if it didn't work? What if the boy-this Benjamin-what if he died before she could finish? No, she needed him alive. There was no way he could die. He wouldn't fight back. Even if he did, she had enough to back herself up. For example, she had a can of mace in the pocket of her jacket, a switchblade in the pocket of her jeans, and a .45 Beretta, hidden away for just this occasion. No, there was no way she could fail.

She drove through the night, arriving in Le Mars at little after five a.m. She wouldn't go yet; he and his family would surely be asleep. She could wait.
In the meantime, all her thoughts would eat her alive. You're ruining your life, a voice in her head told her. You're tearing his family apart. You'll traumatize him for life. Is it worth is, Celestynn? Is it worth it?
Of course it was worth it. She'd been preparing for this for weeks now; she was as prepared as she'd ever be.

Celestynn continued her drive around the city, memorizing the city she had mentally mapped about a dozen times over. When her hands started shaking too badly, she parked the car and watched the sun rise.
Why was she such a nervous wreck? She'd been such a collected girl, up until the death of Ziven. Or perhaps, rather, it was the death of her father that had really put the icing on the cake and the shaking in her hands. It seemed a lot of things were ruined by the two deaths in the family. Ziven was to blame for making her such a nervous wreck. Before his death, she never would have dreamt of kidnapping a boy. But, here she was. Waiting in her car before the sun even rose, mentally preparing herself to ruin her life, and the life of a little boy she'd never met.

[Drakonnas]

Ben woke up with a soundless yawn. That's how he always was. Soundless. He could not talk, speak, or make any vocal sounds, due to an illness that had almost cost him his life as a young child. His mother and father were the best parents he could have asked for, they were both very loving and supportive, and they had all learned sign language together after realizing that Ben would never speak again. But despite this, sound was everything to Ben. The fourteen year old boy was highly unusual in many regards. He was not an active young boy, he preferred to stay indoors than go out. He didn't have any friends, though he longed for them. He was home-schooled, and he knew more about most things than anyone else his age.

The first thing he noticed was that his radio was off, flickering on and off, blinking midnight. So they had a power outage that night. Good to know. He stood up, and turned the channel to his favorite station, the classical station. He pretended to conduct as The Habanera came on. This was the other thing about Ben. He was a musical genius. He intrinsically understood it, and learned it faster than anything else. His parents often said that he spoke through his music, that he expressed himself that way. They could tell how he was feeling by the way he played. And when Ben wasn't doing his schoolwork, reading, or wood carving, he was on his piano, playing his heart out.

Life wasn't perfect. But then again, no one's life was perfect. For what it was worth, Ben was happy. He loved his music more than he loved his life. It was who he was. Ben was small for his age, skinny and short. He had medium length light blonde hair, some might even say it was white, and bright, cyan blue eyes that seemed to pierce whoever they looked at. And around his neck, he wore a special necklace. It basically functioned as a phone for him. Since he couldn't speak, he wore this necklace. It had a tracking device in it, and he could press a little button if he ever was unable to help himself, and help would be able to come to him. It was basically a modified life alert button. He always wore it, no matter where he was, he felt much safer with it.

Checking his watch, he corrected the clock. It now read 7:43 AM. Nodding, satisfied, Ben went downstairs, where his mother was making breakfast. The aroma of blueberry pancakes wafted to him, and he couldn't help but grin. It was his favorite breakfast. Blueberry pancakes with bananas on top, and a light syrup. He sat down, and thanked his mother, who nodded back, and hugged him. Ben could hear just fine, and so his parents usually spoke as normal, though it wasn't uncommon for them to communicate in sign language either.

Today was going to be a fun day. Ben was planning to spend some time outside in their huge yard, relaxing in the hammock, or even go for a swim in their private swimming pool. Ben's parents were extremely rich, and owned a mansion in the middle of Le Mars. Ben loved living here, as it was known as the Ice Cream capitol of the world. Which meant they had amazing ice cream.

Ben pulled out a piece of wood he had been working on carving after he finished his breakfast, and started absentmindedly whittling at it a little bit as he listened to his father talk about his latest stories in the ER. He was a surgeon who worked in the ER, and always had weird stories to tell, some of them were weirder than fiction. Ben always liked hearing what he had to say, but never wanted to be in that situation...

[Ashen]

Celly watched the minutes tick by. She had turned on the radio in her car to try and ease her thoughts but it was not working. Instead, she decided to make a phone call. It was four rings before the other girl answered the phone.
"Celly?" said a groggy voice on the other end. "Are you okay?"
"I'm fine," Celly replied. Her voice came out in a song with the faintest hint of an accent from the land she was born in. "Good morning!"
There was a pause, then the girl on the other end said, "Not that I don't absolutely love hearing your voice, Cel, but why are you calling me at--" There was a pause. "Six-fifty-one in the morning?"
"I can't sleep." It wasn't exactly a lie; Celestynn hadn't gotten more than ten hours of sleep that week.
"Well some of us are trying to," her friend told her. "You wanna come with me and Jess this weekend to the mall? She was supposed to call you like yesterday but I don't think she did."
"I'd love to, Eve, but I can't."
"Why not?"
Because I have to kidnap this little boy. Because after today I'll be an outlaw. And if the boy dies...I'll be a murderer. Celly instead answered, "I have work."
"Agaaaain?" Eve sighed. "You always have work. Why don't you enjoy your life a little, Cel?"
"I do enjoy my life," Celestynn ensured, though in her mind she corrected herself. Did.
"If you say so, Celly. You've been really preoccupied lately. Are you sure you're-- Do I hear a car? Where are you?"
Celly guessed 260 miles from home wasn't the right answer. "Oh, Evey, I'm getting another call. I'll talk to you later, okay? Goodbye, love you."

Celestynn's chat with Eve hadn't calmed her down like it should have. She was still jumpy. Her car was in a Walmart parking lot and she was staring down at the bundle in her hands. If she were to get caught for having a Beretta...
No. She wouldn't think of that. She'd be fine. It would all be over before she knew it.

Eight a.m. Her previous thought was not true; it was not over.
Celly had parked two blocks away from the kid's mansion. She wondered what it was like to be that kind of rich, having anything you could think of. Celly knew little Ben's life wasn't picture perfect, though. He had no real friends, from the looks of things. He was a loner, like Ziven had been. An obsession with music, much like Celly. Parents that loved him. But the inability to communicate with them well.
And soon, he'd never communicate with them again.

As Celly approached the large mansion her entire body was shaking. She took a deep breath and shook her head. You can do this, she told herself. You can do it. You can do it. Ben was in the house, probably. With any luck, he'd simplify her life and come outside once his parents left. His father would be leaving soon and his mother was just about to leave.
Celestynn concentrated on breathing. She'd come back in half an hour. An hour. Yes, she'd come back in an hour. That would be a good idea. His parents would be out, then. She wouldn't have to deal with them.
Thankful to be leaving, Celestynn half-jogged half-ran to her car. She was utterly terrified. A tear strolled down the girl's cheek, but she quickly wiped it away.
Pull yourself together, Celestynn. You have to do this.
No backing down now.

[Drakonnas]

"Well, my loves, I'm off to work." His mother said happily, giving both boys a kiss on the cheek. "I'll be back at noon, just like usual, Benny. Have a wonderful day." She said, giving Ben one last hug before she left. "I love you, Benny." She have him a personal motion that they had just for each other. Ben smiled, and nodded, signaling back. He watched his mother get in the car, and drive out.

As she drove, she noticed the parked car, and looked carefully at it. She didn't recognize it, or the driver, who appeared to be waiting for something... Shrugging, she drove on. Back at home, Ben's father was also getting ready to leave. "Be good, okay Ben? Not like I have to tell you or anything, haha. Love you, bud." His father said, giving him a hug. Ben hugged his dad back, grinning. He was so thankful to have such amazing parents.

As his father left on his bike, Ben was now alone in the house. He still sat at the table, whittling away. The piece of wood in his hands was slowly transforming into a beautiful swan. The level of detail he put into his carvings was really impressive, actually. After about another half an hour, he had finished. Very satisfied with his work, he strung a black string through the loop, making it a necklace. He hung it around his neck as well.

Standing up, he stretched, yawned, and shook himself awake. He showered, put on deodorant, and sat down at his piano. He'd go outside to swim in a bit, but for now, he wanted to practice. Though, if he started practicing, there was a high probability that he wouldn't leave his room for hours... So, he debated practicing. Part of him wanted to, and part of him wanted to do other things today. His mother's birthday was coming up. Maybe he'd try to bake her a cake, or make her something. Perhaps he'd compose a symphony. But that would take time, and he didn't have that much. Maybe... He didn't know what to do today.

He picked up his phone that was only used for texting, and slid it in his pocket. Ben decided that it would be a perfect morning to go outside and read. Picking up his copy of "War and Peace", the young boy got a large glass of ice water, and headed outside to his hammock in the backyard. He also had a notepad to keep notes on. Climbing into the hammock beside the pool, he relaxed, and opened his book to read. It was a very challenging read, and he wasn't sure exactly if he was understanding things right, but it seemed like he could figure it out.

There was a beautiful breeze, the morning was quite nice, if a little warm for this time of year. Benny lost himself in his book, focusing completely on what was in front of him.

[Ashen]

Celestynn was very attentive to every detail, as she imagined a kidnapper should be. She tried to act normal as the kid's mom's eyes were boring into her skull. She had every right to be here on a city-owned street loitering. Wait, actually, no she didn't. Loitering was illegal, she realized, but then, so was stealing a kid.
Once more she shook her thoughts. She forced herself out of the car again and approached Ben's home. He wasn't going to come outside, it seemed. That was okay. Celly had taught herself how to pick locks, something she'd never have dreamt of before this year. She pracited on her own home countless times, perfecting the skill she never wanted to have. She could easily break into this mansion.
So Celly crept to the front of the house and sighed. She pulled a bobby pin from her hair but then she heard something. A noise from inside. Footsteps.
She jumped and took refuge near a bush just under his window. She watched him head towards the front of the house, towards a room that she'd heard a piano in before, then head in the opposite direction. A few moments later, she heard the back door open. So he was going to be outside. Good. Celesynn's job was now much easier.
Impossible, still, but less impossible than it had been.

It took her about ten minutes just to compose herself enough to head to the backyard. She was silent in getting there, but she figured she didn't have to be. The boy was transformed in a book, a book she'd read. Spoiler alert: Andrew dies. She remembered reading it for a class she'd taken last year and everyone in her class had absolutely loathed the book, except one boy who had finished it before anyone else and had spoiled the ending completely, and every chapter, telling giving everyone spoiler alerts after it was took late. Celestynn hadn't found it too bad, but it wouldn't have been a book she'd have chosen for fun.
Focus.
She wasn't supposed to be questioning his reading choices. She was supposed to be kidnapping him.

Celestynn was in the backyard, staring at him. It was now or never, she told herself. She pulled her hood lower over her face, though the ski mask would suffice in hiding her identity. The boy had never met her anyway; she had nothing to fear.
"Benjamin Ramiel," she called, her voice sounding oddly confident considering how badly her hands behind her back were shaking. "You're coming with me."

She approached the boy and took out the sleek, black weapon. He wouldn't fight someone with a gun, would he? She aimed the gun right at his head, giving him a look that said, You move, I shoot. She looked professional in all of this, as if kidnapping children was something she did often. Confidence was a good thing. He was less likely to fight back if she knew what she was doing.
Celestynn moved behind him, gun still pointed, and took his hands in hers. "It's better if you don't fight," she told him. "It'll make this a lot easier on both of us. I don't want to kill you, kid, but I will if you don't cooperate."
She didn't want to kill him. She'd have to find a new boy that fit the bill, and that took long enough with this one. Benjamin was nearly exactly what she was looking for. She couldn't afford to lose him.
"Now, why don't you come with me?"

[Drakonnas]

Ben was so engrossed in his book that he didn't hear or see someone coming. He looked up as he heard a voice, and just kinda stared for a moment, not really sure that he believed what was going on. He blinked a few times, trying to wrap his mind around what was going on. She had a gun. And was pointing it directly at him. Adrenaline seemed to rush through him, and his eyes darted around, looking for any sort of way out of this. He was out in the open, with no cover. He could try to jump in the water, and hide there, when she came over, splash her, throw her into the pool, and run back into the house to call 911... But then he remembered. He couldn't speak. Calling 911 wouldn't do any good. They couldn't hear or understand him. Well, shit.

But... he noticed that the gun was shaking in her hands. She was as scared as he was. That gave him an opportunity. Some kind of opportunity. But what? He couldn't think of anything right now. Nothing seemed to work. Any and all things that he thought of wound up with him dead on the ground, or, as she commanded, being her captive. She moved over to where he was. Ben's eyes were looking for an opening. Any kind of opening. Maybe he could surprise her, cause her to flinch, grab the gun, and shoot her. It was self defense, was it not?

But then, he couldn't startle her. He had no use of his voice. Cursing his disability, he tried to think desperately of something, anything, he could do. Why was this happening to him? HEre? Now? In a town where crime was virtually nonexistent? She said she'd kill him. He didn't want to die. Not yet. There was so much that he had never gotten the chance to do yet. He looked up at her, hatred clear in his eyes. He couldn't see much of her, but he didn't expect to. Then, he did something he had never done before. He slowly raised his fist, and gave her the middle finger. But he got out of the hammock,and stood, where she could see his hands, so she knew he wasn't making an effort to escape. Not yet, anyway.

[Ashen]

Celestynn watched the boy carefully. He was looking around for something to save himself, but he couldn't find anything. He looked so sad, so helpless, that under normal circumstances Celly might have started crying. She wouldn't cry now. She would not show weakness now.

She watched with wide grey eyes as he raised his hands and flipped her off. She was stunned a bit by this. No one had ever really cursed Celly; she was such a sweet girl. But then, she supposed she couldn't say that, not after this.
She cleared her throat and took his hands, wrapped a rope around them tight. She triple knotted it, just to be sure, and walked behind him. She took his phone out of his pocket so that there was no way he could ever call for help. "I can't take any risks," she said to him in a mean of explanation. She felt she owed it to him, explain what was going on.
"Let me tell you something," she said, her Polish accent tainting her words. "If you try to run, I will shoot you. Do you understand? Now, neither of us wants that, so don't you try anything stupid. Who do you think will help you? You can't scream for help, and no one is out right now. So really. I know what's best for you. Don't. Do. Anything. Stupid."

Celestynn went to the back door and tossed his phone inside, in case his phone had any sort of GPS. She didn't want it, so she figured it would be best if it was left in his home. Then she walked back to him and grabbed his arm hard. Her thick gloves rubbed against his skin awkwardly. There was no one outside, not a single soul, but she couldn't stop herself from shaking. You're not going to get caught, she told herself. You're not going to get caught.
"With your hands tied, you can't do much. Don't get any ideas. Once you get to the car, I'll untie them, okay? Just cooperate with me."

[Drakonnas]

Ben's heart dropped as she took his phone, and threw it inside the house. Damnation. There went that plan. As she came back to him, he acted again, stomping on her toes. But he didn't try to run. Not yet. If she was gonna make this painful for him, he was gonna fight back with everything he had. He stuck his tongue out at her, and scowled, still looking around for any way he could save himself. There had to be something. Anything. Anything at all. He could not let this woman take him. But then she told him that she would untie him when he got in the car without struggling, and he immediately stopped.

She lead him to her car, and he cooperated with her, getting in himself. He glared at her, reminding her to untie him. He didn't try to run, just like she had asked. He wanted to live, and was trying his best to keep himself alive, while looking for a way out. There had to be something. He memorized the license plate number, as well as anything he could use to incriminate her when he escaped. Because he had to escape. He had to live. And he would make her pay for trying to kidnap him. She would pay, alright. Just one slip up, and she would pay.

He knew she was nervous. He knew he was absolutely terrified. Why was she doing this? Was he going to be sold into some kind of human trafficking area? What did she want with him? And why him? Hate was clear in his eyes, eyes that spoke that he was going to keep looking for ways out. But he wasn't going to do anything that would get him killed. He valued his life more than that. It was better to keep living, while being kidnapped, rather than die...

[Ashen]

He'd resorted to physical attacks. Pitiful physical attacks, at that.
Celestynn ignored his attempts to hurt her and led him to the car wordlessly. She helped him into the backseat and got into the driver's side herself. She turned her rearview mirror so that she could see him. In it, she saw herself.
She looked like a killer, with her ski mask and hood. Her eyes were the only things that reminded her she was human. They were an unsual grey that could easily give her away if Ben ever got out of this. She tried not to think of that. Tons of people had grey eyes. She'd be fine. She had to keep telling herself that. She'd be fine.

Once she had stopped shaking enough to start the car, she took off her mask. She left the hoodie on, and all Ben would be able to see would be what the rearview mirror showed: her very pale skin, her grey eyes, the freckles that dotted her cheeks, and dark brown hair. She had no makeup on, which she suddenly regretted, but there was no use in hiding now. Now, it was time to go home.

"Alright, kid," she said to the boy in the backseat. "I know I told you I'd untie you. We're going to hope that's the last lie I need to tell you." She started the car and started driving. "Your name is Ziven now, and you're thirteen. You live in Minnesota. It's a four hour drive, though I'll be taking some backroads. I will have to teach you some Polish, because Ziven could speak some Pol- Oh wait. Right. You can't..." She heard a siren off in the distance and immediately turned down a driveway. "Right. Well you'll still need to recognize some Polish. It's not that hard. I'll explain more as we get there. I know you know ASL, so that's wonderful." She jumped as her phone rang, then dug in her hoodie for it. Her eyes were averted from the road; she was so nervous she neglected her own safety. She put the phone back in her pocket and let it ring. "Where were we? Goodness, I don't want to be here. I don't want to do this." She looked back at Benjamin. She'd strapped him in of course, as not to create a distraction while she drove. His hands were tied; he couldn't untie himself, could he?
"Well, Ziven, you're part of my family now."

[Drakonnas]

Why had he trusted her? Why did he trust her to keep her word? She was kidnapping him. Of course she wouldn't keep her word. "Damn..." He thought to himself. But he did have one final attempt. And there was no way she could have known about this. She was watching the road, not him. He made sure of this before acting. She wouldn't see what he was doing. She could not know.

Even if his hands were tied, he could still press that button on his necklace. He did so. The silent alarm went off, and he said nothing. She would never know what had happened, or how they were tracking them. But now that his alarm had been pressed, his doctors could see that something was wrong, and when they tracked the signal, they would know that he wasn't at home. They'd call his parents, who would freak out, and the cops would be called. They'd track him down, and rescue him, arresting this bitch. And the best part was that she would never know what he had done.

Ben listened to the girl talk, and realized that she wasn't just evil, but she was out of her mind insane. He tried to memorize her face so that he could tell the cops. He needed every sort of information he could get. And he was gonna fight her until he was rescued, or he was killed. He really didn't have a whole lot of choice in this matter...

Ben couldn't communicate with her. His hands were tied up, and speaking was kinda out of the question. So all he could do was glare at her, and shake his head in a "no".

[Ashen]

Between the road and the rearview mirror, Celestynn didn't really have anywhere else to look. She was a little thankful for that. If her eyes weren't needed, they'd be jumping all over the place.
She was checking up on him at every red light, at every stop sign, at every straightaway, just to make sure he wasn't trying anything. For the most part, he seemed to be cooperating. She was a little surprised by how easy all of this was, but then, she did have a gun, and he couldn't even scream for help.

She did notice him shake his head. "You don't have a choice, Zivy." Zivy? Had she already started calling him by his new name? It felt foriegn on her tongue. It was a Polish name, sure, but not even the Polish language felt as foreign as this dead name coming from her. Ziven... Ziven had been dead for over a year.
But he was in her backseat now.
"You're going to join my family. And we'll go back to Mum, and we'll do family things together again. Doesn't that sound great?"
She sounded insane. Ridiculously insane. This wasn't her, this wasn't her at all. Where was the calm woman she'd grown up to be?
Dead. The old Celestynn was dead. She'd died with her brother, last year.

Welcome to Orange City.
So far Celly had made it to a whole other city without being caught. The tainted windows sure helped, and not too many people were out and about in these nobody towns. She was very grateful for that.
They were following the Floyd River, but pretty soon Celly would have to break from the way she came. Too many people would be on the roads and she didn't want to have to deal with them.
She was, however, running out of gas, so she had to detour to a gas station. "In my eagerness to get you home, I forgot to fill up on gas," she said with an obviously forced chuckle. "We'll only be a minute. I'm sure you're dying to meet Mum again, huh? She'll be really happy to see you. She's... She's missed you."
Talking to this stranger as if he were Ziven. Celestynn was only trying to get used to the idea, but she couldn't. She couldn't get used to this kidnapped stranger replacing her brother.

Once they arrived at the gas station Celestynn hesitated in front of the pump. "Do you want anything?" she asked Ben, looking at him only through the rearview mirror. "I uh, I guess you can't answer that. Do you wan't... a chocolate bar? I think I've seen you eat chocolate before, haven't I? Yeah, I'll get you a chocolate bar. I'll be right back." She locked the doors and put the child lock on so he couldn't unlock them if he tried, then disappeared into the gas station to go fetch the kid candy and fill up her car. After she'd paid and filled up her tank, she opened the back seat and took a seat next to Ben. Now, her face was totally visible.
Celestynn had big grey eyes and freckles lining both cheeks. A stray strand of dark brown hair fell over one eye. The rest was pulled back into a long ponytail that disappeared down her back. She had thin lips and a pointed chin, and all of her features were relatively small. She couldn't have been much older than twenty from the looks of it.
"Hey," she said in a very soft voice. "I, um, here's your, uh." She looked down at the Hershey bar in her hand. "Do you want me to feed you?" she asked, closing the door behind her. He couldn't move, he was strapped in. Besides, she had her gun in her pocket. She could threaten him with that. Only staff was onsite now; no one would hear him if they made a sound. She was safe enough.
But then Celly's eyes landed on his necklace. "What is," she said, but stopped herself. "Oh god. They're tracking you. No..." Her eyes seemed to get bigger as realization struck. "Nonono, pieprzyć*, we can't have..." She was quick to pull out that Beretta and point it right at him. "You will give that to me right now, and if you try to take this gun away from me, or anything stupid like that, I swear I will shoot."

*pieprzyć is Polish for fuck

[Drakonnas]

Ben was pouting, leaning his head against the window, trying with all his might to figure out some way out of this predicament. He had to do something. But what? He had already activated the homing beacon, and he was sure that, even now, the police were calling ahead, getting cops ready to intercept the vehicle. He was fighting back hard, and with everything he had. This woman was fucking insane. He was surprised that she even could think straight right now...

As they pulled into the gas station, Ben stared at her, accusatory eyes wondering just how fucked up this girl was. She was beyond crazy. Psychotic, and insane. He refused to answer her when she asked him if she should get anything. She wouldn't get the satisfaction from him. Besides, he'd had a large breakfast. He'd be fine for a little while.

For a little while. How did he knew that she wasn't going to just kill him when he didn't stop fighting back? How much longer did he have to live? She'd already proven to him that she could not be trusted. The very first thing she had promised, she had broken. He didn't believe anything she said. She was a filthy douchebag who deserved to rot in hell. He would not give her the satisfaction.

He didn't even acknowledge her when she came back, and taunted him, asking if she should feed him. He wasn't a baby. And that teasing wasn't doing anything. And then she noticed his necklace.

Ben's eyes grew wide with fear as she took it from him. No... that had been his last hope. His final, last ditch attempt to save himself. If she took that now, he'd be completely helpless. But... the damage had already been done... The police already knew exactly where he was right now, and they'd have everyone looking our for him.

As if on cue, an amber alert came on the radio, describing the kidnapping that had taken place, the type of car that she was in, the license plate of the car, who the kidnapper's victim was, and what the kidnapper was last seen wearing. That was wonderful, wonderful news. If the gas station's owners happened to hear that, then maybe there was still a chance! He looked out the window, and indeed, the owner of the station was looking out of her window at their car, and picked up the phone, looking alarmed.

Good. So they knew exactly where they were. Cops would be on the lookout for them. Ben felt an enormous wave of comfort wash over him as he saw this, and understood. He was going to be fine. He was going to be safe. They would rescue him.

[Ashen]

Celestynn started panicking. Her worst fear was coming to be and she had no idea what to do. She hopped into the front seat and started the car. She was speeding down the street in seconds, trying to get as far away from that gas station as possible.
They knew what to look for. She was screwed.
She was so screwed.

She tossed the necklace out of the window so they wouldn't be able to track her anymore. It would be impossible to find her; they were going from Le Mars, Iowa to Saint Cloud, Minnesota. They were looking for her in Iowa. She would be perfectly safe back home. They would never find her back home.

She looked in the rearview mirror at this boy who was ruining this moment that she had planned for what seemed like ages. He was screwing everything up and she could get into serious trouble for this. She shot him a look of rage, but kept her eyes on the road. She was on the lookout for cops. Celestynn Zyskowski, the girl who had practically grown up around cops, was suddenly terrified of them. This was ruining her life. This entire thing was ruining her picture perfect life.

Once she was back on Route 60 Celly sighed a bit. No one would call her out on the highway. No one would stop to notice her. She would be okay.
She nearly jumped a foot when her phone rang. She grabbed it from her pocket and looked over the name on her screen. Hesitating only a minute, she answered the call and put it on speaker so both hands could be on the wheel.
"Celly?"
"Hey," Celly responded, keeping her voice level. She was pretty good at acting calm under pressure, she was just thankful the girl on the other end couldn't see her hands.
"Okay, so, craziest thing."
Celly sort of grunted to tell the girl to go on. She kept one eye on the boy in the backseat.
"First of all, go check your street, or your garage. Is your car there?"
"Jess, I'm in my car."
"Is the license plate on?"
"What kind of question is that?"
"ACZ-501, right?"
"You still remember that?" Celestynn and her two best friends had memorized each other's license plates so they'd be easier to spot. Celly had been the last of the three to get her car, and for some reason, her license plate had been the hardest to remember for all three of them.
"Guess what? They're saying your SUV with that license plate number kidnapped some deaf kid or whatever. Like, crazy, right?"
Celestynn looked at Ben. "Totes crazy," she responded in a small voice. They were looking for her car. Her license plate.
"Oh wait, there's more," continued Jess. "It interrupted the radio. This long thing about a Benjamin whatever his last name was being kidnapped by this young girl that...actually, she kind of sounded like you..."
"Hey Jessie, I would love to chat, but I have to go. Call you later, okay?"
"Celestynn, what is going on?"
The girl looked up to see if Ben had caught her name, then turned back to the road. "Love you, Jess. Talk to you later." Celly hung up as a tear fell from her eye.

"You're ruining my life," she said to Ben a little while later. "But then, I guess we're even. If you had just...not done that. I have a record I need to maintain, you know. I've never so much as touched a bottle of alcohol before this. My record is pristine. And now this..." Her voice trailed. "We're going to forget about that, okay? I'll get rid of the car when we get home. I just hope, what with all of your surgeries, we can still afford a new car." Noticing the straight road with little cars, she turned around and stared at him. "I understand my kid brother is supposed to get me into trouble, Zivy, but come on. That was pushing it a little far, don't you think?" She turned back around. "You know, the chocolate is still there. I didn't poison it or anything, and I'll eat a piece if you don't believe me. I... I'm a pretty trustworthy person, I just... You have to understand I can't untie you right now. Not until we get home. I don't want you to run away. Mum would be broken, and I went through a lot just to bring you back to us."

[Drakonnas]

Ben smiled as she started panicking. That was exactly what he wanted. By starting to panic, the girl might very well make a fatal mistake, which would allow him to get away. The more he was able to make her scared, the better off he'd be. They got onto the highway, and Ben was suddenly growing uneasy... By now his parents would know that he had been taken, and were certainly doing everything in their power to get him back.

She took a phone call, and it seemed to be one of her friends. The girl, whoever she was, appeared to be hesitant to say anything. So her friends weren't aware that she was a kidnapper. Good to know. And then, he caught a hold of her name. Celestynn. He stored that piece of information away in his brain as well. This phone call that he heard bits and pieces of was very welcome news. It meant that wherever she lived had received the Amber Alert as well. In addition to that, they knew the license plate of the kidnapping car. Which meant they could track the car to its rightful owner. Celestynn. The cops would be waiting at her house for her if she tried to go home. This, Ben knew.

The car had to have been legally registered to her, or her family. And that meant that they knew where she lived, and could go talk to her family and friends. Ben was confident that he'd be rescued, and returned safely home relatively soon. He had to be. This would all be over soon enough, and he'd be back in his parent's arms quickly. He'd get away from this batshit crazy girl.

But then something else struck him. She was talking about all of his surgeries. What was that supposed to mean? Did she mean that they were going to put him through operations to change his appearance or something? That sounded like something out of a horror movie. No, surely she couldn't have meant that. She was probably talking about her brother who had apparently gone missing, or died, or something.

Ruining her life. Hah. That was a good one. He had lived a perfectly normal, happy life up until she had tried to kidnap him. Of course he wanted to ruin her life. He wanted to escape, and get back to his parents. He wanted to get away from this girl who should be put into a mental institution.

Ben chose to completely ignore what she had to say about the chocolate, and everything else. He simply chose not to respond. Maybe by getting her to realize that he wouldn't play along with her stupid game, he wasn't her brother, and never would be. Ben stuck out his tongue at her, and rested against the car window, trying to figure out where they were going.

His hands were starting to hurt. She had tied him up so tightly that he was starting to lose circulation to his hands. They felt a bit tingly... He tried to move to allow himself more room, but it was no use. He was good and stuck.

[Ashen]

The boy was ignoring her. She figured she deserved that, but he'd warm up to her soon. He would have to, being placed in her home.
But Celestynn kept talking. She had to, to fill the silence. Since the call from Jess, she didn't want to listen to the radio. She didn't want to hear that anyone was looking for her. So she spoke on about nothing in particular, whatever came to her mind. She spoke of the times she and Ziven had shared, and brought up memories, and after a while she sighed. She turned to face him again. "Look, kid," she said. "You probably think I'm crazy. And you're probably right. I don't believe you're Ziven. Zivy is dead, and has been dead for a year. I know that. But... We both need to get used to the fact that you'll replace him. And we'll go on living like it's always been this way. I don't want to. Trust me, I don't want to. But you can't really get what you want in life. So this is how things will be."
Celestynn being assertive. If she tried hard enough she could convince herself this was all a dream. It was just so farfetched, so far from the normal. But then, Celestynn's life didn't have a normal, not anymore.

They'd been driving in silence for a while before Celly let out a little sigh and started to hum. She sang to the tune of Spring Waltz for a bit, then stopped and looked at Ben. "Chopin," she said softly. "He's a beauteous composer, don't you think? He's definitely my favorite. Did you know he's from Poland?" She drummed her fingers on the steering wheel a bit, imagining the song in her head. "I know how you love classical music. I do, too. See? We'll get along great. Actually, I may have a tape or something here." She looked away from the highway to find a tape of a classical compilation. She found it in the glove compartment, but when she looked back to the road she noticed she had swerved a little to the next lane. A truck started honking at her. Startled, Celly straightened her car. The truck passed her and she leaned back in her seat, struggling to breathe. "Sorry," she said. "I'm a good driver, really I am. I passed my driving test on the first try. I'm just...not me, I guess."

After the near-accident, Celly put on the classical tape. A Mozart piece was the first to play. "Is this okay?" she asked him. "I really am trying to make this as comfortable as possible for you, considering the circumstances. I... I can try something else, if you'd like? Do you want Beethovan? I heard you playing one of his pieces before."

[Drakonnas]

Ben frowned, and completely ignored her. He didn't want to hear anything she had to say. He didn't want to listen to her voice, or hear anything she spoke about. He didn't care about her at all, and frankly, wanted her to go die in a hole, and rot. Ben glared out the window, his normally good natured attitude was nowhere in sight now. He was extremely angry, moody, and even depressed. She wasn't going to get her fantasy by simply dreaming. Especially not like this. It was perfectly okay to miss your dead sibling, but kidnapping someone to replace your dead sibling? That was fucking crazy.

And even if he wanted to communicate with her, there was now way he could. Not with his hands tied up. When she turned on the music, Ben had to work to stay angry. this was all a trick, he told himself. There was no way he could, or would, ever warm up to her. Not even if she treated him like a prince. If she truly wanted him happy, she'd take him back to his parents, apologize, and get help. He didn't want anything to do with her. Even if she was a music fan.

Ben recognized every one of the songs that came on, and yet he didn't feel any better. For the first time in his life, music didn't help. And that was a terrifying prospect. A few tears fell from his face as he thought of his parents, sick with worry... He wanted nothing more than to be back with them. How come this had to happen to him? How come the world had to be so cruel to a young boy who had done nothing wrong?

[Ashen]

Celly was giving up. The boy wanted nothing to do with her, and she guessed she'd be the same in his shoes. But what she'd done, she'd had to do it, all of it. He had to understand that. She needed him to understand that. She had to do this.
She just let the tape play, and when it had ended she played it again. She was mumbling to herself from time to time in another language, but for the most part, most of their drive was in silence.

Celly let out a small sigh of relief as she spotted a sign welcoming them to Saint Cloud, Minnesota. "Well, Ziven," she said. "We're nearly home."
They'd been in the car for nearly six hours. She'd taken many of the backroads to prevent being seen and what would have been a four and a half-hour drive took more than an hour more. But finally, she was back in Saint Cloud, and it would just be a few minutes until she got home.
"This is where you'll be living for the rest of your days," Celly explained. "Matka, Tatuś, and I moved here fourteen years ago. We did it to get rid of the group that killed Dziadek and Pra-dziadek.* You've never seen Poland, but Tatuś promised he'd take you one day. He's died, shortly after you did, so it looks like I'll have to take you instead." Even though she knew he didn't care, she explained certain stores they passed, the grade school she'd gone to, the Dairy Queen that sold the best ice cream ever. She kept talking about different places until she pulled onto her block and saw a cop car in front of her house.

She slowly approached her house and turned into her garage, where her mother's car was sitting. She parked the car and left Benjamin in the backseat, promising to be back in a few minutes. Then she turned off the car, turned out the lights, and started towards the cop cars.

"Celly?" the officer said when she approached.
"Officer Garby," Celestynn greeted. "Is everything okay? Where's my mum?"
"Your mother is fine," the officer replied. "We just got a call that you kidnapped some boy from Iowa. Do you know anything about this?"
"What?!" Celestynn said. She was great at faking incredulity, something she'd never have known if this hadn't come up. "That's ludicrous!"
"I know!" the officer said. "I think they might have gotten the license plate number wrong or something. You know, Cells, I love you like a daughter. We all do. And we were all really surprised when we got this call. You... You would never do something like this, right? They said the boy was mute, and he's fourteen. I know the wounds from your brother are still new, but you wouldn't..."
"Officer Garby, please," Celly said. She seemed to be near tears. "Why would I ever take a little boy from anyone? I know what it's like. I would never... I can't even imagine it, it's so awful. You've got the wrong girl. Please believe me, sir, you've got the wrong..." To her own surprise, she started crying. She looked really distraught now, and her story would be even easier to buy. She wasn't a very emotional girl, but here she was, crying in front of an officer that clearly didn't believe she was even capable of kidnapping anyone.
"Hey, Celly," he said softly, taking her into a hug. "I'm sorry I brought it all up. I'll go and tell them they've made a mistake. Look, I'll write right here, Celestynn was questioned, she's innocent. Okay?"
Celly hesitated. Icing on the cake, she decided to make him feel worse about having come here. "Do you... Do you think Ziven thinks about us?"
"That I don't know, Celly."
"Do you think my dad's watching me? I'm taking care of Mum as best I can. I really am. It's a lot of work, juggling normal life and having lost a brother and a... and a father. And I just hope they're both proud of me. I just don't know how to continue without them. It's so, so hard." She was putting on quite the show, choking on her own words. Tears were streaming down her face, now.
"Why don't you get some rest, Celly?" Officer Garby suggested. "I'll make sure this whole thing is cleared up and your name is clean, okay?"
"Officer?"
"What is it, Cells?"
"Make... Make sure you bring that boy home, please?"
"Of course, Celestynn. I'll try my best."

She waited until she couldn't see the police cars, and even after that she waited a few minutes more before heading in her home. "Matka," she called. "Mum?"
"Celestynn?" came a deeply accented Polish voice. "Where are you?"
"In the great room," she replied. "I brought you something."
Celestynn walked into her mother's bedroom, located between the great room and the kitchen. Her mother was laying on her bed in a shirt and her underwear. Her blonde hair was matted and her eyes had dark bags underneath of them. Someone might have thought the woman was on some serious drugs.
"What did you bring me?" she asked, sitting up.
"Ziven," Celly replied.S
he watched her mother's blue eyes light up. She mouthed the word What?
Celestynn nodded. "I brought him back, Matka," she said with a smile. "Do you want to see him? I'll be right back."

She went back to the garage and turned on a light. The boy couldn't have moved, so luckily, he was just in place. She sat next to him in the car. "Well," she said. "Welcome home. Ready to meet Mum?" Her eyes looked sad, sorry even. Silver lines ran from her eyes to the edges of her mouth. She looked a mess, like the mess she had become.
"Now Ziven, you need to promise not to try anything, okay?" She took out the Beretta that had not left her pocket. She motioned towards it, hoping he'd get the hint. She still wasn't scared to shoot.

*Polish for mother, daddy, grandad, and great-grandad, respectively

[Drakonnas]

Ben was in a really foul mood, and wanted nothing more than to beat her to a pulp, run away, and cry into his mother's shoulder. He was absolutely terrified. Scared out of his wits. But... as they pulled to a stop, he noticed that there was a cop car outside! Ben's mood lightened considerably. She'd get her Just Desserts, alright...

He looked a little bit confused as the girl went up to talk to the policeman. He could hear everything that was said. Rage filled him as the girl pretended to be innocent, giving the cop a sob story, and acting. The cop's duty would make him check for evidence, even if she pretended to be innocent. If she was innocent, there would be nothing to hide. He would have to come check. And when he did, there would be hell to pay. Oh yes.

But... the officer didn't check. He believed her, and even seemed to sympathize with the girl, even saying he'd clear her of all suspicions. Ben was filled with astonishment, which lead to rage as he realized what the policeman was doing. He was effectively preventing any chance of rescue. The ones who were there to help him were making things worse! Ben thrashed around in the car, trying to shake the car, make as much noise as possible so that the policeman might see or hear something. He thrashed around as violently as possible, but to no avail.

Ben watched as his kidnapper walked inside for a few minutes, and then came out. He was so filled with rage that he wanted to kill this girl. Beat her up, anything to get away. The calm and quiet boy, so turned by this occurrence, wanted to be violent. He wanted to get away. He was going to run. Any chance he got, he was out of there. He would find a chance. There wasn't any way that he couldn't, unless they kept him locked up in some basement for years. And if they wanted him as their brother, they wouldn't do that.

He could fake things, pretend to be happy, and when they let their guard down, he could make a run for it. Grab the gun, and run. That was possible. But... He'd probably resist a lot, and see if they would get tired of him and let him go. If that didn't work, he could try to trick them. Doing that wouldn't be too difficult, especially if they were as crazy as they seemed.

As she came back out, he gave her a look of the deepest loathing. He made it very clear that he wanted nothing more than to hurt her, and run away. He would try, too. At this point, he wasn't scared of being killed. Seeing as there was a small chance of him ever returning to his parents at this point... He didn't really care about living. Heck, death might even be preferable. He stuck his tongue out at her, and turned away from her. He wasn't gonna make things easy on her. Refusing to move, she'd have to literally drag him out of the car if she wanted anything.

[Ashen]

The boy clearly wasn't going to make it easy on her. With a sigh, Celestynn unbuckled him and dragged him out of her car. She continued to drag him into the house, muttering things to herself. This boy was causing her a lot of trouble, trouble she'd never be able to get herself out of.

When she got inside she locked the door behind her. She released her tight grip on the boy's arm and stared at her. "I want to explain something to you," she said evenly. "There are knives in this house, and a screwdriver or two, and a bunch of other things that you could probably use to kill me. In the time it'll take you to stab me to death, I could have killed you five times over with my gun. As you probably saw, we don't have too many neighbors. These houses are far apart, the lady next door is deaf, the people across the street are in Mexico for a month, and the couple next door isn't home most of the day. No one will hear the gunshot. And another thing? Just try an call the cops. You can't sign to them over the phone, and the entire police district is friends with us, which is now really starting to have its perks. There isn't any way you can get out. Do you understand?"

She wasn't expecting an answer from the boy so she turned away, walking back into her mother's room. "Matka," she called. "Come to the kitchen."
When the older woman stumbled into the room, her eyes immediately locked on the young boy's. "Ziven?" she said, her accent now distorting the word. She said a few things in Polish and ran up to him. She pulled him into a hug he couldn't have escaped even if he tried. When she pulled away, her smile took up her entire face. "Ziven, Ziven, moje dziecko, Ziven," she said. Tears were now streaming down her face. She held up her fragile hands and signed the words in sign language, We missed you.

Celestynn was waiting to see how the boy would react. He proved no safety hazard, not right now, but she couldn't help but be paranoid. What if he tried to kill them anyway? What she said about the gun being faster than the knife was true, but she didn't want anyone to die. So she just wordlessly watched the interaction between mother and son, boy and stranger.

[Drakonnas]

Ben stared at the girl with a great scowl on his face. Her threat was idle, and didn't scare him at all. He could easily kill her while she slept, and run. He didn't care at all if she shot him. It would be better than continuing to be a prisoner in here. But he wasn't going to try and get himself killed. He was simply going to try and escape. He didn't care how he did it, but he would escape. That much he knew. There would, or could, be no giving up.

As the other woman came out, and tried to suffocate him with a hug, he tried to push her away, tried to escape the grasp in which he felt himself trapped by. As she let go, and spoke something that he didn't understand, he was surprised that she knew sign language. He quickly started communicating. "I'm not your son." He said, a desperate look on his face. "This... horrible woman kidnapped me. My name is Benjamin, and I lived in Le Mars, Iowa, until she took me at gunpoint. You have to let me go, you have to call the police, and help me... I don't want to be here. I don't want to be part of your crazy family. Let me go!"

He didn't think anything would happen. He seriously doubted that she would be well enough to even see that. Would she really think that her son, dead for a year, would suddenly come back? Benjamin was looking around, trying to find out what was going on. He needed some sort of escape plan. He looked for all the exits, looked for anything that could be used as a weapon... He had to get out of there. And if he could just get to the police's place... or someone. Anyone. He could call for help.

[Ashen]

Both women watched the boy sign what he was trying to say. He signed swiftly, desperately even, which was very different than how Ziven might have signed.
Celestynn's mother was the first to speak. "Now Ziven," she said softly. "I understand you must be very tired. Why don't we get you to sleep? If only I'd known you were coming. I would have prepared your favorite."
"I can order pizza, if you'd like, Matka," Celly offered.
Her mother waved her off. "I'll make him some soup. How about some chicken noodle?"
Neither of them seemed to realize Benjamin wasn't Ziven. They just continued on was if the boy knew exactly who they were and what was going on.

Upon her mother's request to take him to his room, Celestynn grabbed his hand and nearly dragged him up a flight of stairs. She pushed him into a room first, then went in behind him and locked the door. She let out a big breath and looked at the kid.
"Ben," she said in a shaky voice. "I understand you have no idea what's going on. That's why I'm going to explain some things to you."
The room they were in was a baby blue, with a twin-sized bed that looked freshly made. Trains were scattered across the room, whether in toy form or book form. There was a large bookcase in one corner of the room with more books than it could hold. There were two rooms, one that led to the hallway they had just come from and one that led to a bathroom. It was apparent this was a little boy's room, and from the letters on the wall over a desk, it was clear the room had belonged to Ziven. His name was spelt in wooden letters. The N was loose.
Celestynn sighed. "First off," she said, "I am so, so sorry." She stared right into his eyes. "I had to take you, and I know you'll probably never forgive me. But you're part of this family now, whether you like it or not. My mum downstairs, she mourned the death of her son the most. That's Ziven. He died last year of laryngeal cancer. His death led to my dad's death, and also my mum insanity."

Celly smiled weakly. "I don't expect you to understand why I took you, so I won't go there. Just know that I had to. And trust me, I did not want to. But for the rest of your life, or at least the rest of my mum's, you'll be living as Ziven." She turned to the door but stopped. "We're...a good family. I guess we couldn't compare to the money you had and all the other luxuries you're used to. But we're a good family. We really are. I'm proud of my upbringing. And I hope you can grow to at least like us." She turned to face him. "Until we trust you, your door and your windows will be locked. Hopefully it won't be for too much longer. Ziven was mute, like you. The cancer did that to him. So Mum and I both know sign language, and there's about five white boards in here that you can use to communicate with us. This room hasn't been touched since Zivy left us. And um, I think that's about it, unless you have any questions. I'll let you get settled in and go get your soup. I, um, Benjamin..." She looked up at him with huge, watery eyes. "I really am, sorry," she said in a barely audible whisper. And then she turned to leave.

[Drakonnas]

Ben watched as the older woman didn't seem to recognize that he wasn't her son. He gave her one last sign, "You're mental!" Before Celestynn took him upstairs. She spoke to him, and her demeanor seemed to have changed as well. She tried to explain to him that they wanted to trust him, that they wanted him to be a part of their family. "No way!" He signed, furious. He was going to be locked up. Alright. That was okay by him. He'd be away from those two mentally insane women, and could focus on getting out. "I will never be a part of your family, no matter how much you plead, beg, or threat." Ben told her, still scowling. "All you've ever done is lie to me. I don't trust what you say at all, you snake... I'm getting out of here. Just you watch. I don't care about you, or your stupid family. I don't care about your brother, your father, or any other member of your pathetic family. You're all lunatics!" He told her furiously.

As she left, Ben looked around for anything he could use as a weapon. Anything in this room could be used. He could break the windows, and escape that way. He was on the second floor, which could cause problems... But there were always ways around that. And he could also break down the door, but the former would be much easier. He wouldn't attempt his escape now, she would be coming back with food. But that night, perhaps he could get somewhere. He knew there was a bike in the garage, he could take that, and escape on it. Go somewhere. As far away as possible. Get help. It wasn't too late yet. He just knew it.

[Ashen]

Celestynn fled downstairs thinking about all Benjamin had said. It had hurt, all of it, but one sign stuck out more than the rest. When Benjamin had curled his fingers in a sort of V shape and wiggled them, that's what Celestynn had remembered most vividly. You snake.
She hated that anyone could ever hate her. She had grown up a sweet child, loved by everyone, even envied by a few parents. She was a golden daughter that could never have any enemies.
Celly didn't even know the sign for hate. She had learned it, sure, but she had never used it. It wasn't a word she particularly liked to use, and because of that, she had forgotten it. But she had the feeling-no, she knew Benjamin would be signing that particular word to her. And that, that bothered more than he could ever understand.

After a quick chat and explanation with her mother, Celly walked back upstairs with a bowl of soup balanced in one hand and a glass of apple juice in the other. She bowed her head a bit in thanks, told her mother to given Ziven some time before she visited him in his room, and went back upstairs, still shaky from what he'd told her earlier.

"I'm back," she announced before holding the glass with only three fingers and unlocking the door with her index and middle. She let herself into the room again and set the soup and glass on Ziven's desk. "I don't know if you're hungry," she said, "but I reckon I would be after such a long trip. You ought to eat. We don't... It's not poisoned." To prove this, she dipped the spoon into her soup and took a sip. "See? Though I get it if you don't want to eat. Just know, the last thing we want you to do is watch you suffer. Don't starve yourself, please."
Celly watched him, unsure of where she should go. Her mother wouldn't be coming in here for a while yet, and she had nowhere to go, so she was free for the rest of the day. She planned on spending it with her new brother.

She took a seat on the bed that had been vacant for too long. "I understand that you hate me," she said, and her voice gave a hint of how upset that made her. "I don't blame you. But from this point on, I promise I won't lie to you anymore. I want you to be comfortable, as comfortable as possible. So if you need anything, just let me know. I just... I can't take you back to Iowa. That would spoil her. Us. We can't spoil this family again."

[Drakonnas]

All of Ben's rage, anger, fear, and horror at what had happened to him in the last day was slowly melting. And what was left was depression, sadness, grief. As Celestynn walked in, Ben didn't make notice that she was there, respond to her, or acknowledge her in any way. He had his face buried in his... no, not his, the other boy's pillow. And it was being stained with the tears that were falling freely from his eyes. He hurt now more than he could have ever imagined possible.

And everything that Celestynn said to him just made him feel worse. His body shook with sobs as he cried angrily into his pillow. A feeling of complete helplessness was starting to feed on him. For the time being, he wasn't moving, wasn't eating, he wanted nothing to do with the world. If only he felt up to playing something, he'd have composed the saddest, most heartbreaking music that would make anyone cry. He knew that he could pour his heart out. But... he couldn't. There was nothing here that he could do that with. And besides, he didn't want her to have the satisfaction of listening to him play.

Comfortable, she said. Don't want to see him suffer, she said. Yeah. Sure. Go and kidnap someone, lock them up, and tell them to be comfortable, and not to suffer. That would sure work well. Ben had found a very large stuffed animal and turned his back to Celestynn, and hugged the animal, as if it would take him home. As if it would protect him. As if he were still in bed at his own house, and having some sort of horrible nightmare. "Make it go away..." He thought. "Let me wake up from this nightmare... please..." But Ben was as awake has he ever was. This nightmare would not simply vanish, or go away.

And for everyone who knew that Ziven had died, how would Ben's presence be explained? Would he be kept in the house like an animal, ever allowed to leave? Was this place to be his prison? With each thought, Ben grew more and more agitated, each new thought seemed like a red hot dagger being stabbed into him. HE ignored the girl completely.

[Ashen]

Celestynn tried not to take Ben's tears to heart. She watched him sob into the pillow and bit her lip. She wanted to pull him into a hug, cradle him and tell him it would be alright, but it wouldn't be. Who was she kidding? She couldn't just replace her dead brother. This was like something out of a horror film. And people in horror films always were tortured or killed.
She looked to Ben, trying not to think about that. No one would be tortured. The Zykowskis were a great family. Ben would be happy here. He just needed time. He'd get used to things. Of course he'd get used to things. He would never be Ziven, but he could be her brother. Hopefully.

When the boy grabbed for the stuffed animal, Celly smiled. "His name was Duzy," she said. "You can ask me of the name of any animal in here. Ziven made me memorize them all. That one, though, that belonged to a young Jewish boy during the Holocaust. The kid offered it to Pra-dziadek in the hopes that he wouldn't take his family. I don't know if he did or not, though. That's just the story Matka told. Either way, this guy came to us with the name Duzy. It means big." She was sure Ben wouldn't care about her story but she spoke anyway. It filled the silence, and she hated the silence.

After a minute she cleared her throat. She hadn't removed her big grey eyes from Benjamin.
"Why don't... Why don't we hear a bit from you?" she asked softly. "I keep telling you stories. Why don't you tell me some?" She paced a bit, then said uncomfortably, "What's it like being rich? Can you get anything you want, any time you want?" She seemed genuinely curious. Celly was desperately crying to break the ice, but at this rate, it was as if she was using a toothpick. She just wanted to get him talking. And she needed him to stop crying. If he kept at it, she would cry, too.

[Drakonnas]

Ben's sobs eventually died down both in intensity and frequency, though he still was in not fit condition to even talk. He wanted so badly things that he clearly wasn't going to have... Maybe it would be better to give up. Maybe it would be better to simply make life as comfortable for himself as possible. Maybe it would be better for him. But then again... maybe he could simply act it out. Maybe, if he faked things, they would trust him, and then he'd be able to escape. Maybe instead of violence and brute force, he could escape with his wits. Yes, that's what he would do. He'd pretend. He'd fake being happy, and follow their instructions. Then, when they slipped, he'd run. He'd get away. And then he'd somehow find his way back to his parents.

Deciding that it might be better to start sooner rather than later, he waited for his tears to subside, and then for a few minutes, and sat up, still holding the stuffed animal, looked at Celestynn with large, sad eyes. Sniffling a few times, he glared at her, but his glare broke down to a depressed look at the floor. "Why? Why did you kidnap me?" He asked her, signing slowly. "You've destroyed my life. Why do you expect me to simply forget my previous life, and go along with you? Why did you resort to breaking the law? I can understand disappointment, and grief... But you could have solved your problems without ruining someone else's life as well." He stopped signing, and looked back at the floor. "You ruined my life... I don't want to be here. I don't want to live here. I don't want to be a part of your family. I want my family back." He turned back to face the wall. This was the first time he had tried to rationally talk with her. He wasn't expecting it to work.

Taking several deep breaths, Ben tried to calm himself. How would she respond? He wasn't sure he wanted to find out. But maybe... Just maybe, he'd be surprised.

[Ashen]

Celestynn watched Ben's words carefully. He signed with the same, slow grace that Ziven had. It was what he was signing, though, that pushed the girl to tears.
She hadn't wanted to ruin anyone's life, ever. She just wanted to make things better. Her life had been thrown upside down, and she was just trying to remedy things. Ruining his life to make hers better... Was her life worth more than his? She certainly didn't think so, didn't like the idea of some people being worth more than others. But what could she do? The ruining had been done, both to her life, and to Ben's. She couldn't take anything back, now. It was too late to go back.

She wiped the tears from her cheeks and put on a very small smile. "Benjamin?" she said softly. "I'll take you back to your family." She was a little surprised by her words herself, but she continued. "I promise I will. It won't be soon, but I will, if that's what you want. I don't know how long it'll be. It could be a few years, or a few months. But if you just cooperate with us, if you just try to enjoy us, just a little, I'll drop you off at your front door and you will never hear from me or Mum again." She stared at him, tears still falling from her eyes. "O... Okay?"

[Drakonnas]

Benjamin looked up at Celestynn. "Fine. I have one more request to make." He signed. "Let me talk to my mother, or my father. Let me communicate with them. I don't care if you want to oversee what I say, to make sure I don't tell them where I am. I don't care. I need to talk to them. To at least tell them that I'm alright, and not dead on the side of a road somewhere." He didn't think that she would agree to this, but there was always the chance that she would. "At least let me make it so they don't worry as much... Please?" He signed the last word slowly and deliberately. "If not for me... for them. For the parents who just had their child stolen from them. I'm sure your mother knows how hard it is to lose a child. I'm sure she'd want them to not have to suffer that pain."

Ben sighed. Well, at least she wasn't planning to kill him or something. That was a start. Maybe it wouldn't be so bad here. Obviously he still wanted to go home, and obviously he still disliked her for kidnapping him, but... Maybe there was another side to this story. A side he hadn't considered yet. Maybe, if he understood why she had chosen this course of action... Maybe then things wouldn't be so ugly. "I'm not Ziven." He signed. "Your brother is gone. But... until I can go home... I may as well try to make this as easy on myself as I can. And if that means pretending to be something I'm not..." He looked very bothered. "Do... do you have any musical instruments I can play?"

[Ashen]

She smiled at Ben, a helpless smile. "I can't let you do that," she said softly. "You can't speak through the phone, for one. Nor can I risk you saying something that could destroy this. You might tell them where we are. I'm sorry, Benjamin, but I cannot do that." She hesitated a moment before continuing. "If you want, I can call them for you. There's a payphone down by a... um, not far from here. I can call them from there and tell them their kid is okay, if you want me to. I know their numbers. I'd uh, prefer if you didn't ask why." She looked away. What would she say? Hey, it's the kid who stole your son. He's doing fine, and just so you know, you'll never see him again, so give up.
Celly felt sick. She didn't want to talk to his parents, the parents that had lost a son. She knew what grief did to people. It forever changed them, and she didn't want to be there for that.

She looked up as he started signing again. His signs were relaxing, if just a bit. At his request, she kind of lit up. "Of course," she said happily. "What would you like to play? I can bring my guitar in here, or my oboe. We have those two, a baby grand, a flute, and a harmonica. The flute and harmonica work, but I bet they're kind of dusty. I prefer the other three. We could play a duet, if you want. I pick up music really easily, and from what I've seen, you do, too. I could even go find some old sheet music. I'd have to look for it a little, but I'm sure I'd find it. We have a lot of sheet music. Mum and Daddy used to love listening to me play, and as Zivy was growing up, he used to try to play with me. It was kind of fun, with him, because he was never any good, but I taught him to play a few things and-oh, I'm ranting." Celly giggled a little. "Music is the key to the soul, no?" She held up her hands and signed the word for guitar, then oboe, then piano, and tilted her head, letting the choice to him.

[Drakonnas]

As Celestynn refused him this offer, he grew angry again. "Not even an email?" He asked her, desperate again. "I hate you." He lay back down again, and held the animal again, as he stared at the wall. He had so many conflicting feelings now. He didn't trust her. She would never take him back. He was never going to see his parents again. And that crushed him. He didn't even feel like music. He shook his head at every one of the offers she made him. It was as if someone had flipped off a switch. He had hope. And now, that hope was gone.

Maybe things wouldn't be as bad as he thought. Or maybe, things would be worse. He would be allowed no contact with the outside world, in fear that he might let something slip. In fear that he would give them away. He was still a kidnap victim, not a brother. He close his eyes, and lay there. She seemed way too happy, the change of mood was too sudden, it was almost as if she was trying to get him to forget that request. No, he wouldn't make this easy on her. But he couldn't shoot himself in the foot trying to do that either... How was he supposed to go about this?

[Ashen]

Celly flinched at his sign. The simple movemet of his hands towards her, just a small movement, it stung. How could a flick of the hands mean such a large word?
She bit her lip. The tears were back in her eyes. He was like a bomb, one wrong word and his entire attitude changed. He wasn't being cooperative anymore, all because she couldn't let him speak to the outside world. She just couldn't do that. Who knew what he'd say?
She considered giving him a chance, handing him her phone to send an email, but decided against it. She was the authority in this house now, and she would not take any orders from this kid. She had to remember that.

Celestynn turned and left the room, locking the door behind her. She wasn't getting anywhere with him and she was done crying. She went downstairs and was careful to hide from her mother for fear that she would see her tears.
After a while, though, she got up and grabbed the car keys. Celly told her mother she'd be leaving for a few minutes, and that Ziven was sleeping upstairs. And with that she headed out the door.

Celly went to a local Rite Aid to pick up hair dye. Ben would need a makeover, a small one, just in case anyone did see him. Besides, at this point, other than those eyes he didn't look exactly like Ziven. His hair color was on the opposite side of the spectrum.
After she'd gotten the dye she started back home. Her mother called her into her bedroom to tell her one of her friends had visited in the short time that she'd been gone, and that she'd be back shortly. Celly bowed to her mother and went back upstairs.
She didn't want to go back into Ziven's room yet. There was nothing she could do for the boy, but at the same time, she wanted to be with him, not only to make sure he didn't try anything, but also because she wanted to comfort him. She hesitated before the door. With a sigh, Celly decided to give him time, and she went into her own room, instead. She sat down on her bed and looked to the wall that connected her room to her late brother's. What was she going to do with this boy?

[Drakonnas]

Ben fell asleep rather quickly after Celestynn had left, the bowl of soup laying untouched. He had only eaten breakfast that day. And truth be told, he was fairly hungry. But he was too preoccupied with other things. He resolved to try and trick them, rather than outright escape. He didn't want to be a killer. But he couldn't overdo anything. They might become suspicious, and that wouldn't be good.

Ben's dreams were filled with nightmares. He saw his parents alone, and crying. He ran to them, but they grew in size, and their faces turned demonic. "We would never want you... Not after you ran away from us... We were good to you, and this is how you repay us? We never want to see your ugly face again, you little mute monster! We'll be so much happier without you. Get out of our sight, you filthy brat."

Waking up the next morning, Ben's stomach hurt, and he was covered in a cold sweat. He sighed, and tried the door, but of course it was locked. Well...What was there to do? He rifled through the things in this room, until he found some old paper, and a pen.

"Day one.

I was kidnapped yesterday at gunpoint. Everything I tried to do to resist failed. I thought I was doing a pretty good job, too... I tried not to get killed, as I thought I would be able to escape. But apparently not. So I don't really care too much whatever she does to me. I have to get back to my parents... They're gonna be worried sick about me. I don't want to be here... But maybe if I suck up... " Ben stopped writing, suddenly struck with the horrible idea. What if Celestynn found this paper? "Maybe things wouldn't be too bad." There. Even if she found it, she wouldn't know what he was planning... "I want so badly to go home... I can only hope...

He set the paper down, and looked through the other things in his room. He had to use the restroom, but he was locked in here... He'd just have to try and hold it.

[Ashen]

Eve had come over a few minutes after Celly had gotten home, as promised. Celly greeted her in the main room. She wasn't at all excited to see one of her best friend.
"Hey Cels," Eve said, seating herself on the couch. "You've been acting super weird so I thought I would come visit. Are you okay? Are you sick? Not overworked, are you? Shouldn't you be at work, now? Did Celestynn Zykowski call out sick?"
Celly waved her friend off. "They, uh, closed early," she said. "I'm fine, Evey, but thank you for the concern. I was kind of in the middle--"
Celestynn's mother walked in, then. She turned to Eve and smiled a large smile. "Eve!" she said. "Did Celestynn tell you the good news?"
Eve looked to Celly, then back to her mother. "No, Mrs. Z. What's up?"
"Ziven is back. He's--"
"I think that's enough, Matka--"
"Oh, but my baby is resting and it's so good to have--"
"Matka, please--"
"I thought he was gone, really gone, but he's--"
"Mother." Celestynn had never used a harsh tone on anyone, let alone her own mother. The older woman looked at her. She put her hands up in a surrender. "If you want to tell her than you tell her. Przepraszam*." She left the room, leaving Celly and a very confused Eve alone.
Eve stared at her friend, her mouth in a tight line. She looked to Celly for some kind of explanation. She got instead tears that fell steadily from Celly's eyes. "Celestynn?" Eve whispered.
"She's gone off the deep end, Eve," Celly said. Was she about to spin a tale to one of her two best friends?
"Cels, I... I'm so..."
"Eve, she's been talking about him as if he were resurrected. She... She needs help, but she refuses. I'm so scared she's going to... I'm scared if she doesn't get help, she'll... She'll kill herself, like Daddy..."
Eve straightened. "If there's anything I can do... If you want to sleep at my place for a little while, I... I wouldn't mind that. We'd be more than happy to have you."
Celestynn shook her head. "I... I just want to be left alone right now," she said. "Please."

Once Eve had left, Celly went straight to her room. She felt terrible for lying to her friend. But then, was it such a lie? Her mother was going insane. She was going insane. Everything was falling to pieces. Maybe it wasn't her mother who needed help, but Celestynn herself.

She cried herself to sleep that night, the whopping hour and a half that she did manage to get. She woke up at quarter of five and went into her bathroom. Everything was still in the house, just like it had been in the past two weeks Celly hadn't managed to get sleep.
Realizing she had forgotten to check on Ben before she went to sleep, she made her way to his room and opened the door just a bit. He was still asleep, so she closed the door, locked it again, and went back to her room.
She had a journal that she had written in occasionally for the past year. She decided to write in it again, and after she was finished, she picked up her guitar. She played quietly, as not to wake anyone. The opening to The Diary by Hollywood Undead came from her fingers, and she soon added words. They were quiet, filled with tears, and not at all in tune.
'Cause I don't wanna be like this...

After she'd finished with her guitar she had gone on her laptop for a little while. Her Facebook was filled with messages saying how weird it was that her car had been described on a radio message, and how ironic it was. One of them read, "celly? OUR celly? kidnap a little boy? LOL. did she rob a bank, to? probly caused the holocaust to, that troublemaker." There were a few responses to the message that had the same message: There was no way Celly could ever do anything so awful.
She closed her laptop, feeling sick. She made her way to Ben's room again and slowly opened the door. He was awake this time. "Good morning," she said. She still sounded like she was crying. "Did you sleep well? You look hot." She nodded towards the only other door in the room. "You can take a shower if you'd like. I'll need to put the hair dye in before then though, okay? You... You don't mind, right? Zivy had black hair, we can't exactly have you a blonde."

*sorry

[Drakonnas]

Ben jumped a little bit as his door opened, and the girl came in. He looked up at her with deep, somber eyes, that were somewhere between deep dislike, fear, and annoyance. She sounded like she wasn't feeling too well, and wasn't sure what he felt. On the one hand, he was partially glad she wasn't feeling too well, but on the other hand, he didn't like to see people suffering. So far, his anger at her had prevented him from the other side coming out. He didn't want to sympathize with her.

He shook his head at her request to dye his hair. He knew he probably wouldn't have much of a say in the matter, but he didn't want to do anything that would make her life easier. That would prevent him from possibly getting help. He was pretty sure that it would happen if he wanted it to or not, but... He really had no control over his life anymore. He was told what to do, when to do it, and if he didn't comply, he might be threatened at gunpoint. Not for the first time, he wondered if it might be easier to force her to kill him. Or maybe the other way around... But there were problems with that too.

He looked at her, and nodded. Signing to her, he said. "Okay. I'll meet you in the bathroom. You can dye my hair." He looked too tired to fight. He left the room, and then acted. He slammed the door so quickly that Celestynn wouldn't have a chance to react. She was now the one locked in his prison cell. He threw a couple of pieces of furniture in front of the door, and attempted to run. The windows were locked, the door was locked. She'd have to break the windows or the door in order to get out. Now was his chance to run. To get help. But... he didn't get far. Ben tripped in his haste to get out, and smacked his head against the wall. A photograph fell and landed on him, and Ben looked at it. It was a picture of who he assumed to be Celly, Ziven, and their parents. They looked so happy, but the shattered glass made the truth all too real.

Ziven had died, as had their father, and now Celly and her mother were descending into madness. And Ben had some sort of.... revelation. Some sort of epiphany. A new feeling arose inside him. Maybe if he helped them... Maybe if he chose, of his own free will, to try and help heal their family, then he'd truly beat them. Then he'd truly be the better of them. But it wasn't about winning, about being better... Maybe by helping them, he could forgive what had happened, heal them, and then return to his own life.... There was something very appealing about that to him. He didn't notice the blood as he slowly walked back to his room, and unlocked the door, went inside, and hugged Celly.

[Ashen]

She could understand why he wouldn't want his hair dyed. It would be harder to find him if he didn't look like he should. But if he were to become Ziven, he'd have to look like her little brother.
But then, suddenly, he changed his mind, and agreed to dye his hair. Celly was wary but went with it anyway, getting the hair dye and returning to the room. She started for the bathroom but before she could turn to make sure the kid was following her he was gone.

Celestynn silently cursed and got out her phone, prepared to call her mother downstairs. The landline rang one, twice, and then she heard her mother's voice on the phone. They spoke in Polish, the preferred langauge for the older woman, just in case.
Celly told her mother that Ziven was having another one of his episodes, and that he was headed towards the front door. Her mother assured her that she'd get to it before he did, and they hung up.
And Celly waited. He wasn't going to make this easy on her at all. She'd spent a long time making sure this would go on without fail. She was backed up in places he'd never even know. She had just hoped he would comply. Why would she think she'd be lucky? When was she ever lucky anymore?

Celly had taught herself to pick locks. It was one of the things she mastered before heading over to Iowa in the first place. Ziven's lock was hard, though. She had reinforced it, replaced the lock without her mother even knowing. The new lock was harder to pop, but if she toyed with it, she'd get it. She heard something shatter. She immediately thought of her mother-surely Ben wouldn't do anything to hurt her, would he? Nerves were getting to her now. Ben couldn't hurt her mother, he couldn't. She needed to help her.
But her hands were shaking too hard for her to pick the lock, and soon, the bobby pin she was using broke. She stepped back, a little stunned. Now what? She thought of calling the cops, asking them to help, that someone was attacking her mother, but she could never call the cops again. They were no longer friends of hers; they were things to be feared, avoided. But her mother, she could be dying, and she was sitting in her dead brother's room doing nothing.

Celestynn was sweating, hard. She wasn't strong enough to break down a door, and she'd left her gun in her room. What was she supposed to do? What if Ben found her gun? She'd be done for, then.
But then the door opened, and the boy came back in. He wrapped his arms around her.
Celly started sobbing then. She held his hand with her hand and hugged him back. He was bleeding, and she could only imagine what her mother looked like. She pushed away from him and started downstairs but her mother greeted her at Ziven's door. She continued speaking in Polish, asking if everything was okay. When she saw Celly's tears she wrapped her daughter in a tight embrace.
Celly assured her everything was okay, that it was a false alarm. Her mother was reluctant to leave her, but when she saw the blood on Ben's head, she rushed over to him. "My Ziven," she said, examining the cut in a way a scientist might examine new data. "Are you okay? Baby, what happened?"
"Matka," Celly said, wiping her eyes with the back of her hand. "I'll handle it, please?"
Her mother let go of Ziven. "When do I get to spend time with my son?" she mumbled and retreated out of the room.

Celly crumbled to a puddle on the floor, her gaze fixed on the rug. She felt her heartbeat. It was beating too hard and too fast.
She had almost lost her brother again, and for a moment, she'd thought her mother was gone, too. She could not live like this. She could not live so paranoid.
But she had no other choice.
Celestynn looked up at Ben. She wiped her eyes once more and took in a deep breath. She didn't demand an explantion for anything he'd done, even if the hug had baffled her. She didn't want to see another sign from the boy. She picked herself off the ground and headed for the door again.

[Drakonnas]

Ben didn't know what had gotten into him. He was thinking about comforting his kidnapper's family? Why would he do that? Well, maybe it would make his time here a little bit easier... But Celestynn didn't seem too happy about this turn of events. Maybe it was the fact that he had locked her in... But he had come back, hadn't he? There was a significant change of mind there, and that probably surprised her, or freaked her out. But she pushed him away, and went to talk to her mother.

Celestynn's mother saw the blood, and came to examine him, but Celly pushed her away, like she had been pushing everyone else away. Her mother got mad, and huffed off, leaving Celly there, who also looked mad, and left. "Great." Ben thought. Here he was, trapped again. He honestly had no idea what to do, how to think, what to think. What he should do. He didn't have any kind of music with him... Wait. That was it. Music. If he could only just...

Ideas flooded into his head. He had to find some way to turn the alphabet into 12 letters... Maybe he could send some sort of message through music... But even then, it was highly unlikely that his parents would be able to decode his music... Darn, that idea might not work nearly as well as he wanted it to... Thinking carefully, he sat down, and wished. He wished that this had never happened, that he could go back to his normal life. Would anyone besides his parents miss him? And what about his education? Did they plan to not put him through school? That would ruin his life in more ways than one....

He wished he could sing, but he was as mute as ever, and always would be. THere was no music in this room. Absentmindedly, he started drumming with some pencils...

[Ashen]

Celly's way of cooling down was reading a book. She didn't read for long, maybe just an hour or so. When she put the book down so looked up at her door. It lead to the hallway, and next to her room was Ziven's. She hadn't heard noise from his room for a while. Well, of course not, she thought. The kid can't make noise. But she went to check on him all the same, far too paranoid that he was plotting something. She opened the door and found him in the room, looking preoccupied with Ziven's old writing utensils.

With a small sigh of relief, Celly closed the door behind her and went to sit on the bed. "I don't understand you," she said. "I single-handedly ruined your life in a matter of hours and you gave me a hug." She stared at him, hard. "I know of people that are quick to forgive, but there's no way you've forgiven me that fast. As much as I wish that were true, I know it's not. I won't ask what you're plotting, because you wouldn't tell me anyway. But... Is it really so hard to just go along with things? It's a chance to start anew. So many people would kill for a chance to start anew. Here's yours." She was trying to be positive, really trying, but it wasn't working. People may kill for a chance to start their lives over, but how many of those would be willing to kill to be kidnapped? Stripped from everything they ever new and put with a family that seemed-and probably was-insane in ever way?

She stopped speaking for a moment and looked at the bowl of soup, untouched. "Aren't you hungry?" she said, her condescending tone gone. "You couldn't have eaten since yesterday morning. It's been nearly a whole day." She walked over to the bowl and picked it up. It was cold now, but she could easily heat it up. "How about we get you something to eat? Do you... Do you want to come downstairs with me?" She'd gotten her gun and it rested in the pocket of her jeans, hidden by her hoodie. She had that as self-defence. And hopefully, she wouldn't have to use it. Ever.

[Drakonnas]

Ben looked up as Celly entered his room. She sat down on the bed, and spoke to him, mentioning curiosity at the fact that he had hugged her, wondering what he was plotting, and similar things. He looked up at her, eyes and face rather blank. He didn't know how to answer her. He didn't even know how he felt. It was rather awkward, and she didn't seem to know what to do, or say. Nor did he.

He thought for several minutes, and finally gestured for her to follow. "Come with me." He said. He slowly rose, deliberately moving slowly so that she wouldn't think he would try that same trick again. He wasn't going to. He walked out into the hallway, where the shattered picture was. He picked up the photograph, and handed it to her. "No. I haven't forgiven you." He signed simply "I'm not sure if I ever will. But... When I tried to run away, I tripped, hit my head on the wall, and this photo fell down and broke. I... kinda saw your family. You looked all happy, and normal. And I can see that you two are being driven insane." He said, looking at her with a certain power in his eyes.

"You are both insane. Maybe if I can help your family heal, maybe if I can do something to bring you back to reality, then you'll realize exactly what it is you've done, and I can actually go home without the risk of being seriously hurt, or killed trying to escape." He told her. "I figure that trying to help your family heal would be more productive, and have less risk to the both of us. And even if I can't be happy here... MAybe things would be a little more enjoyable until I get to go home." He shrugged, not sure what else to say. "Your family was torn from you. And you tore mine away from me. Maybe we can fix both of our problems at the same time." His eyes were sorrowful, and it was clear that he was losing hope. Every attempt at escape had failed so far. Maybe being honest and direct would have a better chance.

[Ashen]

Celly slowly followed Ben, one hand on her gun. He wouldn't try the same tactic twice, knowing it didn't work the first time. But just in case, she kept her distance and allowed him to lead the way, right to a photograph. The photo had been taken nearly a decade ago; in it, Ziven was cancer-free. The monster had not attacked him yet, and he was still a happy little boy.
The photo was of her mother, a young woman with a huge smile and beautiful blonde hair. Her green eyes seemed to sparkle and the camera had captured just how happy she was to be alive, be with her family, in free soil. The man next to her, a young man with one arm around his wife and another on his daughter's shoulder, was her father. His blue eyes were the mirror image of his two children's, and the hair on his head was the same shade of onyx as his son's. His smile showed a row of perfect teeth. The little girl in the photo, Celly, was looking straight at the camera with fascination. She would have been around eight or so. Her hand was loosely in her brother's. Ziven had a smirk on his face. The ever sly one, Celly remembered after the picture had been taken he had grabbed the photographer's camera and nearly smashed it to the floor. He'd been a little troublemaker, but it kept the family on their toes.
They looked like the perfect family. Everyone was smiling, everyone looked happy to be alive. In fact, they were the perfect family. They didn't have lots of money, or great fame, or even grandparents to love, but they were perfect in their own way. They loved each other.
And now. Now Ziven was gone, along with Lolek, and Aniela was legally insane and Celestynn was standing before the boy she'd kidnapped. How quickly things could change.

"I'm not insane," Celly said as another tear trickled down her cheek. "I mean, yeah, I kidnapped you, and yes, it was one hundred percent premeditated. But I'm not insane. I'm all here in the head, or at least I think so. I know Ziv's dead, and I'll never see him again, and same for Daddy, and I know all that. I'm only pretending for Mum." She wiped at her tears. "I appreciate the sentiment. I never wanted to tear you away from your family. I'm sorry it had to be you. I'm sorry Ziven isn't here anymore. I'm sorry my mum went crazy after the fourth death of the family. Okay? I'm sorry. But I can't fix anything. You pretending--" Celly stopped herself. What was she doing? This was what she wanted. She needed him to play along. So why was she telling him not to?
If he pretended, he would just enable her mother. But that was what she had wanted, wasn't it? A way for her mother to go about life happy again. And if that meant enabling her, then so be it.
But she hesitated. Celly hesitated, because she knew this wasn't the right thing to do. But the alternative would be losing her mother, too. And she could not take that.

"Thank you," Celly said quietly. "I'm really sorry about all this. I really am. But there's nothing that can be done now." She placed the broken photograph on a table. "I, um, so now what?"
She was asking him for her next course of action. It was supposed to be the other way around, Celly being the older sister, bossing her kid brother around. But she had never bossed Ziven around, and she didn't like the idea of telling Ben what to do, either. Besides, she'd been making impossible decisions for a long time now. Any sort of break would be nice.

[Drakonnas]

Ben listened to Celly talk, his heart heavy. He felt like he was betraying his parents by trying to help. But he also felt that it was the right thing to do. Sure, he wanted to escape. Sure, he wanted to flee. Sure, he wanted his life back. But that wasn't happening. Every attempt at that so far had ended in failure, she was always three steps ahead of him. And that made him feel helpless. So maybe if he simply tried, he could go home. And hey... if he managed to make both Celly and her mother happy... that would make him a better person, no?

Ben took a very deep breath, closed his eyes, and let go of his hatred for her. It wasn't an easy thing to do, but he did it. And he told her so. "I... I don't hate you." He signed quietly. "I very much disagree with your choice to kidnap me. It was wrong. But... putting myself in your shoes... I can't hate you." He sighed, and looked back up at her, wondering what she was thinking. "I know it's crazy and all... and I was saying I hated you just moments ago... Maybe my emotions change too easily. I don't know. But..." He still looked slightly uncomfortable. What would his parents say if they could see him now?

"Well..." Ben thought. "I'll make a deal with you. If you let me have a little more freedom... I'll play along when I'm around your mother. But... I want you to treat me as if I'm me... I'm not Ziven. I don't know what he liked or didn't like. I'm me..." He still looked uncomfortable. "Can I see your sheet music?"

[Ashen]

Celly watched his words, her eyes drying as he went on. He didn't hate her? What did that even mean?
She cleared her throat and hesitated to speak. She wouldn't believe that, not yet. He was a fickle one in actions, but she couldn't read his mind, and so she would not trust what he was saying. She'd given him a little freedom and he had dashed for the door. But then... He had come back, hadn't he? So maybe he really was trying to help.

"I will treat you as I would treat Benjamin Ramiel," she said. "I hope I can eventually treat you as an adopted brother, but for now, I shall treat you as you are, a fourteen-year-old stranger that's unexpectedly joined the family. I couldn't treat you like Ziven if I tried. You're not Ziven. You're not my baby brother. But I need you to pretend, just in front of Matka, in front of Mum." She bit her lip. More freedom? What was it he wanted? She wouldn't let him roam the house as he pleased, if that was what he was asking. Not yet, anyway. She couldn't risk that.

At his request, Celestynn kind of stopped, stunned. She recovered quickly though and shook her head yes. "I have loads," she said. "Like, any composer you can name, I have them. You like Vivaldi, don't you? I recognized you playing his pieces more than once. How about we bring you that? Actually, I'll bring you a bunch, wait here." Celly turned to leave but hesitated. There was a keyboard in her room and a baby grand in the great room downstairs. He couldn't play the piano from here, so she would have to move him. She stared at him for a minute, wondering if he could be trusted. "We're going to go to my room," she said. "It's right next to this one. I'll go behind you. You will not make for the stairs, okay? Go straight into the room. The keyboard is against the wall on your right. Sit down there, and I will get all of my music for you, alright? There's probably something already there, if you want to try your hand at that. I don't remember the last time I played. I've been a little too...preoccupied." She opened the door. "Let's go."

[Drakonnas]

Ben nodded as she told him to go to her room. He wasn't gonna make any moves to get away. He had given up on that. She was too prepared. His stomach ached, but he didn't say anything. Not yet. He walked to her room, and sat down at the piano. He turned it on, and kinda grimaced. He didn't particularly like electronic pianos, they were so much harder to actually express emotion on. There was one volume per key-press, and he couldn't express too much emotion. But he sat down, and immediately, his musical talents were obvious. He played a Prelude in C completely from memory, perfectly. It was almost as if it was a pre-recorded song. Tempo, rhytm, and notes were perfect.

He waited for Celly to return. He was a little bit bothered by just how much she knew about him... He wondered if she knew about any of his allergies. That would be a good thing to tell her... As he thought about allergies, his thoughts returned to his hunger. He was hungry, and would have to eat something sooner or later. He was also really thirsty... Maybe she'd bring him some water with ice in it...

[Ashen]

Celly followed Ben into her room. The walls were a light lavander and her rug was a heather grey. Her room was kind of messy, with random papers thrown all over the one desk in her room, some falling to the floor. There was a pink laptop on the queen-size bed that was left unmade. A few stuffed animals were sitting around. The keyboard had gathered some dust, and beside it was a purple guitar. It looked like any messy teenager's room, aside from the instruments. Beisdes the dust, they seemed to be in pristine condition. Celly took care of her instruments. She loved music too much not to.

She went towards the piano and crouched by a bookshelf that had her music. She stopped though as the boy started to play and moved her fingers in the air to match his notes. He was playing a song she knew, though he could put her to shame. As he played she continued to look for music, pulling out different books and random songs. When he finished playing, she set the music down on the keyboard and started clapping. "You're really good," she said. "I mean, I knew that, but now you're actually playing right next to me. Without a wall in the way." She smiled at him. "That was Beeth-no, Bach. I have more of him here, if you'd like." She showed him the sheet music. "I've been collecting for a long while. Some of these were from Poland. My grandad was a pianist too; he played in the local orchestra before he was killed. His stuff is really advanced but I've been teaching myself for a while. That is, I was teaching myself. My life's been put on hold for a little bit." Her smile faded a bit. She had had to stop doing a lot of the things she loved to devise a plan to kidnap Ben. She had given up a lot to destroy a life, both hers and Ben's.

A few minutes later, Celly's mother gently knocked on the door and let herself in. "Ziven wasn't in his room and I wanted to check if he was in here," she explained. "That was you playing so beautifully, Ziven?" She seemed stunned, then walked over to the keyboard and looked over the sheet music. "What song was that?"
"I played it for a recital a few years back, Mum," Celestynn said. "I helped him learn it."
"Then you're a fine teacher, Celestynn," she said. "Are you two hungry? I've made blueberry waffles. You two come down whenever you're ready." She looked at Ben a moment longer and left the room.

Celly looked to Ben. "Well," she said. "Are you hungry? We can continue this concert later." She hesitated again. "You... You can eat downstairs, if you'd like. Just... Stay close to me."

[Drakonnas]

As Ben finished his song, Celly clapped for him. "Thanks." He told her. "I... Yeah. Music is kinda the only thing I'm good at." He finished signing, and then turned back to the piano. He didn't care how advanced the music was, he could play it. And if he couldn't, he would practice until he could. It was that simple. But then Celly's mother came up, and spoke to them. Ben decided that it would be better to go along with things now, his actions had already been decided, he was just a little uncomfortable.

He signed to her. "Thanks, mother." He cringed inside as he did so, but he looked back at Celly with dark eyes. "See what I'm doing for you?" He sighed, and then nodded as his hunger finally gave in. He stood up, he could always play the piano after breakfast. He walked downstairs, staying within five feet of his new "sister". He still didn't feel like it was real, but he went along with it.

The breakfast was actually good, though it wasn't his parents' cooking. He sighed a little bit, and stared out the window, longing for his old home. Perhaps there was still some sadness in his bearing. But he admittedly was trying to be good. He was trying to be good. And that was what mattered.

[Ashen]

Celly was surprised at how well-behaved Ben was being. She made sure he was seated at the table in the kitchen before taking her own seat. She got Ben and her mother breakfast before getting her own.
"Thank you for breakfast, Matka," Celly said with a smile. "Are you feeling alright?"
Her mother nodded, then turned to Ziven. "So he finally emerges from his cave," she says. "How are you, Ziven? Did you sleep well? How have you been? Have you missed us? Do you--"
"Mum, you're suffocating him with questions," Celly said. She looked to him and quickly mouthed Sorry. "He slept fine and he's feeling alright. I already asked."
"Let the boy speak for himself, Celestynn," her mother told her. "He can speak just fine on his own." Seeing the error in her words, she frowned and tried to make things better, but failed. Celly waved her off.
"He's really tired, Matka," she said. She looked over to him. Celly didn't want him to talk to her mother too much. She was scared the woman might realize it wasn't actually her son too early, and then Celly would have no way to explain. If she could answer a question for him, she would.

After a few moments, her mother spoke again. "He's put on a few pounds, hasn't he?" she said to Celly, who blushed. "I'm glad my baby's been eating well. But whatever happened to his hair?"
"He's dyed it," Celly stated.
"I can see that," she said. "Wanted to be blonde like your momma?" She laughed a little bit. "Oh Ziven," she said. "Don't leave us again. Why don't we go to the train station later this week--"
"Ziven doesn't want to do that," Celly interjected. She didn't want him to leave the house so soon. Then, looking to him for support, she said, "Right?"
She could only imagine how awkward it was for him, sitting down to a meal with them. But it was a thing he'd have to get used to. It would be happening often as long as he lived in their house.

[Drakonnas]

Ben had no idea how to respond to the woman's questions, but luckily for him, Celly answered for him. He focused on eating, and tried to drown out the awkward conversations that were going on. It was lie after lie, and he didn't think that speaking up would do him any kind of good. After all, he might accidentally give something away. While it might be good that she realized he wasn't her son... That certainly would lower the chances of him getting home unharmed. And that was his main goal. Getting home unharmed.

He finished eating, and looked at Celly for instructions. He didn't know anything about the house. Where the dishwasher was, were the plates and stuff belonged. So he let her take care of it for him. And he waited for further instruction from her. He wasn't going to do much without her telling him to, at least not yet. He was trying to gain her trust. It was funny, what a little broken photograph could do...

He tried to get a good look around the place. He tried to remember where everything was, and the routine around the house. That was important, it would let him know what to expect. He tried to get a better understanding of things so that he would be able to better fit in. It was only temporary, he kept telling himself. "It's only until I get to go back home again... This isn't my home, this isn't my family. I will go home... I just have to be patient."

[Ashen]

When breakfast was finished, Celly took their three dishes and set them in the sink to wash later. Her mother went back into her room by the staircase, where she spent majority of her time. Celly turned to Ben, who was sitting still and waiting for instruction from her. She didn't have any answers, though. She didn't know what to do. How did you entertain a fourteen-year-old? Ziven hadn't been hard; the boy had been able to entertain himself and preferred that over anyone even approaching him. But Ben, Ben wasn't Ziven. And he'd get bored sooner or later. So she had to think of something.

"Well, Benjamin," she said. "What did you do at home? I know you played music and read and spent time with your family. What would you like to do? Maybe we could play a board game?" She turned out of the kitchen for a moment to go into the great room, where an entertainment center held a few abandoned board games. "You can come here," she called to him. "We have Monopoly and Battleship here, I think we have all of the pieces to Sorry!, and there's a deck of cards. Does any of that sound like any fun?" She looked away from the entertainment center and laid her eyes on the baby grand. "Or there's this," she said, walking over to it and rubbing her fingers against the keys delicately. "Sometimes, around Christmastime, we would all gather around the piano and sing Christmas songs. Ziven was always the loudest, until... Until he couldn't sing along any more. And trust me, he tried. The month after he was diagnosed, we all gathered here, and I started playing, and Ziven started crying because he couldn't sing along. I guess... I guess the piano has been collecting dust a while. Ziven and Tatuś aren't here to listen to me play, and Mum's been a little too busy with other things..." Her voice trailed and it looked like she was going to cry again, but she didn't. Instead, she turned to the boy. "I haven't had a real conversation in what seems like a year. I... I'm sorry if I go on like that. I... I miss talking, and Mum can't listen, not anymore. But now you're here." She showed a very small smile and turned back to the piano. She played a short melody, then played a song from The Little Mermaid. "Right. Uh, up to you. What now?"

[Drakonnas]

Ben wasn't one to be bored easily, he could quite easily take a boring day, and do something to spice it up. But here, he wasn't sure what he was allowed to do, and what he wasn't allowed to do. So, he didn't do anything for fear of getting in trouble, or being hurt. Ben looked up at her as she asked him what he liked to do, what he did at home. Well... He wasn't really sure, he simply sort of did things to entertain himself when he wasn't working on music of schoolwork. And he told her that.

"I mostly played music, composed music, and did schoolwork. That's really about it." He signed. "Sometimes I'd go swimming in the pool outside, or help my mother with shopping... But that's really about it... I had one friend who I sometimes spoke to... Karliah had a similar interest in music, and we would sometimes sit and play together..." He signed.

She mentioned a board game, and Ben shrugged. "Sure, why not?" He followed her to the entertainment room, where she showed him what games they had, and then went to the Piano. It wasn't as good a piano as he'd had at home, but then not much would have been. His was just under the quality of an actual professional concert grand piano. He listened to her speak about Ziven, and his eyes darkened. He had been younger than Ziven by a few years when he had lost his voice, but he had survived his cancer, so far. He wasn't still 100% in the clear, little problems still popped up from time to time, and the doctors were still watching him.

Ben suddenly realized that, by being kidnapped, he wouldn't be seeing a doctor. And that thought kinda scared him. What if, because of this, his cancer came back to a point where it couldn't be treated? Perhaps his face showed some sort of fear, but he shook that off. "Sounds similar to my story." he told her. "Except, I was younger, and knew less about the world." He shrugged.

"Let's play monopoly. I'm rather good at that game." As Ben set up the game, he looked up at Celly. "Tell me about Ziven." He said. "As we play, tell me about him. His story, who he was."

[Ashen]

Celestynn wiped at her eyes again and went for the Monopoly game. She took it from the shelf and set it on the floor. She sat on the floor herself and waited for Ben to do the same. She had barely caught his request, too concentrated on laying out the game to watch him. But she saw him sign the letters of Ziven's name, and his request to tell his story. She was taken by surprise a bit, but she nodded. "Well," she said softly, "I guess I should start at the beginning.

"Mum and Daddy had me in Poland. That's where our accents come from, and that's the language I was speaking with my mother. My granddad and great-granddad were murdered there-you see, they were nazis so long ago-and the group that had murdered them was said to be watching us, too. So we moved, out of fear for our lives. Mum kind of just threw a dart on a map, and it landed on St. Cloud, Minnesota. We picked up and moved there, and restarted our lives.
I was three when we moved here. It was hard for all of us to adjust. None of us were really great at English, least of all me. Daddy joined the police force, since that's what he had been in Poland. Mum became a daycare assistant, the best one Little Learners had. They tried their best to teach me English, but even so, adjusting to preschool the following year was hard. Ziven was born when I was four. He was a normal kid, always really cheery. As he grew older, he loved being loud. He'd sing atop his lungs, bang on his toy drums; he just loved making noise. We didn't mind, though. Ziven was just so... so happy, no one could be mad at him. Being American-born, he knew English best out of all of us, and not a word of Polish. The only Polish about him was his three names, Ziven Aurum Zykowski. I suppose it doesn't get more Polish than that, does it?

"Ziven and I were really close. He'd come in my room to listen to me play the piano, or guitar, or one of my instruments. His favorite was the piano. I'd be playing a song and he would come in and ask if we could do a duet. I'd tried to teach him, but he was never any good. It didn't matter, though. We had fun playing together. I'd also take him to the train station sometimes, or to go see the elephants at the zoo. He loved anything that made noise.

"But then Ziven got progressively quieter. It became harder for him to speak, and we didn't really know why. Then one day, Ziven woke up choking. His room is right next to mine, and my parents' is downstairs, so I was the first to know. He was gasping for air, so I woke up my parents and we rushed him to the hospital. There they told us why Ziven was getting so much quieter. They told us why he was having problems breathing. They did some tests to make sure, but they gave their diagnosis. Ziven had laryngeal cancer, and they delivered the news on his seventh birthday.

"He went through so many surgeries, that poor kid. They told us he had a 60% survival rate.
The cancer did leave him, but so too did his ability to make noise. Ziven would never make another sound. He'd never speak again. This news broke him. The once perpetually cheery boy became a ghost. When he got home, cancer-free, he roamed the halls silently. He held no expression. The one thing he had loved most in the world, making noise, that had been stripped from him.

"He had spent over two years in the hospital, so Ziven was only nine when he learned sign language. We all learned how to sign, not that he ever really wanted to communicate much. It's so depressing, watching your depressed nine-year-old brother mope around the house and know you can't do anything to help him. He became almost unresponsive. We were upset that our Ziven was so sad, but we were grateful he was healthy.
Until he was twelve, when he walked into my bedroom at four in the morning, struggling for a breath.

"Another rushed trip to the hospital, more tests, and another diagnosis: the cancer was back, though it was much more controlled. They gave us more statistics, more numbers: he had an 80% chance of survival, this time. That left him with a 20% chance of failure. There was only a twenty percent chance Ziven would die. So none of us really expected his death on his thirteenth birthday, exactly six years after his first diagnosis."

Celly was crying again, but she couldn't just stop there. No one had ever wanted to listen to this story, not even counselors, so goddamn she was going to tell it all.

"That wasn't the end of it," she continued. "Ziven's death hurt us all, but Mum mourned the most. She stopped eating, stopped going to work, stopped sleeping, stopped living. She took sleeping pills, but when they didn't work, she just about gave up. Daddy couldn't sleep either, not because he missed his son-though trust me, he was heartbroken too-but because he was worried sick about his wife. Mum was letting herself fall apart. Daddy couldn't sleep either, so he tried some of Mum sleeping pills. When two wouldn't work, he tried four, and ten, and the whole bottle, until finally they gave him the sleep he longed for: Daddy had overdosed on sleeping pills, just six months after the death of his only son.

"That was what pushed Mum to insanity. She had lived to see her father and grandfather murdered, her son stripped from her by cancer, and her husband dead by his own hand. Had she not gone insane, she probably would have paid close attention to me. She couldn't though. She lost it. She would tell me things, like that Ziven would come back, or that Daddy was only away on business. She had been the kindest woman I had ever met, but after that, she was a zombie. A sick zombie with no sense of reality. She actually believed her own tales, too. I came home from school once to see her in a puddle of her own blood, with a kitchen knife, slashing at her arms. She told me she was trying to meet with her baby boy. I... I got scared. I had lost my brother and my daddy, I couldn't lose my mum, too. What would you have done? I played along.

"I told Mum Ziven was coming back, and I started my research. I went looking for mute boys in the area to replace Ziven, just so my mother would be happy, and not try to kill herself again. But Minnesota wasn't big enough. I had to extend my search. I drove as far as Ohio and Nevada looking for support groups for kids with disabilities. I couldn't find anyone who was like Ziven. But then I met you.

"You were in the yard of this huge estate, and you were listening to Beethoven. Your mother was there, and you were using sign language to ask her for a glass of water. You were mute. You were about his age. But that's not what did it. What made you perfect was the fact that you had his eyes.

"I found myself driving to Iowa after school somedays and nearly every other weekend. I'd call out sick from work and school to gather more information about you. You were perfect. A year Ziven's senior, but you were perfect. So I devised a plan to kidnap you.

"I had never so much as broken a rule in school before. I was the golden child, the role model to all. I was a straight A student, a friendly girl, a wonderful young woman. But here I was, thinking of ways to kidnap a boy who lived in another state.

"I stole Daddy's old gun and prayed I'd never have to use it. There was another law broken. I took more things, too, to ensure you wouldn't break away. And come spring break, I drove over to Le Mars, Iowa, and I told you that you were coming with me.

"You have to understand, I never wanted to ruin your life. I just... I had lost my brother and father just six months apart. I... I couldn't lose my mother, too."

By the time Celly had finished she was practically sobbing. She had never explained her case before, and letting it all out, she really did seem insane. She wiped at her eyes but the tears kept coming. She deserved to be in jail. She was convinced that she deserved it.
She hugged her knees to her chest, the Monopoly game that she'd set up far from her mind. She couldn't speak anymore, just sat quietly crying, waiting for him to sign something, some kind of insult. She wanted him to tell her she was crazy, and she even wanted some psychological help, but she couldn't leave her mother. That was why she was doing any of this. She needed to protect her mother from reality.

[Drakonnas]

Ben sat with his knees held in his arms, and listened. The Monopoly board game lay forgotten at her side, and she spoke, for what seemed like an hour, about her brother. Ben listened carefully, trying to get any hints at anything that would help his cause. Anything that might help. He wanted to know what had happened, as that would leave him more informed. It really was tragic, what had happened to the young lad. It was pretty much what had happened to him, with a few differences. For one, he had lived, and hadn't died. For two, he had taken his muteness a little better, and had not sunk into depression.

He looked at Celly for a minute, not sure what to do. He could try to guilt trip her into helping him back home, but somehow, he had a feeling that wasn't going to work... So, maybe he'd try the route of a brother. "I'm sorry you had to suffer that." He signed. "What you did was wrong. You broke the law. You should go to jail for that. Before you explained, I was trying to find some way to escape. Some way to contact the police. But... As I explained before, maybe I can help."

He was quiet for a little while, thinking. A crazy idea formed in his head... One that might not even be sane. But it was an idea anyway. Maybe she would want to be part of a real family. Maybe, if something happened to her mother, they could go home to his family. Maybe his parents would find it in them to forgive her. He didn't know. "Come on, Celly. Let's play. It'll get your mind off things."

[Ashen]

Celly had to watch him sign through her tears. She smiled a bit at him, a sad and forced smile. She nodded, agreeing with him. Maybe the game would take her mind off of things. She sure did need that.

Celestynn took the dog playing piece and placed it on Start. It had been too long since she'd played this game and she was scared she wouldn't remember all the rules. She figured it wouldn't be too bad though; really, how do you screw up Monopoly?
Her mother came in a few minutes into the game to tell them she was going to run some errands and that she would come back with lunch. Celly thanked her in Polish and looked to Ziven. Once the front door had closed, she cleared her throat. "Sorry I ranted," she said. "It just... It came out, and I couldn't stop it. I'm sorry you had to listen to that." She wiped her eyes again and shook her head. She really needed to stop crying so much.

"So," she said, "do you think you can beat me in Monopoly? You can ask Mum, I do have quite the competitve side." She smirked a bit. The old Celly was finally starting to show, the sane Celestynn that was trying her best to enjoy her life.

[Drakonnas]

The game was a very close one, and there really was no clear winner, even late into the game. All of their properties were evenly matched, and no one even had a monopoly of any kind. Ben refused every offer at a trade, and did not offer any trades of his own. He was rather sly player, and was very careful not to give her any advantage. But his luck was running out, he landed in jail by rolling doubles at least three times, and then when he got out, got a chance card that sent him back to jail. He rolled his eyes again, and turned to her. "I'm not the one who should be going to jail." He said, teasing her.

But then, when he moved to stretch, Ben smacked his elbow against the door frame that was right behind him, and smacked his funnybone. Writing in pain, he accidentally knocked the board around, drisrupting all of the pieces, and ruining the game. "Ow. I'm sorry..." He signed to her, looking at the game while he held his elbow. "That really hurt..." He began to pick up the pieces, and put them away, since the game was rendered unplayable. Ben sighed, and put the game away.

He looked around, startled as he heard a doorbell ring. Someone was at their door. He looked at her, unsure of what to do. Ben closed his eyes, and sighed. He wasn't going to make any moves. He already started this path, there was no point in going back now.

[Ashen]

Celly had started out playing nicely, letting Ben have some offers and being fair. But when he refused her an offer, her gameplan changed. They were evenly matched, except that Ben had one more property than she did, but she owned the most expensive properties, so maybe it was fair. She kept landing on his property, too, so their bank accounts were matched. When Ben went to jail again, and made his joke, Celestynn tensed a bit. She let it go after a second and just tried concentrating on the game, not on reality

She was startled when all of their pieces were flipped and her eyes went to Ben, concerned. "Are you okay?" She asked him, reaching to look at his elbow and make sure nothing was bleeding or broken. She helped him clean up the game, shrugging as she said, "That was the most even game I've ever seen. It would have lasted another five hours anyway." She put the box back where she found it and turned to offer Ben ice when she heard someone at the door.

Celestynn checked her phone for the time. It was afternoon already?
She looked through the peephole. "To Matka" she said, then translated that to, "It's Mum." She opened the door for the woman and greeted her with a kiss. Her mother went in to kiss Ben, too. "I got McDonald's," she said as she placed a few bags on a low table. "Help me being in the groceries, dears?" She turned to go back to the car and extract all of the bags from the trunk.
Celly turned to Ben. "I'll get the groceries," she said, not wanting him to leave the house. "Why don't you go start lunch? The Big Mac is Mum's and the wrap is mine. She probably got you chicken nuggets. I'll be right back."

[Drakonnas]

Ben watched as things happened. He didn't say much, but simple stood and watched. As the food was brought in, he sat down to eat. Ben really wasn't a picky eater, but he wasn't a voracious eater either. He ate calmly and slowly, though enjoying his meal. It wasn't often that he got to have fast food. Ben looked up at Celly as she came back in with the groceries. He had been wondering about something, now that he was in this situation. How was he going to continue school?

He let her take care of everything, seeing as he didn't know where anything belonged. He knew the fridge, obviously, but he really didn't feel like getting up and helping with the groceries. So he didn't. After finishing his meal, Ben turned to the older girl. "What's going to happen with my schoolwork?" He asked her. "Am I not going to continue my learning? That would be really bad..."

Ben threw the trash into the garbage, and headed back to where the piano was, not even waiting for Celly to eat. He just sat down, and rifled through the music they had. It was not a small library, and he was mildly impressed with what they had. It wasn't as big as his collection, of course, but at the same time, he had plenty of things to choose from. He picked one of his favorites, the Piano Sonata no 1 by Beethovan, and sat down to play. It was beautiful, and he couldn't help but smiling as his fingers flew across the keys.

[Ashen]

After the groceries had been put away, Celly took her wrap and followed Ben to the great room. She let him finish his song and here meal before responding. "Mum will teach you," she said. "Ziven was homeschooled. Too depressed to go to school, and we tried putting him in a school for kids with disabilities. That didn't happen, though. Mum took to homeschooling him. She's wonderful with kids. Well... Was." She ran her fingers over the high keys. "You played that faster than I usually do," she said. "I liked it. It sounded more like Beethovan, when you played it."

She shrugged her shoulders a little bit. "I won't be in the house when you're being schooled. I go to high school. I know Mum isn't the sanest woman around anymore, so my number is on the fridge. I'll, uh, get you a phone, I guess. We don't have a landline. If I see you calling I'll go straight home. But don't call for stupid things, okay?" She glanced over her shoulder, making sure her mother wasn't listening. "She's a good lady, honest. The kids at the daycare loved her. You don't have to be scared of her, okay? She'll think your thirteen, so you may have to redo eighth grade. But she's really good at teaching. You won't even know it's, like, school."

Celly turned away from the piano. "I go back to school in four days," she said. She was still nervous in leaving her mother alone with Ben, but she had no other choice. "Do you think you'll be able to handle yourself? I'll tell you where our first aid kit is, where to find ready-made food, all that stuff you should know." She turned to face him again. "It's kind of like I'm teaching you how to be a Zykowski, huh?" She giggled a bit. "I guess I should start by teaching you how the heck you spell that."

[Drakonnas]

Ben looked a little concerned when Celly told him that her mother would be continuing his education. "Is she... capable... of teaching?" He asked, fairly concerned. "Well, I guess the only thing to do is... see what happens." He looked back at the music as she told him he played it faster, and it sounded more appropriate. "Well, I'm glad you can appreciate it. I try to pretend I am the composer when I play. I ask myself what they would have wanted, and I try to see the music through their eyes as well as mine."

The conversation turned towards education once more. Ben sighed as she said he might have to redo eighth grade. "Ugh. And I was a year ahead in math too." He sighed. He was rather scared of interacting with her mother, she was crazy, and he never knew what might happen next. She mentioned a phone... "Lemme get this straight. You're going to give me a phone. You know I'm mute, right? I can't call anyone. The most I could do is text someone. And besides. How would you know who I text, if I text? For all you know, I could text my parents. Or the police."

"I dunno. I mean. I'll survive if that's what you're asking. I'm still uncomfortable around your family. I feel like I'm walking on glass..." Ben admitted. "I hope that gets easier. But it's just awkward right now. I mean... what would you do in my situation?" He sighed. "But I guess there's really nothing to do but keep trying. And yeah. Spelling my "name" is probably important."

[Ashen]

Ben was talking a lot now. Celestynn couldn't remember the last time she'd had to decipher so many signs so quickly, but she was doing fairly well keeping up. "Mum is perfectly capable of teaching," she said, though her voice wavered. She wasn't sure of her own words. Her mother had been able to teach, and very well. But that was before Ziven passed away. That was before the sleeping pills, and the second funeral in half a year, and before everything had changed. Celly couldn't promise, but she sure did hope.

She giggled a bit as he went on. "Yes, Benjamin, I think I know you're mute." She pulled out her own phone, a smartphone. "I won't get you one like this," she said. "I'll get you one that can't text. And when I say call me, I don't mean talk to me on the phone. I'd like to believe I'm not dumb; I know you can't speak. If I see that I have a missed call, I'll head home, knowing there's an emergency. I'll block the number, so even if you do call, the number can't be traced. And the police will come to my door and turn away, like they did last time." She seemed sure of her words, but she was anything but. What if he did call the cops? They could probably trace the phone to her house. She wouldn't be so lucky a second time, would she? And what if, despite her efforts, they still could trace the phone, right to her house, and right to Benjamin Ramiel? She didn't like the idea of that, but it was a chance she would have to take.

She was caught a bit off-guard by his question. What would she do in his shoes..?
"I don't think I'll ever be able to answer that, Benjamin," she said softly. "I don't know what I would do in your position. I don't think I'll ever have the chance to find out, and I'm both eternally grateful and sorry for that. I can go on speculating what I would do, but I never really will know. I'm sorry." She gave a crooked smile. "I'm sorry you're unomfortable around us, but I don't blame you. Hopefully that won't last too much longer. It's like...going to a friend's house. It's awkward at first, because you don't know the family. But soon they become a second family, right? That's what we are. That's what I hope we'll come to be. Your family. This is just an awkward bump that'll be overcome." Despite all that was going on, Celly could still muster a genuine smile. She turned back to the piano, having digested his playing strategy. "And perhaps, just maybe, the composer wanted you to take your own interpretation of the piece. Not just copy what has been presented to you. I guess that's why I play differently. I try to interpret the piece myself. I understand the concentration in the piece; that is, I understand the harmony and the melody in every piece. I understand the landscape the composer composed. But I paint using my own colors."

[Drakonnas]

"Mmm." Ben signaled. "Well, it's not like I was planning to do anything like that in the first place." He looked a little bit annoyed, and a little bit defeated, though a little bit earnest at the same time. "But something would be good, just incase something happens." He did admit, he didn't like the idea of being in the same house, alone, with that crazy woman. Oh well, it couldn't be helped, and he would simply have to do the best he could in order to succeed.

He seemed to catch her off guard with his question. She looked a little bit upset, and a bit uneasy as she answered. She said she didn't know how to answer his question, and wasn't sure she wanted to. But she also had a point. "Yeah... I guess." Ben shrugged, and turned back to the piano.

"Maybe he did..." Ben said, nodding. "Let me see if I can embellish a little bit." He turned back to the beginning of the music, and started playing again, though this time, improvising as he went, as well as just adding on, and changing things here and there to make it his interpretation of the song. It was not easy to do, making things up as he went, and he messed up a few times. But he made it into his own song, though it was clearly still the original. "How was that?" He asked, smiling.

[Ashen]

Celestynn watched him recreate the ancient music and smiled softly. She almost felt like she was teaching Ziven, though her brother wouldn't have been nearly as good as Benjamin was. When he finished and looked up at her, she clapped a little. "I think you're trying too hard to make it different," she said earnestly. "Let it come naturally. It will sound better. Even if all of the notes are staccato and out of tune, if it's natural, it will be beautiful. There is music like that. Music that sounds like there's no melody at all. It's angry music. Chaotic music. Yet, beautiful, in its own way." She lightly drummed her fingers over a few keys. "There is no doubt. You are an excellent pianist. There's nothing wrong with copying what someone has written. I just prefer recreation."

She sat down on the stool next to him. Celly fingered the keys carefully before playing a rendition of Ode to Joy.
Except, Beethoven's ninth symphony sounded different. The piece almost sounded pained, as if music could feel any emotion at all. In the way Celly held the notes, the way she played them slowly, the song could have passed for a different one entirely. She was by no means a professional pianist, but the simplicity of the song, tainted with her own interpretation, made every note seem perfect in relation to the piece. When she finished, she looked up at him and sort of shrugged, almost shyly. "Did you know Beethoven suffered a depression for a while? He was turned down by three women, his brother had girl troubles for a while; I mean, a composer who went deaf? The poor man was a mess. I know Ode to Joy is, well, an ode to joy, but I like to add a sad sort of feel. It reflects his life, I think, and it's really easy to play, so it's a fun piece to play around with." She got up and made a little bow. "Sorry about that," she said with a shrug. "I get carried away. But if we can talk about music like this, Bejamin, I think we'll get along just fine."

[Drakonnas]

"Yeah, I suppose that as long as you make it yourself, and put your heart into it, it's music." Ben nodded, and he got up to let Celly play something. He flinched as he heard the song being played in a minor key, it was clearly not normal, and sounded completely different than it should have. It was really incredible how playing in a different mode could make things sound... "I did know that. I always wondered how someone who was deaf could play and write music so well. It's really interesting to think about."

"I guess we'll be alright." He nodded in agreement. "I mean... We all do things that we regret, and things that aren't okay. But... You know, never mind." He shook his head, and turned away, to look back at the multitude of songs that were in the room. "You know... Music is special. It's a language I can speak. A language that anyone can understand. Regardless of age, ethnicity, race, or upbringing, everyone can hear music, and understand it. Some can understand better than others, sure, but still. It's a language that can bring us all together. And that's one of the things that I love so much about being a musician. I can speak through my music. I've actually written a couple of symphonies and overtures as well..."

[Ashen]

Four days later...

Celestynn was doing a million things a minute. She was trying to get prepared for school while making sure everything was okay with her mother and Benjamin. Celly was doing something she rarely did: she was running late.
She hadn't had breakfast, had neglected to brush the wet hair that had visible tangles, and even if she had the time to apply any makeup, nothing would ever hide those dark bags under her eyes. She had gotte all of about half an hour of sleep that night, worried about Benjamin and her mother. She had gotten him the cell phone as she said she would, and it was not capable of texting. What if he called his parents and they investigated the call? What if he couldn't reach a phone fast enough? What if he found the perfect opportunity to attack her mother? Too many scenarios were going through the girl's mind and she was far too panicked to do anything right. She had spilt the milk all over the cereal that she now had no time to eat, she had gotten orange juice all over the table, and the pancakes she had tried to make early this morning when she couldn't sleep were all the color of onyx, burnt beyond recognition. She was a giant mess of worry, and nothing was going her way.

"Matka?" Celestynn called at her mother's door, rapping her knuckles on the wood. "Matka, I need you to get up. The bus will be at my stop in three minutes and I have three blocks to run down. Matka? Mum?"
Her mother wasn't getting up, so, panicky, she dropped her schoolbag heavy with textbooks. She went to the kitchen to get the key to her mother's door and unlocked it. Upon finding her mother sleeping and with a pulse, she let out a sigh of relief. "Mum, I need to catch the bus. I don't know if Ziven is up--" She hadn't bothered to check on Ben? Was she really that off? "--but he should be up soon, and you'll have to start schooling him today. Remember? We talked about this. Matka? Matka, are you listening? I'm going to be late. Z miłości do Boga*, Matka, please get up."
"Celestynn I'm trying to sleep," Aniela murmured. "Go back to bed, Cel..."
"I have school today," Celestynn said. "Remember? That place I go, to learn things?"
Aniela mumbled something in Polish and turned over.
"Ma, I have to take the car," she said."I'm going to be late. But I need you to get up and watch Ziven, okay? Can you... Can you do that?" When her mother didn't respond, she sighed and made her way out of the room, putting the keys back where she had found them. In the distance, she heard her bus pass by.

She didn't know if Ziven was up, but she had little time to check. She had to be out the door in less than two minutes if she was going to make it to school on time. She grabbed a piece of paper and wrote a note to Ziven for when he got up. "If Mum isn't awake, wait for her to get up. Go make yourself breakfast and find something to do. If there are any problems, call me. -Celestynn" Then she grabbed her schoolbag and headed out the door, praying she was together enough to drive.

*for the love of God

[Drakonnas]

Benjamin woke up at half past three. It was dark out, and he was sweating, and shaking. He had just relived his kidnapping in a dream, except that in his dream, he had ended up dead, in a ditch. He shuddered, and sat up. The clock was ticking slowly, and Ben had to get up to look at it, trying to get some sort of light. He sighed, knowing that he'd have to go back to sleep... Instead of pulling the blankets up over himself, he rolled the blankets up into a ball of sorts, and then, hugged them as a few tears flowed. "Mom... Dad... Do you miss me as much as I miss you?" He asked to no one in particular. "I want you... I need you..." He fell asleep still clutching his blanket.

When morning came, and Ben awoke again, the clock this time read 9:45. He yawned, pulled the blankets off, made the bed, and found the note that Celly had left. He fingered the phone carefully. The possibilities were endless. He could probably get himself out of this situation... But a promise was a promise. He felt that much was important. So, Ben looked around, and found some playing cards. Perfect. He shuffled the deck quickly, and laid out a game of solitaire. Five of hearts. Nine of spades. Eight of diamonds. Two of Diamonds. Six of clubs. Queen of diamonds. Three of diamonds. He moved the five onto the six, and then the eight onto the nine, and flipped up a queen of spades. Ben sighed. Stuck already.

He looked outside as he started to hear rain hit the roof. It wasn't raining hard yet, but it was certainly starting to pick up speed... Normally, Ben loved the rain. But this morning, he found it depressing. He wasn't entirely sure why, but that was the case this morning. He was all alone. Well, it wasn't like that wasn't the norm. He really didn't have any friends. So why did he suddenly feel so lonely?

Not feeling like finishing his game, Ben left the cards lying there, and tried to calm himself down. Perhaps he needed food. So, Ben made his way to the kitchen, hopefully finding something to eat. He picked up a Yogurt, as well as two slices of toast, and some milk. He flipped on the TV, and smiled as he saw Popeye downing some spinach. That was nice. But again, his happiness was short lived, ad there was a boom of thunder outside, a flash of lightning, and the power went out. Left alone in the dark again, Ben finished his food, and went back to his room, and sat on his bed, listening to the storm outside.

[Ashen]

Aniela awoke at the loud clap of thunder. She jumped out of bed and found her power out. With a sigh the woman finally walked out of her room and got herself a cup of milk. The house was quiet, too quiet. She was bothered by the silence. She went to Celly's room and, upon finding her gone, she remembered what she had been supposed to do today. So she instead walked to her son's room.

"Ziven?" Aniela called to him. "Are you hungry? Celestynn wanted me to get you back to classes today, but I think we can spare one day. I'd like to finally spend time with my son. I fear Celestynn has been suffocating you lately. She's just so delighted that you're back." Her smile was wide and sincere. "Why don't we go out to eat lunch?" she suggested. "You can pick where we go. Consider it some mommy-son bonding time."

Celestynn had managed to ignore people for most of her day but there was no getting out of lunch. The library was closed, so she couldn't spend time there. Instead she was forced to sit with her friends and pretend everything was normal.
Her day had been anything but. In Calculus, Celly had had trouble keeping track of numbers. Her teacher might as well have been speaking Chinese, because she hadn't understood a word. In History, she had been called out for falling asleep in class, but because it was a first, and because her teacher really liked her, she had gotten away with it. But now, in the lunchroom, she wouldn't be so lucky to evade her friends.
Jess and Eve took residence next to Celly, talking about something trivial that had happened in their Spanish class. When they saw Celly they stopped talking about Spanish and spoke instead to her. Celly tried to stay alert, but she was falling asleep. Both her friends noticed but didn't say anything. They believed they knew the reason for their friend's insomnia, that her mother was going insane, and helpless, they said nothing. Eventually, they left Celestynn alone.

[Drakonnas]

Ben was rather surprised when his mother... No. She want his mother. When Celly's mother entered the room. He looked up at her, and remembered that Ziven was supposed to be depressed. He was a little more cheerful than that. But he might act a little bit down, just to make things seem a little more smooth. Word she find it weird if he was all the sudden peppeir thanher son was? To be fair, it had been awhile since she had seen her son. In her madness, would she remember? Or notice any differences?

Ben turned to her, and signed his answer. "No, I already ate breakfast this morning. Thanks though." He tried to say something about Celly, and the supposed fact that she was overjoyed to have him back. In all reality, she probably wasn't too happy to have him there, as it meant that she had to do some pretty extreme things just so that her mother might not be quite as sick as she was... To say that she was overjoyed would simply not be the truth. And he wasn't exactly glad to be here either. He wanted out. So saying he was glad to be back wasn't an option either.

"Well... I guess if you want to, I don't have any problems." Ben the told her. After all, he would be getting out of the house, and that was something that was very welcome. He felt cooped up here like a bird in a cage... Getting out of this house would be a good thing for him. "I heard subway's Big Philly Cheesesteak is a good thing... And they have good pizza too. We could try that." Ben suggested.

[Ashen]

Aniela smiled wide. "Of course we can go to Subway!" she said excitedly. "I'm so glad you're willing to get out of the house again, Ziven. It's been far too long..." She went on in Polish for a minute. Then she seemed to realize she was rambling. "Oh, right. Right. Let's go." She gathered her jacket and car keys and got her purse. Then she went out in the car and sat in the driver's seat.

Subway wasn't far. Aniela's driving skills seemed to be intact, at least. They got there in less than ten minutes. She made sure Ziven was right by her before going into the Subway. "What would you like to get?" she asked. She was scanning over their specials with her faded grey eyes. "Did you want that cheesesteak? Oh, Ziven, why don't we eat outside, too? Like a picnic, just you and me. Wouldn't that be fun?"

Celly spent fifteen minutes waiting for her bus home. She'd gotten in trouble in French after her teacher noticed she'd been asleep for more than half the class. Everyone that had seen Celly in school had known something was up, but they didn't dare ask. So Celesytnn was left to herself, which she appreciated.
When she finally got home, the first thing she did was check on Benjamin. But... he was gone. She called his name throughout the house but there was no response. Her mother was missing, too. It didn't take long for her to start panicking. She was already crying as she dialed Ben's cell and prayed he'd pick up.

[Drakonnas]

Ben was still a little bit wary around Celly's mother. She was still a bit insane, even if she did know what was going on, and where they were going. He followed her closely, keeping a sharp eye out for anything. He didn't know if he was going to try anything... But he didn't think so. It wouldn't do him any good. Besides, who would believe him anyway? And Aniela was probably more wary than she was letting on...

Ben ordered a pepperoni pizza, and a drink. As their order was given to them, Ben took it as the older woman paid. They left the store, and found a picnic bench at a park nearby. Ben opened up his pizza box, and slowly ate, looking around. He paid close attention to a few birds that were playing around the park. One of them was a red robin, and one was a cardinal. He was appreciative of the bright color, it really appealed to him.

He didn't know what to say to his mother, but answered any questions she asked him with direct, short answers. By the time they left, they had been out for quite some time. And maybe Celly would be home? Maybe she wouldn't have been. He didn't know what time she got out of school...

Finally, when they got home, Ben opened the door, to find Celly, breaking down. "Celly? What's wrong?" He asked, walking over to her.

[Ashen]

Celestynn had thrown her phone across the room after the ninth time she'd called Ben's phone. She had started sobbing and considered going out to look for them but had ultimately decided against that. She went to start on her French homework but she couldn't even remember what rouge meant. Giving that up, she went to the living room and turned on the TV. That was about as efficient in distracting her as French had been. Eventually she just gave up and cried it all out on the couch.

When she heard the door open Celly's head shot up and her watery eyes grew in size. "Och, mój Boże*," she breathed. "Och mój Boże och mój Boże och mój Boże. Benjamin." She ran up to hug him all too tightly before pushing away and glaring at him. "Where the hell is your phone? I called you and you didn't even call back to tell me you were okay and I was so worried and where is Mum what have you done to her Mum--" She was cut off as the older woman entered the house. "Matka!" Celly yelled and wrapped the older woman in a tighter embrace than she had given the boy.
"Celestynn?" Aniela said. "What's wrong? Are you okay?"
Celly couldn't speak. She just burrowed her head in her mother's chest and cried.

By the time she had calmed down and her mother had explained where they were Celly was curled on the couch. She was sniffling, but for the most part her tears had stopped. "You really ought to keep your phone on you," she told Ben. "I... I was so very worried. I haven't been myself all day, and I just--"
"Celestynn is this your phone?" Aniela called from the other end of the room.
"Yes, Matka, sorry." She went to gather her phone and checked for any cracks from when she threw it. She then resumed her position on the couch and turned back to Ben. "I'm glad you're back," she said with a sigh.

*Oh, my God

[Drakonnas]

Ben seemed really intimidated by Celly's reaction, and kinda pushed away from her as she pushed him back. "My phone...? I dunno, I guess I forgot it here or something." He signed, backing away from her. She seemed to be a little bit crazy today, and he wasn't entirely sure what to think... He tried to step around her, to head up to his room. He was weirded out by this reaction, and didn't want to be around her.

Ben walked up the stairs, as he listened to Celly talk to her mother. As his "sister" told him that she was glad they returned, Ben sarcastically replied. "Yeah. Sure. Me too." He closed the door behind him, and sank down onto the bed, the cards still sitting on the floor. He picked them up, and absentmindedly began shuffling them. He was supposed to start school today. But that didn't happen. Oh well. There was always tomorrow.

Looking out the window, Ben saw that they had arrived home just in time, it was starting to sprinkle a little bit. At least they were home now, and not getting rained upon. He imagined what it would have been like if they were still out there, and it had started raining. How would the older woman have reacted to that? She didn't seem mentally stable. In fact, neither of them did. He sighed. Why did he have to put up with all of this? Oh well.

[Ashen]

Celestynn seemed disappointed to see Benjamin go upstairs. She turned to her mother who disregarded her with a shrug. "He was actually willing to go," the older woman said. "Can you believe it? Like... like years of depression have lifted over my baby boy. Do you... Is it too early to think he's cured, Celestynn?"
Celly shrugged her shoulders. Cured, no. He was dead. But she remained silent.
"Are you okay? What is with all this crying out of you? This isn't like you."
She sighed. "I thought I'd lost you," she breathed. "I thought you two were gone and that I... I was really alone."
Aniela smiled a sympathetic smile. "We're right here," she said. "I'm here, and your brother is upstairs. Stop worrying so much, girl. Do you want your hair grey by the time you're twenty-five?"
"No, Matka."
"Ease up. Go play with your brother."
Celly nodded her head and turned away from her mother to head for the stairs. Twenty-five... she'd be lucky if there was any color in her hair at twenty, at this rate.

Celestynn dragged herself up the stairs and turned into Ziven's room. "Ben?" she called softly before walking into the room. She followed his gaze and sighed. "I guess Mum didn't exactly teach you anything today," she said. "I do hope she does tomorrow. You need an education if you ever want to make it in the world. I can't imagine letting you go without one." She had to ponder her words a moment. Letting him go. When would that be? Within the year? Within the decade?
She shook her head. "Right. Well, at any rate, I hope you enjoyed your day."

A short ringtone went off before Celly sat down on the floor and stared up at Ben. "I never used to be like this," she said. "Such a nervous wreck. I mean, I worried. Everyone worries. But never to the point I can't sleep for days, or I can't pay attention in school, or I start sobbing because I think my mother is actually...gone. I'm sorry if I scared you. But you really ought to carry your phone on you." She put a lot of emphasis on really. "But it's over now. I should probably get to my homework..." Though she knew she'd get none of it done, even if her mother was safely home. Jokingly, she added, "Wanna help?"

[Drakonnas]

Ben looked over as his door opened, and Celestynn came in. He turned to face her, an expression on her face that somehow resembled something along the lines of mixed curiosity, fear, and pity. "Are... are you... okay?" He signed slowly, as if trying to get across the fact that he was worried about her. Was it worry? He didn't know. He didn't care enough about her to actually worry, but yet, at the same time, he didn't like to see her suffer as she clearly had. He didn't like to see anyone suffer for that matter.

"I'm sorry. I'll try to keep my phone on me..." He told her, nodding. He felt a little bit badly about making her worry like that. Only a little bit. As she asked him if he wanted to help with her homework, he nodded, and stood up. "Yeah, I kinda wanted to work on school stuff. I mean, I'm already fairly advanced on most of my stuff, so I guess that I might be able to help you." He was willing to try, it would be a way to get his mind off of things, and maybe get her to relax a little bit.

[Ashen]

She raised an eyebrow at him. "No," she answered. "No, I'm not okay. I haven't had a decent night's sleep in days--well, months, really--and I fell asleep in two of my classes today. I couldn't talk to anyone, I can't concentrate, I don't know what's going on but my life is falling apart and I thought I just lost my only living family but truth it, Benjamin, she's already long dead. She's dead. The woman downstairs isn't the woman who raised me. She's some shell. I'm an orphan, the only survivor of this stupid family line, and I can't even do anything right. I'm the fate of this family and all I have done is screwed up. No, Benjamin." She signed her next words. I'm not okay.

Celestynn hadn't intended to break, but she had, and now she was struggling to keep her tears in again. She turned away to leave but return a minute later with her schoolbag. Benjamin may have been advanced for his age, but she was three grades his senior, and she was having trouble with French, a language he probably wouldn't know. But she didn't want to be alone doing her homework, so she sat down and took out her French textbook. There were still tears in her eyes. "Why did I even take French," she said softly. "I'm already bilingual. I don't need this." Though this, she realized, didn't mean the subject in her hands.

[Drakonnas]

Ben just sat there, and listened, watched, as Celestynn broke down in front of him. He really had no idea what to say, or do. He couldn't just go hug her, that would be awkward. And he couldn't really say anything that wouldn't sound tacky or wrong either. So, he just sat there, with a bizarre look on his face. "I'm sorry." He finally said. What else could he say? "I know what it's like to lose your family. You took mine from me."? No, he couldn't say that. That would just make things worse.

As Celly left to get her school things, Ben waited for her. He didn't know French at all. He didn't need to. Sign language was the only form of communication, not including writing, that he really needed. What was the point of learning another language if he couldn't speak it? Sure, he might be able to write, but that really had little impact on his life.

He pulled out her other schoolbooks, and began to look through them. She was more advanced than him in every level, even though he was a grade ahead of where he should have been. Still, that made little difference to him. He still liked to look through the books, to see what kinds of stuff were there, and what he had to look forward to learning.

[Ashen]

Celestynn was silent as she took her books out of her backpack. She hadn't seen Benjamin sign anything and she didn't really need words. After a few minutes of staring at her books, she finally spoke. Her voice was shaky, but it wasn't terrible. "I have homework in all four subjects today," she said. "I don't suppose you can help me in French. I don't think I can stand to think in another language right now anyway. I'll do that later. History isn't due until next week, so I can hold off on that. I have some tedious calculus that I have to do... Another thing you can't help me with. But... maybe you can help me with my fourth."

Celestynn pulled out a binder with a swirly colorful pattern on it. She cracked open the binder. The first page had her name on it and looked to be some type of report. Leaving it open to that, she went into her schoolbag again and pulled out a thin textbook. There was a bass clef on the front cover. "Music class," Celly explained. "My teacher wants us to write a report about the most influential composer of the... I think it's nineteenth century, and compare them to an artist today. I was of course thinking of Beethovan, but I'm not sure, because Brahms is from that period, and he did a lot, too. He had some really pretty music, too. Maybe not as influential as Beethovan, though. As for today's artist, I'm at a loss for that. I don't really listen to modern music. But just deciding who I'm going to write about back then is hard enough." She looked up at Benjamin. Talking about music seemed to calm her down some. "What do you think?" she asked. "Who should I write about?"

[Drakonnas]

Ben smiled as Celestynn asked him what kinds of things she could write about. "Write about Yanni." He said with a big smile on his face. "He's my favorite modern day composer, artist, and musician." Ben was clearly excited, his hands moving in rapid motion, and a look of excitement on his face. "Yanni's philosophy is One World, One People. He has incorporated a lot of unique instruments in his music, from a lot of ethnic groups. He's won over 35 platinum and gold albums worldwide, and has preformed for over twenty million people from over twenty countries! And his video at the
Acropolis is the second most watched video besides "Thriller"!

And as Ben continued to talk and talk about the possible ideas to take in this paper, he became more and more excited. It was one thing to write a paper, but writing a paper about the subject he held most dear to him? That was another story entirely, and one that he was very much looking forward to seeing written. But he had to remind himself that he wasn't the one writing the paper.

"And yeah, Beethovan would be a good place to start." He suggested, trying to think of other possibilities, but none came to mind right off the bat. "And if you like, you can check with your teacher, and see if I can come in and play some! You know, play a Beethovan song, and then a Yanni song, so they can hear the differences, and ooh, this could be so much fun!" But he was halted momentarily, as he remembered. "...Do your classmates know that Ziven died...?"

[Ashen]

Celestynn was delighted to see Ben's excitement. She was actually having difficulty keeping up with his hands. He was moving so fast, and she was so unused to using the unspoken language. She seemed to do well enough, though, and between statements she wrote things on a piece of loose leaf. She wrote a bunch of notes, all at Ben's diction, and when he was done talking about Yanni, she had almost a page finished of just sentence fragments. "I don't know why I didn't think of Yanni," she said happily. "Ah, yes, I'm sure Mrs. Ivakin will love this paper." She was excited just thinking about it.

As the conversation shifted to Beethovan, though, Celly's excitement started to fade. She offered him a half smile. "Jess and Eve went to his funeral," she said softly. "They all know Ziven..." She looked over her shoulder, just in case. "They all know you died. And that all know that Daddy died too. As much as I'd love to show you off to my classmates, Benjamin, I... I can't. Not without my entire school thinking I'm insane, and locking me away, and taking you to... you know. To your other family." Other. Not real. "Maybe we can record something you play."

She was thinking hard about what she'd said. Eve and Jess were her two best friends. She had been avoiding them since Benjamin entered the picture, but she couldn't hide forever. Either of them could stumble upon Ben, and both of them were suspicious already. How long could she keep the resurrected Ziven under wraps, anyway?

[Drakonnas]

Ben flinched a little bit as Celly spoke. He hadn't thought about that before he had spoken, he had been too wrapped up in his thoughts. He was quiet for a little bit, thinking. "I think you need to go out and have a good time with your friends." He finally signed to her. "Apologize for being... not yourself. Go out, have a good time, and make up with them. And try to not worry so much." He told her. There really wasn't anything that Ben could think of that would help Celly. Not other than just trying to get on with life.

"Okay, so maybe I had a bad idea. I'm sorry." He told her, laying down on the bed, with his hands folded on his lap. This, naturally, meant that he was done talking for the moment, and was now resorting to thinking instead. His mind was racing, he was trying to think of something. But nothing was coming, his mind was as blank as a paper plate.

A rush of bitter emotions were coming back to him, and he didn't particularly want to share them, so he stayed quiet.

[Ashen]

Celestynn could only stare blankly at the boy in her brother's room. He wanted her to go spend time with her friends? To not worry so much? If Celly didn't know any better, she might have thought Benjamin... cared. She shook her head sadly and watched him lie on the bed, silent. He looked like he was done the conversation. Celly looked away, deep in thought. If she were to try to hang out with her friends, what would they think? They'd notice something was up. She couldn't just calm down. She couldn't not worry. But maybe... maybe she would give it a try.

Celestynn looked over her books and gave a little sigh. She had gotten enough information to write quite the paper, and she could start on her other subjects later. "Thank you, Benjamin," she said softly. "I think I will try to take your advice. I'll call Evie after I finish writing my paper and see if she and Jess want to hang out. Maybe... Maybe they can meet you." She looked over at him and tried to think. "I could say you're... a son of a friend of a friend. And that you're staying with us because your family died, or whatever. Maybe then I wouldn't have to hide you. At least, not in front of my two best friends." She was scared of that idea, though. What if her mother called him Ziven? Surely they would think something was up? Or maybe they would just think that her mother was losing her mind.
Celly gathered her books and watched him. "I guess I can't hide you forever," she decided. "Might as well make an alibi now, huh? I... I am sorry to get you caught up with all this. This web of lies and insanity that I now call my life." She had a sad, forced smile on her lips.

[Drakonnas]

Ben watched Celestynn as she packed up her things. He listened as she apologized again, and sighed. "Yeah. It's pretty insane." He thought to himself. "I'm not quite sure how I'm surviving this." He didn't speak any of his opinions though, and just kinda watched her, trying to think of how he could best communicate without sounding... a way he didn't want to sound. She was apologizing to him, so he couldn't really attack her for it, but... It was a difficult situation to be in. He was still a kidnap victim. And she still the perpetrator.

"Well... If you're gonna make up a story, you need me to be compliant." he told her. "What makes you think I'm gonna do that?" But he changed his mind a second later. "...no, you're right. I wouldn't. It wouldn't end well for the either of us. I want things resolved as peacefully as possible. So, I'll go along with it. Just tell me what you want me to say." He sighed. Time for another tale that he would have to remember.

[Ashen]

Even if he had taken back his words, they stayed on Celly's mind. If he didn't comply... Well, there wasn't muh he could do, was there? What if he wrote something down? Some type of "Rescue me" and gave it to one of her friends? What would they do? Eve and Jess had been her best friends for years. They'd been really close. But would this come between them? Well. It already had.

She sighed. "You don't have to say anything," Celestynn assured. "Neither of them know sign language. They won't be able to understand you anyway." She bit her lip. In that moment, watching him, Celly felt awful. She wanted to return him to his home, drive out to Iowa and leave him at his doorstep without another word. But she couldn't do that.
Her plan was to take him home when her mother died. She knew her mother wouldn't last much longer. She was losing her mind, and surely the woman would lose her life soon, too. Celly knew this. She had tried preparing herself for that. She knew playing along with her mother probably wasn't the best thing to do, but she wanted her mother's life to end somehwat happily. And when it did end... then Celly would take Benjamin home. And she would let him tell the authorities. She'd serve time in jail. And when she got out of jail, she'd lay low and try to start her life over again.

She didn't mind her plan. She'd have done anything for her mother. But in that moment, with Benjamin so ready to comply, just for a chance to come home... She wished her mother were dead already.

[Drakonnas]

"Let's forget all of this for now." Ben signed, and looked around... trying to think of something that would cheer the both of them up. But he wasn't finding anything. He refused to cry. It would not happen. He was stronger than that. "Do you want to try and teach me?" Ben asked. It would get her mind off of things, by focusing on him, trying to teach him. He wanted something to do, and that seemed to be a productive way to get his mind off things.

She could assess his knowledge, and then attempt to teach him new things. Granted, she didn't really have a teaching degree, but he was a fast learner, and could probably pick things up pretty quickly. And he wanted to learn. He didn't want to fall behind. That was a pretty major risk in his current situation..

"I mean, I don't know if you'd want to or not, or even if you'd be able to or not. It was just an idea. Unless you had something else you'd rather do?" He glanced at the clock, which now read 5PM. THey didn't have a whole lot of time before dinner, and then, bed.

[Ashen]

A few days later...

It had been a long week, but the school day was finally coming to a close. Celly was watching the minutes tick on in her last class for the day. It was Friday, and she had invited Eve over like Benjamin had suggested. Jess had had a family outing to attend to, so it would just be the two of them. In the past week, Celestynn had gotten a small hold on her homework. She had started failing two of her classes, and with grades in the 80's and 70's in her other two. She was trying, though. Her teachers saw how exhausted she came in each day, and one had just about sent her to the guidance counselor's office but she'd managed to get out of that by saying she was just having an off week. She was very glad the week was drawing to a close.

When the bell rang Eve and Jess met Celly at her locker. After a little bit of chatting, Jess left to go meet with her mother in the parking lot, leaving Eve and Celly alone.
"Hey Evie?"
"Hm?"
"I need to tell you something. My mom's friend's nephew is staying with us." Celly didn't look to her friend as she lied.
"Alright," Eve said evenly. "How old is he? What's his name?"
"He's fourteen," Celestynn replied. "And his name is Benjamin."
"Is he cute?"
"Benjamin?" Celly seemed a little taken aback by the question. "I mean, I guess so, but uh."
"What?" Eve stopped her friend in the middle of the hallway. "Too young for you?"
"Evie, we're going to miss our bus." Eve continued walking. "He's not too young for me, we're just... I'm not thinking about guys right now."
Eve accepted the excuse and they got on the bus. Once seated, the questions continued. "What's he like?"
Celly shrugged. "He's a musician. Oh, he's um, he's mute, by the way."
"Oh," came Eve's response. Celly wondered if they had talked about the mute boy that had gone missing, with her license plate. They wouldn't put two and two together? She hoped not.
Celly quickly changed the subject, just in case. "That paper for music class? I got an A+. The only one in the class."

At home, Aniela was just wrapping up her lesson with Benjamin. They had taken to schooling the day after Celly had. Between Celly and her mother teaching him, Benjamin wouldn't be far behind at all. Aniela was actually a very good teacher. She encouraged Benjamin to succeed, and she helped him when he didn't. Anyone would have learned swiftly with a teacher like her.
"Pop quiz," she announced, and she gave Benjamin a piece of blank paper. "I want you to write the numbers one to five on the paper and put just your answer. Now."
She seemed to disappear for a minute, coming back with a muffin in her hand. "If you get them all right I'll give you this, okay?" She watched him for a moment before listing her questions. They weren't actually questions about the subject that they were learning, however. They were far simpler. Aniela did give challenging pop quizzes, but this one couldn't have been simpler:
Who was the first president of the United States?
What is six times three?
Who discovered gravity?
How do you spell hierarchy?
Are you excited about our trip tomorrow?

It was a joke of a quiz, used to wind down after a long week. Aniela was infamous for these types of super simple quizzes, usually followed by a treat of some sort. The treat wasn't just the muffin in her hand. They were going to the train station tomorrow, one of Ziven's favorite places. Celestynn would be going this time, and at least Aniela was looking forward to it.

[Drakonnas]

Ben was feeling rather annoyed at Aniela, he wasn't used to this babying form of teaching. Granted, it was mildly challenging, but he was more used to the school setting where the teachers couldn't pay all their attention on just him. It was rather unnerving to be honest. But there wasn't much he could do about it, besides just go along with it. He felt like he was being babied, and it was weird, especially from someone he didn't know almost at all...

But as she gave him the quiz, he sighed, and went along with it. Ben couldn't care less about the trip tomorrow. He didn't care for trains, or big machinery in the slightest. Still, he answered yes, to please he. He knew that Celly would be coming along as well, and that at least gave him a little bit of comfort... At least she'd know, and it would help ease his level of discomfort.

Ben jumped as he heard a loud bang sound from outside, his pen smearing on the paper. It sounded like a gunshot, or a car backfiring... But he didn't know for certain, and didn't want to go look. Either way, he turned back to the paper in front of him, and wrote something else down on the paper. He was just doodling, but he liked to doodle. He decided to go get some water, and left the finished "quiz" on the table.

[Ashen]

Aniela took up her student's quiz and looked over the answers. She set the muffin down on the table and turned to where Benjamin had gone. "You did well," she said. If she noticed the noise outside, she certainly didn't seem surprised by it. She didn't even go to check what it was. She glanced at a clock on the wall. "Well, Ziven, it looks like we're done for the week. Congratulations." She walked to him and sat next to him in the kitchen. "It feels so good to be teaching you again," she sighed. "You don't know how I've missed you. Your father did, too. And now, you won't ever leave me again, will you?"

As the bus rolled to its stop, Celly and Eve got up to start the walk to The Zykowski's home. A police car drove by, and still paranoid, Celly hid behind Eve. Eve didn't seem to notice. She was talking about something that had happened during school that day.
"So like I was saying earlier, I think I might have a new love for my science teacher. Today, he referenced something on Doctor Who, and I--Celly, are you listening?"
Celestynn nodded.
"Okay, so he made a reference to Doctor Who, and he said that Link had to get the Master Sword to unlock the Pokemon Championship. Do you think he meant that?"
Celly nodded again.
"Cells! You're not hearing a word I say! I just talked about Pokemon Championships and you didn't even pick up on it. Are you alright, dear?"
"I'm fine," Celly replied. "Let me get my keys."
Eve stopped her and gently pushed her against a wall. "Celestynn, you cannot go on like this. You're a zombie. When was the last time you slept?"
"Last night," she replied dully.
"Don't lie to me. You've been doing a lot of that lately, haven't you?"
Celly's eyes flared. "What?"
"You're so distant. No one can get through to you. What's wrong?"
"What's wrong?" Celestynn breathed. "What is wrong? How about the fact that my father and brother are both dead, and my mother is insane? Or maybe that some kid from Iowa--" She had to stop herself. "Nothing," she replied simply. "Nothing at all, Eve."

[Drakonnas]

Ben wasn't sure how to reply to the older woman standing next to him, thinking that he was her son... He didn't know how to respond. But... he decided to continue holding up on his word to Celly. "No, mother, I'm not leaving." In his mind, he left out the words "Not yet, anyway..." He just sat at the table, with his head on his arms, resting. There really wasn't much to do. Maybe he'd explore the house a little, looking for other instruments he could play. Maybe Celly would have some sort of sheet music that he hadn't seen before in her room.

Standing up, Ben decided that he'd go look, just to see what kinds of things he could find. He wanted to get to see Celly's room a little bit more, maybe he could learn more about what she was like prior to the nervous wreck of a girl he knew to be Celly. He wanted to go home. He really wanted to go home. But Ben forced that thought out of his mind as he walked into Celly's room, and looking around. He quickly located the stack of music that had been placed there earlier, and started ruffling through, looking at the different pieces. For Ben, this was great writing. He could look at the notes on the page, and hear it in his mind. Just by looking, he could tell what a piece was supposed to sound like. It was one of the reasons he was such a good musician.

He finally found a piece that intrigued him, and ventured over to the piano, and started playing. It was difficult, and took him a few tries to get it right, but he quickly got a hold on the music. He didn't see Celly and her friend walking up the street as he was focusing on the music in front of him. It sounded almost like what would be played at a concert. Ben lost himself amidst his love, and just played.

[Ashen]

Aniela smiled brightly at her son's response and turned to go back to her bedroom. She didn't have to worry about dinner yet, so she could bide her time with one of her few hobbies in her room.

Celly and Eve continued to her house in silence, though Celestynn's friend held a very concerned look. Celly unlocked the door and immediately turned to Ben, who was playing the piano. She motioned to Eve to not distract him and closed the door behind her. Setting her bookbag down, she watched Ben play and swayed a bit. Eve seemed delighted by Ben's playing. When he finished his piece, she turned to Celly. "Cells!" she said. "He's almost as good as you! And that's saying something."
"He's better than me," Celestynn replied softly. "By a longshot." She walked over to Ben and nodded towards Eve. "Benjamin, this is my friend Eve."
Eve approached him cheerily and gave him a wide smile. She offered her hand for him to shake. "It's a pleasure to make your acquaintance, Benjamin. Celly's spoken of you. She called you cute." Celly elbowed her in the side. "Hey, what was that for? You did. And he is cute." Turning back to Benjamin, she gave a more lopsided smile. "That was a beautiful song you were playing. I bet you and Celly get along just fine, so long as you have music, huh?"
Celestynn cleared her throat awkwardly. "He can't speak," she reminded. "But yes, we get along okay..." She kept an eye on him, trying to catch his reactions.

[Drakonnas]

Ben looked up in surprise as the door opened, and Celestynn and a girl Ben had never seen before walked in. But there was something familiar about the other girl. She reminded him of someone, but he couldn't put his finger on who it was... It bothered him a little bit. She seemed so familiar, but he knew he had never seen her before. So whom did she remind him of? Deciding that it didn't matter, he heard her compliment his playing. Ben smiled, and nodded his thanks, as he shook her hand.

Looking up, rather surprised, Ben wasn't sure what to say. "You called me cute?" He signed to Celly, rather embarrassed, but at the same time, pleased. "Well, thank you." He signed slowly to her. Ben had no idea if she could understand sign language or not. Maybe she could, maybe she couldn't. If not, he'd have to rely on Celly to translate for him. Which would probably be a chore, though she was probably used to it.

Ben nodded, signifying that, yes, they did get along well due to music. He turned back to the sheet music in front of him, and studied it carefully. He was sure that he had heard this song before as well.... but where? Shrugging, he set the music aside, and stood up, trying to get out of their way. He didn't want to bother them.

[Ashen]

Celly sighed and immediately signed a no. She shot her friend a glare. Eve was watching Ben sign, a look of awe on her face. "What did he say?" she asked Celestynn. "Look at the way he moves his hands. I can't believe that's a language."
Celly gave a simple shrug. "He says thanks," she told her.
When Ben started away, Eve started after him. "You don't have to go!" she assured him. "I'm looking forward to learning all about the mysterious boy who has appeared out of the blue."
"He has not," Celly cut in.
"But he has!" Eve insisted. However, there was a part of Eve that didn't want to know. She didn't want to know where this boy came from. He sure did look like that kidnapped mute boy from a week ago...

Eve took the boy's hand, seemingly unaware that this might be uncomfortable for a stranger. She looked it over. "I think it's really cool that you can talk with your hands," she told him. "Celly, you should teach me sign language. Is it hard to learn?"
Celly watched the two out of the corner of her eye. She didn't want to hawk them, but she had to keep an eye on the both of them. She didn't trust either of them together. She didn't answer Eve, but she didn't seem to notice. She was obsessing over Ben, asking him loads of questions and mentioning random anecdotes. After a minute, Celly interjected.
"Evey, you're suffocating him," she said. "Can I have a minute with him? Alone?"
Eve smiled mischieviously. "Ooh," she teased, and she disappeared in another room.

Celly looked at Ben and sighed. "She's really excitable," she explained. "You... you don't mind, do you? If you'd like to really talk to her, I can translate. I'm used to it, really."

[Drakonnas]

Ben shrugged, it didn't matter much to him either way, if she had called him cute, or if she had not. He didn't mind. She apparently could not understand sign language, and that was a barrier that they could not overcome. And if Celly would simply lie to achieve her own ends, there really was no point in talking. Since his words would be distorted anyway. He did find her rather cute though, and he looked at her with somewhat of an interested eye, eyeing the pleasing shape of her body, and lingering last and longest upon her eyes. He found her rather attractive as well.

As Celly asked for a moment alone, Ben nodded. He looked at her as she spoke to him. "No, no, I don't mind. I can't really directly talk to her, but I certainly don't mind the company." To be honest, he didn't mind the company, it was refreshing after being stranded with the two crazy women in the household. Maybe she would be a little bit more normal. Either way... "She's pretty." He admitted, quickly turning back to the music on the piano to hide his embarrassment. "Sorry, maybe I shouldn't feel that way." It was a bit awkward. He really hadn't had any kind of feelings for anyone before, and he wasn't sure that this was anything. He just found her attractive, that's all.

"If you want to talk for me, I'd appreciate it. But you don't really want us talking, do you? You're afraid that she'll find out. What happens if she does?" Ben asked, challenging her slightly. It was no threat, simply a question. What would she do if she found out?

[Ashen]

Celly was a little shocked by Ben's question. No, she didn't want them to talk, but she didn't feel right denying them. Eve wanted to talk to Ben, and Ben probably wanted some company that wasn't herself or her mother. She wanted to let them talk. She felt like she at least owed it to Ben.
But if Eve did find out... Celly didn't know what she would do. She didn't want to get to that bridge at all. So she gave a little shrug and called Eve back into the room.

The girl came bounding back with a bright smile. "So?" she asked Celly. "What did you guys say? Were you talking about me? I deserve to know if you were." She spoke in a sort of singsong voice.
Celly nodded a bit. "He said you're pretty," she told her.
Eve lit up. "Aw, Benny," she cooed. "He's so adorable. If I knew sign language I would just take him home."
Celly giggled a bit. "He says he's okay with talking if you are. I think he could use the company." Celly motioned towards Ben. "So you guys talk away. My knowledge of ASL is at your service."

Eve approached Ben at the piano. "Why don't you tell me a bit about yourself?" she asked. "My name is Eve, I'm a senior at Celly's school, and I hope to go into pediatrics after this. I enjoy shopping and hanging out with friends. My favorite color is purple, and I have a little kitty at home named Roberto. There. Now it's your turn."
Celly raised an eyebrow at her. She turned her gaze to Ben, waiting to translate whatever he said.

[Drakonnas]

Ben watched as the other girl came bounding back in, clearly full of excitement and energy. Ben watched her carefully, but tried not to make it too obvious. He smiled as Eve praised him. He did not laugh, he could not. Smiling was the closest thing he could. She spoke about herself in a very rapid tone, and talking about a lot at once. It did not bother him, although he was unused to her enthusiasm, he tried to relax, and participate in a conversation. It wasn't easy. But he did his best.

"A good doctor is always a nice thing." Ben signed, thinking back to all the different doctors he had seen when he was in the hospital... Some of them were nice, some of them were not. And the ones that were always made his life better. EVen if just a little bit.

"My name is Ben." He continued. "I am a survivor of cancer, though it has taken my voice from me. So I speak through the music I play. That is how I like to communicate. I don't know what I want to do after school... I haven't really thought of anything besides music. But that's not a good career path." He sighed. "My favorite color is orange, and I had a small dog once, but he died about two years ago. And my biggest wish is to have friends." He blushed a little bit at that last statement, not meaning to reveal that about himself, but doing it anyway.

[Ashen]

Celestynn interpreted effortlessly for Ben. Even if her knowledge of the language was a bit rusty, she didn't seem to be having much trouble. She couldn't watch Eve's facial expressions as she spoke, too busy looking at Ben's hands. She was saying everything that he said, filtering nothing, letting Eve to decide what she wanted to think for herself.

Eve clapped her hands together, a big grin on her face. She hardly let Celly finish before responding to Ben. "You are so adorable," she said happily. "Why can't I get any of the cute ones. My family's all annoying bratty kids and yappy dogs." She thought a moment. "I'll be your friend," she decided. "I mean, why not? And I think you could definitely make a career out of the music. If what you played before wasn't a fluke, you'd be a professional. You sound like some already! Do you play any pop? Country? You could throw a concert. And I think it's really really cool that you communicate through music. You and Celly, I'll never understand it. How you can make those... dots on a set of lines make such pretty noises. It's so--"
"Evey," Celestynn interrupted.
Eve covered her mouth. "I talk too much," she admitted. "I'm sorry. But why don't I give you my number and we can chat without Celly knowing what we're saying? I can lay some mean gossip on her. I mean, have you seen the way she eats chicken salad--"
"Eve," Celestynn interrupted again. "Excuse you."
"You know I'm kidding." Eve turned to Ben. "What are your digits?"

What followed was a stilled silence. Eve, confused, looked between Ben and Celly. "What?" she asked. "Surely he has a cell phone?"
Celly shook her head. "He, um, can't afford that kind of... err..."
"Don't lie to me." Eve's tone turned serious then. She put a hand on either hip. "Why are you lying to me?" She looked to Ben and cocked her head. "Unless you've something to hide, I don't see any reason in lying. And it really looks like you have something to hide."
Celly immediately looked to Ben to catch his reaction. "We don't have anything to hide," she said curtly. "Are you two hungry? I'm hungry. Let's order pizza." In a haste to deter the tension in the room, she left the two alone in search of the phone. Once alone, Eve looked to Ben. "Are you... okay?" she asked him.

[Drakonnas]

Ben listened to Eve, drinking in her every word. He loved the sound of her voice, the way it seemingly washed over him. He enjoyed the way she spoke, it seemed a little bit foreign, just a little bit elegant. It was beautiful. She asked him if he had a phone number, and he hesitated a little bit, unsure of what to say. But Celestynn stopped him and Eve seemed to be annoyed at the quick interference. Ben watched as there seemed to be tensions build between them, he did not know what to do. But Celestynn left, and he was left alone with Eve.

And then she asked him the question he had been dreading. He sat there for a minute, looking into her eyes, trying not to get lost in them. How should he answer? How could he answer? He looked back in the kitchen to where Celly was, and did not know how to react. His hesitation was enough of a giveaway though, she would know that he was lying if he said yes. Slowly, he shook his head from side to side, signifying a "no". No, he was not okay.

But he did not know what else to say. How to communicate. He looked around for a pen, but could not find any. He sighed, and tried to signal to Eve to keep quiet, he did not want her confronting Celly. Not yet at least. What would happen if she found out? Maybe he'd get home. Or maybe Celly would be crazy enough to keep them both? No, she wouldn't do that. Would she? Could she?

Celly was busy on the phone... but she could interrupt at any moment. And he didn't know what to do. He didnt' know if he cared about her or not. But he did know that he wasn't okay. That much, he was sure of.

[Ashen]

Eve took in the hesitation. She took in the stilled silence. She knew the answer before Ben had made a move.
Glancing over her shoulder to the kitchen, Eve called, "Cels, can you order a two-liter of pink lemonade, too? If they don't have that, just regular lemonade. If not that, pepsi." She was buying time. Eve knew exactly which place Celly would be calling. She also knew that place never had pink lemonade, and rarely had lemonade. They would have to check, which would spend some time.

After an okay from Celestynn, the girl turned back to Benjamin. She spoke in a hushed tone. "Celly has been acting really weird. It started when her dad died. Her mom's gone insane, I think, and she's got to live with it all. It's killing her." Eve slowly nibbled on the edge of her lip. "She's been doing really crazy things. And this... I think this is one of them. Our friend Jess does, too. We're really worried about her." Eve straightened and drew in a breath. "You aren't related to Celestynn, are you? In fact, you aren't even from St. Cloud, I'll bet. This... this has been so taboo, even around Jess, but... Your last name is Ramiel, isn't it?"

Eve had been following the story. She and Jess had their suspiscions that they rarely shared, but the similarities were too coincidental. A mute boy had gone missing from Iowa. A mute boy had shown up in Celly's house. Same age. He matched the pictures they'd shown online. It just had to be a match. As much as Eve didn't want to admit it, one of her best friends had kidnapped a boy.

"I love Cels," Eve said in an even quieter tone. "I really do. We've known each other for, like, eons. She used to be so calm and perhaps a little zany but she was so good. Jess and I would sometimes poke fun at how much of a goodie two shoes she was. But that all changed. And I'm afraid she's really lost it, now." Eve had to look away. "As much as I love her, this is wrong. I'm going to try to talk to her. If... If that doesn't work, I'm going to call the cops. I'm going to get you home, okay?" She looked back up at him, sad blue eyes shining. "I'm so sorry."

[Drakonnas]

Ben was shocked at how much Eve knew. How could she have known? The surprise in his eyes was proof enough to admit that she was right. He nodded. His name was indeed Ramiel. He started shaking again, as the trauma of the whole situation started to come back to him. He didn't know what to say, or how to say it. He looked back at Celestynn, and back at Eve, not knowing how to act.

She had recognized him. Ben wasn't sure if he was grateful for that or not... What would Celly do if she was confronted about this whole issue? He didn't want to risk getting someone else hurt as well... But there was also a part of him that wanted to get Celly help. And he didn't know how to go about doing that.

He did want to go home. But he also knew that he had offered his help to Celly. Why was he going to try and keep his word to someone who had kidnapped him? It didn't make sense to the young boy, and yet his feelings were mixed. Would the cops be able to help? And how would Celly's mother fit into all of this? Surely she wouldn't want to lose her "son"...

[Ashen]

Eve took in Benjamin's silence. She took in his surprised expression. So it was true. She felt sick. She was silent until Celly returned. As not to raise suspicions, she jumped up at her friend. "Did they have pink lemonade?"
"No," Celestynn answered. "Nor lemonade. Pepsi it is."
"Fine by me," Eve said with a shrug. "I can't wait until it gets here. I am famished."

Once the pizza arrived, Celly served the two before serving herself. They shared mindless chatting over dinner. Afterwards, Eve excused herself, leaving Celly and Ben alone again.
Celestynn sighed as she put the rest of the pizza in the fridge. "You spoke with her," she told Ben, back turned. "Rather, she spoke with you." She turned to face him. Tears were in her eyes once more. "Please, Benjamin. Please don't ruin this for me. I just... I..." She couldn't even finish her sentence. She wasn't even sure that Eve had seen through her lies. She was assuming, and she figured doing less assuming would put her at ease. "It doesn't matter," she mumbled to herself. "I'm going to go do some homework now." With that, she retreated to her room.

[Drakonnas]

Ben ate in silence. There wasn't anything else he COULD do, really, but he did not seem interested in the chatter of the two girls. He ate his pizza, and sat patiently, pulling out a book, and reading. Eve excused herself, and Celly turned to Ben. He looked up at her, but did not nod his head, or shake his head. He simply looked at her, waiting for her to go on. But she couldn't. Getting up, the older girl went to her room, and Ben looked back at his book, and continued reading. It was some time before he finished, and when he did, he walked back to his room, shut the door and flopped down on the bed with a sigh. He stared at the ceiling for an hour, thoughts simply racing through his mind. It was not a good day.

But on the other hand, Eve's face kept popping back up into his mind. He didn't know why, but did not prevent it from trying to come. He smiled slightly, wondering what this new feeling was. He had never really experienced it before, and was not sure how to go about feeling about it, thinking about it, or anything of the sort, really.

[Ashen]

The next day...

It was finally Saturday. Celestynn had finished most of her homework early, but she wasn't about to start relaxing yet. She was going to return to work for the first time in ages. Celly worked at a clothing retail store, which wasn't much, but she had enjoyed it. She felt getting back to work would be a nice distraction from everything, and she'd be earning money, too. It was a win-win.

Except that Celly had completely forgotten the family plans that day. She, her mother, and Ben were going to the train station. She had already called work to let them know she was coming in, and she'd feel bad for cancelling again. As much as she didn't want to, she was going to have to let her mother and Benjamin go alone.

Aniela was elated as she glided about her home, gathering things they would need for their trip. "Celly?" she called as she wrapped some sandwiches for lunch. "Have you woken your brother? Make sure he's ready."
"Yes, Matka," Celly called back.
"Are you sure you can't come with us?" she called.
"I am really sorry, Matka, but I'm sure you two will be fine."
At least, she hoped.

Celly took the stairs two at a time until she was back at her brother's room. She gently knocked on his door. "Ben?" she called to him. "Hey, Mum's waiting on you. I... can't go with you, and I'm sorry. Don't do anything stupid, okay?" Realizing he could have been asleep, she reached for the door handle. Before she turned the handle, she hesitated. "Are you dressed?" she asked. She at least gave him some privacy. "Can I come in?"

[Drakonnas]

When Ben woke the next day, he heard someone knocking at the door. It was Celestynn, of course, and she was saying something about being waited for. He groggily woke up, wondering what was going on, and why he was needed. And then memories of the prior night came back to him; of course. The stupid train station. He didn't care about trains at all, but here he was, being forced to go along. He sighed. Celly was talking to him, asking if he was awake, and if he was dressed. How silly of her, he thought. If he was asleep, he could not answer. And even if he was awake, he could not answer her either, due to his muteness. So what was there to be gained by asking if she could come in?

Ben got up, and slid out of bed. He threw on some clothes, and walked over to the door, and opened it. He had clearly just gotten out of bed, his hair was a mess, and his eyes still looked sleepy. He looked up at Celly, and walked past her to the bathroom, where he washed and combed his hair, at least he would look okay.

After taking care of personal hygiene, Ben walked downstairs, as silently as a gnat landing on velvet. Something smelled like it had been overcooked, and sure enough, when he had gotten downstairs, there was a plate of pancakes on the table, most of which were charcoal black... Ben grimaced. Yuck.

[Ashen]

Celly had been waiting for a while, so she assumed Ben was asleep or getting dressed. She was torn between barging in or giving him some more times. He couldn't exactly respond to her, so she didn't even know if he'd heard her. But Ben opened the door soon, so Celly let out a little smile and sighed. He seemed to ignore her and go to the bathroom, so Celly spent her time getting ready for work.

After she had finished preparing for work she headed down the stairs. There were pancakes for breakfast, apparently, but she wasn't very hungry. She grabbed one pancake, turned it over, and shrugged. "I'll see you later, okay?" she called to both Ben and her mother.
"Take care, sweetie," Aneila called after her.
"Thank you, Matka." Celly turned to Ben and offered him a smile. "If you need anything, I'll have my phone on. Be safe." Her smiled faltered as she added, "Please."

After seeing her daughter off, Aniela turned to Ben. "Go ahead and eat," she said to him. "We have an exciting day ahead of us." She had a childish grin on her face which faded when she saw Ben's. He wasn't smiling. "Ziven," she murmured. "What's wrong? Aren't you excited?"

[Drakonnas]

Ben looked up at Celly, with a mouthful of burned pancakes as she told him to be safe. He nodded to her. He would do his best, he had no intention of anything else happening to him. But even the best of intentions could not help at times... He just hoped that nothing would go wrong. Before much more could happen, the older woman in the house confronted him about not being excited. He shook his head no, that he wasn't excited. But why? She would definitely want an answer to that question...

"I'm tired, and not feeling very well. Ben signed slowly. It was the truth, after all. He wasn't feeling well. He had a stomachache, and a little bit of a sore throat. But knowing her, she would make him go anyway, insisting that getting out of the house would be good for him. Bah. He wanted nothing but to go back to bed. Go back to bed, and escape this nightmare.

[Ashen]

Aniela crossed her arms over her chest. She didn't like seeing her son upset, and it was clear through her own features. She was frowning, trying to decide of something she could do to make her Ziven feel better. "Maybe you have been here too long," she decided, the logical explanation. "I think getting out of the house will do you a lot of good. Come, Ziven. Get ready to go. You will be awake and alert when you hear those trains, I know it!"

After they had finished getting ready, Aniela made sure Ben was buckled in before getting into her car herself. She made small talk with him on the ride, and once they arrived at the train station, she stopped the car and went to help Ben out of the car, maternal instinct. A train sounded in the background, and it seemed to excite the older woman more than it would have excited a child. "Do you hear that?" she asked him. "It's been a while since I've heard those. Come on, Ziven. Oh, do you remember when they let you blow the whistle? You were so happy... I think I still have that photo somewhere." She seemed to be really looking forward to the day. Aniela was trying to bring his spirits up, too. She just wanted to see him happy.

[Drakonnas]

Ben sighed as Anelia rushed him out of the house to the car. He tried to be excited, he really did, but there just wasn't anything exciting about going to a train station. He didn't find any kind of big machine interesting in the slightest. As they drove to the station, it was quite crowded there. As the trains sounded, Ben flinched, loud noises scared him and hurt his ears. He was dreading being up close to them...

And soon, they could hear trains in the distance, and some of them thundered by without stopping. One of them blew its horn, and it caused Ben to fall to his knees, and clasp both of his hands over his ears to try and block out the deafening, torturous sound. His face was grimacing, until the horn finally stopped, and the train, easily over 50 cars long, thundered out of sight.

His ears were still ringing from the horn, and he felt a little bit unstable.But he heard music off in the distance, and wanted to go investigate. A homeless man was on the corner, with two old, battered guitars. Ben sat down next to him, and looked up as he played. He really was a beautiful musician, and had such emotion in his music, Ben wasn't sure when the last time he heard such a thing was. He wanted to say something, but no sound came out. The man looked kindly upon him, and a smile broke over his face, it was as though granite were cracking.

Ben couldn't help smiling either, he motioned for the man to play on. He started drumming along a beat, and both of them were now smiling, and really getting into the groove.

[Ashen]

The fragile woman did not seem bothered in the least by the loud noise in her ear. She welcomed the train horn instead with a smile and watched excitedly as it passed by. She made some commentary about each passing train, oblivious to the fact that her son was no longer with her. She was too excited because she was so sure he would be excited. Aniela had even pointed out different models of trains. She had memorized them of course because of Ziven, and the information she'd learned had not been lost. In all, she seemed to be having far more fun on their field trip than any other person there that day.

Later in the day, Aniela finally realized Ziven was not around. She furrowed her brow and tried calling to him but he did not respond; he couldn't. "Now where have you gone off to, Ziven?" she mumbled to herself as she continued to look around. She could not find him anywhere near the display trains, and after looking through the entire station, she gave up and decided he had already started home. Perhaps in a normal state of mind the woman would have been worried, but she casually shrugged and made her way to her car. Soon, she started the drive home.

When Aniela arrived home she forgot she was supposed to be looking for someone. She went to her room and turned on the television. She fell asleep to a news report of a mute boy who was still missing.

[Drakonnas]

Ben finally decided that he better get back to Anelia. He signed thank you to the homeless man, who looked surprised at the sign language, and responded back in kind. Ben looked around, but the woman he was looking for was nowhere in sight. That was most peculiar... He looked down at his cell phone, its battery was at about 30%. It had drained that fast, that quickly? It was at full when they had left..

He tried to dial his "mother's" number, but there was no reception here... He sighed, and continued wandering around for a little while, hoping to catch a glimpse of her, but to no avail. Frustrated, he decided to go back to the car to wait for her to get back. Maybe he could catch a nap or something as well...

But Ben's heart started to beat rapidly as he approached the parking lot, and the car was nowhere to be seen. He knew where they had parked, and the car was not there. Had she left him there? Ben didn't know what to do. He couldn't just walk home, it would take him hours! He had no money, he couldn't pay for a taxi. His phone was nearly dead, and he needed to conserve the battery power...

Frantically, he dialed Celly's number. He knew he couldn't tell her anything, but he hoped she'd get the message, and know something was wrong. She should be out of school by now... His phone didn't have texting capabilities, it was just calling... This put him in a real predicament... What was he going to do? How was he going to get home? He could just go to a police station, and then get back to his real parents... That was probably the best thing to do. But he had no idea where to even begin looking for a police station... He only hoped that Celly would be able to work things out...

[Ashen]

Celestynn was ringing someone up when she felt her phone vibrate. Her attention was immediately compromised. She finished the transaction and was grateful to find there was no one else in line. Celly excused herself to the dressing rooms, where she closed the door and checked her phone. Her nightmare had been made real when she saw who had called her.
Ben.

Celly's hands started shaking. He would only call her in an emergency. Was he okay? Was her mother? What was going on? Celly burst out of the dressing room, scaring a customer, and ran to find her boss. Once she had, she apologetically told her that she needed to leave, that there was an emergency. Her boss was displeased; Celestynn's first day back at work needed to be cut short? She wasn't buying it. Celly knew that she would probably get fired, that she'd never be allowed back here, but Ben was in trouble. Her mother was in trouble. She could not stay.

She rushed home and frantically shoved her keys into the door. Once opened, she screamed for her mother. There was no response. "Matka!" she called again. "Ziven! Benjamin! Please!" She went to her mother's room first and gave a sigh of relief when she saw the woman there. However, she was not moving. Celly ran to Aniela's bedside and shook her violently. "Matka," she said forcefully. "Matka, get up, get up." The older woman's eyes fluttered open and said something in Polish before looking around, confused. "Celestynn?" she mumbled sleepily.
"Thank God," Celly sighed. "Where is B--Ziven?"
"Ziven? Oh, right. I don't know."
Celly seemed surprised by this. "What do you mean you don't know?" She was nearly yelling. "Weren't you two supposed to go to the train station today?"
"Oh yeah," Aniela recalled. "We were there, and he started home himself, so I came home and I was just so tired, I--"
"What?" Celly stared at her mother as if she were crazy. "He started home alone? Why would you... What did you..." Tears had already begun to fall.
Aniela seemed confused. "He left by himself," she said evenly. "So I decided to go home. Celestynn, I am sure he is fine. Probably sleeping upstairs. He's a bright boy. He knows his way home."
"That's the problem!" Celly hollered. "He will go home! Not here. Home! And I'll be to blame!" Before she could explain what she was saying Celly was running towards the car. She would go to the train station and find Ben herself.

After running every red light and nearly causing two car accidents, Celly arrived at the station. She had barely turned the car off when she ran out of it and started calling Ben's name. She even dialed his number. If he would pick up, she could tell him to meet her somewhere, but she didn't even know if he was still at the train station. She waited for him to pick up and prayed.

[Drakonnas]

Ben wandered back and forth, worry etched on his face. He saw many people walk on by him without a second look at the boy who was apparently alone. No one looked at him, no one paid him any attention, almost as if he was invisible... That didn't bother him per se, he was too worried about what to do. He had looked on a map for a police station, but there wasn't any station within twenty miles of here, it would be quicker to walk back to Celestynn's house than the police station...

He sighed. His phone had died, and that meant he could not contact Celestnn again even if he wanted to, he did not know her number off the top of his head. So he was literally forced to wait. And it just so happened that the manager of the train station hated kids, and wouldn't even let him sit down on the bench inside... So he had to wait outside in the cold.

But finally, he saw Celestynn's car, and he began to laugh. He had hated that car with all his passion before, it was the one that had taken him away from his real family. But... Now, he couldn't be more glad to see that car. He got up, and jumped up and down, trying to make sure that Celly would see him. It was starting to get dark outside, and that made him worry that she might not see him...

[Ashen]

Benjamin was not picking up his phone. He was probably already at a police station by now, and from then it was only a matter of time until Celestynn kissed her good record goodbye. Until she kissed her mother goodbye. Until she was forced to leave the life she knew.

But Celly's thoughts were cut short. She saw someone waving to her. It was dark, but she knew. She knew who it was instantly. She did not have time to sigh her relief. Immediately she was running towards Benjamin. Once she got to him she ran into a hug and squeezed him tightly. "Benjamin," she sighed. "Benjamin, I am going to kill you for worrying me." Realizing she was probably suffocating him, she quickly let go and stared at him. "Matka--Mum said that you had started home by yourself and I was so worried and I thought, oh God I thought that you were going to leave us, and I just, I felt..." As she spoke she was quickly signing certain words for emphasis. She didn't even seem to be aware she was doing it. But finally she just stopped and shook her head. "We should head home," she told him. They would have time to discuss things later. What was important was that he was found.

[Drakonnas]

Ben sighed in relief as Celly stopped, and picked him up. He could not speak, and could not even move to sign to her, he could only struggle a little bit to try and tell her that she was hugging him too tightly. As she let go of him, he looked up at her, his eyes bright, worried, relieved, and thankful. "I... made a promise to you." He signed. He looked like he regretted the promise a little bit. "And as much as I might want to break it, I won't. Your mother left me here. I walked a few feet away to look at something else, and she left me. I thought I might never make it back. To my home, or yours. The station's manage is mean, and doesn't like kids." He sighed, as he got back in the car. What was going to happen now? Celly surely wouldn't trust him with her mother anymore...Not after this.

[Ashen]

Celly took in all Ben was saying as they walked to the car. She was silent for the entire walk, and after helping Ben and getting in the car herself, she let out a little sigh. "What am I going to do?" she asked in a very small voice. "Matka cannot... she is not all there, and... You do not want to be here, and... I..." When she looked up again, she realized where she was. Benjamin was right next to her, and had probably heard every word of what she'd said. She looked at him but said nothing, and silently she started the drive home.

It was dark out, and their house did not have a single light on. Celestynn helped Benjamin out of the car and left him walk to the house himself. She unlocked the door. "Matka?" she called. No response came. Celly turned to Ben. "I'm going to go check on her. I'm sure you're tired. It's been a long day. Why don't you go take a shower and try to get some rest? I think that's what I'll be doing." But before she moved, she turned her body so that she was completely facing him. "Thank you, Benjamin. And I am so, so sorry for getting you caught in this."

[Drakonnas]

Ben was silent on the way back; not that he could say anything that is. He didn't really look at Celly, he just felt tired, and all he wanted to do was go to sleep, and not wake up for a long time, not until everything went back to normal. Was it too much to ask to just lock himself away until there were no more problems? But no, hiding wasn't a good solution. And besides, Celly was driving, there wasn't a good way he could communicate with her, it would distract her.

When they got out of the car, Ben followed Celly inside, and nodded at her suggestion. He went upstairs, but did not shower. He was dreading the next day, where he'd have to face Anelia again. And after the disaster today, he didn't know what to do. He didn't know how he would approach her. Perhaps just be even more reserved? He plopped down on the bed, and stared at the ceiling for about an hour before he was finally able to fall asleep...

[Ashen]

Several weeks later...

It seemed that things were finally starting to return to normalcy in the Zyskowski household. Normal, of course, was a term used loosely. Celestynn had started to slowly bring her grades up. They were still far lower than they were the previous year, but with an average of a B- no one was really complaining. She had lost her job but had told most people it was to better watch Benjamin, who was staying at her house for a little longer than they'd thought. Benjamin had continued his schooling, and Aniela's sanity seemed to be fraying more and more each day. Maybe it wasn't normal to the average person, but it was normal to Celly and her dysfunctional family.

Celestynn was on her lunch break. She had spent most of her lunch periods in the library since Ben had arrived, but her friends had convinced her to spend the period with them. They were laughing over some ridiculous gossip when Eve cleared her throat. Celly and Jess both silenced. Only one of them knew what their best friend was going to say. "Celly," Eve started. "You know, Jess and I are really concerned for you."
Celly's smile disappeared. "What?" she asked.
"You know, with how distracted you've been," Jess put in.
Eve added, "Something is up, Cels, and as your best friends in the whole wide world we cannot let this go on anymore."
Celestynn was growing uncomfortable. "I don't know what you're talking--"
"Yes, you do," Eve cut in. "And I am sick and tired of you avoiding the question or straight-out lying to us! Do best friends mean nothing to you?"
"Eve..." Jess tried, but the other girl was already hyped. Eve was standing over Celestynn, who looked confused and hurt that her friend was accusing her of such things.
Eve did not calm down. "This boy you have living with you," she said. "He needs to go home. This is wrong. It is so wrong, Celestynn, and you know that."
Celestynn stood. Her expression turned to one of anger. "I don't know what you are talking about, and I don't know why you keep bringing this up. I am done here. Leave me alone."

At home, Aniela was letting Benjamin occupy himself. She had had an errand to run, and she was just getting ready to bake some cookies. He had been doing really well in his studies, and she believed cookies were as good a reward as any. She wasn't sure where Ben was, but she called for him from the kitchen. "Ziven! Would you like to help me bake? I could really use your help, dear."

[Drakonnas]

Ben was upstairs in his room, working on building a model train that Aniela had bought for him. There was nothing else to do, so he figured he'd focus his energy on making this train. Besides, it really was kinda cool. At least, the building aspect of it, even if he wasn't terribly good at it. The pieces were tiny, and he had a hard time getting a decent grip on them to actually put it together. The day was passing, and hopefully Celly would be back soon.

Things were relatively routine around these days, and it wasn't something that Ben particularly enjoyed. Celly would always be gone by the time he had woken up. He'd spend a few hours in his room, doing who knew what, and then Aniela would wake, and they'd do his schoolwork, which was laughably easy. Then, he'd go back to his room, until Celly got back, when sometimes they'd sit together, talking, or sometimes, he'd be alone until dinner. It really wasn't fun. But the music got him through it all. That helped pull him through this tough time. He longed for his family every day, but he started to care about Celly a bit more as well...

He heard Aniela call his name, and so, silently, he trodded downstairs to where she was. He stood in the kitchen, waiting for her to tell him to do something. That's usually how it went. He would be told to do something, and he would do it. The cycle repeated until things were done.

[Ashen]

When Aniela saw Benjamin enter the kitchen, her face visibly lit up. She was delighted to see her son, and she welcomed him into the kitchen. "I was just getting the jam ready. If you could get that out, we can finish making it. It's in the refrigerator." There was a book open on the kitchen table. There was a picture of some Polish cookies, which were more pastries than cookies with different colored jams inside them. The recipe was not in English, but there were enough pictures and it was short enough that someone who knew no Polish would probably be able to figure it out. Aniela walked over to it and brushed the words with her eyes. She didn't seem to actually absorb any of the words, and she went to gather more ingredients.

A few minutes later, the cookies were being put into the oven. Aniela wiped her forehead with the back of her hand. "I don't know about you, but I am exhausted," she told Benjamin. She smiled and even rubbed Ben's head. "Wasn't that fun?" And it had been. Aniela had a way about making a lot of trivial things fun. She had sang as she stirred, and she had told stories from Poland while everything was being prepared. But now that they were finished, she seemed beat. "Why don't you go back to working on that train, Ziven? I know you really enjoy it. I noticed you working on it earlier. I'll clean up by myself. I will call you when the cookies are ready, does that sound good?"

At school, Celestynn was trying hard to concentrate in class. Jess was sitting across from her, but luckily the teacher was giving a lecture, so there wasn't any time for them to talk. Celly didn't want to talk. She knew her friends were right, but they didn't understand. She hadn't any choice. She couldn't just take Ben home. What would she tell her mother? The cops? She was having a miserable day already, but she had no idea what she would come home to.

[Drakonnas]

Ben helped out in the kitchen, though slightly reluctantly. At least... At least she made it not completely boring. He did listen to her stories, even if they didn't make any sense. And he did eat a little bit of the dough, that was the best part of making cookies, after all! It was good, but not as good as his mother's homemade chocolate chip cookie dough. As his "mom" told him to go back to working on the train, Ben nodded, and headed back up the stairs, waving her a hasty "Thank you" before going up.

He sat back down, and held the train in his hands again. There were many parts, but piece by piece, after reading the instructions many times, he finally was able to start putting it together, and piece by piece, it became recognizable as a train. He was actually fairly proud of being able to put it all together by himself, he had never done anything like this before, and it wasn't easy.

He finally decided to look over at the clock, which read 2:13. So, Celly would be home from school in the not too distant future, she'd have fresh cookies waiting for her too. They actually smelled really good, but he didn't leave his room yet, as Aniela hadn't called him. So maybe it would be just a little bit longer.

[Ashen]

The hands on the great clock in the kitchen ever so slowly ticked by. Cookies were slowly burning, and the woman who'd meant to tidy the kitchen sat in one of the kitchen chairs, her head on the table. She was snoring very softly, surrounded by the ingredients and dirty dishes she hadn't cleaned up. Minutes stretched on, and soon the fire alarm started going off. Its alarms were spotty and infrequent. The batteries were near dead. Not even the desperate cries of the fire alarms were enough to wake Aniela, and soon a small fire danced around the cookies inside the oven. Soon it would spread outside of the oven, and right into the lungs of a sleepy woman.

Celly rushed from her locker to the bus stop, and hastily got on the bus. She was exhausted from her day, and she wanted nothing more to be home with her mother and Benjamin. She had no idea the stress of her day was not over.

[Drakonnas]

Ben did not hear the faint beeps of the alarm from downstairs, it could not carry up to his room. But a little while later, he thought he smelled something funny... He sniffed a little bit, trying to discern what it was, and he came to the conclusion that it was smoke. And that concerned him quite a bit. So, he opened his door, and was immediately bombarded with a thick pillar of smoke. He coughed, and his eyes began to tear up... Beginning to panic, Ben covered his nose and mouth with his shirt, and went to the stairs... But he couldn't go down. A raging fire was blocking his exit. He didn't know what to do, there was no other way downstairs!

What had happened to Aniela? What was going to happen to him? He ran to his room, and tried to open the window, but even with all of his strength, he could not. It was stuck shut. And all the other windows were to small for him to get out. He pulled out his cell phone, and dialed Celly's number. Where was a fire extinguisher? He didn't think that would help here... He was trapped upstairs with no way out, and with a fire slowly creeping its way towards him... Was this to be his end?

No. No, it wouldn't be. He still had to go back to his mother and father. He took the train that he had been building, and chucked it as hard as he could against the window, which cracked, but did not break. He kept trying to break it, in some hope that the window would break, and he could get out. But... how would he get down to the ground? He'd surely break something if he just jumped...

[Ashen]

Celly was just walking down her street when she felt her phone vibrate. She took it out of her pocket and looked it over. She had an incoming call from Ben. She continued down the street at a faster pace that only slowed when she saw her house. Everything looked normal except... Out of the window--was that smoke?

Celly ran to the door and quickly unlocked and opened it. She was greeted by a cloud of smoke. She started coughing hard but shook herself and tried to see through the smoke. "Benjamin!" she hollered. "Matka!" She ran into the house and looked around for a sign of either of the two. The fire alarm had by then died, so she was able to listen for any breathing. There were bright flames coming from the kitchen, blocking her way into it. She was panicking, but she knew she had to remain calm. The fire extinguisher. She just had to get the fire extinguisher. It should just be under the sink, in the bathroom. She hoped.

She ran to the bathroom and obtained the fire extinguisher. She then reentered the great room and was about to head for the kitchen when a chunk of wood fell right next to her. Celly screamed but had not been touched. The wood had fallen from the stairs, which were now going up in flames. Since they were closer than the kitchen, she decided to extinguish those flames, first. When the flames died down, she looked upstairs. Was Benjamin or her mother up there? "Matka!" she yelled atop her lungs. "Benjamin!" Back towards the kitchen, pieces of wood from the doorframe were falling down. She could not see into the kitchen; the smoke was far too great. If anyone had been in the kitchen, Celestynn at least assumed they'd have left by now. Still, she had to try to extinguish the flames. She had to save her home, and she had to find her mother.

She tried the extinguisher on the flames in the kitchen, but it didn't seem to be working. The fire was spreading too rapidly. She tried to call for her mother and Benjamin once more. The last thing she wanted to do was call for help. If she called the fire department, they'd surely ask about the strange boy in her home. She'd be over.

But just as she thought she could handle the fire by herself, the extinguisher in her hands stopped. She kept pulling the trigger, but nothing else was coming out. She looked from the extinguisher to the flames and shook her head. There was nothing she could do now.She backed herself against a wall, near the main door of the house. She prayed no one was home, but one final time she called for them.

[Drakonnas]

It was at that precise moment that Ben heard someone shouting from downstairs. It was difficult to hear with all the ruckus and din, but he thought he heard Celly's voice. But was it that? He didn't know, and it was difficult to make out. He couldn't answer her. He wanted nothing more than to answer, but there was no way she could hear him. He was mute, and any noise he could make would not be enough to let her hear him.

He ran back outside, his heart was pounding something fierce. He wanted nothing more than to wake up from this nightmare. But it was no nightmare. At least, not in the ethereal sense. But when he was in the hallway, he noticed that the flames on the stairs had died out, and that Celly was standing down there. He thought. It looked like her silhouette, at least. Now that the stairs were not in flames, he tried to go down them. The first was no problem. But the second collapsed under his weight, and his leg fell though. A sharp pain, and a warm, sticky substance was now flowing down his leg.

Even though he was hurting quite badly now, he somehow managed to pull himself out, enduring excruciating pain, and forced himself to crawl down the stairs. Celly was standing there, shouting. Finally, he could see her clearly. He tried to stand up, but had to hold onto the wall to keep himself upright. He looked at Celly, his eyes wide and terrified, mirrored in hers.

[Ashen]

Celestynn was hearing pieces of her home begin to crumble. She looked to the stairs to survery the damage and saw someone trying to descend. It was too small to be her mother, so her next guess was Benjamin. He seemed to have fallen through one of the stairs, and his leg looked pretty nasty. She ran to him as he continued down the stairs. "Benjamin!" she yelled. "Benjamin, drogi Boże*, what is going on?" She slid her hands under him and tried to lift him. He wasn't heavy, but she wasn't strong, and though she could carry him she had much difficulty. She carried him outside and let him down several feet away from the smoking house.

Once Ben was safely on the ground, Celly took a minute to catch her breath. She then turned to the house, wide-eyed. "Where is my mother?" she demaned. She turned back to Ben. "What happened? Where is she? Why is my home on fire? What did you do?!" Tears were falling freely down her face. She looked at Ben's leg, covered in blood. He'd need to be treated. She'd need to call the fire department. They'd see that Benjamin had the face of a missing boy. It was all too much. Her life was falling to pieces again, just like when Ziven had died.

She looked desperately into Benjamin's eyes. "Please tell me Mum is not home. Please."

* drogi Boże - dear God

[Drakonnas]

As Celestynn carried him outside of the house, Ben caught a huge whiff of air that felt like heaven to his lungs. He coughed several times, not aware of just how smoky the house had been. He felt lightheaded and weak, and the pain in his leg wasn't making things easier for him. She lit into him, as though this was all her fault. Though a mask of pain, shock, and fear, Ben tried to sign to her what was going on, but his hands were so shaky it wasn't easy.

"Your mother wanted to make cookies. She put them in the oven, and told me to go back upstairs to work on the model train. I did. A little while later, I thought I smelled smoke, opened my door, and a fire was down there." He finished, and looked away from her. "I don't know what happened. I don't know how. I don't know where your mom is. I swear."

Just by the situation, she should have been able to tell that he was not lying. He had a few minor burns, and a pretty bad wound in his leg, that went from his ankle, up his calf, and up to the knee. He was struggling not to cry, it hurt like hell, and was bleeding pretty badly. "I'm sorry." He signed. It was becoming difficult to stay awake now, but he tried to focus. She needed him.

[Ashen]

Celestynn watched desperately as Ben moved his hands. Because he was shaking so hard and because she was having a hard time focusing she wasn't able to follow his every word. She caught enough to know that Ben had not been with her mother when the fire broke out, and now he did not know where she was. That wound on his leg looked like it hurt a lot. Celestynn did not want to, she deeply did not want to, but she knew she had to. She had to call for help. Otherwise Ben might die, and she may never see her mother again.

With trembling hands Celly took out her cell phone and dialed three numbers. She waited for the line to connect, and the second she heard another voice she was speaking waterfalls of words. "There's a fire at my house, my mother might be inside, my brother is deeply wounded, and I need help." She gave them her address and hung up on them, determined to not give more information than she needed to. Once her phone was away she turned back to her house and she fell to her knees.

She was thinking of what she would do if her mother was still in there. If her mother never made it out, and if her mother now was dead. She was thinking of what the cops would say about Ben, what would happen to his leg, what would happen to him. He'd be sent home, not to this home, but the home he had in Iowa. And she... she would be locked up for kidnapping. And once she got out of jail, she'd have no house or family to return to.
No.
Aniela would be fine. She would find a way to make things work out again. She had to.

[Drakonnas]

The paramedics arrived quickly, and no questions were asked right away. Ben's injuries weren't life threatening, but he would need stitches. That was about the extent of his injuries. Ben was being treated inside the ambulance, while the firefighters went inside of the house to see if they could locate the mother... Ben was trying to see what was going on outside, but his view was obstructed by those who were trying to help him.

One of the paramedics came out, and spoke to Celly. "The young man is going to be just fine. I can promise you that. He just needs some stitches and antibiotics, and he'll be well on the road to recovery. Don't worry about him." She said, a comforting smile on her face. "But, is he mute? He doesn't seem to be able to tell us anything. The fact that he's using sign language to try and communicate is another hint. Think you could come translate for us?" She asked, one hand behind Celly's back. "Come on, sweetheart. Let's go."

A moment later, two firefighters came out, carrying a woman, who seemed badly injured. The paramedics rushed over to her, and put her on a stretcher. "She's still alive!" One called. This was clearly a much bigger deal than Ben's injuries, hers were life threatening. Burns, as well as other injuries were visible on her body, her clothes singed and damaged. Ben winced. He felt that all of this was his fault. If he had simple smelled the smoke sooner...

[Ashen]

Celly didn't notice the paramedics come, nor did she notice them take Ben. She was too lost in thought, thinking of her mother, of what would become of any of this. When she heard someone address her she looked up for the first time. "Uh, yeah," she said. "Yeah, he can't speak, he's..." Did they not recognize him? Celly tried not to think about that as she got up to go translate for Ben.

She felt that her translation skills were lacking. Her words were coming out slurred as she read his signs. She was distracted, obviously, and the tears didn't want to stop trickling down her face. They fell at a slowed pace, just starting to stop, until she heard a voice. She's still alive. Celly immediately looked over to her home. She saw the firefighters, saw the stretcher, but she really didn't want to look at the figure on top of it. Curiosity got to her though, and she had to assess her mother's burns. Slowly, her grey eyes trailed down the firemen and to the stretcher. Her mother already looked dead.

"Matka!" Celly screamed, running from Ben to go see her. "Matka, please, talk to me." She started speaking in a rushed Polish, but even her first tongue was getting jumbled. She turned to the firemen carrying her. "Is she... Is she going to...?" But they wouldn't know, would they? They had to wait until the hospital, until the doctors and nurses all tended to her mother's wounds.The hospital... Celly wondered if that was where her mother would die.

[Drakonnas]

The ambulance rushed to the hospital, and Anelia was rushed off to emergency care. Ben's injuries were much less significant, and he was cleaned off by a kindly nurse, who was fussing over both him and Celly. "Oh deary, you're so brave! You're gonna be fine now, honey. Just hold on." She had a very midwestern accent, and was very overnurturing. Ben was a bit embarrassed by this, and tried not to let his frustration show. But when the doctor came in, his eyes narrowed a little bit, whispered quietly to the nurse, whose face sobered, and walked away quickly.

After that, the doctor, who had a large bushy mustache, long brown hair, and powerfully built arms, sat down in the chair opposite Celly and Ben. "So, I hear you have had a rough day, mmm?" He asked, his voice soothing and quiet. "Well, don't worry. Let's get that leg of yours patched up, mister!" He said, smiling kindly at Ben, and took a look at Ben's leg. "Aaah, this is a nasty cut!" He chuckled. "But Nurse Mary did a good job cleaning it up for me. We'll see what we can do to help, hmm?" He said, looking Ben in the eyes, a smile on his face. He turned to Celly. "Are you okay? No injuries?" He asked her. He wanted to keep her involved in the conversation, keep her distracted. And the boy, too. After all... They just had a pretty traumatic experience.

About ten minutes later, there was a knock at the door, and five policemen walked in. Ben looked up in surprise. What were they doing here?

[Ashen]

Celestynn could hardly keep up with conversation. If she had been distracted in the months before, she was completely gone now. She was too worried about her mother, her last remaining relative. Thousands of things were running through her mind. She didn't want to converse with this doctor. She wanted to converse with her mother.

When the police officers walked in, Celly braced herself. She had seen this coming. She knew why they were here. She recognized one of the policemen, who walked up to her and placed a hand on her shoulder. "Celly," he said softly. "I'm confused."
Celly didn't respond. She didn't even look up. Her grey eyes were trained on the ground as she uttered, "She's dead, isn't she?"
He didn't answer. "I'm here to talk about Benjamin. You know who Benjamin Ramiel is, don't you?" No answer. "He really does need to go home. His parents are very worried about him."
Celly looked up. There were tears in her eyes. "He's all I have..." She turned to look at Ben. "He's... You can't take him away, too..."

[Drakonnas]

Ben looked up at the police. And... to be perfectly frank, he wasn't sure how to feel. He longed to go home, sure. But what about Celly? What would happen to her? Ben tried to tell himself that he didn't care. He tried to tell himself that she didn't matter, that he'd be going home now. But... he couldn't. As strange as it was, he couldn't bring himself to ignore her. He poked Celly, looking at her, a strange expression on his face. "Come with me." He signed to her. "Come with me. I... always wanted a sibling. And..." His hands stopped moving as he thought. "I've grown attached to you, Celly. As terrible a thing that you did... I've grown to realize how important it'd be to have a sibling in my life. Back home, I had no one, really. And... despite the fact that you kidnapped me, I... Well, I've kinda grown to enjoy our time together. And, when I go back home, I don't want to be lonely. So... come with me, Celly. Be my sister... I can... I'm sure I can explain things to help."

Ben's eyes were sad, but hopeful. He knew she probably wouldn't want to, or would be uncomfortable, but there was a part of him that hoped she'd agree to come back home. His parents would probably be as confused as she was, but Ben knew, in part, that a good family was what Celly needed. Or perhaps she'd go to jail? Or to some mental help clinic? Somehow, Ben didn't want to see her there. It was a really conflicted feeling. She, on the one hand, caused this trouble. But on the other, she needed the help. What was right in this situation? Ben had already forgiven her, and kindness and forgiveness was the right thing to do here. Or so he thought.

A single tear fell from Ben's eye, landing on the cold hard floor with a silent splash that no one heard.

[Ashen]

Celly was having a hard time believing what she was seeing. She replayed all of Ben's motions in her head, reading them again. Was he... serious? She looked up at the police officers and stood awkwardly. Would they even believe her?

"Benjamin is asking me to come home with him." She let her words rest in the air a moment and watched the expressions of the police officers. "I understand if you don't believe me. But ask him to write it down. I... I think that's what he just asked of me." She glanced over at him. She was crying, too. "I think Ben realizes how badly I need a family. I didn't ask for my brother to die, and while I did understand it, I knew my parents didn't. It's supposed to be the parents looking out for their kid, not the other way around. But I had to. After my dad died, I knew I was the only one who could save my mother. And... And I failed, didn't I?

"I would have never in a million years thought to remove someone from their home like this, but grief makes us do stupid things. I did it so I could go back to normal, but things were never normal. But Benjamin, while you could never replace Ziven, you did become a brother to me. You remain to be the only family I have. And while I would love to go home with out, I have a responsibility to amend for kidnapping you. I'm sure your parents would... would never want me, anyway."

The police officers looks to each other, none sure of what to say. One of them stepped forward. He looked to Benjamin. "Your parents are on their way over here," he said. "Why don't we continue this conversation when they get here?"

[Drakonnas]

As soon as Ben's parents opened the door, they both rushed over to him, and embraced him, very emotional. "Oh, Ben, we're so glad you're safe... We were so worried..." Ben hugged them back, hardly believing how good it was to see his parents again. He couldn't sign back to them right now, as he was holding onto them tightly. He didn't want to let go, and nor did they. Not for several minutes. But when they did let go, they turned to look at the girl who had caused this mess. The mother's eyes were angry and accusatory, but the father's were worried and concerned.

"Who do you think you are, kidnapping my son?" The woman asked, her voice rather demanding. But at a hand on her shoulder from the larger man, she stopped, and looked over at him. "Sorry." She said, apologetically to him.

"You did a terrible thing." Mr. Ramiel said with a frown. "And I want to know why. Why would you do such a thing? Why would you go to such lengths? You came all the way to Iowa to take Ben from us. Why him? There was a motive there, a reason... I'm just thankful that my son was uninjured... That's all that really matters to me. But as a parent, I have to wonder why. Where are your parents?"

But another interruption came, as another doctor came into the room. "Dead." He said softly. "She passed away a few moments ago."

Ben looked over at Celly, there was too much happening all at once, and he didn't know what to do. He was overwhelmed, and that was probably nothing as to how she felt...

[Ashen]

Celly was starting to understand how Ziven and Benjamin had both felt. She was silent, unable to speak without bursting into tears. She watched Ben's parents, his real parents, hug him tighter than she ever could. She would never get that again. A hug from her parents. A hug period. Who would want to hug her? A criminal... That was what she was.

When the doctor came in with the news, Celly wasn't even surprised. She'd known it was coming. So why did it still hurt so much? She was cried out; months of sobbing had left her dry. She made eye contact with no one. Her eyes were trained on the floor, but she wasn't seeing anything. After a few moments of silence, she spoke. Her voice was on the verge of cracking, and she would not look up.

"Why did I do it?" she asked. Her breathing was uneven. "I did it to protect the only family I had left." She didn't sound like she was trying to convince anyone. She was speaking what she believed to be the truth, and this time, she didn't care if anyone believed her or not. "My brother passed away just over a year ago. He was Ben's age, and mute, too. My mother was broken, and when my dad died just six months later, she went... She went insane. I knew it. But I figured there was nothing I could do. Until she started saying she was going to go meet Ziven again. She kept telling me she was going to go home. When... When I came home to find her in a puddle of her own blood after one of these attempts to go find her son, I knew I had to do something. I found a Ziven. Benjamin... They were about the same age, and though they don't look alike, she didn't notice. He couldn't speak. That was the important part. She didn't even notice that he wasn't her son. That's how badly she was... She was..." Her voice trailed. She could not finish the sentence. "I did it to protect my mother from going insane. I realize I was too late."

There was a chilling silence in the room as Celestynn finally looked up. She met Ben's father's eye. "I did a terrible thing," she agreed. "But my whole family abandoned me. I was just trying to prevent this. I... I just made it worse." She got up and turned to the cops in the room, also at a loss for words. Celly wiped at her eyes. "Up to life in prison," she murmured. "Do what you will."

[Drakonnas]

Ben looked troubled as everything came out. How would his parents react? The police? The doctors? Everyone seemed to have a different opinion on the subject and matter at hand. Ben looked at Celly, then back at his parents. "I... At first I was terrified." He signed to them. "I thought she was going to kill me. And I tried everything I could to escape. But... She was just trying to protect her Mon. It was a bad way to do it, but she had good intentions... I wanted to contact you, but had no way to do it. I don't wanna see her life ruined any more than it already is, dad. For the first time... I wasn't lonely. I had someone to talk to. Someone who cared. I don't want to lose that."

The looks on his parents faces betrayed shock and surprise. Hisom tried to speak, but ended up failing. What was the right thing to do? They could prosecute this girl, ignore her and go home... Neither of which were particularly attractive ideas, given the circumstances... She would be orphaned now. And Ben was sticking up for the girl who had kidnapped him?

"Please, I don't want to see her hurt. She was almost like a sister to me..." Ben looked up at his parents. They looked at each other.

And then, Ben's father spoke. "Well... You've never given us any reason to distrust you, Ben. If that really is how you feel... What would you say if..." He paused a moment, and looked at the girl. "... Celestynn, right? If she became your legal sister?"

The air in the room changed completely, from tension, to shock, admiration, and worry. "We'll make sure she gets the help she needs."

[Drakonnas]

Ben looked troubled as everything came out. How would his parents react? The police? The doctors? Everyone seemed to have a different opinion on the subject and matter at hand. Ben looked at Celly, then back at his parents. "I... At first I was terrified." He signed to them. "I thought she was going to kill me. And I tried everything I could to escape. But... She was just trying to protect her Mon. It was a bad way to do it, but she had good intentions... I wanted to contact you, but had no way to do it. I don't wanna see her life ruined any more than it already is, dad. For the first time... I wasn't lonely. I had someone to talk to. Someone who cared. I don't want to lose that."

The looks on his parents faces betrayed shock and surprise. Hisom tried to speak, but ended up failing. What was the right thing to do? They could prosecute this girl, ignore her and go home... Neither of which were particularly attractive ideas, given the circumstances... She would be orphaned now. And Ben was sticking up for the girl who had kidnapped him?

"Please, I don't want to see her hurt. She was almost like a sister to me..." Ben looked up at his parents. They looked at each other.

And then, Ben's father spoke. "Well... You've never given us any reason to distrust you, Ben. If that really is how you feel... What would you say if..." He paused a moment, and looked at the girl. "... Celestynn, right? If she became your legal sister?"

The air in the room changed completely, from tension, to shock, admiration, and worry. "We'll make sure she gets the help she needs."

[Ashen]

Celestynn wasn't watching Benjamin sign to his parents, but she could assume what he was saying. This bitch is nuts, now let's leave and be done with this. Was there even a sign for bitch? Celestynn didn't know it, if there was one, but she figured Ben was signing something similar. She let the silence settle in the room. It pricked at her skin, choked at her throat, suffocated her. She couldn't even think straight. The wait was unbearable. Why wouldn't the cops just take her away? Why wouldn't she just go to jail, be tried as an adult, and spend the rest of her life rotting? Being told anything was worse than this deafening silence.

But then, Ben's father spoke. And what he said just... confused her. Celestynn looked up and made eye contact with the man for the first time. Her face was one of bewilderment. Had she even heard him right? She looked around the room, at the confused expressions surrounding her. Maybe she had heard him right. And maybe this man was as insane as she was.

Celly tried looking for the right words. She was having a hard time finding any. Finally, she spoke. "Why would you do that?" She didn't mean to be rude; she wanted to know. "Why would you help me? After I caused your family so much worry, and after I kidnapped your son. Why would you..." She looked to Ben, as if asking him for the answers. "Why do you even want anything to do with me?"

[Drakonnas]

As expected, the reactions of everyone in the room were reactions of surprise. Did Ben's parents just offer to adopt the girl who had kidnapped their son? Ben's father knelt down so that he was on eye level with Celestynn, and looked her squarely in the eyes. "Because it is my son's wish." He said. "Because I can see how badly you need it. Because I don't believe in turning away help to those who are in need. Because... Because." The room was completely silent. "Of course, you are free to turn down this offer. But... Think about it. What are you going to do from here? You don't want to go to jail, do you? Or to an orphanage? We could prosecute you. But... I don't want to do that. You caused us a great deal of worry and pain, yes. But... my son is safe, and I wish to help ease your pain. You've probably dealt with enough." He said. He turned and pointed at Ben.

"He requested you. He asked for you. While you took away his family, you also gave him something he hasn't ever had. And that was valuable enough to him that he wants you to come." Ben nodded behind his father, and signed. You're my sister, right? I'm your little brother, right? Come on. You took me to help you. Now, let me do that.

[Ashen]

Celestynn couldn't believe what was happening. She was being offered a home, a loving family, something she really hadn't had since Ziven's diagnosis. It had been too long, and though she didn't know how it would work, she was willing to try. She nodded her head. The faintest smile was on her lips. "I would love that," she said, to everyone in the room. "I would... I would love nothing more than that. I... I accept."

A week later...

The church smelled of incense and corn poppy, the national flower of Poland. The church was full of people in black: police officer friends of Celly's father, day care friends of her mother's, friends from Celly's school. Even people from around town were here, all honoring the life of Aniela.

Celestynn was wearing a short black dress with matching gloves. This had been the third funeral she'd attended. The scent of the first two still clung to her clothes. It had been the same priest all three times, and this priest would now know that Celly had no family. But that wasn't true. Beside her was Ben, and his mom and dad, soon to be her adoptive parents. They'd dropped the charges all together, which meant that Celly would be able to continue her life somewhat normally. She'd be moving to Iowa after this ceremony, where she would continue with school. She'd keep in touch with all of her friends of course; Jess and Eve were already spending the night at Ben's--and now her--house. Really, Celly couldn't complain. The absence of her biological family hurt her, but she knew that with the help of her friends and family, she would be able to cope.

The funeral went by just like the other two. When it came time to lower the coffin into the ground, Celestynn took in a breath. Jess offered her a small smile of sympathy. This was it. Aniela was being buried between her son and husband. All of the Zykowski's were in this cemetery now. They were together. Celestynn may have been very far from all of them, but for one more time, they were in the same place.

After it all ended, Celly asked for some time alone with her family. When she was alone, she sat by the gravestone of her mother. She spoke in Polish not because she was afraid of anyone eavesdropping but because it was the language they all knew, and for she and her parents, the language they knew better. "Hey." She was looking out at the sky as she spoke. "We're together again. Like a family." There were tears at her eyes, and one trickled down her cheek. "I miss you guys," she admitted. "I miss you a lot. And I'm sorry that I could not save you. But I will save myself. I will not rest here, not for a very long time, I promise it. I'll live the life that would make all of your proud.

"I hope you don't mind that I'm going to live with Benjamin's family now. They've adopted me out of the kindness of my heart, and they're going to see that I get the help I need. They are very good people, and if you all are with a god, make sure you put in a good word to him or her about them, okay? Thank you." The tears were falling quickly now. Celestynn wiped at them with the back of her hand and rose. She looked to the three plots of land, the three burial places. "I love you, Ziven," she whispered. "I love you, Dad. I love you, Mum." She gave them one last smile before turning and walking to where Benjamin, their parents, Jess, and Eve were all waiting for. Walking into her new life.