Hebe wanted to give a loud yelp because Keven was gripping onto her arm so tightly that it hurt. A bruise might have formed already. It wasn’t until they got outside cutting around the garage that Hebe finally noticed the tall trees that created the thick woods from her dream.

“Where are we going? Where are you taking us?” Hebe urged the words out of .

“To the area where we will disperse of you,” Keven replied. “If you have anything to say before you disappear from this world, now is the time dear little step sister.”

Before Hebe could say anything she was thrown to the ground and before she could turn to look at Keven Selina was suddenly tossed onto the ground beside her. She looked frail and sick which made Hebe’s heart drop deep within her. Selina’s pleadings, her warnings that she’d tried to stop Hebe with were all coming back now. Hebe was filled with guilt. If Selina was really pregnant, as she’d suspected, Hebe didn’t want it to be her fault that her child would die.

Selina’s eyes suddenly twitched and she slowly opened them.

“Selina, are you ok? Selina,” Hebe suddenly cried trying to help her friend up.

“Wh…” Selina couldn’t even finish her sentence when the man standing next to Keven spoke up.

“Now that she’s awake should we finally split up?”

Keven turned back to Wei Lian with a glare, “You said you wouldn’t do your pathetic games here! Keep your word! This is my sister and her friend! Lets just kill them now and get it over with! If we stay here any longer we might get found out!”

He sounded angry and as if he’d had enough of the other man’s doings.

“Oh come on. They’re going to die right after anyway and it’s not like I’m hurting your sister. Her friend is going to immediately die after anyway. Don’t get all defensive.”

Selina suddenly gripped Hebe’s hand and with her other hand she gathered as much of the dry dirt as she could and suddenly got up tossing it into the men’s eyes. Hebe felt herself getting dragged after Selina as they tried to make a run.

“They’re going to kill us no matter what, so you go back and get Jiro. He knows what these two men are and he knows they have your twins. Ok, Hebe? I need you to get out of here…” Selina’s words suddenly ended as a loud shot rang into the air and she dropped to the ground.

Hebe’s scream came out mute and turned to see the Lu Wei Lian rushing toward them with a handgun. Keven reluctantly followed him. Hebe suddenly began to breathe twice as hard as before, her chest moving up and down in quick patterns. Tears reached her eyes as she noticed blood seeping from Selina’s leg.

“Are you ok?” asked Hebe with her voice trembling.

She could hear Selina struggle with the pain by biting her lip and making whimpering sounds which she tried to keep as quiet as possible. Before anything could possibly happen Hebe suddenly felt someone pull her hair dragging her away.

||||||||

Jiro stopped his car behind Hebe’s empty car and got out quickly. He ran toward the car glancing inside. He saw no one or anything in her car and turned around to see Aaron hurrying toward the house. As Jiro ran after him he came to slow walk when he recognized the house to be the same one Hebe had described to him. The house she had dreamt about where she'd been chased... It was falling apart and the hole in the window was blocked by a piece of cardboard from the inside. Jiro looked around and turned back to see Aaron enter the house then suddenly realized that it might not be safe for him to just walk in. Aaron had been restless ever since he’d received that text and it was easy to see that it disturbed him. Their children obviously meant a lot to them. This case was becoming more disappointing through Jiro’s eyes.

“Wait.” Jiro found himself rushing ahead and grabbed Aaron’s shoulder. “I’ll lead the way up first just in case.”

Without waiting for him to reply Jiro walked up the small staircase and paused to look down the hallway marked by a trail of fresh blood.

He slightly turned to see Aaron also captivated by the trail of blood. They both were trying to remain calm as they moved forward. Jiro looked through the first door, the next on the left, and when he came to the last door on the right where they stopped. A wooden doll lay on the ground next to a cell phone. When Jiro grabbed the cell phone he heard hurried footsteps rushing away from behind him and when he turned around Aaron was out of sight. With no time to look around anymore Jiro grabbed the cell phone then rushed after Aaron who was already out of the house and making his way around the garage in a run.

“Aaron, wait!” Jiro shouted loudly and grabbed Aaron when he caught up to him. “What’s gotten into you?! You can’t go off running however you like! There could be someone around waiting to hurt you!”

“That’s not the point.” Aaron seemed irritated. “Hebe didn’t come alone.”

“What?” Jiro asked then suddenly realized what Hebe had told her about her dream. A girl had followed her.

“Selina’s here and that blood…belongs to either one of them.”

||||||||

Selina felt him grab hold of her sore ankle again and before she knew it she was being dragged along the dirt to…who knew where. What did he mean by torture? What did he want to do with her? Selina felt too tired to fight back. Her body was crying out for everything to stop. She was so worn out.

||||||||

Hebe shrieked as he shoved her against the ground. When she turned around to get up her step brother crouched over her grabbing a knife from one of his pockets and held the blade to her neck. She could see his scrunched up face through her hair that covered her tear streaked face. She wasn’t sure how to read his feelings because there was a mixture of expressions in his eyes.

Hebe bit her lip. She was helpless. She was never like Selina or Ella who were able to think of ideas and fought back for themselves. She cried in the corner because she’d always been so alone.

“Please stop. I don’t want to die. Keven…” Hebe cried trying to inch her neck away, but only to find her head slowly hitting the ground. She had her hand on his arm however, her strength was not enough to push his arm away.

“Before you die I guess I shall tell you the truth,” he told. “It wasn’t my idea to take your children. Wei Lian was so desperate about your house and when he found out my sister was the lucky owner he came up with the idea because we were both hungry for money, but I would never have thought about taking your money this way. Oh yea, you know about the huge amount of money we received from grandma? You did know I want your share right?”

Hebe could only reply with sobs. So, money did drive people to the ends of the earth. She had been so wrong about everything. She felt so sorry for everything she’d done. For bringing the twins into the world, for breaking Selina and Aaron up, for hating her parents, for relying on Ella so much, and for always denying Calvin’s smart opinions. For hating the world so much that she never understood it. All her regrets and apologies flashed before her eyes. Hebe felt so deprived of loved ones and deep regrets grew within her that even more tears streaked her face.

“That investigator was getting on our tails, so Wei Lian wanted to clean up the mess this way, but I’d never expected you bring Selina along. Now because of you she’s going to die also and you know Wei Lian never has mercy on his victims.”

“Please don’t hurt her…” Hebe begged through muffled tears.

“Well I can’t help you now.” Keven replied. “Did you ever get that message from Selina and Aaron?”

Hebe shook her head. What had he told them that they never told her?

“I told them to tell you to stop waiting for the twins. They’re no longer here, do you understand that?” asked Keven. “They became sick sometime after we took them and died sometime in March. I tried to bury them for you, but I was caught by that stupid night janitor, so their bodies are rotting in that house you were in just now. I’m sorry, well I don’t really feel sorry, but I guess this is where I say sorry right?”

“No. No.” Hebe shook her head. “They’re lies. My children are still alive.” tears swept her face. “You’re lying! You’re lying!” Hebe screamed the words with all the energy she had left.

||||||||

Aaron turned toward the woods and swapped glances with Jiro then started racing into the trees. They were there somewhere. Hebe and Selina were in the woods somewhere…and they were alive. That part assured Aaron at least, but what about the twins? Jiro suddenly grabbed him halting him.

“Be quiet.” Jiro cautioned. “They don’t know we’re here. Promise me, that you will stay calm at all costs. Don’t go running off on your own. It’s dangerous. Do you understand?”

Aaron nodded and watched as Jiro reached toward his gun holster at his back behind his jacket. Jiro urged Aaron forward and they stopped behind a tree. Aaron could feel his heart beat wildly as he listened to Hebe cry loudly and helplessly under her step brother’s hold. Jiro and Aaron were standing so far away it was hard to make out anything Keven was quietly telling Hebe. Just watching Keven torture Hebe like that made Aaron’s blood boil. He felt so sorry and didn’t know how he would ever make up all her sorrow for her. It was only then that he noticed a figure to the far left and something on the ground. What was he seeing? Aaron squinted his eyes and finally realized that if Selina wasn’t there with Hebe she was probably one of the two on the far left. His heart raced and on impulse he began dashing toward them. He had to get to Selina, he had to make sure she was ok. She hadn’t been feeling well the whole day and anything could be wrong with her by now.

Jiro suddenly turned to see Aaron run pass him and he heard himself swear. When he turned back he found that he’d been spotted by Keven and Hebe. Immediately Jiro pulled the trigger three times and Keven toppled over. If it hadn’t been for the chief’s advice to take a shooting class Jiro would have failed at saving Hebe.

Jiro rushed over to Hebe expecting to see her happy face, but instead found her crying. Hebe could only cover with her hand to try to muffle her loud breath taking cries as more and more tears dropped from her eyes. She was breaking down.

“Stay here and promise me you won’t move. Ok? You have to promise me not to move from where you are.” Jiro told and didn’t leave until Hebe nodded.

||||||||

His heavy breathing sounded loudly in his ears as he got closer every second. How…why in the world did Selina end up coming with Hebe? What had happened to Selina? Why was she being dragged like that? Where was the man taking her? Questions bombarded his mind as he urged his legs to run faster. When the man came to a stop Aaron didn’t slow down until he was 10 feet away from them. Hiding behind a tree Aaron caught his breath. He jumped as the dead leaves by his feet swirled in the air after the man had taken a shot from his handgun.

“Who are you? Don’t think I didn’t see you.” he said. “Come out.”

Aaron clenched his jaw then stepped out from behind the tree. The man before him didn’t seem any bigger than he was himself, but the gun he was holding was threatening.

“Who are you? How did you get here?” he questioned. “But I guess that doesn’t matter. I can just dispose of you after I dispose of her.”

“Don’t!” Aaron found himself shouting.

Lu Wei Lian smirked, “So, you know her?”

Aaron glanced at the man’s face. How was he going to answer? How should he answer? Aaron was afraid that if he did anything wrong the man would kill Selina. The man suddenly smiled and dropped Selina’s foot to the ground and Aaron felt his heart shake. Selina was so still he was afraid she wasn’t there anymore. That blood trail he’d seen in the house…now Aaron was sure it belonged to Selina. He shot at the ground before Aaron’s feet causing him to step back in alarm.

“I was just playing.” Wei Lian mocked. “But when I said I was going to get rid of her I meant it. I don’t like to play around for a long time and keep the game going because it gets tiring then I lose my motivation. You what I mean?”

Aaron didn’t respond and watched as Wei Lian lowered the gun toward Selina with a smile. His heart ran in circles and Aaron felt himself begin to shake.

“If I pull the trigger once then her brain will go flying everywhere. How does that sound? Very appealing huh?”

---------------------------------------------------

I've often heard people debate about what real love is. Is it the person you're dating?

Is it your first love, the person whom you will never forget?

Or is it just a fantasy built up by people to protect their feelings and hopes?

Do we really know what true love is?

I don't know, but you might know. Or you don't know and I might know.

My oldest brother and his girlfriend have been dating for a decade and he says it's not real love.

"Then what is true love?" my naiive younger sister asks. Because of her past relationships she knows she's felt love at the least.

But what is true love?

My oldest brother says, "It's the people or person you think of when you're dying."

~Minifantasy

*** She had been so wrong about everything. She felt so sorry for everything she’d done. For bringing the twins into the world, for breaking Selina and Aaron up, for hating her parents, for relying on Ella so much, and for always denying Calvin’s smart opinions. For hating the world so much that she never understood it. All her regrets and apologies flashed before her eyes. Hebe felt so deprived of loved ones and deep regrets grew within her that even more tears streaked her face. [These were the people that Hebe thought about before Keven said he'd kill her] I just wanted to share