Ashe and Mel walked into their hosts' cabin. They hadn't been down to the lake in years, and their friend, Troy's, girlfriend had recently disappeared. Knowing the girls' abilities, the family had called the twins to lend a hand.

Ashe and Mel were no ordinary girls, and not just because they were fraternal twins. Each had their own "unique" ability that made them the perfect team for solving seemingly impossible mysteries. In the past, they had solved murders, kidnappings, and robberies, and had never falsely accused anyone. They always got their man.

The victim this time was Serah Parkins. Serah had been dating the girls' good friend, Troy Lawrence, for several years. It had been a great relationship and she had always seemed so happy, so no one has any idea how or why she disappeared. Most people rule out the possibility of her disappearing on her own.

"Melanie! Ashlynn! It's so good to see you! How are my favorite little girls?" Joe Lawrence said to his second son's friends. Joe was always a friendly guy, no matter what the situation. Twenty-five years as a cop and losing your wife in a car accident can teach you how to cover up your feelings pretty well.

"Joe!" the twin girls said in unison. They were then enveloped in a huge hug.

"We've been great," Ashe said has she pushed her fiery red bangs behind her ear. "How's Troy?"

"Why don't you ask him yourself?" said a figure emerging from the dining room to their right, arms spread, expecting a hug.

"Troy!" exclaimed Mel as she ran to her childhood friend. Mel had always loved Troy like the brother she had always wanted. Likewise, Troy had always wanted a sister like Mel, instead of his annoying brother, Travis.

Ashe, however, had always taken a liking to Travis. He was one year older and could brighten up anyone's day. But, he was nowhere to be found.

Joe chuckled, "Ah, it's always refreshing to see a smile on my son's face. You don't see too many of those anymore."

"Well how can I not smile when two of my best friends just arrived?" Troy asked his father.

"Don't flatter us, Troy," joked Ashe, a smile spreading across her face.

"Now, now, if it isn't Ashlynn Reed," said another voice from behind the redheaded girl. She turned around to see Travis standing in the doorway, a smile finding its way to her face. She walked up and embraced the boy, sending a chill up her spine. "Something isn't right…" she thought as she pulled away, her smile no longer sincere, but the fake one she had mastered after years of dealing with situations like these.

Mel instantly noted the change in her sister's mood. Her chocolate brown eyes darted up and met with her sister's deep, jade ones. Mel flipped her long, jet-black hair and walked to their luggage, which had been left sitting in the doorway.

"Well Ashe," she said, "We should probably go get unpacked. We have a lot to do. We'll come talk to you guys when we're done."

"Do you guys need any help with that?" Travis asked.

"No!" both girls replied at once. Travis raised his hands in surrender as the twins ascended the stairs to their room.

Mel entered first and Ashe followed quickly, locking the door behind her. They dropped their bags on their beds and Ashe crossed the room to her sister.

"Something's different about Travis," Ashe stated to her sister, who was eying her carefully. "He's… He's not himself. Something's changed! I don't know what!" Her eyes began welling up with tears she refused to shed.

Ashe's ability was reading people. By touching them she could focus on their thoughts and know what they were thinking. But for some reason, she couldn't focus on Travis's thoughts, which worried her greatly.

"Calm down, sis. He's probably just worried about Serah. We all are. We'll talk to him after dinner. Joe's grilling steak, so just relax for a bit, kay?"

"Okay, got it."

They changed for dinner, Ashe wearing her favorite flannel shirt and jean shorts, her shoulder-length red hair straightened perfectly. Mel had put on jean shorts and a cami, thrown an American Eagle hoodie over it, and scrunched her silky black hair. They went downstairs and out the back door, following the smell of barbeque. Travis and Troy were seated across from each other at a picnic table under some pine trees. Joe was manning the grill.

The girls walked over to the picnic table where the boys were seated. Mel sat next to Troy, and Ashe next to Travis. Troy was sulking, when Mel asked, "So do you have any suspects?"

Ashe gave her sister a glare. Even though she usually went straight to the point as well, she knew when to take things lightly. Mel, obviously, did not.

Travis waited for his brother to respond. When there was none, he simply stated, "No one comes to mind. Everyone loved Serah. I can't imagine anyone in town ever doing something like this to anyone. Especially Serah."

Troy nodded in agreement.

"Chow time! I hope you're hungry!" Joe said as he placed a platter of T-bone steaks in front of the teens. Everyone plopped one onto his or her plates, except for Travis, and this didn't go unnoticed by Ashe.

"Aren't you eating?" she asked curiously, green eyes searching the tanned face of her friend.

He crossed his arms over his chest. "I don't want to eat too much. I'm going out tonight. I was actually hoping you would join me, Ashe." He said as he smiled at her, perfect teeth gleaming in the light of the sun.

Mel dropped her fork, and all eyes were turned on her. No one ever asked to do anything with her sister. Most people thought of Ashe to be a boring, stick in the mud. She smiled and looked at her sister. "You should go," she said. "No one ever asks you to do anything."

Ashe turned a light shade of pink. She knew it was true, and that she should go. But something was holding her back. She couldn't put her finger on it. Then she realized he was still waiting for her answer. She nodded her head slowly.

"Great," he said. "Dress for fun. We're going to the boardwalk with some of my friends."

"Boardwalk?" asked Mel. "Isn't this the woods? Since when is there a boardwalk in the woods?"

Troy spoke for the first time since that afternoon. "They added it last year. Kids were complaining about having nothing to do, so they put up a boardwalk along the lake. It's actually not too bad."

"Sounds like fun," Mel replied.

Then they finished their dinner in silence.

Travis and Ashe were sitting in Joe's old Ford pickup truck, on their way to the boardwalk to meet Travis's friends.

"So who are your friends?" Ashe asked.

"Tonight we're meeting Matt, Sean, Hope, and Rosalia. I have more friends though."

Ashe smiled a bit. "Well I kind of figured you had more friends."

He looked over at her for a second and returned his focus to the road. "Just thought I'd make it clear. I have a reputation to uphold, you know." He smiled widely. They took a left and were no longer under the cover of various species of trees.

"So we're almost there?" Ashe said after a few minutes of silence.

Instead of answering, Travis merely pointed into the distance. She followed his gaze and saw a Ferris Wheel towering above the lake. Just as they pulled into the parking lot, four people about their age ran to the truck.

One boy was blond and had striking blue eyes, and was wearing a white sweatshirt and jeans. His fingers were intertwined with a girl about a head shorter than him with platinum, shoulder-length hair and eyes that were a very light shade of violet. She wore a green Aero sweater and a jean skirt that stopped halfway to her knees. Next to her was a girl with curly brown hair and hazel eyes. Ashe noted that this girl had the tips of her hair dyed hot pink, which matched the T-shirt she was wearing, paired with yellow skinny jeans. The boy next to her had dark hair that hung in front of his amber eyes. He wore a plain yellow shirt and jeans.

"Dude!" the blond greeted Travis as he got out of the truck. Ashe was already out and on the other side with all the teens.

"Hey Matt!" Travis said to the blond as they did some sort of handshake that Ashe couldn't follow. "This," he gestured to Ashe, "is Ashlynn, but feel free to call her Ashe. But be careful around her. She's some kind of freaky psychic," Travis joked. Ashe let her head hang as the group laughed. "It wouldn't be so funny if you didn't think it was a joke," she thought.

The girl with platinum hair spoke next. "I'm Rosalia, but you can call me Rose." She smiled genuinely and Ashe knew she was going to like this girl.

"I'm Matt! It's so nice to meet you!" the blond said as he engulfed Ashe in a bear hug.

"He has no sense of personal space," the girl with hazel eyes said. "I'm Hope, by the way. And that's Sean," she said pointing over her shoulder to the dark-haired boy, who had his arms crossed and was eying Ashe carefully. She was starting to feel uncomfortable. She decided to see what his problem was. She walked up to him and extended her hand.

He eyed her like she was a mental patient, but reluctantly extended his own. Travis smirked, knowing what was going to happen. She squeezed Sean's hand and closed her eyes, and it all came to her. His full name was Sean Joseph Martinez, and he had lived at the lake for three years. He was dating Hope, and had a niece named Jenny. She opened her eyes and looked back at Travis when his thought was about her.

"She looks like Serah..."

The words echoed in her mind. It hadn't occurred to her that she would look like Serah. She didn't even know what Serah had looked like.

"Well, let's go have some fun!" Rose yelled as she ran toward the boardwalk. They all followed.

Mel and Troy were walking slowly through the woods. After some very depressing questioning, Troy was taking Mel to the last place he had seen his beloved Serah: the dock.

Troy, Travis, Mel, and Ashe used to come to the dock as children, always trying to push each other into the lake below. Mel and Ashe had always been the ones to fall in. In fact, Ashe had almost drowned once after being thrown in by Troy. Her foot had caught on a rope tied to the post supporting the dock. If Travis hadn't thought fast, she would have died.

As the dock came into view, Mel asked what they had been doing there when Serah disappeared. Troy stepped onto the dock and looked out over the lake at the now setting sun.

"We had been sitting on the edge of the dock, looking at the stars. We were just talking, you know? Nothing really special or different. She started shivering, and I told her to stay there and I ran back to the house to get her a jacket. When I got back, she was gone... If I would have taken her with me, or just hadn't left, she would still be here... It's all my fault..." he had just gotten out when Mel smacked him across the face. His eyes widened in shock.

"Don't you dare beat yourself up for what happened! You did what anyone would have done. You were just being a good boyfriend. We'll find her, I promise." "Dead or alive..."

Mel turned to face the lake as well. The water was dark and murky, making it hard to see down very far. She was about to use her ability, when she remembered its side effect.

Mel could greatly enhance any of her five senses, which was very helpful in solving cases. She could make her eyesight so strong that she could almost detect fingerprints without powder, and could easily find hidden bloodstains without luminal. Her hearing could become so powerful that she could hear conversations held between people in a different building than her, and smell the faintest hint of anything from about a mile away. However, to strengthen one sense, she had to sacrifice the other four, leaving her vulnerable from several angles.

"Troy, keep a lookout for anyone. If someone is coming, wave your hand in front of my face."

Troy looked at her, confused. "Okay? Will do."

Mel could no longer hear or feel the wind whistling against her. She could no longer smell the crisp autumn air. She looked down into the water and could easily see to the bottom. She saw the rope, still tied to the post, but something was wrong with the rope. She thought she could detect a faint amount of blood on the inside of the rope, signaling her that someone had probably been tied here. Her mind raced. "Was Serah drowned?" she asked herself. She would have to remember to have someone fetch the rope later. She kept looking into the deep blue water. There was nothing else unusual. Just as she had regained her other senses and her vision went back to normal, a hand was thrust in her face.

"Mel, I hear something coming from the woods... It's really freaking me out."

"Calm down Troy. It's probably an animal." She could hear the noise too. Just some leaves rustling. Most likely a squirrel or chipmunk. She led the frightened teen back to the house.

Ashe had never had so much fun. Solving cases was her life. She had never realized that there was anything else to do besides that. But Travis had proved her wrong.

"Let's get on the Ferris Wheel!" Rosalia said, pulling Matt along with her.

"I don't want to go!" Matt said in response, still running with her. "I'm scared of heights!" The remaining four chuckled as Rose led Matt away anyway.

"Well," said Hope, "I want a funnel cake. Let's go Sean." She started walking away, and Sean reluctantly followed, but not without glancing at Ashe once before he left.

"I guess that just leaves us, Ashe," Travis said as he gave her that smile that always seemed to brighten her day.

"I suppose so," she replied.

"Let's go get something to eat," he suggested. She nodded and followed him to a sushi stand.

The stand was surrounded by decorations of various sorts. Flags were hung all around, swords had been hung on the far wall, and the paper lanterns were beautiful under the setting sun. They took seats at bar stools that surrounded a giant hangiri. An odd smell surrounded the place, a smell not usually associated with sushi.

The smell of death.

Ashe tensed and Travis sensed it. "Why don't we go somewhere else? I don't really like sushi anyway." Ashe nodded and started walking away; making a mental note to bring her sister back to the sushi stand after it had closed.

"Why don't we just go?" Ashe asked. "I'm getting kind of tired anyway, and I can't wait to tell Mel about all the fun we've had!" her face beaming with an unnoticeably fake smile. Travis seemed to buy it.

"Alright, let's go."

Mel and Troy were sitting in the living room watching cartoons. They were the only thing on that didn't seem to upset the grieving teenager. The silence between them was a bit awkward; neither one knew what to say. It was Troy who finally broke the silence.

"Do you think I'll ever see her again?" he asked, hope filling his cerulean eyes. She looked up at him from her position on the floor.

"Of course you will! Me and Ashe are going to make sure of it!" She gave him a thumbs up and a genuine smile. He smiled back and returned his gaze to the television. Just then, the front door opened, and in walked Ashe followed closely by Travis. Travis had a big smile on his face, and was staring at the back of Ashe's head, while Ashe walked over to her sister. Troy spotted his brother's glare at his friend, and clenched his fists. He had always looked at Serah that way.

It was... menacing.

Mel seemed to pick up Travis's line of sight as well. She was surprised he wasn't drooling, the way he was looking at her sister. It disgusted her.

"Ashe! How was your night?" she asked as she got up and hugged her sister closely. "Why don't we go upstairs and you can tell me all about it."

Ashe noted the urgency in her sister's tone. "Alright, let's go."

"Wait, I should come too," Troy said. The girls looked at him. The face they received told them that he knew something they didn't. They both nodded and looked back at Travis, still standing in the doorway, looking confused.

"I'll see you tomorrow," Ashe said. "I had a lot of fun. Thank you." She blew him a kiss. He blushed and walked toward the kitchen, where Joe was microwaving popcorn.

In the girls' room, Ashe and Mel sat on Mel's bed while Troy leaned against the desk. Mel grabbed her sister's hand as she began.

"Ashe, I don't think you should spend much more time with Travis."

"I know"

Troy and Mel looked at the redheaded girl, astounded. "You know?" Troy asked.

"I do."

"Well, that makes everything a whole lot easier, doesn't it?" Mel added. The others nodded.

"I also have reason to believe that this case is going to lead us to a sushi stand down at the boardwalk," Ashe said.

"How so?" asked Troy.

"Tonight Travis took me to a sushi place. It smelled terrible, like death. Mel, I think we need to go down there and check it out tonight." Ashe stated very calmly.

Troy then spoke up. "I think Travis is involved in this murder."

Mel replied, "Why? He's your own brother! Why would he do such a thing?"

"Simple," Ashe added.

"She looked too much like Ashlynn." Troy responded. He reached into his back pocket for his wallet. He opened it up and pulled out a picture of Serah, then gave it to the twins.

For Ashe, it was like looking in a mirror.

The girl staring back at them had curly red hair to her shoulders. Her eyes were an emerald green, and she was smiling widely at the camera.

"She does look like you," Mel said to her sister, who nodded in response. "But what does that have to do with Serah's disappearance?"

"In case you couldn't tell," Troy started, "Travis has always liked Ashe. A lot. My thought is that he couldn't stand me being in a relationship with someone who looked so much like her."

"Well," Ashe said, "I'm going to find out."

Mel and Ashe were on their way down to the boardwalk, and Troy was keeping Travis busy back at home. How, they don't know, but does it really matter? Using their flashlights, they were cautiously headed toward the sushi stand. Ashe led Mel to the stools they had been sitting in, and watched as her sisters eyes turned from brown and full of life, to white and unseeing. She didn't know if her sister was unaware of the change in eye color, but she probably didn't need to know anyway.

Mel could smell the odor before, but it was almost unbearable now. She grabbed her sister's shoulder and started wandering aimlessly toward the source of the stench. Ashe recognized the room she was now in as a storage room for excess tables and chairs.

Mel followed the smell until she ran into a large crate. As her vision came back, she saw Ashe beginning to pry the lid off the crate. When the lid came off, what they saw appalled them.

In the box, was an arm.

The arm had definitely belonged to a human, and the smell that came off of it was horrible. Ashe then noticed that the hand was holding something.

A note.

You girls are so predictable. Following your first

instinct isn't always the best idea, is it?

Now you're trapped in here. There is no escape.

I've already made sure of that.

Just then they heard the door to the storage room slam closed. The criminal had followed them. They returned their attention to the note.

Don't bother trying to call for help. No one

will hear you scream. No one heard Serah either.

Soon you'll get to meet her; in the

afterlife.

"Crap!" Mel yelled as she pulled her long black hair into a ponytail. "This sucks!"

"Relax," her sister told her as she took a seat on one of the spare chairs. "We're going to be fine."

Mel turned to Ashe. "What do you mean, 'We're going to be fine?!' We're locked in a storage room in the back of a freaking sushi stand! And there isn't even any sushi in here!"

She then followed her sister's gaze, which was focused on the ceiling.

A vent.

"Give me a boost," Ashe said to her sister. Mel walked over and cupped her hands right below her stomach. Ashe put her right foot into Mel's hands and Mel hoisted her up.

"I got it," Ashe said as she climbed into the vent. Mel grabbed a chair and stood on it, then proceeded to jump and get a grip on the entrance to the air vent. She crawled up in and followed her sister to where they saw a light.

They got out of the vent on the outside of the sushi stand and broke into a sprint for the Lawrence's.

So they wouldn't wake anyone up, they climbed the vine that led to their second story window. When they got up, they found another note on Ashe's bed.

"You go read it! I read the last one!" Ashe said as she grabbed a pillow and sat on the floor, hugging it.

Mel approached the note and picked it up. It read:

Dear Ashe,

I had a lot of fun on our date tonight. I can't wait

to see you again. Meet me at the dock at

midnight. I'll see you there.

Love, Travis

"It's just a note from your 'boyfriend'," Mel told her sister. Ashe got off the floor and took the note from Mel. She read it over carefully.

"I've got a bad feeling about this," She said.

"You're not the only one, sis. I don't think you should go."

"If you think I'm not going you're crazy. I think Travis may be the murderer, and this will give me the chance to find out."

Mel looked at her sister, dumbfounded, but nodded reluctantly. She got in her pajamas and pulled her hair into a high ponytail, then went downstairs to watch some TV with Troy.

Ashe vaulted herself back out the window and started heading for the cabin, when she thought she smelled something odd. She followed her nose and it led her to a sewer grate. However, the smell wasn't sewer. She called her sister.

"Mel! Come meet me in the back yard! I think I got something!" she yelled in her sister's ear, and then abruptly hung up before Melanie could decline. Several minutes later, Mel and Troy were standing in front of her.

"Well, I think I smell a dead thing," Ashe stated.

Troy spoke next, "It's a sewer. There are probably tons of dead things down there."

"But this is human dead. I can feel it."

The world slowly started to slip away from Mel as her sense of smell became dominant. She could smell the death. It was strong.

"I'll go in after it. Ashe, you go meet Travis. Troy, you go get some sleep. You look tired. Leave the investigating to us!" She lifted the lid off the grate and jumped into the dark hole. No splash of sewer water was heard from above.

"Hey sis! You OK?"

"Yeah," Mel replied, "I'm good. It's really weird. There's no water, just rocks and dirt."

"I'm going to bed," Troy said and headed back toward his home.

"And I'm going to the dock," Ashe said to herself.

The sewer wasn't damp at all. It was actually rather dry down there. The smell of death was prominent. She followed the smell, only to come to a dead end. However, she knew something was here. The stench reassured her that her thoughts were not false. She decided it would probably help to have her eyesight increased, so that's what she did. Her eyes quickly saw something, but her ears failed to catch the sound of footsteps coming up behind her…

Ashe approached the dock cautiously. She had no idea who she was dealing with. He could be a boy who was very attracted to her, or a homicidal maniac. Or both.

As she neared the edge of the dock, she felt two strong hands against her back. She was violently thrust forward into the cool, dark pool of water below her. She tried desperately to swim to safety, but something, or someone, was restraining her. Her world slowly went dark.

Troy was sitting on the couch in the living room eating popcorn with extra butter when the doorbell rang. He looked at the clock and saw the time, 12:32. Who would be coming to the house so late? Or was it early? Whatever the case, he sat down his bowl of popcorn and went to the door. When he opened it, he revealed his brother's friend Sean.

"Hey," Sean said as he entered the door.

"Uhhh… Hi? What are you doing here?" Troy asked curiously.

Sean began to make his way toward the kitchen. "Aren't you excited to see me?"

Troy began to back away when Sean began rummaging through the drawers. He stopped when he came to the knife drawer. "Well, yeah I'm excited to see you. I guess…" He replied, the fear imminent in his voice.

Sean pulled out a large carving knife and spun around to face the scared boy in the doorway.

"You shouldn't be."

Melanie began to turn around. She wasn't planning on trying to remove the body by herself. She would have the police come and retrieve it in the morning. When she was spun completely around, she let out a scream, only to realize that it was just Joe standing behind her.

"Hey Mel. Sorry I scared you. What are you doing down here at one in the morning?"

"Oh, hey Joe. I was just coming down here to inspectify the place. I think I found the body, but I don't want to tamper with the crime scene. I'm just going to have the police come down here in the morning." She began to walk back toward the entrance to the sewer, but was blocked by Joe's large arm.

"I'm afraid I can't let you do that, princess," he said in a menacing tone. He pulled out a pistol.

Melanie's brown eyes widened to the size of bowling balls. "W-what are you d-doing?" she stuttered.

"I hate to do this, but," he aimed the gun at her, "I simply can't let this crime scene be discovered."

Think this through, Melanie. Keep him talking. Keep his mind off of shooting me. "Why can't you let the scene be discovered?"

Joe sighed. "Travis killed Serah. I don't know why, and I don't know how," a tear formed at the corner of his eye, "but I can't let anyone know. I won't let them take my little boy away from me!"

"Joe?"

"Huh?"

"You're little boy is a homicidal freak! And he's going to kill my sister RIGHT NOW if we don't stop him! Do you really want him to be responsible for that? Can you live with that?"

"You mean little Ashe! He's going after her! Oh God, where are they?!" he asked, obviously not wanting to have to go through this again.

"At the dock! We need to get there, fast!"

"Let's go!"

Ashe slowly began to regain consciousness. She was soaking wet and uncomfortable. She also didn't know where she was.

The room she was in was decorated like a cabin. For all she knew, it was a cabin. All the furniture had the appearance of logs, and the lamp on the desk was in the shape of a moose. Why anyone would want a moose lamp, she didn't know. There were two doors. One directly across from the couch she was on, and one on the right adjacent wall. She began to stand up and noticed that she couldn't get off of the couch. Some other force was restraining her and pushing her back against the couch.

The door to her right opened, and Travis nonchalantly walked in. "Hello, Ashlynn." She glared back at him, still pressed against the back of the couch. "I see you're making yourself comfortable."

Ashe noted the bloodstains on the couch she was sitting on. She knew who's they were. She couldn't help but feel bad for the poor girl who had sat on this couch only a few weeks before her. She wouldn't have known what was going on, or why she couldn't move. She didn't know that there were certain people in this world with special abilities. Ashe didn't know that Travis was one of these people.

"The look on you're face tells me that you know what I am." Travis said while pulling the chair from the desk out so he could sit across from her.

"This is why I couldn't read your thoughts," she stated.

"Ahh, bravo. You always were smarter than your sister. Maybe that's why I've always liked you more," he smiled and reached out to touch her face. She turned her head and bit him hard on the wrist, hard enough to break skin. He momentarily lost concentration and Ashe took her chance to get off the couch. She ran to the desk and took the moose lamp. She prepared to hit Travis with it, when he thrust his hand forward, and she flew into the wall.

"Now, now. Let's not get feisty." He grabbed her by the front of her shirt and pulled her to her feet. She looked him in the eye and saw a psychopath staring back at her. She then felt something hard and cold being pushed into her stomach.

The barrel of a gun.

"Why are you doing this?" Troy asked Sean, who was still holding the carving knife.

"Doing what?" Sean asked, sincerely confused.

"You're about to kill me!"

Sean looked down at the knife he was holding. "What? No, no! You've got it all wrong! I got this to defend myself! You're brothers at the cabin with that girl that looks like Serah! He's not himself anymore, man. I don't know what he's doing there with her, but considering that's where he was with Serah right before she went missing-"

"Travis was with her before she went missing?!" Troy exclaimed.

"Yeah, dude. Didn't you know that?" Troy just stared at him. "I guess you didn't. But I think Travis had something to do with her disappearance so I was going to see what's going on down there. But then I figured it would be best if I had something do defend myself, y'know?"

Troy went to the hall closet and pulled out a baseball bat. "I'm going with you."

Melanie and Joe were sprinting toward the cabin. The crisp air was burning their throats, but they didn't care. They had to get there on time. There was no other option.

They eventually arrived there, and thrust the door open. They saw Travis holding Ashe against the wall with one hand, and pressing a .32 pistol to her stomach with the other. He turned around to face his visitors.

"Welcome to our little party," he said calmly. "Why don't you sit down? Take a load off." They were forced through the air and onto the couch, an invisible force restraining them.

"Ashe!" Mel called.

"It won't help," Joe stated with sadness in his voice. "He's insane."

Just then, the door flew open and Sean ran in with his carving knife, and Troy with this bat. Travis focused on hurling them at the wall, and left Mel and Joe just sitting there. Joe pulled out his own pistol and pulled the trigger, but missed. The bullet missed its target by an inch and hit Ashe in the arm.

She let out shriek and grabbed her arm, which was now gushing blood. Travis whirled around and aimed the gun at his father, but before he could shoot, Troy swung at his legs with the baseball bat. Travis fell to the floor, and Mel got up and hit him over the head with the moose lamp. He went unconscious.

"Dude, I think we should, like, get Serah 2 to the hospital," Sean said while pointing at Ashe. Mel pulled out her phone and dialed 911, and was told that the ambulance would arrive shortly.

Ashe slowly began to wake up, and found that she was in yet another unfamiliar room. But this was a hospital room. What had happened? She saw the bandage on her arm and everything came back to her.

The door to her room opened and her sister walked in.

"Hey Ashe," she said while giving a small wave.

"Hi."

"How are you feeling?"

"I've been better. This is my first shooting experience."

"You're taking it pretty well."

"I suppose."

"They ID'd the body I found in the sewer," the dark haired girl said.

"You found a body?"

"Yeah. Serah's."

"How's Troy taking it?"

"Better than I thought he would."

"So he hasn't locked himself in his room with a teddy bear?"

Melanie giggled. "No, not yet." The sisters laughed together. "The police arrested Travis, so we don't have to deal with him anymore."

"I'm going to miss him. Not the homicidal psychopath, but the guy he used to be."

"The ME is examining Serah now. I'll be back with the results in a bit."

"Okay. See ya, Mel."

Ashe was discharged from the hospital two days later. They went back to Lawrence residence and began to pack their things. It had been a horrible experience for all of them, in different ways. Joe had lost his loving son, in exchange for a psychotic who was now being held in jail until his court hearing. Ashe had been nearly killed in the same way Serah had been. Mel had almost lost her partner, and sister. And poor Troy had lost the love of his life.

Mel and Ashe stood in the doorway, receiving final hugs from Joe and Troy.

"Take care, girls. Come back any time," Joe told them both. They nodded in return.

"So I'll see you guys soon?" Troy asked.

"Most definitely," Mel replied with a large smile.

Troy smiled back. "Maybe I'll come and visit you next time. And hopefully it will because I wanted to, and no one died."

"Of course," Ashe said. "That's the way it should be."

Troy grabbed Ashe's bags and Mel grabbed her own as they made their way to the cab that was parked in front of the house. All bags were thrown into the trunk and the girls loaded into the back seat. Troy and Joe backed up and waved at the cab, and the twins waved at them through the window. The cab started off and road down the dirt path, making it's way back to their home in Pittsburgh.