-Nate -

Stupid antique store.

I'd wiped down the shelves, cleaned off the front windows, and even mopped. That was how boring it was here this late at night, in the winter. It wasn't like anyone was coming, since it was the middle of January and there was absolutely no reason to be out shopping when there were icy road and fog that could have hid a Mac two feet ahead of your face. I wasn't even sure how I was going to get home. It wasn't this icy before I'd left this morning, that was for sure. And my boss would kill me if he knew I left early.

Naturally, I was surprised when the bell above the door rang and a brush of icy air swept through the shop and threatened to topple some fancy Victorian vases in the window. I brushed the dust off my hands and turned to greet the visitors.

First off, neither one of them looked like they were here for the antiques. In fact, they looked like trouble. Smelled like it, too. There was a certain spicy odor emanating off of the two figures walking towards me. A guy and a girl, both looking to be nineteen or twenty (about my age) and dressed in clothing with holes. Kind of a lot of holes, like they'd been attacked with little knives or something. The guy was tall, almost impossibly so, with muscles. Guy could have bench pressed my car. The girl had long red hair that streamed down around her shoulders like an erupting volcano. Both were startlingly attractive. Despite all these weird qualities they had, I recognized them on a weird level, instinctually. Like they were family or something. But how was that possible? I was pretty sure I didn't feel this way about my own mother.

"Nathan Price?" The girl asked. Her voice was gravelly, not what I was expecting.

And they know my name too? I nodded.

"You got a place to sit down?"

I pointed to a wrought iron table set in the corner of the shop, right next to our collection of ancient cat figurines. The girl sank into a chair easily, like she was a dancer or something. The guy equally so, which was weird considering his bulk. I expected him to be the bull in the antique shop. He noticed me staring at him and nodded curtly.

"Sit, Nathan. You'll want to, believe me."

I sat.

There was silence, in which I wondered why the hell these people were in the store, and why the hell I was sitting at a little table with them. I didn't have to wait long.

"My name's Caitlyn. This here is Scott," Caitlyn stated. "You ever heard of the Carpenters?"

"The singers?" I asked, confused. Oh god. Crazed fans, they had to be. I could see it now. There was a glimmer in Scott's eyes that I wasn't sure about.

"Why does everyone say that?" Scott mumbled, shaking his head.

"What do you mean everyone? He's only the third we've been assigned to find." Caitlyn replied, shooting Scott a look. He shrugged. Caitlyn turned back to me. "Not the singers. Though I can promise if you ever mention them again there will be many angry people to deal with, and as a new guy, you don't want to have to deal with that."

New guy? "What are you talking about?" I asked, staring between the two of them, confused. I had half a mind to kick them out of the shop now, but I was pretty sure that if it came down to a fight between Scott and me, I would lose. So I stayed put.

"The Carpenters are a special race of humans dedicated to maintaining the balance between the spirits and the corporeal world. Throughout the centuries we have worked to protect the rest of the humans from another race, the Lithians."

Oh, so they were sci-fi fanatics. Even better.

"Geez, Caitlyn, you're going about it all the wrong way," Scott said, poking Caitlyn in the shoulder. "Think about it this way- how did you feel when we entered the shop?" Scott asked me.

I frowned. "Uh… like you were customers?"

Scott rolled his eyes. "Did you feel like we were related?"

Damn. They knew. Awkward. "Okay, I don't know where this is going, but I think you guys had better leave."

"Now look what you've done." Caitlyn hissed as I got to me feet. Scott stood as well, towering over me like… well, a tower.

"Okay, we'll leave," Scott said. Thank God. "But only if you come with us."

Shit.

"What do you mean, if I come with you?" I stalled, walking back towards my desk and the panic button that lay underneath. If I could just press it…

"Look, man. We don't have much time. The Lithians are coming-"

"I don't know what you're talking about."

"Didn't you just explain that?" Scott asked Caitlyn.

She shrugged. "Told you this would be a difficult one. I guess we resort to plan B."

Scott nodded, and shot one of his massive hands towards my desk. There was a sound like the rushing of wind, and when I looked back the desk was covered in ice that sparkled with the light from the old fluorescents.

My mouth gaping, I tried to find something that proved this was a dream or something. This wasn't happening. Desks didn't magically freeze.

"Nathan. We really don't have time for this." Caitlyn said, edging towards the door. She looked out into the darkness nervously, like she didn't really want to know what was out there.

"That's not going to work. How about this. Nathan, get out of the store before I freeze your legs as well."

Freeze my legs? Like hell! I vaulted over the desk, thanking god for my cross country team skills, but I forgot it was icy. My hand slipped on the ice and I went flying, crashing into the cabinets behind the counter. Glass rained down around my shoulders, and I cried out as one sunk into my shoulder.

"Good grief." Scott stood over me, shaking his head in disappointment. "I really thought you'd understand better than that. Just the feeling of family got the last two people. Why couldn't you have made this easy?"