"Ha ha! Beat you again!" Liesal exclaimed as she drew a line through her x's.

"Best five out of seven?" I asked cocking an eyebrow. Liesal had beat me for the third time in a row in 'tic tac toe'.

"Sure," she replied. After about 20 seconds she yelled, "I won once again!"

"What?" I asked in disbelief. "But how?..."

"I am the champion of tic tac toe!" she said with mock superiority.

"We'll see about that," I warned. "Hey Eric! How about helping your sister out?" 

"What?" he asked.

"Help me beast Leisal!" I pleaded.

"No thanks," he said as he looked back outside. Eric sat by the window staring at the blank sky.

 "What are you looking at?" Liesal asked.

"Nothing," he replied in a monotonous tone. Something was definitely wrong, he never acted this dull. Eric is always energetic and happy, but I decided to leave him be.

"Alright, but if you want to join the game you'r welcome  anytime, okay?" I told him.

"Okay," he said. So Liesal and I continued our game for maybe two minutes and she won.

"I told you!" she said happily. "I'm the champion, and nobody can beat me!" she exclaimed as she did a victory dance.

"What's going on here?" Henry asked as he entered the living room.

"She beat me at tic tac toe," I replied.

"Oh, I wouldn't say 'beat'," Leisal said. " I would probably say, 'crushed' or 'dominated you'!" she laughed.

"Yeah, sure. Whatever, it was just a game," I told her.

"Says the loser!" she replied smiling. I rolled my eyes and laughed.

"It's nice to see you having fun," Henry said. "Anyway, I came here to tell you that your mother, Joanna, and I are going to get more food. So could you keep and eye on Liesal and your brother while we are gone?" he asked.

"You mean babysit?" I asked.

"We will only be gone for an hour or two," he assured.

"Sure," I said after a lot of thinking.

"Thank you!" he said. "Now be safe," he told us as my mom, Joanna, and Henry left the house.

"So......what do you want to do?" I asked awkwardly.

"Tic tac toe?" she suggested.

"Not a chance," I told her.

"Well then I'm out of ideas, how about you Eric?" Liesal asked. He shrugged his shoulders, never taking his eyes of the sky.

"Come on! I know you've got to be thinking of one game!" I insisted. Again he shrugged.

"Come on Eric! Your sister's told me you invent your own games!" Liesal told him.

"CAN YOU JUST LEAVE ME ALONE?!!" he screamed at Liesal. She was shocked by his sudden outburst.

"Eric! How dare you yell at her, apologize!" I demanded. What happened to him I thought. He's changed.

"Why should I apologize to someone who is pestering me?!" he asked.

"APOLOGIZE NOW!" I demanded, this time more firmly. His eyes widened, he looked extremely hurt.

"I'm s.....sorry," he stuttered. He then ran out of the house tears streaming down his cheeks.

"Eric!" I yelled as I ran after him. "Come back!" But no use, he just kept running. He got closer and closer to the forest. If he runs into the forest he'll get lost I thought. He will be lost and it'll be my fault, I thought as I chased Eric. "Eric come back, please!" I yelled.

"Why?" I shouted. "Why should I come back?"

I opened my mouth but found that I couldn't answer. Why should he come back? There was no point, there was no future on this planet. But then I remembered why, "Because I can't lose someone I love! Mom can't lose someone she loves!" I replied.

"Eric!" Liesal yelled. I turned around and saw that she too was crying. "I think of you as my little brother, please stop running!" she screamed. He slowed down but continued to run. I picked up my speed, my legs were aching terribly, I could only imagine how Eric felt. I kept running, determined to catch him. Suddenly Eric stopped running, I almost bumped into him.

"I'm sorry," he said looking up, his eyes were red and puffy. I gave him a big bear hug and picked him up. 

"Don't be," I told him, I could now feel that my cheeks were wet from my own tears. I put him down and he walked towards Liesal.

"I'm sorry I took my anger out on you," he told her.

"That's alright," she said wiping away her tears. "Don't run away again, okay?" He nodded, and then we group hugged. The moment only lasted for a minute before we heard thunder.

"Hurry up, let's get inside," I said. "It looks like there's going to be a storm." Little did I know that it was far worse than a storm. We ran inside shielding out heads as the rain began. When we reached the house we heard the thunder once more, but this time louder. Both Liesal and Eric looked terrified. "Don't worry, it's just a little rain," I assured them as we headed in.

"That was weird," Liesal said as I locked the door.

"What?" I asked.

"That thunderstorm came out of nowhere," she replied. 

I shrugged, "Mother nature's done weirder things,".

"I don't think so," Eric said pointing outside. I turned to look and saw the the sky had cleared up, it was sunny. 

"What the heck?" I said puzzled. "How did that happen?" Eric shook his head, and walked towards the window.

I looked over to Liesal and saw that her face was pale and her eyes were wide in horror. 

"Are you okay," I asked worried.

"Eric, move away from that window," she told him.

"What?" he asked confused. I motioned him over and he walked towards us.

"Liesal you seem sick, do you have a fever?" I asked as I went to touch her forehead.

"Oh no...", was her only response as her eyes locked on something outside. I turned around to see what she was staring at.

"Oh no," I said as I found what she was looking at.

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Thanks for reading chapter four! 

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I will be updating soon.

-chihiro_07