We ended up hiding in the dark, dusty vents. The sounds that echoed through them were horrendous! I knew I couldn't take much more of this. I felt completely useless sitting here and hiding, like some sort of coward. I know this was part of the plan we discussed but I wasn't one for sitting around doing nothing!

This was torture at its best!

Meanwhile Mom and dad had decided to split up to distract the hunters.

Dad executed the first part of the plan. He ran down the stairs opposite the hunters barely catching their eyes but doing his job well enough to grab their full attention. A few hunters equipped with strange weapons chased him all the way outside the old abandoned museum. Dad didn't panic at all, even with the hunters gaining speed on him by the second. He just stuck to the plan. It was almost like he was taking a normal afternoon jog, not running for his life!

The hunters had fallen right into our trap, we've got them right where we wanted them.

Meanwhile mom was pulling her own weight in the plan very well. She had managed to grab the attention of the other hunters, leading them on their own little journey to distract them. Mom always remained calm in situations like this, when she had a clear goal or plan in mind. That was my mom. I really admired how she stayed so determined and never gave up until she got what she wanted. I was like my mom in that way, like mother like daughter. That's what dad had always told me.

As soon as there was not a single sound in the room, Troy and I cautiously exited the vents. We made sure that nobody was in the room before we fully emerged. The museum was a black hole of silence giving me an awful feeling. The eerie silence that surrounded us was all too strange and unfamiliar. I had to resist the strong urge to bolt right back into the vents but knew I had to proceed with the plan, even though the uneasy feeling was growing in the pit of my stomach, getting stronger by the second.

Carefully we crept into the room we were supposed to meet mom and dad in but we were stopped dead in our tracks. To our horror, instead of meeting our parents, we came face to face with a hunter!

His mask shone in the dim light of the room, hiding his facial expression. If the hunters were actual people they seemed determined to keep all emotions hidden from their victims. The hunter clutched a ginormous black gun clutched to his chest like a precious blanket that a toddler clings to believing that it will make all your problems disappear - or in this situation kill innocent children!

I was so stunned that all I could do was stare at this hunter about to shoot a huge hole right through my brother and I. Somehow I knew that if we dared to do the wrong thing or maybe just move a tiny inch we would both be dead. I didn't want to test this guy. He really didn't look like he was kidding.

One moment I was stunned, standing there accepting my fate and then I felt an icy cold wind penetrate the room. It was a boiling hot summer's night so this left me totally and utterly confused, that's when I realized it, it was Troy.

Trying not to move my head in case the hunter decides to blast me into the next life I glanced over at Troy. Inwardly I tried to steel myself for what was about to happen, although nothing could prepare me for the icy doom about to follow.

An icy storm practically erupted from my little brother, bathing the room in an icy darkness. Giant ice balls went flying at the hunter from every direction, he didn't even stand a chance! The room was swept into a blizzard of ice, growing stronger by each second. The cold kiss of the ice stung my chest almost enclosing my heart in an icy blanket.

Lucky for me I'm fire and fire burns ice.

The ice slowly freezing my heart must have set off tiny alarm bells in my head because steam erupted from my skin and slowly melted away the ice that encased the room.

When the ice storm was gone and the room was once more visible the hunter was gone. All that remained was the mask of the hunter frozen in an ice prison. What had happened to the hunter was a complete mystery to me but one look at Troy's face told me it bothered him.

This was the first time he had used his powers, and naturally he was horrified and completely dumbfounded. I thought he actually did quite well but the expression on his face told me otherwise. My poor, little brother was scared out of his wits at the strange power within him.

Time to work my big sister magic!

"Troy..." I said with the gentlest, kindest tone possible. I understood the shock he must be going through better than he thought. Having been there myself I could help him if he let me in.

"I just can't believe I did that..." Troy murmured with the utmost surprise and a level of shock evident in his voice. He obviously was having a hard time believing that a power as ice cool as that could exist in him.

"We were in a pretty desperate situation!" I said, amazement evident in my voice. "Troy you saved our lives. If it wasn't for you we'd be dead!" I began praising my brother for his outstanding power and quick reaction to save our lives!

"Just a mask... that's all that's left..." Troy whispered bringing up the creepy ice encrusted mask on the floor where the hunter used to be.

"That is kind of weird..." I admitted. "But we have bigger fish to fry! Where's mom and dad?  They were supposed to be here!" I said beginning to worry and I started fearing for the worse.

That awful feeling as if something went terribly wrong intensified in these depths of my mind and manifested itself in the pit of my stomach. My head was swimming with dire thoughts as to where they could possibly be. Everything that could have gone wrong exploded in my mind all at once giving me my own personal show of the most horrific things that could have happened. I knew that I shouldn't be thinking negative thoughts but all I could think of was the worst possible mistake that could have happened that ruined the entire plan.

Then again I may be slightly over dramatic, I tend to do that sometimes...

All I could do now was think positive. Hope is the most powerful tool of all. After all hope in the face of desperate situations always proved miracles could be achieved. I'll hope and pray that nothing bad had happened, and that mom and dad would enter the room at any given second.

Troy and I waited and waited. Time seemed to slow down as we waited. The seconds turned into minutes until an hour passed by. It was hard to stay positive and hold on to hope.

I had to stay positive.

Stay positive. Hope. For Troy...