"Hear me out, if we attack him from all sides, he won't stand a chance," Henry was saying, pulling me and Jack into a huddle.

"We've been over this. It doesn't matter how many of us there are, he is undefeatable," I reminded him. "We've tried it before."

Henry shook his head. "I've gotten so much better! I've been teaching Tyler, and he is really good. He's almost better than me now."

"Your son is four years old, Henry. That's not a compliment to you. You still suck," Jack said.

We were sitting in a huddle at my brothers' incredibly humid and hot AirBnB, about to start our yearly 'Autumns Family Mario Smash Bros. Tournament', attempting to strategize. Will won every year, and this year Henry was determined to keep that from happening.

"Don't insult my son! He's almost as good as Will. Just give him a few more training sessions and he'll show you all!" Henry bellowed, forgetting for a moment that we were inside of a house and not in fact out on a battlefield.

"This is a terribly huddle Henry. Will can literally hear everything when you shout like that," I pointed out. "We'll just play and get it over with. There's no beating him."

"You have to believe Lil!" Henry whisper shouted.

Will walked out of the bedroom, stretching, all grin. "Okay past, present and future losers. Sit down and accept your fate." He pushed a large whiteboard into the living room a moment later with dramatic flair.

Ryan who was sitting in a lone chair, reading what I was pretty sure was a romance novel, threw his head back and laughed when he saw the whiteboard. "You actually went out and bought one?"

I raised a brow. "You... bought a whiteboard, why?..."

Will began to make brackets on the whiteboard but halfway through drawing up two messy boxes, Finn pushed him aside and took over, taking the time to make perfectly neat lines. "Because..." Will said with a dramatic pause. "That way I can see my own name nice and big in the winner's box on this whiteboard when I inevitably win."

"You can't even take the whiteboard home," I said with a snort. "That won't fit on the plane."

Will shrugged. "You can have it. You are welcome to it, so long as you keep my name on the board forever."

"I'd rather see it burn," I said with a glare.

"Shame. It would liven up the boring decorations at your apartment," Will said with a snort.

Henry shot me a look as if to say 'please help me take him down,' and after watching Will settle down on the couch, all confidence, my competitive spark was back, and I nodded to Henry, ready to take down my brother.

As we all began to pick out our characters, filling the living room to the brim as we sat down on couches, chairs and the floor— Will trash talking and nitpicking each of our character choices— there was a knock at the door. Jack opened it and waved someone through. 

"Thanks for coming again, Hank. It's hotter than hot in here," Sam said, eyes still on the screen, trying to decide between playing Samus and Captain Falcon. 

The man, Hank, had on a baseball cap, a tool box in hand and wore a pair of jeans and a white work shirt.

The man, Hank, clearly knew where the thermostat was, making a quick beeline for it, quickly solidifying in my head that he was the owner of the AirBnB. He put down his toolbox and got to work, sounding embarrassed and apologetic below the baseball cap as he looked through the menu screen. "Of course. I'm sorry. I've never had a problem with this thing before. I'll check the vents. See if there's a clog. I really hope there isn't. Found a raccoon in one of these things a few years back."

I raised a brow at that, hoping we wouldn't have an army of raccoons suddenly bursting out of the vents once he opened them up.

The AirBnB was HOT, and I was thankful that after some badgering, my brothers were finally getting the air conditioning working. The idea of trying to stay civil during a high stakes video game competition while the place was burning was impossible. Someone would most likely die, and it would be from a fight and not heat exhaustion, especially if Will continued to have that smack the face worthy smirk.

"I'll even play with Jigglypuff!" Will announced, oblivious to the scorching temperature, eyes on the screen "I've had the least amount of practice with her. You might all stay alive for more than a few seconds this time."

As we created competition brackets so we could play games one on one to see who would be the ultimate champion, and the poor owner of the AirBnB was climbing into air ducts and air vents trying to figure out what the problem was, the house settled into a loud, normal rhythm. 

Hank had the same energy as my father, always fixing things around the house while me and my brothers screamed at each other over the sound of the music playing on the screen.

After eight rounds, a whole lot of screaming that startled the owner of the house so badly that he fell off his ladder twice, and a nearly weeping Henry, Will was victorious, having beaten every single one of us using Jifflypuff, and wouldn't shut up about his win.

Will stood up and gestured to the giant whiteboard he had purchased. "Finn, will you do the honors?"

Finn stood and reluctantly put Will's name in the winning spot on the bracket. I could tell he was tempted to write the name poorly but after writing a slightly tilted L, he erased it and wrote it properly, his revenge not as important as doing the job right.

Will smirked. "I should just put my name in that spot in permanent marker. No point in erasing the inevitable every year."

Henry swore loudly, pausing half a second to confirm that his four year old son was in fact not there before continuing to swear loudly. 

The poor owner of the AirBnB, having finished the job, the AC now blaring to life loudly throughout the AirBnB, caught the end of the string of profanities, his eyes wide for a beat. He was now covered in sweat, smelled like rotten eggs from all the work and seemed very eager to leave us and the cursing Henry behind.

"Erm... It's all fixed." 

Then he waved goodbye, carrying what looked like a dead rat in his hand— that he must have fond in the vents, and looked bewildered as he closed the door behind him, as Henry launched at Will, wrestling him to the ground with an irritated rage at Will's smugness.

"I'll show you a real fight!" Henry was shouting while Will screamed in alarm.

I groaned as Sam and Jack looked at each other and sighed, each grabbing a brother and pulling them apart. "Can we not do this every time?" Sam muttered.

Ryan picked up his book again and shrugged, unfazed by the shouting and flying fists. "Just let me know when we move to the 'you are such a sore loser,' stage of the argument." 

Five minutes later, Henry and Will each sat on opposite ends of the couch, nursing ice packs on their faces, Jack sitting between then as a buffer, and Sam standing above them, arms crossed. 

"You are both going to sit there until you learn to play nice."

Will threw up his hands. "You can't make us do that! We aren't five anymore—"

"YEAH!" Henry agreed at full volume.

"You aren't the boss of us."

"EXACTLY!" Henry agreed again. 

"And it isn't my fault that he's such a sore loser," Will added. 

"HEY! I AM NOT A SORE LOSER! YOU ARE A TERRIBLE WINNER!" 

Ryan closed his book and stood. Rolling up his sleeves, he gestured for Sam to move. Henry and Will fell quiet as Ryan stood before them, eyeing each of them with a disappointed look. "You know the drill. Apologize to each other now, or listen to me talk about the importance of using words instead of fists."

I had heard that speech at least twenty times... it took a full hour and was truly horrible. So I wasn't surprised when my brothers immediately and dramatically apologized to each other, pretending to cry as they threw their arms around each other. 

Ryan nodded, walked back to his chair and continued reading his romance novel, happy to ignore the rest of us now that the shouting was over. 

Sam snorted as Henry and Will started up another game, completely over their fight, and were now playing on the same team while the rest of us pulled out a board game and kept an eye on them, hoping to intervene if another screaming match began. 

An hour later, Henry looked like he was ready to bite Will's head off, and I was rubbing my eyes, feeling suddenly sleepy. I wasn't the only one. All of them looked as tired as I felt, no doubt from the all nighter we had pulled recently. 

"I'm gonna head back." 

Will hopped up from the couch. "I'll take you. Henry isn't putting up much of a fight anyway."

Henry would have normally argued with that, but instead seemed resigned. He just yawned, flopped out on the couch and threw his arm over his eyes, looking ready to sleep. "Whatever."

"I think you broke Henry," I told Will as he dropped me off in front of my apartment. "Can you try to be nice?"

Will sighed. "It's not my fault you guys don't play as much as I do."

"He literally looked like someone stole the batteries out of him and he had nothing left to fight for when we were leaving." 

Will snorted and smiled wickedly. "Yeah. That was kind of awesome." Then he gestured to my apartment. "I'll wait here until you get inside. If you need me, I'll be at the twenty four hour arcade I spotted on the way here. Maybe someone there will give me a run for my money. Everyone else back at the house looked too sleepy to be much fun." 

I rolled my eyes. "You are pretty exhausting." 

"You're just jealous you lost," he shot back, waving me off with a smirk as I walked inside.

"See you tomorrow, weirdo!" I shouted. Then I made a beeline for my apartment door, kicking off my shoes as I walked through the entrance, shrugged off my purse as I made it to my room, and fell into bed, too tired to pull the blanket over me. I fell asleep a moment later, peace pulling me down into a deep restful sleep. 

A sleep that was rudely shattered what felt like moments later, to the sound of shouting. 

I scrambled for my phone as the shouts grew louder. The bright screen left me scrunching my eyes shut and barely able to see the time on my home screen.

Three o'clock in the morning? What's going on?

Bex was arguing with someone in the living room. Groggy, I threw my door open to find Will arguing with Bex.

"I don't care if she's asleep. She needs to know!"

"She's had a hard few days. She hasn't been sleeping well and needs to actually have time to rest. I'm sure they're okay, Will. You need to stop shouting," she replied, her tone surprisingly gentle.

"They aren't answering their phones, Bex. Sam always answers," Will replied, his tone dropping in concern, fingers digging into his hair, scattering his wild curls.

Dread pooled inside of me. "Will? What's going on?"

They both turned to look at me standing in the doorway, Bex's headphones down around her neck, cozy work hoodie enveloping her, Will looking comically similar in his black 'gaming hoodie' and headphones around his collarbone.

Bex worked nights, and Will's presence had clearly thrown off her work groove. "Captain Paranoid was ditched by his brothers and thinks something bad happened."

He looked at me, worried, ignoring Bex's tone. "I stayed out after I dropped you off. There was a 24 hour arcade with my name on it. And when I got home, they were gone."

"All of them? At three in the morning?" I asked surprised.

He nodded. "Sam isn't answering his phone, and when I tried to track their phones—"

"You track your brother's phones?" Bex asked.

"Like you don't track Lily's phone?" Will responded instantly, his tone sharp, raw with emotion.

I rolled my eyes, fully aware that Bex tracked my phone and tried to get them back on track. "Can you two focus for two seconds without fighting."

Will fell back into his story, forcing himself to take a deep breath. "When I tried to track Sam's phone it was off. The others left their phones behind. Finn didn't have anything on his crazy schedule so I know that they had nothing to do..." he trailed off, looking away, trying to collect himself.

Will's worry wafted off of him and clung to me like a second skin. "Something's wrong."

Bex looked between us and bit her lip, looking concerned for the first time. "I'll make some coffee," she offered. "Then we can start looking."

She moved toward the kitchen but stopped a moment later when Will swore, his voice a low whisper. We both turned to look at him. His eyes were wide as he stared down at his phone, brow puckered with more worry.

"Sam just got a message..."

When I raised my brown he explained. "I hacked into his text messages looking for clues. Judge me later." 

He looked back down at his phone. "There's an update on Carter's location."

My heart began to pound. I felt like I was slowly being swallowed into darkness, my body growing heavy, the world around me growing dark.

"He's at Laurence's house."

I couldn't breathe, the world continued to close in.

"Laurence's home alarm has gone off." Will looked up at me, his face pale. "Carter's inside."

My mind spun, something inside of me seeming to shatter. No.

My panic took on a wild rhythmic screech inside of me. No. No. No.

I was torn, and terrified and unable to breath or think or move. All I knew was that I wanted to find my brothers, but needed to know that Laurence was okay and I couldn't do both at the same time.

"What do I do, Will?"

He ran his fingers through his hair. "It's too much of a coincidence. Them being gone and Carter breaking into Laurence's house on the same night..."

My brother was masterful with puzzles and I could see him analyzing the situation from different angles. "We go to Laurence's house. Something tells me that we'll learn everything we need to know when we get there."

Bex turned and made a beeline toward the door, reading my face, fingers snatching up her car keys off the hook on the wall. "I'll drive."

---

Thank you for reading chapter thirty two! I hope you are enjoying the story! Or are at least curious to see where it goes! Add this story to your reading list to know when the next chapter drops!

UPDATE DAYS - A NEW CHAPTER EVERY FRIDAY!

What will they find at Laurence's house? Is Laurence okay?

What has happened to Lily's brothers? Are they okay?

What is Carter planning?

What will happen next?

CHAPTER QUESTION - What is your favorite late night snack?