"Sometimes I wish you were killed instead of Cordell, you useless child!"

My fathers words sounded different, like a completely different person.

"W-what do you mean?"

I knew this was a pointless question, but I was in a state of shock, wondering why my father was beginning to become so irritable.

"You'll find out", was my only reply, as he walked out of the room, smirking to himself, as if he had done something funny.

"Well, maybe we should get ready", I said to my brother, pretending my father's harsh words hadn't bothered me.

"What's happening to him?", asked Alex, shocked at our father snapping.

"He's changed", was my reply.

"I wonder why; maybe it's something to do with us finding out about our sister".

Alex and I walked down the stairs to see our mother and father waiting by the open door.

"Mam, are you OK?"

I looked over at my Mom and noticed that the side of her left arm was tinted red, as if someone had slapped her.

"Oh yes, I'm fine; I just fell".

As my mother spoke, she averted her eyes away from my brother and made eye contact with our father.

"Let's get going".

As I got into the car, I saw my father staring at me through the rear view mirror.

"Make sure you put your seatbelts on; I wouldn't want something to happen".

As we started to drive, I looked out the window, the blur of houses and trees as we drove to our destination.

My eyes began to droop as I began to fall into a slumber, my hand supporting my head on the car door. I was frightened to fall asleep, just in case I had another frightening dream, but I couldn't help it. I was tired from the previous nights.

I woke up in a unlit room. I turned around and switched on the bedside light. I soon realised I was in a completely different room, complete with pastel purple walls, with different posters in silver and grey frames.

There was a white vanity table by the door with an array of different kinds of makeup and skin products placed upon it. Next to the vanity table was a built-in shelving system with an array of multi-hued books and ornaments.

I threw the bedsheets off of me and stood up. As I looked around, I caught a glimpse of my reflection. It was like I was in someone else's body, with waist length Ash blond hair and a pair of chestnut brown eyes.

"What!"

I decided to pinch myself to see if I was dreaming, but to my dismay nothing happened.

I decided to open the door and that's when I noticed a name plaque hanging on the door with the name 'Penelope' written in purple font.

As I stepped out, I glanced around my surroundings, I noticed the silhouette of a petite person looking through the glass of the door, their breath fogging up the window.

"What do you want?", I called out, hoping to get an reply.

I decided to walk to the door, but the sound of something metal hitting the floor stopped me. I turned around to inspect the source of the sound. I walked into the kitchen and found a butter knife on the tiled floor.

I bent down to pick the knife up when I felt force on my shoulder, causing me to turn around.

In front of me was what looked like a small, crippled woman who was wearing a porcelain doll mask, which had a crack from the forehead down to the hollowed out eyes, along with loads of tiny cracks, giving the mask a creepy vibe.

"What do you want?", I said in a stern voice, in order to hide my fear.

"Oh child, you are not going to interfere with our plans".

The croaky voice sounded so familiar..

"Molly!"

Her ominous smile was the last thing I saw before my vision began to cloud with black dots, eventually taking my whole vision; blackness ensued.

"We're here!"

I feel someone gently shake my shoulder.

"Already?" I asked in a groggy voice, still shaken up by my dream.

"Yep, better get your butt out of the car before Dad goes crazy", Alexander replied, skipping like an 11 year old, towards the gates of the hospital.

I sat in the car for a couple of seconds, but once I got used to the natural light shining through the open car door, I swiftly jumped out and looked at my surroundings.

The front garden was very well kept. There was an array of different coloured flowers - red roses, white roses, hydrangea, Irises and many other flowers I had never seen before. The hedges were trimmed and lead to the entrance gate.

My father walked up to the gate and pushed a grey buzzer. A woman answered in a harsh tone.

"What do you need?"

"We're here to collect Dahlia Williams' belongings", my father said, scrunching his eyebrows in anger.

After my father had spoken, the gates opened, leading to a large eerie grey building. The paint was peeling and most of the windows had rusted bars attached to them. There were two large wooden doors which looked faded due to the light that had faded them over time. The limestone pillars looked to be wearing away over time, due to natural weather and lack of maintenance.

As my family and I walked up to the building, we heard a door unlock. A curvy woman, with her hair pulled back into a tight bun, opened the door, greeting us with a scowl.

"Follow me", was the only thing she said, leading us up a flight of stairs to Dahlia's room.

"You've got fifteen minutes".

As Alex and I walked into the room, we saw newspaper upon newspaper pinned to the wall. There were also books scattered over the floor. I took a closer look at the newspaper and I realised it was about Armando Dannel and similar cases.

"Wow!"

"This means Dahlia must have known something that we didn't; fist the pendant, then the dream and now the newspaper", Alex said, smiling to himself

"Guys, I'm going to pack a couple of things and then we'll go".

"OK, Mom", my brother and I said in sync once again.

I looked around the room and noted a wine, red leather diary. Upon flicking through the pages, I came across a page with a drawing of the pendant that we broke. Under the sketch, there was a paragraph giving strict instructions to not break the pendant as it was made to 'protect' Alexander and I.

"Erm, Alex?"

"What's wrong?"

"We definitely shouldn't have broken that pendant".

I proceeded to hand my brother the book and upon reading it his face paled.

"Brook? Do you think Dahlia wrote the letters?"

"Good point!" I turned around and asked my Mom if Dahlia had sent any kind of mail, but my Mom shook her head, crushing all theories and beliefs I had about Dahlia writing the letter. Before I asked another question, I heard a tapping noise. I turned around. Father was tapping his foot aggressively.

"Hurry up!"

Alex and I just nodded, not wanting to anger him.

As we headed back to our black and rusty car, my heart began to pound. I knew what I was going to say and that I would regret it, but I said it anyway.

"Father, you seem more irritable that usual. Is something the matter?" I asked in a worried tone. I had known my father my whole life, so his change of personality scared me.

"Brook, nothing has changed. Like I've said many times before, never trust a friendly face. It's who they are on the inside". My father's pupils dilated as he gave me a wide erratic smile.

Before I could say anything, Alex grabbed me by the sleeve of my shirt and whispered in my ear.

"Be careful! We don't know what he'll do next".

I just nodded.

By the time we got back, it was getting dark. As we got close to the outside light, it illuminated someone. As I got out of the family car, I realised it was Violet, who was hunched over, crying.

As I walked over, she looked up. Her black hair was a mess, with random hairs sticking upwards. Her eyes were red, as tears ran down her flushed cheeks.

"What happened?" Alex came running over, taking a tissue at of his pocket to give to Violet.

"It's Penel..." Violet stopped mid sentence. She took the tissues from my brother, whispering a small 'thank you', causing my brother to blush a light shade of pink, but it soon disappeared.

"P-Penelope has gone missing".

End of chapter 16

After a while, I finally have Chapter 16 posted. Stay tuned for Chapter 17 to see what happened to Penelope and maybe you'll find out more about Elise.

And I hope you haven't forgotten about Logan...)