Jake was poring over some of the pages, and I had taken the other half to look over. He was muttering to himself, and we both kept going back to the music box over and over. Finally, after it had played for what felt like the umpteenth time, Jake jumped and cried out, breaking the long silence.

"I got it!"

Sweaty and tired from the hour or so that we'd spent deciphering, I groaned in relief and set down my own set of papers. "Good! Ok, what did you figure out?"

He put down one of his own pages and pointed to the musical note with the number 1 written over it. "The melody starts here, with 1, and then it goes to this one here,"

He put down the second page, pointing to the note with the number 9 above it. My eyes widened as I realized what exactly it was we were meant to decipher. "It's a code..."

Jake looked so excited as he answered I almost wanted to smile. "I think it's the code to the lockbox on the door."

I went back to the pages he'd pointed out, putting it all together. If the lockbox was a 4-digit code, and we only needed two more numbers, then the answer had to be in my half of the papers.

"Help me figure the next half out!" I said, handing Jake some of my pages as we listened to the lullaby yet again.

After a few more minutes of scanning the music notes and comparing them to the sound, I finally figured out the next number as my hands traced over the lines written in classical barometer.

"8!" I cried out. I scrambled to pick up another page, reciting the 3-digit code we had. "1, 9, 8. 1, 9, 8. 1, 9..."

"Reagan," Jake grabbed my arm to stop me. "If most of the code makes the numbers 198, there's only one other number left that it could be..."

I frowned, not sure what he meant. So far, we had the code 198, but there were a bunch of numbers it could be. Every musical note on every page was labeled, and we'd only used three of the possible 10. There were still plenty of possibilities. 2, 3, 4, 5, 6...

"1987!" We both shrieked at the same moment. The thrill and excitement charged through both of us as we grabbed each other's arms and laughed.

Scrambling and giggling in a rush to the door, we reached the lockbox and punched in the code. My heart pounded, and I gasped as the little box fell open and a small silver key landed in my palm.

"Open it," Jake encouraged.

I was suddenly filled with dread again as I looked up at him. What if this was a horrible idea? What if I'd been right all along, and this was nothing but danger? I swallowed harshly, glanced back down at the key, and then pressed it into the palm of his hand carefully.

"You do it." I insisted nervously.

Jake nodded, put the key into the lock, and turned. The door popped, and Jake pushed it open silently. He walked in, and I followed him with trepidation.

Dust covered most everything, aside from the few bits and pieces that it hadn't gotten to yet. The living room brought with it such strong emotion that I had to clutch my chest and stop walking. For years, I had fought to remember, yet I always seemed to forget. In the last month, with everything happening with Jake, I had thought of my parents more than I had in too long. Yet, none of that brought the onslaught of pain like this. Seeing again the very living room that we'd sat when Gigi had given us the news. And to the left, the kitchen that our mother used to flit from whenever we were too quiet. Straight ahead was the long hallway that led to the office, bathrooms, and bedrooms. It was like I could trace it all in my mind. That first door ahead of me would be our parents' old office, where our father had spent so much time locked up. To the right, Jake and I's room. And down the hall from that, our parents' bedroom.

The carpet crunched as I made my way over to the sofa I remembered sitting on, and I ran my hand along the once tough, new leather.

"This place really is like a walk down memory lane, isn't it?" Jake's voice sounded from the dining room. He walked into the living room, spotting me beside the sofa. "You remember that last Christmas? When mom and dad read us the story of Santa showing up at that dudes house?"

"The night before Christmas," I recalled. "Yeah. Good times. Dad had a great character voice."

"It's like this place wants us to remember things." Jake muttered.

"Yeah,"

"I'm gonna go check out the rest of the house," He said after patting my shoulder.

"Ok," I replied numbly, confused swirls of pain and longing lodging in my throat.

After a while, I wandered into the hall to look for Jake and see what he'd been up to. As I did, I noticed the door to the office shift ever so slightly, and I assumed it was Jake looking around in there. I opened the door fully, only to be greeted by an empty room with nothing but a strange mark on the floor that covered at least half of the length of the room. It was surrounded by red candles, and there was a piece of paper lying in the center of it. Next to the paper, a lighter rested on top of what looked to be a book. I walked to the items and knelt down for a better look.

The paper had similar scribblings to the ones in Thomas's diary, but these didn't have words written with them, so it was impossible to guess at their meaning. I pocketed the lighter after deciding that it wouldn't hurt anyone if I did, and then picked up the book. Only it wasn't a book. One glance at the handwriting on the cover told me that. It was another diary. Our fathers diary. I opened it eagerly, only to be hit with a problem. Someone had already found this diary, and they had ripped out all of its pages.

I frowned, alarmed and upset. Who would steal pages from an old diary? I thought. And how would they even get in?

It came on so fast that before I knew what was happening, I was on my feet. A startling whoosh of wind was shaking the windows in the office, and the suddenly frozen air came bursting into the house. The loud howling mixed with cold made my teeth chatter, and I sprinted to the window to see what the hell was going on.

Someone had left the window in the room partly open, and the sudden storm outside had found its way in through it. I slammed the window shut, but the second I did, the room went as dark as though it had suddenly become night. No light shone through the window anymore, and the room had gone pitch black. I fumbled in my pockets for the lighter and wanted to cry when, after finally finding it, I realized it wouldn't work.

I stumbled my way around in the dark, crashing into the wall as I went. When I finally felt the doorframe in front of me, I yelled out.

"Jake?"

A creak came from behind me, and I turned around instantly.

The light was back, just as suddenly as it had gone. But the room felt so cold that I shivered and wished for the lighter if not for light then for warmth. Some part of me registered that the light was different, grey and downcast, but that part was overshadowed by something from within. A deep, irresistible pull. A yearning. I wanted to stand in the center of that mark, needed to. And I wasn't alone. A warm, sweet voice was calling to me. Calling my name. I felt my feet moving across the floor, though I couldn't remember consciously deciding to do so. I could hear the shaky, shallow breaths coming from my own mouth, but I couldn't control my breathing. I just kept moving. I had to light them. All of the candles. I couldn't rest until I'd burnt every. Single. One.

I felt myself kneel down, saw my hand raise, and I flicked the lighter. I hardly comprehended that now the lighter worked. So important was this mission. Nothing would stop me, not until I was done.

"REAGAN, NO!"

I felt myself hurtled to the floor by a body and gasped. The room was so bright compared to the faint light before that I found myself squinting and shielding my eyes. Jake was above me, his eyes wild with distress. In his hand, he held the lighter, and I slowly realized what had happened. I sat up in a drunken stupor, and then put my hand to my head.

"I'm sorry, I don't know what happened. One second, I was just checking this room out and the next..."

"Lucky thing I stopped you," Jake spoke breathlessly. "You were going to light the candles."

I trembled, gasped again, and then hastily got to my feet. I clutched Jake as we made our way out of the room, and I was now more than desperate to get out of the house. Jake seemed to be in agreement because as soon as we got to the hall, he helped me to the door. And it was then that it happened.

Jake froze. Just like he had so many times before. I heard heavy breathing from behind us, the loud and terrifying thud of weighted steps, and when I took my next breath, I smelled it. Sulfur.

Inch by inch, I turned my head to look behind me. I didn't know what the hell I was doing. I knew I needed to wake Jake out of whatever trance he was in and run. I knew I had seconds if this went the way it always had. And yet I forced myself to turn around.

The tall, dark, skeletal form of Toto stood frighteningly behind us. A sickening grin shone brightly from the black abyss he called a face. His dark sockets pierced my flesh as I stared into the eyes of the only true monster I'd ever seen. Blood dripped from every sharp tooth. His breath was so cold that it hissed vapor into the air. I felt like I couldn't move. I choked on my breath and felt like I finally knew what it would mean to die.

NO!

The voice, so filled with hate for this creature, so unafraid, had screamed so loud that it rang in my ears. However, it was enough to shake me out of my fear-filled inaction. I instinctively grabbed Jake's hand, but the electric shock and ringing were so sharp and painful this time that I wheezed as the air vanished from my lungs. I nearly fell over, and I clutched my knee with my free hand.

The room was spinning, my vision was blurred, and just as I was about to topple over, I heard Jake choke out. He clutched my hand, and we both ran for the front door so fast that we almost tripped over each other. We threw open the door, and kept running.

We ran deeper and deeper into the surrounding woods, more and more lost as the minutes went on. As we did, the forest became truly wild. Large trunks and stumps were strewn all around the ground, the trees grew closer together, and I had no idea where we were.

Out of nowhere, I felt my foot curl around an unseen stump and felt myself hurl to the ground. Jake's hand slipped from mine, and he spun around. In the second that we were still, I could hear the sound of pursuit. Charging footsteps invisible behind us.

"Go, Jake, run!" I screamed.

He ignored my scream and ran to my aid, helping me to my feet. But the crunch of twigs told us we were too late. He was there. He'd probably always been right on our tail, and the time spent on the floor had cost us. But I couldn't let Jake die, or worse. Not like this.

I pushed him behind me and glared defiantly. Toto, his wasted and horrible form so large and intimidating I felt the fear lodge into my chest, was licking his lips in anticipation.

"So," He snarled wickedly. "Two at once."

He bone-like hands twitched and curled, and he took a step toward us.

"Not my brother, you mother fucker." I growled.

"Oh, how truly touching," He laughed. "Shall I kill you first then? Like I did your sweet... delectable... lovely.... mother...?"

The hatred washed through me, stronger than ever before, and I bared my teeth. I didn't care that my whole body was vibrating uncontrollably. I didn't care that I didn't stand a chance. If he wanted to kill me, I wasn't going down without taking him down with me.

"A fighter... just like your father..."

Toto's eyes flitted over my shoulder, and I knew he was looking at Jake, who I could feel shaking violently. Toto's horrible, evil smile grew wider than ever, and I watched in horror as the black pits of his eyes became green. That despicable vivid green. I spun around, and grabbed Jake. His face had gone completely blank, his eyes were slowly turning the same green, and he was falling to the ground.

I didn't know what I was doing, but I followed my intuition. I snatched his hand into mine, trying to clench my teeth against the awful static pain and piercing ring. Jake fell to his knees, but to my shock and relief he came to, his eyes widening but back to blue. He took deep breaths, and I heard the low, guttural growl from behind.

Toto was furious. The rage emanated from not just his face, his entire being. Or maybe I could just feel it because my hand was still clutching Jake's. Toto brought himself up to an even fuller height, and bared his teeth.

"So," He hissed with venom. "The twins figured out their powers... how very... unfortunate."

I steeled myself, pushing Jake behind me again and ready to fight, as Toto stomped closer.

"I... will... end... you... Cobblestones. I... will... not... let... you... have... a... moment... of... peace..."

I glared at him, not afraid, and filled with a reckless daring that I'd never known.

"You..." He turned his fury on Jake. "I have no use for you... waste... I... will be reborn... and you... will know... me."

I clutched Jake's hand tighter, and he gripped back. Though I could hear his shaky breath behind me, he didn't tremble, nor did he make any noise of fear.

"I WILL LIVE AGAIN." Toto shrieked.

And then, as if he had never been there, he was gone. The woods went still and silent, and Toto's threat lingered in the air.