Logan began to turn into an ally, but Ryan stopped him.  “Not that way.”  Logan gave him a confused look.  Ryan started walking again.  “Dylan led them right to the old Nursery.  They got to him less than a yard from the front door.”  She would have frozen if Logan wasn’t hauling her behind him.  He had been running?  He had died trying to get to “the old Nursery”?  At that moment Penelope knew that no matter how dangerous, no matter how upset Logan was, no matter what happened to her, no matter what this “cause” was, she would join Ryan.  Penelope would kill the bastard that had killed her best friend.  She would give him vengeance.  Melodramatic or not, she would.

Ryan turned onto an abandoned street.  We walked to the house in the middle.  It looked old and rundown, but it could have been gorgeous in its day.  It was brown with a porch coming off the front, and looked to be about three stories tall.  The windows were smashed in and the paint was peeling, but there was a small light on in the back of the house, barely visible in the front window.

“This is the Nursery?”  She asked incredulously.  Ryan gave a small smile.

“Home sweet home, wait until you see the inside.  You’ll be much more impressed.”  Penelope started to walk towards the house, but Ryan stopped her.  He gave her a side glance.  “Before you go in there, I need your promise that you’ll never tell anyone about it: where it is, what it looks like, and especially who’s in there.”  His gaze bored into hers.  “Can you promise me that Penelope?”

“Yes…”  She whispered.  He gave a tiny cocky smile. 

“Good, cause if you do, we’ll have to kill you.”  He beckoned her toward the old house.  As he continued forward Penelope turned to Logan.

“He was joking… right?”

“I don’t think so…”  He smiled at her.  “Have I won already?”  She rolled her eyes.

“Shut up.  He’s getting ahead.”  She pulled him toward the house, and ran towards Ryan, who was waiting at the door.

“Hold out your hand.”  Ryan demanded as they approached him.  “Both of you.”

“Why?”  Logan asked.

“Just do it!  Palm up.”  The both offered him their hand, as he pulled something out of a flower pot that had looked empty.  It was a needle, a huge one.

“How did you do that?  It was empty!”   She gasped.  He grabbed her hand.

“This’ll hurt like a mother…”  He said as he slowly placed the needle on her palm.  As it broke the skin, a sharp, electric pain shot through her whole body, seeming to travel through her veins, but before she could even say ouch, it was gone.  “You okay?”  Ryan asked, watching her carefully.

“Yeah… It wasn’t that bad.”  She lied.  He gave her an approving look, and then turned to Logan.  As the needle broke his skin, he let out a loud yelp.  Ryan removed the needle and smacked him upside the head.

“Shut up you idiot!  They’ll hear you!”  Logan wasn’t listening, he was too busy examining his hand.

“Who’ll hear him?”  Penelope asked, not willing to wait for anyone else to explain.

“All in good time Penelope.”  He turned on his brother.  “Why are you such a wimp?  Penelope didn’t even whimper, and you can’t take it.”

“Well excuse me for not having a high tolerance for pain!  What the hell was that anyway?”

“You guys weren’t clear to enter, now you are.  We did it to you once, but when you decided not to join, the memory was washed form your head, that’s how it works.  It’s so that no one can get in without us knowing.”  Ryan said putting the needle back into the pot, were it disappeared.  Okay, we’ll come back to that later, thought Penelope.

“You can wipe memories?  Where did you get that kind of technology?”  She hesitated, “You didn’t steal it, did you?”

“It’s not technology Penelope…”  He said, looking through a broken window instead of looking at her.  “As I said, all in good time.  If you wanna play, you’ll play by my time and my rules.”  He placed his hand on the door and closed his eyes.  He took a deep breath, and then froze, just standing there like a statue.  She started to wonder if this was all just a sick joke.

“Logan,” She asked not taking her eyes off Ryan.  “Is your brother okay?”  She tapped her head, “In here?”  Logan gave a small smile.

“Sometimes I wonder…”  He put on the same cocky smile Ryan had had a few seconds ago.  “But, when it comes to this, yeah, I’d say he’s in his right mind, kinda…”

“Thanks for the vote of confidence.”  Ryan frowned as he turned towards them.    “Now are we going in or would you rather just yap on the porch, and get streaked?”

“Streaked?”  She asked.  Ryan just looked at her.  “All in good time?”  She asked with tight lips.

                “Atta girl.”  He smiled as he pushed the door open.  He disappeared into the huge house.  Penelope took a breath and then followed him in, Logan at her heals.