Riley's heart sank right before her. The acid in her stomach threatened to come up as her eyes were glued to the empty bed. She had been in this very room not more than fifteen minutes ago. Everything she touched was different. The chair she sat on was placed against the wall, the lamp turned off. The bed was made, sheets all folded neatly, looking as if it was never occupied.

Riley stood behind her friends, not wanting to see their faces, she stared at the floor. Every second literally felt like hours, the ringing silence piercing their ears. Finally Vince found his voice, "Where the hell is he?" he whispered, almost barely loud enough to hear.

Turning around to look at his friends, all of them holding nothing but fear on their faces. It was like being back on the road again, the unknown tugging at their thoughts, making each and every one of them tremble. Vince started pacing, running his hand through his hair, he turned to look at the bed again. All of them wanted Riley's story to be anything but true. They had hoped to walk through that door to find Daryl alive and smiling back at them, only they got nothing.

Gerald suddenly decided to break the silence, "What do we do now?" he asked, wanting anyone to answer so that he won't have to make any tough decisions. Gerald stared at his friend who continued to pace, a pained expression on show. As if everything started to hit him in the gut, Vince inhaled deeply. Truth be told, all he wanted to do was drop to the ground and wait, wait for things to start making sense and for someone to pop out and claim it had all been some sick joke. Sadly, no one popped out, and he had to stand there and put on a brave face, for the sake of his friends, and himself.

"What is going on? First the nails on the road, then the car with a damn body in it, now this-" Vince turned and pointed at the vacant bed, " It's just not making any sense." Deciding to finally answer Gerald's question, Erik said, "I need to find my sister, then we should get out of here."

"And go where?" Vince asked. It was obvious he was letting his fear get to him. He hasn't always been the one to show such thing, but when it came to this, this was just a whole other story. This was real.

"I don't know man, anywhere. If Riley is right, then all of us are literally standing in a house with a bunch of killers." Erik said the words no one wanted to believe.

"I'm not a hundred percent they killed him. I just saw what I did, and honestly I don't even know what to make of it." Riley told them, causing everyone to turn back and look at her.

This is what was ruining them, everyone's mental capabilities were running on no sure answers. All they know at the moment was that going on this road trip was the worst decision they had ever made. Although nothing was making sense, they knew that they needed to act, and soon.

"What if they did? We aren't doing any good waiting!"Erik said, his voice rising a bit, making Riley look away. She didn't like the fact that everything was riding on what she saw, or believe to have seen.

"Calm down okay, we just need to find the your sister and her friends, and just leave. Even if they did not kill Daryl, it's best that we just fend for ourselves out there than to figure out if they really are murderers." Gerald said, looking at Erik with soft eyes.

"We can't leave until we find Daryl, even if he is dead we can't just leave his body here." Vince said instantly.

"Where do we even begin to look for him? Let alone the girls?" Shadow asked, a question that has been on her mind for a few minutes now. She could tell that none of them had thought about that.

"She's right, this house is just too big. I left to the rooms the same time you guys did. We left the others downstairs with the guys." Autumn added, looking first at her boyfriend, then to the others.

"Maybe split up?"Erik suggested.

"No." Vince answered immediately. He couldn't bare the thought of Riley going off on her own to look for girls that even didn't like her. Especially if she's right about Caleb and the others.

"It's the only way to get more of this house covered than for us to just go in one big group. Plus there are five might-be-killer guys walking around, it would be hard to hind from them AND look for the others." Riley said stating the obvious.

For some reason, everyone looked at Vince, all wanting him to make the final decision. It was probably the fact that he was the oldest out of all of them, or maybe just because they needed a leader figure to make the choices that they didn't want to make. Whether it be one of the two or both, the point is that Vince started feeling all the pressure on his shoulders. Vince looked at Riley, who stared back waiting for his answer. He saw that although she looked worried, she would do whatever it was that he decided. With a few more seconds to spare, and a couple deep breaths, Vince finally said, "Fine we split up."

Not sure why, but Riley breathed a sigh of relief. As much as she wanted everyone to stay together, the risk of getting caught was much too great. The only problem with splitting up was the thought of not knowing if the others will make it out at all. Hopefully all of them will be able to.

Suddenly they heard footsteps approaching, and within a split second Riley pushed everyone into the room, and made sure to leave the door half way open. With her index finger on her mouth, she signaled the others to be quiet. As the footsteps became louder, Riley's heartbeat was beyond control. All she kept thinking was that whoever was making their way towards them, that they wouldn't check this room.

"Where's Sage?" A deep voice had asked, the heavy footsteps continuing their way. After only meeting the guys a few hours ago, she knew that the voice belonged to Adam.

"Basement with the blonde." came the reply. Whoever answered, didn't seem close by, and the response sounded different, more with a static behind it. It then dawned on the group that they were talking through those portable radios. Riley instantly knew that that was how they communicated, considering the size of the house it sort of made sense.

As Riley crouched down from behind the door, she could feel Erik tense up next to her. There were only two blondes in the group. Jasmine, and his sister.

"Tell him to hurry up, I'm heading to my room to deal with the other blonde, then we have to get the others. Caleb suspects the Riley chick, doesn't want to risk anything." Adam said, his footsteps stopping right in front of the door they were hiding behind. The mention of her name, Riley's knees buckled, on the verge of making her topple over.

It was hard to control her rapid breathing considering that Adam just confirmed all their fears about his family, and the fact that they were already onto her. It didn't help that one of them is standing a mere four feet away from them. Suddenly a new voice came on the radio, and what he said made all the hair on Riley's neck stand.

"Leave Riley to me."

At that very moment, Riley's knees gave way. Luckily, Shadow was quick to catch her. The fast movement was enough to cause a small creak to come from the floor. Although small, it was enough to get the attention from Adam. The young teenagers held their breath as Adam pushed the door gently with his foot, before peeking inside. As he did, the same loud noise from the door echoed into the room. Small sweat beads were forming on Riley's forehead, and she was sure that she wasn't the only one that was shaking in their spot. Thankfully they were hidden behind the door, although if Adam was to take a few steps inside and turn on the light, they were good as gone.

The next few seconds of silence were pained seconds, not knowing if he was going to walk in and catch them or walk away. With the door a couple inches away from Riley and Erik's faces, the two held their breaths, their eyes tightly shut, hoping not to make any noise to giveaway their hiding spot.

Suddenly, the door started to move away from their faces, and before they knew it, it was shut. The group then heard those familiar footsteps retreat down the hall. Not sure if it was even safe, they continued to stay in place until Adam was out of thier hearing range. When they were sure he was gone, the others stepped away from behind the door, finally being able to breath again. Riley found herself seated on the bed. Even if the room was dark, she felt all eyes on her. It had been announced that she was a walking target, and the sooner that they found the others, the sooner they would get the heck out of this house.

Just then the room filled with a small amount of light. Looking next to her, Riley said that it was Autumn that turned on the lamp next to the bed. As soon as she did, everyone adverted their eyes away from Riley.

"So what now?" Shadow asked, trying to break the intense silence that had taken over the room.

Everyone then watched as Vince walked in front of Riley, and bent down to her level. He reached out and held her hand, he felt the hard trembling her body was giving.

"Don't worry okay?" he whispered, causing her to look at him. It didn't take a genius to see that she was terrified, as she sat there on the verge of tears. All that has happened, from the body in the car, to Daryl's dead body, then the clear announcement that one of them is coming after her, it was more than enough to make anyone cry. That is all she wanted to do that very moment. The shock was starting to get the best of her.

"Look I don't think we have any other choice, but we can't find Daryl right now. We just have to get the girls and leave, that's the best thing we can do right now." Gerald said, saddened that he actually had to say such words about leaving his close friend behind, but the truth of the matter is, hauling around a dead body wasn't going to get them far in their escape. Vince was staring at the floor, knowing that Gerald was right, it was just hard to acknowledge that Daryl was really gone. Not saying anything, Vince just nodded in agreement.

"We have to get going now." Erik said, his anticipation to get his sister was at an all time high. Standing up, Vince looked at Erik.

"Okay, we only know where two of them are. Who wants to go look for Jasmine?" he asked.

Vince knew they weren't going to volunteer quickly, seeing as how no one knew where she was. For all they knew she was probably stuck in one of the rooms upstairs, and hopefully not with any one of the guys.

"I'll go." Gerald answered, before looking down at Autumn,

who held his hand tighter, and then nodded.

"We'll look for her." she said.

"I'm going to look up here for Adam's room, hopefully the blonde he was talking about is Zoe." Erik said.

"I'll follow Erik." Shadow immediately said, Erik looked at her and gave a warming smile, grateful for her help.

Riley was still sitting on the bed. She looked up at her two best friends, upset that she would seperate from them. Knowing already she would pair up with Vince, it still saddened her that they had to go different ways. All she could do way pray that nothing bad would happen to them.

"We'll go to the basement." Vince told them, looking at Riley who was busy looking at her friends.

He then walked over to the window, and looked out.

"See that area, right at the beginning of the forest. If you find them, just get out and run there. Hopefully we won't run into any distractions." He said as he turned to look at this small group in front of him.

"And if you guys happen to run into those fuckers, just do your best and run, do anything to find a way out of here." Vince finished.

It had been well over twenty minutes since the young teenagers went their seperate ways. Riley and Vince continued to sneak their way throughout the lower half of the house, surprisingly not being able to run into any of the guys. Gerald and the others had gone different ways upstairs, and hopefully having the same luck that Riley and Vince had. Although not being able to run into any of the older guys, it didn't settle well with Riley. It was too suspicious. Vince had not said anything to Riley ever since they left Daryl's room upstairs. Not that she minded, in fact she was glad he didn't try to talk to her. She had no idea what to even say anymore.

Downstairs there were a few doors that they hoped would lead to the basement, but turned out to be just another closet. The further they got from the front door, the more intense things got. It was as if they were walking away from their freedom.

Suddenly the two hear a muffled scream, causing both of them to stop dead in their tracks. Even if it was faint, they knew that they were getting closer to the basement. Riley continued to curse in her head on why they just had to be the ones that got the fucked up room in the house. As they slowly made their way through the house, the screaming got louder. It was those types of screams that sent shivers down anyone's spine. Riley gave up trying to remember which way they came from seeing as how if they were being chased they would just keep running, and for their sake, hope they ran in the right direction.

Just then the two stood right in front of a white door, the cries at its all time loudest from behind it. Before even thinking about going through with it, Vince looked at Riley and saw the fear. It sucked that he had to put her in this position to come with him, deep into the house like this, but he would rather have her next to him than to locked away somewhere in the never-ending house, as he called it. The only thing that he kept thinking before opening the door was, if they ended up getting caught, and he had to choose who to grab and run out of there, would he even think twice about leaving the other girl behind?

Of course he wouldn't.

After taking deep breath, Vince slowly turned the door knob, hoping it wasn't one of those doors that creaked so loudly that they should have just yelled at the top of their lungs that they were coming down. As if all the luck was on their side, the door opened quietly. Soon the pair had found themselves venturing down the steps, the cries echoing up towards them. As they continued to hear the poor girl cry, the very pit of Riley's stomach started to ache. She gripped tightly onto the back of Vince's shirt, her heart racing so fast that she thought it was going to fly right out of her chest.

The light at the bottom of the basement made it almost impossible to see the steps underneath them. They continued ever so slowly to desend down the steps, thier adrenaline fueling their feet to take another step, because with all the cries and screaming that was going on, all they wanted to do was turn around and leave. This wasn't one of those movies where the characters were so courageous and willing to save the day, this is two scared teenagers trying to be brave and help one of their own.

Just then the two heard something behind them.

"Don't move." someone growled.

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A/N

Hope you all enjoyed this chapter! Please don't mind any mistakes, I stayed up writing this chapter for a few hours now, and I'm at that point where it's hard to think, but I really wanted to post this! Next chapter is going to have a lot of action so hope you all are looking forward to it! Special thanks to all those that commented, voted, and became a fan!