Jillian felt their dry hands grabbing her arms, dress, and even her hair. She yelled, but they ignored her as three half-carried, half-dragged her down a hall and up a flight of stairs. Breaking one of her arms free, she sent a blast of ice at her captors' direction, knocking two of them down the stairs. The other reached for her but she froze his boots to the wood.

She could hear her friends struggling below and while her first instinct was to hide, she turned the stairs into a slide. Whizzing down, she ran to their aid.

A man had Sparky in a choke hold. The teen gasped from the lack of air. "No!" Jillian blasted the man aside, freeing the pirate, who fell to his knees. She encased a woman in a block of ice from the wasit down and helped Sparky to his feet. "Where's Smalls?" she cried, worried that he wasn't in the room.

Sparky rubbed his neck. "I-I don't know," he wheezed. "They dragged him off." He retrived his dagger from the floor. "I'll kill them if they hurt him!"

Sneaking down a corridor, Jillian realized the building was a lot larger than she anticiapted. She caught sight of another staircase. "Maybe they took him up here," she said.

"What makes you so sure?" Sparky griped.

Jillian started up. "They tried to take me up a similar one. Come on."

They walked down a dark hallway lined with doors. They peeked in each one but just found empty rooms. "This place looks like an inn," Jillian remarked, thinking back to that inn she had slept in that started all of this.

Sparky paused at a door. He put his ear to the wood and listened. "Jillian, I hear something." She walked over and listened. She could hear a faint noise, like something sniffling. Or someone. The pirate tried the door. "Locked."

Jillian looked around. She could hear the adults downstaris calling, "Come out children! Its not time for hide-and-seek!" She shivered. They needed to get out of here.

"Why do they keep calling us children?" Sparky grumbled, smashing his shoudler into the door. It didn't budge.

"Let me try." She placed her hand around the doorknob and concentrated. Ice formed all around the metal lock and it expanded slightly. Then using the butt of his knife, Sparky smashed the destroyed handle off and the door creaked open.

It was completely dark inside. The light from the hallway lit up the floor of the room. Jillian let out a shriek. Two kids were tied to the bedposts!

Sparky let out a stream of curses and Jillian rushed into the room. She knelt next to a young girl with tangled blond hair. The girl's blue eyes widened in fear and tried to scoot away. "Shhh," Jillian soothed. "We're here to rescue you." She pulled at the ropes binding her wrists to the metal bars.

The pirate pulled out his knife and cut the binds of a boy with tan skin and black hair. "How did you get in here?" he asked.

"They tied us up!" the boy said, shakily getting to his feet.

"And they don't let us out. Ever!" the girl added, her lip quivering. Jillian took Sparky's knife and hacked the ropes, freeing the girl. The little blond threw her arms around her neck. "You must be a hero or a princess!"

Sparky snorted. The young boy they freed shook his head. "Princesses don't save people, Goose. You'r smarter than that."

"Goose?" Sparky was really laughing now.

The girl, Goose, scowled. "Its a nickname! After my favorite animal. Its better than my real name."

Jillian smiled. "What is your real name?" She brushed hair out of the girl's eyes.

Goose leaned in, as if sharing a dark secret. "Agnes. What is your name?"

"I'm Jillian. And this is Sparky."

"I like that nickname," the boy said. "I came up with Goose's. I'm Al."

"Its not a nickname!" Sparky said, looking offended. "It is an honor to be renamed by a pirate captain!"

The Al's dark eyes grew huge. "You're a pirate!?" he cried, looking as if he had never heard of something so awe-inspiring.

Sparky just crossed his arms and grinned. Jillian rolled her eyes. Leave it to Sparky to want to show off. "Did the adults bring another kid in here?" she asked, trying to get back on track.

Al shook his head. "Its just us in here. I thought I heard people walking past a little while go though."

"Great, let's go." Sparky started for the door.

Jillian stood up and grabbed Goose's hand. "They're coming with us."

The teen looked as if she claimed the ocean was made of lemonade. "What? We can't do that! Captain will kill us!"

"No, he'll just kill you."

"How is that any better?" he cried, clutching his head. "Al, maybe. He'll be useful."

"Yes!" Al said, looking excited.

"But the girl has got to go. No girls!"

"I'm a girl," Jillian said coldly, wondering what his point was. The two little kids watched the exchange anxiously.

"You don't count. Its a special arrangement that we can't help. But we can't have little five-year-old girls running around with us!"

"I'm six," Goose said helpfully.

Sparky clenched his fists and let out a stream of air out of his nose. "Fine then! Let's just get Smalls and get out of this nut house."

Luckily, they found Smalls tied up in a room a few doors down from where they found Goose and Al. The tiny pirate didn't look too happy about the new additions but didn't protest.

As they slowly went down a staircase, Jillian could only hear her pounding heart. The building was deathly quiet but that didn't mean they were safe. She half-expected those wierd people to jump out of them. She began to sweat. Why did she have to go down first?

Jillian reached the bottom of the stairs and breathed a sigh of relief. The door was only a few paces ahead. She looked around cautiously. "Okay," she whisphered. "Let's go really quiet-."

"Oh come on," Sparky interrupted loudly. He pushed past the others and strode to the door. Ignoring their frantic motions to be quiet, he said, "They're not even- GAHH!"

A woman jumped out of nowhere and latched herself to Sparky's neck. "You can't leave! You can't leave!" she screeched, struggling to drag him away.

"Go!" Sparky gasped. "I'll be right behind you!"

Smalls nodded and ran for it, the other kids following right behind. Jillian began to leave, but hesitated. It didn't feel right to leave Sparky, even though he was annoying at times. She blasted the woman off of him and grabbed him arm.

The two charged out of the building and down the porch. Jillian had tripped over a loose board, landing in the dusty street, but Sparky helped her up and they followed the other three, laughing in fear and relief as they ran out of Brooks.

"You know what?" Sparky said between breaths. "I hate to break it to you, but I don't think your brother was there."