Athena Pierce sat at her kitchen table reading about the Ospedale Psichiatrico di Volterra - an insane asylum in Italy. She shivered involuntarily at the pictures.

Athena sat staring at the long, dark entrance of the asylum. It reminded her of her time at the Sarton Asylum. The memories there were still clear in her mind, but they now didn't bother her. They haven't kept her up at night for a while now. She remained able to keep herself sane long enough to stay asleep and eventually push them to the back of her mind.

The picture occurred to look dark and eerie looking. What made the picture worse wasn't the unkempt trees and fallen leaves going along the path, but the single rusty wheelchair laying sideways in the middle of the path. Athena couldn't tell if the picture happened to be altered or not, but it still made her shiver.

It didn't help that the weather outside became dark and dreary. Athena hated this kind of weather. She appeared upset when she looked out the window this morning and instead of seeing the bright morning sun, she saw dark rain. This certainly didn't look like good weather for traveling, but she had to go to her new assignment and rain wasn't going to stop her.

Athena took a sip of her coffee and heard a knock at the door. Sighing, she got up and walked over to the door. She opened it up and saw two luggage's sitting outside. She rolled her eyes and grabbed their handles. She set the luggage's inside and went back to open the door. Derek appeared to be standing there, wet. She ushered him inside and pushed him towards the bathroom.

"Dry off!" Athena yelled while laughing. "You're going to ruin my floors." Athena closed the door of the bathroom and went to finish packing.

Athena climbed up the stairs and walked into her bedroom. Walking over to her bed, she began to put the folded clothes, shoes, and toiletries into her suitcases. Her dog, Ginger, happened to be already at her parent's house and going to stay there for the rest of her trip.

Once she finished, she carried her suitcases downstairs and placed it next to the rest of her brother's suitcase. She then walked back to her kitchen and started to clean up her mess from breakfast. While she continued to wash the dishes, she saw her brother come out of the bathroom and walk into the kitchen. He sat down at the table and grabbed her computer. He started to click away on it.

Athena rolled her eyes and huffed. "Yes, you may use my computer."

"Thanks," he answered her, oblivious to her annoyance, while his eyes remained glued to the screen.

Athena finished wiping the dishes clean and began to put them away in the respective cupboards. Once she finished with that, she walked over to her brother and looked over his shoulder.

He happened to be looking at the same website she occurred to be looking at before. He scrolled through the pictures and she saw him shiver involuntarily.

"Creepy, huh?" she asked. She walked away from him and grabbed her backpack. She began to put her notebooks, camera, and charger for her computer in it. She then walked back over to the table and closed the laptop.

"Hey!" Derek whined. He looked up at her with a mixture of humor and hurt.

She smacked the back of his head and tried to contain her smile. "Shut up and get moving. We have a long day ahead of us and I would like to get started as early as possible."

Derek rubbed the back of his head and stood up. He looked at the clock above the sink and looked back at his sister. "It's eight thirty in the morning. I think we have plenty of time."

"I don't care. I'm ready to go." Athena stood with her hands on her hips by the suitcases. "Grab a suitcase." She grabbed one of hers and her car keys before opening the door and running - as well as she could with a suitcase - towards her car. She quickly unlocked the trunk and threw her suitcase in. She turned around to see Derek running with two other suitcases and his carry-on on his back.

Athena left the trunk open and ran back into the house to grab the last suitcase and her backpack. Athena took one last look around her house. She threw up a silent prayer that she would return and nothing horrible happen while they were in Italy. Closing her eyes and shaking her head, she threw on her backpack and grabbed her suitcase. She closed the door behind her and securely locked it before running through the rain. She finally got to her car, threw her suitcase in, closed it, and climbed into the driver seat.

Athena ran a hand through her wet hair and pulled it back into a bun before starting the engine and taking off down the driveway and towards the airport.

☆

Eventually, they arrived at the airport and hurriedly unloaded Derek's suitcases. Derek went into the airport pulling his suitcases behind him to register them for their flight. Athena drove the car into the parking garage and paid for the parking. She got out of her car once she parked and unloaded the rest of her belongings. She locked her car and pulled her suitcases down the sidewalk and into the sliding doors of the airport.

Athena never really liked flying, but she knew that this remained the only way of traveling to Italy. She surely didn't want to take a super long car ride there. She knew both of them wouldn't last long in a car. It became either go to Italy or remain at home and never get this opportunity again. She decided to take the offer and face her fear of flying.

She walked over to where Derek appeared to be standing in line. Luckily, he happened to be standing in the back of a line and she didn't have to cut anyone to get to her brother. She stood next to him and returned his smile. There occurred to be about three other people in front of them, so Athena took her new phone out and plugged in her earphones. She scrolled through her music until she found the album she wanted and pressed play.

She listened to the song until it seemed to be almost done and they were ready to go up to the counter. Athena let Derek take care of the arrangements with the young lady. Athena had to bit her lip to contain her laughter. The young lady continued to try to flirt with Derek by batting her eyelashes one hundred miles per second and giggling at everything he said.

Athena came back to reality when she heard the lady ask them to take out their driver license. They both did and handed them to her and quickly got them back. Athena sighed with relief when they were able to give her their luggage and leave the counter.

When they were out of both eye and ear shot, Athena burst into laughter.

"What's so funny?" Derek asked Athena confused.

Athena shook her head and calmed down her laughter to a giggle. "Did you not realize the way she was acting towards you, back there?"

Derek rolled his eyes and stared ahead. The corners of his mouth turned up into a slight smile. "Yes, I noticed. She wasn't my type anyway."

At that comment, Athena started laughing again. "Harsh, Derek!"

Derek looked at her and smiled. "Besides. I'm taken."

Athena stopped in her tracks. "What?" This was new news to her. "Why didn't you tell me? When did this happen? Who is she? Do I know her?"

It became Derek's turn to laugh this time and throw up his hands in surrender. "One question at a time, yeesh! I didn't tell you because I knew you would want to meet her as soon as you could. It happened about two weeks ago. Her name is Sera Arthurson and she the most beautiful and sweet woman I have ever met." He suddenly started to stare off into space and almost ran into the person in front of them standing in line for customs.

Athena stopped him just in time by grabbing his arm and pulling him back. "Derek? Focus." She snapped her fingers twice in front of his face.

He looked at her and had a goofy grin on his face. "Sorry," he chuckled. His face blushed at being caught. "You don't really know her. You might if you saw a picture of her, but you wouldn't recognize her name."

Athena shook her head. "You're right, I didn't recognize her name. Does she work at the Sarton Paper?"

Derek nodded. "She's in the same department as I am. That's how we met. She started working there at the same time I did and we started talking at first just as friends, but them it grew into what it is now."

Athena smiled at her brother's happiness. "I'm happy for you, Derek. Do you have a picture of her?"

Derek nodded again and got that goofy grin back. He reached into his pocket and pulled out his phone. He typed in his password and looked through his photos until he found the picture he wanted. He handed the phone to Athena.

Athena smiled at the picture. It was a selfie of Derek and his girlfriend - Sera - at a park. Derek was standing behind her with his chin resting on her shoulder. The goofy grin he had on now was the same one as in the photo.

Derek was right when he said that Sera was beautiful. She had shoulder short red hair and dazzling blue eyes that were big and bright with youthfulness. Her fair skin was sprinkled with light colored freckles. Her lips were spread wide in a smile that showed off her perfect white teeth. All that Athena could see in the photo that she was wearing was a blue t-shirt.

They both looked extremely happy with each other and that made Athena smile even more.

"She is beautiful, Derek." Athena smiled up at him. "I'm happy for you."

Derek smiled and pocketed the phone after he looked at the photo and smiled even wider. They began to move with the line and go through customs. When they were through, they walked to their gate and sat down. They had about thirty minutes until they had to begin boarding.

Athena got out her phone and checked her email.

Nothing...

Athena sighed and looked over at Derek. He was typing away on his phone. Most likely texting Sera. She smiled at him and turned back to her phone. She hoped that someday she could feel the same goofy grin on her face as her brother does, but she figured it wouldn't be soon.