(Sam's POV)

She invited us into her property, a desolate piece of land we would have never imagined, well except for Ash and Kate, but still this place was amazing.I was so relived to see someone,anyone,that i didn't question her sudden appearance.

Sookie looked so beautiful and sweet, I was grateful for the sight of her again. Besides, she didn't look like she could be a part of a gang or some kind of kiddnapper, so we followed Sookie  as she led us deeper and deeper into the bush.

We past a wasted field and a graveyard of fallen mesquites we went, listening to her melodic words as she led us away until we came to what can only be described as an oasis in the desert. Her house was large and beautiful, with wide, replensdent windows reflecting the daylight on every side, making it glitter and shine majestically. Kate,Ash,Taurtis and me squealed in excitment. Grian just rolled his eyes.

"I've seen better,"Grian said, crossing his arms.

"Hmph,Bummer,"Ash mumbled.  

"What?"

"Nothing"

Sookie took us through her spacious living room and into a splendid, sunlit kitchen where we were asked to sit at a long mahogany table while Sookie poured us glass after tall glass of ice-cold lemonade.

"LEMONADE!" Ash and Taurtis shrieked.

"Im in heaven," I said while sipping the drink.

Kate and Grian just sat there awkwardly with the drink in their hand.

When she had quenched our thirst, she brought us platters full of sweet bread, there were also dense pastries shaped like piggies made with sweet molasses and full of spicy richness in every morsel.

(Ashley's POV)

We ate so much sweet bread and consumed so much tart lemonade, we felt gluttonous, but sinfully content. I shouldn't have ate so much of that bread, but it was the only way that I could beat Taurtis in a eating competition. We listened to Sookie's life stories feeling relaxed. Our long hot day in the sun was too much to contend with, and we all felt sleepy and tired. Kate was already asleep, her head resting on Grian's shoulder. And he just smiled.

"You look tired," Sookie said,pulling the trays of pastry off the table and placing them back on the counter behind her. "Perhaps you should rest for  awhile."

I watched her with half-closed lids as Sookie moved the room with slow, gentle movements that mesmerized me, 

"We should go," I whispered, more to myself than to her.

"Ash, I can't believe I'm saying this but Sookie is right, we should get some rest, it's been a long day." Grian said while pushing up Kate's strand of hair out of her face.

I nodded. He was right.

"Come on now," Sookie said, as she turned off the lights in the kitchen. "I have the perfect spot for a nap.

I nudged Taurtis and Sam to wake up, Sam responded to my action which lifting his head up, but Taurtis was still sleeping. I groaned. I lifted up Taurtis to my back, giving him a piggy back ride upstairs, Im surprised he wasn't that heavy. Grian did the same thing to Kate, and Sam just followed me with his heavy sleepy eyes.

We followed Sookie into a room with only four bedrooms. Great, one of us has to share on  one of the beds.

I slowly layed Taurtis on the bed in the left - hand corner, and as soon as I turned around, Grian,Sam ,and Kate already choosed the beds that were empty. Welp, looks like Im going to share a bed with Taurtis  -^-

Those hours of resting went by pretty fast. We slipped in and out of wakefulness, wincing at the soreness in our muscles, and thirsting for more of that tart lemonade. Finally, we slept so deeply, that we were shocked when we awakened to find the landscape outside the windows in complete darkness. It seemed we had slept the day away and nighttime had descended upon the spacious house like an unexpected guest.

"What happened?" Taurtis asked, yawning and stretching.

Sam's face was illuminated by the light of the moon from an open window. His cheeks were flushed a bright crimson, sunburnt from our walk this morning. "Where is Sookie?"  

"Do you think she remembers who we are?" Taurtis asked as he got up and went to peer through the open door into the darkened kitchen. 

"I hope she doesn't get us arrested," Kate said in concerned scooting over to sit next to me on the edge of the bed.

Grian pushed himself off the bed and stood looking out the window at the darkness outside. "Do you think she is gone? She wouldn't have left us here alone, would she?"

"I'll be fine, either way." Taurtis said.

"Guys? Are you awake? Come in here!" Sookie's musical voice made us all jump, startled. We followed her in the living room and sat on a white and soft couch.

"How was you nap?" she asked, lifting a silver platter full of tiny, delicately sweets.

"Whoa! What are those?" My eyes sparkled with delight, I grabbed all of the baby cakes and ate them with one gulp.

"Petit fours" Sookie said, smiling indulgenltly at the expresion of my face.

I was just about to ask Sookie if she had a phone I could borrow, until she grabbed a new tray of petit fours right in front of me. I couldn't say no to food, so I grabbed three or four of them and ate them. I knew I had to do something but my mind was suddenly blank and I couldn't think what it was I needed to do. I couldn't even talk.

After we ate, we started to drift off to sleep again. How strange.

"Go on now," Sookie insisted. "You need your rest."

"We really need to get going," I said, my eyelids resting heavily over my eyes.

"What all of you need is a bath, come with me"

(Time skip brought to you by Toritos)

After our bath, I slipped between the soft, crisp bedsheets, happy and content. The others we in their beds asleep, so it's time to join them.

(Taurtis's POV)

I awakened in the middle of the night. Moonlight streamed in throught the window, and through my vision was hazy, I could see the curtains blowing back and forth as a black cloud/smoke came into the room in mischivous gusts of wind that toyes with my senses as they entered my lungs and played with my sanity.

"Going...never again... home is a illusion...home is were you have been ... never again ...never again..."The black cloud/smoke spoke to me whispering over and over again.

Remembering where I was, I tried to get up and look for Sookie, but I couldn't focus,much less keep my eyes open. When I tried sitting up, my head spun and I fell back on the bed, dead weight on the pillows. That's when I finaly reliazed something.

"Something's wrong," I whispered. I went through the events when we met Sookie and realized that she never promise helping us go back home. She acted so kindly toward us, but her lack of interest in our plight.

I tried to clear my head."Wake up. You have to wake the others up." But my voice sounded like a distant storm dying, waning in my ears."H-Help, please h-help me"

I felt someone nudging me to wake me up. I opened my eyes slowly and I couldn't believe it, it was Salex. She sat at the edge of the bed and called my name softly,gently as she stroked my hair.

"Taurtis, wake up" she whispered with warmth.

"I can't," I said. My eyes felt so heavy and swollen with sleep.

"You have to," She said softly."Its is important that you have to get up and purge yourself from sweet emptiness."

My stomach was aching dully, and my head felt like it was wrapped in layers. "I don't feel good" I complained. Everything around me looked so foggy and dark.

"Taurtis,  I need you to drink this." Salex lifted my head off the pillow and put a warm glass to my lips. "Drink, your life depends on it."
It took all my strength to open my mouth and sip the warm liquid in that glass. It was bitter and tasted like rancid grapefruit juice. Cringing, I started to spit it out, but Salex coaxed me until I swallowed the rest of it down.

Suddenly I felt it, the need to puke. I flipped the sheets aside, jumped out of bed, and ran to the bathroom. My legs almost giving away under me, I reached the toilet just in time to empty the vile contents of my stomach into it.

"What did you gave me?" I asked.

I turned on the bathroom sink and rinsed my mouth in the sink. I was so weak, I had to rest my upper body on the vanity.

"I've never been so sick in my life."

I felt like something I'll was festering in my stomach, and my head felt like a pinata stuffed with candy.

"It's Sookie's sweetness," Salex explained. "It took control of all of you. The heavens sent me to give you a little bit of help to make you expel it."

"We need to wake everyone up." I made my way back to the bed and sat on the edge because the room was still spinning a little.

"Where can I get more of that stuff you gave me?"

"Come, follow me," Salex commanded from the doorway.

Now that I could notice more than my own sickness, I saw that she didn't look human but more of a ghost. Her eyes were deep hollow, and her cheeks were gaunt . But she still looked beautiful, I miss her.

We walked down the stairs without making a sound. My own feet felt as light as feathers  as I stepped over the floorboards, and I wondered if it was her miraculous tonic making me feel so weightless and swift.

Salex stopped just short of entering the kitchen. We stood hidden in the shadows of the hall, Salex in front of me, with me looking over her shoulder.

Someone was moving around in the kitchen.

"Who's that," I asked quietly.

"Yuki" she said.

To be continued....