Chapter Forty-Eight.

Ryan shot his eyes open.

As if having a bad dream, his chest pounded, rising and falling as he threw his head upon his shoulders to look around the dark room he was in. There was a small window across it, one through which a trail of hoary moonlight fell through.

He wiped the beads of sweat that clung to the corner of his face before turning to where his sister laid. "Em" He pushed her softly to awake her. "Emily!" Leaning forward, he whispered.

And though this boy was a little pushing seven years, in his mind he had began plotting his escape through that window. But he needed his sister to get up.

Emily yawned, her arms hovering over her head as she parted her eyes to look at him. "What are you doing a—" Ryan clutched her lips shut with the palm of his hands so her shrill voice won't wake either Samantha or Colton in the sofa merely meters from them.

"We need to go" Ryan muttered, seeing the confused expression on his sister's face. "How?" Emily asked, a lot slower than he was and he