Both our heads snapped in the direction of the stairs when we heard a creak from the second floor.

Oh shit!

"Nia," I breathed in her ear, "get in the pantry."

"But-"

"Now!" I hissed.

She complied with a glare, but I could tell how scared she was by her hands. They trembled.

I creeped over to the stairs, careful to avoid loose floorboards. Years of sneaking out on my own taught me how those usually creaked.

The stairs creaked more than the floor, but the guy upstairs didn't seem to notice. He was yelling at some one over the phone.

At the top, the first door to the left was cracked and I could listen easily. He sounded extrememly angry.

"What the hell is wrong with you!...What!...You'd better be glad we're family or I swear...I dont care who she was! I..." The man on the phone sighed. "Just don't let this happen again, Ronnie." I heard him snap the phone shut.

Ronnie? I was sooo confused.

"Aaaaahhhhhh!" I heard Nia scream downstairs.

"Crap!", I said before I could slap my hand over my mouth. The man appeared at the doorway immedeatly. He glared down at me with a furious expression on his face.

"Who are you!" he roared, "Did Mathew send you?!"

I didn't know who the heck he was talking about when Nia screamed again. The strange man reached for me and I stumbled backwards. I teetered on the stair before toppling over. Instinctively I tucked my body and tried to protect my head. Even so I felt a sharp pain right behind my ear.

At the bottome I hit the ground running, grabbing my lacross stick on the way. Nia caught up only seconds later. She could hear the man behind us chasing, but she was too focused on running to ask anything.

"Wait!" the man called out. He was already out of breath and clearly not as in shape as we were. He disapeared behind the thick trees, but I wouldn't let Nia slow. We didn't stop until we were at the front door of the house. Nia fell down to the grass with a huff, panting like a loon. I was fine. Well, my head still hurt, but I figuered some Tylonol would take care of that.

"Never...*puff*...running...*puff*...again!" Nia choked out, "Need...*puff*...MINERAL WATER!"

"I need Oreos", I said, "Gimme my keys."

"I threw out the Oreos."

"What?!" I scraemed at her, "Nooooooo!" I fell to my knees and punded the earth in agony. I really didn't know how I was supposed to surivive now.

"You're such a drama queen." Nia said, rolling her eyes while she patted her pockets for the keys. A minute passed. And another.

"Nia-"

"I can't find the keys!" she exclaimed, boredering a full tizz and to do.

My Oreo issue forgotten, I grabbed her shoulders and shook. "Calm down! When did you last have them? Did you leave them at the park?"

"No. They were in my hoodie pocket. I remember because they kept jangling while we were running..."

I leaned against the front door and closed my eyes. This was definentaly an Oh Crap! Moment. I massaged my temples, thinking. Well, obvoiusly the keys were lost somewhere around the old house. They probably fell out Nia's pocket while we were running. So. How do we get them back? Well, we definantaly can't go back today; it was almost dusk and who knows what Mr. Cellphone is up to in there.

Speaking of Mr. Cellphone, what was he doing there? Why were all those jewels there? Were they fake or what? Who was Mathew? And why was Mr. Cellie talking to Ronnie?

My mind wandered in an answerless circle which annoyed the hell outta me. I hated being out of the loop.

I plopped myself down next to Nia and she sat up. "So what do we do now?" Nia asked, pulling at the doomed grass.

"We'll just have to wait for Daddy to come home, I guess."

Nia pulled out her phone and started texting. No doubt telling all her friends what had just happened. Nia always felt the need to tell her friends everything. This wasn't always a good thing.

"So why did you scream back there." I asked after a few minutes. Nia looked up from her mad texting.

"What are talking about?"

"In the house, dummy, you screamed. Remember?"

"Oh right. There was a rat."