On the second floor of the Ingram Estate, Danielle Kenrick waited for her cousin. She cracked her bedroom door and peered into the hallway. Deep down she knew this was a bad idea, but the bored and curious side of her wanted a bit of adventure. Six months ago she would never imagined that breaking into a bedroom would have her brimming with excitement.
     Riff stepped from the grand staircase and onto the second floor. She hurried over to a certain door as Danielle left her room.
     “Ingram is in a private meeting,” said Riff as her cousin met her at the door. “I’m figuring that we have thirty minutes of freedom.”
     Danielle nodded. “And Jake?”
     “Getting all techie with the boys in the security room, so we’re good to go.”
     Riff retrieved a small, leather case from her back pocket. She picked out a couple of tools from inside and handed the case to Danielle. Like a skilled thief, Riff worked the lock. Danielle held her breath. Any second she expected to see someone round the corner. Her eyes kept darting from the lock to the stairs. As the lock clicked, both girls rushed inside and closed the door.
     Danielle handed the case back to Riff as she gave the room a quick look. There were no posters or random wall hangings, nothing to show that this room belonged to anyone. It looked more like a guestroom based on décor alone. On one side, however, opposite to the bed, sat a nice, widescreen TV on top of a long dresser. Danielle opened the drawers to see each one filled with DVDs and Blue-Ray Discs.
     Light poured into the room as Riff threw open the curtains. A series of metal bars sat on the other side of the window. Pursing her lips, Riff studied the bars.
     “Poor girl,” Danielle said, taking notice of the paranoid window treatment. “Her father treated her like a prisoner.”
     “Or it was to keep the baddies out,” concluded Riff. She spotted the desktop computer and rubbed her hands. “You can really tell a lot about someone through their computer.” Sitting down at the desk, she turned on the computer and sat back, watching the loading screens cycle through.
     Danielle opened the closet door and switched on the light. The large walk-in closet, twice the size of her own, held very little in the way of clothes.
     “Oh my, Louis V.,” she exclaimed. “This girl had some serious closet space. They could fit another bedroom in here!”
      Riff left the computer to take a look. She thumbed through the clothes. “Dolce & Gabbana have mercy, she has no labels. Well, there goes my image of a pampered princess.”
     Kneeling down, Danielle glanced over the shoes. “Only four dress shoes and”—she ran her hand through the hanging clothes—“six dresses? Either Ingram allowed her no pleasantries in life or she didn’t get out much.”
     “What do you expect? The man spends all his time and money on his hobby.” Riff returned to the desk where she was greeted with a colorful desktop image and a slew of icons. “Wow. No password on startup? I feel bad for looking now.” She lowered her voice. “But that won’t stop me.” Grabbing the mouse, Riff began her journey into Evonne’s digital closet.
     Danielle caught sight of several plastic boxes stacked in the closet’s back corner. She crawled over to them and slid one off the stack. Inside, she found old papers, drawings, and photos.’ ”
     “You know what I’ve noticed?” she called out, retrieving a handful of photos. “At first glance, I saw no pictures of family sitting around. There’s no personality to this room. No posters or frivolous knickknacks.”
     “You haven’t seen her computer,” Riff replied, eyes glued to the screen. “This thing is a gaming machine. There’s a nice collection of games, too.” She spotted a strange icon. “Well, hello, Mr. Smiley Face.” She clicked on the icon and a program opened with a prompt box. Riff bit her lower lip as her fingers danced over the keys, typing in “guest.” The screen flashed as a new box popped up. It was a loading screen. Riff tried to move the mouse pointer but the computer didn’t respond. The loading screen rolled to one-hundred percent then disappeared. She waited for something to happen.
     “Okay,” Riff said, blinking in confusion, “that’s odd.” She changed the direction of her searching and clicked on a folder belonging to a digital camera. The first subfolder contained outdoor pictures, mainly of clouds, flowers, trees, and snow. The next folder held shots of a motorcycle and a few people. Riff pulled up one photo. “Danielle, is this the guy you saw that night?”
     Danielle left the closet, with photographs in hand, and looked at the monitor. The young man was dressed in jeans and a casual shirt and sat on a motorcycle. This was the human David.
     “Yeah,” she acknowledged. “That’s him.”
     Riff tilted her head and grinned. “He’s rather fit. Such a shame, really.” She went to the next photo, this one showing a girl with long, blonde hair fiddling with a helmet.
     “Any video?” asked Danielle.
     Riff clicked onto the main folder. “There’s a few.” With another quick click, she brought up the first video on the list.
     The video started with a daytime view of a leafless forest. The camera, shaky at first, zoomed in on one tree where a brown owl sat. A girl’s voice came to the speaker, mimicking the sound of an owl. The video ended.
     “That was rather random,” Riff commented. She brought up another video.
     The screen shown David walking toward the camera and the same female voice speaking.
     “It’s the sexy man himself,” the girl joked.
     Another voice, this one male, replied, “You’re going to give him a complex.”
     The video ended.
     The next video came up showing David, with a helmet on, as he rode the motorcycle around the large field behind the manor, all of his attention focused on his ride.
     “Fifty bucks,” the girl said.
     The other voice laughed. “What? That he falls off? How about fifty cents that he stays on?”
     “You don’t have much confidence in him, do you?”
     “Have you seen him ride before?”
     “No.”
     “My point exactly.”
     The video ended.
     Riff brought up another video. The new clip shown Pax, without a helmet, getting on the bike and kick-starting it. He then drove around the field, looking a hundred times more comfortable than David.
     David voice came to the speakers as he scolded Pax, who was obviously showing off his riding skills.
     The girl interrupted his rant. “He bet me fifty cents that you’d stay on.”
     David replied, his voice softening. “Do you want to learn the correct way or his way?”
     “Your way, sensei.”
     The camera continued to follow Pax for a few moments longer then ended.
     Riff started another video. David stood beside the girl, Evonne, as she sat on the bike, with the engine growling and helmet on. The camera panned closer to them as David went over the last minute instructions, his voice barely audible. The camera zoomed out and turned around to show Pax’s face as he spoke.
     “Evonne, I want to take this time to apologize for any scrapes, bruises, or broken bones you may receive today.” He turned the camera back around for a moment, then flipped it around, once more. “Why did you pick him anyway?” The camera returned to Evonne and David as Pax gave one last comment. “Aw, you two look cute together.”
     The video ended.
     “It’s kind of sad, actually,” said Riff. “Here’s these two people who could’ve had a nice life, and here their stories ended so tragically.”
     Danielle looked through the photos in her hand. “We don’t know what really happened to his daughter, only that she ran away with a vampire.”
     Riff shrugged. “Ironic, really. The daughter of a hardcore hunter getting her rocks off with a vampire.”
     They heard someone cough behind them, making themselves known. Riff and Danielle turned to see Alex standing by the open door. They were too occupied with the short, home movies to hear the door open. Even if they had heard him, there was no time to hide.
     Alex calmly closed the door and slid his hands into his pockets. He looked at them, defeated.
     “What is it you want to know?” he asked.
     Riff and Danielle exchanged glances.
     “Anything?” said Riff, still in disbelief at the open invitation.
     “Anything.”
     Danielle sat the photos on the desk and crossed her arms. “What happened to your daughter?”
     Alex answered truthfully. “She was taken from here.”
     “That we already know,” reminded Danielle. “Is she still alive?”
     Looking unnerved, Alex kept his reply vague. “She still walks the Earth.”
     Riff rephrased the question. “Is she human?”
     “No.”
     “What do you want from our families?” Danielle asked.
     “I have been transparent about that since day one. I wish to work with your families. I believe we can do so much good in this world.”
     Riff spoke. “Do you think our parents would agree so quickly?”
     “No. I’ve waited for years to get this far. I can wait longer.”
     “We’re not our parents,” Danielle pointed out. “It’s true they sent us to spy on things here, but I think you already know that.”
     “I have nothing to hide from them—from you. But this is my daughter’s private room. I would appreciate your respect on that fact alone.”
     “Sorry,” Riff said, standing from the chair.
     Danielle wasn’t so quick to apologize. “There’s something else. You can let us experience all that is SEVEN.” She paused to gauge his reaction. “With all due respect, things are too quiet and simple around here. If we are to truly experience what you do, we will need to see it all.”
     Alex thought over her proposal. “I can send you to Alexandria, if you wish. It was the first SEVEN headquarters established. Jonathan is heading there this weekend to inspect some new recruits. You are free to join him there.”
     “And you have no problem with this?” asked Riff.
     “As long as you follow Jonathan’s orders, you can observe all you want.”
     Danielle nodded. “Thank you.” She grabbed Riff’s arm and led her from the room, relief hitting her as they hurried down the hall and to their rooms.
     Alex remained in the room, his eyes painfully glancing over everything once belonging to his daughter. His eyes landed on the computer monitor. The still image was from the last video the two girls were watching. Sitting down at the desk, Alex hit the play button. The video began. It was the day David began teaching Evonne how to ride her motorcycle. He remembered Evonne asking him to come outside to watch, but he was too busy with work to bother with such nonsense. He thought that the bike would stifle her ever-growing wish for freedom. If there was anything she wanted, he wouldn’t hesitate to buy it for her. But that was the strange thing. She never wanted many things. She seemed so happy within the house. What changed?
     Alex turned off the computer and stood from the desk. He looked around the room once more. There was nothing out of place or stolen. But the harm from the two girls’ trespassing left a different mark on the room. The sacred place had now been tainted. He had deemed himself protector over this one room, in hopes that one day she would return.
     Alex swiftly smothered his rising emotions. This wasn’t the time or place to cave in now.