It's true what people meant when they said, "what doesn't kill you makes you stronger." Serena felt stronger now. She'd been in a car crash and that didn't kill her. Worse. She'd known the loss of a baby, that didn't kill her. 'But what would kill her?' Was the real question. Such a simple question and yet does anyone ever consider it?

'Would it be Darien?'

'Would it be her stalker?'

'Would it be her ever supportive family?'

'Would it be an accident?'

'Would it be in my own bed? Old and frail?'

'No.' She thought.

'I will be the death of me.' Her mind told smoothly.

"You have to stop phasing out like that already!" The words were shrill enough to pull Serena out of her reverie.

"For the life of me I don't know why you've become so much more of a scatter brain off late, Sere." Mina turned to glare at her sister. She'd been bantering away happily for over 20 minutes without a peep out of her sister. Then she realised her sibling had very well gone mentally AWOL on her like she had started doing ever so often off late. It wasn't as though Mina didn't understand how much Serena had been through the last couple of months. For God's sake her world had been flipped over and vehemently rattled, till it scattered all over the place. But she had to keep moving on. She had to keep looking forward to what a beautiful life lay in wake for her just around the bend. Couldn't she see it? The light at the end of the tunnel? Or was it just that she didn't want to see it ?

"I am listening to you! Wait I'll repeat everything you just said to me." And as the words left her lips, Serena realised she hadn't really been listening at all. Viciously her brain tried to find keywords from fragments of her sisters babble but it wouldn't return to her. Serena was blank.

"Fuck." She muttered under her breathe.

"Louder! I am waiting." Mina stood glaring at Serena, arms folded irritatedly across her chest. Her pump encased foot tapping impatiently.

As Mina's words registered into Serena's conscious, she immediately quit her efforts of recalling their conversation and started praying to God for a way out of the situation. 'Oh, God. Christ! If I don't do something soon she may go into one of her mad tirades.' As the thought slipped through her mind her brain played her small snippets of Mina's various irritable outbursts.

"Oh Lord, why me?" She moaned accidentally and to Mina's increasing annoyance quite loudly.

"What!"

Serena's panic-wide eyes frantically started flitted around the crowded sidewalk, scanning the crowds for any distraction. And much to her relief God had truly heard her, two familiar tall mops of hair appeared in the distance. Without losing a heartbeat Serena screamed.

"Look! Look! There!" She hadn't realised how loud and panicked she had sounded till she saw the entire street standing around them turn to look in the direction she was pointing in.

Luckily for Serena it wasn't really that hard to distract Mina most of the time, she looked in the direction Serena was stabbing her finger frantically, her elbow bending and then jerking straight in such desperation you could hear her elbow cracking with the effort.

"Well, well, well. Look who decided to finally show up." Mina taunted with experience.

Her taunt was met with two wonderfully handsome smiles mixed with guilt and humour.

"Look who's talking, you're always the late one anyway." Darien replied coolly.

"Sorry for the tardiness, ladies. Couldn't decide what to get you."Andrew offered a more trained answer for Mina's benefit. He drew his hand forward and offered a box of chocolates packed hastily.

Darien rolled his eyes.

Mina smiled and accepted his peace offering. Serena looked at it hungrily.

"We've been standing here so long I am already hungry. Open it." Serena suggested.

"So typical." Darien drawled.

Serena completely ignored him. Her eyes glued to the box.

"Ummm maybe you two should eat these at home, why spoil your appetite before dinner." Andrew offered lamely, he looked positively sweaty in the chilled night.

"One chocolate is harmless, Andrew." Mina countered as she pulled the ribbon open simultaneously.

"If anything it's going to make us more ready for mains." Serena answered.

Andrew pulled at his collar looking visibly stuffy in his evening wear.

"Heyyyy! There's just one chocolate left in here!" Mina looked at Andrew accusingly.

" I call dibs on the chocolate." Serena's left hand flew in the air palm straight up as she screamed shotgun and before anyone could even register what was happening she had snatched up the chocolate and popped it into her awaiting mouth.

Darien watched surreally as the scene played out in front of him, Mina's mouth was opening slowly and suddenly, all at once began her angry onsalught that would put a rapper to shame. Andrew was openly sweating now, his face was flushed, his eyes wild and desperate and he was gulping loudly. Serena stood between them chomping on her chocolate with purpose, her hands clumped into fists near her chest, her sole purpose right now was to eat that chocolaty goodness, cheeks flushed, brows furrowed. What ambition! He could only think what she was thinking right now. 'Chew, chew, chew, chew. Swallow. Wait don't forget to breathe. Chew, chew..."

What kind of dysfunctional family was he marrying into? He wondered.

"Can we just get to the movie already, please ? I just saw Serena looking very questionably at the chocolate wrapper." Darien broke out loudly managing to get everyone's attention.

Serena looked away from the wrapper shamefully and slowly crumpled it into a bunch and threw it in a nearby trash can.

"Thank you. Now can we please go watch the movie?" Darien suggested, slightly exasperated.

"Yes." Andrew replied swiftly, desperate for any form of distraction. He shuffled away to buy tickets.

"Yes." The girls replied in unison, almost sounding and nodding identically.

The three of them stood and watched as Andrew struggled and tackled through the queue at the ticket counter and finally made it out, four tickets in hand after what seemed like ages.

" Took you long enough." Remnants of Mina's irritation lingered.

"Let's get food now." Serena flew unintentionally to Andrew's rescue.

"Come on then." Andrew flung himself at the opportunity and gave Serena his elbow. Happily she hooked her arm in it and like old friends bounced off into the theater.

"It's nice to see Serena back in her funk." Mina observed as Darien and she slowly trailed behind them.

"It's all Andrew and your doing. I think having you two around her is her happy place." Darien replied with a smile.

"Darien Shields and humility! Never did I realise I'd live to see this day pass!" Mina joked exaggeratedly.

Darien chuckled.

"And did he just laugh to my joke?" She went on feigning more shock than she felt. Her palm flew dramatically to her cheek.

"So this is the sound all the girls in town keep gushing about."

Darien had the modesty of blushing.

"Ok now this is just getting ridiculous."

Mina said very seriously.

"I just cannot believe you are turning red in the face. I cannot take so many changes from you in 30 seconds."

Darien only shrugged and rubbed his cheek bashfully.

"Happy to have you in the family, Dare." Mina squeezed Darien's arm affectionately.

"Happy to be a part of it." Darien replied warmly.

"Has there been any progress in the entire stalker case?" Mina asked Darien suddenly, all humour and affection drained from her tone and eyes.

"No." His voiced trailed off. Darien looked straight ahead. His mind instantly elsewhere.

"Darien listen..." Mina's voice suddenly fell to a little above an unsure whisper.

"What?" She had his attention then as he turned to look at her, easily picking up the seriousness in her tone. His navy eyes piercing. Intrigued now. Mina realized hazily somewhere in the recesses of her mind that this was the first time in her life he had ever given her such attention. She didn't enjoy it much though.

His stare made her feel vulnerable. Mina suddenly felt naked under such intense perusal. It was like he could see right through every thought she ever had.

"You know the n..." Her voice trailed off as they sensed another presence approaching them.

"Hey guys!" Andrew called out as he walked towards them.

They both looked at him startled out of the moment.

"Woah! Hey, sorry did I disturb you two." He chuckled apologetically, his arms raised up to his shoulders, palms up in defence.

"Oh no! I was just thanking, Darien for taking care of our Serena so well." The moments gravity was lost and Mina had recovered almost immediately, behaving like nothing was wrong.

Darien's forehead creased as he noticed the absence of his fiancée.

"Where's Serena ?" He asked Andrew as his eyes continued to scan the large hall to look out for a familiar head.

"She just went to the ladies room." Andrew turned and pointed in the direction of the ladies room.

"I think you should go check on her,Mina." Darien told Mina coolly, but the command in the undertone was more than clear.

"Yeah." Mina didn't need to be told twice.

Andrew looked confused with the sudden air of seriousness in his companions.

Darien's eyes never left the bathroom door, even as Mina moved in the direction of the ladies room. Shecame out of the room looking visibly concerned and without Serena. She looked at him with wide fearfully eyes and shook her head in negative.

Darien didn't need to be told twice before he marched into the ladies room himself and began kicking the doors down. No Serena. He tried her mobile number and couldn't get through. Panic rose up like bile in his chest and he pushed it down before it took over him.

He found Mina and told her to keep dialing Serena's number. He told Andrew to start searching for her on the first floor as he took the ground floor.

As they all emerged from the ladies room frantically they were met with an equally flustered Serena balancing 1 tray in each hand and balancing a third on the first two.

"Oh there you all are! I've been searching everywhere for y'all. I need help with these!"

Darien was livid, Andrew was relieved and Mina was the first to come out of her shock.

"Oh My God! Serena, where have you been?"

"I went to get the food we ordered." Serena answered obliviously.

"Couldn't you just inform one of us!" Darien started angrily.

"Tell you what?"

"Where you're going, we were worried sick." He bit out.

"Are you seriously stupid ?" Serena frowned.

"No. But maybe someone's a little paranoid." Andrew took a harmless stab on Darien.

Darien on the other hand shot him an icy stare that would put out the fires of hell, and made Andrew feel like it was a more inviting place to be at right now than in Darien Shields line of sight. He chuckled nervously.

"Stop over reacting and help me." Serena bristled.

Mina giggled. "Well we did overdo it just a tad bit." She moved forward to help Serena with her trays.

Darien was still brooding as they all walked in to the auditorium.

They watched some lousy romantic movie of Mina's choice and honestly the sound of Serena sucking the last of her drink through her straw had more intensity in it than the entire plot of the movie.

"Hey I need to go use the loo." Serena whispered to Darien.

"Can I come along please." Darien turned around and seemed desperate to get out of the movie.

"No." Serena said flatly still irritated with the days events.

"Don't worry about her, I'll go with you." Mina volunteered.

Darien wasn't overly convinced but reluctantly nodded his agreement.

He watched the sisters shuffle out of they're row stomping toes and apologizing all the way, till they were seen no more.

Finding time finally to himself his mind drifted to his reaction earlier. Perhaps he was being more overprotective than needed. Maybe he needed to calm down more.

"Hey, what's taking them so long." Andrew whispered across two empty seats to Darien.

Now pulled out of his reverie Darien looked at his watch. The two had been gone for a good 15 minutes.

Reminding himself not to overreact again, he reasoned, "Maybe Serena's gone to get more food."

"Yeah..." Andrew trailed off and then continued, "...but Mina isn't taking her calls."

Darien didn't have to be told twice. He shot out of the auditorium without even as much as a peep at all the angry toes he had left in his wake. Andrew on the other hand went out slower, apologizing not just for himself but on behalf of all his companions for the night.

Darien had rushed out of the auditorium and right into the ladies bathroom where he found Mina's phone ringing away on the tiled floor. But no Mina and no Serena.

"Fuck."

After confirming that the bathroom was empty he went out and made sure he created chaos.

By the time Andrew made it out of the auditorium all hell had broken lose. Darien had made the manager lockdown the entire theater. There was no exiting the theater anymore. Once that was done Darien described showed everyone a picture of Serena and Mina, he described to them what the girls were wearing and the search began. Enough mayhem had been created to stall all on going movies.

Darien had even called the cops. Andrew had to keep trying to get through to Serena's number.

His heart was beating a thousand miles a minute as he moved purposefully through the corridors searching for the twins. Looking thoroughly through every room, every closet, storeroom there was. Everyone was looking for them.

How had two beautiful women walked passed a relatively busy hall and gone missing? It had been 45 minutes of searching and yet they weren't anywhere to be found.

What did he miss? Even the police was almost giving up now, they would determine that the girls weren't in the building anymore. How was that possible?

The entire building had been checked twice...

"Mr. Shields." A male voice broke into his thought process, he ignored it.

"Mr. Shields." Again the annoying voice called him back.

"Yes." He hissed.

"The entire building has been checked, Sir. They aren't in here."

"How can you be so sure?" Darien asked irritably.

"Because we've been searching for over 45 minutes and they aren't here to begin with."

"The doors of the theatre were sealed within 20 minutes. Nobody can exit this theatre smoothly within 20 minutes with two full grown blondes in tow without being noticed. They are still here." Darien argued.

"So why haven't we found them?"

"That's just because we aren't looking at it correctly." Darien rationalised.

"Sir, what about all the movie goers we are holding up? We can't make them wait indefinitely, they're getting restless." The policeman tried to take another route.

" One of them may very well be a kidnapper. You can't possibly let him free." Darien was loosing his cool.

Sir, we can't box them up all night!" The man was getting annoyed by Darien's stubbornness.

"Oh God!" Darien bellowed. "That's it!"

"What's it!" The policeman asked incredulously.

"They're in something! A box? A bag? They may have been taken out of a bathroom in a box or a bag. Someone could've dressed as a janitor..."

"Sir, they did mention that the bathroom itself had a janitor's closet..."

The man never finished his sentenced as Darien went hurtling passed him and made a sharp beeline to the bathroom. How foolish could he have been. He rammed straight into bathroom and walked toward the janitor's closet that was concealed to look like the wall of the bathroom. You could see it if you knew you were looking at a closet, if not, then it was just another full length mirror. Heart thumping hard against his ribs, Darien wrenched it open and looked in to dark room to find it empty save brooms, buckets, tissues and no blondes.

The anger and the panic that had been simmering just below the surface finally did come up for air. Letting out an angry grunt Darien's fist came crashing down on the glass basin, his knuckles made a sickening crunch. But it wasn't enough and with that he kicked the bottom of the counter on which the twin basins were held.

Even to his anger hazed mind the hollow sound of his foot connecting with the wood below resounded loudly. He looked down now very much near the spot he had found Mina's phone. Again he tapped the wood with his foot to confirm what he heard. This time the thumping of his foot was followed by a knock from the other side.

Darien immediately fell down to his knees and started searching for an opening in the concealed cabinet.

"Serena!? Mina?" He called out loudly, searching for an opening.

He found a small concealed dent on top of the wood, below the basin and pushing his finger in as he pulled the door out.

As if in slow motion one door swung open. He was first met with a pair of frantic blue eyes. The mouth covered and bound, knees pulled up to the chest and hands bound tightly together at the shin, rendering the person immobile and creating enough space in the space to fit two...He was relieved and scared all at once, when he turned to the other door, concealing the second occupant.

Serena was bound and gagged much like Mina. But she was unconscious and as Darien opened the door on the side Serena was, revealing her completely, she fell toward the cool tile floor. Darien easily shifted his weight to put himself between Serena and the floor and she slumped into his body, as he gently lifted her out and then proceeded to help Mina.

Darien called out for help and soon enough both the girls were being unbound. Serena still unconscious.

As soon as the gag was removed from Mina she blurted wildly, " She's hurt, she's hurt."

Darien's head shot in the direction of Mina's voice. When he looked back again he noticed for the very first time the thick blotches of sticky blood on his once pristine white shirt.

He carefully lifted Serena from her slumped position on his chest and stuck his hand under her hair, behind her ear. His breathe hitched at the sticky, cold and wet liquid he felt cover his palm, Slowly he pulled his hand out to now see only crimson blood. His movement made Serena's unconscious neck yank back, pushing her head and hair back of her shoulder, revealing the entire right hand side of her hair, neck and shirt drench in blood.

Darien's arm tightened around her cold form and pulled her to his chest protectively.

Serena...

Ok, so here it is and I am back. Been through a lot these couple of years and it's been just hard to take the story forward m, sometimes when u just start something so good it's sort of tough to keep it consistent. But I'll finish it this time around. Thank you for liking my work.