As large as Mrs. Anderson's living room was, to the group of five it was still too small.

"Well, at least this beats sleeping on the ground using a log for a pillow." Jason was stretched out on a small chair, his head on one of the chair's arms and his legs hanging over the other.

"Jason, shut up." Janet's sleepy voice came from where she was curled up on the couch. She and Lucy both had to share the small piece of furniture, Janet on the far left of it and Lucy on the right.

"Well I'm just trying to point out the good stuff."

"I don't care what you're trying to do, you're keeping me awake." Janet yawned and fidgeted a little, trying to make herself more comfortable in her cramped spot. Besides the couch and the chair, there wasn't any other furniture in the room that could serve as a bed. The guys had given Lucy and Janet the couch since they were the only girls, and Jason only had the chair because it was across the room from the couch and he seemed to be the only one who didn't mind placing himself that far away from Janet or Lucy. Mrs. Anderson had brought in some blankets for the small group and a couple of futons for Ray and Brandon to sleep on. The truth of the matter was, no one was really able to fall asleep. It was too odd for most of them, being in the house of a total stranger, cramped in a room with four other people. It looked like a long night lay ahead for all of them. Janet fidgeted a bit more, trying once again to make herself comfortable.

"Stop moving, you're too loud." Jason muttered.

"Not as loud as you are." Janet was getting rather irritated. Not being able to get to sleep made her rather edgy, and having to deal with Jason like this wasn't helping her mood one bit. Lucy seemed to sense the tension building between the two windians and spoke up.

"Why don't you try counting biruburu?"

"Yea, great idea. One... two... three..."

"Not out loud you idiot!" Janet sat up and glared over at Jason. "Geez, how stupid can you get?"

Jason sat up and glared back at her. "Well I don't know, there's still your level of intelligence to consider here."

"Don't make me separate you two." The odd threat came from the tired windian guard who was lying out in the middle of the floor, his rapier just beside him. Even though the idea held a bit of humor to it, the two bickering windians knew better then to annoy Brandon when he was this tired, especially when he had his weapon laying right next to him. Jason and Janet both immediately hushed and a restless silence filled the room as the five individuals did their best to get to sleep.

"That clock's too loud." Janet began to complain as the continues ticking of the living room clock seemed to fill her ears.

"Your complaining is too loud." Jason replied with a groan.

"Shush both of you." Brandon muttered and again the group went silent.

Ray was lying next to Lucy's side of the couch on his futon. He opened his eyes and glances up at the clock hanging on the wall. 11:55. He closed his eyes and laid his head back down, doing his best to drift off to sleep. After what felt like hours of lying there unable to sleep, he opened his eyes and looked at the clock again. 11:57. Ray sighed to himself. This night feels like it's never going to end... He turned onto his side and closed his eyes, trying once more to fall asleep.

Minutes passed, and it seemed like most of the group was almost asleep when a loud chime suddenly sounded through the room. Everyone but Brandon sat up in alarm.

"What the hell?" Jason glanced around the room, eyes wide.

Janet groaned and laid back down, throwing her blanket over her head. "Stupid clock! We don't need you to tell us it's midnight!"

Lucy sighed and was about to settle herself back down when another sound reached her ears, something much quieter then the clock, and something much more alarming. She sat up quickly, straining her ears as she listened to see if the noise she heard was real or just something in her head. Ray glanced up at her curiously.

"Is something wrong, Lucy?" He asked quietly.

"I don't know... I think I hear something though..."

Ray raised an eyebrow at her in confusion. "What do you mean?"

"I think I hear... a child crying..." Lucy slid off of the couch and rushed to the stairs, making her way quickly up them.

Janet sat up, watching Lucy questioningly. "Hey, where's she going?"

"To check on Robert I bet." Brandon got up from his futon, grabbing his rapier and followed after Lucy.

"Man, he's going into a little kid's room, what the hell does he need his weapon for?" Jason groaned and rubbed his eyes.

Brandon made his way into the room, peering around through the darkness. "Lucy?" The windian didn't respond, but Brandon could make out her form standing by the open window of Robert's room, gazing out into the night. "I thought you said his mother always kept the window shut?" He looked at the open window and then gazed and Lucy questioningly.

"She does." Lucy turned and made her way out of the room. Brandon glanced over Robert's empty bed, then back at the open window, and finally he followed Lucy as she made her way back down the stairs.

"So what happened?" Brandon was asking her as he came down the stairs after her. "Did he go out the window?"

"I don't know." Lucy sighed. "I don't think that's what happened..."

"What? What window?" Janet sat up and shot Lucy a worried look. "What happened to Robert?"

"He's not in his room." That was Lucy's only response as she made her way towards the front door.

"Hey, what the hell?" Jason sat up quickly, almost falling out of the chair. "Don't tell me you're going out to look for the kid?"

Lucy turned to Jason, shrugging lightly. "Alright then, I won't tell you." With that, she opened the door and slipped out into the night, Brandon following close after her.

The three people remaining in the room exchanged confused and worried glances, then at once jumped up from their spots, grabbed their weapons, and hurried after the two windians.

"So where are we going anyway?" Janet rushed up beside Lucy. "Geez, mind slowing down a bit so we can keep up?"

Lucy ignored her last remark. "I don't know, I'm just following the sounds."

"Sounds? What sounds?" Janet looked at her in confusion. "I don't hear anything."

"Oh? Well maybe if you'd listen for a moment."

Janet paused, straining as she listened to the quiet sounds of the night, trying to figure out what Lucy was talking about. "I don't know... I still don't... oh wait!" Then a quiet sound reached Janet's ears. At first she could only stop and listen to it, trying to figure out what it was. Then it finally registered in her mind. That's a child crying! The realization send a quick shudder through her as the haunting noise suddenly seemed to fill the air, carried on invisible currents of wind. The others seemed to hear it too, because now Jason and Ray were glancing around trying to figure out where the noise was coming from.

"It sounds like there's so many of them." Ray glanced over at Lucy. "Is this what you were talking about earlier?"

"Might be." Lucy sighed again. "Come on, it sounds like it's coming from outside the village." The group made their way to the village entrance and then out past the main gate. Lucy paused and glanced around.

"Over there." Brandon pointed to a large patch of trees that were growing just beside the village wall. "The sound is coming from that orchards"

The group warily made their way towards the orchard, no one really knowing what to expect.

"Why the hell would kids be out in running around in some fruit trees anyway?" Jason glanced uneasily at the darkness around him.

"Something doesn't feel right..." Janet absent mindedly fingered her gun as the group approached the trees.

"Something doesn't sound right either." Ray was listening to a noise that seemed to be interlaced with the sound of the crying children. Some other noise that seemed to drift hauntingly through the air, carrying with it an almost trance like feeling. "Is that singing?"

The group listened. Sure enough, entangled amongst the crying was the soft sound of a melody that seemed to echo from a chorus as it floated through the air. The eerie noise caused the group to shiver and their approach to the orchard seemed to slow a bit.

"What is making that noise?" Janet peered at the large cluster of trees, her movement slowing to almost a halt as her mind wandered with ideas of what could possibly sound like that.

"Well, I suppose there's only one way to find out." Brandon unsheathed his rapier and headed into the orchard. Ray drew his sword and he and Lucy followed after the windian guard, and the last two windians followed timidly behind them. The small group slowly made their way to the center of the orchard, the crying and singing becoming more clearly heard as they did.

"What the hell is that fucking song?" Jason glanced about the trees uneasily as the strange melody flooded his ears and seemed to wash away his thoughts. "I can't even hear myself think!"

The center of the orchard was a small circular clearing. The group stopped a few feet away from the edge of the clearing and stared on in amazement at the scene before them. In the very center of the orchard sat five of the village children, Robert being one of them, all crying loudly, and each deathly pale. Around them, and hovering in mid air, floated the ghost like forms of women, about twelve of them in all. They were white in color, each identical to the next, and all of them were singing the ghostly melody that the group had heard while they were approaching the orchard. What seemed to be oddest about them was the fact that they had no legs. In fact, there was nothing from the waist down. It looked as though someone had taken twelve women and had sliced them in half, dangling their upper bodies around in the air like marionettes as they hung soullessly suspended, singing quietly their enchanting and eerie music. Jason was the first to speak up.

"WHAT THE HELL?"

Janet turned and glared at Jason, snapping at him in a harsh whisper. "Mind keeping your voice down?"

"Too late." Lucy's quiet and emotionless reply came carrying a sense of dread, and Jason and Janet looked over to see that five of the ghastly forms were staring straight at them with thin, eyeless faces. Almost instantly Jason was running off back in the direction of the village, the rest of the group following closely behind him.

"Smooth move, Burnhart!" Janet screamed at Jason in annoyances as she ran.

"Shut the hell up, Meyers, and save your breath for running!" The orchard was suddenly filled with angry howls as half of the ghostly forms began to chase after the fleeing group. Lucy glanced behind herself to see how close the ghastly beings were, stumbling over a large root as she did and letting out a loud cry as she tumbled to the ground. In an instant Brandon was beside her, pulling her back onto her feet and dragging her into a run once more. Jason glanced back over his shoulder to make sure Lucy was alright, then turned to face forward again, bringing himself to a sudden halt in order to avoid running into the white figure that had just appeared before him.

"HOLY SHIT! FIREBALL!" Acting on pure reactions, Jason brought his hand up and flung a fireball at the ghost figure before him. To his amazement the spell hit, causing the figure to let out a loud wail that made the windian's blood run cold. The form dissipated into the air and Jason took off running again, the rest of the group still right behind him. It didn't take them too much longer to break free of the orchard and rush back towards the main gates of the village. They didn't stop until they were all resting around the fountain in the center of the town, breathing hard in effort to catch their breath.

"Okay," Janet slowly began to speak in between deep gulps of air. "Will someone please explain to me just what the hell that was?" She shot an expectant look over at Lucy.

"That... was exactly what I thought it might be." Lucy sighed lightly. Janet just gave her a confused look.

"What? You expected that?"

"Well..." Lucy went on to explain to the rest of the group the theory that she had first offered to Ray. "Janet, you remember that book I was telling you about in the library a few days ago? The one with all the weird demons?"

"Yea..."

"I've just had the weirdest feeling... you remember when I read you that passage about the demons called 'the shens?'"

"Yea, those things that had the same symptoms as an illness, why? Wait... you can't think that..." Janet glanced out at the main gates of the village. "Lucy, you can't really believe that those things were shens? Shens are fictional! They are made up demons!"

"And so was that thing in the tree." Lucy's voice had once again slipped into its emotionless state as she stared at Janet.

"Yea? Well, you were the only person who even saw that tree thing!" Janet glared back at Lucy, matching her look.

"That's true. But we all saw those weird forms out there in the orchard." Ray spoke up as he stared over in the general direction from where they had just all ran from. Janet turned and gave him a sharp look.

"Do you really think it's possible that fictional demons are coming alive and doing weird things?"

"Well, do you really think it's possible that some big demon has just awakened and is feeding its unholy power into the forests of the world?" Ray gave Janet a curious look. "Because if you don't, then what are you doing out here with us anyway?"

Janet opened her mouth to say something, but no words came out. Instead, she just glanced from Ray to Lucy, and then to Jason and Brandon. "This is insane. Things like this don't happen now. They used to a long time ago, but not now!"

"Well then... what are we doing out here?" Jason shrugged lightly at his own question. "I mean... I guess this is the first weird thing this whole group has come across in these couple days we've been away from home, and it's just now starting to set in that something really doesn't feel right now. Like something big is happening, or is about to happen, or... whatever the hell I'm talking about." Jason shook his head. "Fuck, I can still hear that stupid song in my head!"

Janet sighed loudly and finally gave in with a shrug. "Alright, fine. I've seen weird things happen before, I'll live through this too I guess."

"Maybe." Brandon glanced up at her.

"What?" She gave him a curious look.

Brandon simply shrugged. "Maybe you'll live through this, and maybe you won't. I don't know, if we sent you back out there to those things that we saw, would you come walking back just fine, or would we have to go find the pieces of you that were left over?"

Janet stared at Brandon in amazement. It was obvious that it had never really occurred to her that anything could happen while she was out on this journey. Suddenly, her whole view of the situation was flipped, and she felt an odd sickness creeping up from her stomach and into her throat as her mind took in the reality and dread of the whole journey that lay before her. It took the windian a moment before she could find her voice to speak again, but when she did, she sounded a bit shakier, and a much less sure of herself.

"Well, as I was going to ask earlier," Janet started out slow and quiet, "if Lucy is right and these weird... demons... are the shens that were mentioned in the book..." she glanced over at Lucy. "What are we supposed to do now?"

Lucy sighed. "The book said that in order to stop the shen, you have to find out where it's left the rest of its body, and you have to burn that part of its body."

"Burn it?" Jason glanced up questioningly. "Is that the only way?"

Lucy shrugged. "It's the only thing that was mentioned in the book. It never said anything about chopping it up or burying it, so I guess burning it is the only way to destroy the shen."

"That would explain it then..." Jason rubbed his chin thoughtfully.

"Explain what?" Janet glanced up at him questioningly. Jason shrugged and sighed.

"Well, while I was running, one of those things popped up in front of me, and I threw a fireball at it without really thinking. I was kind of surprised that I hit the thing, since they look like ghosts and all, and then it vanished after that so... I guess if fire's what hurts it, then that would explain why my spell hit it."

Lucy nodded. "I guess so. So then, we've got to find out where the shen have left the rest of their bodies... which could be anywhere..." Lucy glanced around the village.

"What if we looked for them in the daytime?" Ray glanced at her curiously. Lucy just shook her head.

"No good. In the day they look just like normal people. It's only at night when they change and look like that." She motioned with a nod of her head in the direction of the village gate. "Only at night when they transform into that and leave half of their bodies behind."

"So what, do they only prey on kids or something?" Jason crossed his arms and gave Lucy a confused look. Lucy shrugged.

"I guess. It would explain why only kids have been sick in this village and not any grown-ups. They're supposed to lure children into some kind of trance with their singing, so that's probably that weird melody we heard there."

Janet shuddered. "How can something that sounds like that lull you into a trance? That was a horrible noise..."

"Well, you weren't their target, so of course it'll sound different to you." Lucy gazed over at Janet.

"Well, little miss know-it-all," Janet glared over at her in annoyance, "mind telling me where we should start looking for the rest of those things then so we can burn them, make the kids better, and get the hell out of here?"

Lucy shrugged again and sighed. "I don't know, and I don't think we should start looking until tomorrow. Now that the shen have seen us, they might be watching for us all tonight. We should probably go back to the Anderson's and try and get some sleep."

"Don't see how anyone could get to sleep after that." Jason muttered quietly and the group made their way back to the house, slipping in quietly through the front door and settling themselves down again in their designated places. It took them all almost an hour, but everyone in the group was finally able to fall into a restless and dreamless sleep.