I have never asked for much out of life. Never wanted or needed anything more than necessary. My own emotions seemed to get the best of me. Just before he was taken my father glowed with feeling. Get the key to life. Had he known I felt, even understood, exactly what he was thinking at that very moment? Would he have known that I wanted to go with? His persuading thoughts fired back at me in reverse and somewhere inside me grasped the thought of letting go, even if the tears multiplied one by one. I should have known the way he was.


He had started our tribe thousands of years ago, one by one recruiting everyone we needed to form the the Department of Unkempt People Learning Openly, more commonly known to us as Duplo. In the grounds of our safe-haven we stay, understanding more about our cases each day. Nobody can see us here, in our small town, Ghost Town. The fellow committee here consists of people I call Legos, pieced together in a world unknown, brought to Earth like a chick in a shell. Legos are lengthy egotistical gracious overjoyed shnuffems. Shnuffems (sh-noof-ems) are what we're known as. We're, although, not human nor are we deceased. All of us here have special abilities unknown to man.


“Daddy, you.. you,” a voice whimpered.

“Baby, I have to,” he explained back.

“DON'T LEAVE!” she yelled in hysterics as he walked out of the room.


I woke up in a heap of sweat and blankets, with tears soaking my face. I've had this dream every night since he left. I needed answers. That's why I formed T.R.E.E., my family, according to me presently. Since I had failed in overtaking my father's powers I had to zero in on the emotions of others, in the same situation I was in, to form our group. I brought out the anger, the despair, the longing, in all of the people conjoined into our family. T.R.E.E is Teens Recovering Every Emancipation and our specialty is finding the people we love, who were either wrongly taken or wanted to be freed. T.R.E.E. is the new and improved Duplo. My friends say my father would be proud, but I won't take pride until I find him.

My special family consists of shnuffems, or people, who help in hunting down each family member or person once close to us whom was taken from us. I surround myself in them, the only ones who lift me up like any normal family would. We're all close in heart, really. We have differences and settle them equally, although we all have different powers, specialties, that bind us together in soul.

Claire for short, is clairvoyance. She's first in line. She finds each person, pin-points them on the map for us before we call in the next T.R.E.E member. After her follows a teleporter or speedster, whom help us to the desired destination. We have cloners, they can set up traps to keep us away from getting caught from either the Depakote or our own tribe.

The Depakote capture us and make us their own personal experiments. They are the reason our tribe is against our sessions of finding the things and people we need the most. If we were caught by the Depakote chances are we'd never get out, alive that is anyway. The precognitioners draw them sometimes, depending on what their visions consist of. I stopped looking at them after I saw my father surrounded by them, in their pictures. I prompted the precognitioners in not ever showing me those again. Although, I strongly believe he would be smart enough to get out, to stray away, to keep us safe like he promised.

Along the lines of the T.R.E.E family we also have telekinetics to move things around for us once we are at the right place. We even have climbers, who easily move up or down anything you give them, even holding onto ceilings. All of the members in T.R.E.E. contribute to our success and play a part in our game.

As much as I want to find my dad I can't understand why he left. I love it here, but he was sick of being kept in an enclosed world, a world he created, yet was not used to. My anger was condensed in my heart when he left. I couldn't bear to look out the window. Some say the Depakote took him, some say flames burst out around him and a cloud of smoke arose, carrying him away. I refuse to believe he's gone. That was something I couldn't admit to myself, even if my powers failed me yet again in changing my feelings.

Claire can't trace him, the mystery in my heart, the wondering in my brain. He came through the grounds one overcast day. I still remember the scent of the air, freshly strewn dew, the air mixed with fresh air, rain, and such. The skies were filled with fluffy white puffs of clouds, I figured the special shnuffems who dealt with the weather were to blame. I also came to realize the cloud disintegration hadn't began with the other shnuffems. An odd day, I'm sure of it.

He shuffled to and fro silently, scaring the newcomers, and with an implied hush he wistfully sauntered on. I suppose nobody saw this coming, but I imagine the other shnuffems had something to do with my favorite, although depressing to most others, weather, and had saw him before I did. His face glowed with something we shnuffems didn't have, life. I suddenly realized what my dad had left to find.

An eerie silence filled my territory, my leeway, my amplitude. The soft pound of his moccasins against the floor put me in a state of shock. My heart hammered in my chest, my powers shutting down, his state of mind was unclear to me, his feelings a blur. The depth of his topaz eyes only angered me into oblivion. Eventful enough, he sat on the cold crimson floor, but my mind couldn't alter his nor could I sympathize with him. I watched, bewildered, as this stranger traced letters on his arms, seeping his way into my heart. He sat there, waited. I did not understand, but yet my face turned in a painful expression.

A menacing pain blistered within me as I tore my eyes away from his face, my fingers furiously scratching at my arm. The gouges, the long gash, seemed to catch my attention faster. I glanced, appalled, Hello there., was written on my arm, clear as daylight. As a recollection of thoughts and words controlled my mind I sat astonished. Why was he here? I retorted, refusing to admit the obvious. He wasn't one of us, we would've had him here.

I doubled over in pain, clutching my frail face, my head bursting with flames within. A sly, fox-like smile zestfully radiated across his face. As if with the most gracious movement I've seen, he schlepped out of the area. No longer seen, but felt. My eyes flickered with curiosity as my mind was cleared, none the less, to have heard, “I can help you.”