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Part 2

“Erica!” Nick cried out, ducking his head as something nearly hit it, “Bad girl! Sit! Behave!” he yelled in fearful frustration, demanding her as if she were a puppy in training.

Erica grinned evilly as she toddled at him as quickly as she could, bending down to pick up a block along the way, chucking it at Nick’s head. This time, she got him square in the forehead. Erica cooed in glee, her perfect aim just egging her on to try for another. What made it even better was that the man was trying to hide from her, obviously afraid an unknowing of how to handle the situation instead of yelling at her and putting her in her crib.

“Damn child, you got an arm on you.” Nick breathed, rubbing a sore spot as he squinted. He’d only been alone for five minutes and chaos had already struck. Why was it that the younger generations always felt they could take advantage of him, and succeeded? Nick didn’t have time to think, as his eyes grew wide as Erica had her arm back, a block clutched within her tiny fist, “Erica, noooo!” he cried, but was too late, as the block was already sailing through the air. With delayed reaction, Nick tried to jump out of the way, but this one clipped his chin with a corner. He stood in shock for a moment before saying, “Ouch.”

Erica clapped her hands, giggling loudly. Nick scowled, afraid to near the toddler, eyeing her cautiously as if she had a gun aimed right at him. She did have weapons though, and plenty of them. In Nick’s eyes, those blocks were lethal. He’d already been struck in the back of the head, the forehead, the cheek, his chin and one in the chest. And here she was, ready to try again for lucky number six.

“Eirca, put it down!” Nick whimpered, “Please...just put...the block doowwwn!” Nick ducked as one cruised through the air.

This time, it hit the wall, falling to the ground with a thud. Enough had been enough. He was going in. Nick got up slowly, just looking at his niece smiling at him, her eyes full of anything but innocents. He slowly started to make her way towards her, smiling kindly at him, hoping that she couldn’t read his fear. When Nick was only seven feet away though, Erica caught on, running right past him, her honey colored curls bouncing with every step that she took. Nick spun around, amazed at how fast those little legs were carrying her.

“You just couldn’t be two months now, could you?” Nick muttered, knowing then that the child would be doing nothing but just lay there and cry at the worst.

He started to chase after her, but was stopped short when he stepped on a block, causing him to stumble before falling to the ground hard on his butt. Nick winced, not noticing Erica stop to turn her head to look at him. She giggled in delight before taking off again, Nick still on the ground in a daze. This was not going well for him. He refused to give up though. The night was still very young. There was still hours left to fix things. Maybe she was just high on energy for the time being?

As Nick rolled on to his knees, he rubbed his sore tail bone as he stood, glancing down the long, narrow hallway that he’d last seen Erica. She was nowhere to be seen. Nick groaned, spinning in a circle to see if she was anywhere in sight. No such luck. The small girl was gone, somewhere in the large house. The question was, where? There were quite a few rooms, many closets, beds she could be under. He didn’t even want to think about the not so obvious places. The places that only small children thought of to hide in.

“Erica,” Nick called out, choosing a hallway, “Come out...please.”

He knew his voice was panicked, but this was definitely a panic-worthy situation. Nick entered the first room on the right, which happened to be the bathroom. He looked in the tub, behind the door, under the cabinet. Even in the towel closet. There was nothing. No sign of the two year old who was on a war path to make Nick’s life harder than it had to be. Nick by now was convinced that Erica was out to get him.

Leaving the room, Nick decided to be silent. Knowing the way this girls mind worked, if she heard him getting closer, she would only hide further to ensure that she was not found. Nick next searched her bedroom though, already knowing that was the place she would least likely be, as it was too obvious. He had to try though, looking everywhere in the room that he could think of, including under a huge pile of clothes in the corner of the closet lying next to an empty laundry hamper. Nick guessed that Erica had something to do with that one.

“Where is she...” Nick muttered, scratching his head as he thought. If he were a small child, where would he hide from his babysitter at? He knew she wasn’t outside, for the doors were all locked and bolted shut so she couldn’t escape. So it was somewhere in the house....where though?

Nick suddenly shot up, quickening his pace to the laundry room. He flung open the dryer, expecting to see his niece curled inside, hiding in the tight place. There was nothing though, and Nick sighed. He’d been so sure that Erica would have been hiding in there. It would be a good hiding spot...apparently he wasn’t searching in adequate places. If he were, then he would have found her by now.

Continuing his search, Nick felt sick to his stomach. He had lost his sisters first and only child. What if she was never found? What if she was stuck somewhere, or hurt and she couldn’t cry out for help and would never be found? This made Nick all the more determined to find her and quickly. He couldn’t believe he’d been so irresponsible as to let a two year old take control of him. And within fifteen minutes yet. This was just too unbelievable to be true. Maybe this was why BJ had been so hesitant to leave him alone.

Before Nick realized it, he’d looked through four more rooms, including his sisters, finding things in his search that would leave his mind scarred for a few months. There was one room at the end of the hallway with the door closed to all but a crack. His heart accelerated as he made his way towards it, wondering what the room was and what he would find within it. Outside the door, Nick closed his eyes and took in a deep breath before pushing it open.

“Oh shit...” Nick managed to choke out as he stood in shock at the scene that was before him. He could only hope that it was just a hallucination.