Izzy crossed her arms as she waited for Trevor to make a call. When he took longer to do so than she expected, she leaned to take a look at what he was doing--browsing the internet for something, maybe?--but scowled when he brushed her off. 
	“What’s a shame?” she asked slowly as she took her phone and thumbed through it to see what he had done as he continued speaking, answering her question. She found his number as he waved farewell. “Oh, you sly fox!” she shouted after him with a laugh. Regardless of her no friend vow, she could not help but smile as she headed toward home, shoving her phone in her pocket with a slight shake of her head.

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	With her headphones broken--or was this pair lost? She had lost track--Izzy’s only defense against her brothers was the meager stuffing of the pillow.  If she had to choose between a herd of rhinos wearing tutus while doing the cancan on miles of bubble wrap, and her brothers, she would take the rhinos. After all, she could sell the rhinos to the local zoo. But her brothers? She would not wish them on any [i]human,[/i] let alone the zoo animals.
	With a disgruntled groan, she tossed her pillow to the floor. She had to get out of here before what she said to Trevor about not being a serial killer turned into false-reassurance.
	Grumbling under her breath, Izzy sat up, took her phone from the nightstand beside her bed, and shoved it in her pocket. Hurrying to the common chorus of her brothers putting their sports training to the boys’ best version of good use, she grabbed a flashlight from her dresser, collected her walking stick from where she had leaned it against the wall after her usual hike earlier in the day, and all but ran downstairs to the front door, not bothering to leave a note or explain where she had gone. Not that she expected Zach or Blake to notice her absence, anyway.
	With the door confining the cloud of pandemonium that always followed her brothers to the house, the relative quiet of the neighborhood greeted her welcomingly. It was a wondrously mild night. Laughter floated down the street from a few doors down where a small crowd sat out on a porch, enjoying the summer’s eve.
	Izzy took a deep breath and began walking down the street, the rubber tip of her walking stick padding against the concrete a step ahead of her. Despite the vacation, with the artificial glow of the streetlamps marking the time for most youngsters to be indoors, the streets were mostly deserted save for a few people on porches. None of them payed Izzy any attention as she passed.
	[i]Maybe everyone’s indoors because of the vampire,[/i] she thought with a smirk. 
	As she went, the houses grew slightly further apart, her feet knowing the path she would take all too well.
	Soon, she made it to her destination. A park with a wooded backdrop and a spattering of trees and shrubs around its manicured lawn sat before her. It was set far enough from the road that the golden light of the streetlamps did not fully reach it, ascertaining it would be emptied by dark. The utter quietness of the area was music to Izzy’s ears.
	Holding her flashlight at the ready, just in case, she strode confidently toward a playground, its equipment dark lumps in the night. At the edge of the sandy lot that marked the playground, she paused, waiting to see if the light of the moon would be sufficient enough once her eyes adjusted. To her delight, it was.
	She attached the flashlight to a loop in her belt, and strolled across the sand of the playground toward the metal merry-go-round. She stopped by a backhoe digger nearby, rubbed one of the wings of the owl carved into the knotted top of her walking stick, then leaned it against the equipment.
	At the merry-go-round, Izzy got it spinning, then hopped on. She leaned back into the open middle, her legs hanging over the side, and stared up at the stars and waxing moon as they swirled around slowly. Each rotation, the merry-go-round let out a gentle squeal, slicing through the silence of the night until it slowed, turning it into more of a quick [i]thump-thump,[/i] like a rhythmic metallic heartbeat.