The first two weeks went by smoothly. It was silent and serene. Carlos didn’t come over and Arielle figured that there was nothing to be worried about but she was wrong. By the third week, Carlos came by to get the answers to the questions he had asked three weeks ago. She walked in from school and found her mom crying in the living room. She knew that her mom was an emotional person and she found comfort in her tears but she was fine this morning and that bothered Arielle. “What is wrong, mom?” she asked her mom. “Oh, sweetheart. I didn’t hear you come in. it is nothing. I just had such a terrible day. I have been trying to reach out to your brother and I haven’t gotten a feedback from him. It breaks my heart, not knowing if he is alive or not, if he is doing okay or not. I am just worried about him, that’s all” she said to her. Arielle knew that her mother wasn’t telling her everything but she didn’t want to push it either. She knew that her mother was worried about Alexander, de
“What are you talking about? I know that our father is a monster and a murderer but he is not going to go after Alexander’s family. They don’t even know where he is. A regular witch can tell that they are lying. Aunt Matilda should be able to tell without even talking to them” Cathy said to her brother. “I know that you want to believe that your father is innocent...” Carson said to her. “Oh, now he is just my father? I don’t remember being the only child” Cathy said, interrupting him. “Fine. I know you want to believe that our father is innocent, that he is not an extreme person capable of unspeakable evil but he is! Our father has no limits and I overheard him and Aunt Matilda talking about going after Alex’s dad very soon. I need to stop it” he said to her. “And what so you want to do about that? You know better than to cross our father! He wouldn’t let you go unpunished if you do that! I know that you feel like it is your duty to protect Alex’s family but what price would you
After thirty minutes of looking and searching, his sister called out to him. He turned around and saw her standing there. He called out to her but it was pointless. She stood there. Whatever she was staring at grabbed her attention so much that she didn’t look away even after he called her. He walked up to her and saw it. It was just the body and a thin rope. He didn’t want to believe that his father had murdered somebody so painfully. He grabbed his sister’s hand and turned her away from the sight. He could feel her fighting her tears. He couldn’t tell who it was from the body so he figured that he had to find the head first. He looked at his sister and she looked back at him, not knowing what to say to him. “Go back into the house and take a shower. When you are done, stay in your room and wait for me” he said to her. “And what are you going to do?” she asked him as the tears that she fought so hard to keep started to roll down her face. “I am going to stay here and find the head
It was one week since she buried her dad. That meant that she had one more week until Carlos returned for his answers. She didn’t know if she liked the idea of waiting for her death or not. One thing was sire, she knew that Carlos was coming for her and that was what scared her the most. She knew her father died a painful death, he just wasn’t sure that she could do that. Hell, she wasn’t sure she was ready to sacrifice her life for anybody, not even her brother. Her mom had promised to keep her safe but all her mom had done was to keep her from going to school and locking her in the house whenever she was going out. She had made no remarkable progress so far in finding Alexander or reaching out to him and she wasn’t a fan of the idea of using a witch as a medium to get in contact with him. Arielle already made up her mind decided that if death was going to come for her, it was going to be on her own terms. Her mind wandered off to her father as she laid on her bed. He didn’t even get
With trembling hands, she dropped the letter. She felt like she was going to pass out from the emotions that she felt in her chest. She could swear that the walls of her new house were closing in on her. She didn’t know what to do, how to feel. Carson had taken everything away from her and she was not going to rest until she took everything away from him. He had killed everybody that she called her family, everybody except Alexander. A new wave of anger washed through her body. Where the hell was Alexander? He had just let everybody that she loved die because he was scared? That made no sense to her and she was never going to forgive him for that, she said to herself. Droplets of water dropped on the paper she was holding and she realized that she was crying. She had no idea that she was already crying. She sniffed and pulled her knees close to her chest. That was all she had now. She only had herself. ***There was no way that finding their mother’s body didn’t give them nightmares.
Alexander couldn’t agree more. They needed to find Lois, not only because she was going to help them find Arielle but Alexander was hoping that she would be able to restore Carson’s sight. If it was taken from him by a witch then it could be restored by another. They got to Bennie’s house and Bennie got down from the car. Alexander stayed in “Do you plan on staying there all night?” Bennie asked him. “I want to drive around, see what is going on, and know what has changed. I just want to get familiar with the entire place” he said to him. “And you think that the best time to do that is at night? People are out there, looking for you and you think that the best time to go sightseeing is at night? How does that work for you?” Bennie asked him. “It is dark. I have the cover of the dark to blend in. would you rather have me go in the day when everybody can see and recognize me? I would be caught faster in the day than at night! This is the only time that I can find out all I want to f
“Yes, I know and believe me, I understand all that you have said. I know that it is important to you that you find your sister but if you don’t get the rest you need or the sleep you need, you wouldn’t need Carlos to kill you. You would be doing that yourself” Bennie said to him. “Alright. It seems like I can’t change your mind. So what plans do you have?” Alexander asked him. “Right! First, you get on that bed and you close your eyes, while I take a shower and get us breakfast. It may not be much but we would eat something and maybe we can grab lunch while we are outside” Bennie said to him. “What do you mean by, it may not be much?” Alexander asked him. “Getting a job has been pretty hard around here so whatever I have right now are things that my parents left me. I have used up all of my savings and I have almost used up theirs. I was hoping to find a good person that would probably have pity on me to employ me and pay me the barest minimum. It is hard to work here, especially
“That is probably because I am. I haven’t been this tasked in a long while. Before you came into my life, all I used to do was lay around and die in misery. You came along and now I have to move around, I have to get things done. It is really new to me” Bennie said to him. “I think I already figured that out by the way you look. I am sorry that my coming here has changed your life for the better. I am just glad that we got what we wanted. The day wasn’t a total waste. We can get down to looking for Lois tomorrow” Alexander said to him. The rest of the night was silent after that. They ate and Bennie headed to bed while Alexander stayed up as usual to keep guard. Something unusual happened that night. His phone rang. Nobody in existence had that number anymore, nobody. The only people that had the number were his parents and they were dead. He looked at the number that was calling him and he saw that he didn’t have the number saved. It was a back and forth battle of whether he should
The woman stopped and turned around to look at him. A bright smile lit her face up and she walked towards him. Her arms wide open as she took it him in a hug. He could tell how glad she was to see him.“Look at that. You are back. I wasn’t expecting you to be back so soon. What happened? The last time we saw, you said you were going home to see your family. I didn’t think you would be coming back anytime soon. I was hoping to see you in three years time, kiddo. What went wrong?” She asked him.“I can ask you the same thing. You look like you haven’t opened this place since I was last here. What happened here?” Alexander asked her, diverting the topic from his miserable experience to hers.“I came here one morning. I found the place all bashed and broken up. Some people said that it wasn’t people from the neighborhood and it was from Southern Crest. Someone said they were trying to warn me. It was better to be safe than sorry so I chose to be safe. I didn’t open up the diner anymore. I
“You look like you had fun” Lois said, turning to look at them.“We took a while, I’m sorry. We just got really distracted with the shopping and time flew past. You already got dinner” Alexander said as he entered with their dinner packs and dropped it on the center table.“Well, at least we have something for the road now” Arielle said as she headed up the stairs.“Someone set your parents house on fire” Bennie said to him immediately he heard the door close.“I guess news do travel fast in the valley” Alexander said to him.“You know already?” Lois asked him.“Yes, Arielle and I started the fire. We did it” Alexander said, dropping on the sofa and taking a slice of the pizza in front of him.“I thought we were supposed to be keeping a low profile! How is that a low profile in any way?” Bennie asked him.“Arielle needed to do it and she did it. Also, according to what you just said, nobody knows who did it. That is the point. We would be out of here in less than ten hours. What do we
Alexander waited until she was in the house before he drove off. He and Arielle headed for their house first. When they got there, he noticed that she sat still, not making any attempt to leave the car. He touched her hand and she looked at him. She had tears in her eyes and Alexander sighed. He didn’t know what to tell her to make her feel better. How could she feel better? The last time that she was in the house was when her mom was being killed. He nodded at her and cleared his throat.“You really don’t have to do this. We can’ always do this another day” Alexander said to her.“There is no other day. We have to do this now. I need to see the condition of the place. I need to know how much damage the did to the memories left in the house. I need to see if mom and dad still have anything in the house, something can take along with me to remind me of their sacrifice” she said to him.“I don’t think you would ever forget it but there are a lot of things in the house. I am sure that yo
That was one of the few times that Cathy had ever spoken up to her father. Carlos had always seen her as the quiet one in the bunch. He never imagined that she was capable of the things that she spoke off and even now, Carlos still found it unbelievable. She walked into her brother’s room and sat on his bed. She wanted to tell him about her endeavors with their father but she changed her mind. Sometimes, the best way to protect somebody was to keep them in the dark. She knew that her father was going to come for her when the time was right and she wanted her brother as far away from her father as possible. Carson might hate his father but one thing was sure. He had his father anger and his father’s determination. The only difference was that Carson had his mom to build his foundation so he had the opportunity to learn how to channel is anger to the right things. Carson stood for what was right and he fought for what he believed in. She looked at him one more time. She was determined t
“What do you want me to do?” Cathy asked him. “Delay her. Just give Alexander a couple of minutes” Carson said to her. “No! I already did what I needed to do. Meet me by midnight and we can talk about what happens from there. Deny that I was ever here to your aunt and your father. I have to go” Alexander said as he closed his eyes. Carson was blind but he could tell that Alexander had left. He felt another magic and he knew that it was his aunt. The front door opened and he could sense the disappointment in the room as she walked in and walked towards the window, looking out of the window. “Did you not learn the courtesy of knocking before you enter a room that doesn’t belong to you?” Carson asked her rudely. “Who was here?” she asked him. “My sister. I don’t think she is that small. You can’t miss her. Besides, she is still here. What do you mean by who was here?” Carson asked her. “Someone else was here. There is the lingering energy of a different presence. My magic is pickin
She nodded at him and took a deep breath. She might not have been in her house but she knew that she was the same person, no matter the location and if anybody came for her or her brother, she was going to do what was necessary for the both of them. She wasn’t sure if she was supposed to be watching over Bennie though. Bennie was old enough to take care of himself and she would rather be out in the middle of the night with her brother than here, playing baby sitter but Alexander called the shots and she was not going to argue with that. She turned away and headed back to the room.“When do you want us to make contact with Carson and his brother?” Lois asked him.“Can we do it now? I want to make sure that they have enough time to do whatever it is that they need to do. Carson is blind and there might be some sort of delay with his own movement. This would put most of the work load on Cathy. If we can give them an early notice, that woile be helpful” Alexander said to her.“I would get
“I don’t think it would kill me to test that theory” he said to her. “No, it wouldn’t but we would not be testing that theory without magic for back up. So, until we can get Lois on board with this new agenda of yours, nobody is stabbing anybody in the chest just to prove a theory” Bennie said, his eyes still closed and his back turned to them. “Sorry” Arielle said with a laugh. “Whatever” he said back. “So how is your real mom like?” Arielle asked her brother. “Dead. She is cold. She definitely doesn’t give me the information that I need. She tells me what she thinks I need to know and leaves me to find out the rest for myself. Sometimes it is a good thing, sometimes it is a bad thing. I just go with whatever flow is there and get the job done. I know she wants me to do something but I don’t know what it is. When the time is right, I would probably find out too” he said to her. “Does she know where mom is?” Arielle asked her. “I don’t know. I didn’t ask her. I have never asked
He dropped on the bed where his sister slept. He touched her hair softly and she curled to his touch. He could tell that she felt safe, something that none of them had felt in a very long time. He didn’t know if that was a good thing or a bad thing. They had arrived at the Southern Crest Valley around six in the morning and now, they were comfortably tucked in Bennie’s house. Everybody was sound asleep, everybody but him. He couldn’t bring himself to sleep. This was the fifth day and he still had two days left before he went for Carson and Cathy but he knew that two days was a lot of time. They could be ready to move tonight but he didn’t want them doing that. He wondered what his grandfather’s reaction would be when he walked into the house with everybody else. The surprise on his face, the questions in his eyes. Well, they had nowhere else to go and it was his fault that they were in this mess so it was only reasonable that he took up the responsibility to keep them safe. He stood u
“Do you think that we would be making a mistake if we go with him?” Cathy asked her brother. “We have always wanted to leave here. Don’t grow cold feet now. We had plans to run away even before Alexander showed up. If we don’t leave now, we would never get the chance to do so again. We need to move as fast as possible now that we have someone that is willing to help us move” Carson said to her. “What if father comes after us? What if he catches up with us and he kills us off the same way he did with mom? We may not be living our best lives here but at least we are alive. Isn’t that what is important? I know that we had plans, too many of them but right now, this looks like a dangerous gamble. Dad is a monster. Who knows what he would do when he finds out that we are missing? Maybe this is where we ought to be” Cathy said to her brother. “Here? What the hell do you mean by that? If you want to stay here with your father then be my guest! I wouldn’t be doing that with you. I am leavi