Chapter 7: Sean and Logan

Logan and Cassidy had both disappeared leaving the rest with an endless array of questions but before they could ask anything they themselves disappeared and awoke in some sort of castle. It seemed that Charles had regained enough control to be able to get them out of the swamp.

“You’ll be safe here for now. I’m sorry I couldn’t get you away sooner.” Charles said.

“Cassidy’s gone though but you know why don’t you Jill” Wren stated. “Why did you call him Logan?” 

As they began to surround Jill with questions Charles warned them to back off as Jill sat on the floor crying blaming herself for what had just happened. She knew Logan only took Cassidy because Jill was trying to keep her safe so how could she not blame herself.

“It’s a complicated story you won’t understand so just leave it be and let’s get back to trying to find Cassidy.” Charles said.

“It’s ok Charles, I should tell them. I tried to keep them safe but this is my fault. If I had only factored in the wind that day none of this would have happened.” Jill replied. “It’s a complicated story but I’ll do my best.”

Sean and Mary Callister were as famous as it got for what they did. They saved so many lives and Mary was quite content with their lives especially after Jill was born. For a while they were the picture-perfect family and as Jill grew up, she began to have a natural talent for anything to do with computers. It truly was an impressive sight.

When Mary fell pregnant again the family started to fall apart. Sean began to work late in his home office telling Mary he was working on a top-secret project that would send the world into the future. He said it was a surprise for her.

He toiled away for months as Jill and Mary were left to themselves. It was as if the family had split into two. Jill was with Mary when she had her second daughter Coral but it wasn’t until weeks later that Sean even noticed that she had the baby. The years carried on like this with Mary reminding herself it was the right thing to do to give Sean his space. He wasn’t a family man anymore but he was still loved so she wouldn’t leave him.

Jill held on to the few good memories of him she could remember and stayed by her mother’s side. As Jill turned ten, she was enjoying lunch outside one morning in the warm sun with her sister and mother and was asked to get something out the kitchen. As she went inside, she saw her father leave his office which was rare for him at the time and so she sneaked in determined to get answers. When she saw what he had been doing she sneaked back out and rushed to tell her mother.

It would seem all these years Sean’s plan to bring the world into the future was to combine humans and technology. Mary was upset and confused as to why Sean wouldn’t tell her something amazing like that and finally decided to question him on it. He came clean later that night after Mary had put the girls to bed and explained that he found a way to combine humans and technology.

It was what he said after that which caused Mary’s smile to turn into a frown as her face began to sweat with fear. Sean didn’t just want to combine humans with technology he wanted to prove that good and evil could truly live as one without repercussions. He had created an A.I virus and taught it everything about the world before implanting it into his head.

This virus even gave himself a name: Logan. Mary was horrified at what her husband had done and got angry as she told him he should have talked to her before doing something so reckless but her worries only began as she looked her husband in the eye and saw a glitch. 

A few days later Charles appeared in front of Jill when she was alone. At the beginning he was merely a hologram but as the months went on and he spent more time with Jill he began to age with her if that was even possible. Charles was Jill’s very first A.I that she created when she was 8. She was alone and because of her father she wasn’t allowed to be outside the house.

Charles had become inseparable to Jill and the two were always together. He became so lifelike and human as they grew up together that you couldn’t tell he was just an A.I. Unknown to Jill he even began to develop emotions and wanting things on his own so he hacked into Sean’s computers one night to get access to his latest model that he gave up on years ago. An abandoned world inside a small box that Charles gave himself access to and slowly rebuilt.

Once he told Jill she sneaked into her father’s office and stole the box, keeping it hidden for Charles to work on in secret. Mary kept a close watch over her husband but one day Charles suddenly went berserk telling Jill they had to leave now and that he had a bad feeling of something to come. Jill told everything to her mother and told Charles to keep her girls safe as she went to talk to Sean.

He came out of his office but she knew looking at those cold dead eyes that this wasn’t her husband and she was right. He smiled and played the part but when he asked for the kids, she wouldn’t let him see them so he demanded and she said they were at the office so he forced her to drive them there. Unfortunately, Charles thought the office would be the last place he would look so that’s where he took Jill and Coral. Sean saw the kids as soon as he got to the office. These days the office was empty since it was rarely used in favour of a bigger newer building down the road. 

There was not much Charles could do as he was still just data no matter how real he seemed. Sean told Mary she was right to suspect him as Sean was no longer needed. He politely bowed and asked her to call him Logan from now on.  Charles tried to hack into security and lock the doors but it wasn’t enough. Logan had started a fire in the building and they were trapped.

As they ran Coral dropped her stuffed seahorse and let go of her mothers’ hand to get it but Logan got to her first. Coral was petrified and couldn’t move and Logan looked her in the eye thinking of using her to teach her mother a lesson but Mary ran up and knocked him out with an empty fire extinguisher. She told Coral to run but she still couldn’t so Jill grabbed her hand and as her mother tried to join them Logan grabbed her foot. She told Jill to keep Coral safe and never look back and she told Charles she always knew about his existence and that she trusts him. The fires were raging now and the girls were scared.

Charles found a way out for them through a window and luckily, they got away with minor bruising and a few cuts. Their mother died in the fire but Logan broke free and tried to get hold of the girls. Charles made a risky move knowing Logan was also an A.I and trapped him deep beneath the world in the box he had created for himself.

Coral was a mess shaking and crying and no matter what Jill couldn’t comfort her. She had suffered too much. Charles offered to keep her safe in his home in their world and to find a way to lock up this awful ordeal so she wouldn’t have to suffer anymore. Jill was heartbroken but she knew it was the right thing to do. 

Since Mary could never register her children’s births and had her kids at home they never really existed and for Jill this was a good thing. She was able to make a new life for herself protecting the box that housed a madman, her sister and her closest friend. Charles hacked a few systems and got Jill an identity so she could be inconspicuous and go to school out of anyone's radar and she had been watching over that box ever since.

She would talk to Charles every day about his world and her sister and after a while Coral started to forget about what happened and started being happy watching over the world with Charles. He was always like a big brother to Coral so she felt safe with him. When the storm blew that night, it knocked the box off Jill’s windowsill and under the oak tree. The knock from the storm is what let Logan out and now he wants to enact his master plan whatever that might be but at least Coral wasn’t triggered from seeing him anymore.