Shadows of Fire

Chapter II- Jenny (part II)

(Dear readers, I must apologize if this segment seems a bit more darker than the others, or a bit rougher in reading towards the end of it. Therefore, without further ado, I present Chapter II, part II of Shadows of Fire)

Pond Household

5:30 PM

            By the time Jenny got back from college, her home was in full dinner preparation mode. As she stepped in the door, delectable smells were wafting from the kitchen, and the sounds of clanking pots, skittering whisks, and scurrying feet could be heard. Jenny could spot the cluttered schoolbooks in the family room from where Rory had nested down to do his schoolwork. Mrs. Pond stuck her head out from the kitchen, and caught Jenny’s attention.

            “Girl-child, while you’re off at your party tonight, the rest of us have to eat something too. Care to pitch in?” her mother asked sarcastically, a single eyebrow raised in mock-severity. Jenny grinned at this and shrugged her pack off her shoulder, and walked into the kitchen, ready for action. Half an hour later, the four were settled around a dinner table, digging happily into various platters and dishes with an unmatched enthusiasm. Jason was hesitant at first, digging his way methodically through his dinner in proper military fashion, until finally his Air Force training protocols gave way to a loving family and a rumbling stomach.

            Finally, the platters and plates and dishes were mostly scraped clean, and Rory slouched in his chair, entirely content and at peace with the world. Jenny and Mrs. Pond gathered up the dishes to put in the dishwasher, while Jason very carefully washed them off and put them in the dishwasher. Mrs. Pond cautiously took Jenny aside from Jason and Rory, leading her up the stairs, before stopping her at the top of the staircase. An anxious look crossed her face, as though she was about to unveil a war chest of nuclear warheads.

            “Jenny, my little one, if things are going the way I think they’re going, very soon the unexpected will occur. Don’t even think of lying to me, something happened today at school. Something wrong and direly unnatural. Am I right?” Jenny nodded cautiously, her eyes filled with suspicion.

            “How did you know?” she started to ask, but her mother hushed her, staring her in the eyes intently, as though searching for something… different. Finally, she spoke.

            “What happened? Tell it to me from the beginning. Without a detail left out.” Jenny sighed, and told her mother the whole thing, starting with her dream. When she got to William Gordon reappearing in person, a wry half-smile crossed her mother’s face for a moment, and muttered something that sounded like “good to see that boy’s still around.” When she concluded with Kat’s conversation with her invisible bully, Mrs. Pond clasped her shoulders and shook her gently, a frightful look flashed across her face, an intensity in her eyes that Jenny had never seen before.

            “Did… did you see it? Who she was talking to?” Jenny shook her head nervously, keeping her eyes locked on her mother’s.

            “No,” she started. “When I got there, Kat was on the ground, half-way into shock, with-”

            “A burned spot on the tile?” Mrs. Pond continued, her face settled into a grim mask, her eyes flickering all over Jenny’s face, as though searching for some unknown sign. Jenny nodded incredulously, and Mrs. Pond continued. “Jen… my little one… as you know quite well, there are evil things at work in this world. Not just mere men, but things of darkness as well.”

            Jenny winced, thinking back to that moment in the hallway, when she had felt the waves of fear and hatred and evil.

            “Like… Satan?” she asked hesitantly, and her mother nodded gravely.