Riley's Box

Part 37

My grandmother sighed, as her gaze locked with my father's, again. 

"I am fine," she said, reluctant to accept what my father had told her. I supposed now I knew where I got most of my defiance from. 

"You're not fine, mom. You need to rest," he said. 

Grandma exhaled in mild indignation. 

I could hardly blame her for being annoyed. I would be annoyed too if I had to eat toast in a hospital room with no television. It was practically a crime. 

"I will rest. It's not as if I can get out of bed and just mosey on out of here, anyway," she said. 

Knowing my grandmother in the way that I did, though, I had a feeling that she would probably try to do that very thing. 

"I am being realistic about this, Steven. I will rest up. The sooner I can get better, the sooner I can leave. Then, I will be able to help my granddaughter," she said. 

"With what?" my father asked. 

After a beat of time, he turned back to Ira. 

"Oh," he said. "With this situation." 

"We need to find three more," I told my grandmother. 

My father didn't ask a question about that. It was probably best that way. I wasn't sure how he would react if he knew that an apocalypse was imminent if I didn't return the shadow spirits to the Nether. 

She nodded understandingly. 

I was glad that she could comprehend everything that was going on, because I knew it would take far too long to explain even half of this to someone else. 

"Good. Good. That's not too many," she said, as she looked at me with kindness in her shiny eyes. "Just be careful." 

"I will be." 

"She will be," Ira agreed. 

I turned to him with a grateful warmth in my gaze. 

He simply gave a small inclination of his head in response. 

"And keep this hidden from your mother," she said. 

"We will," my father and I spoke in unison, then. 

I was really, really glad that my dad was on my side, here. 

Matters would have been a little more difficult had he wanted to go straight home and tell my mom all about me being friends with literal servants from Hell. I would have to not mention the fact that I had thought of them like that to Prida. I imagined that her pride wouldn't quite take it. 

"She wouldn't believe you. She would fuss. You know what your mother is like," my grandmother said. 

In amidst all of the surrealism, I was glad that my grandmother was being practical about these matters. 

I knew that I had to trust that she was right, too. There was no way that I could tell my mom about this, and that was alright. 

It just felt so good to not be the only living human who knew about all of this, now. 

"Good luck, Riley. I'll try to get better, as soon as I can," she said, with a kind smile. 

I nodded. 

Soon enough, it came time for my father and I to leave the hospital room. 

The nurses had arrived to top up my grandmother's pain medication and give her some more food. 

I turned to give her one final wave before I followed my father down the hall and back outside. 

Outside, a familiar tall, golden-haired boy approached us. 

"Riley...why are you at the hospital? What's going on?" he asked. 

"Is this another one of your friends?" my father said aside to me. 

I nodded. 

"He can see me?" Avidicci asked. 

"He touched the box," I explained. 

"Oh. Interesting. Hello, Mr. Ruby," he said, with a charming smile. 

My father smiled back at him. It appeared to be a genuine smile. 

"Hello..." his voice faded out. 

"Avidicci," he said. He then turned to look at me. "Riley, we found another one of those..." his voice trailed off, as he glanced towards my father again. 

"KitKat bars? Fantastic. Phenomenal." 

"KitKat?" Avidicci asked. 

"Chocolate," I replied. "We probably shouldn't introduce Guttur to that any time soon," I said. 

My father gave a shake of his head, as a bemused expression took over his face. He started to make his way back to the car and I nodded my head in the direction of the car, for Ira and Avidicci to follow me. 

"I think you might be right about that," Avidicci said, as we all got into the car. Avidicci glanced around it and hummed. "Human methods of transport never fail to amuse me." 

"This is a car," I said. 

"I think I ought to get me one of these," Avidicci said. 

"I don't hate it. It's just small," Ira complained. He probably didn't have much space to stretch his legs, thinking about it. 

I turned around in my seat to look towards Avidicci, so I could meet his golden gaze. "Did you manage to send it back?" I asked him. 

His answer was a straightforward, "Yes." 

My father looked at me, as though he wanted to ask me what 'it' referred to. He thought better of it and continued driving on home. 

"Where are the others?" I asked Avidicci. 

"Some of them are still out searching. The others returned to the box." 

I released a breath of relief. 

That meant that there were about two more shadow spirits to capture, now. I hoped I wasn't mistaken. 

The Sins were home safe, which for some reason caused my heart beat to steady. 

I could hardly believe that I had ended up caring so much about these peculiar beings, but here we were. 

My father pulled into the driveway and glanced between Avidicci and Ira with some worry. 

"How are we going to get you into the house without Rebecca seeing?" he asked. 

"Rebecca?" Ira whispered in my ear, in his curiosity. 

"That's my mom," I explained. 

My father glanced between the two of us and exhaled. 

"They'll climb in through the window," I said. 

It was still open. 

I really hoped that my parents wouldn't get too mad about the heating bill.