Realm of Renee

Chapter 34

31st July 2019

RENEE

Mike didn't answer his phone when I tried calling him.

Instead, it was Violet who picked up the call and informed me that Mike had volunteered to drive Clover back to her house last night.
They hadn't heard from him since.

It felt like a warped version of the actual events, but I wondered if I only felt that way because I had always suspected his friends.

As I headed down to breakfast, I could hear mom and dad arguing as usual.

"Clover is missing?!" Dad sounded stunned, then his tone changed, low and angry. "Mike is definitely behind this."

"Ed, can you please stop blaming Mike?" Mom sounded exasperated. "Jen is coming over and she isn't mentally prepared to hear your theories..."

"They aren't theories," He argued. "It's a fact. Mike is possessed, and -"

"For the love of God, my son isn't possessed!" Mom yelled. "Don't you think I would know if he were?"

"Apparently, you don't," Dad grumbled. "And you refuse to listen to me either."

"Because, you make no sense," Mom snapped. "And you blindly believe everything you read from that book of yours..."

"Don't speak about my book like that," Dad frowned. "'My journey through the Spirit Realm' is nothing but the truth. There's even a whole chapter on being possessed..."

Wait... My dad had the book, 'My journey through the Spirit Realm'?

Clover's grandma's book?

So did he know about the Realms?

I swallowed hard, trying to process this shocking piece of information.

"You pick up a random book from some yard sale a year ago, and you treat it like the bible?" Mom spat out.

"The guy who wrote it, Sir Johannes, he's rumoured to be from the Spirit Realm..."

"Please, I can't listen to this rubbish, not this early in the morning," Mom scoffed, before adding, "Here's your coffee."

"Fine, keep your ignorant mortal thoughts to yourself," Dad said. "Maybe Renee will believe me."

"Don't you dare expose her to all this! She's the only sane person in this family..."

I promptly entered the room, and they shut up, sending pointed looks in each other's directions, pretending as if I were an infant who couldn't understand them.

Welcome to being the youngest in the family.

"Sweetie, do you want eggs?" Mom said, before loading a heap of food on my plate, hoping that would cover up the fight she and dad just had.

"I know what you guys were arguing about," I said quietly.

Mom looked aghast, her eyes darting from me to dad, her tone accusatory. "You've already told her!"

"I haven't," Dad looked surprisingly happy, now smiling at me. "You believe me?"

"I believe you, dad," I nodded. "Mostly because it's true."

"So, Mike's possessed?" Mom asked me in disbelief.

"I don't know that," I admitted. I hadn't read the whole book, and I didn't even know that there was a whole chapter on being possessed. "But if dad thinks he is, he must be."

I hated saying the words out aloud. I didn't want Mike to be possessed, and I wished that Clover was just asleep, or too busy with Mike to answer her phone.