In a lifetime

Chapter 49: Eli Bennet

Yesterday was probably one of the worst days of my life. No offense to Natalie, R.I.P, but it was incredibly awkward at the funeral.

Everyone had already left without telling me so I stayed there longer and I don't know maybe I'm just using all of this to deflect my feelings about everything which in truth I'm afraid of what's to come.

When I wake up I see one of my dads sitting in the corner of the room. "Jesus dad you scared me, what are you doing?" I say looking at him confused and he gets up.

"I just wanted to check on you, how are you doing with all this," he asks and I don't know if I want to tell him the truth or deflect as always.

I sit up and look at him while saying, "I didn't personally know her so it doesn't really affect me much but it's sad that I was just getting to know her" I look down fumbling with my fingers.

He sits next to me and gives me a hug, I'm starting to get over this hugging thing, it doesn't make things any better.

"If you feel any type of way you can always come to me or your father," he says and at least that made me feel a little better.

He leaves the room and I fall back into bed. Laying there for a while I receive a text from Daniel to meet at Joseph's.

From the way that it looks, sounds urgent. I get up and get dressed to head over there.

I text Veronica on my way there to see if she knows anything but she doesn't reply back. Must be sleeping, she had it hard yesterday, I could see it on her face.

Once I get there it takes a couple of minutes of standing around before I'm let in.

Immediately I could tell that Daniel is on edge while Nessa is confused as I walk in.

"What's going on?" I ask and Daniel begins to pace back and forth while Nessa tries to calm him down.

What the fuck is happening.

It takes her a few tries before she actually gets him to calm down. "Okay so you know how Joseph was the first to leave the funeral, I'd expect him to be here when I came back but he's gone," he says and I immediately think that he got kidnapped again.

"You think he got kidnapped again?" I question and Nessa shakes her head saying, "no Joseph was right, no one else knew about him besides the man behind bars now" so then what? He just upped and left?

After a few more minutes of thinking of where he could've gone or what happened to him, I realize something.

"Have any of you heard from Veronica?" I ask and they shake their heads. She doesn't take this long to respond and even if she was just sleeping it's nearing six in the afternoon.

I start to question if she and Joseph went missing together or left together.

Nessa suggests we go over to Veronica's house to see if she's okay. We agree and make our way over, I really hope she's there.

Daniel knocks on the door and Veronica's mom opens it.

"Oh are you here to see Veronica, if you are then I'm afraid you're late, she left last night, said that she wanted to clear her head and get away from here," she says and closes the door.

We walk away confused and go back to Joseph's.

"Well, now we know what happened to her," I say and Nessa shakes her head again.

"No, she's gone yes but not for the reason her mother said, there are clear signs of compulsion used on her mother," she says and I sit on the couch to process my thoughts.

A few minutes pass when we hear knocking on the door. We all hesitate to open the door and Daniel goes over to open it to see who's there. 

I can feel fear and rage set in as I see the door open to reveal Laurel standing there.

"The fuck do you want," I say as she walks in uninvited.

"I need you to stop your friends," she says and we look at each other confused. She scoffs at us for not knowing what's going on. "Your two friends have begun to search for a way to stop me" she continues.

I walk forward finally taking a stand, "doesn't seem like a bad thing" I say and she looks intrigued.

"it is under these conditions, first, they both have removed their emotions, humanity if you will, second, Joseph is growing stronger with every passing minute with dark magic, and following this path he'll be stronger than me and I can't have that, third, I know how they plan to stop me and that's by killing me," she says and we look at each other again.

Nessa stands next to me, "you did that, you killed his best friend to force him to use the dark magic in him, you asked for this" she says getting angry.

"I know you don't want me dead," Laurel says and Nessa looks at her in defeat, "no I don't, we'll stop them but not for you, if what you say is true then the two of them together could cause problems we don't want to face," she says and Laurel looks content with herself.

She thanks us and starts walking out but stops at the doorway saying, "I'll go into hiding while you handle them" and disappears into the night.

After she leaves we discuss what to do.

"What do we do, what would happen if we don't stop them soon?" Daniel says and Nessa looks like she has a million things on her mind.

"I don't know, all I know is that Veronica would be easier to deal with but Joseph, he's extremely skilled, better than the witches before, and if he keeps using dark magic we might not be able to bring him back," she says and I look over at Daniel who starts to get angry. 

"So what, you suggest we kill him? That's awfully hypocritical for someone who wants to save their sister who also happens to use dark magic" he says leaving Nessa speechless, she knows he's right.

She apologizes but he doesn't accept it just yet, he goes upstairs leaving us two alone.

"I don't know what to do, I guess we wait and see what they're planning to come up with something," she says and I nod in agreement.

Leaving the house and heading back home I think to myself. I'm scared for them but at the same time maybe I'm scared of them, it's all really complicated and happening too fast.

The fact that we might have to fight our friends isn't something I want to happen and I don't know if I'll be able to even if their lives depend on it or ours.

I get home and immediately go to my room to try and sleep as I'm well aware that I'll have nightmares of the bad things that could happen.