The Andre Miller Saga

Andre Miller 52 The Questions

Two days after the attack at the restaurant and break-ins at the house and shop they were allowed back into the house.

The place was more of a disaster than they remembered. Everyone was numb to the violation of their personal spaces. Janice and Celeste stayed at the hotel so as not to expose Celeste to the havoc that had been inflicted at the house.

They started cleaning and putting everything back together in the living room and moved to the kitchen. Most of the dinner wear, plates, blows and such, were broken and the pieces scattered. Andre was keeping a running list so they could make the insurance claim and start replacing everything. They spent the entire morning and a good section of the afternoon on the main level of the house. Half a dozen yard bags of broken or ripped and destroyed items were set out to be taken to the dump, they got a start on the basement but called it around 6 as they were reaching the ends of their physical and emotional limits. They were all dusty, with tear-streaked faces, each had several small cuts from broken things.

They got back to the hotel and took showers and change clothes. For Andre the shower was cathartic, washing away the dust, tears, and blood, and sheading the smallest bit of the violation of their lives.

"How bad was it?" asked Janet after they had all regathered to have the nightly meal.

"Pretty bad. We got the main level put back together for the most part, we need to replace the TV, all the dishes, some of the knick-knacks, the couch cushions, and Dad's chair need some repair, but nothing that a couple of quick mending spells can't fix." Replied Andre.

"Pops, do you want to stay with Celeste and me tomorrow, you look worn out," Janice said.

"Yeah, I think so." Said Conroy, "I think I overdid it today."

"It'll take us another half day for the basement, a full day for the upstairs bedrooms, and probably a full day for the summoning building. So, figure 3 more days to get back into the house." Caleb commented.

"Then it'll take us 2 days for the shop. Gods I feel so empty." Said, Kyle.

"Yeah," said Kris, "I don't live there but I spend most of my time with you all, it just feels torn apart on the inside, not just the place itself."

"Well, whoever did all of this has bitten off a lot more than they can chew." Said Conroy, "We're not just going to roll over and just take it. As soon as we know who did it, I'm going to bury my size 9 boot up their butts!" said Tilly angrily.

"Did they take Clara?" asked Celeste.

"We don't know yet sweety, we didn't make it to your room today, but we'll try and find her first thing in the morning, OK?" said Andre.

"OK, uncle. Why did the bad men do this? Mom said they were bad guys and that you would protect us, but she didn't know why." Celeste said with tears welling up in her eyes.

"We don't know moppet. Sometimes they do bad things for bad reasons that we don't know about right away. But I promise we're going to find out."

"OK, can I go play? I don't want to talk about it anymore." She asked.

"Go ahead, sweety." Said Janice.

"How is the deck doing Kris?" asked Caleb.

"It's cold. You have some more questions?" she asked.

"A few yeah. Are we dealing with an individual or a group?" asked Caleb.

Red. "It's a group. A large one at that."

"Are they a secret group?"

Black and red. "Kind of? It feels kind of like a Russian doll. One inside of the other."