Dead Lines

9: Surprise Visit

Unedited.

Chapter Nine

“Good night!” I called out to Emilie as she backed out of the driveway.

She had to be the most laid back mother I’d ever known. Cecil, being the guy that he was, grabbed the newest action release from the RedBox and only after my father thoroughly researched it on the internet, did he allow us to watch it with Claire. Come to find out it wouldn’t have mattered since when Emilie came to pick her up, didn’t even flinch when she saw what we were watching.

Claire had fallen asleep on the couch, stretched out between Andrzej and me while I was snuggled against Cecil. My uncle had taken up residence in the new recliner, beer in hand with a full stomach. He fell asleep fifteen minutes in and I had to glare at Andrzej as he eyed my uncle mischievously.

“He will put you in jail,” I whisper hissed at one point.

He just frowned at me and went back to watching the movie, something of which wasn’t keeping his attention. Instead I would catch him staring off at nothing as he twirled a lock of Claire’s hair around his finger. I didn’t think he knew he was doing it but all night he’d kept most of his attention on her. Even when Emilie asked him to carry her to the car, he handled Claire as if she was the most precious thing in the world.

As we stood on the front porch, me waving at Emilie as she finished backing up, I couldn’t help but think about his family again. I didn’t know much about them.

“You ok?” I asked as the tail lights disappeared down the street.

He didn’t say anything for a few minutes and it got to the point where I didn’t think he would. I knew his family was a delicate subject and that’s why I didn’t share my suspicions that his now very indifferent look triggered.

“She reminds me of my sister.” He said it so softly that if I wasn’t listening so intently I wouldn’t have heard it. “I imagine that’s how it’ll always be.”

Both of us stared out into the dark. The crickets were being extra noisy and the grass was already wet with dew.

“Was she younger?”

He nodded. “My parents weren’t planning on having another so there was a large age gap. She was my little shadow.”

“A year after my mom died, I swore I saw her at the park. I was going down one of those twisty slides, like those noodles…when I got off, I went running after her. Needless to say when I reached her, it turned out to be a completely different person. But I could’ve sworn it was her. My father told me that it was normal, that there would always be reminders out there and people who would look like her.”

“Your dad is a smart guy.”

“He was trying to make me feel better. Turns out, when it comes to my mother, I’m never going to feel better. At the end of the day, she’s still gone and my dad and I, we’re still here. Those reminders…they can either haunt you or be a blessing.” Needing to change the subject, I turned to face him and leaned against one of the front porch posts. “What did you come to tell me earlier?”

“Janus wants to see you. Now.”

“And that message is how many hours over due?” Andrzej didn’t even flinch. “What does he want?”

“Didn’t ask and he didn’t tell me. Though I’m assuming it has something to do with Caelus and why our world isn’t overrun with monsters and demons yet.”

A sigh leaked out and I turned to face the front lawn again. With my death, the ground had opened up in order to allow Caelus to retrieve Gaia. Unfortunately to get to her, Caelus would’ve had to go through tons of mythological creatures. Everyone thought they would be released when Gaia was retrieved, which was something we knew for certain thanks to several different eyewitness accounts, but the monsters weren’t. They were still stuck down there and though we were grateful about that, the Elite wanted to know why.