Generations

Chapter 2: Warriors and Civilians

Chapter 2: Warriors and Civilians

"Justin, where are you?" Rose asked wandering through the halls of her house looking for her husband. He couldn’t have just disappeared. She had just seen him less than five minutes ago in the bathroom shaving, so he couldn't have gotten far. After some fruitless searching through the bedroom, the bathroom again, and even his wood shop down stairs, she couldn’t find him. As she went back upstairs from their basement, she figured he was probably in the kitchen and she had just missed him.

Once she returned to the first floor, she noticed his coffee cup sitting on the counter empty, with the full pot set right beside it. As if he was going to pour himself a cup, but then was occupied by something far more important. She sighed knowing there could only be one reason why he would leave like this. "I thought you were done with this," she said to herself, knowing that this kind of thing wasn’t uncommon with him, or at least it hadn’t been back then. But that was over 20 years ago, and it was supposed to have all ended then.

"Rose," a calm emotionless voice called out causing her to turn, looking behind her, to see two men standing in black suits.

"Walter, Andrew, I really wish you wouldn't sneak up on me like that."

"Our apologies ma'am," one of them said; she never learned which one was which. Not that it mattered any, they did their job, but were never ones much for socializing.

"So, what's going on that you would call my husband out of a twenty year retirement?" Rose never was a fan of his work. Although, she had to admit it paid well and according to him, he was the only one that could handle these situations. He really seemed to like it too, oftentimes reflecting back on his glory days. However she couldn’t forget what she had seen, the danger he put himself in, and eventually pulled his family into it as well. She knew that it was for the best, that it was worth the risk, but every time he kissed her good bye, she didn’t know if it would be for the last time.

"The Nightwings."

"Them again, I thought he handled them in his final mission twenty years ago."

"New information has recently arisen."

"And that would be…"

"Classified."

"Of course," she said with a sigh. That was one problem with his job, all the secrets. True, she knew far more than most people did, and she was sure Justin had told her some things over the years that she shouldn't have heard. "Well, do you have any idea how long this will take?"

"We're hoping no more than a few days, but we are still in the process of investigating."

"Good. Keep him safe for me."

"We'll do our best."

"You always do." She knew that he wasn’t alone and that gave her some piece of mind. Still, she’d heard stories, of him running in alone to save a friend, of them being outnumbered, of him thinking he was going to die. And through it all, he seemed to live for it, to crave the rush of battle. It was something that gave him purpose. He just wished there were times he could pass the burden to someone else, and away from their family. Hadn’t they been through enough?

"Until next time," one of the men said before they turned, leaving through the front door.

With them gone, she rested in one of the kitchen chairs. She was too old for this kind of stress, worrying about when she’d see him next. Heck, he was too old for this. It was one thing for him to be going around saving the world when he was younger, but he just had his 65th birthday. He should have said no… but she knew that he’d never say that to someone who asked for his help. He thought it was his duty to do something with his gifts. But, he’d already paid the world back, many times over. But once more, he found himself battling the Nightwings, and she could only hope he knew what he was doing.

The phone rang, breaking her out of her thoughts. "Hello?"

"Hey mom, it's Dani."

"Good to hear from you, what's going on?"

"Well is Dad around? I really need to talk to him about something.”

Rose paused for a moment; Dani knew about Justin’s life, she was even a part of the Great War, fighting alongside him from time to time. She knew it could be about any other thing, any other question, maybe how to fix something around the house, or how to correctly cover the Chicken Parmesan with the right flavor of spices.

But the timing was too bizarre. And Dani seemed to be too desperate.

“He’s not here right now,” Rose said, waiting for an answer to calm her fears.

“Do you know when he’ll be back?”

“No, I don’t. What’s going on; maybe I can help you.”

“Well, there is something strange going on with Simon. Jason told me he was having a nightmare or something and seemed to be really sick, but then when I got up there Simon stood up and seemed to be in a trance and was talking about the Nightwings.”

“No.” A single tear raced down Rose’s cheek.

“He said,” Dani paused for a moment, looking for the paper with the information written on it.

“Here it is Mom,” Heather said.

“Thanks Sweetie. Sorry about that, Mom. Anyway, he said, ‘The hour of twilight is upon us. Skies shall fill with black; streets shall fill with blood. Mortal fools end shall come. Fear the fall of the sun.”

Rose waited, to see if there was anything more, and to see if there was anyway she could convince herself this was all an illusion.

But it never came.

“Dad was called on another mission today,” Rose answered.

“So that means-“

“I’ll be there soon. Something bad is about to happen,” Rose said at a loss, but at the same time, remembering the last war. How despite they all were to hide it, to keep it concealed, it cost them so much. And with their greatest warrior… not so young (she wasn’t going to say he was old because… what would that make her?), she wondered if they could stop the Nightwings again.

“That’s not all,” Dani said.

“What?”

“Jason slapped Simon pretty hard to knock him out of the trance.” That was nothing unusual; Jason wasn’t above using force if he wanted something bad enough. “But when he did, there was a strange light around his hand.”

“Like yours?” Rose was hoping the gifts had stopped being passed down with the war ending. But Jason was 13, only a couple years older than Dani and Brandon when their powers started manifesting.

“I’m not sure yet.”

“I’ll give Brandon a call and leave him a message to see if anything is going on with his kids.”

“Okay, I’ll see you soon. Love you.”

“Love you too; stay safe.”

As Rose finished her breakfast, she wondered when her family would finally be free from this curse. There were so many times when she asked why. But each time, each battle, Justin was the one called to lead. And despite her best efforts to help, when the danger came, she could only stand back and pray. And now once more, she’s forced to wait. She only hopes her children and grandchildren won’t have to grow up with their lives haunted by the hidden evils of the world.

And with her plate clean, a message left for her son, she began the drive across the state, afraid of what she’d find when she got to Dani’s house. This couldn’t be coincidence. She could only hope it would end soon and they could get back to life as normal.