~BOOK 5/PART ONE~ Paranormal: Too Close To Home (Multi-Bandom FanFic)

Chapter 9 - Kenya

I looked to the wizard who looked oddly familiar to another face, but I couldn't put a name to it. "You wanna tell us who took her?" I inquired. He opened his mouth to say something then closed it, trying to think carefully about his words. "Are you mute?"

"I don't know who took her," The man finally spoke, rubbing his upper arm nervously.

"It has to be Natalie," Lynn chimed in, "She's probably trying to get Rachael to come and find her, using her as leverage against us."

"No, it was a male voice," The wizard disclosed, "They...They sent us a video. It's not Natalie."

"Then it has to be one of the demon's followers," I backed Lynn's idea up, it was the only thing that made sense.

"We have to find her, Kenya," Rachael pleaded, grabbing my upper arms tightly, "Please. You...You took care of her for a little while, right? You've got to know where she would go. You can tell me where she might be and I-I'll go find her. Link and I will."

"Rachael, he and I can find her, not you. If this is Natalie trying to bait you with your own kid, then it's not safe for you to go after her."

"I don't care whether or not it's safe for me. She's my daughter and I'm responsible for her. I need to go and find her." The witch was frantic, and I could hear her heart pounding rapidly against her chest.

"Hon." This Link character put his hand on her shoulder. "Kenya's right, we'll find her. You asked me to watch her, so I'll be the one to find her."

"But I can't just stand here and do nothing!" She objected, the tears she'd been building up spilling from her eyes.

"You won't be," The hunter next to me added, "You and I need to work out a plan to stop your sister, anyways. The best thing you can do is let Link and Kenya find your kid."

"They're not safe though," The witch murmured, covering her face with her hands which were still striped, however, the black had faded to a dull gray now, "I don't want them getting hurt trying to save her."

"Rach." I stood up. "If I'm your best friend, then that means you trust me. Trust me to find and bring Halsey home safe."

She slowly lowered her hands from her face, meeting my gaze with bloodshot eyes. "But Kenya...you...you need to stay here. New Orleans needs you."

"Rach, I'm not going anywhere," I assured her as I looked to Lynn who smiled, "Nat and her army of demons are sloppy. She probably brought her here and kept her close, so you won't leave either. We're gonna find her, Rach, and we're bring her home, I promise."

The witch hung her head, sniffling. "I...I don't know how I'm ever going to repay you."

"You don't need to, it's what friends do, right?" She looked up at me and nodded her head, the corner of her lips perked up into a small grin. I glanced over at Link who rolled his eyes and crossed his arms.

*****

The man who went by Link and I walked down the desolated New Orleans streets, him performing a location spell while we strolled down the sidewalks. I glanced over at him, my eyes narrowing as I tried to identify him, identify who this Link guy was.

"So how long have you known Rachael?" I inquired.

"Since she was little," The man answered bluntly, keeping his concentration on the spell, "I think she was...five when I first met her mother, very young."

"So you're her stepfather?"

"I guess you could say that. Christine and I never got married." He stopped in his tracks and looked around, a distant look in his eyes. He stood there for a moment or two before shaking his head and stepping forward.

"So where does Natalie fall into that weird relationship?"

"She's my daughter," He explained shamelessly.

"Oh, in that case, you did a hell of a job raising her."

He didn't glance in my direction once as he told me, "I didn't raise her. She raised herself. She didn't do anything anyone told her to. She was on her own a lot, hated everyone at the coven, and envied the praise her sister received. She wanted what she couldn't have."

"Well that makes more sense," I sarcastically replied, "I mean, if you just would have hugged her a bit, maybe she wouldn't want to kill Rachael. Oh wait, or maybe if you paid attention to her and actually loved her, she may not want to kill us all."

Link froze in his tracks once again, however this time, his eyes were locked on me. "What are you trying to say?"

"Nothing, except that people like you don't deserve children."

He folded his arms over his chest. "Where do you go thinking that I don't deserve children? I loved Rachael like my own and I did everything I could to make sure that Natalie grew up with the same kind of love and respect."

Just by looking at this man, I had a pretty clear visual on his personality. "Well, I'm sure there's a reason why you and Christine never got married. Maybe it's because you have commitment issues, or maybe she didn't love you. Then something major happened to Rachael, probably something to do with the darkness inside of her. It gave her extraordinary powers, so I'm sure there's a connection. And I'm assuming that, by the time Natalie came along, she had place no in your heart for her, because you loved Rachael first. And you treat Rachael better not because she was your own, but because you felt guilty." Link swallowed a lump in his throat before looking back down at the paper he held in his hands.

"We should keep going," He mumbled, hoping I would stop.

"Keep going, that's probably what you told yourself after Christine forced you out." He gripped the paper harder while continuing to follow the mysterious path. "Yeah, sounds about right, the two of you split and you ended up hiding in some small unheard-of town, too ashamed to meet the eyes of the people from the coven or - frankly - the eyes of anyone, the regret you have from all of your mistakes too much for you to handle."

He shook his head. "You don't understand. She would've died if it wasn't for me. Natalie would've been able to rise to power and destroy the coven from the inside out. Christine would've died way before she was meant to and-"

"Excuses don't help your case, and neither does losing another kid."

He scoffed. "You're so ignorant sometimes, Kenya. You don't realize what it's like to be a parent. Just ask Rachael. Sometimes you do things you probably shouldn't have. But you know what? You do them because you want what's best for them, and for everyone else too. If you just-"

"I don't have to understand parenthood, because I've been one of those messed up kids. My dad did the same thing to me with my own sibling." I hated to recall all of the shit Brutus caused in my life. But how could I forget a powerful piece of my family history? "My father left my brother behind to be raised by rogues, and then brainwashed me to forget him. Because of him, we hate each other. And you want to know his excuse? He thought it was best for me. Bull-"

Link gasped, his head snapping over his shoulder. "She's around here. I can sense her." He abandoned my side and escaped into one of the shadowed alleyways, sticking his arm up in the air and bringing down the rusted escape ladder. He grabbed onto it and the ladder retracted, sending him up to the fourth floor of the building. He climbed onto the fire escape and turned around to face me, calling out, "What are you doing down there? Come on!"

"Asshole," I muttered as I ran forward and jumped the walls up to the fire escape.

"I heard that," He growled as he turned around and opened the window, slipping through the hole and disappearing into the darkness.

"You were meant to!" I screamed as I followed after him, "Will you slow down? I can't see a damned thing."

He snapped his fingers and the room illuminated, revealing a bunch of random people lying around - crashed on couches, some on the floor, and even one on top of the bookshelf in the corner. And in the center of the room was none other than my favorite blue-haired girl. Her head was cocked to the side and her arms and legs were tied down to the chair she was sitting in. Her head rolled up and she saw the two of us, the corner of her dark lips curling into a smirk. "Well well well, look who finally decided to show up," She slurred.