Chapter Four: Lucy
I looked at Caleb expectantly waiting for him to begin his explanation of what was happening.
I want to know everything. I want to know why Dad was taken, why I have this tattoo, why we are on a plane headed to God knows where. So start talking. As weird as it sounded, I liked using this method of speaking. It almost seemed more natural to me than speaking out loud.
Caleb waved away a flight attendant who asked if we needed anything. Then he began to speak.
I think you know as well as I do that we are different, our whole family. I think you’ve known it for a while.
I nodded and motioned for him to continue.
Well, Miss Impatient, I’m getting there. We come from a group of people called Hunters. We do just that- Hunt. You know the things of your nightmares, the werewolves, vampires, and monsters; well they are real. More like it they are called Tenebrae. They are everything terrible you could think of. There are also people called Keepers, and they keep the Tenebrae, they control them. They are the ones who took Dad this morning. They can be very powerful, and they want- well I’m getting ahead of myself. The Tenebrae and the Keepers pretty much make up everything bad that’s ever happened in our history. Hitler, for example, he was a keeper who possessed himself with a Tenebrae. You can do that, but once you do, you will be forever insane, to a point where you would not know who you were. Keepers can instruct their Tenebrae to take on different forms, or to possess people. That’s where you have to be careful. You don’t know what could be a Tenebrae or what isn’t.
But that’s where we come in. We are the Hunters. Our job is to find the Tenebrae and the Keepers and get rid of them. It isn’t an easy job, but we don’t pick it. It runs in families, and the Carter family has been Hunting for hundreds of years.
Caleb paused for a moment to let that all sink in. I stared at him in disbelief. My life had always seemed so normal, so regular, but when I started to think on it, my parents were often gone, and they would come back days later, not talking much about where they had been or who they had seen.
Go on. I nudged Caleb forward.
Well, to the tattoo on your arm, you get that on your sixteenth birthday, at the moment that your powers fully develop. For most hunter families, the sixteenth birthday is exceptionally exciting; kids grow up knowing about their Hunter heritage. But, the Carter family is one of the most powerful Hunter families in the world, and you, well Lucy, you’re even different form the Hunters. You’re an Aarde.
All these words and concepts were so confusing to me. What’s an Aarde?
An Aarde is a natural. You know how recently the weather has reflected your mood? That’s because of your power. You can control the elements, and the weather. Mom was one, and so was Grandma. You are the third consecutive Aarde in the family, which is very rare. That makes you even more powerful and therefore, the Keepers want you on their side.
But why did they take Dad? I asked.
They took him because he didn’t give you to them. I have a feeling that they have been contacting Dad for a while, and trying to work out a deal with him, but he’s not just going to give you up, Lucy, Lord knows what they would do to you if they got their hands on you.
Caleb stopped and looked at me expectantly. I let all the information about my family and who I was sink in. I wanted to close my eyes and have all of this gone away. I knew that was impossible, and that now my mission was to get my father back.
I’m guessing that Mom didn’t die in an ordinary plane crash then did she?
Caleb shook his head and began to speak. The pilot of the plane was a keeper. Nobody knew though, and the plane went down. He crashed it on purpose. Mom was on a mission.
We sat in silence for a moment. I recollected the day that our mother died. I was ten years old, and Mom had been gone for a few days. Like always, she never said where she went, what she was doing, or when she would return. This time was different. It was a Saturday morning, and Caleb and I were lounging around on the sofa watching cartoons when the phone rang. My father, who had been sitting next to us in an armchair jumped up to answer it. He stood stiffly in the kitchen for a moment, nodding his head, and running his fingers through his hair. He hung up the phone and grabbed his jacket from the hook by the door, yelling at Caleb to watch out for me and not open the door for anyone. We continued to watch television until Dad returned. He broke the news, telling us that Mom had been in a terrible accident and wouldn’t be coming home. Thinking back, I didn’t see him cry, not once. Not when he received the phone call, not when he told us, not at the funeral, he didn’t cry. He spent a lot of time in his bedroom and his study, migrating back and forth, staying shut up for hours, but that was pretty normal when you had a writer for a father.
I glanced back over at Caleb. Where are we actually going? I asked.
To our Aunt Kat’s house, she lives in North Carolina.
I didn’t know we had an aunt. I thought both our parents were only children.
They are. Aunt Kat was Mom’s best friend growing up. Mom left and went to New York when you were born, but Aunt Kat stayed in North Carolina. We should be there shortly, but just relax now. Okay?
I settled back into my seat. Caleb? I asked.
Yes?
We are going to find Dad right?
We are going to try Lucy, We’re going to try.
With that, I leaned my head back and fell into a deep dreamless sleep.
