Vision

Chapter fourteen

Chapter 14:

The End

Jack shows up at the warehouse at 9:30 in the evening, a calm expression on his face, hiding the pain he feels all over his body. He insisted on using his clutches to walk over to the stage, since it might encourage the officers, showing them that their motivational speaker is still strong. He twists his collar to make it just right and opens the doors, finding his small army sitting on their chairs. He can see Nancy sitting in her chair. She waves at him. He waves back. He walks over to the stage and tests the mike, “Testing. One; two; three.”

The crowd finally pays attention to him, after focusing on each other. They suddenly fall silent. Nobody moves. Jack chuckles at them for doing this.

“Thank you all for coming here,” he starts, anticipation flowing through his veins. He can’t seem to shake the feeling that something bad is about to happen. He runs his eyes through the hordes of people in the crowd and, at last, continues, “I have called you all here tonight, because, let’s be honest, you deserve a proper ‘thanks’. That isn’t the only reason. Look, two weeks ago, I…I haven’t told anyone of this, yet, but…I had a dream, a vision. I saw what had become of the world in the future. Somehow I knew that there was no way of stopping it. It was meant to be.

“My car was rammed off the road and I was almost killed. I survived, though. I know it was for a reason. Right after that, I saw a portal open and I entered it. The world was in apocalyptic ruins. Some time, real soon, the world is going to be in chaos. What we, the hunters…the slayers are trying to accomplish, is to cast out the demons. We’re…concerned citizens…and we do the best we can to help people.

“We can’t do it alone. We never could. Alone, we are defenceless. But, we are not alone. I ask all of you…who want to help make the world a better place to come with me. We can’t change the future, but we should still prepare for it. We aren’t in the clutches of evil. We are being protected. We can’t just ignore the torment…the pain in this world. So, I ask again, join me.”

Only a few people get up from their seats, including Max and his grandmother, Nancy, Emma and her son, Shana and Dave. They all walk up to the stage and stand next to him. When Jack sees Emma, he is very surprised. Who is she? He hasn’t seen her before.

“Who are you?” he asks.

“A concerned citizen,” she answers his question.

They walk down the stage and exit the room. Max realises that he had been smarter than the rest of him, since he now has a job. Is it really that smart to sign up for a job that could cause you to die? Yeah, probably. On the way back to the space craft, Emma explains why she is there. To her surprise, he doesn’t care about her terrible past. According to him, mistakes can be forgiven.

She is relieved by the smile he gives her. Nancy watches them, laughing and talking to each other. She suddenly wants to rip Emma’s hair out. They soon reach the space craft. Max is very thankful that he has to leave his car behind, but he’s not saying. The giant space craft that has been parked in the Central Park is soon flown into the air, blasting into space. This has proven to be a quiet night. No harm done.

Jack sits next to Nancy and she soon falls asleep on his shoulder. Emma’s child is sitting on her lap, gazing in awe and wonder at the stars, through the window. They seem to be reflected by his eyes. At last, the smaller ship lands in the larger one. It is now very late. Nancy pretends to be asleep and Jack is forced to carry her to her bed. Emma tucks Mike in his bed, praying that he’ll be safe with them. She somehow knows that the demons will be back for her…and this time for her child. She had to compete in the arena with him in her womb, still very young. She still can’t seem to find out why the demon had run away from her.

She goes to her own room and falls asleep, with the light on. Jack’s light is already off, but he cannot fall asleep after everything that has happened to him lately. His eyes wide open, he lies on his arm, staring at the ceiling, remembering…and thinking. He has a family here…a true family.