Scratching The Surface

Chapter 16

The tornado warning lifted a couple hours later, when the sky had relaxed and the most threatening of clouds had passed on. Jason brought his family up from the basement before heading to town to see when the power would be back on, leaving Piper alone with the two girls. During the time Jason had been there, Nico hadn't made another appearance.

"Nico?" Piper led the little girls upstairs. "Where are you hiding? Jason said you were acting weird..."

He stayed silent, and when they got up to the third floor, the tapestry was once again covering the hallway to his room. Piper took the hint and went downstairs, but slid a plate of lunch underneath the tapestry when she was done making sandwiches for the girls. At this point, it seemed only fitting that Nico should also eat. He had drunken the coffee, so he should be able to.

Piper didn't want to admit it, but she started to think of the boy as another of her children.

Eventually, dinner came, and neither Jason or Nico was back. Piper sat at the dark table beside her daughters, watching them eat another put-together meal. The foods in the fridge were getting warm, meats were spoiling. The wood seemed to feel it was back in the times where it was first put in this house. It creaked and groaned with every movement someone took, and sometimes when nobody moved at all.

"Let's get you two to bed." Piper picked Maddie up and held a hand out to Katie. "Come on, everything will be better in the morning."

"Where's daddy?" Katie asked as they ascended the stairs. "And Nico?"

"Daddy's getting our lights to work," Piper explained as she entered her and Jason's bedroom. "Nico's being moody. Let's lay down together, okay? Cause Maddie gets scared easily in the dark."

"We'll help her." Katie agreed. "We get to lay in your bed?"

Piper nodded "Is that okay with you?"

Katie jumped on the bed, giggling as she sunk into the fine piles of blankets. "Come cover me up!"

Piper laid Maddie by Katie before setting pillows around the two girls. "You get some rest, okay?"

"What about you, momma?" Katie asked, letting her younger sister snuggle into her. "Aren't you laying down?"

"I'm gonna stay up to make sure daddy gets home," Piper explained. "If you try to go to bed, I'll read a story. Does that sound good?"

Katie nodded enthusiastically. "Next chapter in Magic Treehouse! Please?!"

"Okay, okay." Piper kissed her forehead. "Don't wake your sister up, that won't be good." She got the book from Katie's room before sitting beside them on the bed, starting to read about Jack and Annie's adventures throughout time. Katie listened to her favorite story before falling asleep beside Maddie, her soft breathing the only thing showing Piper that the little girl was still alive.

When she was sure they were asleep Piper got into the shower and washed off the day, one hand resting against the cold tiles as she let the hot water run over her tired shoulders. Her muscles relaxed, her eyes closed, and she let the water take away all her anxieties over Jason and Nico.

Piper had been in the shower for a good twenty minutes when the bathroom door opened, causing her head to snap around. Through the shower curtain, she could see someone standing by the door. The man was taller than Nico, shorter than Jason, and seemed to just stand still.

"Hello?" Piper squeaked over the wind coming through the cracked window. "Who are you? You...you shouldn't be here..."

The man didn't answer, didn't move a muscle. She could see his silhouette, see his hand move to close the door behind him so they'd be the only two in the room...

"NICO!" Piper backed up against the cold tiles and covered herself with her arms, calling on the only one that she could possibly think of. "NICO!? NICO!"

A second after the scream, she watched the man disappear into absolute nothingness. Her brain froze when she realized it had been a ghost, realized that something was in the house and wasn't Nico...

Piper got dressed faster than she had before in her life, throwing the nightgown on before sprinting out of the bathroom. Her two girls were how she left them on the bed, sound asleep despite her screams of terror. Jason didn't seem to be back yet, and nothing else seemed disturbed.

"What's happening to me..." Piper sunk onto the bed with a hand on her forehead, tears starting to worm their way down her cheeks. "I couldn't have made that up...I couldn't have..."

Nobody answered, but she could feel Nico's presence in the room, listening, watching, protecting.

That was the only thing that got her to sleep that night.