The Unknowns

Chapter 9 The Unknowns

My father placed me on his cot, which had more padding then my cot downstairs. My sisters then began to explain to me everything that I had missed.

They explained about how after I hit my head, how they had waited and waited for the thing to go away, but it wouldn’t move. Then the worst thing they thought could happen… dad called Ramona’s phone. They started to panic but instead of driving the thing closer, it seemed to have gotten scared and ran off.

“We started calling them, well the things… unknowns.” I looked at Kelsey blankly as she said it. “Unknowns” I repeated back. “We only know so much about them,” my father began. “We have never gotten close enough to one of them to see their features or even know what their skin is made up of or looks like.” “All we know is that they are attracted to the darkness. They like to keep themselves hidden. From what you three have told us… well now we also know that they can take shape. Which makes them dangerous.” My mother said.

A shiver went up my spine as she finished speaking. “So what happens now?” I asked. “Well your mother and I were just about to bring that up. We umm-“ Ramona cut him off  “Mom and dad want to go study them. They want to leave the base tomorrow night and go find one of the Unknowns and see if they can figure anything else out about their mannerisms and what their skin is made up of and-“ “You what!?” I shouted making my head spin. “You want to go out there by yourselves and see what else you can ‘discover’ about those things! You have no idea what they are capable of! They could possibly kill you both in a matter of seconds!” “Grace please calm down” my mother said as she reached out for my arm. “No! This is absolutely ridiculous! I can’t stand the thought of loosing either one or even both of you!”

All the shouting was making my head swim even more; I began to grow more nauseous. “Grace, listen to your mother and I, we want to help defeat the unknowns, we need to get rid of them.” My father explained. “You two can’t possibly go alone.” Kelsey chimed in. “It’s incredibly too dangerous, you have to least bring someone else along with you, just in case…” Kelsey began to stutter.

My mother turned her head to look at my father. “Well, I do suppose we could use the extra help.” This didn’t make me feel any better. I just got back to see my family and now they want to go away again? And they could possibly not return… I began to sob uncontrollably. I was quite embarrassed with myself to be honest. “I just got the both of you back, and now you’re going to leave us again?” I knew I sounded like an irrational five year-old even though me being about to strike the age of sixteen, I still was extremely sensitive when it came to the thought of my family in general.

“Sweet heart, unfortunately this is our job, and we can’t just sit back and let the world fall apart around us while we still have some means to help set things right.”  

My father then moved over to me and put his arm around me. He took my hands away from my face and held my face with his hands. “We are so blessed to have each and everyone of you girls, and we love you so much. And just know that we are doing this to help protect you.”

My mother and sisters then joined my father and I on his cot and we all sat in silence for quite some time. “So tomorrow night it is,” Ramona said as a tear rolled down her cheek. “Yes, but don’t worry’ we will be back before you know it.” My mother said with a weak smile.