Salvation from the dawn // Salvis

Back at the beginning the beginning of the end

Megan giggled, and her face began to brighten. "I know Travis!" She smiled. "He's my cousin!" She smiled. "Why did you want to know?"

"He's your what!?" Larry yelled out. "You're family with him? How-?"

Megan winced back at the yelling and nodded. "Mhm! His mommy was my mommy's sister..." She said softly.

"Did you know her name? Travis's mother." Sal asked again. Cousins. They were family. That's how Travis knew her.

"Mhm! Her name was Tyra!" Megan smiled.

Tyra. That was a start. Tyra Phelps. Who knows what her maiden name would be? And asking Megan would be too confusing. But it was a start...Maybe Todd could run a search for that name.

"Were you two close?" Sal asked softly, "You and Travis?"

She thought for a moment. "I always went over to his house! Mommy liked it there better anyways than here. Her sister was there! However, she didn't like Travis's daddy." She frowned, wrapping a hand around her necklace. "I didn't like him either..."

"Why not?" Sal pressed on worriedly.

The girl frowned, looking down. "He was just mean to Travis and his mommy." She frowned. "I saw it sometimes when I wasn't supposed to..."

This felt like an invasion of Travis's privacy. Sal shouldn't be hearing someone else talk about his home life. It made him worry more for the teen, but felt wrong.

"What else did your mom say? Specifically about Travis's dad?" Sal asked, trying to re-word his question.

"He was the reason daddy was always so mean to us." She frowned. "She said that Travis's daddy was a bad man. And um...doing bad things...."

"What bad things?" Larry asked.

Megan shrunk in on herself, pulling at her shirt. "I don't...um.."

"It's okay Meg," Sal said quietly, moving to kneel in front of the girl. "You can take your time...but we really need to know what he did. If, Kenneth is a bad man. We want to stop him." Sal frowned. "We're worried he could hurt more people."

"I always got in trouble telling people this...promise you won't tell anyone?" Megan asked. "A lot of mean people here don't like when I tell people..." She whispered.

"I promise." Sal smiled. "No one besides me and Larry will know. I won't tell anyone. Pinky swear." He hummed, moving to hold his pinky up.

Megan giggled, holding her pinky out as well. Since she couldn't physically touch Sal, this was the best option.

"Okay!" She smiled, more confident "Um...I followed my daddy one night...He left to go to the basement, and he was in this weird building...It was um...very deep. Right under the apartments. I overheard them talking about a plan to...bring shadows...to the world?" Megan frowned. "It was a really scary place."

Sal and Larry looked at each other horrified. The temple.

"Was Travis there?" Sal asked terrified. This was bad. Very bad. It still felt wrong. Like an invasion of privacy, but he cared for Travis. He wanted to know if the teen was safe.

"Travis was sleeping on a table!" She giggled. "That part was funny. He walked in like he was sleepwalking and his daddy helped him onto a table made of stone! Then he put a funny mask on! Then he, my daddy, and other people said some funny words before Travis-" Megan frowned. "I don't wanna talk about the next part... It was scary."

"What happened to Travis after the scary part?" Larry asked a bit worried himself. That wasn't good as well. The cult did something to Travis. Some ritual. His father did something. Despite their differences, Larry used to be close to Travis. And something deep inside worried for him as well.