The Harper Generations

A Harper Halloween

Valentino

After our mishap at the festival, our parents didn't want to take any chances with Halloween. So, we watched horror movies while gorging ourselves on candy. Fine by me since I will never revisit another funhouse. Once was enough.

"Okay. No one is talking about the mighty elephant in the room," Kass said.

"What elephant?" Chelle asked.

"The funhouse elephant."

"I figured we could forget about that elephant." Chelle bit into a Hersey bar.

"Forget? I don't consider snakes and almost dying in a rickety shack a way to forget about our doom," Lena said.

"When Lucille sent us back, I didn't think it entailed us dealing with a crazy ass spirit bent on destroying us," Bria said.

"What did you expect from Grammy Gray?" Michael asked.

"Not some evil ass spirit trying to demolish us." Bria wrapped a Reese's cup and ate it.

"What I don't get is why us? It's not like we're superheroes trying to defeat the villain," River said.

"No, but we have a lot of built-up energy from living in the afterlife," Ryan said.

"What do you remember from your ministry days and college courses?" I asked Preston.

We all looked at Preston. If anyone would understand this situation, it would be him.

"From my studies, God provides balance in everything. You have angels and demons. Benevolent and malevolent spirits. Light and darkness. Good and evil. But everything must have a balance," Preston said, holding out his hands to show us an example.

"Yeah, but we can do things most people can't," Ryan said.

"Because we aren't like most people. We had died, and our spirits built up energy throughout the years. Imagine a pressure cooker. Pressure starts to build until it can't anymore. Then it explodes. It's the same with our energy. We didn't just keep our energy, but we engulfed our new soul's energy. That's a lot of freaking energy to keep bottled up."

"That makes sense," Misty said, wagging her finger at us. "But something always triggers the energy before it explodes, like Tino's name."

"So, we need to piss off Tino to escape our deaths?" Kass asked.

Misty rolled her eyes. "No, we need to find the triggers to release our energy. My guess is our tempers."

"We need to take out that bitch, Trina before we deal with this entity. Or we're fucked," Ryan said.

"Why Trina? Not that I don't mind taking down the dumb bitch. But why?" River asked.

"Because the twit is working with whatever the hell this thing is," Preston said, waving his finger around. "Think about it. Why did she zero in on Tino?"

My cousins and the girls pondered Preston's question.

I didn't need to ponder it. I knew the answer. "Distraction."

Their faces snapped to me.

"I have the most pent-up energy of everyone. I can defeat this thing. If something distracts me, it can go after you."

Everyone exchanged glances, knowing I was right. This thing wanted to distract me so it could get to Misty. It can't do that if I'm always around her. I locked eyes with Misty as she furrowed her brows.

I can change history with Mags and have an epic love story. I refused to let something destroy it.

*******
Misty