JJ POV: 8th grade
"Don't tell them I'm took you there." Rose says as we walk home. We heard a loud bang. I look over a see a ghoulie with a gun running away. I look over at Rose. "Get mom." She falls to the ground. "I'm not leaving you." She grabs my shirt. "Get mom." She says seriously. Luckily we were close to home. I pick her up and drag her home. Mom was in the driveway. "Mom!" She runs to me. "What happened?" She ask. "I don't know." Rose falls into her arms. "Mom. Call Cheryl." Mom helps her into the car and walks back to me. "Stay here. I'll call mom and Mary to pick you up." She starts to walk away but turns around. "I love you bud." She gets in the car and drives off. A few minutes later mom and Mary get home. I still haven't moved. Mary comes over and hugs me. Still paralyzed. I could have protected her. "JJ, Let's go." Mary walks me to the car. "Mom." She hugs me. "Hey." I finally start crying.
TONI POV:
We walk into the hospital. "Please someone, she's-." I can barely speak, tears running down my face. The nurse takes her. "What's her name?" They put her on a gurney. "Mom." She cries out. "Her name is Rose." We start to walk into the surgery room when I get stopped. "Your not allowed pass this point." The nurse stops me. I walk back into the waiting room. I start pacing. A few minutes later the nurse walks out. I already know what she is going to say to me. "I'm sorry but, she didn't make it." I sit down in shock. "I'll give you a minute." She walks away. Cheryl and the twins come through the door seconds later. Cheryl looks at me. Both me and Jason are covered in blood. I shake my head. "Cheryl, she, she's gone." I don't know how to process anything. Cheryl pulls me into a hug. "Baby."
It's been a few days since everything happened. JJ has been locked in his room only coming out to use the bathroom. Cheryl has locked herself in her office. Mary has been detracting herself from even entering the house my hang out at Jenna's house (I swear they are more than friends). Me on the other hand I don't know, I've been hopping between everyone comforting them. "Hey, I came to check on you." I close the door. "I want to join the serpents." He stands up. "No." I tell him. "Please I want to protect this family." He begs. "And you think joining the serpents is going to stop any of us from dying? It's going to make it worse!" I yell. He looks at me pissed of. "Please. Maybe you and mom shouldn't have joined and expected your children not to be interested!" He yells back. "Both of you stop right now!" I turn around and Cheryl. "Fine." I pull a paper out. "Memorize these and go through the trials, and I'll let you." I start to walk out but turn around. "I recommend doing this before I change my mind." I walk out. Cheryl follows me. "Toni really? I thought we weren't going to do this." We walk into her office. "I don't think we have a choice!" I yell. "I want my daughter back." I break down crying. I sit down against the door. "Toni." She sits in front of me and places her hand on my knee. "I'm sorry for yelling at you." I cry more. "Toni, this is a really hard time for us all, I would be surprised if you didn't." I look up. "I could have saved her. I saw it all happen." She pulls me close. "There is nothing you could have done." She rubs my back.
"Are you sure you want to do this?" I ask before he runs the gauntlet. "Yes." He says calmly. I could tell he was horrified. "Fine." I walk to the front. "Go." I watched as my only son got beaten an I couldn't do anything about it. Maybe this was a mistake, maybe Cheryl was right. There was no stopping JJ. He gets to the last serpent I watch as he gets punched one last time. I grab his jacket and hand it to him. "Let's head home." We both go home. We walk into the house. We walk into the kitchen. Cheryl just happens to be there. "Really?" She ask. JJ sits at the table as I get the first aid kit. I look over at Cheryl who looks pissed. She pulls me aside. "You broke a promise." I stop her before she kills me. "We talked about it." She nods. "Your right." We walk back to the kitchen as Mary walks through the door. "Oh so he can become a serpent and I can't?" She doesn't even let me explain and goes straight upstairs. "Ow." JJ winches in pain. "It's ok." She reassures him.
"Do you think it was a good idea?" I ask as Cheryl walks up to me. I pull her closer and kiss her neck softly. "No." She says honestly. "Do you?" She looks at me. "After what happened to Rose, yeah." She kisses me. I quickly deepen the kiss. "I want to find the man who killed my daughter." I take her hand. "The police are doing their best." I tell her. She steps back. "But their not doing enough." She starts crying. I pull her closer and wipe her tears. "Cheryl there is little to no evidence to what happened. I saw it happen but I didn't see who shot her." She puts her head on my shoulder. "What about JJ? Do you think he saw?" She ask. "He talked to the police. He said it was a ghoulie, you know how he is, he's still very traumatized by everything." I tell her. "Your right." She looks down. "Hey, Cheryl everything will be ok." She kisses me. "I just want closer." I play with her fingers. "I know, I do to." I kiss her cheek. "I'll check on the kids and we can go to bed." I get up and go to Mary's room. I noticed that she's been crying. "Hey." I sit on her bed. She doesn't look at me she just looks straight ahead. "Why won't you let me join the serpents?" She ask finally looking at me. "Because, mom won't let you, JJ shouldn't even be a serpent. How about this I'll show you the ropes." She perks up. "Yeah." She nods. "Ok. Goodnight." I get up. "Night." I walk out closing the door behind me. I walk into JJ's room. "Mom knock!" He yells that's when I realize he's half naked. "Oh sorry." I close the door. I look across the and see Rose's room untouched, and it hits me that she's gone. All the pictures with her and Clare, her emotions board that we never took down because she was so insistent on keeping it, her area where she would calm down after a meltdown. She came so far from the kid that came to us broken, unloved and abandoned. Before I can break out crying JJ opens the door. "Mom I don't think I can go down to the police station one more time at least not this week it's just to hard." He spits out. "I know but you don't have much of a choice."
