Take Me Back To Paddington (SERIES)

Chapter 23 - The Believers

The woman turned her head to look at her wife, Jennifer, who was still silent.

"Babe!" She called for her. "Are you letting this? Say something!" Jisoo looked at Baxter and I again. "Nick, you too?"

"I don't agree with what you are planning to do, Lisa" Jennifer finally let her voice out. "And I know you wouldn't listen to any of us" She shifted slightly on the sofa with the discomfort I could see. "But I sense something wrong in this whole plan"

Wiping my tears off, I asked. "What?"

"Okay, let's say it's all true, Chae really asks for your help"

"Babe!" Jisoo interrupted her.

"No, listen to me first" Jennifer claimed her time to speak up with her hand gestures in the air.

Jisoo rolled her eyes. "I can't believe you"

"Listen, Lisa" The other woman seeked for my attention. "We all know you and I'm sure Chae knows you too," She started to get the things in her mind out. "Think about it, Lisa. If Chae is being held and she can't help herself, why did she choose you? No offense but you are the weakest"

I frowned instantly.

"What do you mean by that?"

"That guy said it's a demonic force, right?"

I nodded.

"And Chae chooses you? An atheist? Someone who knows nothing about the religion itself? Someone who doesn't believe in supernatural forces?" She made her point clear. "It would make sense to me if she asks a priest to help her, but not you, Lisa"

"Yes!" Jisoo joined in. "I agree on that part, Lisa. This doesn't make sense"

"I mean, if my soul would be thrown to hell, I wouldn't risk it in the hands of someone who doesn't even know prayers to weaken the demon" The other woman continued.

Jennifer's point muted me straight away when she actually had a valid point, a very strong one I would say. Why did Chae ask for help from someone like me when she knew what kind of person I was?

Chae literally had to drag me out from the bed every Sunday morning to go to the church together. She saw how I yawned during the boring lecture. She knew better that I just wanted to hold her hand and spend my time with her in the church.

I was just useless when it came to religious stuffs.

"It only has the power over you if you think it does" Nick spoke out of the blue, getting all the attentions in the room to himself.

"What?" Jennifer questioned in bafflement, just like Jisoo and I.

"Ephesians 2:1-3," Nick answered her. "Every human being who has ever lived (except Jesus) has been enslaved to a way of thinking generated by the prince of the power of the air, Satan"

Jennifer was silent again, probably because her argument was crushed by Nick. Well, that was what I thought since I didn't know what Baxter just talked about.

But he sounded like he spoke about the, Bible?

"Chae can't fight the demon because she believes in it. That's what giving it the power" He elaborated. "You can't too, Jen. I can't. Even a priest can't," Baxter said. "Because we are all believers. We believe in God, angels and demons" He brought his innocent eyes to me. "But Lisa isn't"

I swallowed my throat as I was getting goosebumps.

"Lisa could be the only person in Chae's life who doesn't believe in anything" He continued. "The demon is powerless because Lisa doesn't validate it"

The room was filled with silence for seconds when Nick's sentences gave the sparks in our minds.

"Are you kidding me, Nick?!" Jisoo's voice inserted the noises back. "Why are you giving Lisa that idea?!"

"I'm not giving her any idea, I'm just answering to Jen"

"Who asked you to answer?!"

That was the thing that The Kims didn't know about Nick Baxter; a naive. He would take anything in its literal form.

He thought this session was a discussion, questions and answers time, while actually it was a confrontation to convince me not to do this deal. Nick shouldn't have talked about anything that would encourage me into it, but he didn't get that part.

It was just like what he said he did; he was just answering to Jennifer.

"Guys," I called for their focus on me instead of those demon things. "I'm doing this"

"Goddamn it!" Jisoo exclaimed, walking away from the table.

"I'm sorry, Jisoo" I spoke. "I'm still going tonight, with or without anyone's approval"

"You don't have to, Lisa" Jennifer got into the conversation. "What makes you think that? Just for the sake of peace?"

We connected our eyes and I guessed she already knew what my answer would be. She just wanted me to say it.

"I love her," I answered. "That's the only reason I need"

Jisoo slammed her body on the sofa right next to her wife, crossing her arms with anger all over her face and body gestures.

"I knew it!" Jisoo expressed her frustration.

"What is it?" The other woman asked.

"I always had this weird feeling about Chae Richards before, something was just not right about that woman" Jisoo shook her head. "I was never clicked with her"

"Jisoo..." My voice was as weak as how my heart just broke when I heard what she just said. "Please don't say that about Chae"

"I have told you, didn't I?" She continued. "I told you so many times that I don't want you to get hurt by her"

"I'm not-"

"First, she didn't want to have sex with you even though you wanted to. She made you followed her terms and conditions in order for you to date her," Jisoo's voice was getting higher. "And you just freaking followed whatever hell she wanted!"

At this point I just knew that Jisoo had lost her patience, releasing all her thoughts about Chae Richards that she never spoke before.

"Babe" Jennifer tried to stop her, but no one could.

"Even now?!" Jisoo ignored her wife. "She's already gone and you still follow her request?!"

I got up instantly, hand grabbing my cell phone on the table.

"Stop all this, Lisa. Go find another woman to love, move on!"

I left everything Jisoo said out from my brain, opening the door as I was leaving and I heard the sound of the dining chair being pushed, followed by Baxter's steps after that.