The Dragon Wars (Book 1)

Chapter 30: Are You Okay (Joseph POV)

They both looked at me, I felt a strange vibe coming into the area. Something did not seem right, I could tell that Mariah seemed to sense it to based off of the look that was on her face. Julia seemed perfectly fine but she was not looking at my mother burn spot anymore because it was quite sickening.
"Lets get out of here something does not seem right." I said to Julia and Mariah. I saw Mariah happily agreeing on what I said. Julia looked a bit disappointed and a bit upset at the same time. I looked around making sure something or someone was watching us.
"What? We need to check into this some more, this could be important and it could help you in your fathers trial." She said to me. I looked at her for a few seconds. In my head I knew that she was right, but I could tell that both Mariah and I could feel that something was not right.
"I think I've seen all that I needed to see. I think it's time to go..." I said to Julia. She looked at me and then she looked down at the ground for a few more moments. She was staring at something but I could not tell what it was. She then shook her head at me.
"You two can go. I can tell that Mariah is just as scared as you, if there is actual proof that your father is not lying then I will help him." She said to me. Mariah looked at me for what I was going to say to her. For a few moments I bought into what Julia was telling me.
It might be a good idea, I could save my father life. He would definitely be getting hung for what he did. Or rather what he did not do, I was already believing what he had done was true. All of what Padre said to me had to be real now.
I looked at her one last time, I knew I could not say yes though. I had this feeling that something was coming really soon, if she was still here, it would not matter if she found any proof.
"No Julia, please... You just have to trust me on this. Something does not seem right, we have to go." I said to Julia. She looked at me for a few moments as if she was about to disagree and start an argument. She then looked at Mariah and could see the look on her face so she nodded.
"If your uncle really was a dragon hunter than maybe you caught some of that from him... Fine, I'm not going to the trial I'm staying back with Mariah." She said to me. I could tell it was her last effort to get me to let her stay but it would not work on me.
"Thank you, I just feel like something is not right in the air... I think it is something both me and Mariah have. Don't you agree Mariah?" I asked her. She looked at me for a few moments and then she nodded to me. I looked back at Julia for a few moments.
She looked a bit disappointed but she nodded accepting our decision at the same time. I wish she could understand what I meant when I felt that something was wrong in the air. Once all 3 of us were ready we began walking at a faster pace to get out of the park. I did not think someone was watching us anymore as we got further and further out of the trail.
I shivered a little bit one last time as we left through the tapes of the park. It was really dark by now and I did not want to be outside in the dark anyways. Maybe that was the reason I had gotten so afraid in the first place.
I shook my head, it could not have been, I was pretty sure someone knew that we were there. We needed to get out of there as soon as possible. I could not imagine seeing Julia and my sister Mariah getting burnt apart like my mother had obviously been. Whether it was my father or not, I still felt disgusted seeing the remnants of her corpse sitting there.
Pop's had told me they were holding a private funeral for her in a couple of days. There was no one else in her family besides me and Mariah. Maybe we were important, maybe they were trying to take us all out.
Or maybe my father had become a gangster and was tricking as into lies with Padre. Maybe he was the one that had sent Padre there the other day in the first place. I shook my head, it could not be true no matter how hard I tricked my mind into thinking that it was.
Mariah seemed so afraid, I did not know if it was because he had seen the rest of our moms body or if it was because she was seeing the same things that I was. Either way, I did not want to ask her because if it wasn't they might both think that I'm crazy.
It had to be true though, there was so many things that proved it to be, and there was no things that proved it not to be. I shivered, obviously my mother had lied to that one dragon. Otherwise they would have already found us in killed us.
But what if they were waiting for us to go there. Maybe they did not believe my mother, maybe they were watching us right now. I shivered real quick but I knew it could not be true. I always had a 6th sense whenever someone was watching me.
I looked back anyways and could not see something. This could all just be fake, maybe I was just going crazy, maybe my mind was out of control. In my head I wanted to believe that was true, but I had this strong feeling in my guts that it was not.
We walked out of the park, I wanted to turn back one last time and look but I could not bring myself to it. Mariah had her head tilted down at the ground so I could not see the emotions on her face. I had seen the tears on her face that she was trying to hide when we found the remnants of our mothers corpse.
I had to hide the tears as well, I felt sickened when I had seen it, I could only imagine what was going through Mariah's thoughts right now. Her mother was her only friend, now that was gone from her too. She had me left, that was it, maybe it wasn't real.
Maybe I was just trapped in a dream, maybe if I snapped my fingers I would wake up, my uncle would be sitting out side my room smiling at me while my mother and father were in the kitchen cooking a nice steamy breakfast. Oh, how I could only imagine.
My mind came back to the present, Julia grabbed me as I was about to walk right in the street and walk into a cab, the guy in the cab looked at my a bit angrily but he did not yell anything to us.
"Watch where your going Joseph." Julia said to me. I agreed with what she said, but I could not take my mind off of just everything. I wish it really was a dream, but I knew that it was all real, it was all happening too fast for me and Mariah to handle.
Mariah was so strong though, when I was younger there would be no way I could go through whatever it was that I was going through right now. Mariah looked like she was taking it well, but I knew she was only doing that to not get Julia asking her questions.
Julia was completely blinded by the fact of what was going on, I wanted to feel upset at her, but I could only feel bad for her. I could tell she was still not willing to believe what I had said about the dragons. It was why I did not want to tell them about the random dreams that I was having.
Maybe it wasn't real, I had heard stories about people going crazy. I hoped it was real, I did not want to go crazy either, but at the same time I hoped it wasn't, I wanted to badly to blame this on my dad and believe the security guards on what they had said about my father.
We walked past the prison that my father was being held up at, he was probably asleep, he never had the right sleeping schedule in the first place. He was trying to sleep when I had walked in earlier today, but I could tell on the redness of his eyes that he was not actually asleep. He was doing his best to try to fall asleep.
He was probably thinking the exact same thing that I was right now, it could not be real... Dragon's are not real... They are just made up stories that people read for fun or read to their kids to scare them at night.
I shook my head though, I wanted to ride a cab home, I had already done plenty of walking for the day. I was so sick, not actually physically sick but my mind felt like it was poisoned. I wanted to just sleep it off, but the dreams I had been having were telling me otherwise.
We kept on walking and I did not say anything or complain at all, my sister did need to walk anyways, she was not in the best shape, she had never really been, our mother always fed her and our father never wanted her out because he considered her an embarrassment.
She was different, that was why she never really made any friends, she was highly intelligent. Me and my mother both knew it no matter how much our father wanted to tell her that she was not. Things like that made me want to believe that my father had done what they said he had done.
But I knew he would never do something that terrible, I could see a hit to our mother in the perfect spot but there was no way he would go to a public park and burn her in the middle of a trail. Not even he was that stupid, maybe my father was going crazy, maybe it was just another person.
If my father was going crazy than so was I... I shook it off, I noticed that we were at the grocery market that Julia used to work at, she told me now that she was with me she had quit the job there. I could personally not wait for us to take over Jim's bar.
I felt like it would be a lot of fun for me and her to be together for the rest of ours lives and to take over the bar for Jim. He said he would retire once he thought that I was ready.
To be honest, I could just quit, I have money for so many life times. I sat there for a few moments, I was thinking about it, but I did not want to let him down. He doesn't have anyone else to take care of it once he was gone, he would just have to sell it.
Jim's bar was a great place, most of the time at least. There were lots of fun people that did come into that bar, I did not even want to think about another person potentially taking over the bar and having it turn into a hell hole.
"Mariah, do you want to come into the store with me or go back home with Joseph? I'm going to get some food and I can give you some candy as well." Julia said to my sister. She did not say anything back she just shook her head at Julia. She looked at her a bit disappointed but she did not say anything.
"She's had a rough day... Don't blame her." I said to Julia. She looked at me and then she nodded her understanding to me. I thanked her and then me and Mariah began heading back over to our place.
I looked we crossed the street, it was not busy right now so we did not have to wait very long, once we were through it we slowly then walked over to the house. Then we walked up the steps as I pulled the keychain from out of my pocket.
I could tell Mariah was a bit tired, she had not walked this much in one day in a long time. She went on walks on that trail at the park with my mother and my father from time to time, but that was less than a mile.
Once we were in the place Mariah quickly walked over the the sofa and she sat down on it, she did not fall asleep however. I looked in the kitchen and thought of what to make for dinner. I looked back at Mariah, maybe I could get her mind off of all those thoughts like me.
"Mariah! You wanna try making something for dinner?" I asked her, I tried to sound as enthusiastic as possible but with all that was going on I could not even fake it to her. She sat there for a few moments before she finally pulled her head from out of the blanket.
"No... I'm not hungry, thanks though." She said to me. I could tell that she was lying but I did not want to push her, my mother said to just let her do what she wanted to do. So I just went ahead and made a sandwich for myself.
Once I was finished with it, I realized how tired I was, what they had done today I had done twice as much, well maybe not Julia, she usually did like to walk home from work, and not only that but she did work today.
Some of the guys at the bar were a bit annoying to her and often verbally attacked her. They were smart enough to know not to do it physically. One guy had tried before when he was really drunk I had heard.
Jim came in from the other room and beat the hell out of that guy, he had not been heard from ever since. I had heard jokes from some of the guys at the bar that Jim had beaten him up so bad they hadn't heard from him because Jim killed him.
It would not surprise me if so, Jim was a part of the army, a different legion long before my uncle. After he had gotten a limp after one of the battles for the rest of his life he took the money he had made and went ahead and opened the bar.
It was a big hit for him, people loved coming to Jims bar. The only other place in the city that was nearly as good as his was on the other side of the city almost 50 kilometers away. I had been to other bars before and I could believe what people had said about Jim's bar.
If people weren't drinking, they were having a good time eating and making jokes at one another. He made the best kind of food as well, we always got a free meal when we worked there on a day. He did great with his employees.
I shook my head and then I finished off the sandwich before I then walked into the other room. I could not blame Mariah for being tired, I was exhausted as well, and I fell right onto the bed and instantly crashed.
I thought of Julia, it annoyed me a bit that she did not believe a word that I had said to her, but most people would be just like her if I told them the exact same story. Especially since she was the one that had been attacked by Padre in the first place.
I closed my eyes on that topic, once I was done thinking I finally quickly fell into a nice little sleep.