“Our real mother-” Sarah whispered.
“Heather,” Stacey completed.
Matt stiffened for a moment. Then he slowly stammered, “You… You know?”
“Yes, we know,” said Stacey softly, looking down. “Why did you do it? Didn’t you love her?”
“How long have you known that?” Matt asked the girls.
“You didn’t give us an answer, dad,” said Stacey, looking at him sadly.
“Stacey, of course I loved your mother and I always will.” He sighed.
“Then why?” cried Sarah, tears spilling down her cheek. Stacey rolled her eyes but still went to comfort her.
Matt abruptly got up and strode to the door. He opened it and peeked outside to check whether Ann was nearby or not. He slowly withdrew, locked the door and faced the girls. The expression on his face was something the girls had never seen him wear before; a mixture of rage, sadness, confusion and passion.
“I loved your mother,” he slowly started, walking towards them. “I loved her more than anything else in the world. I would never even think of hurting her.”
“Then who did it?” asked Stacey, wiping away a tear as Sarah sobbed next to her.
“It… It was… Ann. She was the one who did. She was the one who murdered her,” he yelled and he kicked the chair with rage.
Stacey gasped as Sarah shook with fright.
He turned his back to them, running his fingers through his ruffled dark brown hair. “It was too late when I realized that they were going to kill her in order to get the Book. I tried contacting her several times, I tried my best to warn her, but she wasn’t home and her mobile was switched off. Before I could find her, Ann did and…” He let out a tiny sob.
“Dad, I…” started Stacey but didn’t know what to say beyond the large lump in her throat. Sarah was now bawling miserably into the pup’s fur.
Matt cleared his throat and continued his back still to them. “I didn’t know what to do. Sure I lost Heather forever, but I couldn’t lose you both too. Ann found out about my love for you girls and made me an offer. She told me that you two are the keys to finding the Book, so she was willing to adopt you two with me otherwise she would kill you both."
Matt took a deep breath,"I didn’t want that to happen and I had no way out of this. So I agreed. But in order to adopt you I had to change my last name. That’s why I told you to get the letter so you would try and find out about this, as you just did."
“After the people at the adoption home found out that I was your father and of course I had proof, they immediately turned you over to us and we had a claim over the whole house. Ann was pretty pleased with the arrangement as she can now search the entire house without any interruptions.”
He paused for a while and sighed.
“I never wanted to find the stupid Book; I wasn’t even interested in it in the first place, after what it did to Heather…”
“Then why… why did you agree?” asked Sarah in-between sobs.
This time Matt turned around and the expression on his face now was even more frightening than before. His face was crimson and wet with tears; his eyes were wide with fury. The vein above his temple was throbbing like crazy.
“Didn’t you hear me?” he asked through clenched teeth, “I had no way out. If I didn’t agree, guess where you would be right now.”
“I’m really sorry, I didn’t mean to…”
“No, it’s okay,” he said softly. The vein had stopped throbbing and all the color was drained from his face. He suddenly looked exhausted. He picked up the fallen chair, sat down and buried his face in his hands.
“I shouldn’t have associated with those demons in the first place, and then all this wouldn’t have happened.”
He laughed, " I am a demon, what am I saying haha" he shook his head in disbelief.
“Dad, stop blaming yourself,” said Stacey, walking towards him. “wait… ” If you are a demon, does tha-" her eyes widened.
Mat nodded in agreement and Sarah gasped.
" Are we evil? " Sarah asked innocently.
Matt laughed and nodded,"You are more your mother than you are anything like me, more human and gifted"
Sarah smiled and went to hug her father, followed by Stacey.
“Thanks girls,” he sighed happily, returning the hug.
After they had let go, he stood up.
“Well, I better go. Ann might be wondering where I am.” He put on a disgusted face. They all laughed, glad to get that over with.
Before he unlocked the door, he looked back at them and smiled affectionately.
“What?” Sarah asked, wiping her tears.
“You two remind me so much of your mother. She was really curious too, that woman; needed to find out everything about everything,” he chuckled.
“Yeah, well…” said Stacey, embarrassed.
“Anyway, just so you know, I was the one who led the others away from you the other night.”
“You?” they both said together, looking at him, astonished.
“Yes, I knew you two had listened to our conversation during our meeting and I know you have found the Book too. We were at the meeting today for this very reason.”
“You mean, everyone knows now?” asked Sarah, worried.
“Not everyone, just me,” assured Matt.
“I went to check up on you last night after Ann told me she spotted you snooping from the attic stairs. When I did, you two weren’t in your rooms, so I figured maybe you might have found the Book and was checking it out. Don’t worry, I won’t tell anyone,” he said after looking at their petrified faces.
“We won’t give you the Book,” said Stacey firmly.
“As if I want it, But please be careful. Ann would do anything to get it.”
“We will,” they promised.
He smiled, unlocked the door and left.
After Matt had disappeared down the stairs, they both slumped down, tiredly, on the bed.
“I never knew…” whispered Sarah, instantly clutching her pup.
“I know,” said Stacey, grabbing her sister’s hand, “If only there was some way to bring her back… maybe a spell or something.”
“The book,” said Sarah, getting up.
“You’re right. Maybe we can find something in there…like how mom di- spells seriously, like we are witches”
“I wasn’t talking about that,” she replied, bending down and removing the phone book from under her bed.
“Oh right, Jeremy,” said Stacey, slapping her forehead.
They flipped through the pages and looked under the letter ‘W’.
“Willer… Willer… Here it is.” exclaimed Sarah, pointing at the names. “But there are two of them, one in Chicago and one in New York.”
“Well, I guess we have to call both of them,” said Stacey, picking up the phone.
She dialed the first number from Chicago, but it turned out to be the wrong one.
“So, I guess this is it,” said Stacey, dialing the second number.
“Hellu?” said a chirpy young female voice on the other end.
“Hello; may I speak to Jeremy Willer?” asked Stacey.
There was silence on the other end. Then she heard muffled murmurings.
Sarah was shaking her impatiently, wanting to know what was going on. Stacey placed her fingers to her lips to hush her.
A few seconds later she heard some crackling sound on the other end and then heard a male voice. “Hello?”
“Hi, is this Jeremy Willer?”
“No,” he answered bluntly.
“Well, could I speak to him?” Stacey asked, annoyed at the delay.
“You could, if only he was alive. May I know who’s speaking?”
“Oh, this is Stacey Willer.”
Another silence stretched between them till he said, “Did you say Stacey Willer?”
“Yeah, do you know us?” she asked, pleased that she had found the right number.
“Of course, and you have a sister called Sarah and you all live in Los Angeles?”
“Yeah, that’s right. Anyway, you didn’t tell me who you are.”
“Oh!!Sorry. I’m Jacob Willer, your cousin,” he said chirpily. “Is something wrong over there?”
“Sort of, we needed to talk to your dad, but you told me something about him not being alive. Is it true?”
“I wish it wasn’t,” he sighed.
“Look, I’m really sorry I-”
“That’s okay. Anyway, we can’t change the past now, can we?” he chuckled lightly. “So tell me, are Matt and Ann after the Book you found last night?”
“Yes, but… Wait, how did you know about that?” she asked, astounded, as Sarah waited impatiently next to her, wanting to know the results.
“Let’s just say that we live in a weird world,” Jacob replied, laughing. “Anyway, are they after It?”
“Well, Ann is but Matt isn’t.”
“Did you tell them that you have found It?”
“No, but Matt already knows.”
He stopped for a while before slowly asking, “He already knows?”
“Yeah, and he told us that he wasn’t even interested in finding out where it was hidden,” she assured him.
“Yeah, but still...” he sighed again. “Look, I could come and help, but your folks might detect me approaching.”
“Maybe I could give you a call when they are not at home,” Stacey suggested.
“That’s a great idea. I’ll see what I can do, okay?”
“Okay. Bye,” she said, clicked the phone off and turned to her sister with a broad grin on her face.
“Well,” asked Sarah, who was lying on her bed and staring up at the ceiling in complete boredom. “What happened?”
“I just spoke to our cousin, Jacob, and he told us he will be here to help us while our parents aren’t home.”
“And that will be…?”
“Very soon,” said Stacey, sitting down on her bed. “I can just feel it.”
*
As if an answer to their prayers, the very next night their parents told them that they will be out for a few hours.
“Be good and don’t answer the door,” Ann ordered while Matt kissed the girls on their foreheads.
“We won’t be late,” he promised and opened the door.
The girls waited till the car pulled out onto the dark driveway.
“Now what?” asked Sarah, placing her pup on the couch.
“Now, we call Jacob. C’mon,” answered Stacey, dashing up to the hidden room which they now called the headquarters.
“Here.” Sarah pushed a piece of paper into Stacey’s hands as they both entered through the hologram wall. “I wrote down Jacob’s number in there.”
“Cool,” Stacey replied, unfolding the piece of paper. “But we have to use your mobile because mine’s on charge.”
“Um, actually, mine’s on charge too,” said Sarah, sheepishly.
“No probs, I’ll just get the cordless phone downstairs,” she said and walked out swiftly.
While Stacey was downstairs, she couldn’t help but feel that someone was watching her. She looked up and found a shadow lurking behind the opened window. She walked up to it and peeked outside, expecting to see someone there. But instead, all she saw was the darkening streets and a few kids returning home after a tiring game of basketball.
She withdrew and pulled down the drapes, not bothering to shut the window. She placed her teddy on the table as she picked up the phone. Suddenly, something whooshed passed her and she turned behind. Nobody was there.
As she walked upstairs, she still couldn’t shake the feeling that someone was now following her.
“Here’s the phone,” said Stacey, tossing the phone to Sarah, she sat on the chair that was against the wall and the impact of her sitting made the statue that hung on the wall shake and then fall and the ground, “Opps”
Stacey got up to pick it up when just few feet in front of her was a pair of feet, she picked the statue up and stood up straight to see Ann standing in front of her,
“So you did find the Book after all.”