A Week later
It was a cloudless, sunny day; the girls couldn’t get a bit of sleep. The attack that happened a week ago kept them up.What were they going to tell others if they found out that their parents were missing. Even if their parents wanted to kill them, well, one of them at least. Hoping that the ash they found wasn't their father.
Stacey was lost in her thoughts when she heard her name being called out.
"Stacey.”
She looked up and smiled as she saw Misty entering the den. Stacey really appreciated their efforts to help them since the incident.
“What are you doing here all alone?” Misty asked, sitting next to her. “Sarah is up at the headquarters, trying to learn about our family and demons.
“Sure. And what’s Jacob up to?”
“Oh, he’s out hunting.”
“Hunting?!” Stacey asked, puzzled.
“- For a job,” Misty completed, laughing.
Stacey joined in, forgetting about what she was thinking until Misty stopped and asked, “So, were you still thinking about Matt and Ann?”
“Huh?” she asked, caught by surprise.
Misty shook her head sadly and said, “Stacey, you’ve got to get over them. They are just a bunch of demons that have caused you so much pain. But you have to stay strong for your sister. It’s hard on her too, but she is staying strong, just for you.”
“I know, but I can’t help it,” said Stacey, who wanted to cry but held back the tears.
“Promise me you’ll forget about them,” said Misty looking at Stacey, her olive-green eyes narrowing.
“Okay,” Stacey replied through the large lump in her throat. She groped about for her comfort toy, her teddy, but she couldn’t find it. She had forgotten all about it for sometime, which was kind of weird, since she and Sarah were always tugging it around. She was about to ask for it when Jacob walked in, looking exhausted.
“Hey girls,” he said tiredly as he slumped down between them.
“Hey,” they both replied.
“So? How did it go?” Misty asked eagerly.
“It was great,” he replied, leaning his head back and staring up at the ceiling. “I think an art director is exactly what I want.”
“Wow, that’s great! Isn’t it great Stacey?”
“Yeah,” Stacey said, still looking around. “Hey, has anyone seen a large, fluffy bear around here somewhere?”
“Oh, you mean the one I threw out?” asked Jacob, looking down at her.
Stacey stared at him, her eyes wide with shock before she exploded, “You threw it out? I can't believe you! Didn’t you ask first before you-”
“Whoa, hold it,” he said hurriedly, holding up his hands to slow her down. “The whole thing was ruined along with the stuffed dog I found. I never knew you wanted a burnt teddy. Actually, I don’t even know why you hang around with it. How old are you again?”
Stacey could feel her ears turning red as she blushed and muttered, “we were really attached to it.”
“Tell you what,” he said, getting up, “why don’t I buy you another one to make up for the one you lost?”
Before Stacey could reply, they heard a scream from upstairs.
“Sarah!” Misty yelled and raced upstairs.
When all three reached the H.Q., they found Sarah on the table flapping her hands.
“Are you okay?” asked Stacey, trying to help her sister.
“Of course I am not,” said Sarah, dusting herself, “Get it oofffffffff meeeeeeeee.”
“Stop jumping around and what should I get off you? ” asked Misty.
“Spider!!!!!,” she screamed, jumping around almost falling on Stacey who caught Jacob’s hand for balance.
“Hey,” cried Jacob who barely managed not to fall.
*****
That whole week was wonderful. Jacob and Misty were now permanently living with them in Los Angeles. They had to make a lot of arrangements for that, and it took a while.
The week was spent fixing the house and cleaning out their parents’ former bedroom, just to erase all the bad memories, and Jacob was now using it for his own personal use as Misty got the one of the spare bedrooms. They even cleaned out the H.Q. The statue remained on the wall, so that no one but them could see it.
“So where do you think mom got this statue?” Stacey asked.
“Who knows, Misty said.
“I’m clueless but maybe it's magical or something, meant to protect the house or even a room from evil or prying eyes” Jacob said thoughtfully.
Stacey and Sarah found out that Ann had been suppressing their powers for too long and that was the reason they never had any. But they were assured by Jacob that they will get their powers soon, as Ann isn’t around anymore. But when they do get their powers, it will slowly advance as well.
“How did she suppress our powers?” asked Sarah.
“I dunno,” he replied, shaking his head. “It’s a mystery to me.”
They discovered that Jacob has the power of telekinesis and can also decelerate time as well, while Misty could control minds and have premonitions.
“So that’s how you came to know,” said Sarah excitedly, “that we had found the Book and also knew the time when our parents, I mean, Matt and Ann, had their battle.”
“That’s right,” she replied, smiling. “But I only get a short vision about what will happen in the near future, somewhat like getting a scoop on something but you don’t really know the exact details. I’m still learning, though. Actually, we both are still learning to use our powers.”
“Are we witches then?” Stacey asked
“Well not really cause we don’t practice witchcraft..just gifted” Jacob replied
“But the statue and my mom said she magically hid the room” Sarah said rather confused now.
“I know that but it's the books doing, not ours” Jacob replied.
“So it helps with whatever we need?” Stacey asked.
“Yes, ” Jacob smiled at the girls.
A little while later, Jacob had suggested that the girls do home-schooling from now on as he didn’t want to take the chance of sending them out.
“Suppose, while at school, your powers get activated. People will find out about us,” he explained to Stacey and Sarah. “Besides, you two weren’t trained to control your powers, that is, if you had any. We need to be together all the time.”
“Of course, I went to school with my powers,” Misty said, rather smugly.
“That was because you learnt how to keep them under control,” he said, looking at her. “But I still got a few complaints…”
“But why shouldn’t we let ourselves be shown anyway?” Stacey interrupted.
“Because that’s how it’s meant to be,” he replied, shrugging his shoulders. “And if anyone who didn’t need our help did find out about us then they might drag us to some institution and experiment on us or something. We wouldn’t want that now, do we?”
The girls shook their heads.
“So, do we get a tutor or something?” Sarah asked.
“No, we shouldn’t take any risks of anyone unfamiliar entering our household. I have an even better idea.”
“What?” asked the girls together.
“How good are you with the computer?”
And so Jacob set them up with separate online tutors from a legal website he had found, and the tutors were just as willing to teach the girls.
“I never even knew such a thing existed,” said Sarah in awe.
“Yeah well, new technology brings many advantages,” he smiled.
“Tell me about it,” Misty muttered, as she was hoping she wouldn’t have to study anymore.
Schoolwork wasn’t the only thing they did. They also learnt how to handle the Book and discovered that whenever they thought about anything at all, the Book would open to a blank page and whatever they needed to know would materialize.
“You must have neat writing so that others can read it,” he said, flipping through the pages. “Our dad was the lucky one who got to write in this before he gave it to your mother.” He showed them the last few pages, where there was an entry from his dad.
“You’re saying that we can make our own entries about our experiences for future reference?” asked Sarah, reading one of the entries.
“Yes. If you think that the information is important for our descendents.” he said.
It was great to know what good deeds their ancestors and family did, like protecting innocent people and fighting away evil.
“Most of the trouble that can't be fixed by the cops are normally demon related and that’s where we come in,” Jacob explained. “Demons take forms of normal human beings or hideous beasts. At times we won’t even know they are around us since some look like humans, they will do anything to take what’s good and ruin it.”
“How did you know all that?” asked Sarah, amazed.
“My dad taught me,” he said.
“So, they all live together somewhere?” asked Stacey.
“Yes, but we still haven’t figured out where. But I do know that demons, of all kinds, used to live in our world, but underneath us. This place was called the underworld and the people living there are called chthonian. The disaster and chaos they had caused to all of mankind was too much.. Killing most of the chthonians."Jacob took a deep breath before he continued.
"Our ancestors were successful in chasing the rest of them away from our world. And now, the demons live in a world unseen from mortals' eyes, but they do attack from time to time but can never be found if on the run. The so-called ‘demonic world’ can only be seen by evil. ”
“Do they have a leader or something?” Sarah asked, her eyes never leaving Jacob and her mind buzzing with questions.
“Yes, they do have one and his name is -”
“Xeradius,” completed Misty.
“That’s right. According to our ancestors, he’s been after the Book for a very long time. At one point, he almost got the Book.”
“What happened?” they asked, bewildered.
“Well, no one really knows how it happened, but when he touched the Book, he started losing his powers. Our ancestors got it back just in time and sent him back to where he came from.”
“Why didn’t they just kill him?” Stacey asked, angrily.
“Even though he was losing his powers, the process wasn’t fast enough. He was still a bit too strong for them and all they could do was deport him.”
“So, is he coming back to power?”
“Actually, he has already regained his powers. But he’s not rushing into matters like he did last time. He’s taking everything as slow as possible.”
“And Ann and Matt work under him, right?” asked Sarah.
“Exactly.” He tiredly closed the Book and stared lazily outside at the bright summer sky. “But first, let’s get rid of one problem and then we’ll see what we can do about him.”
“What problem?” asked Stacey.
“Well, for starters, we have to wipe out all traces of Matt and Ann and your adoption stuff otherwise people might start suspecting where they are, that is, if they even knew they existed in the first place.”
“You’re right, but how?”
Jacob raised his hand. A file flew out of nowhere and landed into his outstretched hand.
“What are those?” asked Sarah.
“Your adoption forms,” he answered and handed the yellow file to them.
“Where did you get those?” asked Stacey, staring at their names in big, bold letters on the file.
“Well, two days back, I passed the place where you two said you had been adopted and so I went in. I started asking the receptionist a few questions, but she didn’t answer since she was too busy staring at me with her mouth wide open,” he chuckled, his turquoise eyes sparkling, as the girls stared at him with raised eyebrows.
“Anyway, I told her to check something and finally made her leave her desk, which she did very reluctantly I must say. While she was gone, I hacked into the computer and found your adoption forms and erased them all. During that process, I found the paperwork in the drawers as well.”
“Wow,” Sarah breathed. “I can’t believe you did all that, just for us.”
“We are family and that’s what you do for family” he replied smiling, “Now no one will know about them or you”
“What if the neighbours ask about them?” asked Sarah.
“Well remember they never went out that often so we can just say That they were like our guardians or something and they were here for a while till we found our long lost cousins” Stacey replied.
“Hmm, that can work,” said Sarah smiling.
“I’m glad that we now have everything under control,” said Misty, happily. “Let’s go shopping!”
“Why?” asked Stacey, since she wasn’t the ‘shopping’ type of person.
“Well, let’s see,” she started. “You guys lost a lot of furniture, the food stock needs refilling and I was thinking it would also be a great time for us to get to know each other and maybe, you know, hang out.”
“You know,” said Stacey, smiling at her, “that might not be a bad idea.”