~~~
Sean's POV
Location: NYSDOC, Queensboro Correctional Facility, NY
Date: 3 Years after The Kidnappings
~~~
"Who is Dontavion Mav?" Luke breaks the silence and asks the million-dollar question.
Axel sighs quietly and shakes his head. "We can't talk about it here."
North really doesn't like that answer, if the expression on his face is any indication... I've missed his face.
"The fuck do you mean 'We can't talk about it here'? You started this whole conversation, now finish it. Where the fuck do we go to find this Dontavion? Where is Sang?" North is practically booming the words as loud as he can and of course a security guard peeks in.
"You all need to leave," Mr. Security Guard says. Behind him the Morgans are glaring into the room. "This isn't a conference room. Victor Morgan has been released, so you all are free and urged to go now."
We all agree quickly and we put the chairs back where they go in silence as the guard stares us down.
North is only going to get louder, and it looks like the shock on Owen, Kota, and Nathan's face is giving way to rage...This isn't going to be a quiet conversation by any means.
Even Silas is drying his tears and looking at Axel like he might throttle the answers out of him.
"Mr. Morgan, you'll be coming with us, I presume?" Oh Owen...here we go....
Victor flushes red and shakes his head vehemently. "You presume wrong. I don't want anything to do with you or the Academy."
Kota smiles gently but he can't hide that glint in his eye as he claps a hand on Victors shoulder. "So you'll be coming with us?"
Victor looks him in the eye and his jaw clenches... "No, Kota. I'm not going with any of you." He shrugs off Kota's hand, and Luke opens his mouth.
Victor looks a little less angry at him than anyone else but yet he still cuts him off too, "Not even you and Gabriel, Luke. I can't do this with you all." He looks at Axel and I see a conversation that lasts a second pass between them.
Victor squares his shoulders and meets our collective gaze, "I'm joining the Toma team and a few other people in the search for the victims of The Kidnappings. If you'd like to learn more, you can follow us to this address." Marc hurriedly pulls out a bunch of business cards and passes them around.
"If not, you can go home. Owen, North, Kota, Gabe and Nathan; if you want any part of this mission I expect you to keep your distance from me," Victor says forcefully. "You haven't shown any interest in me all this time, don't try and force yourselves to now."
Victor gives us all one last look, before walking out with the Toma team.
Despite Victor's words and even his strong and steady tone, his eyes held vulnerability. We all let him down, and it's hurt him deeply.
Sang's disappearance had affected all of us in very different ways, and we've all had our own ways of coping with that grief.
The thought takes me back, to that fateful day. The beginning of the end.
~~~
Three Years Ago
~~~
We saw the smoke before we even got close to her house.
I tried to get a hold of any of the other guys, but none of my calls were going through. My call with Kota had disconnected after only a few minutes, right after he told me that he saw Volto on the camera's. Right after he told me Sang had gone in and the doors were stuck.
Desperate for some type of communication about what was going on, I tried one of our emergency satellite phones, but the calls still weren't going through.
Owen was driving like a maniac at that point, slowing down only when necessary at red lights.
Looking back, I recall how quiet everything was. Not just between Owen and I either. We never passed any police cars, or any fire trucks.Even the roads had been fairly calm.
It was only later that we found out that there had been an accident that pulled away most of the responding emergency services. Traffic had gotten backed up, leaving our part of the road pretty much deserted.
It wouldn't have made a difference either way. Her house went up so quickly; nothing they could have done would have changed the outcome.
When we pulled up, the bombs inside had already gone off. The house was completely engulfed in flames. Some of the neighbors were standing on their lawns, watching it all burn.
I'd like to say that I first made sure everyone was okay, like a good doctor should, but I didn't. I stood there in shock, for what could have been an hour... just staring at the flames as it tore through her home.
What finally brought me out of my horror, was Owen.
I've never seen him act that way before.
He was shouting, on his hands and knees, with his face raised toward the heavens.
I don't remember any of what he said, though I can vaguely remember words about his mother.
There is a point where I caught him pleading with God to give her back. That was when his weeping had started, and when I finally broke out of my shocked paralysis.
I tried to get him up, and away from the growing flames, but he refused to leave.
He wanted to search for the boys, and find out if they got her out before the house caught on fire. He wanted to make sure we didn't lose anyone, though we both knew that Sang had definitely been in there. That she'd been locked in.
We found Silas first, on the ground in front of the door. We later were told that Silas and North had been at the front door when the place exploded.
It knocked them both out, and Silas had broken his arm.
North however, had woken up long enough to attempt to run into the burning building. He was pulled out by Nathan and Kota, nearly dead from smoke inhalation.
They brought him to me, where I'd been checking on a silent Victor. We found Victor standing in absolute silence a few feet away from the path that led to the back of Sang's house.
I think shock had rooted him to the spot. He was the opposite of Owen that night. He was silent, never saying a single word, and his sobs were little more than soft broken bits of noise.
When I finally woke up North, he went ballistic. He gave me a black eye when I told him Nathan and Kota had dragged him out of the building, and that he was lucky to be alive.
He tried to go back into the burning building, but Kota and Nathan stopped him. It turned into a full on brawl between the three of them.
During that fight, Owen dragged a barely alive Luke to me, and that had shut up North.
Sang's whole house was estimated to have been rigged with a set of explosives in each room.
So when it went up, the force of the explosion threw Luke, whom had been attempting to get into Sang's locked-and-boarded-up window, straight out and to the ground--hard.
He'd broken a couple ribs, his left leg and right thighbone and ended up with a concussion that put him down for 2 weeks straight.
Gabriel was helping Owen bring Luke to me, not injured at all thankfully. I think the whole thing effected him the worst though. He was shaking, and jabbering to Luke in broken words that made no sense. Every few seconds a tremor would wrack his body.
I thought he might have a concussion, so I tried to check him out and he freaked. Gabriel started screaming and pulling on his hair.
Kota had to keep him from running off. I think he must have had his first mental break-down that night.
Nathan came over, and diverted my attention by asking me to make sure Silas was still alive and that's when I heard it.
Sang had called to me. No one else had heard it, but I swear that night on all the babies in the incubation room, I'd heard Sang call to me. I would never forget the tone of desperation and fear in her voice, the end of her words breaking when her vocal cords couldn't handle the strain.
I'd jumped up and ran to the woods, where her voice had called to me from.
Nathan had pulled me back, asking me what was going on and I told him.
Sang was calling me!
Nathan had shook his head at me and told me he hadn't heard anything. I struggled with him, and Owen had jumped in. They told me I was in shock.
They wouldn't let me go, wouldn't let me run to her. That was the start though, because after that night I kept hearing her voice call to me.
I'd see a glimpse of her walking through the hospital, or have a glimpse of her ghosting through my condo. I'd hear her late at night calling me, asking me to help her.
It became so bad, I became afraid of sleeping or going home at the end of the day from the hospital. One of those mirages must be Sang. If I just held out long enough, searched hard enough, instead of walking away or disappearing, my Pookie would step into my arms.
I'd gone to the Academy many times during my breaks between work and missions and begged for an update but each time they'd tell me if anything was found they'd let us now when the time was right.
The right time just never seemed to come...
Eventually, Owen couldn't stand by anymore. Gabriel had just crashed North's truck, and landed in the ICU. He almost didn't make it out of that incident.
I'd sworn our little love had been standing outside his room, looking in and watching over Gabe as his body fought for life. I'd told Owen, and he'd turned around and told the Academy about my 'failing mental state.'
They'd sent me to a psychiatric hospital, and 'helped' me, but it didn't stop the visions or voices. I just stopped talking about it.
For Nathan, I fear my own issues had lit a spark for his own. My hallucinations scared him, and that fear grew in him like a storm.
A few days after Sang's house blew up, Nate all but fell off the face of the world.
Literally.
For weeks, no one heard from or saw him. Finally, Kota went searching for him and found Nathan in bed.
He had gone and pulled all of Sang's clothes out of the closet and wrapped them around himself and pulled the blanket they shared over his head.
He was starving himself, just waiting for his body to give up, enclosed in her scent and lying in the bed they'd shared.
Kota had called his Mom, asked her to make a nutritious meal and talked Nathan out of whatever asinine idea he had of dying.
We never spoke of what Kota must have said, but all the clothes Nathan had of Sang's, the whole bed, everything they'd had of hers' was gone after that day.
Never to be seen again.
Nathan seemed to move on completely, to the point that he enrolled into a college and we'd seen him with many a pretty blonde. He worked with us a little at first but he just couldn't seem to trust us anymore.
Kota has been the hardest to read in all ofthis. Kota had scared Sang right before losing her, and he never got toapologize for the shower incident.
Due to that issue, Kota and Victor had been mid-argument during that time, and it had magnified afterwards. Victor and Kota refused to speak about it.
Victor, the night of the explosion, had been catatonic. Shock had overridden all of his senses, and like a mirror image of Owen's ranting and sobbing, Victor had stared into the flames, silently crying for hours.
Only after had he been able to sob and rant at the others. That hadn't lasted too long either, though.
Unbeknownst to us, when we were all dealing with our own little bouts of grief, Victor sequestered himself in his room, hacking into anything he could think of.
The only one of us that actually got to see him before his stint in prison was Kota, who had gone to him and asked for his help in something, but Victor had sent him away.
That was when Kota and Victor had their biggest fight to date, and by the end Victor was incensed to the point of refusing to speak to any of us.
His last words to Kota were to say he would only reconcile when he found Sang.
Kota had agreed to keep his distance and threw himself into the Ashley Walter's case, never telling us about Victor's promise.
Kota was the one that had gathered the information we needed, both on Mr. Hendricks and also the drug ring he'd uncovered.
When that was finally done, he turned in a report that pretty much implied he'd done most of the work.
Owen had not liked that and the team Kota had turned the report in to hadn't either. Kota was then put on notice, and he distanced himself completely. He said he needed more time with his Mom and Sister. It was an excuse but no one called him out.
Still, after a year, neither Victor nor Kota were on speaking terms with each other or most of the rest of the team.
Kota was disappointed and bitter at the lack of help he got from us for the Ashley Walter's case, and Victor was completely off the grid. We were just too self-involved to see what was happening with them.
Owen had stopped being as careful about watching over the boys, as he was helping me work through my insanity.
Victor had taken too many risks and got caught hacking a satellite. He got convicted due to his father testifying against him, and Owen hadn't had the time to help Victor. It was a huge mess, one we didn't even try to stop...
And that's how Victor went to prison.
Kota and Nathan left the team together soon after that. As mad as Kota was at Victor, he was even angrier that Owen was MIA during Victor's trial.
Kota and Nathan moved to New York, so Kota and Nathan could go to a college with both a Science program Kota felt challenged him, and a college Nathan could find a new passion.
Luke and Gabriel had left us long before that and also ended up in New York, and they started working on gaining fame for a mission with the Academy.
Gabriel as a starving- artist-slash-model and Luke as a model who owns his very own bakery-his dream of course.
Silas and North were the first to leave, and despite what you might think, theirs was the least dramatic.
Silas had woken up the morning after the explosion, broke himself out of the hospital and walked all the way to Sang's house. He dug through the ashes, burning the skin off his hands looking for any sign of her.
Little did he know, there wasn't anything to find.
He went silent after that, the trauma of losing Sang the same way as his mother taking it's toll on him.
Months later, Silas called us into a family meeting, and informed us that he was leaving. He'd gone and bought his dream boat and North was welcome to join him: the rest of us, not so much.
North had indeed gone with him, stating he had nothing left keeping him in the states, much to the heartbreak of Luke and later Uncle.
North and Silas sailed off, traveling to far off places and helping people along the way.
Sang was dead, or kidnapped.
And, Owen and I were back at the start of the it all.
We didn't know what else to do but follow the rest of the boys to New York, keeping our distance and getting bits and pieces of how they were doing.
Meanwhile, we had grown apart, lost and broken with only each other yet too lost in grief to comfort the other.
It was a mess.
A huge mess.
And now, maybe we're walking into more heartache.
The thing is though, I have this niggling feeling that we could be walking into something that may fix our whole team.
Because in the video the Toma team showed us, I saw the face of Pookie, but I also saw a woman determined to fight for something.
I hope she'll fight for us if we can find her, because we really need someone to.
We're lost without Sang, the hole she left in each of us has been festering, even years after her disappearance.
I'm going to do everything I can to get her back, even if I have to drag her back kicking and screaming.
Not just for the boys or Owen but also because the voices in my head are screaming at me to find the girl in the video.
Find her and bring her home.
~~~
Owen and I went to the address we'd been given.
We don't discuss the video, we don't really converse at all.
He and I have found ourselves reverting back to the way we worked together when we were kids.
The bickering and camaraderie we shared over the years has dwindled slowly away, between his lack of communication and my little bouts of insanity.
We drive into the driveway of a nondescript apartment. It's okay, not upscale, nor as nice as my old condo, but it's serviceable.
We walk up to room 201, and meet up with North and Silas on the stairs.
Neither guy gives us a passing glance. North knocks on the red door, and a blonde man with hazel eyes a few years older than Owen and I opens the door.
"So, you must be the old Blackbourne team?" A deep Charleston accent comes out thickly, and with an amused undertone that gets a cute little eye twitch from Owen.
This must be Blake Coaltar.
"That's us," I say. He smirks and drops into a grand gesture for us to come in and we do.
The living space is open and beautifully decorated with exposed ceiling beams, a large fireplace and antique furniture.
Kota and Nathan are already here, sitting at a little home-bar while Raven, Axel, and Corey are apparently setting up video equipment in the living room.
Owen and I go and sit in the living room, and I hear loud stomping coming from outside the door. Blake opens the door to reveal Luke and an irate Gabriel.
"Let's get this shit done. Now." Gabe says, his voice a low hiss.
Corey looks at him with raised eyebrows and a slight nod. "Just let me set up this equipment. I didn't want to set it all up if it was only 2 or 3 of you. I'm actually really surprised, I was certain most of you weren't going to come. I'm happy to see all of you together again."
We all look around at each other, but it's Silas with his face devoid of any emotion that mutters something in Greek. North nodded quietly, his eyes distant.
Corey opens his mouth, most likely getting ready to ask Silas what he'd said but his eyes run over our group and suddenly darken.
His mouth tenses and for a moment his aura matches Brandon's to a T. He nods at no one in particular and turns his back on us all, fiddling with the gadgets in front of him and dropping the discussion completely.
Axel gestures for everyone to take a seat and Marc walks in with a tray of sandwiches. Brandon follows with a pitcher of what looks like tea and a slew of cups and water bottles. We all settle in, grabbing sandwiches and drinks as Corey finishes up what he's doing. The tension is cloying, but no one attempts to break it. It's been too long, no one knows what to say.
Victor ignores everyone, quietly sitting and staring off into space.
Finally Corey sighs and stands next to the screen and Axel gets up too.
"So, lets jump right into it." Axel states, and claps his hands.
"Who is Dontavion Mav. Where can I find him." North rumbles from deep in his chest and I realize he's been just barely keeping himself in check.
"And what do you mean the Academy knows? Why haven't they told anyone?" Gabe asks, and he too looks like he's about to kick someone's face in.
Victor looks over at us from his position at an antique piano, his fingers moving over they keys. Not playing, just touching. Stroking like he used to do to Sang's ribs, once upon a time.
"Dontavion Mav is the Patriarch of the Mav family. The history of the Mav family is well known itself, but Dontavion especially." Victor answer's from his seat.
"He built up his families businesses after his eldest sister, Britania, had crashed them into the ground but he focused mostly on the ones that had to do with scientific advancements that could assist the human body. Prosthetic limbs, man-made organs that could replace faulty ones, medications and serums that could cure the incurable."
Victor makes it sound like this guy's accomplishments are ordained by the devil.
"Dontavion is seen as a pillar in the community. He's saved many people with his funding into lots of different foundations and experimental studies. He's funded charities that help mentally disabled individuals and filtered a good amount of money into outreach programs of all sorts."
Victor pauses and Silas looks around, a confused expression lightly breaking the surface of his face, "If he's such a good person, why do you sound like he's a monster?"
It isn't Victor that answers, it's Owen that answers with an amazing amount of emotion in his voice, "Because, Mr. Korba, Dontavion Mav is also known in the underground market for buying and collecting women and children, along with unusual corpses and dangerous substances. He's even been rumored to have a special collection of estates that range from drug dens to whore houses to his own private museum of unusual people and things.
"His Sisters, Britania and Dontavia have a rap sheet a mile long that includes hit and runs, destruction of property, illegal possession of firearms, arson, and over 25 cases of drug possession between the two of them."
Owen gets that look in his eye, like he's reading off a report and I realize this is a case he's had his eye on...
"Both of his sisters also have the drug market cornered right now. No one can sell anything unless they approve of the seller and their product. There's a huge gang that follows the Mav sisters policies and enforce their rules.
"The youngest Mav, Rodney, is about our age. "He is a rumored serial rapist who started a blog once in his early days about the best ways to lure young woman and men out into the middle of nowhere and then torture and rape them. He took it down when he was accused of the blog being an actual autobiography of his crimes. He has never been convicted of a single thing and yet everyone knows he's destroyed many lives.
"The whole family is insane. The Academy has been trying to catch his family for years, but they've evaded even the best of us." Owen looks practically rabid by the time he's done ranting. Axel lifts a hand and continues where Owen dropped off.
"Dontavion is accused of these things, yes. All of his family has something they've been accused of. But there hasn't been any solid proof. It's only been whispers and rumors we've heard from down the grapevine. The only one's to even see the inside of a court room are the Mav Sisters, but they haven't been convicted of anything either."
"That being said, The Academy has been certain Dontavion is the only one with the resources and ability to pull off such a large scope of kidnappings, they just didn't know why or where his private estates were. They don't have proof that he's done anything."
Gabriel raises his hand, but he doesn't wait to be called on, "What does this have to do with Sang? How do we know it's him? You said earlier that the Academy knows it's him."
Marc is the one to answer this time, as Corey boots up the computer and connects it to the screen in front of us. The kimono from that night is on the screen and I see North shiver from the corner of my eye.
Aw, not the fucking kimono.
"The script that's embroidered on this kimono matches the one's from The Kidnappings." Owen turns his head away, and I see Kota look down.
Neither had wanted to believe she'd been kidnapped. They'd honestly thought that she'd died, and the Academy would find justice for her.
Blake waves his hand at the screen and starts explaining, "I'd been to a private showing of some of Dontavion's museum pieces a while back and he'd had this book that had some really weird writing on it. I might not be Academy, but I do get just as curious. I'd asked Doyle, you all know Doyle-,"
A few of us nod.
"-to look into it and he couldn't seem to match the picture I'd snatched with any known language. I'd forgotten about it until I'd seen the reports about The Kidnappings and recognized the script on the masks and suits. I contacted Corey to see what he could find."
It was like a kick in the face to hear that the one piece of evidence we'd had, we'd given away.
"The script is ancient." Marc says, and Corey clicks to the next slide. It's a black leather bound book, with black pages and silver inscriptions.
"This book is from the Private Mav family library. Due to Blake and then Corey's interest we decided to go and borrow the book for a little while." Raven smirks, but the gesture doesn't reach his eyes.
"Someone had decrypted the pages, and left the decryptions on loose leaf pages inside of the book, with explanations on some of the passages. It was like someone wanted us to find it."
Brandon reaches under the small side table to his left and pulls out a file box. He pulls out large bulging files that he starts to circulate out to each of us.
When I get mine, I immediately open it and go through the papers as Axel starts to explain what I'm reading.
"This book explains the history of the Lockheart family, the Lavele Family, the Diana Family, and the Mav family, along with a couple more, and their connections to each other. It has some pretty outlandish information, like science-fiction level outlandish. It's called The History of Cathedrael, and at the end it gives names and dates of supposed reincarnations of people that existed in this supposed other alternate reality or something to that affect."
Axel looks over at Corey and gestures at the screen. Corey fiddles with something and the slideshow starts to move on it's own, showing a line from the book, with a corresponding name from the files in our hand, and also paired with a report from The Kidnapping Site.
Each one has a date next to a name.
Kota speaks up, already miles ahead of the rest of us, "So the names in the book, from that reincarnation part, match up to the people that were kidnapped? And the dates are when they were taken?"
Axel and Corey nod.
"So, Sang's name was in this book?" I ask, nearly cringing at the raw hope in my words.
Everyone glares when Axel shakes his head with furrowed brows.
"Sang Sorenson isn't named anywhere in that book, and I personally matched up each name with someone whose gone missing. Each one is accounted for, even Kayli. Even Rhonda Childsch was in there." Corey explains, "But no Sang Sorenson. No Sang at all."
North growls and gives Corey an accusing look, and his tone weighs heavily with accusation as well, "Maybe you missed it?"
Axel's gaze turns frosty but he uses a calming tone that I'm sure is going to get him nowhere until his words sink in.
"I understand how hard this is for you. I really do, we lost someone too. You are welcome to take copies of everything we have and go through it. Double check our work, another pair of eyes couldn't hurt at this point." Axel shakes his head.
"I'm not sure why Sang was taken, but you saw with your own eyes that she did indeed help abduct Rhonda Childsch. If this is Dontavion, and I deeply believe it is, then that's where Sang is."
"The only thing we ask is you try to work with us if you decide to move forward with this information. We've done a lot of the ground work, but we can't seem to catch a break on finding Dontavion or the other estates." Axel frowns as he shrugs at us.
"Nothing is in his name or his Sisters or Brothers, only the home he claims on taxes and his businesses. He's been off the radar for a while, it's why the Academy hasn't said anything. No one can find him, and they won't move forward without more information."
North calms down the longer Axel speaks, and it looks like the other members of my once upon a team are each drinking in his words. Even immovable Owen is looking at Axel and the pages in his hands like they may have redemption in their depths.
"We are happy to give you time to look into everything. We've kept everything we've found about Dontavion, his family, The Lockheart Family, Kayli, and just about anything to do with The Kidnappings in general." Marc says. Brandon lets out a dry chuckle and I look over at him.
He smirks, "We've become hoarders. Every little newspaper clip or internet post has been printed out and put into files. We've become too afraid to miss any little detail."
Axel gives Brandon a warning look and reminds him, "It's come to fruition though. Lorraine (Lo-rain)Lockheart, Leninora's mother and Loretta Lavele, her grandmother have been buying up properties and calling around to some suspicious people. Like some private security companies and arms dealers that don't have contracts with anyone in the government or in the underground circuit," Axel explains and looks over at us with something akin to hope shining in his eyes.
"We've caught snippets of conversation from our bugs on some of the families of the kidnapped victims. They're being contacted by either Lorraine or Loretta and being offered something like a vacation. A long term, very well protected and private vacation."
Luke sits up and his eyes look wild, "They're setting up the families?"
Axel shakes his head and an excited tone fills his voice, "I think they're rounding them up to protect them. Lorraine got a letter in the mail, over a month ago and reports say she dropped to her knees sobbing, then got up, torched the letter right there in the driveway and drove straight to Loretta's home, 3 hours away."
We all lean in, in rapt attention. "You don't drop everything and drive 3 hours away for just anything. Not Lorraine at least. She's a devout workaholic and she didn't once stop to move any of her meetings." Luke notes.
Owen looks up from scanning the papers in his hand, "Do you think something is about to happen and they're protecting the families from the fall out?"
Axel and Corey nod their heads vehemently, nearly in sync. Marc stares at us and Brandon is looking at us intently, even Raven's dark gaze is focused on our group. Blake is looking at the screen, at a name they'd paused on. Kayli Winchester, Kay'ari Mikrosko. Kidnapped January 3rd.
Axel sighs and gestures at some boxes I'd failed to notice earlier. They're big moving boxes, plain and overflowing with labeled files.
"Those are for you, if you want them. We've already copied everything we have on Dontavion and his connections. If you decide you want in on our little makeshift team, call the number on the card we gave you earlier. We're planning to get a hold of Lorraine or Loretta soon and see if we can get into one of the houses or something."
Raven gets up and crosses his arms, glaring at us, "Do not tell the Academy about any of this. The Academy is still hounding me about turning over any and all evidence. I don't know why, but Dontavion scares them. When I went to them about the shit I uncovered, they wouldn't hear it." I stiffen at that. What the fuck?
Who is this guy?
"It wasn't until I stole the rest of the files that I realized they already knew Dontavion was stalking a bunch of them and was the only real suspect worth looking into. They just didn't know the connection, and now that we have it, we're going to pull together the rest of the pieces and take down Dontavion. With or without you. This was just a curtsy call."
Corey snorts and mutters, "Courtesy, Raven, it's Courtesy."
I stand up, and march over to the boxes. I'll be damned if the information we need is sitting right in front of me and I don't use it. I grab one, and plop it right on the dining table.
"I don't need time to make a decision." I look over my shoulder at Owen and shrug. "I need this. I see her everywhere. I hear her voice calling to me. If this gets me even the smallest bit closer to her, I'm doing it."
Owen stares at me, and so do the rest of the guys but I can't hold their gaze.
I dig into the box of mystery, my Pookie whispering sweet encouragements in my ear.