Dead

"I missed it, I slept early that night." "No." Grace and Mimi respectively answered. He gently admonished Grace, "That is not something you would have wanted to see. You should be glad you missed it lady." Without giving her the chance to speak, he continued.

"Did any of you say anything about the red moon?" 

"Not while looking at it of course, like I said, I was sleeping." "No." Grace and Mimi answered up quickly. When he looked at Grace, she clarified, "I talked about it with my classmates when the topic came up."

Aiden's heart sank. He hoped that the condition was, React to the illusion it creates while looking at it. It would make more sense that way, else the majority of the town including even him would have fulfilled one of the conditions of the ghost. True, it wouldn't attack unless all the conditions were fulfilled but it was bad nonetheless.

He then looked at their shoes inside. Their family always had the habit of removing shoes inside the house, they had a separate space just ahead of the door specifically for that. The shoe cabinet was in the same space inside the house. With his mind still not at ease, he instructed Grace to seal up the shoe cabinet after keeping all the shoes outside into it.

"Tape the entire shoe cabinet after closing its doors. If there's anything you need to go outside of the house for, message me or call me. I'll do it for you or arrange something at the least. Don't go to school for a few days either."

He only bid them goodbye after personally seeing to it that Grace sealed by taping up the entire shoe cabinet. Lucas offered a few pieces of his own advice and followed after Aiden.

Both of them walked silently until Aiden glanced at the car which had been parked outside Hellen's house, suddenly remembering that Lucas had a car too. "Lucas, what happened to your car?"

Lucas shrugged and answered, "I sent it to a repair shop, it was near the care center. Not much has happened, just a dent in a few places, so it should be fine if I go take it back tomorrow."

"Is this aunt Hellen's car?" It was Lucas' first time seeing her car. He knew that Hellen was a former field agent so it was obvious she would have the special license. Even if he might have seen the car in his childhood, he didn't remember it.

"Mm." Aiden's brows furrowed as he realized after Lucas pointed it out. "It's not her car." 

Bureau privilege again? Did that team get a car delivered for them? Crazy. 

Lucas suddenly remembered they were talking about Evander. He voiced his doubts as Aiden opened the door to Hellen's house. "Do you think Evander is safe? He hasn't reached out to me yet."

Hellen and the rest of the members had appeared not too long ago. That bus was apparently one which took the longest route. Plus the Bureau's team also had to wait outside to receive the car, completing verification in the process. It was just a dozen minutes ago that the team finally entered the house. 

Hellen served them a few refreshment drinks as the host and asked them to order what they wanted. After they were done freshening up, Alastair had taken out his shirt and started exercising near the window of the living room while Cordelia switched on the TV to watch shows along with Luna. Cedric and Valeria had taken up a corner of the room and begun reading through their book and documents respectively. 

Scottus was near the door, trying to decide what he should do as he looked at the room full of people when he heard the door open and someone speak. "Do you think Evander is safe? He hasn't reached out to me yet."

His mind instantly jolted at the mention of Evander. Out of reflex, he asked, "Which Evander are you talking about?"

Cordelia and Alastair both jerked up a bit as they heard the loud voice of Scottus mention Evander. 

Aiden gazed at Scottus and replied with no politeness in his voice. "Evander Lorensen. You know something about him?"

"Could it just be someone with the same name?" Cordelia suggested. Her eyes held a twinge of fear in them. Alastair had already stopped exercising and walked up near Scottus as he looked at the new guy alongside Aiden.

He would've normally introduced himself and waited for an introduction even if he knew about them. In this case, he did. Hellen had already told him about the existence of a super and how he was a friend of Aiden. She refused to elaborate anything beyond that, even the super's powers.

He instead focused on the familiar guy, Aiden, and asked, "Is the Evander you are talking about, a super?"

Instead of being wary, Aiden found it was a good chance to find out more about Evander. It had been a pressing issue in his mind as much as it was for Lucas. He informed them, "To be honest, I don't know if he is a super. But if everything we deduced was correct, Evander should have visited this town or at least be in the vicinity with a team from the Bureau. Do you know him?"

The three young supers looked at each other in silence before Alastair broke the silence, "Yea. It's him." 

Lucas couldn't keep it in any longer as he asked the most pressing issue. "Do you know if he is safe? Seeing how you guys know him, he must be from the Bureau too right? You should have some information on him?"

Even Cedric, Luna and Valeria had gathered around by now. Hellen was nowhere to be seen.

Scottus was shaking, and Aiden could acutely notice it. His fists clenched, shaking still as he looked at Lucas. Aiden could see the overwhelming emotion of fear in his eyes as Scottus answered with an extremely forced mock smile on his face. 

"He is dead." 

Lucas's expression fell as his heart dropped to the bottom. Whereas rage gripped over Aiden as he held Scottus by both his collars and smashed him to the nearby wall. Sternly asking, 

"What did you say?" For some reason, it felt like Scottus was mocking his childhood friend, the big brother of the group. The one who took care of them when they were little. The one who risked his life to save him from the ghost in the town. The one who sent him a warning, using his own blood as the ink. The nerve snapped when he thought Scottus could be deliberately declaring him dead, just for some sake of petty revenge considering the fear in his eyes.

The fear in Scottus' eyes was replaced by shame and humiliation as he held Aiden's hands and instantly Aiden felt the energy gathering inside Scottus. Before he could do anything, he felt an immense blunt force in his stomach and chest as his grip loosened on the collars, his hands slipping through those of jerk's as his body was sent tumbling crashing into the sofa, sliding it forward. 

The impact was like a sledgehammer crashing into his stomach and chest, sending a shockwave of agony through his body. His stomach felt as if it had been turned inside out, the pain radiating outward in fierce, throbbing waves. His chest tightened instantly, breathing became a struggle as air was forcibly expelled from his lungs. 

He doubled over, confusion plaguing his mind on where to keep his hands, his whole midsection felt painful, every nerve ending screaming in excruciating protest. The world blurred around him as he witnessed Scottus approaching him through blurry eyes. 

All of this happened in a split second, enough for Lucas to finally react, snapping out of his sadness as he witnessed the scene. Just when Scottus was about to smash his legs down to pummel the worm who dared hit him, blinding light flashed in front of his eyes.

"ARGHHH!"

One second Scottus had his legs raised and the next, he was holding his eyes as he fell on the ground.

"SAVE ME! Alastair! Cordelia! I am blind! I am blind!"

His legs thrashed around as he clutched his eyes, wishing he could gouge his eyes out to completely remove the pain. He shouted miserably, while wiggling about, toppling over several things in the process.

"It hurts! It hurts! Arghhhh. It hurts!"

The rest of the Bureau's team immediately went to check out Scottus as Lucas tended to Aiden. 

Hellen finally came downstairs after hearing the commotion. Looking at the scene, she felt utterly baffled.

Just what fucking happened here?