It's Really Him
Morning comes, Jason and Jade are the first ones awake. "How you feeling after last night sis?" Jason asks. "I'm ok, just want to find him, dad, make sure it's him. I don't think he abandoned us. I think something happened." Jade says as Leo and everyone starts waking up and coming out of their tents stretching and yawning, curious about all the ruckus.
"Morning kids, whats going on?" Katie is the first one to ask. There's a short moment of silence while Jade waited for everyone to be up. Jade looks around and sees everyone's eyes on her waiting patiently, "Well now that everyone is up, last night this thing, it didn't seem human-like at all, visited me, it said to stay out of his way. Somehow it knew my name. I think our dad was messing with something he shouldn't have been." Jade confronts everyone. Leo cuts in, "its ok we will find out whats going on and help him. Shall we start with the underground shelter? Maybe the man, your dad, will be there and tell us more so we can help him." Officer King and Jennings agree so everyone start getting ready to go. They pack tons if batteries and flashlights something to eat and some other survival tools just in case.
Once they reach the path where they swore the shelter was on, they realize it has to be hidden. Not under leaves or branches, its just gone. As they continue walking Katie trips and she feels the door. Its invisible, so she feels for the latch and when she finds it she can't seem to pry it open. Both officers grab some tools, trying not to break the lock but instead they try picking the lock, but no luck. Both the officers say that it doesn't look like it has a place for a key or a lock or a pattern for a code. "What kind of locked down bunker is this?" Officer King asks. Jade trys and the lock turns halfway, but for some reason she couldn't get the other half to budge. After everyone took their shot at it, Jason got tired of seeing his sister the last one trying still since she hot it halfway already, so he goes to help her. Once Jason gives a slight push the door is finally open so everyone climbs down, Jason and Jade last so they can lock back up. Once inside they start walking towards what looks like a dining hall area, then there's 4 doors surrounding it. Everyone decides to stick together in case of emergency so they follow a hallway that looks like it leads down through a bunch of rooms. "Hello, anyone here?!" Jade yells down the hallway. She hears a faint muffled cough. "Its ok, we're here to help you. My name's Jade. I have some friends with me but we only want to help." Then there's nothing not even a movement. "Please Dad come out!!" she yells, desperate at this point, everyone is staring at her in shock. Suddenly someone starts crying and then comes out of a room about 4 rooms down. Everyone stays silent.
* * *
Down in the dining hall, the man passes around drinks for everyone. "Your name is James correct, James Alexander Johnson?" Katie asks curiously. "Yes, I...I really don't know what to say or how to explain myslf....." he looks over at his two teenage twins, Jade and Jason, "I messed up really bad kids and you didn't need to be involved with this. I didn't want you in danger. This is my battle." James finishes with a soft sigh. " You know I never stopped loving and watching you kids grow up, i....i just couldn't let it see me seeing you guys. One night he found me and saw you both. I didn't know what to do, so I ran hoping it would follow me." Jade looks up, "the night I ran outside. I knew it was you. What is that thing? Why is it after you?" Jade says demanding answers. "No, no no, you two are not to get involved, none of you. Its after me and it will stay that way." James says firmly. Thats when Jason cuts in, "No you don't get to tell us what to do after all of this, we deserve answers. It saw us right, so it knows who we are and why we're here now. It KNOWS Jade's name James. It will come after us when its done with you or worse, won't it?" Jason asks. "I don't know. I know it wants me I called upon it, I called it here." "What, what is it and what do you mean you called it here? I want answers dad. We can help. If you want everyone else to stay out of it, fine. We are your kids though and she was our mother too, we will work together, as a family!" Jade hollers.
After everyone calmed down they all decided to stick together and figure this out, but in order to do that they knew that James had to tell them everything, right from the start. So they go back into the dining hall where James is sitting. "So we're going to help you, all of us. But we need to know everything from the start til now. How did it get here? What is it? What does it want?" Leo says firmly. "But the less everyone knows the better." James finishes of with "My kids have to stay away." Jade looks at Leo then to Jason and see the sternness in their eyes and says, "He won't let this go father. None of us will." Jade says pleading with him to just fill everyone in so we can help. Finally after a silent moment of thought, James sighs and finally starts;
* * * *
"So when your mom passed away I couldn't stand the loss, I couldn't bring myself out of bed or keep a job, let alone take care of our kids. Then suddenly I found a way to bring her back, or so I thought I did. Every moment of preparation I made for her return and how I felt thinking everything will all go the way it was always supposed to be. I guess I drew the symbol wrong or said some words wrong, because instead of bringing your mother back I called upon this demon, his name is Berith. He's been after me since I called upon him. Right after I did the summoning I just figured I did it wrong because nothing happened. At first I just figured it was just a failed attempt, then when I started noticing you two would wake up laughing and giggling looking around the room. Both of you would always be looking in the same area of the room, always. At first I believed it was her it was your mother. My one and only beloved wife, but I still couldn't see her or feel her or hear her, figured the spell was a slow spell that she'd return slowly. Then a day or two after the summoning I noticed you weren't laughing and giggling anymore, both of you would instead wake up terrified, screaming and crying, which was unusual for you guys because you were both such amazingly quiet babies. One night after the first or second night of the screaming and crying I started to notice little bruises that usually went away in less than a full day, I brushed them off like they were from you moving around in your crib and hurting yourselves a little bit. It wasn't until the day....." James falls silent holding back the tears as best he can and tries to continue telling the truth.. He dries up his eyes and continues;
It wasn't until the day Jade..." James takes another pause trying to find the words, "my little baby girl so innocent....it was the day that i went to grab you and i saw horrible bruises all over your legs and arms," James start sobbing but continues the best he can, "there was even a bruise across your cheek... my 2 month old baby girl. My heart dropped and thats the day I decided it would be safer to give you guys to a better family. That decision was actually not made because of Berith, because I still had no idea of Berith being around, my first thoughts to Jade being so bruised up was that I did it in my sleep or at any point I went crazy and had a black out moment. I couldn't risk that being true or real so I started the adoption process."