Chapter 14 #4
Camden asked her, “How many people, even now, if you told them, would understand what you’ve just said?”
“They wouldn’t,” she whispered, staring at him. “No one would.”
“Right, so let’s just stay focused. I’ll follow up on the property research angle tomorrow and see if we can get some information on this location. Meanwhile you try to act completely normal.”
She just stared at him and shook her head.
He nodded. “Yes, you will because we need you to.”
She took a deep breath. “I don’t know if I can. I feel as if I’ve just been volunteered as a live sacrifice,” she explained. “How am I supposed to come to terms with that?”
Camden frowned, but Stefan said, “We can’t let the twins know anything is different in your world. You have to pretend that it’s a ridiculous notion and that they can’t be serious.”
“That I could do easily enough because I do feel as if they can’t be serious.”
“Exactly,” Stefan agreed, with a smile in his tone. “You do need to maintain that attitude because, whatever is happening, we can’t have them suspecting you of knowing what’s going on. And, if you can find a way to get that book from Toby, do it.”
“Do you think he takes it to school with him?” Camden asked Devon.
“I wouldn’t think so,” she replied. “He might be afraid that somebody there would take it from him. Yet Tabby told us earlier that the book was in his bookbag as he ran off to that park. So who knows where he keeps it?”
“So, would he trust it at home with you?”
She shrugged. “I have no idea what they think at this point in time. Apparently I’m just a patsy to them, a useful tool.
” After a moment of silence, she let out a heavy sigh.
“Fine. I’ll go home, and I will do my best to act normal, and let’s hope that something different comes out of this.
And why this house? I just don’t understand.
Is there something to do with the number of days from being dead or something? ”
“Not normally,” Stefan replied, “but then it’s not as if any of us know for sure.”
She closed her eyes. “Their birthdays were just a few days ago, and her birthday … is coming up.”
“Ah, how close?” Stefan asked.
“Two days,” she replied. “I’ve been thinking that would be a tough day for them because she’s not here, right?”
Camden said, “In that case, we need to prepare for another act on their part during this time period. Just remember that these are just kids.”
Devon snorted. “More like little demons.”
He smiled. “I get that. I really do. I can see why you’re not happy, after going through all that you have done, doing your best for them, and it’s all coming out as something far different from what you thought it would be.”
“I didn’t have any preconceived ideas as to what this would be,” she shared. “I was just hoping we could settle into some normal raise the kids thing. I wasn’t thinking along these lines at all.”
“And now that you know what’s happening, do you see Tabitha as being a part of this?”
“Yes,” she replied. “As I think about it now, different bits and pieces are falling into place. … I don’t know whether I’m angrier at her or at myself for not seeing it.”
“I don’t think you should blame yourself in the least,” Stefan noted.
“Nobody in their right mind would believe this. I mean, I understand this world that we three share and what comes with it, and I’m still struggling.
So, with that, I’ll let you go. I want you to head home and to try to make this seem like a normal night. ”
She snorted. “There is no such thing as normal in my life anymore.” And, with that, she got up, gave Camden a quick hug. “I’m so sorry for embroiling you in this nightmare.” Then she slipped out into the darkness and went home.
He watched from the deck as she hopped over the fence easily, in spite of Toby’s mocking comments, something that he also wondered about. As he went to get off the phone with Stefan, he added, “She’s back over in her yard now.”
“Did the entities do anything or react in any way to her presence just now?”
“No, they seem to be pretty calm about it.”
“Interesting.”
“I don’t understand any of this.”
“No, yet definitely something is going on here, and I’m quite concerned that the children are caught up in this in a way that they have no real control over it—meaning that they could get hurt too. I think in their eagerness to help their mom, they’re causing issues with themselves.”
“Meaning?”
“When you open the door for one, it in no way implies that only that one you want can come through. And now what we have is one woman, who’s been set up as a sacrifice, but what happens to the kids?
What keeps them safe from whatever else is out there, wanting to come back in?
And those entities wanting to come back in can be a hell of a lot stronger, not to mention older, wiser, and far more conniving than two eleven-year-olds,” Stefan shared. “And that is now another concern.”
Just then another voice interrupted the evening air.
“Pretties!”
And there was Henry, pointing at the remnants in their backyards.