Chapter 2 O’Children by. Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds #2
I could see Janice becoming overwhelmed recounting these events.
While I still had countless questions, I knew they would need to be asked at a different time.
Janice needed a moment to cool down, decompress from the nightmarish story she told me that was being told, which happened to be her reality.
I looked into the cafe to see Oliver making his way back towards us with the two kids in tow behind him.
“I got them both hot chocolates. I hope that was okay,” Oliver said to Janice as he took a seat by me. Joey and Nancy followed suit sitting in the chairs next to their mother.
Janice smiled at Oliver as she responded, “Thank you. I appreciate the help.”
“Miss Ophelia, are you going to write about me?” Joey asked me.
I looked at him as he sat and drank his hot chocolate. He was so young, too young, to be dealing with this level of trauma. “I am, but only the truth. I won’t lie about anything.”
He nodded as he looked to be contemplating my words. “Does that mean you’ll write about Toby?”
I looked up to Janice with confusion, hoping she could fill in the blanks. She mouthed, “The shadow,” to me in response. He was asking about his imaginary friend. Turning back to Joey I responded, “I’m not sure yet. Why do you ask?”
“Well, he took me. That’s why I left. I guess I thought you would want to know about him,” Joey responded nonchalantly.
Taking the opportunity to learn as much as I could from him, I continued my questions. “Will you tell me about him, so I know everything I need to know?”
“I’m sorry, I can’t,” Joey responded almost apologetically. “He said you have to figure it out on your own.”
Janice, Oliver and I all looked at him with confusion and a bit of shock.
“Sweetheart, you can tell her,” Janice explained to her son. “She’s here to help us.”
Joey shook his head in protest at his mother’s words. “I can’t, he won’t let me. When it’s her turn, she’ll learn.”
“Her turn for what?” Oliver asked.
Joey turned to Oliver, completely stoned faced as he responded, “To go away, like I did.”
Once again, we all looked at Joey, confused and concerned. It was obvious that his disappearance affected him greatly.
He quickly stood up and ran to the bathroom. Janice followed, giving me an apologetic look as she and her children walked away.
“What the fuck?” I stated, in almost a whisper, mostly to myself.
“That kid is really screwed up. I think he was projecting what happened to him onto you,” Oliver responded, clearly concerned by the boy's comments as well but trying, as usual, to be the voice of reason. “What’s this?” he asked, pointing to the photo in front of me.
I looked over to see him observing the picture Janice had given me earlier of the drawing. “It’s a picture of Joey’s closet after he went missing,” I responded.
“Creepy.” I nodded to Oliver in agreement as he continued, “I think I recognize it.”
“Really? I did too, but I can’t figure out from where,” I stated, excited that he may be able to answer the question for me.
He nodded as he responded, still looking at the photo. “Yeah. Well, not the photo exactly, but in school I read a description about a cult’s sigil and this would be it.” He began to gesture towards the picture as he continued, “The sixes, the pentagram, all of it is like the description.”
Oliver was currently getting a masters degree in anthropology from the University of Oregon.
He was in his last semester and had just started prepping for his midterms. Following the tests, he would jump into the final eighteen months of schooling where he would then get his doctorate in the same field.
“What’s the cult?” I asked.
“Ummm…Cult of Creation, I think?” he responded as we watched Janice and her kids come back towards the table. “I have my textbooks back at the office, we can look into them when we’re back.”
I nodded in agreement as I turned to Janice. “Everything okay?”
“Yes, I’m so sorry about what Joey said. He’s been off ever since he came home. I’ll talk to him,” she stated.
“It’s really okay. Don’t worry about it. I think I have everything I need for now if you want to wrap this up,” I responded, wanting to get back to the office to look into the cult angle.
Janice agreed and we exchanged phone numbers before parting ways. Oliver and I drove back to the office in comfortable silence as we both considered the case in front of us.
As we entered Fibonacci Files, we made a beeline for Oliver's office.
He rummaged on his desk for a moment before pulling out the textbook. “Here you go, this is where the description is.”
I took the textbook from him and began rifling through the pages before coming to the description of the Cult of Creation’s sigil.
It was described as a pentagram without the outer circle and there were three sixes drawn surrounding the top of the star.
It was also noted that the sigil was always drawn in red, just as it was in Joey’s closet.
“This has to be connected to Joey’s case,” I said as I read and reread the description.
“What’s connected?” Oliver and I turned to see Fai leaning in the doorway.
“Hey Fai!” I stated, excited to share my findings with him.
He was my mentor and there was a large part of me that wanted to impress Fai.
Show him I was worth the chance he took on me all those years ago.
“There was a drawing in Joey’s closet. We have a picture here.
See?” I said as I handed him the polaroid.
“And the drawing matches the description of a cult sigil. Although, there is barely anything on the cult. Oliver, is there anything else with more information?”
Oliver began to look around his bookcase, trying to find something that would offer more information on the cult.
“Not in that book. I may have something, but I’m not sure.
My professor only brought it up because he said he found it interesting and even said there was barely any documentation on it. ”
“Really? That sucks. I was hoping to see if there were more connections. I have a feeling…”
“Jackie,” Fai interrupted, “We don’t work on feelings here.”
I sighed. He was right. We never based our articles or research on feelings.
We always were required to stay within the bounds of facts and well-documented research.
I always followed those rules he set for us, but this case felt different.
“I know, Fai. But I really think we need to follow this lead.”
I turned to see him looking at me, almost… disappointed?
“Jackie, this woman came to us to publish an article explaining the facts and just that. Don’t bring a cult into it. That will just make their lives harder.”
“I get that, I really do. But shouldn’t we look into any avenue to make sure we are publishing the whole truth?” I argued.
“Drop it, Ophelia. I don’t pull the boss card often, but I’m pulling it now.
This case is not involved in some weird cult.
Write about his disappearance, explain it had nothing to do with Satanists and that he is a perfectly normal kid.
That’s what Janice asked us to do, that’s what we will do.
Understand?” Fai stated firmly, leaving no room for further arguing.
“Yeah, I understand,” I responded dejectedly.
Fai looked at me for a moment, confirming I truly did understand. He must have seen what he wanted because shortly after, he left Oliver and I in the office alone.
“I’m sorry, Jackie,” Oliver stated as he leaned against the desk next to me and took my hand reassuringly. “If it helps, I agree with you. I think there’s more to this than we realize.”
I shrugged in response. I hated disappointing Fai. I had spent years trying to show him that I was good at this job and could be taken seriously.
I often wondered if he still only saw me as the young girl who needed help all those years ago when he looked at me now. I wanted to do good at this job and show Fai that the sacrifice he made for me all those years ago by taking me in was worth it. That I was worth it.
Maybe I needed to convince myself of that too.
That is the funny thing about people like me.
From the outside we seem so full of joy, of life.
We are the people who make you laugh, who make you feel loved and cared for.
We hype everyone around us up and support them with everything we have.
People look at us and think we are so happy, so content.
In actuality, we are often more broken deep down than anyone could realize.