by Yvi Valentin
I was scared to say anything because I thought Evan might hear me and I didn’t want him to know I was around. All I was able to do was look at Andy, completely horrified. Panic really set in when I heard him trying to pick the lock. Without saying a word, Andy led me into the bedroom. He closed the door as I heard the front door open.
“He’s in here,” I whispered to everyone who was waiting outside. Andy put a finger to my lips signaling for me to be quiet.
“Aimee?” Evan called. “Are you in here?” I heard him walking through the living room and into the kitchen. I knew he saw that we left the plates of food sitting on the table and we would be found. I heard him walk towards us. Andy led me to the connecting bathroom and we hid behind the shower curtain. “Aimee, are you in here?”
Andy pulled me closer to him as I tensed up at the sound of Evan entering my bedroom. I was scared of what would happen if he found us. We would have to fight if we wanted any chance of getting away. I heard Evan getting closer. I was in a silent panic as I realized we were trapped. I heard him step into the bathroom and could see his shadow through the shower curtain. I hoped he wasn’t smart enough to look behind the curtain. It seemed like he was checking himself out in the mirror because he stood there for an extended period of time. Eventually I heard him leave the bathroom and enter the living room, closing the door to my room.
I let go of the breath I was holding in. Andy carefully stepped out of the shower and helped me out as quietly as possible. I was trembling so much I thought I was going to break into tiny pieces. We quietly walked into the room and listened for a sign that Evan was still in the apartment. “Do you think he’s still here?” I whispered. Andy didn’t want to say anything so he just shrugged his shoulders.
“He hasn’t left the building yet,” Brian said. I gasped and jumped at the sound of his voice ringing in my ear. After what seemed like hours of silence and tension, a slight breeze would have terrified me.
I heard Evan rush towards the door to the bed room. I must have made too much noise because judging by the shadow of his feet at the bottom of the door he was standing outside listening for any sound I might make again. I saw a shadow out of the corner of my eye and knew we weren’t alone, Evan wasn’t alone. A moment passed before the doorknob moved slightly and Andy rushed me back to our spot in the shower. I managed to hide, but Andy wasn’t as lucky.
“I knew there was someone in here,” Evan gloated. It wasn’t long before a fight ensued.
I knew Andy wanted me to stay where I was, but I couldn’t stand the thought of letting him fight alone. I knew he was perfectly capable of fighting Evan, but I felt like I had to do something. I stood there for a moment, scared and contemplating whether or not I should leave my spot and fight.
“You guys better not ruin my apartment!” I yelled as I climbed out of the shower. That probably wasn’t the best thing to say at such a moment, but I didn’t want my home to be destroyed because of their stupid fight.
“Aimee, what are you doing!?” Andy yelled. Terror and disbelief was painted across his face as he stared at me.
“I wasn’t just going to sit there and listen to you fight alone, I was going crazy not knowing who was winning.”
“How cute, you two worry about each other.” Evan’s jealousy was painfully obvious.
“No one likes a jealous bitch Evan,” Andy said with a smirk.
The comment must have really angered Evan because he ran straight towards Andy. It looked to me like they were wrestling each other. I couldn’t help but laugh because it reminded me of one of those old timey duels for a woman’s hand. My laughter must have distracted them because both Andy and Evan stopped to see what was going on.
“What’s so funny?” Evan asked.
“You two fighting reminds me of a battle for my hand like I don’t even have a say in it,” I managed to get out through the laughter.
“What’s funny about that?” Evan asked, his temper rising.
“We’re not in the 1600s, but I guess you just don’t get my sense of humor.”
Just then Andy smiled at me and mouthed “thank you” as he got the upper hand against Evan. I stood there and watched, thinking about what could be done to end the fight faster. I saw something out of the corner of my eye and knew I was going to have to fight whatever it was. I was thrown against the wall by an unseen force. I quickly stood up to see what had caused me to go flying across the room, but didn’t see anything. I thought about what I could do to make the unseen creature visible to me as more than just a shadow in my peripheral vision. I put my hands in front of me and out came a fog to fill the room. I could see a humanoid figure in front of me.
“What is that!?” I shouted. Part of me knew what it was and I hoped I was wrong.
“It’s a ghost,” Evan said smugly.
“How do I fight a ghost!?” I asked in disbelief.
“You really think you can kill something that’s already dead?” Evan laughed.
The ghost came towards me through the fog. I panicked, unsure of how to fight.
“Aimee,” I heard a voice in my head. It was Jen. “Try burning the ghost. That might get rid of it.”
I wondered if I could control a ghost just as I could control people and other things. I tried to make it do something simple, stop coming towards me and stand still. It didn’t work. In the blink of an eye, the ghost was right in front of me, cutting off my airway. I tried to grab it but my hands went through the vengeful spirit. I gasped for air as I felt the grip tighten around my throat.
“Aimee!” Andy yelled.
“You’re not supposed to kill her!” Evan scolded.
I felt the energy draining from my body when I remembered what Jen told me to do. I was only able to create a small fireball in my hand and barely managed to fling it at the close target. The fog already lifted, but I saw the small flame on the leg of the ghost as it staggered away from me. Finally able to catch my breath, I made a bigger fireball and threw it at the evil spirit. As the fireball hit it, I made the flame grow to swallow the ghost completely. In no time, the flames dissipated and I created another fog to make sure it was really gone.
Evan stared in disbelief. He was no longer fighting, but looking at me…wondering how I managed to get rid of his little helper. “How did you do that? You were never able to do anything like that before.”
I was tired of him being in my apartment so I decided to try to control him. I tried to make him tell me what he and the devil had planned, but it didn’t work.
“You just tried to control me, didn’t you?” A flash of recognition read across his face. He seemed pleased at the new information. “Lucky for me, your father taught me how to resist your ability of control. It’s good to know it works.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I lied.
“Oh please, you know exactly what I’m talking about.”
I had no response. I knew he wasn’t going to leave without me after seeing I could do much more than he thought possible. My face told him everything he needed to know and I began to panic at the thought of what might happen next.
“Okay, how did you know I tried?” I asked. I hoped engaging him in a conversation would give me enough time to figure out how to get Evan to leave. I knew Andy was thinking the same thing because he nodded and subtly made a gesture with his hand, telling me to keep going.
“I shield myself from mind control whenever I’m around you and when you tried I felt pressure on the shield. Your dad told me it would happen in case you were wondering,” Evan’s pretentious attitude irritated me.
“He’s not my dad,” I snapped. “But it sounds like you’re good friends with him.”
“He’s like a father to me. He taught me everything I know.” Evan showed a little vulnerability. I wondered if I could turn him. I knew if I was successful the war wouldn’t be over, but at least we would have more allies. But I soon realized he was probably loyal to the man he spent so much time with, the man who
taught him everything.
“So…what’s he like?” I tried to hide my anger and feigned interest. I knew I was running out of things to talk about and needed to come up with a plan fast.
Evan smiled. It was obvious he thought he could convince me to willingly go with him to see Lucifer and work with them to destroy all of humanity. Everyone who has ever known me knew that was never going to happen, but I had to make Evan think he stood a chance while Andy and I came up with a plan to get rid of him.
“He loves you a lot. He never stops talking about you,” Evan began.
“I think that’s unlikely. If he cared about me at all he wouldn’t have tried to use me for his own selfish purposes!” I knew I needed to calm down because if Evan knew my true feelings, he was going to take more drastic measures. I calmed down and said, “I’m sorry, I’m just mad that he was never there for me when I was younger.”
“That’s understandable.” It was the first time I ever saw Evan look sympathetic, but I figured it was just an act. “He really does care about you though. I know for a fact he keeps tabs on you all the time.”
“What!?” Andy and I shouted in unison. I thought I heard some of the guys outside, if not, all of them shout the same thing.
“What do you mean he keeps tabs on me?” I was in shock. I hoped he wasn’t following me, but had a feeling he was. If he wasn’t doing it himself, he had other people do it for him.
“Sometimes he follows you to see what you’re up to,” Evan said casually.
My eyes were wide open, my jaw dropped and my heart was beating fast. “He does?” I wasn’t sure if I was confused or touched, maybe I was feeling a little bit of both.
“Yeah, he really does care about you. He wants to make sure you’re doing alright.” I saw the compassion in his eyes, but it wasn’t towards me. The thing that claimed to be my father had quite an effect on him.
“Why? Why didn’t he just come to me directly?”
“You two aren’t exactly on good terms. He didn’t think it would do any good.”
“What about after you erased my memory?” Evan sensed my irritation and I knew it wasn’t going to end well for me. I looked at Andy and he didn’t seem as worried as I was. He nodded at me, knowing what I wanted to ask.
“He didn’t want to risk you running away again, so he decided to keep his distance.” Evan noticed my level of fear rise. “Maybe you should sit down. You don’t look good.”
“What’s taking so long? You should have been out of here by now,” called a man from the front door.
“Your daughter had some questions about you. I thought I’d be nice and answer them for her,” Evan replied.
It felt like my heart stopped for a moment. I couldn’t breathe. None of us could have anticipated this. My mouth was open as I struggled to say anything. He walked into the room and gave me a hug that made my skin burn up, but I could only stay still. I felt like someone was controlling my body, not allowing me to move or talk. I looked over at Andy to see he was just as shocked as I was.
“Close your mouth darling, you don’t want to catch flies,” he said as he pulled away from the one sided hug. I was surprised by his British accent. It was such a contrast from my Chicago accent. The differences were endless, he looked like a proper type of man and I was a wreck. His eyes were a bright, almost glowing green and mine were brown. I could feel the evil ooze out of his pores and I had love in my heart. The only similarities I found were that we had the same dark brown hair color, the same fair skin color and similar bone structure.
I closed my mouth and walked over to Andy. He gripped me so tight I thought I was going to shatter into pieces, but part of me didn’t mind because I knew he was as scared as I was. I noticed a look of loathing flash across Evan and Lucifer’s faces as they saw Andy and I in a tight embrace.
“What are you doing here?” I asked.
“Evan was supposed to bring you to me for a little chat and if you weren’t home, he was supposed to plant a bug and come back out,” Lucifer answered.
“Well you have my attention, what do you want?” I was aggravated. I could have gotten kidnapped again if I hadn’t put up a fight and I was tired of it all.
“I was hoping we could talk alone,” he said as he glared at Andy.
“Anything you say to me I’m just going to tell him later so you may as well let Andy stay,” I replied with an attitude.
“That’s no way to talk to your father,” Lucifer barked. He reminded me of a villain trying not to lose his temper.
“Oh, I’m sorry,” I said sarcastically. “Are you sure you’re my dad because a real father would have been there for me. A real father wouldn’t have tried to use me for his own selfish reasons!” I was yelling. I thought about the moment I would meet the man who claimed to be my dad so many times and knew I was going to be pissed. He should have known this was going to happen as well as I did.
“Don’t give me that attitude.” Lucifer was starting to lose his cool.
“Then you shouldn’t have been such a selfish asshole my entire life.” I wasn’t sure I could control my anger any longer.
“I wasn’t being selfish. I was just trying to create a better life for you.”
“Yeah, by using my abilities to destroy all of humanity so you could have control over the world. That’s such a great world to live in! We’re supposed to be helping humanity create a better world, not turn the place to hell!” I couldn’t control my anger and Andy tried to calm me down. It was obvious he was scared of what might happen if I had gone too far. “You never considered my feelings once and don’t insult me by trying to say you did because it’s obvious you didn’t!”
I could tell by the look on his face that I stumped him. He knew everything I said was right. “I just wish you could see things my way.”
“Because I’m sure your point of view is so much better than what it seems.” I just wanted this little “reunion” to be over. “Just tell me what you want so I can get rid of you.”
“I want you to come with me. Work with me, not against me.” He seemed so compassionate. I never thought it was possible for the devil. Even the devil had a soft spot. “We’re family, why not come spend some time with me?”
“Because you’re the devil and I’m not a horrible person!” I yelled. “If that’s all you want, you should just leave now because there’s no way I’m going anywhere with you!”
He realized there was no winning the battle. “I see you’re as stubborn as your mother.”
“And that’s a bad thing?”
“Considering the fact that I’m not getting my way right now, it is bad for me.”
“Okay, great, now get out.” I led him and Evan out the door and slammed it behind them.
“We’re going to have to take more drastic measures…soon,” I heard Lucifer say to Evan as I locked the door.
I watched the two of them walk down the hallway through the peephole. “Did you hear what he said?” I asked in a panic.
“No, what did he say?” Andy asked.
“He told Evan they’re going to have to take drastic measures soon.”
“Frank, are you guys still there?” Andy asked.
“Yeah, we’re still in position,” Frank answered.
“Have they left the building yet?” I asked.
“No,” Brian said.
“Follow them when they leave,” Andy ordered.
“Got it,” Jen answered.
I was scared out of my mind. I knew I had only made things worse at the family reunion from hell. “Should we follow them too?” I asked.
“No, they might have someone watching your every move,” Andy pointed out.
“We can’t just sit here doing nothing!” I yelled. “I’m not going to sit here and wait for someone to come back to take me away.” Just then, I got a bad feeling. Someone or something was coming for me, I could feel it. My skin felt like it was about to catch fire and I knew I was in store for something truly horrifying.
“Andy we have to get out of here…now.” I felt the fear within me rise to an even higher level than I thought possible. Whatever was coming for me was getting closer.
“Why?” I could hear confusion in his voice. My guess was it was because he didn’t have the same instincts I did.
“Something’s coming. Come on! We have to get out of here!” I was in a full blown panic and nothing was going to calm me down. Just then, there was a loud bang at the door. I grabbed Andy and ran towards the fire escape. We climbed down and I hoped there wasn’t anyone or anything waiting for us at the bottom. “They’re coming after me!” I yelled to everyone on the other end of the earwig.
“What should we do?” Frank asked.
“We need to get Aimee somewhere safe,” Andy said. “Somewhere they won’t find her.”
“Where?” I asked. “There’s no way our safe houses are safe anymore.”
“For now we just need to get out of here,” Andy replied. We saw Evan climb down the fire escape. Andy grabbed my hand and we bolted down the alley. I was having flashbacks to the day Evan kidnapped me. The major difference was that I knew who I could trust. And I could put up a fight if I had to.
“What now?” I asked. “Are we just going to keep running in random directions until we lose them?”
“That’s all we can do right now,” Andy answered.
“We’ll follow from a distance in case you need our help,” Jen offered.
“How do we get rid of these guys?” I asked.
“And who knows how many more different creatures Evan has working for him,” Liz pointed out.
“We’re going to need weapons,” Andy said.
“Where can we get some without getting caught?” I asked.
“My place,” Brian started, “I doubt they know where I live and I have a huge stock of weapons ready for the taking.”
“Okay, let’s get there fast so his place doesn’t get compromised too,” I suggested.