Three days went by after this attack, and incredibly, things stayed quiet for me.
I was doing my best to rest and recover during this time, although I'll be the first to admit that it wasn't easy. Even with my dad's medicine, I still experienced some hellish pain, especially in my back and the back of my head. I'd hit the wall so hard that I'd literally busted a giant hole in it, not to mention splintered pieces into the wounds it had split open. It had taken Gabrielle the better part of an hour to remove those from my body, a very unpleasant hour I might add.
It took a lot for me to convince my parents and sister that I was okay to be alone that first night afterwards too. While I got where they were concerned, I also didn't want to give up my opportunity to see Lenore. If they were there, then she wouldn't come any closer to the house than the woods. No, I wasn't in any shape to do much with her, but having her by my side would be enough.
Thankfully my family trusted me enough to back off a little and give me space, and this in turn allowed Lenore to visit with me late that night. Of course, she'd been horrified with what had happened too, and insisted on me resting while she was there.
The last three nights had gone by like this, although I admit that I didn't mind. Being able to spend most of the night with her by my side felt good, even if I didn't attempt to sleep during it. No sense in maybe calling up anymore trouble with Missy's spirit or allowing her to mess with Lenore. I hadn't experienced anymore signs of her since that attack, and hoped that I wouldn't anytime soon.
But that particular morning after those three days ended up being pretty different for me, and it all started with an unexpected phone call.
I'd been sitting up in my room at my desk at that time, a notebook open in front of me and tapping my pen on the paper. Since the pain was getting better to where I could sit up longer, I'd decided to try and sort out my thoughts about what had been happening to me. Even though my family was looking into all avenues and waiting word from Musket, I wanted to try to fit pieces together myself. I thought that the best place to start could be by writing things down and comparing them.
This was something I'd picked up from my mom, but I found it to be very effective when I had things on my mind that I wanted to sort out.
Yet the frustration I'd been feeling for so long was lingering as I looked at my notes. Yeah, I could connect some things now, but I still felt like I was missing the big picture in all of this. Yes, Missy was killed by a Fox, and yes, her spirit was the one behind my main torment now. But where was the connection with the other dreams, the ones possibly to do with Annabelle Renaldi?
The only thing I could reason for that was what I'd written in big letters at the bottom under the lists.
Darkness.
I was sure that what I'd seen in that dream of Missy in that cavern had to be the connecting factor in all of this. That dark mist that swirled up around her, it felt way too much like what I'd experienced during those fights with my parents. It was like it was influencing us, trying to make us do terrible things to each other, even trying to rip our family apart.
I frowned as I looked at that word. No, I couldn't explain why, but I was certain that this wasn't just Missy's spirit causing all of this. This darkness felt way too powerful, too evil. It made me wonder if it might've even been influencing her too.
The sudden ringing of my cell phone brought me back to reality. It was sitting on the side of my desk near me, and scared me a little at first.
I let out a long breath to slow my heart rate. Damned quiet and deep thoughts were getting to me.
I picked up the phone and looked at the screen, surprised by the name I saw there. It was Noah. Why the hell would he be calling me? He never called me. He always talked to Seraphina.
From what I'd heard the day before, he'd also just had his wings erupt. He should've been resting now to let his body start recovering, although I'd heard before that Nephilim didn't take that long to do so.
Be as it may, I decided to see what he wanted. Maybe something was up where he needed my help, and I wasn't one to ignore him if he did.
"Yo, what's up?" I answered.
"I'd say that's a heck of a way to answer the phone, but you already knew it was me, so I guess it doesn't matter." Noah responded.
"Yeah, pretty much." I agreed, "So, what's up? You don't usually call me. Something wrong?"
"I wouldn't say that it's really wrong right now, but I did want to talk to you. You think you're recovered enough to come over for a while?"
This was new. Noah didn't usually ask me to come over without my sister.
"I might be, but what about Seraphina? Don't you want her to come too?" I asked him.
"Normally I would," Noah concurred, "but this time's a little different. There's something I wanted to talk to you about, and I wanted it to be between us. I know you got hurt pretty bad the other night too, so I thought I'd make sure you felt up to coming over."
"You're too kind." I stated sarcastically.
"I try." Noah responded, sounding equally so, "But seriously Sevee, it's important, so you think you could drop by?"
He was really pushing this. That was unlike him. Noah was a pretty laid back guy most of the time, and like I said, he wasn't one to call on me without my sister. Whatever this was about, it would probably be best for me to listen.
"Alright. Tell you what. I'll talk to my dad about bringing me over to see you for a while. I think Sera's out shopping anyway with Mom, so I could get away with coming alone." I told him.
"Awesome. I'll let Mom know too." Noah responded.
"You're not gonna say anything to your dad?"
"Well," Noah hesitated, "I will, but sometimes it's easier for us not to approach each other right away."
That sounded weird, but I went with it for now. Maybe that was part of what he wanted to talk about.
"Okay. I'll see you soon." I told him.
Noah agreed, and the two of us hung up. I pushed myself up from my chair, making sure to close my notebook and shove it into a drawer before leaving my room.
Sean was in the kitchen when I came downstairs, sitting at the table with his laptop. It looked like he was working on some spreadsheets.
Oh yeah. He had been bringing home some of his work with him for the last few days to help keep an eye on me.
"Hey." I greeted him as I walked over to the table.
"Hey Sevee. What's up?" Sean responded, looking away from his screen to me.
"Not much." I responded, "I just got a call from Noah, and he wants me to come over and visit him for a while. Is that okay?"
Sean gave me a skeptical look, "Noah wants you to visit him without your sister around?"
"Yeah, I said the same thing, but he was pretty insistent on it. I don't mind either. He did just get his wings the other day, and I'll feel better about that if I can see if he's okay." I reasoned.
Yes, I did mean that. For as much as Noah and I could rub each other wrong, he was still a lot like a brother to me. We had grown up together, so of course I cared about him; and, even if he didn't say it out loud, I knew he cared about me too. Maybe some of this on his end was a way to check on how I was holding up.
"You have a point, and it would be better for him to have some company now. Raziel and Anna have been a little concerned that he's been a recluse lately anyway." Sean relented. He saved his work, then turned off the laptop and closed it.
"Is this okay right now? You're not gonna get behind in your work, are you?" I double checked.
"It's fine." Sean assured me, "I was only double checking a few things. I got caught up last night, so it frees me up a little to visit too. I've been meaning to take some time to see how Raziel and Anna have been doing."
"You all make it sound like they've had some real problems lately, but nobody's really talking about it." I pointed out.
"Well, I wouldn't completely call it problems, but there have been some smaller issues with Noah recently that have bothered them. It's nothing too worrisome right now though." Sean told me.
An odd feeling came over me as he said that, like there was more to it than we were understanding. But I shook it off. At least I was getting to visit Noah like he wanted. I might get more answers through him.
The ride to Noah's home only took about fifteen minutes. That was the beauty of our family living in Madison together. We could see each other very easily when we wanted to.
I noticed the garage door open as we pulled into the driveway. Noah's dad Raziel was in there, working on something with his Mustang. This wasn't unusual. From what I'd always known, Raziel loved working on cars, and he was really good with them. He did all of his own maintenance on their family's, and also helped out Sean and Mia with theirs at times. I was kind of surprised that he'd chosen to flip houses over being a full time mechanic, but him and Anna also loved working with real estate, especially when it came to fixer uppers with potential.
Sean parked near Anna's little Beetle convertible, turning off his Jeep. We both slipped out and headed to the garage.
"Hey Raziel. I didn't think you'd be here right now." Sean commented.
Raziel stood up straight, wiping his hands on a rag he'd kept near him. He was dressed casually in an older white tee shirt and faded blue jeans, and judging from the stains on them, I took a guess that he'd been working on his car for a while now.
I'll be the first to admit that Raziel was a really good looking guy, with light blonde hair like a lot of the Renaldis and sky blue eyes. Him and my dad were about the same height and build too. Noah took after his dad a lot with those looks, although he was maybe half an inch shorter than us.
"Yeah, I wasn't expecting too either, but the inspector rescheduled again, so I couldn't do anymore at the house today." he explained.
"Isn't this the third time he's done that?" Sean inquired.
"Yep." Raziel scoffed, "I think I'm gonna look into hiring a different company. I'm getting tired of the run around with all of this now. I wanted that house on the market next month and he's putting me behind."
"Sounds like it." Sean nodded.
Raziel's attention turned to me, "I wasn't expecting you to come by either Sevee. How are you holding up now?"
"I'm good. A little sore, but I'm surviving." I answered.
"It's been a bit of a crisis lately with all of this, but at least he's been okay for now. Mia and I have been doing what we can to ensure it too." Sean added.
"That's at least one good thing right now." Raziel sighed. He glanced at the door to the house, "Noah's been holding up pretty good too. Guess he's more of a natural with his wings than we thought. He's already starting to pull them in."
"Really? In less than two days? That is impressive." Sean agreed. He glanced at me, "If he's feeling up to it, Sevee wanted to visit with him while we were here. You don't mind, do you?"
"No, not at all. Just no getting into any fights." Raziel requested.
I couldn't stop myself from smiling, "Nah, I don't think either one of us is in any shape to do that."
Yep, they knew us way too well, but I meant what I said too. I didn't want to get into a fight with Noah, nor did I like when we got into them. Hopefully all of this would go smoothly.
After talking a little longer with Raziel, I headed into the house while my dad stayed out there with him. Noah's mom Anna was in the dining room, watering some plants that she kept by the windows there. I stopped by the doorway as I saw her, taking in her image.
In many ways, I'd always thought of Anna as being a lot like my mom. They were the same age, but Anna was completely human. I wouldn't say that she'd aged badly in these last fifteen years though. She was still a very pretty lady, with long strawberry blonde hair and big brown eyes. I personally thought that Noah inherited his softer features from her. While he looked mostly like Raziel, I definitely saw Anna in him too.
In spite of myself, I had to go in there and see her for a minute. It had been a while since I'd gotten to do so, and I did see her as a second mom in a lot of ways.
"Hey Anna." I greeted her.
Anna set her glass she'd had the water in aside, smiling as she saw me.
"Oh, hey Sevee. How are you doing now? Are you healing okay?" she asked as she hugged me.
"I'm getting better. Still a little sore, but I'll be fine." I assured her.
Anna pulled back from me, running a hand through my hair as she smiled at me. It was funny how she was so much shorter than me now, just like Mia. I could remember back when I'd had to look up at them.
"Oh, you and Noah have grown up so much. You look a lot like your dad too. You're even as tall as him now." she went on.
"I'll take that as a compliment." I responded.
"I am glad to see you too. I've been worried about you since Mia told me about what was happening. You're sure you're doing okay?"
"I promise I'm fine. I'm handling it with them, and I didn't get hurt that bad. Actually, I was hoping to hang out with Noah while I'm here too. I heard that he got his wings the other day and thought I'd check up on him. He's cool with that, right?"
Anna nodded, "I think so, and he probably would like some company. No fighting though, okay?"
Ah, she had us with that too, but it wasn't like I didn't expect it. I flashed her my best smile.
"None whatsoever. Promise."
"Good." Anna gave me a quick kiss on my cheek, "He's up in his room right now. Just let me know if you two need anything."
"Cool. Thanks."
I did feel a little lighter as I headed upstairs. Anna always did that for me, just like Mia. But the more I thought about it, I did get these feelings whenever I was with the women in our family. I reasoned that I must've had a real soft spot for them.
The door to Noah's room was closed, and I didn't bother knocking before I opened it. Why would I? I'd never knocked on anybody's door in my life, except for my parents, and that was more to be on the safe side of not interrupting something I couldn't unsee.
Noah was standing by his far window, looking out at something, but he turned when he heard me come in.
"I didn't think you'd bother knocking." he stated quietly.
"Why would I? I've never done it before. Besides, I don't see the point in that when you're at family's houses." I responded as I closed the door.
"You do realize that you might end up seeing something you don't want to one day doing that." Noah informed me.
I shrugged, walking over to the window with him, "I've thought about that, so I don't do it when it comes to my parents." I relented. I looked out to see if I could tell what he was looking at, and caught sight of my dad and Raziel. They were standing near the Jeep, looking like they were talking about something with it. I glanced back at Noah, noting his solemn expression, "You know, you could go out there with them. I see you've pulled those wings in."
Raziel was right. He really had succeeded in doing that already. In fact, he looked a lot like the Noah I'd always known. He'd always dressed in darker clothing, and that accentuated his white hair and ice blue eyes in any light. But I also noted that he looked a little better than I'd remembered before. Must've been the awakened Nephilim blood.
"I'm not worried about my wings. It's just better for me not to be out there right now." Noah responded.
There was confliction in his eyes as he spoke, like something was really bothering him. I took an even bet on what it was.
"Is that why you wanted me to come over? Because you're not getting along with your dad and it's bothering you?" I guessed.
Noah looked away from the window to me.
"That is a small part of it, but there's something bigger that I wanted to talk to you about, especially with what I've been hearing has been happening to you."
"Yeah, I guess you'd hear about it, huh?"
"Trust me, both of my parents have been just as worried as yours, and Seraphina's gonna end up making herself sick over it. She keeps telling me over the phone about how much she's been worrying about you and how scared she was with what happened the other night."
Noah sat down on the side of his bed as he spoke, and I pulled over the nearby desk chair to sit. It had a padded back, so that helped where my back was healing.
"Can't say I'm surprised about that one. My sister's been driving me crazy about all of it since she learned about it. You know the other night she wouldn't let me sleep alone in my own room?" I complained.
"You shouldn't be so upset over it. She does love you enough to care like that, and it's not like you two haven't slept side by side plenty of times in your life. She might even miss it now that you're both older. Besides, at least you two can get along with your parents right now too." Noah scoffed.
"You make it sound like you're not getting along with yours at all." I pointed out.
"I wouldn't say that much." Noah relented, "My situation's a little different right now, but it also feels the same in some ways."
"What's that supposed to mean?"
Noah became quiet, looking around the room. I listened closely, but didn't hear anything out of the ordinary, nor did I smell anything. I'd also heard one of the doors open and close downstairs, which meant that Anna had probably gone outside to talk to my dad and Raziel.
"There is a good reason that I wanted you to come talk to me like this." Noah finally said once he felt comfortable, "Like I said, I've got this weird feeling that what's happening to you is also connected to what's been happening to me."
I sat back slowly, crossing my arms.
"Okay, you've got my attention. Go ahead and tell me why you think this."
"It might be trying to connect dots, but it's worth a shot. To start with, you said that you've been having nightmares your entire life, right?" Noah began.
"Yeah, but you knew something about that anyway. You've always known how hard it is for me to sleep." I reminded him.
"That's true. I do remember all those times from when we were little kids." Noah acknowledged, "But do you remember how I used to be awake a lot with you too?"
I thought about it. That was right. I remembered when he'd stay over with me and Seraphina, or when we'd stay there with him, that I woke up a lot of times to find him awake with me. I'd just never thought about it.
"Let me take a wild guess here and say that you were having nightmares too." I responded.
"In a sense, although my dreams were more of things that didn't make sense to me and still don't." Noah confessed.
"What did you dream about?" I pressed.
"Like I said, things that haven't made sense to me. It's like seeing flashes from someone's life, but a lot of them are like they've been distorted, so I can't really follow them that well. But it's felt weird to me too. I'm still having them, and the other day, when I was looking through some old albums that my dad had brought back from your grandfather's house, I saw something that really caught my attention." Noah explained.
He got up and knelt down beside his bed, pulling out a book that he'd hidden under it. I immediately recognized it. It was the album that I'd found in that trunk at Michael's, the one with their family pictures.
"Hey, I saw that book the other day. Did your dad ask to borrow it?" I inquired as I moved over to the bed to look with him.
"I think my mom did after Sara mentioned it to her." Noah answered. He opened the book, flipping to pictures of the man and woman that I was sure were our great grandparents, and pointed at the man, "This is the weirdest part about all of this. I've seen this man in my dreams since I was a little kid."
"Hold up. You've see this man? Do you know who he's supposed to be?" I asked him.
"Yep. I asked Raphael and he told me that this man is our great grandfather. He said that his name was Melvin Renaldi. My dad remembers him too, but he was older when he knew him. He died when my dad was eight, and Dad had grown up until then knowing him." Noah explained.
What the hell was all of this? First I was dreaming of Missy Renaldi and what happened to her and her mother, and now I find out that Noah was dreaming of our great grandfather?
"Do you think your dreaming about him is connected to your dad?"
Yes, I was grasping at straws here, but none of it made any sense to me.
"I don't think so." Noah admitted, "But I do think that a lot of this stuff is connected in our family. I also think that some of it might have to do with what's going on with Missy Renaldi's spirit and her coming after you, not to mention the problems between me and my dad now."
"Okay, you need to slow down. How exactly are you connecting this?"
Noah took a minute to think about where to start.
"Well, I didn't connect it for a while either, and I think that we're missing a lot of the pieces, but just hear me out and tell me what you think." he finally said, "I don't know a lot about this family's past, and neither does my dad or your mom from what I've heard. Our grandfathers and aunt don't really talk about it. I didn't get that before, but I'm thinking I do now. At least with some of what my dad mentioned to me and Mom recently."
"Yeah, I don't know much about it either. The first real stuff I heard was when me and Sara were looking at these pictures. We also found one of Annabelle Renaldi, the woman that started our family with that Angel." I told him.
"I saw it too, and it was pretty interesting to see what she looked like. But you know Sevee, I wonder if a lot of this was also connected to her." Noah responded.
"How?"
"Think about it. They said that Annabelle was a survivor of the death camps in World War II, and she was a kid when that happened. Even after she married that Angel, don't you think it's possible that something dark might've been trying to at least influence her for a while because of that trauma she went through with losing her family and seeing all that death and torture?"
He was right. I had no doubt that Annabelle had experienced hell on earth with all she'd gone through as a kid. If what our family believed about demons was true, then Annabelle would've been a prime target for one.
"Hold up. Let me see if I'm following you here. You think that all this trouble our family's been having is due to a demon?" I verified.
"Everything fits." Noah confirmed, "Like I said, think carefully about it. I'm sure they told you a little bit about Gabrielle's sister when you found this. Noel Renaldi had something really bad happen to her, and she ended committing suicide after years of mental issues. I heard from my dad that his grandmother also killed herself right before Noel died. Missy Renaldi had mental issues develop too, and she took off with your mom and only got worse before that Fox ended up intervening and killing her. Don't you think it's way too much of a coincidence that two of them took their lives like that, and Missy lost her mind before she died?"
Again, he was right. That felt way too much like a pattern to be coincidence. But there were still missing pieces for me.
"I get where you'd connect all of that, and yeah, it makes a lot of sense to think that there's more to it. But there's still stuff that doesn't fit here. You and I aren't losing our minds, and neither is anybody else in our family. And what about Annabelle? I remember seeing her grave before out at Trinity, and she lived a fairly long life. From everything I've ever heard, she died of natural causes too." I pointed out.
Noah acknowledged that, "She did from everything I know too. But don't you think it's weird that Melvin and his brother and sister didn't change? They never became full Nephilim like the rest of us. They stayed human, and they died human. Why was that?"
"Yeah. I don't get that one either. You think it's connected to this too?" I asked him.
"Don't know, but the more I think about, the more I'm sure it's all connected with what's happening to us now. Maybe it's even something generational. If you really think into it, have you and I ever had real problems with our parents before?"
"Not really. We might've caused them some headaches, but nothing that bad before."
"Exactly. Dad and I have always been close, but now we get into fights so bad that it feels like I want to hurt him sometimes. That's not me Sevee. I'd never, ever want to hurt either of my parents, or any of our family. It feels like something dark is trying to control me when that happens." Noah explained.
You're kidding me, I thought.
He was describing the exact same thing that had started happening to me. Those feelings of wanting to hurt my mom during our argument. Getting into that fight with my dad over nothing but frustrations about what Missy was doing. Was this all the work of some demon behind the scenes?
"It's happening to me too." I confessed quietly, "It's like something's trying to control us, to rip us apart. But I don't get it either. How could we not know about this if it's been happening for so long?"
"Maybe it also has to do with not having that Angel around. Maybe it's made it easier for this demon to cover this stuff up." Noah suggested.
I was about to say something to that when a cold feeling suddenly overcame me. I sat very still, cold fear welling up within me. But it wasn't for me or my family. Instead, I had the distinct sense that someone else was in imminent danger.
Lenore.
I stood up without even realizing it, this feeling overtaking me like a freezing wave. Noah stood beside me, knowing right away that something was wrong.
"Sevee? What's going on?" he demanded.
"I have to go, right now!" I declared.
I didn't think twice as I ran out of that room, hurrying down the stairs and out the back door. I only vaguely heard Anna call out to me. I was transformed as I got into the yard, my now paws pounding on the ground as I sprinted into the woods. I had to get to the house, and fast.
Because if I didn't, Lenore was about to die.