Chapter Eighty-Three - Younger Sisters Can Do That Too

Joseph was driving the car along the road, daylight was in its final moments and the road was starting to turn dark, which made him turn on the car's headlights. He couldn't help but look around at all times, it was as if he expected that at any moment the car headlights to illuminate some monstrous face and some other creature straight out of a nightmare to jump in front of the car.

Joseph shook his head, forcing himself to push those thoughts away, he was with his family after all and he had to protect them, he doubled the attention he kept on the road and continued to drive, eager to meet his youngest daughter.

By his dide, Azalea studied the rifle in her hands with curiosity and deep interest, the weapon was incredibly advanced and yet it had a similar weight to the weapons Azalea had handled before, she pulled out the magazine with the bullets and took one of them, the caliber of the bullet was not small, it was at least a .50, but the bullet was different from the bullets Azalea knew.

As a police officer, Azalea was no stranger to guns at all, before being the police chief, she served as a regular police officer and a detective, so she knew guns well.

The bullets seemed to be made of some metal unlike any other she knew, it was neither steel nor copper, much less lead, in fact it was some kind of silver colored metal she had never seen before, she suspected there was some form of alloy, she put the bullet back in the clip and reinserted it in the weapon, leaving it ready for any emergency. She then took another three bullets from her pocket, agent Durand had told her that these were special, in case she found something that didn't fall with the regular bullets, these were made of something that looked more like rock than metal, the bullets emitted a constant greenish blue luminescence and were cool to the touch, in fact, Azalea felt more as if these bullets were stealing her heat, her hands felt as if holding a piece of cold ice, looking at these bullets also gave her a strange chill, a strange and cold chill that she felt inside her chest, she continued analyzing the strange bullet with morbid curiosity, it was as if her eyes were locked on the object, she turned it between her fingers and for a moment began to feel a strange familiarity with the ammunition, soon she also began to feel like the bullet was making a noise, she could have sworn she could hear a small whisper.

"How long to get there?" Aliyah questioned, snapping her mother out of her stupor of thoughts, Azalea put the bullet in her pocket in a hurry and tried to forget about the weird feeling, she was going to answer but her husband answered first.

"No honey we're almost there, something like five minutes and we get there. I thought you were asleep!" Joseph responded in a hopeful tone, as if he wanted to lighten the mood.

"Asleep? After everything I've learned I won't sleep for a while…" Aliyah replied in a bitter and hurt tone.

"You just need to calm down, we're safe now!" Azalea responded by trying to comfort her daughter. "Even if we can't get out of town yet, it won't be long before help gets through, so the army and other agencies will put an end to it all!"

"... How long?" Aliyah questioned in a low, dry tone.

"How long what?" replied azalea

"How long have you known about this, about the monsters?" The girl's tone was strange.

"...I'm a cop, Aliyah, so... from the beginning... there were rumors about things like that in the academy but at that time i still thought it was just that, rumors, a week after i started as an officer on the streets i found myself facing the first thing i didn't could explain... By God, we even have a special code for things like that! But what's happening today... something like that... things like that don't happen since the middle ages..." Azalea replied.

"…And you, Dad? Did you know about those things too? Did mom told you?"

"...Yes I knew..." Joseph sighed. "I knew even before I married your mother, there were things like that in Vietnam, strange things, things that moved through the jungle in a way that no man could ever move..."

"And Hanna? Did she already know too?"

"...I'm not sure, your sister... you know she's not completely... ordinary, right?" said Azalea. "I'm pretty sure she already knew one way or another..."

"So all that talk of dreaming about the future was serious…" Aliyah sighed. "Fuck this, you all knew about the existence of these things and no one ever thought to take a minute to tell me?"

"Language!" Joseph spoke.

"Look, Aliyah, I swear I've always wanted to talk to you about it, really, it would be so much better if you knew, but I had no idea how, what am I supposed to do? How does a person start talking about a subject like this?"

"I don't know, you could have sat with me someday and say, 'Hey Aly, remember those stories your grandmother used to tell? The ones about witches, demons, werewolves and all things like that? Soo, they are real! Be careful out there!'"

"And would you take this seriously?"

"...Probably not, but you should have at least tried!"

"Okay, I'm sorry about that..." Azalea replied in a genuine tone.

"So what? What the hell is going on in town anyway? Why are these things doing this all right now?"

"I don't have all the details myself, apparently some sort of dark religious group is to blame for all of this, according to what Bureau agents told me it was these cultists who erected the barrier that prevents us from completely evacuating the city."

"What is this Bureau? Some kind of secret government agency?" Joseph questioned this time.

"No, some kind of secret world-wide agency, as soon as I became police chief I was introduced to them but still, there is very little I know, what I do know is that they have all the authority to make decisions about things like that! Every time we find a case... aberrant... we have to report directly to them and hand the case completely into their hands, for years we were lucky not to have cases like this in our town and now we are facing the which could potentially be the worst situation of its kind since the witch hunt."

"Well we've arrived!" Joseph commented, everyone turned around and could already see the lake cottage in the distance with its lights on, even with the lack of energy in the city, the cottage still had the stock generated by the solar panels.

As soon as the car got a little closer, the three could see Hanna standing at the entrance of the house, Joseph parked and the three got out of the car, Hanna ran to them and hugged them all, which made everyone join in a big hug. The hug lasted almost a minute, it was as if the whole family had finally collapsed under all the pressure of that day and now supported each other to remain standing.

"Are you guys okay? Are you injured? Any bruises?" Hanna questioned as she inspected her parents and sister.

"Honey, we're fine! We managed to get here in one piece!" Azalea responded as she tried to calm her daughter down, she then looked around as if looking for something.

"Let's go in! You must be starving!" Hanna spoke with a relieved smile.

The four entered the door and went straight to the kitchen where Hanna had already prepared some sandwiches, they sat at the table and ate.

"So, how are things in town?" Hanna questioned, taking on a truly concerned tone. "Are things that bad?"

"There's a bunch of monsters running rampant downtown, a bunch of crazy cultists is kidnapping people, and some kind of weird barrier keeps everyone from getting in or out of our city! So yes! Things are so bad! Things are horrible!" Aliyah replied before her parents responded, it was obvious that the girl was still not completely well, it didn't take long for tears to run down her face.

Hanna hugged her older sister, trying to comfort her. "Don't worry Aly! This will soon be over! Soon everything will go back to normal!"

"I... I don't even know if David is okay!" Aliyah spoke as she hugged her sister.

"Easy, easy, he'll be fine... He's a tough guy!" Hanna spoke in a sweet tone.

"What are you doing, you silly girl?" Aliyah replied, still crying a little. "I'm the big sister here, if anyone should be calming someone down it should be me calming you..." She said, her worried sad tone giving way to a calmer and gentler voice.

"Younger sisters can do that too..." Hanna said with a smile on her face.

The two sisters continued to hold each other for a while until Aliyah was calm again, after they finished eating Hanna took the family to the living room, Azalea continued to look around all the time, before everyone sat down she finally spoke.

"Hanna, where is Locke?"