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Chapter 3

It has been four days since Mr. Crossroads was shot. Four days since the police found out who had shot him. Three days since he lost his life. Two days since his parents visited his hospital room. One day after everyone had left the hospital to get ready for Christmas dinner. He sat on his bed and stared into space, unable to focus on anything in particular. He barely noticed the presence that sat right next to him and the sound of his mother's voice.

"How is he doing?"

Dullminiur turned his head to look at his mother. "Better."

"Is he still refusing our help?" she questioned.

"Yes, he refuses us. That includes our help in taking down Crossroads," explained Dullminiur. "But I don't know how to deal with him."

His mother shook her head sadly. "I'll come visit him in a week."

"No! Don't do that! This is your only chance to fix everything," exclaimed Dullminiur frantically.

"Why not? You need your dad and uncle, don't you?" replied his mother. "You've grown up without them now. Your father doesn't have enough money to buy food and food for you. You shouldn't have to live like this anymore."

"And how exactly are we supposed to provide for ourselves? He's just going to spend whatever money he has on drugs and alcohol. Our family needs to stay together, not split apart."

Mrs. Crossroads sighed in frustration. "There must be another way to fix this. He won't listen to us, not after last time."

"We could send a letter of resignation…" suggested Dullminiur.

"Wouldn't that just anger him even more?"

"Well no, but at least we'd have tried."

Mrs. Crossroads rubbed her temples and frowned deeply. "Do you remember anything that he told you about what happened when he used his powers back during the war? I don't remember telling you about it. I can't think of anything…"

"Not really, no," confessed Dullminiur.

Mr. Crossroads came running in through the door. After closing it behind him, he started pacing nervously back and forth. He stopped when he heard his wife's question. "What did he say about his powers?"

Mr. Crossroads paused for a moment and sighed. "He said that he's always managed to find a way out of situations, but this time he didn't. The bullets missed his organs, but he's been hurt badly enough that if he hadn't gotten out, he would probably never have survived."

"What? How?! What do you mean he was hurt!?" asked Mrs. Crossroads worriedly, standing up from her seat, grabbing her husband by his shoulders and shaking him furiously.

Mr. Crossroads winced slightly, but didn't pull away. "He got shot in the head when he was fighting a vampire. His brain was severely damaged. I honestly don't know how he lived, but somehow he did. Now he refuses to leave his room or eat anything."

Dullminiur flinched slightly. It was obvious how much pain this subject caused his father, but it was clear that he was hiding something, and he was very clearly hiding it from them. For someone that knew their son almost completely, his father obviously had trouble hiding things from them. It was as if he had a hard time dealing with other feelings. It didn't surprise him that it would be this way with his mother. She was a loving person, but she struggled quite a lot with emotions and feelings like these. She couldn't hide anything from her husband. He would know if she was angry, upset, sad, or happy. So when she showed signs of sadness, she would cry. And when she cried, they would sit together on the couch and talk about all the things bothering them, sometimes for hours and sometimes in between tears. However, because his father was the one who made sure that she wasn't alone during those times, she usually chose not to talk about it much, preferring to keep everything bottled up inside of herself.

"When will he finally wake up?" questioned Mrs. Crossroads, concern dripping off of her voice. "I worry about him so much. He was so close to death the last time, and I'm terrified that something might happen to him again."

Her husband sighed tiredly, running a hand through his curly blonde hair. "We don't know. They don't seem to give much information about why he's like this. Maybe there is some kind of medical problem. Maybe he should be getting better soon."

Dullminiur felt bad for listening to their conversation