Dark Nights with Dark Purpose

Moonlight burned through the eternal darkness of night, flooding the black ocean with light that made it shimmer on the tranquil waves. Sand led up to a bamboo bungalow two hundred yards from the ominous shoreline.

Standing in the dark shadows of the moonlight was a figure, fifty feet from the water, facing the front windows of the oversized two-bedroom house. His tall thin figure, carefully placed out of the light, to obscure his face. Glimmering, with the faintest bit of light, was the man's satin white tie.

Bursting up from his back in the blackness, Michael leapt to a seated position with only a sheet covering his mid-section. His chest heaving from loss of breath as he tried to catch it while looking at the wall. Air forced its way in and out of his burning lungs as he tried to figure out where he was. His mind was trapped in a dream he could not remember and a location he had no recollection of.

As Michael desperately tried to regain his lost memory, Delilah reached over as she was awoken by his panicked arousal from his own sleep. She too was panicked from his own tension he let out into the dark room.

Breathing heavily with him, Delilah placed her soft hand gently on his back and slowly began to rub in comfort. She could feel his breathing slowing, but also felt his heart beating in two separate heartbeats along with hers.

"Shhh," she said consolingly with love. "It was another nightmare, baby. It's alright." She sat up and located his heartbeats with her other tender hand.

"No," he said abruptly. "Not this time. It is not a nightmare. Something is wrong." Pulling the sheet away he stood naked and urgently walked to the front window. His hand ripped open the white semi-translucent curtains to reveal the entire faintly lit beach.

"What is it, Michael?" she had some nervous tension in her voice. "Is Baal here?" even more tension leaked out in her tone.

Baal was Michael's opposite in this bizarre world, outside of everyone else's reality, that had taken both Michael and Delilah into its overwhelming fold. The only known person that stood a chance of ever killing Michael was Baal. He had tried to get to Michael before by finding Delilah's opposite and hoping she could kill Delilah. He wasn't successful and it was only a matter of time before he tried again.

"No. This is not Baal, either" he intently stared out into the moon's rays, searching around the shadows. He could feel the intense draw of something waiting outside the house.

Michael, that is a Michael from the future, had come back using his ability and changed history to save Delilah's life. To do this, he setup an elaborate plan over fifteen years that put this Michael in the situation to learn about his own abilities and how to control them. Every detail was seen ahead of time and planned out to the smallest detail, in order to make everyone safe. What it did is give Michael the ability to protect anyone he knew.

"Something is out there. Lurking in the shadows. Hiding from me." Michael closed his eyes and searched for any thoughts coming toward him from someone else's mind. They would typically float through his thoughts like a detailed image and let him see what the person was thinking.

"Is it something or someone?" Delilah sounded a little scared as she hurried over and wrapped her arms around him along with the sheet from the bed.

"Not sure. Something just feels wrong. Very wrong," he whispered very low and deep giving her a chill that ran up her spine. "Can you hear anyone's thoughts?"

Delilah had the ability to reach into people's minds and read each thought they had. Along with this, she could penetrate every area of their brain and control them like a puppet making them do whatever she wished.

Her eyes were shut, but they were spastically moving back and forth as if she were in REM sleep. Lifting her right hand from Michael's stomach, she reached out with her mind feeling into every shadow and dead zone that might have a mind hiding in it.

"Nothing," she said but it felt strange to her that she and Michael could both sense something yet there was no one out there. "Do you feel that?"

Michael's thoughts were exactly the same as hers. He could feel a presence, something menacing out in front of the house, in the sand. It was letting the darkness of the night protect its identity. He started to wonder who or what would want to, so badly, stay hidden in the shadows.

"Yes. It does not want to be seen or heard, but it does want us to know that it is here." His mind raced looking for answers deep in his mind. Reaching down he put his hands on Delilah's, "Hold on."

His eye closed and both of his hands twitched as they held hers. She could feel them twitch and knew exactly what was about to happen. This is something he had done to get them to the place, in the Caribbean, they were at now. It had become common place to travel this way.

Air blew onto both their faces like a whirlwind as light blue electricity circled around a white cloud. As quickly as it all came around them it had disappeared into nothing and their feet were planted into the fine sand, right in front of the house, staring back at the front floor to ceiling windows. Night engulfed them from every side with a hint of the moonlight behind them.

To the right of the house, underneath a palm tree, Michael could see the faint glow of something white turning toward them. From the outline he thought it was Baal, but nothing felt the same as before when Baal was around. The feeling he had was something oddly different. Baal's energy was strongly angry and highly negative in nature. This was both negative and positive and didn't have the same angry feel to it.

Delilah could feel something, but her senses weren't as tuned as Michael's. All she could feel was something standing in the shadows not wanting to be seen.

"Can you enter his mind?" Michael didn't want to rush up to him without knowing what exactly he was getting himself and Delilah into.

Searching the shadows for a mind to investigate, she couldn't see anything open to her. It was as if something was blocking her purposely from seeing into or even acknowledging a mind to see.

"He can do the same thing you can with blocking me out," with a hint of frustration in her voice. Michael didn't know if it was directed at the comment toward him or the silhouette in the shadows.

Standing there watching the glistening white tie, Michael couldn't decide how he wanted to go about confronting whoever it was watching them so intently. His first thought was to just move, as he called it when he transferred himself from one place instantaneously to another, directly in front of him and just be done with it. Of course, he was still naked.

He grabbed hold of Delilah tightly and thought of the only of being back in the house as he closed his eyes and focused. With a flurry of air whipping around them, they were back inside the house. Reaching down beside the bed, he picked up his jeans and slipped them on over his naked body.

"Stay here," he said with extreme force in his voice. Delilah knew he meant it and had no plans to go anywhere. Gently she looked at him both with acknowledgement and loving care.

Deep in the back of his mind he saw the image of the palm tree out front of the house where the man with the white tie was standing. His eyes turned a faint glowing blue as Delilah watched him disappear from the room.

Michael appeared out front standing by the palm tree ready to confront the man with all the defense he had ready. Surprisingly, the man was nowhere to be seen. Michael spun around looking in every direction with no figure to satisfy his need to know.

Walking quickly toward the ocean through the soft sand, he thought the only possible direction the man could go was up or down the beach. Both directions showed no sign of the shadowed silhouette that stood moments before at the palm tree.

Standing there he stared out into the moonlight reflecting off the water wondering where it was possible for someone, besides himself, to disappear. There was no reflection of any shadow swimming through the night surf.

Michael's feelings had always led him in the right direction. For as long as he could remember he always followed the feelings that felt right and strayed away from anything that didn't. This time, something wasn't right, and it was welling up like acid from the pit of his stomach.

"Delilah," he whispered angrily to himself. His eyes began to glow brightly as the anger pushed up into his mind. Thinking of being next to Delilah, he could feel the wind pick up and blow forcefully as he moved back inside the house.

On the edge of the bed, she sat staring into the corner of the dark house. Her concentration didn't break for a single instant while he appeared in the room. A feeling burst up inside of him as he spun around to look in the corner of the room.

Tears fell down Delilah's cheeks, but she couldn't even close her eyes enough to blink. Something was holding them open and keeping them pinned in the corner.

Michael and Delilah could hear a soft growl that grew into a thunderous echoing rumble. Two eyes began to glow bright intense red like burning flames. As they both covered their ears from the excruciating pain of the growl, it stopped, and the eyes vanished with the sound.

On his knees holding his ears he stared at the open spot where the figure was standing. Blood trickled down his upper lip and seeped out of his ears. Looking down at his palms they were covered in red wetness.

Remembering Delilah and thinking she might be going through the same, he turned to see red running down the cheeks of her face where the tears should have been. Rushing over to her with his hands out, she wrapped herself into his body.

Her head was throbbing in pain and all she could think to do was cry as the tears washed over the top of the blood. Buried into his stomach, the tears and blood both spilled down this stomach and he could feel rage building up inside of himself.

"Michael," she pathetically whispered to him. "Let it go, baby. You know you have to let it go."

He knew she was right about letting go of the blind hatred building up. Taking a few deep breaths and releasing them slowly, his heart rate adjusted along with his breathing. Delilah could feel the pace of his double heart beat slow and it quickly calmed her at the same time.

"What was that, Michael?" the blood had washed all down both cheeks making her look like a painted clown of sorts. Her mind was racing with thoughts of Baal figuring out new abilities and using them just to torment the two of them in their time of relaxation.

Michael's head turned to the front windows and peered out them at the faint light of the moon and then endless surf. Whoever it was, he knew he had to find out as soon as he could. This person was much more powerful than Baal had ever been. He also noticed that this figure didn't come and go with Baal's traditional black smoke. This was someone who knew way too much about the both of them, all the way to where it was, they were vacationing at, which neither of them had told anyone anything about.

"We need to find out," his mind was analyzing every detail of the events that happened since their visitor arrived. "He can do something similar to moving like I can," she looked up at his face and could see his eyes glowing dimly.

For the first time since they had left the NSA buildings in Virginia, she was terrified of what was waiting beyond the walls of the house. Although they had to find the other five, nothing meant as much to her as Michael did. Just being with him made her feel at peace with her own life no matter what happened to them. Though, this new visitor changed everything they had been thinking.

Setting her back gently to the bed, Michael pulled away and reached own to the floor to pick up his white t-shirt. Pulling it down over his head, his brain was working overtime on the problem at hand. The ability to immobilize someone's target or enemy was very powerful. He didn't even have a change to pull his mind away from the pain long enough to think of anything that could have prevented it from happening.

"In the morning," he finally spoke up with a very low tone, "we should go talk to Matt and Bob. They should know about this just in case this person thinks like Baal does."

Delilah put her hands over her face and leaned her boney elbows onto her knees. Adrenaline was coursing through every vein of her body as her arms and legs shook even while sitting down. Natural as it was to have adrenaline flushed through someone's system, it could be an uneasy feeling if it didn't happen often enough to get used to.

Noticing that his body was in a state of adrenaline shock, Michael sped to the bed dropping down to one knee. Closing his eyes, deep in the back of his mind he asked his friends, the matter he pictured as little Weebles, to calm and relax for they were making her uneasy. Softly, his hands were touching her thighs and he focused his emotions toward her. As they always did for him, they yelled in agreement and began to pull out lawn chairs. One of them even whipped out a tanning mirror and placed it under his chin.

Delilah laughed as she read his mind and saw how he pictured the particle's time of relaxing. She had seen it before when he would take apart a blender or a fridge, for practice, and then ask them all to come back together again. To him, they were always very happy and very eager to help out.

Tension lifted from almost all of her muscles simultaneously as he pulled back away from her and cautiously stood up watching her. Her eyes were half closed by the time he had made it two steps backward.

"That's better than a sleeping pill," even her voice was slow and groggy. She could feel her mind slowing down and the only thing she wanted was to lay back and sleep.

A grin crossed over his face as she began to recline onto the bed and finish shutting her hypnotic crystal blue eyes. He could still see them even when they were closed although it was only in the images that shot through his mind like shooting stars.

Images of slow peaceful rest and the attention of only sleep were passing through Delilah's mind now. She was starting to drift off to a comfortable night's rest. By the time he had reached the other side of the bed, she was fast asleep in a world that had only soft fine sand and magnificently blue waterfalls in it.

Michael's mind had only the images of Baal, Sydney and this new person, as a shadow, standing firmly in front of him and Delilah. Behind them was a group of painfully yelling and screaming people with blood running out of every orifice on their bodies. He shook his head to rid himself of the horribly detailed images.

Deciding, just in case, he would sleep with his jeans and t-shirt on for the rest of the night, he lay down on the bed and curl her up into his much larger arms. Her sweetly fragrant hair was in his face, but she didn't mind. The smell gave him a feeling of being home.

Breathing in and out he could feel her chest heave and the air rush through her lungs. The sound, like her eyes, was hypnotic and tranquil. His overactive mind and body began to relax while his eyes slowing closed to the melody that was Delilah sleeping.

He began by thinking about the way they were hunting lobster earlier in the day with a piece of awning floating in the water. The shade drew the lobster for shelter, and they were easy pickings. From there he began to drift away.

In the darkness, right away, he could feel he wasn't alone. Someone else was there watching him carefully, sure to notice and observe each movement. His feelings gave him away and Michael knew who it was.

"Baal," waiting patiently for the black smoke.

Almost like clockwork, the black smoke rose out of the darkness, "How did you know it was me, Michael?" but he already knew it was the same as how he knew where to find Michael. "Do you have time to play today?" A laugh echoed down what sounded like a very large dimly lit corridor or cave.

"Is there any originality left to you, Baal? Or are you all tapped out on brain power?" cutting deep and trying to provoke a reaction. He wanted answers that he knew Baal would be able to give him.

Growling deeply which reverberated around the dreamlike cave, "You should not push buttons, Michael. It is poor manners you know."

Closing his eyes, Michael asked his friends to form into a light at the top of the cave. He had become use to these half dreams and half reality nightmares. In his mind, the way he understood it, this was the same as splitting, but because he was technically asleep the dream portion was the location. It was similar, but not the same as, sitting in the middle of time with a blank slate and painting whatever your imagination could come up with. Of course, in-between time was a real place where real things were created. These dream worlds existed somewhere else that he did not grasped yet.

"Why is it that you like caves so much? I have begun to wonder if you see yourself as a Vampire," he gave Baal a confused look.

Baal walked would the black sand in his patented leather black shoes that matched his black suit with white pinstripes and white tie with red pinstripes. "He does know how to dress," Michael thought to himself.

"I never really gave it that much thought," shrugging with his arms in the air.

"I am sure that is not the first time," hoping to get a reaction in the right direction. On cue, Baal's growl shot down the cave and reverberated all around the chamber.

"I would not say such things if I were you!" he was yelling with spirited anger. It was just the reaction Michael was hoping for.

"Right. What are you going to do? Try and burn me again?" he gave him a little sneer as he mouthed out the words.

Baal's body turned into a giant bursting fireball that rocketed towards him. Michael laughed as this was one of the reactions he was waiting for. Quickly, he closed his eyes and asked his little friends to slow down time. Blue electric light sparked around a white cloud that warped through the back of his mind. Opening his eyes, he saw Baal was some burning flames on a collision course with him. In the middle of the fire, Baal was reaching out one hand as the flames torched around him.

The entire seen made Michael laugh loudly in the cave as it reminded him of a comic book image or even something from a movie. What to do from this point was the real question. Water was too simple, and he wanted to make Baal even more agitated with him. An image of a giant cream pie passed through his mind. Although funny, it was just a bit too childish to create the right reaction.

Just as he made it around the floating fireball, an idea popped up in his mind. It was the right one to provoke the correct reaction. Closing his eyes, he asked his friends to create the image twenty feet in front of Baal as he raised his trembling hand out in front of him.

Out in front of his hand, a ten-foot-tall red fire extinguisher appeared out of thin air. The six-foot-long black hose extended out with the delivery nozzle on the end. So overwhelmingly pleased with himself, he couldn't help but smile at his creation as he opened his eyes and saw the fixture.

Asking his friends to speed up time, Michael pictured the canister extinguishing the fire-retardant foam. It began to spray slowly as time was still moving too slow, but as his friends sped up time the foam met Baal square in the front and doused his face along with the rest of his body.

Crashing into the red metal, Baal upended and spun deeper into the cave with his silver headed black cane flying off out of sight. White foam covered his entire body as he lay in a pool of it face down.

Slowly he brought himself to his feet staggering back and forth as if he was drunk. Shaking off his disorientation he could hear Michael's laughter bursting throughout the dark cave. His hand wiped extinguishing foam and black sand from his eyes and face.

"I would say you should see your face, but I do not think you would like it very much," Michael was having a hard time catching his breath and his stomach hurt from laughing so hard.

Baal raised his finger pointing it at Michael. A burning red pulse, which was something new, shot out from his hand and hit Michael squarely sending him fifteen feet in the opposite direction where he landed on his back.

Laughter was still bellowing out of Michael. His landing was a little painful on the small of his back and his hip, but he couldn't help the seeing the image of Baal getting up from the pool of foam with his face covered in it and the black sand.

Baal marched toward his preoccupied prey with both hands out ready to make his next move. Just as he wound his arm back to throw it forward with some new ability, Michael's hand rose and let loose a pulse that sent him flying backward in the air and right down into the foam pool again.

"Okay, stop," Michael's laughter was fading into a chuckle. "We could go at this for hours, but nothing will be more priceless than your face coming up out of the foam," chuckling a bit harder.

"You will not think it so funny when He comes to deal with you," Baal's eyes burned glowing red.

Finally, just what Michael was looking to get out of him. He knew he was speaking of the person that came into his house that evening and watched them from the beach in the darkness of the shadows.

"Who?" he wanted to play coy and let Baal spill every ounce of information unsolicited.

"The one that has almost no desire more than to see you suffer in pain and agony before your slow death," Michael stopped laughing and Baal smiled. "Oh yes! That is right, Michael. He will be coming for you, but until then it will just be a game of torment and excruciating pain."

Baal's words sank in so deep Michael could feel them cutting through his chest cavity and into his heart. It was all too obvious what this person's actions needed to be in order to cause him that type of pain.

"If that is true, Baal, what makes you think I will every let you leave this cave alive?" Baal's smile quickly vanished from his face. It seemed that he had not thought of that as an outcome for the night's events.

Stammering for the right words, "Kill me, if you wish. It will not matter to Him. Me dead or alive has no bearing on your fate one way or the other," he said as he wiped the foam from his suit and made his way into the shadows to collect his cane.

The question running through Michael's mind was, "Who, besides Baal, would even care if I was dead or alive?"

Walking back over to Michael with his cane in hand, "I see you have a lot to ponder. Then, unless you do wish to kill me, I will be on my way." Baal started to walk toward the opposite end of the cave into the shadows. "Oh, and Michael, He will not be as talkative as I." A sinister laugh bounced out of him as his normal black smoke engulfed him and then itself.

Troubled, he stood there staring at the walls of the cave and let his minds travel over the information Baal had decided to share. It was clear this meeting was not by accident. Every single step taken throughout the night was meant to happen, working toward some other devious purpose.

The simplest question to answer was, "How?" The only thing that would mean enough to Michael in order to put him into the state of pain that Baal described was to destroy every person that he loved. Taking all that away would leave an infinite void in the middle of his heart and that would be the cause of every ounce of pain he was supposed to endure.

He wanted to stay in the cave and just think about every possible way they would be able to come at each person he cared about the most. It wasn't the right time for it, though and he knew it. It was time to go back and hold onto Delilah. At some point, in some other reality, he had lost her, and it was enough to make him create an elaborate plan to prevent it from happening to him, in this reality.

Closing his black eyes slowly, the cave light dimmed and was gone. Faint light in the cave disappeared along with the cave itself. Then the sounds of the ocean began to crash from a distance. By the time the waves were rolling loudly, Michael's eyes were opening with the smell of Delilah's hair under his heavily breathing nostrils.

Slowly, trying hard not to wake Delilah, his body bent as he rose to a seated position. To his right he stared out the front window into the moonlight on the ever-changing waves. So many questions and only one real answer now plagued him.

"As if my mind needed more things to worry about," he thought to himself as he swung his still trembling legs over the edge of the four-poster bed. The night on the beach was astoundingly beautiful, but it had lost most if not all of its luster for Michael.

He could split himself into several copies of himself, but the truth was he could not be in everyplace at once. This was a problem that needed to be solved and this time the answers would not be laid out on a silver platter for him to grab as he wished.

His mind just wouldn't let go of any possibility, "There has to be a way."

"A way to do what?" Delilah asked from her side as she was reading his mind.

Light began to peak its head out from under the horizon as a glow of extremely faint light was beginning to take over for the moon. Michael wanted to get to everyone he knew and cared about as fast as possible as the visions of horrible tragedy paced through his head.

He wasn't sure he wanted to tell her. If he did, she might become too scared to even leave his side.

Delilah slowly rolled over to face him with rising dawn. Reaching out she put her gentle hands on his back to let him know he wasn't alone. She wanted him to tell her, so he didn't have to torment himself as the only one that knew whatever it was. The frustration was written all over the tension that contracted every muscle in his back.

Searching out his mind in order to read it and know this new secret, she couldn't find anything open for her to read anywhere. He was blocking her out and she knew it. He did this when burdening anyone else was too much for him to even conceive.

"Seriously, what is it?" she was play the tone of an angel card on him.

"Baal," his voice had a bass tone and crackled. "Baal and I fought again tonight," staring out the thick glass of the front windows at the brightening light.

She jumped up from the placing her chest against his back and wrapping her trembling arms around him. "In a dream?"

Moving inside of dreams to imaginary places had been going on for a couple of weeks now. Baal had been messing with Michael as much as he could. Baal couldn't move like Michael, but he had found a way to piggyback on his dreams and project anyplace he deemed worthy of a battle and sometimes verbally aggressive yelling matches.

Michael preferred the unbound confrontations in the chaotic dream worlds to anything happening in the real world. At least in an imaginary world there was no one else around to be injured or worse.

"Yes," turning on the bed to face her. "I poked and prodded him into spilling some details. There is someone or something coming for me, but he will do it through all of you." Burning hated and passion stared down into her crystal blue eyes.

"You mean," she paused, and it wasn't for effect. She needed some clarity from the shock that just passed over her like one of the breaking waves outside the window. "You mean they are coming for all of us at once?" Confusion was overpowering her facial muscles.

Shaking his head, "No. They are coming for you, Bob, Remy, the kids, Matt and my parents. They know it is the only way to truly hurt me." With the back of his hand he caressed her cheek. Goosebumps popped up all over her face for a brief moment as her eye welled up and looked just like a puppy's sad eyes. "Do not worry, love. I will not let anything happen to you. I promise."

"I know that," she laid her head in his lap. "I'm worried about everyone else." Her mind was running around what it would be like to have to go to a funeral for anyone of the people she now loved. The only other people she had in the world, her parents, died while she was locked up in the hellhole sized room that kept her for ten very long and painfully alone years.

Combing his fingers through her fine dark brown hair, he looked back out the windows. It was just about time for the sun to crest over the horizon and finally start the light of a new day. To Michael that meant it was almost time to run out and collect his family as fast as he could.

"Get dressed," he said as he bent down to her forehead and placed his lips lovingly against her tender skin. "We should get everyone together in one place. I do not want to leave anything to chance as I explain what is going on."

Delilah rolled off the other side of the bed onto her feet and pulled on her jeans, bra and sweatshirt. Carefully scouring the floor around the bed and into the dining area, she was having a hard time finding her sandals even though she knew me threw them off in that general vicinity when she and Michael decided to get frisky on the mahogany table. Finally, she found one on a side table and the other under a lounge chair in the opposite corner.

Michael slipped his flip-flops on and watched Delilah do the same as he approached her swiftly, moving with purpose. Grabbing her face in his hands, he leaned in and his mouth pressed up against hers with such passion she felt a little weak in the knees. He closed his eyes and pictured Bob and Remy deep in his mind and he could feel the air rush up all around him. As he pulled away from the kiss and watched her eyes open, all around them was his own house.

He dropped his hands from Delilah's face and called out, "Bob?" No answer came back, but the house was so big inside and then there were the grounds outside to deal with. "Remy?!"

"Bob! Remy!" she followed suit.

Michael was becoming fiercely impatient by the lack of progress. With the idea in his mind that this person could have already made his way to them and either killed them or taken them, it was that much more difficult.

Crushing his eyelids down, Michael's hands vibrated as six other Michaels popped up around the room. Delilah spun around watching them appear virtually out of nowhere. Opening his eye, a sinister grin of accomplishment crossed his lips as he looked at himself all around the room.

"Odd," he took a moment to wave to himself and then saluted himself from the other six. "No time to waste. Let's go find them. You stay with me."

She gave him an inquisitive stare and looked around the room shrugging with her hands in the air. Her mind was going a mile a minute with how exactly to say 'Duh'.

"Which one of you?" giggling as she asked it.

"Good point," he put his hand on his chest. "This me."

Shaking her head, she pulled a cylindrical black tube out of her jeans change pocket. Taking off the cap, she rolled up candy red lipstick. Smearing it onto her lips, she walked quickly up to the Michael with his hand on his chest and planted a lipstick kiss on the side of his cheek.

"There," smiling proud of herself.

Snatching her hand, he pulled her upstairs to the long hallways of bedrooms. Another Michael following behind them as the rest split up downstairs and outside.

"How confused are you right now?" she asked with a crazy grin on her face.

"Pretty confused. It is hard to keep us all straight." Michael's mind was following two split up downstairs at opposite ends of the enormous house and three more outside on the bright green grass to go along with the one that was upstairs headed for his own wing.

This was the first time he had tried to do more than four of himself at one time. Seven minds all with their own thoughts shared amongst a group was hugely confusing and utter chaos. It was like being in a five-foot room with six other people and everyone was yelling every single word that came to mind.

Tugging at her hand, Michael moved down the oversized hallway leading to Bob and Remy's bedroom suite. At this point they were both quiet not sure what they would or wouldn't find.

Closing her eyes as she was pulled toward the room, she could not feel or hear any minds open anywhere around her. At this point, admittedly, her range was not very far away for this ability.

Letting go of her quivering hand, they split up and searched in opposite directions. Michael headed for the bathroom, while Delilah walked into the sitting room and walk-in closet.

Woman's clothes were strewn all over the closet floor and shoes were everywhere. It was the typical closet of a normal woman living in such a huge house with unlimited closet space. No one was hiding around the room that she could see.

Michael checked the shower, bathtub, toilet, and cupboards with no one hiding. Looking around, his only thought for whatever reason was that they were hiding. Not in the bathroom, though. Walking into the walk-in closet where Delilah was, he thought of something. In the middle of the closet where two back-to-back built in dressers. On top was a fancy brass lamp that ran the length of the dressers, which were already chest high. On the base were to round brass buttons. Michael pressed the one on the right and a cracking as swooshing sound came from behind him at the back end of the closet. It was a Panic Room.

Catching Delilah's ridiculous stare, "What? I installed it for them as peace of mind with everything going on." He didn't want them to worry for their safety she he added many things like this all around the house. "Speaking of, I know they are hiding someplace."

Michael, downstairs on the opposite end of the house close to the kitchen, half jogged up to a grandfather clock just outside the kitchen in the hallway. A mirror on the opposite side of the door was shatter into several large pieces on the floor. Opening the front door on the black clock, he pulled down on the right chromed weight and it dropped to the bottom of the case. On the face, he pushed the '7' three times.

Moving out almost silently from the wall, the clock quickly slid to his right revealing a set of steps running very steeply downward. Light was projecting up the steps enough to see the lights were at least on.

"Bob?" he yelled down and waited with his head cocked so his ear was pointed down.

"Yeah!" Bob's voice never sounded so good to him before.

"Good to here!" he said as he closed his eyes.

Michael, in the bedroom, grabbed Delilah and moved her with him downstairs to the clock as all the other Michaels showed up around them. Deep in his mind, he let go of all of them except the one holding Delilah.

"Wow! What are we doing here?" she asked as he held her up.

Pointing down the stairs, "They are down in this Panic Room." He gave her a 'so, leave me alone' look and headed down the steps.

Following him, she couldn't help but think of all the crazy James Bond type of creations he had. It wasn't enough to just take one and implement it into a house. No, that would be too small for Michael. He had to take it to the next level. In this case, they emerged into a giant apartment under the kitchen.

"Oh, wow! This is pretty amazing!" she said with an 'I'm sorry for doubting' tone to her voice.

The main room looked like a 25' x 25' living room. About twelve-foot ceilings ran up and it had a full kitchen, four bedrooms with bathrooms, a small theater, pool room and library and a laundry room. Delilah's mind kept running over the same phrase, 'Never Small'.

Remy Stansell was sitting, at here 5'4" frame, on the couch with the kids perched on either side of her arms around them both. Bob Stansell was hovering in the middle of the large room and watching as Michael and Delilah stood at the entrance to the apartment looking around.

Bob's ears had dried blood marks running down to his neck. Right away, Michael and Delilah both knew what it was from. A dark crescent shaped swelling circle was under his right eye.

Looking over at the terrified and trembling children, Delilah noticed red marks around Remy's left wrist. It looked as if she had been forcefully grabbed against her will. Immediately, she focused into Remy's mind and saw the horrific happenings in the house not fifteen minutes before they arrived.

"Oh, dear God! That would terrify me!" Delilah said as she turned to Michael with a frightful expression on her face.

"He was here, right?" he asked as he saw the fear in her eyes which looked more dim than usual.

"Yes, they both were," she clutched her arms around him.

Michael's right hand began to twitch, and his breathing became fast and shallow as images buzzed though the back of his mind. A man in a black mask with glowing red eyes forced all of them to kneel in front of him as a painful sound created pain so bad in all of them, they could not stand.

Behind the man in the mask was a dragon like creature growling and breathing fire every so often. Blood trickled out of noses and ears and the pain increased while he grabbed onto Remy's arm to leave a mark. Bob tried to stop him, but he just threw a powerful backhand that sent Bob flying across the floor and into the wall where the mirror broke by the kitchen entrance.

With the children writhing on the floor in pain, "Tell him this," the man's voice was dark, crackling and very low, "he can't protect you all every single moment of the day. Tell him this will go on until I decide to end it by ending each one of you," he said forceful injection.

Smoke wrapped up from the floor around the massive dragon and the man walked into it. As it collapsed on itself, they were both gone.

Michael turned to Bob, "Did he say his name?" His panic was elevated as he placed his hand on Bob's shoulder. "Did you see his face?"

Bob shook his head, "It was too dark, and he was wearing a mask. He never said his name or who he was talking about." He walked over and sat huddled up with his family. "I'm guessing you think this was about you?"

Delilah, still holding onto Michael, said, "No. He wants all of us."