SIXTEEN

I walked up to my room and stopped short of opening the door all the way.  The voices were muffled, so I couldn’t tell who was there until I was able to peek inside and see who it was. Hunter had a grip on Benjamin’s neck, pushing him against the wall.  As soon as I laid eyes on Hunter and Benjamin, their voices became clear.

“I warned you to leave her alone!”  Hunter growled.

“As you can see, I’m back and I’m not leaving.  No one orders me around!”  Benjamin tried to push Hunter away, but Hunter didn’t move at all.

Benjamin glanced toward the door, stared right at me and laughed, then he looked at Hunter and in a sarcastic tone, he said, “Wish I could stay and watch you explain this, but time to go.”

As he often did, Benjamin vanished and Hunter turned to find me, now inside of my room, with the door shut behind me, and completely speechless.

Hunter still looking at me said, “Sorry.  I will go.  He should stay away for a while, and even if he doesn’t, seems like you are able to see him again, so you will be fine.”

He walked toward me, well, really towards the door.

“Wait!  You can’t go that way.  Kelly and Andrew are downstairs.”

“They won’t see me leaving,” he assured me.

“No, wait,” I practically begged him.

“I asked them about… you know, my real dad.”

“Good.  What did you find out?” he asked.

I looked at him, sure that I had something to my advantage, something to bargain with, “How about you tell me what you are and I tell you what I found out?”

He looked pale and annoyed.  He started walking toward the door again.  “You clearly don’t want my help.  I’m leaving.”

“Ugh.  No, wait.”

He stopped walking but didn’t say anything.

“You know, you can’t expect me to trust you with this… stuff…if I know you are keeping secrets of your own.”

“Well, if you want my help, it doesn’t really seem that you have a choice.”

“Fine!”  I snapped.

“Okay, so are you going to tell me?” he asked, so sure that I was ready to spill all my family secrets and beg for help.

“No, I’m not.  But if you ever feel like answering my questions, I might answer yours.”

“Alright.  Your choice!”

He opened the door, but before he walked out, he turned to me and said, “Carolyn needs your help.  I’m sure you are not that selfish, to just leave her trapped where she is now, are you?”

I just stared at him, not giving him the satisfaction of answering to that.

He slammed the door and left.  He must have been more cautious once he actually left my room, because Kelly and Andrew had both still been downstairs and neither one of them came bursting through my door wanting to know what Hunter was doing there…

Hunter was right though.  I wasn’t selfish, at least not to that extent. 

This was a time I could have used Hunter’s help to keep Benjamin away while I summoned Carolyn.  It took me a while to focus on her, mostly because I was afraid that Benjamin would sneak up on me.  After a while, and I mean a loooong while, I was able to hear her, but not see her.

“You are going to have to focus much harder than that,” she said in a weak voice.

“But I put much less effort into calling you the other times.”

She sounded desperate.  “The other times I wasn’t trapped like this.  This time, I just can’t find my way back to you or anyone else outside of the Otherworld.  I always end up in the same place and…” her voice started cutting in and out and at that point I couldn’t make out anything she was saying.

After a couple of hours I gave in and called Hunter’s cell phone.  He may have not answered because it was too late, but I assumed that most likely he was just trying to teach me a lesson… Until he just showed up in my room.

Of course, I almost had a heart attack and I was mad that he kept sneaking up on me like that.  Sometimes it was even worse than Benjamin.  At least with Benjamin, I expected it.

He sighed.  “Look, Benjamin keeps trying to get back here, so last chance.  You either talk to me and let me stay here or you are on your own.”

“Umm.  Did you just suggest you stay in my room?”

“Yes,” he said with a serious expression.

I laughed.  “Ha!  For how long exactly?”

“Until he is taken care of.”

“You are gonna have to do better than that.”

“Fiine!  You think you can handle it, you still have no idea what Benjamin really is, do you?”

I shook my head.  It is not like I didn’t try to find out… but most of my research led to unreliable information… fiction stuff.

“He is a demon… that is why he is stronger than most, that is why he is able to touch things when Carolyn can’t.”

“Right!  You are just trying to scare me so that I will let you stay.  What do you care about what happens to me anyway?”

I could tell he was tense and he sounded angry when he answered me.  “Let’s say it is because I got a conscience.”

“You are only staying here if I can trust you, and the only way is for you to tell me what happened to you.”

He mumbled something, sounded like he was cussing.

“Fine!  A word about this to anyone and I wash my hands of anything that happens to you.  Understood?”

“Sounds like the trust issue goes both ways.”

“Yeah, well, guess I will have to take a chance.  But I need to know what you found out about your dad so that we can maybe figure out what Benjamin wants.”

I agreed.  “You go first.”  I said.

He shook his head in aggravation.

“Do you remember Chase?

My mind was blank until he mentioned middle school and summer camp.

I nodded.

Chase used to be Hunter’s best friend back in middle school.  One summer they went on a camping trip with Hunter’s brother, who I hadn’t heard much about after that summer.

Story is… Hunter’s brother, Mark, took them on this summer camp.  One day he apparently had too much to drink, because later on he was charged with child neglect among other things.  Point is, he wasn’t keeping an eye on the boys who ended up going for a swim and Chase didn’t come out alive.  Apparently, neither did Hunter…. At least not right away.