Chapter 44

Ned stood slack-jawed for a few seconds before he fell against the wall of the closet. "Holy fuck. I mean, sorry, I know ya don't like that kinda--"

"It's okay, Ned," said Cassie. "I almost reacted that way myself when I figured it out."

"It's just ... shit ... an' ya think Victor never knew the hornets' nest he was stirrin' up?"

"How could he? There was no way he could have known that what he was doing to Stephanie was the very thing that awakened her latent psychic powers!"

"Are ya really sure 'bout this?" Ned insisted.

"I'm sure, Ned. It's happening to me now. Stephanie either transferred some of her ability to me or she awakened it in me."

"Oh man."

"It wasn't until I started having sex with multiple partners that it really started to come out. But now you see why Victor so horribly caged up the real Stephanie in her own mind."

"Yeah, I do," said Ned, clenching his fist. "Shit. It's not jus' that she could resist him, is it?"

"If that was it, he could let her go and make her forget it ever happened," Cassie said. "Once he awakened her powers, she not only could resist him, she could help anyone else resist him."

Ned nodded. "Yeah, I get it. And then there goes his cushy li'l setup in Haven."

"Twenty-one years, Ned! He's been doing this horrible thing in Haven for over two decades. And ... and now I'm the one that could stop him. If he doesn't find me out first."

"He won't, babe."

"But for all I know, he already suspects. Maybe Heather had a vision about me last night, or she was mistaken that Melinda was the one in danger."

"Cassie, we're gonna stop 'im cold. I got a plan."

Cassie let out a sharp breath. "No."

Ned smiled. "All I need is 'bout ten minutes an' you'll be changin' yer mind."

"I don't mean it that way, I mean I don't want to talk about it now."

"I jus' think we--"

"Later, Ned. I have to get out of here before I get saddled with my family's social engagements." She paused and softened her voice. "I promise, I'll come by later and we can find some place to talk."

"Okay, babe." Ned sighed. "I'm jus' worried about ya, ya know? I wanna make sure yer safe. Yer money can only go so far."

Cassie had the wild notion that Ned had done all this just to protect her, as if he had known that she would be in danger. It destroyed her ability to maintain her anger towards him. All she had left was a lingering frustration, but it was nowhere near enough.

"That's sweet, Ned," Cassie said in a soft voice.

Ned wiped his face with his hand, his cheeks burning. "Look, um, I got jus' one question. What is it 'bout the sex with different people that's doin' it? What's the gimmick there?"

"I don't know exactly, but it's just like the link. Maybe the variety makes the energy better. There must be some sort of underlying principle to it. Jason might find it when he has a chance to go through the rest of Elizabeth's journal."

The wall behind Ned rumbled with muffled flowing and splashing noises, and floorboards creaked overhead. "I better go, babe, neanderparents are stirrin' in their caves."

"Okay, I'll come by as soon as I'm done with the costumer. Bye, Ned."

"Bye, Cassie."

Jason was up early as well, thinking that if he could get to some of his chores early, he might impress his mother enough to earn some time to himself. He avoided spending too much time on the computer that morning, but there was one thing he had to do. He had to perform his weekly father check.

It was not much, and he doubted it would ever reveal anything even if there were any connection between his father and events in Haven. Nevertheless, he performed his usual internet searches for anything about his father, his closest colleagues, the new hospital wing construction project, or the hospital itself.

That morning, like it did every Saturday, it turned up nothing unusual.

Jason never knew whether to be relieved or frustrated. His father's connection to the Darkness still eluded him. His Aura was the most unusual of any he had seen. Some of the patterns still defied explanation. More mysterious and worrying was the fact that his father helped him on occasion. He wondered if he could put that to the test.

Jason shut down his computer and exited his room. He heard muffled noises from the basement, likely his father at work breaking down the cardboard boxes that had accumulated. Henry tended to jump on weekend chores early after a fight with Audrey.

Jason set his jaw and marched down the basement stairs. His father did not even turn around when he spoke. "You're early, son."

Jason paused at the bottom step. His father's Aura had changed again. The patterns were more ordered now, the slithery movements of the black miasma moving to a regimented beat of his father's own unfathomable design.

In the wake of the silence, his father turned around.

"I want to get some of them done early," Jason said in a neutral voice as he walked towards his father.

Henry nodded. The corners of his mouth edged upward. "Got someplace to go?"

"I just have things I want to do today is all."

"Hmm." His father turned away and gestured towards a pile of flattened cardboard pieces. Jason saw the nearby ball of twine and understood his task. He was well into his work, one bundle neatly tied on the basement floor next to him, when his father finally added, "Lot's of luck with that today."

"Mom still angry?"

"Yeah."

They worked in silence for another few minutes.

Henry finished breaking down a large box and glanced at his son. "Your mother tells me you want to go to the Halloween party at school."

Jason was not expecting the question and gave his father a nonplussed look. He recovered and remained resolute. "Yes."

"You never wanted to go to those things before."

"This time I wanted to," Jason said, his voice sharper than he had intended. He forced his voice to a more civil tone when he spoke again. "I mean, Melinda wanted to go, so I thought I would, too."

"She says you're getting a costume from a friend."

"Yeah, so?" Jason realized he had done it again and uttered a short sigh. "Sorry. I mean, yes, I am. Is there anything wrong?"

"Audrey's not too happy about it."

Jason cut a piece of twine too short and set it aside. "She never said anything to me about it."

"Course not. That would be the direct and logical approach. Instead, I take flak for it."

Jason looked up. "I'm sorry."

Henry met his son's eyes and shook his head. "No. You're not really sorry."

Jason bit back a retort. He wanted to blurt out "since when did you have such keen insight into my head," but settled for something he hoped sounded more sedate. "I just don't get why she would be upset. It's not like I go to these things all the time."

Jason understood that he could not fault his father; Henry sounded as irritated as he. Yet the father-son talk felt awkward and contrived. Or, rather, he wanted to believe as such; thinking of his father as a stranger made it easier to accept the presence of his Aura.

Henry watched his son, and Jason pretended not to care about the scrutiny. He finished tying another bundle and flung it onto the pile, which teetered and tipped over. Jason grunted and began to reassemble the pile.

His father stopped him with a gentle squeeze on his arm. Jason flinched and nearly wrenched it away. He spun around. "What?"

"What have you been doing to get your mother so upset?"

"I don't understand. Do you mean the stuff about being home earlier after school?"

"That's just part of it. See, when you mother's upset, she really lets loose about everything that's bothering her," Henry said. "Naturally it was all in the guise of 'if only you'd been home more often yourself, ' but that's beside the point."

Jason was taken by the bitterness in his father's voice. He wondered just how bad things were between them now.

"She even mentioned all the rumors she's been hearing," Henry said.

Jason frowned. "I don't know what you're talking about."

"I think you do."

"Are you going to accuse me of something, Dad, or are we just going to spin our wheels all day?"

"You think I'm going to accuse you of anything?"

Jason shook his head. "Stop with the games, okay? I'm too old for them now. Just come out and say what you want to say."

Jason had abandoned any hope of using his father to run interference for him with his mother. He was on a short fuse now, and getting shorter every day that ticked closer to Halloween. To both his surprise and irritation, his father smiled.

"That's better," said Henry.

"What the hell does that mean?"

"It means you're finally owning up to the fact that you're doing quite a bit that you're not telling your mother about."

Jason clenched his jaw and tried to count to ten before he replied, but got only as far as three. "And you think I'm going to tell you about it instead?"

A floorboard above their heads creaked. "First of all, keep it down," Henry said in a lower voice. "Second of all, you're missing the point."

"Then enlighten me."

"The point is not to draw attention to yourself."

Jason stared. "Huh?"

"Jason, your mother is hearing all sorts of rumors. Only they're not completely rumor, are they?"

Jason said nothing and folded his arms, his eyes cool.

"If it were anything else -- smoking, drinking, even petty theft or vandalism, hell, even bad grades -- any of that she can handle. But not when it involves sex."

Jason gave his father a stony look, using it as a mask over the worry.

Henry observed his son for a moment. "It's not just the sex, is it? Something else is going on with you and your friends. The sex is just part of it."

Jason again remained silent.

Henry smirked. "I don't expect you to tell me, just like I don't expect you to tell me about what really happened out in that picnic area in the hills with that Melissa girl. I suppose this is more of the same. Some sort of crusade. A show of bravado." His smirk faded. "I hope you really know what you're up against."

"Why? Is it you?" Jason heard himself say.

Henry frowned. "No. But maybe I know a little something about what's going on."

Jason bit back another retort. He had no idea if his father knew that he could see the Aura. The last thing he wanted to do was give his father any more information. Yet encounters like this proved that his father had his own agenda. He had the "taint" of the Darkness, perhaps some sort of power as well, but to what direction it was pointed Jason had no idea.

Henry stepped closer to his son and lowered his voice. "Look, your mother made me promise to talk to you about this stuff. Consider this that talk. I'm going to go back and tell her that it was overblown, that the only one you're actively having sex with is your girlfriend Melinda and that you promised to dial down the heat." Henry sighed. "I'll also tell her that you were smart enough to use protection. She really freaked out about that."

"Why the hell do you have to tell her anything at all?" Jason countered, but he already knew the answer.

"Because your mother is not stupid, Jason. If I tell her you're not having sex, she'll know it's a lie. The cat is out of the bag on that one. You think all that stuff about you coming home early was just to have you around? No, it's because if you're here at home, you're not off somewhere boffing your girlfriend."

Jason wanted to protest, but anything he could say would sound as ridiculous as his father's use of the out-of-date term for sex. His next words were spoken as a statement rather than a question. "You're not telling me to stop, are you?"

"I'm not saying anything about it one way or the other, because as I said, I know there's more to it than that," said Henry. "But I will tell you this: Learn to keep it under your hat. Don't give your mother more reason to get stressed out."

Jason refused to believe that he was a major cause of the tension between his parents. He could land the blame in his father's court: the late nights at the hospital; the missed dinners; the weekends at the office. However, Jason did not want to add another burden on top of that.

Yet the last thing he wanted to do was anything that would benefit his father. "You still won't tell me why you're doing this for me. Why you're trying to cover for me."

His father paused for a long moment. He glanced towards the stairs and listened to his wife's movements upstairs. "Because just maybe we're not as much at odds with each other as you think," he said in a lower voice.

Jason gave him a dubious look.

"Yeah, I know, you won't believe that."

"Just admit you're up to something," Jason said, exasperated. "Just admit that something is going on at the hospital."

"And what would you know of anything there, hmm?"

Henry's voice hinted at amusement. Jason did not appreciate the reminder that he had failed to glean any information from the hospital's computer network.

"Don't interfere, Jason," Henry said. "Do what you will with your friends, but keep your nose out of my business. Do I make myself clear on this matter?"

"Crystal," Jason declared in a flat voice.

Henry nodded once. "Go up to the garage and get the garbage cans hosed out. Then gather the dead branches from the back yard and bundle them up. If you get that done early, I'll see if I can get Audrey to lighten up and let you go."

"But won't she think I'm just going to go have sex with Melinda?"

"Not if you tell her you had the talk with me, and you get back this afternoon at a reasonable time."

Jason sighed. "All right," he muttered.

As he trudged up the stairs, he wondered if his father's motivation was to divert attention from himself. Perhaps he was behind everything: Victor, Nyssa, maybe even the Darkness itself.

Jason frowned as he reached the door. An attempt to grasp such an easy solution would only lead him to paranoia.

"Melinda, maybe you should forget about the costume measuring," Heather said as she and her sister emerged from their bedroom.

"No way, Heather, I'm not going to take the chance on getting a crappy costume!" Melinda retorted.

"You never told Cassie what you wanted, so you're already going to get second choice."

"But at least I'll get something that fits." Melinda flounced down the stairs, her hair swaying against her back.

Heather rushed after her. "I don't know when it could happen, runt. I just know that it doesn't happen here. You're safer if you stay home."

Melinda whirled around at the bottom of the stairs. "Look, I'm worried, too, okay? Cassie said she'd come pick me up and bring me back. Think anyone's going to go after me when I'm with her?"

"Cassie's money is not going to protect you against someone like Victor. Or the Darkness."

Melinda's eyes shimmered for a moment, but she shook her head. "This is stupid. I can't just hole up in here. Like this is any safer with my Mom the sex slave trader."

"Will you stop it with that?"

"No. Get it through your head, Heather. She failed. You don't get second chances at being a mother. You just don't."

Melinda rushed towards the kitchen. Heather followed, then nearly collided with her just inside the door.

Penny looked up from her newspaper, a half-finished cup of coffee in her free hand. "Good morning," she said, her voice crisp. "I hope you both slept well."

The girls stared at their mother in silence. Her Aura lay like an inky cloak about her shoulders and licked at her arms and waist. The sash on her robe was loose, dark tendrils slithering over bare flesh, teasing her intimate folds or spidering out over her breasts. Small whorls of black caressed her nipples.

Melinda clenched her jaw and narrowed her eyes. "Close your damn robe, Mom," she muttered, turning towards the cabinets above the kitchen counter.

Penny put down her coffee and pulled her robe closed. "I'll make you two breakfast if you like."

Melinda said nothing. She grabbed a bowl from one cabinet, a box of cereal from another, and stuck the spoon in her mouth until she could get it all to the table.

Penny's lips tightened. "I do prefer a little more civility from my daughters."

"Sorry to have to disappoint you," Melinda muttered as she dropped everything to the table and turned to get the milk.

Heather still stood by the door, her hands grasping the back of one of the chairs. Penny's eyes took on a distant look as they gazed at her older daughter.

Heather hardened her face as much as possible. She yanked the chair back and fell into it. "And no, I don't want any breakfast either." Heather resisted the urge to add "I don't want anything from you."

"I just don't want to, well, fail at providing my daughters something to eat," said Penny in a curt voice.

Melinda plopped the milk carton down on the table and dropped into the seat. She met her mother's accusing gaze with regret, but not for what she had said.

"Mom, look," Heather began. "We're not going to get in your hair today. We'll just do our thing and you do yours."

The regret disappeared from Melinda's face. "Yeah, you can go see how many other girls you can sell to--"

"Melinda!" Heather hissed. "You're not helping."

"Fine. I won't say another word."

"I'm not going to talk about what happened yesterday, so say all you want about it," Penny said. "But I would like to know what you have planned for today."

"Why?" Melinda demanded.

"Because there are some chores that need to be done around here, and it's about time you two got to them."

"What, all of a sudden?"

"What chores, Mom?" Heather said, trying to keep her voice calm.

"The garage is a mess for one thing," Penny said. "And there's some stuff that needs to be taken to the attic. Not to mention we still have a mess in the back yard from the windstorm a few days ago."

"Dad does all that stuff," Melinda said.

"And I don't think he should do it alone. I want you two to help him today."

Melinda exchanged a confused look across the table with Heather. "You actually want us to stay in?" Melinda said. "Like, all day?"

Penny hesitated. "I want you to do the chores that I assign you if that's what you mean. And I suppose they will take you awhile. I'm sure there's a lot more that I haven't mentioned."

Heather did not know what to make of this. Was this another attempt to protect them?

Melinda was thinking the opposite. If her mother wanted it, it had to be exactly the thing that she should not do. "I have plans already, Mom," Melinda said as she poured milk into her bowl. She wolfed down a few spoonfuls before she spoke again. "I have to go out to get my costume done for the party."

Heather stared at Melinda. Melinda shrugged. She could not think of a lie and reasoned that the knowledge would be nothing that her mother or the Darkness did not already have.

Penny hesitated. "When?"

"About nine. Cassie's coming to pick me up," Melinda said. She raised her voice. "You remember her, right? The rich girl that lives on the mesa? The one whose parents own half the town? The ones that would get really pissed if something happened to her daughter just because she happened to be with me when--"

"Melinda!" Heather cried.

"When what?" Penny said.

Melinda clamped her mouth shut. Milk dribbled from one corner of her mouth before she finally swallowed. "Nothing," she muttered. She glanced at her mother's Aura and saw it swirl in agitation. The Darkness was listening.