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We followed Rhea to her house per her suggestion as we had some work to do. I wonder if it has something to do in finding out what happened to Tom.

We took Mindy home first and soon after we arrived at Rhea’s home. As soon we entered the house we were greeted by a familiar looking bubbling teenager. “Hi sis, how did your first day at work go? Oh, hi guys.”

“Hi Diana, it went very well, I’m Joan’s new homeroom teacher.”

“Hi Di.” Jen said.

“Diana? What are you doing here?” I asked her. Josh just stood there with his mouth open.

“I live here now.”

“And why the teenage look?” I asked confused.

“Do you like it? I thought it would be fun to be a teenager for a while, also it will be easier to be around you like this.”

“Sis, what is going on?” Jen asked me.

“Jen meet Diana, also known as Artemis.”

“As in the Greek goddess?”

“The one and the same.” Diana said and gave us a little curtsey.

“Dammit. Now I’m sure I’ll never take the ring off.” Jen said.

“Diana is the one that gave you the ring, sis. Well, she gave it to me to give it to you anyway.”

“Oh, really? Thank you, Diana.”

“You can call me Di. I like it.” She said. “Josh, are you going to say anything or will stand there with your goldfish impression?”

“Sorry, I didn’t know what to think when I saw you. I saw this gorgeous girl acting like she knew us and I had no idea who you were.”

“Josh you were practically drooling.” Jen said.

“Can you blame me?”

“So you like my appearance?” Diana asked him.

“Of course I do. It will be hard to keep the boys at bay with you girls hanging out together.”

“Thank you for the compliment, Josh.” Diana said and gave him a peck on his cheek and Josh went REALLY red.

“Okay everyone, now that you got to know each other a little we have some work to do. I just talked to your mother and she will call you when dinner is ready. Actually we were invited too, Diana.”

“Cool.” Diana said.

“When did you talk to my mom? We didn’t see you use the phone.” Josh asked.

“Oh, didn’t you notice?”

“Noticed what?”

“Your home is right over the backyard fence. Our house is right behind yours. Your mom was surprised when we moved in. Of course she remembers us being her nieces.”

“If you had told us, I would have driven home and came here through the backyard.” Jen said.

“And spoil the surprise?” Rhea asked and giggled a little.

“I’ll be right back. I’ll just drive home and will be back in a few minutes.” Jen said and left.

  

  

“Diana, Joan, Josh, we have work to do.” Rhea said in a very serious tone.

“Something happened? It’s not every day I see you this serious.” Diana said.

“Yes, Diana, something did happen. When I got to school today I felt something evil there. Joan thinks it might have something to do with this boy called Tom Arnold.”

“Why do you think that, Joan?” Diana asked.

I told them all that I know about Tom, from the bullying to what Kelly told me about his past and the feelings I had every time he was around today.

“You might have something there, Joan. From what you told us, it seems his change was pretty fast and he is getting worse.” Rhea said.

“So how do we find out what happened?” I asked them.

“Not we, you.” Rhea told me.

“Me? How?”

“You can do it, Joan. Diana could do it, but it will be a good training for you. She will help linking us so we can all see what you see. We will guide you through it.”

“So when do we start?” Josh asked.

“We could start now or wait for Jenny to come back. If we don’t wait I think she will be mad at us though.” I told him.

“She won’t be long now, she is in your house backyard coming this way now.” Diana said.

“How do you know that?” Josh asked her.

“Duh! I can sense her with my magic, silly.” She said and giggled.

“You are getting into this teenage girl thing, aren’t you?” I asked her.

“A little, I didn’t have the chance to be one before, I think it will be fun. But I think I’ll get bored soon, though.”

“How soon?” I asked her.

“A hundred years or so.” She said and giggled again.

“That long?” Josh asked.

“When you are a few thousand years old, one hundred years is nothing. Don’t worry I won’t stay a teenager for that long. I’ll appear to grow older with you guys. We are family now.”

  

  

“I’m back.” Jenny said less than a minute later.

“Good. We can start then.” Rhea said.

“Start what?” She asked confused.

“To find out what happened to Tom.” I told her.

“And how we will do that?”

“Joan will, and Diana will link us so we can all see.” Josh said.

“Cool! Can Joan do that?”

“She can. It will be a good training for her to get in touch with her abilities.” Rhea said.

“What do we have to do?” Jen asked.

“You and Diana will sit on the couches. Joan, Josh and I will sit on the sofa. As we three share some of the same essence I think that physical contact by holding hands might help her.”

“Let’s do it.” I said.

We all sat down and I grabbed Rhea’s left hand and Josh grabbed the right one.

“Close your eyes Joan. Take deep breaths and think about Tom, try to feel his presence and when you do, try to look into his past to the moment that his changes started. Your own heart will guide you to the right moment.” Rhea told me.

I closed my eyes and did what Rhea told me. At first nothing happened and I felt frustrated but soon I started to feel something, I could feel Tom and I felt something evil inside him. I tried to look into the past to the defining moment that put his changes into motion, slowly an image started to appear.

  

  

(Tom) 5 years ago.

“Thanks mom.” I told her as she gave me the ice cream cone.

“You are welcome, Tommy. I thought you would like that after all the exercise you had today.” She told me smiling.

“Yeah, I had fun playing baseball today. Did you see my homerun mom?” I asked her excitedly.

“Yes, Tommy. I saw it. You were great there.”

“Thanks mom. I’m glad you came to watch me play today. Too bad dad didn’t come.” I said a bit sadly.

“He had to work today. But he promised he will go to your next game.”

“He always say that but never goes to my games.”

“He feels bad about it, sweetie. What do we say we order some pizzas for dinner tonight?” Mom said trying to cheer me up. Of course it worked. I love pizza and mom always gets them to cheer me up.

At this point we were leaving the park and crossing the street to get to mom’s car when I hear the sound of tires skidding. “TOMMY!” I hear my mom yell and I felt mom push me from behind and a loud thud. I was on the sidewalk confused to what happened. I looked in the direction of the road looking for mom and I found her on the road floor and she is bleeding.
“MOM!” I yelled and ran to her.

She was lying there on the road floor still awake. She looked at me “I’m glad you are safe, Tommy.” She said weekly.

“I’m fine mom. You’ll be fine too.” I told her in tears.

“No Tommy I won’t, I can feel it.”

“Don’t talk like that mom, you’ll be fine, you can’t leave me. I need you.”

“I’m sorry sweetie, I wish… I… could.” She sounded even weaker now.

“Please mom, don’t leave me.”

She weekly raised her hand and touched my face and said. “I’m… sorry… I… love… you.” And her hand dropped to the road floor.

“MOM! Don’t leave me, stay with me, please.” I kept saying over and over but she didn’t move.

What happened next is kind of a blur. I kept calling her over and over until the ambulance showed up and took me away from her.

  

  

The next feel days flew by and a lot of people showed at the funeral. I haven’t said a word since mom died and dad seemed even more distant than before. A few days after the funeral I went back to school but kept to myself. I didn’t want to talk to anyone.

A few days passed and dad put all moms’ things in the guest room, he even took down all her pictures from around the house. He still didn’t talk to me. I feel so alone and I miss mom so much. Why did she have to die? Why couldn’t have been me instead?

About a week later I decided to go to the guest room and look at moms’ things. Looking around I found a teddy bear that she once told me she had ever since she was a little girl and she called it Miss Bear. Not an original name but she liked it. I grabbed it and hugged it tightly thinking about her. I also found a bottle of her favorite perfume and put a few drops of it on Miss Bear and she smelled just like mom. That night I took Miss Bear with me to my bedroom and slept hugging it all night long. It was the first time since mom died that I was able to sleep well.

A couple days later, my dad went to wake me up to go to school and saw me sleeping with Miss Bear on my arms.

“What the hell you think you are doing?” He yelled at me and took Miss Bear from me.

“What is this? Have you no shame? Sleeping with a girl’s toy?” He yelled at me.

“But.. but..” I stuttered.

“Don’t say anything you sissy.” He said and started to rip Miss Bear apart.

“DAD, NO!!! THAT WAS MOM’S!!!” I yelled.

“WHAT? You little shit. You had no right to get it. Look what you made me do.” He yelled and hit me. HE HIT ME.

“I’m sorry dad.” I said in tears, tears of fear.

“Don’t you ever enter that room again.” He told me angrily and I said I wouldn’t.

  

  
Another week passed and I decided to go into the guest room again. Dad had put everything from mom inside that room and I had nothing from her. He even took all the gifts she had given me there. Inside I went through the boxes again and I found the dress she used at my last birthday party. I hugged it and I could almost smell her. I stood there crying and hugging that dress for a long time and suddenly I get jerked off from the room.

“I told you to never go back there.” He yelled at me. I could smell the alcohol in his breath and he was drunk again. He started to drink a lot since mom died and drunk more and more every day.

“I’m sorry dad. I really am.” I said afraid of him, thinking he was going to hit me again.

“What is this?” He asked and took the dress from my hands.

“A dress? What are you a sissy?” He asked me.

“No. I was just…” and he hit me.

“Don’t lie to me you little sissy. First you start sleeping with teddy bears and now you are wearing your mother’s clothes?”

“I didn’t wear anything.” I cried.

“I told you to not lie to me.” He yelled again and kicked me.

“I’m not lying.” I yelled.

“You little shit. It is your fault your mother died. You should have been the one that died that day.” He said kicking me again.

“It was not my fault.” I yelled and he hit me again.

“Quiet you little shit. I’m tired of your lies.” He yelled me hitting me over and over.

‘Oh god, he is going to kill me!’ I thought to myself.

After he stopped kicking and hitting me he looked at the dress on the floor and said. “So you want to be a girl? I’ll show you how to be a girl then.”

He then grabbed me by my arm and dragged me to my room and he raped me, the bastard raped me. What did I do to deserve this?

  

  

I stayed in the bed crying after the bastard left, when I hear a voice talk to me.

“Poor child, such pain and suffering. You don’t deserve that.” I hear it say.

“Who… who is there?” I asked?

“A friend. I can take your pain away if you let me.” It told me.

“Who are you?” I said looking around.

“I told you, I am a friend.”

“What do you want?”

“I want to help you. I can take the pain away and can make you stronger so you can stand up to that bastard.” It told me.

“And what do I have to pay?”

“Nothing, I’m doing this because you need me. Just take my hand and your pain will go away.” It said and I saw a shadowy figure appear in the room.

‘This has to be a dream.’ I thought to myself.

“Is that it? I just take your hand and the pain goes away?”

“Yes child. that is all you have to do.”

“Okay. What do I have to lose? I can’t stand this anymore.” I said and took its hand.

The shadowy figure started to craw over me, fills me up and the pain started to fade away. I started to feel stronger and rage filled my being.

“It is done.” I heard the voice say and I fell asleep.

  

  
I woke up the next morning feeling a lot better than before. I felt strong. I went downstairs and dad was there passed out on the sofa. I felt rage fill my being again and I wanted to kill him. I moved closer to him and suddenly I felt fear, and my strength seemed to fade. I could also hear a faint laughter inside my head.

The days passed and rage filled me all the time while I was outside, it made me do terrible things. I started to pick on and hit my friends. I didn’t seem to have any control to what was happening. I screamed inside my head but I couldn’t do anything to stop what I was doing, and every time I went home, all the rage would go away and I cried myself to sleep every night. I wanted to kill myself but something always stopped me from doing it.

The worst thing was when the bastard was drunk and caught me crying. Every time he found me crying he would rape me again. What did I do to deserve such suffering?

  

  

Joan

“That’s enough.” I hear Rhea’s voice say and we get out of our trance.

“Oh my god, what was that?” Josh asked.

“I think that is a low level demon, a sort of psychic vampire. It feeds of pain and suffering.” Rhea told us.

I still couldn’t say a word. I was in tears because of what Tom went through. No one deserves to be treated that way, not even your worst enemy.

“Joan? Are you okay?”

“No I’m not okay.” I yelled. “I can’t believe what that bastard did.” I said feeling a rage I never thought I had in me.

“Joan, calm down.” Josh said and hugged me tightly. “It’s okay, it’s okay.” He kept saying and making soothing motions.

A few minutes later I was still crying but the rage within me subsided. “Thank you, Josh.” I told him still holding him. “I wish I could do something to help him. I wish it with all my heart.” I said.

“I know, sis. I know. I wish I could do something too.” He said and hugged me tighter.

“Huh, sis?”

“What?”

“Something is happening.” Josh told me.

“Huh?”

I looked around still holding him and saw everyone looking at us. A glow surrounded Josh and I and it started to get brighter and brighter until everything went white.

  

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To be continued....