12 KiB
Chapter 43
Exhausted and sweaty, Abraham sat down on the hillside overlooking the plantation. Since the moment breakfast had ended, it’d been one chore after another. It was incredible the amount of work that was put into every moment on the farm. He’d had to help plant seeds, pull weeds, feed the animals…poor Tamil felt excluded too and being unfamiliar with the garden, he wasn’t sure how to manage it. Annie helped inside by cleaning up the interior of the house, and Abraham hadn’t seen her since eating. Now the sun was high in the sky and the air felt humid…like rain was on the way. “Ya’ll alright?” Abraham looked to see the tall and massively built Alex walking towards him, his horns prominent upon his head, and a grin on his face. “Ya look like a deer caught’n headlights, star’n off into space like that.” “Just deep in thought.” Abraham answered. “Nothi’n wrong with that. Care ta share?” He asked. Abraham shook his head in response. “It’s boring.” “Ain’t noth’n bor’n about a friend’s concerns.” Alex answered. He reached out into the grass and pulled out a long reed, sticking it in his teeth and leaning back so he was laying on the grass. He wrapped his arms behind his head and smiled up at the sky. “But if’n yer not want’n ta talk…maybe ya can hear a thought on my nogg’n?” “Um…okay I’ll listen.” Abraham shrugged. “Kick back, kid…take a load off.” He pat the grass next to him and Abraham obliged by laying down too, staring up at the deep blue sky, waiting for Alex to speak. “Now look there…ain’t that just beautiful?” “The sky?” “Yup.” He laughed. “This’s why I love liv’n out here…ain’t no loud cars and distractions…no big build’ns an stuff to get’n the way o’ life.” “…Yeah I guess…” Abraham replied. “I was like you once…” Alex muttered at last. “You were human?” Abraham asked. Alex burst out laughing and shook his head. “No ya dumbass! I wasn’t talk’n about species…I mean I was lost like ya are.” “I’m lost?” Abraham asked, giving a snort of amusement. “I saw it at breakfast, earlier…and its clear in the way you work…ya ain’t got a real home yet…or at least ya don’t think ya do.” “And how would you know that?” “All us nonhuman folk…what ye call…monsters…were all the same ya know.” He sighed. “Where da we belong if’n it ain’t with other people? I remember bein’ no more’n a calf and ask’n my mum why we live on a farm…why we ain’t goi’n out and meet’n other people…Ya know what she done told me?” “What?” Abraham asked, curious. “She said ‘Alexander…we live on this farm because it’s our home. And there ain’t no place like it.’ So I says ta her ‘But mum, how do ya know it’s home?’ And she says back…” “…Yes?” “…she says ‘Cause home is where ya know ya belong. It’s where ya can’t imagine being anywhere else.’” He said with a big smile. “And she was right.” Abraham didn’t smile back. He just kept his eyes on the sky and his thoughts to himself. “So tell me, Abraham….where’s yer home? Where can’t you imagine bein?” “…I’m an orphan. I’ve had a lot of homes, Alex. And my last home…it was destroyed by a crazy bigot.” Abraham growled. “So now I’m homeless again.” “Are ya?” Alex asked. “Yer home was really destroyed? Gone forever?” “Of course it was.” Abraham snapped. “I told you all about it this morning. “Hmm…then think real hard…think about home for ya. What’s it look like?” Abraham closed his eyes and focused hard on home…the club house…what it had looked like before. The beautiful cabin and the interior...and each time he did, he kept seeing Asher sitting in the corner like a watchful shadow…or Michelle in her room reading. He pictured the garden where Tamil was planting flowers…or the lake where Calypso would string beeds together out of shells. He’d see Sarah up in her web filled room, making clothes out of her silk, or Katie coiled up in her bed trying on different shirts. He saw Solomon sitting in that familiar arm chair…and that smile that haunted his memories like the ghost he was. He saw all of them so clearly….them….them and not the house. “So did ya see the house?” Alex asked. “…At first…but then…I saw everyone else.” “That’s cause a home is where ya belong…but it ain’t necessarily a build’n.” Alex pointed out. He rolled his shoulders slowly and motioned with his head back towards the farm. “That build’n? It ain’t my home. After my ma and pa died…after the damned Dawnbringers ransacked the place, I wanted ta leave ya know…wanted ta escape the bad memories. But there were still others…other nonhuman folk who needed a home like Christina and David. They were my home…I stay with them cause they’re where I belong.” “But…but I can’t go to the Club now.” Abraham argued. “They sent me away because they were worried I’d be hurt in the fight that was coming.” “Fight’s gotta be over now right?” Alex asked. “List’n Abraham…ya ain’t never gonna find who ya are and what ya want until yer with yer family…and when yer with them, yer home.” Abraham nodded his head, now starting to realize why he’d sat down to talk…what he was telling him to do. This wasn’t where Abraham was needed. It was just another form of running away from a foster home. “I’m not going to run away…because the home I loved was waiting for me. Alex, can I ask you to do me a favor?” Abraham asked. “Sure. Whatcha need?” “…Tomorrow, can David and Tori give Tamil, Annie, and myself a ride back to the club? I wanna go home.” “Ya know…I’m purdy sure we can arrange that.” He laughed. “Ya made a wise choice, Abraham…I’m think’n yer family’d be proud of you.”
The night was falling now. Abrahams hands were scabbed and bleeding a little from the hard work, and his muscles couldn’t be anymore sore than they already were now. He leaned against the side of the barn, groaning and rubbing his tired arm. Tamil was nearby and was washing his face with the spicket beside the building. “Is very tiring work…” He muttered. “No kidding. But didn’t you just work the whole time in the garden?” “Not used to carrots and…um…potatoes?” “Yeah, you said it right.” Abraham assured him. “I need to sleep.” He said, walking along the barn, keeping one hand on the wall to direct him on where to walk. Abraham watched him walk away as he placed his hands under the water spicket as well. He winced in pain as the water hit his scabs and stung his palms. “Ouch! Crap that hurts…how does Alex handle this every day?” As he spoke he suddenly felt something cold and sharp on the back of his neck and groaned, thinking it was more sweat trickling down it. He reached up to brush it off, when suddenly something grabbed his tired wrists hard. “Don’t say a word if you want to live.” Abraham froze in place and his voice caught in his throat. He new that voice…a voice that he’d prayed he’d never hear again. The boy shuddered but didn’t say a word or scream as he wanted to. The last time he’d heard his voice…was right before the club house had vanished in a fireball. Abraham was forced back behind the farmhouse and was shoved against a wall, seeing that the cold and sharp object was actually a very long knife in the hands of the man he hated. “Arthur Morgan!” Abraham hissed. Morgan’s face was contorted in a scowl and his shaggy beard masked his sneer slightly, but one could still detect his contempt. “It’s been a while, correct Abraham?” He asked. Abraham growled, trying to hide his shaking voice. “How do you know my name?” “I did a fair bit of research after I fled your little clubhouse.” He replied. “I’d stuck around a while to observe your group…but without my spiritual barrier, fighting your vampire was an impossible task. I simply performed reconnaissance.” “Screw you!” Abraham snapped angrily. “You killed Solomon! You took away our home!” “Solomon Adams has been dead for years. I merely put him to rest.” Morgan retorted. “A ghost remains when they have unfinished business to attend to in the mortal world…little did he know that his solution was so close at hand.” “What the hell are you talking about!? LET ME GO!” He slammed his hand over Abraham’s mouth and put the knife to his throat again. “It seems you didn’t realize it either. Perhaps that’s a good thing. Tell me where your friends are hiding and I’ll let you go.” “They’re somewhere between ‘Go’ and ‘F*ck yourself!’” Abraham felt the harsh slap of a hand across his cheek as Morgan didn’t seem to appreciate the attitude. “Then how about in exchange for a little information?” Morgan asked. “I happen to know that your friends were already attacked…and one of them is dead.” Abraham’s heart stopped cold in his chest and his hands went clammy. “WHO!?” Abraham demanded. “Don’t know. Like I said, I don’t know where they are. I only know what I’ve picked up from Dawnbringer chatter…and they’ve talked quite a bit about Solomon and the house I blew up.” “WHO DIED DAMN IT! WHO ELSE DIED IN MY FAMILY!?” “Family huh? That’s an interesting way of referring to monsters.” Abraham swung a wild kick at Morgan who knocked it aside with his own foot. “What’s it matter? Solomon was the only target I really cared about…but I’m perfectly fine with the others dying as well.” “What’s so important about Solomon? He was just a nice old man?” Abraham begged. “Why’d you have to destroy his home!?” “Solomon Adams, former Army Air Corps officer during WWII, and married to Emilia Adams. 20 years before his death, after he’d returned from the war, Solomon Adams was responsible for the first official ‘Monster Shelter.’” Morgan snarled back. “The Dawnbringers assumed he’d been dead for the last few decades…only recently did we realize he was actually still roaming this world as a spirit.” This news weighed heavy on Abraham as he felt the realization creep in. Solomon had been helping monsters long ago, even before his death…and even into the next life he was still giving back. Abraham felt himself shaking angrily; such kindness had to be snuffed out!? WHY!? “Well congratulations!” Abraham snarled. “He’s dead. Mission accomplished. Now LEAVE US ALONE!” “Not until I find out your end game. I thought it strange that a human would be living with a bunch of monsters. Why interact with them? Why help them? Why save them from me? So I had to do some digging…and what I found out was VERY disturbing, Abraham Singer.” Abraham’s snarl turned to a frown of concern. If Morgan knew his last name, then he’d done his homework…but what had he found out; even Abraham was curious. “So wanting to carry on the legacy?” He asked. “What legacy?” Abraham demanded. “Your father…Robert Singer…he and your mother Jessica Singer died in a car crash on 75th while you were in school. They were on their way to pick you up, as I recall. Both were confirmed dead at the scene.” “H-how do you know that?!” “Because the Dawnbringers had a file on your father too. He changed his last name out of fear that the Dawnbringers would hunt him down like a dog! It worked to…for at least a few years until we tracked him down. He was going to carry on your grandfathers precious work, and we couldn’t allow it. We thought with him dead, that was the end of it, but then YOU showed up with the Monster Club…and now it seems we have to stamp out that last of his wretched family. So I’m asking…is that your goal? Are you trying to pick up the work your grandfather started?” “WHAT WORK!?” Abraham finally screamed. “Put it together you little shit!” Morgan roared. “Your fathers real name was Robert Adams! Son of Solomon and Rebecca Adams! You’re the grandson of that bastard ghost who started this bloody mess in the first place!”