Chapter Two – I hate you
The Bakers' house was just like every other house in their street. It was a charming little brick building, completely identical to all the other houses, with a small garden behind it. Even the white lace curtains matched the neighbours' ones. The only individual element was the name plate next to the front door, which read Baker in a cursive font.
The Bakers, much like their house, were absolutely ordinary, almost boringly so.
Mr Adrian Baker was an average-looking man, around six feet tall, with warm brown eyes and hair. He was somewhere in his forties and ran a dentist's practice that earned him enough to provide for his family and send his kids to reputable private schools. He had a slight – or not-so-slight – potbelly, and he was balding, but that was okay. Everyone aged, after all.
Mary Baker, his wife, was a sweet woman in her late thirties. At only a little more than five feet, she certainly wasn't tall, but she made up for that with nearly unlimited energy and enthusiasm. She wasn't particularly beautiful – in fact, she was somewhat plain – but then, Adrian wasn't, either. During her free time, she liked to tend to the garden. Other than that, she was a loving wife and mother. She went to church every Sunday and sometimes seemed to believe that a few "Our fathers" and "Hail Marys" could solve everything. While that might make her seem a little naïve to some, in the eyes of her family, she was absolutely perfect.
Jill Baker was a rather shy fifteen-year-old girl. She went to a local high school and got fairly good grades – she wasn't top of her form, but she certainly wasn't dumb either. On Tuesdays after school, she went to her book club. She cherished reading like her mother cherished her garden. Jill had a good relationship towards her parents – she wasn't the rebellious kind of teenager – and rarely ever argued with them, and when she did, it was about her having blocked the bathroom for ages – or just a few minutes, depending on who you asked. Those little disagreements hardly qualified as real arguments, though.
Michael was Jill's thirteen-year-old brother. His favourite pastime was playing soccer in his school's team. He took after his father in most aspects and planned on taking over the practice someday, but that was still far away in the future.
Finally, there was the family's pet, a slightly too chubby tomcat named Sam, who liked catching mice in the garden and presenting them to his family, preferably by putting them on Adrian's favourite armchair or the kitchen counter. Needless to say, the Bakers weren't as happy about that as they should have been – in Sam's opinion.
Well… at least that was how things had been until, about a week ago, Jill had left for Kylie's place. Nobody had seen her since then.
And everything had changed.
Mary, together with some friends, neighbours and relatives as well as all the members of her bible club, started praying for Jill's safety. Michael, not knowing how to help, began shutting himself off from everything. Nobody knew what he did when he locked himself in his room, but nobody asked, either. Sam, who had always enjoyed Jill's presence, started burying the mice he caught in Jill's bed, but of course nobody noticed.
Adrian, though, was different. Instead of accepting the situation as it was or passively hoping that everything would turn out all right, he wanted to do something, to take the initiative and find his daughter. He just didn't know how. He needed to do something, he had to do something, and it drove him crazy to know that he couldn't.
That was how, though he didn't even know how it had come this far, he was standing in his living room, a strange, echo-y voice in his head that made his heart race and his palms sweaty with fear, and yet… and yet, he knew that this was his last hope.
"You summoned me"
Although it was not a question, Adrian felt compelled to answer.
"Y-yes, I did"
"So… is it thy wish to form a contract?"
Adrian swallowed nervously. "Yes"
"Are you sure?"
The voice was chuckling slightly, teasing him.
"If you do, your soul will be mine"
"I'm sure. I want to form the contract"
With this demon's help, Adrian would find whoever had taken his little daughter.
And he would take his sweet revenge...