Chapter contains Simon Crocker, Wade Crocker, Duke Crocker, and Jennifer Mason. Copious amounts of Simon being creepy. Minor violence.
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Chapter 3: Simon Crocker

Simon Crocker comes to in midair. He lets out a rather unmanly shriek and falls into the water. He comes up, coughing and spluttering water.

Wasn't he just in a boat? Did the boat vanish? Is he drunk enough to fall out? He's a little drunk, but not nearly enough.

He doesn't see the boat, and come to think of it, he's definitely dead because he remembers having been a ghost once already. He'd haunted Duke. Full-grown, adult, dumb-facial-hair, youngest (probably) son Duke.

So yeah, he's definitely dead.

But this isn't like that- as a ghost, he hadn't been able to touch anything or be touched. He wasn't real. Right now, he's definitely real and definitely bobbing around in the ocean, which is cold and wet and generally miserable. A small sport boat- some tourist nonsense, no utility- is rushing toward him.

The man plucks him out and hands him a towel. "Damn, you all right there?"

"Cold," Simon says. He doesn't say slow or heavy or any of the other things he's starting to notice. He doesn't ask if the man is Troubled. He doesn't take the risk. "Mind spotting me a beer?"

"Nah, man. Beer makes you feel warm, but it actually makes you colder."

Which is missing the point, but Simon wants to be out of his company without being in his debt, so he shakes his head. "Uh. So, what year is it?"

The man eyes him warily. "2014."

"Wait, what?" Simon blurts without meaning to. Damn, he is drunk.

Shouldn't the Barn have already ended this?

"How long were you in the water?"

Forty seconds. Nearly thirty years. But Simon just shrugs. "Can you take me to the Cape Rouge?"

"Crocker's boat?" the man asks. He sounds resigned.

"Yes. Crocker's boat."

The man takes him there and drops him off, seeming happy to be rid of him.

Simon climbs aboard quietly. He's very hopeful that his son will be glad to see him this time- that Duke will have found his path now, will understand why his childhood had to be the way it was. But he cannot take the chance.

He walks quietly through the boat- grabbing a nice bottle of wine when he sees it and drinking several swigs.

"Dad?"

Simon turns, but it's not Duke.

His middle son Wade is standing there, holding a knife.

"Wade?" he asks confusedly, because Wade is not a son of Haven and has no reason to be here. Simon had never even considered that this was to be Wade's path.

"I'm dead," Wade says dully. "Maybe this is Hell."

Simon shakes his head emphatically and drinks again. "I would not go to Hell. I followed the path."

"Yeah, whatever," Wade says. "I'm going to Hell."

"Why?" Simon asks.

"I killed people," Wade tells him. His voice is flat, but not guilty. "Liked it."

"The Troubled? Son, that is what we do. Who we are. Taking sacrifices is how we save Haven, how we save the families," Simon says emphatically. "The blood is simply our reward. Now that I am back, we must continue."

"I don't think we can. Duke's the one who killed me," Wade says. "But you can try some of my blood if you want."

"What? No, he couldn't, not without sacrificing the blood himself…"

"He would," Wade says. "He doesn't use it much."

Simon sits down carefully. He's much drunker now.

"Does he take sacrifices?"

"Kill the Troubled? I think he has, but no. He's not like us. He doesn't want to."

So Simon failed. All the things he had tried- keeping him away from the Troubled, explaining how they were destroying Haven, having Duke tend to his injuries and explaining that it was the Troubled who'd caused them- it had all been temporary. Duke had stepped away from his path.

Simon takes several more drinks from the bottle.

But Wade had found it. Somehow, Wade had stumbled into the destiny no one had assume was his. He doesn't seem to understand the purpose, the importance of his duties, but is doing them nonetheless. Simon's chest swells. Wade had followed the path. And, of course, had been martyred for it- Reverend Driscoll had prepared Simon for the inevitability that he would become a martyr for the cause. The Troubled and their misled allies would destroy him out of ignorance, fear, and hatred.

Simon had accepted it, unsure that he could cope well without this mission anymore anyway. Wade seems to be struggling, but possibly just because it was his brother who had killed him. He would accept his fate with time.

There are footsteps and voices above deck.

"Duke, and his toy," Wade interprets. All things considered, he doesn't seem all that concerned.

Simon leaps to his feet. He's not swaying too badly, but he leaves the wine anyway. Alcohol doesn't help his stealth. He knows this boat, so he opens the hatch in the wall that leads to a relatively hard-to-find staircase to the deck. He climbs up as quietly as he can and opens the door at the top.

The girl there yelps and points a gun at him. He can't help but observe that the gun is way too big for her. If she fires, the kick will probably knock her on her ass.

"S-stop! Freeze! Or- or I'll shoot!" Her eyes are enormous and Simon is suddenly sure she's never fired a gun in her life. They're at point-blank range, but she's practically a bunny- easily startled, but generally harmless.

Simon darts toward her, intending to knock her out of the way, and she squeals and shoots him in the gut.

He falls to the ground, gasping- he's had worse, but damn, he wasn't expecting that.

"Stay down, or I'll shoot you again!" she threatens nervously, her gun hand shaking badly. Simon would find her pathetic if he weren't in so much pain. On the other hand, she's still on her feet- Simon definitely underestimated her.

"Jennifer!" Duke yells. "All right up there?"

"I just shot someone!" she yells back. "He looks mad."

Duke comes up the stairs, looking a bit disheveled. "Nice shot. Wade's cuffed downstairs. Hi, Dad. Think you can walk?"