12. Home
"Gramps"
"Come on in."
Kyle entered the subtle villa with a hand full of strange grocery, quiet anxious to see what Max's place was like. The reality wasn't far from expected. The place was plain, simple, and most of all, neat. 'The guy hasn't got a thing he doesn't need,' He thought to himself as he let his eyes wander through the place. It wasn't much, but it was far more than enough for a man of his age.
"So, how's the place? Like it?" Max inquired.
"Pretty impressed actually." he replied, the truth of it obvious in his voice.
He walked into the living room to see a set of stairs leading to the upper floor, and the wall along it adorned with family photos. Most of them were photos of Max with Ben and Gwen, some of Ben's dad and Gwen's mom in their younger years. There were even a few wedding photos of their parents. However, he noticed one strange thing. 'No Grandma' he thought to himself as he inwardly cringed, he wouldn't ask the old man about it. Maybe he removed the photos on purpose. 'Must've found it hard to look at the face of someone you loved through out your life, knowing that they're gone, every single day.'
"You okay kid?" Max asked looking at his long face.
"Yeah I'm fine. By the way, you're gonna eat that again aren't you?" He blabbered out, hoping he could avoid the topic.
"What's wrong Kyle?" Max asked in a soothing tone.
"I saw Charmcaster." 'Perfect'
"Where?" He said, in a rather dangerous tone. 'Didn't see that coming'
"It's alright Max, I don't think she's that much of a threat now."
"Don't fall for her looks Kyle, she almost killed both of my grandkids, we should report her location to the police right away."
'Her looks? What am I, a walking dick?'
"The police, really?" he shot back, sarcastically.
"Where is she?" the old man asked coldly, sending shivers up the boy's spine.
"I don't know what beef you have with her, but from my point of view, I wouldn't say that she's evil." He said, trying to defend the young mage.
"Then what do say she is?" Max snapped back, but his tone said otherwise. He was thinking.
"Misled." Kyle snapped, appearing helpless in front of the seemingly infuriated man.
"How?"
"I met her a few weeks ago, in that subway on 34th street."
"But wasn't that sealed off years ago."
"Yeah but I heard some sounds and went in, saw her fighting an old man, for his backpack." he said, recollecting the incident.
"A backpack, why?"
"Food, she'd been starving for four days."
Max felt a little sympathetic for the kid, but that didn't take back what she'd done to his grandchildren.
"Look Max, every thing she's done so far's only because she absolutely had to. She had no choice. Hex is her uncle and her master, she doesn't know of any other path than the one she's on" Kyle said, his voice going blank with each word.
"That's enough Kyle." Max interrupted, almost freezing the teen in his drooping posture.
"We'll figure something out, this stays between the two of us." Max said.
"That's fine with me." he said before walking over to the kitchen and lending a hand with the dinner preparations.
x--x--x--x--x--x--x
"Master" a voice ringed in the darkness below.
"Come, my little mage, have you completed the circles."
"All has been dealt with, I apologise for the delay." said the voice now with a feminine touch to it.
"And what kept you so long Charmcaster, have you forgotten your duties as a sorcerer?" the other voice boomed, anger spreading ripples in the sea of darkness.
"No, nothing of that sort." she replied blankly as she came into view of the single spot of light that the darkness hadn't swallowed. Her hair shined in the light, but a terrible darkness had shrouded her eyes as she stepped forward.
"There will be no more distractions, Uncle."
"Very well. The stone of Bezel shall soon be put to use, and its excellence shall plunge the three worlds in a darkness, the likes of which no being has ever encountered in all of existence!" he roared, clutching a stone that glowed in his hands, which soon gained the glow from the stone as the faint red spreaded through the inscriptions on his hands.
'But what does he gain from this...' the words of a red eyed male rang deep in her mind, shrouding it with confusion.
Soon she snapped out of it, but the mage a Shocked by what she was seeing. Its not everyday that some one saw; a Devil in the Dark.
x--x--x--x--x
"This is disgusting... " Gwen whispered to Ben as she tried to drown the boiled octopus with a glass of water.
Max had a habit of calling over his son and his daughter for a little getogether everysunday. The weekly helping of seafood was a rather common ritual for the Tennysons.
"Did you say something Gwen?" asked Max.
"No, just asking ben to... pass the salt?" she replied, looking akwardly at Ben while doing so.
"Here." said Ben, smiling pleasantly as he passed the salt over, brushing hands with his father on the other side while doing so.
"How do you even keep this down so easily." he asked his dad quietly, expecting a lecture on nutrition or something like that.
"Years of practice kid."
Now that incited a guffaw from the younger Tennyson to the level that he almost spread the whole dinner table with wine they'd been drinking.
"Benjamin Tennyson, where are your manners?" his mother scowled from the other end, glaring daggers at the kid.
"Sorry mom, dad just... nevermind" he said, a solid grin plastered to his face.
Even from the opposite end of the table, Kyle could guess what all the ruckus was about. He was the only non- Tennyson in this family meeting.
"Did you help him make this?" Gwen asked him, her eyes fluffed with tears.
"I just did as I was told."
"Kyle's a pretty good cook isn't he?" said Max from his chair.
"Yeah its delicious." she spewed with sarcasm.
"What did I ever do to you?" Kyle whispered to the right of his seat, lightly leaning towards Gwen.
"You made it worse." she shot back, holding a skewered tentacle towards his face.
"Just hold your breath and swallow it whole. Make chewing sounds too." he told her, as he regained his posture, noticing that the families had already started getting up.
"I'm not playing my luck this time." Gwen replied as she got up too, smiling to Max and leaving for the washroom.
"Nice cooking son" Ben's father said to him while on his way to the wash.
'Is it just me or did he look a little pale'
"Job well done Kyle, you should come over more often" Max said happily, picking up the dishes and leaving for the kitchen, and Kyle followed.
Soon everyone had left, and they were alone again, doing dishes.
"Maybe we should stick to poultry next time."he told max, doing the dishes as he spoke.
"Why?" Max replied.
"I never wanted to say this, but your cooking sucks Gramps"
Max always liked people who were straight forward, and it was one of the main reasons he trusted Kyle. But this was like throwing shooting his head clean off his shoulders.
"That bad?" he asked, almost shocked.
"Everyone likes the family meetings, that's why they never tell you this."
"No even the kids like my cooking." Max argued.
"Remember that time when Gwen called in sick for almost a week straight?" he asked, remembering Gwen and her cousin rambling about the danger's of eating sea food.
"Yeah so?"
"It didn't happen to start with a Sunday, did it?" he chimed in, hoping to drop a hint.
"Oh..." he said, slowly starting to deal with the truth.
"How about a turkey next week?" asked Kyle, a little more elated than usual.
"We'll see how this works out, if it doesn't we go back to seafood"
"Done" he said, sealing the deal with a solid handshake.
x--x--x--x--x--x
It was almost 11 when he left, walking into the city lights again. It reminded him of a certain night when he met a certain stranger, but he pushed those thoughts away 'She's right, we're still enemies, if there is such a thing...'
He looked up to the sky again, this time it looked more darker to him, the stars a bit more mysterious, hiding their tears from the past. 'The light you see today is of a star that could've died millions of years ago. Where else can you just look into the past. There's simply no other place than the sky that's beyond time.' he thought to himself, remembering the wise words spoken by a time traveler himself.
He came to this time looking for answers, but he never once questioned the intentions of the person who sent him. 'What could be his motives, he seemed more ready than I was to send me back in time. Wouldn't that affect the continuoum?' His mind riddled with these thoughts. Maybe he should stop thinking altogether. Like Ben. Much less trouble.
As he walked into his apartment, he locked the doors and went straight to the full length wall of glass, and looked at the sky once again. It looked dark and foreboding.
'There's a storm coming...'