20.

To be honest, he had sort of lied to his brothers about the workings of the exorcism. Blame it on his stubbornness and independence to solve his own problems to the extent that he might put his life at risk, which could be said about his current situation. Even though the process to exorcise your own soul can happen, though it is not exactly advisable for several reasons, there was indeed no safety or at all a possibility that his soul could return back to his body again. The whole red string thing that he had used to convince Gordon and the others was something a total sham in reality. He had taken the meaning behind the Greek myth and twisted it to fit his current situation. It was not like his brothers could have known if it was a lie, seeing as they didn't have any clues about how far his ability could go other than what he had personally told them, and he was actually thankful that they didn't because there was no way they would have allowed him to do it in the first place had they known that there was actually no way for him to return back to his body and be alive again.

Either way Alan opened his eyes and found himself staring into nothingness. A weak-loaded word, he knew, but it was one of the best ways to describe his surroundings. The other way to describe it was to say that it was gray and foggy, unable to see what was before him other than the silhouette of his own body, which was in reality just his soul since his body was currently with his brother in the living world. Still it didn't matter he already knew where he was and there was not a single doubt about it either. He was in the spirit world, but to be honest he was sort of disappointed that it wasn't something more than what he imagined.

"This is really it?" Alan asked Meru and Yoru, who were now hovering on each side of his body, staring into the nothingness with him. "I had sort of hoped there was more to it, seeing as Father Dominick and Madame Simza made a such big deal about it."

"That's the tricky part about the spirit world," Yoru explained as his bell softly rang in the silence. "Your soul can easily enter the place, especially since when you die your get an automatic pass to enter the spirit world without ever coming across the front gate and the gate keeper, who is making sure that no one enters or leaves the spirit world without some sort of a permission from him or whoever/whatever decides where the soul goes next."

Hearing that catch suddenly caused a crack in his plan. The plan was to lure the ominous ghosts back to the spirit world, but how was he supposed to do that when his soul was on the other side of the gate and he had no idea how he was supposed to do that or where said gate was in the first place?

So it was no surprise that he raised his eyebrow in an annoyed manner and said with a snarky tone, "And you are telling me this now?"

"You didn't ask and besides you have us," Meru interjected for Yoru, who only rolled his eyes. "We can help you get to the gate and the gatekeeper in no time. You only have to trust us."

Trust, something that did not come easily to him. His trust issues comes from various of circumstances, mostly related to his personal issues with his ghost abilities and his relationships with his family, but then again he has known both Meru and Yoru for a while now and they have done nothing to break his trust. So he might as well trust them about this right now, seeing as he was definitely lost should he try and look for the gate and the gate keeper on his own and besides it was not like he had a lot of time either to get the ghosts back inside, because it was only a matter of time before the Hood and his goons would have reached the island and begun causing mayhem in order to get to him.

Giving Fermat and Tin-Tin the responsibility to watch Alan's body had literally ripped their heart out, especially since they felt this overpowering need to be by their baby brother's side since they have already failed to do it more than once, but they knew that the best and smartest way to get rid of 'the bald freak' as Alan called him and his entourage of goons along with him.

So the four brothers left Fermat's bedroom with the message that they were not to leave the room under no circumstances and more importantly not leave behind Alan's body. According to Alan, both his soul and his body could be in danger should the enemy retrieve his body. If the enemy harmed the body in any way or cut the red string on his wrist off it might have serious consequences to his return back to his body or worst disconnect him from returning back to the body at all. In other words both they and Alan was screwed if the enemy reached their goal, so the plan was to prevent that from happening and get those people of the island.

When they entered their father's office they found him just finishing his call with Lady Penelope and Parker and said once he saw the four of them entering the room, "Just finishing talking with Penny. She and Parker is on their way to assist us, but it might take some time until then and by the time they have arrived it might already be too late."

Scott immediately jumped on the conversation, as he was the most anxious and overly concerned about the situation and Alan's current adventures, and asked, "So what is the plan? Distraction and diversion or simply make a trap for them once they arrive here at the main house?"

"I'm not entirely sure," their dad answered as he fidgeted with his fingers in am anxious manner. "Normally I would agree on both ideas, but considering the fact that we don't know who exactly we are up against our options are in both ways limitless and limited. Distraction and diversion might work for a while, but in the long run not so much, which means we need a hell of a good plan at end of that line. As for the trap idea, though Gordon is probably the expert in that area I rather want the mansion and us to remain alive and intact. There was been a few incidents, which is best not repeated and definitely not optional."

Under normal circumstances they all would have smirked and joked about one of many mishaps on Gordon's side regarding his pranks and sometimes destructive traps. During the earlier days Alan had actually been his trusted partner-in-crime and always ended up getting in trouble along with Gordon for all their mischievous actions. However this was not under normal circumstances, so they all remained quiet and almost expressionless as the overpowering worry and concern towards Alan resurfaced. Still they were more than ever determined to fight back and protect what was important to them. They might not have been able to understand or done a terrible job to realize what exactly had been going on right in front of them, but what was important to them had never changed. Protecting the people they loved and always be there for them whenever they needed them. Now was the time to be there for Alan, who was no longer fighting his battles alone anymore. He had his family and there was no chance they were sitting on the sidelines and watch the youngest member of their family perish in front of them.

It was strange how peaceful Alan looked there lying on her lap, almost like he was sleeping nice and quietly. He definitely didn't appear to be on technical terms dead as he described it to everyone earlier, but then again what did she know about death and exorcisms?

Pretty much nothing, Tin-Tin had been one of those few who came from and grew up in a small family and never really attended funerals for a close family member or a deceased friend. Probably a good thing really, but still she felt anxious and overall scared that this whole thing was wrong and that Alan shouldn't have convinced them to let him handle the ghosts on his own despite him being the expert in the field.

"So what are we going to do now?" Tin-Tin felt the need to ask, even though the answer to that was as clear as day. "Watch a unconscious body while the others protect Alan and our home, giving them all the fun?"

She was not really being serious about the fun part, but she hated to feel helpless. Both she and Fermat were more than capable to handle bad guys that went beyond hiding and protecting a dead-like body. As it would seem Fermat was more than happy to be on the sidelines, but then again the teen was more or less the biggest scardy-cat, which made her both wonder and awe how he could be friends with Alan, who didn't seem scared of the most obvious things like death and pain.

"W-what do y-you suggest w-we do?" Fermat asked, without moving his gaze on Alan. "We both are s-screwed if w-we leave Alan h-here u-unprotected, not only from the e-enemy, but also the Tracys."

Tin-Tin sighed annoyed as she lifted her head upwards to stare at the ceiling, "I don't know something. And we weren't going to leave him behind, just bring him along while helping out as much as we can."

Fermat's eyebrow raised in a suspicious manner while his eyes narrowed, "W-which is h-how? S-swing a f-frying-pan at them, k-knock them out in the p-process?"

"That is one idea," Tin-Tin pondered. "Though it might not exactly help us in the long run. It would have helped to know what the Tracys were planning, so we could work our way around it without getting in the away and putting them at risk."

Fermat shifted in his seat in a awkward manner, almost like he had an idea how to exactly do what she had in mind, but seemed overly reluctant to even considering mentioning it out loud. Which is why Tin-Tin immediately jumped on it and said with confidence, "You know a way to do it? Why didn't you tell me? What and how does it work?"

"L-look, it was s-something Alan and I d-dabbled into by a-accident and p-promised each other n-never to speak o-off because w-we both would g-get in trouble if the Tracys k-knew. A-and that w-we only w-would use it under s-special circumstances," Fermat explained before he stopped and probably hoped that she would just drop it and forget that he ever mentioned it. Unfortunately she wasn't going to do neither since she stared at him and practically gave him the look that seriously wondered if he was being serious, which was why Fermat continued on saying, "I-I guess now c-could be considered o-one of those s-special circumstances."

She nodded and impatiently waited for him to continue getting on with what he knew and how it might help them right now. So Fermat with some reluctance explained that he and Alan had 'accidently' hacked into the main server, which ultimately gave them full access to everything that was going on around the house including Mr. Tracy's home office. In other words they could eavesdrop on everything that was going on around the island and get all the information they would need in order to work around the plan they Tracys had cooked up for the bad guys, and the best part is that the others wouldn't know they were doing it unless Brains had been physically there to monitor the main server from their hacking and ultimately stopped them from doing so. In other words they were pretty much free to do it without getting caught, at least not right away anyway.

So once he was done explaining everything, Tin-Tin practically wanted to pounce at him and almost excited told him, "What are you waiting for? Hook it up and let us hear what everyone is planning and besides if we are lucky we might actually catch the bad guys' plan as well."

.

.

.

Thanks again for the amazing response I have been receiving, hope you guys like this chapter.

Again, since school is starting right now, I can't promise how much writing time I'm going to have, but I will try continue updating this story on Mondays every week. If I can't then you guys know that I'm busy with school and other things. However don't stop loving and support this story, I really appreciate your love and support.

And let this be the last time I'm going to mention this, where I got my inspiration for this story was from Bedlam and not Odd Thomas. I began thinking of the story and the plot while watching the series, so please stop mention it. There is a lot of places I could have gotten inspiration from including Odd Thomas, but that is not the case.

Keep giving me reviews, favorite and/or followings.

xXrebelgirl07Xx