Ben Pov
I tapped my foot impatiently as we waited for dad to pick us up from school. I looked over at Neo, who was just as annoyed as I was. I looked around, at the barren parking lot and empty school grounds. I threw my arms up into the air in frustration and anger.
"Where is dad?! We've been waiting here for an hour already!"
Neo started to pace around after my outburst.
"Honestly! Where is dad? He has never been late in picking us up."
A black car caught my attention as it stopped in front of us. I looked at it in suspicion as it rolled down its dark tinted window. I was surprised to see a smiling old woman as she looked at us. She had purple eyes and graying orange hair, beside her was a man with graying hair and an orange shirt, he had blue eyes and a huge smile on his face.
"Hey, guys! Come on in, your dad wants us to pick you up."
Me and Neo exchanged looks at this, dad had always taught us to never trust strangers. Before I could say anything, Neo started to ask questions.
"Who are you?"
They both smiled before answering us.
"We're your grandparents, your dad, Igris, is our son."
Upon hearing that, I looked at them closely, I could see the resemblance with the man, but I couldn't see anything between dad and the woman. Neo kept on asking questions.
"How does our dad look like?"
This time, it was the man who answered.
"He has blue eyes, and black hair, except for the lower half of his hair, is white."
We both looked at each other and shrugged our shoulders before getting into the car. If they know how dad looks like, they must be our grandparents. I put my seatbelt on after closing the door and started to talk to our grandparents.
"So why couldn't dad come?"
The woman was too busy driving so her husband answered me.
"He got into a little accident while getting groceries, he's ok, it's just going to take some time to sort everything out with the other driver since he doesn't have insurance and all."
Me and Neo nodded our heads in understanding, I sat there in silence as Neo continued to ask questions. Ignoring them, I looked out the window of the moving car. I rubbed my eyes out of sudden exhaustion.
I looked over to my right when I felt a tap on my right shoulder. I turned to see that Neo was now sleeping while leaning on me.
That's odd, he never falls asleep in front of people. I rubbed my eyes again as my vision started to blur. I looked at the front to see if my grandparents were experiencing the same thing.
I felt my heart stop when I saw the two of them looking at me with a sinister smile. Something is wrong. I went to open the door. I pulled on the door handle and pulled, only to realize that it was locked. I looked at my grandparents as they continued to look at me with a sinister smile.
"We got you now."
I struggled to keep on my head up, finally, out of exhaustion, I let my head droop down as I felt my eyes rolling to the back of my head.
Time Skip
"Cassius, wake up, come on, wake up."
I opened my eyes to see Neos face above me. I blinked out of surprise and then sat up. I looked at Neo in fear when I heard a yell of rage among screams of fear.
He shook his head, signaling for me to be quiet. He pointed to the small space behind the door. I nodded and followed him as we hid behind the door.
I covered my ears and closed my eyes as the screams got louder. All of a sudden, it just stopped and the only thing we could hear was the slow footsteps getting closer to us. Fear filled my body as I slowly opened my eyes and looked at Neo. His face was pale as we both trembled in the space behind the door. We waited for what felt like hours until the door slammed open, nearly hitting us.
I covered my mouth to stifle my scream as I saw a shadow from the doorway. I saw that Neo was just about to scream, I quickly covered my mouth with my hand as we looked at each other with wide eyes.
The figure in the doorway must have heard him inhale because we saw a black-gloved hand grab the door and slowly close it. We stood there trembling as the door slowly revealed who it was.
My eyes filled up in tears as I saw white hair with red appear from behind the door. I launched myself at my dad as he closed the door completely. He caught me in his arms and held me against his oddly wet chest.
"Its fine, I'm here now."
He held us in our arms as we trembled for a little bit before standing up.
"Come on guys, let's get out of here."
I stopped him before he led us out of the room.
"Wait, dad, who were those people? Were they really our grandparents?"
He looked grim as he observed us for a couple of seconds, he slowly answered my question.
"Yes, they were."
Were? I wanted to keep on asking him questions, but he quickly cut me off as he formed a portal.
"Get in, it goes back to our house."
He didn't even wait for me to respond, he just grabbed me roughly by the arm and threw me into the portal. I landed in our living room hard on my butt. I turned around just in time to see Neo landing on top of me.
''Get off."
I groaned as Neo rolled off me. I sat up and looked at the portal. I sat there expectantly as I waited for my dad to walk through the portal. I sighed in relief as I saw my dad limp out of the portal and stand in front of us.
"WHY WOULD YOU GO WITH THEM?!"
I looked at dad's angered and furious face as he yelled at us. This is his first time yelling at us like this. I looked up at him as he stood above us, furious.
''I'VE TOLD YOU TIME AND TIME AGAIN, TO NEVER, NEVER! GO WITH ANYONE OTHER THAN ME, LEILANI AND HER HUSBAND! I-I."
He cut himself off as his voice cracked as he sank to his knees and covered his face with his hands.
"I don't know what I would do without you two."
We exchanged glances as our dad started to wipe his tears away and looked at us.
"Never, I mean never, do that again."
We slowly nodded our heads as my dad tried to stand back up. We lept to our feet when we saw him collapse onto his back. He looked up at the ceiling and groaned.
"Can you guys help me get to the bathroom? I hurt my leg earlier."
I stood up and grabbed my dad's left hand while Neo grabbed the other. Together, we managed to get dad to his feet and slowly took him to the bathroom with him leaning heavily on us. I started to breathe hard with the extra 100 pounds on me.
"Dad, you have...to lose some weight."
Dad started to laugh at my comment but started to groan in pain.
"Oh don't make me laugh, I bruised my ribs."
We finally got to the bathroom and helped him sit down on the edge of the bathtub. He sighed with relief and pointed at the cabinet.
"Can you get the first aid kit, the green one?"
Neo nodded his head and handed the first aid kit with a green cross on it. Dad took it with thanks and opened it up. We looked on with curiosity as we saw dad take out a syringe with a green colored liquid and some dried fruit. He noticed our looks and started to explain it.
"This is fruit that helps ghosts replenish their energy, it's not safe for humans to eat so don't eat it, the syringe also helps ghosts so don't let it be injected into you."
We nodded our heads as dad started to chew on some of the fruit while he slowly took off his shirt. There was a huge bruise forming on his right ribs and the bruise was already starting to become dark with some green. He winced as he took it off and tried his best to look at it. He sighed and then looked at us.
"Can you guys help me wrap it up?"
"What do we have to do?"
"You just need to wrap the bandage around me while I hold my arms up."
We nodded our heads, dad handed us a large bandage, dad picked his arms and stayed still while me and Neo started to wrap him up. Once we were done, he waved us off.
"Ok, thanks for the help, go get ready for bed and wash up, don't forget to wash off the blood off your face Cassius."
I tilted my head in confusion and looked in the mirror and sure enough, there was some blood on my cheek. I washed it off as I wondered when I got the blood on me. Once I was done, I looked at Neo and my dad insisted that we went to bed. We looked at each other with uncertainty, dad noticed this and reassured us that he was fine. We reluctantly left the bathroom. We when our separate ways as we started to get ready for bed. I laid down on my bed a little before I got back up and walked to my dad's room, one of the few times that I want to sleep with him now.
I walked into my dad's room only to see Neo head peeking out of the blankets as he looked at me. We smiled at each other and I laid down next to him as I closed my eyes and waited for my dad.
Sometime later
"Wow talk about Deja vu."
I came out of my doze as I heard my dad's voice. Before I could wake up completely, I felt him climbing into bed while muttering to himself.
"You would think that they are too old for this. Oh well, goodnight you two.''
I muttered goodnight to him before falling asleep to the rhythmic breathing from my dad and Neo.
