James pulled back into the driveway. He did not go anywhere in particular; he just drove around to clear his head. After experiencing that same dream so many times, as well as having gone through the Book of Light twice, he needed something to take his mind off of everything. While no average person would even think twice about having the same dream more than once, to James it presented itself as an ill omen. Being a witch and having seen so much that the average person could never imagine, James did not take anything for granted these days, especially without his brothers around to help.
The situation had almost left James' head until he turned off his truck. Everything came back to him at that time; he knew that on the other side of the front door lay the remnants of yet another demonic attack. The windows were still unlit from the outside; neither of his brothers had made it home yet. He sighed as he slid his key into the front door lock and turned it. As he opened the door and turned on the lights, sure enough, the debris was there to greet him. He wished that someone else had gotten home to start the cleanup; he hated having to fix the house time and time again. There had to be a better way.
A faint familiar noise caught his attention from the direction of the basement. He squinted his eyes and turned his ear to the source of the sound. His cell phone was ringing. He silently cursed himself for leaving it here. It explained why he thought no one had called him while he was on the road. He casually stepped over the broken pieces of furniture and made his way to the door of the basement. Pushing the door open, he bounded down the stairs and saw his phone next to the Book of Light. Matthew's name flashed on the front of the phone.
"Hey," he said calmly.
"Jimmy!" Matthew shouted, almost frantically. "Where the hell have you been? I've been trying to call you forever! Did something happen?"
"Slow down, buddy," James replied. "I went out for a drive and left my phone at home. Why are you talking so fast? I know you're a Yankee, but this is fast even for you."
"I was in the middle of dinner and I got a premonition," Matthew explained in a long and drawn out voice. "Something bad is happening, or it may have already happened."
"What did you see?" James asked, quickly grabbing his keys. He had started speed walking up the stairs from the basement and back towards his truck. "Where are you?"
"Buckhead," Matthew said, giving James his location. "Homeboy's gonna get attacked by some weird looking demons if we don't hurry up."
"What's the big deal?" James asked. "We get attacked all the time. True, we haven't been attacked in a while, but still, it's not that out of the ordinary."
"Usually," Matthew agreed, pausing briefly, "but this time he was with his girlfriend Kim. The demons in my vision killed her…"
"What!?" James shouted into the phone as he started his truck once again. "I'm on my way to you now. Stay close and see if you can get any more visions. Give me ten, fifteen minutes."
Matthew's mind ran over the premonition he had had over and over again, each time trying to distinguish yet another detail. He needed to figure out exactly where Wesley and Kim were when they were taken. From what he saw in his vision, Matthew could vaguely make out a dark alley. In Atlanta, alleys were not very rare, so it really got him nowhere. He remembered tall trees and park benches. C'mon, what else was there, he thought, practically forcing himself to see more details in the vision. He remembered a sign that had five colored rings that intertwined with each other. Making himself see more and more of the details, he finally figured out where he had seen those colored circles before. Centennial Park, built in honor of the 1996 Olympic Games, popped into his head.
Matthew took off in the direction of the park. From the restaurant, Matthew had to jog briskly for about twenty minutes. He stopped to text James his location, then sat on a bench to catch his breath. He was a great boxer, and in great shape, but running had never been his forte. After a couple minutes passed, Matthew got up and started to look around for anything peculiar. He knew that his premonitions were rather tricky, and could be of the past, present, or future. He could never really be sure when they took place. That put him on constant guard, having to always assume the worst case scenario. Matthew walked around the park. At nine o'clock at night, the park was surprisingly not very crowded. It was a weekday, after all. He walked around the outskirts of the park, where the streets led back into the city. A few streets trailed off into smaller roads that ended up in alleys. He felt it best to start there. There were two different alleyways, one on either side of the park. He decided to go with the closest alleyway.
His jog slowed to a normal pace as he entered the alley. It was not a particularly long alley. He could see a brick wall about thirty feet away. There was a single streetlight that provided just enough of a dim light to give the alley an eerie glow. Matthew stepped carefully, searching every nook and cranny for any clues that could help him find his brother.
"Matt!" he heard a voice calling from a distance. His head shot up, his ears tuning in to the direction of the sound.
"Wes?" Matthew shouted back towards the source of the voice. "Wesley!?"
"Matt!" the voice called again. "Where are you?"
Matthew broke into a run out of the alley. He breathed a sigh of relief, knowing that his brother was okay. His run slowed to a stop when he saw James near a streetlight in the middle of the park. He was glad to see James, but it was not who he wanted to see at that moment.
"It's only you," Matthew said rather dejectedly.
"Good to see you too," James said, punching Matthew lightly in the chest. "So what's the story? Have you had any other clues?"
"Nothing besides the fact that they got taken somewhere around here," Matthew explained, gesturing with his hands. "I narrowed it down to the alley over there. The one I just came from was a dead end."
"Well let's get going," James said. "The sooner we get this over with, the sooner we can get back to enjoying Spring Break."
The two of them approached the second alley with caution. It was longer than the first alley, with the dead end being close to sixty feet from the opening. The only streetlight was at the opening; the dead end was almost completely dark. There were a few garbage cans scattered in the alley, as well as tattered looking back doors that connected to the local businesses. A very large dumpster lined one side of the alley way. The meows of stray cats resonated throughout the entire alley.
"So what happened with Stephanie?" James asked, breaking the silence as he looked around the opening of the alley. "How'd you get out of the date?"
"I told her you were in an accident," Matthew said nonchalantly. He continued to run his hand along the walls of the buildings, hoping to trigger some sort of vision that would lead them closer to finding Wesley and Kim. "Had to think on my feet, and it was the only thing I could think of to say at that time."
"Ha," James chuckled. "Good thing I'm okay. I guess I'll have to go along with your lie for a few days."
"It would help," Matthew said, stopping to face James. "But get this…when we were at the restaurant having dinner, Wesley was there with Kim."
"Y'all were there at the same time?" James asked incredulously. "How did you work your way out of that one?"
"With a lot of luck," Matthew said to him. "I had to go to the restroom and Kim met me there. She was going to the restroom too. Fortunately, Homeboy didn't have to go. It could've gotten ugly."
"Would you have let him hit you?" James asked, smiling. "Because you know he would've tried to hit you."
"Nah," Matthew said. "I think I could talk my way out of it. Besides, he knows I'm a boxer. He's not that crazy to try and hit me. He'd sooner hit you. Well…he'd sooner hit you again."
"Right," James said in a drawn out tone, thinking back to the time Wesley hit him in the stomach. Coincidentally, that incident also had to do with Stephanie. Wesley had been convinced that James persuaded her to break up with him. It took a while for him and Wesley to work through that ordeal.