Later that afternoon, Greg was struggling to stay awake, sitting with Charlie in front of the television, hearing James come upstairs, "James!" he cried out, "you're up?"
"Yeah, why?" James walked up, and got the first look that day at how exhausted Greg looked; "wow, Greg, what happened to you? You looked absolutely wrecked,"
"She kept me up all night," Greg sighed, "I quite literally only got to bed about half an hour before you called this morning. And then I was so exhausted at the car dealership I ended up falling asleep there, I think I'm about to doze off now, can you watch her for like an hour while I have a nap? I'd doze while she's watching TV, but goddamn if you can't leave this child unsupervised any longer than a blink," to which James nodded and said of course he would, "oh thank God," Greg muttered, standing up.
Charlie grabbed Greg by the hem of his shirt, "Greg watch TV," she insisted.
Greg undid her hand, "Charlie and Jamie watch TV now. Greg go nap," and started walking off, when Charlie let out a piercing, unrelenting scream, "oh for God's sake!" Greg cried out in exhausted frustration as James tried to console her; "give it up James, I'll just sit here and sleep," Greg sighed as he sat down and the screaming immediately stopped, while he glared at Charlie for a moment, before lying down in front of the television on the couch with his head on James' lap and falling asleep.
Upon waking up, Greg glanced over at the clock on the wall on the TV 5pm? That can't be right. And glanced up to see that James was still sitting underneath him; struggling to keep his eyes open, stroking his hand across Greg's head as though he were patting a cat, Charlie was still wide awake however, up staring at the TV. "Where's Ty?" Greg asked.
"He's at his friend's house, remember?" James mumbled,
"What?" Greg sat up in panic, "what friend?"
"Michael. You can calm down now Greg, you were the one that organised this on Monday, remember? He'll be home soon," James placated, pulling Greg back down.
"Right," Greg mumbled, relaxing back.
Within the next half an hour, Rob opened up the front door with Tyson and they walked in, "granddad!" Charlie jumped up and ran over to the front door, "we watch TV all day!"
"Really?" Rob raised an eyebrow, "all day?" and Charlie nodded excitedly.
"Narc," Greg muttered humorously and James laughed weakly and uncomfortably, not quite sure what to think about Rob after having been hit with a newspaper this morning, although the more and more James thought about it, the more and more he realised how stupid and reckless it'd been.
Sitting around the table at dinner that night, Greg cleared his throat; "James and I have an announcement to make,"
"You mean aside from the brand-new truck sitting in the driveway?" Rob questioned challengingly, staring them down, shovelling a forkful of salad into his mouth.
"Yes, aside from the new truck," Greg sighed, "James, show him," and James shyly pulled out his hand, "I proposed on our trip," Greg blushed, "and he said yes,"
"Oh wow," Rob's mood shifted, gasping, "is that, sapphires in the gold?"
"It is, we had a conversation about it ages ago," Greg nodded, "I had it specially ordered from a place in South Dakota when we were there… visiting my family,"
"It's beautiful, have you guys started thinking about a date yet?" Rob asked and Greg just shook his head.
"Wait, I have family in South Dakota? I want to go visit them. Please?" Tyson interrupted.
"They're not your family," Greg growled, his entire body stiffening up, "and they're not nice people, Tyson, I'm keeping you and your sister safe by keeping you as far away from them as possible. I don't want to hear another word on the matter,"
"Well, I want to meet them, even if I have to stay there by myself. It's not my fault that you don't like them, maybe they're nice," Tyson grumbled, cutting up a sausage on his plate, dipping it in ketchup.
Something in Greg snapped in that moment and he stood up, standing over Tyson with his eyes wide and staring, his nostrils flaring as he swiped the dinner plate off the table, sending food flying over the ground, "over my dead body you will! Don't you dare try and talk about things that don't concern you and that you don't know anything about, Tyson! You have no damn idea what you're talking about! You have no fucking idea how purely evil some people can be! You have no clue what some people will do to a little boy! I'm protecting you and you can't even be grateful for that! God…" Greg started to break down and took a shaky step backwards, "I have to go, I need a minute, I'm going to go for a drive," he grabbed the keys for the new truck, stormed out the door slamming it behind him, and the truck revved loudly in the driveway, before they could all hear Greg peeling out of the driveway and tearing down the street.
Tyson frowned, "what did I do?" and James just shook his head, "what, Uncle Jamie? What did I say?"
"You need to apologise to Uncle Greg when he gets home, Tyson. He's right, they're not your family, and that those people are evil and will hurt a little boy without a second thought. You live a very nice and sheltered life here, Tyson, and Uncle Greg didn't have that. Your Uncle Greg got hurt, Tyson, and he got hurt a lot. He's protecting you, that's why he's angry that you're not taking it seriously and that you don't see that he's hurting. You reminding him of that hurt makes him very sad and angry," James said, "now go and get the brush and shovel and clean up that mess,"
Tyson looked over at Rob, who just nodded his agreement, "Jamie is right, Tyson. You need to apologise to him when he gets home, before you go to bed,"
"Do you want to talk about what happened back there? At dinner?" James muttered later that evening once Greg had changed into pyjamas, shaking his head that he did not want to talk about any of it. "Greg, I know that you were hurt, I… I can't imagine how much you were hurt… But Tyson is just a little boy, Greg. He doesn't understand how they hurt you. I know that you look at Tyson and see yourself in him; but he's a different kid, Greg, he doesn't understand how badly you were hurt, and what they did to you. I know those people are evil, and what they did… they should be sent to the gallows for, every single one of them. But Tyson isn't you, Greg, he's not going to get hurt. We're taking care of him," James attempted to placate him.
"Wow, you're like a detective or something, aren't you, Sherlock?" Greg snapped and turned around, "firstly, you have no real idea what happened so don't pretend that you do, and I told you just now I didn't want to talk about it. I know that he's a different kid; I'm not goddamn stupid! I'm just trying to protect him from these people and he's goddamn laughing at me! I'm doing my best to keep him from getting hurt and he spits it all back in my face!"
"Uncle Greg? I'm so sorry, I don't know why I upset you, but I'm very sorry I did," came a small voice at the top of the stairs.
"Come down, Tyson," Greg called out and Tyson crept down the stairs, "I know that you're sorry, Tyson, but we've had this conversation before, haven't we? You know better than to mention those people. Tyson, you don't need to know anything about those people, you just need to trust me on this that they are bad, awful people, okay?" Tyson nodded tearfully, and Greg indicated for him to come over and give him a hug, which he did, and sniffled into Greg's clothes. "It's okay, Tyson, it's okay, I'm sorry if I scared you, okay?" and Tyson nodded tearfully, with his face pressed into Greg's pyjamas.
Greg felt himself walking through the old mansion; feeling the cold draughts whip around his legs holding him back as though he were trying to run through mud. Greg heard a scream he recognised as being one of terror and agony, he followed the cries, desperately trying to find where the cries were coming from. Running through the hallways as quickly as his heavy legs would let him, Greg pushed against every rickety, old wooden door along the second floor, shouting out; trying to seek out where the cries and screams were coming from, desperate to find before the child was hurt any more.
Greg bashed down the last door in the hallway, and saw the tall, slender silhouettes of his father and uncle, as they'd stood in their younger years when they'd been abusing Greg as a child, as well as those of varying heights and sizes of other men who he recognised as some of those who had abused him. A loud, excruciating ringing pounded through Greg's ears, as he tried to hear what the men were saying as everything slowed down to an extreme slow motion; eventually, one man stepped aside and Greg saw in terror that it was Tyson being held down on the bed, as Greg watched his own father abuse the boy Greg saw as his son, with a wicked smirk on his face. Greg watched Tyson scream in beyond terror and agony, and his father beating and laughing at him. "Tyson!" Greg screamed, "I'm coming!" while he rushed forward to crash into a glass wall tanking them in, "no! Let him go!" Greg screamed as he pounded on the glass as hard as he could. Tyson looked up at Greg and made direct eye contact, begging to be saved. Greg pounded and kicked at the glass as hard as he could, trying to break through, not caring how much he got hurt.
"You have to wait until we're done now, Greggy boy," Henry sneered from the other side of the glass, "you didn't protect them enough, they didn't stay away- what a useless excuse of a father you are!" while the total black outlines of arms of other demonic presences crept around his arms and legs and held him still, as Henry came into the light, leading Charlie by the hand as Greg's eyes grew even wider, "now you have to watch! Now you have to see what you caused to happen! What you did to them when you didn't protect them enough! Did you really think you could get away from us that easily? That you could just run away, and we wouldn't chase you down?"
"Charlie!" Greg screamed, bucking against the demonic forces holding back his arms as he fell to his hands and knees, Charlie reached out a hand against the glass wall, and Greg could see her face covered in tears, and blood dripping slowly from between her legs onto the floor, "Charlie! Tyson!" Greg screamed with tears rolling down his cheeks as he pounded on the heavy glass, feeling his energy being sapped with every passing second.
Henry looked down and grinned evilly at the ground, "oh, would you look at that? There's a bit of blood on the ground. I wonder how that got there? What do you think happened, Greggy? You didn't stop her from getting hurt! Did Greggy let you down, little girl? He didn't get here fast enough, did he?"
Greg heard the piercing wails and cries of Tyson and Charlie as he continued trying to smash down the wall with his fists, "let them go!" Greg screamed, "do what you want to me, but don't hurt them!"
"Oh, but on the contrary Greggy boy, you weren't there to stop them from entering the house, you didn't stop them when they needed saving, you just ran away when we were only mentioned, didn't you? You were too cowardly to fully put a stop to it, to actively protect them from people like me, you thought you were protecting them from the truth when you just left them to be able to get hurt! You think you're such a great father, that you're breaking the cycle, well look at your kids now! Your cowardness and belief you can just run away from us is what hurt them in the end… Rob and Josie trusted you to protect these kids, and you left them out without knowing you dangerous it can be to be drawn in. Father of the year aren't you! You think you can just run away from us, we own you!" Henry's voice filled up more and more of the room, his words swirling around Greg, hanging in the air like cigarette smoke at dusk.
"I'm sorry!" Greg screamed on his knees, "please! Hurt me however you like but let them go!" as he battered away the demonic limbs trying to snake their way around his arms.
"Now you want to protect them, shame you weren't there when they came in here! You can have them after we're done, what's left of them that is. You should've told them that the admission price to this house is at the cost of their souls! Now stop acting so pathetic! You're being stupid, and you wonder why no one ever cared enough to save you!" Henry laughed, as a man he only ever knew as 'Big Bill' came and took little Charlie's hand and led her away, while Greg continued to scream, with tears now flowing freely down his cheeks as he could only watch in horror while he continued to smash his fists on the thick glass, feeling the bones in his hands and fingers crack from the pressure, and hearing only dark laughter and pained cries for help from the other side of the glass wall.
Greg felt a firm hand grab him around the shoulder, and the room faded from his vision; "Greg!" a familiar voice pulled him back into consciousness, as Greg woke up, looking around in a panic.
"Kids, I've got to check on the kids," he muttered, shrugging the hand off as he stood up shakily, grabbed his cane and began hurrying over to the stairs, "make sure the kids are safe,"
"Greg!" James jumped out of bed and chased after him, "they're fine! They're in their beds. They're sleeping! It's 3am, you'll only scare them if you wake them up now. We're not at the ranch anymore, we're in Detroit, remember? Tyson and Charlie have never been to the ranch, and they'll never go to the ranch. Just let them sleep, and you'll see them in the morning. I just need you to breathe, okay?"
"I have to make sure they're here and they're safe," Greg muttered, pushing past James and heading up the stairs, "make sure that my father and Henry didn't get to them,"
"They haven't… but you're going to check anyway, aren't you?" James sighed, as he followed Greg, hissing after him to be as silent as possible to not wake them up and frighten them. After he'd clicked Charlie's door closed as quietly as possible behind him; reassured now that both kids were safe, Greg collapsed into a mess of tears.
"It was so scary, James, it was so, so scary!" Greg hiccupped and then coughed some of the tears back as he gasped for air in his panic, "they were in a room…"
"Greg- you're talking very loudly and you're going to wake the kids up, and they're going to hear what you're saying. We can talk it through, okay? But we're going to need to go downstairs first. If you don't want to scare them and you don't want them to know about it, you need to take a deep breath and come downstairs, with me, okay?" James lowered his voice hoping that would encourage Greg to lower his as well.
"Dad… and Henry, and… and Big Bill were there… and others… and they had both of them and I couldn't get to them, and…" Greg's voice was still loud, verging on wailing in his panic attack, while James tried desperately to shush him.
"What's going on?" Rob came out of his bedroom in his boxer shorts, his stomach hanging well out and over the waistband, "Greg? What's wrong?"
"He had a nightmare, about you know who and you know what," James filled him in, "he wanted to check to make sure that the kids were safe and that he in fact wasn't in the house in South Dakota," James sighed, "he has nightmares about that often, I think that the argument tonight sort of triggered this one," James lowered his voice as Greg quietened down to a sniffle.
"Oh, Greg. Come here," Rob encased him in a hug and felt his eyes tearing up, "I'm so sorry that I couldn't get you away from them, Greg, I tried, I really tried, but obviously we didn't try hard enough to get you away, to rescue you," as he felt Greg begin to shake and cry harder, "how about we go and have a hot drink and wake up a bit, yeah?" Rob suggested and Greg nodded, "okay then, let's go, come on. The kids are safe, Greg, they're safe,"