ItM - Simon - 82

Soul Searching

Before Gideon came along, I always had the impression that Erin and I wouldn’t have any kids. It seemed so unlikely, and neither of us ever heard any stories about vampires and werewolves with mixed-blood children.

If they did exist, they were hidden away.

I didn’t want to think about the possibility of them existing and then dying because they couldn’t handle the mixed blood running through their veins.

Perhaps there was a reason why no one ever heard rumours of vampires and werewolves having children, but I never figured out what it was. We could have relationships, we could live together. We could get married and even have children.

If it was because we weren’t supposed to be together, then they failed, because I always felt like Erin and I were supposed to be together.

~*~*~*~

I stayed in the kitchen after Erin left, mulling things over in my head.

I didn’t know where we were going to go, how we were going to get there, or what we were going to do once we got there, which was a mistake. I should’ve had some kind of idea on where we should go, but I didn’t.

I thought I had something when I asked Erin about calling her parents to see if we could stay with them, but she didn’t seem pleased with that plan. She was still angry with her father, for a number of reasons. If she didn’t want to talk to him, I wasn’t about to force her.

An idea popped into my head, and I ran straight out of the kitchen and up the stairs, stopping in the doorway to Rory’s room.

My aunt was sitting with Rory, wiping away the tears. “Try to get some sleep, sweetheart.”

“Rory sad, Ant Lou.” She hugged her stuffed dog close to her cheek, her puppy William curled up at her feet. “Rory ver-wy sad. Don’t wanna seep.”

“I know, dearest, I know.”

Rory sighed her grown-up sigh, her lower lip sticking out in a pout, and she rubbed her eyes with her little fist. “Don’t like sad.”

“I promise if you go to sleep you’ll have happy dreams, and everyone will still be here when you wake up.”

“Unca Woofy and Ant Er-win and baby? No go?”

She bent down and kissed Rory’s forehead, stroking her hair. “No, sweetheart. They won’t go while you sleep.”

I waited for Rory to fall asleep, not wanting to upset her. “Where are my parents?”

Louisa stayed where she was on the edge of Rory’s bed, stroking the sleeping toddler’s back. “I just got her to fall asleep. Do you want her to wake up and start crying again?”

“She’ll forget what she was crying about while she sleeps.” I watched them from the doorway, waiting for Louisa to get up so she could answer my question.

When she finally got up I moved away to pace across the hallway, almost pressing her against the door once it was closed. “Where are my parents?”

“You think I know?” She headed for the stairs and down to the living room, leaving me to follow her. “If I knew, I’d tell you.”

I pulled her to a halt at the bottom of the stairs, turning her around until she faced me. “I think you’d tell me if you wanted to, and at the moment, you don’t want to. Erin and I can’t stay here on the off chance that someone’s on their way to try their hand at taking Gideon away.”

“I would tell you if I knew where they were, Simon. I’d tell you if they’d bothered to keep in touch with me.” She ripped her arm away and stalked off into the kitchen, sitting down with a sigh. “Apparently, they no longer like informing me of their location.”

I sat down next to her, watching her face. “But they used to, didn’t they?”

“Why can’t you stay here, Simon? It was a one time thing. Who would try and come back after the police got involved?”

“I don’t want to live my life in fear. I don’t want to stay in that house and spend my days staring at the front door, waiting for someone to barge in with a gun or a knife, or something more archaic. I can’t ask Erin to live like that, and I won’t raise Gideon in that kind of environment.”

She shook her head, not looking pleased with where the conversation was going. “When you first got here, I would get phone calls from both of your parents, letting me know where they were and how long they would be there. They stopped right after Rory was born. I tried calling the numbers I had for them, but I either got disconnected messages or busy signals.” Louisa looked at me, reaching out to grab hold of my wrist. “I don’t know where they are. They could be halfway around the world for all I know.”

“It’s okay, Louisa.” I patted her hand with my free one, trying to settle her frazzled nerves. “Erin and I were talking before. She doesn’t want to call her father, and I started wondering about my folks, if they were willing to take us in for a little while.”

She stood up and headed over to the phone, pulling a book out of the nearby drawer. “I’ll try the phone numbers again, see if one of them will give me an idea of where they are.”

The calls took only moments but it felt like hours. Some connected her to strangers while others never went through, playing the pre-recorded out of service message. Louisa called using the speakerphone so I could hear, but I never heard a voice I recognized as being my mother or my father.

I leaned back in the chair, rubbing my hands across my face. “It was a good idea, before the unfortunate heartbreak.”

She nodded and walked back over to her chair, sitting down with an exhausted expression on her face. “If I ever do get a hold of them I’m going to give them a piece of my mind.”

Chuckling, I shook my head. “Just tell them we were looking for a place to stay for a little while.”

“Well, I might not be able to talk to them, but I can give you an idea of where to go.”

I moved my hands to look at her. “What do you mean?”

She scooted the chair closer to mine, lowering her voice to a near-whisper. “Your mother and father have a number of homes all over the country, as well as some overseas. I’ve still got the addresses to some of them, and maybe even some sets of keys. You could go there, stay for a little while, or until this blows over.”

I didn’t want to say that it would be better if we stayed there permanently, but I also didn’t want to upset her anymore than I already had. “Where are some of these houses?”

“Come with me. I keep a map and list down with my things.”

We went down into the basement apartment and I stood next to her writing desk, looking over her shoulder as she pulled out a list of addresses and a map of the country. “So, if we’re here, then the ones nearby would be pointless.” With a pencil, she crossed off location after location until she reached the end of the list. “Hmmm, interesting.”

“What? Why?” I looked at the number on the page, and ran my finger around on the map until I found it. “It’s in the ocean?”

“What? No, it’s not.” Louisa looked at my finger on the map and brushed it aside, drawing a small arrow. “No, it’s right there on the beach, right next to the ocean.” Her head came around and she looked up at me. “Do you have a problem with that?”

“You think we should go to a beach house?”

“It’s a nice house. I’ve been there a couple of times, of course it’s been a while. It’s more like a glorified cabin right by the water’s edge.” Shrugging, Louisa turned back to the map, flipping it over. “Of course, there are the houses in other countries, but you would have to wait for your passports to come in the mail, wouldn’t you?”

My mind started racing when I saw the marks on the world map, and I shook my head. “No, the other one’s fine. Just give me the address and directions.”

She nodded and reached for a clean sheet of paper. “You’ll have to fly there, and even then it’s a long drive from the closest airport. I’ll go upstairs and make some calls, see if some old friends will give you a ride on their private plane.”

I watched her write down the directions and address of the beach house, and when she stood up I gathered her up in a tight hug. “Thanks, Aunt Louisa.”

“Oh, well.” She hugged me back, her hands bunching up my shirt, and let go a few minutes later with a wet sniffle. “I’ll just go upstairs and make that phone call. You can look at the map a little longer.”

I sat down at the desk and stared at the page in front of me as Louisa headed upstairs. My finger traced a path across the country from the house we were in at that moment to the house on the coast. It would take days to drive there, and it didn’t look like a very populated part of the country.

It would be interesting; I’d never lived so close to the ocean before. I thought Erin might enjoy it, and Gideon could have fun growing up with the water as his backyard, taking his first steps in the sand.

We could watch the sun set into the ocean every night if we lived there.

With my mind made up about where Erin and I would take Gideon, I walked up the stairs to the kitchen, finding my aunt on the phone. She gave me a thumbs up, letting me know she was able to get us on a plane, and I turned to find Rory standing in the doorway.

I went over to her and picked her up, her little arms wrapping tight around my neck. “Let’s take you back to bed, puppy.”

“Rory go wif Unca Woofy. Help potect baby. Pretty baby.”