There was pin drop silence, broken by the sound of a bus on an empty road. None of them chose to make the run for it.

Mimi gestured to Aiden to put her down. Realizing what she had in mind, he let her walk and approached Lucas. The crying best friend didn’t see it coming as Aiden gave him a hug.

“It’s alright. You’re alive. You have me now. You have us.” He separated and pointed to his sister, “There’s someone willing to call you a big bro.”

Lucas chuckled, feeling as if a heavy weight had been lifted off his chest when he saw Aiden accept him so readily. He smiled, “I didn’t have a good big brother. He convinced me to give up my life for him, that he would take good care of my organs and live up to it. Heh.” He let out a curt laugh at the end, unsure who it was directed at, himself or his big brother.

“It’s a good thing you aren’t that helplessly stupid, foolish, selfless and kind.” Aiden mocked. “True.” Lucas agreed.

“This is why I want to be a good big brother.”

Aiden thought as he finished telling his tale. You also want a good big brother don’t you? Someone who could be what your real big brother failed to be. He slightly shook his head while looking at Grace and Lucas bonding. It’s a pity but I don’t think I can act like your big brother, it simply doesn’t fit. I wish Evander was here.

Their walk was mostly silent, sprinkled with a few talks from their different walks of life before Aiden spoke up again.

“Don’t you guys want to know what happened later? It’s alright you can ask me you know. It’s in the past, I won’t cry again.” He didn’t let them speak. “I spent a couple months living on the road. Naturally, I dropped out of school. This was also the time when those weird people investigated everyone in our area.”

He looked at Aiden and said, “Remember how you deduced that the Bureau’s supers probably didn’t investigate me? There was also the fact that those weird people in suits investigated me and others like me way less than the normal people. After all, who would care for some poor kid living on the street?

“I awakened my abilities not long after. I guess I must not have been careful with using my ability as the Bureau approached me soon.”

He looked at Aiden, and frowned, recollecting his memory as he explained, “You know, it’s strange. They came to register me in the Bureau, and told me I’ll be working in the specter department. But a few days later, the same guys approached me and asked what I wanted to do instead. I told them about rescuing kids and such, and they readily agreed.”

Aiden knew what Lucas was hinting at. Someone at the Bureau was helping him. Both of them suspected it was Evander. But could Evander really have such a high standing?

Before they could realize, they were already at aunt Hellen’s house. Their talking didn’t stop the whole way, and the topic was back on Evander. But Grace was quick to notice her surroundings.

“Why are we heading towards aunt Hellen’s house?” When sending her to the care center, Aiden had given her the excuse that something wrong was going on in their home and he couldn’t afford to risk having her. She was pretty understanding of the situation after considering how serious her brother was. Naturally, the same thing which Aiden told her resurfaced in her mind just after she asked the question on reflex.

“Oh!” He exclaimed, and glanced back at his own house which he had just passed by. He completely forgot he was supposed to put these two in his own home to lower the risk of facing the ghost and avoid conflict with the jerks from the Bureau.

He traced his steps backward and unlocked the gate of his lawn. Walking through the cobbled pathway, he approached his door and unlocked it. He refrained from entering, though. If there was even a slightest chance that the ghost might travel to this house to target him as soon as he entered this home, he would rather not do it.

“Has the issue been solved?” Grace softly asked from behind him after he opened the door. He forced a smile, “For now, yes. You’ll have to live here with Mimi okay? Take good care of her. For the time being, I’ll be at aunt Hellen’s house with your big bro Lucas. We have some serious work to do.”

Grace was a bit sad. Out from the care center, where she constantly lived in pressure, she thought it might be better since her brother brought her out. But it wasn’t any better, her brother wouldn’t be home because he had more serious work to deal with.

Serious enough that he would have to leave her alone at home. She knew for a fact that her big bro never left her alone at home. He rejected all night out invitations and any such events which would result in her being alone at home. She felt pressured not for herself, but for her brother.

What must he be going through?

Grace smiled brightly at him. If there was one thing she could help him with, it was to not make him worry about her. “You don’t need to worry big bro. I’ll take care of Mimi.”

Aiden informed her that he’ll be ordering food for her so she need not worry about not having anything to eat. “Go inside, I’ll send Mimi after explaining some stuff to her.”

Turning around, he kneeled on a single knee and whispered to her. “Don’t apply the rules I told you about earlier. Instead, behave like a good girl and don’t trouble Grace.”

He had said those earlier rules to her considering that the care center was a peaceful place and Mimi would make quite an addition to Grace’s life. Bringing a twist and spiciness in her life in case she was bored there. But the situation was entirely different, and it was different now too. He explained to Mimi about everything she might need to know about his home, Grace, and well, everything yea. He promised to deliver her packet of potato chips she won at the lottery when she reminded him about it.

Despite watching them both walk inside, he couldn’t quite come to terms with it. Suddenly he remembered an important thing and yelled out to call them out. Lucas smirked, “Already can’t afford to leave them behind?”

Grace yelled out similar words from inside as she ran out, followed by Mimi. “Already can’t live without me huh. I knew it!”

Aiden helplessly smiled as he looked at them both, “Already so much in sync, aren’t you?”

Lucas wisely chose to keep his mouth shut as Aiden shifted into a serious mood and asked the little girls, “Did any of you see the red moon?”

Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator.

“I missed it, I slept early that night.” “No.” Grace and Mimi respectively answered. He gently admonished Grace, “That is not something you would have wanted to see. You should be glad you missed it lady.” Without giving her the chance to speak, he continued.

“Did any of you say anything about the red moon?”

“Not while looking at it of course, like I said, I was sleeping.” “No.” Grace and Mimi answered up quickly. When he looked at Grace, she clarified, “I talked about it with my classmates when the topic came up.”

Aiden’s heart sank. He hoped that the condition was, React to the illusion it creates while looking at it. It would make more sense that way, else the majority of the town including even him would have fulfilled one of the conditions of the ghost. True, it wouldn’t attack unless all the conditions were fulfilled but it was bad nonetheless.

He then looked at their shoes inside. Their family always had the habit of removing shoes inside the house, they had a separate space just ahead of the door specifically for that. The shoe cabinet was in the same space inside the house. With his mind still not at ease, he instructed Grace to seal up the shoe cabinet after keeping all the shoes outside into it.

“Tape the entire shoe cabinet after closing its doors. If there’s anything you need to go outside of the house for, message me or call me. I’ll do it for you or arrange something at the least. Don’t go to school for a few days either.”

He only bid them goodbye after personally seeing to it that Grace sealed by taping up the entire shoe cabinet. Lucas offered a few pieces of his own advice and followed after Aiden.

Both of them walked silently until Aiden glanced at the car which had been parked outside Hellen’s house, suddenly remembering that Lucas had a car too. “Lucas, what happened to your car?”

Lucas shrugged and answered, “I sent it to a repair shop, it was near the care center. Not much has happened, just a dent in a few places, so it should be fine if I go take it back tomorrow.”

“Is this aunt Hellen’s car?” It was Lucas’ first time seeing her car. He knew that Hellen was a former field agent so it was obvious she would have the special license. Even if he might have seen the car in his childhood, he didn’t remember it.

“Mm.” Aiden’s brows furrowed as he realized after Lucas pointed it out. “It’s not her car.”

Bureau privilege again? Did that team get a car delivered for them? Crazy.

Lucas suddenly remembered they were talking about Evander. He voiced his doubts as Aiden opened the door to Hellen’s house. “Do you think Evander is safe? He hasn’t reached out to me yet.”

Hellen and the rest of the members had appeared not too long ago. That bus was apparently one which took the longest route. Plus the Bureau’s team also had to wait outside to receive the car, completing verification in the process. It was just a dozen minutes ago that the team finally entered the house.

Hellen served them a few refreshment drinks as the host and asked them to order what they wanted. After they were done freshening up, Alastair had taken out his shirt and started exercising near the window of the living room while Cordelia switched on the TV to watch shows along with Luna. Cedric and Valeria had taken up a corner of the room and begun reading through their book and documents respectively.

Scottus was near the door, trying to decide what he should do as he looked at the room full of people when he heard the door open and someone speak. “Do you think Evander is safe? He hasn’t reached out to me yet.”

His mind instantly jolted at the mention of Evander. Out of reflex, he asked, “Which Evander are you talking about?”

Cordelia and Alastair both jerked up a bit as they heard the loud voice of Scottus mention Evander.

Aiden gazed at Scottus and replied with no politeness in his voice. “Evander Lorensen. You know something about him?”

“Could it just be someone with the same name?” Cordelia suggested. Her eyes held a twinge of fear in them. Alastair had already stopped exercising and walked up near Scottus as he looked at the new guy alongside Aiden.

He would’ve normally introduced himself and waited for an introduction even if he knew about them. In this case, he did. Hellen had already told him about the existence of a super and how he was a friend of Aiden. She refused to elaborate anything beyond that, even the super’s powers.

He instead focused on the familiar guy, Aiden, and asked, “Is the Evander you are talking about, a super?”

Instead of being wary, Aiden found it was a good chance to find out more about Evander. It had been a pressing issue in his mind as much as it was for Lucas. He informed them, “To be honest, I don’t know if he is a super. But if everything we deduced was correct, Evander should have visited this town or at least be in the vicinity with a team from the Bureau. Do you know him?”

The three young supers looked at each other in silence before Alastair broke the silence, “Yea. It’s him.”

Lucas couldn’t keep it in any longer as he asked the most pressing issue. “Do you know if he is safe? Seeing how you guys know him, he must be from the Bureau too right? You should have some information on him?”

Even Cedric, Luna and Valeria had gathered around by now. Hellen was nowhere to be seen.

Scottus was shaking, and Aiden could acutely notice it. His fists clenched, shaking still as he looked at Lucas. Aiden could see the overwhelming emotion of fear in his eyes as Scottus answered with an extremely forced mock smile on his face.

“He is dead.”

Lucas’s expression fell as his heart dropped to the bottom. Whereas rage gripped over Aiden as he held Scottus by both his collars and smashed him to the nearby wall. Sternly asking,

“What did you say?” For some reason, it felt like Scottus was mocking his childhood friend, the big brother of the group. The one who took care of them when they were little. The one who risked his life to save him from the ghost in the town. The one who sent him a warning, using his own blood as the ink. The nerve snapped when he thought Scottus could be deliberately declaring him dead, just for some sake of petty revenge considering the fear in his eyes.

The fear in Scottus’ eyes was replaced by shame and humiliation as he held Aiden’s hands and instantly Aiden felt the energy gathering inside Scottus. Before he could do anything, he felt an immense blunt force in his stomach and chest as his grip loosened on the collars, his hands slipping through those of jerk’s as his body was sent tumbling crashing into the sofa, sliding it forward.

The impact was like a sledgehammer crashing into his stomach and chest, sending a shockwave of agony through his body. His stomach felt as if it had been turned inside out, the pain radiating outward in fierce, throbbing waves. His chest tightened instantly, breathing became a struggle as air was forcibly expelled from his lungs.

He doubled over, confusion plaguing his mind on where to keep his hands, his whole midsection felt painful, every nerve ending screaming in excruciating protest. The world blurred around him as he witnessed Scottus approaching him through blurry eyes.

All of this happened in a split second, enough for Lucas to finally react, snapping out of his sadness as he witnessed the scene. Just when Scottus was about to smash his legs down to pummel the worm who dared hit him, blinding light flashed in front of his eyes.

“ARGHHH!”

One second Scottus had his legs raised and the next, he was holding his eyes as he fell on the ground.

“SAVE ME! Alastair! Cordelia! I am blind! I am blind!”

His legs thrashed around as he clutched his eyes, wishing he could gouge his eyes out to completely remove the pain. He shouted miserably, while wiggling about, toppling over several things in the process.

“It hurts! It hurts! Arghhhh. It hurts!”

The rest of the Bureau’s team immediately went to check out Scottus as Lucas tended to Aiden.

Hellen finally came downstairs after hearing the commotion. Looking at the scene, she felt utterly baffled.

Just what fucking happened here?