As I pulled up to my mom’s house, I couldn’t help but get the chills.

I guess I would never look at this house the same again after the Banshee attack. Looking at the roof, I could envision myself fighting that crazy she-demon. The roof drainage pipe was still damaged where I’d hit it as I tumbled off the roof onto the grass. Man, the fall wasn’t that far, but it actually kinda was when landing on your rib cage.

As I got out of the car my mom and kid brother Aiden exited the house and Tain ran out to meet me.

I hadn’t been at the house all week since the incident. My mom and brother hadn’t either. Nehemiah had fixed their minds, removing the memories of the Banshee from it. My mother and brother both had a fixed memory that I no longer shared.

I had talked to Aiden a few days afterwards. “You okay bud?”

“Yeah I guess so,” he said.

“How you feeling after what happened?”

He looked like he didn’t really want to talk about it. “It’s all kinda hazy, like I was there but wasn’t there.”

“That happens sometimes when people are in crazy situations. Once your adrenaline kicks in, your memory kind of lapses.” I said, reassuring him even though I knew exactly what had happened.

I just needed to make sure. He knew deep down inside that something wasn’t right with his memory, that something weird happened that night, but his brain filled in the gaps. He just had to shrug and chalk it up to adrenaline and the woman being a druggie.

When I talked to my mom it was much of the same thing. Neither of them remembered that she was a Banshee or that anything supernatural had gone down. My mom remembered, quote, “The nice black man helping us get home.” But she didn’t remember the fact that he had a staff or that he could do magic. Or the fact that I did magic. So I had literally no one to talk to about this stuff except for a crazy non-leprechaun and a mysterious wizard named Nehemiah who didn’t even exist online.

“Thanks for taking Tain,” said my mom. She helped Aiden load his stuff into the car. “We just came back to get some more clean clothes and then we’re heading back over to Nancy’s house.”

Nancy was my mom’s best friend. She had been there a lot for my mom once my dad had gone. She’d also been there when my sister died. “She tried to accommodate Tain, but she’s just so allergic to dogs,” My mom explained.

“It’s totally cool. I’m just glad that Nancy is so understanding.”

She nodded, smiling weakly.

I pointed to the gutter, “I’ll try to get that fixed Mom, as soon as possible.”

“Don’t be silly Sean. I’ll have a professional do it.”

“Ouch,” I said.

“Oh don’t act offended. You don’t have time anyway.”

I nodded. She was right. I had way too much going on. She didn’t even know the half of it.

“So if you could just watch Tain for a couple of days. His dog food is just inside the house along with his bowl. Make sure that he gets walked for at least thirty minutes to an hour every day. Maybe you could even work it into one of your dates,” she said winking.

I rolled my eyes but grinned. “Okay, get out of here Mom.”

I waved to her and my brother as they drove away. Tain barked affectionately wagging his tail. I turned to him and scratched behind his ears.

“Alrighty boy. Time to get my hunting gear.”

---

The sword hung, sheathed and mounted on my brother’s bedroom wall.

I took it down and inspected it. Years and years of use reflected in the worn grip of the katana, years that my parents had put me through Kendo class and training. They had spent a lot of money to let me enjoy that extracurricular activity. I thought about the Banshee on the roof of this very house last week. All that training paid off. I smiled. I had a feeling it was going to pay off again tonight.

Dad’s old Mossberg rested on the shelf in my mom’s walk-in closet. This time I made sure to grab his old shoulder holster and the lanyard so that I could properly carry the gun and ammo at the same time along with the sword. ‘Murica.

I gathered Tain’s things and loaded them into my trunk along with the katana, and the shotgun bag.

---

As I was leaving, a raven perched in the Ole’ Oak tree caught my eye out of my peripheral. It squawked at me, bobbing its head, then flew away, landing on the roof. But my eyes lingered on the Oak.

It was really a magnificent tree. Its massive branches reaching out every which direction. The leaves were in full bloom now. It seemed like the Oak tree was calling to me. I can’t say I heard a voice, but I felt compelled to climb it.

A dark oval patch of bark near the base of the trunk caught my attention. I didn’t remember that. The bark seemed dead, but only within the oval patch. It was about where my back hit the tree when the Banshee kicked me across the yard. I guess I never noticed it before.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

I ran my fingers over the bark, turning my attention to a familiar knot. Instantly I was brought back to my childhood.

When I was much shorter the knot served as a handhold to begin climbing the tree. I remember Anna, Gavin, and I would race to climb the tree. Before Aiden was born it was just the three of us. That sense of déjà vu hit me as I climbed the tree for the millionth time.

A specific memory rushed back to my mind’s eye, playing out before me.

I had done something bad, I don’t remember what. But I remember I was scared that my dad was going to give it to me so I retreated to my hiding spot, my safe haven, my Oak tree. In hindsight I wasn’t well hidden, the tree being in the front yard and all, completely in view of the living room window, but as a youngster this was the place I knew was safe. I climbed as high as I dared to go, then pushed myself and climbed further.

I needed to climb higher than Dad was willing to climb. And that meant scooting out onto a skinny branch as far as possible. Soon he found me.

“Whatcha doing up so high kido?”

“Hiding.”

“From who?”

“You,” said little me.

“Why don’t you come down now?”

“No. You’ll punish me.”

“Are you sorry for what you did?”

Little me nodded.

“Okay. I accept that as an apology. Now come down before you fall out of the tree.”

I shook my head.

“You stuck?”

Dizziness overwhelmed me. My fear of my father had given me courage to climb this high, but now that we were on good terms my fear of falling reclaimed me.

“I’m stuck,” I acknowledged.

“Okay,” he said, and didn’t even skip a beat as he began climbing the tree.

“No,” I had screamed. “You’re too big. You’ll break the branches.”

My dad laughed. “No way. The branches of this old Oak are strong.” Soon he was on a branch just beneath me. Still, I wouldn’t relinquish my hold on the tree. I clasped it in a death grip now. I didn’t trust that he could catch me if I fell, and that fear conquered all rational thinking.

“Let go, Sean.”

But I wouldn’t budge.

The whole family came out to watch the spectacle.

“Sean’s stuck in the tree,” dad announced.

“How are we going to get him down?” asked little Anna.

Dad shook his head. “We can’t. We’ll all just have to live up here now.”

Gavin and Anna began giggling at the idea and climbed into the tree to join in the fun.

Soon everyone but mom was in the tree, laughing. I forgot about my fear as we yelled and giggled and moved about the branches.

Eventually mom broke up the fun. “The table is all set for dinner. Come on down, all of you.”

Remembering felt good. Nostalgia is powerful. And painful sometimes. It could never be like that again. I was a grown man now. Young, but grown. And Dad and Anna were gone.

No matter what I wanted, I’d never be a kid again. And time wasn’t going to pause either. It was going to keep moving on, with or without me. Looking ahead, the future was uncertain and likely dangerous until I figured out how to lift this Keening, this curse.

“Hey,” I said out loud to myself. “The mark doesn’t hurt.” I rubbed it just to be sure and the soreness was gone. I looked in my shirt and it was still there. “Weird.” This was the first time in a week that the irritation had subsided even a little.

Tain had his front paws up against the garage door of the house, barking away at the raven which croaked right back at him. They reminding me that I needed to get going.

I patted the tree. Despite the way things had turned out, I still had my memories, and the Oak tree had helped me recall better times. Plucking a large leaf from the tree I tucked it into my jeans as a keepsake.

And even though I had lost family members, the future wasn’t all bad. There was still a possibility with Charice. My heart skipped a few beats at the thought of her. And even if she wasn’t THE ONE, I could still have a good time being friends with her.

“Thanks old Oak,” I said.

I felt rejuvenated.

---

An array of colors painted the sky as the sun set, from vibrant dark oranges, all the way back to a deep purples. I sped up the Mustang and the engine roared.

Tain sat up front with me in the passenger seat. His tongue was out and he was panting with that dog grin. I rolled down the window so that he could feel the cool air flow over his face and ears. It whipped his fur around.

“Nobody knows what happened last week boy, nobody but you and me, and that wizard guy.”

Tain ducked his head back in and looked at me. At times it felt as if Tain actually understood what I said.

“You stood by my side the whole time buddy. I wish there was some way I could thank you. Maybe I’ll get you some dog treats or let you eat some of my bacon.”

Tain just kept grinning and panting.

A sharp irritation came back all of a sudden. My hands tensed on the steering wheel.

“I spoke too soon. Itches again.” I scratched my Keening. “I don’t know how to get rid of this thing. And what’s more, it attracted another monster to me. A giant crazy bird thing. If you saw it you’d flip out and foam at the mouth. That’s why I grabbed the shotgun, and Mom can never know. Because her and Aiden forgot what they saw. But you and I haven’t. We’re the only ones.”

I looked over at Tain and he looked straight at the road as if he was listening intently.

“You can try to kill me Sluagh, but like Home Alone, I’ll be ready. Except I won’t use toys and cans of paint. I’ll have my katana, my shotgun, and my dog this time.”

Tain looked at me and cocked his head as if asking a question.

“And I have magic. Sometimes. I can’t figure out how to consistently use it though.”

Why not? He seemed to ask.

“Nehemiah said that my power awakened when I touched his staff last time. Maybe I need to recharge from him or something. And he hasn’t been around for me to do that. And nothing’s really happened since last week. Well nothing until last night.” I even had time to catch up on my community college homework.

“It’s actually been kinda nice. Things have almost been… normal.”

I came to a stop light and Tain shifted on the seat and stuck his head out the window again looking at the view. The light turned green and I sped off down the highway towards my apartment. The sun was almost completely gone now and a few stars were breaking through the night sky. My thoughts turned to the Sluagh. It was almost time.

The moon was already out and there were very few clouds in sight. It would be a beautiful night. Charice! Tonight could have been awesome. But if I went on a date with her I’d be looking over my shoulder at every little thing. “I’d be putting her in danger,” I said, as if Tain needed an explanation.

As we picked up speed the wind blew his tongue to the back of his face and it was flapping in the air. It made me chuckle and smile. “What I need to do,” I said, “is go back to where this started, back at the chiropractor’s office and make myself available for that thing to attack.”

I nodded my head in agreement with myself. I reached over and flipped on my CD player which had Hatebreed in it. I flicked it to the Threshold song. When the song came to the right part I screamed alongside Jamey Jasta “to the threshold!”

I swear that while the heavy riffs were playing Tain was bobbing his head with me.