After a few days I got better.
I wasn't going to see what my new power was.
I didn't want to.
I wanted to be completely normal.
And normal people don't have powers.
Dad insisted that I should stay home, just to be sure I wasn't still sick.
I'd argued and told him that I was fine, but he didn't want to hear any of it.
I was cleaning my room, (because I was bored) and Dad was at work.
He'd gotten some sort of promotion, and was now constantly at work.
Literally, he wakes up at five and comes home at midnight. At least it's only every other day though, because I'm pretty sure five hours of sleep isn't enough.
I heard the front door open, then slam closed.
"Home already?" I asked. Not sure that it was my dad.
No one answered.
I wearily walked out to the hallway.
On the way out of my room I grabbed a bat.
When I got to the kitchen, Isabel was standing there.
She looked awful. She had a scratch down her arm, and she was all dirty.
She was crying.
"Run." She whispered.
"Nice of you to join us." A voice said behind me.
I turned around.
Jerome stood there, with his arms crossed in front of him.
He had a menacing look on his face, but he didn't scare me.
"What happened to her?" I asked.
"Oh don't worry. It wasn't the boy." He said.
It wasn't Jerome. The voice sounded...demonic.
"Jerome, come on! Fight it off!" Isabel's raspy voice yelled.
"Shut up!" Jerome yelled, like she was constantly yelling, which she probably was.
"Why did you take her?" I asked.
"She knows too much, I can't take risks." He said.
I looked around for a weapon, then decided to stall.
"Why are you doing this?" I asked.
"I get bored sometimes." Then he cackled.
After about five minutes of his laughing, he leaned towards me and said,
"This is what's gonna happen. You're going to write a note to your father, then we leave."
He walked over to the table and sat a piece of paper and a pencil on it.
He beckoned me over.
The paper had letters already written on it.
It said.

L
O
O
K
I
N
G

F
O
R

I
S
A
B
E
L

"Write a note. And make it sound exactly how you would write it." He said.
He walked away, and I sat down and grabbed the pencil.

Lovely day.
Okay, so I'm gone. Don't worry.
Over time I will be back.
Keep my books safe while I'm gone.
I am coming back.
Never forget that.
Guess what?

Five dollars for a bus ticket
One dollar might be missing from your wallet.
Remember that.

Isabel should be coming back soon
So tell her not to worry. Say,
Alice is fine
Because she is
Everyone will want to know what happened.
Let them worry.

Alice.

I set the pencil down and looked at my note that made no since.
"Done?" Demonic Jerome asked.
"Yes." My voice said, just above a whisper.
"Then we leave." He replied.
~
"Don't you ever fight him?" I asked Isabel.
We were at a house in the woods.
No where I knew, just a beat up house, sitting abandoned in the woods.
Jerome had left and locked the doors.
"No, it's still Jerome, and I don't want to hurt him. And, you can't defeat a demon that powerful without a special power."
"Has anyone ever gotten the power?" I asked.
She paused.
"There were a few. The last person to get it was killed by a demon a couple years ago though." she said.
"Oh." I said.
"Yeah, I knew her." She paused. "Marie Shadow. My aunt."
"Were you guys close?" I asked.
"Yeah, until she moved to Seattle, Washington. Then she got married, and had a daughter. She never told us what her daughters name was. Or how she was doing, or her new last name. And pretty soon, she didn't talk to us anymore." She sat there for a second before adding, "And this demon we're dealing with, it's the same one that killed her. And I'm afraid he'll hurt Jerome too."
"Wow." Was all I could say.
"This may sound weird, but I have a picture of her. I keep it in my pocket." Isabel said.
She pulled out a picture of her mom with another woman.
I recognized the other woman immediately.
It was my mom.
Then I remembered.
My mother never told us her maiden name.
Or where she lived before Seattle.
We never kept in touch with my aunt and cousins.
And her name was Marie.
I sucked in a breath.
"What?" Isabel asked.
"That's my mom." I said.
"Your my cousin?!" She half yelled, half asked.
I nodded.
"Oh my gosh! Oh my gosh!" She started jumping up and down. "Wait," she paused and looked at me. "ewww."
"What?" I asked.
"You dated your cousin. Icky." She said.
Then she started laughing hysterically.
"And Jerome had a complete crush on you!" She continued to laugh.
Then she went serious again.
"Have you gotten any new powers lately?" She asked out of the blue.
"Yeah." I said cautiously.
"Test it!" She squealed. "It might break his barrier and let us out!"
I raised my arm towards the door.
The door blasted down after a flash of light came out of my hand.
Isabel smiled.
Then we walked out as I wondered why the demon needed to attack me.
What could I do?
And why did it threaten him?