How was everyone's Halloween? I made it out like a bandit!!! Seriously I just like getting candy even though I really won't eat it... it's become a thing where I see if I can beat the amount of candy I got from the previous year lol. Yup... I'm that person. 

My mom's response: You can go by Wal-Mart and buy like six bags for less than thirty dollars. 

Me: Where's the fun in that?

My mom: So your idea of a good time is to take candy, meant  for children? *mic drop moment* 

Anyways enjoy. 

Chapter 60 – Ride (Samson Conrad POV) Pt.2

"Since none of you want to answer Angela," my father pushes on, not wasting time. "Faith," he softens his tone just a bit, but I notice it. "Do you remember these people?"

"I'm sending a video call your way," Angela chirps.

Fatima moves away from the phone and quickly Imogen sets up the laptop adjusting the thing while all of us move together to get into the frame.

First person we see is my father. His hair, face, hell all of him looks just a bit different. Tired. "You okay there dad?" I blurt out when I catch the darkness beneath his eyes, the grays in his hair that I could swear were not there just weeks ago. Hell... my dad looked... scruffy. His beard had more than just a light shadow, and-

I lean forward towards the screen. Was that... did he have dirt on his face?

"Get your big head back," Aunt Angela snapped.

Startled I do as she asks though I still cannot move my gaze from my haggard looking father.

"Dad is everything okay over there?" I ask as calmly and natural as I can, but to my own ears I sound shaken and troubled. Was the house Fatima sent them to somehow in danger? Or maybe it was just the lack of space? Everyone living together in such tight quarters?

"You look... messy?"

My fathers' head snaps up, his eyes – blazing – focus on what I bet is the image of us on the screen.

Every bit of his incredulity is present. "My son is being followed by a group of people that know the girl that has also become someone I care for like my own child. There is over five hundred miles between me and them, they believe that Fatima is some part of a prophecy and as Rafael has pointed out and said in layman's terms," Aunt Angela drags her gaze from the screen, looking at dad from the corner of her eyes. My father not finished continues, his tone biting, "One of them is obsessed with a girl that my son is taken with. Obsessed like someone else that we know who did unforgivable things to this family."

I lower my gaze, resting back against the seat, my face flaming.

"So son, you tell me, how exactly am I supposed to look?"

We were the reason he looked like death right now?

"Samson," my name is called with even volume but laced with authority. "What do you expect son? We're here safe for the time being but we just learned that the Elders are most certainly not the most frightening monsters out there. They have others doing their dirty work. I killed a man that had embedded himself in my family's life... I'm," he swallows thickly. "I am relieved you all called us for help, but until you are in touching distance, I'm not going to sleep well, my heart is in two places right now," he says with a bit of a nod, silently pleading with me to understand.

"This is worse than – than losing Silas. We knew what happened, that he wasn't in danger," my heart races, and my body suddenly goes cold from the outside in. "He was not coming back, and at that time we banded together. Right now... you're... you guys are not in a good position. If anything," he stops shaking his head, hanging.

"You might not understand, however, I gave you so much rope that I'm afraid someone along the way is going to hang you guys with it. I've lost one son and even that is one more than I needed to, I'd never forgive myself if my lack of parenting was the reason you were h-harmed." As the last word is uttered I know how my father feels to an extent.

I could have saved Silas. One look, ten seconds, just like I scanned this truck back in Lake Geneva and I could have stopped his death.

Roughly, dad runs his hands down his face before addressing Fatima again.

"Did any of them seem familiar to you?"

Exhaling Fatima closes her eyes for a moment, before tilting her head to the side and peeking at dad. Shaking her head she releases a defeated hum. "Not at all. But everything Samson and Rafael said is true. They were eager and the mentioned something called a Union, but again I don't know what that is, or who they are-"

"Got them!" Angela rejoices happily, "I found them, the names you gave me," she says distracted not looking at the screen while she talks. Before Fatima can pick up where she left off, I quickly type the twelve names and send them to Angela.

Burke Phillips

Davis Phillips

Erma Phillips

Xan Phillips

Percy Harrington

Mabel 'May' Ramsey

Bowen 'Bo' James

Mack James

Sunny James

Angelo Patrick

Gloria Patrick

Emanuel Patrick

"And they must have been living in the area or working there for some time," I added verbally, "when Luca, Raf and I were in town their scents were overwhelmingly strong at the pet shop, the winery, and the library-"

"Don't forget the store front besides the pet store, I think it's a clinic," Luca adds upfront though he's focused on the road ahead.

Nodding, Angela starts again, while my father remains ever silent, his eyes scanning what we are unable to see from this view.

"Huh," Angela sounds before she begins to click her tongue. "This Burke guy is pushing damn near eighty years old," she says pulling back and showing our father something.

"Is that different? I thought Luca said you guys could be as old as paper but look forty-" Rafael says confused but intrigued. Moving his head around behind me, as though he can see if he just shifts into the right position.

Dad ignoring the dig shakes his head. "Yeah, that's true but this guy... maybe he was changed, not born supernatural."

Angela nods, "Okay I've pulled up images for the names you just sent, is this them?" my aunt says looking up just as a new image is sent and the timer flips while it's loaded. Slowly the first row of images is revealed, and I frown shaking my head as I read the names along with the images.

Burke Phillips – Davis Phillips – Erma Phillips – Xan Phillips – Percy Harrington – Mabel 'May' Ramsey

"That's not them!" Imogen, Fatima and I say simultaneously while Rafael says, "That's them!" blinking I look between the screen and Rafael, shaking my head, "no – that isn't them!"

"I mean Burke Phillips here is like ninety! And he looks it!" the image of the much younger Burke still imprinted in my mind. Frownin, Rafael looks at the images as more people are revealed, Bowen 'Bo' James, Mack James and Sunny James.

"That is not Sunny!"

"Or Mack and Bo!" Imogen agrees with me. I knew without a single doubt that the images on the screen Angela sent us were not the people we saw an hour ago, or the Mack and Xan following us. 

"What – what are you guys talking about?" Rafael asks looking at the screen once more, before looking over his shoulder. "That Mack," he points to the screen, "is that Mack right back there!" he points to the back window.

"Okay... what is going on?" Angela and my father ask us. While up front Luca tries to glance behind him but returns his gaze up front settling for sending questioning glances back at us through the rearview mirror.

Lifting the laptop, Imogen crawls up to the console placing the computer up front near the navigation system so Luca can look at the images sent to us. With just a few glances he nods, "Yeah, that's them," he says to us, puzzlement of his own growing.

"No, it's not, take another look!" Imogen demands, pushing the laptop further forward and tilting the screen to remove any glare he might get. Although there was no way glare was going to add an additional forty years to Burke.

Luca opens and closes his mouth once, twice, before glancing at Imogen's waiting gaze.

"That's them," he says slowly. Pulling the laptop back and placing it where it was, Imogen looks between Luca, the computer and then shifts her gaze to the back window where we could see Mack.

"No... these are not the people we saw," she says settling beside a confused Fatima. Whipping his head from side to side, Rafael does a triple take between laptop Mack and the one following behind us.

"Okay is this like the North Dakota place?" he questions in a whisper – I think is meant for himself – though he doesn't stop glancing between the image Angela sent and the live person behind us.

"So are these them?" Angela asks again for clarification.

"No," Imogen, Fatima and I deny flatly, while Rafael and Luca sound off a confident, "yes!"

"What the hell?" Angela growls her eyes dancing from left to right, up and down, as her fingers fly over keys, all we hear are the clicks and taps that blend together. "Why would you three see the same but the other two..." Angela murmurs to herself.

"What do they look like?" my father requests. Just as I open my mouth to start describing the people Fatima, Imogen and I saw, Luca groans.

"We are four miles from the merge location," he reminds us. Looking from him to my father my heart once again races in my chest, the beat hard and heavy, quick and sends the rest of my body into overdrive.

"You call me the minute you get in the rental truck!" he barks, "The minute Samson!" nodding quickly, I see him give us one final nod before the screen goes blank. Packing up the necessary items we'd need, our bags right at our feet, tensely Luca takes us on the ramp in Chicago. The city lights bright beside us blur, and as planned, I wait for him to simply pull the truck into the merge area. Jumping out as planned, I move towards the back, doing as I was supposed to, refraining from looking up or directly at the Hummer and Ford truck when they breeze past us, unable to stop where we had. Grabbing the bag of clothes, I race back inside, as Luca reverses, and merges to the right on i55, racing towards the first exit.

Ready and nervous, unsure, we wait at the red light, driving the quarter mile that Angela said we needed to.

"I'm amazing!" She had praised herself.

"How did you get one?"

"Because I'm the best!" My dad had chuckled a bit. "Fine, I hacked the DMV, looked for newly registered trucks and offered someone three times what his truck was worth if he left it where I asked in the way I asked." I could picture the gloating smile and mischievous glint in her blue eyes at the time.

"At the Damon exit after you merge right onto i55, just to the right, out of the way of cameras and such will be a truck waiting. It'll be a tight fight so whoever drives it into the back of the truck will need to come out from the back window of the truck you're currently driving. You have about five minutes, less than that really before the Hummer and Ford can catch up to you by doubling back." Angela's earlier warning in place, we all grab what we can and the minute that Luca is at the truck, ready to drive up the waiting ramp, we exit, Imogen and Fatima running up front with Rafael to the tractor trailer cabin.

The cold whipping at our skin, I wait weaving my head through the darkness, my gaze outwardly looking for the Hummer and Ford truck, while Luca enters the white trailer, shuts the car off, before climbing out the back, holding two of the gas tanks we had brought with us from Idaho as well. Jumping down, we make quick work of the ramp, pushing it back inside the trailer, shutting the doors, before making a mad dash for the truck cabin.

My heart galloping, the sound loud in my ear as the blood rushes, pulsating loudly, the second our doors are closed, the truck already brought to life in the cool night, Luca throws it into gear and we peel off, gasping for air, eyes peering out for any threats. 

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Hi :) 

Jenn, Stellar, Betty, Shygirl... theories on three! 

One! Two! Three! Go!