"What do we do?" I quickly and quietly ask Lisa. Both of us are waiting for something else to come crashing down. She shakes her head, at a loss for words and I can't think of any plan of action either.

Suddenly, I feel the hair on my arms stand up. A chill snakes down my spine and I freeze all movement. Lisa must feel it too because she whips around and gasps.

"Get the hell out of my house!" Lisa shrieks and I turn around to see John coming out of the formal living room at the front of the house. He's walking calmly and a small smile is playing on his lips. He's wearing the navy blazer he used to wear while teaching and he's comfortable in a pair of jeans. He's completely amused at how frightened we are. 

"Oh Lisa calm down," John says condescendingly and I hear Lisa think about spitting in John's face. Not the attack route I would have chosen, but I'm glad to know she's as furious to see him as I am.

"What do you want now?" I seethe and John sadly looks to me like I am puny and pathetic.

"Oh Eleanor, you never did scare me. It's a shame you didn't take me up on my offer to bring you to Virginia. Liam showed me some visions of you and I feel like you aren't unleashing your full potential. I could have unlocked talents within you that you never even knew existed."

I roll my eyes at him and bite back, "Having your brain fried by a machine doesn't sound as appealing as you make it seem." The smile on John's face is back and he's enjoying some private joke with himself. Before he can reply I cut him off, "How could you do that to Liam? He was so excited to finally find you and you ruined him. You ruined any kind of relationship you could have had with him too." John must have had enough of my voice because suddenly I'm silenced, unable to move or communicate. Lisa looks to John wide eyed as he says, "When I want the opinions of someone irrelevant I'll ask you Eleanor. Until then..."

I stay frozen against my will and I feel my anger boiling up inside of me. He ignores me and looks back to Lisa, "I see neither of you know where Liam currently is but it seems you both have managed to enlighten me in other ways. It seems our son possesses another talent and he managed to keep it from me. I could do great things with a talent like that Lisa. He wants nothing to do with his full potential but I see greatness in him. I need you to see it too."

"Stop John. Just stop this nonsense. Don't do this to Liam. He went to the agency with you and left. He wants nothing to do with using his abilities like how you want him to. Let him be a teenager, let him live. Stop trying to force your way into his life. If he wants you in it he'll let you in."

John slightly shakes his head, the smile no longer on his face, "Liam and I share a connection you will never understand Lisa. He needs to see the greatness inside of him. He is wasting his potential."

"Liam's greatness comes from his heart John. Not from some stupid magical powers or whatever the hell you would like to call them."

I can see something she said stings him and he slightly pulls back, "You never even tried to understand Lisa. You were content with me suppressing my greatness to be some high school teacher in farmville Iowa, playing house with you and Liam. But I won't let Liam do the same. I won't let him waste his life and his potential. This girl right here is destroying Liam and his future." I want to scream. I want to throw myself at John but I am frozen. I am paralyzed and furious. I have to be a bystander while John says I am destroying Liam. 

"Liam is old enough to make his own decisions John. We support the ones he makes and not force him into ones we make for him. Liam may come around and decide to join the agency someday, he may not. But I won't force him into it," Lisa says, becoming more calm. I have never seen Lisa be Liam's mom more than she has been today.

John shakes his head at her, he slowly starts chuckling and after a few moments he's in a full blown fit of laughter. Lisa crosses her arms at his laugh fest but I am still unable to move.

"You're ridiculous Lisa. Liam is only eighteen years old! He isn't capable of making decisions for himself! Eleanor here has made all of them for him in the past year. And you have made all of them for him before that. He hasn't a clue as to what he's doing! He's following Malibu Barbie around Pepperdine and he isn't even enrolled there. He has no direction! I can give him purpose, I can give him structure and I can give him a future doing something that matters," John says as he throws his hands in the air. He's pacing around the foyer, acting like he's dealing with children. I see Lisa shift her weight and I hear her contemplating John's words. I suddenly panic, worrying she might agree with him. That Liam should be unlocking some bogus potential with John instead of letting him make his own decisions. 

"I won't force Liam into doing something he doesn't want. That's not fair to him," Lisa says with a wobbly voice, like she might break into tears. The creepy smile is back on John's face and he dramatically waves his hands around.

"Oh but it is fair for him to give you the life you want. Fancy house, fancy car. I wondered how you were able to afford all this luxury with no job Lisa."

"Hey Liam and I have an agreement! We move where he wants and we live how I want. We've gotten by just fine!" She snaps while pointing her finger at John's chest.

"Yes and if Liam leaves so does this lifestyle. Liam can't provide for you if he is in Virginia. You almost got me Leese. I thought for a second you weren't the selfish monster I once knew but turns out, nothing has changed." Lisa shakes her head, nothing she says now will help her because John's mind has already been made up. He thinks Lisa wants to keep Liam to herself but she willingly let him move to Malibu. Unfortunately, I am unable to speak my point.

"I'll find Liam. And when I do he'll come back with me to Virginia." John says with a dark finality in his voice.

All the anger I have been suppressing during their conversation finally boils over. My rage flows through me and I somehow break the hold John has over me. I close my eyes as both my anger and frustration is finally released. All at once, every window in the house comes shattering down by an invisible blow. Bursts of glass fill the house and shiny shards and slivers come raining down upon us. The large stained glass window that sat above the glass door bursts inwards and all the colorful pieces that created the window are now reflecting beams of sunshine all over the stone floor.

It was as if I was a stick of dynamite and the lit fuse finally caused an invisible explosion all around me. All of our hands fly up over our heads for cover and I sprint out of the broken front door before John can catch me. The commotion was so loud and startling that people on the street have stopped and are looking at the broken house. A few neighbors come jogging down the drive way but I can't hear anything they are saying from the ringing filling my ears. They continue past me, into the house and I see John and Lisa still standing in the foyer as the worried neighbors approach them. I throw myself into my mom's car and peel off down the driveway, leaving the mess behind me.