Falls on Deaf Ears - Book 1

Chapter Twelve

10 years later -


*Crash!*

*Bang!*

"BOYS!!!!!!" An angry sounding voice filled the air. Silence followed, then the sounding of thumping footsteps could be heard throughout the house.

The door to a very messy boy's bedroom swung open revealing an angry mother in her mid 30's with her hands at her hips. "How many times do I have to tell you NOT to play that game in this house?!" She flipped a part of her long brown hair back and continued in a softer tone, "This is why we have a YARD. I don't expect you two to simply change overnight, but please, take it outside."

"Yes mom." The twins chorused feeling a tad downcast. They had been playing a game of hide-n-seek in their bedroom, using some of their powers to cleverly hide from one another. Trish had been teaching them ever since they started to realize they could use them, whether it was by telepathy or telekinesis. Trish's precognitive abilities weren't as great as her Grandfather's, but that didn't stop her from trying to figure out how old they'd be when they started using their powers. Trish and Jerry had taken it upon themselves to home school the boys, as Trish foresaw their growing powers would only cause problems in public school. More than once, she had to warn the boys about using their powers in public. Thankfully, they weren't all that shy about meeting new kids their own age which both Trish and Jerry had feared they might be, due to them being home schooled. While both boys had few close friends their happy outgoing personalities helped keep them in good standing with the local kids.

"Can we invite Jason over?" The dusty blond-brown hair and green-eyed boy piped up in an eagerness to invite his best friend to play a game of hide-n-seek. The blue-eyed boy just rolled his eyes at his brother's eagerness.

"You always invite him over, why can't you invite anyone else?"

"Because…"

"…Eric loves Jason, Eric loves Jason, Eric Loves Jason!"

Eric blushed as his brother taunted him. He quickly elbowed his twin in the ribs, "I do not! He is my best friend! Even if I did, I wouldn't tell you!"

"Sure you would!"

"Shut up, Matt!" Eric retorted as he realized his brother could read his mind. He had tried to create barriers so his brother couldn't pry into his thoughts, but just as it had failed countless times in the past it failed this time. It had seemed that Matt's telepathy was slightly better than Eric's, except when Jason is there. Matt could never figure out why he couldn't hear his brother's thoughts when Jason was around, but Trish knew the reason and kept it to herself.

"Alright boys, that's enough. If you two don't behave, I'll make sure you get to spend the afternoon with your brothers tagging along.

Upon hearing this, their eyes widened in horror and both boys were about to protest but Trish held up her hand. As if on cue, their younger brothers had entered the room from their afternoon nap. Like Eric and Matt, they were twins of about 3 years old with blond hair. One had bright blue eyes and the other twin had a darker shade of blue eyes.

Both boys looked up towards Trish. The light blue-eyed boy spoke first, "Mommy, what was that?"

Trish understood what her son was asking. She was sure the noise had woken them up, but it had also saved her a trip to their room to wake them up. She knew it took a while for them to finally wake up and that she usually had to try several times. Both boys loved playing possum, or so Trish assumed. For all she knew, they could be faking it or they were really asleep.

Trish smiled and looked down at the younger twins, "That was your brothers wrestling, Andy." Trish spoke as she knew who had asked the question, but she also knew Ryan had thought of it at the same time Andy did. Her twins never ceased to amaze her. They were above average in growth, weight, intelligence, and almost everything else the doctors told her. They appeared to be 5 years of age, but they were really 3. The doctors called it a miracle birth. Trish was well past full term for the normal time when twins are born and slightly past full term when a single baby is born. To Trish, she was just happy to have given birth to such beautiful boys and happy to be alive.

"Ok boys, Dinner is at 5, I expect each one of you to have washed your faces and hands before sitting at the table." Trish spoke as she arose from her crouched position addressing all 4 of her sons. She was about to say something when her husband walked in. She turned to look at him and smiled. "Just in time."

"Oh no no no, not this time, not now!" The husband whined as he knew what was about to happen.

Trish kept smiling, only this time, her eyes were starting to plead with the wicked grin only women know how to do. "Oh Jerry, you know you love doing it. I'm a bit tired and it's your turn!"

Jerry smiled, "I know, just givin' you a hard time." Jerry and Trish moved in for a kiss, which caused the boys to jeer and shout catcalls. This earned the boys dirty looks from their parents, but they ignored them and told them to get a room.

Trish shook her head and Jerry simply grinned. "All right, go and get ready, we leave in 5 minutes." Jerry spoke first to get the boys moving along before he leaned in to Trish, to share one last kiss before leaving. As the younger twins left the room scrambling, Matt and Eric followed in a much slower fashion. Eric stopped as if to ask a question, but Jerry beat him to it. "Yes, son, you can ask Jason to come along if you want."

Thinking to himself before speaking out loud, 'IF I WANT?! Is he nuts?! Of course I WANT Jason to come!' Eric hesitated before continuing, "Daaaad, you should know by now that Jason doesn't need to be asked to come… err I mean he doesn't mind coming with us, even when we ask!"

Before Jerry could reply, the sound of running footsteps filled the air. Matt popped his head through the entrance to their room, "Bro, I HEARD that!"

This caught him off-guard and he looked towards his mom, who was nodding and smiling at the same time, making matters worse for him. He blushed and took off after his brother, but Matt already had a step head start as he darted down the steps from Eric, who was in hot pursuit.

"No running in the house!" Jerry half shouted before attempting a second shout which Trish stopped him from doing so. She pulled him into a deeper kiss before she spoke again. "Mmmm, you should know better with these boys. Most of what we say in regards to rules seems to fall on deaf ears."

Jerry chuckled and returned the kiss. "I'd better get going before the boys start getting impatient. Have a nice nap, honey."

"I'll try. Thanks, I could use one and some peace to go with it, too."

Jerry smiled and turned to leave the room. Trish had spent quite some time staring at the mess in the twins' room, her mind drifting, thinking of the happy memories she has had with her family. She knew the time of training the boys were drawing near as she was told to do so by the guardian, her grandfather. The sudden sound of their family car departing brought her senses back to reality.

'I must be losing my mind if I am starting to believe my grandfather, and that those two sons of mine are truly humanity's last hope. I don't sense any evil, far and near. If it does exist, it is pretty good at hiding.' Trish thought to herself as she snapped her finger into thin air. Suddenly, the mess in the room vanished; things were returned to their original places, all neat and tidy, as if a maid had spent several hours in the room cleaning it up and straightening it out. Satisfied, Trish left the room feeling a bit exhausted and headed to her and Jerry's bedroom. She couldn't figure out why she was feeling tired as she hadn't done too much during the day. She knew she was warned by her grandfather to be on guard at all times, but she felt she could at least take a nap to relieve some of the stress of worrying for 10 years. As far as Trish was concerned, nothing had happened during the past 10 years that was 'out of the ordinary'. Still, it didn't stop her from wanting to take a break.

As she entered the bedroom, she made a beeline towards the bed and proceeded to sit on the left side. Grinning to herself, she couldn't help but feel like someone was watching her. "Ok, show yourself! I know someone is watching and I'm not fooled!"

Off to her left, at the entrance to the bedroom, a shadowy figure crept along the floor. Once it was well past the entrance, it slowed and began to take shape of a human male. Trish made no effort to defend herself as she knew who it was. "Hi dad." Trish muttered as she moved from her sitting position on the bed to lay with her back on the bed. "What are you doing here?"

"Some greeting from my daughter." The figure said as the shadowy color began to change from black to that of a human. As usual, he ran his fingers through his grey hair brushed backwards and opened his green eyes in a manner that shows how dangerous it was to mess with the man. Trish's dad was into his 70's but still appeared to look younger than his age. Every member of the council has their own choice of looking how they want. A lot on the council are much older than Trish's dad, Timon, but he preferred to look older for deception purposes.

"Geez dad, don't you ever get tired of doing that?"

"Nah, it scares people when I do. No I'm not about to quit anytime soon. And you shouldn't be taking a nap at a time like this."

Trish rolled her eyes before countering her dad's suggestion. "Look dad, I don't expect you to understand that I have a full load of things to do with 4 boys running around in the house. I could use a small break, even if it's only for 30 minutes."

Timon wanted to say something, but Trish interrupted him, "Yes dad, I know, so stop reminding me already."

"Good, at least you haven't forgotten what you must do." Timon responded as if he were giving his daughter an order. He knew how much Trish hated 'being told' what to do without any of the polite manners she so likes to use and hear being used.

Trish rolled her eyes again, "Whatever. Why are you here anyway? What do you care? The boys want to see their grandfather and yet, you refuse to spend time with them! It's like you avoid the boys as if they are the plague!"

Timon grumbled something inaudible, shrugged his shoulders, and sighed. "You know very well why I am here. You know I can't simply just show up out of the blue and expect to be their friend from day one. You can't expect me to…"

Trish cut him off with a wave of her hand. "Enough! No more excuses! I wanted my family to get to know each other, and yet, you are being stubborn by following protocol. Whatever happened to family first?!" Trish slowly raised her voice after each sentence before stopping to catch her breath. She continued in a calmer manner, "Just leave." She didn't wait to say goodbye before she closed her eyes.

Timon sighed, 'If you weren't family, you'd be in the ice box in the 9th planet from the sun for disobedience!' He thought before he disappeared into nothing with a poof of shadow dust that quickly evaporated from where he stood.

Before Trish drifted off into dreamland, she had heard her father's last thought and then responded with a thought of her own,  'As if you could, some father of mine.' Trish then ignored any further comments and was sound asleep.


Few hours later - Jerry & Trish's Bedroom -

Trish had finally woke from her slumber, still feeling tired. She groaned to herself as she looked to her right and stared at the clock.

'Only one o'clock?!' Trish thought. 'It felt like only minutes went by since I fell asleep.'

Trish groaned again and began to notice how dimly lit her bedroom was. Her moment of wonder didn't last long when the sounds of distant thunder filled the room with several flashes of lightning illuminating the room. She shrugged it off and rubbed her eyes before trying to go back to sleep, but the storm was very intense and it kept her awake. Reluctant to leave her bed, she sat up and swung her legs towards the side of the bed and stood to stretch. As she made her way towards the bathroom, Trish didn't bother looking out the window as she thought it was just a thunderstorm. As she finished her bathroom duties and proceeded back into the bedroom to flip the TV on, something out of the corner of her eye didn't register as normal in her thoughts. It appeared to be something that was out of place from out the window, yet Trish carried on as if it wasn't of any interest. The next moment another thunderclap sounding noise filled the room and Trish began to become aware that it wasn't any normal storm with a sound like that. She muttered something inaudible to herself and proceeded towards the window. As she looked out, what she saw made her want to heave.

Outside the window were extremely large creatures with tentacles that stood about 20 feet tall were chasing after every possible human being they could find and zapped them with a bluish looking beam. It looked like one of those science fiction movies that you'd watch from the 70's when aliens took over the world with beams that could vaporize a human into bits. Houses were being crushed, people were screaming, guns were being fired, and the air reeked of blood and something unknown. Then it dawned on her, she began to feel fear as she became increasingly aware that something had to be watching her and she was afraid to turn around. Parts of her training tried kicking in, yet she hesitated. The other part of her wanted to look for her family, yet something told her they were ok. As she tried fighting the fear, she turned around slowly, just to find a creature hunched up in her room, ducking beneath the ceiling staring down at her, as if it had found a trophy meal all to himself. Trish didn't scream, she just stared at it. Her mind screamed, 'THAT CAN'T BE REAL!'

'Oh, but we are very real! We have come here to harvest you. Now die in peace human!' Trish's thought spoke back to her, but it wasn't her mind that she was hearing it from. The alien had spoken to her through some sort of telepathy and Trish was slightly surprised. Now that she was fully aware of her surroundings and the appearing shadows that were coming to her aid.

"Back off! This one's mine!" Trish shouted, causing the shadows to stop and remained still while she turned her attention back to the creature.

'As if you could try!' She heard in her mind and let a sly smile appear across her face. A strange white aura enveloped her body as she gathered power from within. She knew the locket would restrict her limits and usage, but she didn't care as her life was on the line. The creature let out a growl and let his beam shine on Trish. She held up her arms towards the beam in attempts to block it, but as it neared, she became aware that the beam was more powerful than it looked and dodged it at the last second. 'Can't play around anymore.' Trish thought to herself and became more serious.

Trish gathered energy in the palm of her hand and shaped it into a disk and hurled it at the creature. Its attempt to block it was futile and the creature let out a high pitched shrieking sound as it was torn in half by the energy disk. As she walked towards the fallen creature, she began to analyze it more closely. It was still withering and moving as if its brain was attempting to locate the other half of its body. The entire body of the alien had reddish looking skin with legs that were almost bird like with huge talon-like claws at their feet. It appeared to look half octopus and half birdlike, but with more meat on its legs. Each creature had 4 tentacles. The tentacles were octopus like, with tiny little suctions on them that appeared to be some sort of mouth for the creature or a vent for it to breathe with razor sharp teeth. It had a mouth, but it wasn't visible since the creature was dead. "No eyes." Trish muttered to herself as the shadows that were watching began to take the form of that of the council. The two appeared in brown cloaks with their hoods lowered, exposing their faces to Trish, while the third remained in the shadows. The normal custom was to always wear them hooded, unless they were in the glade or among family.

"You really shouldn't put that much power into a killing blow, especially against that… thing." Timon spoke as he walked over to check it out.

"Oh common, dad!" Trish shot back with a touch of anger at her father's 'concern'. "Quit being sarcastic for once and check it for yourself! It's not like you have anything better to do at the moment! Anyway, I did a quick scan and compared it to other nearby creatures as it shot that weird beam at me. That one ain't like the others." 

"That can't be…" Timon started as the younger council member interrupted him.

"Actually, father, Trish is correct. This creature isn't like the others. We have to now assume there are stronger ones among the hunters out there."

Timon yanked his head towards his son with a glare that scolded him for calling him "father" in front of Trish.

To say Trish was surprised was an understatement. She had assumed herself and her brother Wedge, were the only offspring of her father. Up till now, she had always wished for a bigger family from her parents, but it never really happened. Trish really wished she didn't have to find out this way that she had another brother. She brought her attention back to her father as she felt his anger rising. Timon rapidly walked from where the dead creature lay to his son. He had his hand raised in attempt to slap him across the face. Trish however was faster and stopped her father from doing so. She grabbed his raised hand and glared at him. "You know, after all these years, you've never changed."

Timon's anger began to intensify, "Let me go or you'll regret it!"

"I'd rather not." Trish twisted his wrist and flung him to the corner of her room as if he were dead weight. He was immediately knocked unconscious and another shadow began to rapidly appear.

A dark haired woman appeared from the shadow with equally matching cloaks and walked straight towards Timon. She fixed her glare at Trish after a few minutes of checking him out. Her bright green eyes shifted in color slightly, but she also took a look at the boy, who looked no more than 14. He had dark brown hair, yet incredible deep blue eyes, which made you want to stare into them.

"I see you've finally found your sister, little one." The dark haired woman spoke. She appeared to be in her 50's, but showed great wisdom beyond her years, which could probably place her in the thousands. She was never one to tell her age and only the Elder Guardian knew of her true age. For a woman her age, she was quite beautiful and many men couldn't take their eyes off her. This made women of the same age envious.

"Huh?" The boy answered. "That is only a rumor!"

"Not anymore, it is not. I am sorry to say your dad lied to you." The elder woman spoke gently as to not enrage the boy. She continued calmly when he didn't respond, "I'm sorry Chad, and I wish circumstances could be different, but the timing of things could have been worse."

Chad lowered his head and a few tears could be seen streaming down from his face. His own father had lied to him about his family. He had wondered what he had done to deserve this.

The old lady was about to try and comfort the teen, but Trish stopped her before she could continue. "Please allow me..." Trish moved to Chad's side and enveloped him into a hug while he let out a few sobs.

"Why doesn't dad ever tell the truth? Why does he do things that are odd and hide things from me? It's like he doesn't trust me! What did I ever do to deserve this?!"

"Shush for now Chad, don't worry about it too much. Dad has a hard time of showing how to love, but that is up to you to decide." Chad was about to say something as he adjusted his head to look into Trish's eyes, but Trish continued when she saw the question being formed, "Not now, not yet, but later. We have a bigger concern on our hands and we need all the help we can get."

As Trish disconnected herself from Chad, he was about to say something but the woman's body stiffened up and started speaking in a monotone voice. This immediately caused Trish to worry, but Chad knew what was coming.

"All members of the council and those that have lockets, are to report to the Elder Guardian's glade in person and immediately after this announcement. Everyone is to avoid confrontation with these dark creatures as much as possible. Evil has returned."

Chad stared at this woman who obviously contains great power and watched her eyes return to normal, as they were white when the message was announced. "Big sis, we need to go, but the creature is coming with us as well." Chad spoke softly as he walked towards the creature pulling out a device that looked like a remote starter for a vehicle. When he pressed the button, the creature was quickly shrunk, before quickly being transported into the device. The device acted like a prison, but it had a limit as to how long someone could stay in it.

Chad turned to Trish and nodded his readiness to go. The woman nodded in approval then turned her attention to Trish, "We must go."

"Not without my family" Trish replied sternly. She wasn't about to abandon them just for some urgent meeting when there were creatures out there as well as her family. When Trish realized this, her concerns and worries grew tenfold, yet she tried to remain in control of her composure.

"Your family is included… as well as Jason and your husband."

"Your home is our first stop before the glade. Chad can go first, he doesn't need to escort us."

Chad wanted to protest, but again, the woman beat him to it, "Chad comes. Do not worry about him, he can take care of himself."

Trish stared at the silent women, searching for anything that could be a lie, but found nothing. The woman gave her a nod of approval and turned her attention towards the window. A sudden pang of concern washed over Trish as she became increasingly aware that her family was in some sort of danger. As the trio prepared to leave, a huge explosion was set off in the distance, in the same direction as the park!


To Be Continued…


Author's Notes:

Hi everyone! Sorry it took so long, Life has been busy! I suppose everyone else in my head has been busy too from the looks of it! I hope you enjoyed the chapter as much as I enjoyed writing it! Don't worry, there's more to come, but I think I might need to hide from the CHP! Comments welcome:  xhammertime@gmail.com

Hammy


Editor's Notes:

Gee Hammy, you make us wait so long? Another weird, and wacky picture, as painted by Maestro Hammy? You make me worry some times. Is it really possible for one Human mind to contain so many ideas? Well done. Another great chapter. Next Please! - Some Weird Editor Guy.