Chapter 8

By Michiko/Ki, from Charlie's perspective

The next few days were... Weird. No one wanted to say anything about Donald. Except for every few seconds when someone asked Joli how she was doing. But it seemed like the whole town was silent, trying to catch its breathe. Joli had a weird sort of truce. We were speaking. I had to support her.
***
Joli came in to my room, looking scared and perplexed.
"Luna texted me." she said. She showed me the screen of her new model touch screen.

hey hun! Hope u r feeling better. meet @ the old building on 193th st. Bring Charlotte. surprise 4 u (;

I looked up at her, stunned. Luna had been gone from school the last couple of days. No one knew why. Why did she want Joli at that church no one's been to in 20 years? And even more importantly, why did she want ME there?!
"Well I'm not going." I said. Joli's face turned sour.
"You have to! I have this feeling... That she knows something about Donald." She said quietly. I sighed. Dad wasn't home, he was at a meeting. And Mom was visiting her sister in Oregon (perfect timing) and I knew Joli would go alone if I didn't go. And I couldn't let her do that. Something about this felt unsettling. Almost dangerous. So I reluctantly agreed. It's not like she could drive heralds there anyway.
We (I) drove in silence. Joli was nervously biting her nails, a habit she had started since Donald disappeared (almost a week ago.)
The parking lot at the church was in bad shape, so I parked in the grass. We walked to the entrance, close together. It felt like Blair Witch Project or something... I slowly opened the door. We stepped in. The door slammed behind us.
It was dark. I couldn't see Joli, I couldn't even see my own hands. I heard Joli let out a terrified shriek. Suddenly, the lights turned on, blindingly bright. I watched in horror as something was grabbing my sister around the neck. She staggered backwards and gasped.
A strange sense swept over me. Somehow, I knew I could fight this thing off, save my sister. The Thing (it looked human, but acted like an animal) stuck out its perfect, sharp teeth and was slowly making it's way to Joli's throat. She whimpered. I felt do strong. I let my instincts take over. I lunged at The Thing and pulled it off of Joli. I must have put more force in the blow than I had thought, because he slammed to the ground. The Thing growled ferociously and pulled itself to its feet. I frantically looked at Joli. She looked really pissed. At it. She jumped up and ran to him, kicking him straight in the jaw. We heard a crunching noise and he fell to the ground, unconscious. We were breathing heavily. I turned to Joli and wrapped my arms around her.
"What just happened? How were we strong enough to fight him off?" She asked, warily. I pulled away. I shrugged and grinned. I knew I should be terrified. I should run out of here right now. But I felt an insane adrenaline rush. I felt powerful. I was on top of the world. After a few seconds, Joli grinned back. We looked around. This was just one room of the church, but it was fairly big. It contained no furniture, and the walls were drab and dirty.
"I guess we should get out of here." As soon as the words poured out of my mouth, 2 more creatures sprang out of nowhere, lunging at us. At first I was scared, but I let my instincts take over again. Joli did the same. We kicked, punched, anything we could do to fight them off. Suddenly, we heard a voice. It sounded male.
"I'll take it from here." it said.
A large, extremely attractive man entered the room. The 2 creatures Joli and I had been fighting fell to their knees, and then scurried out. They feared him. He must be thier leader. He looked more threatening. I was afraid. I grabbed Joli's hand. He was tall and muscular with curly black hair and beautiful hazel eyes. But they were filled with pain. That turned to hate. He smiled at us menacingly, sensing our fear.
"Well, well. You two showed up. I wasn't so sure that you would. What kind of foolish girls would come to a place like this with no explanation? Oh, and I'm Roman." He had a velvety British accent, like honey. But his words were needles. He walked slowly over to us. He grabbed Joli. She gasped. He went for her throat.
All of the sudden, a figure kicked down the door. He ran torwards Roman so lightning fast, that all we could see was his suit. He knocked Roman down. Roman made a terrible growling noise. Suit Dude stuck something in Roman's chest, and he fell unconscious. Suit Dude stood up to look at us.
It was my father.