Chapter 4 The next day

Jane pouts and grumbles. "So much for an explanation."

Jane's mother, Uriel, sighs. "You also cannot tell anything about you've seen today to your brother."

Jane is taken aback and looks questioningly towards her father. Who shakes his head. "Your mother is right. Tomorrow he is going on that trip with his friends. You shouldn't distract him with this."

Jane harumphed again. "That is such a weak argument dad." Uriel rolls her eyes at her daughter's antics. "That isn't the point." Uriel looks to her husband and back to Jane. "You should spend some time with your brother for the rest of the day, you won't be able to see him for a long time."

"Huh? Why?" Jane asked with surprise. Uriel grabs her daughter's head and locks eyes with her.

Jane sees innumerable emotions flowing through her mother's eyes. With a heavy voice, laced with burdens no one could ever be able to understand Uriel says. "This is the only way." A heavy silence hung over the mother, dad, and daughter trio. After what seemed like an eternity Jane finally nodded. "Okay, sure... I'll spend the rest of the day with Benjamin."

--

The next day at the entrance of the airport.

"Hey Ben, you commin'? Or are you gonna stay behind?" A friend of Ben yelled. Another friend slapped the guy that said that on the back of the head. "Hey, read the room. He is saying goodbye to his family. You were bawling your eyes out when I picked you up at home." "Hey, that was supposed to stay a secret."

Jane looked from her brother to his friends and back. "You should really ditch that friend. He is awful." Jane says teasingly. Ben laughs and tells Jane. "You are one to talk Jane. Your friends are also not the nicest."

Jane punched Ben on his shoulder and pouts. Ben heartily laughs again. "I'm gonna miss these physical affections from you, little sis." Ben hugs Jane. Jane just burrows her head on Ben's chest. "Stupid. You are just 9 minutes older." She looks up and opens her mouth to say something but no words come out.

Ben questioningly looks at Jane. After Jane says nothing, he lets go and turns to their parents. Uriel tightly hugs Ben. "Stay safe, please. And remember, you are strong, very strong."

Ben smiles. "Hey, I will only be gone for a month. Don't be so dramatic." Uriel just softly smiles at Ben.

Ben stands before his dad. Just as Ben wants to say goodbye to his dad, he gets pulled into a hug. Ben's eyes widen. The only time he ever sees his dad show emotion is when Ben and Jane are training with him. Or when it comes to their Mother.

No words are shared between the father and son pair. As his dad pulls away to end the hug Ben firmly tightens the hug. Ben breathes deeply. A little overwhelmed, Ben pulls back after a few seconds.

Just as Ben wants to grab his suitcase and backpack, his hand is grabbed and a card is put in his hands. Ben looks from the card to his dad and back.

The card had an intricate design of an enormous tree with a delicate pattern and weird symbols. "You should go now. Otherwise, you will miss your flight." His dad finally said.

Ben absentmindedly nodded and grabbed his suitcase and backpack. In deep thought, he walks over to his friends. "Bro, when are you going to introduce me to your sister?" The guy who previously yelled for Ben to hurry up asked.

Ben snapped out of his thoughts and grabs his friend under his arm. That his friend's neck is between his arm and body. With words laced with murderous intent he says. "As if. You are not worthy to even stand 6 feet around her." Ben's friend just cowers and nods his head fast.

Their other friends laugh. This is a normal conversation between Ben and his friend.

Jane stares at her bothers disappearing back as he enters the airport. She hears a whimper behind her. She looks over and sees her mother sobbing on her father's chest. While her father looked stoic towards the airport.

Jane's heartbeat quickened, she started to run towards the airport. 'No, this is wrong. Why is mom crying? When they told me I wasn't going to see Ben for a long time, how long did they actually mean?'

Not even five paces into her desperate dash towards the airport she stops dead in her tracks. Jane couldn't move her body. She could only turn her head.

She looks back and sees her father stretching one hand out to her. His visage flickering between a human and what some would say a demon.

Jane grabbed to her head. "Ugh!" Pain wrecked her body. A memory wanted to surface in her head but something was holding it back.

Jane yelled loudly while still grabbing her head.

CRACK!

Jane fell unconscious.

I was standing on my primary school grounds.

"Aaahh! Monster. Demon, a demon child!" An old woman yelled while pointing at me. I looked up, a little scared, at my dad while holding his hand. Dad was calmly looking at the screaming woman.

Then dad looked at me and frowned. He let go of my hand. Dad stepped forward while he morphed into a blue-skinned demon with black horns growing out of his forehead vertically. 9 black tails appeared behind him. "And what about it?"

The woman just lost consciousness.

"How do I look to you?" Dad had asked that question to her. I looked into his dark blue-purple eyes and had cutely kissed his cheek. "Like my dad." I had said full of certainty.

Then dad tapped my forehead and everything went dark.

Jane jerked awake, heavily breathing.

She looked around. She sat in the back seat of her parent's car. Her dad sat behind the wheel, while her mother wasn't anywhere to be seen.

"W-where is mom?" Jane asked softly.

"Sending Ben off."

Jane started to feel frustrated. "Why being so mysterious. Just tell me what is going on!"

A sad smile was fighting its way onto Adramalech's mouth. "I'll tell you, right..." Jane's father hit the brakes as hard as he could. He looked up staring through the roof. "Now."