The Protector

Holly, Jolly

Instead of going to sleep that night Maddie stayed up waiting for the lights to start flickering again. While Joyce was begging for Will to come back, Maddie was sitting in front of the lamp in Will's room waiting for it to shine bright like it did the previous day. "Mom, Maddie?", Jonathan asked in confusion. "Jonathan! Come here. Come here", Joyce exclaimed ushering Jonathan towards the map. "Mom, what is this? What's going on?", Jonathan questioned tiredly. "It's Will, It's Will, he's, he's trying to talk to us", Joyce stated while pointing to herself and Maddie. "He's trying to talk to you?", Jonathan questioned looking back and forth between Maddie and Joyce.

"Yes, through... through the lights", Joyce mumbled quietly. "Mom-", Johnathan starts only before being cut off by Joyce saying, "I know. I know. Just... just watch. Will... your brother's here. Can you show him what you showed Maddie and I last night, baby? Please?", Joyce begged quietly. When the light finally flickers both Maddie and Joyce gasped. "Did you see that?", Joyce questioned pointing to the lightbulb. "It's the electricity, Mom. It's acting up", Jonathan said exhausted. "No", Maddie said firmly before Jonathan continued, "It's the same thing that fried the phone". "No! It is not the electricity, Jonathan. Something is going on here!", Joyce states only for Jonathan to shut her down again.

Jonathan finally gets Joyce to calm down by saying that Will is lost  and that people are going to find him. Joyce wanted to buy more lamps but Jonathan said that none of this was helping. Joyce finally agreed and said, "Okay. Okay. Okay I'm sorry. I'm sorry". "Can you do me a favor, Mom? Can you just try and get some sleep. Huh? Can you do that for me?" Jonathan asked softly. "Yeah. I will. I just need to sit here for a minute", Joyce sniffles. "I'm going to go start breakfast", Jonathan stated lightly before rubbing Joyce's back. "Okay", Joyce finally mumbled causing Maddie to finally get up and leave the room followed quickly by Jonathan.

"Mads? Mads? Mads?!", Jonathan questioned getting louder every time she didn't look at him. "You don't know what happened last night Jon. The lights were constantly flickering and music was playing in Will's room and we heard Will's voice and then something started coming out of the wall", Maddie started rambling finally turning around to show Jonathan her eye bags and sleepless face. Before Maddie could continue Jonathan grabbed her hands lightly making her look at him before he said, "You're tired Mads. You need to get some rest. There are people out looking for Will, he is not here. He is lost," Jonathan emphasized the words not here and lost. This made Maddie go grab her car keys before heading out the door towards school ignoring the yells from her brother behind her.

The school day went by just like it always has since Will went missing. People looking at her either giving her looks of sympathy or of disgust from how exhausted she looked. Overall, the day went quite well for Maddie after she successfully avoided Nancy and Steve all day. When the bell finally rung she met up with Jonathan and they walked towards their cars together. This was when Maddie knew her good day was coming to an end when she saw Steve and his posse leaning against Jonathan's car waiting for him.

"Hey, man", Steve said after getting off of Jonathan's car. "What's going on?", Jonathan questioned nervously. "Nicole here was, uh, telling us about your work", Steve said making Maddie give him a confused look. "We've heard great things", Carol said almost tauntingly. Followed by Tommy who said, "Yeah, sounds cool". "Okay, what the hell is going on here?", Maddie questioned angrily. "Well Addie, we'd just love to take a look. You know, as... connoisseurs of art", Steve said smoothly confusing the girl even more. Jonathan sighs before stating, "I don't know what you're talking about", trying to go into his car. Before he could make it Steve said, "Oh no?", right as Tommy stole Jonathan's bag causing Maddie to get angry. "Hey! Give him his bag back jackass!", Maddie exclaimed angrily while Jonathan stated, "Hey! Please, give me my bag. No, just", as Tommy threw the bag to Steve. "Man, he is totally trembling. He must really have something to hide. Here we go. Ah. Here we go. Oh man", Steve stated before flipping threw Jonathan's pictures.