The X-Philes

Chapter 8

"Alright, thank you. We'll meet you there."

Dan hung up on the phone.

"Calling in reinforcements?" Phil asked.

Dan nodded.

They were about four hours out from the town Dan had grown up in. A town Phil quite frankly was tired of seeing. Phil missed his own home back in Connecticut. He was sure Dan missed being at his current home too, but at least he was going back to someplace that felt familiar.

Phil realized how selfish of a thought that was under the circumstances.

"What are you thinking about?"

It was a question that Phil probably should have been asking Dan, but instead it was the other way around. Dan was handling the disappearance of another parent remarkably well. Phil reflected bleakly that this was probably their new normal for the time being.

"I want to go home," Phil replied honestly.

Dan nodded. "Yeah, me too."

Phil didn't ask if he meant West Virginia or Connecticut.

A new song played on the radio and Phil decided he didn't like it so he changed it. Dan glanced over at Phil even though he hadn't moved.

"I liked that song," he grumbled cheerfully.

"Too bad," Phil smiled back. He wriggled himself down into the seat and leaned back, closing his eyes, still smiling.

*-*-*-*-*

Phil sensed a change in the weather, not through anything supernatural, just basic human instinct, two hours later and woke up. Maybe it'd been the clouds darkening the sky and therefore the world around him, or maybe just some barometric pressure, but Phil blinked his eyes open just as the first heavy raindrops started to fall. It was fitting, really, he felt, but he didn't say anything.

Phil looked around but there wasn't much to see besides the road stretched out in front of them and the trees pushed back on either side around them. The unmowed grass swayed and the tree branches bounced in the wind that was picking up strength and speed. It seemed like it was going to be a doozy of a storm. The sky was nearly black and they were heading right into the thick of it.

The longer they drove the heavier the rain came down, pelting the windshield relentlessly. The noise was overwhelming adding a cacophonous layer to whatever generic song was playing on the radio at the time. Phil was sure he'd heard it a hundred times in the past month.

Even if they'd had anything to say to one another there was no point discussing it now. They rode the rest of the way in silence between them- and it was the only thing that was silent.

When Dan pulled up to his childhood home the long dirt driveway and surrounding road was filled with beefy-looking government cars like you'd see in the movies. Dan parked as close as he could to the house and turned the collar of his leather jacket up. It was the best he could do under the circumstances. Phil had grabbed his sweatshirt out of the back seat after waking up, for Dan had turned the AC on since they couldn't have the windows down, and it was a much more bitter cold than the fresh West Virginia air had been speeding on along down the highway. Now, he flicked the hood up over his head and around his ears as Dan shut off the ignition and begrudgingly opened the door to rush inside.

By the time both of them reached the covered front porch they were drenched.

The small house wasn't accustomed to fitting so many people and Phil found it claustrophobic and difficult to get anywhere.

He recognized a few faces from the briefing they'd had before they'd left for West Virginia in the first place all those months ago as well as the face of Nurse Millwood.