Love to Die for (SEQUEL)

Chapter 10: A Major Disturbance

The kids were occupied with the arcade and so the first thing I did was whip out my phone and contact James to get a lead on William.

Y/N: Hey, sorry I haven't responded I've been busy with work and the kids! Are you around tonight?

Cole seemed to have wandered off into his own interest so I impatiently awaited for the ringer on my phone to go off as I watched the three from a distance, usually babbling to each other about who gets the next token.

James: Same place at 10?

Y/N: Yes. I'll be there.

James: Good. See you tonight.

The awkwardness of that conversation disturbed me moderately. I already knew going into this 'date' that James wasn't a good man, but I was going to do what I had to do to get William's whereabouts.

I just hoped he wasn't purposely hiding away from us. I think that truth would hurt me more than anything else. Not only that, I just don't know how a father could do such a thing to three kids and leave them to his 'girlfriends' care. But hopefully it wasn't intentional and James has a good explanation. Hopefully, I get a explanation.

"Do you plan on working or are you just gonna stare at your phone?" Michael scoffed, annoyed with my dazed state of mind. I shuffled and adjusted into a more polite stance for him. "Y'know, you always complain about teens being on their phones these days, but you're addicted."

I rolled my eyes. I wasn't addicted, I was only doing this to help get their father back. They just didn't know that, and they won't until I'm sure of it.

"Did you need more tokens, Mikey?" I emphasized his nickname to annoy him.

"Don't call me that!" His face scrunched into a frown. My pleasure returned.

"Then don't call me an addict! Are you guys hungry or are you here to pester me?"

Suddenly, Michael's face shifted from anger to shyness. A rare expression I see on his face. "...I don't need anything. The games were just boring."

"You wanna hang out with me?" I tried my best to resist adding an 'aww' to that. It was so hard for Micheal to be affectionate these days so I didn't want to rub it in his face.

"I guess." He said plainly.

"Good! Well, I can show you some things I have to do for my job or—"

"Ugh, I'm sick of Freddy's! Can we just do something outside of this crusty pizzeria?" He whined, his body restless and his foot tapping against the checkered floor. I didn't want to leave the other two here, but I felt bad having Michael be this miserable constantly.

"Uh, it's not that easy Michael. I could see if Henry can watch over Liz and Evan. Or maybe they can come with us, but staying here would probably be easier."

"Can it just be us? I want to talk about something." He mumbled, his arms folded around each other. I sighed and put my hands through my strands of hair. Hopefully Henry was here, I didn't want to leave them with Cole. No, I wouldn't.

"Alright. Let me go find him, stay here."

Michael nodded as I went to the backstage area to the offices. I found the door that displayed Henry's last name and knocked, thankfully a voice answered for me to go in from the other side.

"Rather disappointing."

The door slammed shut behind me as I faced multiple dark shadows of spirits, looming over Henry's desk.

"Wha—"

"Unredeemable. Guilty. Manslaughter."

They were different from the other voices I was used to hearing. These kind seemed less friendly and more judgmental. I felt like I was on trial as I contemplated running out the door.

"Who are you talking abo—"

"Her spirits weak. She'll be taken by the shadows."

A female voice was speaking now, it seemed to be talking about another woman, being 'taken by the shadows'. I didn't know what that meant.

"Hope resonates. The trap remains. Doom is becoming."

Another one whispered, a male this time. I couldn't detect who was who and who was talking. Each figure was a black shadow with no mouth and no legs. I was wondering if I was hallucinating or not.

"What do you want with me?" I finally managed to finish a sentence. Their whispers haulted and the attention was suddenly brought onto me. I felt as though that wasn't a good thing.

"Curse, curse. You shall never forget that."

"Pain is locked. Torment inevitable."

"Six weeks of Spring."

Confused, I tried to decode the information given to me. It seemed more like a warning than a threat. But I didn't know who was in danger. Was it me? Or was it my kids? I was completely unaware.

"Who's torment?"

"Everyone responsible." It answered angrily, somewhat feeling like it was directed at me, I shut up and let the spirits do whatever they wanted. I didn't exactly know what did, but it was probably tied to my old relationship with William. They most likely didn't appreciate it.

"Six more weeks of peace, then everlasting suffering."  This was a girl, giggling, about my future torture. I shivered a bit at their excitement. These things were evil.

"Please, go away." I begged, just missing the presence of Henry, even Cole. Anything human I'd take at this point.

"Our souls shall kill you forever."

The shadow spirits giggled once more before dissolving into thin air. Exasperated, I widened my eyes and checked to see if the door was locked. It wasn't. I booked it out of the office and basically ran for Michael. I'd call Henry on my run.

"Ms. L/N, is everything alright?" Cole stepped out of my office and asked, as I ran for my kids. I didn't even care as I swept right by him.

"Shut up, Cole!"