Finding the Sun

Chapter 12

Jack, Henry and his little brother had been running around for at least 15 minutes at this point, and Aster was wondering when the hell these boys were going to run out of energy.

To her immense relief, Rossi called everyone in for dinner soon after.

"Alright boys, let's go. The sooner we eat dinner the sooner we get to eat dessert!" She clapped her hands once, getting the boy's attention. It was good timing as well, since the sun had started setting about 20 minutes ago, and the backyard they were in was getting steadily darker. Jack and Henry ran up to her right away, clearly thrilled with the prospect of food. Jack gave her a quick hug around the waist, which caught her slightly off guard.

"Thanks for playing with us Ash. The game only really works with 4 people." The boy said, looking up at his big sister with a grin on his face. She hugged him back tightly, telling him it was no problem and that she had a lot of fun. She watched as the two boys ran to the porch containing all of the adults, who had been sitting outside watching them, and she saw her dad wave to her in a 'come on' motion. She held up a finger to him, one second. Micheal had strayed further to the back fence, which he could just look over since it was only a half-fence, and came just over Aster's waist. He was still back there, staring past it into the dark alley behind.

"Hey bud, come one, let's go eat dinner. Your mommy is still waiting outside for us." She said, putting a hand on his little shoulder.

"But I saw something." He responded. He didn't sound exactly scared, but used the tone of voice a child does when they want an explanation for something they don't know about, and are expecting you to provide.

Aster froze for a second, but didn't see a reason to panic. He was a little boy with an imagination, staring into the dark, in a residential area. It wouldn't be unusual if someone was out walking their dog, or something.

"Oh yeah? It's nice out, plenty of people are probably walking around. Let's go back inside." She said, mostly because she was hungry, not worried.

"But he was standing right there." He pointed towards a hedge that was a little past the fence. Sure enough, hidden within the bushes, Aster could see a pair of eyes, just barely. It seemed like the figure had moved back far enough so that Michael lost sight of them, but now that Aster was aware of it, she didn't know how she hadn't sensed this before.

"I.. I don't see anything. Maybe they left, okay Michael? I need you to go to your mommy now, will you tell her I'm right behind you? I think I dropped my phone, I'm gonna stay and look for it." Aster said, having already put her body in front of his. She gently pushed his shoulder, without taking her eyes off whatever was hiding. Horrifyingly, she noticed it hadn't blinked once.

Michael seemed to accept her explanation, giving a shrug and a nod before running back to his mother. JJ picked him up, giving a quick concerned glance towards the teen still in the yard, before walking back inside. JJ was sure that Aster left her phone inside, and thought maybe the girl just needed a minute. I'll go tell Hotch, JJ thought.

Meanwhile, Aster was doing an assessment in her mind. The thing/person looked human, but that didn't mean anything. If it was a monster, it probably wouldn't have waited in the bushes to try to attack her. It wouldn't have cared. So if it wasn't a monster, who's to say it was even here for her? Was someone casing the house? Should she run and get help from the numerous literal FBI agents inside? Probably.

But she was frozen. Her heart had begun racing, and she could only describe what she was feeling as something horrifying and visceral. Pure terror. Neither her nor the thing in the bushes had moved an inch. It was just... staring at her. The more she looked, the more scared she was. Two floating eyes in a pool of blackness. They were too wide, too bright and too unblinking. And the more Aster's eyes got used to the darkness, the more she was convinced this thing was not a human. It was almost like what she could see of him, and she was sure it was a him at this point, was flickering in and out like a TV that lost signal. She felt deep in her gut that something was not right.