Something Wicked

Family Reunion

Waking up to find David missing from their bed was bad enough for Paul.

After that, he roused the others and together they searched for October in vain.

And that was when they discovered their prisoner was missing as well.

The night was undeniably bad, yes. But all Paul could think about was the worst day of his life when he was woken from a dead sleep as Marko was brutally murdered next to him. Deep down, he knew David wasn't dead and neither was October for that matter. He would have sensed the moment either of them were hurt.

So it was a mystery as to what happened. One that Paul was desperate to solve because the sooner he did, the sooner he could get his loved ones back safe and sound. If he found out Michael had anything to do with this, if he did plan to hurt his family, that piece of shit had another thing coming...

"We need to look for them," he insisted to a pacing Dwayne.

The dark haired vampire barely spared him a glance as he paced the length of what was supposed to be the room imprisoning their enemy.

"Where do you suggest we start?" Dwayne snapped at him. "We can't reach David or October's mind because something is blocking us. We have no way of knowing where they went or if they're in the same place."

Marko was uncharacteristically quiet standing in the doorway. 

"We can't just stay here and wait for them to come back!" Paul shouted.

Dwayne abruptly stopped his pacing and snarled at him, "You would have us repeat the same mistake of going after Emerson on his home turf? Look what happened last time! We all died."

Paul fumbled for a come back, anything to get across the sense of urgency he felt brimming underneath his skin. He glanced at Marko for help but the other vampire was staring unhelpfully off into space.

Paul frowned and looked back at Dwayne. "That's not what I'm saying we should do. There are other places to look."

A pensive aura fell over Dwayne. He crossed his arms and raised a brow. "Are you talking about the Frogs?"

At the mere mention of their name, Paul sensed a wave of anxiety from the doorway. Memories of the worst day of his life had him especially well tuned to where the curly blond stood.

Maybe he should have said something. Maybe he should have asked if Marko was okay with anything involving the Frogs. But he didn't. Members of his family were missing. They could be in danger. Alright, so he didn't know for sure if they were in danger. Either way, he needed to know. To be sure.

When they ambushed the Frog brothers, Marko held himself together pretty well. If you didn't have a direct line to his brain you wouldn't even be able to tell how uneasy he really was. Hell, the guy actually teased the teen hunters.

Paul wasn't sure if he was surprised to see Michael's little brother with the Frog's. Did that mean he was working with them? Was he in on some kind of plan the Frogs had?

But that didn't make sense in the end because there was no way these teenagers who had worked so hard to keep Michael from becoming a monster would ever plan for him to actually turn. Something else had to be up. Someone else had to have sired Michael this time around. Dwayne came to the same conclusion before he ordered them to leave.

They knew exactly where to look next as there was only one other vampire in town that they knew of. So that was how they ended up in the Widow Johnson's backyard.

Paul couldn't really remember the last time he had been to the Widow's house, if ever. Any time Max had ever taken the time to meet with the Widow on her own turf he would go alone or bring David. As he surveyed the property he decided that the Widow and Max seemed to share similar tastes. The lawn was manicured, the garden was well tended to, and the house in one word was charming.