“Honestly, if I wasn’t in the picture you would be in trouble.”
Hartwell jerked his neck to the left because he thought Daniel was serious at first.
“C’mon! Don’t play with me now. I’m in no condition for drama,” Hartwell countered.
“Someone once told me that if you can describe what kind of condition you’re in, then you’re probably not in that type of condition at all.”
It was the proper medicine administered by Daniel to use Hartwell’s endless array of psychological pointers against the man himself. He shook his head and smiled, “I have taught you well. Too well.”
“Well, at least you know I was listening all of those years you were by my side spiritually when I was growing up.”
Hartwell nodded, “There is that, my son.”
Daniel freely gave his opinion, “I don’t think the bond between mom and that man is as strong as the bond that you have with her. They were only together a few years and your relationship extends over generations.”
Hartwell thought about his son’s statement and then used his powers for the visual to show Harwtell what his mother’s spirit was focused on during her time between worlds. And, after five minutes of the same line repeated over and over again, “I must get back to Thomas and Nathanial!” Daniel finally let Hartwell out of the stream.
“All that time on the other side and I never heard the name Gabriel Billingsley even once,” Daniel stated.
“Did you check all of it?” Hartwell asked.
“Yeah, all of it.”
Hartwell smiled, “Good,” as he extended his arm and bumped fists with his son.
Maggie was hesitant to walk straight into the house because she didn’t want to appear presumptuous. She was perhaps the most sensitive person in the group and was always in tune with the vibe of her family members.
Maggie walked on the shore just outside the house and didn’t look back as she strolled in the opposite direction of the house. She and Hartwell were so in tune that he would come out and join her if there was a reason to talk. Hartwell thought about making a grand gesture, such as sweeping her off her feet and whisking her to Paris or the site of the place they met in San Francisco, but he chose a more humble, straightforward approach instead.
He opened the door of the house and flashed over to about six feet behind Maggie, her heart beating ever-faster as Hartwell approached. It was if they were meeting again for the first time, as all of the excitement and fireworks of new love was reborn.
Maggie was about to turn round and jump into Hartwell’s arms, but he had other plans.
“Keep walking and please don’t turn around,” he said internally as she put off the thrill of seeing her man for a few more moments.
She took the lead, “He gave up on us,” she said simply but effectively.
“Who gave up on whom?” Hartwell questioned.
“Billingsley,” Maggie replied.
“He’s not going to attack us?” Hartwell asked, attempting to find some sort of footing in the conversation that felt steady.
“No, he’s definitely going to attack,” Maggie countered, “but I was referring to our marriage. I mean, the marriage I had with him.”
Hartwell zipped in front of Maggie, as he was now off the ground, and now they were finally face to face as Maggie also lifted off the sand.
Hartwell got right to the point, “He has a witch.”
Maggie nodded, “Yes, I just found that out. He knew about my miscarriage and his business was going under, so he decided to check out and come back at a later date.”
“He also kept an eye on me for a number of years,” Hartwell stated.
“I get first crack at him,” Maggie sneered.
“That’s my girl,” Hartwell said and then snuggled up to his wife and kissed her.
Samuel was spying on the reunion and set of some colorful fireworks in the sky above their heads, but the explosions were not heard in the cocoon of true love as all of the family members walked outside of the house and applauded the reunion. Everything was right again at Hartwell house and Garrison turned to Thaddeus and said, “Now we can get down to business.”
Gary smiled and put his arm around Thad, “I love this game.”
SEVENTEEN
Billingsley's group was at a severe numbers mismatch heading into night one of the battle and his constituents knew it.
"How many people do they have again?" a usually confident Gregory Justice said somewhat apprehensively.
"I believe the number is 20," Gabriel replied in a matter-of-fact, casual way.
"20?" Julie Justice exclaimed. "What do we have? Like..." she said and then started counting the number of people in the room.
Gabriel had no patience for childish games, shoe blurted out "Eight."
Julie Justice ignored his impatience and continued her counting.
"Eight!" she proudly proclaimed, as her fellow family me members nodded in affirmation of her accomplishment as Billingsley rolled his eyes in disgust and mumbled, “This is going to be a long week.”
Gabriel was not giving the full plan of his intended actions when he told the group, “We go in there guns blazing. Let’s eliminate everything in our path and then ask questions later.”
His cliche-laden statement definitely left unanswered questions from this quite literal bunch.
“Why would we have to ask questions after everyone on their side is dead?” Randy Prince asked.
“Yeah, from what I know about dead people, they really don’t do too much talking,” Agent Terrence Carter stated.
The grouped laughed, “It’s pretty hard to talk when your heart is no longer beating,” Eloise Phillips said.
“Darn near impossible,” Mary Brewster added.
Gabriel had lost any of his remaining allotted patience, “Just kill everybody in sight!”
The mood was quite different at the House of Hartwell as the euphoria from Maggie and Hartwell’s reconciliation spilled over to the high energy that was about to unleashed on an unsuspecting group of apes. It had been over a week since the last conflict and that had been soft in nature and heavy on friendly competition.
“So, what’s the plan tonight chief?” a spritely Cal asked Hartwell.
Hartwell looked over at Kayla and Maxwell, who were the group’s point people for everything strategic.
“From what our intel suggests, we will have a decided body count advantage, so it’s always statistically best to go with the classic lawnmower formation in these type of situations. Hunters, hybrids and protectors with multiple blades on the front line and vampires on the second row cleaning up the mess.” Maxwell stated.
Kayla continued, “Since these battles are won and lost based on the mortality of our vampires, it would be best to protect Mr. Hartwell, Daniel and you Maxwell,” as she turned lovingly to her husband.
“Great!” Hartwell replied. “If the fight lasts longer than the first pass, then we should probably mix up the protection a bit,” he said to Kayla and then smiled in respect to Cal and the other hunters.
It was nearing midnight and the House of Hartwell was aglow with activity. There was no doubt in the minds of these hardened warriors on what the outcome would be this night - they had faced more people and much longer odds in their lives as extra-special beings. Samuel and Ariel, as the only two people in the house that had not been directly involved in a tussle, were more anxious than apprehensive and were looking forward to unleashing their various untapped resources.
It was a quite different story on the other side of town, where Gabriel Billingsley appeared to be the only one in on the grand plan. The other seven would-be apes had absolutely no idea what was going to happen when they stepped on the pitch of the great lawn at Beach Haven Park. They all knew they were powerful beings capable of snapping a think tree limb in their bare hands, but were somewhat apprehensive about the vampires and other assorted creatures that would be in front of them. The
intel on these creatures was quite thin, as Billingsley decided to keep them in the dark and let things play out naturally and the way he wanted it to be.
The 20 members of the House of Hartwell headed out just as the clock struck midnight, which alerted Gabriel that it was time to gather his own troops.
“We head out to the field in five minutes,” he said to his people as they started to get into character, which for them meant that they were about to make the transition from their mortal shells into the apes that defined their existence.
“Let’s roll,” Cal said as he looked back at his fellow hunters, who had transitioned from being expert trackers that were always two or three minutes behind their targets, to a strong presence in front of the pack capable of being the first line of defense in a fight.
The protectors joined their former adversaries the hunters and the front line picked up speed, transitioning from a fast walk to a light jog to a full sprint by the time they entered the outskirts of the park. The vampires were always ready to rumble and needed very little preparation and warmup to be actively involved in a tussle of any kind.
The hunters and protectors slowed their frantic pace on one end of the field and the vampires settled in just behind them moments later. It was now time for Billingsley’s group to meet their first challenge as a family so he snorted, “It’s show time! Let’s go!” as his clan had already made the transition into their ape selves.
The thundering heard of apes made the ground shake before they took to their air of whatever tree limp they could swing from en