Post by Tim on Apr 11, 2024 11:10:12 GMT -5
COOK RESIDENCE
KAIROS, ENGLAND
MARCH 20th, 2015
KAIROS, ENGLAND
MARCH 20th, 2015
Lisa Cook sat at the desk in her home office and sighed. In her hand was a picture of a decade younger Lisa, with her best friend, Ellen Harvelle, taken in happier times. Hearing the door open, Lisa looked up to see her husband, Matthew enter the room. “Are the boys asleep,” Lisa asked, inquiring about their two sons.
“I just put them to bed,” Matthew replied as he noticed the picture Lisa was holding. “Old memories?”
“Yeah,” Lisa said. “Being in contact with Jo again, it’s bringing it all back. How things ended between me and her mother, Ellen.” Lisa sighed. “Ellen and I were best friends. And it ended so badly.”
Matthew went over and put is arms around his wife, comforting her. “You’ve never really discussed Ellen much. I mean I know you two were friends, and that you used to hunt monsters and such, but you never really told me the story of what happened that day.”
“Haven’t I?” Lisa said. “Well, Matthew, perhaps it’s time I did. Well...”
FLASHBACK BEGINS: THE ROADHOUSE
1997
1997
“That was sloppy, Lisa!” Ellen Harvelle snapped as she and Lisa Green entered the Roadhouse. “Bordering on incompetence!”
“Get off my case, Ellen!” Lisa snapped back. “I was trying to do the right thing, and you know it!”
“Yeah, and because of that, eight of our fellow hunters are dead.” Of the ten in the hunting party that had left the Roadhouse to confront a group of demons, only two, Ellen and Lisa, had come back.
“Don’t you think I know that, Ellen! And I mourn the loss of every one of them.”
“Yet you froze, Lisa,” Ellen said. “You froze and gave those demons their chance to attack. Why?”
“Because they’re human beings,” Lisa said. “Possessed humans. They weren’t that way by choice. I couldn’t take an innocent human life.”
“Lisa...”
“No, Ellen, I have to say this. Werewolves, vampires, zombies, wendigoes, I’ll kill them without a second thought. But not humans, not when there is an option to save them.”
“But there wasn’t an option, Lisa, that’s the point,” Ellen said. “Those demons were dangerous, and your hesitation allowed them to gain the advantage.”
“But there is an incantation to remove the demons from the humans, Ellen.”
“There wasn’t time to say it,” Ellen replied. “Sometimes killing is the only option.”
“Including innocent humans,” Lisa said.
“Yes, including innocent humans. Possessed or not.”
“I’m sorry, but I cannot accept that,” Lisa replied, shaking her head. “Those humans needed saving, not killing.”
“Well, Lisa, if that’s the way you feel, then perhaps hunting is not for you,” Ellen said.
“You know, Ellen, perhaps you’re right,” Lisa said after a few moments of silence. “Perhaps this isn’t the life for me. And perhaps it shouldn’t be the life for you either.”
“What does that mean!?”
“What do you think it means, Ellen?” Lisa replied. “You have a daughter, for God’s sake. It’s one thing that you’ve devoted your life to this, but now you’re dragging Jo into it as well. Is this what you want for her.”
“You leave Jo out of this, Lisa. She’s not involved.”
“But she is. You’re turning her into another you. Jo is to closest thing I have to a niece and it hurts me to watch her throw her future away.”
“You take that back!” Ellen said, with anger in her voice.
“No, I won’t!” Lisa shot back. “Dammit, Ellen, if you want to keep hunting, fine. But you have no right to drag Jo into it. You’re going to get her killed one day, Ellen...” Lisa got no farther as Ellen slapped her across the face.
“You had that coming, Lisa. How DARE you try to tell me how to raise my daughter!”
“I’m not trying to tell you how to raise Jo. I’m telling you that she at least deserves a chance at a normal life. If she wants to hunt, then it should be her choice, Ellen, not yours.”
“Now you listen to me, Lisa, because I’m only going to say this once,” Ellen said as she got up into Lisa’s face. “If you want to walk away, fine, walk away. But, if you do, then you stay the hell out of mine and Jo’s lives from now on. We don’t need you!”
“Then, I guess we ave nothing more to say to each other,” Lisa said slowly. “Good bye, Ellen. God help you and Jo both.” With that, Lisa turned and walked out of the Roadhouse, without a backwards glance. A friendship, once seemingly unbreakable, now lay in ruins.
FLASHBACK ENDS
“You know the rest, Matthew,” Lisa continued. “I walked out of that Roadhouse and never looked back. I moved over here to Britain, met and married you, and we had the boys. I’ve never been happier.”
“But there are times you wish things had ended differently between you and Ellen,” Matthew said.
“Yes,” Lisa replied. “And if I’d known what was going to happen to Ellen, I would have reached out and tried to mend fences. Now, I never can.”
“Well, I’m not an expect in all this, but you did tell me once that you can summon spirits. Can’t you do that with Ellen?”
“No, it’s not that easy,” Lisa said, shaking her head. “There is risk involved. And I can’t take a chance of you and the boys getting hurt, just to ease my conscience. Let Ellen rest in peace. But...”
“Yes?” Matthew asked.
“There is Jo to consider,” Lisa said.
“What about her?”
“She’s pregnant, Matthew. I just found that out not too long ago.”
“And that is why you went back over to the United States to see her, the other day.”
“Yes, I had to talk to her and tell her how I feel. That it wasn’t just about her anymore, but about her baby as well.”
“Did she listen?” Matthew asked.
“I think so,” Lisa replied. “I don’t think she’s going to leave hunting entirely, but perhaps she’ll take a step back from active hunting.”
“Like you did,” Matthew said. He knew that Lisa was now strictly research. If a hunter needed information, Lisa would seek it out and provide it. But her hunting days were long behind her. And thank God for that, Matthew thought.
“Jo’s grown up so much, since I saw her in 1997,” Lisa said, smiling. "She, and her baby, deserve a chance. And I plan to be involved in her life as much as she wants me to be. If I can, then perhaps I can prevent her from paying the same terrible price her mother did.”
“You’re a good person, Lisa,” Matthew said and kissed his wife on the cheek.
“Thank you,” Lisa replied. Once again her eyes fell on the picture of herself and Ellen, in those bygone times. Ellen, I don’t know if you’ll appreciate this, but I will watch out for Jo, Lisa thought. She and her baby will be safe, that I promise you.
