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Jarod’s Hideaway . . .

 

 

 

Jarod came into the door with nothing, like always. Sydney, his mother, his brother, Gemini, and Debbie were all playing cards. They all stopped when he entered.

 

“Jarod!” Debbie was first off her chair. “Did you get them?”

 

“Yes,” he said with a smile. He reached in his pocket. The only thing he could get. “Pictures of your dad. Although, your dad isn’t the happiest looking.”

 

“I don’t care. I just want to see dad,” Debbie insisted as she took the pictures. “Oh. Poor daddy.”

 

“Life isn’t the best when family is lost. For what he’s been through, that’s pretty good,” Jarod said, trying to make her feel slightly better. Meanwhile he walked away toward the table. “I received one of the potions I’d been searching for.”

 

“We need to test the chemical right away,” Kyle insisted.

 

“I already did.” Jarod knew Kyle wouldn’t want to hear that. “They need to trust me. I show up tomorrow, and they will decide what they will tell me.” He looked back at his injection site. “They wouldn’t know Catherine and Miss Parker so well otherwise. I had to risk.”

 

“Jarod! That was stupid,” Kyle insisted.

 

“It was in Catherine Parker’s recipe book. I had to trust it. I need them,” Jarod reminded him. No matter what, he needed them.

 

“You . . . took something that is supposed to restore your memories that The Centre took?” Sydney didn’t sound too happy. “Is it working yet?”

 

“A few memories. Not many yet,” Jarod admitted. “It will be fully restored in a few hours.” Yeah, that nervous tick. “If there’s something you are hiding, it’s best to spill it now, Sydney.” Sydney didn’t answer back.

 

“Jarod? If you get more, and this restores their memories, then what? We still can’t get them without Hades taking action against you,” Gemini reminded him. “What do we do then?”

 

“Hades doesn’t know how close I am to restoring them,” Jarod said to Gemini. “If I can restore Miss Parker, her acting skills would work well enough. She could stay and watch him, and somehow, I’d be able to-“

 

“Kill him,” Kyle said to Jarod. “He’s complete evil, Jarod. He’s done nothing but hurt you and people you cared for. He should suffer for it. Get her to lead him into a trap, set it off, and it’s done. No more Devil.”

 

“I know I have to. I know I should.” But killing wasn’t easy. If anyone deserved it, it was certainly Hades. Killing people he loved. Manipulating those he cared for.

 

“Because of him, the children will grow up never knowing their-“

 

“No!” Jarod couldn’t stand to hear when someone said something about Miss Parker never seeing her children again. It wouldn’t work that way. “I’ll get her back. I’ll get it back.”

 

“You’re right, I’m sorry,” Kyle confessed to Jarod. “From what I’ve gathered of Miss Parker, she would probably be the one to kill him.”

 

Jarod sighed with a strange expression as he stared at the injection site.

 

“Or bear his twins,” his mother reminded Jarod as she placed a card down in their game.

 

“Kagiso is keeping that from happening,” Jarod reminded his mom. “I just don’t know for how long. But if she remembers, she’ll be more weary.”

 

“It’s Missy, Honey,” his mama said. “She’s already weary. Just watch her if you give it to her before something is done about Hades. She will take matters into her own hands. You know that.”

 

“Mm.” Sydney placed his cards down. “I think I’m done for the night. It’s getting late. Please continue the game without me.”

 

“No,” Jarod disagreed looking toward Gemini and Debbie. Miss Parker would have told him to have them in bed hours ago. His own mom didn’t seem to mind when they went to bed. She always lived for the moment. “Gemini. Debbie. Off you go with Sydney.”

 

The kids took off behind Sydney, leaving Kyle and Margaret alone.

 

“Not much of a game now,” Kyle said as he put down the cards. “Different game?”

 

“Every game is always different. Different moves. Different shuffles. It’s always different, no matter the game.” Margaret backed away from the table and stood up. “Easy on how you approach it, Jarod.”

 

Jarod looked toward his mom as he took a seat. “I promise. If I get more of the memory restorer, I’ll think before I act with Miss Parker and Broots.”

 

“I was talking about Sydney,” she clarified as she tucked her chair in. “I’m calling it a night too. Tomorrow might be a little rougher. Back to America. Goodnight, Jarod.” She smiled at him and went over to Kyle too, placing her hand on his head. “Goodnight, Kyle.”

 

“Goodnight,” he simply said. Kyle still wasn’t good with human touch. He would accept a hug if the moment was intense, but their mom touching his head in place of a hug seemed to work better for casual contact. It stressed him out less. “So, Brother, you’re going to try and pull her out of the Devil’s cage. Don’t do anything stupid.” He stood up. “Just because it isn’t an actual cage in Africa doesn’t make it any less dangerous.”

 

“I know,” Jarod said. “Get some rest, Kyle. I promise I will too.” After Kyle moved to bed, he went ahead and got up, moving to the temporary nursery he also slept in.

 

He touched Onyssius’ and Miss A’s hands in their cribs. “Soon. I promise. Momma’s coming home soon.” Before he went to take his place in his own bed, his phone rang. “Hello?”

 

And it was from someone he wasn’t expecting. An inside friend he met, keeping an eye on the Triumvirate’s plans. His fake priest that had beautiful qualifications he faked for the marriage that was supposed to happen between Miss Parker and Broots some time ago that they had all dodged.

 

He just got a call.

 

“What?” Jarod sighed with annoyance. Any plans he had were now on hold. Miss Parker and Broots would no doubt be called back to Africa almost as soon as they land to be told they had to get married. The fake priest didn’t know why, just that it was-“

 

///”You made it for me, Jarod?”

 

Jarod smiled as he watched Sydney’s reaction to his father’s day card. He was a little stunned, but he could tell he was happy too. “Happy Father’s Day, Sydney.”

 

“I.” Sydney didn’t speak right away. “I’m not your father, Jarod. You know what makes a father.”

 

“But you care about me, you take care of me, and you provide me with the necessities like food, and shelter, and you protect me,” Jarod reasoned. “It doesn’t have to be biological, Sydney.” He pointed to his little drawing of him and Sydney again, wishing he could improve his art skills. “Does it? Don’t kids who don’t have parents get more?”

 

“Well. Yes. Adopted parents,” Sydney said as he laid the card on his desk. “I didn’t adopt you, Jarod. I work with you, I’m not . . . I can’t take the role. And I don’t provide your necessities. I don’t make the food, I just bring it to you. I don’t shelter you, that is The Centre. I don’t protect you either. You protect others. Do you understand?”

 

“Oh.” Jarod looked sadly at the ground, then back toward Sydney. “But I want to be your son. Don’t you want to be my father, Sydney?”

 

“Yes, Sydney, don’t you want to be Jarod’s father?”

 

The voice was cold and ruthless. Sydney quickly grabbed Jarod and moved away from the table. Raines was not far from them, lighting a cigarette. “Raines. What are you doing here?”

 

“I was stopping by to see how the project is going.” Raines looked toward Jarod. “In my professional opinion, not well. That was a terrible way to handle that. Look at those eyes. Big, round, and confused. Denial, yet nothing strong enough to prove his thoughts weren’t true. Well?”

 

“I work with the boy,” Sydney insisted. “I did not expect this to be an issue. He is trying to find a bond with someone, it’s a natural thing for Jarod to want.”

 

“How did he discover it?” Raines asked. “Do you know?”

 

Sydney shook his head. Jarod curled up closer to Sydney’s side.

 

“Little Miss Parker I bet,” Raines said. “He watches. He learns. You should have set him straight. He doesn’t see what you don’t see. Does he?”

 

“It might have come up,” Sydney said off-handedly. “A simple thing. To show too much interest in it wouldn’t do the Pretender good, it would make him even more interested in the concept.”

 

“What do you think, boy?” Raines questioned him. “Do you think Sydney was strong enough in telling you that you weren’t his son? That you didn’t matter affectionately toward him? That you are really nothing but a project of The Centre?”

 

“Raines!” Sydney scolded him. “There is no need for that.”

 

“Oh, I think there is. As soon as Mister Parker sees what a weak visual display you showed toward him, Jarod is mine,” Raines said.

 

“I did not mislead Jarod,” Sydney said.

 

“It wasn’t in just the soft spoken words. It was in your eyes. A dead giveaway he can see.” Raines looked down toward Jarod. “What a fitting way to spend Father’s Day. Losing Sydney and being brought to me.”

 

“You can’t have Jarod,” Sydney said firmly. “Never.”

 

“We’ll see about that.” Raines walked off.

 

“Sydney?” Jarod said softly as Sydney had him sit down. “Did I do something wrong? I don’t want to go to Mister Raines! Please!”

 

“Jarod, listen to me,” Sydney said. “You did nothing wrong. Don’t ever think that. Now, I have to talk to Mister Raines and Mister Parker. I want you to clear your mind. Don’t worry about this. Understand?”

 

Jarod nodded. He kicked his feet slightly as Sydney left, but he watched Sydney take his card. He closed his mind, trying to clear his mind. He didn’t want to lose Sydney. He didn’t want to go to Mister Raines. He won’t let me go. I know he won’t. What he said, and his body language, they contrasted. Sydney cares. He cares so much. He is my father. Right now, he is being my protector. Go, Sydney! Go show them not to mess with you.///

 

 

 

“I think that they will probably be doing it at night so they can watch to make sure everything is fine on the bridge. Do you think that though? Jarod? Jarod?”

 

“What?” Jarod was confused. Sydney rejected his father’s day card, but he wasn’t half as cold. Half as precise. “Mister Parker did it. Sydney let them erase my memories, and when I gave it to him, he was ice cold. Even throwing it in the trash.” But he didn’t. The card Miss Parker said he kept in his possession? “It was the first card I gave him. The real card.”

 

“What are you talking about, Jarod? I don’t know what you are rambling on about? Do you think it will be more toward night? Should I prepare for that?”

 

“Huh? Oh.” Jarod cared deeply about Miss Parker and Broots actions. Deeply, but his mind had just been attacked by an erased memory of his childhood.

 

One Sydney hid, and never told him about.

 

The day he wasn’t quite up to par to the act he portrayed.

 

And now, Jarod knew why he never got him to break, even to that day. He wanted Raines to leave him alone, so that Jarod could remain under his control. Fair. He was a child. Sydney was doing what he could. But as soon as he left, why didn’t he tell him? Why did he hide it?

 

So many times. So many times he could have told him! And he hid it. He pinched the bridge of his nose. “I’ll call you back soon.” They would have to return back to The Centre, and then return back. Three, maybe four days. Long enough that he could take something for his splitting head.

 

“I knew you would one day remember, no matter what they said.”

 

Jarod turned around and saw Sydney in the doorway.

 

“I’m sorry,” Sydney apologized. “I tried to be firm, but I wasn’t as good back then yet as I should have been.”

 

“Let me guess,” Jarod said. “Mister Parker.”

 

“Raines brought my less than stellar performance to the sight of Mister Parker. Yes,” Sydney agreed. “I became better afterward. I’m sorry I had to hide that from you. It was for the best.”

 

“You became colder after that,” Jarod corrected him. He watched Sydney’s eyes. “Smarter. Even today, you-“

 

“We cannot go down this road,” Sydney warned him.

 

“Professionalism. It’s all so professional with you. That’s why I’d never be like you. Psychology. Psychiatry. Never. You’re forever locked in a box, never willing to say or admit what you feel about a patient. A client. Whatever you call the ones you help but refuse to warm up to.” Jarod got up and left his room.

 

“Jarod-“

 

“Just say it, Sydney!” Jarod declared. “Mister Parker isn’t around. No one is around. Just tell me, face to face. No riddles. Did you ever think of me as a son?” he asked him outright. “Because that day it all slipped on your face. I saw it.”

 

“You have a father, Jarod,” Sydney settled on. “Did I have the right to take his place?”

 

“ . . . no,” Jarod admitted. “But the heart doesn’t listen to rights. Not that you ever listened to it.” Jarod stopped leaving his room, looking back into it. He was leaving his own room with his own children for Sydney? After he hid that for so long? “Get out. I have work to do. Saving the ones that do still care.”

 

Sydney walked out of the room quietly, hearing the door close on him louder than it needed to be. No doubt Jarod was upset. He hid the fact that the boy ‘replayed’ what he did that day. I had to. I had to protect him from Raines! I couldn’t let him get his hands on Jarod. Any sign of weakness, Mister Parker made it clear he’d pounce to Raines, so every time that issue came up, he made it firm to Jarod. Clear to Jarod.

 

He simply worked with him. He was no father. He started to walk away, wondering if he should just leave now. It would be best. Jarod would be better off without him. He had helped Margaret as he could with her problems, the rest was her own decision. He reached for his coat in the small hallway.

 

“You did what you thought was best. Don’t leave,” Margaret said from behind him. “Sydney.”

 

“I think it’s quite clear that I should,” Sydney said wrapping his coat around himself and bringing his suitcase that he always brought with him. “I was not professional enough in a time that called for it the most. Jarod knows that now, or he would have never known. Being here with him and helping him with his own children. It’s too much on him now.”

 

“That’s not it,” Margaret said as Sydney continued to walk away to the door. “It’s not telling him, Sydney. You know that.”

 

“It’s too late,” Sydney said as he stepped out. “I can be of more use on the other side anyhow. I can take care of what Jarod cannot. Hades.”

 

“Sydney. Please?” Margaret asked one more time. “It wasn’t your fault. Things happen, even in professional relationships. Love is a very strong emotion, and no amount of degrees can stop it.”

 

Sydney smiled at Margaret. “You know just as well as I do, there are some things that are just a step over where things could be resolved. I . . . must be careful. Goodbye, Margaret. I hope I will see you again one day.”

 

“You will,” she said with a degree of certainty. “You’re not ready for Hades yet. You can’t conquer the hate until you find love.”

 

Sydney continued to smile, not too surprised by what slipped from her lips. He looked at her softly and closed the door behind him. Another back and forth.

 

He couldn’t play the game. Not this time.

 

Jarod was like the son he knew he could never have.

 

Jarod had felt like he was the son Sydney couldn’t accept.

 

It was a vicious cycle that Sydney tried to keep away. He thought after his mistakes with Jarod, those feelings and mistakes he had made would never return. Yet, as he walked down and away from the situation, he knew that the same thing had happened again.

 

But not with Jarod.

 

Margaret was Jarod’s mom, the last person he should ever considered getting involved with more than as a friend.

 

Margaret was at a standstill with her husband, Jarod’s father, but her feelings did not go unseen.

 

They both treasured each other through the difficult times, sharing difficult things, that no other human being could know. That they would never tell another soul. And within that common bond of feeling tremendous guilt, they had grown connected.

 

The only difference was, Margaret wasn’t a young boy or an overly excited Jarod, saying the obvious loud. Wanting to hear what he psychologically just couldn’t say. So they had continued, day after day, just chit chatting. Just ignoring any feelings. Just committing the same mistake. Not again.

 

Even a whisper of how they might have felt for each other would just be hell on Jarod’s mind. The only father figure he had growing up, who rejected him, yet didn’t reject his mother? He might even believe Sydney was trying to tear his parent’s apart. Who knew what would fill the Pretender’s mind?

 

“The Centre,” he whispered to the night. “Even now. It is where the creature I am must belong.”

 

“That’s correct, Sydney.”

 

Sydney turned around and saw Jarod. No, not Jarod. Jarod didn’t dress like that. He tended to dress better, while this one was mostly dressed in a shabby white shirt and beige pants. Hades?

 

“Don’t worry,” he said to Sydney. “Look, you know Jarod is going to waste time looking for you, but you can’t stay. You have no choice, you said it yourself. You want to go back to The Centre. Let the Angel take you back. I’ll make sure Jarod doesn’t waste time finding you.”

 

Ah, Jarod Angel. He looked like he’d been camped out there for some time, his hair hadn’t been combed in days, and he didn’t smell fresh at all.

 

“I can get you into Hades’ Hell. I can’t get in there, but I can get you in there.”

 

“How?” Sydney asked, knowing that making a deal with the angel probably wasn’t much better than making a deal with the devil.

 

“It’s all in the paperwork. I find you, I bring you in, I label myself a current center operative I already paid off to say that, and we fake that we fixed your memories,” Angel said. “Even if Hades suspects something, he won’t do anything once you get in The Centre.”

 

“You want to help to stop Hades?” Sydney questioned. Normally, he couldn’t trust anyone, but he wanted away from the pain he caused within Jarod once again. “Can I take down Hades?”

 

“No, but the Competion for the Angel’s hand can,” Jarod Angel answered. “If you can keep Broots near Miss Parker, and keep Hades away, then you could save her from bearing the twin devils.”

 

“Jarod said Kagiso is keeping Broots near her,” Sydney said.

 

“Kagiso is getting stronger in his treatment. He’s not going to care about childish things like mommy and daddy soon. His mind will be unrecognizable as a child’s,” Angel said sadly. “I’m sorry. She needs to get out.”

 

“Then who will take care of everything else?” Sydney demanded. “Hades has Jarod stuck! He hurts the ones Jarod knows, and that he loves.”

 

“Oh,” he said softly. “You didn’t know?”

 

“Know what?” Sydney asked.

 

“He does that anyway,” Angel said. “Nothing major, really tiny, but that’s what he does when he doesn’t follow Miss Parker. You see? You can save lives. Use The Centre to watch him.”

 

“Not me. I can give access to Jarod. Word to Jarod,” Sydney said, having a feeling Angel wasn’t lying. “He can trap him.”

 

“Exactly,” Jarod Angel said. “You have to. If you don’t, my sweet adorable Miss Parker will never escape to my Heaven.”

 

Wait. “Another Centre?” Sydney reasoned. “Another one, waiting for her mind.”

 

“I won’t hurt her. I would never hurt her. I just want to love her,” Jarod Angel said. “And, we would have a wonderful Centre together. I would do whatever she wanted. Rescue kids like the Angels we are. We should be.”

 

Mad. He didn’t even know her, and Sydney’s mind did not forget how he tried to make Broots’ daughter have a baby. Angel may have been ‘better’, but he was far from stable. “She doesn’t belong in your Heaven either.”

 

“She must. I couldn’t get the second pregnant,” Jarod Angel said to him. “The scrolls cannot be changed. If she does not come to my heaven . . .”

 

“What?” Sydney urged him.

 

“Angel wing tattoo. Devil Wing tattoo. The one named Angelo. Do I need to say more?” Angel warned him. “I must bring her to my heaven. The scrolls are the possible futures, there are none else. If we don’t follow them, it’s the end. To save everything, we must come together. For our love,” he smiled. “Why else would our love transcend into the realm of scrolls itself? We’re saving the world. Together.”

 

 

 

Sydney nodded. There was no choice. For now, he couldn’t disagree. The Centre was where he was needed. I’m coming.










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