Falling Apart Page 02

Daniel stared at his phone as it rang, 'Dad... Dad is calling me... Why is dad calling me?! He never calls me, he won't even talk to me since I left home!' he frowned and looked to the side, briefly considered ignoring the call before he was reminded why he was calling his family, by the wand on his side table. He took a deep breath and sighed before pressing the receive button.

"... Hello?"

"Hello, is this Daniel Kirkland," immediatly, he knew something was off. A woman was on the other end, and it sure as hell wasn't his mom, "Hello?"

"Um... who is this? How do you even know my name?"

"Oh, I'm a friend of your fathers, we go way back."

"Okay, why do you have his phone though?" he stood up and started pacing antiously. Daniel wasn't liking this, not one bit. He knew his dad and knew very well, you'd have to have a life threatening emegency to use his phone to call one of his kids... Wait... "Is my family in the hospital?!"

The woman laughed on the other end, "Heavens no, they're perfectly fine. Allow me to eplain. I'm having a sort of celebration later this year, hopefully. I invited your father and his family to come and-"

"And, on the way, did they get hit by a truck?!"

("Dan, you're a fucking idiot!") his brother, Raven could be heard.

"Raven?!"

"Shut up!" the woman yelled.

("She's insane! Don't listen to her-!") his voice was cut off with muffled sounds in the background.

This was bad... This was worse than he imagined. Who... what was this woman. He stayed silent for a while as she tried talking to him, until he finally aske, "Who are you?"

"Were you even listening? Fine... If you must know, my name is Victoria James."

He'd heard that name before and had to think about it before it hit him, his father had told him about her before, "... Victoria...?" there was obvious fear in his voice. The same Victoria that killed Nathaniel Ackerman? No... she can't still be alive... It's not possible! Nathaniel's wife and brother would've-...

"Sounds like you've heard of me."

"What... What are you doing with my family?!"

"For now, being a caring hostess. Offering a place to sleep, feeding them. Allowing them to do reciational activities. Well, except for the little one."

"Jaina...? What are you doing to her?! I swear to God, if you hurt her in any way-!"

"But, it's her fault we lost your father's wand," the young wizard's eyes widened with disbelief as he looked at the wand, "Which reminds me, you wouldn't happen to know where it is, do you?"

Daniel was to shocked to speak, his head was spinning insanely and he was both dizzy and nauseaus. This can't seriously be happening, right... Right?!

"... Well, aren't you a helpful bee? I'll be coming to collect you. Don't put up a fight, or your freebooter friends die. Oh, and don't even try to tell them about this. Be a good boy until then. The safety of everyone depends on it."

The call ended and the room fell silent. Daniel's phone dropped out of his hand before he fell limply to his knees. He couldn't think straight, processing this whole situiation was too painful. What was he going to do...?

It was at that moment when Tawna knocked at his door. He wasn't paying attention to what she was saying, he couldn't be bothered to listen at this point anyways. After a lot of failed efforts to get a response, Tawna walked in to find Daniel on the floor.

"Dan, what happened?" she asked, kneeling down beside him. He looked at her, wanting so desperately to say something, but no words came out. No truth, no lie... nothing, "Dan, please. Say something, maybe I can help."

"..." he opened his mouth to speak, but still nothing came out. What would he even say to her? Not even a family arguement would explain his mental state. And the mere mention of danger would raise suspicion in the human. He really couldn't say anything. And he was too shocked, to upset and unstable to think of a solution to his problem...

"Daniel..."

"Let me talk to him." Daniel looked up to find the source of the unknown voice to see a man standing by his door. His fair skin, emerald green eyes and bright blonde hair bore a striking resemblence to someone in his father's pictures. He came into the room and knelt down in front of the wizard, "Do you remember me, Danny?" Daniel shook his head, "I suppose that's to be expected, you were only about 3 years old when you last saw me." Daniel looked on, still confused, "But, I'm sure you've heard of my older bother." then it came.

"... Nicolas... Ackerman...?"