The Chosen Path

Chapter Three

"I'm fine. Really," He assured her, patting her hand with his other. He didn't know what else to do. He didn't want her to cry.

"He's fine, Em. Let's get back to bed," Raven spoke up. Emily looked at him again, searching his face for reassurance.

"I'm fine. Honest," Jake repeated to her.

Emily got up slowly. Jake looked at her nightgown. It wasn't the grandma long white nightgown he'd envisioned; it was a short yellow one that looked like a sundress, but clung to her shapely body.

Ray put his arm around her and pushed her out of the room. They all said goodnight and left the room.

Jake picked up the glass of water and took another sip. He had thought his nightmares would end now that he wasn't in Iowa. He guessed wrong.

Upstairs in Emily's room, Tony sat on Emily's large yellow and white bed as Emily paced the floor anxiously.

George, Ray, and Raven sat on the floor on oversized yellow pillows watching her.

"Relax, Em," Tony told her.

"He got to Jake already," Emily said angrily, hitting a fist into her palm.

"You don't know that, Em. It might have been just a bad dream," Raven pointed out.

"That," Emily gestured down towards Jake's room, "was no bad dream. And I do know that," Emily said firmly to Raven, almost challenging her to say differently.

Raven looked away. She knew when Emily said that she was sure, she was sure. And no one could tell her differently.

"It was his choice to come here, Em," Tony said, absently picking at the threads on one of Emily's throw pillows.

"I should have stopped him," Emily said assuredly.

Tony laughed cynically. "You can't protect everyone."

"I sure can try," Emily retorted.

Tony groaned, leaned back, and covered his face with the pillow. He muttered into it in Italian, his left arm folded around the pillow keeping it in place. The other arm madly waved around, gesturing while he spewed out a long tirade no one understood.

The group looked at Tony, at each other, and shrugged.

"We have to tell him," George said certainly to the group.

"He's not ready," Emily shook her head.

"But he could be ready if we help him. If he understood what has happened. What's happening," George argued.

"I don't want to agree, but I agree," Tony said decisively and tossed the pillow across the bed to land on the floor.

"It's the only way he's going to be prepared for what's out there," Tony said. "I'd like him to pack up and go back to his farm in Utah or wherever the hell he's from, and just let him deal with whatever comes after him if anything comes after him. BUT, I know you're not going to let that happen, so best prepare the boy as it's going to be a bumpy ride."

"What's out there wants me, not Jake!" Emily snapped at him.

"Apparently, it wants him now!" Tony snapped back, gesturing towards Jake's room. "I didn't want him here. I still don't. But he deserves to know the truth so he's prepared. If he's not prepared, he's dead. We all know that. Too well."

Emily sat on the floor grabbed the pillow that Tony tossed, and yelled into it.

George put his arm around her. "We won't let him get to Jake or to you, Emily. Or to anyone," George said to her gently.