Double Trouble

Despite the events of the morning, the day was going pretty well for Savannah. She had forced herself to not worry about her husband’s and brother’s attacks. If she did that, Savannah could be sure that her focus would be split, and that was not really something she could afford. When Eli and her kids walked in, Savannah hoped that her nephew could cover the coffee hop while Savannah went to look at the security footage from this morning. With her brother resting, she focused all of her energy on the coffee shop and had not the chance to find out who did this. Unfortunately, her nephew’s admission stopped Savannah in her tracks and she had to deal with this. “Eli, what’s wrong?” she asked.

“Reuben…” her nephew panted.

Savannah shifted into motherly mode. “What happened to Reuben?” she voice barely above a whisper. If anything happened to her eldest son, she would never forgive herself.

Eli shook his head, the blond hair that reminded Savannah of his mother, the woman Savannah hated for no reason. “No, no, you misunderstand. Reuben saw something when he was at school today, something I know for a fact you aren’t going to like.”

“What?” Savannah wondered.

“Jason and Justin Evermore,” her nephew replied simply.

Hearing those names brought back so many memories, memories that she hoped to repress. Savannah hated them with a passion, and them her. Jason and Justin Evermore took from her two of the most important people in her life: her parents. She was forced to grow up early because of that, her childhood lost forever. Because of them, Savannah spent two years in seclusion, trying to get over what was done to her. It was done in vain since it wasn’t until Toby entered her life that Savannah was finally able to put the past behind her and move on with her life; she had destroyed them, thus ensuring that Toby’s brothers could no longer harm anyone. But, if they were gone, how was it that Reuben saw his uncles?

“How?”

Eli shrugged. “I don’t know; I thought you said they were destroyed. It was the only reason Uncle Toby was capable of going to Romania and ultimately getting rid of the vampire curse he was plagued with. But, when Reuben told me, I immediately rushed them home, knowing that they would come after their niece and nephews. Surely they know who they are.”

“Yes; yes, they would,” Savannah replied, thinking of her dream thirteen years ago. There was no way that Savannah would ever allow her nephew to become as involved as he was in her dream; she refused to let that happen, not when she had the chance to stop it. “Eli, if they are out there, you must protect them even more than you have now. My brothers-in-law will undoubtedly come after me and Toby, seeking their revenge. According to them, I was meant to die at Camp Strange sixteen and a half years ago; for them, I was never meant to survive. I must go speak with Toby about what his eldest son saw.”

“Sure,” Eli nodded.

As her nephew dealt with the goings on in the coffee shop below, Savannah solemnly trudged upstairs, heading to her bedroom, where Toby lay on the bed. “I never thought I’d have to do this ever again,” she muttered. “They were supposed to be gone for good.”

“Who was supposed to be gone?” her husband asked.

Savannah grunted. “Your brothers.”

“My brother?” he asked. “But, I thought…”

“So did I,” Savannah replied. “But, given the description I got from Eli of what Reuben saw, there’s no doubt in my mind that it is your brothers. They’re out for blood and will most likely stop at nothing to get revenge on us for what happened all those years ago.”

Toby nodded. “But, how though? How is it even possible for my brothers to be alive after all that we went through to ensure that something like this never happened again?” As Savannah took a seat on the bed, Toby wrapped his arms around her. “You destroyed them. There’s no possible way for my brothers to be alive. Nothing should have been able to bring them back to life; to give Jason and Justin a second chance to kill us.”

As Toby was saying this, Savannah’s mind turned to her dream; her nightmare. Ever since having the dream thirteen years ago, she was haunted by what might happen. Calarasi’s existence all those years ago plagued Savannah and she hoped that the day she was forced to deal with her nephew’s involvement—and her children’s kidnapping—might never come. “Toby, my dream, remember?” she reminded him. “You know that the events of that dream must never come to pass. Eli may be the kids’ babysitter and protect, but I will never allow those uncouth monsters to make their presence known to this family; not again!” The images of the dream were ingrained in her mind, never to be erased. Until she could be sure that this was never a possibility, Savannah Dawn Meadowbrook would never forget the thirteen year-old dream and what it could mean for the sake of her family.

“No way!” Toby insisted. “Calarasi’s dead!”

“Your brothers were supposed to be dead as well,” Savannah shot back. “We both know they’re not. There are only two people we know that have bright red hair and dreamy blue eyes: your brothers. Toby, with your brothers’ return, it’s a possibility; I’m afraid for my nephew’s safety. There’s a chance that we could lose him. Even if he is protecting our kids, Eli must never know of the vision I had about him when he was a year-old.”

“Savannah,” Toby said condescendingly. “We don’t really know for sure if it is a vision. For all we know, you might have jumped to conclusions regarding what the dream meant.”

“It is,” Savannah argued. “There’s no way I could have known exactly what my nephew would look like when he hit fourteen. And, I’ve never met anyone else who looked like that. No; I’m quite certain it’s a vision, a vision I only have forty-five days to stop.” Savannah knew that Toby was only trying to allay her fears, but there was no chance of that happening. That ship had sailed, never to return. The chance of this not happening was slim to none.

A knock on the door interrupted Savannah. Looking up to see who it was, Savannah was rather surprised to see that it was her nephew standing at the door. He had a very grim look upon his face. “Auntie V, Uncle Toby,” Elli asked, “can I talk to you about something? I’ve got a feeling that this needs to be discussed now, before anything can happen.” Neither Savannah nor Toby had the chance to answer; Eli merely walked in and took a seat the desk. “During my free period, I went to the library to do my own investigating. I knew there was something you weren’t telling me and I wanted to know what it was.”

Savannah’s eyes narrowed. “You didn’t!”

“I did,” Eli replied.

“Eli!” Savannah yelled, knowing exactly what her nephew was talking about without even having to hear the explanation. “You shouldn’t have done that. I never wanted you to know about that. Not ever!”

“Know what?” Toby asked.

Savannah turned to her husband. “Thanks to Elmo, my nephew now knows of the thing we never wanted him to know about. I forgot that Brie told her uncle about what happened that there might come a day when he told my nephew of the thing I never wanted him to know.”

Toby laughed. “See, Savannah; this is exactly why I never wanted you to tell Eli that I was a vampire. If he didn’t know that, he might not now be aware of your little vision. Eli would only be aware of the fact that he was charged to watch over his cousins, not the fact that he might soon be involved in a family feud he has absolutely no part in being in.”

“Well, while that’s what you may have wanted, I wanted Eli to become aware of what he was up against,” Savannah argued, standing up for her decision to tell her nephew. “However, I never did expect that Jason and Justin would come back from the dead. I destroyed them; they shouldn’t have returned. The forever seventeen year-olds you call your brothers are positively despicable and I cannot condone what they did to my family; Thomas and I lost our parents because of what they did; Eli never had the chance to know his grandparents because of your brothers. So long as Eli knows what was done to this family because of your brothers—and how much you protected us—I think he should be alright.”

Toby eyed her suspiciously, the dreamy blue eyes that she fell in love with boring into her. “How can you be so sure that Eli will be okay? We really can’t be sure of anything.”

“Because he’s my nephew,” she replied smartly.

“Ahem,” Eli said, clearing his throat to remind his aunt and uncle that he was in the room. Savannah turned her attention to her nephew, forcing Toby to do so as well. “Uncle Toby, I’ve protected my cousins thus far without any problem. I’m sure that I can continue to do the same even now that I know Jason and Justin are watching, trying to get revenge on you for the things that happened when I was little. No one is to harm my cousins, not on my watch.”

“We shall see,” Toby mused.

Once Eli went back down to the coffee shop, Savannah turned to face her husband. “I can’t believe that Elmo would tell my nephew about that. I told the Richards family of my fears in confidence; hoping that they would never repeat it to anyone, not even to my nephew.”

“I’ll find out the reason from Elmo,” Toby told her.

Savannah nodded. “Thanks. I’d like to hear the reason Elmo went behind my back and told my nephew the one thing he was never supposed to know about.” Savannah was quite bothered by the fact that something like this would happen. After ensuring that Toby’s immortality was gone forever, Savannah dedicated the majority of her time protecting her nephew from the future she foresaw. When her kids were each born, the amount of time spent on this task increased as she named each of her children based upon the glimpse of the future; Dawn already would have been called such anyway, for it was that name that gave Savannah the power to destroy Toby’s brother and ultimately allowed her to release Toby from his vampire curse. “You know, Jason and Justin returning actually might explain why you and Thomas were hit this morning; both hate you and would like nothing more than to see me suffer. Guess there’s no need for me to look at the security camera; we already know what happened and why it was even done in the first place.”

“You’re probably right about that,” Toby noted. “We’ll have to look into that a little later. For now, we need to deal with the fact that my brothers are back and this place must be secured. I know you never invited those assholes inside, but there still might be a way for them to get Reuben, Keith, and Dawn.”

“What about Dawn?” she asked.

“She’s only five,” Toby reminded her. “Her skills at protecting those she cares about have not yet been honed, not as well as yours. Even if her first name is Dawn, I doubt that she can hold her own for very long against my brothers. They’re her uncles and if she found out about that, she might hesitate to destroy them. Her hesitation could be our downfall. Reuben and Keith can do nothing to help their sister; only Dawn would ever be able to destroy my brothers, thus ensuring that this will never happen again. Savannah, she inherited that power from you and only you can help our daughter through this. I think, now that my brothers have made their presence known, you must start helping her to hone the skills needed to keep my brothers away for good. In the meantime, Eli shall watch over Reuben and Keith while Thomas and I secure the area, just to be sure.”

“Will it work?” Savannah asked.

Toby shrugged. “We’ll have to wait and see.”

After seeing to it that both Toby and Thomas were okay, Savannah returned to the coffee shop and relived her nephew, allowing him to go do his homework and watch over his cousins. Savannah watched her nephew as he did this. Eli, I really do hope you’re ready for what you’re getting yourself into; I never wanted you to know, but you do and now you’re in the thick of this like your father, Toby, and I are. Oh, shit! How will Thomas react when he finds out what happened? Damn it! I promised this wouldn’t happen. What the hell am I supposed to now that the promise I made to my brother so long ago is broken?