Psycher Chronicles

Chapter 60

The Return

(Misha Tulley)

(Current Time)

The tension finally began to ease, the closer the three got to their final destination. A strange sense of emptiness fell over the trio.

Now that they were back in town, the craziness of what they had just witnessed and experienced finally began to settle in.

Jasmine for her part kept giving side long glances at Misha. There was awe and a bit more in those gazes as she seemed to have realized something about Misha.

That’s when Jasmine began the process of trying to at least stay next to Misha.

“Hey, I just realized. I’m not expected back until much later today, or maybe even tonight. Is there a way I could stay with you?” Jasmine asked, her question primarily directed towards Misha, but as Darcy was also there, she too just had to but in.

“Yeah, that sounds great, we can all go to my house, it is more than large enough for all three of us, also my parents are out of town this weekend, so it would be great to have friends over.” Darcy began, her voice slightly timid as she too clearly did not want to be left alone after the ordeal they had all gone through.

“One second, let me try to call my pops.” Misha said, as she pulled off the road and found a well lit parking lot connected to a closed strip mall that would awaken in about three hours or so, once it was daylight out. For now, it was still early in the morning and it was at that stage when the human mind tried to fight to go to sleep one last time before the full effects of night were gone.

“You can’t the lines are all dead.” Darcy started, but that didn’t matter as Misha already had out her phone and was dialing Grandpa.

Brring, bring.

This was part of why Misha wanted to pull off, as it allowed her to focus her will on the devices that had been blocked out, and force them to operate.

“What, hello?” A clearly haggard sounding Phil answered, his voice unnaturally horse for some odd reason.

“Hey, we made it back safe, but we were wondering if we could stay together?” Misha asked.

Misha feeling that something wasn’t right, mentally reached out through the phone to get it to live stream her grandfather's face.

This was easy to explain, as people always inadvertently hit the camera button when they were talking and seldom realized exactly what was happening. For Misha though, the phone was doing more than sharing an image, as she was able to use the phone to tell that there was a slight tremble to the way Phil held himself.

In the camera view, Darcy and Jasmine got to see the side view of an old man who looked like he had aged ten years since they left.

“What? Yeah, I wouldn’t mind if you came.” Phil said, a slight smile coming to his wrinkled face.

Seeing the look on his face, Misha realized something was wrong, though she couldn’t quite tell from that angle, which was why she decided to switch the camera view.

Switching the view of the camera, so that it now showed the exterior of the room Phil was in, Misha saw that Phil was in bed. There next to him was the picture frame of Julie, her grandmother.

It was clear that there was some form of ritualism in the gesture, as Julie’s frame was sitting on the untouched side of the bed that had likely been set aside for Julie. A side that even now, Phil wouldn’t dare to touch, lest he offend the ghost of his dead wife.

Seeing the camera angle, Misha couldn’t help but ask.

“You didn’t leave the room at all while I was gone, did you?” Misha asked.

With this Darcy and Jasmine both went to look at the same image that Misha saw, but both were wondering what led Misha to this conclusion.

However, they didn’t know that Misha had already channeled her mind into the various mechanical and electrical devices around the room.

Devices like the alarm clock told her that the alarm had not been set since Friday, the day she left. The fan’s breeze showed that there was a faint musky odor that it was battling to fight back. His watch that would have told Misha his vitals including his heartbeat, breaths per minute, and steps taken all showed zero steps taken since Friday.

Indicating that he hadn’t moved. That or if he had, he hadn’t taken his watch with him. This meant that he hadn’t gone outside of his house, as he would always want his watch with him while working. It was one of the few social ticks that her grandfather had that made him so endearing.

Now that she had all of this information, it became apparent that Misha would be needed to get him out of this fugue state that he was in. Just when she thought she would have to play dirty, Phil stated the truth.

“No, no, I didn’t.” Phil finally admitted after seemingly battling with himself for a moment.

Hearing that Misha just nodded, the fact that he was honest with himself was a good sign. It meant that he didn’t want to lie about his state or condition.

“Okay, well we are coming over and we expect you at your best.” Misha stated, then turned to face Darcy and Jasmine to see if that was okay.

“Yeah,” Darcy said, “though know I might need to take a shower there.”

“Well I don’t think I can help you there.” Phil stated.

Chuckles.

With that Phil’s humor shone through.

“Aww, you sure? I have this spot that will be very hard to get.” Jasmine stated, using her voice to purr into the phone.

Hearing her, Phil melodramatically clutched his hand over his chest.

Seeing the gesture, Misha decided that now was likely as good a time as any to end the video call portion, but still keep the line open.

“Ms. Jasmine, please don’t tease this old man. My heart can only take but so much.” Phil stated.

Hearing him go into his normally charismatic role, Misha let a smile crest her face.

This too was a good sign.

It meant that while Phil was still grieving, still feeling lonely, particularly when left alone for some time. He was not entirely done for, not yet at least.

“Aww, you too cute Mr. Tulley. But I will see you soon.” Jasmine stated, her voice playful.

“Well if you have both Ms. Jasmine and Ms. Darcy there, then I should definitely take a few moments to get ready for your arrival.” Phil said, his voice perking up the more he spoke.

With that taken care of, and Phil given enough time to get up and make himself presentable, Misha ended the call as they gave their final pleasantries.

“Well, we are about ten minutes out, and will see you shortly.” Misha stated.

“I’ll see you then.” Phil said, his voice drastically different from when she first called.

Click.

The moment the call ended, Jasmine spoke.

“Wow, he is not doing well is he?”

“No, he is still taking the death of grandmother pretty hard.” Misha answered.

With that, Misha felt a surge of determination fill her, as she remembered the grudge that she had set aside.

At the time, she had done so because she felt she was too weak, the little mind backlash she faced from her phone stalking stunt proved that she had been reckless with her approach. But now she felt powerful enough to actually do the things that she needed to do, in order to set thing right.

“It still bothers you too, doesn’t it, her death?” Jasmine asked.

Hearing that, she was drawn from her internal thoughts and realized that her emotions might have been on display.

“Yeah,” was all Misha could say truthfully.

“Well come on, we are definitely not ending this until school starts tomorrow.” Jasmine stated, making it so that both Misha and Darcy realized that school would start again tomorrow.

Darcy was annoyed as she would clearly need more rest to recover from her already long and exhausting weekend. Misha on the other hand, clearly had other things on her mind.

For Misha realized that by tomorrow, she would see Rodger and most likely Alishia, particularly if there was a game.

With this trip, Misha had grown so much. She had gone from a Tier II to a Tier III, thanks to her meeting Hasty. She had also seen the pinnacle of power that larger cities offered.

Seeing them all, Misha realized that she was now strong enough to hopefully survive an attack.

She also realized that for peace of mind, she would need to strike out, to take her revenge. Particularly as she had let her grandfather be able to sleep soundly knowing that Julie’s death had been avenged.

Also, she had to make sure that ritualistic killing for sport would no longer be practiced.

“You okay?” Darcy asked, her voice concerned as she locked gazes with Misha.

Misha for her part just stopped and nodded.

“Yeah, just worried about him.” Misha admitted.

“Don’t worry, I’ll make sure he is safe.” Jasmine said.

At that Misha just gave a somewhat skeptical stare at Jasmine.

“I mean, before it was taboo. But now that he is single, who knows.” Jasmine stated as a coy smile filled her lips.

“Oh, that is gross!” Darcy said, smacking Jasmine on the arm from the back seat. But then she too added, “though I can definitely tell where you get your good looks from.”

That last bit was directed towards Misha.

Misha for her part just turned to face Darcy who suddenly blushed brightly at the sudden attention from both Misha and Jasmine.

“Wait, no, I didn’t mean that you look like a man, I just meant that…” Darcy tried to respond.

“Just stop digging the hole deeper,” Jasmine said.

With that Misha for her part just gave a slight smile before shaking her head. Honestly, Misha had no clue what just happened, but figured that for whatever reason Darcy seemed too embarrassed to answer honestly.

At that, Misha just put the car into reverse, then began driving home.

Home, it was an odd concept that Misha had a hard time understanding until now. Home wasn’t a typical Psycher word, and seemed to be one that was generated on this planet. Yet, after so many years of being here, she finally understood the meaning of the word, but only after its true meaning had been corrupted. Only after the meaning had been tainted by the removal of what made the home more than a house, and more than just a dwelling to shelter yourself from the elements.

Her home had been violated, broken by the fact that a key member of her home had been taken from her.

Even now she could feel the slightly empty void of the house. The way the house had less residual energy due to grandmother’s body not being there to generate residual heat and cast-off energy the way all life forms do.

Just driving back, and mentally reaching out to her home, it felt like one of the lights was out. Not enough to make things impossible to see, but enough to be noticed. Enough to make the room that much dimmer.

Having had a moment to breathe, to experience the world and come back, Misha felt like she had grown.

In a way, the weekend out had been exactly what she needed, for she came back energized, and refreshed.

Now she was ready to begin her plan of exacting revenge.

***

Monday morning came far quicker than the girls had expected.

In the end they all stayed at Misha’s place for Sunday night as well. Using Misha’s washer and dryer to clean their extra clothes and uniforms, before heading to class.

For Darcy this was fine as she would have otherwise had to stay alone at her own house.

This also meant that Misha would have to drop her off at her house after school to get her car back.

“Honestly, I have to thank you. Just having a day to relax was perfect, so thank you and thank Phil for me as well.” Darcy said, as they made their way back to school.

Seeing the school, a strange sense of apathy washed over the occupants of the vehicle. Looking at the old building, it almost felt like they had all suddenly outgrown the building that had just a week ago felt so large and overwhelming.

“Not a problem.” Misha stated, as she began pulling into the school parking lot.

“Hey, there’s Rodger,” Darcy stated.

“Yeah, next to his ex?” Jasmine stated.

Hearing her, Misha looked and saw the two of them. Then as if suddenly realizing who was driving the Mustang GT, Rodger instantly jumped away from Alishia.

Seeing their reaction, a thought came to Misha’s mind, as she proceeded to drive down to the far end of the parking lot and proceeded to park there.

“What are you going to do?” Jasmine asked.

“I’ll get even.” Misha noted.

“Good, he deserves it after cheating on you like that.” Jasmine stated.

At that Misha could only nod.

“Wait, they might not have cheated…” Darcy added, but then stopped herself as she realized she was defending the likely ex-boyfriend of her crush. “No wait, I agree, get even.”

And like that the trio left the car, ready for a new day at school.

“Hey wait, I can explain!” Rodger said, “it wasn’t what it looked like.”

Hearing him, Misha just glared at him, but then remembering that it was time to make things right, she turned to face the boy.

“Not here, we’ll talk later.” Misha stated coldly, before turning to join her friends on the way into school.

Rodger for his part, felt a shiver run down his spine at the intense stare coming from Misha, someone who he feared would likely become his ex here, if he didn’t play his cards right.

“You mean it though, right? That you’ll get even with him?” Jasmine asked, after they were well out of hearing range for Rodger.

Hearing her, Misha could only smile a thin malicious smile.

“Oh yeah, him and Alishia both.”

Then with that, they entered school each feeling happy with the comments made by Misha, but for drastically different reasons each.