Avenging You

Chapter 1

Parker

5:00 a.m. and my alarm clock blares.

I get up and start getting ready if I don’t get up immediately then I will just stay in my bed and sleep until my son wakes up.

This has been my routine ever since AJ started sleeping through the night. I wake up every morning at 5:00 a.m. so that I can get my workout in. If I don’t do it this early, then I would be up super late trying to do it while AJ was asleep, so the mornings just seemed to fit better for me.

I make sure to keep myself in peak condition just in case I ever have to fight someone. Since having AJ my maternal instincts are strong and if anyone were to try to harm him, I would have their head.

I’ve lost too many people in my life, and I will be damned if I lose AJ. Thankfully, since I had him five years ago there hasn’t been too much of a threat. I have yet to meet a single person with powers here in Paris which is a relief.

Life is a lot different than it was five years ago. I used to be plagued with nightmares from Hunter entering my dreams, but he doesn’t do that anymore. He hasn’t done it since the day he killed Ashton, my husband.

I find it odd; I would’ve thought that he would use that incident to torment me and make it hard for me to even close my eyes because he would make me relive it. But I’ve never heard from him- a small part of me hopes he’s dead.

After Ashton’s death I relived that scene daily as it was so freshly imprinted in my brain. But as I got further along in my pregnancy it’s like I had a sense of peace knowing that a part of Ashton was still with me.

I hear my timer go off and I move back inside to do my yoga. It’s now 7 and this is about the time that AJ wakes up each morning.

I go through my yoga routine when I hear a soft giggling and then a little pitter patter on the floor from his feet. I smile softly but pretend I don’t hear him because I know from the way he is acting he wants to surprise me.

I hear him let out a loud roar as he pounces me knocking me over and then wraps his small arms around me in a hug as he says loudly, “Good morning mama!”

I grin as I push myself up and hug him back, “Good morning, AJ. What would you like for breakfast?”

“Eggs!” He exclaims as I go to the kitchen to get his food ready for him. He asks as he gets settled at our table, “What are we doing today mama?”

“We don’t have any big plans today… what would you like to do, love?”

“Could we go ride bikes?”

I smile and nod as I get his plate ready, “That sounds like a great idea, AJ! We’ll try to leave in about an hour.”

I give him his plate and kiss his cheek and mess with his brown hair before walking away. I look back at him and shake my head. Sometimes I’m just in awe of how much he looks like Ashton… I think the only thing he got from me is his dimples everything else just screams Ashton. I know if Ashton was here, he would be teasing me about how his genes run strong and what would our second kid look like? More like me or him and if it looked more like me, he would be joking about how we will have to have another baby so it would be our tiebreaker.

I sigh sadly and try to get the ideas of Ashton and what our future would’ve been out of my head.

I walk further away from AJ so that he wouldn’t see my teary eyes. We talk about Ashton a bit, but I try not to let him see how much Ashton’s death still affects me.  

I blink a few times trying to get the tears to go away and I set up the TV to stream the news from the US. I do this so I can keep track of anything big happening over there because if Hunter begins to do bigger things it will get reported. I specifically cast the news channel of my old town just in case something were to happen.

AJ has asked me why we watch news from somewhere else and I just tell him it’s good to stay informed. I wonder how long I will do this for… if I’ll always feel the need to stay up to date there or if eventually, I won’t be worried anymore. Maybe I should start cutting back and trying to move on with my life.

I go get myself a cup of coffee and as I pick up my mug I hear on the TV, “There’s been a big explosion out near the woods. The cause is unknown, and it seems to have only affected one building. Emergency crew is currently trying to get the fire out and see if there are any survivors.”

I see the shot they show, and I drop my mug in shock. It’s Tom and Emma’s house… it’s the house I grew up in.

I feel lightheaded and numb, and everything seems to go out of focus. I finally gain focus as I hear AJ’s little voice, “Mama, mama, are you okay?”

I look towards him and say, “Yeah, yeah, love I’m fine. Oh whoops! Look at what a mess I made. Here, mommy is going to clean this up.”

“I’ll help you!” He announces and rushes to get his step stool so he can reach the paper towels. I thank him and once we get everything cleaned up, I turn on one of his favorite shows while I go to my laptop and try to find more information.

It was definitely our house.

They haven’t found any survivors.

I think everyone moved in with Tom and Emma and if that’s the case then that means…

My whole family is dead, or they escaped.

I turn back looking at AJ who is eagerly watching TV and playing with matching toys and I wonder whether or not we should go there.

I will go crazy not knowing if they’re dead or not, but at the same time it seems like the Aberrations have grown more powerful. I’m not scared to fight anyone…

I’m only scared of either losing my son or leaving him without a mother.

I shake my head and decide to focus on today and spending it with AJ and tomorrow I will decide whether or not we should go back.