Persona - Chapter 5
Chapter 5 – Preparations
Must Be Made
The next day
started out simple. I ate breakfast with
my mom and broke the news to her that I wanted to head to my uncle’s
place. “Mom, I want to head over to my
uncle’s place for the summer. I want to
clear my head for a bit.”
My mom was almost
in shock. “What do you mean,
Derrick! I need you here. Your brother hasn’t been brought back yet and
I need you here to help with the house.
We need to get things cleared out.”
I tried to
reassure her. “It won’t be for too long,
mom. If you need me, I’m not that far of
a drive away. It’s a shorter distance
than between College Station and here. I
won’t be that far away. If you need me,
you can always call me and if you need food or something, you can call on
Jessie. I just need to clear my head a
bit and to get away from all the mess that’s happening right now with this
investigation.”
My mom was
unconvinced. “If you’re going to be out
there, you’re just going to be partying all of the time instead of helping me
when I need you the most.”
“I promise,
mom. I’m just going out to stay at Uncle
Freddy’s for a bit. I need to be away
from this house. Staying here or going
near my brother’s old place just makes me feel uneasy. There will be time for us to bury Chase. For now, I need to clear my head and try to
prepare for next semester and being too close to my brother’s death is making
me rethink certain things about school.”
My mom wasn’t
ready for me to say that I wanted to drop out of school. “Oh no!
You’re not going to sit here and tell me that you’re dropping out of
college! You and I worked too hard to
get you into Texas A&M for you to bail out of there now. If you want to bail, that’s on your own dime
and your own time. If you need to clear
your head, go over to your Uncle Freddy’s but don’t be a stranger to me if I
call you and need you to come back down here, you understand?”
It seemed like
that was enough to sway her over. “I understand,
mom. I’ll make sure not to be a stranger.”
I made sure to
clean my plate and help my mom with a few extra chores before I decided to pack
my things and head out. While it wasn’t
that far of a drive, I wanted to make sure that I had everything that I needed
in order to make a safe trip over and be ready.
I made sure to give my uncle Freddy a call while I was packing to let
him know that I’d be coming over.
Freddy’s the most chill uncle someone could ask for. He worked so hard on helping other people
that he often would neglect himself in numerous ways. He only kept up with what he needed to in
order to stay afloat and lived in more abundance than most people could dream
of having. He was very generous too,
working as a lead doctor at one of the main hospitals in Austin, Texas. He made a fancy living but lived a simple
life. He had a nice house, but he rarely
had anyone home. He could never keep a
girlfriend, so he was a lonely person when he wasn’t at work, hence why he’d
often take on more shifts to avoid that feeling. What was left for him was an empty house with
nobody to look after it while he was gone.
He had security measures to make sure that nothing was stolen but didn’t
have anyone to clean and care for his place, so he was pretty much left alone
to do everything himself. Having someone
around would probably be appreciated.
Most importantly for me though, it would provide the perfect escape for
me in case something was to happen when I get called upon for this “first
hunt”.
Freddy picked up quickly
when I gave him the call. “Hello? Derrick?”
“Hey, Uncle
Freddy! Yeah, it’s Derrick.”
“Hey! Good to hear from you, nephew! What’d you need?”
“I need to stay
over at your place, if possible. I need
to clear my head a bit this summer and being over there might help me to clear
my head a bit. I promise to clean and
maintain the place while I’m there.”
“Of course,
nephew! I heard about your brother. I’m sorry that I hadn’t called sooner. You know that I’m always on call and always at
work. Yes! Please come by and take all the time that you
need. Just make sure to clean up after
yourself. That’s all I ask.”
“Of course, Uncle
Freddy. I’ll make sure to keep the place
clean.”
That was all the
reassurance that I needed. “All right! It might take me a bit of time to load
everything in my car, but I’ll try to be there sometime later on tonight.”
“Sure thing,
nephew! I’m on call tonight, so just
make sure to wave to me through the camera at the front door so that I can
unlock it.”
Freddy had a
security system for his front door that could unlock the door to anyone that
Freddy approved of at the door. If he
didn’t approve of them or thought that they might be there to cause harm to the
house, he could set off an alarm and notify the police to come and check on his
house. It was a nifty security system,
to say the least. It would be useful for
me to be able to get into the house.
I’ll be able to use the house key when I get there, but that will help
him make sure that I’m safe to come in first.
I decided to pack my computer, enough clothes for the next week, my
meds, and a pistol that my brother had given me while I was still alive. My brother was a bit older and wiser than me,
so he was always on the lookout for me, but he knew that there were times where
I’d have to know how to defend myself.
This was likely going to be one of those times, so he got me a pistol.
I had only ever
used that pistol a couple of times while I was out practicing at a gun range
with him, but he wanted to make sure that I could shoot good. There was one thing that my brother noticed
about me that he was always jealous of, though.
Not only was I a better shot on average than him with almost no
practice, but I could use either hand to aim and shoot with, which was
something that he couldn’t do. As much
as I wanted to learn how to shoot, I just never had as much time. I wanted to focus more time on my studies. Chase was always the one who wanted to know
how to defend himself and those around him.
He put on a brave face, but I could tell that he was afraid of the world
in a way. He wanted to ensure the safety
of his family, his friends, everyone that he cared about. He was smart about it too, which just left me
wondering why he happened to get too close to something that led to his death.
All those
questions kept replaying in my mind on loop.
I needed to get out of this house so that it would stop, and I could be
able to get to a better frame of mind.
Getting to my uncle’s place seemed like a good start. I got my stuff loaded up into the car quickly
and went to fuel up at one of the nearby gas stations. What I found strange was noticing on one of
the televisions that were airing something through the window of the store that
the manager seemed to be watching had the Invictus Persona symbol on it. It looked like they were airing this stuff on
television now. It was getting way
bigger than it was before. This was
starting to spread fast, and I needed to clear out. I kept having anxiety over the situation. I knew that the longer I stayed, the longer
I’d feel suffocated by this stuff. I
needed to try and let go of this overwhelming anxiety if I was going to be
prepared to take on Invictus Persona myself.
I got back into my car and readied myself out for the road but was
stopped by a lady who seemed to be with a church. She seemed to be wanting to pray over me.
“Hello, son. Do you mind if I pray over you today? There seems to be something deeply troubling
you and I’d like to pray for you.”
I begrudgingly
agreed to the prayer. I wasn’t nearly as
religious or devoted to the faith as my mother and often would make a mockery
out of such things, but the lady who had stopped me seemed to want to pray and
I didn’t want to disappoint. “Yes,
ma’am.”
I lowered my head
out of the car window as she extended her hand to pray over me.
“In the name of
the Lord, I ask for your guiding hand and blessings over this young man. May you take care of his young soul and guide
him towards salvation and peace. May
your hand guide him and may your words speak prosperity into his life. In the father’s name, Amen.” If only what she had to say then was
true. I felt more like I was fit to
become the hands of Lady Death than the hands of the Lord, but either way, I
felt like I was guided to do something.
Whether pursuing my brother’s justice was the will of the Lord or the
will of something else, I felt compelled to take on this journey to provide my
brother with that final bit of peace that he never got. I paid my respects and decided to donate a
bit of money to the woman.
“Thank you very
much for the prayer, ma’am. I needed that.
Here, these are a few dollars.
Hopefully, they help a bit with the church that you’re a part of.”
The woman seemed
a to be overjoyed by the donation.
“Thank you very much, young man!
I didn’t expect to receive one today, but you were more than
generous. I hope that the Lord guides
you where you need to go.” She gestured over to the bags in the rear passenger
window. She could tell that I was
heading off somewhere and would likely need the blessings. I didn’t believe much in such things but
having those blessings to send me off with helped to calm my nerves, at least
for a little bit. I thanked her one more
time for her time and left town. I made
my way out towards the Austin outskirts in a short amount of time. There was a slight stop-off in traffic, but
nothing too major to deal with. Traffic
between Southwest Houston and Austin always seemed to be slow. Making my plans for the hunt would be easier
once I got there, so I wanted to make sure that I got there as soon as possible
so that I could get my stuff set up in Uncle Freddy’s house.
I arrived five
minutes past 8 in the evening. It was
sooner than I expected to be there, but I figured that being early wasn’t a bad
thing. Freddy wasn’t home, so all I had
to do was ring the doorbell and the cameras for it switched on to let him know
that I was there. I waved to him from
the front porch and asked if he could see me.
“Hey, Uncle Freddy! It’s
Derrick! Can you see me?”
“I see you and
hear you loud and clear, nephew! Come on
in! The door should be unlocked!” As he said that, I heard the deadbolt for the
front door unlock. My uncle was keen on
his security, considering that he often worked away from home and was in an
affluent living space. No matter how
nice the neighborhood was, you could never be too underprepared for something
like this, at least that’s the way I saw it.
We’re living in an ever-growing and dangerous world. There’s always something new to be afraid of
it seemed, so having a home that was a true sanctuary took a lot more than
blessings. It took defensive
measures. I entered inside and
immediately went about getting things situated.
Bit by bit, I got my stuff out of the car and began to set up a small
workstation in the spare room that he had set up for guests. This house was incredible. There was an in-house elevator and
everything. It was a picture of
upper-class luxury, at least that which was attainable by someone who wasn’t a
CEO of some major company or big-time investor.
It’s a shame that
my uncle was barely ever home to enjoy what he had. He seemed to be so mentally preoccupied with
work that he couldn’t imagine keeping this house all to himself. He would often invite over family and guests
to this place and just ask that they keep it clean and made sure that he was
made aware when his place was running low on food. He was truly one of the nicest people that I
knew. I wish that I was there for
nothing more than a break, but I knew that there wasn’t going to be a lot of
time to play around. I was here on business,
and I needed to get answers and had a hunt to prepare for. So that’s what I was going to do.
I linked myself
up to the WIFI immediately upon entering the place. I had been here a couple of times before, so all
my devices automatically synced with it upon arrival. This made setting up my connection lines and
encryption pretty easy. I decided to
schedule a session at a nearby shooting range.
I needed to make sure that my shooting was up to par. In the meantime, I practiced with the pocketknife
that I always carried on me. I needed to
be both mentally and physically sharp in case something went south. If it was a hunt, I’m sure that I was going
to have to kill something, so I needed to be ready. I practiced swinging high, swinging low,
going for jabs, and dragging motions. I
needed to be quick, be sharp, and be almost clinical with my strikes. If I struck flesh, it was imperative that I
drug the knife to slice through any exposed tissue and make a deeper gash than
just stabbing someone. I wanted to leave
more than a mark. If I had to kill an
animal, I wanted to be able to carve it open if I had to fight close
range. If I had to fight a person, I
needed to make sure that I tore them open before they could rip into me.
My uncle never
arrived home that night, so I just showered up and went to sleep on the spare
bed with thoughts in my head that were louder and more rampant than the street
noise outside. Everything felt so distant
here. Under any other circumstance, this
would have been the perfect escape from everyday troubles. For me, however, this was a place where all I
had was myself and my thoughts, and it was enough to drive someone to
madness. The next day was one full of
nerves and plans. I needed to unload
some energy and go practice. I went to
the shooting range and rented out a lane for myself to shoot in for a few
hours. I needed to practice a lot if I
was going to be ready to go. It took me
a little bit to get everything ready, but I brought a few magazines and made
sure to purchase a lot of ammunition while I was there. I planned on mowing through all of it and
since I didn’t have to brass up and pick up the casings, I intended on making
the most of my time there and shoot as much as I could. I was shooting for what could have been an
eternity, fully entering the flow of shooting.
I needed to make sure that every shot counted and that I was on target
with every round. I knew how to make my mark,
and this was as perfect of a time as any to sharpen up on my skills. Little did I know how much I would need it
that night.
I spent what
turned out to be four hours shooting through hundreds of rounds, loading up,
reloading my magazines, and firing off rounds again and again through my
pistol. I knew that I would have to take
it apart and clean it up when I got back, so I wanted to make sure to give
myself something worth doing when I got back.
I’m glad that I brought gloves to shoot with because that gun got
incredibly hot. It was probably hot
enough to cook things with at that point.
After I got out of the range, I felt exhausted, but I knew that I was
going to need to cook something if I wanted to keep costs low. I had just spent a lot of money on ammunition
and if I wanted a good meal, I was going to need to cook for myself. Even fast food in this place could cost as
much as getting a steak from the store, which is exactly what I decided to do. I went to the store almost immediately after
being at the range and went and got myself a couple of ribeye steaks, some
garlic, butter, and rosemary. After
that, I went and picked up some good-quality mild cheddar cheese, some medium
pasta shells, and some tomato sauce cans.
I knew that my uncle always had enough salt and pepper at his place, so
I had enough for what I needed for dinner.
I didn’t feel like making a dessert though, so I just grabbed my
favorite toaster snack and made my way back to my uncle’s place. The one thing that I needed to make sure
above all else was that I shared with the man of the house when he was there,
and I knew that he would want to be there to rest up after an all-nighter.
As I got back to
the house, Uncle Freddy came out to meet me at the door. He gave me a large hug and his immediate
question was “Do you need any help with unloading the car?” He was always focused on helping others more
than he was on anything else.
I laughed and
told him that I had everything and didn’t need help. “Thank you, Uncle Freddy, but I’ve got
everything. Let me just bring in the
groceries and my pistol and I’ll get to work on cooking us up some dinner.”
“Sure thing,
nephew!”
I wanted to make
sure that both my uncle and I had a good meal.
After all, I wasn’t sure when he would be home again, and neither did
I. I brought the food inside along with
the pistol and set the groceries down on the counter. I went upstairs and placed the pistol down so
that it could cool off for a bit and made my way downstairs to cook us both
some dinner. My uncle was eager to know
what I would be cooking. “What are you
cooking for us, nephew?”
“One of your
favorites, steak, and my mom’s mac and cheese casserole.”
My uncle got very
excited. “Oh! You know how much I love your mom’s mac and
cheese casserole recipe! I wish that I
had written it down years ago so that I could make it for myself. I always forget to write these things down.”
I laughed and told him that I could always
write it down for him. “Here, let me just
make it for you and I’ll write it down after.
How does that sound?”
“That sounds
great, nephew! The pans and everything
should be clean and ready for use. Go
right ahead and cook us up some good food!”
My uncle wasn’t much of a cook.
He cooked for himself when he had to, but he much preferred when others
would cook for him. Thankfully enough
for him, my mom taught me how to cook.
The motivation to cook didn’t come from her demanding me to,
though. It came out of necessity. Back when my brother and mom got sick one
time with the flu, I wasn’t sure if my mom would make it. As strong as she was, I didn’t want to be
left alone and be unable to fend for myself.
I had her teach me how to cook while she was sniveling on the
couch. Cooking pasta, searing meat,
cutting vegetables, all the major things to cook a homemade meal. The first thing that she taught me how to
make was spaghetti. A lot of kids start
out cooking eggs or boiling pasta, but she wanted me to start out strong and
teach me all the basics. So, I learned
everything that I needed to in order to make a great meal. I learned how to sear the beef, boil the
pasta, cut the onions and garlic, make a salad, and bring together a tomato
sauce for a meat-based spaghetti. It
wasn’t perfect and still had a little bit of acidity to it, but it was the
first time I made something, and I was thankful for even having someone around
who was willing and able to teach me how to cook. It was one of many things that I was thankful
for knowing how to do. Even though my
brother knew how to cook and learned how to do it out of a love for the craft,
I learned how to do it in order to help my family and help myself.
I got to work on
making the pasta first, as I knew that that would take the longest. My uncle had two ovens, which made this a lot
easier to do. I boiled the pasta while
slicing off cheese slices with a slicer that he had on hand. I then strained the pasta and shingled the
cheese onto the pasta in the same boiling pot and spread the sauce over top
with some salt and fresh cracked pepper.
I did that twice for a dual-layer and in it went into the oven, along
with the steaks into a second oven for a reverse-sear. I finished the steaks off in a pan with the
butter, garlic, and rosemary until they were a perfect medium-rare in the
center and looked great from the outside.
I served them on one of his expensive stone plates and handed him a fork
and knife.
“Wow,
nephew! This looks incredible! Go and grab that bottle of port wine from my
cabinet! It should be the twenty-year
aged one. That would go nicely with this
meal.” I walked over to the cabinet to grab
him and I the wine but heard him stop me just as I opened it up. “Hold on, nephew! You’re 21, right?”
I laughed and
reassured him. “Yeah, I’m 21, Uncle
Freddy. I turned 21 a while ago.”
He started
laughing too. “Oh yeah! That explains a lot. I tend to lose track of these things
sometimes.”
If his head
wasn’t attached to his body, he’d probably lose it. It seemed like he was so lonely over
here. Hopefully, after I was done with
what I came here to do, I’d be able to help him out and see if there was
someone in town that would be interested in him. Even though I was his nephew, I wanted to see
my uncle in a good place with someone who suited him, regardless of what they
looked like. I sat down across from him
and began to dig into the steak. It had
been so long since I had sat down to a meal like this with someone. I was so used to eating alone in my dorm
throughout the semester that having a steak and pasta like this was a treat
unto itself. It almost made me forget
for the moment what I was there to do.
My uncle commented on how fast I was eating. “Slow down there, Derrick! I promise you that the steak isn’t going to
run off on you!” We both laughed at that
comment, and I slowed my pace to match his.
Sitting down like this and having a meal with family made me feel almost
like a kid again and like the world’s problems were about to fade away. Little did I realize that they were about to
become a lot bigger and a lot more dangerous.
We finished our
meal and set the dish washer to wash with what little dishes we did have. Uncle Freddy thanked me for the meal. “I appreciate you cooking for me, nephew! That’s one of the things that I missed about
having someone around the house. I’d
usually just go and grab a bite to eat since nobody who had the time was around
to cook. But now that you’re here, maybe
I’ll have someone who can help make sure that I’m fed for the time being!” I wasn’t sure how close I could keep to such
a promise, but I made it anyway.
“As long as I’m
around, I’ll make sure that you’re fed, Uncle Freddy.”
Right as I said that
Freddy got a call and said that he was needed for an emergency at the
hospital. He told me that he would talk
to me later and that he would be back as soon as possible. I waved him goodbye as he rushed back out to
his car and drove off. With him gone and
the house to myself, I went to work cleaning my gun. I needed to be ready for when the first
message would come through that I needed to be ready to hunt. Turns out that I was right to be prepared for
such a message. Within a few hours and
after I had already showered and was preparing to head to sleep, I got a
message on the secure line. It was from
an anonymous user that had a symbol in their profile, IP. The message read:
Greetings,
We have prepared
a hunt for you. Meet us at these
coordinates. You will be provided
weapons and protection to take on your first hunt. Be ready to kill. Come alone.
~IP
That was
that. The coordinates were listed for an
area up north past Houston. I hated to
leave my uncle Freddy’s so soon, but I knew that I needed to be there. If I was going to have any chance of getting
into Invictus Persona and keep my skin, I needed to go and hunt whatever this
thing was down. This was where things
would start. This was where my hunt
would begin.
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