I slammed the stop button on the tape recorder shakily, my heart piercing my chest. It wasn't real. That wasn't real. Jake can't be a... I refused to let the thought finish.

Jake had his hand clutched against his chest, his entire body going stiff as his face went pale.

"Jake," I tried to comfort him, but he walked away faster than usual.

"Don't walk away from me!" I yelled, chasing after him as he darted upstairs.

He ran into the bathroom, locking the door behind him, but that didn't stop me from following him. Doesn't he know this affects both of us? I wondered.

I knocked on the door once and waited until I finally heard the sound of Jake turning the lock. His face was covered with water, but at least he seemed ok.

"What?" He asked numbly.

"I know what mom and dad said. But, they didn't say that you are definitely going to die." I said confidently.

"Reagan, did you even listen to them?!" Jake barked. "I'm not even human! I'm a-"

"A demon. I know." I held his arm. "Maybe that's not a bad thing? Maybe that's why Toto couldn't control you completely?"

Jake scoffed, his anger seeping into the air. "You didn't listen, did you?"

"I heard them!" I yelled, frustrated. "But it's not the end of the world, Jake! We can-"

"What? Don't tell me we can 'figure this out,' Reagan!" He growled back. "I don't belong here! I'm the exact thing that they fought to destroy!"

"I don't care what you are! I don't care if you have a demon inside you! You're my brother, and nothing will change that! I'll always be on your side!" I assured him heatedly. "I'm sure Father Morison has a way to..."

Jake shook his head sadly, and all the anger melted away with my words. I grabbed him into a crushing hug and kept the tears at bay. I'd have time to cry later.

"If you destroy it, I'll die." He whispered. "Don't you understand?"

"I won't let that happen," I whispered back.

Jake clutched my back as if to comfort me, and I knew how much he had grown. It should have been me making him feel better, and yet he was offering me support instead.

"You won't die," I said stubbornly. "You're going to be fine. I can call Father Mori-"

As I went to speak, my phone startled me as it went off. Ignoring it, I went back to Jake.

"We'll call Father Morison. See what he can do." I finished pulling my phone from my pocket.

I nearly dropped the thing when I saw that it was Dr. Dempsey's office. W- what the hell? Why is his office calling? My hands didn't stop shaking until after the phone stopped ringing and waited to see if they left a message. When they did, I opened the message section and put it on speaker so Jake could listen with me.

"Hello," An automated voice spoke. "This is a courtesy call from the office of Gregory Dempsey. The appointed date of December 23rd, 2017, is the next appointment for patient Jacob Darren Cobblestone. Please respond to this call to confirm or cancel your appointment. Thank you."

I let the message settle into the air for a second before I spoke.

"Jake, this is it! This is our chance! Dempsey knows Morison!" I exclaimed.

I wanted Jake to share my enthusiasm, but he held the same glum look on his face. I patted his shoulder with my free hand, putting my phone away at the same time. He remained silent, his eyes drifting off into his thoughts. I frowned, watching him closely, and squeezed his arm.

"What are you thinking about?" I asked.

"Mom and dad." He said.

That was enough for me to understand. Jake had only been three when they'd died, so he had no memories of them. He rarely talked about them, but I could remember the long, awful dinner conversation that we'd had after their death.

"Jake and Reagan should be with me." Grams grunts, her long silver hair moving with her angry gesture. "Why would they go with you?"

The clanking of the silverware stops, and suddenly everyone has their eyes on her.

"They're coming with us." Aunt Gigi insists.

"Why?" A drunk Uncle Chris sneers. "Why are we taking them? Those brats are just going to drain us of all the money we have! And it's not like they're worth anything!"

"Well, I am their aunt! They are my responsibility! And my sister would've wanted it this way!" Aunt Gigi snaps at him.

"But I love them too! And ever since Henry..." Grams says with a quiet sob. "Well, I'm a lonely old woman. Having some kids around will bring life to the place."

"Mom," Aunt Gigi is exasperated at this point. "They will visit. I promise. Now enough, this conversation is over."

"How can you be sure?" Grams asks. "YOU don't visit, Georgina Cobblestone. How do I know you'll let me see my grandkids?"

"That doesn't-" Aunt Gigi growls.

Jake's face goes red, tears welling in his eyes. "I want mommy!" He slams his hands on the table, a full fit starting.

"Well, you can't have her!" Uncle Chris roars, his liquored breath filling the air. "She's gone! Your mommy and daddy are dead!"

I couldn't stop the sob that broke out of my mouth, and Jake jumped to my side from his new place in his room.

"Reagan?!" He cried. "Are you ok?"

"Sorry!" I muttered, wiping tears away. "I'm fine. It's nothing."

"What's wrong? Why are you crying?" He asked, worriedly.

"Nothing," I assured him. "And I'm not crying."

I walked away, trying to avoid Jake as he followed me to my room, and I shut the door before he could say anything else.

Sitting down on my bed, I wanted to break down. How our Uncle treated us was never right, but I'd always tried to send it out of mind. Why... I trembled, the sound of Jake tapping on my door knocking me from my thoughts.

"Jake, please," I called out. "Just..."

I stopped when the door opened, and he walked in without warning. He sat down next to me, keeping his eyes on mine without speaking. He rested his hand on my arm, something about the action being comforting. I felt my lips trembling, but I pushed it away and kept a straight face so Jake could speak.

"Do you think you have to hide from me?" He asked lightly.

"I-"

"I know you're going through something." He went on. "But you won't tell me what."

Jake gave me that look, the one that always made me give in and listen to him. I took a deep breath, but something was off. The longer I watched him, the more I felt my guard melt. It felt like just the gloss in his eyes was enough to make me tell him everything.

"Jake, I- I'm not hiding anything." I made a last attempt to keep him out of it.

"Reagan," His face hardened, and his eyes glued to mine imploringly.

I broke, venting everything to him. I didn't want to put more on him, but there was something about him. Something about the restless look on his face made me need to tell him. I told him about the man I'd seen at the hospital, the girl I'd noticed hadn't shown up for a few days, and the little girl I'd seen on the steps.

"Reagan, you could've told me this sooner." Jake frowned, his hand still on my arm.

"No, I couldn't, Jake," I argued. "I would never put that on you. You're going through enough as it-"

"STOP!" Jake roared, jumping up from the bed. "DON'T treat me like I'm a child!"

"Don't yell at me!" I growled.

"Don't act like I'm a baby!" He reiterated scowling.

"I'm not! But, you have enough on your plate!" I stood up, heat flooding my cheeks.

"So, you think I can't handle this?" He hissed. "You think you have to do this on your own?"

"Yes!" I was now pacing, my heart beating far too fast.

"God, Reagan, I can't believe you!" He yelled wildly. "I trusted you! We promised we could tell each other anything!"

"What?" I stopped in my tracks, looking him in the face. "That's never changed, Jake!"

"Yes, it has!" He snapped. "You've been hiding this the whole time!"

"Because I didn't want to-" I was so angry, my cheeks burning white-hot, my heart beating a mile a minute.

"What? You didn't want to what?" He was in my face now, as equally red as me. "Reagan, with all the shit we've been through in the last two weeks, you mean to tell me not once did it occur to you that I'd care? That I might want to help? That, after everything Toto did to us, I would ignore you?"

I backed away from him, not wanting to stand close to my brother as he raged. In all the fights we had, I doubt either of us had been this angry. Yet, here we were, at each other's throats.

"You seem to think this is easy!" I fired back, my voice breaking. "Well, it's not! If I told anyone, they'd call me crazy!"

"Oh, of course!" Jake bellowed. "Because it's all about YOU, isn't it? Forget about what I've been through, Reagan, let's worry about what people think of you!"

"I know! Jake, I- I know what you mean," I started to move forward, and he stalked to the door quickly. "Saying you were possessed didn't sound crazy?"

He didn't reply, remaining silent as I tried to mend the situation.

"Don't you get it? I know you're hurting, and you've got so much going on." I continued. "Why would I want to add on to that?"

Jake didn't move, his hand on my doorknob as if he'd been preparing to slam it shut, and he sighed. His face went to a lighter shade of red, and he looked at me with a glower.

"You should've told me." He responded after a moment. "I get it, not wanting to be a burden. I've been a huge one myself, but this-"

"Jake! You are not a burden." Tears swallowed my eyes as I ran to his side and hugged him. "I love you! I'm so sorry! I... didn't want to give you another thing to worry about!"

Jake hugged me back, a sort of calming feeling in the air, and he exhaled a long breath.

"Next time, before you go thinking yourself out of it, maybe you should talk to me, yeah?" He laughed, the sound broke with emotion.

"Yeah." I nodded.

"When did you start seeing them, anyway?" He asked, pulling away from my hug. "Was the old man the first?"

"When we were talking prescriptions, and I freaked out," I informed him. "That's when I could see them."

"You don't think Toto did something, do you?" Jake wondered, his face filled with concern.

"No, of course not," I assured him. "How could he?"

"Easily." He said critically. "Toto is much stronger than I think he let on. I could feel it. It feels like he was waiting for something, or someone, else. Like I told you, I was just a toy to him."

"Ok, but what, or who was it?" I questioned, sitting back down on my bed.

"I don't know. Maybe Toto thought we had something, or knew somebody that he wanted." Jake speculated.

"Why wouldn't he leave when he saw that we didn't have it?" I countered. "And why was he mentioned in that book?"

"I've been thinking about that," Jake said, the past five minutes seemed to have faded away. "And I think maybe Theodore summoned Toto to do his dirty work."

"You think Theodore got lazy?" I asked, the idea seeming strange given how the diary had talked about him very little so far.

"I think he got sloppy." He disagreed.

Through the rest of the night, Jake and I traded ideas and theories about Theodore and Thomas Tuckburne. Who they were, why Theodore went missing after Thomas died, and what the demon had to do with it. It was a long night.