hardy boys fan fiction

GUARDIAN IN THE DARK

hardy boys nancy drew fan fiction

by

Jolly

Chapter 12

hardy boys fan fiction

THE CHAPTERS

INTRO

PROLOGUE

CHAPTER 1

CHAPTER 2

CHAPTER 3

CHAPTER 4

CHAPTER 5

CHAPTER 6

CHAPTER 7

CHAPTER 8

CHAPTER 9

CHAPTER 10

CHAPTER 11

CHAPTER 12

CHAPTER 13

CHAPTER 14

CHAPTER 15

CHAPTER 16

A Detective At Thought

I am back.

For a moment, I simply sat in Dad’s car and stared at the house that was my home for nineteen years. It seemed so strange to see sunlight, rather than moonlight, reflecting off the clean glass windows.

This is my home.

I stood there on the front porch and raised my face to catch the sun rays. I let the heat of those rays warm my face, and in turn, that warmed my heart. I gave my parents a genuine smile, and it widened as I saw the underlying worry for me melt away from their concerned faces. Then together as a family, we entered our home.

And this is my room.

My room is still the same. My clothes neatly folded in the wardrobe. My books neatly stacked on the shelves. Joe had insisted that our parents leave everything the way it was, in remembrance of me.

I walk towards my study chair and sit down on it. I let myself feel the softness of the cushion that I was sitting on. I relish the feel of the wooden table under my warm fingers.

Yes, I am definitely alive again.

I can hear my mom in the kitchen downstairs preparing dinner. I know that Dad is back in the study, trying to figure out what happened to me, and trying to find out what happened to Joe. Poor Dad, there really aren’t many mysteries that stump him. I am afraid this will have to be one of those.

And Joe.

I wonder where he is now, and if he is okay.

I know now Joe is definitely not gone. In fact, he is very possibly still human. Yes, I believe that is so. But I still have no idea what happened. So yes, I am very worried for my brother’s safety.

I suppose you want to know how I know that Joe is still around.

The first bit is really just gut instinct. I can still feel him around in this world. I know that is not a very rational explanation. But after what I have gone through, I am a lot more accepting of the unexplainable than before. I can now fully appreciate Fox Mulder’s patience with Dana Scully.

I can fully appreciate Joe’s patience with me.

The next bit is more logical and methodological. You see, the one advantage of being locked up in the psychiatric ward was that you have excessive time on your hands. And I had almost twenty hours to rethink the events of the past year, culminating on the night of Joe’s birthday, before the hospital officially discharged me.

That was because I had to get past the psychiatric evaluation first. And I did that easily, since I know exactly what they are looking for.

Now, back to what happened.

It is amazing what twenty hours of calm focused reasoning without fear or distraction can do. How could I have missed them? The clues and hints were all there. And I must have started to realize myself towards the end, even though I forced myself not to think, so that the Queen could not lift those thoughts and answers from my mind.

Have you figured it out yet?

Questions. The answer is in the questions I never really asked. Partly because I needed to believe in certain things so that I could justify my own continuing existence back then. And partly because the Van Helsings never really answered my questions anyway when I asked them.

And so I, like Lilith, had made certain assumptions and followed those to their logical conclusion. Which is, as we now know, totally wrong.

Yes, I can now see how the best lies are cloaked in truth. I really had most of the information I needed. I only need to find out which of the few tiny bits were the lies.

Joe.

It now makes sense why they could not turn him during those two months of captivity. As the true guardian and the wielder of the light of creation, his blood is definitely destructive to the vampyres. And because they thought he was the chosen, they did not kill him. Joe was ‘safe’ there all that while. The logical conjecture here is: they were close to finding me, and the guardian let himself be found by broadcasting his presence…to buy me time.

The Van Helsings clearly knrw a little more than Lilith. That was why the tracking spell was on me and not Joe. But not everything, since both Jana and Jonah were clearly shocked to see me turned. During that confrontation between Lilith and Adam, it was clear Adam knew who the chosen was and who the guardian was. In fact, I will bet he knew more than he let on. It is Adam I must find if I want the answers to my questions.

Then there was the strange fact that the Van Helsings were not around after Joe returned to me my humanity. Why weren’t they there? Because Jana and Jonah were injured, my voice of logic tells me. And Jana, she took that psychic hit from Lilith…is she okay? That leads me to the next question. How do I feel about her? I know I like her, and that I had never allowed myself to think beyond a certain point where she is concerned. And she said she loves me? Did she really? And me…do I like her enough to love her? I sigh and resign myself to the fact that I will not know until I find them, or until they let me find them. No, I will find them, whether or not they let me.

I remember that painful prick in my arm back then. And now I know why that was so painful, and why it took so long for me to fade off into Morpheus’ arms. It wasn’t an injection of sedatives that I was given. It was a blood transfusion, and done in the good old-fashioned way. That was why the doctor found me anemic later. That was why I noticed the really bad bruising on my arm when I awoke in the hospital.

And there is only one reason why that blood was taken off me. It was for Joe. I remember Jana telling me about a certain process…I never really knew the details and so I never really believed her. But they must have known and used that to save Joe.

So all I have to do now, is figure out what happened between the time when I was knocked out and when I woke up in the hospital. Which I concede is no easy task.

There is someone knocking on my door.

“Frank?” A tentative voice called out.

“Come in, Dad.”

My father walked in.

“How are you feeling?”

“I’m fine, Dad.”

The silence that follows is a little awkward. I can see that Dad wants to talk, but he is unsure of how to proceed. I feel sorry for him and take the initiative. After all, I do have questions of my own.

“Dad, how did they find me?”

I watch my father sigh. He had already asked me what transpired over that year that I was missing. I told him I can’t remember. And I am helped by the fact that the doctors identified an unknown substance in my bloodstream.

“A sub-standard building collapsed in the bad part of Brooklyn and you were one of the survivors in the aftermath.”

I see; I really have to give it to the Van Helsings for their knack with scenarios…

“There were surprisingly few casualties,” my father continues. “And it was only later that they found out that there was an illegal pornographic filming operation in there.”

Okay, maybe they weren’t so creative after all…

“You were lucky to be found alive…”

I look away from my father. Little does he know it was all pre-planned that I was to be found. That still does not help answer the question: where is Joe.

“And Joe?” I really hate to do this to Dad, but I must. Every bit of information counts.  Poor Dad, he looks so guilty. And I cannot tell him the truth.

“He was taken on the morning of his birthday, Frank. And it was because the wiring was old and damaged. That was why the alarms did not go off….I should have had regular checks on the wiring…”

I slung Joe over my shoulders, and with my mind, I deliberately burned out the wiring so that the humans could find a reasonably logical excuse as to what happened…

I lower my eyes so my father will not see my guilt reflected in there. That was my doing and my guilt to bear, not his. Yet I cannot tell him.

“… and Frank, I still have no idea who has taken him and why…”

My guilt multiplies a hundredfold as I look into my dad’s haunted eyes, so desperately pleading for understanding and forgiveness. My throat suddenly feels unnaturally dry and I am unable to say what I need to say.

“And I am also very sorry I gave you up for dead, son. I should not have so easily believed in that flimsy piece of DNA evidence—”

I open my mouth to refute.

“No…let me finish this, I am sorry I did not do for my son what I do for all my other clients. I did not search out every possible lead.  But I promise you, Frank, that I will not repeat that same mistake with Joe.   We will find him, I promise…”

The door to my room opens, and we turn to see mom standing there at the threshold.

“I knocked, but no one answered…” her voice is hesitant.

Both I and my father blush in embarrassment.  “Sorry,” we both reply sheepishly at the same time.

Then all three of us laugh a little. It is good to know some things have not changed in this home.

“Come,” my mother says in a warm tone. “Whatever needs to be said can wait. Dinner’s hot and ready, and Frank needs to rest after that.”

My father agreed.

After a quiet dinner, I excuse myself and head back to my room. There is still much for me to figure out. And then I will prepare a list of what to do for tomorrow.

Then I remember something else.

How could I have forgotten about that conversation I overheard?! It was most enlightening, as I said before. Joe is Mika’el, and I, I am…the name slips past my grasp. After several more attempts, I accept that I am clearly not meant to remember that and move on. I need to find Joe first. But what else can I conclude from that conversation? It was Joe’s task I volunteered for, and I volunteered because I felt it was risky for Joe. And I did well.

So I was meant to turn. But for what purpose? Why did God allow his chosen to be turned this time? What is the difference?

‘Every single one of them was born into ordinary families as ordinary persons.’

That was what Lilith said.

I looked back at what my life had been. I certainly do not feel ‘ordinary.’ I and my brother are sons of a very well-known person. And we had traveled the world and solved many cases, including a small number of James Bond style espionage cases. How could that be considered ‘ordinary’?

Unless this is what Adam meant when he said Lilith misinterpreted? Interpretations of ancient texts are always fraught with errors. Unless ordinary means normal: as in a ‘normal’ human being. That would explain why I could be turned and Joe can’t. Yes, I remembered Adam saying that I cannot be turned again. I can only choose to go over to Lilith’s side of my own free will.

Of course I will never do that, ever. And there is nothing that can make me…nothing.

Oh no…there is something….

I sit right up straight in my bed, and feel the beads of sweat starting to form on my back.

Joe…

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