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King of my Heart

Chapter One: The Phone Call

"Maybe I'm waiting for the 'go ahead'"

-Camden, Gracie Abrams

-Camden, Gracie Abrams

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Caleb had just taken his first bite out of his grilled cheese when he felt it happen. The slight shift in the air, someone else's fear and frustration pooling in his stomach. He was familiar with the way the fear and the frustration sat in his body, he could recognize these emotions as his mother's. It felt the same as when his mom was advocating for a child in court.

With a sigh, he stood up with grilled cheese in hand and wandered into the hallway where he could now listen to his mom on the phone with ease. His socked feet padded quietly across the hardwood as he inched forward, he could see the light from the parlor reflecting on the wall to his right. He wasn't able to clearly understand what was being said, he was steps away from being within earshot when the sliding door that separates the parlor from the hallway slammed shut.

"Well, now that's just rude." He huffed out, annoyed at the woman's response to his eavesdropping. (Normally she encouraged eavesdropping) 

Taking the final bite of his sandwich, Caleb jerked his head slightly to the left and the door opened in the same way that it closed. Causing his mother, Piper, to turn her body towards the door and roll her eyes in annoyance. But she gestured for him to join her. Caleb broke into a satisfied smile and made his way over.

However, as soon as he got over to his mom's side, she ended the call and turned toward her youngest son with a smile. Now as much as he loved to see her smile, Caleb knew that this smile was a guilty one. She wore the same smile when he was five and found her eating the cookies that he had set out for Santa that Christmas. He raised his eyebrows waiting for his mom to tell him what was going on.

"Hi honey, what do you think of Indiana?" Was all Piper could manage to get out without spilling everything that was going on. 

It's not every day you get a call from your old college roommate about how her son went missing for a week in another dimension and was now seeking advice because he "hasn't bounced back yet". Of course, Piper didn't find out about the other dimension bit until she kept pressing the issue, familiar with the common excuses to cover up supernatural activity. She's been using them her whole life, and so have her husband and her two boys. "I don't know what happened, must have been a freak accident" was a very common line from the Wang household at the moment, Caleb has a tendency to pop lightbulbs when he gets excited or startled.

After getting Joyce to tell the full story, Piper immediately offered her help. She understood that problems like this one aren't solved easily or quickly. But also, going through something of the same nature that Will did doesn't leave the mind the way it was. It leaves a wound, a tear, whatever you want to call it, but there's going to always be an opening in the mind after an experience like that. Sometimes it's just nightmares that find their way in through that opening, but it can also be anxiety, terror, or paranoia. But in this case, it seems like whatever entered Will's mind was sentient and fighting for control of a shared space.

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