[ WP ] `` You need to hide the kids and grab your gear , NOW . Grandma 's having another one of her 'episodes ' . ''

`` You need to hide the kids and grab your gear NOW. Grandma's having another one of her episodes.'' Then the line went dead and all I got was dial tone. My heart started pounding as the realisation of what that meant started to kick in. With Ophelia tracking down demons in another dimension I was going to have to protect the kids by myself. 
 My brain started racing to keep up with my heart, what would she do in this situation? I drew a massive blank. It was fine for her, she ’ d been dealing with stuff like this all her life, it was basically the family business, I just married into it. And come to think of it, just how the hell had she managed​ to get a good enough signal to call me from the Plane of Praxis anyway? I barely ever get more than one bar of reception at work! 
 I was getting distracted, this was not good. Grab the gear first, load up the car, then get the kids out of the house. I threw open my wardrobe and started tearing off the back panel, thinking back to the day we'd brought Maxine back from the hospital. 
 
 -- - 
 
 `` She wo n't even be crawling yet, but we get everything hidden and secure now before there's an accident. We do n't want anything like your first crossbow lesson happening with the baby around.'' 
 I'd smiled. `` Oh sure you nearly shoot yourself in the foot one time and you'll never stop hearing about it.'' 
 `` I did n't bring up the time you whacked yourself with the silver laced nunchucks, ” she smirked, “ I'm half surprised we could even have a kid after that​ little incident.'' 
 
 “ So how likely is it that I ’ m ever going to need to use any of this anyways? ” I was hoping to distract her before she remembered the time with the punching bag. 
 
 “ Gates to any dimensions we ’ re working in are sealed and protected on the way in and out, so it ’ s highly unlikely anything will ever follow me home from work, it ’ s more the demons that are already on this plane of existence that are likely to give us grief. That, and of course, Grandma, but we ’ ve got a permanent watch on her, so she won ’ t cause us any problems, I mean, as long as all her visits are under supervision, she ’ ll still be able to meet Maxine and be a part of her life. ” 
 
 I wasn ’ t sure at the time about our daughter meeting someone who could, under the right circumstances, destroy a small country, but by the time her younger brother came along, and there hadn ’ t been a sign of the demon in years, my fears had started to fade, and Magnus was introduced to his great grandmother without any second thought. 
 
 -- - 
 
 Within minutes I had packed the car with our emergency gear, and I had managed to pick up Magnus in his sleep and drop him in the car without waking him. I opened the door to Maxine ’ s room, seeing her books of runes strewn about the floor, she ’ d been studying. Her mother would be so proud. 
 
 Looking upon our sleeping daughter, it was hard to believe anyone could ever want to bring harm to something so pure and innocent, especially Myra. But of course that wasn ’ t the case. Myra loved Maxine with all her heart, but she wasn ’ t always in control. In her youth Myra had made a literal deal with a lesser demon in order to protect the world from an unspeakable evil. It was incredibly brave, but she had no idea the hell it would put her family through in the years to come. 
 
 A part of the agreement Myra had not foreseen meant that the demon could sporadically and without warning, visit the Earthen Plane and possess her, and the demon in question wasn ’ t happy about using it ’ s power to seal away a demon of greater power. Within the next decade, Myra ’ s mother, brother and one of her sons had fallen victim to the demon. Every time it hunted down and killed a member of her family it had increased in strength, as it was explained to me there ’ s power in bloodlines. No matter how it worked, the world owed Myra a debt it would never know about and her family had more than paid the price. 
 
 Over the next few years the family had arranged a system of ensuring Myra always had an escort with her who was capable of defusing the situation, whilst still giving Myra the freedom that she deserved, after the first few times driving it back there hadn ’ t been many issues, and the demon ’ s strength waned. By the time I had met Ophelia, occurrences were rare. I ’ d seen her ‘ on the turn ’ once but Ophelia and her father had very quickly managed to restrain her until the demon realised it wasn ’ t getting anywhere this time around and relinquished control. 
 
 First dates with Ophelia had been interesting because of her family, she showed me how to use crossbows and knives, and on one memorable ( and nearly fatal ) occasion, tomahawk throwing, looking back I realised I should have noticed something was odd about her family sooner, I thought she was just outdoorsy. 
 
 Eventually hearing about spirits and demons just became a part of her work, it felt no different to hearing our friends discuss their days at work. The training became just another, admittedly unusual, chore for me and to be honest I'd not been keeping up it properly. Much like how some husbands get slack on how often they wash the dishes, nothing much of note had happened in the last eight years and I'd just gotten​ used to the idea that some members of my wife's family could wipe out mankind if left unchecked. This lapse in my training was something I was now desperately hoping my children would not have to pay for. 
 
 -- - 
 
 I gently shook Maxine ’ s shoulders. Despite her being awoken in the middle of the night, she was immediately on edge. I didn ’ t know if she could read the concern and panic on my face or if this was a side effect of the steely resolve she clearly inherited from her mother, but she immediately snapped herself awake. “ It ’ s Granny Myra, isn ’ t it? ” 
 
 Maxine was twelve years old, she shouldn ’ t have to understand something this complicated at her age. I sighed. “ Yeah, Magnus is in the car, it ’ s already packed with supplies. ” A small flicker across Maxine ’ s face cut through her resolve for just a moment. I had disagreed with her mother telling her about her family history so young, this had become Maxine ’ s greatest fear - while her classmates were still worrying about the monsters under their beds, my daughter worried about the one in her family tree. 
 
 -- - 
 
 Maxine was dressed and ready even faster than if I ’ d told her we were going ice skating, she ran down the stairs to meet me as I was mentally checking off the equipment I ’ d put in the car. I glanced towards the cupboard under the stairs. Maxine sadly nodded her head. 
 
 Despite the grief it had caused the family over the years, no one had ever wanted to cause any harm to Myra while she was possessed, as it wouldn ’ t harm the demon, it would just return to it ’ s own plane of existence, but any injuries could prove fatal to Myra. In the line of her work she'd saved an untold number of lives and she deserved better than the lot she was now stuck with. 
 
 I ’ d packed things to slow down and possibly even stop a possessed person, iron filings that burned to the touch, salt to make protective circles, silver laced nets, sun rods, and all manner of equipment, but all of it was preventative equipment. In that cupboard was where Ophelia locked away some of the more permanent solutions. Avoiding looking into my daughter ’ s eyes again, I punched in the keycode into the door lock and wordlessly grabbed a crossbow and some silver tipped bolts. Sorry Myra, but if it comes down to you or my kids, there's no question what I'll choose. 
 

