Annie was the first to yawn. Marge and her husband, Kyle, looked down at their youngest as she curled up closer to them on the couch. Their son, Theo, was lounging on a nearby chair reading a book. John hovered a little away from the family as Kyle got up to turn off the TV. He was disappointed at that, they were watching a good show. But his life was not about him anymore.
Theo glanced up as the sound of the TV disappeared. “Bedtime for the little one?” he whispered. Marge just nodded back as she picked up Annie and started heading up the stairs. At the jostle, Annie opened her eyes and stared right at John. Tiredly, she raised her hand and gave him a little wave. John smiled and waved back.
“Waving goodnight to your friend?” Kyle asked as he followed Marge up the stairs.
Glass shattered. The family whirled around to look back in the living room, at the brick that lay on the ground. Two men scrambled through the window, guns clutched in their hands. Marge started to scream, clutching Annie tighter to her chest. The men leveled their guns at the family, yelling at them to get up against the wall. John stood plastered against the wall, watching it all godown. I hate interaction rules! John screamed in his head. Guardians could not engage unless invited to form the family.
Theo threw himself at the invaders, trying to overpower them. The lead man slapped him across the face. “Come at me again and they get shot!” he screamed as he leveled the gun at Marge, who huddled on the stairs around Annie.
“Please,” Kyle whispered to them, “take whatever you want, just leave my family alone.”
“Shut up!” the other man screamed at him. “You,” he pointed to the gun at Marge, “give her to us!” He reached for Annie as Marge screamed. Kyle leaped at them. They went down together and Marge started to run towards the door. The other man quickly stepped forward and grabbed her around the waist. He wrenched Annie from her arms and held the gun up to her head.
John wanted to leap at the man and tear his face off, but he was still trapped. But that didn’t stop him from moving closer. He got right up next to Annie and started whispering to her, “It’ll be alright, stay calm.” But she was struggling at that.
“Everybody down, or she gets the bullet!” the man holding Annie screamed.
Kyle and the other intruder stopped fighting as Kyle backed off. “Please,” he begged with tears in his eyes.
“I said get down!”
Kyle, Marge, and Theo laid on the ground. Annie was crying in the man’s arms. “You will be fine!” John kept speaking to Annie.
Annie cried, “Please John, help me!”
Both intruders stared at Annie. “Who’s John?” one of them whispered. Annie just kept crying. “Who’s John!”
“No one!” Kyle called from the floor. “It’s her imaginary friend! Please don’t hurt her!”
The men laughed. “Your little friend can’t do anything for you now,” one of them whispered in Annie’s ear.
John whammed his fist into the man’s face. The man screamed as the other intruder whirled around, looking for the attacker. While he was distracted, John grabbed Annie and pulled her away from the men. As he put Annie back down next to her family, he willed his body into visible form. Marge and Kyle gaped up at him while Annie smiled at him. “Thank you, John,” she whispered. He gave her a smile back before turning back to the men.
The intruders looked terrified. “Who are you?!” one of them demanded.
“Someone you don’t want to mess with.” John hissed. They just stared at him. “I am the guardian of this house. And you have tried to hurt the people within it. That cann-”. A gunshot burst through the room. The smoking gun was pointed at John’s chest where a hole had formed. John just looked down at the wound. He cupped his hand beneath it, and the bullet fell out and the hole disappeared. “You need a lot more than a gun to defeat me.” Then John launched himself at the intruders.
He sucker-punched one as the other dove at him with the butt of the gun. John made his head phantasmal so the gun passed through him and hit his partner. John reached up and grabbed the back of the man’s jacket and tossed him against the wall. As he lay there stunned, the other guy uncurled from his fetal position from the punch to headbutt John in the chin.
Pain flashed through his face as he fell back towards the family still huddled behind him. The men staggered to their feet and looked at them all. “Maybe we can’t kill you, but we can kill them,” One spat as they raised their guns, pointing them at the family.
“Then do it,” John said. He stood up from in front of the family. “Kill them. There will be new people who will move in.”
The men started. “What!?”
“Kill them.” John took a step towards them. “They mean nothing to me. They are going to die someday anyway, so why not today?”
John took another step towards the men. “What are you waiting for?” Another. “They mean nothing.” And another.
The men pointed their weapons solely at him. “Who gives you the right to play God?” One of them whispered.
“No.” Another step. “The real question is…” Step. “What gives you the right…” He was now face to face with them. “To play God.” He grabbed the barrels of their guns and pointed them towards the ceiling. They went off as the guys jerked in surprise.
He yanked the guns down towards his left side and aimed an elbow at their faces. Elbow collided with face that collided with face. But it did the job, he held both of the guns now. He twirled them so he held the barrels in his hands and pulled his right arm across his body before pistol-whipping one of them. His aim was true and he hit him right in the temple and he went down.
The other man was still staggering from getting hit with his elbow, so John only took one step forward, dropping the guns, before delivering an uppercut, then a punch to the temple. He soon joined his companion on the floor.
Outside, he heard the sirens of police cars pulling up to the residence. They must have been alerted when the window broke. John turned back towards the family, “We should talk after you deal with the police.” Then he vanished.
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