As Evelyn followed Tommy up Raspberry Street, she saw the shadow in the crossroads long before she noticed Tommy’s phantom. Somehow, she knew that it was Frankie even before he showed himself to Tommy.
“Frankie,” she said with the hint of a smile on her face. It was the most enthusiasm that she could muster. All hope in her had vanished. Her will to live was fading, as much as it was in her host.
Before Tommy noticed Frankie, the phantom appeared. Once again in the form of his father, who continued to belittle Tommy.
“Look at you, walking home in the middle of the night to an empty house because nobody likes you enough to stick around,” his father spat. “You were supposed to do better. You were supposed to be the future. And now? Look at you. You’re pathetic. A disgrace.”
Evelyn wished she could plug her ears and not listen to any of it, but she couldn’t. As much as Tommy was hearing it, so was she.
The only difference was, it didn’t have quite the same impact on her as it did Tommy simply because she didn’t have the personal connection to Tommy’s father. But still, it hurt to hear it.
Even as Frankie rushed over to Tommy and tried to stir him from the terror, Tommy’s phantom father continued to drawl on.
“You work a deadbeat job because you have no skills and nobody has any faith in you to train you. You’re stupid. You’re useless. You’re serving no one with your life. What are you really contributing to the world? You wash dishes and serve tables for a living. Can’t even make an honest wage. Can’t even find a woman to carry on our name. Not that it would matter. If you ever became a father, your kid would be a disappointment just like you are.”
Evelyn thought her head was going to explode. The world around her seemed to fade away as she sunk lower into her depression, which was feeding off of Tommy’s own depression. He was nearly completely gone. Almost too far to return to any sense of normalcy, even if they could fix any of the impacts effecting him.
In the chaos, Evelyn noticed another figure in the crossroads. A shadow at first, but as she grew closer, she saw that it was Hecate. And she was talking to Frankie.
There was no hope left in Evelyn’s soul, but she did believe that Frankie was the key to saving them. To freeing them. And it needed to end where it had started: with Hecate.