Guardian: Darkness Rising Read Free Page A

“Really.”
    He looked at the book again. While his head
was down, his eyes shifted towards Luke. “You know what?” James
said. “I might just keep this in my study, to make sure you won’t
go back upstairs to get it.”
    Luke let out a loud, irritated
sigh. “ Really, Dad? The Lock-away punishment?” His father nodded.
    “ Exactly. The Lock-away
punishment.”
    The Lock-away punishment was a
particular punishment Luke’s parents had created for the times when
Luke or his siblings would develop a new ‘obsession’. This would
involve games that would be played until they’d start affecting
grades, bedtimes or behaviour and pretty much anything that would
do the same.
    James would put the object necessary for the
‘obsession’ to ‘persist and evolve’ (in James’s words – whether it
was the TV remote or a video game disk) in a locked drawer in his
study and allow limited access, until the problem that’d been
caused by the particular subject had been solved.
    It was an effective method, but sometimes
seemed to come off to the children as exaggerated. But it did stop
the kids from developing a certain attitude toward their parents –
well, at least until they’d reached a certain age. Luke had
developed a slightly rebellious and smart-ass-ish attitude,
especially toward his father. What Lucas didn’t know and James
didn’t want to admit, was that that James saw a touch of his own
attitude from when he was twenty in his son.
    But, James had matured, which meant that there
was still hope for Luke to do so, too. Lucas was an intelligent
boy, and it’d be a waste of potential if he proceeded to be a
little brat through adulthood.
    For now, it didn’t look like Luke would change
his ways any time soon, however.
    “ Come on , Dad! This isn’t
necessary!” Luke yelled, flailing his arms into the air. “I’m
pretty sure there’s nothing about that dumb old book that’s too
much for me to handle.”
    “ That’s not up to you to decide,
Lucas,” James decided, and walked off with the book, leaving Luke
behind with Mari’s vest in his hands.
    “ Ugh,” Luke
grunted. “Dad’s always got to be the one to spoil the fun, now doesn’t
he?”
    “ Yes, he does,” someone across the
hall said. “If he doesn’t do it, then who else would?”
    “ Theo!” Luke grinned; his brothers
were coming out of their bedroom, and they’d probably heard every
bit of the conversation Luke had had with James. “I guess you’re
right.”
    Luke’s brothers looked fairly similar to him,
although Theo’s hair and skin were the darkest, and only Ian wore
glasses; all three boys shared their father’s navy-blue eyes and
freckles.
    “ What’s the problem, anyway?” Ian,
the ‘youngest’ of the three, said, as he ruffled his dark red,
curly hair. “I heard something about the Lock-away
punishment.”
    Luke chuckled. “I found an old
book on the attic, and Dad won’t allow me to read it,” he said. “He
thinks it’s dangerous or something – he said he swore an oath not to tell anyone
about it.”
    Theodore snorted.
“ What !? You’re
being serious right now?”
    Luke nodded, while wearing a smug grin on his
face. “It’s a true story,” he said. “Dad’s scared of a dusty old
book.”
    “ So, he locked it up, huh?”
Theodore said, rubbing his chin. “It’s a good thing Dad doesn’t
know we’ve found ways to get around the Lock-away punishment over
the years.”
    Luke and Ian burst out in
laughter. “What? We’ve never broken the punishment! I swear; we’re innocent !” Ian laughed;
he was shaking his head so heavily, that his circular glasses
nearly slid off his nose.
    “ We should get
it tonight,” Luke whispered. His face looked like he was up for a
little bit of mischief making. “We’ll pick the lock to both his
study and the
drawer, just like we’ve always done – and then we can read it
during our sleepover. When we’re done, we’ll return it before Dad
wakes up. He’ll