Walking the usual path home from the pub DJ can't help but sigh in relief feeling the cool autumn wind on his face. Looking down at the check in hand & doing the math for bills, food & to cover his grandpa's meds which can't be picked up till tomorrow. 'Well at least since I left early I can still cook dinner for grandpa instead of leaving him eating another tv dinner from family dollar, but what should I make??' With his thoughts preoccupied with trying to figure out if he can make something healthy out of spam, pickled eggs & frozen peas he was unaware that instead of just being watched he was now being followed home.
As for the shadow following him?? It was Ash who's curiosity got the best of her when she saw the way he re-acted to the shift in his eyes wondering what else there was to the "human" in front of her who she could've just asked Debbie about.... 'Yeah nah if I had done that she would've went overboard spilling his whole life story then dived into trying to set them up on a date' Ash can't help the shiver that run downs her spine at the horrifying thought. Turning her attention back to him she had to admit that he managed to blend in well with his surroundings not seeming the least out of place whether it be back in the pub or walking into the more run down neighborhoods on the north side of the city they were walking thru.
As DJ made it to corner store his grandpa's apartment was above he once again felt the like he was being watched which he'd shrug off as normal if it wasn't for the fact that the only time anyone ever looked his way was either cause he was needed at work or the monthly "collectors" came thru looking for their payment. Just shaking his head trying to ignore the feeling after looking around, he heads up the stairs on the left side of the building to where the apartment was unlocking the 3 different dead bolts & door lock before finally getting inside. "Gramps, I'm home you haven't eaten yet right??" calling out to the living room to the right of the doorway trying to be heard over the world war 2 documentaries playing on the History Channel while making his way to the kitchen/dinning room to throw the peas into the microwave praying the old thing didn't break while the peas defrosted as he opened up a can of spam, grabbed the egg jar & a knife to cut them up & throw em in a pan with the peas when they were done defrosting.
"I thought you were supposed to be at work till midnight you troublemaker" from the doorway as his grandfather walked thru the door, a Old man in his 70s, skin looking like shoe leather from years in the sun, sunken almond shaped eyes set in a rugged face that were crinkling as a smile was growing on his face as he looked as DJ prepping the food. Even walking with a cane for support & missing his left arm he still somehow felt larger then life with to DJ "I left early my migraines kicked in & I figured that if I was fast enough getting home we could have dinner together since we haven't had a family meal in almost a week tho-" looking at the spam & eggs cut up in the pan " if I didn't know any better someone might accuse me of trying to kill you with all this salt old man."
"Bah a little bit of salt never killed anyone besides this is actual food at least not like in Korea & Vietnam-" & without fail he launched into a tirade of his time in the Corp & it's re-occurring theme of eating everything but field rations. Having heard the same story a thousand times at this point DJ just nodded along & made sounds at the appropriate intervals while putting everything in the pan together to cook with some low sodium soy sauce cause it was all they had at the moment. "Can you put some coffee on for us to have with dinner gramps?" Finally breaking up what could've been a 10 hour story if it had been allowed to go on & being given something to do all he heard behind him was the old man whistling happy to just spend time together 'I can't wait for Mid-Terms to be over then I can spend less time studying & writing reports & instead spend some time with gramps maybe even try to go for a walk to the cafe he likes next weekend or go visit his buddies graves & clean em up together.'
As the food was done cooking if you wanna call the sodium infused meat, pickled eggs & mushy peas mix truly food, they settled in the living room with TV trays, old butter & sherbet containers being used as bowls & a mug of black coffee a piece tuning into the new episode of CSI since that was on. "I can pick up your meds in the morning before I go in work & stop in at Family Dollar on the way home for some groceries, anything you want while I'm out??" Knowing that it'll be the same answer as always DJ still asks & true to the record "Just the necessities same as always" meaning some cans of spam, tuna, more coffee & milk. Well that was easy & by the time the episode ended DJ had cleaned up dinner, helped gramps settled in for the night & had just laid in his own bed when he remembered that freaky incident from earlier.
Outside sitting on the roof of a house across the street Ash was still trying figure out what was going on because the corner store & apartment above it where completely covered in protection glyphs & runes. "What the hell is going on here?? That's enough protection to stop a literal act of god but what's more confusing is there's only one person that comes to mind looking at it & that's a Anubis the Egyptian God of Death who while she has met in passing over the millennia thanks to her Uncle moving them around place to place & having to discuss where they could stay she couldn't say she knew him but this?? This wasn't adding up with his character of being laid back fool when he wasn't doing his job but no one else in the Egyptian Pantheon mixed runes & glyphs like this or was as well versed in protection since he was a guardian of the dead.' While thinking about this & studying the wards Ash decides to take a picture for now then head home to think on this, seeing what she could find on the wards placed in any of the tomes they had.
10 hours later October 12th 2007
BRRRRRRRRR_BRRRRRRRR_BRRRRR- DJ groaned in pain as he got up cursing the fact that he hadn't slept well last night from over thinking the incident with the "person" who had man handled him or the weird feeling of being watched & trying to make sense of it. His conclusion as he got up to get coffee was that he was going crazy & paranoid simple as that not wanting to think any further then he already had. Returning to his room with his coffee he sighed grabbing his worn out second hand dumbbells looking rusty but still usable & began his morning routine with the two 50lb dumbbells being his only set of weights for almost 5 years now but just having these was enough for him. He didn't need to be some shredded meat head with washboard abs, he just needed functional strength & try to stay in a shape other then round which wasn't hard for him. Standing at 5'11 & weighing 260lbs DJ wasn't a small guy by any means fitting the description pretty well of a husky or stocky build just still carrying around some extra weight on his gut which never bothered him however staring at himself in the cracked mirror on the back of his bedroom door his thoughts drifted back to how he had been man handled. 'It'd be one thing if I was still the same scrawny scrappy 12 year old fighting everyone who looked at me funny but I'm turning 21 next month & haven't been under 220 in almost 6 years so how the hell did that guy pick me up like that.' Just shaking his head DJ showered, changed & was out the door to stop at the Kidney's drug store before heading to work deciding to forget about what happened yesterday.