Authors: Melissa Parkin
“Which
explains why the resurrection ceremonies performed on Annalisa and Veronica
didn’t work,” I said, speculatively.
“Exactly.
They didn’t have souls to even bring back.”
“So
even the real Officer Talbot is dead, permanently?!”
“Yep.”
“Garrick
was simply possessing the body. Why didn’t he just leave it before being
executed?!”
“Because,
that arrow in him is made from the same material as the blade. When you’re hit
with that, the steel seals your soul inside. The demon can’t flee.”
As
we began climbing the last flight of stairs to the main floor, all the wall
lamps beside us in the stairway burst. Soon, the whole place went pitch-black
with the exception of the streetlights from the parking lot shining through the
glass doors at the entrance, illuminating the top of the stairwell. With
nothing but the breath of the cold, bitter abyss behind us, we accelerated
forward and catapulted our bodies into the doors upon racing across the foyer
with not another soul in sight.
Scrambling
out to the parking lot with the Cutlass and Impala just ahead of us, we were
all instantly swept off our feet by a bursting squall of air. I peeled myself
off the pavement, seeing a tall shadow looming just behind my frame across the
asphalt with a certain sword in hand. Rolling quickly to my left as I saw the
shadow of the blade pierce down on me, I narrowly missed the blow, seeing
sparks erupt from the cutlery’s tip as it struck firmly in the ground a mere
inch from my body.
“Cassie!”
Without waver, Ian and Jack both pounced up and attacked the hooded assailant
before he had the chance to lift the blade for another strike.
I
got back up to my feet as the angel recovered from the rush, throwing them both
off with what appeared to be a considerable amount of effort. But as Ian was
knocked down and Jack flung back towards the entrance, I found myself
completely exposed again. All of the markings and symbols on the blade gleamed
in my eyes as the steel glinted in the streetlights overhead, the figure
hastening towards me intrepidly.
I
raced from him as quickly as I could, but my bare feet took to the dampened
grounds like a dog’s paws on fresh ice. Crashing into the side of the Cutlass,
I immediately ducked down and rolled underneath the car. The trunk buckled down
as the angel leapt on top of the vehicle, surveying the ground in its entirety
below. I was trapped.
“Get
away from her, you son of a bitch!” demanded Jack, sprinting over to us with
his own (very unimpressive in comparison) knife in hand.
The
back end of the car bucked up as the assailant dove back down to the pavement.
The two rushed at one another, and by a hair’s breadth, Jack was managing to
avoid each of the angel’s strikes time and time again. But then it happened.
Just as Jack ducked the next sling of the blade, he pushed right up to the
assailant and barely managed to drive his dagger into the angel’s side before
the sword came barreling back at him once more. Jack pried the knife from the
angel’s flesh and tried to parry the attack, but it only managed to slow its
impact. The blade swept right into Jack’s position. He threw his arm up to
deflect the full brunt of the blow, and the steel carved across his flesh from
elbow to wrist. As the blade sliced into it, I could hear the skin sear like
smoldering coal.
“Jack!”
I cried out, trying to pry myself out from under the car.
Jack
screamed agonizingly, dropping to the ground as smoke actually exuded from the
wound.
The
angel swiftly brought his blade up again and wielded it for execution.
“Stop!”
I demanded, rising up beside the Cutlass.
The
angel cocked his head over his shoulder after a moment, pleased to see Jack
immobile from the excruciating injury. He turned and took his time in walking
towards me, knowing I had nowhere to run.
At
a good ten feet or so away, he lifted the blade and his stride quickened. I
closed my eyes, waiting to feel the slice of the blazing steel...
Then
I felt a warm figure step right before me. My eyes shot open. It was Ian!
“You’re
gonna have to go through me!” he declared, shielding me.
"Ian,
no!" I screamed.
The
angel crashed to a halt, the tip of his blade so close that it pressed into the
front of Ian’s coat. We both held our breaths, anticipating the impact... but
it never came. Instead, the angel slowly lowered the sword and backed away. The
streetlights crackled, and in the split second that they flickered off, he was
gone.
Bad Moon Rising
“Where’d
he go?” asked Ian, the two of us looking in every direction of the desolate
lot.
“No
idea.”
“Aahh...”
Jack remained on the ground, clutching his fingernails into the skin around the
scorched flesh.
Ian
and I raced over to him, and I fell to my knees to inspect the wound.
“You’re
okay,” I said, prying his hand away. “It didn’t cut into any arteries.”
He
still didn’t seem comforted by the observation. In fact, he had lost all color.
“This
isn’t going to kill you, is it?” I asked.
“Nah,
it just feels like it will,” he groaned.
“We
have to get you to a hospital,” said Ian, the two of us pulling him to his
feet.
“No!”
“What’d
you mean, no? This needs stitches.”
“Cassie
can do it,” said Jack.
“The
hell I can,” I declared.
“You
know how to sew."
"Yeah,
but my experience in materials is limited to jeans and cotton. Not human flesh!"
"Well,
that's too bad, because there’s no way that we’ll be able to explain this to
the cops if you take me to the ER.”
“What
about the cameras? The mall has a bunch of them at the front entrance. They’ll
have the whole incident recorded," I said.
“You
really think so?” mocked Jack. “What do you think happened with all the lights
in there? All the electronics went out with the surge. Why do you think cell
service went down just before Veronica was killed? She probably tried to call
for help, so the angel did what you just witnessed. It’s messy, and a bit
unexplainable to mortals, but it’s not like it’s the first conclusion the
police would ever come to. The power these beings possess is unmatchable.”
“What
about Talbot's body?” I asked.
“I’ll
take care of that later. Right now I’m just concerned with getting patched up,”
he said, pointing to his car. “Take the Impala.”
“I
can’t just leave my dad’s car out here,” I stated firmly.
“Fine,
then you can explain to him why my blood will be all over the backseat.”
“I’ll
drive the Cutlass,” said Ian, pulling out the keys. “Where are we going?”
“Just
follow Cassie,” said Jack as we loaded him into the Impala.
“So,
where to?” I asked, turning the engine over as Ian jumped into the Cutlass.
“My
place,” Jack replied.
“And
that would be...?”
“Drake
Manor, on Royal Terrace.”
“The
ritz, eh?”
“What,
you wishing you picked differently now?” he chuckled under a low, aching groan.
“It’s not too late.”
“I’m
not impressed by ostentatious displays,” I confirmed.
I
put the Impala into gear as the Cutlass started up. Pulling out of the lot, we
turned onto the street and started making our trek to Park Place, the
neighborhood where his brazen estate rested.
“I
have quite a slew of questions for you, Jackson Matthews.”
“Now’s
really not a good time,” he muttered, slumping against the window of the
passenger seat.
“Oh,
but I disagree. Now is the perfect time. We have a few minutes to kill here, no
pun intended, and you’re not going anywhere.”
“Don’t
tempt me,” he chuckled, pointing to the handle on the door."
“Stop
being a smartass for a few minutes, please."
He
merely groaned.
“I
can’t believe these words are actually coming out of my mouth, but.... why are
both angels and demons so keen on procuring me?”
“You
wouldn’t believe me if I told you.”
"Jack,
I've already had countless misadventures with two demons so far, and I was now
just attacked by an angelic warrior called Death! I believe the laws of sense
and rationality were spent back there in the parking lot."
“Alright,
but it’s a bit…. complicated.”
“I’m
ranked fifth in my class. I’ll do my best to keep up.”
“You
know the legend of the Baykok?”
“The
local ghost story?”
“Yes,
it’s the reason I’m here.”
“Meaning…?”
“Back
in the 17th century, there was this rather, um,
enthusiastic
coven of
witches-”
“Enthusiastic?”
“
Satanic
,”
Jack clarified. “They had uncovered a grimoire-”
“A
what?”
“It’s
a textbook of enchantments.”
“You
mean, a book of spells?”
“Yes,
anyway…” he groaned, rather irritated.
“Sorry,”
I mumbled. “Go on.”
“In
this book contained a particular spell, one that could produce something
completely unheard of, a solidified form of a demon.”
“The
Baykok.”
“Nothing
known to man could kill it, so it was left up to the Heavens to decide what
would be done. There were angels above that wanted to come to Earth so that
they could kill the Baykok, to restore the natural balance of things, but the
higher command of angels rejected the notion out of fear of losing the Saxon
blades required to kill it. If the blades fell into the wrong hands, it could
bring upon a war. Seven angels, each of a different ranking who possessed their
own unique set of skills, disobeyed the order and descended upon the earth,
taking matters into their own hands. They found that once they took care of the
Baykok, they were also banished from returning to Heaven for their treason.
These abandoned angels lost their immortality, only being able to return to
paradise once they served their life sentence on Earth, but their powers
remained. After the angels slew the Baykok, they hunted down the coven. Only
one witch managed to flee from the slaughter, to a place a bit further south,
in Massachusetts."
"Salem?"
"Of
course, when the angels spread the word around about this individual, the
townsfolk there obviously got… a bit carried away with their religious
extremism, but it got the job done nevertheless. With the last of the coven
dead, their grimoire was lost. Burnt in fact. No witch since has ever been able
to reenact the ritual to make another Baykok, until several years ago when a
mysterious grimoire dating back to the 14th century suddenly resurfaced,
containing a spell that not only had the power to solidify a demon, but to
resurrect something much stronger. And there was something in particular that
they would need to procure in order to perform the ceremony.”
“A
Saxon blade?”
He
shook his head. “A
someone
. A descendant, or more specifically, a female
descendant of an angel.”
“…
I don’t understand.”
“You,
Cassie.”
Okay,
now
I was officially in the twilight zone. “What? But… how? How can I
possibly be a descendant of an angel?”
“The
seven angels that fell in order to kill the Baykok, they lived amongst the
humans and forged relationships, producing a familiar, hybrid offspring.”
“The
Nephilim.”
“Only
this time, these angels were still pure of heart, and they raised their
children properly. Throughout the years though, the knowledge of the angel’s
ancestry was lost. Everything in time was reduced to nothing more than
mythology, and eventually it became unknown as for who their descendants were.
But the Heavens must have known about this possibility, because they assigned
groups of angels to protect over this angelic offspring.”
“So
what happened? How did the information leak?”
“Angels
have been guarding the identities of these people, but the only living fallen
angel who had been relinquished from his position wound up divulging the
information to us thirteen months ago.”
“All
of this out of spite from one angel?”
“No,
he asked to be let go from his position. He voluntarily cast himself from
Heaven,” declared Jack.
“Why?”
“He
fell in love with a mortal, and the guidelines are specific. No active angel is
ever allowed to mingle with humans, so he left it all for her. He used to be a
protector of this list of people we were after, and with some diligent
tracking, a few of my kind were able to procure him. Torture didn’t do much
good, but after threatening his family, he released the information to us in
exchange that we would not hunt his loved ones.”
“So,
an
entire
pocket of the population is in danger?!”
“No,
any one angel is only provided with a small group of people to look over.
Twenty people at best.”
“Twenty?!
These aren’t candy bars we’re talking about here, Jack. They’re people!”
“Yeah,
well, based on calculations for the presently living, the number’s currently
closer to six or seven.”
“What?!”
“As
soon as the angels found out what we got a hold of, they went to work.”
“By
killing the people they were sworn to protect?!”
“By
killing the people that could rewrite the apocalypse. Kill a few, save the
masses. You have angelic blood in you. Your mother and sister had it too. It's
in your bloodline.”
“Which
means they were on the list...” I muttered, feeling my stomach drop.
"Wait, but how could an angel of death confront us in his attempt to kill
me? You just said it yourself that an angel still working under orders can’t
directly confront humans. Ian was there just now. What changed?"
“Nothing.”
“What
does that means?”
“It
means that nothing’s changed,” he said dolefully. “Usually angels of death try
to stage these cases as accidents, but for whatever reason he decided to
perform this so much in the open, he still didn’t break any laws.”
I
slowed the car to a stop in the middle of the road with only one person in mind.
“What are you saying? How does Ian fit into all this? He’s not a witch, is he?
Or… a wizard?” I took a moment for pause. “God, again, I can’t believe I
actually just said that out loud.”
Jack
chuckled weakly. “No, he’s like you.”
“Wait,
so, he's a descendant?”
Oh, no… Not the whole Star Wars incest thing…
“We’re not related in some way, are we?”
“No,
he’s what we call an Illusionist. It’s a breed of Watcher angels. They’re the
only angels allowed to communicate with humans, but only through forms of what
many would consider to be hallucinogenic. You know the story of Moses and whole
burning bush thing? Like that."
“And
this Wiccan ritual… What roll am I to partake in it?” I asked fearfully. “I
highly doubt your new coven of witches needs me there just to videotape their
ceremony.”
“That
I don’t know.”
“Why
you? Why were you brought into all this?”
“I
was only told to do two things. Protect and seduce. Nothing else.”
“Why?”
“Again,
I don’t know.”
"What
do these witches want to conjure up?"
He
began to nod off.
"Jack?!"
"....
Lucifer," he barely managed to grumble.
"What?!"
Jack's
eyelids began to sink, and his skin couldn’t become any more pale.
“Jack?!
What’s wrong?” I yelped, praying for a response. “Jack?! Goddamnit, Jack,
answer me!”
His
body lifelessly slumped against the passenger door, slowly falling forward.
“Jack?!
Jack?!”