The Magi (The Magi Series) (2 page)

Elijah instinctively crawled out his door. His heart raced and pounded against his chest as he reached the top of the staircase. He felt exposed and vulnerable, but he continued trusting his instincts. He kept moving.

Many times during his terrifying descent down the stairs, Elijah was tempted to bolt for his parents’ room and wake them up, but something inside told him that was wrong. If he only knew why! Elijah finally reached the bottom of the staircase and made an immediate right turn toward the kitchen.

For a moment, an unexpected panic set in. He had just a few steps to go to get into the kitchen, but his legs refused to move. Elijah bent down next to the staircase and cowered, suddenly sensing that whatever was in the house was on the move.

“Pull yourself together, Elijah,” he demanded silently. “You’re safe so far. Whatever it is doesn’t know you’re here, or it would have gotten you already. And if it
is
after you, it would be looking upstairs.”

Elijah reached the kitchen and picked up his pace. He quietly handled the phone and crouched down in the corner with it, his hands shaking violently as he dialed the other line. In just seconds he could warn his family and everything would be okay.

“C’mon, c’mon, ring.” He knew it sometimes took a second before the phone registered the call, but it seemed like an unusually long time.

Click.

Silence.

His heart was about to explode out of his chest!

The phone was dead.

Looking around, Elijah noticed that all power to the house was gone, leaving the room in almost complete darkness. He looked around to gather his sight. The only light, which was peeking through the front window, was from the moon. As Elijah scanned the room from under the kitchen counter, waiting for his eyes to adjust to the darkness, something flickered through the moonlight. It was so fast that at first Elijah wondered if it was actually in the house, or if it was just a shadow from outside, made by a bird or an insect. Nothing human could move
that
quickly! Just as he was about to dismiss what he’d seen, a figure appeared, stopping right in front of the kitchen doorway.

It was a figure of a man! Elijah did everything he could to keep from screaming out in horror. He was tempted to close his eyes and curl up in a ball, but as terrified as he was, he needed to be alert enough to react. The figure didn’t seem to notice him, and then, just as quickly as he moved the first time, the figure was gone.

Elijah fought the rising wave of panic as his reality set in on him. There was a dangerous man in his house. This man was able to move very quickly—almost animal-like. And now, Elijah couldn’t see him.

After a deep breath, Elijah decided to make a break for the front door. He thought that once he was outside, he could yell and scream and make all kinds of noise to wake up anyone in the neighborhood to call the police. But he couldn’t seem to move.

“Let’s go Elijah,” he thought to himself. “Just a few steps and then explode toward the door.” He resisted the urge to stay still as he crept back through the kitchen, inching closer and closer to the door.

He looked behind him to see if he was safe.

No one there.

He turned back to the front door.

His body tensed up to make his move, but suddenly, the figure reappeared directly between Elijah and the door. Elijah felt his heart in his throat, and he held his breath. If the figure turned around, he would see Elijah. If Elijah moved, the figure would see the movement. His only option was to stand still, just feet from the dark figure, and hope to remain invisible.

His mind raced. Why was this figure here in the first place? He didn’t seem to be stealing things. The figure had to be searching for something, or—Elijah gulped—some
one
. Just as he thought this, the figure’s head began to scan the room.

And then, he saw Elijah!

For a split second their eyes met, and Elijah saw two terrifying, yellow eyes glaring back at him. The rest of the figure’s face was hidden in the shadows and his body was covered by dark material. Elijah’s focus blurred and he briefly thought he was going to pass out from fright, but his survival instincts kicked in. He quickly scampered toward the back door just as the figure started chasing him.

He turned the corner yanking his mother’s china cabinet down. It fell with a deafening crash! He didn’t look back to see if that slowed his attacker.

Elijah reached the back bedroom and bolted toward the door, throwing behind him anything he could grab. Just before he reached the door, his body pulsed again with heat. He trusted his instincts. Instead of continuing for the door, he turned immediately to the window on the right. Had he slowed down to open the door, the figure would have reached him. As it was, his attacker’s momentum slammed him through the door hard enough for it to break.

Elijah had the window open in moments and dove out into the side yard. The figure would be in the backyard now, so Elijah immediately turned toward the front yard. Suddenly, in mid-step, he felt strong arms grab him tightly and a hand clapped over his mouth.

“Elijah, ssshhhhhh!” An immediate sense of relief hit him. It was his dad. Elijah began to sink into the strong arms for comfort, but his dad quickly thrust him back to look into his face. “Listen to me, Elijah. There’s no time to explain, there’s no time to think. You have to do exactly what I say, and you have to do it immediately, understand?” Elijah nodded, choking back a sudden stream of tears. He wanted nothing more than to stay with his dad who would make everything better.

“You need to run somewhere and call for help. Stay there! Do
not
come back tonight under any circumstances. And this is the most important thing to remember, and you
have
to remember it. There is a plan and we love you very much. GO!”

Elijah wasted no time. He ran as fast as he could toward the front yard and jumped over the fence. He fell on the other side, which knocked the wind out of him. Elijah knew he shouldn’t have turned around to look, but he did. The figure stood calmly, looking at Elijah with those fierce yellow eyes. But this time, his dad was in the way, protecting him. He had risked enough to look back for just that instant, so he quickly turned and ran down the street toward the neighbors’ house.

****

CHAPTER 2: TWO ABANDONED DIARIES

A slow drizzle lightly fell over a small blue house owned by Elijah’s Uncle Stan. Inside, Elijah patiently sifted through a large pile of framed photographs that belonged to his parents. He couldn’t quite muster a smile as he gazed down at a picture of his mother and father, much younger then, embracing each other. Uncle Stan had given him a huge box of things that he said contained precious items belonging to the Hawk family. After taking most of the morning preparing himself to face the contents of the box, Elijah sorted through most of it quickly. When the pictures appeared, however, he couldn’t resist taking time to look through them, even if it meant reliving the love he lost six nights ago.

“How are you doing?” Uncle Stan asked, poking his head through the doorway, interrupting Elijah’s thoughts. He looked at Elijah across the piles of pictures, cards, love notes, and other possessions that had been the most valuable to the Hawk parents.

“Fine,” Elijah answered flatly. “Just looking at some pictures.”

“I meant how are
you
doing? You know, with everything?”

“Oh. I’m okay.” Elijah knew Uncle Stan could see right through his lie, but he didn’t feel like talking about things right now. Uncle Stan seemed to get his silent message.

“Ok. I’ll be in the kitchen,” he said, resignedly. “Just let me know when you’re ready for lunch.”

Elijah felt bad for his uncle. He just wanted to talk and have Elijah open up to him. Ever since he was sent to live here, Elijah noticed him hovering around, debating whether or not to say something comforting. On one occasion, Uncle Stan slowly walked up to him and made a move to give Elijah a hug, but at the last minute, he paused, frantically looked around, and then flipped on a light switch that was directly behind Elijah, even though the house was plenty bright. Good ol’ Uncle Stan. It was comforting to know he was willing to listen, but it hadn’t even been a week since that horrible night. Elijah still needed time to make sense of things. After all, his life had just been turned completely upside down.

Six days ago, Elijah was a happy thirteen-year-old boy living with a family that adored each other. His parents, William and Julia Hawk, cared for their children more than anything in the world, and Elijah never doubted that fact. He spent his life knowing that if he or Kyria were ever in trouble, his parents would give their lives for them to be safe and happy. And that’s just what they did.

He still didn’t know exactly what happened that night. After the police finally talked to him, Elijah learned that he had lost everything that mattered. His father, who was there when he needed him most, died protecting his son. His mother, who was found halfway up the staircase, was also killed on her way to protect her daughter.

What tormented Elijah even more than the deaths of his parents was the horrific kidnapping and murder of his sister. Her body was never recovered from the house that night, but two days later, in the early hours of the morning, Elijah’s uncle received a call saying that they had found Kyria’s bloodstained clothes on the shore of a beach, twenty miles away from their house. Elijah remembered hearing the police explain everything to him, but even now, he found it hard to accept that his entire family was dead. He felt guilty for not talking with his parents that night while he sulked about something as trivial as being too skinny. His family’s last night together was wasted while he thought about himself. So selfish!

Elijah continued to sort through his parents’ possessions. How his uncle was able to get these things from the house without the police knowing baffled Elijah since everything in the house needed to stay as it was until the investigation was over. He decided not to ask. There were, after all, more important matters to attend to. He needed to separate the things he wanted to keep with him from what he wanted to put into storage. Elijah agonized over each item, reliving the memory that went with them. He came across scenes from his family’s many vacations. The Grand Canyon. The Hawaiian Islands. Numerous camping trips where he and Kyria fished and swam in freezing lakes. He flipped through the pictures one after another, letting the memories flood his emotions.

Finally, he saw a picture of all four of them on top of a mountain. His family had, on more than one occasion, climbed a mountain, and they always took a picture of their accomplishment. His dad stood tall and confident with Elijah’s mom’s head on his shoulder. Any stranger could see the love they had for each other just by looking at this one picture. Elijah and Kyria were in the front leaning on a large boulder. All four were smiling triumphantly. He gently ran his fingers over the faces of each family member as if the flat, glossy material somehow resurrected them. The tears came quickly. It felt good to cry, but he tried to hold back. He got up, deciding to regain his composure and eat some lunch. Food made things better.

He walked to the door, intending to go through it, but instead he closed it. Elijah picked up the photo again and locked himself inside the room’s small closet. He knew he shouldn’t do it, but he wanted to feel the sadness overwhelm him again. Elijah slowly looked back at the picture, and he let himself become overtaken with emotion once more, allowing his uncontrollable sobs escape from his body without restraint. This time, he didn’t try to control it. It was awful and wonderful at the same time.

An hour and a half later, Elijah emerged from the room looking completely composed. He walked into the kitchen, but he didn’t see his uncle. After searching the house, Elijah finally found him in the garage working on his truck.

“Hey there Eli. You ready for some lunch?”

“If that’s not too much trouble.”

“Nope. Just give me a sec to finish up and I’ll be right in.”

Elijah went back inside and let the door close behind him. Down the hall he noticed a mirror and decided to make sure he showed no evidence of crying. All clear. Uncle Stan soon walked in wiping his dirty hands on a rag.

“What’ll it be today?” Uncle Stan said, rummaging through the refrigerator as though he had never looked into it before. He moved items here, then there, muttering and grunting to himself. The man could rebuild a car engine, but apparently the refrigerator was a complete mystery. “How about sandwiches?”

“Sounds good.” Elijah had to laugh inside. Every day they had sandwiches for lunch. He wondered why Uncle Stan wasted his time looking through the fridge. It was always sandwiches for lunch and some kind of takeout for dinner—usually pizza. But Elijah didn’t mind. It was kind of fun to eat junk for a while. Uncle Stan obviously wasn’t used to entertaining much.

Uncle Stan always looked like he needed a shave. He may have appeared gruff, but he was friendly. Elijah loved visiting his uncle. Not having a family of his own gave Uncle Stan time to spend with Elijah and Kyria. He was unpredictable and a bit of a flake, but he made sure they felt included by taking time to talk with them, even when other adults were around. Uncle Stan was different, and Elijah was thankful he was sent to live with him.