by Sourav Deka
“Come on! Let’s go,” Andrea said. “They are here.”
I kept trying to start the car, but it didn’t start. I slapped the steering. “It isn’t starting.”
We all stepped out of the car. One of the Aivor cars stopped near us.
“Run, run, run,” I shouted.
We all ran in different directions, they shot Mark in the back. He screamed and fell down grunting in pain. Just then Tanner showed up and smashed all the Aivors from the ground. We went towards Mark to help. He was in pain gasping and groaning on the street.
“Son, help us carry him,” dad said. “We need to leave fast. Tanner won’t be able to hold them off longer.”
I saw an abandoned bar. We carried Mark there and lay him on a table.
“Hold his wound,” Dad said.
“We have to take him to the hospital,” I said.
Dad gasped. “There are so many Aivor bastards roaming around. None of us will survive.”
My phone rang, I checked it. It was Michael. I picked the call. “Michael, we crashed in the middle.”
“I know, go four miles east. You will find me there,” Michael said. “You all will be safe. I have a lot of my men there.”
“We can’t go that far. Mark is shot.”
“I have medics there, you better hurry up. Steal a car or something.”
“Okay,” I hung up. “Michael told me to move towards the east, he has a safe place four miles from here.”
“How? He is bleeding,” Andrea said. “He won’t survive that far. It’s getting worse.”
I bit my lower lip and put my hands on my hips. “We have to take the chance or else he will die here. I will go steal a car,” I turned around and left the bar.
“Wait, I am coming with you,” Dave followed me.
“Be careful. Aivors are roaming around,” Dad said.
We searched for a car. Two Aivors parked near the bar, they were searching for us outside in the streets.
“I got this,” Dave said.
“What?? Wait…………..”
Before I could say something Dave ran and killed the two Aivors with his gun.
“I told you,” he said, reloading his gun.
I nodded. “Let’s take their car.”
We came inside the bar.
“Come, come, hurry up,” I shouted.
Dad and Andrea carried Mark into the car. I snatched the key from the dead Aivor lying on the road and started the car. I drove as fast as I could. Mark was not looking good, he was barely breathing. As every minute passed by his breathing was becoming shallow.
“Hey, stay with me,” Dad slapped Mark’s face lightly.
Mark gasped and breathed heavily. “I won’t make it,” he said in a low voice.
Dad shook his head. “No, no, no, you are going to make it.”
“Just promise me one thing,” he groaned. “Don’t let Aivors take the seeds.”
“No, you have to live,” Dad grabbed his face. “You will live. Stay awake.”
“We worked very hard for these seeds, Richard,” Mark’s lips trembled. “Don’t let Aivors destroy it.”
“We will find the seeds together,” dad said. “We stayed together for so long, we worked hard for it. We will get it together. Just don’t give up.”
Mark began to lose consciousness as we reached close to our destination. The back seat was covered with his blood. It took us a couple of minutes to reach Michael’s place. He was waiting for us with his men to help. I stopped the car and took Mark out of the car with dad.
“Call the medics,” I shouted.
Two men came running towards us. They checked Mark and tried to jump start his heart by defibrillation. They tried again and again, but he didn’t wake up.
“He is dead,” One of them said.
Rage bottled up inside dad. “He is not dead, wake him up,” he yelled. “Use your damn machines.”
“He lost a lot of blood, we can’t save him now. He is gone, his heart finally gave up.”
“Then make it work,” Dad shouted at him.
“He is dead. I am sorry.”
Dad punched him in the face, and started beating him up. Michael and I tried to hold him off but he got blind in rage.
“He is dead, Richard,” Michael shouted. “But his death won’t go meaningless.”
Dad sat on the street and began to cry. “He was a brave man. He doesn’t deserve to die like this.”
“We should bury him,” Michael said.
“Where?” I yelled. “Every Aivor is looking for us,” anger rolled through me. “You are Savors. Don’t you have an army to fight them?”
Michael tightened his cheeks. “They are all witches, they use magic.”
“Then why don’t you all learn magic?”
“We are not witches,” Michael said. “They all are born witches who share the bloodline of their ancestors, it’s in their blood, Ross.”
“That means you are weak against them.”
Michael shook his head. “No, we have something which they don’t have.”
“What?”
He snapped his fingers. “Come with me.”
“What about Mark’s body?”
“My men will take care of the body. You can bury him whenever you like.”
“I don’t want to see anything,” dad said, wiping his tears.
Michael came towards dad and gazed into his eyes. “Don’t you want to avenge Mark?”
Dad raised his chin. “What?”
“Come with me, I will show you how we can kill Aivors.”
Dad stood up. We all followed Michael. He took us to the building next to us and walked into the lift. It took us to the 17th floor. There was an auditorium, a dark one with a couple of candles lightening it up. It had a lot of chairs, and a stage at the front.
“What is this?” I looked around.
“It is one of our places where we talk to our leader,” Michael said.
I narrowed my eyes. “Aren’t you the leader?”
“Yes, I am,” he nodded. “But we contact our main leader here. It’s a secret, only some Savors know about him. Aivors have no idea about him.”
“Why? What can he do?” Andrea asked.
Michael grinned. “He can do a lot of things, but there is a problem.”
“What’s that?” I asked.
Michael pressed his lips together. “He is invisible.”
“Invisible?”
“It’s a ghost.”
I raised my eyebrows, “A ghost?”
“He was the brother of one of the witches, who formed Aivor. He protested against them and joined Savor in the mid 1300’s,” he rubbed his nose. “He believed in Savor’s end goal. Later he was killed by the witches as he joined Savor.”
“Did the witches ever find out that he is still here as a ghost?”
He shook his head. “The witches didn’t know as he never showed up to them. For centuries he has been with us. He tells us a lot of things, important things that help.”
“Help? How?” Andrea asked.
“Six centuries ago when he was alive, he had the power to see the future.”
“Then why didn’t he see his own future of getting killed?”
“Because he can only see the future of others, not his own.”
I sighed. “Oh, so he can see our future?”
“He tells us things, when it is important. Talk to him, maybe he tells you something which can help us to get rid of Aivor.”
“Why are you doing this now? You could have done it earlier and finished up Aivor.”
“It’s not like that we didn’t try. He only answers when the time and situation are right. Try now, perhaps this is the right time. You are a rare child,” he shrugged. “Maybe he answers you.”
“How can I summon him?”
“Just call him. His name is Jensen Mills.”
I looked around. “Jensen Mills, are you here?” I said.
Nothing happened.
“Where
is he?” Dad said.
“You have to believe that he will come,” Michael said.
I closed my eyes. “Jensen Mills, I call on you.”
“Hello, Ross,” a voice echoed in the auditorium.
I looked around. “Is it Jensen?”
“Yes, child. I was waiting for this moment for centuries,” The voice said.
My eyes widened. “What?”
“Yes, now it’s the time of beginning?”
“Beginning of what?”
“Beginning of a new era.”
A line etched between my eyebrows. “I am sorry, I didn’t understand. What?”
“You don’t need to understand, child. You will understand when the time comes,” the voice replied.
“Michael said you can see the future. So did we get the seeds?”
He laughed. “If I tell you it will change the future.”
“Change the future?”
“Yes, it will cause a ripple effect and you would never get the seeds. So, it’s for the best if you don’t know.”
I pressed my lips. “Okay, I get it, but Michael was saying that you can help us?”
“I know what you want.”
“Then tell us.”
“Bristy has a voodoo doll, she gets energy from it. You have to destroy it in order to weaken her magic.”
“Voodoo doll?” I chuckled. “She has a doll?”
“Yes, it is very old. Her powers come from it, that’s why she is so powerful, powerful enough to kill Tanner.”
“Where do we find it?”
“It’s in her home’s basement. You have to burn it down.”
We can weaken her. I thought it’s our chance. If we do it, we can use her to fix Aaron.
“Okay, then after that we can torture her to fix Aaron.”
“No, you can’t. Even if you make her agree, she won’t be able to fix your brother as her magic will be weakened by burning the voodoo doll.”
“And if she gets her power again, she will kill us,” I said in a disappointing voice.
“Yes, but if we capture her, Aivor won’t be a problem for us,” Michael said. “We would have leverage, we would have her. They won’t mess with us until we have Bristy captured.”
I looked at Michael. “Can we get in her home without being detected?”
Michael shrugged. “We can try.”
“She doesn’t stay in her home at noon and evening. Only two men guard her house. They stay outside the gate. She has huge walls around her house, you can’t jump in neither you can fight the guards. If they see you an alarm goes on which sends a direct message to Bristy. It will depend on how much she is far away to get back to her home. If she is near, she will arrive before you could do something. So as soon as the alarm goes on, you will have a little bit of time to get inside, burn the voodoo doll and get out of there,” the voice said.
“It’s too dangerous,” Michael said. “If she comes early she will kill everyone.”
“No, she won’t. We will hurry.”
“And one more thing, burning the voodoo doll doesn’t mean that she will stay weak forever,” the voice spoke again. “The doll will magically regenerate itself and go back to her. It takes about two weeks to regenerate. So, you all have to kill all the descendants and get the seeds within two weeks.”
I looked at Michael. “What do you think? We can do it within two weeks?”
“Don’t ask me, it’s on you,” he scoffed. “If you skip the emotional drama of killing the descendants, then it can be done pretty fast.”
My eyebrows squeezed together to form a crease. “Do you think it’s funny?”
“You are asking me?” He scoffed. “Have you forgotten how you became emotional to kill the first descendant? If you keep on doing that, I will have to make you understand every time how it is important. It takes a lot of time, and if you keep crying like a little girl after killing the descendants, someone will catch us and we will have to solve the police problems,” Michael raised his voice.
I grabbed his collars. “You selfish heartless bastard,” my face turned red. “What do you know about pain? Huh?”
“Believe me kid, I know a lot about pain, a lot that you can’t even imagine,” he raised his chin and clenched his jaw. “It’s bigger than you and everyone. Stop being sentimental every time.”
I pulled out my hands from Michael’s collars.
“I know you sympathize for everyone, child,” the voice said. “But if you don’t unlock the seeds, blood will be spilled again. This war has been going on for six centuries. You have to end it.”
I nodded.
“Promise me, you won’t hesitate,” Michael said.
I paused for some seconds and then tightened my jaw. “I promise.”
Michael inhaled deeply and put his hands inside his pockets. “We will go to burn the voodoo doll tomorrow.”
CHAPTER 18
It was a rainy day. The clouds covered the whole city since morning. I woke up, brushed my teeth and took a bath. One of Michael’s men brought breakfast to my room. I ate, dressed up and went downstairs to meet every one. Michael was sitting on a rocking chair taking a sip from his coffee. Mark’s body was in a coffin in the middle. Dad was staring at it mourning him.
I walked up to dad. “Are you okay?” I asked.
He nodded. “We can’t let Aivors win.”
“I know.”
“He worked for the seeds his whole life, and what did he get?” Dad fought back his tears.
I grabbed his shoulder. “We will get it, dad. For him, we will complete our goal, we will.”
He nodded lightly. “We still have a long way to go.”
“When will we leave?”
“It will take time,” Michael said. “Dave isn’t ready.”
“Where is he?”
“He is dressing up.”
I rolled my eyes. “We aren’t going to a party.”
“Yeah, I know,” Dave said. He was coming towards me.
“What took you so long?”
“I woke up late, man,” he checked his watch. “We have to go at noon, its morning now.”
“I don’t want to wait anymore,” I said.
“It’s 10’o o'clock, Ross,” Michael said. “Don’t you remember what Jensen said?”
“I know but we can go there early, look around and plan everything.”
“No, we don’t have to plan anything,” Dave said. “We keep the guards down, alarm goes on, you and I go inside, burn the voodoo doll and come out as soon as we can, that’s the plan.”
“I will take a big army,” Michael said. “So don’t worry about slowing down Bristy, if somehow she arrives early we will handle it.”
I scoffed. “Your big army will go to sleep as soon as Bristy waves her magic hand in the air. Even Tanner couldn’t take her out.”
“No, we will use the element of surprise. She can’t take us all at once, if she doesn’t see us coming.”
I sat down on a nearby sofa and looked at Michael. “Then give me a coffee, we have two hours to waste.”
***************
At noon we drove to Bristy’s home. Tanner flew and followed our cars. Like Michael said, he took a lot of men with him, about fifty Savors with guns and rifles. That was enough to do the job.
Bristy’s house was a typical American house with a garden inside it. Two guards were waiting outside the gate like Jensen told us. We parked our cars a couple of meters away and went to knock them out, but they were not the only ones guarding the house. I saw two big dogs roaming around.
“We can take them out at the same time,” Michael said.
“Really?” I said.
“Yeah,” Michael looked at his men. “On three, one, two, three.”
Michael’s men shot the guards and the dogs at the same time. The alarm was triggered.
“Go, go. Take Dave with you,” Michael said.
Dave and I went inside the area. We broke the main door and entered the house. Her house
had a lot of luxurious stuff. She had a golden dressing table, some paintings hanging in the wall which I didn’t understand, and some antiques and statues inside a big rectangular orange colored showcase.
“Find the basement,” I said.
We split up to find the basement. After a minute, Dave shouted. “I found it. It’s in the northwest side of the house.”
I went inside the basement and we started searching for the voodoo doll. There were some weapons hanging on the walls and two cabinets beside it. I checked both of them, but they were empty.
“Damn it! Where is it?” Dave said, closing the cabinets. “There are only weapons here.”
I rubbed my chin. “She might have buried it somewhere.”
“The basement is beneath her house. Why would she bury it in the basement? If she would have wanted to bury it, she could have done it anywhere,” Dave bit his lower lip. “It doesn’t make any sense. We are missing something.”
I looked around. “We have to hurry. Bristy will be here in a while,” I said.
We searched everything again, the whole basement, but there was no voodoo doll to be found.
“Aah, where did she hide it?” I punched the opened cabinet. “We are running out of time.”
The wall of the empty cabinet sounded different. I knocked it again.
“It’s hollow inside,” I put my ear on the door and knocked it.
“What?” Dave said.
“It’s hollow inside. It is hidden here,” I said, examining the door. “We have to break it, bring me the axe hanging on the wall.”
Dave handed me the axe. I broke the cabinet’s wall with it. There was a small room at the other side of the cabinet. It was very dark, Dave turned on his flashlight and we stepped inside. The voodoo doll was on a table in the middle with a circle drawn around it.
I stepped forward to take the doll. “Wait!” Dave grabbed my hand.
“What?” I stopped.
“She sealed it with some magic. If you go and take the doll something nasty may happen.”
“We have to take the chance, we don’t have much time,” I said.