by Ho, Jo
Shooting a look at the door, she hurried to Tyler’s bedside and picked up the glass. Raising it to her nose, she gave it an experimental sniff. Instead of the alcoholic smell she expected, there was a fruity sweetness to the scent the drink gave off. It wasn’t like anything else she had encountered before but it seemed pleasant enough. Shrugging, she took a sip of the drink.
She was immediately hit by a wave of energy so intense that she gasped.
She took another sip, bigger this time, just to check and felt even more energized than before. Lowering the glass, Cassie stared at it hard.
What the heck was this stuff?
Chapter 3
Marley arrived outside Paul’s office full of trepidation.
Since waking, all Marley could think of was coming to see her dad. Last night’s questioning had left her feeling weirded out, like something was wrong but she couldn’t put a finger on it.
Although it was the weekend, she knew he would be there. Being only the second week of his job, he had mentioned wanting to get a head start on work last night.
Balancing the two coffees and bag of donuts she had brought with her, Marley walked into the office. Her dad sat behind his desk, several journals spread open before him. He looked up at her arrival, a smile spreading over his face, though Marley couldn’t help but notice the dark circles ringing his eyes.
“Two days in a row? Aren’t you breaking the law of cool kids?” he said.
“You’re the only one who has ever thought I was cool, Dad.”
“Nonsense. Don’t you remember that toy panda you had? What was his name, Bam Bam? He thought you were the coolest,” Paul grinned.
Marley carefully set the coffees down on the desk and unrolled the top of the paper bag, giving him his choice of the half dozen or so donuts inside. Ignoring his question, she gestured to his face. “What happened, you didn’t sleep well?”
“New bed, new apartment. I’m sure I’ll break it in soon,” he answered, reaching for one of the coffees.
“How was the movie last night?” Marley asked, remembering that he had watched one of those random art-house numbers he loved so much after she had left him.
“Lots of existential angst and scenes without any dialog at all, just how I like them. You don’t know what you missed.”
“Except I do,” Marley replied with a shudder. “You say you love me yet look at what you try to put me through.”
Giving her a wink, he chose a chocolate-covered donut, picking it up with a napkin. She waited until he took a bite, chewing and nodding happily.
“So, about last night…” Marley began. “I just wanted to make sure things were OK with us.”
Paul swallowed, looking surprised. “What would make you think they weren’t?”
“I don’t know. It just seemed like you didn’t like my questions about the family.”
Paul lowered the donut, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand. “They came out of the blue is all. I don’t really think about my family all that often.”
Marley picked up a napkin, fidgeting with it. “So you don’t have a problem talking about them?”
He shrugged his thick shoulders as his brow furrowed with lines. “Like I said, I don’t have much contact with my dad.”
“What about his parents though, or my other grandparents? Not mom’s… but your mom’s parents? I’ve never even met them.”
“That’s because they passed away,” Paul answered as if she already knew this fact.
“Did she have siblings? Where are they? I’d like to get in touch with them. Not to visit, maybe email or Facebook if they use it.”
Paul’s hand raised up. “Whoa. Where is all this sudden interest coming from? It can’t just be for this school project.”
It was Marley’s turn to frown. “Why can’t it? I know nothing about anyone else in our family. How have I managed to get to this point in my life without knowing anything? Don’t you find that strange?”
Paul’s head shook from side to side. “No. We just never really talked about them since we didn’t have contact with them. We’re not the only ones who have fallen out of contact with their family.”
“No, but at least other people know why that’s happened. I don’t even know who they are,” Marley’s voice went up a notch as the stress started getting to her. Until this moment, she hadn’t realized how not knowing any of this was a problem, but it was. Without this knowledge, she felt groundless, like she didn’t belong.
Paul’s mouth tightened into a thin line, a sure sign that he was becoming annoyed. “All you ever had to do was ask, Marley.”
“I am, right now!” Marley cried, having to resist the childish urge to stamp her foot.
“Now is not a good time for me, unfortunately. I’ve got things to do, and while your visit was welcome, I need to be getting on with them,” he replied with an edge to his voice that she had never heard before. As if to prove how ‘busy’ he had suddenly become, Paul got to his feet, leading her towards the door.
Stunned by his curt and sudden dismissal, Marley didn’t react until she was standing outside. As Paul went to close his door, she stopped it.
“Why do I get the feeling that it’s never going to be a good time to talk about them?” she asked, unable to keep the bitterness from her voice.
“I can’t help how you feel, Marley. You of all people know that,” Paul answered as the door closed gently but firmly on her.
Feeling the sting of tears in her eyes, Marley left, wondering what on earth had just happened.
Chapter 4
Marley sat cross-legged on Eve’s bed as she took the glass of water Eve offered her.
She, Cassie, and Tyler had arrived a few minutes ago to find Eve more stressed out than usual. She tried to hide it, but Marley had noticed that her eyes seemed haunted. She kept glancing every which way as if she was afraid that something would jump out at them — which, if recent events had shown, was a complete possibility.
Eve finished handing drinks around the group. Everyone took one but Tyler, who sipped from her own bottle of water. Kicking off her flip-flops, Eve took a seat beside Marley, who was itching to ask what they were all doing here. She had better manners than to just blurt the question out, however, even when her thoughts were only half there, focused on her recent fight with her dad as they were. Eve turned to Tyler.
“How was your day with your sister?” she asked.
Tyler’s eyes darkened in response. She paused, biting on the corner of her lip before she answered. “It started well, but then she almost collapsed in my arms.”
Marley gasped, horrified, this being the first she had heard of this. “Is she OK?”
Eve and Cassie had similar responses though Marley didn’t hear them. Tyler played with the cap of her water bottle as she spoke. “Ally has a kidney problem. Marley knows, but I haven’t mentioned it to the rest of you yet, mostly because it’s not something I like to think about.” Marley knew she must be thinking of her parents at that moment as her face turned stark and pained. “She has to have dialysis nearly every day. Sometimes it exhausts her. I guess yesterday was one of those days, except she didn’t tell anyone how she was feeling because she wanted to see me.”
Even though it wasn’t her fault, her guilt was palpable. “You can’t blame yourself for that: you didn’t know,” Eve said surprising Marley by the firmness in her voice.
“Yeah,” Marley echoed her sentiments. “Is she OK?”
“As far as I know. I spoke to her doctor after he saw her. He said it’s normal, though frightening. I just wish I wasn’t so far away. I feel so helpless.” Her shoulders sagged as she physically slumped.
Marley wanted to offer her some small comfort, but the reality was she couldn’t. Tyler had already been through the horror of losing her parents, and now there was this to deal with. It made Marley’s problems seem petty by comparison.
“If you ever need help with anything for her, let me know,” Cassie offered, her f
ace earnest. It wasn’t just a platitude for her, she really meant it. Realizing this, Tyler smiled at her. She wasn’t in a position to turn her down, and pride didn’t factor when it was for the health of a loved one.
“Thanks,” Tyler said simply, feeling a little better about things. It was a weight off her shoulders to know she could ask Cassie for financial help if Ally needed it, which, with the way things currently were with healthcare, was a real possibility. “What did you want to talk to us about?” Tyler asked Eve, done with the personal subject for now.
Opening her laptop, Eve pulled up a website of Trinity Church. She clicked through to a page with the mural on it. “While you all were busy last night, I did some digging around… look what I found.” She pulled up another window, minimizing it so that it sat beside the information of the mural. “The mural was created at almost the exact same time as when the Salem Witch Trials ended. I think that’s too big a coincidence.”
She raised her eyes to each of them.
“I think it’s possible that our ancestors might be connected to the Seals.”
Chapter 5
MASSACHUSETTS BAY COLONY, 1693
The Four stood side-by-side as the angry mob advanced.
Though they were born of different mothers and fathers with bloodlines that stretched across many continents, they considered each other sisters.
Together, they had traveled the country healing the needy for more than a decade, going wherever they were needed using their magic only to help. In return, they only ever asked for room and board, or supplies. Never money, for they would not benefit from others' misfortunes. They lived as a family, sharing their lives and magic.
And they would die together if that was what was required of them.
Behind them, Ben, the new father whose baby they had recently delivered, snatched an ancient ax into his hands. A large crack ran the length of the wooden handle though the blade was as sharp as the day it had been made. He and his wife did not own much, but what they had they took care of, and at a moment’s notice, it was the best he could do.
Having lost one of his legs to a childhood disease, he knew he was unfairly matched against the forty-strong mob who were coming towards the edge of the forest now, though he had no other choice in the matter. He was determined to fight for his beloved wife Sofia, and their new daughter who they had named Isabella. He would also fight for the four women who had saved his wife and child from a labor that would have gone terribly wrong without their help.
Mary and her sisters had been staying with the young couple for several days now. They had helped the overwhelmed father with household chores while the exhausted new mother recovered from the birth. Had they known that this would happen, they would have left the poor family alone. Now it was too late to get away from the rapidly approaching mob, whose insults and jeers peppered the night air, filling it with their hate.
The witch hunts had begun a few months ago. From out of nowhere, a council had sprung up, created by a handful of “concerned citizens” who had suddenly decreed that witches and their powers were a threat to the world. They riled up the locals, scaremongering with their exaggerated and often completely fabricated stories until the uneducated villagers ran scared.
Of the instigators, there was never any sign.
They would appear mysteriously to make their accusations, pointing their fingers at innocent people in cases more often than not, but seemed to always disappear whenever The Four had tried to find them to explain themselves, to make them see that there was nothing to fear from them.
But now it had come to this.
After weeks of chasing them, the council had finally discovered where they were. Torches lit up both the night and the angry faces of the mob, which consisted of not just men, but also women and even children. They scurried across the ground, swarming around them, armed with daggers and farm tools, whatever they could get their hands on to use as weapons.
Mary, the unspoken leader of The Four, looked at her sisters, conflicted with feeling.
“If we defend ourselves, we risk hurting the children.”
“But if we do nothing, they will kill us all,” said Catherine, the youngest of the group and the most impetuous. Her eyes slid pointedly towards Ben, who huddled protectively with his wife and child.
“Not immediately,” Esther said quietly. “They will have to trial us first.” Esther had always been the wisest, although her quietness, brown skin, and freedom made people uncomfortable, often mistaking her for a slave.
Tabitha stared at her, instinctively knowing where her thoughts lay. It wasn’t one of her powers, but Tabitha had always been an empathetic person, able to know how a person or animal felt. “You are thinking we should let them capture us?”
“It might be the only way to flush out whoever is behind all of this. If we do not do this, think how many more people will be killed?” Mary said.
“She is right. Hundreds have been murdered already, we cannot stand by and let them harm more innocents,” Esther agreed, looking at Sofia cradling her babe.
“But to just hand ourselves over to our enemies… Look how they hate us!” Catherine cried, unable to fathom the thought. Catherine loved her sisters more than anything else in the world and every one of her instincts screamed at her now to protect them.
Mary knew how anguished she was, how they all felt. She felt it was her responsibility to keep them safe, but with this decision, she wasn’t certain how things would play out. However, she also knew they didn’t have any other choice. The flames from the torches grew ever brighter, casting their flickering black shadows onto the ground.
Reaching out, she stretched out her hand, palm upwards, and waited as each of her sisters laid their hands on top of hers.
“This will not be the end, my sisters. Our work is not done. There is still time for us.”
She looked at them and smiled, her love shining through to them. Resigned with what they must do, the Four were preparing to leave the small shack when Sofia’s horrified gasp stopped them dead.
“No, Ben! Come back!” came her anguished cry.
Mary’s head snapped towards the door but it was already open, swinging on its hinges from the force of Ben’s exit. She heard him roar a desperate yet determined cry as he ran towards the crowd using his ax as a crutch.
He was raised as a useless cripple, abhorred by his own family, his parents, but he would be damned if he was going to die as one. With his very last breath, he would fight these hateful people who wished his loved ones' harm.
He would die a hero.
Plowing into the crowd, he swung the ax in a wide arc. They were not ready for it, not expecting a cripple such as him to reach them so soon. The blade whistled through the air, ripping through the stomachs of the two men directly in front of him. Blood sprayed the area, splattering his face and the only shirt he owned, but Ben roared through it all, his fear driving him on. Readying the ax, he went to swing it again when a man twice his size blocked his swing, wrestling the ax from him as easily as if he were taking a toy from a child. Blind hate blazed from his eyes as he swung the ax at Ben.
The blade kept sharp by his own hands, tore into his neck.
Ben screamed out in pain as blood poured out of the wound, spilling down his chest. Raising stunned eyes to his attacker, Ben had a moment to take in his murderer as the faces of his beloved wife and child entered his mind when the killing blow landed on the side of his head.
He was dead in an instant.
Mary’s hand flew to her mouth in horror. Even with their powers, there was nothing they could do to reverse death. Sofia had come to the door beside her, but she sagged against her now and would have fallen if not for Ester and Tabitha, holding her up.
“Ben, no…” she wailed, broken as Isabella also started to cry, disturbed by the pain she could feel but not understand. Mary gripped Sofia’s shoulders, knowing she only had a few moments to stop another tragedy.
“I am sorry,
Sofia, but you must save yourself and your child now. Stay here until they have taken us away. Do not leave this house!”
Sofia heard her words but could not tear her eyes away from the still figure of her husband lying on the ground. Far from being satiated with the death they had already caused, the mob bayed for more blood. Refusing to allow that to happen, Mary took a forceful step outside as her sisters flanked her side.
At their appearance, the mob hesitated as the horror stories they had heard of these demonic women filled their minds. Holding hands, the Four walked towards them, their faces grim. Tabitha could not stop herself from gazing down at Ben’s fallen figure and the blood that now seeped into the ground around him. A sob caught in her throat as she felt Mary squeeze her hand, offering her the strength she needed to continue. She tore her eyes away from Ben, letting them settle on the face of her sister. Mary smiled at her, as she smiled back, echoing that love and trust as the mob swarmed around and captured them.
As they were forced away, Mary gazed over her shoulder to find Sofia, still cradling her babe, bent over Ben, her tears mingling with his blood.
Chapter 6
“It makes sense if you think about it,” Christian said from behind Marley’s shoulder, scaring the crap out of her, as she hadn’t seen his arrival.
“Can’t you wear a bell or something?” she griped, trying to still the thudding in her chest. At the others perplexed looks, she offered a single word as an explanation, “Christian,” to nods of understanding from the girls.
Their arrangement might be unorthodox, but they were beginning to get used to it.
“It might go some way to explaining why your powers came into play when they did, just as Michael was at the church to destroy the First Seal. If your ancestor’s created them before they were killed, maybe they also put a spell in place so that you would come into your own powers if the world ever needed you again,” Christian continued as if there hadn’t been any interruption.