by Alexis Batty
“I’ve lost everything Ash,” I sob.
“You’ve lost a lot Buttercup, but you haven’t lost everything. Jacqueline is still alive. They’re doing what they can,” soothes Ash. “I don’t know if she’ll make it or not, but I do know that everything humanly and magically possible is being done. Also, you still have me. I won’t leave you ever.”
Ash holds me as I cry. So much of my life has changed in such a short time that I barely know what life used to be like. I can’t imagine how I felt or acted before being attacked. I don’t know how I made it through the bad times before Ash. I try not to imagine what life is going to be like now.
I have a small chance that my mom will pull through, but it’s hard to imagine her without my dad. They’ve been true partners my entire life and then some. The destruction of that partnership is my fault.
“My mom won’t be safe at the hospital. The Order can find her there. We have to get them to move her here. She can’t be left there vulnerable like that,” I said urging Ash to understand.
Ash places his hands on the sides of my face. “Gwen, she’ll have bodyguards positioned in her room and a surveillance team in the hospital sweeping it. Arrangements have already been made,” said Ash slowly.
“That’s not enough.” I begin to panick.
“Yes, it is. Kyle’s been hacking into every member’s memories. Singularly, none of them knew every one, but combined they did. There’s only one member missing, and the top trackers I know are on the hunt for her. Kyle was even in the woods tonight. He went through Juliana’s head. We waited to interfere until he was done. No one thought it was going to take that long to get through to you. You were so far gone in your fury that you couldn’t hear any of us.” Ash shudders at the memory. “We couldn’t even approach you. There was a barrier. Strange shadows lashed out at anyone one who got too close. I don’t know what happened, but it just suddenly dropped.”
I wrap my arms around his neck and pull his lips to mine. It’s a frantic kiss filled with fear. Our lips just mash together. Ash holds me close as we sink to the ground. I’m too weak to hold myself up anymore. We sit there for several minutes.
Ash’s stomach growls and breaks the silence. I can’t help but chuckle.
“Come on let’s eat something. Neither of us has eaten since yesterday, and I’m famished. Now that I have you back, again, safe and sound, my stomach has untwisted.” Ash sighs happily closing his eyes in what I can only imagine must be ecstasy. He picks me up and places me on a stool.
I watch as he starts pulling piles of food out of the fridge. There’s sandwich meat, condiments, cheese, mashed potatoes, steak, and chicken. “Ok, what do you want?”
“That’s a lot of food. Why in the world did you pull so much out?” I ask amazed. “I don’t even think I can stomach eating yet.”
“In the past twenty-four hours, I have burned four times the number of calories I have taken in. I need to eat a lot to make up for it, or I’ll get sick. Now, what do you think you can eat? Pick something Gwen even if all you can do is pick at it,” orders Ash as he starts building himself a sandwich.
I look at all the food and realize I am hungry, but psychologically I can’t bring myself to take a bite. “Mashed potatoes I guess.”
Ash hands me a bowl and turns to get me a spoon.
Really the only thing that sounds tempting is a gallon of chocolate ice cream to drown my sorrows in. I watch as the bowl of mashed potatoes turns into chocolate ice cream. Binawalka must be feeling guilty to change the food so quickly.
Ash turns with a spoon in his hand. He hands me the spoon and smiles. Before I can dig into the ice cream, a watery bird appears before me. I’ve seen something like this before at the council.
Instinctively, I reach out and touch the bird. The water ripples like a pebble dropped in a pond. The bird starts speaking in Jared’s gravely voice. “Jacqueline will be ok. They’re keeping her here for observation for the night. She woke up for a minute to ask about you. After we told her you were safe and sound, she went back to sleep. It will take some time for her to fully recover physically. We aren’t sure how she stands mentally as of yet. Will keep you posted.”
I erupt into tears again, this time it’s happy tears. The counter is cold as it presses against my forehead. I feel Ash rubbing my back whispering something to me. He’s whispering so quietly that I can’t hear him over my crying. It doesn’t matter what he’s saying because my mom’s alive. She’s strong. We’ll figure out and work through any problems she may have.
23
It’s been a month since my father’s funeral. Many things have changed since then. I met my cousins and their families. My mom moved back to her house.
Right now, I’m dealing with a problem of my own. Dalya Vanier is the last one of the Koesmoes Order, and she’s still at large. Her family had no idea about her involvement. Kyle had searched everyone’s minds and found that each of them have a different image of what she looks like. Vainer witches are known as the best illusionists.
Darius managed to get into the cult through Dalya. His talent is seeing things and people as they really are. He’s immune to illusions. Because of this ability, he’s the leader of a specialized team sent to find her.
I snort at the thought of the “specialized team.” That’s what they’re calling themselves. Xerxes, Kyle, Willow, and Darius are out hunting her down. It’s like watching a group of five-year-olds being told that they are now officially spies or pirates.
Right now, I’m taking my walk around the gardens. Ash went back to work today. I don’t know what to do with my time. Occasionally, Nicholas comes over with to teach me some shadow stuff, but we usually end up talking about other things. It’s nice. Oona comes sometimes and tells me stories about Ash. Nicholas tells me stories about Piper. I still don’t know how he ended up adopted into the Rafferty family. It’s something he won’t talk about. Oona doesn’t even know the story.
I end up in front of the house. I’ve been avoiding it. It’s just too painful for me. I stand still. There are various courses of action I can take. I can turn tail and run, or I can try burning them down again, but I doubted that my magic is strong enough to actually destroy them. The only other choice I can see is to face the problem head-on and deal with my feelings.
The black roses had been my father’s favorite. He was always bringing cuttings inside and displaying them on the kitchen table. I can barely stand to look at them anymore. They constantly reminded me of him.
If the bush is going to survive, I’m going to have to change them. I pluck one of the roses and head for the pond. It’s one of the few places where I feel at peace. Staring at the rose, I watch as the tips of the petals change from black to blood red.
“Dalya has been found. Xerxes and Kyle have her secured and are waiting for you,” said Darius from behind me.
I drop the rose into the pond and watch it float away. “Good.” I turn ready to put an end to the terror and horror that had stolen so much away from me. I’m going to get my life back. It doesn’t matter what needs to be done.
At this point, I’m ready to do anything required of me. The pain I have endured has made me stronger and more determined. I wrap myself in shadows as I follow Darius to my freedom. The shadows hid my smile, but that’s ok. It’s a little too wicked for anyone else to see.
Nothing is going to stop me.
The End...
Letter To the Reader:
Ok, so second attempt at writing this since the first one was deleted on accident. First of all thanks for buying and reading my book. I have a fondness for my readers they’re what keep me going.
LOL. No you’re not. Sorry, but I will always be writing even if no one reads my work. Why? It’s ingrained in my blood, DNA, or maybe it’s a habit, probably the habit one. Anyways, even though my readers aren’t what keep me writing, I am still grateful and love you guys.
Want to know a little secret about how I write? Well, I don’t write by cha
pters (did you think it was going to be a serious secret lol nope). I just write and write and then have to go back and create chapters.
To make sure that my chapters make sense (I really hope they do), I give each chapter a title. If the title works, I go back and turn all the titles into numbers. However, I started thinking you guys might want to see the names so I took a screenshot of the names and will add it after this letter.
Also, another secret, I create secret Pinterest boards for my projects (I have 14 I’m working on right now maybe more). If there’s interest in it, I can release those boards. I might add in a few facts that won’t make it into the story. The board has character inspirations, writing prompts, house inspirations, and clothing/costume type things in it.
Also, also, the quote used with the picture of Ash in the notebook (this one “We build deep and loving family relationships by doing simple things together, like family dinner and family home evening and by just having fun together. In family relationships love is really spelled t-i-m-e, time. Taking time for each other is the key for harmony at home. We talk with, rather than about, each other. We learn from each other, and we appreciate our differences as well as our commonalities.”) wasn’t written by me. It felt weird to cite the author in the context of the story, but I have to cite it cause it’s a wonderful sentiment. This was said by Dieter F. Uchtdorf.
I hope you continue to read my stuff, but if not thanks for reading this one. Now the titles of the chapters (FYI the Spooks one is for the title page). Also, I ended up breaking up a couple of chapters even more, so there aren’t as many titles here as there ended up being chapters.
Bio if you are actually into that:
Alexis Batty has been writing since she was ten She is an avid reader. Many authors inspired her to begin writing her first stories at the age of twelve. As time went on, Alexis became more experienced not only in her writing but also in book cover designs. Her writing inspired her to create images that perfectly fit her story. She self-published her first short story “The Woods” in December of 2017. “Spooks” has been a work in progress for the past four years and is her first short novel.
Bonus Content
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Selling the Business
“We specialize in helping those who can’t go through proper channels for information or help,” starts Fred. “The assignments we take on vary from search and rescue, recovery, and information gathering. The only thing we refuse to do is assassinations.”
“I know Fred. I used to work for you, or have you gotten so old you’ve forgotten? I have no interest in killing. What about the teams currently working for you? Are they willing to stay on?”
“Yes. They’re all aware of what is going on right now and are willing to give you a test run. You should know that they will leave if you don’t treat them well enough. Some of them wanted to be here to meet you, but we told them no,” chuckles Jacqueline.
“I’m a little surprised Ulric. You never showed an interest in taking over before,” said Fred.
“Well recently, I’ve been missing the old days. I’ve missed doing work like this. Retirement got boring, but it was probably a bad idea to retire to begin with.” Ulric smiled. His black eyes burned with excitement.
“Yes. Demons tend to live quiet a long time. I was shocked when told us you were retiring.”
Ulric laughs. “I’ve missed you my dear. If only you’d let me steal you away from this old fart, I could show you so much.”
“Most of it horrifying I’m sure.”
“Yeah probably,” Ulric shrugged.
“Hey aren’t you older than me technically,” argued Fred.
“Wow. Delayed reaction much? Well, if you were to convert my demon years into human years-”
“There isn’t a way to do that,” complained Fred.
“I had you convinced there was at one point.”
“Yeah, when I was nineteen years old.”
Ulric and Jacqueline laugh soon Fred joins in. The three of them have known each other for a long time. This meeting is just a formality. By the end of the night, Ulric will have the keys to building. The employees already threw a going away party. After tonight, Fred and Jacqueline will be officially retired.