JD and Mr. Blackwell stood at the long folding table against the wall where he had rolled out the plans marking the changes he wanted. What took Rick only a few minutes to explain over the phone, Mr. Blackwell took an hour.
“That bell tower is original to this schoolhouse,” Mr. Blackwell explained, “and it has to stay. The original bell was stolen in the 1980’s, so we’re going to have to order a new bell, to look just like the original one. Do you understand?”
JD took in a deep breath and smiled tightly at Mr. Blackwell, “Yes sit. I understand. The new bell needs to look like the original bronze bell.” They looked at each other for a moment, Mr. Blackwell squinting at her as if he wasn’t sure she was being facetious. JD couldn’t help herself and said, “Do you by chance happen to have a picture of the original bronze bell so we can make sure that the new we will be ordering looks just like the 1916 original that was stolen in the 1980s?”
Mr. Blackwell sat up straight, “I do not. But I’m sure with a little research you can figure it out.”
“Of course,” she said as sweetly as she could. Just then, Matthew came into the office carrying a sack and a large milkshake. He nodded to Mr. Blackwell and set the food down on JD’s, “Ma’am, here’s your lunch. Is there anything else we can do for you?” he asked. JD fixed him with a wide-eyed stare, not sure what he was up to.
“No. Thank you,” she said quickly, silently wishing him to leave.
Matthew lowered his head in response and then looked at Mr. Blackwell, “Nice to see you again sir. I didn’t get a chance to introduce myself earlier,” he extended his hand in greeting. Mr. Blackwell squinted at Matthew and then JD, but accepted Matthew’s hand.
“Your project couldn’t be in better hands,” Matthew said with a smile, shaking his hand with both of his, “Ms. Halstead here runs a tight ship and I know you’ll be very happy with the results.”
JD looked at Matthew and then Mr. Blackwell mortified at the interaction and dreading the worse. She saw Mr. Blackwell blink once, twice, three times as if confused.
“She’s doing a good job,” Matthew said earnestly, then stepped away, not breaking eye contact with Mr. Blackwell. Then, Matthew was out the door and Mr. Blackwell just stood there as if he couldn’t believe what had just happened.
“Mr. Blackwell?” JD ventured.
Mr. Blackwell turned to her slowly, “Yes. Uhm, where was I?” he saw the plans on the table and bent over them and quickly pointed out the rest of the items he wanted changed, which included bird’s eye maple wood for the flooring in the great room instead of pine and a wrought iron fencing instead of a stone wall around the courtyard area on the street side of the building. He spoke to her without a hint of condescension in his voice. When he was finished, she told him, “I’ll write up the change orders for you to sign by the end of the week.” He only nodded.
Before he left, he reached out and shook JD’s hand. “Good job,” he said gruffly and left without another word. She followed him outside, stunned and confused at his sudden change in her behavior. She watched him drive away, this time he left the parking lot slowly. What had Matthew done? She wondered, but the thought quickly left as she returned to the office and ate her lunch of chicken salad and double chocolate chip milkshake with strawberries.
After lunch, JD made the necessary change orders for the contracts and wrote her list of to-do items for the following day. By the time she was finished, it was just getting dark. She stepped out of her trailer as a familiar blue truck pulled into the parking lot. Nathan stepped out of the truck and hesitated when he saw her.
“Mr. Parker,” she said, greeting him.
Nathan nodded in response. “Ms. Halstead.” He walked toward her slowly, reluctantly.
“What brings you here at this late hour?”
“Heard you had a vagrant problem. I was asked to keep an eye on things here,” Nathan replied.
“You’re the security guard I called for this morning?”
He nodded.
“I thought you were the county building inspector,” she said accusingly.
Nathan shook his head as he said, “Never claimed to be an inspector.”
JD felt her face flush. “I guess I was mistaken.” They looked at each other for a moment more in awkward silence before JD ventured, “Well, just don’t go in the building without a hard hat and steel-toed boots, okay?”
“Yes ma’am,” Nathan replied.
JD looked away and went to her car. She glanced back at him as he still stood there, watching her. Driving away, her thoughts of Nathan quickly slipped from her mind, to be replaced with where she should grab dinner.
***
When Matthew left the office, he knew JD would be occupied awhile longer with the old man who was so bent on making JD look bad. That irked Matthew. He hated bullies. What he did was the least he could do for her.
He quickly went to the schoolhouse and slipped inside. With his crew still at lunch, he knew he only had a few moments to make contact. Within the gloom of the building, he approached the tarp-covered, ancient wooden box. Pulling aside the tarp, he gazed upon it. It seemed a dead thing, cold and hard. At least it seemed that way until he ran his hand over its surface. Then it pulsed to life. A grim smile spread over his features as the intricate lines across the box’s aged surface began to glow red. A sudden bolt of red fire jumped out at him, snaking around his body, down his arms and flashed brilliantly at his hands. Matthew cried out. He could smell his flesh burn as the end of the light danced and sputtered across his skin. Just as suddenly as the light had appeared, he was shoved backward violently. He landed hard on the packed earth, his left-hand smoking from the burn.
He looked down at the smoking, charred flesh and saw that the light had carved more symbols into the back of his left hand, another circle around the first and a series of tiny lettering along its edge. A matching one ebbed to red hot life on the box before him.
A cold sweat dampened his forehead as he looked up, ignoring the throbbing pain. The carvings on the box continued to glow like hot embers pulsing on fire-blackened wood just before crumbling to ash. Matthew watched as the red glow grew brighter along some of the lines as it formed letters in the deep carvings of the wood. It was a question.
“Soon, I promise,” he responded quietly. The words flashed and were replaced with another message.
He cringed. “No. I haven’t accomplished it yet.” The red lines switched around, revealing another question.
“Yes, Master. I am your servant. But I am under close watch and must be careful, or they’ll remove me, and I will be useless to you,” he answered quickly.
The words vanished. The glow died away, and once more, the box was still. Matthew heard Mr. Blackwell’s truck pull away, and he quickly recovered the box with the tarp and jogged upstairs to continue working.
Chapter 19
The rest of the week seemed to fly by as Matthew and his crew worked, rapidly demolishing the interior rooms, removing the warped and damaged flooring, and cleaning up the site. JD forced herself to focus on her work. Matthew had a deadline to meet, so he kept his distance until the night before his job was to be finished. Matthew seemed strangely distant when he showed up on his motorcycle to pick her up at her apartment.
Without a word, he drove her to the diner in Torrey where they had first eaten together. He was silent during dinner and ate with disinterest. JD nudged his foot with her toe. “What’s up? You look bothered.”
Matthew nodded. “I am.”
“You want to talk about it?” she prompted.
“If it would help, I would, but I don’t think it will.” He flashed her cold look. Worry began to knot in her chest.
“Did I do something? Are you upset with me?” JD whispered.
Matthew glanced at her, his eyes cold. He shook his head and sighed, setting his fork down. That’s when she noticed that his tattoo on his hand looked different. He reached for her hands and squeezed them. She was about to ask him ab
out it when he said, “Something came up.”
“What’s up?”
“I have to go out of town for a while,” he confessed.
“What?”
“I have to leave first thing tomorrow and I’ll be gone for quite a while,” he said, avoiding her eyes, but squeezing her hands as if her were nervous.
“Where? What’s wrong?”
“I made a promise to someone and I haven’t been able to keep it. I have to fulfill this promise, or else…” Matthew’s words trailed off as he looked out the side window, obviously uncomfortable sharing the news with her.
“What are you talking about?” Alarm raced through her.
“C’mon, let’s go for a ride,” he said. He dropped a fifty-dollar bill on the table and grasping her hand, walked out. They drove for an hour on his bike, winding along the country roads, enjoying the fresh summer evening breeze.
As the light began to wane, Matthew turned around and headed back to Torrey. JD kept waiting for him to pull off somewhere and tell her what was going on, but he never did.
When they returned to the parking lot of the General Store they dismounted, and Matthew pulled her into an embrace, resting his chin on her shoulder.
She stroked the back of his neck and whispered, “When will you be back?”
“I don’t know,” he mumbled.
She leaned back to look at him. “Are you serious?” He only shrugged.
“I can’t believe you are just going to leave like this and not tell me where you are going, or what’s going on, or when you’ll be back!” she exclaimed.
Matthew stroked the side of her face with his forefinger, tracing the curve of her cheek and chin, down her neck and across her collarbone.
“Don’t worry. I’ll be back,” he soothed and kissed her mouth.
JD frowned, unwilling to accept that Matthew wasn’t going to divulge any further information.
“But, what about us?” she pressed.
Matthew didn’t respond immediately as he just held her close. Then, as if he hadn’t heard her question, he asked, “Will you miss me?”
“I’ll miss you,” she responded quickly, momentarily distracted by the movement of his hands moving down her arms and slipping around her waist, drawing her closer. A sense of confusion swept over her.
“How much?” he whispered and kissed her.
“I’ll miss you a lot,” she whispered and kissed him back.
“Show me,” he said.
“What?” She pulled back to look at him.
Abruptly, he stood and took her by the hand leading her upstairs into her apartment. He walked right in, even though JD was sure she had locked the door. JD’s mind was in a whirl, wondering if what he just suggested was what he meant. She gasped as he wrapped his arms around her, kissing her passionately. She let him kiss her and enjoyed it, but when he started backing her toward the bedroom, she wanted to resist. Matthew sensed it.
“What’s wrong?” Matthew whispered, nuzzling her neck.
“I don’t know about this, Matthew,” she said, trying to fend off his hands.
He looked suspiciously at her. “Don’t you love me?”
JD opened her mouth to say yes, but it didn’t come. She could only look at him, wishing she could say something, but it wouldn’t come. The words would not come. Matthew grinned and swept her up in his arms. She could not, would not resist. You’re too impulsive, she heard Gramps say, but she didn’t care.
***
In the moonless night, as a cool wind raced through Torrey and the stars glittered coldly overhead, Matthew slipped outside JD’s apartment. He closed the door quietly, cutting off the sounds of her soft weeping. He clenched his jaw and steeled his feelings against her pain. He would not allow himself to feel guilt. She had given in willingly and he had taken selfishly.
Something black fluttered behind him. Matthew turned and watched a wisp of a black form settle on the railing next to him. Then another appeared. Hardly larger than a cat, their glittering red eyes looked expectantly at Matthew, their form motionless, as if rooted to the spot despite the rushing wind. Matthew opened his hand and held it out for their inspection. Resting on his palm was a small speck of glittering light, hardly larger than a grain of sand.
“I have taken her innocence. I have done as Quabin requested. Go summon the others,” Matthew told it. The one imp shimmered with a red glow and then like smoke, it slipped away on the wind. The other remained, waiting. Matthew closed his hand over JD’s innocence, feeling the symbol on the back of his hand flare alive as it absorbed the energy and power of her innocence. Matthew gritted his teeth and hung his head as he felt crushing guilt for what he had done. Tears fell from his clenched eyes, and he drew in a ragged breath, resisting the guilt and pain that threatened to knock him to his knees. The second imp alighted and wrapped itself around Matthew’s hand, adding its dark energies to his own to subdue the spark of innocence. Matthew felt a sob escape him. JD’s innocence was strong. Another dark form arrived, an Ensnarer, Matthew felt it’s cold, sucking energy wrap itself around his mind, filling it with thoughts of darkness and evil. And then, the light of JD’s innocence went out, it’s power disbursed throughout Matthew’s being. He quickly descended the stairs, straddled his motorcycle, kicked it to life, and shot out of the parking lot. He could feel the cold descending around him as the powers of darkness swelled within. The branding on the back of his left hand burned in response, burning away the love he felt for JD. Love would no longer distract him now. Ever. Again.
Chapter 20
It wasn’t what she thought it would be like, she realized as her tears soaked the pillow. The movies made it seem so wonderful. It wasn’t. It was awkward and painful. Matthew had acted like an animal and it had frightened her. When it was over, strange feelings overwhelmed her, leaving her shaken and anxious as she struggled to understand the reason. She writhed and buried her face into the pillow to stifle her sobs. The pain pierced her to her soul. It had been all wrong from the moment she lay down with him and she knew it. She had not listened to her feelings and now she was consumed with disappointment and guilt like nothing she had ever felt before. The torment of it wracked her body and soul−undeservedly so, she felt. It didn’t make any sense to her. If she loved Matthew, shouldn’t this have been a wonderful experience? If she loved him. But did he love her? If he had truly loved her, would he have acted the way he had with her? He didn’t seem at all concerned with her pain.
“Don’t make me feel guilty for your pain,” he had grunted before he gathered his clothes and left. His words had torn a gash into her heart, and the truth of his feelings for her twisted the knife of guilt deeper into her soul. Her sobs nearly choked her. He didn’t love her. He had taken her innocence, no, he had ripped it from her and left her cold and hurt.
“I’m sorry. I failed you,” she whimpered to the image of her grandfather in her mind. JD rolled onto her back, gasping for breath, her face red and wet with grief. Had she failed herself, too? The thought nearly doubled her over in pain. “You’re too impulsive,” she heard her own voice echo in the hollowness of her chest.
Something moved in her room, something she only saw from the corner of her eye. Too swift to be seen, but its presence was felt. Collecting her breath, she looked for whatever it was, but felt only a cold breeze and it made her afraid.
***
Matthew killed the engine of his motorcycle as he approached the schoolhouse. He coasted to a stop behind the dumpster. Nathan’s truck was gone as was expected. He grinned to himself thinking about how his brother would be especially preoccupied tonight. Every Fallen in the state would descend upon Torrey, keeping what few Hunters were assigned to the area busy apprehending them. There would be no one to notice him and what he was about to do.
A faint, red glow emanated from the windows as Matthew slipped through the front door. The box was black against the red flames that raced along the symbols carved into its surface. The blue tarp lay at the base
of the box, smoldering in ruin. The symbol on Matthew’s left hand ignited. He cried out in agony as the heat it produced burned through the skin and meat of his hand to blaze its pattern onto his palm. Resisting the urge to tamp out the fire with his other hand or rub it in the dirt, he didn’t notice the room filling with dark forms filling the room through the open doors and windows, or rising through the earth itself.
When the pain subsided, Matthew, breathing hard, lifted his eyes and looked toward the box. Only then did he see the crowds of dark beings filling the room. The box pulsed to life and a large circle flared to life before him. Drawn to the light of the circle, he saw a six-pointed star within the glowing edges. He raised his left hand and placed it against the matching symbol on the box. The front of the box disintegrated into ash. A dark form stood inside, shrouded in darkness. A sword was clasped before the dark form, and flashed in the surrounding flickering lights dancing around the carved symbols of the box.
“Master,” Matthew said as he fell to his knees.
“Well done, Matthew,” responded the shadowy figure, the voice distorted, as if multiple persons were speaking as one. “We are pleased with your service. Come forward and claim your right as one of us.” The dark form raised an arm as Matthew rose and stepped forward. Flames shot out from its fingertips, engulfing Matthew in a raging ball of flames. Matthew fell back onto the floor, screaming and thrashing violently.
Chapter 21
The next morning, the demolition crew arrived as usual and was busily at work before JD arrived. She wasn’t sure what to say to Matthew when she saw him again, but as luck would have it, he wasn’t there yet. This was the last day of the job for the demolition crew and JD suspected that they’d be done before lunch.
JD allowed herself a glance, or three, out her office window to see if his truck was in the parking lot as she contemplated what she should say. By lunch time, the crew left. The demolition was complete and Matthew was nowhere to be seen. She needed to go inside to inspect the completion of the job so she could approve final payment on the work, but she couldn’t bear it right now. And what of the box? It seemed to be the least of her worries.
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