by Amy Marie
“I said keep quiet! We don’t need your friend interrupting us,” he threatens.
Screams fill my mind, though I try to remain silent in fear. Mario’s hands are groping me full force. My throat chokes up in disgust. In my panic, my mind wonders how any human being can do something like this with no conscience. Will this be what the world is like when evil takes over? Somehow, I’m sure it’s only the beginning.
The thought of that kind of destruction sends me into a fighting frenzy. I won’t let that happen, and I refuse to let this happen.
I turn my head to bite Mario’s ear, and as he pulls away I slam my elbow up into his face.
He stumbles back, blood trickling from his injured nose. He wipes under his nose with a finger and gives me an evil grimace. “You don’t want to play along? Looks like I’ll have to call the police after all.”
When he reaches for his phone, I grab the shovel nearby and knock it from his hand. It slides across the concrete floor. I try to run past him, but he tackles me and we both fall through the tape into the pit.
The wind is knocked out of me, but I struggle to crawl away. I flail my arms and kick at him, but he pins me with his weight to straddle me. His hands circle my neck and he squeezes, choking the air out of me. No dream could ever prepare me for the horror of this reality.
Rafe!
My mind silently screams for help.
The pressure building in my brain from the lack of oxygen is painful, and the edges of my vision are blurring. Mario leans over just next to my ear. In the haze, I can barely hear as he whispers in a hollow voice, “Thanks for the help. The destructor will be pleased. The book will be destroyed. You lose.”
Something deep inside rises out of me. An energy that I never knew existed. For a moment, I see nothing but blinding light.
Mario screams.
There’s a loud thud of something hitting metal, and a heavy weight slumps on top of me.
My vision slowly comes back into focus.
Rafe is standing over Mario’s slumped form, holding a metal pipe wrench.
“Let’s go!” he says to me, wide eyed.
He helps me up, and I gulp for air. When I can steady myself, I test out my voice.
“Wait!” I say, turning back to feel for Mario’s pulse. He’s just unconscious. “Move him away from here, we don’t want any evidence of this. I’ll fill in the hole.”
Rafe drags Mario over to the flooded area where he was working and props him against the wall. I resist the urge to give him a swift kick as I stuff the case into my bag of tools and we make our way out of the basement. We take a different route out of the building to avoid being seen from the management office.
We run into Uncle Mike in the hallway on our way out.
“I’m so sorry, I was delayed–” he starts to say.
“We’ve got it. But we have to go, now!” Rafe says, turning the old man around and rushing us all out to the van.
On the drive back to campus, Rafe explains the turn of events to Uncle Mike. After a few minutes, he moves to the back of the van where I’m sitting.
“Are you okay?” he asks.
I nod, lost in my musings.
“Nora, what did you do back there?” Rafe interrupts my thoughts after a moment, whispering so only I can hear.
“What do you mean?” I whisper back.
“When he was choking you. All of a sudden, it was like there was this blinding light around you. It stunned him. I came just in time to knock him over the head. When I looked back down to you, the light was gone.”
I’m at a loss for words. I had spotty vision from being strangled, but I do remember there being a blinding light now that he mentions it. I shake my head. “I have no idea. He hit me a few times, so I was out of it. Maybe there was some sort of electrical short nearby and it caused a spark?”
Rafe looks as if he wants to say more, but stops himself. “You sure you’re okay? Should we take you to the hospital?” he eventually asks.
I shake my head. We need to get the book to safety.
Rafe climbs back up front and I think about what Mario said. He must’ve been helping Talbot. Thank goodness he didn’t find the book first. I don’t think I’ve ever seen such evil. This is why the balance needs to be restored. I squeeze the trunk I’m holding in my arms, stunned that it’s actually real.
This is the key.
It’s early afternoon by the time we make it back to Andover Hall, and I can’t wait to show Darcy our find. We hide all of the evidence of our day’s excursion, and the three of us make our way down into the sanctuary, glowing in triumph.
When we walk in, we find a table has been set up with extra lighting and tools for all of us to work closely together on the artifact.
Darcy raises his eyebrows in question, even though Uncle Mike called him as soon as we left the mills. He looks at me, and then down to the trunk in my arms. A rare look of joy lights up his dark features.
My smile beams back at him and we all share the small victory.
Setting the filthy old trunk down onto the table, I rush to wash my hands and grab some towels to keep the area clean.
We all get to work putting on gloves and sterilizing the area for the opening.
“I’ve only known about this for just over twenty-four hours, and I can barely contain my excitement. I don’t understand how any of you can handle this right now, especially you, Darcy,” Rafe says to break the silence.
“The past week and half has been more than I ever could have dreamed,” Darcy says with a meaningful look in my direction. “As excited as we are, this is only the beginning.”
Uncle Mike carefully finishes cleaning the case, and turns to Darcy to say, “You do the honors. After all, it was left for you.”
I crowd to Darcy’s side, squeezing his arm in encouragement. After a quick look in my direction, he picks the lock of the case and opens it up.
Chapter 26
Dirt flies out of the case with a whoosh when the lid opens. Inside the lined case lies a small wrapped parcel. Darcy slowly reaches in with gloved hands and unwraps the discolored cloth to reveal the intricate leather binding of the priceless artifact.
The Statera!
The scent that my brain has associated with antique, as well as goatskin, parchment, dirt, and another faint familiar perfume from the cloth, all cause a vision to flash in my head of my hands wrapping the book and preparing it for a preserved burial.
“It’s more beautiful than I could have imagined,” Uncle Mike’s voice snaps me back to the present.
“I’m not sure if I really believed any of this, but there it is,” Rafe says, practically humming with energy.
“Open it.” My words come out in a whisper of encouragement.
“Wait!” Uncle Mike says. “We need to photograph everything. The book could fall apart! What if something else unfortunate happens? Nora, please no flashes, but get your camera ready for photo documentation.”
With my phone ready, we all very carefully and with baited breath, page through the book from cover to cover to document the contents. I hand my phone over to Uncle Mike for him to run up to his office and connect to his computer for download. No wireless networks for this information. Rafe accompanies him upstairs to help with file encryption, leaving Darcy and me alone in possession of the book.
“I cannot tell you what it means to have you here, and the Statera. I feel as if you have caused a shift, and everything that I have been waiting hundreds of years for is finally going to happen,” Darcy says, emotion thickening his voice.
“I can’t tell you how happy I am to be helping.” I say. “And that you found me,” I add, dimpling my cheeks to a smile while my eyes cast down.
“Maybe this time…” he trails off. “Well, I have a good feeling about all of this, that is all,” he finishes.
“Me too, Darcy,” I say with meaning.
Not wanting to leave with the excitement of the Statera, Uncle Mike and Rafe end up staying for
dinner and into the late evening hours.
Uncle Mike texts Char to make sure she’s home safe in his absence. After a few minutes, his phone alerts him of her reply that she’s in for the night with her pajamas and TV.
Laughing to myself, I’m reminded of how much I can’t wait to see her when Uncle Mike finally brings her to the sanctuary tomorrow. There aren’t many times that I’ve been away from her for this long.
As the night goes on, printed copies of the pages are made and passed among us, sparking much conversation and debate over the contents. Darcy shows me the area in the book that references the elements safeguard, and explains the balance in the great room that keeps us protected to Rafe.
I wonder out loud if there is a more mobile safeguard in which we can use the balance of the elements to protect us from Talbot, without the restriction of hiding away in one spot at night. I hope to make this a priority in our work with the book, and all three men agree.
The layout of the book has large single column print with wide margins on the side and bottom. I flip through the copies of the pages and see that the margins have been filled with reader’s notes in various handwritings. There are also many different pictures, sketches, symbols, and diagrams throughout the text, some of it translated, some not.
We all pore over the pages well into the night. Darcy jokes about the difference in resources that we have at our disposal versus the last time we had the book. Uncle Mike takes the responsibility of translating the Latin, while Rafe tackles the several pages throughout the book that don’t contain text at all, just symbols, illustrations, and hieroglyphics.
Darcy and I try to work together on the reader’s notes hoping to spark more memories. People who were connected to our souls were most likely the ones who wrote in the book. Yet, being near Darcy and the text is giving me strong feelings that I can’t sort out. It’s almost like a feeling of apprehension about the future, or maybe it’s difficult memories from the distant past being brought forth through the reminiscence.
I steal a glance at Darcy and he’s giving me an odd look, almost like he feels it too.
“What is it?” I ask.
“I am not sure,” he says. But there’s something more. Almost like he wants me to see something, but he’s waiting for me to catch up because he doesn’t want to give it away.
“Am I missing something?” I ask.
But before he can answer, Rafe cuts in.
“These pictures are amazing. Unlike anything I’ve ever seen.”
My curiosity steers me over to Rafe’s workstation.
He points to a few of the scattered photocopy pictures lying in front of him. “I think it’s telling a story, but it’s all over the place. The symbols that are being used aren’t specific to any culture or region; it’s a mixture of everything. A combination like this is unheard of.”
“Do you recognize any of them?” Darcy asks, walking over to join us. “This was an area where we had trouble last time, with our lack of resources.”
“Well I recognize the elements for sure, they’re referenced everywhere. But there are some instances where the elements are surrounding another symbol. It almost looks like a mix between two symbols actually. It gives the impression that this new symbol represents a balance of power. It kind of reminds you of a yin-yang. Doesn’t it? And whenever the elements surround this fifth combined symbol, it is a barrier between these symbols representing life and what looks like a representation of evil on the other side.” At the last few words, he points to several representations of evil symbols surrounding an unfinished circle. My mind jumps to produce an image of Talbot.
Pointing to the group of evil symbols, I ask, “You recognize all of these?”
“Well, like I said, it’s a mix. There you have a pentagram, a horned beast, an evil eye, death, destruction, but the one in the middle corresponds with the story you guys have all told me about the balance of good and evil. The unfinished circle symbol represents emptiness.”
Chills run up and down my arms.
My eyes wander over to the element symbols surrounding the fifth mark that Rafe has described as representing the balance. To me, it kind of looks like a sun and a moon.
There’s something important hidden here.
The back of my neck tingles.
Glancing sideways at Darcy, he’s looking at me strangely again. The air is nearly humming, and I feel like he’s expecting me to remember something.
Flashbacks of Uncle Mike telling me about the importance of names and their meanings, the potential they lead to, and how important I am to this project swirl in my head.
My own voice telling him the meaning of my name shining light echoes in my thoughts.
Darcy’s eyes meet with mine, and the charge hits me in a way that it never has before.
It’s as if a candle has been lit in the dark.
Suddenly, everything snaps into place.
I am remembering a little bit of everything, even things from far before Eleanor’s time. There’s an overwhelming feeling that accompanies the truth, and every time, every life, when we got to this point and realized what we were, how difficult it always was to accept.
I remember Darcy’s reaction originally with Eleanor, how angry he was at the enormity of it. She thought he was rejecting it, that he would abandon them, but he eventually came around.
His own name translates to darkness… and back then, the darkness almost overwhelmed him when we found out the truth.
This is so much more than the reminiscence, or being connected to Eleanor’s life and soul. It’s deeper, going father back. It’s almost incomprehensible. But at the same time, only now can I see it clearly.
The light and the dark, it’s a part of our souls, and has been from the very beginning. It’s what we are and what we represent. Eleanor the light, and Darcy the dark. We’ve been called other names, but they’ve always carried the same meaning.
When I’m brought back to reality, Darcy is giving me a knowing look.
“You knew!” I say to him in accusation.
“I could not tell you. You had to be shown, and you had to remember on your own!” He looks relieved. A two hundred plus year weight has just been lifted off his shoulders. “You remember now? Everything?”
“Not everything, I don’t think. But enough.” I sit down, weak from the memories and the weighing burden of this reality.
“I don’t understand. What just happened?” Rafe asks, frowning as he looks between us.
Uncle Mike walks over to sit by me and offer comfort.
“You knew all along too,” I say to him, not in accusation, but in astonishment.
“I knew your potential. I have always told you this was a choice. You’ve finally chosen to remember. If we would’ve told you the whole truth from the beginning, it would’ve taken the choice from you and your mind would’ve rejected it. You would disconnect yourself from the light.”
He signals for us all to take a break to the seating area.
“I will tell you what we knew, and what Darcy could remember without the book. And with that knowledge, perhaps we can use the book to go even further,” Uncle Mike says. “The book explains that there was a time that life existed in a different form. It was an energy of sorts, made up of connected spirits. In our human form, we carry remnants of that life with us: our souls.
My eyes meet Darcy’s, and I can somehow feel the truth of Uncle Mike’s words.
“In every legend, myth, religious or pagan tale, there’s always some sort of creation story. They all start with a similar beginning: light is separated from dark. These were the first powers, a perfect balance, the first two souls created by the energy. Over time, more souls were created representing different powers, but there were always balances for each. For example, to balance a soul of patience, a soul of wrath must be created. Keeping that balance is the only way to sustain life, and over time, fill the emptiness as the energy grows. Faced with the threat of being filled, the emptiness
looked for a way to disrupt the balance with destruction. And so, the first souls were charged with the protection of that form of life.”
Uncle Mike holds up several of the pages of symbols and points to them.
“For a reason unknown to us, there was chaos in that form of life, and the souls ended up shattering. A new life form was created in the human race and the remaining pieces of souls were placed within. Four elements were created with the powers to house and protect this new form of life, and these powers formed the Earth.”
I glance around the room wondering if that’s where the magic of the safeguard comes from.
Uncle Mike continues, “According to the text, the two oldest souls, the two first souls, were different than the others. Instead of shattering, they had to be re-born. They took on a human form and carried over knowledge from their previous existence. The light soul and the dark soul will always return in human form. There will always be a guardian that will bring them together. The destructor will always be sent by the emptiness to hunt these souls. Once they manage to find each other, through the reminiscence, these souls can find a way to unite the elements, maintain the balance, and fill the emptiness.”
“That is as far as we had interpreted from the book and our memories, before we lost Gabe,” Darcy says. “We were remembering past lives, we had just never gotten to the point to understand or remember how to unite the elements and fill the emptiness. Now we have to concentrate on breaking the curse to restore the balance, as well as how to unite the elements and fill the emptiness.”
“You’re saying, that you are the dark soul, and Nora is the light soul? And Mr. Augustine, you and I are guardians?” Rafe appears as if this last revelation may have just tipped him over the edge. “I think I need to lie down.”
Overwhelmed myself, I think about details I’ve been overlooking.
When I think of Darcy, I realize his curse makes him live in the dark, his temper, his features, and his humor; it all fits in with what he represents.
With a quick self-examination, I see all of the opposite criteria representing myself. I crave sunlight, my looks are fair, my personality is more bright and cheerful, and everyone has always said my smile shines.