by K.S. Marsden
*****
“Thanks for coming today.” Hunter said to Charlotte, later in the afternoon.
“I was planning to come, anyway. Oh, I almost forgot why.” She said suddenly, turning to her handbag and pulling out a white envelope. “Brian and I were in contact a lot lately. Both of us were trying to solve your wiccan problem. He gave me this yesterday, before -” Charlotte broke off, then regained her composure. “He wanted me to pass it on to you.”
Hunter frowned, taking the thick, unmarked envelope. He tore it open and pulled out the contents. A letter. The handwriting was ever so familiar.
George,
With luck, Charlotte King has given you this. I had to get this message to you without drawing further attention to myself. I’m in danger, and I no longer have the strength to fight it. All the same, I will never forgive myself for passing this onto you. But I don’t know who else to trust.
Things are worse than you thought. I can’t go into detail in this letter. Charlotte has a key for you, it’s for a locker, I’ve enclosed the address. In the locker is my research concerning your wiccan, and my own work I started last year.
Hopefully I’ll still be on hand to help you with this. But I had to write. Just in case.
Yours,
Brian Lloyd
Beware the shadows
Hunter’s hand shook as he passed the letter to the others. In the envelope was a slip of paper, just as he said. Charlotte silently slid him a small key.
“My God, it sounds as though he knew he was going to-” James muttered as he read it.
“Beware the shadows?” Charlotte repeated fearfully. “You don’t think he means…?”
Hunter shook his head, in his hand he gripped the key so tightly it dug into his palm. “We’ll know soon enough.” Yes, he would go, find out what his mentor was being so secretive about. There was a new threat on the horizon, they could be sure of that at least.
But a wave of fatigue from the long day and its sorrows washed over him. There was nothing they could do until tomorrow.
“Tomorrow. Tomorrow.”