by Leigh Vernon
"He's the bear!" Sarah said softly. "All these years we had thought Shay was the bear, but it's all clear now. Shay is actually the wolf."
"And that's why he could carry him around effortlessly too!" Rachael added.
Sarah turned towards Gem. "If this is what I think it is, we should be expecting company any time soon. You know what to do. "
The girl nodded and sped off. Rachael walked up to her twin sister.
"What company are you talking about?" She asked.
"He was touched by the hand of the Seventh. If he can wake the ship, the hand must surely have noticed."
"Okay, but there's no way he could find us here in time. We still have a few hours ahead of him, don't we?" Rachael asked.
"One of his minions attacked us as soon as we rode into the city. She was waiting for us already."
Rachael's eyes flew wide open. "Get him away from there," she said to Sarah.
She was running out of the room already.
"Where are you going?!" Sarah shouted after her, but she didn't answer.
She walked up to Justin and touched him gently. The energy from his body threw her across the room violently and she missed being impaled by an old spear only by inches.
"Okay, that's weird," she said to herself as she got back on her feet.
Gem came running in and when she saw the position Sarah was in, a frown creased her face.
"I, uh... I found them," she announced slowly. "They'll be here in no less than two hours or less, and that depends on if he was seen," she said as she pointed to Justin.
Sarah walked back to where the girl was standing and they both watched Justin continue to glow fiercely.
"Is there a way to get him out of there?" Gem asked.
Sarah gave her a look. "I did try," she answered.
Gem understood what she meant immediately. They both stayed where they were, waiting for Justin to get through whatever was happening to him. The door opened and Rachael walked back in. She had a couple of other powered humans with her. One of them was an albino who ran towards Justin immediately. He grabbed him and yanked him forcefully away from the ship. The glowing stopped and the beast inside became silent.
"Phew! That was a close one," Rachael said out loudly.
---
Where he was, Sam felt a jolt of energy surge towards him. He quickly closed his eyes for a minute and opened them again. What he had seen briefly was enough for him to cancel the meeting he was holding with a man who wanted to build an amusement park in the middle of the city.
"Excuse me, Mr. Potters. I'd like for you to come again another time, but there's something I must attend to urgently," he said to the man as he rose. The man was saying something in response, but Sam wasn't listening. He was already out of the conference room before the man had even stopped talking.
He locked himself in his private room, telling the guard not to disturb him for any reason. He closed his eyes again and tried to make sense of what he had seen earlier. Everything was blank now - even the energy of the boy had faded away. He opened his eyes. Nothing about that felt right. There was only one reason he could never follow a person's energy, especially one he had personally touched. He brought out his phone and dialed Gianna.
"Where are you?" He asked as she picked up. "I think I know where the compass is. I saw it briefly but it's there and I can feel it... No, I didn't need to use the Eye. The boy showed me himself. Find him and get the compass."
He dropped the call and sighed deeply. Everything was moving smoothly now. All that was needed was a little more time.
---
Someone was standing outside the door of the house and Rachael could feel it. She turned towards the others, who were ready for whatever was coming. She turned towards Sarah, who didn't show any signs of being afraid. She had once told her that if death came, she was ready to go with it, but it wasn't death that Rachael had seen in her sister's future, not her death. It was something far more dangerous than either of them had ever come across.
"Are they going to stand there all day or what?" Gem asked loudly.
The others looked towards Rachael who didn't say anything.
"Do you think we should check?" She asked Sarah who shook her head.
"If they're going to attack us, it is better they do it here where we can defend ourselves. Besides, there are so many of us here - there's no way they would stand a chance," Sarah replied.
They all stood still, waiting for whatever was coming. Then, something happened; the ship began to glow again, this time, without the compass or Justin, who was lying in a bed somewhere else. While some of them continued to watch the door, the others turned around to see what was happening. Rachael ran towards the ship and touched it. She turned back in fear towards the others.
"He's coming," she said softly.
Sarah ran to her. "Who's coming?"
Rachael pushed her sister away. She turned back to the ship as a huge monster broke through it and cut her down with a sword in its hand. Fear and anger overwhelmed Sarah at the same time. She ran towards the monster, determined to rain down her rage on it before someone grabbed her and spun her around. She had little time to recover as another strong hand held her back. She realized she couldn't get away from the hold.
"Let me go!" She screamed loudly at the man holding her back.
"I'm sorry," he replied. "But Rachael already saw this and told us what to do. If you die, we have lost the war."
Sarah stopped kicking out and realized there was truth in what he was telling her. Rachael had seen this, and that was why she had been warm towards her. She realized her sister has tried to spend the best of the little time she had left with her and she had been unresponsive. She cried out loudly and broke down into the hands of the man holding her.
The man who had been standing by the door had suddenly disappeared. In his place, Gem saw a van approach slowly. Someone opened its back door and ran away quickly. Gem looked closely and discovered it was a huge bomb.
"Get out of here! Everyone, get out!" She shouted quickly.
Torn between a monster that was hacking them to death and a bomb that was waiting to explode, they all ran around for safety. The explosion was even louder than Gem had thought it would be; it tore the house apart, sending the beast flying back towards the ship as well. When the rubble began to clear, Gem ran to Sarah.
"We have to get him out of here. Come on!" She shouted at her.
There was a ringing in Sarah's ears, and she couldn't hear what Gem was saying.
"Let's get out of here!" Gem repeated.
Sarah heard her this time and shouted back to the girl to find Justin.
"He's waiting for us already. Come on!" The girl told her.
Sarah took her time to look around her before she started to walk towards where Gem was headed. There were bodies everywhere. Some were victims of the beast while others had been torn to pieces by the effect of the blast. She took one long look at the man who had been holding her. His back was mangled beyond recognition. If he hadn't been holding her, that would have been her lying helplessly on the ground there.
"What are you waiting for? Let's go!" Gem shouted once more. It was her voice that brought Sarah out of her reverie.
True to what Gem had said, Justin was dressed and waiting for them at a far end of the house. He looked different than he had before, and Sarah couldn't help but wonder how that had happened.
"Come on, we don't have much time," he said to them both as they approached.
Sarah was surprised to see that he knew nearly all the corners in the house, like he had spent all his years there. She looked at Gem, who just hunched her shoulders and followed wherever he was taking them.
---
By the time Gianna and her men stormed the house, the monster had done more havoc than they could possibly have. They picked off the rest of the Powered who were lucky enough to have escaped the monster's large sword. One of them wandered too near and got cut down immediately. Gi
anna ordered the others to avoid getting too close while she tried to figure out what to do. She looked around, searching frantically for the compass but it was nowhere to be found. She asked the others to start searching as well, desperately hoping they would find it. After a long and tiring search, none of them could find anything and Gianna bit her lips to prevent herself from screaming her head off. It seemed to her that she was going to keep running into brick walls in this mission of hers. Her phone rang loudly and she checked the caller ID. It was the one person she did not want to heat from at that particular moment.
"Tell me you've found it," he told her the moment she picked the call.
"No, but we're still looking."
He paused for a while. "What do you mean you're still looking?"
"The beast is awake. He had nearly finished them off by the time we arrived."
There was another long pause.
"Excellent! Bring him to me."
She looked up at the huge beast surrounded by piled up bodies of dead people. "That's the problem. No one can get close enough."
The phone went dead and Gianna heaved a sigh of relief. One of the men walked up to her, holding something in his hand. Gianna examined what he was showing her and realized it was an old watch with a chain link.
"What's this?" She asked him, her excitement dissolving as quickly as it had been built up.
"I, uh... I thought this was what we were looking for?" he said to her.
Gianna dragged him close to herself and held him by the throat. "Were you deaf when I told you we were all looking for a compass?" she asked vehemently.
He shook his head. His throat was being squeezed tighter by each passing second.
"So, tell me why you've brought me this old piece of junk!" She yelled at him as she blasted him down with a swipe of her hand. He turned on the ground, yelling in pain.
The others quickly resumed their search, careful to avoid both Gianna and the monster. Gianna was still cleaning off the blood on her hand when her phone rang again. It was Sam, calling a second time.
"Come back to West Michigan," he told her when she picked. His voice was calmer now. "He'll come as soon as the crypt is opened."
He hung up before she could say anything.
"All right, boys!" she called out loudly. "Pack it all up. We're heading back home."
A few minutes after they had left, a man appeared from a hidden part of the house and picked up the watch Gianna had thrown away. He mumbled a few words and an inscription appeared on the watch. The beast had gone back into the ship, but began to growl loudly as soon as the man activated the compass. He looks around carefully before he disappeared into thin air.
---
"My sister just gave her life to save your stupid self!" Sarah was screaming at Justin.
He stood a few feet away from her, looking towards the road as he did. She kept on throwing obscenities at him. Gem sat by the car, confused about why Justin had told them to stop.
"If you're willing to die, you should have just waited for the beast to hack you to pieces like he did to her!" Sarah shouted at him again.
"The beast can't hurt me," he replied indifferently.
Sarah picked up a stone and hurled it at him. The stone went right through him, much to the surprise of the other two.
"And neither can stones or bullets," Justin said to the still angry Sarah.
"Someone's coming," Gem said quickly, jumping to her feet. "It's a man. He's fast - he has powers," she added swiftly.
Justin walked towards the fuming Sarah and held her by the shoulder. She softened immediately.
"What did you do to her?" Gem asked.
"She's too tensed. We need her cool-headed if we're going to get through what's coming for us," Justin answered.
Gem kept her mouth shut for a while. Then, she looked up at him and said, "You seem different."
Justin nodded. "I know."
Approaching footsteps stopped Gem from saying what she was about to say. A man appeared before them and nodded towards Sarah.
"Is she okay?" He asked.
Justin looked back at Sarah, who was now sitting on the ground sobbing silently. "She'll come around."
Gem rolled her eyes at the man.
"Well, hello to you too. It's not my fault I was told to remain hidden," he said to her quickly.
"Do you have it?" Justin asked the man.
He produced the compass from his pocket and handed it over to him. Justin studied it for a while.
"And the beast?" He asked.
"Hell hath no fury..." The man responded.
Justin nodded. "You know where to go, don't you?"
The man nodded and said a few words. He was gone in a few seconds. Justin went back to where Sarah was seated. He sat on the ground with her and drew her into his arms. She didn't fight him, but neither did she stop sobbing. Gem felt irritated at what she was seeing and climbed into the car. She shut the door loudly as she did so.
"You really shouldn't think too much about this," Justin said to the crying Sarah. "Rachael knew what was going to happen. It was either you or her."
Sarah lifted her head and shifted away from him. She tried to clean her eyes with the back of her hand, but the tears continued to fall. Justin sat there, watching some birds fly back to their roost.
"It'll be dark soon. If we don't hit the road, we won't get back to West Michigan on time," Sarah finally said through the tears.
Justin turned towards her. "What are we going to do in West Michigan?" He asked.
Sarah got up angrily. "I'm going to drive a knife right through that bastard!"
Gem had gotten out of the car without them knowing. “Something is coming!" She shouted.
They ran towards her quickly. She looked at the two of them with fear in her eyes.
"Something is coming for us, and it's coming fast," She told them again.
It's the beast. He wants you to lead him back to his master.
"And that's exactly what I'll do," Justin said out loud. He turned towards Sarah. "How fast can you drive?"
"Fast enough to burn the tires out and get to our destination using the rims," she answered.
"Let's go," Justin said to the others.
They all climbed into the car and Sarah started the engine. The engine roared fiercely as she stamped her feet on the accelerator.
"Hang on to something," she called to them as she eased the car back on the road with rage.
---
The man in handcuffs said nothing as he was led to join the others on the bus which was taking them to the prison. He looked rather solemn, avoiding the eyes of the other criminals as he walked on. One of them stared at him intently, licking his lips as he did so.
"Stay down, Franklin," the officer barked at him. He chained in the last prisoner and hit the lorry.
As soon as he calmed down, another officer locked the iron door against the prisoners and dropped the keys in his hands. Two other officers got into a patrol car and waited for the lorry to move. There were two more police cars in front of the lorry. As soon as they moved, the lorry followed.
Inside the lorry, the new prisoner raised his head up and stared at the man who had licked his lips when he was coming in. He gave him a huge smile and lowered his head again.
"What you lookin' at?" The man shouted at him.
"Hey! Keep it down back there!" An officer shouted to them through the bars that separated from the driver's side.
Franklin stared at the new prisoner again and licked his lips the second time. Suddenly, the man beside him forcefully broke his chain and wrapped it tightly around Franklin's neck. As he struggled through it, the others began to shout. Franklin managed to kick out as hard as he could but the chain remained around him until he died. Then, the man turned towards the prisoner to his right and smiled at him wickedly. The driver stopped swiftly, causing the car behind them to almost hit them hard. The other officer looked back to discover that all the prisoners were dead. Only the n
ew one was staring at him through the bars.
"Michaels, call this in," he said to the driver.
By the time the others got to the scene, all the prisoners and the driver were dead. Only the second officer was missing. The new prisoner had a bullet hole in between his eyes. He had been dead even before he was shot.
---
Gianna hated crowds. She hated them because whenever they gathered, she could sniff out the greed that followed them around. But she worked for a man whose life revolved around crowds, and so, she had learnt to subtly blend in without having to show her displeasure. When she walked into the room, she was greeted by hundreds of eyes staring at her at once. The other men followed suit, their weapons hanging by their sides.
"Where's the boss?" She asked the nearest guard. He pointed towards a table at the far end of the room.
Gianna followed his hand and saw Sam shaking hands with the new Governor. They were taking pictures and smiling broadly for the camera. Gianna studied them for a while. Who would have thought that the very man who was cleaning up the city, the hero of the civil war and the one who had driven the soul eaters out of West Michigan, was actually the biggest threat they had ever faced? She studied the new Governor as well. There was only one thing she could tell about him; he was greedy and it was written all over his stupid face. She discovered that Sam had seen her and was excusing himself. She quickly walked to another part of the big house to wait for him. When he did appear, she caught a whiff of whiskey coming off him.
"What can I say? Humans are hard to please," he explained as he got to where she was standing. "Tell me what you have," he added quickly.
Gianna sighed. She hated to report her failures, but it didn't seem like she had anything else to say. "We followed them to some sort of secret hideout and tried to smoke them out..."
"Yes, you told me about all of that on the phone," Sam cut her off quickly. "The crypt, have they found a way to get it open?" He asked.
Gianna was surprised at his tone. He didn't seem to be bothered about how they had fared back in Eastern Road.
"I just arrived, and I came here directly. I'll go see to it at once," she said to him.