by Leigh Vernon
"Please do," he told her impatiently. "And kill everyone who doesn't work as hard as they should," he added quickly before turning back to the direction he was coming from. "This is more important than any other thing now. We’re very close, I can feel it," he said over his shoulder.
Chapter 11
Gianna called the man supervising the opening of the crypt as soon as she arrived. She walked with him to the site to see things for herself. They had dug beyond what she had expected to bring out the crypt and even though she couldn't say it out loud, she was impressed with the way things were going around the site.
"There's only one problem," the supervisor told her.
"And what's that?" She asked him.
"Some of the men are not sure what it is we're trying to open. Some say it is an evil spirit that would devour us once we get it open, while others are merely afraid of whether the stories are true or not."
Gianna turned towards him. "What stories?" She asked.
The man bowed his head before speaking. "When we were younger, we heard stories about this place," he said, as he looked around the graveyard they were standing in. "They say the spirit of the Seventh roams this area every night, seeking souls to devour."
Gianna pretended to be amused by what he was saying. "Go on," she urged him, when he seemed like he was afraid of what she might say to him.
"Well," he continued, more relaxed now, "some say the crypt we are trying to open is a cursed one. They are not sure whether it's the one where an older generation of the Powered buried his head or his blade in, but they know we won't be finding anything good inside that crypt when we get it open."
"You know what I did before I became the Mayor's head of security?" Gianna asked him suddenly.
For a moment, he seemed confused about what she was asking him. "No, I have no idea," he managed to reply.
"Human Psychology," she told him as she began to walk away from the rest of the working men. He followed her meekly, unsure of what she was trying to say to him. "One very interesting thing about the human monster is that it's very fickle when it comes to dealing with fear, pain, even happiness. You know why?"
The man shook his head in the negative. "I'm a digger, ma'am. I don't know anything about humans and their minds."
Gianna continued to walk deeper into the graveyard. The man began to show signs of being scared, but he still followed her. When she got to a particular part where there were older graves, she stopped.
"Look around you," she said to him. "All the people buried here once had families to go home to. They had jobs and dreams and hopes, but what happened? They died."
The man looked around the old tombstones and swallowed hard. He returned his gaze to the woman, who did not seem to be afraid to be standing in the most prohibited part of the graveyard, like he was.
"The reason you're afraid is because you don't want to make mistakes. You don't want to be blamed for the failures of others and neither do you want to lose your job. But you want to know something?" She asked him as she came closer. "You should be afraid. You should be afraid of how your family would feel when you fail to return home if you fail. You should be afraid of what would happen to your body if you don't open that crypt as soon as possible."
Tiny beads of sweat ran down the man's face as she continued to speak terrible things into his head. When he couldn't take it anymore, he shut his eyes and pleaded with her to let him go. Gianna let go of his collar and began to walk back to the dig site. When he caught up with her, she told him to provide her with the names of those who were talking nonsense as she would like to change the way they were thinking, like she had changed his mind. He called the men together and pointed out about four of them who had been spreading the news around. Gianna thanked him profusely and asked the men to come with her. They looked lost, but had no other choice than to obey. When they were gone, the supervisor shouted at the others to resume work and faster too.
"Please, come in," Gianna said to the men as soon as they were in her tiny office that had been quickly erected upon her arrival. It was a makeshift tent that she had requested to be built long way away from the dig site.
The men filled the tiny space with their presence, still wondering why she had called them there. One of them tried to say something, but was surprised he couldn't say any words despite how hard he tried. The others looked at him in shock as he continued to try until blood was pouring from his mouth. He fell to the ground and died painfully, writhing on the floor as life slowly seeped out of him.
"Now, what do you think killed him?" Gianna asked the others sternly. "Is it the spirit of the Seventh or something else?"
"I don't know," one of them said. He also collapsed to the ground.
"Anyone else wanna try?" Gianna asked the remaining two.
They both shook their heads.
"Good. Now, you will learn what true silence is. The moment you open your mouth to say anything about what happened here tonight, you will die. Any day you ever nurture the mind to scare my workers out there again, you will die."
They stared at her in shock, each man looking mortified.
"Oh, I didn't say you couldn't talk; I just wanted to let you know that silence is better than spreading false news, don't you think?"
"Yes," one of them replied. He waited, but nothing happened.
Gianna walked up to him and patted his cheeks. "Like I said, you can talk about every other thing except what happened here tonight. You can think about any other thing except spreading stories around about what we're doing here."
They both nodded.
"Good. You can go now," she said to them.
The two men jostled for space as they made their way out of the tent. When they got back to camp, the others asked them what had happened to the other two.
"The lady sent us to find them," one of them offered so the questions would stop. "They didn't follow us to her tent."
"Yes," the other one added quickly. "Who has seen them?"
There were murmurs of how they had all seen the five of them leave together, but the others hadn't come back through there.
"I guess we should look for them elsewhere," the first man said to the other who quickly agreed.
---
"Why'd it stop following us?" Gem asked loudly. "It was right there behind us, all the time. Then, it stopped."
Sarah kept her eyes on the road. She didn’t want to say anything, as she was more concentrated on getting them to West Michigan than anything else. If it held an opportunity for her to avenge her sister's death, she was going to get them there as fast as she could.
"I don't think I know either," Justin answered Gem. His eyes were fixed on Sarah's as he answered. "You okay?" He asked her.
She flashed him a smile and got her attention back to the road ahead. The night was getting darker. Justin looked out through the window and noticed that clouds were gathering.
"We might have to stop soon. There's a storm coming," Gem announced to them both.
"You know, I hate that you have all these gifts and I only have what? Fire?" Sarah said with gritted teeth.
"Are you referring to me or the kid?" Justin asked.
"Hey! I'm not a kid!" Gem protested from where she sat.
Justin turned back towards her. "How old are you again?" He asked.
"Sixteen."
"So, you're a kid," he told her sternly. He turned his attention back to Sarah. "You were saying?"
Sarah eased down on the accelerator. "The kid is right. We need a place to hole up for the night before I lose my mind," she said to Justin.
"There's a motel not too far from here," Gem said to her. "Turn left and head straight at the next intersection. We should be there before the rain starts."
Sarah did as she was told, trying hard to ignore Justin's long stares at her. The owner of the motel was a very old woman who smiled so much that it looked creepy.
"Welcome. How many rooms?" She asked.
Gem stared at
her until the woman smiled again and turned to the board behind her where the keys were kept.
"You know what? You three can stay in any rooms you want," the woman said as she handed them all the keys. "This little one here is too sweet," she added, pointing to Gem.
"Thank you," Gem replied as she took three sets of keys from the bunch. She handed two to Sarah and Justin, and marched off before they could ask her why the woman had given them free rooms.
"The water is running. I'll have dinner brought to your rooms as I can see you don't want to be disturbed," the woman said to them as they walked to their rooms.
Sarah gave Justin a look and he returned it with his. As soon as they got upstairs, they both realized they had been given keys to rooms beside each other.
"Good night," Justin said to her.
"Hmm," she grumbled and walked in briskly. Before he could say anything more, she shut the door quickly.
As the storm raged outside, Sarah continued to mourn her dead sister. She sobbed silently at first, refusing to let the pain break her down, but when she realized she couldn't take it anymore, she opened her door and walked towards Justin's room. He opened before she could knock and dragged her inside.
"What's this about?" She asked fiercely. She discovered Gem standing in a corner. "What is she doing here?" She asked Justin.
"Hiding from them," Gem said, pointing to a number of headlights driving in under the rain.
Sarah looked outside the window. "Who are they? Not that woman again, is it?" She asked, turning briskly.
"No. They're her family," Justin answered.
Sarah cast a long look at Gem. "You told us they were dead. All of them."
Gem shrugged. "I might have lied to you, but Rachael knew the truth. She also understood why I had to leave them behind, so yes, they're dead to me."
Sarah looked outside again. "So, how did they find you?"
"They didn't find me. They aren't looking for me either, but the woman downstairs will tell them I'm here."
"Why would she?" Sarah asked. There was concern in her voice now.
"She's my grandma," Gem replied. She went to the bed and sat down heavily.
"That's why we got free rooms," Justin explained as he put together the rest of the puzzle for Sarah. "She wanted us to pass the night here so they'll find us. Gem was hoping she didn't remember her face."
Sarah went to sit beside the girl. "How old were you when you left home?"
Gem turned to look at her. "I didn't run away from home. They were going to sell me to some circus man who used powered people to perform tricks for his spectators. The man who was taking me there felt pity for me and gave me some money. He told me never to come through this way again."
"So, why did you ask us to come here, then?"
Gem turned towards Justin, who was peeping out through the window. "Him," she said.
Justin turned to the two of them suddenly. "You two stay here. I'll be back." He didn’t wait for a reply as he stormed out of the room.
Sarah shook Gem gently. "What's going on here?" She asked.
The girl looked up at her. "We would have made it to West Michigan with or without the storm, but he told me we needed to stop on the way. He knows about what they did to me long ago."
Sarah looked confused. "When did you two have this conversation? How did he know what happened to you if you hadn't met him before?"
Gem raised her arm up; there was a mark there that Sarah had never taken notice of. "This is what my family does to outcasts and those they want to sell into slavery. Justin has one like this as well. He saw it when we were waiting for the man to bring the compass, and we have been communicating in our heads."
Sarah's mouth hung open as she gaped at the girl before her. If Justin had learnt the truth about what happened and he had asked that they stay over for the night, it only meant one thing - he was going to kill those men. She made to stand up, but Gem held her back.
"There's nothing you can do to stop him. He's already made a promise to someone that he was going to avenge her death, his first love. She died because my brothers dishonored her when the circus had come through our town. They both worked the trapeze together."
Sarah sank back to the bed. She didn't know what else to say, so she remained seated with Gem who held her knees to her chest, talking to herself as she did.
Justin smiled at one of the men who was trying to go upstairs. He nodded and was about to walk around him when Justin lashed out at him. The others watched as the man fell to the ground, his body racked with pain. One of them pulled out a gun and shot at Justin, who ducked in time. He moved fluidly and his hand grabbed the man by the collar. He gazed into his eyes and held him there, using him as a shield against the others, who were shooting at him blindly. He dropped the dead man and stood openly before the three remaining men. One of them cried out loudly as he brought his large knife towards Justin from behind. Justin moved quickly, avoiding the slash by inches. The man, enraged by the death of the others, came at him again. This time around, Justin kicked the knife out of his hands and caught it in midair. He wanted to stab him first, but thought otherwise; it would make no sense to leave quite a scene behind. He blasted his shoulder and watched as he yelled in pain. One of the two others quickly made a dash for the door but Justin was faster. A blast from Justin hit the man as he fell to the ground slowly. The last man faced Justin squarely, gun in hand.
"Who are you?" He asked.
Justin turned towards the old woman, who was reaching for the shotgun under her table, and stared at her intently. He heard her bones crush under the table and she shouted, holding up both hands. He focused on the man in front of him, who was sweating as he waved the gun in his face.
"Let me go now or I'll blow your head off, man!" The man said to him. "Don't make me do it!"
Justin's eyes never left his for a second as he stood before the man who had cut the throat of the first woman he had ever truly loved. The man waved the gun again and threatened to pull the trigger.
Justin lowered his gaze to the man's knees and they gave out. His screams were accompanied by what sounded like bones breaking as he fell to the ground.
"You killed her! You murdered her in cold blood simply because she said she wasn't down with you."
Despite the venom in Justin's eyes, the man still didn't have a clue about what he was saying.
"You don’t even remember. To you, it was just another girl off the streets," he said to the man, who was still howling out in pain on the floor. "I'll show you how it feels to have something you love so much taken from you."
Justin took the gun the man had dropped and shot the woman first. Then, he turned the gun on the man and shot him twice in the head.
Chapter 12
As Sam listened to the man before him rant on and on about how much profit the city could make from the park he was planning to build, his attention kept shifting to a more pressing issue. He constantly checked his phone, expecting a call from Gianna, who had gone to oversee the opening of the crypt like he had ordered her. The man kept talking while showing him some charts which Sam could tell were designed to impress him. After a few more minutes, his phone rang and the caller was Gianna. He turned to the man who had been talking endlessly and smiled at him.
"I'm sorry, Mr. Potters. I won't be able to approve this project of yours. I don't know why, but you altered the performance of your company in the last couple of years to impress me, and I am not a man who is impressed by dishonest men. Have a good day."
He left the man gaping after him as he sauntered out to receive the call.
"Tell me we have it opened," he said into the phone impatiently.
"Even better," Gianna replied from the other end. "They found his legendary spell note hidden in one of the other crypts."
"Excellent!" Sam said to her. "Have you taken care of the men?"
"Every single one of them," she replied before hanging up.
Sam punched the air before he diale
d a number on his phone. The Governor picked up immediately.
"Mr. Governor, it's about time," he said, and hung up.
By the time Sam went back into the office, Mr. Potters was still in there, gathering his charts and papers. Sam stopped the man.
"Come to think of it, I think I'm interested in your idea of building a park in the middle of the city," he said to him.
The man's eyes shot up in surprise. He quickly dropped his charts and started to explain how the profit was going to be realized when Sam stopped him abruptly.
"I didn't say your company was going to undertake the project, did I?"
The man's face was crestfallen as he heard this. He fell heavily into a chair, staring at Sam disbelievingly.
"I mean, your idea of a park is very great, but the problem I have with you is that you're greedy and dishonest. Now, greedy, I could have worked with, but dishonesty is a very bad taste, wouldn't you agree?" Sam asked pointing to the door.
Mr. Potters got the message and got to his feet. He gathered his things and walked out the office. After he was gone, Sam got up and took a long walk towards the center of the city. It was dark and the sky was amazingly beautiful tonight. Maybe he hadn't been noticing its beauty because he was so busy trying to get things done that he had forgotten about everything else. When he got to the center, he sat on a bench and looked around him. Thousands of people took that particular route each day. What better place to open a park where his Lord and master could feed freely?
---
The next morning, Justin was the first to come downstairs. All the chairs from the previous night stared back at him as he walked down. Sarah wasn't concerned about the bodies strewn across the hall; instead, she was afraid that another part of Justin had been unlocked and if they were not careful enough, it was only a matter of time before the darkness took over him.
"Watch your step," he said over his shoulders. "There's blood everywhere."
Sarah caught up with him outside the motel. "You did all that and you feel nothing? Not even a little remorse?"