Chapter 19

T ree after tree, we walked for what seemed like hours. That eerie silence crept in as I felt we were getting closer.

“There!” Jack said, pointing at a puff of smoke in the distance.

Grey smoke poured out of a chimney of a small cottage up ahead. A stone building, moss growing on the roof, it was hard to make out in the middle of the forest.

“Something isn’t right,” Jack said, pulling his sword out.

“What do you mean?” I whispered, kneeling next to him.

“The Taylors are known for their traps; look at that,” he said, pointing to a bunch of wire bundled up by the house.

Looking around further, I noticed there were collapsed wire barriers all around the perimeter of their house.

“Guys, I’m going to keep a watch from up here,” Thomas said, kneeling behind a tree.

“I think someone beat us here,” Jack whispered, ascending the hill.

“Let me try something,” Autumn said as her eyes went black.

A raven flew by us and circled the house a few times.

“I don’t see anything,” she said as the raven flew off.

“Sixteen years and I never knew you had a spirit animal,” Jack said with a stunned look.

“Sorry, I never told anyone about it,” she responded.

“Jack, what is your spirit animal?” I asked him.

“Nothing special,” he laughed, walking toward the house again .

I followed him as the rain fell around us harder and a cold chill moved in. A bad feeling came over me as we got closer. I could feel something, like a darkness was near.

Jack walked up the front steps and looked in the windows. Looking back at us, he shrugged. The dusty curtains were too thick to see through. Hesitantly, he grabbed the doorknob and slowly turned it as the door opened.

Following him inside, a horrendous smell came over me as Autumn retreated outside. Lying on the floor were two bodies, decaying. They had to have been there for some time.

Looking around the room, guns lined the walls while monitors hung on them, the outside light streaming onto the glass.

“We’re too late, Mark,” Jack said, grabbing my arm.

Kneeling by the bodies, I noticed large holes in the back of their heads. Something big and sharp had hit them from behind.

“Why don’t you guys come on out of there?” someone yelled from outside.

I heard Autumn scream as I jumped up and ran for the door. Jack pulled me back before I got to the door and kneeled down under the window.

He pointed to the weapons on the walls as if to take one.

“I know the Order has restrictions on certain weapons, but I think we can make an exception,” he whispered as he pulled down a large gun.

“There’s no bullets in them!” the mysterious person yelled again. “Come out now or the girl and boy are going to end up like those two in there!”

Jack opened the magazine of the gun and showed me it was empty. He crawled around the room looking for anything we could use. It had been picked through pretty good. We cautiously made our way out the front door and saw what awaited us. A group of men and women stood in circle around Autumn and Thomas who were down on their knees in front of them.

I walked down the stairs and stared at the woods filled with more of them, wielding guns and other weapons. They were all rugged-looking, dirty, all with one noticeable thing, a black jacket. There was a man with long, slicked-back black hair, and greyish stubble on his face. He was leaning on a pickaxe, the metal head covered in blood.

“Wow, it’s about damn time I get to meet this son of a bitch,” he laughed. “And I mean that literally—you know what I mean, don’t you?”

“We don’t have any money or drugs!” Jack yelled to them. “Take your gang and just go.”

“Gang?” The man laughed as he looked to the woman beside him. “You hear that, Letty, we’re a gang.”

The woman smiled back to him as a more serious look came over his face.

“We’re not here for money or for drugs, we’re here to reclaim what is ours,” he said, handing his pickaxe to someone.

“What exactly was taken from you?” I asked.

“Our jobs, our homes…hell, our planet,” he said, putting a pair of gloves on.

“Who took them?” I questioned. “I don’t understand what is going on here.”

“The world is coming to an end, boy, you Nephilim and Cambion half-breeds are going to end with it,” he explained. “When the dust settles, we humans will rise again. We will finally be free of you abominations.”

“We’re not the bad guys here, we are the Order of Lai, sworn to protect the innocent from the evil that is the Syreni,” I argued back .

“Watch your manners, kid,” he grunted. “Hector, if you could kindly give me my axe.”

Hector was a bald man, tattoos covering his face. He handed the pickaxe back to the man and walked toward me.

“Put them on their knees,” the man said as we were now surrounded by the group.

Hector kicked the back of my leg as I fell to the ground. Jack was thrown down next to me and we were now all four in a circle. They took our weapons and tossed them to the ground.

“Who are you?” Jack asked, looking up. “You look familiar.”

“Me?” the man with the pickaxe laughed. “My name is Flint and these guys, you can call them the reckoning. Today is your judgment day, Mark.”

“How do you know me?” I questioned.

“We’ve been in the shadows a while, watching you half-breeds destroy our world,” he answered. “You will all answer for your crimes; we will cleanse this planet once and for all.”

“You don’t understand, Flint,” Jack pleaded. “We are the good guys.”

Letty punched Jack in the face as his glasses fell to the ground. I could see blood dripping from his nose as he sat back up.

“Damn, she is one firecracker,” Flint snickered. “This is going to be so much fun.”

“You don’t have to do this,” Autumn pleaded. “We will kill the Syreni for you guys.”

“Don’t touch her!” I demanded as he walked toward her.

He pulled his glove off his left hand and rubbed all over her face. Pushing his dirty fingers all over her skin, he forced them inside her mouth .

“Stop!” I screamed, echoing through the woods.

He pulled his finger out of her mouth and tasted it. “What’s wrong Mark, we’re just having a little fun.”

I began shaking, trying to use my powers, but nothing would work.

“Are you trying to shit?” he asked me, turning his head to the side. “Oh, that’s right, you have ‘magical’ powers.”

“Had powers, boss,” Hector cut in.

“Well, good for us then, phew,” he said, wiping his forehead sarcastically.

“Please let us go,” Thomas uttered.

“We’re going to play a little game, one my father used to play with me and my sister,” he laughed. “You see, when you disobeyed in the Taylor residence, we played a game to see whose fault it was. Now I altered this game a little bit, but it’s still fun. This game is called duck, duck, who’s going to meet my axe .”

“Please, Flint, let us go. We will kill the Syreni, I promise you that,” I begged.

I heard someone talking on a radio as one of his men answered them. They walked over and whispered something into Flint’s ear before returning to the group.

“The Order is sailing for Rockport. I guess you guys were telling the truth,” he smirked.

“Yes, we will defeat them if you let us go,” Jack uttered. “I promise you, the evil you talk about will die today.”

He walked around the circle, whistling, and saying, “what to do, what to do.”

“Boss, let’s just let them go kill the half-breeds and then we can kill them afterwards,” Hector suggested .

“Shut up, Hector,” Letty yelled over to him.

“Ok, I’ve decided to let you guys go,” Flint said. “But Mark, when you guys fail and Armageddon happens, judgment is coming for you all.”

“We can discuss that after we take out the real evil,” I said, trying to stand up as Hector pushed me back to my knees.

“Here’s the thing,” Flint whispered to us. “I kind of have to kill one of you. I can’t look like I don’t follow through with things in front of my group.”

“Flint, please,” I begged.

“So, here is how this is going to work, I am going to play a game and whoever I choose, gets the axe,” he said as he walked around us, patting our heads. “If anyone tries to fight back, I will kill you all.”

Rain began to fall, cold drops hitting my face. I tried to run through the options in my head as he kept circling. There were too many there for Akira to help out. My powers were gone, our weapons gone - we had nothing.

“Pick me,” Jack pleaded as Flint kept walking.

“That’s no fun,” Flint said, continuing to walk around, patting our heads. “Duck, duck, duck, duck, duck, goose!”