“In my opinion, any one of you would be a more appropriate leader. The only thing I seem to be proficient at is delivering us into the arms of the enemy,” Edward countered sadly. “If things keep going the way they have been, there won’t be any of us left by the time we reach the Throne of the Gods.”
“Well, that’s your opinion,” Katie protested. “I doubt there is a single person among us that feels the way you do.” In the dim light filtering through the doorway, she looked from face to face for confirmation. Each met her gaze with a nod of agreement. “See what I mean?” She took hold of Edward’s chin, which was hanging down and nearly touching his chest, and raised it so he could see the reaction of the others.
Edward let out a weary sigh. “At least all of you have faith in me. I just hope it’s not misplaced,” he mumbled, his voice laden with despair.
***
The conflagration outside of the inn burned itself out within an hour or two of the conclusion of their heated leadership debate. Amber had still not returned, leaving the group to wonder if she had abandoned them. The lone bright spot of the evening had been Victoria. Apparently she had visited this town in the past and was somewhat familiar with the layout of the inn. As such, she was able to guide each of them to rooms containing beds, even in total darkness.
As Katie lay on one of the straw mattresses, her fingers laced together behind her head, she stared toward the ceiling even though the room was pitch black. The earlier conversation with Edward was weighing heavily on her mind, and she couldn’t help the thoughts swirling through her head. In theory, Edward has rarely led us into danger. It was, more often than not, Amber who we were following. Edward might have been giving the commands, but Amber was the one guiding us.
Letting out an exasperated sigh, she tried to keep her hopes alive, praying that when morning came Edward would be his old self. Even if it were a beaten and tattered version of the man she had come to respect, it would certainly be preferable to the broken man she had witnessed earlier. One who now seemed to doubt his every move and his worthiness to be their leader.
Chapter 3
The clouds of the previous day had vanished like a bad memory, allowing the morning sunlight to pierce the dust-covered windows of the inn. Feeling the warmth on his flesh, Edward rubbed his hands over his face. Cracking an eye open he sat up quickly, startled fully awake by the unfamiliar surroundings. Grimacing in pain, he pushed himself up from the bed and walked to the room’s only window. Brushing away the thick coating of grime on its surface, he peered outside. When he saw his horse, lying dead in the street below, the realization of where he was struck him like a club to the back of his head. Turning away, Edward strolled back to the straw mattress and sat down heavily, closing his eyes and taking a deep, calming breath.
Hearing a scraping noise, grinding softly like a wooden chair being lightly dragged across the planked floor, his head whipped around toward the sound. When he didn’t immediately locate the source, Edward leaned toward the foot of the bed, and sighed with relief. It was only Jack. He must have shifted the stump Katie lashed to his body. It made Edward smile, knowing that in his weakened condition his friend had stood guard to make sure nothing happened to him during the night.
The previous evening’s conversation wasn’t much more than a hazy blur in his mind, but he did recall bits and pieces of it. He remembered being depressed and feeling unworthy of the group’s devotion to him. Nonetheless, it was a new day now, and his tortured mind rested easier, knowing that no matter how he felt … the world around him had not come to an end while he slept. A thin smile crept across his face as he rose from the bed to check on the others.
Jack awoke immediately when he heard Edward’s booted feet shuffling toward the door. Stretching his limbs for a moment, he stood up and hobbled into the hallway after him.
The first couple of doors Edward came to were open, revealing nothing more than empty beds, dust, and more cobwebs than you could shake a stick at. Coming to the end of the hall, he stopped near the partially open threshold and knocked lightly. Hearing the mumbling of a female voice he pushed it open further, revealing Katie sitting cross-legged on the bed. “Good morning.” He smiled, but his grin evaporated when she looked him in the eyes. Noticing her haggard appearance, he had to ask, “Did you sleep at all?”
“I don’t think so, but I might have nodded off here and there,” she admitted with a thin smile that looked more like a grimace. “You seem to be in a better mood than last night.” Straightening her legs, Katie scooted to the edge of the bed and stood.
“The miracles of a good night’s slumber,” he remarked as she crossed the room and hugged him.
“I’m glad. I hated to see you so down on yourself.” She yawned. “I know your wounds need more time to heal properly, but it might be a good idea to get everyone together so we can figure out our next move.”
“As much as I don’t want to admit it, you are probably right about my needing to rest a while longer before attempting to tackle our mission fully. I agree that we need to work out what lies ahead for us, even if my remaining behind for a day or two is part of that equation,” he conceded.
“Well, as you’ve probably noticed, I’ve been up all night thinking. I have a few ideas to toss around.” Katie’s lips parted in a crooked, half-smile.
“Once we get everyone else together, I would be happy to hear them.” He winked.
***
Victoria had disappeared at some point during the night. Brian had informed them before they retired last night that he would stand guard, but while he was doing everything he could to keep his friends safe he must have nodded off for a short time. “I never saw, heard, or felt anything out of place after everyone went to bed last night.” He shrugged, actually feeling relieved that Edward’s mother had slipped past him during the night. Something wasn’t right about her, but nobody other than him seemed to notice the difference. Not that he knew her well enough to be able to distinguish normal behavior in her mannerisms. It was just a gut feeling. One which seemed in tune with his inner radar for evil. He glanced across the table at Edward, then Katie, to judge their reactions to his revelation.
Katie sat with a vacant look on her face as if it were a chalkboard that someone had erased, making Brian wonder if she was sleeping with her eyes open. Edward, on the other hand, seemed thoroughly distraught. The conflicting emotions flickering across his features appeared to drift between worry, confusion, and fear. Almost as if his mind was riddled with several different voices, arguing amongst each other like Edward had a split personality disorder. Brian snapped his fingers in front of the wizard’s face, as if attempting to wake his friend from a trance. Edward’s eyes slowly began to focus and show signs of alertness.
Turning his gaze toward the floor, Edward looked for any indication of a possible struggle. Seeing nothing to suggest that his mother had been abducted while they slept, he glanced back toward Brian. “From what I can tell, she must have left on her own accord,” he stated in disbelief. “Why would she do such a thing?”
“Don’t take this the wrong way ...” Brian started, his eyebrows knitted together in worry, fearing the reaction he was likely to provoke if he spoke his mind. “Maybe she wasn’t happy with the conversation last night and decided to return to Elysia so she wouldn’t be a burden on us.”
“That’s preposterous,” Edward roared. “Did you forget already? She told us that Elysia was destroyed.”
“Then, what would you suggest was her reason for leaving?” Brian leaned back in his chair, frustrated with the direction of the conversation.
“I don’t know,” Edward shouted, startling Katie back to reality. He closed his eyes in an attempt to get his swirling emotions back under some semblance of control. Endless seconds ticked by before his eyelids slowly reopened. “The one thing I do know is that this new development only serves to muddle our priorities and make my decision of what to do next that much more difficult. We don’t exactly have numbe
rs on our side and we can’t really afford to split our group and start going in separate directions to compensate.”
“Just pick something, Edward,” Katie whispered softly, leaning her head wearily on his shoulder. “Like you said, we can only focus on one thing at a time. Whichever course of action you decide we should take, we will do everything in our power to get the task taken care of quickly so we can move on to the next objective.”
Brooding, Edward remained silent for a couple of minutes. With a heavy sigh, he finally responded, “After carefully weighing our options, it pains me to say that chasing down and eradicating the demons that attacked us yesterday should probably be our first order of business. With them out of the picture, returning to other tasks would be much safer.”
“If that’s the case, it should be myself and Katie who hunt them down,” Brian suggested. “Before you go getting all hot under the collar, I only say this because you need more time to heal. It would be pointless to have you along in your condition, and as for Jack … if we have to do any significant climbing it would severely limit our progress. No offense, my friend,” he remarked, glancing down at the wolf by Edward’s feet.
Knowing that Brian spoke the truth, Edward nodded his agreement to the terms. “I have a stipulation to add,” he replied, glancing up to meet the shaman’s gaze. “If you run into more trouble than the two of you can handle on your own, please disengage from the fight and come back here. If we have to wait until I’ve healed enough to make the journey with you, then so be it.”
“Fair enough,” Brian agreed, glancing toward Katie to see if she did as well. “Perhaps we can wait an hour or two before we leave, though.” He grinned, nodding his head in the direction of the disheveled brown hair adorning Edward’s shoulder as her light snores broke the silence.
***
It was a couple of hours before dawn when George’s persistence finally paid off. He had been biding his time, peering occasionally from the cracked open doorway, waiting impatiently for Brian to fall asleep. It almost seemed like he never would, but when his chin sunk to his chest after several long hours George didn’t hesitate to take advantage of the opportunity. Sneaking past the slumbering shaman was the easy part. Victoria’s body was light enough that he didn’t have to concern himself with causing a floorboard to creak as he crept by, but opening the door to the outside was another matter entirely. The rusted hinges groaned as he snuck out into the night and George whipped his head around to make sure he hadn’t alerted Brian. A momentary hitch in his light snores was the only reaction he gave to the sound.
Releasing his hold on the door, George allowed it to swing shut on its own, hoping the swift movement would lessen the amount of noise it would make as it closed. Swiftly, he darted around the side of the building where he stayed for a few moments, letting his breath out as noiselessly as he could. Once George was certain his exit from the inn had gone undetected, he slipped through the shadows to the next structure. As he walked along the front side of the dilapidated framework, searching for a way inside, he found a large, wooden panel, secured to a metal track about ten feet over his head. It reminded him of an old barn door. Gripping the edge he slid it aside, but only enough to squeeze through the opening.
The stable smelled of musty straw and decayed flesh, likely from prior rodent inhabitants which had starved to death when their food sources dried up. Though, there were still a number of corpses piled up behind the buildings so the stench might have just been seeping through the walls. With at least another hour or so before the first rays of sunshine would crest the horizon, George decided to look around. Keeping both hands ahead of him, sweeping back and forth through the darkness, he searched for anything that might be of use. After several minutes, and stumbling over a multitude of what were likely petrified horse turds, his eyes lit up. Underneath the palm of Victoria’s hand was what felt like a coiled section of rope. Perfect!
Wasting no time, he gathered it up and searched for one of the ends. Once he found it, George sat the old woman’s body against the wall of the stall and began to tightly bind Victoria’s legs together. Her lips were twisted into a malicious grin by the evil entity inside of her. Fear quickly escalated in her mind as she read the thoughts of the invading spirit. Victoria’s hands betrayed her will as they picked up the loose end of the rope, circling its coarse threads around her neck a few times before feeding it through a gap in the boards behind her. Pulling it tight, he knotted it around the bindings on her legs, crushing her windpipe and cutting off the air to her lungs as George leaned forward to secure the rope. He leaned back and forced a wicked smile to appear on her face when he finished. “You’ll be perfectly fine as long as you hold still and don’t try to escape,” George’s voice taunted within her mind.
Now that he no longer had to worry about losing his focus and accidentally allowing Victoria to come to the forefront, and very likely warning her son and his companions, he concentrated on exiting the fragile shell of the old woman. The added exertion he had caused her body by forcing it to move around beyond its normal limits, coupled with the emotional turmoil George had put her through, caused Victoria to pass out as he slipped from her body.
***
Cowering behind the willow tree at the edge of town, Amber watched things unfold, not daring to make her presence known until she knew for sure what was going on. She suspected that somehow the man who’d killed her, and seemed to be a ghost himself now, was inside of Edward’s mother and controlling her like a puppet. She didn’t have any proof of her suspicions to show her friends yet, but Amber was sure if she kept a close eye on things that the evidence would present itself soon.
Seemingly endless hours passed since she had seen everyone go inside of the inn, but just when she began to consider moving in for a closer look, Amber saw the old woman quietly sneak from the building and disappear inside the structure on the other side. After a short time she pondered moving in for a better view, her curiosity slowly beginning to overpower her fear. Before she could act on this impulse, however, Amber witnessed the one thing she dreaded most … the ghost of her killer, peering from the partially open door of the stable!
Chapter 4
Remaining hidden in the secret cellar of the farmhouse, the Black Knight sensed that his plans would soon be set in motion. If, that was, the younger version of George complied with his will. He was hopeful. The man did seem significantly easier to manipulate and control than his willful, older counterpart back on Desolace, but the jury was still out on whether this was going to be a waste of his time, or the most brilliant solution he had ever come up with.
"Will you shut up?" the Black Knight snapped at the screaming plaything George had left behind. Her nude body trembled in the chains which secured her to a sturdy ring in the concrete floor. The sound of his voice caused a stream of urine to gush down her leg, the warm liquid briefly pooling near her shackled feet before it trickled into the drain a foot or two in front of her. The shrill pitch of the woman’s screams, muffled though they were by the gag in her mouth, penetrated his head like an axe splitting firewood. He contemplated silencing her for good, but reconsidered. Maybe, once George has carried out his mission, I could have him drag her with us. No sense in destroying a perfectly acceptable subject that I can put to use when I get back to Cemetery Hill.
Slipping through the heavy, steel door separating the torture chamber from the remainder of the house, the Black Knight quietly ascended the stone staircase which terminated at the bookcase. Placing an ear to the back side of it, he listened for movement. The muffled sound of voices filtered through the wood. A wicked smile creased his face. Oh, he is good, the Black Knight thought. It is no wonder that he captures his victims so easily. The man has the silver tongue of a demon. Restraining a chuckle, he continued to eavesdrop until the voices receded.
Waiting a few moments longer to make sure he could pass to the opposite side of the shelf undetected, he slid the panel aside quietly and stepped through into th
e living room. Stealthily moving into the hallway, the Black Knight cocked his head slightly to one side. The whispered sounds of voices were just barely perceptible, but they seemed to indicate that the humans were preparing to turn in for the night.
His curiosity getting the better of him, he crept silently up the staircase. It wasn’t as if the Black Knight had never witnessed death, more mortals had suffered that fate by his own hands than he could even begin to count, but he wanted more than anything to see George in action. That was just how his brain was wired. He had a compulsive need to bask himself in the misery and death of others.
Several darkened doorways greeted him as he turned into the upper hallway at the top of the stairs. Moonlight filtered through a lone window at the opposite end of the corridor. Twisted shadows danced eerily on the walls, courtesy of the swaying branches of the large oak in the front yard. In this fractured light, the Black Knight could see that all but one of the doors lining the hallway were closed. One, at the very end of the hall, had a hint of luminescence shining beneath it. Another, from the room directly beside the first, was cracked open.
Ignoring the portals closest to him, the stained wood of their panels firmly shut with no sound or light emanating from them, the Black Knight glided down the hall like a child attempting to sneak up on Santa Claus in the middle of the night, hoping to catch the jolly fellow leaving presents under the Christmas tree. Hearing the whimpering, stifled cries of a child resonating in the darkened corridor, as if the tiny human had its face buried in a pillow, he stopped next to the partially opened door. Impatiently, he waited for the child to quiet down, hoping that when she did it would signal it was safe for him to pass by so he could listen in on George and his wife. More than anything, the Black Knight desired to hear what deceptive words young George would use to lull the woman into a false sense of security. He was also eager to watch the man fulfill his demand and prove his loyalty to him.
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