by Jo Ho
Copyright ©2018 Jo Ho
All rights reserved.
This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, organizations, and events portrayed in this story are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.
No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of Jo Ho.
Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Afterword
About the Author
Chapter 1
An unnatural light bathed the city in an eerie red wash.
As if the world was being viewed beneath a filter, everything had that crimson tone, from the full moon blazing down from the night sky, to the glistening sidewalks below, still wet from the recent rain. People stopped dead in the streets, their faces tilted upward to study the bizarre sight. Only Christian knew what the red light signified.
It was a dire warning.
Marley held her phone in her hand, Eve on the other end of the FaceTime video call. They could see her looking at the same light from inside her own bedroom, all the way across town. A lead weight settled in Christian’s stomach, threatening to become an explosion. He finally knew what Michael was up to.
And it was far worse than he had ever thought it would be.
His already-pale face became even whiter as he fought to gain control of his fear. Whatever issues he had previously had with the girls were immediately set aside. It wasn’t important. Nothing was important other than stopping Michael from continuing his mission.
“Marley, I need you to speak to the others for me,” he began, voice tight with tension. Hearing his grave tone, she moved away from the window, her brow wrinkled in concern.
“What is it?” she asked.
Christian opened his mouth to explain the cause of the red light when, to his utter horror, he felt that familiar pull in his stomach that signaled he was about to be yanked back into his own world. The Spirit World. Eyes flaring open in alarm, he reached out to Marley but couldn’t stop the inevitable from happening. He vanished.
Marley’s mouth dropped open, not believing her eyes. “Are you kidding me?” She cried, her voice rising up an octave.
“What happened?” Tyler asked.
“Christian was about to say something then disappeared. It sounded important.”
“Was he going to explain what the red light is?” Cassie gestured outside.
Marley shrugged. “Your guess is as good as mine. I can’t believe he keeps disappearing like that, right when things get bad.”
“Maybe we’re not the only ones who need to learn about our powers maybe he needs to learn how to appear to you too,” came Eve’s sensible voice from inside the phone.
Still, Marley couldn’t help the sunken feeling that made her body feel heavy and sluggish. What were they supposed to do without him when he was the only one who knew anything?
Tyler and Cassie started talking then, voicing their fears. Marley tuned them out, her own worries taking over. Her eyes drifted over to the window again as she stared out at that unnatural red sky when something about it caught her attention.
She blinked, letting her eyes readjust, staring harder. “Guys, does the red look like it’s stronger above that building?”
The chatter died immediately as they gathered around her to look at the building she pointed to. From this distance, all they could see was a dark shape with some kind of spire attached to it.
“Yeah, it does,” Tyler agreed.
“We should see if we can find out what building that is,” Cassie said, suddenly pumped and excited. “Maybe we’ll find some kind of clue there.”
“That’s actually a great idea. Well done, Cassie,” Eve said. Marley was sure she didn’t mean it to sound as patronizing as it did. Luckily Cassie didn’t seem to have noticed, grinning as she was, pleased by the compliment.
“Do you mind if I don’t come,” Eve asked, her voice sounding quiet through the phone. “It’s just, I’m on my own right now, and after the attack at the bar, I could do with a break…” She trailed off, letting the others fill in the rest of her thoughts in their heads.
“I’m sure we’ll be fine,” Marley answered for the group. “We’ll keep you on the phone so you can see what we see.”
“Thanks,” Eve replied, shooting her a grateful look, relieved to stay home where she would be safe.
Outside, the streets were hushed, as if the red light had muffled all sound. Everywhere they went, people stood huddled in pairs or groups, staring up at the sky, wondering at the phenomenon. The eerie glow had sent the city into a watchful wariness, causing the usually-packed restaurants to be empty tonight.
The girls walked past the eateries, guided by the strongest point of the red light. They weaved through quiets streets without chatting their senses honed for possible danger, until the roads turned into a pedestrianized zone. They crossed into an area that seemed familiar, where the ageless buildings of the past met the modern soaring skyscrapers of the future.
“Copley Square!” Tyler exclaimed suddenly breaking the silence, making Marley jump. “We’re back here again?”
Marley stared at where the red light was concentrated the most. It shone like a beacon from a singular building. Her stomach clenched tighter when she recognized it.
“It’s coming from Trinity Church.” She barely managed to get the words out of her mouth. She took in a deep, slow breath, her heart thumping wildly in her chest. Even without Christian there, the guilt was overwhelming. They would have to go inside, to the scene of the crime.
She would be faced with her actions once again.
If the others knew how she felt, they didn’t let on. Tyler led the way to the church, Cassie following closely behind. Willing her feet to move, Marley lagged behind them. She kept her eyes fixed on a point dead ahead, praying silently that nothing bad would happen.
Arriving at the church entrance, they stopped. The doors had been blown inward by something powerful. Marley would’ve known instinctively that no human hand could have caused it, even if she hadn’t been able to see the traces of magic that had been left behind. It was like a cloud of black with blinking lights inside that hovered at the edge of the doors.
“Do you guys see that?” she asked.
“Yeah,” Tyler confirmed as Cassie and Eve both nodded.
Not knowing whether it would harm them, they stepped around it, giving it a wide berth. They slowly entered the church, walking into the sanctuary. There on the floor lay the cross that had been destroyed, reminding them of their first experience here. This was where they had thought they were saving the good guy.
This was where Marley had killed Christian.
Even though his body wasn’t there anymore, Marley could see it so vividly that her gut churned from the memory alone.
She could still see his awful expression, that realisation on his face for the split second he had known before she did, that she had killed him. Her fingers clenched reflexively, feeling his pulsating heart between them again. If Marley c
ould rewind time, she would take them back to that moment. She wouldn’t have killed Christian. She would have stopped to hear what he had been trying so desperately to tell her. They would have put an end to Michael. Then the only thing she would have to worry about was finishing school.
Unfortunately, that wasn’t a power any of them had.
She moved past the spot where Christian had died in a daze, her feet seemingly having a mind of their own. The girls lead the way forward, Marley following blindly behind. She went down the stone steps, keeping her mind blank. It wasn’t until she set foot in the basement that she was able to think again. The same black sparkling cloud she had seen upstairs hovered over a mosaic that covered the entire floor. A large chunk of the mosaic had been broken revealing a gaping hole below.
It was from out of this hole that the brilliant red light flared out.
Flinching from the brightness of it, moving closer, Marley felt a strange feeling, a magic pull of some kind coming from it.
“Can you feel that? It’s like something’s pulling me towards the hole, but only when I got close to it.” she said. She knelt down by the edge of the hole, angling her phone so Eve could get a better look. Tyler walked the perimeter of the mosaic, treading carefully.
“Yes. There’s some kind of force drawing me towards it.”
“I feel it too,” Cassie supplied.
“Well, now we know what’s causing that red sky. If only we knew what it actually meant. The only other thing in here is this mosaic. Where it’s been broken is where that magic cloud is most focused,” Tyler observed.
“Get away from that!” Christian’s voice yelled suddenly, straight into Marley’s ear. She jumped, repeating his message as she searched the area for him, finding him at the foot of the stairs.
“Stop doing that!” she snapped, a hand flying to her chest. “You can’t keep vanishing then reappearing without any notice! You’re going to give me a heart attack!”
His face twisted into what passed as an apology. “It’s not like I have any real control over when I appear and disappear. If it’s any consolation, I get just as startled as you when it happens.”
While they spoke, the others watched her, their expressions bemused, but it quickly sank in that Christian was back.
“Well, it’s about time,” Eve exclaimed. “Can he explain what’s going on?”
“Yes, just tell them to back away from the magic,” he warned. Marley repeated him then waited for an explanation. “That cloud is the physical trace that magic leaves behind. I mentioned this to you before, how magical beings can see it? Well, that black color means the magic that was used here was black magic.”
“Black magic?” Cassie asked, her eyes shining with confusion.
“Yes. There are two types of magic, white and black. White is good magic: an extension of nature, it’s typically used to heal, help, nurture or grow. Black magic is the opposite. It takes from nature and is used for evil purposes, to destroy.”
Nervously, Tyler backed away from the black cloud. “OK, but why is it here? Why is that red light coming out of that hole? When you disappeared, we followed it all the way here…”
Christian hesitated, steeling himself for what he knew they weren’t ready to hear. Yet, hear it they must. “Centuries ago, long before technology came into the world, magic was much more common than it is today. Demons, vampires, witches…. they weren’t the stuff of folklore. They were real. And so was the threat of evil. Power has always been able to corrupt which is why, amongst other things, The Society of Guardians was created.” He stopped, waiting as Marley relayed his words.
“In response to one of the greatest evils mankind has ever faced, supernatural seals were created to keep that kind of evil from ever crossing into our world again. They were strategically placed around the world in the areas where magic was strongest. This very city with its dark history has five seals of its own, but Michael has just broken one of them. That is why the red light is coming out of that hole, why it appeared to color the sky, painting the full moon red. A Blood Moon — which we now call an eclipse — has typically prophesied the end of days. It was even written in the Bible. The red light is a warning that the First Seal is broken. It is a warning of what might be to come.”
Marley tried to understand, but his words whipped around in her head causing only confusion. “I don’t understand, what we’re seeing tonight is The Blood Moon that’s mentioned in the Bible?” The passage he referred to ran through her mind.
The sun will turn into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and terrible day of the Lord comes.
She had her dad to thank for that and the Bible classes she attended every Sunday as a kid.
“No. It’s not a real Blood Moon. That’s not happening for another few weeks.”
“How are you so sure that this isn’t the real thing?” Cassie asked, wringing her hands nervously.
“Because I know the dates of all the future eclipses,” Christian replied. “They were practically the first thing I memorized. Also, I have an app on my phone. Had,” he finished. “This is just a warning that the real one is imminent.”
“So what exactly does breaking this first seal mean?” Eve asked, voicing the thought on all their minds.
“It means something is coming. Something that could signify the end of the world.”
Even as the words left her mouth, Marley felt the room spin. Was he for real?
“Hold up,” Tyler said. “Are you saying literal end-of-the-world? This isn’t like that Mayan Calendar scenario in 2012?”
“Unfortunately, no. The threat is very real.”
Staring at the ground, Marley studied the angels depicted on the tiles, focusing on the area that was broken. “This mosaic, this was one of the seals?”
“It must be. No one actually knows what the seals are, they kept them secret so they couldn’t be destroyed,” Christian informed them. “Except, Michael found this one somehow.”
“Can’t we just put the mosaic back together again? I was pretty good at puzzles as a kid,” Cassie asked hopefully. Christian shook his head, regret making his eyes bright.
“That’s not how this works.”
Marley paced back and forth, several thoughts racing through her mind. “Does this mean the other seals are also mosaics? If that’s the case it shouldn’t be too hard to find them?”
“I don’t think it will be as easy as that. It’s a pretty terrible hiding place if that’s what they all are,” came Eve’s sensible voice from the phone.
Marley sighed, knowing that she was right. “I just wanted us to get a break.”
Seeing their glum faces, Christian forced himself to sound optimistic, even though he felt anything but. The fragile group were hanging by a thread. While he wasn’t completely convinced about them yet, he also knew there wasn’t anything he could do on his own. “Don’t forget you have your powers too. I’m sure there’ll be a way for you to use them to locate the rest.”
“If we have to use our powers, then we’re pretty much screwed. I can barely figure out mine,” Cassie said, unable to hide how hopeless this all seemed.
“If Michael found one of these already, doesn’t that mean he can find them all?” Marley asked quietly, feeling an enormous weight on her shoulders that threatened to crush her.
Christian tried to keep his face stoic. He couldn’t let them see his own fear.
“Tomorrow after your classes, we’ll meet up. I will try to help you with your powers. Until then, we have to hope that Michael doesn’t find out where the next seal is before you do.”
Chapter 2
SALEM, 1693.
As the night drew close, another body was uncovered.
It was a young man this time, discovered floating amongst the river reeds. His bloated body bore signs of the struggle The Four had come to expect. This man had been strong, stronger than the previous female victims, though he had met the same fate. His face was twisted into a perpetual scr
eam of agony.
The taint of black magic lingered over him too.
Mary pulled the sheet over his head, knowing she would never erase the look on his face from her mind. This made six. Six young people in about as many weeks all murdered in the same manner; their necks snapped with such force that it had caused a clean break. While they could see the touch of black magic that hovered over him, The Four kept that information to themselves. It would serve nothing to reveal its existence to the villagers. This knowledge would only frighten them further. People were scared of what they didn’t understand. It was this way throughout history and it would be the same in the future. There was plenty to be fearful of already without adding this extra layer.
A few nights ago, Esther had returned from a simple hunting trip to find a headless chicken lying across the doorway of their host’s home. The next morning, they were awakened to screams from the children when they discovered archaic symbols smeared onto their walls with chicken blood. Tabitha had recognized some of the symbols from her studies. Traditionally, the symbols were used to heal, but as they were in their upside-down state, they could also be used to destroy. The discovery filled The Four with cold fingers of dread.
Frightened, not understanding what was happening, the villagers had asked them to leave. Though they knew the sisters would never cause them harm, they still wanted nothing more to do with their “kind”. Understanding this, The Four journeyed to the next village, a journey that would take several days to make.
They traveled under the blistering sun with barely any food or water, until their feet hurt and Catherine’s delicate skin burned. The new village, perched by the great river, didn’t see many visitors and received even less outside news. They were welcomed with open arms.
