by Tobias Wade
“They can’t hear us, but don’t worry. It’ll be alright.”
She was right. I felt myself calm down almost immediately. Of course everything would be fine.
I even smiled with a sigh of relief when the minister slit Hannah’s throat.
“Twenty-six! Take her, and rise once more!”
The blood poured out of her, floating in the air as spectral hands emerged from beyond. The bony fingers touched the dark liquid gently, as though to test the power that would soon be theirs.
“Huh,” I wondered aloud, in an elevated daze. “So this is Zodiac?”
Eli smiled. “No.”
Hannah’s eyes sparked with life and she yelled out. “NO! IT’S MINE!”
The blood began retracting into her neck as the priest looked around to his flock. The guards began to look to each other in confusion, clearly not briefed on what to do in this circumstance.
“This isn’t...” the man in black began. “What are you doing? You can’t-”
Hannah threw out a hand towards him and in an instant his entire body exploded into a mess of viscera that froze in time, hanging in the air as pieces of his former being.
She let out a shrill shriek, the kind only children can produce, that rattled the walls and sent the guards to their knees, desperately covering their ears. The others near Hannah tried to reach her, but were blown back anytime they got close by a strong gust of air.
The spectral arms reached out to close her mouth, working quickly to end this nonsense.
No - they weren’t reaching.
Hannah was pulling them towards her.
Her yell twisted into several tones without stopping, each sonic pulse sending out a wave of energy. Blood from the dead priest began to twitch and pull, eventually getting sucked into my daughter’s body without leaving a trace.
The bones began fragmenting, falling into the black hole that sucked everything into Hannah’s slit throat. The altar itself cracked and shifted as the pitch raised rapidly, a simulated doppler effect.
A moment later, everyone in the room but Hannah was gone. Nothing more than dark stains on the ground and walls.
I snapped out of whatever trance I’d been in, noticing Olivia had gone completely white in shock. Eli gave me a wink, then moved towards a switch that began lowering our deck.
“What th--”
“Patience, Jeremy.”
Soon enough the glass window raised up and I ran towards my daughter to make sure she was alright.
I stopped short, watching her lick the blood off her fingers. The stains in the room had disappeared in the short moments I’d had my head turned away.
Eli began to clap, walking slowly towards the middle of the room. “That, my dear… That was Zodiac.”
He let out a deep sigh, as though years of pent-up frustration were finally alleviated. “You cannot possibly imagine the difficulty I’ve gone through for this. Putting up with that insane Meisberger and his ridiculous cult. Paying off the sheriff’s department. Keeping the drug money flowing. Preventing anyone else from unlocking the secrets of the sphere?”
He chuckled. “My goodness has it all been worth it. To finally meet you,” he said, opening his arms to Hannah.
Eli began to kneel, but Olivia grabbed his shoulder and punched him in the face. “It was supposed to be me! You told me I was the one!”
“Yes, well, obviously I was lying.”
“You piece of…” She turned to my little girl and focused on her small form. “You little bitch, we’ll see who’s th--”
And then she turned to liquid, the same way the reverend had.
Hannah spent no time pulling the remains into her being, the matter sliding through her veins and disappearing in her throat.
Was this really still my daughter?
“Now then,” she said, “It’s all settled? Kill him if you want, but do tell me what else must be done. I simply must know the rest, how to use it all!”
Eli bent over, begging up to the bloodied four-year old in front of him. She looked at him with disdain, then glanced over to me and smiled.
“No.”
“Wha--”
Once more, the human in front of her turned to reddish black chunks before making their way to her form. She swallowed hard and skipped over to me, grasping my hand with a smile.
“I’m so hungry, daddy. Won’t you help feed me?”
I only recall the following moments as memories. I like to think my mind put up a wall to lock all that horror away, then took autopilot of my body as my daughter - or whatever she had become - led me through the halls to another guarded room.
Everyone in our way became that fleshy mist before becoming absorbed.
We finally reached a room that contained two halves of a dark spherical rock. Meteorites, I think they were. Hannah reached out to pull them towards her through the air and put them together. The pieces shifted and warped and shrunk down into a large black pearl, which she has worn around her neck ever since.
When we got home, after putting Hannah to bed, I found my wife’s body hanging from the ceiling fan in our room. Whether she killed herself or someone in Eli’s control killed her, I may never know.
What I do know was written in the brief note she mailed to me, set in her will:
My sweet Jeremy… If you’re reading this, it’s because I’m dead. I cannot state how terribly sorry I am for everything, and though I can’t possibly explain most of what’s gone on, and what you may experience, there are a few things you need to know.
Hannah is not our daughter - not technically, anyway. She was created by the Initiative, and given to us after I discovered I couldn’t conceive children. I know this may come as a shock, but please know that she loves you as any child would love their father.
The details surrounding why they created her were never revealed to me, however I have come to believe that their plans for her are nothing but nefarious. They may go as far as stealing her from us right under our noses through kidnapping or lies. If I have seemed complicit in any such events, it was because they threatened to kill you.
What I do know is, whatever will happen to her will usher in a new era. One of pain and suffering, as those with access to her power will use it to crush their opposition and suck the life from the world. These people are not sane, Jeremy. If I cannot stop it, and you receive this letter before it’s too late, you have to do something.
I can’t believe I’m writing this, but if it comes down to it, you need to kill her before they perform the ritual. If it is completed, all hope is lost.
I hope from the bottom of my heart you will never have to read this letter. Please know that I did my best. I love you.
-Marissa
Publisher’s Note:
It’s dangerous to go alone.
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