by J. D. Cavan
“Did she say anything?” Charlie asked. He felt guilty about what had happened, the kiss part, even though he knew he must have been under some kind of intense spell.
“Yeah,” Samantha nodded.
“I came in just as Sam was beating the life out of her and she mumbled something about coordinates,” Luca said.
“Like to a location?”
“We don’t know,” Luca replied. “But who cares? We’re done, Charlie. The Serial Seven, it’s over.” Luca seemed so happy, like a ton of bricks had been lifted off his shoulders, and Charlie didn’t want to ruin that. But he knew things definitely weren’t over.
“I’m not so sure it is, Luca,” Charlie said.
“Ugh!” Luca grunted.
“Did she say anything else,” Charlie asked.
“No!” Luca replied.
“Luca,” Samantha said, pursing her lips. “She said something about the chariot?”
“It’s from the Tarot deck. Do you have it?” Charlie asked urgently.
“We took everything out of the room and got rid of it,” Luca replied. Charlie could tell he wanted to get rid of this conversation too.
“Everything but the deck.” Samantha raised her eyebrows. “I had a feeling this was important.” She quickly grabbed her backpack, opened it, and handed the Tarot deck to Charlie.
He searched for the Chariot card before finally discovering it in the back of the pack. He peered at the front of the card and studied it before turning it over. His heart skipped a beat. There was something written on the back of it in small letters. It was a map—coordinates, latitude and longitude of some kind, including a date and time. The date, Charlie noticed, was only two days away. He held the card up.
“This is it,” he said. “This is where we get the answers. We have the exact day, time and location.”
“There are no answers, Charlie!” Luca raised his voice impatiently. “If anything, it’s just another trap to get us killed.”
“I’m willing to take that risk,” Charlie replied.
“So am I.” Samantha took the seven card from Charlie and typed the coordinates into her phone while Luca shook his head. “At this point, Luca, after all we’ve been through, there’s just got to be more. The Serial Seven has to mean something more.”
“I guess we’ve come this far.” Luca sighed in defeat. “Well, where are we going?”
Samantha glanced up from her phone and said, “Los Angeles.”
* * *
THE COORDINATES HAD not taken them far from where they already were. Before he knew it, Charlie was standing in downtown Los Angeles with Samantha and Luca by his side. The exact coordinates were 34.05101N, 118.254355W. The U.S. Bank Tower. It was the same scene he’d seen during his near-death dream experience.
“We’re here,” Luca said loudly over the noise of the traffic. They were standing in the street in front of the building, right in the middle of rush hour in the heart of the business district, with people and cars everywhere.
“One minute,” Charlie said. The minutes passed and the clock hit 6:00 PM. Charlie’s heart pounded. The time had come, and he searched the area but found nothing. Time passed until it was 6:05, and still no indication of anything.
“Can we go now?” Luca asked, his familiar I-told-you-so look on his face.
“A little more time,” Charlie replied.
“I don’t think huge events with all this hype come late. At least that’s not how it happens in the movies,” Luca said snidely.
“Just give it a rest, Luca,” Samantha blurted. Then Charlie felt it. It was subtle at first, just a slight shaking, as if a large truck was driving by on the street. Then it became a full tremor, and the ground began to move and shift. Charlie glanced up at the U.S. Bank Building and saw it begin to sway. People started running and shouting.
“Earthquake!” Luca called out at the top of his lungs.
Charlie grabbed Samantha and she took Luca’s hand, and they started to run, smashing into people as they searched for cover. Debris and rubble fell from the sky as buildings started coming apart. The street in front of them began to buckle and a wave of people almost carried Charlie off, but Samantha held him tightly and yanked him into the alcove of a swaying building.
“We can’t stay here!” Charlie shouted over the deafening noise.
“Look!” Samantha pointed up into the sky. Charlie thought she was pointing to a falling tower, but she wasn’t. There must have been hundreds of them coming, dropping from the sky and then whizzing through the air. They whisked down and seemed to be helping people, flying in out of buildings, through people and cars, underground and back up into the air. They were frantically trying to save as many people as they could. It was the most amazing sight Charlie had ever seen.
“Angels, guardian angels!” Luca shouted. Charlie thought Luca was right, they did look like angels falling from the sky. But they weren’t wearing white with wings on their backs. They wore dark clothing instead, some with cloaks and hoods.
“They’re Thought Changers,” Charlie said.
“There are hundreds of them!” Luca’s mouth opened wide in awe.
“That’s how you came to me, Charlie!” Samantha called.
Charlie focused his eyes and noticed one of the Thought Changers striding toward him through the commotion. The figure was wearing a cloak and hood and seemed to be moving right through scattering people, cars and falling debris. He stopped in the middle of the chaos, put his arms up toward the sky and dropped them down to his sides. The earthquake stopped. The Changers suddenly vanished. It went silent in the street for a second before Charlie heard calls for help and people moaning in pain. Broken steam pipes began whistling and blowing white smoke into the air, and then the sound of sirens in the distance could be heard. The city was a wasteland, a total wreckage.
The hooded person came closer, and Charlie could see many Thought Changers in cloaks and hoods coming up behind and then at the sides of the figure. They weren’t invisibly flying through the air anymore, but carrying automatic rifles and large cannon weapons of some kind.
Before Charlie could scream to Samantha and Luca to run, he felt his body lift off the ground and whip across the city street, smashing into the sidewalk. He then felt himself thrown up against a tree in a nearby park. He grunted in pain and stars spun in front of his face as he slid onto the ground, his back up against the tree.
The Changers opened the cannons on Luca and Samantha and large mesh nets like the ones they’d used to capture the homeless kids in the park, came exploding out and easily trapping them. Charlie struggled to get up and as he did, he noticed the person in the hood standing before him.
“Let them go!” Charlie ordered as he got to his feet. He could see now who was under the hood. It was his father, Mr. Scott. He still had one hand out in front of him, the one he’d used to toss Charlie through the air like a toy doll. He lowered his arm and Charlie was able to pull himself off the ground and stand.
“I wanted to save you from the horrible knowledge of it,” he said.
“Of what?” Charlie shouted, angrily.
“The Serial Seven, my son. Death would have been better. But you wouldn’t let that happen. So now you must know.” Mr. Scott then held two fingers up in front of him. Charlie shook his head in frustrated confusion. “Number two was not number two. You’ve been a number off, tragically so. He is the original, original. You know the serial killer on the bridge who tried to end your Third girlfriend, but he’s not one of the seven.”
Charlie’s mind raced and then his stomach flopped. It’d been so long, and so many killers, he’d forgotten about the sedan killer, the one who had shot the police officer. He had gotten away. He was the only one they hadn’t killed.
“Where is he?” Charlie muttered.
“Who knows? But that’s not the point. Number seven is still unaccounted for—”
“What are you talking about?” Charlie stepped backward.
“You are
missing a killer. You only have six, so who is number seven?” Mr. Scott said.
Instantly, an overwhelming sense of desperation hit Charlie. He glanced over at Samantha and Luca who were now struggling under the heavy nets. He wanted to run and help them but for some reason he started weeping. “Who am I?” Charlie shouted through his tears.
“You’re so close to the truth. Think boy, think,” Mr. Scott whispered, deeply. “We all turn.” Mr. Scott’s eyebrows raised and he gazed at Charlie knowingly. “Weren’t you paying attention to them, what they were saying?”
“No, I can’t be.” Charlie cried in sorrow, a horrific misery enveloping his body. He wasn’t even sure where the thought had come from, but it was pure torture, pure hell.
“The Serial Seven is you. You’re number seven, Charlie.” His father spoke the words that were in his head.
“From where, how?” Charlie uttered. He was lost, his world spinning out of control.
“From the 7 House. You don’t remember it, and you wouldn’t. I took those terrible memories from you, mercifully so, long ago when you were a young boy.”
The images of the house Charlie had seen in his dream came back to his mind, the old house on the empty dark street. But this time, in his mind he walked through the door and into a long hallway that led to another door. The door swung open and led to a stairway deep down into a basement.
Once he reached the bottom, he could see it fully—the basement was more like an ancient torture chamber, with strange modern-looking lab equipment everywhere. On one side of the room, huge Plexiglas encasements all stood upright. As he moved closer to the chambers he could see inside them. There were children locked in them. He glanced up, and above each individual holding cell, written on the top front, was a Roman numeral. He was transfixed on the chambers. The first chamber had “I” written above it, and next to that one was “II,” all the way until he read the final number. It was seven, “VII.”
In containment chamber number “I” was Lang as young boy, and next to him, in chamber “II,” was a little Destroyer. He could see all the children more clearly now. The Serial Seven were being experimented on, and they were screaming, smashing into the glass and raging inside the chambers. He could see Sarah in chamber “VI” as a little girl. Containment chamber number seven was covered in a shadow, but he found himself moving closer toward it. He squinted his eyes to see, and inside it was himself as a young boy.
“It’s where I had to put you. I didn’t want to, but I had to.” Charlie heard Mr. Scott’s voice and he snapped out of the memory. He was completely numb.
“Why?” Charlie mumbled. He was shaking his head and fighting back tears while a slow burning rage came over him.
“You were the worst of the worst, the ones we just couldn’t control. Seven of the most troubled of all Thirds. And believe me, we tried to help you.” Mr. Scott crossed his arms in front of his chest.
“You’re lying!” Charlie screamed. “What were you doing to us?” He stopped himself from going on because he was getting insanely hysterical, and forced himself to calm down.
Mr. Scott walked closer to Charlie, as if to embrace him, but then he stood still. “When you jumped out of the plane and went off into the wild, I had to ensure you’d be stopped. So I unlocked the memories of all six of the seven, the memories I had locked away from them for years. The memories of what had happened at the 7 House. I had been keeping those terrible thoughts from those poor souls. And of course, when I finally unlocked them and they remembered everything, they wanted to seek revenge against you.”
“But why?” Charlie uttered. He thought of what Sarah had said to him. That she’d tried to forgive him but couldn’t. “What did I do?” he asked, more to himself.
“What you thought you had to,” Mr. Scott replied. “You don’t need the details. Just trust me, you simply don’t want to know them. All the memories of the 7 House would trap you—you’d never get out. It would destroy you.” Charlie looked down at himself and noticed that somehow, he was dressed in a black cloak and hood.
“I’m the only one who can save you from your own doom. Submit to me, and perhaps you can survive.” Mr. Scott put his hand out welcomingly toward Charlie. For a moment, Charlie felt himself giving in to his father’s wishes. Then all the images from his near-death dream state came to him and gave him strength and courage. To die and come back to life, what could he be afraid of now? Nothing, he told himself.
“The Serial Seven couldn’t kill me, and I didn’t turn into a zombie killer like them. I never turned!” Charlie said, defiantly.
“You’re foolish. You just haven’t turned into a zombie yet,” Mr. Scott said, defensively.
“You don’t know what I am, and that’s why you’re so frightened of me.” Charlie felt power race through him. “I’m not what you think. I never was, and you hate that! I am not a Third. I’m something brand new.” Mr. Scott appeared stunned. Charlie wasn’t even sure where this was coming from, but he knew it was true. It was something about the 7 House, he couldn’t remember exactly what it was, but something told him the truth.
“You are what you are, boy! Look where you’ve come from,” Mr. Scott said in disgust.
“My power is not in who I was, but who I’m becoming. I am the first of my kind. I am a First,” Charlie stated. When it came to him, it was the most real thing he’d ever experienced, more real than any of his life’s memories. Mr. Scott’s face dropped and he scowled, but then a dark smirk appeared on it.
“A declaration of a new species, I’m impressed. As if the first Homo sapien had enough brains to announce himself as a human!” Mr. Scott said. Charlie balled his hands into fists and stood against his father. “I knew this was what you had always wanted. It is what I’ve always wanted, and what the Thought Changers have always had.”
“I don’t want anything you want!” Charlie spat his words in fury and then Mr. Scott broke out into wicked laughter.
“Don’t be naive! We both want evolutionary status. Who will win out? Look around you; look at the power I have now. I could have sunk this city into the sea, but I showed mercy.” His face darkened and he seemed to age right in front of Charlie. He looked like a wicked old warlock. “Come and get me,” he growled.
Mr. Scott’s arms went up and his hands opened out in front of him, but Charlie threw his hands up faster and with all the power of his mind sent Mr. Scott into the air and ripping backward, careening and smashing against a car. Charlie went toward him, pulsing and surging with energy before suddenly finding himself choking and without air. Mr. Scott easily pulled himself off the car and stood over Charlie as Charlie gasped for breath.
“I suppose you’ll just have to know all of what happened in the 7 House. You just can’t not know. I’ll unlock the misery for you now, and you can you see for yourself.” Charlie shut his eyes tightly, as if the whole thing would just disappear. He opened them and looked out at the chaos and destruction, the terrible horrors his father had created. He watched Samantha and Luca. The Changers were dragging them in mesh nets over the debris and up a ramp toward a huge helicopter transport. Charlie closed his eyes again and waited for the memories of the 7 House, whatever the evil was. He readied himself to be gone and lost in the darkness.
But when he opened his eyes again, it was Mr. Scott who was gone. Charlie glanced around, then stood up quickly and ran over toward the helicopter. The rotors were roaring and the machine seemed like it was about to lift off. Charlie used his mind to shut the rotors down, and then the back-door hatch blew open.
He readied himself for Changers with guns to emerge, but instead it was Samantha and Luca who came running down the ramp. They had somehow freed themselves and escaped the Changers.
“Let’s go!” Luca shouted as he and Samantha raced down the street over the fallen debris, destroyed cars, rubble from the buildings and injured people. Charlie ran up next to them. He noticed that police, ambulances and fire departments were coming on the scene, but the Cha
ngers were pouring out of the transport not far behind.
As Charlie raced through the wreckage he surveyed the area. It looked like the end of time—buildings in ruin, roads cracked and broken like they were Legos. Charlie fell and Samantha grabbed his arm, yanking him up and pulling him forward. The three of them tore down a warped street and then climbed as it twisted and turned up into the air. They were headed toward the ocean.
It suddenly began to rain, and the wind picked up, and it seemed as if a major storm was coming in from the water.
As they ran through the streets, over broken sidewalks and rubble, Luca stopped abruptly, as if slamming on his own breaks. Samantha and Charlie came crashing up into him. Luca threw his arms out at the sides and stopped them from flying right off the edge of a cliff. The road they were on was a bridge that had twisted sideways, and it had cracked in half, the rest of it broken off and fallen into the ocean. The three of them stood at the end of it, with just a bit of asphalt the only thing keeping them from falling into the sea. The Changers, there must have been twenty of them now, were coming up fast behind them with guns and cannon nets.
“We have to jump!” Charlie shouted. He felt the wind and rain whipping into this face.
“Oh no,” Samantha replied.
“There’s crazy currents down there! We’ll be pulled under!” Luca was gazing at the water below as it churned from the storm.
“Exactly why they won’t follow us!” Charlie reached out and grabbed each of their hands. “Let’s go!” he shouted and pulled them off the ledge.
Charlie went deep below the surface of the water and felt the rip of the current immediately. He struggled to get to the top for air, and by the time he did he noticed that the bridge they had jumped off was yards in the distance. He was being dragged out, and down the shoreline by the powerful tide caused by the raging storm. Charlie frantically searched for Samantha and Luca, and saw what he thought was a head, or an arm, but he was only disappointed when it turned out to be junk. There was so much debris floating in the water it became impossible to tell what was what as he struggled to stay afloat, swim, and make it inland.
