Cult of the Hexad (Afterlife saga Book 6)

by Stephanie Hudson

  “The sight?” At this she rolled her eyes as if dealing with a dumb wit.

  “Well I will say this much they certainly knew what they were doing. Not even I have that level of power and as a Shtriga, that is unusual, trust me.”

  “What is a Shr…

  “Sht…ri…ga.” She said it again, only slower this time. I nodded to which I received an unnerving grin in return.

  “Why don’t you google it when I am gone, I see that’s where you have been getting most of your information these days.” She commented dryly, nodding at the open laptop I had obviously fallen asleep next to which now only held a black screen.

  “So what is your plan, to stay with these humans until the end of days?” She said gesturing towards the door where Lucy and Denis no doubt still slept. I frowned at the way she said this, not appreciating the way she obviously looked down at me. I mean what did she expect of me anyway?

  “I am going to save my sister.” I stated sternly.

  “Right, your sister…I am going to take a wild stab in the dark here and guess you’re not talking about a redhead are you?” I gave her an odd look to match her odd question.

  “No, why would you ask that?”

  “No reason.” She said sounding bored and looked up to the ceiling as if looking for divine intervention.

  “So this sister of yours, what is her name?”

  “And if I tell you, does that mean you will help me?” I asked already knowing the answer, so it wasn’t a big shocker when she said,

  “Oh Hell no, what in Lucifer’s name would make you ask that?” She said laughing which very nearly managed to grate on my last nerve and make me snap. It was funny now that her image had changed so had her attitude, as if the two sides of her went hand in hand against the other.

  “Then why should I tell you?” I snapped. She merely shrugged her shoulder as though she didn’t give a damn but to me she played it too cool in this game she was trying to draw me into. Oh she wanted to know all right, that I would bet money on…that was if I had any.

  “No reason really, just that I know my master would have been interested.”

  “And who is this master you keep referring to?” I asked, knowing any name she gave me would do little good, seeing as everyone I knew outside of the Colony I could count on one hand and still have fingers left over.

  “Oh that’s right, you won’t remember him either. Such a shame, considering the history I hear you two share together.” This time I was the one to roll my eyes.

  “I told you, I am not the girl you think I am!” I said only getting further irritated with this pointless conversation.

  “No, you’re not the girl you think you are.” She corrected making me sigh in frustration.

  “Alright, so what’s his name then, if you think I knew him as well as you say I did then surely I would recognise the name.” At this she smirked like this was what she wanted all along. She tapped her long red nail to her lips for a few annoying seconds before she clicked her fingers like an idea she’d had all along only just came to her. She must have thought me to be an idiot if she believed I would fall for this flavour of BS.

  “I will make you a deal…”

  “Of course you will.” I interrupted sarcastically making her smile.

  “Is that a taste of the old you making a sneak appearance… I hear she was known for her wit and sarcasm, or so my master tells me.” For some reason this made me angry as she hit a sore nerve. The truth was that some repressed part of me did keep making an appearance and the creepiest thing about it was that I was confusing the two sides of me until they merged into one. Was there any truth in what she was trying to tell me? After all, everyone else seemed to believe I wasn’t being true to myself and thought of me as someone else.

  “Let me guess, you want to know my sister’s name, in exchange for your master’s?” I said knowing I was giving her my best unimpressed face, that I could only hope looked as good as it felt.

  “Bingo!”

  “Fine, her name is Ariana…now it’s your turn.” Now if I thought this was going to be a complete waste of her time in knowing this I was very wrong. I knew that when her eyes got wide and her mouth opened slightly before she said two words I never expected.

  “Holy shit.” Then she got up and started to pace the room making her full skirt swish around her legs and the longest bits sweep along the floor.

  “Why? What is it?” I asked after she started muttering to herself.

  “I could never…By the Gods, its genius really. And in your memories, this sister of yours, she has always been with you at this place you escaped from?” With this question my unease doubled. For a start she knew far more than she should but I answered her all the same, if only so I could gauge her reaction.

  “Yes, we are twins and went into the Colony when we were seven.” Hearing this she clapped her hands, making her many rings clash together.

  “It’s brilliant! Flawless really but the question still remains and that is why?”

  “I have no idea what you’re talking about, so I’m afraid I won’t be much help with that question.” I said not caring how sarcastic it sounded this time.

  “I gather since you’re twins and all, that you remained inseparable during your incarceration.”

  “That’s an odd question, why would you even ask that?”

  “Well you did consider it a prison, am I correct?” I had no idea where she was going with this line of questioning so I refused to answer her.

  “I will take your silence as a yes and considering her now obvious part in your little ‘disappearing act’…” She made little quotation marks with her fingers and this was when I hit my limit.

  “Now listen here you! I have no idea why you are here because it certainly isn’t to make any sense or offer any help. If anything it seems like your sole reason is just to taunt me with more cryptic shit I really don’t have the time for, so if you’re not going to offer me anything useful then can you please just leave me the Hell alone!” Now at this she really did smile, which I found even more infuriating.

  “Alright young Electus, I see you have found your edge and rightly so but I never said I couldn’t help you.”

  “But you said…” She held up her hand to stop me and clarified,

  “I said I wouldn’t help you, not that I couldn’t but that is beside the point because what I am blood bound to do next will help you, whether I like it or not.”

  “Okay, so now I am really confused.” I said rubbing my forehead in frustration and for a moment the act seemed a very familiar one to me but for what reason I couldn’t say.

  “All in good time Electus, all in good time. But speaking of time, mine here is at an end and yours is just beginning, so stay here and start…”

  “What! That’s your plan, for me to just stay here and start living my life and all the time my sister is…” This time she interrupted me to continue,

  “…start living the quiet life and in time help will come to you.”

  “Oh no. Not going to happen. I mean, why should I trust you, so far all you have done is try to scare the shit out of me and given me more questions to ask than answers.”

  “I am afraid that in this case knowledge is not power, it will only be a hindrance if what you truly want to do is save this sister of yours, trust me on that alone. My master will come.” For some reason this last bit sent shivers down my spine and I didn’t even know his name yet.

  “And he will help me?”

  “He has done so in the past, so I can’t see why not.” She said pulling her lips together and shrugging her shoulders and I can’t say the look instilled me with confidence. Besides, the idea that her ‘Master’ would come here to maybe help me wasn’t making me feel all warm and fuzzy inside.

  “And so I leave you, until no doubt the next time I am summoned to finding you.”

  “Oh, so I disappear a lot then do I?” The question wasn’t serious however a serious answer was what
I received.

  “Oh Electus, you have no idea.” Then she started to walk back into the bathroom of all places.

  “Wait, you didn’t keep your end of the bargain!” She stopped in the doorway with her back to me. I think I could hear her smiling before she simply turned her head and proved me right.

  “Ah yes, you’re right, how silly of me…I owe you a name.” At this point I really could have done with her saying something safe…like Eric or maybe Frank, or even Jack? Why was it those names sounded so safe to me? I held my breath and waited, which she seemed to enjoy and just before I snapped again she said,

  “My master’s name is… Lucius.”

  Of course it was I thought getting quite used to this new sarcastic side to me. I guess names like ‘Jeff’ or ‘Roger’ just didn’t have the right scary, bad ass vibe that bad guys were looking for these days. But then replaying that name back and I couldn’t help but hear myself speaking it. It was strange but it also felt like a part of me had once mourned the loss of this Lucius.

  “There it is.” Ness said smirking at me from the doorway. She knew in the one look I had given her that I had heard it before and my quick frown now meant nothing to her.

  “And my job is now complete…well, almost.” She added and then her face began to change. It was as though something was travelling under her skin from the back of her head, as if her veins were close to bursting if she didn’t get it out of her as it fought its way to the surface. It quickly made its way to the front and she raised her head up as if relishing the feeling it produced. At one point her head snapped back so far it looked like she was going to howl up at the moon.

  “Ness?” I braved whispering her name and her reaction to it was as if I had screamed it. Her head cracked back to looking at me but it was almost like her neck was now broken. It was to the side and moved around as if she had turned into some ancient mechanical toy doll. The whites of her eyes started to disappear, being overtaken by black shadows that spread out like an infection, spreading under her skin. I looked to her hands that had also started to disappear into the wide sleeves of her shirt.

  What the hell was going on?!

  Fangs began to grow from behind her closed lips, forcing her to spread her mouth to accommodate them. They grew and grew until they passed her lips and started to curl down over her chin and around the shape of her face. She was becoming a monster!

  My fear had me lost in making the right decisions on how to save myself from this. I knew I should be running. I knew I should be screaming but it was like being trapped by the shackles of my own mind. Then her body seemed to contort back on itself and I half expected something to burst from the centre of her chest like I had seen on a movie once. It was utterly terrifying and I was once again frozen because of that fear.

  “Ahh!” I screamed this time as she bent over and started to gag violently on something. She looked like she was choking and any minute looked as though she would find death because of it. I was just about to move towards her as my first instinct kicked in, even if it was the wrong one, I didn’t wish her to die. But just before I could make it off the bed her head once more snapped up and what I now saw made me start to gag! Her mouth was stretched wider than I thought possible as long black, talon tipped fingers emerged from within.

  They grew in size as it seemed to drag itself from inside using its nails on her skin. Her face tore as it clawed its way out using her chin, until the whole hand was out, only stopping at the wrist. Then the hand turned around until the curled nails could rip down her face all the way from her forehead until it made a fist.

  I screamed again as a demon within tore itself up and out of her body, drawing in the body that remained and spinning round and round into a blur. She turned into some sort of shadowed ink banshee and then flew at me full speed until I fell backwards off the bed. I felt a pair of fangs pierce my neck for a few seconds and heard her voice in my head as my mouth opened to release a silent scream.

  “I bestow my gift of sight back to you Electus, ready for your master once more…save us all.”

  And then she was gone.

  My hand flew to my neck in panic but only the slight pinch of pain told me it was nothing life threatening. She had pricked the skin enough to draw blood as I pulled back my hand back to see the evidence there. I jumped up ready to bolt for the bathroom to see for myself when I tripped and knocked the computer to the floor.

  It beeped into life and as the screen illuminated I gasped at what it was showing me. There in what looked like a newspaper article was a picture of a huge old manor house, half covered in ivy.

  “That’s…that’s it…” I said in awe, long forgetting the blood dripping from my neck or what the Gypsy Ness had just done to me. The fear, the confusion, had all just disappeared in that one moment as I finally saw the last scene gifted to me in my vision. The whole thing hit me again as I fell to the floor and before my eyes opened from the dream, there it was, the house I saw. I blinked back the memory of waking up in the field and simply stared at the screen almost too scared that if I blinked I would lose it.

  I couldn’t believe it was real! I knew without a doubt that this was where I needed to go. This was what I needed to find as this place held the key to not only my questions but helping me get Ari out. It had to be, Ari had told me to follow my visions, to find the Demon in my dreams. And this was where he was.

  I read the text below it and gasped again before reading the words aloud…

  “Club Afterlife.”

  Chapter 13

  Time for Goodbyes

  The next morning, I finally had a plan.

  Of course this helped now that I actually had an address to go by. Once more I had fallen asleep whilst trying to burn the midnight oil in my quest for research. Thankfully I had learnt most of what I needed to know about ‘Club Afterlife’ before my mind had given up the fight.

  I don’t know what had happened when the laptop had crashed to the floor but whatever it was I was more than thankful for it. The site it took me to was some Gothic blog where people were talking about where they had been over the weekend and posting pictures of their night. This had led me to the first picture I had seen on there, which also happened to have been the exact picture I had seen of the place in my vision. It was as if the locked part of my mind was trying to guide me with some strange power of foresight, which led me on to even more questions.

  Mainly these were of what happened last night. I thankfully found out that Lucy and Denis hadn’t heard anything of last night’s screaming and when she asked me why, I just told her I woke after a nightmare…which didn’t particularly feel like lying at the moment as that was precisely what it had felt like.

  It had been after this conversation at breakfast that I decided I couldn’t put it off any longer.

  “Lucy, Denis, I would like to thank you both for everything you have done for me. Without you guys I don’t think I would have made it off that road alive…you saved my life and I don’t know how I will ever repay you but one day…”

  “Oh hush now…you know kindness isn’t driven by reward and…” Lucy said taking my hand but as she had interrupted me, it was Denis who interrupted her.

  “You’re planning on leaving aren’t you?” The sound of Lucy’s gasp was like an arrow to the heart.

  “No! You can’t leave, not yet and not after last night. You’re not strong enough and still getting over your ordeal…Denis tell her.” But Denis wasn’t listening to his wife. No, he was smiling at me and then nodded his head like his mind had been made up.

  “Where is it you need to get to, Honey?”

  “Denis!” Lucy shouted frowning but he didn’t react to being told off in the way you would have expected because he not only knew his wife, but his next actions only spoke of love. He got to his feet, stepped around the table and leant down to kiss his wife on the top of her head and said,

  “Our help doesn’t end here, Sweetheart but she needs our support and this is i
mportant to her. Where do you need to get to Katie?” Denis asked repeating his last question, as Lucy sniffed back her tears and leant her head on the hand he had placed on her shoulder.

  “Portland, New England.” He nodded again and then grabbed his jacket as he walked out the back door without another word.

  “Lucy, I…” I started to explain when she got up out of her chair and pulled me up into a hug.

  “You don’t need to explain Honey, Denis is right, our help doesn’t stop here and I want you to know that we are here for you. So if where you’re going doesn’t give you all the answers you’re looking for or if you get in any trouble, then you come back here…you hear me?” This time I was the one sniffing back the tears as her kindness nearly bowled me over.

  “You’re good people and I feel blessed to have you both come into my life.” I told her before pulling her in for another hug, one we both shed our tears over.

  After the hardest part was over and done it was time to get ready for my journey. I had no idea where Denis had driven off to but Lucy had been determined to see me fully loaded and prepared for anything. She had packed a bag for me with the rest of her daughter’s discarded clothes, which I was more than thankful for. She had also packed some bathroom essentials and as much food as I could carry. I could imagine it was this type of love one would feel towards a parent sending them away to camp for the summer.

  “Now I want you to have this…just in case.”

  “Oh no, I couldn’t, honestly it’s too much.” I tried to say as she made me take the small phone from her.

  “It’s fine. Look, it’s one we don’t use anymore since Denis got a new contract one from work. It still works and has some credit left on there from when we took it on our last trip to Wyoming to see Denis’ family last spring.” She said turning it on and showing me how it worked informing me it was already charged and ready to go. I smiled, thinking she had certainly been busy since I told her it was my time to leave. I knew Lucy and her husband were good people but the level of concern they had for me was nothing short of a gift.