Out of the Darkness

Over the next few days Raven made more of an effort to talk to Adrian and the young girl. My hope is that Raven’s memory could be triggered by different situations or possibly even a word or phrase that is familiar to her.

To be quite honest I have no idea what should work, hence we shall try everything until something does works. However, it wasn’t going well.

“I don’t understand why you can’t even tell me her name.” Raven said annoyed.

“You need to remember by yourself.” Adrian replied exasperated, this wasn’t the first time they had argued over this.

“But maybe knowing her name would trigger my memory!” Raven argued. Adrian sighed. Raven gave up on that approach for now and just decided to summarise what she already knew. “Ok ok, so I know that for some reason I trained her, which means she probably isn’t an angel.” Raven guessed. Adrian nodded. “And why is that? I presumed you would want your daughter to follow in your footsteps.”

“Her mother didn’t want her to be an angel.” Adrian explained.

“And would I be right in guessing that you aren’t going to tell me who her mother is either?” Raven questioned.

“That’s right.” This time it was Raven’s turn to sigh. Then I could see an idea come to her.

“You don’t want me to remember do you?” Adrian looked hurt by her accusation.

“What! Of course I do. How could you accuse me of such a thing?” Adrian asked shocked.

“Well can you blame me? I’m not very popular amongst the angels as it is and you’re not being in the least bit helpful.” Raven justified her question. Adrian leaned towards her, which resulted in Raven leaning back away from him with a raised eyebrow. Adrian sighed.

“Of course I want you to get your memory back, but I promised her I wouldn’t tell you her name.” He said sincerely. She nodded in understanding.

“Adrain, can I speak to you for a moment?” Jonathan asked, Adrian nodded.

“I’ve been wanting to ask you something, the Exitium, it told Raven that your daughter is my granddaughter, is that true?” Adrain looked shocked. “Because if she is, then you may be the only one who knows where my daughter is.”

“I’m sorry Jonathan, I’ve never met Sierra, is it possible this information is incorrect?” We looked to Raven, she shrugged apologetically.

“It seemed certain, but I haven’t exactly had a lot of practice reading it.” The hope in Jonathan’s eyes faded, but he only nodded in response.

“Is there any news from Clara about that spell?” Raven asked me.

“She has kept me informed but she’s still looking for it. Apparently it’s very rare and extremely complex.” I told her.

“Yeah I expected that.” She replied.

“I have an idea.” Jenkins said when he and his brother entered the room. “It’s brilliant and amazing.” He added. I sighed; this wasn’t going to be good.

“Ok Jenkins, let’s hear this brilliantly amazing idea of yours.” I said warily.

“Well, if we hit her on the head really hard-“ Oh god, I knew I shouldn’t have asked.

“Then maybe we can just knock her memories back in to her head?” I finished for him.

“Exactly.” Jenkins added with a smile as his brother rolled his eyes.

“Brother, even I can see that that’s ridiculous.” Jake told him.

“Well I don’t see you coming up with any better ideas.” Jenkins replied sulking. Jake thought for a moment.

“How about hypnosis?” He suggested. For him, that was surprisingly a good idea.

“No.” Raven shot it down straight away, Jake looked insulted. I turned to her and raised an eyebrow in question. “I haven’t lost all of my memories and there are some things that I would like to keep private. I don’t like having people inside my head.”

“Always so secretive.” Alexander commented. We ignored this as another argument wasn’t what we needed right now.

“How are the new recruits doing?” I asked Tom as he entered the room. His main job here is to train new potential agents to find out their talents/strengths and their weaknesses.

“That’s why I came up to see you actually. One of the recruits drew something strange. It’s a symbol that I don’t recognise.” He told me and handed me a piece of paper. I analysed it but I couldn’t figure out what it was supposed to be either. Its under-layer featured a 13 point star, on top of that was a bird which has a human’s intestines hanging from its beak. The bird’s wings were spread out behind it as if it were in flight and a sword pierced its heart. The sword had gone through its back.

“That gives a whole new meaning to being stabbed in the back.” Jenkins commented. I watched as Raven peered at it and her eyes widened in shock. She certainly recognised it. I gave her a moment to think over the memory she had just gained back before I spoke.

“Raven, what is this symbol?” I asked her. “What does it mean?”

“Very bad news.” She told me. “I should have known.” She whispered to herself.

“Raven, what should you have known?” James asked her.

“I was surprised when I found out that Damon had erased my memory. A spell like that is very complex and generally requires at least four spell casters. I just presumed he hired a few powerful witches but I never thought…” She trailed off looking at the drawing. “I need to speak to this recruit.” We rushed down stairs and Tom led us to the recruit’s room.

“Genna, we need to speak to you.” Tom said to get her attention and she turned to face us. She looked shocked to see all of us, it’s not usual for the leaders of the agency to visit a recruit. I saw a flicker of fear in her eyes but she covered it quickly. Raven stepped towards her and she flinched back in fear.

“I’m not going to hurt you. I just need to ask you something.” Raven told her and Genna nodded. Raven took the piece of paper from me and held it up for Genna to see. “Do you recognise this?” She asked her. Genna studied it carefully, wanting to be sure. After a moment she shook her head.

“No, should I?” She asked. Raven stepped towards her and peered in to her eyes.

“Please sit down for a moment.” Genna did as Raven instructed. “Lift your left foot.” She looked confused by Raven’s instructions but complied anyway. Raven felt along the surface of the bottom of Genna’s foot, none of us knowing what she was looking for. “This may sting a little.” Raven told her. She then dug her nail in to the middle of Genna’s foot and pulled something out. As soon as it was out she pressed her thumb to the wound and when she removed it Genna’s foot was healed.

“What is it?” I asked her, not being able to hold off any longer.

“It’s a device that allows the witch, or witches who made it to possess the person that it is inside of and act through them.” Raven told us. Everyone, with the exception of Raven, turned to Genna.

“I swear I didn’t know that was in my foot, I-“ She tried to defend herself.

“Of course you didn’t. The witches would’ve planted that in your foot whilst you were sleeping and would’ve healed your foot just as I did. You would’ve been none the wiser when you woke up. They’re sneaky like that.” Raven explained.

“So you’ve dealt with these witches before?” Jonathan asked her.

“I’ve dealt with their kind yes.” She replied and sighed. That was not a good sign.

“Would they have planted anything else on her?” I questioned. Raven stepped in front of Genna and put her hands on her shoulders. She closed her eyes for a moment and concentrated.

“She’s clean.” Raven said stepping away from Genna. “Look, don’t worry; it could have been planted on anyone.” Raven told Genna, who still seemed shocked.

“Can we presume that the witches live near her?” James asked Raven.

“No, but her address will help. I know how they work; I watched their activities for a year.” Raven told us. “Come on, let’s go back to the main office, I imagine you will want some more elaboration on that sentence.” I nodded and we all headed back over to the other side of the building, allowing Genna to come with us. Recruits aren’t usually allowed in the main office until they have passed all their tests and completed their training, but we figured we might need to question her further.