Out of the Darkness

As soon as we reached our office building I saw that Raven’s suspicions were right. We walked through the broken front doors and crossed the lobby that was littered with broken glass. We looked around at the bodies scattered on the floor, I listened for heartbeats and the others checked for pulses, looking for survivors. We headed to the upper levels of the building and found Tom, Jimmy, Alexander, James and Jonathan stood with a small group of our agents.

“What happened?” I asked, already knowing the answer.

“There was another attack.” Jonathan confirmed.

“How many casualties?”

“Not sure yet, still looking for survivors.” Jimmy answered me.

“Any idea who was behind it?” Jonathan sighed, but answered anyway.

“It would seem that whilst you were on a mission to infiltrate and retrieve the artefact, they sent their people here to attack us.”

I saw out of the corner of my eye Clara turn to Raven. This wasn’t going to be good.

“You knew something had happened, perhaps the reason you managed to get out of there so easily is because you are working with them.” Clara accused.

“I was only guessing, I didn’t know anything had happened for sure, it just felt too easy.” Raven responded.

“But you can see the future! How did you not know-“ Clara began before Jonathan interrupted her, raising his voice.

“Enough! We aren’t going to get anywhere if we automatically blame Raven. She is on our side and we have no hope of beating our enemies if we can’t trust our own people.” A long pause followed. “What we need to do now is tend to the wounded, bury our dead, repair the damage to the building and put new security measures in place.” He said, calmer now.

No one said anything further, we just split in to groups and carried out Jonathan’s instructions, repairing the damage that was done. We repaired the security system first, Raven adding in spells and enchantments that would help fend off another attack if it were to happen. Clara worked with her on the spells without her usual snide remarks. It took days to repair all the damage, but even when we were finished we were still weaker as an agency, having hundreds of agents killed in the attack.

We had a meeting four days ago to figure out who were our most dangerous enemies and who might try and attack us now that we have fewer agents to fight back. I could tell from the look in Raven’s eyes that she had made a mental list of our enemies and had started to think about how to take them out. I had pulled her aside after the meeting had finished and pleaded with her not to do anything stupid. But her absence today speaks volumes. She clearly didn’t listen.

“Maybe we should start without her.” Jonathan suggested. We still had a lot of issues to discuss. But just then Raven came through the door, walked over to the board where we had listed our enemies, and crossed off the top five most potential threats to our organisation. She took a seat and looked around the room, avoiding looking at me. She could clearly feel me looking at her as she finally looked at me and sighed.

“I know what you’re going to say.”

“Do you?” I asked disbelievingly. “You could have gotten yourself killed.”

“I scouted the places first, I knew I could handle them on my own. I didn’t know any of the people who died in the attack, all of you needed time to grieve but action needed to be taken.” She stated.

I could understood her reasoning, and it did get some of the targets off of our backs, but I still wasn’t happy with her putting herself in danger.

“I did what needed to be done.” She said, and then turned to Jonathan. “I also have a suggestion.” He nodded for her to continue. “I think we need to spread word to your enemies that I’m here.” She added.

“What good would that do?” James asked.

“It might make them back off for a while, everyone with half a brain fears Raven, they would be less likely to attack if they knew she was here.” Jonathan said.

“That is the preferred outcome, yes.” We all looked to Raven questioningly. “There is a reason I’m asking your opinions about this. I have a lot of enemies of my own, individually they don’t pose much of a threat but if they were to team up with the enemies the agency already has, it could be catastrophic.” She looked around the room as this sunk in.

“Perhaps, we should all take a day or two to think about that idea.” Jonathan suggested, even though as the leader of the agency, it was actually down to him. But as it would affect us all, he wanted everyone to have a say in the matter.

The others nodded in agreement to this so we moved on the next manner of business. Jonathan picked up the artefact and analysed it closely in silence.

“Well Jono, are ya gunna tell us what it does? The suspense is killing me man!” Jenkins said in his usual joking manor in attempt to lighten the mood.

“Well here’s the thing, we don’t actually know what it does, just that if it gets in to the wrong hands, it could mean the end of the world.” Jonathan said and everyone fell silent.

“You’re telling us, that with that small device, someone could destroy the entire world?” Clara asked in disbelief. Jonathan just nodded in reply.

“Most call it the Exitium, which in Latin means the destruction. It is made so only one person can control it, and see inside of it. It was made to control the fine line between super natural and human, which can be broken using that device. It can take away power, or give power to all. If the latter was done, then it would lead to great destruction. So would the former I expect. Hence its name. It can also, on occasion, predict the future. It wasn’t created for these purposes; as far as I know the original reason for its creation was just to observe the difference between the super natural and the human race. And to aid them if anything catastrophic were to happen. I do believe the witch who created it is dead now.” Raven told us and we turned to gape at her.

“And you would know that how?” Clara challenged.

“I’ve heard of it before.” She replied simply.

“And the reason why you didn’t mention it was…?” Clara asked.

“Well, I presumed that such a large super natural organisation would know of one of the most dangerous objects that exist.” Raven said slightly annoyed at Clara’s constant accusatory tone.

“Do you know who the person is that can control it?” Jonathan asked her.

“No but I presume that it would be someone in the bloodline of the witch that created it. Although that isn’t always the case.” Raven replied.

“Well we may as well start by seeing if any of us can open it.” Jonathan said. He tested it himself but it wouldn’t open so he handed it to Alexander.

“Are you serious?” He asked him.

“Well we have to start somewhere; we need to find out who they are.”

It continued to be passed round the circle but none of us could open it. When it got to Jenkins instead of trying to open it he decided to chuck it up in the air and catch it again with a smile on his face.

“Jenkins, what are you doing?” I asked him with a sigh.

“Just trying to lighten the mood. Do you think if it was dropped that the destructor star thing would break?” He asked.

“No it wouldn’t. It can only be destroyed by the person who can control it.” Raven answered him. He tried to open it but it didn’t budge, he handed it to his brother but he had the same result.

“Maybe we are trying the wrong technique? Why don’t we just crack it open with a sword?” Clara asked.

“Do you really want to try and pierce the shell of something that can destroy the world with a sword?” Raven asked her. Clara rolled her eyes in response but didn’t try and use her sword on it. Before Raven or Alice could try opening it I started to sense magic building up in the room, someone was about to transport themselves here.

Raven’s head snapped up, obviously sensing the same thing that I could. She stood and we both faced the direction that they would appear in. The others didn’t know what we were doing but followed suit.

Five demons appeared in front of us. Each one looking just as evil and dirty as the others. The one stood in the middle looked straight at Raven and smiled.

“Hello Jonathan, how are you?” He said instead of speaking to Raven like I had expected. Jonathan’s only response was to fix him with a glare.

“Damon, what the hell are you doing here?” Raven said to him with clenched teeth.

“So you remember me then?” The demon said back to her.

“What the hell do you mean by that?” He just smiled in response.

“Oh never mind, have you found that you have forgotten anything recently?” He asked her and she froze.

“What. Did. You. Do?” She growled at him as she took a menacing step towards him.

“Oh you know, this and that.” He replied. In a flash she had grabbed him by the throat and slammed him against the wall, pinning him in place. The demons accompanying him took a step forward to help him but Damon waved them back. “Your temper isn’t much better, is it dear?” He taunted her.

“What was so important in my memories that you had to take away?” Raven asked. “Or add?” She put in after a moment.

“How is Ricky?” He asked her, she was starting to get annoyed that he kept answering her questions with yet more of his own. Raven looked at him with a blank expression.

“Why should I care?”

“Nice dodge of that question.” He said with a smirk. She tightened her hand around his throat.

“You still haven’t answered my question, what did you do?” She asked but he stayed silent. “Come on Damon, we both know that you love taunting me, but we also know that you love to tell me what it is that you know and I don’t.” She said to him annoyed.

“You are right Raven, but I will not tell you all of it. Just little hints that will keep you up at night.” He paused for dramatic effect. “You have two people to save Raven; they are both very special to you. One man and one small child. She is very brave by the way.” He couldn’t speak for a moment as Raven’s hand was now preventing him from speaking. She loosened her grip an inch so he could continue. “But first to save them you must remember who they are, yes? Maybe you can use that device.” Damon looked towards the Exitium and then back to Raven.

“Are you saying-“ Raven began but he cut her off.

“Yes I am my dear; you are the one who can control that fancy little thing.” He told her, he looked back at it adoringly and Raven caught on to what he was getting at.

“I will not control it how you desire just to get them back. I will find another way.” Raven said stiffly.

“Fine, make it difficult for yourself, but they don’t have long left Raven. After a few days I may get bored and just kill them anyway.” And with that answer, Raven punched him in the face, successfully breaking his nose. “Tut tut, always so fowl tempered.” He said to her. She decided to use a different tactic.

“Wow Damon, you have grown so much more powerful since we last met, I almost beat you last time and now here you are, tampering with my memory and knowing what we were yet to discover. I applaud you, I really do.” She said to him with fake admiration in her tone.

“No you don’t, you still hate me. I can see it in your eyes.” Damon said, letting her in on the fact that her tactic wasn’t going to work.

“Well I’m not going to admire the one person who killed my entire family am I Damon?” She said annoyed.

“Actually out of the people that you are related to, I only killed you mother. Your father is still alive.” Damon said and with that he and the other demons disappeared, leaving Raven undoubtedly feeling shocked, confused and pure hatred.