SWNOVELS Chapter Chapter Thirty Nine
That night, the Man with the German Accent was in a private room of the manor. No one but him knew of its existence. It had been built in secret and the Black Hands that had created it were dead. The Man with the German Accent didn’t want anyone else to know about it. The room was his own special way of talking to the Darkness without anyone’s interference or presence. The Man with the German Accent was kneeling before a statue. The state was tall and was in a black robe. The face of the statue was hidden out of respect to the Darkness. The statue seemed to rob the room of any comfort or safety, just the way the Man with the German Accent liked it. The only lights in the room were from the candles that lined the room.
“Master.” The Man with the German Accent said. “I have found out who the woman that Derdrom has hiding in the basement is.” The candles in the room went out on their own. The temperature seemed to drop rapidly. The Man with the German Accent could see his breath but he didn’t care. No one was supposed to be comfortable in the presence of the Darkness. Not even himself.
The statue seemed to grow darker. Where the eyes were supposed to be, two red orbs appeared. “Who is she?” The Darkness’s voice demanded. It had come from where the mouth should have been. Dark clouds formed around the bottom of the statue as it spoke.
“Her name is Anastasia and she was a possible chosen one when I led the Black Hand against the Czar of Russia. I had killed her entire family but she had escaped me somehow.” The Man with the German Accent answered. “All this time, we both thought it had been because of Gabriel that the lost Russian princess had gone missing but it turns out Derdrom had been hiding her.”
The air around the statue grew even darker. “The Horseman of War had her?” The Darkness rumbled.
The Man with the German Accent nodded. “He had been hiding her from us Master. I believe that he had his own reason for keeping her a secret.” He told the Darkness. He hoped that by reporting this to the Darkness, he would gain favor with the Darkness again to the point that the red uniformed Black Hands would be ordered to return to their normal uniforms and back to serving him. “Just give me the word and I’ll have my Black Hands capture them both for treason against you.” The Man with the German Accent told the Darkness.
The red orbs grew dark. “I don’t want anything to happen just yet to either of them.” The Darkness replied. “I still have a need for Derdrom since he is my Horseman of War.”
The Man with the German Accent frowned. He hadn’t expected that. He thought for sure that the Darkness would find someone else to be the vessel for the Horseman of War. Derdrom had been disloyal to the Darkness. Sure the plan was to have all four Horsemen of the Apocalypse present by the time that the ritual to bring back the Darkness had been completed but they still had time to find a new Horseman of War. “What about Anastasia?” The Man with the German Accent asked.
The Darkness didn’t answer for a few minutes. The Man with the German Accent began to wonder if there was even a plan for Anastasia when the Darkness finally answered his question. “Keep a close eye on her for now.” He told the Man with the German Accent. “If anything, we can make her my last Horseman of the Apocalypse.” The Darkness began laughing. The Man with the German Accent thought about it. It would be a good act of revenge against Gabriel. Putting him against someone that he was supposed to protect. It would also be hard for anyone to defeat her since she was a descendant of Seraphina.
“Do you think that it will be easy to do that?” The Man with the German Accent asked. “Derdrom went through a lot of trouble to try to keep Anastasia a secret from us. What if he tries to stop us from turning her into the last Horseman before the ritual tomorrow night?” That would set the Darkness’s plans back quite a bit.
The red orbs grew dark. “We’ll replace him with another vessel if it comes to it.” The Darkness told the Man with the German Accent. “I have a suitable second vessel picked out already.”
The Man with the German Accent was surprised to hear that. He was relieved that the Darkness had chosen a second vessel to be the Horseman of War but he didn’t realize that the Darkness was only going to use the vessel if they needed to replace the Horseman of War. He thought for sure that the Darkness would have been focused on finding a vessel for the Horseman of Pestilence though. “So who have you picked to be the second vessel for the Horseman of War?” The Man with the German Accent asked.
The Darkness laughed. “Someone who is very close to Emily.” He told the Man with the German Accent. “Now go and get ready for the ritual.” The Darkness continued. “The time for my arrival is very soon.”
The Man with the German Accent left the room. He thought about what the Darkness had told him. He realized that with Emily as their prisoner, they could do the ritual that night. The sooner they did it, the better. Less chance of Derdrom ruining everything. He didn’t trust Derdrom at all. He marched up to his Black hands. “Get everyone to the ritual grounds now!” He shouted. “There’s been a change of plans. The ritual will happen tonight at midnight.” The Black Hands ran off quickly to spread the word.
As the Man with the German Accent marched towards the front door of the manor, he looked at one of his Black Hands. “Get the three Horsemen of the Apocalypse there now.” He ordered.
The Black Hand frowned. “But Sir, shouldn’t we wait for the fourth one to join us?” He asked the Man with the German Accent. The glaring look he got from the Man with the German Accent answered his question. The Black Hand ran off towards the basement.
In the basement, Derdrom and Anastasia looked above them at the ceiling as it shook. “What’s going on?” Anastasia asked Derdrom. There was too much running up above them and no gunshots to be heard.
That was when a few red uniformed Black Hands came down. “The ritual is being pushed to tonight.” One of the red uniformed Black Hands reported. “The presence of the three Horsemen of the Apocalypse are requested to be there.” The Black Hands then left the basement.
“But I thought the Darkness wanted all four Horsemen of the Apocalypse there.” Anastasia said.
Derdrom nodded. “I thought that as well.” He then thought of something and looked at Anastasia. “I want you to stay here.” He told her. “The Magician might be planning something by having the ritual happening tonight. That plan might put you in danger.” Derdrom looked at the coffins. Two of them were still open. One of the opened ones was meant for him. His eyes flickered to the fourth coffin. “He might be planning to turn you into the Horseman of Pestilence.” He said.
Anastasia’s eyes widened. “He wouldn’t dare to that to me.” She said in shock.
Derdrom shook his head. “Don’t underestimate the Magician.” He warned Anastasia. He heard more movement upstairs. “Just stay here and stay hidden.” Derdrom continued. “I’ll let you know when it’s safe to come out from hiding.” He left quickly before Anastasia could say anything to him.
At the camp, James and Audrey were about to leave the camp when James stopped walking. Audrey looked at him. “I thought we were going to go find Emily.” She said. James didn’t respond. Audrey frowned and went up to him. “James?” She asked. Something was wrong. She could tell it. That was when she felt it. There was a chill in the air. Something was wrong for sure. She looked towards the sky. It was still sunny but she felt cold. She looked towards the lodge. It would just be a matter of time before her group noticed that she was gone. She looked at James. “Something bad is going to happen, isn’t it?” She asked.
James nodded. “The ritual.” He said. He looked at her. “The ritual is about to happen.” Before Audrey could do anything, James took off running for the lodge. Audrey shook her head before running after James. She had a feeling that their original plan for going to find Emily had been canceled because of the ritual that was going to happen. She didn’t know what the ritual was exactly but she took a guess that whatever it was, it had to do with Emily.
In the office of the lodge, Gabriel and Jasper felt the chill in the air. They looked at each other. To anyone else who would have entered the office, it would have been dismissed as the air conditioning being set too low. The two of them though knew why it was that cold. “They’re doing the ritual tonight.” Jasper said. Gabriel nodded. Jasper shook his head in disbelief. “But why are they doing it tonight?” He asked. “It’s not the right day.” He went to the window and looked out. His eyes widened with what he saw. Black storm clouds were rolling in, blocking out the blue sky.
James and Audrey then came into the office. Both Gabriel and Jasper looked at the two. “Audrey, shouldn’t you be with your group?” Jasper asked. “Do they even know you’re in here?” Audrey and James looked at each other before they looked at Jasper.
“She knows the truth about what’s going on.” James told the two men. “I told her everything when Emily went missing.” He didn’t care how the two reacted to that. Audrey had a right to know what was happening, why she had been targeted and why Emily had been kidnapped. And Audrey was basically family in his eyes.
Gabriel stood up from his desk and went up to the two teens. “You told her everything?” He asked James in a very angry voice. “Why would you do that?” Jasper took a step back.
James glared at Gabriel. Did Gabriel not care about Audrey at all? He had worked so hard at saving Audrey fifteen years before. “She had been attacked and she deserved to know why!” James shouted at Gabriel. “Savannah is in the medical building and Emily is about to be sacrificed!” James got angrier as he spoke but he didn’t care. Gabriel was wasting their time and he seemed to not care about what happened to Savannah or Emily. “You have got to stop keeping Audrey and Emily’s family in the dark!” James said. “This is exactly why Joan died seven years ago.” He saw Gabriel wince but he didn’t care. “Because you never told her the entire truth about what was happening. If you had told her everything, she would still be here.”
James looked at Jasper. “I can tell that you both know that they’re doing the ritual tonight.” He said. Jasper could never lie to him. “We either can go now and save Emily or you two can waste time here and act like nothing is wrong.” James looked at Gabriel one last time before he turned to the door.
Audrey went over to him. “I’m with you.” She said to James. “Let’s go save her.” The two teens left the office.
Jasper looked at Gabriel. “We can’t let those two go off on their own.” He told Gabriel. “You can bet that there’s an entire army of Black Hands at the place where the ritual will be happening. Not to mention that the Magician will be there as well and who knows who else will be there.” He was thinking about Black Hands that could disappear in columns of fire and had red glowing eyes. “Those two go in and try to save Emily and they’ll be killed or sacrificed to the Darkness as well.”
Gabriel looked at Jasper. “One of us has to stay here at the camp and watch over the rest of the campers and staff.” Jasper continued. “You and I both know that you’re the best chance those three kids have of getting out of there alive.” He watched Gabriel. The old man couldn’t let that happen to their chosen one or even another possible Chosen One. “Are you going to go after them or let them die?”