The Sixth Seal

Years of repressed emotions welled up from somewhere deep inside Ana and burst forth like floodwaters cresting a weakened levee. She collapsed in Frederick’s arms, still trying to make sense of this new revelation. He held her close, tucking her head under his chin and whispering gentle reassurances. She buried her face in his chest and sobbed.

“Just let it all out, baby girl.” He stroked her hair.

They stood together in a locked embrace until she got the worst of it out. She pulled back from him and stared into his eyes.

“What happened to you? Mom would never tell me anything?”

“Don’t be too hard on your mother,” he wiped the tears from her cheeks. “She just couldn’t accept what we are. It was too much for her to understand.”

“So you’re connected to the book like me?”

“I’m connected to you. I’m a gatherer.”

She pulled back a little more. “How can it be that you’re a gatherer and my father?”

“I’m not entirely sure, but I don’t think you and I are unique in that regard.” He glanced past her. “Maybe we should find somewhere a little safer to talk.”

Several long shadows washed over them as people passed by the alley. The sky was getting darker, but there was still too much activity to make a move on the apartment.

“I need to stay close. The Eye of Jupiter is in that building down the street.”

“So that’s why Gabriel was here.” Frederick walked to the edge of the alley and peered around the corner.

“You saw him?”

He nodded. “I followed him here, hoping he’d lead me to you.”

“To me?”

“He’s always had an obsession with you.”

She touched his arm. “What do you mean?”

He turned to face her. “Gabriel found you when we were in France. I tried to keep the others from finding you until I could teach you the ways of our kind and help you to regain your memories, but...” He looked away.

“But?”

“Gabriel said he wanted to study you. He said that you alone were capable of controlling the book and that we could work together to harness your powers. He insisted we could stop the Horsemen.” He paused for a moment as if considering his words carefully. “But there was something about him, something familiar.”

“Familiar?”

“Not from personal experience per se, rather it was something another gatherer told me.” He grabbed her shoulder. “You knew the man once, during the war. I can’t recall his name now. My memories are still a little fuzzy, but he said that Gabriel was watching you then as well.”

“I knew a man named Jacques during the war.”

He shook his head. “I’m just not sure. Do you remember much from that time?”

“Some, but much of it is foggy. I do know that sometime during the war I separated the Eye from the book.”

“And now you’ve tracked it here?”

“Yes.” She rubbed her temples. “So you didn’t trust Doctor Gabriel?”

“No. I had a strong feeling that he was working for the Horsemen and that he wanted to harness your powers for their benefit.”

“So why didn’t you stop him?” As soon as she said the words she wished she hadn’t. Frederick, her father, obviously still blamed himself for what happened to her, and the pain on his face was evident. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean--”

“It’s all right, Ana.” He brushed her cheek with his palm, staring into her eyes. “I should have been more cautious. I took too many chances, and when I realized what was going on, it was too late.”

“What happened?”

“The bastard shot me.”

“But then why didn’t...” she bit her lip and thought for a moment. “Why didn’t Doctor Gabriel take me then instead of waiting all these years to find me?”

The look on Frederick’s face told her he didn’t have the answer. “I’m not sure. I assumed that’s exactly what happened. Where did he find you?”

“In a mental hospital in Maryland where mother had me committed.”

This time it was her father who couldn’t hold back the tears. They fell freely, streaking his face like tiny glistening streams rushing over a parched basin. “I’m so sorry, baby girl. I wish things could have been different for you. I hoped you would be the one to finally end all of this madness, but I failed you and now we may be too late.”

“Maybe everything happened the way it was meant to.” She caught his questioning gaze. “If you can help me get the Eye of Jupiter I think I may be able to stop these bastards.”

There were still quite a few people on the street when they left the cover of the alley. Ana was relieved. It afforded them a modest amount of camouflage as they made their way to a van that her father had parked a block away. She was still having trouble thinking of him as her father. It was all just so strange.

The van was a Volkswagen and it looked like he had been living in it for some time. He cleared off a spot on a seat against the window and pulled back a fraying curtain so they had a clear view of the building.

Now that she could see his face better, she knew without a doubt that this man was her father. Despite his youthful features, she could see an old soul behind those eyes. Even the way he held his mouth was familiar. Her father’s mannerisms played on his face.

“Dad?”

He smiled delicately at the word. “Yes?”

“How long have you been looking for me?”

An errant strand of light that had escaped the curtain caught his blue eyes as he turned to her. “Years.” He leaned closer, placing a hand on her knee. “When I was a young boy I had dreams of a little girl with the most beautiful big blue eyes. It wasn’t until I was thirteen that my memories really took shape.” He looked back out the window. “Then I realized the little girl was you. I ran away from home, lived on the streets of Barcelona. I wandered for years letting the gatherer’s call guide me.” His voice faltered. “It finally brought me back to you.”

She squeezed his hand. “Yes, it did.”

“I haven’t seen Gabriel leave the apartment, but I don’t see how he could still be inside with all of the police activity. Do you know anything about what happened in there?”

“I’m pretty sure he killed the lady who lived there.” She sat back in the seat. “I’m not even certain if she knew what he was after. In fact, I think it’s hidden somewhere inside. The Eye showed things to me, as though it was a witness, but Martin was able to see it too. They must have come back--”

“Who is Martin?”

“He’s one of the Horsemen. The leader I think.”

“And there went out another, a red horse; power was given to him that sat thereon to take peace from the earth, and that men should kill one another; and there was given unto him a great sword.”

“Revelations?”

He looked into her eyes. “All of the religions of the world have their origins in the book. Our ancestors mingled with the people of this planet, diluting and spreading the line. They carried portions of the great book in their memories. Over time, just like a secret, the origins and meanings became twisted. Now the people use it as a reason to kill each other.”

“How do you know so much about the book?”

“The gatherers have passed the stories on to each other for centuries.” He folded his arms behind his head. “Hell, who knows? We’ve probably twisted the stories more than anyone.”

“So the pages of the book speak of the Horsemen, and all of this has been foretold?”

He shrugged. “I suppose so, but nobody really knows how it ends.”

Despite the situation, she couldn’t help but laugh. “Good. We can write our own damn ending.”

“Sounds good to me, but we should probably get started before the Horsemen write it first.”

The moon staked out its spot in the sky by the time they decided to make their move. They slipped from the back of the van and walked several blocks away from the apartment building before crossing the street and doubling back down the alley. The front of the building was still being watched by a uniformed police officer.

Her father pointed toward the fire escape. “I think that’s our best bet. What was the apartment number?”

“209.”

After a couple of attempts, he managed to pull the ladder down closer to ground level. It groaned and squealed as though it had never been used. “We’d better go up to the third or fourth floor then make our way back down.”

“Why’s that?”

He motioned for her to start climbing before he answered. “There might be another officer stationed on the second floor. I’m afraid we’ll lose the element of surprise if we bust open a window right in front of him.”

She rolled her eyes as she took hold of the ladder and pulled herself up. Most of the windows on this side of the building were dark. She imagined many of the tenants decided to stay the night elsewhere given recent events.

He followed close behind. They were at the third floor when he tugged on her coat. She slid to the side, giving him room to work. The window in front of them was dimly lit, affording a glimpse of a long hallway. She could almost make out the numbers on the smooth, lacquered doors. He pulled a knife from his pocket, and broke the seal on the sill and deftly slid the window open. Unlike the fire escape ladder, the window made little noise.

The wooden floor amplified their footsteps. He moved ahead of her, walking toward a door at the opposite end of the hall. He turned to her and held a finger to his lips as he slowly pushed open the door.

“I’m going to go down to the next floor and scope it out. If I run into any trouble, I’ll shout and--”

“And I’ll come help you out.”

He gave her a mock frown. “No. You’ll go back the way we came and get to safety.”

She nodded although she had no intention of leaving him alone. Apparently satisfied, he vanished into the stairwell.

Several minutes passed without a sound. Her mind paraded a menagerie of terrifying possibilities in front of her. What if her father had been ambushed? It was possible that someone could take him by surprise and prevent him from warning her. She had already decided to check on him when she heard footsteps in the stairwell; only they seemed louder than they should have. In a flash she pulled the SIG from her waist, stepped back and took aim. The door swung open.

“Holy shit!” Her father ducked. He rose cautiously when he saw her lower the gun. “Put that away.”

“Sorry. It’s just that it didn’t sound like you coming up the stairs.” She tucked the gun back into the waist of her leather pants. “Why were you making so much noise?”

“There’s nobody on the second floor.”

“No police?”

He shook his head. “Nope. Just some police tape across the doorframe. Come on, I’ll show you.”

The stairwell opened onto the second floor, which looked nearly identical to the third, with the exception of the empty space where the door had been on apartment 209. Two crisscrossed lines of yellow tape stretched across the frame. It looked as though the door had been kicked in. Had Doctor Gabriel done that on his return visit?

Her father pulled the tape down and stepped inside. He pointed to a scorch mark that ran up the wall inside the apartment. “What do you make of this?”

Following the blackened path down the wall and across the floor, she knew her booby trap had worked. “Whoever touched the Eye of Jupiter got the shock of their life.”

“And judging by the tape outline on the floor, it killed them.” He bent down in front of the scorched wall.

“No that’s probably where the poor woman Doctor Gabriel killed fe--”

“What is it?”

Another partial tape outline protruded from the other side of a large sofa. She walked closer until she could see the spot where the woman in her horrible vision had fallen. For the first time, she noticed the blood spatter on the wall. “He killed her.”

“So, who do you suppose belongs to this outline?”

“I can only hope it’s Gabriel.”

He scanned the room. “Where’s the Eye?”

“In the clock.” She pointed across the room atop a black, lacquered mantle. There in the center sat an ornate wooden clock, its door ajar, revealing a sliver of the exotic orb. Her father walked toward it. “Don’t touch it!”

He stopped midway. “Why not?”

“My trap is still active.”

He chuckled. “It’s good to see my girl is always prepared, always thinking.”

“I do what I can.” She moved to the clock and pulled the door back farther. The workings were all contained in the door, so that when it was closed, the Eye would just look like the face. Whoever had placed it in the clock meant to keep it hidden. She smiled to herself. Her ruse had worked for at least half a century.

The faint hum of the clear orb drifted to her ears. The electricity was palpable. She knew the Eye would carry out the deadly sequence if she failed to deactivate it before she picked it up.

“Protectorate digamma adstat coram vobis. Respondere.”

This time the voice that responded did so aloud. It was strained and oddly modulated as though it struggled to speak. “Pe...ricu...lum.”

“Danger?”

The word seemed to get her father’s attention. He stared intently at the orb. “Danger? What kind of danger is it referring to?”

She furrowed her brow. “Most likely it’s reminding me of the trap I set.”

The eerie voice repeated the phrase, louder and with more force. “Periculum. Periculum.”

“Digamma imperat desinam munus fulgur. Respondere.” The center of the Eye pulsed once with a bright flash of red light before settling back to its original clear state.

Again the strange voice responded. “Sicut dicitur.” The air crackled, and the electricity she noticed when they first entered the room dissipated. “Periculum, digamma. Periculum.”

“Why is it still saying that? Didn’t you disable the trap?” Her father glanced around the room.

“I’m not sure. The Eye seems to be under some kind of duress, but the trap has definitely been deactivated.” She looked in his eyes. “Didn’t you feel the electricity in the air?”

He nodded. “Yes, but something just doesn’t feel right. Hurry up and grab the Eye and let’s get the hell out of here.”

A sickening feeling hit her in the gut and a tortured voice rattled through her head...danger...danger...danger. She staggered and fell into the mantle, nearly knocking the clock from its perch.

“Are you all right?”

“Yes, but there is definitely something wrong.” She swallowed hard, forced herself to stand upright, and then took the Eye from its hiding place. The voice in her head was panicked. Everything in her being told her to flee.

Her father must have seen it in her face. He pulled a pistol from his jacket and started for the door.

A shadow extended from the edge of the sofa and moved across the floor toward them. There was something about the shadows in the room that didn’t seem right to her. As if part of a chain reaction, the other shadows twitched, pulsated and writhed to life. The one nearest the sofa wrapped midnight tendrils around her father’s leg and pulled him down to the floor.

“What the hell?” He fired several rounds into the darkness before another shadowy arm rose up and grabbed his wrist. It wrapped around his arm, constricting tighter and tighter until the gun fell from his grasp.

She reached out to the Eye, but all it offered in reply was its repeated warning. She tucked the orb under her arm and pulled the SIG from her waist. She shot at the dark appendage holding her father to the floor, but the bullets just passed through it like a stone in a pond.

“Run, Ana!” Her father struggled against his ghostly captors. “Get the hell out of here!”

“I can’t leave you.”

He gasped and sputtered, flailing his free arm. “You must. You’re too important.”

Shadows traveled across the floor from the mantle, snaking their way towards her. She leapt over the first and doubled back for the door. The ceiling was almost completely black now, and dark inky lines poured down the walls. They stretched across the doorframe blocking her escape. She shot wildly into the mass, emptying her gun. Nothing.

“The window.” Her father flailed again, pointing toward the other side of the room.

Another tendril raced across the floor. Again she jumped over it and darted for the window. She froze when three pillars of black smoke erupted from the floor in front of her. They grew in size and solidity.

“Don’t run off just yet little Ana Eloise.” Martin’s voice escaped from from the smoky column, his facial features taking shape in front of her.

One by one the three Horsemen materialized, the obsidian smoke still swirling where their pupils should have been. Martin stood in the center flanked by the malevolence that was Verner, and the visage of death she knew to be Flins. She struggled to move, but the shadowy tendrils that had her father, now held her firmly in place.

Martin smiled. “I see you’ve turned off your clever little trap. Rather unfortunate that Gabriel had to die, but that’s why we kept him around.” The laugh that followed sickened her. “Now, child, you will give the Eye of Jupiter to me.”