The Adventures of Emily Tual Book Four: The Rising

Emily was walking home from her school by herself. Rachel was at the doctor’s and Elizabeth and Delaney were with their mom buying Halloween costumes. So it was just Emily. She had her new red cloak on. Her dad had gotten it for her jokingly saying it would go well with her new necklace. Emily held a hand up to her necklace and looked at it. The necklace had a fake red ruby attached to it. James had given it to her back during her second trip to the camp. James had told her that even though the red ruby wasn’t real, it was enchanted so that she could call for him in case of an emergency.

Emily caressed the fake red ruby. She still loved it even though her father had told her that James would need his approval to date her. Emily had blushed when her father had said that. She didn’t plan on dating James anytime soon. Sure there hadn’t been any trouble from the Black Hand since Audrey had defeated Anthony and the six Tribulations but Emily just knew that the Black Hand was most likely waiting and biding its time and building up its followers. From what Audrey had told her, it sounded like there had been a lot of fighting amongst the divided Black Hands and that a lot of them had been killed. The other reason why she wasn’t planning on dating James anytime soon was that he was fourteen. No way would he be interested in someone like her.

During that week, Emily had learned that Gabriel had adopted Audrey by making fake documents appear so he could claim that he was related to her, that Savannah had been rescued from her predicament, that Audrey had found her birth parents only to lose them like she had her adopted parents, there was another possible Chosen One that had been reborn, that the Black Hands had become weaker during the last fight and that the Darkness wasn’t a “he” like they had always thought but was actually a “she”.

Emily had read and reread her book after she had learned of that but she still hadn’t found anything to help with learning who the Darkness was. She had asked James but he didn’t know anything about the Darkness’s real identity. She had asked Gabriel but he refused to say her name. What was more, it seemed like Gabriel was hiding even more from her and the others now.

Emily had looked into every story she could that had to do with some sort of dark figure associated with darkness. She had gone through every fictional story, every urban legend and every scientific paper she could get find through her library to try to find out who the Darkness could be but each story had a different person. From evil wizards to Dark Lords, from people who just used darkness to people explaining that darkness was just caused by objects in the light.

Delaney and Elizabeth had suggested to her that she took a break from trying to find the answers. Emily had done so but only because they had started the school year. It gave her time to do other stuff. She had gone to her mother’s gravestone to talk to her mom about what had been happening since her eleventh birthday. Emily had realized that she hadn’t gone to her mother’s grave on her own before the first time she did it to talk. She had gone to her school’s games on Friday night. She had even tried out for the elementary school’s cheerleading team since she was in fifth grade.

Everyone at her school had noticed she had changed greatly since the year before. She had gone from a quiet girl who had only a few friends to a popular outgoing girl who had to keep telling boys she was already interested in someone. Emily was interested in James but with everything that was going on, she wasn’t sure if now was the best time to try to ask him out. She could just imagine it. Her and James at a school game together and people trying to figure out who he was before Black Hands showed up to ruin it.

Emily heard something snapping behind her. She looked over her shoulder but didn’t see anyone behind her. Just a few cars parked in front of houses. She looked ahead and started walking again. There was another snap. Emily spun around and looked. There was still no one there. She was thinking about reaching for her ruby when she heard a snap coming from the direction she had been walking in. She turned around and her eyes widened.

There was a black cloaked figure ahead of her at the corner of the street. He, she was assuming it was a he, was staring at her. It was hard to tell from that distance to be sure but the way he was standing made her think he was. Emily noticed that the figure wasn’t touching the ground. His cloak was just a few inches above the ground and wrapped around him. He was very tall. Emily wasn’t sure why but she had a feeling that the figure was there for her.

The figure reached up and pointed at her. Emily took a step back. The figure’s finger didn’t have any skin covering the bone. There was some sort of noise that came from the figure. It was hard to tell if it was actual words or not. Emily took another step back before turning around and started running away from the figure. She reached for her ruby and focused on James. She really wanted him there. Maybe he knew what the figure was.

She ran around the corner and stopped. Ahead of her was Griffin, the most obnoxious boy in the seventh grade, and his lackeys. This day was getting really bad quickly. Griffin was the last normal mortal person she wanted to see. He had seen her a few weeks ago at a football game where the elementary and middle school cheerleaders had joined the high school cheerleaders and he would keep trying to ask her out no matter how many times she said no. He would keep sending her notes and letters, kept showing up at the football games looking for her, tried to get her to be his tutor when his teachers had told him he needed a tutor and other annoying stalker stuff. Emily’s dad had sent a complaint to the school about it but the principal said that since Griffin was in middle school and Emily was in elementary school, there was nothing he could do.

Griffin smiled when he saw Emily. “Hey there Emily.” He said. “I see you were eager to see me.” His lackeys laughed. “I guess you’ve finally decided to go out with me.” Griffin went up to Emily. “I’ll show you a good time.” He continued. “So when should I pick you up for our date?”

Emily took a step back. Now was not the time for her to deal with her normal mortal stalker. “I will never go out with you Griffin. Now if you excuse me, I really need to get going somewhere.” She looked over her shoulder. There was no sign of the figure in black yet but she didn’t want to risk letting it catch up to her. She looked ahead and tried to go past Griffin but he stopped her with his arm.

“Come on Emily.” Griffin said. “You know you want to go out with me. Why else were you running to me just now?” His lackeys laughed. Griffin took a step towards Emily. “So where do you want to go for our first date?” He asked.

Emily looked over her shoulder again. There was still no sign of the cloaked figure. She wished that James was there. He would be able to help her deal with Griffin and the figure. She took a couple of steps back and turned to run around Griffin and his lackeys.

Two of Griffin’s lackeys grabbed Emily by the arms. “Look at what she’s wearing Griffin.” One of them said, pointing to her ruby necklace. “Who do you think gave her that?”

Griffin frowned when he saw Emily’s ruby necklace. “Who gave you that?” He demanded. Emily didn’t answer. Griffin grabbed the ruby necklace and ripped it off. “Who gave you this? I want to know who’s trying to move in on my girl!” He shouted.

Emily glared at Griffin. After everything that she had gone through, she wasn’t scared of him. She was just sick of him trying to force her to date him. “I am not your girl.” She told him. “I will never be your girl.” Emily tried to shake free of Griffin’s lackeys but they tightened their grip on her arms.

“She’s a fighter Griffin.” One of the other lackeys said. “She’ll be a good girlfriend for you.” Emily looked at her ruby necklace. She really needed James there. She hoped that James would be able to sense that she needed him through the necklace even if she wasn’t holding it. She looked over her shoulder. There was no sign of the figure yet. Did she simply imagine it or did it know that there were others there now?

Griffin saw Emily looking over her shoulder. Emily had been doing that a few times now. “Why do you keep looking that way?” He asked. “Are you hoping that someone will come along to save you?” He laughed. “No one is coming to save you. Not before you agree to be my girlfriend.” He pocketed the ruby necklace. “So just say that you’ll be my girlfriend and my boys will let you go.”

Emily gritted her teeth. She refused to say yes. “Just let go of me.” She told Griffin’s lackeys. “Let go or something really bad will happen.” She didn’t know what she would do exactly but Griffin and his friends didn’t know that. “I’m supposed to be meeting my dad in a few minutes and if you don’t let me go, he will notice and call the police.” She hoped her blind bluff would work.

That just made Griffin and his friends laugh even more. “Do you honestly think that your daddy will do a thing about me?” Griffin asked as he laughed. “I know that he went to the principal at your school about me supposedly stalking and harassing you. If the principal wasn’t able to do anything, what makes you think your daddy will be able to do a thing about it?” Griffin lifted Emily’s chin. “Now say you will date me.” He ordered her.

Before Emily could say anything, she saw heard someone calling her name. “There you are Emily.” Emily smiled. She recognized the speaker. James joined her. “Your dad has been looking for you for the last five minutes.” James continued. He looked at Griffin and the others. “What is going on here?” James asked.

Griffin didn’t know who the new guy was but he knew that he didn’t like the idea of Emily with some other boy. “I’m her boyfriend.” He told James. “And who are you?”

James saw the others getting closer. He had a feeling that there was about to be a fight. He reached for a bracelet on his wrist. He seriously doubted that the boy who had spoken was Emily’s boyfriend. He didn’t see a Black Hand emblem on these boys but he wouldn’t be surprised if the Black Hand was recruiting young boys again. According to Gabriel, they had done that when he was a boy. James looked at Emily. She was struggling against the boys holding her arms.

“I’m her friend.” James told the boy. “And her father is looking for her. Now I suggest you release her or else.” He was ready to use magic on these boys. It wasn’t like they would be able to go and tell anyone about it. If they did, they would get in trouble because he knew that Emily would tell whoever looked into it that the boys had been harassing her.

Griffin laughed. “What will you do?” He asked. That was a big mistake. Before he or his lackeys could do anything, something pushed them all against the wall of a building, knocking them out before they fell to the ground.

Emily went over to Griffin and removed her ruby necklace from his pocket. It hadn’t been damaged when Griffin had fallen. Thank goodness for that. “Thank you James.” She said as she put her necklace on. She looked at James. “You were able to get my message after all.” She was relieved to see James there. She really needed his help with the figure.

James nodded. “Of course.” He said. He went up to Emily and gently touched her arms where the boys had been holding her. “Did they bruise you?” He asked.

Emily looked at her arms. “I’ll be fine.” She told James. She hoped that she wasn’t blushing. “I’m just relieved that you got my message to get here quickly.” Emily looked over her shoulder. “I saw something back there and I think it has to do with the Black Hands.” She said. “I was running from it when I ran into Griffin and his boys.”

James looked past Emily towards the street corner. He was half expecting Black Hands to come around the corner. “Can you describe it?” He asked.

Emily thought about the creature. “It was a figure in a black cloak. It was hovering over the ground and had no skin over its bones that I could see of.” She said. An image of the figure appeared in her mind. “I had a feeling that it had to do with the Black Hand. I mean no one has seen them since Audrey defeated Anthony.” She added. “Has there been any reports of the Black Hands that I don’t know about?” She really hoped that James would be honest with her.

James shook his head. “I haven’t heard anything about the Black Hand.” He told Emily. “And the figure you just described to me sounds like a Hound of the Black Hand.” That was the only creature that he could think of that fit the description.

“What is a Hound of the Black Hand?” Emily asked. “I’ve never heard of that. It wasn’t in the book. Why would there be a creature like that chasing me now after nothing from the Black Hand for the last few months?” It didn’t make any sense to her. What would compel the Black Hand to do something like this? Nothing about it made sense to her.

James went to the street corner and looked around it. There was no sign of the Hound of the Black Hand. James went back to Emily. “If the Hound of the Black Hand was here, it’s gone now.” He told her. “You should be safe for now from it.” James looked down at Griffin and his boys. “However I think these boys will be a problem for a while longer until they’re dealt with properly.” His eyes glowed blue.

Emily had a feeling she knew what James was about to do. She grabbed his arm. “Don’t even think about hurting them James.” She told him. “You’re better than that.” She had feelings for James because he was different from boys like Griffin. He didn’t hurt people unless he had no choice. She didn’t want him to start acting like a jerk all because he had magic.

James looked at her. “I wasn’t going to hurt them.” He told Emily. “A simply memory wipe though would make them forget they ever knew you or that you existed. You would be safe from all of them.” His eyes returned to normal. “But if you don’t want me to, I won’t.” He said. He caressed Emily’s red cloak. “This does suit you.” He continued.

Emily smiled. “Thank you.” She said. She looked around. “We should get going before that Hound find us.” She didn’t want to risk trying to have to fight it on an empty street. She wasn’t sure how dangerous the Hound of the Black Hand was but hopefully, it wouldn’t try attacking with several people around.