The Adventures of Emily Tual: Revelations Book Three

The next morning, Gabriel was driving to Family Services in New Philadelphia. His thoughts were focused on finding Audrey’s family without drawing in the police or Harold and Hannah. No doubt there were missing posters of Audrey and an Amber Alert out for her. Gabriel was sure that Hannah and Harold didn’t have enough power to even prevent that. The only bad part was that there were still Black Hands that were in Family Service that wouldn’t hesitate to report Audrey’s location to Harold and Hannah. There were also Black Hands in the police that he knew would love to have the chance to arrest him just to get him out of the way of Harold and Hannah and whoever the two were working with. Ever since the failed ritual, it seemed like the Man with the German Accent was nowhere to be found, leaving an empty spot that was up for grabs.

Gabriel’s thoughts though were quickly interrupted when he saw the police at the mall. It was hard to miss the bright flashing police lights or the loud sirens. Curiosity overcame Gabriel and he pulled into the mall’s parking lot. He quickly parked his vehicle and got out of his car. The trip to Family Services would have to wait. With what had happened the day before, there was no way that this, whatever it was, wasn’t connected to the Black Hand or the Horsemen of the Apocalypse. The instant smell of decay hit his senses the minute he got out of his car and he took a small step back to his driver’s seat. Something evil had occurred there and he was willing to bet that it had to do with the Black Hand. He overcame the smell and walked to the crowd of people that was forming by the barrier that the police had set up.

What he saw shocked him. There was a dead body in the driver’s seat of a police car. The body was in a police uniform but the body looked too dried up to have been a recent kill unless there had been magic involved and he was willing to bet that magic had been used. Forensic doctors were examining the dead body. Gabriel looked at one of the police officers. “What happened here?” He asked the police officer. He wanted to see what the police had decided had happened here.

The police officer looked at Gabriel. “No one is sure.” He answered. “The guy who was supposed to relieve our victim this morning showed up here and found the dead body. We don’t know how he ended up in this state but we do know that it was one of us.” The police officer then walked away to try to keep back reporters.

Gabriel looked at the police officer. He knew that it was just a matter of time before the police connected this attack to the strange occurrence that had happened the day before. He shook his head. He had to warn Jasper that the Black Hand was getting bolder with their attacks. He looked in the direction of even more flashing lights of police cars and a barricade. The Black Hand was getting very bold with their attacks.

From within their car, Hannah watched Gabriel getting onto his phone and making a phone call. Harold was reading a news article that was a few weeks old. “Do you think he’s calling Jasper?” Hannah asked. On her lap was a small gun. She wasn’t sure if she would use it but she had it ready just in case. “And do you think he’s a lot smarter than to start up a fight with all of these witnesses if he catches us here?” Gabriel had seen them the day before. Who knew what he would do if he caught the two of them there.

Harold looked up from the news article. “I doubt that he’ll start up a fight if he caught us here.” He told his partner. “After all, the one thing Gabriel values the most is innocent lives staying alive.” He scoffed at the idea. To him, there were no innocent lives. Just people who deserved to die because they weren’t a part of the Black Hand. He, like Hannah, had been born into the Black Hand because of their parents. His parents had been members of the First Circle and Hannah’s parents had been members of the Triad Black Hand in England.

The two of them watched Gabriel walking towards the other crime scene. “We should get to Family Services first.” Hannah said. “We both know what will happen if Gabriel gets to them about Audrey.” If Gabriel succeeded, the Black Hand could very well lose the Chosen One within the foster system. Sure the Black Hand had agents in every foster system but they couldn’t keep track of every child that went through the system. What Hannah didn’t say was that there was a good chance that there could have been past possible chosen ones that had slipped through their fingers. Sure Anthony knew that Audrey was the Chosen One but it made Hannah very angry that others could have gotten away, others that could have brought the Darkness back by being sacrificed.

Harold put down the newspaper and started the vehicle up. “We need to get going if we are to get Audrey first.” Even though the two of them told Abigail Williams where to go to get Audrey, they knew that there was a chance that Abigail Williams would fail in killing the Chosen One. After all, Gabriel had killed the witch during the Salem Witch Trials. Even if he wasn’t at the camp at this very moment, there were others who could kill Abigail Williams this time around. Harold drove the vehicle away.

“Does Anthony know that the witch is drawing attention?” Harold asked Hannah. “I doubt that he would have ever brought her back if he had known that she would draw this kind of attention to the Black Hand.” There was no way that he would have brought the witch back if this was going to be the result.

Hannah nodded. “I believe that the apocalypse will be drawing a lot of attention.” She answered her partner. “Attacks like this will be very important because they’ll draw fear and panic. That’s exactly what is needed to help bring back the Darkness.” She wanted to bring back the Darkness just as much as the rest of Black Hand. She wondered if Harold was still focused on staying behind the scenes like the two of them had always been. Didn’t he realize that the time for staying behind the scene was beginning to be over? If the apocalypse was to be carried out properly so the Darkness would be able to rise, they needed to step out of the shadows.

As Harold turned around the corner, his phone began to ring. He handed it to Hannah. “Answer it.” He said.

Hannah gave him a look before she answered the phone and held it up to her ear. “Yes?” She asked. Her face fell. “I don’t understand.” She said after a few minutes. “I thought that we wanted Gabriel and the others gone so the Chosen One can be killed easily.” Harold looked at her. He knew who Hannah was talking to. Hannah looked nervously at Harold before she looked ahead. “Of course.” She said. “I understand. I’ll tell him right away.” She then hung up.

Harold looked at Hannah again before he looked ahead. “What did Anthony want?” He asked. There was only one person who could make Hannah look nervous and it wasn’t the Man with the German Accent. No, it was the man who could control demons.

Hannah shook her head. “He doesn’t want us going after Gabriel.” She told him. “He says that the only one who is to attack Gabriel and the Chosen One is Abigail Williams.”

Harold shook his head. “That doesn’t make any sense.” He said. Was Anthony losing his sanity?

Hannah put down the phone. “I know it doesn’t make any sense but without the Magician leading us, we have no other choice but to follow Anthony.” She reminded Harold. “I mean you remember what happened the last time someone tried to go up against him.” Harold gritted his teeth. He knew that Hannah was referring to when Anthony and the two of them had met. Anthony had recruited them to his team. Harold though had tried to fight Anthony. He didn’t want another immortal leading the Black Hand for the Darkness. Anthony had defeated him of course in mere seconds.

“So what does he want us to do?” Harold asked Hannah.

Hannah shook her head. “We’re to keep an eye on what happens from the shadows and to only step in if we’re needed.” She told Harold. She wasn’t sure what Anthony meant exactly but it probably had to do with Josiah and the Horsemen of the Apocalypse. They were still at the manor waiting to do their parts. She then smiled. “But we can still try to get Audrey into the custody of the Black Hand.” She said. “Especially if he’s already planning for the witch to fail at killing Audrey.” That made Harold smile.

Gabriel looked past the barricade and his eyes widened. There was a security guard slumped against the wall. The body had several bloody spots on his chest. The way the security guard had been stabbed made Gabriel worried. Why would the Black Hand use a normal way to kill when the killer had used magic on the other victim? His eyes narrowed as he looked back at the first crime scene. Unless the other body had been killed in a nonmagical way but the body had been aged after the killing. He looked at the dead security guard.

That was when he saw it, a small trace of magic by the dead body. His eyes widened. He couldn’t believe it. There was no way that it was her magic. She had been dead for a very long time. He took a step back. But that would explain why the other dead body had been aged. She had taken the first dead body’s youth and life energy and had absorbed it. He took out his phone before he looked around. If she had been here, there was no telling who else was there as well. He had to warn Jasper that she was back. Abigail Williams was the most dangerous witch of her time and she was still very dangerous.

At the lodge at the camp, Audrey was reading a book by the fireplace. She didn’t feel like going out that day. She was trying to distract herself from her parents’ deaths and she was failing at that. She just couldn’t get the news out of her head. Jasper was outside on his phone looking at the news and James was in the next room over doing who knew what. Audrey didn’t want to think about either of them. She was still upset about everything that was happening and part of her blamed it on the two of them and Gabriel. She knew that she shouldn’t but she just felt like it was their fault that she was in this mess. She was so focused on trying to distract herself that she didn’t see the figure standing behind her.

Abigail Williams was glaring at Audrey. She might have failed at killing past Chosen Ones but she wasn’t going to let Audrey get away from her. Her eyes glowed a milky white and the ground around her turned cold.

Audrey flipped the page of her book when she noticed that the room was a bit colder than usual. She frowned. She hadn’t turned the air conditioning to full power. She stood up and went to change it and she froze in fear with what she saw. A figure in tattered clothes glaring at her with milky white eyes. The figure’s body was withered and looked like it had decayed a lot. The ground around the figure was ice. “This is your end Chosen One.” The figure told Audrey.