CHAPTER 6
STACEY'S ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
FRIDAY 12/3
JAMIE
I could hear mum's sobs as I opened the front door. I called out to her but she didn't answer.
Quickly I threw my schoolbag onto the hall bench and ran upstairs.
Mum's eyes were red from crying and her hands shook as she patted the bed beside her. I sat down next to her wanting to give her a hug but she pushed me aside.
"Jamie, today your father's solicitor sent me a letter from your dad that had been held in trust until now. The letter told me where to find the remaining pages of his diary. They were in a cavity in the attic wall next to a door that I never knew existed. Someone's been up there Jamie; there were drag marks on the floor leading from the door to the huge crate that had kept it hidden. Somehow it has been moved. Don't look so guilty Jamie, I know you couldn't have possibly have moved it, it must weigh a ton."
I stayed silent, it wasn't the time to tell mum what I'd discovered behind that door, she was way too upset. I waited for her to say something about the door being barricaded by the chest of drawers I'd placed there, but she said nothing.
I began to sweat...had it been removed?
"Alright Jamie forget it, I'm more disturbed by what I've just read to worry about it now. There were two other things with the pages from your dad's diary. A birth certificate and an old photo that your father said Asa had given him. It's of a young girl who's oddly familiar."
I could hear the hesitation in mum's voice as she spoke about that photo and I knew that there was more that she wanted to tell me. I tried to grab it as she waved it around but she quickly placed it back it in the box she kept dad's diary in.
"Jamie you have to know the truth. The birth certificate ...your father had a twin sister!"
"I don't understand mum, dad was an only child."
"Don't interrupt Jamie! Listen to me! I can't bring myself to say what your father implies in his letter; you will have to read the pages from his diary.
"But mum..."
"No, Jamie I'm too upset! I refuse to talk about it...later okay?"
I'd never seen mum in such a state so I said nothing just listened as she went on to tell me how she'd searched out the title of our house and had found the original deeds of transfer.
I could hardly believe what she was telling me. Not only did the deeds confirm that William Braden had built the manor, but those thirteen men he'd transferred the title to had the surname CRINE!
"These thirteen are not human Jamie. They are alien sorcerers and are immortal. They're the thirteen High Priests of the 'Secret Society of Crines.' It says so in those pages of your father's diary.
I'm so afraid for you Jamie, tomorrow's the thirteenth, and it's the third month of the year when according to your father, the 'Universal Holy Mathematical Equation of Thirty Nine.' occurs. And when it equates over Earth the 'Power of Three' will have their supernatural powers awakened.
You are one of them Jamie and the Crines may already know your identity!" mum shouted hysterically as she pulled me to her.
"Cool it mum, there is no proof of anything Dad wrote!" I insisted as I wriggled out of her grasp. My head was bursting; I was beginning to get hysterical like mum.
"I don't care Jamie! I believe your father! He says the 'Secret Society of Crines' wants to destroy the 'Power of Three'. Just read!" mum demanded shoving the pages of dad's diary into my lap.
Stay calm, stay calm I told myself as I picked up the first page.
24-2
Saturday morning
7am
Back at Braden
I know that I'm risking my life in coming back to Braden but I have to know the truth!
Have just got off the phone from Asa and have agreed to see him tonight. Found it hard to admit to myself that I had been actually hanging out for his call. Although I feel uncomfortable about meeting him up at the old ruins.
24-2
Saturday night
11pm
Met with Asa tonight at the ruins of the ancient city on Apogee Mountain as arranged.
Asa immediately took me to the quadrangle of the cities Temple and told me that underneath lays a crystal monolith. Asa said that when the monolith is activated it aligns with the wormhole that hovers over Apogee Mountain.
The wormhole is how the aliens who built this ancient city travelled through space and time. And it is how the sorcerer Sissnaska will return to Earth.
I asked Asa how he knew and he said that as a shaman he foresees the future. He stated that one year from now, on the thirteenth day of the third month at the thirteenth hour, the Crines will unite with Sissnaska's hybrid son Tuloosa and prepare for Sissnaska's coming.
He refused to elaborate, however he said that on this same day in one year's time my son would visit the old Braden estate to seek him out and see for himself the answers.
Then he vanished. I so fear for Jamie!
26-2
Monday morning
10am
Asa appeared before me as I was sitting at my desk
The following that he told me I find incomprehensible!
There are supposedly five adults and two children beside my son who are related to me! Asa gave me the names of four of these adults and their children.
They are my best friends and their children!
He wouldn't tell me the name of the fifth adult. Said that I would find out in due time.
Asa insisted that I would find two names of the children destined to be the 'Power of Three' that William Braden writes about in his journal, among the records of Braden's Registrar of Births and Deaths. He told me to look for the 2 children born at the thirteenth hour of the 13th day of the 3rd month in the year my son was born.
Asa said there was no need to search for the third child.
26-2
Monday afternoon
4.30pm
Checked out Braden's birth record:
There were only two born on the same date and at the same time as my son just as Asa said. These two are my friend's children. Katie and Liam Powers!
By a strange co-incidence, just as I had discovered this, the registrar book of births for Apogee Mountain Orphanage fell off the shelf. I only had time to glance through it before it was rudely taken from me by the clerk. However I'm sure that I saw Trina's name among the list of children.
27-2
Tuesday morning
10.30am
Couldn't sleep last night, all I could think about was the dates of those births! It got me thinking about what Asa had told me about my relatives.
Went back to registry office to search out my parent's birth certificates and those of my friends Charlie and his twin brother Sam Powers; there weren't any! This means that our given surnames that we are known by are fictitious leaving no way of checking who our ancestors were.
Looked for births registered on my birth date; found five other than mine as Asa said.
One was of my twin sister Madison who'd died at birth.
The other four were also twins like Madison and I.
What was disturbing was that the twin boys and girls names were that of my friends Sam and Charlie Powers and Joanne and Natalie Powers
I checked out the records of Marriages and as I suspected my childhood friends Charlie and Sam Powers had married Joanne and Natalie Powers, the twin girls born the same day as them. They had married their first cousins!
Madison, Charlie, Sam, Joanne, Natalie and myself were all born the thirteenth hour of the thirteenth day of the third month in the same year.
Could we be related after all? If this is right then I'm the only one who didn't marry from the same bloodline! Wait...if I'm the parent of one of the "Power of Three' as Asa wants me to believe then Stacey would have to be...? I don't want to think about it, it's horrifying.
For my sanity's sake I have to believe that my twin sister died at birth as my parents had told me.
28-2
Wednesday
> 10am
Again I couldn't sleep for worrying about those missing birth records of our parents. So this morning I decided to check out Asa's story further. There was only one way to verify what he told me and that was to check death certificates.
This I did and it has shaken me to the core. After finding the registry of my friend's parent's deaths and mine I decided to look for the record of the death of my twin sister. I had to resolve this damning doubt that Asa had placed in my head about Stacey.
There was no record of my twin sister's death.
Why had my parents lied to me?
What had happened to my sister Madison...could she have been kidnapped? If so, Why?
Nothing is making sense! Stacey said she'd been raised in an orphanage until she was adopted when she was five. I can't think about this...
28-2
Wednesday
11.40pm
Asa turned up on my doorstep tonight unannounced...wanted to know if I had considered what he had told me of my heritage. He asked me if I had deduced the identity of my fifth relative.
I couldn't answer him... I'm still in shock.
My role in all of this and that of the others is becoming clear!
Asked him if he knew why my parents had been murdered. Asa replied affirmatively, but said that mystery would unravel at the right time and then I would understand my own fate.
I was afraid to ask what he meant by that.
1-3
Thursday morning
6am
Been awake all night trying to come to terms with the fact that Stacey and I are brother and sister! I have to keep reminding myself that earthly moral codes of incest do not apply to my situation. However I'm finding it all very disturbing, my beliefs and morality have been torn to shreds. It will be difficult to explain to my son!
Thursday 8pm
Have calmed down enough to be able to talk to Asa... There is no getting away from the truth!
Thursday 11pm
Asa told me some pretty incredible things about William Braden and of the discovery that he had made of another race of beings that exist deep in the bowels of the earth under Apogee Mountain. Could this race be the 'Greybeards' that William Braden had written of in his journal? Had they convinced him to use his powers to help and not destroy mankind? Are these Greybeards a race of super humans, as William Braden believed?
Yet if they do exist...it would change everything about modern anthropology. It would disprove the theory that our continent was first inhabited by the migration of early man from Africa.
Are they the reason why William Braden refers in his journal to his mansion being a 'World within Worlds?
Again more questions
2-3
Friday
10am
Asa showed up unannounced
Have learnt from Asa that:-
The High Priests of the 'Secret Society of Crines' are thirteen of the fourteen immortal 'Ancients'. The fourteenth is their ruler Sissnaska who fled Earth centuries ago taking with him William Braden's father Johnathan Braden,
The long lost sacred book of 'Genetic Coding of the 'Ancients' had been cosseted by William Braden who had worked alongside the thirteen 'Ancients' left here to continue breeding their leader Sissnaska's super race.
Unknown to Sissnaska and known only to one of the thirteen 'Ancients' named Sorius, William Braden had in the secrecy of his laboratory in the basement of his mansion, used the knowledge from this sacred book to produce a son with great supernatural powers.
Using the DNA of the most powerful 'Ancient', Sissnaska, provided by Sorius (who colluded with William Braden in order to further his own ambitions) and that of his wife's Isobelle, William Braden created the son he so desired, the monster Tuloosa.
Tuloosa, half human half alien, with the inherit powers of his alien biological father Sissnaska, was rejected by his human mother Isobelle whom he later slaughtered unmercifully.
Tuloosa still lives on imprisoned in his underground world in the catacombs directly below William Braden's mansion by a spell cast by Sorius who had feared his treachery would be exposed after William Braden's defection from Sissnaska's plan to rule the world.
In order to protect his position of power, which was Tuloosa's birthright, and exposure of his treachery, Sorius instigated the many wars against Tuloosa wanting him dead.
Unaware of Sorius's treachery the wars were endorsed by his fellow twelve 'Ancients' who sought to regain entry to Sissnaska's sacred laboratory in the catacombs which were now Tuloosa's kingdom and had been sealed off by Tuloosa.
3-3
Saturday
12pm
Meeting with Asa in the grounds of the Braden estate...
4-3
Sunday morning
3am
Just got back from my meeting with Asa...
Asa told me that after William Braden's disappearance, his son James had found the sacred book of 'Genetic Coding of the Ancients' among his father's possessions and had kept its discovery to himself.
He too had coveted their secrets and colluded as his father had done with the thirteen 'Ancients' that had brought his father so much power. He worked alongside them breeding humanoids and their ruler Sissnaska's super race.
James Braden was the founder of the 'Secret Society of Crines'.
Using the scientific knowledge of creation sequestered in his father's journal, James Braden perfected the science of cloning and soon his mother's clone Isobelle stood by his side.
James Braden's joy was to be short lived however as his mother's clone died during childbirth, the result of a secret illicit affair with one of the thirteen 'Ancients; the High Priest Ury, second in charge of the' Secret Society of Crines'.
However, his ambitions still reigned his every action, James Braden foolishly archived his new born half sisters heritage in the sacred book of 'Genetic Coding of the Ancients', thus recording the corruption of their sacred bloodline.
James Braden hid this book deep within the ancient archives of the 'Ministry of Genetics' located in the 'Crines University of Wizards' in the thirteenth dimension, until he sought the usefulness of this illicit secret.
For centuries this ancient book remained hidden until recently, when by chance, it was discovered by Swasie, the nephew of the High Priest Ury searching for information to block his cousin Hunks rise in the ranks of the' Secret Society of Crines'.
Asa fears that Swasie will discover the infant born centuries before to James Braden's mother's clone fathered by the High priest Ury had lived, and had been spirited away by James Braden to a childless couple to raise.
If so then he will discover that his suspicions that his Uncle Ury had not married one of Sissnaska's super race as ordered but one of the descendants of his one true love, the clone of Isobelle de Witt Braden was correct. His cousin Hunk therefore is not of pure blood.
Asa also informed me that Sissnaska had only granted two of his thirteen High Priests permission to marry and this had occurred only this century. These were the High Priest Sorius whose son Swasie was born sixteen years ago and the high priest Ury whose son Hunk was born some four years later. It was forbidden for them to produce any more children.
These two sons were to be trained to carry on the work of Sissnaska here on Earth and when their powers were proven to the satisfaction of Sissnaka they were to be given senior roles in his ministry.
The other eleven 'Ancients' who are High Priests of the 'Secret Society of Crines', remain unmarried.
5-3
Monday
5am
Asa appeared before me again, as I sat at my desk writing
I have learnt from Asa that there is an impending threat to our Universe far greater than the sorcerer Sissnaska's evil ambitions.
The Greybeards have discovered that dark energy is threatening to expand our Universe into nothingness far sooner than the eternal repeating cycle of our universes existence. They fear it will occur in our time.
/> Asa said that the 'Holy Scepter', which Prince Syard brought to their world for safekeeping, has alerted them to the dark energies sudden explosion of powers.
Asa insists that once the 'Power of Three' receives their powers they be brought before the council of Greybeards. The 'Power of Three's unique genetic structure which sets them apart from myself and their forefathers enable them to withstand the force of dark energy; as unlike their forefathers, its energies linger in their being. Because of this, the Greybeards believe that the 'Power of Three' will be drawn to its energy and be able to find the source of its expansion.
6-3
Tuesday
7am
Asa appeared again
Asa informed me this morning that before Prince Syard died, he told the Greybeards of, a mysterious stranger who gave his father King Abdula the 'Holy Scepter'. He said this mysterious stranger had come from a zone beyond the radius of the Universe's influence on time and matter. This zone called the 'Circle of Time' Prince Syard said held the answers to all creation.
According to Asa, the vortex that leads to the 'Circle of Time' exists underneath William Braden's old mansion in the world of the Greybeards.
The Greybeards have told him that the answer to the dispersing of the dark energy's powers lies within the 'Circle of Time'.
Their studies have shown that every three hundred years during the thirty nine days of the phenomena known as 'Moon Harvest', the 'Circle of Time' gravitational powers are at it's most strongest; the dark energy passing through it, is absorbed into its stratosphere rendering it helpless.
The Greybeards insist that the 'Circle of Time' must be visited to learn how to replicate this anomaly in order to save the Universe from imploding before its time.
When I asked Asa if anyone inhabited this zone, he laughed and said that only those who believed of its existence dwelt there.
No matter how hard I try I cannot grasp the meaning of his statement.
7-3
Wednesday
10.47pm
I now have in my keeping the Mandate for the 'Power of Three' given to Prince Syard by the 'Great Universal Council'. It has been in the possession of the Greybeards since Prince Syard escaped to their world.
It states that our planet Earth will align in the heavens in the Holy Equation of Thirty Nine on the thirteenth hour of the thirteenth day of the third month in the year of my son's thirteenth birthday!
I've arranged with my solicitor to send Charlie this mandate along with all of the documentation in my possession. Charlie will receive them on the day before the empowerment of the 'Power of Three', which takes place at the thirteenth hour of the thirteenth day of the third month in the year of our children's thirteenth birthday.
It is important that Charlie, Sam, Joanne and Natalie read these documents before their awakening of their powers, which will occur on the same day of the empowerment of our children.
This will give them time to understand their role in the destiny of the 'Power of Three' and be able to help Stacey comprehend.
They will and also Stacey, I'm sure, will question when first reading these documents. However upon the first stirring of their powers they will believe.
The documents will make clear to them that our children belong to the higher powers of the Universe. And as such have powers greater than theirs. They are the 'Power of Three'!
I know now that truth is stranger than fiction! And I cannot help but wonder if the outcome would have been the same if I hadn't decided to sell my family home when I did.
11-3
Friday
11pm
Have been unable to write in my diary! I've been held captive and have just escaped!
It was hard being forced to make those phone calls to Stacey pretending that all was okay.
What I have seen these last few days in capture is quite horrifying! I am terrified for Jamie
11-3
Friday
12am
Cannot sleep! Am afraid they are coming for me! Those vampires want my blood!
The reason why both my parents were murdered is clear to me now and I fear that I will suffer the same fate! I too, like them, have come dangerously close to the truth. I'm afraid that I will not live long enough to receive the powers of Moon Harvest that would have protected me.
I'm saddened that I may not be here to guide my son and I will leave this to Charlie and the others. I pray that Stacey will believe what they have to tell her and forgive me for not being the one to do so. I hope she will understand that I only wanted to spare her and Jamie for as long as possible from the shock that they will endure when they learn their true identity. For once they receive the documents I have in my possession and the instructions therein, I'm sure that they will experience the same pain and disbelief.
I can no longer deny this truth. The proof is too compelling!