Brenda nudged Inisa and whispered. “Don’t worry. The trip is going to be great.”
They approached a boarding gate where a tall, pretty, woman in a white dress stood next to a small box holding a sign that read, “Welcome Delaware Institute for Young Adults with Autism.”
Inisa brought the group to a stop at the gate. “It’s so nice to meet you,” she told the woman.
“I’m Hailey,” the woman said with a bright smile. “I’m with the Light and Hope Foundation, and I’ll be accompanying your group on this trip.”
Brenda stepped up to Hailey while Kevin helped prepare the students for boarding. “Thank you so much for all of this.”
Hailey put the sign aside and shook Brenda’s hand, displaying a crystal charm hanging from a black string on her wrists. “Believe me; the Foundation thanks you for participating.”
“Please,” Brenda said with humility beaming from her eyes. “If it wasn’t for the financial support of the Light and Hope Foundation, the Delaware Institute for Young Adults with Autism would have closed a few months after my husband and I took our first student ten years ago.”
Hailey smiled and nodded. “Well, the Foundation believes strongly in the work you are doing.”
Kevin walked over; greeted Hailey with a handshake, and then announced, “We’re all set to board.”
Hailey motioned to the students, many of whom had their heads tilted to the side looking at the floor while others cut their eyes at the ceiling. “May I address our guests of honor?”
Kevin and Brenda glanced at Inisa, who nodded. Kevin then told Hailey, “No problem.”
“Hello guys,” Hailey said warmly. “My name is Hailey, and I’m going to be hanging out with you for the next week. Would you like that?”
Brenda and Kevin watched in amazement as the students directed their gazes at Hailey and shook their heads yes.
“Good,” Hailey responded cheerfully and picked up the small box. “I have gifts for each of you.” She opened the box to reveal twenty black leather necklaces with small crystal charms. She handed several to each of the chaperons and told them. “Please help me get these on our guys.”
They placed one around each of the students’ necks and then Hailey smiled at the students and gleefully told them, “Now we’re going to take a ride on a plane. I promise it will be fun. So follow me.” She turned and headed through the boarding gate and the students quietly filed in behind her.
“Now she’s good,” Inisa muttered.
Kevin put his arm around Brenda’s waist. “This trip is going to be smoother than I thought.”
***
Hundreds of stray cats migrated to an abandoned lake about a half hour outside of Atlantic City, New Jersey. They lingered around, digging in the sand, walking to and from, emitting a chorus of heart-warming meows. A thick cloud of black smoke appeared over the lake and the cats fell silent and stretched their forelegs towards the water as if they were bowing. The cloud of smoke swirled into a huge funnel before breaking off into three small tornados that crisscrossed the surface of the water and then evaporated, revealing what appeared to be three men in long black trench coats hovering above the water in the middle of the lake. Their names were Delago, Kanti, and Nano, and they made up a sect of the reapers called Trackers. Every so often a soul slipped through a reaper’s hand during the collection process and drifted to wherever it found rest—sometimes that was in the subconscious part of another human’s mind, but it was usually in the body of a cat. No matter where a wayward soul ended up, it was Delago, Kanti, and Nano’s responsibility to recover it.
“The devil’s heir has taken our brother Izzy captive,” Nano announced.
Delago shook his head in disbelief. “Simon can’t be that crazy.”
Nano explained, “Simon is no longer the heir. There is a new heir, a set of quadruplets, and they’re using Izzy to force Simon and Saleena to engage the Host.”
Kanti scratched his chin. “If the Host is here, what exactly can we do? It would be suicide for us to cross over. Demons, reapers, we’re all the same to her. We don’t belong here.”
Nano turned to the cats and said, “You’re right.”
Kanti eyed the cats and his face lit up with understanding. “A collector?”
Nano nodded. “Izzy has released his list.”
Delago frowned. “I thought you said they had him captive.”
“They do,” Nano insisted. “He released his list onto the soul that was slain to summon him.”
“A collector?” Kanti muttered. “We haven’t released a collector since the Black Plague.”
“Things always get out of hand when we release collectors, they’re too unpredictable,” Delago pointed out.
“It will be different this time,” Nano assured. “She will be bound to the souls on Izzy’s list, many of whom have been possessed by the devil’s minions.”
“Oh,” Delago nodded. “So we’re using a collector to attack the devil’s heir for taking Izzy hostage?”
“Exactly,” Nano said. “Let’s send the devil’s heir a message he’ll never forget.”
The three Trackers closed their eyes and held hands, forming a circle. They floated a couple of feet into the air, and the crowd of stray cats rushed into the water and turned into a cloud of gray mist that spread beneath the lake’s surface and then gathered in a ball directly under the Trackers’ circle. The Trackers slowly lowered until their feet grazed the lake’s surface. The water within their circle built to a rapid boil, and then an unconscious naked woman emerged from the water and floated high above the Trackers. She looked to be in her early twenties, with perky breasts, healthy hips, flawless skin, and silky black hair that fell below her backside. She opened her lavender-colored eyes and smiled at the sight of the Trackers. “It’s about time you boys showed a lady some love. I was starting to think you forgot about me.”
“The world has changed, Melinda,” Nano warned. “You are bond—”
“Yeah, yeah, yeah,” she said dismissively. “I heard your call. I got the mission. Just give me my tools so I can get to work.”
The three Trackers raised their hands and six small glowing spheres floated out the water and up to Melinda. One of the spheres stopped at her belly button and melted into a cloud of blue smoke that covered her entire body and then materialized into a black skin-tight leather bodysuit with holsters at the waist and a matching waist-length leather jacket trimmed in mink.
“They use something called guns today,” Kanti informed Melinda.
Melinda frowned. “Please, although we collectors have not been on earth for over 500 years, we are still the inspiration for every death tool known to humanity.”
She waved her hand and one of the spheres morphed into an AR 15 assault rifle with a shoulder strap while two other spheres transformed into twin .9mm Glocks. “The only difference between my guns and theirs is mine never need reloading,” she chuckled. “This should be more than enough to send a band of stupid demons back to hell.” She holstered the Glocks and hung the AR 15 over her shoulder and then snapped her fingers. One of the last two spheres melted into smoke that covered her calves and materialized into a pair of knee-high leather boots while the other sphere floated to the beach. She winked at the Trackers and snapped her fingers again and the sphere on the beach melted and materialized into a cherry red Ferrari.
Nano shook his head in frustration. “Being discreet has never been your strong suit.”
Melinda floated down to the lake’s surface and said, “The devil has three seeds on earth, the Host has risen, there are demons crossing over from the Spirit World, and one of my brothers has been taken captive.” She poked Nano in the chest. “I’m only here because you think I’m expendable.”
“It’s not like—” Nano started.
“Save it,” Melinda snapped. “Have you forgotten I have complete access to your mind
s when you summon me? But don’t worry,” she assured. “I’ll do your bidding. But this time I’ll do it my way.”
Kanti shrugged. “Have you ever not done it your way?”
Melinda looked into Kanti’s eyes and reminded him, “If there was a chance for any way other than my way, you wouldn’t have summoned me, now would you.”
Before anyone could respond, Melinda turned and stormed off, splashing water with each of her footsteps as she walked across the surface of the lake. The Trackers watched as she climbed into the Ferrari and sped off, leaving behind a cloud of smoke and sand.
“She’s not going to stick to the list,” Delago sighed.
“Has she ever?” Kanti exhaled.
“It’s different this time,” Nano reasoned. “No matter how stubborn collectors can be, they love their brothers. She’ll be messy, but she’ll tend to the list. As long as the devil’s heir and his network have Izzy, Melinda will give them hell.”
“Yeah,” Kanti agreed. “But how do we pull her back when Izzy is released?”
“We’ll cross that road when we get there,” Nano said softly.
***
Wille Von Macht stood in the conference room that overlooked their Pentagon-like war room and silently glanced down at a satellite feed of Saleena awaiting Makeda at the stadium. Behind the boys, a laptop sat on a long conference table that faced a huge wall-mounted plasma screen.
“It’s about time,” the boys said in unison as Tess strolled in with a nerdy looking man in a cheap suit.
Tess looked as if she was dressed more for a red carpet event than a briefing on technical support for a war between good and evil. She had on a black Gucci dress with a pair of green Gucci pumps and an emerald necklace.
“Mitchell has good news,” Tess announced.
The boys sat on one side of the conference table and pointed to the plasma screen. “Please show, don’t tell,” they told Mitchell.
Tess hit the lights and Mitchell tapped a key on the laptop that prompted a thermal satellite image of the area surrounding the New Meadowlands stadium to pop on the plasma screen. A dark red spot glowed in the center of the image.
Mitchell cleared his throat and explained, “The showdown you’re instigating between your sister and the Host has provided the perfect opportunity to test our new thermal imaging software,” He paused and then continued, “We already know that you, Simon, and Saleena have unique heat signatures that can be picked up by satellites using the thermal imaging, but now we know the Host has a unique signature as well.”
The boys shrugged. “But we expected this, didn’t we?” they asked skeptically.
Mitchell nodded and hit a key on the laptop that prompted a thermal satellite image of the entire United States, which displayed thousands of tiny light red dots across the country, a dark red spot in New York, a dark red spot in New Jersey, a bright yellow spot in Arizona that was not too far away from a bright orange spot, and a light orange spot in South Jersey that covered the entire Atlantic City area.
Mitchell motioned to the image. “This was recorded shortly after Saleena issued her demand. The dark red dot in New Jersey is her. Of course the dark red dot in New York is Simon. The light red dots are our demons in possession of human bodies.” He pointed to the bright yellow dot in Arizona. “This is the Host, no doubt leaving the Order of Light’s so-called secret headquarters, and this,” he said pointing to the bright orange dot in Arizona, “is most likely the son of Sango we witnessed engage our demons at the Pentagon with the Host, which means—”
Wille Von Macht got up and approached the screen, inspecting the light orange dot. “—the light orange dot indicates the approximate location of one of the other three seeds of Sango.”
“But if there are a total of four seeds of Sango, why are there only two orange dots?” Tess asked.
“Good question,” Mitchell nodded. “I don’t have a definitive answer, but I saw when the light orange dot literately grew onto the satellite image. I suspect two more orange dots will grow onto the screen at any moment. And when they do, we’ll know the location of all four seeds of Sango.”
Tess smiled. “If we find them before the Order of Light, we can kill them before they ever know who they are.”
“No,” Wille Von Macht stated. “Not if but when we find them first, they will be much more useful to us alive than dead.” They told Mitchell, “The moment there’s any sign of the other seeds of Sango, inform us.”
“Your mighty will shall be carried out,” Mitchell said with a bow and then walked out.
“And what does my Lord want of his servant Tess?” Tess asked.
“You will take a battalion consisting of twenty of our demon warriors and four thousands of our demon-possessed human soldiers to Atlantic City, New Jersey. Your mission is three-fold: you will transport the scientist Marsha Grand with the gateway device, seize the city so that Marsha can initiate and test the device, and find this seed of Sango, to whom you shall deliver a gift,” the boys instructed.
Tess’ brow shot up. “A gift?”
“A sword forged from the fire of hell,” the boys revealed with a devilish smirk.
Excitement glowed in Tess eyes. “We’re recruiting them.”
“They are seeds of Sango so they have powerful innate abilities,” the boys pointed out. “But they are human, so they must also choose how to use those abilities. They shall wield swords forged from fire and fight for us as valiantly as they would for the Order of Light with swords forged from light.”
“Your mighty will shall be carried out,” Tess said and bowed. She started to leave, but then turned back and lowered her head as she asked, “If my Lord does not mind my asking, what exactly does this gateway device do?”
“The gate between this world and the Spirit World weakens as humanity falls into hopelessness and despair,” the boys explained. “But as bad as things are in this world, the gate is not weak enough to be completely broken. This device emits a sphere that isolates those within it, and then utilizes their despair and hopelessness to create a hole in the gate. Once humanity’s moral dips low enough to create this hole, our demons can cross back and forth between earth and the Spirit World.”
“So instead of destroying the hope of humanity all at once, we use these devices to isolate the despair of a few to create a small gate.”
“The device you are taking is only a prototype and Marsha will use the Atlantic City area as a testing ground. If all goes well the next device will not require human despair at all, only that born of the Spirit World that is not truly of the Spirit World,” the boys gloated.
Tess nodded, and then her eyes lit up with realization. “And Simon certainly possesses such a thing,” she whispered softly.
“Not for long. Now go, find the Seed of Sango,” the boys ordered.
“Your mighty will shall be carried out.” Tess bowed and then walked out.
Once alone, the boys muttered, “Things are progressing better than we planned.”
APRIL 2013
HOST CHRONICLES:
VOLUME 2: HOPE RISING
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