Darkest Call

Chapter Ten

What Mrs. Thelonien told me, wasn't what I had imagined. In fact, she just told me, what Sam had told me previously, about how Maia and Hannah were police suspects and had found another body. She then proceeded to tell me, that the police had nothing major on neither Hannah nor Maia, and that they therefore had been trying to get a confession from me, about them doing something... well illegal. It seemed the video footage of Maia and Hannah was not of them actually deleting the files from Nicola's computer, but just from being around the station. The detectives were getting desperate. Apparently, the FBI were about to get involved with the murderers, which couldn't actually be that surprising to anyone. After telling me what there was to tell, Mrs. Thelonien sent me to bed.

*****

The next couple of weeks were odd. Hannah and Maia were still suspects, but due to the lack of evidence, the police could not keep them in custody, hence, the two girls joined with the rest of the Gang in school. If I had thought the experience at the station would start some conversation between Ad and me, I was wrong. He barely looked at me. Sam, however, was back to normal. I had told her about Nicola's message. I'd felt, that she needed to be caught up, even if she did not help us. She had not said anything, but she was no longer yelling at me for leaving Ad alone. I was happy, that when I, in order to protect Ad, couldn't talk with him, he then at least had someone else to talk to. But I missed him terribly much. Otherwise, I felt happy. It was like I had one of those moments where I for one reason or another forgot everything about murderers, banshees and dead friends and just enjoyed my actual friends at school. I was smiling a lot. Especially in Noah's company, even though we hadn't been alone together since... Well, anyways. We had spent a lot of time at Blackwell's, but never without any of the children or Ms. B in the same room.

I had been introduced to the orphanage in a different way though. Apparently, the Blackwell Family had taken in Dark Beings in need of help for centuries, and the orphanage were one of the places, they continued to do it today. That meant, that even if they didn't all know it, they were all part of the Dark World. Part of the mindreading gift was to enter the subconscious, which, Noah had explained, made it easy to know whether children were from the Dark World, and often what they were, hence the Blackwell's finding Dark Beings easier than other families. The only child, they were unsure of what was, was Teresa, but ever since she had started drawing graveyards, despite having been in the dark about the murderers, Ms. B guessed she a necromancer. When I had brought the idea of a banshee up, Ms. B had only laughed.
"Ain't no banshees the Smythe's don't know. Besides, Tessa's mom weren't from a Smythe decent. She simply can't be."
With those words, the argument was closed.

*****

"So, the necromancer wants Liam back, presumably because he's a necromancer-banshee hybrid or whatever. What for? Why do they want that kind of power?"
Julia looked at us with a questionable glance. We were seated in her bedroom, which was surprisingly blank. Besides her big bed (white covers, white pillows, all white), there was a desk, a small bookcase containing not very many books and a big mirror. On the bookshelf there were all sorts of stuff, that were probably were useful for a necromancer, but for the rest of us, just a bunch of junk. The room held only one photo in it. It was a picture of Julia and Liam. From the looks of it, it was taken not long before Liam died.
"Why do people ever want power?" asked Hannah, who was seated with her legs crossed on the floor. I frowned.
"I mean, having power is getting to decide the rules, right? What if it's someone, who feels unfairly treated, or has a very single-minded worldview, which they want to, I don't know, make happen?" I said.
I was sat with my back leaning against the bed. Julia took up most of the bed, which was weird, seeing as she was one of the smallest persons I knew. The space was taken up by our research though, not Julia herself. Noah was sat next to me, our hands intertwined out of sight of the others. I did catch Jordan glance at us though, I supposed he could see our hands, as he was the only one standing up.
"What if it's not power?" he asked. "What if it's someone who loves him?"
Julia seemed taken aback for a moment before collecting herself.
"I don't think you could do that to someone you love," Maia said.
She had just entered the room with a bowl of chips, she had gotten from the kitchen downstairs. She found her previous spot opposite Hannah and sat down. Jordan shrugged. Julia hesitated shortly before speaking:
"I was close to doing it," she looked away. "In fact, after Liam died, I was so messed up, I probably could've done it."
I looked at her, what had stopped her? I knew firsthand how it felt to wish someone back from the dead. Only back then, I couldn't bring them back. I still couldn't, according to the banshee-research I'd done. Only if Death wished a death reversed, could a Messenger of Death reverse it, which seemed complicated, considering no one believed Death was real. Not the one with a capital D anyways. According to Hannah, the Servants of Death were merely a family, whose powers were tied with death originally, whereas the necromancers were a result of witchcraft gone badly.
"Why didn't you?" Maia asked Julia, who turned to look at us. Her expression was collected, but her eyes shone, as if she could cry any minute.
"I saw Liam's ghost. It was right before he passed," she said standing up. Jordan looked at her, then turned his glance to me.
"I was thinking about your aunt, Penny. The Theloniens are necromancer's..."
I didn't let him finish before interrupting him.
"Mrs. Thelonien is born Smythe. She can't be the necromancer, you know that," I said. Jordan shook his head.
"No, I know that, I was merely thinking about the other Theloniens. Could they be trying to resurrect Liam?" he asked. It was my time to shrug.
"Before my parents died, I had only met my aunt a couple of times, I don't know Liam's family," I admitted. Hannah snorted. Julia, however, looked up.
"No, but I do," she said turning to our pile of papers and pictures.
"Not very well, and not all of them strong, but there could definitely be someone there. I just don't think they'll do it because of love. The Theloniens' like power."
Noah squeezed my hand, Hannah eyes lighted up slightly. Maia was staring intensely at the bowl, still filled to the brim with chips. Jordan looked at Julia with a raised eyebrow. There was something soft in his eyes.
"You know what this means, right?" Noah asked standing up before helping me to my feet, "We need to talk with Mrs. Thelonien," he said.
I felt like sitting back down. Through the past months, I hadn't thought about talking with Mrs. Thelonien about the Dark World. Was she a banshee like me? Or was she another kind of Servant? Or just someone born into the Smythe family without powers? I sighed. I knew he was right. If she knew something about the Dark World, she would know about the Theloniens' and their powers.
"Come to my place next Friday. Aunt Thelonien is in Oregon with work right now," I said.
Hannah turned to me, "Friday? The next murder will be Sunday, Pen."
She stood up and started pacing around.
"It's the fifth one, the last one before the revival. If Liam gets back, who knows what will happen? Who knows how he will react?"
Maia stood up, her face in a frown. Jordan slouched as always. Julia stood quiet.
"We have no choice, Hannah," she said, "Besides, I can look into the Theloniens, see if I can find anything. Pen and Noah can look into Annabel Thawn, whoever she is, she could have something to do with this, who knows, perhaps she's a reaper, who reaped Liam. Hannah, Maia and Jordan, you can continue with everything else we have."