On the drive to Quaddick, Isabelle and Cleo were laughing so hard in the back seats as they spoke and got to know more about each other. Apart from their jobs, they had almost every other thing in common and they really hit it off.
Josh listened to them from the front and he had a smile on his face the entire time. He was so happy to see Isabelle calm and relaxed, having a good time with her new friend without worrying about the strange things that had been happening to them. That was the point of this trip after all; to take a break from all the chaos and madness, to forget about their problems, even if it was just for a day and to spend some quality time in each other's company.
"So, if you don't mind me asking, how old are you?" Isabelle asked her.
"I'm twenty-six," Cleo said.
"Wow, I'm twenty-six as well," Isabelle said with a smile.
"What do you know? Another thing we have in common," Cleo said.
"You know what would be even crazier?"
"What?"
"If we had the same birthday..." Isabelle said.
"We should check. Here, we'll both say our birthday at the same time and see if we match," Cleo suggested.
"I love that idea. Let's do it," Isabelle agreed.
"Alright, on three! One...Two...Three.
October 24th,"
"June 9th," They both said in unison.
They both began to laugh as they realized that their birth dates didn't match.
"Yeah, that was a long shot, wasn't it?" Isabelle asked with a chuckle.
"I guess it was," Cleo replied and looked outside the window of the moving car.
She recognized a particular road that they were driving past and asked Josh to tell the driver to stop. Tim stepped on the brakes and stopped the car while Cleo looked for something in her bag.
"What is it, Cleo?" Josh asked.
"I think this is my stop. I haven't been here before but my parent's house should be on the other side of this street. I recognize this road and that big tree from the postcard they sent me once," Cleo said and took the card out.
Isabelle took the card and compared it with the road in front of them and saw that they were identical.
"Yeah, this is definitely the same road but, will you be able to find your way from here?" Isabelle asked.
"I'm sure I'll be fine," Cleo said and began to get up.
"We can drive further in if you want," Josh offered.
"No, that's okay. You guys have done enough for me and I wouldn't want to put you out of your way. I'll find the house. This town isn't that big," Cleo said with a smile and got out of the car.
Tim got out as well and helped get her backs out of the trunk. After she had her luggage, she went back to the car door to say goodbye to Isabelle.
"Make sure to call me, okay? We need to hang out again before I go back to L.A," Isabelle said.
"I sure will and besides, I live in L.A as well so we're definitely to hang out again," Cleo assured her, "Goodbye Josh. Take care."
"Take care, Cleo," Josh bade her farewell just as Tim drove off.
Cleo watched the car drive off and after it was out of sight, she began to walk down the lonely road to find her way to her parent's home.
.
.
.
"I don't feel too good about how we left her all alone like that," Isabelle said to Josh some minutes after they had dropped off Cleo.
"She'll be fine, babe. She's a big girl," Josh said.
"I know she'll be fine. I just can't help but worry, you know?" She said.
"I get it. You and her hit it off. I've never seen you so chatty before. It was very cute," Josh teased.
"I don't know. I guess I needed something normal in my life where I didn't feel the need to talk about, you know..." Isabelle said.
"But I have to ask, if you're making plans to spend time with her for the three days we'll be here, when are you going to spend time with me?" Josh asked, feigning jealousy.
"Don't worry, baby. You'll spend plenty of time with me this weekend. I promise," she said with a hint of excitement in her voice and Josh picked up on it.
Just about five minutes later, they reached their destination and Tim drove the car right to the front of the beautiful little house on the landscape.
The house was designed like an older model built in the 80s. It wasn't too small but it was also very intimate as they were flowers growing all around it. The line of the lake could be seen from the front of the house and there was a Mercedes parked right there as well. It was truly like a page out of a fairytale book and Isabelle was already in love with the place.
They both got out of the car and Josh held Isabelle's hands as he walked her to the front door. Tim unloaded their bags and called out to Josh.
"Well, Sir, I hope you enjoy your stay here. I'll be heading back to the vineyards now. The car right over there is already fueled up and the keys are on the nightstand in your bedroom," he said.
"Thank you for all your help, Tim," Josh said and shook the man's hand.
"No need to thank me, Sir. I'm just doing my job. Goodbye, Miss,"
"Goodbye, Tim," Isabelle said.
Tim got back into his car and drove away.
******
Hannah, Garin and Sader were flying through the night sky after they left the ruins of Amania. They were soaring through the clouds, unsure of where to go next to seek refuge from the angels and demons that were after them.
It was a beautiful night and a full moon hung in the sky. It was very calm and peaceful up there and it seemed like the sky could go on forever because of how endless it was.
"Where are we going to go now?" Hannah asked.
"We could return to the beach," Sader suggested.
"I don't think that's a good idea, Sader," Garin said.
"We have to find somewhere safe, somewhere we can stand our ground and set up a defensive front," Hannah said.
"And where are we supposed to go that we'll be able to have an advantage? We don't have the numbers necessary to win this fight," Sader said.
"Maybe we can find a..." Garin was about to say when he suddenly felt a sharp pain in his head.
"Argh," the demon screamed and held his head with his hands.
"Garin!" Hannah screamed when she noticed him falling out of the sky.
Garin couldn't continue flying as he felt too much pain in his head. He started to crash back to the ground and Hannah and Sader flew down after him to try to catch him.
He was falling very quickly and as he crashed downward, his body caught on fire because of how high and how quickly he was falling. From below, he looked like a meteor that was crashing into the Earth.
Hannah was diving as fast as she could and for a second there, it didn't seem like she was going to catch him on time.
She eventually did make it to him before he hit the ground and scooped him into her arms. They landed softly on the ground and Garin was spasming in her arms. He was groaning in pain while holding his head and Hannah didn't know what was wrong with him.
Sader landed on the ground as well and ran over to his brother.
"What's wrong with him?" Sader asked.
"I don't know. I don't understand what's going on with him," Hannah said and she was so scared for his wellbeing.
Garin's eyes were closed and his skin was cold, a lot colder than it was supposed to be and Hannah was worried. He was also muttering something under his breath and it was inaudible and indistinct.
"What's he saying? Do you understand?" Sader asked and listened even more closely.
"What is it, my love? What are you trying to say?" Hannah asked and lifted him closer to her ears.
"Jasmine, Jasmine, Jasmine,"
That was all Garin was saying. He was reciting that same name over and over, almost like a mantra or a spell, like he was trying to summon her spirit or something.
"Jasmine! He's saying Jasmine," Hannah said and stared at Sader with confusion in her eyes.
"Jasmine? Why is he saying the name of your dead daughter?" Sader asked.
Hannah turned her attention back to Garin and tried to use her powers to fix him up but it didn't seem to be working.
"Whatever's wrong with him is very serious. He needs help," Hannah said.
"There's no one to help us, Hannah. We'll just have to find somewhere that he can rest until he snaps out of whatever is happening to him," Sader said.
"And what if he doesn't?"
"He has to."
.
.
.
Cleo was walking down a path slowly while pulling her box which was rolling on its wheels across the asphalt. She walked for almost half a mile before she saw a house in the distance. She looked at the small wooden house and a smile materialized on her face and she kept walking.
It was just a few minutes past 11 AM and the weather was cool and bright. The sun was out and shining brightly and it glowed and warmed across her back as she walked down the road. She didn’t seem to mind the heat and she wasn’t even sweating.
Cleo arrived at a small house in a lonely part of Quaddick. She walked over to the door and placed her luggage down on the deck of the house. She tried to open the door but it was locked shut and refused to open. Then, she remembered that there should be a key underneath the welcome mat so she bent down and lifted it. She didn’t see the key that she was expecting so she sighed in frustration and got back up.
She looked around to make sure no one was going to see her and after she was satisfied that she was alone, she raised her hand to the door and broke the lock with her mind. The door slid open and she grabbed her luggage and just as she was about to go inside the house, she looked over her shoulder and noticed a flower pot sitting on the railing around the veranda.
She put down her bag and slowly walked over to the flower pot. There was a plant in it but it was dead and withered. Cleo smiled at the dead plant and placed her hands over the pot. Suddenly, the plant began to grow until it sprouted back to life and the flower opened in full bloom. Cleo leaned in and sniffed the flower, delighted by the wonderful scent coming off of it.
She walked away from the pot and went inside the house. She noticed that the room was a bit dark so she switched on the lights on the wall and the space became brighter.
“That’s more like it,” she said to herself, “Home sweet home.”
The inside of the house didn’t look like anyone had lived there for many years. There was no furniture, decorations, items or anything at all. It was just an empty house and she was the only living thing inside it.
She left her bag in the empty living room and walked around the empty house while staring at it like she was trying to remember where everything was supposed to be. She went into one of the bedrooms and looked over at where a bed was supposed to be but wasn’t. She smiled again as she looked there, almost like she was reliving good memories.
She left the room and walked toward the back of the house and exited through the back door. After she came out to the back, she saw a shed just a few yards away and began to walk toward it. Just as she approached the shed, she heard a notification ring out from her phone and she took it out of her pocket to see what it was. It was a text message from Isabelle and she was checking if Cleo made it home safely.
“Yes, I did. Thanks for asking,” Cleo texted back.
“Were your parents happy about your surprise visit?” Isabelle texted.
“Oh yeah! My mom is so happy to see me and so is my dad. They’ve been hugging me non-stop since I got here,” Cleo texted back.
“That’s nice. They must really miss their daughter. Well, have a good time and I guess I’ll call you tomorrow so we can make some plans to hang out sometime,” Isabelle said in a text.
“That sounds like fun. I’m looking forward to that,” Cleo wrote and switched her phone off.
“No more distractions,” she sighed and stared at the shed, “Let’s get this done.”
The shed was also locked but unlike the door, it was chained and locked with a padlock. Cleo raised her hand at the chains and they suddenly began to sizzle like they were being heated up. The chains became soldering hot and melted away into the ground. She pushed the door open and walked into the shed. It was packed and filled with all sorts of furniture and ornaments so she rolled up her sleeves and got to work on taking all of the furniture into the house.
One after the other, she carried the items like the couch, the refrigerator, cupboards, pots and pans, sheets and everything else that was in there. She was able to carry all of these things on her own without that much effort despite how heavy most of them were. She loaded everything into the house and placed them where they needed to be.
She spent several hours putting things in and cleaning up. She even nailed the bed frame by herself and put the mattress in it. She laboured pretty hard and by the time she was done, it was already nighttime and the moon was out completely. She looked around at what she had done and she smiled, satisfied that the house looked better now and she could actually live in it.
She went back into the bedroom and placed her box on the bed. She unzipped it and took out some clothes that were inside of it. She took out other things as well which included a hairbrush, some old-looking books, a small axe, a tight leather costume and a framed picture. The picture was the last thing she took out of the box and when she held it in her hands, she looked at it with a sad smile on her face.
In the picture, there were three young girls in it and Cleo was one of them. They were all smiling and holding on to each other happily. The girls were all identical facially but they had different hair colours. One of them was dark-haired, the other was a redhead and Cleo was the last of them and she was brown-haired. They had different colour hair but their faces were indistinguishable. It was almost like they were all the same person.
“Soon, we’ll be together again,” Cleo said to the picture and kissed it.
She put the picture on the nightstand and picked up the leather costume from the bed. She unfolded it and it turned out to be a spandex jumpsuit. She placed it on the bed and smiled at it. She placed the axe beside it as well.
“I guess I'll be needing you soon,” she said to the items.
A little while later, Cleo had her bath in the bathroom and changed her clothes. After she was ready for bed, she took her phone back out and switched it on again. She was tapping the screen as she walked out to the living room and out the door. She took the large rocking chair from the porch and took it a few steps away from the house so she could see the sky clearly without the roof obscuring her vision.
She placed the chair on the short grass and sat in it. She began to rock the chair back and forth while playing Candy Crush on her phone. She was sitting down there playing her game for a very long time, three hours to be exact, and her battery percentage hadn’t lowered at all.
Suddenly, she saw something lighting up the sky. She looked up at it and saw a large fireball falling into the Earth from above and just behind the large fireball were two winged creatures flying after it. From where she was, it was too far to make out what the winged creatures were but she knew that they weren’t birds. She knew exactly what they were.
“It’s about time,” Cleo said and switched off her phone.
She got out of the chair and went back into the house. She went over to the spandex suit and took off the clothes she already had on. She began to put on the spandex. She strapped the belts together, tightened the laces, buttoned the top and the bottom, and the zipper parts her arms couldn’t reach zipped themselves up without her using her hands. She wrapped her hair in a warrior’s bun and picked up the little axe.
She held the weapon up and it lit up like a glowstick before growing into a much larger axe. She smiled at the weapon and shrunk it back into a little axe. She strapped it to the holster around her waist and stared at herself in the mirror.
“Like a boss,” she commented.
Cleo grabbed a normal jacket and held it in her hands as she walked out of the house. She walked along the dark lonely road and wore the jacket over her shoulders and as soon as it was on, her attire transformed into normal clothes to not arouse people’s suspicion if she were to run into anybody.