The sun was shining high in the sky and its unbearable heat beating down. Lilly felt the top of her head burning, her skin was going to be beat red that night and she was going to be sore but none of that mattered because they were going to find Sean, Darcy and Mason.
Sighing she looked up to across the small river where Jake and Hailey were kneeling down to the ground as though they were actually hunters looking for their prey. Jake nodded his head north while Hailey was shaking her head and pointing west. There were two trails.
“It’s useless.” Sage said softly as she came up to stand beside her. The other girl looked as tired as Lilly felt. Her normally perfect hair was pulled into a loose bun on her head, her clothes and skin were dirty and what was left of her makeup was running down her face. Sage was truly upset about the situation and it made her almost human.
“It’s not useless.” Lilly replied trying to comfort the girl without physical contact. “We’re going to find them, they’re going to be all right.” The more she said it out loud the more she felt like that outcome would be true.
But they had tried to fight one of the hooded creatures and failed miserably, what chance did they have with two of them plus whatever created them? Not only were they going to lose Sean, Darcy and Mason but probably their own lives. Though this never deterred her from her quest, Lilly wondered if the thought of death had crossed the minds of the others.
As they trudged through the forest as time went on, the more time she had to think about everything she had learned the night before from Jake’s grandma Jessie. First the hooded creatures were a man and a woman who were suppose to be human sacrifices in a powerful ritual that went wrong and the two lost their souls, Sine Anima, Jessie had called them meaning soulless.
Second she learned that Norah had the book of spells not because she wrote it or stole it but because the Essex family, the original Coven members, had actually written this powerful book and it had been passed down through generations. What did this mean about the past generations of the Essex family? Had someone been a bag egg or was that gene passed down too? Was Lilly going to end up like her forefathers and end up being evil?
“I know what you’re thinking.” Sage said, the girl had hardly left Lilly’s side. “If it means anything that Pratt family was considered pretty nasty back in the day, we’re not so bad now.” Lilly nodded her head and smiled at the girl but what she said had no comfort. Sage was a friendship abusing bitch and what she had met of the rest of the family they weren’t much better, but Sage continued talking at Lilly’s silence, “I know I don’t seem like it, and my mom is distant and Mason is harsh but we’re good people, even my dad. People change over time, Lilly and no matter what your family book suggest you, your mom and Sean are good people.”
Taken aback and confused Lilly stopped walking and stared ahead. Sage smile and trotted down the path catching up with Jake and Hailey. Sage was just nice to her...Sage just said not only good things about her, Lilly, but also about Sean and Norah. That girl was seriously worried if she was starting to act nice to the people who could help her save her cousin.
“Lilly!” Jake called over the hill. Running as fast as she could, Lilly jumped over the small stream and ran to the others who were huddled around something on the ground.
“What are we looking at?” She asked pushing her way between Jake and Hailey. Lilly looked at the ground to a footprint, smeared with blood, Mason’s maybe? Cringing she closed her eyes and looked to Jake who had two fingers in the blood. “What are you doing?”
He frowned and bit his lip, which were now swollen. “Trying to figure out if this is an old trail of blood or a new one.” He looked around for more tracks, walking away from the group and dropping down again. “They seem to be leading north.”
“They could be leaving a false trail.” Hailey said sternly, they had been fighting as though they were a married couple again. Lilly could always tell when they had been bickering like a married couple.
Jake shook his head and began walking north, “They don’t have enough time, the Sturgeon Moon is tonight.” Comforting, so the root they took to wherever they were going was hopefully the most direct. Just like the search party, the creatures and their master were running on a tight schedule.
Following Jake with Hailey bringing up the rear they trudged farther into the forest, so far in fact that the trees were so thick and tall they covered up the burning sun. Barely stopping they walked following footprints and larger patches of blood.
“Up here!” Jake called out. The girls ran up the steep and slippery hill stopping beside Jake who was standing back admiring the ground. “Looks like something went on here, a fight maybe.” Lilly looked at the ground which had been recently disturbed. The leaves were scattered with clear markers where two bodies had been wrestling, branches had been broken off and someone, or something, had cut themselves of a boulder near the edge of the trunk.
Sage gasped as she looked at the damage, “Maybe it was Mason, maybe he was trying to fight back.” Lilly hoped she was right. Knowing that this could be Mason still having enough strength to fight the creatures meant that he was still alive not that long ago. She took a deep breath and motioned for the others to continue following her deeper into the woods.
More hours passed and they looked through caves, caverns ,dug outs and abandoned cabins but still nothing, no sign of anyone. The sun had began to desend in the sky and Lilly felt her heart begin to beat faster and faster. They were almost out of time, they needed to find the other now if they wanted to save them.
But that outcome was looking less and less likely.
By eight the sun had set and the moon was coming out, a full moon the colour of blood, it cast an ominous shadow on a small pond on the forest floor.
Collapsing to her knees, Lilly cried out when the sun finally disappeared behind the forest. They had failed, Sean, Darcy and Mason would soon be dead. As she cried she felt a comforting hand on her shoulder, Hailey’s hand.
Looking up Lilly could see the girl was just as upset as she was. Tears were streaming down the girls cheeks, her eyes red from exhaustion and tears, her body shaking. Jake was standing at the edge of the hill looking through the trees as though one last look would bring the results they had been searching for all night and day.
Sage was standing back, no tears, no sounds just staring a head at nothing. The look scared Lilly, it was the look she imagined the hooded creatures made, a glance of nothingness, empty eyes to go with an empty soul.
Wiping away her tears Lilly looked back the way they came. They had so far to walk in such dangerous woods, though she didn’t want to leave just yet. She wanted to stay in the woods all night as though she was supporting her friends before they died. Wiping her eyes again she thought she saw movement in the bushes. Standing she took a few feet forward.
Jake and Hailey called after her but she didn’t stop moving. She walked to the thick brush and opened her cell phone to get a better look of what was beyond in the darkness. Sucking in a breath, a hooded creature was only feet from her, staring at her through a darkened hood.
Before Lilly could scream, before she could call for help the creature began stepping back from her moving farther and farther into the woods beyond the light of her cell phone. Jumping into action she ran through the brush after it, the calls and quick footsteps of the others behind her as they ran to keep up with the creature.
Dead a head in a clearing she could see the light of a fire as well as the light of the moon reflecting off still waters. With a cry Lilly pushed past the thick branches, cutting her cheek and emerging in a clearing.
The scene was sickening. Sean and Darcy were lying on their backs on a flat rock, their legs and arms bound while their mouths were gagged. Both were struggling with the bonds, both bruised but relatively unharmed. It was the unmoving figure in front of flat rock that caught Lilly’s attention.
Mason.
He was not gagged, he was not bound, he was not moving. One would not know he was wearing a white shirt as it was the colour of blood, his blood. His face pale and his eye lids dark. Lilly wanted to run to him, to help him to make sure he was still alive but something held her in place, was it fear or was it her body getting battle ready?
“Ah Lilly, I didn’t think you were going to come. I’m glad you did.” Norah Essex said as she emerged from the shadows with her arms wide open as though she was welcoming Lilly home.