The paper finally arrived. Maggie’s Aunt Eleanor has the legend of the Sword of God in her hand. She just finished reading the story over. She isn’t sure if it’s what Maggie is looking for, but it’s an interesting tale.
Eleanor looks in her pantry to make sure that she has some cookies and tea. She hasn’t seen Maggie much lately and she thinks that it might be nice to have her niece over to talk for a bit.
She goes to call Maggie and invite her over.
When Maggie answers the phone, there’s some hesitation in her voice as she contemplates Damien’s warning, but, ultimately, Maggie agrees to come over in an hour.
About half an hour later, Eleanor’s door-bell rings. There’s a boy outside. Eleanor doesn’t recognize him, but she thinks that it might be a friend of Maggie’s. She’s wrong.
“Hello,” Eleanor says.
“Hello,” the boy says. His voice is cold and monotone. “May I come in?”
“Who are you?” she asks.
The boy reaches into his jacket and pull out a gun. “We are Legion,” he says. “Let us in.”
Eleanor doesn’t know what to do. She wants to slam the door shut and call the police, but she’s petrified.
Legion walks into the house, keeping the gun pointed at Eleanor. Once he’s inside, he closes the door and locks it behind him.
“Sit,” he says to her.
She’s too afraid to move.
“Sit,” he says again. This time, Eleanor’s forced backwards, as if being carried away by a river. She reaches the couch and her body collapses. She’s sitting and she can’t move.
“Where is the Sword of God?” Legion asks.
She doesn’t know what he means. “The legend is on the kitchen table,” she says.
He knows the Sword isn’t in the house. “Where is the Sword?” he asks again.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Why were you looking for the Sword?” the boy asks. “You live so close to it. You must know something.”
“I don’t,” Eleanor says. She doesn’t know what the boy could even want.
“Then why do you have the legend?”
Eleanor starts to realize that Maggie wasn’t looking for the Sword of God for a school project. But she loves her niece and she won’t tell the boy with the gun about Maggie. Eleanor just hopes that the boy gives up on getting information before Maggie gets there.
The force holding Eleanor to the chair gets stronger. It feels like it’s crushing her, like a snake preparing to consume its victim.
“Where is the Sword?” Legion asks again.
“I don’t know.”
The boy takes the gun and hits her with the back of the handle. She can taste blood in her mouth.
The boy sees her computer and sits down in front of it.
Eleanor hopes there’s nothing about Maggie on it.
She struggles to free herself from the mystical force that’s binding her when a thought occurs to her. Maybe the legend is true.