Chapter 11
“Why the hell did he jump?” Jacob said pacing back and forth, as the others sat in in the office, Jeannine looking at her notes and muttering to herself, Jacob ran a hand through his hair and let out an agitated breath. “This just doesn’t make any sense!”
“Well how long have you known him?” Nick asked folding her arms across her chest. “You brought him here you should know his personality a bit better.”
Jacob stopped in his tracks and looked at her in total confusion. “What are you talking about?”
“Isn’t he the guy you brought with?” she asked with a frown. “He’s the only other person who was here when we came while everyone else had brought a friend with them.”
Jacob shook his head slowly. “Nick I never brought a friend.”
Now it was Daniel’s turn to frown. “What do you mean?
“What I mean is that I didn’t bring the man, he was already here when I arrived, and since I was the first I asked who he was and his response was “I’m a friend of a family member here.” When I asked who he didn’t elaborate.”
“Didn’t you find that just a bit off?” Nick asked with an arched brow. “And stop with the pacing you’re making me dizzy watching you go back and forth!”
He stopped. “Sorry.” Then he crouched down, his head in his hands and sighing before looking at the two. “I was actually about to call him on that, to know who is was, but that’s when Mary and Jeannine showed up, then Mark and Denis not long afterword’s so I wasn’t able too.”
Daniel became a little surprised in hearing these words. “You couldn’t get him alone?”
Jacob shook his head again. “No, tried and failed a number of times, and when he began to stay close to Sam I could only assume that she was the friend he was talking about.”
“Hell no!” Nick shot up from her seat. “He was not! If he was then he would haven’t startled her when they first met outside of the manor! That should have been the biggest clue of all!”
“Nick did Dmitri really love Sam?” Jeannine asked not looking up from her work, eyes darting across the page. “He said something about it before he…” she swallowed. “Before he jumped…”
“Yeah…” she replied softly. “He did… when I asked him about it he just looked at me, I would have seen if he was lying but those eyes of his… they were telling the truth.”
“So why did he jump?”
Daniel frowned at this. If Jacob didn’t bring Dmitri then… who did?
Everyone began to go into the conversation, all but Jeannine who was too deeply involved in the notes, she recalled what Dmitri had said to her specifically.
“That if you wish to decipher the letters you merely need to have an understanding of wolves and science as well…”
Science and wolves…
Mixing those two words together must have had some sort of specific reason for doing it, and the letters PALSINCUS. What could they spell out?
An idea sparked inside her mind making her eyes go wide. Hunched down on the desk she began to try and bring out different words but still trying to keep the main idea of what it was inside her head.
Then, finally after so many tries while the others went on in there conversation she figured it out.
“I did it!” she squeaked throwing her arms into the air.
Everyone looked in her direction with wide eyes. She realized this and slowly put down her arms. “Uh… sorry about that.”
“Found something?” Jacob asked with a slow breath probably relived that they wouldn’t be on their previous topic.
“Umm… well sort of yes and no, I’m not sure what this will go to but I guess my next step will be to find out what when I do.”
“You found out what those letters mean?” Nick asked in astonishment. “I tried and got squat.”
“Yes.” She said with a nod. “I did.”
Nichole came over to her quickly and stood by her side. “Well what is it?”
“It’s Canis Lupus.”
She made a face. “Whatta what, what?”
Jacob groaned. “It’s Latin you moron, it stands for Grey Wolf, but why that would be of any…” he trailed off, hand covering his mouth.
“You were saying?” Jeannine asked in a slight sarcastic tone. “Where are we and what kind of wolves do we get here?”
“Grey wolves…”
Jeannine snapped her fingers to Daniel. “Exactly. Now the only thing that I need to do is open the drawer here for the desk.”
“You can’t open it?”
She shook her head. “No I tried and when I asked Sam about it at one point she told me that there is a combination key to get it open, I asked where it was and Sam said she didn’t know, she only knew that it was some kind of combination because her father had told it to her and that the thing to unlock the key was somewhere in a room with lots of eyes.”
Well that was different.
“Lots of eyes huh? Then why don’t we look?” Nick offered. “Anything to get my mind off of what keeps happening here…”
“We still need to find a way out of here without dyeing.” Jacob said.
“We know.” Everyone said at once.
“But we can’t just runaway with no reason, besides what if one of your family members came and there were dead bodies in the store room? How would we explain that? This curse skips one generation so would the only ones who would know about it would your grandparents.”
“Unless they knew and not bother to breathe a word since they were too scared to say something about it.” Nick interjected on what Jen was saying. “We have no way to contact them and even if we could do you think they would tell us the truth or say something like: “You will get through it, it’ll just take time”? What one do you think is more possible?”
Jacob became quite, then he looked away, he knew the answer as well as everyone else in the room. They’d would probably be lied too until it was too late for anyone to do anything. “Let’s start looking, Jen you stay where you are, there might be some kind of timer on this thing like the doors by the fireplace so we can’t be too careful about it. Okay?”
She nodded and remained where she was.
“Nick you and I will look here, Dan you go into the other room with the paintings of the Past Head’s, there might be something in there for the thing to open if it’s not in this room.”
“Alright,” Daniel said before looking to Nick who was already started, looking behind paintings and even behind the sofa.
As he entered the room he could only look around in awe, this was the first time he had ever been in this area. All the paintings of Past Heads were up, they lined the walls in rows after rows. The thing to unlock the key was somewhere in a room with lots of eyes. A room with lots of eyes huh? Well what about here? There were eyes watching him wherever he looked!
The question though here was…Where the bloody hell should he even start?
He looked around till he came face to face with a man that had only been in his dreams.
Above a fireplace was the painting of Samantha’s father Mathew in formal attire, like from another time was, including the some of the woman that had become Head over the years. They wore Victorian clothes, was this part of what being the next Head meant?
To wear clothes from the Victorian era in these paintings?
Like that of the Wolf’s Ward… a voice whispered past his ear making him jump, the voice sounded like that of a child’s.
Daniel shook his head, the voice soon became a child’s laughter followed by another and another until there were many, and it sounded like it was coming from the fireplace.
With caution he went over to the fireplace, the sound was definitely coming from there, crouching down he looked inside the fireplace only to see nothing there, the voices stopped when he had looked.
“I must be going crazy…” he said to himself as he began to rise until he saw something near the painting of Sam’s father on the underside of the fireplace hidden from view, it looked like a lock for a bicycle. His eyes went wide, was this the lock that they were looking for?
He counted out the slots reminding how many letters there were as he did so. And it was, beginning to work on the lock something hit him hard on the back of the head, Daniel fell, and roll to his side, looking up he saw Sam looking down at him with a blank expression on her face, her dress so no signs of blood, her skin pale yet showed nothing of the violence that ended her life.
Am I going to be next…? Was the last thing he thought of before everything went black.
Daniel’s eyes burst open, sitting up he looked around, he was in the forest again, surrounded by snow that fell from the gray cloudy sky. The sound of wolves could be heard off in the distance, then growling nearby.
Turning his head he saw the Black Wolf looking at him with rage, he hunched ready to leap for his throat only to be tackled by a girl in a red dress. They both went down into the snow, snarling the wolf tried to push off the woman but she refused to budge from where she was.
“Run!” she said suddenly making him snap out of his shocked trance. “Hurry! Run for the manor! He can’t get you when you reach it! GO!!”
He ran listening to the woman’s words only to stop short realizing something that he should have clued in earlier, the woman that had just saved him from being eaten by the Black Wolf was Sam. And he just left her there, how fucking stupid could one guy be?
Quickly turning around he was about to run only to have the hand of someone grab on his wrist and pulled him in the opposite direction and into the snow. “I wouldn’t do that if I were you, not unless you want to be eaten for his dinner, and I really don’t think your sister would be too happy about that.”
Daniel quickly got up from where he was to look at a man who looked oddly familiar to him, he was dressed in the cloths from the nineteen sixties all dark red like the color of blood, but his face…
Soon he recognized the man’s face and where he had seen it before.
“Thomas… your Thomas Wakefield…” Sam’s grandfather… Dead grandfather…
Thomas smiled, wrinkles lining the creases of his eyes. “And you’re my granddaughter’s stepbrother, it’s nice to meet you boy. Although you must be surprised about all of this and what’s going on.” He turned and began to walk thought the forest. “You need to head to the manor correct?” Daniel nodded. “Then I will lead you to where it is; this is the forest from two hundred and fifty years ago so it looks very different from what you would be used to.”
Daniel followed him without hesitation as they walked through the snow covered forest fog began to show and voices echoed around the place. What was going on?
“You’re wondering about the voices of children that you hear am I right?” Daniel nodded once more again. “They are part of the forest, spirits in other words that follow the law of the Black Fairy, he who is much older and wiser than any other spirit in this forest.”
“He’s the Fairy of salvation… he makes things possible and impossible… he is dark and the girl is day… the bargain… all succumbed to the deal to protect the one they care for every fifty years… it’s not different this time!” then mad laughter as a woman with short black hair appeared, her cloths and hair looked to be from nineteen eleven as she smiled and sank into the snow then throwing the snow into the air and laughing even more.
“Is… she okay?” Daniel asked with slight worry as she then stood around and began to randomly dance with her back to them.
“She’s fine only lost a small amount of her mind for what she wanted.”
“Sssssheee wantad freeeeedum, fffffroma tha cursssa.” A slurred voice of a woman spoke, he turned to see a woman dressed in clothes from eighteen sixty one but what held his attention was her face; it had been mutilated around all around her mouth.
Daniel screamed and moved backwards until he fell down into the snow.
“Ohhhh… I’sss ssscared himmmm beeeeeg may pardun…” she did a slight curtsy in apology, blood falling from her mouth and… other things too.
This woman was Susan, the one who died from that ban-saw, ugh, what a crappy way to go.
“Then… then… then…” he repeated the word as he tried to breath as he looked at the crazy woman who continued to dance and turned around to face him with both hands covering her face, then right when he met her eye she lowered her hand showing a twisted smile, half of her face was missing and one of her eyes barley even hanging on for dear life. “Oh my fucking GOD!”
“The boy without blood! The boy without blood!” she chanted as she pointed at him like a little girl. “The one who was saved by the Ward’s bargain with he who protects to forest within fog!!”
The woman was Maria, the woman who killed herself by self-inflicted gunshot to the head, and she was running to him!
Daniel tried to run but a tree branch was attached to his ankle making it impossible for him to even walk let alone run. She wrapped her arms around him her half face pressing into his back as she laughed.
Somebody get her off me!
As soon as that thought came she was off him, well pulled off him, looking up he saw a man wearing hunting clothes from eighteen eleven. “Sorry about her, ever since she shot herself in the head she’s been kind of crazy from time to time.”
“It cooomes frrrom loosin’ a paaart of yar braine.” Susan slurred.
“She has a point.” Thomas agreed.
Daniel raised his hand to him so the man could help him up only the man took a step back. “Uh… sorry I can’t really help you.” His arms that were hiding behind his back were revealed, showing only his wrists that had been gnawed on by wild animals. “No hands.”
“Oh god…”
“Doun’t complana Jaymes!” Susan pointed at him. “At leaaste yoooou can taaalllk!”
“Well at least you have hands!” he retorted. “You have any idea how hard it is to move around without hands? The ones here you have it good are Thomas and Maria, I’d rather be a nut then like this.”
“The sun is an orange and the grass is made of cherry jam!” Maria twirled around doing another dance again. “Crazy! Crazy! Yes I am! All this twirling makes me hazy while I smell like a daisy! Oh how I wish my name was Maisey but I’m all just so lazy! ”
“Dose this happen here all the time?” Daniel asked Thomas as he helped him stand up again while the other two continued to bicker and Maria throwing snow into the air again.
He shrugged as if what was happening wasn’t a bad thing. “Yes and no, it mainly depends on the circumstances, all through Maria will always be like that, with or without anyone around.”
“Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay!!!!!!!” Maria cheered throwing her arms into the air snow falling in and all around her.
“I guess that’s what happens when you shoot yourself in the head…” Now please just get me the bloody ever loving hell out of here! He thought with a plea.
“This way, I’ll get you out, just follow me and try to ignore what Maria is saying, it’s best to just tune it out.”
They walked passed more and more trees when Thomas suddenly walked himself right into a very large tree with a resounding smack that echoed around them.
“Ow…” Thomas groaned as his hand went to his face.
“Are… are you okay?” Daniel asked, even though this man was not blood related to him he still felt like he was this man’s grandson. Sort of.
Thomas steadied himself and rested his hand still in front of his face. “Yes… I’m sorry, I just… couldn’t see.”
Couldn’t see? How could he not see the giant tree that he had just slammed himself in front of?
“What do you mean you couldn’t see, you have eyes don’t you?”
His hand covered in blood when he pulled it away. “No.” he said suddenly in a soft voice, then turned to look at him his voice turning to a more demonic like tone. “I don’t…”
The man’s eyes were suddenly gone; empty black holes took their place as blood flowed down his cheeks like red tears.
Daniel staggered backwards falling down again as he tried to keep himself breathing and not passing out.
“I have given them as part of the bargain! As did all the others who had asked for someone to be safe from the curse! Everyone here has… including your sister! My granddaughter! She had given something up, gave everything of herself over to him for you! You to live from that wreck that was supposed to have killed you all those years ago! Your sister who is not of your blood saved you!” he reached for him and soon all the others appeared and began to do the very same.
“Aren’t you not grateful for such a sacrifice?!” they all said in unison.
A wolf howled making everyone still, the people in red backed away and headed over to a small clearing that was still surrounded by giant trees. Daniel followed but stayed a good distance from them just in case they tried to go for him again like before.
Music began, a primitive sounding song, he didn’t know where it was coming from but soon they began to dance, like the song they did some primitive dance all in time with one another. But in the blink of an eye there was another, at first he thought it was the first person to have ever been affected by the curse only to see the same type of dress only it was a dark crimson red.
Sam!
She was now with then, in the center doing a similar type of dance that the others were doing but her movements were slightly slower as her blue eyes looked so very sad. Then as they danced singing began, a song that Daniel had heard before at one point, and the owner of the voice…
It couldn’t be…
Turning his head, his blue eyes went wide in shock. No fucking way!
Dmitri walked through the snow singing that song with a slight smile on his face, in his arms was the black fur that the Wolf’s Ward had worn before being captured by the family, it looked darker than before, as if it were new, feathers dangling off one of his ears like an earring. The only thing missing in this was the head peace that would have gone on top of Sam’s head, instead it was an earring like his own.
But his cloths weren’t red like the others, it was black.
The five stepped back and all went down on one knee with a bow as Sam remained standing, Dmitri placed the black furred cape over her shoulders and tied it around her neck then the ones for her wrists and ankles, his lips pressing lightly on her legs, all the while smiling up at her, and that managed to piss Daniel off.
Standing up he pulled Sam close to her and began to dance, a mix of salsa tango and something else, as they danced the others danced too, in that same type of rhythm like before, as the sound of the music became faster and faster they too went faster, until finally the music came to a stop and they all stopped in a dramatic pose, the others on their knees head bowed low, while Dmitri’s front was pressed into her back, arms wrapped around her waist, one hand came up to her face placing the earring in her ear and then kissed her lightly on the cheek.
Their heads turned then in his direction eyes wide as they stared, oh that could not be a good thing.
The Black Fairy suddenly appeared behind them when he blinked, damn that man, uh… Fairy sure was fast.
Dmitri moved away as Sam turned to the Fairy, she took his offered hand and he pulled her into his arms and held her close, his free hand running through her hair as he murmured in words that reminded him of the song Dmitri sang when he was alive before he pulled away slightly kissing the top of her head, taking her hand and led her into the darkness of the forest as fog began to form.
“Sam!” he called to her, she didn’t respond, didn’t even look back.
“You really think that calling out to her now is going to do anything?” Dmitri’s voice was behind him, he turned around only to see nothing there. “Such a foolish brother you are…” when Daniel turned back Dmitri had grabbed onto his shirt and pulled him to his body.
Dmitri forcefully pressed his mouth over Daniel’s, tongue going deep into his mouth, Daniel tried to push him off but the man refused to budge, then suddenly he pulled away, pushing Daniel away to fall into the white powdered snow, yet for some reason he was falling in slow-motion. Dmitri stepped back and licked his lips.
“Let that be a lesson to you.” He said with a smile. “The dead will always have the advantage over the living, depending on the circumstances, in this case for example, we will always rule. Even in your dreams…”
The five others suddenly grabbed on to Daniel, he didn’t even know where they had come from as they began to pull him down into the darkness.
Dmitri smiled and waved with one hand behind his back. “Bye-bye!”
Daniel screamed as he was pulled through the darkness hands and he didn’t want to know what else touched him as he fell further and further down.
Daniel soon woke up with a startled yell as he sat up covered in sweat breathing hard with wide eyes. “Fuck! Fuck! Fuck! Fuck! Oh god dammit fuck!” he cursed as he ran his hands quickly over his body then over his face and through his hair.
Shaking himself awake then smacking himself in the face with both of his hands he got the wakeup call and looked under the fireplace again, only momentarily hesitating to glance over his shoulder to make sure no one was there to try and knock him unconscious again. Thankfully with a deep sigh of relief no one was there standing over him. Going back to the fireplace he moved the dials, all of them had the letters of the alphabet. Probably for people who just try and guess what the code is…
When he got the last letter he heard the voices from the others in the room over, seconds later the door opened up and Nick called him. “Hey the thing finally opened! Come on!” she didn’t bother with congratulations since it was already in her eyes.
When he entered the office he saw Jeannine with a letter in her hand, about to read aloud, walking over behind her Daniel recognized the style of writing, it belonged Sam’s father.
“Congratulations Member of the Wakefield Family! You solved the riddle of the Five Ward’s books, as the Head of the family this challenge is for whoever has been chosen to be the next Head, and three days after their twenty fifth birthday they must do a trial of the Five Ward’s books and unlock this drawer. Inside is the deed to the property and other various items as well that have been collected over the many long years, but I implore you to not, and I truly mean not to show this to anyone, even if it means life or death. And as Head we have the traditional Family gathering photos done when you have passed on this day. Inside the envelope in your hand (you’d better be holding it) is all the photos that have been taken form 1811 all the way to the one of yours truly, we removed them from the books just to keep everything safe. And you have also gone into the secret room to find the five books (if you hadn’t then you wouldn’t be reading this now would you?) to see the fabled Wolf’s Ward’s poem, as Head you are to remember every single word of this poem. It is your duty too.
“As well as to know the truth of what has happened to her and the painful curse that has been put on us for our stupidity. (No really what our ancestors did was messed up and so stupid that they should have some kind of brain damage from it) Every fifty years or so, the curse comes into effect, ten people die but one body will never be found, that is the first person who dies by the hand of someone in this family. Tragic and sad I know, I was shocked and even disturbed to find out the truth of it when I became the Head now like yourself. An elder of the family who has survived from this ordeal will explain it all to you in detail so you will know what you are to be up against in the near or distant future. And also as another note that must be made, you must always know who will be your successor, and can only tell him or her in one of these ways. A in a letter in the one place you know that the successor will find and no one else, or B tell that person on your deathbed. In my personal choice go for A because you never know when you’ll kick it. And finally I have one thing and one thing only to say. “Let the Wolves guide you, for they and they alone will lead you down the right path. Mathew James Gregory Wakefield.””
“Damn…” Nick prolonged the word. “That’s some heavy crap right there, so Sam was going to have to go through all of that stuff and not tell anyone about it? Man being the Head sounds so harsh.”
Jacob placed his hand underneath his chin and thought about that for a moment. “And to think Samantha would not be able to breathe a single word to anyone, and my bet on this is that there would be a server punishment if someone broke that rule.”
At what Jacob said Daniel recalled something, the key that Sam consistently wore around her neck and the exact same key that the past Heads had on in the painting. “I don’t think they would have risked talking about it.” He breathed. “The key that Sam wore, the same key that all the past Head’s wore in the paintings, is the same key that opened the door to where that cage is.”
Jeannine looked up from the letter. “You think it was like a warning? “You tattle and you’ll be in there for three days” kind of thing?”
Jacob frowned as he looked to Daniel. “You don’t think…”
“Yeah I do…” he agreed. “I think they make the Head who disobeys the rules go through the same thing as the Wolf’s Ward had in that cage, the key is a threat, “You do something we don’t like that it involves spilling our secrets and we will make you dead to the world.” it’s only a theory though. You keep that key; you keep your mouth shut until you die.”
“Well that explains the whole “You can’t pass the next Head over to anyone until you’re good and dead” rule.” Nichole scratched the back of her head and sighed. “But geez man talk about going to the extreme, this whole family needs a good conciliar.”
“More like a cell with padded walls.” Daniel muttered before he noticed that Jeannine was shaking, she was looking at the first photo, her eyes going very wide behind her glasses.
“No way…” she breathed, her voice hitched.
“What is it?” everyone asked in unison looking over her shoulder to try and see the photo.
She placed down the old photograph and pointed at a single person drawing everyone’s eyes to the face. They all froze at what they saw.
“Why is Dmitri Blackforest in this photo?”
Five photographs, Dmitri’s face was in five of them.
What the hell did that mean? If it was only one then they all would have shrugged it off as a possible doppelganger in the past but in five? No freaking way was that even realistic!
Something was wrong about this and everyone knew it too, Daniel had suddenly gotten a bad feeling, he looked to Nick who was also concerned about all of this, they made eye contact, bot making metal decisions in what to do before they both nodded in agreement.
“Nick and I are going to check something out in the store room, there’s something on his body that I want to confirm.”
Jacob looked startled; Jeannine merely seemed to be in a state of shock, eyes still fixated on the photos. “And what the hell would that be?”
“I may have seen a mark on his back on the right side of his hip, in the journal one of our ancestors had written that a man known as Dmitri had a mark in the same place, I want to see if the Dmitri we know… I mean knew, had the same thing too.”
“And if he does? What next?”
Daniel frowned. “I think we should run, flag down a car and just go and get out of here as far as we can, if Sam still comes after us then we deal with it then, if Dmitri really has the mark I think we’ll be royally fucked.”
He folded his arms across his chest. “Fine, go but just so you know I’m staying here until you tell me what to do next, until then I’m on guard duty.”
“That’s fine with me, come on Nick.” They both ran out of the room and down the stairs jumping a few when they neared the landing then dashed over to the store room to find, the door that they had closed was open.
Not good.
Both being cautious, they looked and counted the bodies.
One, two, three, four, five… shit.
A body was missing.
Laughter, a man started to laugh, they heard the sound of a door open and close, both had still then turned and ran for the front door.
“Hey where the hell are you going!?” Jacob demanded as they ran.
“After Dmitri!” Nichole responded. “If that guy somehow lived then maybe he knows how to break this curse!”
“Stay here in the manor!” Daniel called as Nick picked up speed and ran out the door like a cheetah. “We’ll get him and come back as soon as we can!”
“It’s dark so be careful! Sam might be out there waiting for you guys!”
“Will do!” and then he too was gone, slamming the door shut. When they were outside he saw that his shirt was undone, the tattoo of a black wolf clearly seen in a cercal like the full moon on his right hip in the moonlight before Dmitri stopped to look at them with a slight knowing smile before disappearing into the forest, the sounds of wolves howling in the night time sky.
Just what was Dmitri exactly anyway?
Jacob leaned against the wall completely stunned, the man was gone? Really gone? Good god was happening to this world? He looked to Jeannine who was still looking at the photos.
“Jen… I’ll be right back, I just need to clear my head for a moment…” he said softly, but she didn’t respond, looking at her he sighed and left the room, leaving the door open so he’d hear her if she needed something. He just needed to think, to get away for at least a minute. Where did I put that Peter Pan book?
Jeannine had been in a state of shock for what felt like forever, she couldn’t even really move as she continued to look down at the photo of the family that Dmitri was in. This photo that was over two hundred years old, and all the others that come up to today’s date, all in those five photo’s Dmitri was in, did this mean that he was some kind of spirit?
One that would keep haunting the family every fifty years since he was the first one to die at the very beginning of the cures?
But then her eyes went to the photo of Aimee and the Wolf’s Ward, there were tear stains on it, as if someone had cried, looking on the date at the back it had been taken about a week before her death and yet she was smiling in it. It made her feel sad, but this was also the photo that she was looking at before finding that one photo that somehow scared her.
“What exactly is Dmitri…?” she whispered to herself, wide eyes going over the five photos again for the seventeenth time. “And just what does all of this mean now that this is happening?”
“It means that your time is up Jen.” Sam said softly from behind her, Jeannine froze and was about to try and escape but didn’t even get the chance to run or even scream as Sam’s hands quickly went to her throat and began to squeeze, nails digging into flesh.
She couldn’t breathe, Jen tried to throw Sam off and make a run for it, trapped between desk and Sam’s body that was pressing down on her so not to run away.
“I’m sorry Jen, I really did not want to kill you, I really didn’t. But you can understand that can’t you? Because of this curse I am compelled as you said it, to kill nine people. Just so you know if this may bring you any comfort in mind. I’m giving you a gentle death. When you pass out I’ll merely snap your neck. You won’t feel a single thing, besides I’ve been strangled to death it’s not that bad really, it’s like when you just stop breathing for a game and pass out. Only I woke up like this…”
When things began to go dark she felt Sam let go of her throat and held her tightly in a hug. “I’m sorry…” her hands went around Jeannine’s head and began to twist. “Bye-bye…” her neck snapped and Jeannine slumped forward lying on the desk with her eyes closed as if she were fast asleep.
Sam stood back her ears twitched when she heard the sound of Jacob’s feet coming in this direction.
Seven down two to go…
Jacob came back into the office after he had read the book at least once; it always did him justice when he wanted some type of escape, even from this hell. He came into the room to see Jeannine resting on the couch, made him feel bad for leaving her but he needed the time before he snapped.
Her back facing him, even though with Daniel and Nick gone on the hunt for Dmitri’s body this was defiantly not the time to be asleep. He rested his hand on her shoulder and began to shake her lightly. “Hey Jen, wake up. You can’t sleep now, come on.”
Her body moved towards him until her head hit the floor followed by the rest of her, head lolled to the side, she didn’t even move.
“Jen!” his eyes went wide as he saw the bruise of two hands around her neck, on a closer examination he saw a piece of bone sticking at the skin. Jeannine’s neck had been snapped. “Oh god Jen…” he breathed and looked up to the mirror that was placed above the mirror. Sam was there with her left arm raised and bone dagger in hand, eyes wide and ready to kill.
Jacob moved quickly out of the way, doing a sideways roll and landing on his feet Sam’s dagger deep inside one of the cushions of the couch, he looked at her, she looked at him with those eyes of her’s, she didn’t even seem to notice Jeannine’s body as she turned to him. As he looked into her eyes only two words were projected in them.
Kill him!
Jacob made a mad dash for it then, running down the hall, he took s small jar and threw it at her to buy himself some time, when it made contact, having her land into the wall that was near, he heard the yelp of pain that he caused, making him feel bad as he ran.
Dead or not she was still a close member of his family and he hated seeing her hurt.
With a growl of anger Sam pushed herself off the wall, slamming her sideways fist that was holding the dagger into the wall before she began to run after him again, and she was catching up fast.
As Jacob ran down the set of stairs he heard her speak for the first time since before her death.
“Don’t you think this is slightly ironic?!” Sam asked as she chased him, he ran down the next set of stairs, she jumped off the banister’s railing and landing on the stairs making Jacob skied to a stop. They were merely a single step away from each other, in that deadly hunter crouch; she looked up at him with a sly smile. “That your ancestor hunted mine and now it’s reversed?”
Jacob tried to get away, to turn and run back up the stairs to the nearest room, but she was faster then him.
She lunged at him, grabbing on to his ankle and yanking him down to the stairs nearly hitting his head as he fell, bone dagger raised and hitting him in the thigh, going through a main artery. He gasped in shock as he fell back onto the stairs; he was bleeding out and would die very soon. It was ironic that this would happen but now that he had he didn’t feel the slightest bit of anger towards her.
“I’m sorry…” she said after a second had passed as she began to pull away only to stop when his hand which had some of his blood cupped her cheek.
“Not… you’re fault…” he gasped, heart slowly beginning to stop as his eyelids started to close. “Don’t blame yourself… the family did this… it’s your right to get pay back…” he smiled slightly as one finger touched her pointed ear. “See you later Fairy Girl…”
He wouldn’t blame her for this, not ever, she was like the girl he imagined his own daughter to be like, thinking of that made him miss his wife, tears were falling from his eyes as he looked at the ceiling. Goodbye Jasper… Janet… Alice looks like you’ll only be having two kids instead of five like you wanted… sorry…
Tears were in her eyes as she held his hand to her cheek. “Bye-bye Jacob, maybe the next time you wake up you’ll be an amazing bird with wings… to watch over the people you love…”
In your next life Jacob what kind of animal would you want to be? Tell me so I’ll know to look out for you! His wife had asked him that one single time, and that time he knew she would never forget. “An owl… that’d be nice… a… white… snowy… owl…” with those words Jacob died with a slight smile on his face.
Placing his hand down at his side she rose and wiped the tears with the back of her arm, only to sob for a short time. When they finally stopped she regained that black expression.
“One more…”