I don't own anything and please bear with me as far as the new characters. The fact is we just don't know a whole lot about them just yet.
Chapter 1: Pavane pour une Infante Défunte
"And after three days and an half the Spirit of life from God entered into them, and they stood upon their feet; and great fear fell upon them which saw them." – Revelation 11:11
"Witnesses are Immortal Souls. When one dies, someone from their extended family assumes the mantle of their responsibility…" Those words rung in the ears of Ichabod Crane while he sat in his friend Jenny's red SUV.
"Crane…we have to do it…" The familiar voice of Jenny Mills pulled Ichabod Crane out of the tumultuous world of his own thoughts and back to the present day.
The two were sitting in Jenny's car a few houses down from the house where Anna Thompson and her ten-year-old daughter Molly lived. It was a quiet street, peaceful. There was the occasional car that passed through but for the most part traffic was basically non-existent. It was the sort of street you would find in any reasonably safe neighborhood in America. Most of the houses were similar but not quite the same, the yards weren't particularly small or large, just average. It all seemed so normal, it was hard to believe that a newly chosen Witness meant to fight the forces of evil and stave off the End of Days was residing in such an ordinary place, utterly and completely unaware of her role in determining the fate of the world.
Crane's head rested against the passenger side window almost as though he'd dozed off but he hadn't, he'd just begun to day dream about happier times, and once again wonder how it had all come to such an abrupt and sticky end.
It was a beautiful day, the sun shown high and bright, a soft, cool breeze came from the east, it almost seemed as though all was right with the world, almost.
Crane saw the worried look in her dark brown eyes and guessed that she'd been trying to get his attention for several minutes by then.
"Ah yes, and…um…what must we do exactly…?" Crane asked, having lost track of the conversation at hand.
"Today is the day we tell Diana and Molly about who Molly really is, and what they're in for." Jenny reminded him.
"Must we? She's so young… to thrust one so innocent into a task such as this…" Crane lamented. "It does not seem fair…she's only a child…"
Ichabod and Jenny had known for a few weeks now that Molly had a destiny just as fraught with danger as their own, but so far they'd kept this a secret from the little girl and from her mother.
"I know…but what choice do we have? You said it yourself, the forces of evil are gonna start coming after her whether she knows why or not. At least if we tell Diana and Molly the truth we can teach them how to deal with it." Jenny reminded him.
"That is true." He conceded.
"You've backed out of telling them five times now. This isn't just about potentially ruining Molly's childhood is it? There's more to it than that…" Jenny guessed.
"Perhaps…" Crane admitted, his voice trailing off as his thoughts turned back to memories which although recent, seemed more and more distant to him every day.
Neither he nor Jenny had to say what each knew they were both thinking.
Months had passed since that awful day and still Ichabod could hardly believe that he had witnessed his partner, his best friend, his love, if he was truly being honest with himself, making the ultimate sacrifice for their cause. He'd been there, and still had been unable to do anything about it. Afterword it had very quickly become clear that there was, for her, no coming back from this, no hope of rescue.
Nothing will ever be the same. Crane reminded himself. She is gone, and Molly has assumed the role of Witness. Protecting her is the priority now. That is what Abbie would do if the roles were reversed, and it is what is necessary for our mission to succeed.
"We have to do it Crane. If not now than someday soon. The longer we wait the more danger she's in. Abbie and I had our childhood taken and our lives ripped apart all because we didn't understand who she was or what it meant. We have a chance here to ease that transition for Molly. I think we owe it to her to take it."
"I agree." Was his only reply.
Jenny sat there for a minute or two, watching him carefully to see if he was getting out of the car, but he didn't move. When he didn't, she sighed and looked out the driver's side window.
"Look Crane, I get it…she was your partner and friend; but she was my sister. Keeping Anna and Molly in the dark won't change what happened Crane. It won't bring her back." Jenny told him.
Crane didn't reply. Molly had come out of her house and could now be seen playing hacky-sack in her front yard. She was wearing blue jeans, a sky-blue and white striped T-shirt, a denim jacket, and white sneakers. She kept dropping the sack because her short dark hair kept falling in her eyes, dangling right in her view. Still she kept up her concentration, picking up the sack each and every time it fell to the ground. Each time she did this, she managed to keep the sack in the air just a little bit longer.
"Determined little thing isn't she?" Crane observed, as he watched from the passenger side window.
Jenny turned to see what Crane was seeing. "Looks like it, that's good, she'll need to be if she's gonna face what's coming…"
"Indeed, it appears that the mantle of the Witness has chosen its new home well." Crane agreed.
"So…are we just gonna sit in the car and watch her all day? Or are we finally gonna give them the heads up they deserve?" Jenny asked, repeating her earlier question.
"Soon, we will… but not today. There is quite a bit about this that Diana will most definitely want to know, that at this juncture even we do not understand… I shall pay a visit to the vault this afternoon and see if I can figure out exactly how new witnesses are chosen. Maybe if we can understand why young Miss Molly has been chosen, we will know better how to protect her against any threats which may arise." Ichabod decided.
"Yeah Ok, let's get going then…" Jenny replied, shifting her car into drive. She was excited that they'd made a decision that would actually propel them forward.
Crane responded to this by shaking his head.
"Thank you Jenny but no… I think it's best that I go alone to do this research, I'll just get out and walk… or summon a car or something…" He told her.
"Crane… We're in this together. I have no problem at all giving you a ride back to the vault." Jenny reminded him.
While the two of them had known each other, worked and fought together for some time, the fact remained that Crane had always been more Abbie's friend than hers. There were moments, especially later on, when Jenny had even sensed something more than friendship between them, though as far as she knew, neither one of them had ever admitted it to the other.
Now Abby was gone, and she and Crane were left with only each other.
"Jenny…" Crane began, but she cut him off.
"If this is gonna work, if we're really going to continue the fight against evil without Abbie, I need you to trust me Crane. I need you to trust me just as completely as you did Abbie, because you and I are all that's left. Well… us and the noobs, but, I think we can agree that they haven't quite earned that yet."
"Indeed…" Crane replied, giving her no indication which part of what she said he was agreeing with. "Tis not that I do not trust you Jenny, quite the opposite actually. I need you here to keep an eye on young miss Molly, one of us should be here in case trouble arises." He explained as he used is cellphone to request a rideshare.
"So you want me to stay here and work surveillance…" Jenny Realized.
"Above all, right now, I need to know that, that child is safe, and you Jenny, are the only one left whom I trust to ensure that. So do this for me, I implore you" He asked, an urgent, almost begging tone in his deep voice.
"Ok, you got it… but if we're gonna keep her safe, that means telling her and Anna the truth. So go do what you do and find us something we can use…" Jenny told him just as his rideshare car pulled up.
Less than an hour later, Crane was tearing through the various books, records, and documents held in the Vault, the headquarters of an organization created by Washington himself in order to track supernatural activity throughout the country.
"So, what is it you're looking for this time?" asked a familiar female voice.
Crane looked up to see Alex, a young woman with medium-length red hair who he'd noticed had a particular fondness for crafting weapons and wearing oversized flannel shirts. She stood there with her hands in the pockets of her cargo pants, eyeing him with her usual look of skepticism. Unlike her co-worker, Jake, Alex had yet to fully accept the reality of the records it was her job to maintain.
"Well… a few months ago a comrade of mine was killed in battle. Her role in our mission has now fallen to another. I am trying to glean some type of understanding of the forces which govern that process so that I may use that information when I explain to her successor exactly what has happened."
"Well alright then, I'll leave you to it… if you need anything I can actually help you with, I'll be in the other room…" she told him, before walking away.
"Thank you…" He told her before turning back to his notes.
It wasn't much longer before he started to find the answers he was looking for, but they weren't in any of the new information he'd gained access to with the recent discovering of The Vault. They were actually encoded deep within the pages of the journal which had belonged to Abby and Jenny's ancestor, Grace Dixon.
According to the Vigenère cipher hidden within the journal, each witness was a descendant of an ancient bloodline which traced back to a group of clerics from around the time of Christ. Over the millennia several different bloodlines had sprung from them, and their descendants had scattered to the four winds across the earth, each new witness had to be one of them and had to be less than fifteen years of age at the time of his or her predecessors death. There would always be two witnesses, one male and one female, like Adam and Eve.
Well, this is most certainly a start. Still… it may be a good idea to attempt to trace the lineage of this group and work out where and how Anna and Molly come into this. At least this explains what was meant by the new witness rising from their predecessor's extended family. Ichabod thought to himself. He had hoped discovering why and how witnesses were chosen would stop the nagging feeling tugging at his mind, as though to tell him he was missing something.
Seeing that no one was around to hear him, he decided to speak with an old friend. "Oh who am I kidding with this charade?" he asked out loud. "Not even myself it seems… it's not the information I don't have that's bothering me, Lieutenant… it is you, your absence still haunts me. I had hoped that locating your successor would make me feel less alone. Alas it has only further confirmed the finality of your departure from this world."
Then spying a piano hidden against the wall under more stacks of articles and documents, he approached it, cleared it off, and sat down on the bench.
"I am sorry Lieutenant, I am afraid this piece is still considered 'classical'. However, being that it is early twentieth century, and therefore much closer to your era than mine… I call it a compromise…" He told her, though he had no way of knowing if Abby could hear anything he said or did at this point.
Then he began to play Ravel's Pavane pour une Infante Défunte, the title of which literally translated to 'dance with a dead princess'. He played the song with precision, yet threw into it all the grief, regret, and uncertainty that had weighed on his heart since Abbie's death. The song was slow and lamenting, with an almost mournful quality to its sound, like a final conversation between two people who were afraid to part ways.