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Legame Eterno

Prologue

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"Money speaks louder than actions." Eyes shifted from their papers towards the middle aged man; he was at it again. I watch silently as he continued with his daily rantings, "...All of you know that, if it weren't true none of us would be sitting here now would be?"

Placing the tip of my pen between my teeth, I glanced around the large steel table. He was right, no matter how disgusting that saying may have sounded; we were all here for the money, nothing else could ever matter to the four of us. We were hired by a woman, who goes by the name of Miss. Dannii, to risk our own lives in order to recapture the twelve spirits of the black zodiac. No questions were asked when we were brought together that cold October evening; every second thought was throw out as soon as payment was brought to our attention. Two thousand dollars, each, twice a month for the next year. Forty-eight thousand dollars for the whole year. The man that just spoke, he was the first one to sign the contact; his name is Daniel Leigh. Daniel is the only male part of the "group", he's probably in his mid-thirties, balding, slightly overweight, almost no emotions, no family or friends. Nothing special about him, except for the fact that he can see and speak to the spirits of the dead.

Daniel noticed he was being stared at, a cold glare was thrown my way, "What are you looking at?"

Shrugging at him, I slowly looked at the older woman sitting next to Daniel; Angeline Bennett. Like Daniel, she didn't seem to mind the payment and signed without any thoughts of the consequences; she couldn't have been older that thirty, even if she did look like she could be a year or two older than myself. Angeline was the pin-pointer, her only job was the correctly locate the spirits that we were looking for at the time. She was good at her job. Never missed an assignment, even when we were looking for the replacement ghosts. Mrs. Bennett took it upon herself to take the role of "mother", always keeping the fourth person and myself on track.

"Leave her alone, Danny." Angeline said, a slanted smile on her anti-aging face. Daniel gave Angeline a disgusted look; he didn't like the nickname Mrs. Bennett had given him and made no attempt at hiding his hatred for the name either.

Again, my eyes shifted to the final person in the group; the bait. The sweet name I had giving the four person was to not learn anything that may remind me later, that they were inches away from me and I could have said something to let them run. The bait was used for every ghost we had to capture that day; they were offered the same amount of money we were, but they would never last long enough to cash in their first paycheck. This time around it was a young girl, to young if you asked me, with blond hair, blue eyes and the personality of a stick. None of that mattered, in a matter of days, hours, hell even minutes, she would be dead and no one would remember she existed. Not even to us. Daniel and I were smart, we stayed away from the bait; but Mrs. Bennett would always mother her, it was her nature. At times there were those days were I couldn't stand watching the bait just throw their lives out for the money. If I could, I would have more that likely told them to run, but my contact forbid me from sharing information with the bait. The littlest things could not be shared, names would be made up, hometowns along with family and friends did not exist.

The bait looked timidly around, catching my eyes on her, she smiled and can to sit closer to me. I could tell her was nervous, her hands wouldn't stop frigidity and her body actions made it seem like she was on alert. "So, where are you from again?" she was trying to make small take; I sneaked a look at Mrs. Bennett, giving me the "help-me" look. Mrs. Bennett merely nodded her head, telling me to just give me a conversation; we all knew there wouldn't be another living person she'd talk to.

"Allen." I lied, returning my eyes to the papers sitting in front of me. "I'm from Allen, and yourself?"

She giggled, flipped her hair over her shoulders and proceeded to tell me her life story, "Really! That's so cool. I'm from New York actually. Had to move out by myself since my mom was with a worthless loser boyfriend; she'd always pick him over me so I had to go." I looked back at her, the sudden sense of deja vu came over me.

Mrs. Bennett suddenly stood up from the table, "Beth, come help me make something to eat please." The bait nodded, saying she'd be back later to continue our conversation; I gave a fake smile.

Both woman left, leaving Daniel and myself alone. Beth, the bait, didn't exactly know what she was going to be doing for the next few weeks; she was told that she'd be participating in an experimental expedition. Poor girl, she came from the same background as I did.

Daniel threw a beige folder in front of me, "You should be working instead of making friends, little girl." No answer, but then again he wasn't expecting one now was he. "There is the file for that girl we capture last month, you still haven't check to see if she qualifies to replace The Angry Princess."

Opening the folder I came to find a black and white photo of the potential Angry Princess; Dorthy Miller. Age of death 19, cause of dead self mutilation to the face, chest, and torso. Raising the image to view point, I over looked her features; she was very attractive. "Did you read her history? What do they have in similarity."

Daniel scoffed, "I don't have a clue, that is you're job remember?" With that said, he pushed back his chair and headed into the living room; I didn't bother to complain, because he was right. My job in the group was to identify the new ghosts that were brought in, eventually replacing a few of the spirits we were not able to find. At this time, I had managed to identify three new ghosts that were replacements; The Torso, The Withered Lover, The Bound Woman. The new spirits have to share similar characteristics with the original black zodiac members; either they lived similar life's or they tragically passed away with similar consequences. Which isn't easy to find at time.

The Withered Lover was replaced by a man named Dennis Rafkin; age twenty-five, and died in late 2001. Newspapers reported that he was killed in the glass mansion of the deceased Mr. Cyrus Kriticos after the power room went berserk, causing an explosion that Mr. Rafkin sadly did not escape. When we went to investigate ourself; Daniel conformed that Dennis was indeed killed in the home, but not in the way explained in the newspapers. In reality, Dennis was killed saving a man, who could not be identified by Daniel, and was badly thrown around by two of the original members of the black zodiac; The Hammer and The Juggernaut. Dennis Rafkin was by far the easiest capture, there was no need to use a bait for this spirit. The similarities between dead of the original Withered Lover and Dennis Rafkin lay in the saving of another person, giving Dennis the opportunity of becoming a replacement.

The Torso, was another member of the black zodiac that was needed to be replaced. Nathaniel Henderson, a gambler by nature, was killed in the exact say The Torso was; chopped up into three different pieces: head, torso and lower half. Nathaniel was killed in the early 1950's, by none other that a closer relative who was extremely active in the mob business. After betting a large amount of money in a boxing competition, and losing, Nathaniel was encountered by his relative, warning him to pay up or else. Time came for the payment and Nathaniel could not make the money appear; seeing as he was family to the mob member they had no choice but to kill him in order to make sure he never spoke of the events that followed. The next morning, Nathaniel's torso was found in the town river. No one was ever suspected for the crime, the case was closed.

The Bound Woman seemed to have been the most deadliest of the spirits we had trouble with; Mrs. Bennett had successfully located her, but by the end of the night we had lost a little over half of the male that were put into the capturing of Susan. Miss. Dannii had come to the conclusion that we were going to have to look for a replacement; she did not want to lose anymore of her employees. That is how we found Lilith Kat, a junior student who had been stabbed and strangled the night of the school senior prom. Apparently, Lilith was well known for her promiscuous way in school; didn't really sit well with her prom date. After being caught in the boys bathroom with a group of boys crowded around, her date went insane. Needless to say, little 18-year-old Lilith Kat was never seen again; her date was arrested the next day and placed in jail on June 18, 1932, one month after Lilith's dead.

As for the original ghost that we have managed to track down once more, they were a handful to capture. The Great Child and Dire Mother, were out first ghost that we caught; only seven men were killed that night, bait had to be used to attract both ghost into different pods. The Pilgrimess, The Hammer, and The First Born Son were also other that we found once again and were placed in individual pods, sent back to the home of Miss. Dannii.

If you've been keeping count, that's nine down and three to go.

The Juggernaut.

The Jackal.

And...

The Torn Prince.

"Take a break kid," Daniel yelled back into the meeting room. Mrs. Bennett was sitting next to me, I must have spaced out once again, the copies of the remaining zodiac members were laid in front of her. Daniel walked casually back into the room, a drink in his hand; "We're going after the new ghost tomorrow night." I gave him a puzzled look, we had just captured someone two nights ago, no break this time around? He must have read my mind, "No break, this one is close; Miss. Dannii doesn't seem to want to waste anytime. The Jackal is next."

Oh, how rude of me; I never did introduce myself now did I? My name is Annie Timberline; age twenty-three, no family and almost no friends. Father died when I was younger and my only sister left after my mother gained an abusive boyfriend. Mother died giving birth to a step-sibling, who also died the same night, and step-father fell into a depression that sent him into suicide. All these events finished taking place before I was even old enough to drink; since then I've been living by myself. If any of you find my name slightly familiar, it might be of that mysterious fire that burned down an entire town. The quiet, ideal family town of Victoria was burn to the ground on December 23, 1999.

My mouth went dry, "When do we start?"