Hi there guys ^^ so yup here's chapter 7 and you get to meet (drumroll please)...Rose! so yep the four beta kids are now all included. I wonder how you guys are gonna react to this chapter. Whelp, that's all i have to say in the author's intro stuff so enjoy :3
Chapter 7
It wasn't much that you hated coffee. It was just that chamomile tea had this much more enticing and irrevocable scent, one that lingered long after you had put the cup down. You could read it with your favorite book during a particularly cold New England winter and admire the gentle flavor. One of the many joys you found in life, which would probably be strange to any other sixteen year old girl, was this very same activity. You could never imagine, with all your careful planning, that you'd run out and resort to some standard, cheap coffee that your mother had bought to help ease her out of her morning hangovers.
Yet, here you were, bent over your desk, reading over numerous news articles from all over the world, the Vatican, Tokyo, Africa, Alaska, even from New York City, the place where you'd grown up. The newspapers, field labs conducted by numerous scientists, and blogs written by environmentalists, all pointed to something, a pattern that you had noticed a while back and been researching since. Vibrations, all over the surface of the Earth. The sources of these vibrations, there were four, had also been moving, deep under the bedrock, but still causing enough of a tremor to affect wildlife and tides.
Sighing, you waved your finger in a circular motion over your mug, letting the milk in your coffee swirl. You hadn't always had this power over water. It was strange since you had only noticed it after you mother had died some years ago.
It had been a while since Dave had contacted you. You wondered what he was doing and if he had any new information about these vibrations. You had told him a month ago, since both he and his brother, who once dated your mother, were involved in the supernatural business. None of the science journals could really offer much of a plausible explanation for these vibrations so you concluded that such a confounding series of events could only be described supernaturally. However, Dave was newly recruited, and he still did not know much about the monsters he was hunting. Your family had been hunting for generations upon generations, from your mother who had favored her trusty rifle, to you, who much more preferred the literary aspect of hunting; however, you could kick some ass if you wanted to. Dave and his brother made their place as the infamous Strider Brothers in the hunting scene a few years ago, when they appeared out of nowhere and set up base in New York City. That had been how your mother had gone about storming into their apartment, freshly drunk, demanding that they get off her territory and how you had first met Dave.
Dave was stubborn. That was all you could say on that, but he was loyal and brave. Something you'd admired about him since you saw him battle for the first time. You had asked him about his brother and his own past before, but something always seemed to hold him back from telling. As if he was unable to because he couldn't remember. His brother was even more mysterious. You didn't even know his real name. Dave had insisted you just call him Bro which kind of made you wonder what your mother had called him when she had dated him. You guess you could imagine now that she was dead.
Swiping your mind clean from that memory, you turn your attention back to the various papers strewn out before you. Your cat, Jaspers, hops up into your lap, rubbing his head into your arm.
What could it all mean? You wonder, scratching Jaspers behind the ears.
Turning on the TV, you see the news, an earthquake in California with a destructive zone encompassing Seattle, Washington to El Paso, Texas. Wait, what?! How could you have missed that?! You rush to your desk and pinpoint Los Angeles on the map. Your markings of where the vibrations have been moving show that they have concentrated in this very place.
Jade isn't happy. You can tell from the way she's pacing around the room. Her normally bright green eyes are churning, starting to look like the clouds before a storm. Swallowing nervously, you keep watching, sitting at the edge of the hotel bed. Dave isn't back yet and you feel like you should have gone with him to pick up Bro.
"What's wrong?" You ask tentatively.
"I don't know. Don't you hear it?" Jade bites her lips, looking troubled.
"Hear what?"
"Something like whispering. It's coming from downstairs."
"I don't hear anything. Are you sure?"
"Can we go check it out or something?" Jade looks agitated, glancing out the window.
"Okay, I guess... let me just grab our room card." You don't feel good about this, something's wrong, you just don't know what.
At the lobby, Jade seems even more restless. Suddenly, you see her kneel down and place her ear against the floor.
"Jade?! What are you doing?" You sputter, watching her eyebrows scrunch together. Hotel staff and guests alike are beginning to stare, wondering why this strange girl is resting on the floor like some weird snail.
"Can't you hear it, John?! It's so loud!" Jade whispers hurriedly, getting up and running out the main entrance.
"Wait! Where are you going?" You yell, what could your sister be up to now?
As soon as you're outside, a strong gust of wind blows past you, and you hear it. Whispers in the wind, like the time Dave was fighting the demon. Warnings. Feeling an overwhelming sense of dread, you run after Jade. She's across the street and wondering around in the sand, feeling it with her fingers.
"Jade!" You see her freeze.
The sky is dark and another strong wind pushes you back from where you are, it's a struggle to keep upright. The whispers grow louder, and you can finally start to make out a few words, ones that are strange, foreign.
"Jade!" You yell again. What could she possibly be doing?
Jade whips around, and automatically you know something is wrong. Her panic is evident in her tense shoulders and wide eyes.
Conturbatio...terrae. The whispers, they are ...hubis...MUNDUS
"John! Go back inside!" She screams, running at you with full force.
That's when the ground begins to shake and the city begins to fall around you.
It seems that the earthquake, which has affected most of the west coast of the U.S., has subsided for now with no aftershocks. Rob, you should see the damage here in Los Angeles where the epicenter was approximated to be. Complete buildings are lying in rubble, roads are complete messes. The death count is in the triple digits, over one hundred people injured. Hospitals and clinics are overflowing so we request that the public refrain from going to the E.R. unless if their injury is life-threatening. Transportation has been cut off and telephone lines are down. Please- oh my GOD. The ground is- My god, a tornado. What is this?! Rob, it seems like a second earthquake is-
Oh god.
Everything is blurry. The asphalt of the road is dark in patches. The street is jagged. Sand is everywhere, in your eyes and in your mouth. Wind is lashing at your face. It hurts. The ground is moving and rolling. An earthquake and a wind storm.
My god, what the hell is happening?
Bro is behind you. He grunts for you to move on, past the bodies strewn around. The golden sphere is glowing, going crazy pointing at the darkened sky. That's where you see him and Jade. Tiny figures, one holding the other. An enormous cyclone spins haphazardly around them, enveloping them in wind and sand and other debris.
"John!" You feel yourself scream; now that was painful. Felt like you tore your vocal cords.
"Dave! Stop. We. Have. To. Wait." Bro is behind you, restraining you from running at the gigantic tornado ripping into the city.
"But John is-!"
"Dave!"
You realize it. You've never been this out of control. Your heart is pounding and your voice is panicked. Why are you like this, when you've never freaked out before during a hunt?
Satisfied that you won't try to run into the wind storm like a maniac again, Bro starts to set up the incantation. It's like trying to put a Hello Kitty Band-Aid on a life-threatening injury, but you don't give a shit. Los Angeles will be reduced to rubble if you guys don't stop John and Jade. They seem to have lost control of their powers somehow. No. Wait.
"What day is today, Bro?!" You shout over the roar of the wind and the screams of people fleeing.
"Summer Solstice."
Fuck. The days of the solstice are infamous for elements. Usually, their powers can be contained on these days, but you had forgotten. You can't believe you forgot.
"Done. Dave. Move out of the way." Bro's shades flash for a second and you almost see a glimpse of orange.
"Got it, Dirk."
Bro tenses, "What did you call me?"
"What?!" You can't understand why Bro is just standing there when the entire city is being destroyed in front of him.
"How did you know what my name is?"
"What? I- no- I always knew. I think- but what does this matter?! Bro go do the incantation!" You scream. Bro continues to do nothing.
"Bro! What are you doing!? Go!" He just stands there.
"Fuck this!" You grab the scroll, which contains the incantation, from him and sprint like mad towards the tornado.
You go inside one of the nearest buildings and climb several flights of stairs to the roof.
Once at the top, you can see the entire city spread out before you. The tornado is gigantic, reaching up into a clusterfuck of dark clouds. On the other side of the sky, it is blue and sunny. It's amazing how isolated it can be. Below the cyclone, you can see fires, billowing tendrils of smoke, and buildings being leveled into the ground. It's horrifying in its magnificent show of elemental power. You almost feel your knees go weak. But John and Jade are in there, in that monstrosity. You have to do this, so that everyone else can survive.
Fuck, the tornado is getting closer. Down on the street, you can't see Bro. He must've gone inside.
Hurriedly, you tie yourself to a pipe with some rope you found. It won't keep you from being thrown into oblivion, but it'll buy you some time, hopefully. Wind begins to whiplash your entire body. It's getting hard to hold onto the scroll but you know if you let go of that then it's all over. The roar is terrifying, rendering you almost unable to hear. It's not even a tornado anymore to you, more like a spinning wave of dark mass with flying pieces of wood, bits of cars, and the occasional light pole or two, coming right at you. Every fiber of your being is telling you to run and hide, to be a coward because this is nature at its most powerful. You can't do this. You aren't a hero. You aren't.
It gets closer, and you begin the chant, feeling the scroll warm up in your hand. You feel your feet being lifted off the floor; the rope begins to really bite into your waist as the winds pick up even more. All around you is that roar, like you'd imagine the moment before you die. You finish the chant. It's done. All you need to do now is get it to John and Jade before they destroy the entire city.
The rope snaps.
Alright, so my main focus in this chapter was to be intense, on action and all that. I won't really know if i did a good job until you guys give me some feedback so i'll be looking for those reviews XD just tell me what you think and that would be awesome. Next chapter introduces more characters so see ya then ^^
