Seth and Jin arrived in Arizona six hours after the report. Seth rented a car and drove the rest of the way to the preserve according to the directions Kendra sent him.
They drove along in grim, sleep-deprived silence as Mi'aiq played with the skull keychain attached to Seth's phone.
Is there a particular reason you have asked Mi'aiq to sit of your phone? The cat asked, his tail swishing in contentment.
Seth checked his friend in the mirror, "Yes, Kendra is going to call if she finds any information about Avitus in Patton's books. Patton did a lot of things, if he had information on Avitus, it could help us know how to stop Melkor."
Mi'aiq remembers the day Avitus left Mi'aiq when he went to track down Melkor… Master said he was going on just a little trip, he left Mi'aiq at home. But he never came back… Seth, do not try to do what he did.
Mi'aiq's warning fell on deaf ears as Seth kept driving without another word.
They reached the borders of Lost Mesa and instantly knew something was very amiss.
The voices of hundreds of undead echoed from everywhere, and the sky was pitch black, as if a curtain had been pulled over the sun.
They drove through the darkness without stopping for ten minutes, and then Seth sensed the presence of a crowd of zombies right in front of the car. He slammed on the gas and ran them over without stopping. How hadn't sensed their presence until just then made him worry.
They continued driving until Jin said, "Stop. The house should be around here somewhere."
Seth eased on the brake and parked. Opening his car door and stepping out into the darkness. He took Vasilis and his backpack out of the trunk and opened the backseat door to take out Mi'aiq.
A weight launched out of the back of the car and hit him on the head, scratching and clinging to his face.
Seth sighed and peeled and pried his friend off his face, "Mi'aiq, you scaredy-cat." He picked his cell phone from the backseat.
The trunk slammed, and Seth assumed Jin had closed the trunk, because he couldn't see anything in the dark. But he could see her spirits, bobbing in the air next to her, illuminating a little area around her face.
"Hey, Jin?"
She turned towards the sound of his voice.
"Can you tell your ancestors to circle out wider? We might be able to see more area, they glow a little.
Jin nodded and said, "Spread out and glow more,"
IS THAT ANY WAY TO SPEAK TO YOUR ELDERS, YOU—
"Please!" Jin squeaked, and the spirits quieted and begrudgingly bobbed into their places and brightened their glow.
A circle area about fifteen feet wide was illuminated, revealing dusty ground and the beginning of a building that their car was almost inches from.
Seth turned to Jin, impressed, "If not for your intuition, we would have been a pancake!"
Better a pancake than zombie-food! Mi'aiq grumbled, swishing his tail along he dusty ground.
"Well, sorry to ruin your day by keeping our transportation intact so we can get out of here faster." Seth said, giving Mi'aiq a meaningful side-glace.
They started walking towards the house and found the door unlocked. They entered and were surprised to find all the lights on despite none showing through the windows.
Set and Jin cautiously stepped into the house and Seth slung Vasilis into his pack and reached under his long, black coat to take one of his double short-swords from their sheath.
Jin took a short, wooden pole from her back and twirled it, turning it into a double-ended spear.
They snuck through the house with their secondary-weapons drawn and at the ready they found nothing in the main room so they moved on and found a bedroom.
There seemed to be a person lying on the bed, they both ran over and discovered a woman who appeared to be sleeping.
"Mara," Seth whispered, "I remember her… just barely."
Jin swallowed and gripped her spear, "Is she… dead?"
Seth nodded and cast his hand over her body, unlocking her last memory, a trick he had learned to do. He accidently unlocked this talent by stumbling over a corpse two years prior and witnessed the unfortunate person's final moments and last regrets displayed like a cinematic record.
He watched as Mara's last moments played out in front of him, she was in the kitchen cutting up some onions. She put down the knife as the acids stung her eyes. She wiped her hands off on a towel and wiped away some tears that had formed as a result.
"Such pretty tears…" A voice cooed from behind her.
She turned around, grabbing the knife like a seasoned soldier, and snapping into a defective position.
"What are you?" She asked bluntly, her eyes hard with distrust.
Melkor, his skin still grey as cracked asphalt and eyes still black as souless darkness didn't exactly look the part of a unicorn.
"Oh, nobody, really. Just a lost Fairy creature, looking for a home."
"You are no Fairy." Mara growled, her stance tensing eve more.
Melkor shrugged casually and twitched his fingers.
Mara screamed and nearly dropped her knife due to the pain wracking her every fiber of her being. Her hands shook with effort, but the knife stayed.
Melkor raised his eyebrow, amused as a cat who was witnessing the end of a wounded bird that couldn't fly away.
Mara's eyes flicked over to the window.
"Oh help won't come," Melkor said, reading her thoughts, "They are all dead, you see."
"All… dead?" Mara whispered, unbelieving, then her eyes hardened once again, "Impossible."
Melkor smiled softly and waved a hand, "Bye," Then disappeared.
A half-rotted arm crashed through the window, grabbing Mara by her throat. She cut off the hand and pitched it into the sink, she ran to grab a relic from the wall nearby, but Melkor materialized in a cloud of black.
She ran right into him without hesitating, stabbing him in the stomach with her kitchen knife.
Melkor sighed as if barely irritated and gripped his hand firmly around hers that was wrapped around the handle. He slowly pulled the knife from the wound, the darkness healing it before any blood seeped out, and the wound closed.
Mara's hands were shaking as she staggered backwards, realizing the enormity of what she was dealing with.
"A… demon?" She whispered brokenly.
"Worse; 'That which falls from light can become darker than which that is already stained.'… Right?"
More zombies came through the windows, moaning and groping the air, staggering forward, their stench clouding the air.
Mara spun around, looking for a way out, her eyes passed over two of the zombies and gasped.
"Friends of yours?" Melkor chuckled, pushing some of his white hair back, "I found them and decided I liked them better dead, or should I say; undead." He laughed, turning away and waving a dismissive hand. "Later,"
Mara looked at the Preserve's last remaining hands, now zombies before her, what had they done to deserve this? It was terrible, no! Unforgivable.
With an enraged cry, Mara darted forward to stab Melkor as he walked away, back turned to her.
The last thing Seth saw was a blur of motion and everything coming crashing to black with the sound of a sickening crunch.
