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Chapter 33: The Means to an End
"What the hell did you do?!" Reid demanded grabbing Chase around the collar, whatever brotherhood might have developed over the last 20 hours gone.
"Nothing. How the hell was I suppose to know the first word out of my mouth would be taken as my answer," he yelled pushing Reid off. "I was going to say 'how could I pick power, Hannah,' but they freakin' disappeared!" he shouted, pointing to where they stood a moment ago.
"I noticed that!" Reid yelled. Caleb and Tyler pulled the two coal-black eyed Sons off each other.
"We have to figure this out," Caleb said. "Jumping into this without a plan won't help them."
"No shit Sherlock," Chase grumbled. Something surfaced momentarily in his mind and he tried to cling to it. "Does a blood oath mean anything to you?"
"No, why?" Reid asked dangerously. He wasn't above using the Power if it would save Abigail, even if they had to sacrifice Chase. Again.
"I heard Faith and Abigail, saw something one of them saw . . ."
"Abigail has visions," Caleb said. "What did you see?"
"It was one of the first daughters, the daughters of the Daughters that were betrayed, I think," he said. "It is all real foggy. I got the gist of what they were showing me, but it's all as if it was a dream. Nothing specific. They were in a cabin, all 5 of them, basically bitching about how they didn't need their families since it didn't basically do them any good the first time around."
"So they took a blood oath?" Tyler asked trying to follow along. "What does that have to do with this?"
"I don't know!" Chase said frustrated.
"They must have left clues," Sarah said stepping in. "They always seem to give you guys clues into understanding what you need to learn."
Caleb stalked off to the library, the same place they first learned about their history all those months ago. "Maybe something here will tell us," he hoped. He opened the five huge scrolls that detailed all of their family trees while Tyler went to the Giant Book of Failure that rested on its pedestal in the center of the room. "Uh, Caleb, you might want to see this."
"Huh?" he asked.
"Just get over here," Chase demanded. Caleb frowned and glared at him but walked over to where the other sons were congregating. "What?"
"It has your name on it," Tyler said handing him the paper folded into eighths with his name scrawled on top. "That's Abigail's handwriting," Reid said, itching to open it himself.
Have you seen anything?
We have.
What do you see?
We saw us. And you. And them.
Will you?
"They are dying and they give us a riddle?" Reid asked incredulously.
"Why do I want to laugh?" Chase asked. "Seriously. This makes me want to laugh. Abigail had to have faith in you guys if that is all she left. There's a post script. Go to the place it is drawn. What is drawn?"
Caleb practically ran out of the room. "Does this mean he understands it?" Pogue asked as they followed.
They all marched into the small back bedroom where Abigail was always sealed off during her death days. The murals and everything from her last death day months ago were still there. "These were drawn," he said. "There has to be a clue here somewhere, one of these. I mean, she saw this, right? She saw that we would be fighting the curse way back on that day," he reasoned as they began to pour over the drawings and paintings.
Caleb, are you there? A voice whispered. His head snapped around. Caaa-leb the name was drawn out and gave him the goosebumps. You know what you have to do. You said it yourself. You said it, you had the realization, but didn't realize it for what it was, Abigail's voice said and he wondered how the hell he heard her. When was she saying this?
Abigail was laying down on the mattress that the room maintained for her death days, Reid walking out after carefully lying her down. There were no windows but he had the feeling it was late afternoon. He thought he faintly heard female voices mixed with Reid's voice. This must have been right before the others arrived on her Death Day.
'We are the right generation,' Abigail's voice whispered softly, almost caressingly. 'All the puzzle pieces are finally thrown together. We are all here, all 10 of us. We are the last hope of breaking it, Caleb. Last, there will never be another full generation of Sons and Daughters again if we fail, understand?'
'No, I don't understand,' he thought. 'What am I to know?'
'You already know. You experienced it, too,' she said, and he had the impression she was laughing even though the only body he saw was her sleeping form before him. The voice came from some other source, some other Abigail. 'Remember!' she commanded desperately.
He was thrown back under the water, trying to gasp for breath. He couldn't see, didn't have any idea which way was up or down. When was this? Where was this? Was this him? His struggling was ending, he could feel himself dying, moving on.
The pond, he realized.
The surge of Power, of life, filtered into him forcefully. He choked on it, didn't want it, it was too much, too different, yet too similar. He didn't understand. It wasn't his, but he needed it. He wanted it, he realized. He wanted to accept it. He didn't want to die.
"Caleb, you back?" Pogue asked shaking him. The last thing Caleb heard was his own voice telling Reid: I think that's the point of it, the choices they made, the choices we make.
"Don't shake him," Reid chastised. "You have never been around people having visions before, have you?"
"Damn it!" Caleb said waking up wanting to hit something. He resorted to hitting the wall. "She knows, she's known for awhile."
"Abby?"
Caleb nodded. "We each have to save our own line. At the place it happened," he said looking at the murals. "Ipswich colony. The old, original colony, places associated with their ancestors. A place associated with our ancestors and the choices they all made."
"At least they can't time travel . . . I hope," Pogue said.
"We don't have time to sit around the kitchen table discussing this over afternoon tea," Chase said.
Reid found himself agreeing with Chase which disturbed him. "I agree. We need to do something."
"We need a plan," Caleb said.
"We know it's in old Ipswich," Tyler said. "Why don't we look in the old Colonial parts?"
"What are we missing?" Chase asked and Caleb nodded in agreement. He couldn't shake the feeling that something was wrong, too. They materialized to the old Danvers estate which had been vacant since Caleb's father willed away his power and died. "I'm going to search the barn for Abby," Reid said.
"Wait," Caleb ordered. "You can't."
"What do you mean I can't?" Reid demanded. "If this was Sarah you wouldn't hear of anyone else rescuing her."
"This is a different situation. We are dealing with people who have The Power. You know how twisted that is," Caleb said, glancing at Chase who knew what he was thinking and agreed. "We have to be smart about this."
"And quick," Tyler said.
"We have to do this the right way or it won't matter what happens and they will die in a few years anyways. We each go after our ancient relatives," Chase decided.
"Can I point out something?" Kate asked. The guys glared at her. "Paul is also gone. What do we do about him?" they looked around at each other and realized they hadn't thought about him.
"We don't have a lot of time here Danvers," Chase interjected. "Let Sarah and Kate get Paul. Non Power people helping non Power people."
Caleb looked torn since he didn't want Sarah involved. Pogue looked ready to throttle Chase for the suggestion but Sarah and Kate seemed ready to follow his order. "Hey, just because we aren't supernaturally endowed doesn't mean we aren't involved," Kate argued angrily.
"And Violet and Paul traced our ancestry back to the maid who helped to raise the original daughters, we are meant to be here," Sarah argued.
"Just tell me who the Putnam is," Chase said to bring the focus back to the Daughters.
"Hannah," Pogue said glad when Chase dematerialized. The other four went off on their own way as well. "Well, that leaves us," Kate said.
"Let's find Paul," Sarah said. "He's going to need help, too, and we can look for him regardless of how Caleb and Pogue feel about it. Which fate is his?"
"Crushed to death," Kate said anxiously. "And they were cruel, too. After Violet traced our ancestry back to the old maidservant, I reread the old account in the Parry diaries and . . ." Sarah waited but was sure she didn't want to know. "They placed Rosemary Parry's dead body where he could see it as he died."
"Sick, evil, twisted bastards," Sarah said angrily. "I do like the thought we are off to help them like our ancestors did. I just hope we are more successful."
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I know several people said they were confused, hopefully it is slowly going to be pieced together. Imagine how the Sons are feeling right about now, too : )
Special thanks to Lexi Aduial Elen (I am glad it was one of your favorites, too!) MischiefLover (hopefully it makes more sense!) MoonWolfRunner (We will start to see what happened to the girls next chapter, promise), TaylorAlexandra (Thank you! I hope you enjoy this one, too), Rukie (your review made me laugh! I think that is exactly the reaction the Sons had, too) a.sam (we will see the girls, soon, promise!) Kail (I hope it starts to become more clear as Caleb starts to figure it out, thank you!) EvilAngel (Hannah and Chase come from the same family line--the original brothers and sisters--but that was over 300 years ago so they are so distantly related I can't even figure it out. No creepiness) Susangel (I love everything you mentioned in the last chapter, too! And Chase seemingly chose power over Hannah, but it was enough for what the girls were doing) anangelwithnoname (We will start to see the girls next chapter--starting with Violet and Hannah) Youaremybrand (I hope it starts to become more clear; if not, I'll try to sum it all up after we see all the girls) Aueren (I am glad I inspired someone else to write their story! it is always nice to hear) heartbreakerginny (I imagine the Sons were confused at the end of the last chapter, too : )