It's April! Only about 3 more months until I'm out of Japan and back to my comfort zone! Pray for me, y'all, pray for me!
chyp: Thanx much!
A wave of relief swept over Matthew as those words echoed through his head. The fact that Marcia's family was also supernatural filled in a lot of gaps in the mystery, as well as made the conversation flow much more freely.
"I don't believe that at all!" Matthew exclaimed. "That's such a relief."
"What?" she asked, confused.
"My brothers and I," Matthew said, "are also witches. The real reason I came here is because I had a premonition of your family being kidnapped. I had one of my brother being kidnapped as well and I believe that there's a strong connection with the two kidnappings. But I didn't want to come straight out and say it because I didn't know whether or not you were."
"You're a witch?" Marcia asked. "That is a relief. Premonitions, you say? That's a very special gift."
"Maybe in the future," Matthew said. "It's a new power and I can't control it at all. It comes and goes."
"There's a reason for everything," Marcia advised. "Don't try to understand things until they're meant to be understood. Come to think of it, though, I don't think anyone in my family had premonitions. It's a very rare power. Derrick is a telekinetic, able to move things with his mind. My Charity can heal people. She's a healer. Those twins are just polar opposites, though. George can freeze things into solid ice, but Tina is very hot-headed and can shoot fire. It was the same power my husband had, God rest his soul until I get there!"
"Haven't you been able to try and find them…supernaturally?" Matthew asked.
"Of course," Marcia answered. "I've tried scrying, spells, everything I could think of. It's like they're not even on the planet. Scrying makes my crystal shatter into pieces. They're not cheap, either. Spells just don't work at all. I don't know what else to do. That's why I keep turning to the authorities. Maybe they know something I don't."
"I promise I'll do my best to find them," Matthew said. "I pretty much don't have a choice."
"I really appreciate that," Marcia said. "If there's anything, anything at all that you need to help you, please let me know."
"Can you tell me more about the people who took them?" Matthew asked. "Anything you know might help me out."
James finally made his way home. He inched his way inside, neglecting to turn on the lights, and threw himself onto the sofa, exhausted. He fell asleep almost instantly, with images of Sam and all kinds of possibilities about what made her such a mystery going through his mind.
An hour and a half later, Matthew walked in. The darkness from outside crept into the house, but scattered as Matthew flipped the light switch. He found James on the sofa, sleeping soundly, or rather snoring loudly, in his dress clothes. Whether it was a bad date or plain exhaustion, Matthew seemed not to care. The last couple of hours spent at Marcia Coleman's residence gave him more information that he needed to help save Wesley and the Millers, Derrick and his family.
"Jimmy," Matthew said, putting his keys on the coffee table and taking off his coat, "wake up. We have a situation. Jimmy? Jimmy. JIMMY!"
James woke up with a jump. Having been abruptly awakened, he rolled off the sofa and landed with a thump onto the floor. He wiped his saliva-covered mouth and looked around as if he had forgotten where he was in the first place.
"What?" he asked groggily.
"Wake up," Matthew repeated. "We have work to do. Homeboy's been kidnapped and we need to find him and another family."
"Huh?" James asked, stretching and yawning simultaneously.
"I'm going down to get the Book," Matthew said to James. "You better be sitting up when I get back."
James, still slightly confused, repositioned himself on the sofa, this time upright. His brain seemed to still have a few glitches in it, but gradually his senses returned to normal and Matthew's words began to make more and more sense. Wesley kidnapped? The Book? Another family? These issues hit him in one large blow as he snapped to reality. Almost immediately afterwards, a wave of guilt crashed onto his conscience. He had spent the entire evening preoccupied with his date with Sam. His cell phone was virtually filled to the brim with calls from Matthew. He should have guessed that something had happened.
"Good," Matthew said, returning into the living room with their oversized Book of Light. "Here's what I got so far. I had a premonition of Wesley being kidnapped by some strange people. And I saw the same thing happen with this other family. That's where I've been for the last two hours. Why haven't you been answering your phone? Let me guess, the date was a flop?"
"She bailed," James said. "What I don't understand, though, is why I'm letting it get to me so much."
"Could be because you're actually falling for this one," Matthew suggested. "But let's save that for later. We need to look for something called the 'Order of Invision.'"
"Invision?" James repeated. "As in the same guy we vanquished a while back?"
"I don't know yet," Matthew said, flipping through the Book without lifting his head. "It might."
"Should we try a spell or something?" James asked. "Maybe that scrying thing?"
"Won't work," Matthew said. "It would make the crystal shatter, and apparently they're not cheap."
"Oh," James said. "I wonder what the bigger picture is. You know? What the connection is between that family you're talking about and Wesley."
"That's a good one," Matthew said. "You start thinking about that. Oh, here's something about the Order. 'The Order of Invision is a group of very high level demons, led by Invision (see Fallen Angels). Their mission is to find a particular item, the Gem of Legend, that can increase their powers one hundredfold. They capture good witches to search for the Gem, which is rumored to be located in the magical Caves of Moor.' That's all it says about them."
"That's not much to go off of," James said. "How are we supposed to get to them if we can't find them?"
"No idea," Matthew said, "but if they're mixed up with Invision, we need to hurry and find something quick. Remember what happened the last time we went up against them?"
"I ended up two inches tall with a crappy power," James mumbled loudly.
"Shut up," Matthew countered. "Maybe a spell or something. I'll look in the Book for one."
"Maybe I can help you out," a hooded man said from behind.
