11-. The Diablo's Crusade
Pt. 1
Rosa let the cold water accumulate between her soapy fingers for a moment before she wrung it out, transforming the thin stream into a constant drip, over the clay cooking pot she had just finished washing, to contemplate her house for a moment.
For more than ten years she had lived in a solid, albeit small, four-story apartment complex, occupying the two large apartments on the ground and first floor. Her husband, and father of her children, over the years proved to be a skilled and successful businessman, so despite being a simple retired dispatcher at the small convenience store "El Mercado" and speaking only a broken English in addition to her native Spanish, she managed to earn the position of manager in that same building, an investment of one of Hector's friends.
One corner of the living room of the main apartment, which became the only family home when her mother or her stepbrother's family visited, was occupied by the carved wooden easel on which Frida Puga, the daughter of an old family friend and daughter-in-law, painted her pictures, and in the opposite corner was the large sofa and an armchair where her family gathered on weekends to watch television. His second son, Carlos, despite having started his life with a quarrelsome and rather uncontrolled attitude, was now occupying the family couch to cuddle up with his girlfriend, as he did every afternoon, content now only to lead a simple and peaceful life.
Indeed, Rosa's life had been filled with peace, tranquility and wellbeing. She couldn't be more satisfied, she sighed before starting to dry with a cloth the pan that rested between her hands, now without any trace of soap.
"Son of your fucking mother!" The cooking pot shattered on the floor as it slipped from her soaked hands. "You goddamn motherfucker!"
After the thunderous scream, all activity in the room stopped instantly; Carlos and Frida broke away from their cloying embrace and even Rosa left the pieces of clay scattered on the floor.
Suddenly, almost as if the nervousness of those present in the room attracted a lurking wild beast in the corridors of the building, a door slammed from the apartment next door and a series of stomps slowly but surely approached theirs. A dark, thin-chinned face peeked out from one of the bedrooms and spoke as she placed the last pearl earring in her left ear.
"And now who did what to her?" No one answered Maria Casagrande in words, but as the realization of what she had done dawned on her, Frida's face began to lose its color.
"Do you think we're dumb enough to do anything to her? She probably got mad again because dad bought a flavor of ice cream she doesn't like," Carlos, her younger brother, spoke almost imperturbably from the couch; completely failing to perceive the growing nervousness in his girlfriend. "I mean; do you remember what happened a year ago? You know that the agüela has the temper of a crude taxi driver... what's more, I bet she got mad because a pigeon crapped on her window… again."
The siblings started to laugh. However, the faint laughter stopped even before Rosa could scold her children, because the entrance door burst open revealing a really intimidating apparition; an older woman, skin very dark, with abundant hair all of them curled in a gray ponytail and a fierce air, who held between one of her clenched fists a long piece of cloth dyed in an intense purple color.
Without even greeting those present, the old woman began to walk directly towards the couch with large steps that sounded almost as if an entire mountain could walk... something that contrasted quite a bit with the woman's hunched five feet.
"Tata Ronalda," with that sentence and stopping halfway, Maria stopped her grandmother, "where are you going in such a hurry? Remember what the doctor said about your knee?"
"Look, escuincla," answered Ronalda Manzano, suddenly concentrating all her anger on her granddaughter and not on the girl trembling behind her, " you do not fool me, I know that neither you nor your stupid brother touch my things. Someone messed with the clothes I leave for when I come to visit and did this to my favorite shawl," the old woman raised the purple cloth she was holding contemptuously to the young woman's face. "Now, I'm sure we both know who meant to taunt me with this wickedness. Get out of the way and this will be over quickly for all of us."
"N-no..." replied Maria frozen in place.
Rosa felt an emptiness in her stomach as she saw how her mother's expression darkened. An almost forgotten memory of that distant time when her family was still part of the braceros program came to her mind, along with the sight of the flames devouring everything and a wild laughter in the middle of the chaos.
"I'm sorry, but with all the respect you deserve, ma'am, lately you've been very irritable and inane, besides, you're making a mistake," Rosa's voice was soft but firm. "You see, the one responsible for what happened to your shawl wasn't Frida, it was me."
"We...! actually," interrupted Maria, who wouldn't let her mother take all the blame.
"It's a gift, ma'am. You see. We read in a magazine that this color would go perfectly with your skin tone, and since your birthday is coming up..."
"Yes, we even put some navy blue embroidered details on it to make it look even better on you."
Both women watched in terror as the old woman's gaze hardened little by little, taking on a stern air instead of the fury with which she had entered home. It seemed that she hadn't bought the lie, but after sweeping her piercing gaze over everyone present, Ronalda walked past her daughter and granddaughter and stopped in front of the full-length mirror on the other side of the room, next to the easel and Frida's painting materials.
Still without a word, she draped the shawl over her shoulders and instantly the expression of apathy and repulsion on her face was completely transformed.
"Why didn't anyone tell me I look better with this color?" Her parched lips contracted to show her teeth in a frank smile. "why, I even look younger, damn!
She let out a single laugh before starting to pose in front of the mirror. Feeling that the worst was over, Rosa and Maria relaxed; still sitting on the couch and with her legs tucked up Frida did the same, the latter being the only one who let out an audible sigh of relief that she didn't even know she had been holding back.
The young arts student was about to let out, like her mother-in-law and sister-in-law, a small nervous laugh when she felt a bony hand close firmly on her shoulder, she didn't even have to turn around, the knot forming again in her stomach made it instantly clear to her that the worst was not over.
"I thank you for the gift, child," the smile on Ronalda's face turned into her characteristic frown in an instant, "but this end here, do you hear me? Do not you ever touch my things ever again without permission."
Mute with surprise, Frida could only nod silently.
"Amma, how did you know...?"
"How did I know what, Rosa, that my illiterate daughter and my granddaughter who hates fashion magazines were lying to me?" The sarcastic tone was so evident that even Carlos, who still didn't fully understand what was going on, detected it instantly. "I guess I guessed right by mere luck... now I want to ask you something, Maria, where are you going dressed like that?"
It wasn't until the old woman mentioned it that everyone present paid attention to the bright white dress the teenager girl was wearing which, though somewhat skimpy in cut, being true to Maria's simple and relaxed style, perfectly emphasized the curves of her body and the silhouette of her legs as well as enhancing the contrast of the color of the fabric with that of her bare shoulders and calves. It was simply not a dress that anyone, not even Frida with her extravagant tastes, would wear to simply stroll around the neighborhood.
Three pairs of suspicious eyes, since Frida was the only one who knew about the medical student's plans, as well as all the tension generated by the incident of the dyed shawl were directed directly against Maria, who, extremely blushing after realizing that she had been discovered before time, could not manage to come up with an adequate answer to avoid all the problems that she had surely just gotten herself into.
"Family, guess who...! What... what's going on here?" With a big smile and carrying two plastic bags; one loaded with large bottles of expensive liquor and the other with food, Hector entered his house only to be greeted by the tense atmosphere that was beginning to build again, this time between the mature women of the household against the young girls. "Don't tell me you're going to yell at each other again, today is a special day! Dear, help me take this to the kitchen, we have visitors. Come on, let's go. Let's go."
However, Rosa didn't move from her place nor let go of her daughter's arm, at least not until she saw Doctor Santiago enter through the door wearing a white and shiny suit, a suit that matched her daughter's dress. Only then she understood the reason for her firstborn's dress.
"Good afternoon… family" With a smile a little more discreet than Hector's hidden under his moustache, Arturo Santiago entered the house of his "star pupil" and secret girlfriend. "I guess our surprise won't be a surprise anymore... Mia..."
"No, I think I messed up at the last minute... Bobby," Maria's gaze met her partner's and they both smiled at each other. Suddenly her mother's squeeze, which was already starting to leave a bruise in her arm, didn't hurt so much.
Immediately, everyone took the importance of Maria's dress off and allowed themselves to celebrate with the couple that had just become official in front of the family... all except Ronalda, who with a look full of hatred kept watching the "perfect groom".
"And tell us... Doctor Santiago, how did we do in the blood tests you did some time ago?" What surprised and stunned everyone was not that an old woman who was beginning to show the first symptoms of senile dementia still remembered an event that had happened a few months ago but that she was speaking in perfect English for the first time. "I don't think you ever told us the results... Doctor."
Arturo choked on his drink and avoided looking directly at his partner's grandmother before answering by avoiding the question.
-o-
Mrs. Kernicky's white, windowless van left one of the alternate streets and merged onto the main avenue as it passed right in front of Great Lakes City Hall. Through the windows Frida could see a few pedestrians walking on the sidewalk partially covered by the snow that had fallen during the night; through the window glass it looked like one of those miniature scenes perfectly captured in the little snow domes that Hector sold at El Mercado during the holidays.
After almost an hour of enduring the intense traffic caused by the rush hour on the main avenue, Kernicky finally turned onto a side street and after following it for only a couple of minutes she parked next to a white and gold building. The orphanage and headquarters of the Church of Blood, "The Hive" was submerged in an almost absolute silence.
"It looks like the place is empty because we're just starting the day, dear," the old woman apologized with a rueful smile. "But you'll see how things will pick up as the kids wake up and our volunteers..."
Completely disregarding her neighbor's attempt at small talk, Frida settled the issue and got straight to the point.
"Please tell me, how does your church plan to help me find my son?" In a normal situation, Frida would never talk to anyone in such a rude way, much less to a senior citizen, but the last three days had been a lot of things... but they couldn't be called normal. "Maybe it's a good idea to start with..."
"Start with what, print his face next to his description and hand out thousands of copies all over the city?" Maintaining her calm demeanor, Kernicky handed the Latina one of the many pamphlets taped to the wall of The Hive; the black and white photo of a sad child stared back at her. "We learned a long time ago that people simply ignore them after an excessively short time. No, leave that postering to a regular church; ours has true power."
"What do you mean by 'true power'?"
"You see, in every civilization there are certain people who are able to recognize places with real influence and power. Usually it was some special place, you know; a strange natural formation or a place where organisms with unique characteristics grow and lived... in short, certain people knew that in certain places special things happened, that there were points where magic was concentrated or that they served as a window or channel to something else. So in those areas they built temples or altars to..."
"There are churches all over the world," Frida concluded, slowly tiring of her elderly neighbor's magical thinking.
"And there are also in every state in this country... in fact there are even areas in this very city where we can find a church of a different deity on every block. But none of them have any power. The people of this country no longer feel the call of power... or so I thought until I met Brother Sebastian."
Careful not to make any noise, Kernicky and Frida finally entered the orphanage through the double glass door. In the large foyer there was only a solitary table with two women sitting at it; neither of the volunteers greeted them or did anything to indicate that they were aware of the newcomers' presence.
"So this is the famous Red Temple... where's the red?" Frida asked when she saw that the walls and ceiling were cream-colored.
"Under the temple," Kernicky replied as she filled out an entry form.
"And where is the temple?!"
The old woman placed one of her fingers over her lips and Frida discovered that she had shouted the last question. Apprehensive, she continued walking after her impromptu guide. The two women passed through a service door that was next to a wall full of disturbing and discordant drawings.
As they walked the corridors that ordinary visitors and prospective adoptive parents rarely set foot in, the building filled with the sound of footsteps and voices, the vast majority of them children's voices. At the end of one hallway that was particularly gloomy compared to the others they had already traversed, there was a spiral staircase that descended through the shadows to the lower floors.
Ignoring the other volunteers moving in the opposite direction, the women descended and continued down the stairs until they came to a room larger than any they had passed before. Frida stopped at the edge of the staircase when she realized that there was no sound from the building and the busy streets above.
"This is the temple, isn't it?" she asked, suddenly feeling a dark tightness settle in her chest.
"More or less, dear. This is the antechamber," Kernicky said, turning her back on her guest. "In fact, we haven't even entered the actual temple yet... so if you want to see all that the Church of Blood has to offer, please follow me."
Frida walked with Kernicky through the strange cellar in the only direction left to follow, forward.
"Fifty-odd years ago, when this city was just beginning to be built, a young man named Sebastian Blood, perhaps you dont noticed but his face was drawn on one of the walls of the lobby, began to build a house in the middle of an unstable territory in the very center of the city and never told anyone why. The locals watched in amazement as Sebastian, barely a man at the time, built a building that always threatened to collapse in the face of the inhospitable ground."
As they passed through that room, Kernicky opened a half-concealed door at the back and they both passed into another room almost identical to the previous one, except that this one was completely decorated. Small speakers hidden in the four corners played in the background a tune that the artist had no trouble recognizing; "The Age of Anxiety". The room was almost indistinguishable from a normal apartment, wooden furniture that reflected the owner's sober taste as well as discreet and clean carpets covering the floor and some discreet paintings adorning the walls, of all the paintings displayed the one that caught Frida's attention the most was one where only a man with red skin and white hair could be seen smiling... a man who had four crimson eyes and a pair of horns sprouting from his temples.
"A few months passed and the young man was joined by more people, people who came from all over just to help him erect the temple. With all the extra help he managed to complete his goal; to build a large and somewhat strange house. He filled some of the rooms with beds and tables for the town's homeless to live in. Since then millions of people come and go every year through the same glass doors through which we enter."
"Is that why you say this place has 'true power'?"
But the older woman merely smiled in response. With a fluid movement, almost as if it were one of the tai chi sequences Frida had seen her practice so much in the building, she pointed at her host.
Brother Sebastian sat in a velvety armchair facing the haunting picture of the smiling demon, killing time by following the rhythm of the background tune with the drumming of his fingers.
Kernicky stood beside him and put one of his hands on his right shoulder. Frida, not knowing how to introduce herself to a man she had heard so much about, decided to stand behind her neighbor. Without turning around, the older man shook hands with Kernicky and then with the Latina woman.
"Welcome," he said, only to immediately lean his back fully against the cushioned back of the chair. He seemed to enjoy the music quite a bit.
The symphony ended intensely. The older man's expression seemed to change, though it was only for an instant. As soon as Bernstein's piece stopped playing, a new piece began to play.
"So you want us to help you find your creature, don't you? No problem, you see," the man remained seated in his armchair, reluctant to leave the painting with the smiling demon or the haunting music in the background, "with the volunteers who meet every day at the Hive orphanage, you'll get all the help you need!"
"Oh, yes please, that's all I ask of your congregation, to see my little boy again," Frida couldn't stop the tears this time. The man sitting before her, though absent, seemed honest and upright... she could not help but trust Brother Sebastian now. "How do you propose we begin the search? Perhaps the members of the church can..."
"Church? Oh no, this is something much better, you're lucky you know," the old man's voice only grew more absent and monotonous with each word. "Our volunteers meet every day at the orphanage up there, I assure you that you will get all the help you need from us..."
That sentence seemed extremely strange to the Casagrande woman, not only because of the slow, hoarse intonation, as if Brother Sebastian was having a hard time speaking, but also because someone else had said something similar to her in the past.
Despite feeling increasingly confused and terrified at her host's strange attitude, Frida made no attempt to move or walk away from the patriarch of the church; the great tightness she felt in her chest denied her... at least that was until Sebastian Blood rose from his seat and turned to finally look at her before continuing to speak.
"Because we have something other institutions don't, we have many eyes and free hands to help," his eyes began to emit a faint reddish glow and Frida needed no more reason to try to escape. "We are always open to the voices of others, taking care of his little entourage is our priority, meeting the Church is a great opportunity and I hope you appreciate it"
The Latina woman started running towards the door she had entered that second room through, but before she could even get halfway there, she heard a pair of footsteps on the carpeted floor approaching from behind at high speed.
And although she couldn't feel the blow to the back of her head, she could see how her feet left the floor while her body was thrown violently against one of the basement walls.
As Frida lay limp against the wall she had crashed into when she had flown off, her consciousness slowly began to leave her, barely giving her time to feel her right arm begin to go numb from her broken bones. The last thing she managed to see before she faded away was a pair of red eyes and silver hair slowly approaching.
-o-
"Fuck, why, why, why, why?!" Frustrated, Ronnie threw a series of kicks at the door through which she had entered the room but the rectangle of smooth, dark wood didn't budge an inch with any of the blows. "I didn't do anything to give myself away... How... how could they have found me out?"
Barely resigned to the fact that she had been captured as soon as she arrived, Ronnie inhaled and exhaled a couple of times to calm herself and start inspecting the room she had been locked in. She slammed her fist against the four walls and after punching each one twice she discovered that behind the thin layer of plaster that covered them all was a thick, firm layer of cement. The only window in the bare bedroom had thick bars on the outside and unfortunately it was on the wall opposite the beds, too high to even think of climbing up to reach it.
"It can't end like this."
The voices in her head churned and the memory of Nikki struggling not to choke on her own blood as she breathed in that dark alleyway came vividly back in front of her eyes.
Allowing her breathing to hitch a little, Anne turned to look at the bare stave floor and stomped on it, the blow echoing, as did the walls, with the same dry monotony of cement. She was locked up tight, with no chance of escape. She was about to burst into a cry of helpless when a voice in her head whispered «Wood burns well» and she instantly understood how she could escape to carry out her revenge.
Concentrating a small part of her power in the palm of her left hand, just enough to generate a small flame, Ronnie turned to see the door; she would come out, there was no doubt about that. She would come out and give that brotherhood that had hurt her so much a taste of the hatred they themselves had created; no more hiding, no more subtlety.
She raised her left hand and the flame in it grew in intensity. though not much in size, until the glow it gave off managed to overshadow even the light emitting from the spotlight attached to the ceiling; but before she could release all her resentment Ronnie heard a key unlock the old lock on the door and saw the wooden rectangle open just enough for a thin, shy face to peer into the bedroom. A girl about her own age, with freckles and slanted eyes was staring at her from the other side.
As soon as their gazes met, the young Asian girl's freckled face lit up with an enthusiastic smile that instantly reminded Anne of the way Lincoln smiled before the accident happened.
"You must be the new girl that Vania just told me about and by the way, sorry, please forgive me, sorry about the door but you can never be sure enough until you know that the girl you're going to sleep with for the next few months isn't some kind of crazy girl or something, right?" Without waiting for any invitation and without giving the slightest importance to the flames that Ronnie was holding with her bare hand, the girl entered the room without bothering to close the door behind her, "I guess they already told you about me so I won't do it anymore, and forgive me again if you think I talk too much but I must confess that I love meeting new people, so as I'll be your roommate I hope we'll get along well, Rafita."
Ronalda waved her hand to dispel the flames, in a now futile attempt to hide her powers from the eyes of others. As soon as the fire dissolved into a cloud of smoke, the Asian girl threw herself at Anne and wrapped her shoulders in a rather awkward, though devoid of malice, embrace.
"why did you call me that?" «so locking up newcomers is a normal thing to do to find out if they're dangerous?» Anne relaxed a little at that thought and didn't try to pull away from the embrace.
"Well, you know "Rafita" is from "Rafa" from "Rafaela"! Because..." the shining smile faltered for a moment and Ronalda saw how the eyes of that strange girl turned towards the door again "that's your name, isn't it?"
All of Ronnie's mental alarms went off, if that strange girl felt uncomfortable enough to call one of the volunteers and thus spread the alarm to the dastardly Brother Sebastian she would undoubtedly end up in serious trouble.
"Of course my name is Rafaela...! Why else would I say that's my name if it wasn't?" Hurrying to return the hug, Anne prayed that her "companion" wouldn't realize she'd forgotten the made-up last name. "I'm actually looking forward to being good friends!"
The girl's gaze returned to Ronnie's face and for a moment even seemed to light up with an almost childlike enthusiasm at the word "friend" though instantly her expression darkened as it hadn't since she'd walked in smiling and hugging strangers.
"So... are we friends?" Ronalda managed to recognize the new expression almost without work, it was sorrow and anxiety starting to overwhelm her new 'friend'. "Then I suppose it's only fair that I warn you, isn't it? Yes, if we really are friends I suppose it's best to warn you before something else happens to you too."
And without another word, the young Asian girl released Ronnie, looked out the open door and after checking that there was no one in the hallway close enough to hear them talking, she closed it to isolate the room from the outside noise.
"You can't let anyone in the orphanage see you do that thing you were doing with the fire when I came in, okay? Father Sebastian doesn't like 'gifted' people."
"Gifted?"
"Yes, it's a way of calling people who can do unique things... when a 'gifted' child comes to these doors looking for help, Sebastian takes them to the basement and we never see them again."
"You say he takes them down to the basement? Do you know what he does to them down there?"
The slit-eyed girl didn't reply but shook her head.
"Only the highest ranking members of the church and the most senior volunteers are allowed to go down. The rest of us are forbidden to approach" despite receiving so many refusals in a row, Ronnie was not discouraged and took advantage of this strange opportunity to gather information about her enemy.
"Maybe you've never been there before, but you know how to get to that 'basement', right?" The Asian nodded as she closed her eyes and squeezed her eyelids shut, a gesture Ronnie had no trouble identifying as fear. "Do you know if he's taken anyone down there lately?"
"A whiny woman came down in the morning with Mrs. Kernicky, I think they lived in the same building, you know, the one that burned down on Friday," Ronnie had to make a titanic effort not to shake the thin teenager in front on her and force her to give her more information faster, "Neither of them have returned yet but the whiny one dropped this."
Apprehensive about taking something that wasn't hers, the young Asian girl showed Ronalda a bracelet of small yellow beads with a larger green one in the center. Ronnie would recognize anywhere that homemade jewelry her aunt insisted on wearing at all times.
In an instant Anne lost all the foolish tenacity she had managed to muster to carry out her revenge.
-o-
As soon as classes were over that Monday, Lisa walked slowly towards her house, she needed all the time available to prepare a plan to face that thing that was making Lucy sick.
Besides, she didn't really care about the outcome of the science fair; she knew Darcy would win, and not just for using a device she had designed herself but for the exceptional skill with which her friend had built it. Darcy simply had the contest in the bag and both she and Lincoln knew it, which was why she was surprised when her older brother asked the twins and her via text message to cover for him from Luna and Luan.
This brought more problems to the little genius because she thought that it would be virtually impossible to convince Lola and Lana to cover for her too but surprisingly the pair agreed happily to be alone with Lisa's friend, Lola even gave her a ten-dollar bill so the little brunette could pay for a taxi so she could get home without complications.
In the end, Lisa didn't use the bill but she would never tell the young beauty queen that.
No sooner had she opened the door than she found that Luna and Luan were going out to the movies with Lily. Nervous at this unexpectedly nice gesture, the girl genius made up a long, implausible story about her premature presence in the house; the two older sisters ignored her while they made sure to bring everything they needed. At the last moment the chestnuts invited her to join them more out of courtesy than pleasure of her company, and as they foresaw, the spectacled one declined the offer.
"Lisa, don't burn the house down," Luna said as she wrapped Lily in sweaters and heirloom scarves, "you and Lucy are on your own until Lynn gets here... I mean it, don't do anything stupid."
Without waiting for an answer, the three sisters went out into the street after slamming the door.
There was no longer anything to stop her, she mentally reviewed her improvised plan of action and set off. Connecting her laser pointer to the screen of her cell phone, Lisa checked through the cameras distributed throughout the house that her target wasn't hiding in another room and, plucking up the courage, she opened the basement door; a breath of cold air was the first thing that greeted her, and although it was the freezing days of early winter she couldn't help but feel nauseous and repulsed by something that should have seemed the most common thing given the circumstances.
Lisa tried to turn on the light of the stairs using the switch next to the basement door, as she expected nothing happened. By means of her multipurpose laser pointer she deployed a pair of metal arms designed to hide in the ends of her backpack and without wasting any more time she activated the led lamps installed at the ends of each extremity, between both light sources an intensity of almost 8000 lumens was achieved, enough light to dive in the deepest waters or to inflict a permanent blindness to anyone.
She quickly went down the stairs until she reached the middle landing, from there she unfolded a pair of arms thicker than the previous ones, "for containment", and focused her two headlights towards the wall where she had been working with Lucy, as she had expected there was the gothic girl standing there; writing in the middle of the circle formed by the symbols inscribed during the weekend by Lisa's machines, with what looked like red paint.
Having located her, Lisa slowly walked down the last steps without speaking and without taking off the halo of light from her sister's back. When she was closer she could distinguish what Lucy was writing, seven smaller runes in six groups, each group contained the same runes as the others only that they were arranged in completely different orders. Lucy was barely finishing the fifth symbol of the seventh set when Lisa reached the concrete floor.
"Lisa Loud... Do you know what was the first question I asked myself when I came to this horrible place you mortals call 'home'?" Lucy said in the voice she always used when she thought no one was watching her, a higher pitched, more vulnerable and much more human tone... but Lisa could also hear a different tone of voice speaking as an echo, a husky and much deeper voice. "My first question was; when the old gods come back and discover that the order they established was long forgotten, what can men do then? What can they do when a god reclaims their old place?"
As she said those words, the black-haired girl finally turned to face Lisa without seeming to be bothered in the least by the intense light. When she stopped talking she stretched out her right hand, the same one that was stained by "red paint", and said a single word, one that Lisa didn't know and suddenly the beam of light from her backpack flickered for an instant before it turned off completely. Frightened by that unforeseen failure, Lisa activated as fast as she could the self-defense mode of her laser pointer and pointed the small cylinder forward; in the area where she expected Lucy to be, an energy discharge shot out from the far end to the scientist's body and thanks to the burst of light that came out along with the shot Lisa could distinguish that her sister had gotten too close to her considering the short time that had passed.
In less than a second after the lights went off Lucy was already standing right in front of Lisa. Only to be thrown away an instant later; because she received the full discharge of the energy blast from so close the blackhead's body flew in a straight line until it crashed against the wall of the portal, staining all the lower part of it with her own blood.
Just as Lucy's body hit the wall, the light from the backpack shone just as brightly as before, revealing the twisted and limp body of Lucy Loud. With her expression twisted by fear and anguish, Lisa ran closer to her sister and when she was close enough she let go of the laser pointer and took off her backpack so she could kneel next to her sister's body more easily. She let out a hiccup of relief when she verified that the goth was still breathing. Killing one of her sisters was, for obvious reasons, not in the smarty girl's plans.
Lisa had trained herself to face any problem and to be just as efficient under the greatest pressures and demands, however this time she was facing a new scenario, one she hadn't thought of before; one of her sister's arms was bent backwards at a perverse angle and her body and legs had several wounds and cuts that were bleeding profusely.
It wasn't until after a couple of seconds of seeing that disturbing scene that Lisa forced herself to look elsewhere, it was then that she noticed Geo's plastic sphere and Waltt's metallic cage with only a few feathers inside resting in a corner. Even more distressed than before, she turned to look at the wall where both of them had been working on the portal, the blood stain that Lucy left had the same color as the symbols she was writing a little bit above... her mind didn't take long to connect the clues.
She was so engrossed in watching the bloodstained wall of pets and her sister that she didn't notice the mangled body next to her begin to move its lips, speaking mute words that no mortal mouth should ever utter.
When Lisa finally turned around, she was confronted with another nightmarish scene. Her sister's battered body struggled to stand upright, making monstrous movements.
"Well, dead are all your gods... I killed them," The twisted arm settled into place with a creak after Lucy whispered another strange word, "and none of your kind cared... now you'll ask yourself another question..."
Lisa was terrified, a direct hit from so close was no less than deadly for the average adult human and her eleven-year-old sister was talking like it was nothing after receiving a point blank hit, she even continued drawing the last two runes that were missing from the last group of bloody squiggles.
"What can men do against me?" The room began to fill with cold air, terrifyingly cold, "You can think about it later, you like to think but you're not good at tacking part."
Lucy placed against the red runes a bloody pink handkerchief that read "I luv Princess Pony" seconds later a small electric glow danced in her fingers. With deft and swift movements, she shaped it into an ethereal sphere, the machine-engraved runes on the wall began to glow in response. There was a small electrical explosion and a lightning bolt hit Lucy making her disappear in front of Lisa's eyes, however the wall continued to expel energy in an uncontrolled way. The situation had completely overcome her so with trembling hands Lisa looked for her laser pointer to activate the backpack and protect herself when she remembered that she had left them lying in the floor after the surprise that the Thing-Lucy had caused her.
She crawled away at full speed towards her backpack, ready to activate the self-preservation mechanism when a small bolt of lightning hit her directly in the face, curiously damaging only her glass eye, the little girl fell down with fulmination. The last thing she could logically do was think and answer to the Thing's question:
"When the Gods return to claim what is theirs there will not be a single safe place" her conscience was beginning to fade "there will be nothing man can do to be safe".
As she hallucinated, she thought he saw Lincoln kneeling beside her.
-o-
Holding hands, Ronnalda pulled her new "friend" by the arm –actually dragging the poor girl along behind her–, both girls left the room and it was only until the Asian girl managed to firmly rest her two feet like an anchor on the stave floor that the pair stopped abruptly in the middle of the hallway.
Ronnie felt the tug on her arm and impatiently and with a frown she turned to complain to her companion; she couldn't waste any more time, not now that she knew that her aunt and one of the few neighbors she liked were alone with the demented leader of a cult. But the moment she turned around she found the face of the freckled-weird-girl a mere thirty centimeters away from hers, who, considering she was close enough, began to shout at her in whispers.
"You can't just go and take them out, Rafa!" As if the closeness didn't bother her in the slightest, the Asian moved even closer and continued in a lower tone. "There are at least a hundred official church members all over the orphanage and where they are, so will he be. The Church of Blood is something of a hive mind. "He'll know you're headed for the basement before you even get to the third floor."
Ronnie shook the Asian off with a light shove, refusing to believe that all was lost.
"You're asking me to do nothing to help my family?! Those two women are here because of me and I know... no, you know they need help too!" Now it was Ronnie who approached the Asian girl to shout in whispers and with tears in her eyes, "They need me and I'm not going to run away without making sure that my aunt and that lady who is the closest thing I have left to a friend are safe."
The freckled girl tried to rebut, but in her 'friend's' eyes she could only see the certainty and desperation of someone willing to die for a loved one. Knowing there was nothing she could do to change her mind, she gave in to the stranger.
"Then... follow me..." And taking her by the hand, she led Ronnie to the end of the corridor.
The two passed, truly holding hands this time, through the rest of the rooms on the floor. Most of them were empty and they never stopped in front of the few that had their inhabitants still inside. They continued like that until the freckled Asian opened an emergency door that took them down two floors outside the building via the fire escape. After descending, both young ladies re-entered the building through another emergency door that took them right to the floor above the foyer that Ronnie had entered through a few hours ago.
"Where are you taking me?" asked Ronnie.
"To the basement, where else?" The Asian answered without raising her voice, "In order to get there we need to get to the main hall first."
"But we've gone a long way out of our way to get to the foyer. I've just been given the route and I don't remember having to walk this far. If you wanted to keep a low profile, we should have just followed the normal route and acted like nothing happen."
"No, I'm sure one of the members of the Church has already noticed that I'm not holding you in the room like I'm supposed to; until Brother Sebastian calls you into his presence. It's the new kids they monitor all the time," the freckled girl took Ronnie's hand again and walked back to the opposite side of the corridor. "Believe me, sometimes the safest way is the longest way... besides you didn't notice that I followed you all the way down the hall did you?"
They walked down that narrow corridor that instead of connecting to bedrooms only led to classrooms and recreational rooms until they came across a ramp that marked the end of the common area and that, according to the Asian girl, would take them to the ground floor, precisely to the kitchen.
They both went downstairs quickly and after passing through an empty kitchen and dining room they finally arrived in the main foyer. In front of them was only the reception desk; it was occupied, as it always should be, but the volunteer sitting behind it, the older woman who had written down the false name Ronalda had registered under when she entered, had her eyes closed and was snoring loudly, so they passed smoothly through to the other side and entered through the door next to the haunting portrait-collage of Sebastian Blood.
From there they advanced without further complications until they reached the spiral staircase that descended under the ground. Halfway down they were intercepted by a song that, through the uneven walls of the staircase, reached them in a way that was at once moving and discordant; Ronalda recognized with some effort the piece as one of the waltzes that her grandparents used to dance every anniversary, although the name of the piece continued to escape her.
Both girls walked steadily down what seemed to them like hundreds of steps, some of which needed urgent maintenance and some of which simply needed to be swept. Trying not to be distracted any further, they continued down hand in hand, blinded by the darkness...
At least that was until they finally reached the basement; a large rectangular room almost completely devoid of furniture and dimly lit. The girls were about to let go of each other's hands and begin to contemplate the curiously elongated room on their own when they saw a mysterious figure emerge from a hidden door at the back of the room.
Needing no extra incentive, Ronalda ran towards the person who was still oblivious to the young girls' presence and using all her weight and the momentum built up from the run she pushed the stranger, knocking her to the ground. With the mystery person at her mercy, dazed and at a disadvantage, the Latina tied its slender legs and arms using Nikki's jackets that she hadn't taken off since she grabbed them.
"Mrs. Kernicky?" asked both girls as soon as their eyes got used to the dim light of the place.
The older woman needed a little more time to recover from the blow and after discovering that she couldn't move her arms or legs freely, she had no choice but to turn upwards, when she saw her "attackers" she also showed surprise.
"Sid, what are you...? Wait... Ronnie Anne?! Girls, what are you... what are you doing down here?" The woman had been able to recognize the two girls almost instantly, "It's dangerous for anyone uninvited to come down here, get out before he or some of his more loyal followers discover you!"
But Ronalda didn't listen to the desperate pleas to leave the place, just a few seconds ago she believed that her aunt and her neighbor were in danger... did this mean that Frida had been betrayed and tricked into a trap?
"Mrs. Kernicky, why... why are you helping them?" Ronnie's heart squeezed at the thought that someone she held in such high esteem as her elderly neighbor was actually on the enemy's side, "What have you done to my aunt...? Kernicky, what have you done to my aunt?!"
"I didn't do anything to her! Ronnie, please believe me when I tell you that I knew nothing about Sebastian's plans," the old woman tried to move her body to face the young Latina directly. "He only told me he wanted to talk to her... oh girl if you only knew how terrifying he can be with his mind control powers... if you only knew the way he controls the other members of the Church..."
"Well, I found all that out the hard way after the bastard drugged my little cousin to try to kill me," Ronnie's voice trembled for a moment as she remembered the outcome of that first fight, as well as remembering the mutated nurses that had killed hers only friends in the city, "I already know who this Sebastian guy really is and I'm not afraid of him..."
"Little girl... please go away," the old woman pleaded again, this time managing to sit up against one of the bare walls of the room. "You can't even hide your fear from me... you can't deny the truth either Ronnie, please Sid, convince her to leave now while there's still time."
"What... what truth?" asked Ronalda before the Asian girl could even respond to the old woman's request.
"That it's not possible for you to face someone as powerful as Brother Blood by yourself, I know deep down you both know that. You must leave now!"
"Maybe I can't do it alone, but at least we'll be sure to bring the police to this place. Kernicky, you don't know about all the monstrosities this cult does with children," for the first time, Ronnie turned to look at the freckled Asian girl beside her. "Tell her about the missing children you told me about."
"So you're going to involve Sid in your suicide too? You'd kill an innocent and bubbly girl just for your cause?!" The old woman shook in her bonds again after interrupting the Latina. "You must go, Ronnie! Leave and you won't be responsible for anyone's death."
"And let... and let that bastard continue to do as he pleases with the children in his care?! I will not fail them!"
"You'll fail them more and make the situation worse for everyone in the orphanage if you stay down here!" both began to get desperate and therefore to shout at each other, leaving behind all presumption of stealth. "If you leave, your remaining family, Sid... and maybe even Frida will be saved! Please little one, don't be a fool..."
But Ronnie wouldn't let herself be convinced, not being so close to confront and make Sebastian Blood pay for all the pain and suffering he had put her through during the last days. Gathering all the courage she had left, she tore a sleeve of the t-shirt she was wearing and with it she gagged her neighbor, then Ronnie turned to look into the eyes of her 'roommate' and she knew instantly that the Asian girl really saw her as a reliable friend, if only they had met before or in other circumstances... they could have become the best confidants and friends.
"Sid, I want you to get everyone in the orphanage out of the building and tell the volunteers you trust the most... tell them I'm crazy and have a bomb hidden or something just as dangerous! I hope that draws enough attention to get the police called..."
The teenager just nodded and before running out of the basement she stopped for a moment to hug her friend, maybe for the last time. Ronnie returned the hug, this time sincerely and promised herself that she wasn't saying goodbye, she would be victorious; her power assured her of that.
Using all her courage and spite, she opened the door through which Mrs. Kernicky had left a moment before, and after entering the elegantly furnished chambers of Brother Blood Ronnie saw at last the man who had ruined her life. Sebastian Blood was gathered with a group of twelve followers halfway across the room, all standing in a half-circle; in the midst of what appeared to be a dark ritual was his unconscious aunt.
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