-"And how are we suppose to do that? It's not like we can just go to the library and…"
-"That's it Johnny! The library might have a record of the people involved in the inquisition."
-"How can a library have such old and detailed records of something that happened centuries and miles away!"
-"Your dad said once that…"-
As in response, Dr Quest entered in the lighthouse. He was concerned about the children and hadn't seemed them in all morning. Before he could ask them how they felt, Jesse ran towards him and grabbed him by the shoulders.
-"Dr. Quest, is it true that the founder of the public library has record of dark historic events?"
-"Well, yes." He responded, startled by the strange question.-"He used to go to college with me, but he was studying another career. He always had a fascination with violent history. In the library he installed a collection of rare books and records of things like the holocaust, the French revolution, the inquisition and the witch-hunt in Salem."
Before he could finish, the children were running desperately towards the door but before they could go trough it Benton stepped in front of them:
-"Were do you think you're going?"
-"We're going to the library, dad, we need to find something"
-"You are not going, not today, there's a hurricane coming and you are sick"
-"Dr. Quest, we're not sick and the hurricane won't be here until late at night"
-"I don't care and I won't hear anymore of it. Now go to the dining room and eat your lunch, you had nothing but tea this morning."
-"We weren't hungry then and we're not hungry now!" The kids said in unison.
Every time they tried to eat, Johnny saw a rat in the plate in front of him and Jesse smelt the burned flesh of the woman she saw in the mirror. The thought about going trough that again gave them nausea.
-"You have to eat!" This time Benton seemed concerned, both teens went from pale to gray in a matter of seconds in front of him.
-"I'll tell you what dad, you let us go to the library and we'll eat all you want"
-"Fine. But as soon as you come back, you're telling me what's going on"
…………………………..
One hour later Johnny and Jesse were trying with no luck to get access to the library's private collection. Finally, a med student that was preparing herself for a final heard them from the hall and told them she was the founder's niece and that she had the key. The young woman was far from being good looking, in spite of her big and kind brown eyes, the tall chubby brunette looked like a complete butch. She explained them that she shared her uncle's affection for dark history.
-"In a way" She told them, "all the important events are violent. All the history you see in your school books happened thanks to the deaths of many innocents"
They went to what seemed to be a huge basement; it was only lit with many, yet discrete lamps. The whole place was tastefully decorated in a classic stile. The student's name was Melissa; she told them were they could find the information they needed and sat in a comfortable armchair while they looked in the ancient books.
Johnny found the names of the priests in a confession of a duchess named Carla Herrera, she wrote it before she died, explaining what truly happened. It was written in Spanish, but luckily Jesse spent half her time in South America with her mother and could translate it:
"I am going to die, I just went trough labor bringing a beautiful baby girl into this world; but by doing this I lost too much blood and the midwife told me that because of my ill heart, I will not live to see the dawn. I know it is a punishment god gave for leading my innocent cousin Carolina and her soon-to-be husband to an early death. They died because I went to father Schwartz and father Kant and wrongfully accused them of being involved on pagan, satanic rituals. I did it because I could not allow them to have a daughter before I did, if that happened, my family and my husband would deny me of my honor or perhaps, my life.
Now I know the only one who made a pact with the devil was me, and I deserve to go to hell for the eternity, still, I am glad my daughter will be queen in the future.
I leave this confession written with my last strength to let the world know the truth, so my cousin's memory will not be tainted with awful lies"
Carla Herrera, 1612
The teens found proof that their dreams were true, all those things truly happened. Jesse looked in a book that contained drawings and portraits of people that lived during the time the confession was made. She searched the names they just read, finding a drawing and two portraits that she showed Johnny and Melissa. Johnny saw it and recognized immediately the ones that tortured them in their nightmares; unfortunately they still had their hoods.
-"Don't you have one drawing with the hoods off, Jess?"
-"No, it's all I have. Here it says they always wore them because of a pact they did with the church, but that's not the weirdest part, look a this paintings"
She handed them the copy of two portraits, one was of Juan Bustamante and the other one of Carolina Velazquez, Melissa saw them and for a moment she thought she had lost her mind. The faces in the portraits looked exactly like the kids next to her.
-"So… I guess those were us, right Jess?"
-"If we look like the persons we used to be, so will the priests"
-"Yeah, but we don't know how they look like, remember?"
-"We can keep searching until we find their portrait, if we find one from before they joined the church…"
-"Well know how their faces are!"
Melissa didn't know what was going on, but something told her she should help. The brunette felt like living on a permanent déjà vu, as if she had seen all this in her dreams, especially after she read the confession, Melissa could swear she had seen it before. Eventually the kids told her the whole story, at least what they knew.
Even when the student always was a skeptic person, she felt there was enough evidence to convince her. Two hours later they hadn't found anything, there was a knock on the door and when they opened it Race was standing there, he told the kids it was time to go because the hurricane was coming early, they started protesting:
-"Dad, just let us stay here for a few more minutes, it's really important."
-"You don't understand ponchita, it's raining already, we'll barely make it on time to avoid the storm if we leave now"
-"But race…"
-"No buts Johnny we're leaving"
-"Its ok children"- Melissa said –"I'll search for the pictures and send it to you by fax, after all, it's too late for me to go home so I'll stay here."
Jesse felt a sudden wave of nausea, the smell of burned flesh filled her nostrils again, this time it was much more intense than before. She excused herself and went towards the small restroom in the corner of the basement, locked the door and threw up, but instead of her lunch a black thick liquid came out of her mouth, she didn't know what it was but it tasted like blood and rotten flesh. She heard her father knocking at the door, asking her if she was okay, but she couldn't speak no matter how hard she tried. She washed her face in the sink and when she saw herself in the mirror her reflection showed the burned woman, this time there were words coming out of her destroyed mouth. At first it wasn't easy to hear her, especially with her dad threatening to throw down the door, but eventually she heard: -"K' -re", then -"co-rre" and finally: "CORRE!" Jesse knew what that meant… RUN!
At that second Race busted the door and Jesse ran towards the exit of the basement but her father cached her in mid air, he asked her what was wrong but all she could hear is run run run run runrunrunrunrun until words lost their sense and the world turned black.
Race looked with concern at his daughter who lay unconscious in his arms, he touched her forehead, she was boiling up with fever. He asked Johnny to call his dad but saw him grabbing his head with all his strength; he had an expression of pure pain. Melissa was beside him and made him sit on a chair nearby, when he opened his eyes all he saw was the ghost of himself, wet and beaten to death, that whispered into Johnny's skull:-"Run away and take her with you if they find her they will kill you both do not let them get to her donotletthemgettoherdonotletthemgettoher…"
-"STOOOP!"- He screamed with all the air in his lungs and the terrible headache disappeared. He couldn't breathe anymore, he gasped for air yet he felt as if he was swallowing water, then his strength left him and collapsed.
Priests dressed in black robes kept throwing rocks at him, some of them were sharp like knives, some others were bigger than his head and some others had been heated to the point of glowing red in an oven usually used for making swords, as if the rats hadn't done enough harm. Still, he was alive; he was clinging at the absurd thought of escaping and saving his beloved. Hours past like centuries and during all that time the priest in red robe (in his mind he referred to him as "the monster") stood quiet and still as a statue, Juan was now unrecognizable, between the rats, the tortures and the rocks there was nothing unharmed in his body, yet right when his captors thought he was finally giving up to his faith, he stood as straight as possible and yelled:
-"You monster will never kill me, or Carolina, we are stronger than all of you combined"
-"This is enough you pagan, it is time for you to go meet your creator Lucifer, and tell him face to face, that the power of our Lord is stronger than his"
With that said, the monster grabbed him from his hair and dragged him for two miles, until he arrived at a big lake that was turning into a swamp, he threw him into the water, his hands on the victim's neck and begun to drawn him, but as hard as he tried, Juan kept fighting, now in his befuddled mind he said: -"Resist Carolina, I will save you"
-"Your whore is dead, pagan." The monster responded as he lifted Juan's head above the water and showed him the smoke of a fire not so far away -"Do you see that? It is your lover; she has been roasting all morning".
-"NOOO!" it was all he could scream before the monster sunk his head in the water, with his last breath, he removed the hood from his murderer and finally saw his face, now nothing else mattered, he left the darkness to envelope him in a black haze, the last thought on his mind was to meet his loved one on the next life.
Carolina was tied up in an old tree, there were burning branches at her feet and the smoke was hurting her eyes as the flames burned her body slowly. On the dungeon she heard that being burned alive wasn't that bad because usually the smoke killed you before the fire reached your feet. But she was on an open field in a windy day, the smoke was enough to hurt her lungs but not to make her faint. She was conscious of the flames burning her feet and legs to the bone, she smelled the awful stench of her own burned flesh, at first the pain was excruciating, but as her skin and nerves were destroyed, the pain lessened, yet as soon as a part of her body was too burned to hurt another part of her, like the torso, was just starting to feel the pain again. Father Schwartz was observing her intently and when she was too weak to keep screaming he spoke to her:
-"Satan has made you strong, but God is much more powerful than you"
-"I do not care what you do to me, but please let Juan go" She said between sobs, the smoke and hurt was finally affecting her senses, she was too weak to think clearly. "I will give you all you want, my confession, my wealth, all my belongings, and I will thank God for your mercy if you just let him go and spare his life!"
-"But we have all your assets, and your confession is useless now that you are being punished already, I am being merciful because I will send you to Lucifer your creator and God will not waste his valuable time in hearing your filthy words. As for your lover, he was killed this morning"-
After hearing this Carolina tried to scream, but instead she threw up dark blood that came from her destroyed organs. She didn't feel the heat anymore, instead she was cold, first she thought it was the strong breeze that managed to blow of her murderer's hood, so she could finally see his face, but the cold was more intense now and she whispered his beloved's name before the oblivion took her away.
Johnny and Jesse woke up at the same time, the expression on their faces was of sheer panic. They saw the faces of the hunters, and worse of all, they recognized them. Race held his daughter in his arms and talked to her:
-"How do you feel?"
-"I'm c-cold" she didn't know if she was stammering from cold or fear
-"That's because of the fever, we tried everything but nothing seems to cool it down, it's very high ,you're scaring me honey, and we can't take you kids to the hospital because it's closed for the hurricane."
She realized she was in the infirmary of the compound surrounded by ice bags and wet cloths. At her right she saw Johnny talking next to his father, he was shaking and she knew it wasn't for the cold even when he was covered in blankets, there was small tube coming out of his chest that ended on a plastic recipe filled with dark water.
Johnny saw the tube and said
-"Dad, what is this?"
-"You had liquid in your lungs, we had to drain it so you could breathe, and as if that wasn't enough you also had hypothermia. I want you to rest; as soon as the storm is over we'll go to the hospital"
-"Can't you take this thing off? It's creepy."
-"I will if you promise not to scare me like that again" he said with a tired smile
-"Yes dad" he saw Jesse by his side while race checked the thermometer he removed from her ear, he seemed worried.
While Dr. Quest carefully removed Johnny's tube Melissa appeared in the infirmary, when the kids collapsed, she helped Race to take them to the compound and once they arrived she helped Benton to stabilize them. As a med student she had some medical training and was good taking orders under pressure.
-"Hi kids, how do you feel?
-"Better" Johnny lied "uh, can Jess and I speak with you… alone?
She saw the Dr. and the bodyguard, her eyes told them she had no clue why he asked such a thing, and still both parents said they would give them sometime to talk. With his eyes, Race told her to share whatever information she had with them as soon as the talk was over.
Johnny couldn't hide his fear anymore, and Jesse begun to cry, Melissa didn't know what to do:
-"Kids, what is it?"
-"We know who the hunters are" Jesse said quietly.
-"Well, who are they"
-"Did you talked to our dads about this whole thing?"
-"No, between your lungs and Jesse's fever I didn't have much time. Do you want me to tell them? If you know who the priests are they could stop them. I mean, your dad is nice Jesse, but I wouldn't mess with him, and the Doctor is not that helpless either."
Johnny begun to shake more violently and hugged himself while Jesse kept crying.
-"What is it? What's wrong? Tell me who the hunters are so we can…"
-"They're our dads!" Jesse squealed.
-"WHAT?"
-"The man that burned me alive over tree hundred years ago reincarnated as my dad!"
-"Same thing with the guy that drowned me"
-"So, you are saying that we are trapped in a manor with two men that will turn into murderers in a few minutes, and we can't escape because there's a HURRICANE outside?
-"Pretty much, yeah" Johnny said simply.
-"Maybe we could drug them until the "hunter's moon" it's over" Jesse said, regaining control on herself.
-"I don't think so; drugging them and making them weak would only make the transition easer. I think the reason you guys got sick is because you have to be closer to the world of the dead in order to communicate with them, Juan and Carolina had to almost kill you before you could understand what they were saying"
-"How does a med student know so much of supernatural things?" Jesse asked.
Melissa blushed and responded:-"I was a Goth chick back in high school. I spent many nights reading about ghosts and vampires until I grew up and got over all that stuff"
-"Did that reading tell you how to beat this thing?"
-"Not really, but I think these spirits want to help you fight the priests, I mean, you kids look better already, maybe now you'll be able to escape from them until the alignment is over. Now, do you have like a panic room or something where we could lock your parents?
-"The compound itself is a panic room, because of the storm all exits are probably blocked" Johnny responded bitterly.
Suddenly the children felt a nut on their stomach, they knew the hunters were coming, luckily they felt better now and much stronger. It was time to run before it was too late. Their parents were a few meters away, in the living room, Melissa followed the kids as they quietly locked the large wooden door, leaving Dr. Quest and Race trapped inside, which would give them some time. A few seconds later they were near the kitchen trying to get to the garage were they could deactivate the security code and go away, in one of the all-ground vehicles they had in there. But before they could even get close to the garage they heard a loud blow and the sound of cracking wood coming from the living room, the kids ran as fast as they could without noticing that Melissa was left behind because she wasn't near as fast as they were. Adrenaline and fear took hold of them as they heard the loud and quick footsteps that seemed to sound closer with every second. They got to the garage door, it was locked. They tried to open it but they heard two dark, unnatural voices behind them that said:
-"You little demons will not get away from God this time"-, they turned around slowly and saw two men that used to be their parents with a menacing, evil expression on their faces, their eyes were glowing crimson red.
End of chapter two