Chapter 32

The Orwell Twins

The journey to the Belle Tout lighthouse north-west of Eastbourne had surprisingly been slow going. The moment the rain had started coming down Zach had turned into a particularly careful driver – or, as Paige would affectionately put it, 'slow as a slug'. Ruby was frustrated as well but she understood Zach's nervousness. He had only been driving for a year and the rain was chucking it down so hard the windshield wipers were working double-time but were still not working perfectly. The black clouds were rolling high above them and blue lightning flickered throughout Eastbourne – one strike even struck somewhere in the town behind them from the looks of it.

Over the course of the journey Ruby had received three phone calls. The first was from Naomi who explained that Tanzi had been injured and taken to the hospital. She was unable to answer Ruby's questions about how injured she was and Ruby had spent those ten minutes or so extremely worried she was going to get another phone call saying Tanzi had passed away.

Only instead the next phone call was from Tanzi herself, which Ruby was extremely happy about. She was even more pleased to hear that Naomi had been saved, though Lucas had been injured though not fatally. However that joy turned to a small amount of anger as Tanzi quickly reported that she was now speaking to a Police Detective, a man named Nathan Furrow. Ruby didn't want her to talk to him but Tanzi was already in the same room as him. Resigned to the worry that the police wouldn't believe Tanzi, she listened as Tanzi explained the vision she had about Jade, though she couldn't piece together the clues. She had, however, got in touch with Jeffrey and Jebediah. She promised that she'd be able to phone again and hung up, though Ruby was very concerned that the police wouldn't believe the tale and lock her away.

As the rain started and the drive went slowly by, Ruby could only wait until the third and final phone call, this one from Jeffrey. He sounded strangely out-of-breath but that was quickly explained by the fact that he had just managed to save Jade. This news was bitter-sweet for Ruby. On the one hand, with Jade saved that meant they had successfully saved everyone since Jay's death. Everyone was working together and it was working just like Ruby had hoped.

It, however, did mean that Ruby was next and that old familiar feeling of deathly expectation had been bothering Ruby for the whole journey. She sat in the passenger seat, staring out through the heavy sheets of rain, wondering if this was to be her last few days of living. If Tanzi was detained by the police, what if she wasn't able to get in contact when she had her vision? Ruby dreaded to think that she was driving to her death but the weather provided a bad omen.

Zach's tongue was sticking out as he drove at barely fifteen miles an hour, concentrating as he squinted through the curtain of rain and the back-and-forth motion of the wipers. After a moment Paige leant in from the back of the car to point.

"There! That must be it."

Zach refused to stop looking at the road but Ruby spotted what Paige had seen. Silhouetted against the grey sky stood a tall tower that could only be the Belle Tout Lighthouse. Lightning flashed in the sky amongst the rumble of thunder and for a moment the white walls of the Lighthouse lit up before being plunged back into the darkness again.

As Zach got closer, Ruby wasn't sure what to expect. Jeffrey's acquaintance, Bludworth, had said that a man the DSI referred to as the Oracle resided here, though what that meant was anyone's guess. He apparently had answers and Ruby had to believe that they would soon discover a way to defeat the List without killing the ones they loved.

Then another pang ran through her stomach and Ruby couldn't help but feel slightly sick. She almost wanted to believe there wasn't another way to defeat the List because if they found out that there was another way, then everything that happened with Sabrina would have been tragically unnecessary. Sabrina's whole life ever since she had killed her former lover in Cornwall had been shaped by the belief that it had been the only way to stop the List. Her actions at Epsilon, the unwillingness to save no-one except for Ruby, the events at the construction site and ultimately her death… it all would have been for naught.

What would Sabrina have done in this situation? Would she have believed that there was another way or would she have refused to believe? No… Ruby stopped herself from thinking that way. As much as it hurt to admit the actions that Sabrina had taken were wrong, despite the fact she believed that the only way to survive was to kill the one she loved. Sabrina had refused to work with the survivors and that meant they died, one-by-one, and corrupted Meagan to the point that the girl had actually worked with the two men, Eugene and Harold, to bring a gun to kill Sabrina.

Everything Sabrina had done had only led to death and destruction… and Ruby was proud that they had only had two deaths – and those were two people who refused to work with them. Daniel and Jay didn't want anything to do with them and because of that they had died… but everyone else, Jeffrey, Paige, the rest, they were still alive. Every person that came up on the List had been saved.

"…Finally!" Zach breathed with a sigh of relief as his car lurched to a stop. The breaks squeaked in protest but held firm as Zach pulled the handbrake. "I hope to Christ this rain has stopped when we head back. I've never been so racked with nerves…" Ruby saw that he was visibly sweating and noted that she really had to learn how to drive.

The Lighthouse was situated on the side of the cliff and the driveway that Zach had parked in pointed directly towards the edge, with only wooden fencing to guard the edge.

"Hey… Look, there's people there," Paige pointed again through the rain and they saw two figures walking towards them, their shoulders hunched and hugging great big coats around them.

"Guess we better go… Ready to get wet?" Ruby smiled and opened the door, stepping out into the torrential rain. It barely took five seconds before she was completely soaked to the skin and regretting the decision not to take a coat, just in case. However, she ignored the cold and the wet as she approached the two figures, Zach and Paige following behind. "Hey there," Ruby greeted as she approached the two figures.

She was startled to see that the faces of the strangers both seemed to be an exact mirror. It was only after a moment that she realised that one was male and the other female, though they had to be identical twins with the way they looked.

"Hello," The male said and beckoned. "We've been expecting you. Come, let us get out of this rain."

"But Paige, I must have a word with you," The female said as she looked to Paige. Paige cocked her head in interest, her hair plastered to her head.

"How do you know my name?" She asked, her voice barely audible over the thunder and the rain.

"You came here to seek the Oracle. I believe that alone explains that we know much," The female twin's eye twinkled. "But I suppose it would be only fair to tell you our names. My name is Willow Orwell, and this is my brother, Ash." Ash bowed slightly, his face a mask. Willow merely smiled. "You chose an interesting day to visit, Ruby." She looked up to the sky, allowing the rain to wash over her. "My father used to tell me that when it rained it meant that the sky was crying, mourning those that it had lost."

"Father had a great many sayings, most of which nonsense," Ash said. "Willow, we do not have time for your tales of the past. Uncle is waiting for the three of us."

"You are right, of course." Willow nodded. Both she and her brother spoke strangely. "Zachary, Ruby, please, follow my brother to the Lighthouse. You shall meet Archibald, our uncle, the Oracle."

"It's Zach," Zach said as he hunched his shoulder. He looked very miserable as the rain pummelled. "And yes, please, let's get inside and in the dry."

But instead of moving Willow looked at him with an odd expression. "But your name is Zachary. That is what your mother chose when you were born. They had waited until the birth to find out your gender. Had you been female, they would have named you Sapphire. That name was your father's choice, naming you after his grandmother who had passed only a few days before."

Zach couldn't even form a sentence to reply to this strange response. He could only stare at Willow, his mouth hanging open stupidly.

"Enough of this. Ruby, Zach, follow me," and with that Ash turned and started walking back to the Lighthouse. Zach immediately followed, desperate to get out of the storm, his hands shoved deep into his pockets. Ruby, however, turned to Paige.

"What are you thinking?" Ruby asked, looking suspiciously at Willow, who was watching the sky again.

"I think I should probably go with her," Paige shrugged. "I'm a fan of storms as well so I don't mind being out here. It makes me feel free."

"Yes," Willow suddenly interrupted. "The lightning is a representation of freedom. It is random and chaotic and often causes destruction. Yet, in the end, that is what freedom results in. To be free you must sacrifice the rules of humankind and doing so will drive you to the end of the line." Willow smiled again. "Paige, please, follow me," and just like her brother Willow started walking, except instead of heading towards the lighthouse Willow made her way to the wooden fencing at the end of the cliff.

"Whatever these people are, they are certainly the people we want to talk to," Paige said. "The things they are saying, the fact they know our names when this is the first time we have met."

"So you're saying that this Oracle can somehow read our minds?"

"I doubt it," Paige said as she watched Willow stop at the cliff-edge and opened her arms out as if to take in the rain and the wind. Her coat whipped behind her yet the girl remained firm. "If the name Oracle is anything to go by, at I guess I reckon this Archibald can see the future. Perhaps he saw us coming."

Ruby shook her head, incredulous. "Seeing the future…? It just gets more and more unbelievable…"

"I'd agree with you if I hadn't talked to the sky ever since I was a little girl," Paige smiled. "Go to the Lighthouse. If the Oracle can really see the future then that is a conversation you are not going to want to miss. I'll be fine. You're the one who needs to be worried, after all."

"You're right…" Ruby nodded. "Right. Let's go get some answers." And with that Ruby half-jogged through the rain after Zach and Ash, who were waiting at the wooden door of the lighthouse. Paige watched them for a moment before turning and walking on the driveway to meet Willow at the edge of the cliff. Here, the wind was roaring and the ocean far below was surging like a great beast.

"Paige Calloway… Your father was Irish." Willow said as soon as Paige got close. "He liked to drink every evening at the O'Callaghan pub in Belfast, but stopped when you were born. Had he known what you would become perhaps he would have continued drinking."

"So does your Uncle see the future?" Paige asked out-right. "Is that how you know these things?"

"Archibald does see the future, this is true. But I know your names and I know your past not because of his visions but rather because of the sky."

"Excuse me?" A strange feeling washed over Paige and suddenly she couldn't feel the rain on her shoulders any more.

"The sky tells me what I need to know." Willow's eyes were wide as she looked up at the clouds. "She speaks to me as she speaks to you. For we are of the some blood, you and I. The mother we share is the mother of all, and the sky speaks with her voice."

"What are you…"

"Yet when the storm roils she cannot speak…" Willow turned and placed both hands on Paige's shoulder. "And when she cannot speak it means that we, her children, can." Willow's face had turned serious, the carefree smile gone. "Sister, you have a choice to make. A choice that will change the knots of fate. For when the Doomsday Clock hits zero, you will stand face-to-face with Death himself. The choice you make today at this hour will declare the choices of the future. When the world is overtaken by Pestilence, War, Famine… Death… when the Apocalypse arrives, where will you be, Paige Calloway? Will you stand with those who have the power to fight the Demons of the Apocalypse, or will you stand with the humans who seek only to defend their world? Will you stand with your mother or will you stand with your father?" Willow's voice was quiet yet every word could be clearly heard over the raging storm that seemed miles away. "Will you live? Or will you die?"