“That’s cool and all, but how do we get rid of him?” Beverly asked the young woman.
“You can’t. He is a powerful spirit that has fed on humanity for over a century and you’re a cheerleader and a mathlete.” Kayla told the duo with a flat stare.
“Well, you better think of one because I’m pretty sure that you’re now in the same boat as us.” Brayden said and watched the color drain from Kayla’s face.
“Wait, what?” Kayla croaked out.
“Yeah, you said anyone who knows and is around him is infected. That means you!” Beverly said feeling victorious.
Kayla fell apart at that. She started weeping uncontrollably attracting the attention of the surrounding students.
“Kayla calm down. I’m sure we can figure something out. Right, Bev?” “Yeah. Tots” both trying to comfort the girl.
“You don’t get it. I’m a seer. What he does to us… I cannot even mention it. We all might be f*cked, but me especially so.” Kayla said, panicking.
That lead to a period of silence and contemplation that was eventually broken by Beverly, “the bird.”
“What bird?” Brayden asked his sister.
“There was this bird that caused him to run scared.”
Hearing that Kayla leapt across the table and grabbed Beverly’s shoulders. “Did it have no eyes?!” Kayla asked, filled with both hope and fear that said hope would be butchered.
“Maybe… it was pretty dark out. Why?” Beverly asked slightly offput by the face in her face.
“Because an eyeless raven is the scout of The Shattered Brotherhood.” Kayla told them after calming down and letting Beverly go.
“The Shattered Brotherhood?” Brayden asked the girl.
“Or at least that’s what I call them. In my visions I see them protect people in this city from various mystical threats. They’re my heroes.” Kayla explained.
“There’s Wolf Knight. He’s my favorite. He has this awesome black armor with sliver veins and wolf shaped chest piece. His whole thing is blades and sonic screeches”
“Then there’s The Insatiable. He has all these mouths that just suck the life out of his opponents like a man dying of thirst.”
“The brute of the group is The Living Mountain. He’s this stone man that has these crystals that pump his body up like a ballon. I once saw him wrestle a cyclops and make it look like his little brother.”
“The girl of the group, Aviary, is like their mobile artillery. She has this cloak of molten metal feathers that cover her body and a bird skull mask. She shoots the feathers, and they hit like mortar shells.”
“The last member is The Walking Forest. He’s this walking bush covered in thorns, flowers, and fruit. I once saw him restrain a troll with vines and force feed it this white apple and the troll just dropped dead. Like immediately.”
A little offput Brayden interrupted the fangasm, “Kayla that’s cool and all, but how do we contact them?”
“Contact them? No, you don’t contact them. They just come and improve your life like the knights of old.”
“Soooo, what now?” Beverly asked the girl, or her brother, or maybe the world itself.
“First, we thank our lucky stars mom and Suzie did not pay much attention to your mirror. Then we call mom and tell her we’re spending the night at a friend’s house. What comes next? Wellllll…we’ll think of something.” Brayden before getting up and walking out of the lunchroom with the other two trailing behind him.
“So why The Shattered Brotherhood?” Brayden heard his sister ask behind him.
“They all wear amulet inscribed with cracks. I think they see their duty as mending the world.” Kayla said excitedly.
“Or they just thought it looked cool.” Beverly pitched.
“No. No that’s not it.”
***
“Are you sure this is going to work?” Beverly asked Kayla while taking in the chalk circle drawn across the basement floor.
The trio had taken up residence at Kayla’s house for the night. While short notice, her parents were always happy to meet their daughter’s friends. They even made pizza rolls.
“This circle is a hodgepodge of what I’ve seen in visions and whatever scraps of arcane knowledge I’ve dug up over the years held together by bubblegum and a dream. We have a snowball’s chance in hell, but the alternative is to do nothing and hope The Brotherhood gets him before he gets us.” Kayla told the others.
“I’d rather take my fate into my own hands. What’s the next step?” Brayden asked.
“Now we shed the blood of those he seeks onto the circle.” Kayla said before proceeding to open a cut on her palm with a knife.
The sibling quickly followed.
When the last drop of blood landed on the circle it exploded with red light blinding the trio. When they opened their eyes again, they saw a shadow trapped inside a translucent red cylinder.
“Wowsers it actually worked.” Kayla said in awe.
“You didn’t think it would?!” Beverly shouted.
With a handheld up in appeasement to his sister, “Bev we need to focus on the fact that it did. What now Kayla?”
If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.
“Now I make your lives hell, few have suffered like you will. Release me now and I will at least mitigate some small part of your suffering.” The shadow told the group.
“No, I do not believe that we will.” Brayden said before turning to Kayla. “What do we do?”
“I…I don’t know.” Kayla said, realizing how she had barely any idea of step one and even less of an idea for step two.
*BANG*
The shadow struck the wall caging him leaving several cracks spanning across it.
“Well think of something! he’s gonna kill us!” Beverly shouted at Kayla.
*BANG*
“Beverly not helping.” Brayden told his sister before turning to Kayla, grabbing her shoulders, and looking her directly in the eyes. “Think. I believe in you. you can do this.”
*BANG*
Kayla yelped at that one.
“Blood, we need more blood to reinforce the barrier.” Kayla said before grabbing the previously discarded knife.
Seeing the knife hovering over the inside of her forearm Brayden quickly interrupted, “Give it to me. I’m bigger and have more blood.”
“No, it has to be me. Seer blood is a lot more powerful and will buy you guys time to escape or think of something else.”
*BANG*
“Uh guys. We don’t have time for this martyr sh*t. We all contribute. live together or die together.” Beverly said while looking at the steadily growing cracks in the barrier.
*BANG*
They all yelped this time.
Kayla was the first to draw a red line from her elbow to wrist. Beverly and Brayden soon followed. The streams all fell to the ground before snaking towards the barrier.
The barrier quickly sealed all the cracks that the shadow had made.
“I WILL FEAST ON YOUR SCREAMS!!!!!” The shadow bellowed while slamming his fists on the wall separating them. The wall quickly strengthened, turning opaque and soundproof.
“Kayla not to rush you but you’re now on a clock.” Brayden said before sliding down to the ground.
“I’m sorry, but I don’t think that’s in the cards. The most we can do is trap him with our deaths long enough that anyone close enough to latch on to has died or forgotten.” Kayla said while sliding down to join Brayden in sitting on the ground.
“You can’t just give up?!” Kayla shouted at the other two.
Brayden turned his head to his sister, “We’re not giving up. We’re redefining what victory looks like. Sometimes all you can do is turn a victory pyrrhic.”
With that Beverly slid to the ground to join the others.
They all sat there in silence staring at their death. At their victory. At their defeat. At a monster’s coffin.
Breaking the silence Kayla started talking, “I was seven when I got my first vision. A vampire tearing out my aunt’s throat. I cried for days. I cried even harder when I was told that she had died the previous night.”
“I lost my virginity to a total jerk. He had told me that he had loved me and being an idiot, I believed him.” Beverly said while not looking at either person.
“I had a secret girlfriend. She was a tornado in human form. She was everything I was not: confident, free, full of life… happy. She opened up my world and when she died… my world snapped shut again. Cancer. She never told me… wanted to live her limited time without that hanging over her head. I wake up every day knowing that she would have used it better.” Brayden shared.
Nobody said anything in comfort. That was not what any of them were looking for. They just wanted to tell someone something.
After that they all just sat on the ground and stared at the red pillar lost in their thoughts.
None of them noticed when a living ghillie suit entered the room. The figure covered in foliage waved his hands spreading tiny seeds over the trio.
The seeds rapidly sprouted. The tiny vines worked themselves over to the trio’s wounds before stitching them up. When the stitches were finished, they flashed with golden light and disappeared along with the wounds.
The rapid healing along with the previous blood loss caused the kids to pass out.
“Sleep well.” The figure said while standing over the slumped bodies. he then stepped over them on the way to the barrier. When he reached it, he slid his finger along it causing the barrier to unravel. The shadow quickly tried to flee, but was restrained by a series of branches before it could move more than a couple of feet.
The branches then twisted forcing the shadow to turn and head towards the botanical figure.
“What da…” the shadow started to say before the branches forced themselves inside his mouth forcing it open.
“No talking.” The figure said before pulling a bunch of broken shards bound together with a thin chain out of a starry wound in reality.
The figure then held the shards in front of the shadow’s open mouth. This was followed by a torrent of dark energy rushing out of the shadow’s mouth into them. When that was done all that was left of the shadow known as the good doctor was a pile of black sludge full of faults and imperfections. Meanwhile the shards were now an amulet featuring a circular cloudy black gem.
_
Smoke
“You do not in fact want this smoke.”
Rank: Low
Primary Concept: Deception
Secondary Concepts: Darkness, -
Tertiary Concepts: -, -, -, -
An amulet containing an improved version of a certain reality’s mystical energy, Black Smoke.
_
The figure put the new amulet away inside the starry wound. He then whistled summoning his familiar. An eyeless raven flew in through the window before transforming into a strange beast. The ebony beast was canine except that it lacked both eyes and ears. Further differentiating it from other canines was a large star-like nose.
_
Bennett
“You reek of failure.”
Rank: Medium
Primary Concept: Consumption
Secondary Concepts: Purity, Fault
Tertiary Concepts: Defense, Stealth, Tracking, Sealing
A loyal familiar whose primary purpose is as a hunter to its master
_
The beast quickly rushed over to the black sludge and devoured it.
While his familiar was having its meal, the figure checked the trio’s future out of curiosity. He ran his thumb over his bronze watch causing a flash of green to spread across the room
_
Time Piece
“Time is as always on my side.”
Rank: Low
Primary Concept: Time
Secondary Concepts: -,-
Tertiary Concepts: -,-,-,-
A watch with limited control over time
_
After the flash faded, a green projection gave a sped-up version of the trio life. The trio stays close over the decades having bonded over this experience. Brayden becomes a high-power lawyer, Kayla a famous artist, and Beverly eventually joins Doctors Without Borders. Brayden and Kayla even end up together which made him happy.
After both he and Bennett were done with their business, they left the scene.
Artifacts:
[Disparate Unity]
[Smoke]
[Bennett]
[Time Piece]
Materials:
[Nascent Energy Vampire Progenitor Mantle (Remnants)]
[Empowerment (Remnants)]
[Frankenstein’s Lightning (Remnants)]
[Emotive Fire]
[Emotive Ice]
[Olivia’s Friendship (Remnants)]
[Beastly Heart (Remnants)]
[Murder Weapon (Remnants)]
[Various Utility Artifacts]
[Various Articles Of Clothing]
[Death Dogtags]
