Stuart Meczes - The awakening

We opened the door. The gym was filled with more shadows and darkness. Decrepit old foam mats lay stacked at the far end. Climbing ropes hung from the ceiling like old nooses. I could smell stale sweat. It seemed to pour out of the very walls. The room was deathly silent.

It was at that moment that I saw that Rachel was wearing the ring I’d seen her drop all those weeks ago. I noticed the crest on the top.

A pyramid of 3 stars sitting inside a crescent moon.

It was the same symbol as the one on the front of the derelict mansion in my nightmares.

Moonstella. The word written above the mausoleum. I hadn’t been able to understand what it meant, because it didn’t actually mean anything — it was a family name.

The dread I’d felt began to leak to the surface. We’d got it wrong. Lafelei’s words hadn’t been referring to the Coven.

Betrayed by the moon and stars.

Moonstella.

My blood turned to ice.

Rachel drew her gun and pointed it at us.

Rachel, don’t do this.” “It has to be this way, I’m sorry,” she said in a hollow voice. Gabriella shook her head in disbelief. “All this time?” “All this time.”

“Will someone please tell me what’s happening?” squeaked Tim. Gabriella answered in a tone of sadness mixed with anger. “People like Alex and I protect other humans from evil things. We thought Rachel was one of us. Turns out she’s an evil thing.”

“But why?” I asked.

In a flash, Rachel’s voice became full of rage. “Because of humans like you. Chosen,” she hissed. “Your kind slaughtered my entire family as if they were nothing more than dogs! Not just my parents. My grandparents, sisters, brothers, uncles, cousins. All of them dragged into the streets and burned alive. You think you know grief? I found everyone I have ever loved in a charred heap at the edge of our estate.” A tear rolled down her cheek. “So mutilated, I couldn’t even mark their graves properly, because I couldn’t work out who was who!”

Gabriella took a step forward, which made Rachel swing the gun in her direction.

“Rachel, I’m so sorry. What those Chosen did to your family was unforgivable. But the Purge was a long time ago. Those people are gone. We’re not the same as them. Rachel, we’re your friends. Please let us go.”

The Pixie shook her head. “I’m sorry but this is bigger than you both. It’s taken me centuries to create a new persona and establish myself as a trusted Guardian of the HASEA. I’ve had to hide who I really am for so long; I almost let myself get caught up in it all.” She grit her teeth. “God, I’m so sick of all the lies!”

“What are you trying to achieve?” I asked.

“Isn’t it obvious? My entire lineage was wiped out without so much as a second thought. Cast into oblivion. Well I didn’t forget! And I’m going to make damn well sure that no one ever forgets me! I’ll be the person who brought down the Alliance.”

“Rachel, there are thousands of Guardians all over the world,” Gabriella pointed out. “How can you ever hope to bring down the Alliance on your own?”

Rachel looked surprised. “One person? I don’t think you quite understand.” She lifted up her top lip with the barrel of her gun. The Eye of the Abyss had been tattooed on the soft underside.

My brain started spinning. “Wait, you are a member of the SOS,” I said in a confused voice.

“Not just a member Alex. I’m a leader.”

Gabriella and I exchanged a horrified glance. I felt my legs go weak. It was all I could do to keep from collapsing.

“I don’t understand,” choked Gabriella. “You’re a Luminar. Hades hates them even more than humans. He barely tolerates them being members of the SOS. Why would he allow one to become a leader?” “Because I have something that he needs.” “What could you possibly have that Hades needs?” “A hidden section of the Veil, sealed and under my control.” Gabriella’s face went ashen. “How…where?” “It’s on her estate,” I answered instead. “Inside a Mausoleum.” The Pixie turned to look at me, sweeping the gun with her. “How do you know that?” “Call it an educated guess,” I said.

Rachel began to pace up and down the Gymnasium, all the while aiming between me and Gabriella. “It was a family secret. My ancestors sealed a section of the Veil and hid it away. Only someone of my bloodline would be able to unseal it. The idea was to use the doorway if ever they needed to escape from danger.” She pulled a grim face. “Only your kind got to them before they had a chance to do so.”

Above, I heard the sound of something louder than rain fall onto the roof. Gabriella looked at me. Rachel didn’t react; she was lost in the past.

“I waited until the first time I was sent to Pandemonia. I went straight to Hades. Told him that I wanted to bring down the Alliance and that when he chose to invade Earth, I had a doorway he could use that was completely unknown to the HASEA. In exchange he made me the leader of my own group of Rogues, so that I’d have the support I needed to weaken the Alliance in preparation for that day.”

“You’re working directly for the Demon King? Have you lost your mind?” shouted Gabriella. “He is the worst kind of evil! You blame Chosen, but as we speak, Hades is killing hundreds of your kind!”

Rachel pressed the gun against her forehead for a moment, as if trying to squeeze out a bad thought. “Don’t you think I know that? It kills me to have to work for that sick son of a bitch. But I can’t allow myself to become concerned with any of that. I have to stick to my plan.”

The traitor turned to me, continuing her speech as if a robot returning to her original programming. I could tell that this was a confession. Her way of achieving absolution.

“Then Hades learned that one of the Elemental’s had spoken of a new Awakening, one that could bring about the Chosen to stand against him. So when he was delivered the news about Alex, he immediately ordered The Sorrow to start tracking him. He wanted to use my doorway to send it through to Earth straight away. But I knew the moment I unsealed the Veil, Faru would sense it, investigate and my cover would be blown. Everything I’d worked so hard to put in place would come undone because of one little boy.”

Rachel stopped moving, letting the gun linger on me. “You’d be dead, The Sorrow would return to Pandemonia and I’d have to go into hiding or on the offensive. I didn’t want that. But still, it was an opportunity for me to advance my own plans. What I needed was a way to distract Faru and keep my cover in place. After I found out about Faru’s plans to seal the Warren’s Veil, I came up with the idea of the fake siege.”

“Fake siege?” I said incredulously. “I was there. That siege was real. Midnight died in that siege.”

“The siege itself was real, but the reason for it was false. I also ensured that you found out about it.” Gabriella and I looked at each other, lost. “Think about the attack at the Black Tap. Out of all the Coven, who exactly had the premonition?” said Rachel. “Sylvia,” replied Gabriella and then covered her mouth as if she’d sworn. “Exactly, and she works for me.”

Something clicked in my brain. “The attack in the bar was a setup. You wanted me to follow Dakin.”

Rachel smiled. “Exactly. Poor Dakin genuinely believed he was there to recruit new followers. He also believed the siege was real. I couldn’t trust him with the full truth. You killed his maker — he was too volatile. I just had to take the chance that someone would notice him leave the bar.” She gestured towards me. “Which the perfect person did.”

“But what about those girls? They were real and so was what almost happened to them,” I countered.