Maynia Day #1
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Maynia Day #24
Maynia -- Day Twenty-Five -- 1,766 words
“The report just came in, sir. Dr. Bliant was already found dead before the fire started, said he had suffered through a massive heart attack while having left the stove on, this could have caused the fire but eye witnesses claimed they had spotted Diana Heins leaving the vicinity where the fire was taking place.”
“Thank you for the information, officer. Have a search party on the look out for her, also have a team set up around the hospital, we don’t want our suspect using the Heins name to get out of this—”
I heard Jack’s voice trail off as he led the officer out, I held Jaden’s purring form close to me as we all sat in the living area of the guys’ house. Z kept pacing the room, muttering a lot of curse words, while Luke sat quietly on an armchair beside mine, he had his face buried in his hands all this time—not saying a single word nor moving an inch, his slightly heavy breathing the only sign he was there at all.
I wanted to comfort him, I really do but.. I didn’t know where to begin.. My gaze then wandered over to the overgrown grass seen from just outside their window where I had inconspicuously placed the protective barrier for their property.. Maybe I should have left it at Dr. Bliant’s first; the barriers didn’t work against humans—whether possessed or under the influence of demons—but it did keep the demons out as long as they didn’t have direct access to my blood. Diana may have been trying to take control of the Lucinor again but got there a little too late..
I was lost in my thoughts when Jack came back to the room, our eyes met briefly before he looked worriedly to Luke who still had his face buried in his hands. Jack came slowly towards him, laying a hand on his shoulder when Luke suddenly stood up and shook Jack by his collar, his eyes were a dark grey as he shouted at him, “That crazy cousin of yours! I tried telling you every time to get her the fuck away from me!! But did you even fucking listen?!!”
“Woah there Luke! Calm down man—” Z started to make his way towards them, wanting to break up the impending fight even though Jack stayed still and let Luke vent out on him. I didn’t want this—I hadn’t wanted to break their friendship by getting involved with any one of them, but now it was crumbling right before my eyes—they had gotten involved with me, whether I had wanted to or not, and they were now paying the price by having my presence in this town.
“It’s my fault!” I blurted out, causing Jaden to go scampering off my lap and hide under the sofa, at my sudden outburst and the growing tension inside the room. I took in a shaky breath as three pairs of eyes settled on me and I clenched my now empty hands as I began to explain, “Diana—she came across something that shouldn’t ever be controlled. That something is also after me, my blood—That thing is what’s been causing all these accidents.. and deaths.”
I looked up from my hands and saw Luke had now let go of Jack and was giving me a look of disbelief, he huffed out a breath and ran a hand through his blond hair before he slowly went towards me, kneeling in front of me as he held my hands. “This isn’t on you, love. Diana’s.. always been a little different even when we were kids. I just—I’d never thought she’d go this far..” Luke firmly held my hands as he gently looked into my eyes, I saw sadness swimming in the clear grey depths, I smiled sadly at him—wishing it could all be that simple.
“There’s something demonic on the loose here, Luke.” I saw him frown at me, still not wanting to believe what I was trying to say but I kept going, “The Lucinor, it’s a demon of nightmares—it turns your deepest fears into something twisted, causing its target to die of shock! My tower is the only thing that’s keeping it from wreaking havoc outside this town, and it’s weakening the lesser demons, but I still need to seal off the rift where it—”
“Shiela please!” Luke immediately stood and turned his back to me, holding his head as he said, “Stop! I don’t—I can’t handle having you play at being my patient at the moment, I—”
“She’s telling the truth, Luke.” I turned my eyes to Jack then as he intervened, “I’ve done some research into the Lancaster Towers because I always wondered why my father was hellbent on having one built here. I always thought he had wanted something more out of Shiela the moment she arrived in town.. but I never expected him to just be Diana’s pawn..” Jack trailed off as he rubbed his left arm, feeling as though a phantom pain run up there.
“It was the signet ring, man—” It was Z who continued where Jack left off, “You remember mentioning how Diana told you she found it for Mrs. Heins? How ‘bout the time you also mentioned the Mayor, suddenly having that behavioral aggression shit? Yeah, that was all on that ring and—and get this, just this morning, when we came for Shiela? We went to the mines, and Jack started doing crazy shit to her before this—this ‘rift’ stuff popped out of nowhere and I was like ‘BANG!—”
“Wait, wait, hold that thought—" Luke put his hands up as he stopped Z, who had his hand formed in a shape of a gun, as he animatedly tried to recount the earlier day’s events. Luke then pointed an accusing finger at Jack, “You—you hurt her?? Don’t think I didn’t notice the bandages on her hands—”
It was all going back to its previous chaos, so I now had to speak up loudly, “I need to seal off that rift!!” They all grew quiet then as they turned and looked back at me, now that I had their attention—“There’s nothing you guys need to know more than that. I’ve gotten you involved too much and look at what’s been happening?!” I stood up then, seeing Jaden’s green eyes peeking out from under the sofa, watching if now was the time he’d follow me out—
“You can’t really be serious there, Shiela! After I saw those things coming out of that rift—” Z broke the silence just as Jack butted in, “Z’s right, you need our help—”
“Shiela.” It was Luke who got my attention as he held out a brown manila envelope towards me, “Gramps.. had me on mail duty just this afternoon.. He had this addressed to you.” Luke didn’t meet my eyes as he said it, but I caught the tone in his voice—he wanted to know what his grandfather had wanted to send out before his last moments..
I took the envelope from his hands, hoping it didn’t just contain Jaden’s vet records. I unrolled the string that served as its seal and the first page that greeted me were in fact that of Jaden’s, but there were more papers that followed.. I furrowed my brows at that as I sat back down, these were records of mom’s water towers.. I thumbed through the pages and saw the various water tower pictures attached to them, until I came upon the last page that had a picture of the telecom tower that stood here in Samheinrock, also seeing my selfie with Luke was also attached to the page.
I unconsciously rubbed the photo of us as I narrowed my eyes, these previous records were outdated—after mom’s death, dad had gone back to each water tower and had a telecom tower built in its place instead, and after his death, I continued the job—until I got a call from Samheinrock. What had Dr. Bliant been looking for?
I thumbed back to the records and looked closer at the pictures until.. I started noticing a man, barely visible in each frame, but it was enough to trigger a memory from me—I saw Ms. Chip as she lay on her bed screaming at.. someone.. I only had time to glimpse the nightmare person that plague Ms. Chip before— From the entryway, I saw mom. She was lying on the floor, her face the only thing I could see because our big sofa was blocking the rest of her.— But that man.. I didn’t know him but it was what plagued Ms. Chip.. and my mom..
I let out a slow breath in relief when I confirmed that the mystery man was nowhere to be found in my selfie with Luke, but then held my breath as I noticed a note that stuck out from behind it. I pulled it close to me and read the written words, “To the doctor who always managed to find me in my journeys, may we meet again, my friend. – G.H. Hammond”
His handwriting was somewhat familiar.. and Hammond was my mother’s surname before she took on dad’s.. I turned the note around and saw it was actually a picture of a younger Dr. Bliant beside the mysterious man-- May my lifeblood be enough. I stared into the man’s eyes as I suddenly remembered those words from the note I had found in dad’s journal—they were unmistakably this man’s handwriting.
I laid down the papers on my lap and took a deep breath as I closed my eyes and gathered my thoughts.. My mother may have thought that my past could become a reason to pull me down, a gout that she may as well have tried to hide for her own reasons, but I wouldn’t agree with her now. She shouldn’t have ran from whatever, or whoever was from her past—and now here I was, relying on the strength that my dad trained into me, the strength he trusted me to use to fight and protect the ones that I love just as mom had said—I needed that trust now, I needed to trust them to fight for the ones they could’ve protected and the ones they still could.
I opened my eyes then and stared evenly at the men who I had unwittingly dragged into this mess, “I need your help.”
to be continued...
Image from Pixabay, by Phan Minh Cuong An: https://pixabay.com/users/minanfotos-9565064/ (edited with dreamscopeapp)