Page 44 of The Haunting

Epilogue.

Jacques

Eden and I watched from the dark shadows as our uninvited guests climbed into their cars, all talking. Their memories wiped and the worst of last night missing from any recollections, I smiled. Those who were friends — the MC group — would go on to live happy lives. Their memories would state that they had stayed in an abandoned house somewhere in Nebraska on a Halloween night.

For the Nortons and Harringtons, they’d remember much the same, that they met some interesting people, and slowly their memory would fade. Whether their paths would cross again, I knew not. It was not for me to interfere with their destiny.

I turned to see Vladimir standing beside their car. The mirror network would work again; I saw Vladimir realise this. Wiping their memories had not been so easy, and we’d failed at doing so. The Legendary Shifters would recall this evening and how close evil had come to entering this world. A part of me had been tempted to allow it. Wipe out the human race and start again. Was that not the way of the world?

But Claudias wouldn’t have stopped with the humans. He’d have come after the Vam’pirs and all supernatural races walking this world. Instead, we’d stopped him, weakened him enough for the eternal hells to claim him back to their pits, and ensured Claudias could never be called again.

Someone tapped on my mind, a knock, and I cocked my head.

‘Jaques, you stopped him,’D’vid mind spoke to me.

‘Indeed. Eden and I will return to England tonight.’

‘I shall see you soon, brother,’D’vid replied before fading.

Yes, we would see him tonight. Eden and I would return home to where we belonged.

Lucifer

How surprising. A meeting of people that shouldn’t have happened, they’d nothing in common. How interesting indeed. Rage MC and their friends belonged in a world where the paranormal and supernatural didn’t exist. They should not have been involved in this, but somehow had been. Did that mean something? I was unsure.

They would return to their world and not remember the past twenty-four hours. They’d return to their normal lives, and not cross paths with the mystical again. We might live in the same world, but their existence was separate from everyone else who’d been here tonight. No, they would not cross paths again.

Naturally, I knew of them, how they were trying to change the world one kind gesture at a time. Even the dark soul of James Washington was beginning to lighten as he committed one good deed after another. It would never be fully clear of the stains on it, but enough that he’d avoid an appointment with the Devil.

A scowl descended at the thought of the monster I was often linked to. Lucifer is the Devil! No, I wasn’t. We were twoseparate entities. Neither was I a fallen angel. I had a mission, one that had lasted too many millennia to count.

My gaze swept the Nortons and Rakehell Six. Their mission was not over yet. Sadly, they had the weight of the world on their shoulders. As would their children and their children’s children. However, they’d not be alone; I would ensure that. But their voices were unheard in a world filled with darkness, greed, and selfishness. Slowly, that would change, or otherwise evil would win.

With sadness, I turned to Vladimir and Emmaline. I longed to inform them that their battle was nearly over, but it wasn’t. I missed the Protectors of the Jar and had raged at the unfairness and wickedness that had befallen them. Of course, I’d once known them. They were of God, like me. But they had their own fate to walk. They would find their way. I was sure of it.

Finally, I peered at the two hiding in the darkness. Atlantis, once our great hope before fate took it away. Jacques’ story told of a race who were good and pure but unable to adapt. An existence so rigid that it allowed evil to seep in and destroy their way of life. A tragic tale recounted by Plato and thought to be a warning story. That had been real. I’d watched helplessly with the other angels, forbidden to interfere. We’d held out hope as the survivors banded together, but fate and time won, and they passed on from this mortal plane.

Atlanteans had been the epitome of mankind, everything modern-day men and women should strive to be. But even so, they’d fallen to darkness just like today’s people.

I wondered once again at the odds of these people meeting each other. Astronomical. Yet, they had. Maybe, as much as I was influencing events, someone else was too. Once again, how interesting!