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Chapter 4
Silence and Darkness consumed all.
My chest hurt…why?
Where am I?
Katrina stood in the middle a small underground chamber. Shadows shroud every corner and crevice in complete darkness, and a frozen coldness that even the most bitter of winters could not match lingered in the dark. The only source of light came from three candles situated in the middle of a wooden table several feet away. Their bright orange flame penetrated the darkness as pale wax dripped from the sides of the candles, only to harden once more at the cold touch of dead wood. The table was approximately four feet wide and six feet long. Dust and filth had accumulated on the surface while the edges had rotted over the centauries of mauling care. A dried layer of black substance covered large portions of the wooden surface. Cobwebs and moss lined the four stone walls the held Katrina captive. There were no windows, no way of knowing where she was, yet this place felt familiar, felt safe. Katrina could make out the outline of two shelves that lined the far wall. On the shelves were what seem to be various veils of liquid. She turned around and found the door, but she was not compelled to leaves, she wasn’t afraid.
Have I been here before?
She walked further into the room, moving closer to the table.
Her fingers lightly ghosted over the edge of the table on their own and she didn’t stop it. Katrina felt calm, relaxed. Her mind was an emptiness that rivaled that of the room she is in. Scratches were now noticeable on the surface near the edge, almost invisible, obscured by the black substance. Katrina studied the dried black matter on the table, unable to figure out what it was. It frustrated her. Somewhere inside her, she knew the answer, but could not remember. Katrina tried scratching some of the material off the table. Flakes of the dried substance came off and she picked it up to examine it up close, placing it on the tip of her index finger near the candles.
She notices the substance she held in her hand was not black but rather had a red-brown tint. Blood. Dried blood to be more exact and the table was covered in it. She turned back to the scratches she noticed earlier. Katrina looked directly across the table to see similar scratches. Her entire body trembling, she placed a hand over one end of the scratches and dragged it over the abrasion. A frighten thought came to her.
Katrina’s head seared with pain. Memories tried to claw its way back to the surface, slashing, ripping away at her mind. Katrina stepped away from the table and knelt beside it on the worn stone floor. The red jewel on her chest burned. She yanked the chain off her neck and threw it away from her. Voices could be heard. First a child’s laugh, a laugh that was both haunting, yet still full of mirth. Then the woman’s humming.
“Who’s there?”
The humming intensified and the child’s laugh faded away into the background. The humming became louder. Katrina covered her ears, but to no avail, the sound just seemed to be getting louder and louder until everything stopped. Silence. Then the woman spoke..
“Wake up,” she whispered.
Katrina jolted right up, eyes wide with confusion and worst of all… fear.
Katrina remained in a state of shock for the next five minutes, eyes wide, focused on nothing.
What the hell is wrong with me?
Katrina’s phone rang, scaring her half to death. Trying, but failing to regain her composure Katrina answered the phone.
“H…Hello”
“You’ve heard already?” It was Gary.
“What, Gary, what are you talking about?”
“Well, you voice, I thought you knew.”
“Never mind my voice, It was just a nightmare, now what do you mean ‘I thought you knew’?”
“I need you here right now, you need to come as fast as you can.”
“Wait, Gary, what’s going on?”
“The police are here. I think you were right about Mr. Lenox. They won’t tell me much, all they said was it has something to do with a homicide. I guess the police found out he was here through the building’s security cameras.”
Due to traffic, it took Katrina almost an hour to get to the office after she ended her conversation with Gary. When she arrived at the building, she could not see any police cars, only a black convertible. She stared at the car for a moment and continued to proceed up to the second floor. Katrina opened the door to find Gary sitting in a nearby chair waiting for her. Relief washed over Gary’s face as Katrina entered the office.
“Where have you been?”
“Traffic” Katrina looked around the office.
“Where are the police?”
“They left ten minutes ago, but the FBI is here.”
Two men in black suits came over. They were about the same height, both had board shoulders, but one had blond hair while the other had brown. “Are you Katrina Pertho?”
“Yes”
“We would like to speak to you and your boss in private please.”
“Yes, my office, this way,” Gary led Katrina and the agents into his room.
Once inside Gary’s private office the blond agent greeted Katrina formally.
“Good morning Ms. Pertho, I am Agent Ruse and my partner is Agent Saunduraze. I would usually be asking you how was your day, but since we are on a very tight schedule right now, I’ll get right to the point. Did a man name Arthur Lenox come to office two weeks ago?” Agent Ruse asked.
“Yes, but we were unable to fulfill his request and had to refuse his offer.”
“And what was Mr. Lenox asking you to do?”
“He wanted me to raise someone from the dead,” Katrina said this matter-of-factly, her face blend of any emotion. Both agents looked at her for a momentary second too long, enough for Katrina to guess what all this may be about.
“Alright then, may I ask where you were last night?”
“I had a meeting with a client, then we went out to the local cemetery around nine to do a blessing on her dead cat.”
The agents looked at Katrina obviously not sure whether they should believe her of not.
“Its true, old Mrs. Wilson has been our customer for years. She comes to us every so often asking us to bless her cats.”
“Even the dead ones? How many cats does she have?” asked Agent Saundurez.
Ignoring his partner, Agent Ruse continued his conversation with Katrina.
“Yes, we saw the footage of you and an old woman exiting the office around nine pm on the yesterday, but we had to ask you to make sure you weren’t connected to the crime in anyway. If you had lied, you would have been considered a suspect.”
“A suspect for what may I ask?”
“Manslaughter”
“That absurd, none of my employees would do anything like that, especially Katrina,” Gary said.
“We know she was not part of the murder, the footage taken on the surveillance cameras yesterday proved that. We are here actually to ask you to help assist us in solving the murder.”
“Huh?” Katrina was now very confused. She had prepared herself for possible accusations from the authority and how she would react to each scenario, but she never expected the FBI to ask for help.
“We need someone to identify some of the evidence found at the crime scene. We need an expert who specializes in the …paranormal…”Agent Ruse forced out the last word as though it made him uncomfortable just to use it. “Someone who is knowledgeable in the symbols we found at the crime scene. We have tried looking for others who could possible help us, but most either turn out to be fakes or could not help us at all. Two however told us the same thing. To come to San Francisco to find you.”
Before Katrina could reply, Agent Ruse has already taking out a manila folder and was spilling its content onto the desk. Inside were Polaroid photos taken of a crime scene. She heard Gary gasp beside her. At first all Katrina could see was red, then the details of the scattered photos put themselves together like a jigsaw puzzle and she could only stare in disgust at what was displayed before her. An average adult human body carries a little more than a gallon of blood, but because of the glare from the camera flashes, the amount shown in the photos seems to exceed it by another gallon or so. The photos showed it was taken at night and it could not have been taken more than an hour after the victim had died as the blood was still red. A women lie with the upper portion of her body inside of a blood drawn ritualistic circle surround by symbols. She had been wearing a long burgundy coat and had shoulder length brown hair; at least, that’s what Katrina guessed given that the hair was soaked in blood. She lay on her stomach, her face off to the side, eyes closed. Her red lipstick shown brightly against her chalk white skin. It was her blood that was spilled to create the circle and it was her blood that is splattered everywhere in the photos. At the center of the circle was what remained of an unmarked grave. Whatever or whoever was inside was gone.
“We took these pictures last night. Soil from the grave in the photos was tested for human DNA and it has been identified that a human body had once not too long ago resided in there. The occult symbols around the circle are what we would like help on. Could you tell us what they mean?” Detective Saundurez asked.
“These symbols are very old. Not many people know about them anymore.” Katrina pointed to one of the symbols surrounding the circle that looked like a bow with an arrow diagonally across it. “This symbol here is a blood ritual symbol and this one that looks like a diamond is an invoking symbol. The one on the left here that looks similar to an ‘M’ means Communication”
“Can you tell us what you think happen in the photos?” Detective Ruse asked.
“Well… if that is what you ask. I believe somebody tried to raise someone from the dead, but that’s just my guess.”
Agent Ruse was quite for a moment, his mouth slightly opened, as though he did not know how to formulate his next question well enough for Katrina to answer.
‘The next question may seem…odd, but...do you believe the ritual worked?”
Katrina looked down at the photos once more. The runes, the ritual circle, the grave, the women lying motionless, her eyes closed to the horrors around her. Finally Katrina had to ask.
“Who was she?” Her eyes still staring at the pictures
Both detectives look solemn. “That’s Clara Eileen Lenox, daughter to Arthur Lenox.”
Katrina eyes stayed on the photos, her eyes were no longer hiding how she felt, but were heated with anger. She felt Gary looked up in shock at the two detectives.
“Is that why you came here, you saw Arthur Lenox on the surveillance tapes and found out he came here two weeks ago and now you think Katrina might know what is going on,” Gary asked.
“Yes, we are aware of Arthur Lenox strange activities for the past two weeks just before his daughter was killed in a ritualistic murder. We have tried to contact him, but his secretary said he is at his summer home in Toronto, mourning the loss of his daughter. We however, highly doubt his sudden departure to Canada was because his daughter was murdered.”
“Now Ms. Pertho, could you answer my previous question?”
Katrina studies the runes around the circle. Did the ritual work? Did the spell really work? Finally she decided to give an honest answer.
“I don’t know.”
Both agents just stayed silent, waiting for Katrina to continue with an explanation for her answer.
“I’m sorry, but I can’t sense anything from just a few pictures sir. It’s just not possible.”
“Well then, I guess you will just have to come with us,” Agent Saundurez said.
“Huh?” Katrina’s eyes narrowed slightly.
“We will take you to the crime scene, under strict supervision from me and Agent Ruse of course, but you will be able to walk around a bit. Maybe you’ll find something new to help us”
Agent Ruse looked at his companion with a slightly odd look, obviously not approving of his partner’s decision to add a civilian farther into the case, but nonetheless kept his mouth shut.
“We will leave at eleven, so if it you need anything from home or take care of anything else, you have three hours to do so.” With that Agent Saundurez got up followed by Agent Ruse and was exiting the doorway. It was only then that Katrina realized she didn’t even know where they were going to take her.
“Wait, where will we be going?”
“Ludlow Falls, Ohio,” Agent Saundurez answered.
aqua-angel: yeah I know I should update Raised to Kill. I’ve written some of chapter 9,but haven’t quite gotten to finishing it yet. Are you ever gonna write more of North Star. You should write more! That one is so cute. Speaking of “Cute.” how are you and Jean-Claude. crackle (remember what you shouted at Red Robins)