Scarecrow Jack-Retribution

13

Father Alverez stood up and walked towards a bookshelf, he took out a journal which looked very old. He came back and took his seat, he said “The artifact that is in your possession now is no ordinary artifact, it is very dangerous and there is a long history behind it. Since the dawn of mankind, magic is said to be dark in nature, how humans came into magic is still unknown, but magic originates from darkness itself, there were some who controlled their desire to use it for malicious intents, others however, used magic to wreak destruction. Such a mage existed hundreds of years ago, when kings ruled the lands and every king had a mage in his court. A king on the brink of losing a war asked his mage to perform a spell that would turn the tide against them, the novice mage unknowing the evil he was unleashing, accidently opened a portal to hell for a short time, a demon so powerful and so ruthless came forward that it killed its summoner and the king and the whole kingdom with ease.”
“The demon had six of his minions with him, and they didn’t stop there, they wreaked havoc in their wake, killing thousands of innocent people and laying waste to hundreds of villages in their path. A noble and powerful king and his mage decided to fight against this demon and his minions. The king rallied many other rulers and their mages to form an alliance against them. The kings and their mages realized they cannot kill the demon and his minions, so after a hard-fought battle the noble king’s mage with the help of other mages trapped the demon and its minions inside a prison, that artifact that you possess is that prison. The stone is called Carcerem stone. The stone cannot be broken or opened by any other means except a certain key, which is lost to us now, the key was lost when an earthquake devastated the monastery where the mages of that era lived, since then the stone has been moving from one place to another, and attracting the greed of men. Although the demons were trapped inside the stone, anyone who touches the stone, the stone shows it visions, sometime the visions are good and sometimes they are bad.”
Father Alverez further explained “This information was passed down by generations later to a knight of the order, who wrote it down to preserve it for the next generations.” He then said “Damon, I trust you to bring that stone here and let us keep it locked before it falls into the wrong hands. Someone like Juan had it in his possession, Jian tells me the stone transferred power into Juan, making him inhumanly strong, but you were there at that time and I am thankful for it, you saved the lives of many. but what changed your mind to leave Juan alive?”

Damon answered “Death, is not the right punishment, Justice must be done in this world, as well as the next, I was shown the error of my ways, I was careless, I took the lives of many, although, they were bad people but they escaped justice of this world, this is what changed my mind, to leave him alive and let the world see him as the criminal he was and not some messiah or whatever.”

Father Alverez agreed with Damon, Damon’s phone rang, it was Alonso Damon answered and Alonso said “Hey buddy, I got good news for you, I talked to Lena, I told her about what you went through in life, of all the pain you endured, your losses and your loneliness, she said she will meet you. I have arranged a meeting between you two, come to the excavation site outside of the city this evening, there no one will be able to interfere between you two.” Damon was relieved to hear, he thanked Alonso and hanged up his phone. Damon agreed handing over the artifact to the order. Damon asked his leave and Father Alverez granted. As Damon was walking out the library, he remembered something, he stopped and turned around, he asked Father Alverez “Juan said his leader would avenge him, I thought he was the leader of the cult, do you have any idea who the leader could be other than Juan himself?”
Father Alverez was also stunned to hear the question, he had no idea who the leader could be, Damon said “I need to meet Juan again, I have to ask him in person who the leader is.” Jian asked to accompany Damon to meet Juan. When Damon came out of the underground base, it was already afternoon, and soon it would be evening, he thought he should get this over soon as he cannot miss the meeting with Lena.
Both men drove to the police station and Damon went in to meet Detective Dexter. Detective Dexter wasn’t expecting Damon and was surprised to see him, he asked “What brings you here? Is there something wrong?” Damon replied “I need to have a word with Juan Rodriguez, it is very important.” Dexter said “Juan is a very notorious criminal, we have kept him in maximum security, I cannot allow you to meet him. Even if I wanted to allow it, I have to ask permission from my superiors and that would take a day at least, besides what do you want from Juan, he didn’t even say a word since he got here, he hasn’t talked to anyone.”

Damon said “Detective, Juan may be hiding the identity of the real leader behind the cult, I cannot explain to you right now how I know about this but please, please you have to trust me, let me in with him for five minutes only.” Dexter saw the look of desperation on Damon’s face, he didn’t know him very well either, but he respected the young man and his enthusiasm, so he allowed it, he said “Only five minutes.” Damon agreed.
Damon went inside the interrogation room. Juan was sitting in handcuffs, he looked at Damon and an evil smug appeared on his face he said “So, the lord has sent you to save me? Come now, kill me and let me serve our lord.” Damon knew he cannot interrogate Juan here, so he manipulated Juan by telling him “I have touched the stone, it said to me that you should stay alive, your purpose has not ended yet, our lord requires your services longer. When I came in contact with the stone, it revealed the truth to me as well, now I serve the lord like you do, enlighten me brother, who is the leader of our religion, so I may work together with him too.”

Juan was laughing with excitement; he was thanking the Satan that it showed the true path to Damon. Juan answered “I do not know the name nor I know the identity of the leader, but he knows all about you, he is someone close to you, he told me, through a letter of your journey.” Damon suddenly got angry, he grabbed Juan by the collar and threatened him to reveal the identity of the leader. Juan was shocked, he was in utter dismay, for a moment he actually believed Damon. Detective Dexter intervened and removed Damon from the room, he said to Damon “What are you doing? If any harm befalls him before the hearing, all our work and effort will go to waste, calm yourself down kid.” Damon cooled off and went outside the police station.