The Harvest of Souls

CHAPTER 60

Before everyone could reach the railing, they heard a loud smack on the ground. Everyone bent down at once and saw the body lying on the side road of the Asturian Manor. Richard howled in despair as everyone hugged each other, crying. Jean reappeared on the road, beside the corpse where the blood was beginning to flow, and looked up at everyone.

"That shouldn't have happened," she spoke in a crying tone.

The girl knelt beside the body and calmly ran her hands over the curly hair. Jean hugged the lifeless piece of flesh and then disappeared, taking it with her, leaving only a large pool of blood on the floor.

"We need to find Fernand and Mário," Scarlet said.

The girl ran towards the terrace door and was followed by Nair, Mila, and Marta. Richard threw himself to the terrace floor, weeping in despair as Vaughan tried to console him and hold back his own crying.

Scarlet was the first to arrive in the side corridor of the fourth floor East Wing and found Fernand lying on the floor with his hand on his stomach. Scarlet tried to search for any sign of life and was relieved to see Fernand breathing.

"Fernand!" She screamed. "Fernand, I'm sorry."

"Hey," he said with a grimace of pain. "Anna is in the manor. She just gave me a medicine and put something in the hole where the bullet entered."

"Anna?" Marta asked.

"Oh, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I saw you with your hands full of blood."

"Yes, I saw a body lying in the Greater Atrium, I tried to help, but I was lifeless, when I was climbing the stairs I found the killer, and we, we duel..," whispered Fernand and then lost consciousness.

ASTURIAN ISLAND

20.02.8462 - 4:00 PM

Fernand opened his eyes and stared into his four-poster bed. He felt like he had slept for weeks. He turned to the side to find Scarlet sitting beside him.

"Hey," he said.

Scarlet started to cry.

"Hey," she said shyly. "We need to take you to the mainland, to a hospital," Scarlet continued crestfallen. "I'm sorry, Fernand, I'm so sorry."

"I understood," Fernand said while Scarlet took his hand. "I forgive you, and you need to take me to my children. I can't go to Asturias."

"Oh, Fernand," Scarlet said, still feeling guilty. "I was so desperate, I saw you with a gun, and your hand was full of blood, and someone crashed our plane. I was so confused."

"I imagine, I imagine. Lélia was the one who told me what was happening on the Island, and I had to come running," Fernand said, realizing then that the room was full of people. "What happened?"

Scarlet began to cry again, and Vaughan went calmly to Fernand's bed, sitting beside his friend. The group then recounted everything that had happened the night before and that morning. Everyone was moved and undecided on how to approach Lélia's death.

"No, it can't be," said Fernand. "Lélia is the most powerful person I know, no."

"I know, I know," said Vaughan crying. "But it's the truth."

Fernand's will at that moment was to blame Vaughan; he wanted to scream that he didn't believe in what Vaughan had done in the past, but he tried to control himself.

"Anna then is part of this?" Fernand asked.

"Apparently, yes," Richard whispered.

"But it makes no sense. Why would she help me? She gave me the medicine to reduce my pain," he said.

"Jeannie explained that she does not want to harm us," said Mila.

"But where is Anna now? Did you manage to find her?" Fernand asked.

"No," said Richard. "As we told you, Jeannie has the power to teleport and can take others with her. She took Lélia's body with her. She may have taken Anna too."

"I still haven't bought this story. How can she do that? Nobody can. It's impossible," said Fernand.

"Everything is impossible until someone does it," Vaughan replied. "Lélia is a witch with superpowers, and I am a vampire. The result of this is something different. She may have powers that we are all unaware of and never explored. She made the plane we were on to crash, in mid-flight, made us all faint, miles away from where we were."

"And if she continues with the harvest? What will happen when she gets her soul back?" Fernand asked.

"I have no idea. It will probably bring even more powers to Jeannie," said Vaughan.

"But how is it going to work? She is performing the Spell, but does she have the mirror where her soul is imprisoned?" Questioned Fernand.

"I kept the mirror that sucked Joaquim's soul, I mean, Jeannie's. It is, or was locked with other artifacts, most of the statues, paintings, and mirrors in which Charlotte imprisoned some soul," Richard said.

"Jeannie knew where it was," Scarlet spoke. "She and I have played in the past several times near the place. We knew that Richard always worried when we were there, it was near a cave entrance, and the entrance to the cave was closed by a door. This was one of the few places we didn't have access to on the island. Jeannie should have known that this was where the objects would be kept," Scarlet sniffed. "We found Mário passed out in front of the cave. The door was closed. Jeannie used him to get the mirror for her."

"I don't know why she used Mário and not anyone else; maybe she imagined that because of his size, the pains in the room wouldn't penetrate it, it would be the one that would feel the least effect of the depressing place that is that cave," said Richard. "Jeannie did all this. She crashed our plane to keep Mário on the island and get the mirror back. What Jeannie doesn't know is that there is a way to access the room without being affected by it, at least for half a minute."

Fernand looked around.

"Where's Mário?"

"He's in our room, resting. He's still very stunned," said Scarlet. "He's scared by what he saw inside the room. We're going to take him to the hospital in Ástur."

"And are you all okay?" Questioned Fernand.

"Yes," said Richard. "We'll have a big problem ahead of us. Jeannie killed seven people: Marlena, Felício Arcanjo, two of Charlotte's employees: Anthony and Eillen. Anthony was from the Noir and Eillen from the Rouge, which makes the situation worse. This morning she killed three more people."

"We already know who?" Questioned Fernand.

"Apparently, the journalist Rafael Obritzky came undercover here at the manor as one of the kitchen helpers; he should be trying to find out something, probably something against Lélia or us. It was the boy you found lying in the East Wing's Greater Atrium. The Ástur police have already come to the island and removed the body. The family has just recognized it," said Richard. "Right after that, she killed Mr. Tomé Fonseca, he was a government employee, already retired, and lastly, she attacked the Royal Yacht and killed Eric Arcanjo."

"Damn it!" Fernand exclaimed.

"Yeah, the yacht was adrift, one of the passengers managed to contact the coast guard, all were rescued," Richard continued. "An in this morning, Jeannie cornered Scarlet on the manor's terrace, and after a duel...," the tears began to flow, and Richard gave up on holding them back. "Jeannie and Lélia ended up falling over the parapet."

Fernand shook his head again as he cried.

"It can't be true. I still can't believe it," Fernandsaid.