A Beautiful Destruction

Chapter 16

❤️Zoya❤️

Asher planned to take us all to the old church which wasn't too far from the farmhouse. But i had taken in too much information already i was too tired to visit a church for god’s sake! As soon as Asher spoke of it in the living room, i instantly ran to find a room in the small house and once i did i jumped onto the bed and pulled the covers up so high over my head. I listened to the rest of them  in the living room and there were low murmurs but as long as nobody came to wake me up i was totally fine. Then suddenly i heard the sound of a car starting. Oh no. Then Claire marched inside the room, "oh no you don't." She said and pulled the white covers off of me and swung me over her shoulder as she took me outside and dumped me again on the backseat of her car where Asher was sitting. 
"Here straighten her up." She shouted at Asher and then jumped into the passenger’s seat where I'm supposed to be sitting if Jai's driving! 
Asher stared at the tangled up version of me laying next to him, "i can straighten myself up thank you very much." I said sitting upright wiping car dust off of me after getting no exact reaction from Asher.
"Oh sorry was i meant to help you? But you're Jai's property and Jai hates it when somebody touches his property." Asher snickered at me.
I sneered over at Asher and i felt Jai's eyes on me through the rear view mirror. "Hey Asher," i said laying my hand on top of his chest. As always, he instantly looked down at my hand and that’s when i took the chance and slapped him hard under his chin and his head shot upright with defeat. 
"Works each time," i said winking at him with a proud smile on my face. 
Soon . Finally. About time. We reached the small white old and deserted church. The grass here was sooo long that most of it was nearly up to my knees. And i was tall, not exaggerating but if i were to grow some more then i could possibly have been as tall as Asher. Denim jeans were a fantastic decision but sandals were not. After taking about 5 steps in the thick long wet grass i paused and told everyone that i can’t walk all the way there anymore because the church seemed too far away.  Jai smiled and walked up to me. I didn't return his smile, instead i turned around so he was facing my back and i crossed my arms over my chest. He turned me around by my shoulders but i still didn't look at him.
"Hold my neck." He said with a smile.
"What?" I thought i just heard that he told me to hold his neck. 
"I said hold my neck." He repeated.
Slowly, i raised my hands and wrapped them around his neck. He then put one hand under my knees and one hand on my mid back and picked me up as if i weighed nothing at all. Asher and Claire were nearly there but Jai slowly carried me and walked carefully so that he doesn't slip in the mud nor that i fall. He looked straight ahead the whole time but i continuously kept staring at him. His stern jaw, his eyes focused on his destination. I smiled unknowingly and didn't realise that we had already reached the doorstep of the church just as he put me down. We walked inside together and the church was magnificent! There were beautiful murals on the walls made with class, at the front of the church was a large statue of Jesus hanging on a cross. The layout of the seats reminded me of our school's auditorium. 
"Is this place always so empty?" I asked Jai without looking away from the glass on the walls, even my whisper had echoed. 
"No, Pastor Brian lives in the small house behind the church with his wife who's always sick." He answered back but didn't whisper.
"But then what are we doing here?" I asked still super confused. Being confused was becoming a habit. 
"Before my dad died, he always used to tell me that if i ever needed answers then this would be the place i should come to. So here i am." He managed a smile. 
Just then , Claire and Asher walked inside and jogged up to us. Asher was jingling some old keys in his hand. 
"Where'd you get those from?" Jai asked Asher.
"Oh these babies?" He said raising the keys in the air. "I went over to Pastor Brian's house and told him we needed answers so he gave me these."
I looked around the church and next to the pastors podium was a brown piano placed diagonally. And then next to the brown piano was an old door with a padlock on it. 
I turned around to look at Asher who was still jingling the bunch of keys up loosely in the air. I stole the keys off of him and ran up to the padlock and tried a numerous amount of different keys with the others behind me, and then the key with a red mark on it was the one which finally unlocked the door. We all stared at it as it creaked wide open.
As the door opened fully and banged on the wall bits of dust flew about. Inside wasn’t too dark; it wasn’t exactly a room either. There were no proper walls, it was walled with red solid dirt or big chunks of muddy orangey-red rocks! I started coughing because of the dust. Asher hurdled inside first and knocked on the wall, "shit that’s solid as." He said super interested in the walls. 
"What is this place?" I asked in awe.
"The place which holds all our answers." Jai also walked in front of me and Claire and i followed behind. 
As we continued our walk in the narrow cave-like place we came across a section where the walls had lit flamed torches attached on the sides. I wondered how they were lit? Did anybody ever come down here? Finally, the narrow pathway came to a stop and there was a small cosy room-like place also surrounded by a lot of torches and also was made of the same red rocky mud. Did i mention the ground was dried mud? My new sandals had had it! The small room had many bookshelves and more than a thousand old ancient books! Everyone scrambled and had their hands on some sort of book. And every single one of them was in such a rush to open the dang book that they all nearly died coughing because of all the dust on the old books. In any usual case i would have wanted nothing more than to be surrounded by old ancient books and thousands of them and what made it better was that they were alphabetically arranged! But then a large framed photo caught my attention. I walked up to it slowly, maybe it wasn't who i imagined it to be... Or maybe it was. As i carefully walked up and the image became much clearer my hands instantly fell hard to my sides. I stood staring at the portrait and clenched my fists as they began to  get sweaty. Somebody's hands came and wrapped themselves around my waist and their face nuzzled in my neck. 
"What are you looking at?" It was Jai. Obviously. When he got no reaction from me, he kissed my cheek and snapped me back to reality. 
"That’s my mom." I said gliding my fingers along her glass face. 
Without asking how why what or anything that i would have excepted Jai to ask as much as i wanted to hear the answers, he said, "she’s beautiful."
And he was right, she was beautiful. I remembered when the picture was taken, i was about 6 years old when the photographer had come over to our house after mom finally agreed to take a picture with just her, after dad nagged her so much. I remember crying my eyes out because i wanted to be sitting on her lap while that photo was taken. I even remember stomping on Zacks foot to loosen his grip on me and i even managed to run away but then dad caught me and hushed me by telling me that princesses don't cry.
Tears sprung to my eyes, i was the life of my parents, how could they have just packed their belongings and left one day. Without any explanation what so ever and giving us the oath of their love that we would search for them not ever. 
She had the most perfect smile which unluckily was passed down to Zack instead of me. She had the most perfect dark brown wavy hair which fell down perfectly without her trying, which is the only thing i inherited of hers in my appearance. She had emerald green eyes which neither i nor Zack got because we had inherited dads dark brown eyes. If i could have just one wish my wish would be for them to come back and just hold me because since they left, everything has just been going wrong.
"Come here, i want to show you something." Jai said and pulled my arm away to one of the shelves, he traced his finger along the column which read 'N'. Then he finally picked out a black book with silver writing on the cover, the book was called ARIANA NELSON. He opened it up to the third page and even Asher and Claire scooted over to us. On the third page there was a huge picture in black and white with a girl with a bob cut and with an evil grin... Wait no, that was Aria! 
"Is this one of Aria's ancestors?" I asked Jai, hoping he would say yes but instead he just read out loud the paragraph written underneath the picture.
"Ariana Nelson. A lover. A backstabber. A witch. She served the most powerful immortal being her whole life to give him more power, she became a life source to Zephyr but only so because she loved him truly. Also did love him the most powerful witch in the world, Onarhea but she soon died because she could not handle so much power. After Onarhea died, Ariana lived to serve him. But as Zephyr only had one true love Onarhea, he did not need another woman to love but as Onarhea died, it was her sister-like friend to become the next most powerful witch in the world to Zephyrs benefit. Ariana assured Zephyr that she would remain to be the most powerful as Ariana and Zephyr lived forever. But you do not play with the forces of nature, she will come back. She will come back."

"That means Kat.." I said snapping back to reality.
"No kidding," Asher added and then said, "The girl can kick our asses any day! Gotta be nice now."
"Hey but Jai and Asher, you guys said that you both also have some kind of tie to this world, what does that make you?" I asked.
The boys just looked at each other.
"My greats who own the farmhouse, we're linked to their bloodline." Jai finally spoke.
"Linked? What does that mean?" 
"You'll find out." Jai replied and then we all turned to look at Asher who had walked away and was now standing in front of a gigantic grey rock probably higher than his own height, "guys i can’t move this thing, wanna help?" Asher said whilst struggling and wasn't able to move one inch of the big rock.
Claire rolled her eyes and walked over to the rock, stood back and gave Asher a tight smile and then crouched down and moved the rock as if it were to be nothing near heavy. Sometimes i forget how strong she is.
When we saw Claire's and Asher's cold expressions looking at what was behind the rock, Jai and i walked over to their side.
It was a woman it seemed, laying face first on the muddy ground. She had black clothes on and her hair was a rich dark brown. I couldn't see her face. She was wearing a long necklace; it had an oval shaped locket which was laid out open beside her. I walked inside and felt a cool vibe hit me. I picked up the locket and the picture inside was of Kat. Oh no. This is bad. Very bad.