The Second Generation

Chapter 19: A Fork in the Road

We managed to take Karen down into the lobby where everyone was waiting. They all had golden dust on their clothes and rips in their clothes. When they saw Karen though, all of them rushed towards us. "Oh my Goddess! What happened?" Allison asked, wrapping Karen into a hug as her tears fell. All of our friends looked shell-shocked as the usually happy demeanor that Karen had was gone in a heap of sadness. Ryder walked towards her and gently touched her arm. She flinched slightly and looked up at him. "Don't worry. You have all your friends here to help you." He said in a relaxed and calm tone. Karen shed more tears, but smiled. "Y-You're right. I have all my friends with me." She said, smiling as tears rolled down her cheeks. I smiled as I opened to a random page in my book. I froze and paled.

"Micheal?" I heard Luke call out. I ignored him and reached in for the key. As I pulled it out, a loud wail left the book. The key got stuck and the wailing and moans of pain continued. Everyone covered their ears and all the normal citizens around us fainted the moment the wailing started. "Micheal! What are you doing!?" Vanessa called out. I continued to ignore them. That's when I felt a gentle hand stop my pulling and made my hand push the key back. The wailing stopped and I looked up as the last moans of pain ended. Rose was there, stopping me. "What are you doing?" She asked in a soft voice. I looked back down at the page. The page had a key on it. The key was called Key of the Undead. It talked about a key to summon and modify any dead being and make them come alive again. "But... this key..." I said, reaching for it again, but Rose slammed the book shut.

"Stop." She said in her soft voice, but it was also hard and commanding. The thing was, when the book was slammed close, the temptation stopped. "Wow... sorry about that. I... don't know what happened." I replied, sitting down. "Well, whatever happened, we can't have happening again. Let's-" Vanessa was interrupted when a black arrow flew and stuck itself above my head. We all snapped our heads to the direction of the arrow and saw Axel and Marco. They grinned evilly and both had bows out. "Shit..." I said, scrambling up. "What's the big idea!?" Luke screamed at them. "Lady Adaline would like to meet you. So come with us or we will kill you." Marco said, aiming his notched arrow at us. It rippled with power and looked like it was about to separate into different arrows.

Before any of us could move, loads of skeletal hands sprang from the ground and started grabbing the two Agents of Valstrath. "Execute Order 92. Attack Valstrath. Continue Mission. Capture the Dragon Slayer's. For Lord Roluth." Said two monotone voices from above us. We snapped our heads to the top of the hotel and saw two figures in black cloaks. One had a long whip made of a green metal. The figure looked feminine and you could see a lock of green hair. The other had a more masculine body and held a purple sword that was glowing. Axel growled as Marco repositioned his aim. "Roluth..." Marco snarled in anger. We took this chance to make a break for it towards an old, abandoned church with a graveyard behind it. "WHAT ARE WE GONNA DO!?" Alexis asked in fear. "Hide for now!" I told her, shoving open the doors with my shoulder.

All of us scrambled in and Vanessa and I closed the doors. Allison then went into an Ice-Make stance and covered the door in ice. "That should hold them off... now what?" Luke asked, confused. I looked around and saw everyone with tired and scared eyes. Karen looked to be even more shaken up. "First off... we may need to split up and regroup every once in a while to change match ups." Jake said, gaining all of our attention. "That is a smart idea." Lance agreed. Sapphire looked worried. "Are Lance and Jake sure? Because Sapphire is scared that we will get caught with no way of telling the other groups." She explained. "We'll find a way." Luke said, clapping a hand on Sapphire's shoulder.

"Then that settles it. We need to split up. Let's meet at..." I went quiet, thinking of a place. "The Empire State building?" Alexis asked. "No... to populated. They would go there to see if we're around that area..." Jonathan said. "Then what about Long Island?" Sarah asked. "Hmm... yeah. Let's go there." I said. "Second issue. How do we get out of Italy?" Rose inquired. "Hmph... come into my temple and don't pat tribute... You should all be ashamed of yourselves!" Cried a voice. We all snapped our heads to see an old woman in a grey shawl. Her form was constantly shifting like she was a mirage and two torch stands with lighted torches were beside her. Three different archways were behind her and the inside of them were pale white veils. "Who are you?" Ryder asked, getting into a defensive position. The scowl the woman had deepened and turned into an angry glare.

"So you come into my temple and don't know who I am!? HOW. DARE. YOU!?" The woman yelled. We all flinched backwards. I glanced around the temple and tried to find out who the woman was as she lectured us. Torches... really powerful breezes... graveyard in the back of the temple... "Trivia?" I answered hesitantly. It sounded more like a question. "SEE! He knows who I am!" Trivia called out. As the sun slowly broke the night, the angry, old lady look shimmered away and left a smiling younger girl. "Sorry about that! Older version of me is a bit cranky at times! Now, my name is Trivia, or Hecate for Greeks. I am goddess of Magic and Pathways." Trivia said with a smile. She was rather loud. "I... see..." I said, giving her a pained smile. The doors behind us were slammed open and we all looked behind us.

Five undead zombies were walking in. The shuffled and moaned. They had green skin and sunken, white eyes. All their clothes were ripped and dirty and their fingernails were sharp. "Ugh..." Trivia said in exasperation. She walked passed us and stood in front, blocking us from the zombies. With a flick of her wrist, a gust of wind pushed the zombies out and the doors slammed close. A miniature wind tunnel was now keeping the doors shut. "Hmm... you have about half an hour before they over take the doors and you are all eaten. What would you like?" Trivia asked. "Passageways. One to all the states in the US." Vanessa said. Trivia scoffed. "Easy work!" And with a snap of of her fingers, 47 new arches of lights appeared. "Quickly. I can tell that more of the dead are being risen from their earthy graves." Trivia said, sitting down.

We all went into the groups we had in our rooms. I was with my sister, Marcus, Rose, and Rebecca. We stood in front of a arch that had a bull skull on top of it. "See you guys in New York!" I called out to the others. I grabbed one Vanessa and Rose's hands, who then both reached for Marcus and Rebecca, and ran in. I closed my eyes as we were swallowed by the light. I snapped my eyes open when a school bell rang. I was in a high school math class. The teacher was oblivious of my existence and said "And that is the end of today! See y'all next week." All the students were packing up. I grabbed my school bag and grabbed my Summoning Book. I exited the class and ran into a girl with blonde hair. She had stormy grey eyes and wore a pink skirt and a grey tank top. She wore a small amount of make-up and had on a big smile.

"There you are Michael! C'mon! We need to find your sister and head to the park!" the girl said, grabbing my arm and dragging me away. "Woah! Wait-" I called out, but I was ignored. We exited the school and found a confused Vanessa, Rose, Rebecca and Marcus looking around. "Hey guys!" the girl called. That caught their attention. They saw me and their eyes- wait... why is Rose glaring at my hand connected to the girl? "Michael!" Vanessa called out. I took my hand from the girl's and ran at my sister. We collided into a hug and just squeezed each other. "Ahem!" The girl caught our attention. We broke apart and looked at her. "Hello? Forgetting about me!? Lucinda? The girl that we all made plans with?" she asked, looking pissed. "I'm sorry, but who are you?" Marcus asked. Lucinda looked offended. "Wow! Rude. Do you guys really not remember me? The motherless daughter of Sheriff Richards?" She asked.

"Doesn't ring a bell. Anyways, we need to head to New York." Rose said, looking towards me. Anger was in her eyes though. I was confused. "Wait... are you guys serious?" Lucinda asked, clearly even more confused then us. I nodded. "But, New York is 2842.102 kilometers away! Why would you go there!?" Lucinda asked, clearly confused. The fact that she had the exact number was surprising though. "Listen. We don't know you. We aren't from here." Rebecca told her Lucinda's eyes were then covered in mist, but the mist lifted in a matter of seconds. "Woah... how... do I know you?" Lucinda asked. "We need to go." I said to the others. "Wait." Lucinda told us. We stopped once again, groaning. "What now?" I asked, tired. "Let's talk about this. Let's head to the diner around here." Lucinda said, motioning us to follow her.

I looked to Vanessa and told her with my eyes 'not to follow her'. Vanessa eyes said 'Come on. She's confused. Let's help her.' I narrowed my eyes and told her 'We're going. Now.' Her eyes turned into a glare and they said 'We. Are. Talking. With. Her. Now, come on!' I let out a defeated sigh and said "Fine!" "What just happened?" Rebecca asked, turning to Marcus. He chuckled and looked at my twin with a smile. His eyes held proud look and something else in them. He said "That my friends, is the infamous Wieder twin sibling stare down." We followed Lucinda with Vanessa dancing in victory and me glaring at the space in front of us.