Celestial Sisters

Chapter 33: Evil Awaits

The bright and vivacious spirit of New York City seemed to disappear with the shiny cars and intimidating skyscrapers. A much different feeling lingered in the air of the rather subdued neighborhood of Masbeth, in Queens. Twyla curled her fingers around the thick bars of the wrought iron gate. She looked at the rolling greens hills, which were dotted with an assortment of marble statues and stone heads. Over three million bodies were buried in Calvary Cemetery and while every corpse had led a completely different life, they all ended up in the exact same place. There wasn't a sound to be heard, not a car driving by or a leaf tumbling against the cement sidewalk, just a deafening silence.

"So many..." Luna trailed off. Her eyes were clouded over in a way that happened when she got a vision.

Alix grabbed Luna by the shoulders and forcefully shook her from whatever trance she was in. Twyla curved a black brow and stepped away from the gate. With a slight wrinkle of her nose the gate began to shudder and then groan and whine before opening for the young witch. Glancing back at her sister, Twyla saw her Luna was holding her head. Her teary eyes were trained on the ground. Alix held her hands and whispered soft words of encouragement while the boys stood off the side awkwardly, not quite knowing what to do. Noticing Twyla's stare, Xavier made his was over to her side and grabbed her hand.

Bowing slightly, he pressed a chaste kiss to her forehead and whispered, "I hate cemeteries."

"They don't exactly exist for enjoyment," Twyla retorted but there was a slight waver to her voice.

"No. I don't mean it like that," Xavier trailed off as he met the stare of a marble angel, standing on top of a grave in honor of Josephine Douglas- whoever she might have been.

"I just feel like a cheater. There are so many people who deserve to be alive rather than me and I'm still here."

"I thought vampires couldn't walk in cemeteries, you know with the hollow ground and all," said Will as he, Luna and Alix began to walk forward.

"That's a myth, one of many regarding vampires and the Christian religion. We're simply indifferent to religion, of all kinds. And perhaps when you live as long as I have, you'll understand." A forlorn expression took place on Xavier's face, making him look much older than he was.

"I thought you died back in the 80s?" Will asked.

"I did," A small, Mona Lisa smile curved Xavier lips. "I'm still older than you."

"Yes, well, we can all sulk about our depressing fates later. Now, let's just find this stupid tomb." Luna's head was bowed, her were trained on her shoes and her hands were shaking.

Grunting in response, Twyla gave Xavier's hand a tight squeeze and turned to face the graveyard. Something was freaking Luna out, she was able to see that Twyla could not, and Twyla had no interest to learn about it. It was bad enough that she was trapped in a creepy cemetery, in the middle of night, searching for her old place of resting. Combing through each gravestone and monument, Twyla tried to find the graves of Edith and Clara Beaumont.

"This is impossible!" She threw her hands up in the air. "There are millions of people buried here."

"Twyla, we don't have a choice. We need to find them- I mean- ourselves, before something bad happens to mom."

And Aunt Nyx and Nana, Twyla added in her head. Luna grimaced, suddenly remembering the rest of her family and nodded reluctantly. "This book is the only way we can get them back and it's pretty useless if it's not open."

"How do we know they're not already dead," Twyla shoved her hands in her pockets and kicked a patch of dirt.

"Don't say that!" Luna's face contorted as she blinked back tears, "They're going to be fine."