Eden (23 page)

“I’ll see you at my house for dinner and we’ll see what happens afterwards,” she added.

“You bet” I replied enthusiastically, “I’ll be over your house right after the bus drops me off.”

“Ok,” she agreed as she made her way down the hall, “I’ll see you in a little bit.”

When she turned the corner, I made my way to the bus stop.  Obviously, I couldn’t wait to get home.  I wondered if I could convince Eden to wear her cheerleading outfit to dinner.  When I reached the bus stop, I was relieved to see that almost everyone, including my friends, was already on the bus; I wouldn’t have to wait for anyone.

“Excuse me,” Howie said as I climbed on the bus, “Can I ask you about your new girlfriend?”

“What?” I asked in shock.  Why would Howie care about my girlfriend?

“How long have you been seeing her?” He asked before I could recover.

“I don’t know,” I answered without thinking, “about two weeks.”

“Does she live near you?” He continued.

I really didn’t like this line of questioning.

“I don’t know,” I lied, “I only see her at school.”  I paused, gathering my thoughts. “I mean, if she lived near my house, wouldn’t she be taking the same bus as me?”

“I guess so,” Howie agreed.  That was quick thinking on my part, I was a little proud of myself.

It seemed that Howie’s interrogation was at an end, so I proceeded to take my seat towards the back of the bus.

“What was that about?” Kyle asked as I sat down next to him.

“I’m not sure,” I confessed.

“That was pretty creepy,” Drake admitted.

“It sure was,” I replied.  If Eden had been a normal girl, I might had felt the need to defend her, maybe even to call Howie out on his behavior, but as things stood, Eden needed my protection about as much as a Pitbull needed the defense of a Chihuahua, maybe even less.  Less than a half an hour later, Howie was stopping the bus at my corner and I couldn’t wait to get off.

“What are you doing tonight,” Kyle asked as me stepped down onto the pavement.

“Can’t talk now…meeting Eden,” I muttered as I broke away from the pack.

“Sheesh,” Drake mocked, “More chick flicks?  I sure don’t envy you, pal.”  If only he knew the truth.

I practically ran down the block to Eden’s house.  When I reached the sidewalk in front of her house, I stopped dead in my tracks; the glass in Eden’s front door was shattered and the door was left open.

Not a good sign.

Not a good sign, at all.

It was at this point of my narrative that everything began to take a turn for the worse.

26

I approached the front door to Eden’s house with caution.  It wasn’t the fact that it looked like someone had broken into Eden’s home that worried me; she could handle any home burglar with no problem.  What had me worried was the silence that seemed to emanate from the doorway.  Reaching the front porch, I peered inside the open doorway.  I couldn’t detect any sounds or movement inside the house.

“Eden?” I called cautiously, “are you home?”

Silence was my only answer.

Silently kicking the front door open, I crossed the threshold.  As I entered the house I glanced at the broken window.  It looked like a large rock had been thrown through it.  Looking around the entry hall, I saw the guilty stone lying in the middle of a pool of broken glass.

“Eden?” I called again, “it’s me, Thomas!”

I certainly didn’t want her to think I was a prowler just incase she was lying in wait, ready to attack.  Again, there was no answer; which was strange.  Eden always got home before me.  She didn’t have practice tonight and we had already made plans to meet here.  She didn’t say anything about stopping at the supermarket or anything.  I was concerned, but not overly so; Eden could take care of herself.  I was just wondering what had happened.  Scanning the area I came across a crumpled piece of paper lying on the floor in at the foot of the staircase that led upstairs.  Picking it up, I smoothed out the sheet of paper before I read its contents.

Deva,

Meet us at the old Brang Auto Group dealership.  If you do not honor our request, your boyfriend, his family and his friends are all dead. Meet us there by 4PM today.

              I could only assume that whoever wrote this letter were either humans wanting to become leeches, or leeches wanting to stay that way.  Either way they would want Eden dead.  Looking at my watch I found that it was around four now, I would have to hurry if I wanted to get to the dealership.  Pulling my cell phone out of my pocket, I quickly dialed Matt’s number.  He picked up on the second ring.

“What’s up?” he asked.

“Are you at Kyle’s with Drake?” I returned.

“Yeah, why?” he asked sounding confused.

“It’s Eden,” I explained, “she’s gone.”

“What are you talking about?” he asked.

“Can you meet me at Eden’s house?” I asked, “There is a note here from someone to meet her at the old Brang building.  I think they want her blood and she is going to sacrifice herself to save us.”

“You’re not making any sense,” Matt reasoned.

              “Just get over here!” I screamed and disconnected the call.

              A few minutes later I saw my friends walking up Eden’s driveway.  I stepped out onto the porch with the letter in my hand.

“What’s the problem?” Kyle asked, nodding towards the letter.

I handed Kyle the letter so that he could read it.

“This is definitely not good,” he said handing the letter over to Matt.

Drake read the letter over Matt’s shoulder.

“I knew this would happen,” he said scornfully, “see how we are all threatened?”

“Drake, shut up,” Matt bellowed before I got a chance to say the same.

“So what are you planning on doing?” Kyle asked.

“I’m going to Brang,” I informed him.

“We’re going with you,” Matt offered.

“Screw that,” Drake whined, “I’m heading to Florida.”

We all ignored Drake and continued with our plans.

“I have a bunch of baseball bats at home that we can grab,” I offered.

“Like baseball bats will be of any use against these monsters,” Drake muttered referring to the leeches.

“Let’s grab our bikes and meet at the 7-11 in ten minutes,” Kyle suggested.

The 7-11 was on the way to the warehouse; it would make a convenient meeting place for all of us.

“Sounds good,” Matt agreed.  “You’d better not be late, Drake.”

“Why would  I be late to my own funeral,” Drake mumbled.

              When my friends left, I ran to my garage and grabbed baseball bats and my bike.  I wasn’t sure yet exactly what I was planning on doing, I only knew that I couldn’t sit back and do nothing.  Holding the bats under my arm, I awkwardly rode my bike to 7-11.  I arrived just as Matt, Drake and Kyle pulled up to the curb.  I handed them each a bat.

“So, any plans?” Kyle asked hefting his bat.

“Not really,” I admitted shrugging my shoulders, “I guess we just play it by ear.”

“Great,” Drake complained.

With that we headed down the road towards the old abandoned Brang dealership down Rt. 517.  When we arrived the parking lot was empty and quiet.  Scanning the building, all I could see were the old “Bring it to Brang!” ads crowding the windows.

“It doesn’t look like anyone is here,” Drake stated.

“I’m going up to the window and taking a look,” I informed the others.

Peering into the dark windows, I couldn’t make out any figures at all.

“You’re right, Drake,” I reported, “It looks like we are too late.”

As I turned around to face my friends, a flash of movement caught the corner of my eye, but it was already too late.  The window behind me shattered and I could see at least three hulking figures making their way through the broken glass.

“Holy crap!” I screamed at the top of my lungs.  I quickly ran the short distance to my friends.

Now that I was among my friends again, I finally had a chance to turn around and evaluate our situation; I immediately regretted it.  The three leeches were huge; I knew that they were leeches because nothing human could ever look so malicious.  They slowly stalked towards us, like they knew that there was no way we could escape them.

“What have we got here?” one of them mocked.  “This must be the Deva’s boyfriend.”

“We were instructed to leave him and his friends alone if she gave herself up,” the other leech reminded him.

“What she don’t know, can’t hurt her,” the third one joked.

              All the while they were talking they made their way slowly towards us, never taking their eyes off of us; like wolves stalking rabbits.  From behind us we heard the roar of an engine that even caused the leeches to look up in surprise.  It was a school bus, our school bus!

“What the hell?” I could hear Matt exclaim, “Is that…?”

It was.

As unbelievable as it sounded, from behind the wheel I could see the distinct form of Howie driving the school bus.  The bus screeched to a halt right behind us and the door creaked open.  Stepping off the bus was an even more surprising sight; it was Sir Strolls-a-Lot armed with what looked like a flame thrower!

“Get yo’ asses on the bus,” Strolls yelled to us, stepping aside and motioning us on the bus.

After their initial shock wore off, the leeches sprinted for the bus.  Strolls hefted up the flame thrower and pulled the trigger.  Flames belched from the muzzle as he waved the rifle back and forth.  At least one of the leeches burst into flames and fell to the pavement.  The other two ran off into the woods that surrounded the parking lot.  As we watched the scene with our faces plastered to the window, Strolls made his way over to the burnt body of the leech.

“This is bad,” he muttered to himself as he walked back to the bus, “this is worse than I thought.”

We never got a chance to ask Sir Strolls about his comment because no sooner had he hopped on the bus than Howie rammed the accelerator pedal to the floor.  We were all thrown back in our seats by the sudden burst of speed; I never knew the old bus had such a powerful engine.  It was only after the Brang building was far behind us that Howie thought to close the doors.

27

“How does it look back there, Milton?” Howie called over his shoulder as he guided the bus down the deserted road at top speed.  Milton?  He could only be referring to Strolls.  It’s funny how it had never dawned on any of us that Sir Strolls-a-Lot had a real name.

“They don’t seem to be following after us,” Sir Strolls reported, “It appears that we scared them off, either that or these young’uns ain’t worth the trouble.”

“We can’t just let them get away,” I argued, “They know where Eden is.”

“Calm down, Little Guy,” Strolls replied sarcastically, “we can’t go running off half-cocked like a lamb to the hen house.”

“That doesn’t even make any sense,” I pointed out.

“I reckon it didn’t,” he admitted, smiling “but you know what I mean, anyways we got us a clue.”

“What clue?” Howie asked from the driver’s seat.

It wasn’t until that moment that I realized that Sir Strolls had been holding something in his hand the whole time.  He, nonchalantly, tossed the item across the bus and into Howie’s lap.  When Howie looked down an expression of shock immediately crossed his face and he almost drove the bus off the road; regaining control of the vehicle, Howie slowed the speed of the bus considerably.

“Is this what I think it is?” Howie asked, glancing down at the item in his lap.

“It sure looks like it,” Strolls replied coolly.

“Sure looks like what?” Matt practically screamed.

“It looks like Eden has gotten herself into a world of trouble,” Strolls said shaking his head sadly.

“So you’ve said before,” I answered, “The question now is what are we going to do about it?”

“Do about it?” Strolls laughed, “What makes you think we can do anything about it?”

I stared at him in disbelief.  We weren’t going to try and save Eden?

“Stop the bus,” I said flatly.

“What was that?” he asked as if he didn’t understand me.

“I said stop the bus and let me off,” I replied, fuming.  “I’m going back there and finding Eden.”

“Whoa there, Little Man,” Strolls held up his hands in surrender, “You can’t just figure on sauntering back there and playing Sherlock Holmes; and even if you did, what would you do about it?”

“Rescue her,” I stated.

“Boy, you don’t even know what you’re dealing with here,” He said, all trace of good nature evaporating from his face.

“Who are you guys really?” I countered.  I saw Strolls look over to Howie and Howie gave a small nod.

“We are Guardians,” he said flatly.

At first I had no idea of what he was talking about and then it hit me.

“You are the Wardens that Eden told me about,” I said.

             
“That’s another way of looking at it, I reckon,” Strolls smiled.

“We work for the Deva,” Howie called from the front of the bus, “Once we were alerted of her disappearance it was up to us to keep Eden safe.”

“And you can see what a bang up job we’ve done at that,” Strolls finished.

“Of course we had no idea that she would be in our territory,” Howie quickly added, “We had been planted here years ago in case of such an event.  When we got the news that Eden has run away; Guardians across the country have been on alert in case she showed up in their town.”

“We’re the lucky ones that found her,” Strolls laughed, “although it’s just a tad too late now.”

“Can’t you call the rest of your Guardian friends and rescue her?” I asked.

“By the time they get here, it will be too late,” Strolls stated.  “It’s all up to us.  We are all she has now.”

“So what are we going to do?” Matt asked.

“I gots me some ideas, young ‘uns,” Strolls smiled to himself.  “Give me some time to put them into a plan.”

              It wasn’t until we had driven back into East Harbor and Howie parked the bus, that Sir Strolls began it explain what was going on.

“You see that necklace?” He asked motioning over to the object in Howie’s lap.

Taking a closer look at it, I noticed that it was an oval-shaped silver medallion.

“So what?” Drake answered.  “It’s some kind of holy symbol.”

“It’s not just any holy symbol;” Strolls pointed out, “what you are looking at is the symbol of the Inquisitors.”

Taking a second look at the silver medallion, I could make out the shape of a wooden cross flanked by a sword and olive branch.

“Weren’t the Inquisitors those guys who burned witches during the Dark Ages?” Matt asked.

“To put it bluntly, you’re correct,” Strolls confirmed, “but they also had another mission.”

“Let me guess,” interrupted Drake, “they were also out hunting Devas.”

“Give that boy a prize,” Strolls laughed, “you’re absolutely right, the Inquisition was just a cover up for a Deva Hunt on a global scale.”

“We’ve already heard this story from Eden,” I broke in, annoyed that we were wasting time.

“Well, maybe she didn’t tell you this part,” Strolls replied holding up the medallion, “If those leeches were wearing this around their necks that means that Eden was kidnapped by an Inquisitor.”

“But the Church ended the Inquisition hundreds of years ago,” Kyle pointed out.

“That’s right,” Howie chimed in, “as the old Inquisitors died off, new ones were never appointed, so after awhile the Inquisition ended.”

“But what if one Inquisitor never died?” Strolls asked.

We looked at him in disbelief.

“That would make him hundreds of years old,” Drake laughed.

“Almost six hundred to be exact,” Howie added.

“How do you know that?” I asked.

“This symbol belongs to the Inquisitor Diego de Espinosa,” Strolls informed us, “He was turned sometime in the late 1400’s.”

“That is the only reason he can keep so many leeches under control,” Howie said.

“So the older a leech is; the more powerful he is?” Kyle asked.

“In theory,” Strolls answered, “but we really don’t know.  No one has ever encountered a leech this old before.”

“Great,” Drake muttered, “so it’s the six of us against the world’s oldest leech and his army.”

“I wouldn’t call a handful of leeches, an army,” Howie cut in.

“They might as well be,” Drake argued, “One of them could tear all of us apart and they have no weakness.”

“You’re wrong there, boy,” Strolls chimed in, “As you saw back in the parking lot, fire can hurt them just as easily as it can hurt us.”

“That’s great,” Drake added sarcastically, “I just happen to have a flame thrower in my garage at home that I can grab.”

“Then I guess you won’t be needing one of these,” Strolls smiled as he lifted a long seat cushion on the bus, revealing a bunch of gleaming flame throwers.

The four of us stared, speechless, at the rifles.

“Then let’s get going back there and save Eden,” I demanded.

“Hold your horses, son,” Strolls said.

“But we haven’t got any time,” I argued.

“That’s the thing about those old-timers,” Strolls laughed, “they got these silly little religious ceremonies they must go through before they can drink.”

“Like what?” Matt asked.

“Well, first off,” Strolls began, ticking off his fingers, “There’s the ritual cleansing; that will take at least two days and then there is the trial where Eden will be accused, tried and convicted as a heretic.  Then she’ll be drained and burned at the stake.”

“Sound lovely,” Drake muttered.

“It’s not,” Strolls said becoming serious, “but it does guarantee us a few days to prepare our attack.”

“It helps to know where to attack,” I pointed out.

“It shouldn’t be hard to locate their hide out,” Strolls informed us, “the older the leech, the more predictable.  He should be holed up in a suitably abandoned religious structure; preferably out in the middle of nowhere.”

I began thinking of all the churches and such in East Harbor, nothing came to mind; and then it hit me.

“The old Sacred Heart School down Old Acre Lane,” I blurted out.

“Yeah,” Matt agreed, “that place has been deserted for about ten years and its a few miles outside of town further down the road.”

“That sounds like the place,” Strolls confirmed.

“So are we going now?” I asked, anxiously.

“Not tonight,” Strolls advised, “they’ll be on guard; better to go tomorrow after school.”

“After school?” Drake complained.

“You in a hurry to die, boy?” Strolls asked him, “Because I suggest you take tomorrow to say your goodbyes because there is no guarantee that you’ll be surviving this confrontation.”

None of us answered him; we all knew that what he was saying was the truth.  Howie decided that the conversation was over and got back behind the wheel and started the bus.  It wasn’t long before we were back at Benny’s parking lot promising to meet here tomorrow after school.  After the bus pulled away, we began to walk home.

“So, you guys want to do anything?” Kyle asked nervously.

“I can’t,” I told them, “I have something I have to do tonight.”

“What’s that?” asked Drake.

“I’m going to write down everything that’s happened so far,” I told them, “just in case things go badly tomorrow, I want them to know exactly what happened to us.”

They didn’t say anything, just nodded their heads in agreement.

“Well,” Matt said casually, “see you guys tomorrow.”

We all muttered the same and each made our way home.