Chapter 1
October Thirty-First, Two Thousand and Eighteen
James appeared in front of Elizabeth, Rachel, Delaney and Aunica. “Come with me.” He told them. He could sense Emily, the Dark Lady, behind him. The Dark Lady had Black Hands with her. They didn’t have much time. He made the five of them vanish…
...They all reappeared in the cabin but it looked abandoned and old. The windows were broken. The door looked like it had been broken down. There was a drafty wind coming from upstairs. Aunica spun around, expecting to see the Dark Lady and her Black Hands but they weren’t there. “Where is Emily?” She asked. “Wasn’t she just here?”
“James, where are we?” Delaney asked.
“The real question I think is when are we.” Rachel said, making the other girls look at her. “We obviously are in Gabriel’s cabin, we can see that with our own eyes but it looks dusty and abandoned.” Rachel explained, gesturing to all around them. “So unless James just turned the Dark Lady into dust, we’re not at the same moment we had disappeared.”
Delaney and Elizabeth looked at each other. They kept forgetting that they underestimate Rachel a lot. Despite her being a lot younger than the two of them, she was very clever for her age. And with what she was saying, it did make a lot of sense that they could have ended up in a different time. If anyone was the time traveling movie watcher in their family, it was Rachel. She had watched quite a few time traveling movies.
Rachel looked at James. “So when are we?” She asked him.
James went to the window and looked outside. “I’m not entirely sure what year it is.” He confessed. “I was a bit more focused on getting you four to safety.” It had never occurred to him to think of a year when it came to getting the four girls to a safe place. He had just been thinking of getting them away from the Black Hand.
Elizabeth sat down on the couch and coughed as dust came up all around her. “It must have been quite a while since we were last here.” She said as she tried to wipe the dust off of her face. She stood up. “Don’t sit down on anything unless you want to be covered in dust.” She added.
Aunica went over to the television and tried to turn it on only to find that it wouldn’t turn on. She looked behind the television and saw that it was plugged in but she had a feeling that the building didn’t have any power. “Does anyone have their phones?” She asked, taking her phone out. “There isn’t any power here so our phones are our only source of light.”
Delaney, Rachel and Elizabeth took out their phones. James shook his head. “I left all of my stuff in the hospital.” He told them. “I wasn’t cleared to leave so that hospital probably still has my property.”
All four girls stared at him. “You left your stuff back in Two Thousand and Eighteen?” Delaney asked. That wasn’t good. If the Black Hand was still around or in charge of the world, they would have James’s picture all over the place as a fugitive. Delaney realized that all five of them would be fugitives from the Dark Lady. “We need disguises if we’re to get around.” Delaney said. “And we should probably keep whatever stuff we have hidden so the Black Hand can’t find out who we are.”
“How will we disguise ourselves?” Elizabeth asked. “We can’t do much about our faces. They’ll give us all away.” She looked at James. “Can you disguise our features?”
James was about to answer when Rachel turned around and went out the door. The four rushed after her. James picked up Rachel and looked at her face. Rachel had a blank look on her face. James looked at Elizabeth. “Take her inside.” He ordered Elizabeth. “Aunica and I will go into the closest town to see what all is happening. Delaney will stay here with you and Rachel. We’ll be back later tonight.”
James turned to Aunica. “But we do need disguises.” He told her. His eyes glowed and their clothes changed into black baggy clothes. They were both in long jackets with their hoods up over their heads. James had combat boots on and Aunica had smaller rainboots on. “There.” James said. “We should be hidden well. No one can see our faces so we’ll be hidden well.” James looked back at Delaney and Elizabeth. “Tie Rachel up if you need to but only if you need to.” He told them. He wasn’t sure what had possessed Rachel to walk outside but he didn’t want to risk it happening again. Before Delaney and Elizabeth could say anything, James and Aunica left.
Aunica looked at James as they walked. “You do realize that the closest town is about a half hour drive away, right?” She asked. James didn’t reply. Aunica looked ahead. “What will happen if there isn’t anyone in the town?” She then asked.
“We don’t need someone to be in the town to find out what has happened.” James told Aunica. “We just need something that can tell us the year so we know how far into the future we are.” It was clear to him what had happened. With how dusty and broken the cabin looked, it said to him that no one stopped the Dark Lady from taking over the world. If there were any people in Carrollton, it would be a miracle.
“What will we do if there are only Black Hands in Carrollton?” Aunica asked. “I’m sure that no matter what the year is, they’ve been trained to know that we’re the enemy that is a threat to the Dark Lady.” It was something that she would do.
They then came upon an abandoned vehicle or what had been an abandoned vehicle. The tires were gone and the front window panel was shattered with what looked like dried bloodstains that had come from the hole. The front of the car looked like it had crashed into something that had been moved.
James looked at Aunica. “Stay back.” He ordered. He didn’t want Aunica to see what was possibly in the vehicle. James slowly went up to the car and looked through a side window. There was no one in the vehicle. James sighed with relief and looked at Aunica. The last thing the girl needed was to see a dead body. “It’s okay.” James told her.
Aunica went up to James and looked into the empty car. “What do you think happened to the people who owned this?” She asked in a shaky voice.
“I don’t know but hopefully they’re safe.” James said. He didn’t know how safe anyone could be in this world with the Black Hands possibly being everywhere. If this world was like the one he remembered from the last war against the Dark One, there wouldn’t really be any safe place for too long. He looked past the car and saw more vehicles that had been abandoned. “Let’s assume though that as of now, no vehicles work still like the electricity.” He told Aunica.
Aunica looked in the direction that they had come from. “There weren’t any vehicles between here and the cabin or the camp.” She said. “What do you think the traffic had looked like on the other side of the camp?” She turned to James. “Do you think there are abandoned vehicles there as well?”
James didn’t answer. He didn’t have to. He knew that Aunica already knew the answer to the question. Of course, there would be abandoned vehicles on the other side. He looked at the abandoned vehicles. With how close the vehicles were, he wondered if it was a caravan of people trying to get away to a safe place. He went to another vehicle and looked inside of it. He saw luggage which included sleeping bags.
“Keep watch.” James told Aunica. “We don’t know who is around us but we need supplies.” He opened the door and grabbed the sleeping bags. He handed them to Aunica. “I’ll get the other luggage.” James reached back into the vehicle.
Aunica looked around them. “Why does this remind me so much of that one zombie show?” She asked.
James came out of the vehicle and glared at Aunica. “Don’t mention that show.” He said. “I hated that show.”
Aunica looked at him. She was about to ask why when she saw James shiver a little. “You’re scared of zombies?” She asked before smiling. She couldn’t help it. James was an immortal who had faced some of the worst events in history without being afraid of anything and yet here he was making it clear that he was scared of zombies. “Why are you scared of them?” She asked.
James shook his head. “Zombie filled shows give me nightmares.” He answered before reaching for the rest of the luggage. “They look so disgusting and so freaky that it shouldn’t even be a thing.” He pulled the luggage out and closed the door. “The world already has enough scary things in it. The last thing it needs are zombies coming out of the forest trapping us.”
Aunica was about to say something when she realized that James was revealing something else. It wasn’t just the show that had given him nightmares. It was something else. With Jasper and Gabriel dead, James was alone as the last immortal fighting against the Darkness. He didn’t have anyone else except for Emily’s three family members and she and they were mortals. “I’m sorry.” Aunica said. “I didn’t realize it bothered you so much.”
James sighed and went up to Aunica. He put the luggage down and laid a hand on Aunica’s shoulder. “It’s okay.” He told her. “You didn’t know and it isn’t something I like to talk about much.” James picked up the bags he had. “We need to get going.” He told her. “It’s going to get dark soon and none of us should be outside when it’s dark.”
“But we didn’t get to Carrollton.” Aunica said. “How will we get there if we’re taking this stuff back to the cabin?”
James looked at her. “We’ll be taking this stuff to the cabin and then we’ll try again in the morning.” He told her. “With more time in the sun, we’ll have a better chance at finding out what year it is and what all has happened.” He looked around them. “Now let’s go.”
Back at the cabin, Delaney was curled up behind the couch in the living room. She had locked each of the other doors to the house. She had been surprised the other doors were still up and were working. She had pushed several large furniture pieces in front of the open doorway. If anyone did try to show up, she would make sure that they wouldn’t have an easy time getting in.
She could hear Elizabeth talking to Rachel upstairs, trying to get Emily’s little sister to talk. Delaney wondered what it was that possessed Rachel to go outside. It wasn’t like Rachel to be reckless like that ever. Was it because they had ended up in the future? Was this some sort of side effect to the time travel or being outside of the normal flow of time?
Delaney heard a few people coming up. She looked over the couch and saw James and Aunica standing there. The two of them had supplies. Delaney got out of her hiding spot and went over to the opening. She pushed the couch out of the way far enough for James and Aunica to get through. “Where did you get this stuff?” She asked as the two came through.
James looked at Delaney. “There were abandoned vehicles down the road.” He answered. “Aunica and I grabbed all that we could but there wasn’t much time.” He heard Delaney push the couch back into place. “Good idea with that.” James added. He set the luggage down in the room. “Where is Elizabeth and Rachel?” He asked.
Delaney pointed upstairs. “Elizabeth is trying to get Rachel to talk again but I don’t think it’ll be that easy.” She answered. “Whatever happened to Rachel seems to be affecting her still.”
James sighed and looked at Aunica. “Help Delaney get this stuff upstairs.” He told her. “I need to go check up on Rachel and see if I can help her wake up.”
In one of the bedrooms, Elizabeth heard James join her. “How is Rachel feeling?” James asked her. Elizabeth sighed and gestured to Rachel. James looked at the young girl. Rachel was sitting in a chair with a glassy look on her face. “What happened to you?” James asked quietly. He went over to Rachel and knelt in front of her.
James took Rachel’s hand. His eyes began to glow. After a few minutes, Rachel’s eyes returned to normal. James’s eyes returned to normal as well. “What happened to me?” Rachel asked as she looked at the two.
“We were hoping you could tell us.” James said. “You tried to leave the cabin and didn’t say anything.”
Rachel looked down and thought about what James had said. “All I remember was hearing a voice.” She said. Elizabeth and James looked at each other. “It was a voice saying that a price must be paid.” Rachel continued. “It felt like it was calling to me.”
James wasn’t sure what voice Rachel was talking about. He hadn’t seen anyone since they arrived. He wondered if it was inside of Rachel’s head. He could sense Elizabeth’s concern. “If you ever hear this voice again, you let me know, okay?” James said. “We’re not sure who all we can trust at this time.” They couldn’t lose any more of their team.
