Chapter 7 (Season finale)

7

As they drove through town, there was no action, no attacks, no ambush. Nothing. Just the strong smell of death in the air. All the bodies of adults and children was nerve wrecking. Everyone they knew and met, dead. Like something swiftly blew through there and everyone shut down. The people were in the spots they were last.

Victor and the others got to the black lake. When they drove into the woods, the truck stopped running.

“What happened?” asked Sarah, talking to Butch. Butch tried starting it again. But no luck. “It’s completely dead. Just like everything else in this damn town.”

“Great.” Said Sarah. “Guess we gotta walk to the lake.”

Just then, something unusual happened. Victor heard someone call his name. “Victor.” Said the voice. It was the same voice from his nightmare. “Don’t follow the path. Walk through the woods. Danger is waiting for you through the path. They want the heart.” Then he saw a man standing with a white aura around him. From the distance he could tell the man was smiling. Then it hit him. “Dad?” said Victor.

“What did you say Victor?” asked His mother.

“I saw dad- there.” Said Victor as he pointed to a part of the woods. “He said there’s danger waiting for us on the path and we need to walk into the woods to the lake.”

“Victor, how do you know it wasn’t death?”

“Because I know. What I saw wasn’t like the other things I’ve seen. He also said they wanted the heart.”

“What are you talking about?” said Sarah. “What heart?”

“The necklace.” Said a female voice. They turn to the driver window to find Jessica, who was bloody and injured. “Your necklace is a part of Death’s heart. That’s why it came back, because you two came back to Ellengulf. We haven’t got much time, death doesn’t know you’re here yet, neither does the cultists.”

“How do you know?” asked Berta.

“I know because I carry a necklace just like it.” Jessica showed her necklace and as she said, was completely identical to Victor’s. “Not only that, I can sense when death’s around. And I know you can sense him too, kid.”

“She’s right.” Said Victor. “Do you know how to kill it?”

“Yes. There’s a hidden path in the black lake. I almost died there, twice. But something one night drew me to it. If we can get into it’s domain, we can kill it. All we have to do is destroy these necklaces in it’s domain and it’ll die- we need to hurry, follow me.” Said Jessica as she walked towards the woods.

“Why are you helping us?”

Jessica turned around. “Because that thing possessed my parents and made me have to kill them.”

Everyone got out the truck and followed Jessica into the woods. When they got to the lake the water was oily and bubbling like it was made out of tar. It was a huge lake, so they had no idea where the entrance could be. “Kid, put your necklace in the water- like this.” Jessica took her necklace off and held it by it’s chain. She then gently placed it in the water and Victor followed her directions. Once they did that, the water shaped itself into a giant home, the size of a small mansion. “I had visions of this day.” Said Jessica.

“You have?” asked Victor.

“Yes. This will be the day I might die.”

“We won’t let that happen.” Said Victor. “We’ll see.” Jessica said with her eyes focused on the mansion.

Then there was a loud bark. Everyone turned around and was horrified to find Poppy, Victor and Sarah’s dog. She was bloody, mangled with it’s body parts deformed.

“It knows we’re here!” yelled Sarah. “Run to the house!”

Poppy’s body, as tiny as it was, morphed and cracked it’s way into the shape of a tiny man and it’s eyes rolled back only showing the white part of it. It ran towards them in a maniacal chuckle as it ran and each step it took it made a ‘hup’ noise.

Everyone got into the house and they closed the door behind them leaving poppy scratching at the door, trying to get in.

When they looked around, they were shocked to find themselves in a bright lit living room with windows and a blood red sun beaming on them. Not only that, there were taxidermies of people and animals scattered everywhere. Everything in the home was made of bones. They were in another dimension.

“Where to now?” asked Butch.

“The basement.” Said Victor. “It lives in the basement. I can feel it.”

So off they went into the basement. When they got to the bottom. They started to feel light. Like they were floating in space. Even the area turned dark and no one was able to have a sense of direction. Then a bright light in the distance appeared. In the light was a child, but it wasn’t a child, it was death. It was sleeping. Then something around Victor and Jessica then told them to open the locket of the necklace. Within it was a half of a tiny beating heart. Victor had one piece of the heart while Jessica had the other. Just when they were about to crush the pieces with their fingers, they heard a child giggle. “You don’t think it’ll be that easy, do you?” said the child’s voice all around them. “You can kill me now. But I’ll come back. I always come back.”

“Oh, yeah.” Well we’ll be waiting for you.” Both Victor and Jessica crushed their piece of the heart and the child started to scream and they all felt themselves being sucked into a tube and shot out into the black lake. And as they were shot out, the blue fog was sucked into the small mansion. Everyone was floating in the air when all of a sudden, when the last of the blue fog entered the home it exploded and let out a pulse wave. After that happened thousands of tiny lights flew out of the black lake. It was the souls of the living things death took. Victor and the others fell into the water. And when they landed they swam to shore. It was a beautiful sight to see. All those souls, free.

One of the lights flew to Victor and turned into the shape of his father. “Dad?” said Victor. “Hello, son.” Said Justin. “Victor. I’m so proud of you. You freed us. But you must know death will return. But there’s a way to stop it from happening. Before I died I was learning of the legends of Ellengulf. They are the keys to stopping all the deaths. But you must be careful. If you go down this path, there’s no turning back. All the legends will come after you, your mother and your friends. Do you understand?”

“Yes… Hey dad? Did you ever think of me?” Justin gave a warm smile and placed his hand on Victor’s shoulder. It was warm. “All the time.” He smiled. Then he faded into a white ball of light and disappeared into the sky. It was over… For now.

When they got into town by walking, they were shocked to find people, living people, going about their day like nothing happened. Everything was back to normal. But Victor and his friends and mother’s lives from this day forward wouldn’t be normal.

Months had gone by and people were talking about strange happenings all throughout Ellengulf, what Victor now acknowledged as Dark Town. He went to school with his new friends, sadly, Hayley didn’t return. It made him sad but it made him remember his mission. To save Ellengulf and the world from the legends. And he was going to fight for his mother, his friends, Hayley and most of all, his father. And he was going to fight to his last breath.

But like death said, it always comes back.

One night, Victor was at home asleep. So was his mother. It was peaceful. Then there Was a loud crash of glass. Victor and his mother jolted out of bed just to see if they were both ok. Then there were the sound of crows cawing and running on top of the roof and some even bashing themselves into the house. It sounded like heavy rain. When it stopped, they looked at the front of the house through the window. Then they discovered the dead crows turned themselves into a symbol. Victor didn’t know what it meant. But sadly, Sarah did.

“Do you know what that symbol means mom?” Victor was worried.

“Yes Victor.” She looked terrified. And Victor could see it plain as day. “It means we’re going to need allies for this. I know a few. That symbol means we’re being targeted by a tribe. A tribe older than time itself. The Teckana.

“Who are they?” Victor was feeling uneasy.

“All you need to know is, they’re not human. And what we did, was kill their god. And from what I can tell… they’re not happy about it.”