CHRONICLES OF THE FOURTH HORSEMAN

MISS GRIFFINS

I heard the machine call out for the third time.I had to shut it up and I got up from the couch and walked towards it only half aware.The last few days had been a little crazy for me and I was still trying to make sense out of them.At work, the some kid had claimed that a suit was dancing all by itself.A staff had confirmed it and luckily people did not believe it.It was a close call but thankfully it had passed.We had a new member in the group even though he was not with us all the time.He was a Phoenix but only Ophie, Geo and I knew that.We told the others that he was just but a soldier willing to help.The thing that felt weary on me though, was the fact that I was dealing with one delicate issue.I had just killed a witch who had powerful secrets that could be natural order revamping.I made sure she died with them as I torched down the house and everything she ever owned.The heavens had forgiven me but I was not sure I had forgiven myself.I was trying to make sense of the feeling I had that day which by the way I haven't put a name to.

A week had passed and I was still thinking about it.It is true I never intended to invest my feelings in this course and heavens could attest to the fact that I have tried myself.Involving them with the MacMahon was necessary, or soo I thought.How else could I have made her take the special tear?But after that day things changed a little.I started having feelings I never felt before.I started thinking of things I was never supposed to think about.Gabriel even had a clue and he asked me about it several times.I told him I was okey and refused his help.

Today as the others were out in the training room, I stayed behind.I had no idea when they left the room after breakfast.The ringing on the machine for the tenth time was what brought me back to realize they were all long gone.Ad o walked towards it I found myself crossing my fingers for a case.I needed a distraction and a case would be just that.For the last few days the machine had been going all crazy with false cases and I had a clue that one could be fake as well.

It was however my lucky morning.A real case that time.In the Congo basin, people had been found dead in the last few months.Some of them local while others were from pretty far places.All killed by deep talon like wounds all around their bodies, there eye balls were also missing.All of the people killed had a criminal history.Mostly those accused of r**e, killing among other big crimes.A few of them were also believed to be witches and wizards.All from far and near.The authorities believed they were some sort of ritualistic murders while the locals believed it was a vengeance spirit at work.The police and military personel went down there guns ablaze.Questioning the locals and in the process hurting some of them.Curfews were imposed and no one was allowed to go in or out of the village.There were guards all around.I just found the perfect distraction.Camping, we were going camping.We put together our essentials and headed out.By then no one wanted to be left behind.Even Geo was a part of the pack now.He would come in handy since he could transform into a magnificent orange bird.He helped in the flights and i didn't have to fly the group around all by myself.

The flight was cool but we miscalculated our landing plan.We had never been there and I relied on my senses which were overwhelmed by thoughts at the moment.We found ourselves just a few meters from a military camp and we had no time to run away.We all got caught and since we had no papers we found ourselves in holding cells.Everybody was out to point fingers at me.The all knew I was off my game but they had no idea I was too far gone.Ophie knew about my nasty ordeal but he had promised not to tell them and he was still upholding the promise.If I told them they would probably understand, still I wasn't going to.

We were still arguing over whose fault it was when a teenage boy was brought to the general.From where we were held we could head what the soldiers were saying but only four of us understood.The phoenix was equipped with most of the languages in the world and so was the minotaur.I was an angel and I had all the languages except maybe for the magix deep languages, written on my eye lids.I had taught Ophie most of what I knew over the years and he could understand the language too.The rest just heard it.The soldiers were talking about the boy who had been found asleep near one of the bodies.His clothes were all b****y and it was not his.The soldiers were certain he was the killer and they were planning on questioning him.

The holding cells around were all full and ours was the only one with some space and a soldier threw the boy in and locked us up together.The space was a

little bit tight but we squeezed in for him to have some space.Every time he moved, the stench of blood mixed up with sweat filled the air.Everybody's face was molded up into a disgust look.I on the other side had a surprised look as I could see and smell all the people that had died on the hands of the boy.They were all filthy and bad.People who deserved to die.The thing that surprised me though was the thought of how the boy identified them.Some of them were from over thousands of miles away.From where I sat the boy seemed ordinary and human.However, looks are always deceiving.

Ophie was always the group's spokesman.His soft voice and kind words made people confide in him.He spoke softly to the boy who was by then shaking with both fear and hunger.The boy looked at Ophie's face and just like everybody else he knew he could trust him.The two struck a conversation and we just sat there listening.Ophie never went direct to asking what the boy was or how he deed what he deed.He instead asked him about the place, and the soldiers and himself.Within no time we had learned that the boy was an opharn.His parents were killed about a month ago by people he knew.He explained that the he had tried to seak justice from all over but everybody asked for money in order to help.His father was a fisherman and his mother was a farmer.They never even made enough money to take him to school leave alone bribe someone.After long search for justice, the boy gave up and went back to the village to continue with his parents work.He was a lone son and he had nowhere else to go.

The conversation was just getting better and better.Ophie was about to put across the question when suddenly the guards stormed into the cell and took the boy with them.The boy cried out to Ophie to help but when he tried to get up one of the soldiers smacked him on the face with his boot.Ophie fell back on the ground.We all knew we could not show ourselves as it would only make things worse.The cells themselves were just wire mesh with electric wires around them.If we tried to show our true selves everybody around would see us.We had to make a plan that had to involve darkness.In the moment we just had to hope the soldiers were not going to kill the boy before then.

We watched as the two soldiers dragged the boy towards the tent.My eyes could still see through and even after they got in I followed them.I had all my senses on the tent and so was Geo.We could see and hear everything from in there and I wished I didn't.The soldier who had just hit Ophie was the one questioning the boy.His deed voice was enough to scare the poor boy half to death.The soldier stood about six feet seven inches with huge muscles.His eyes were huge, red and round.He had an ugly scar on his hand which was visible due to the folded long sleeved shirt.All that added to his like real dark compression made him look much more fierce.I expected the boy to say even things he didn't have to die to fear.Instead he asked for food.The soldier then leaned in on him in an attempt to break him with his fierce look,but the boy asked for food yet again.The guy was furious and he asked for some can food which he opened and poured on the table right in front of the boy.With no words the boy bent over and ate all the food.That made the soldier even more mad as he expected a different reaction.

He lifted up his hand and slapped the boy hard."What did he slap him for?,"Geo asked.Completely forgetting that no one else could see what he was seeing.People on the other cells turned around and looked at him questioningly, he realized it and said sorry before turning back his attention to the tent just in time to watch the horror start.The soldier reached for a chair and sat right in front of the boy.He then reached into his bag and brought out some t*****e tools.He placed them on the table one after the other.The boy watched with an expressionless face.Geo made another remark, only this time he whispered.I just sat there.

"This is how we are going to do this...I ask a question, you answer in five seconds.If you don't, I take a nail from your fingers.If you give an answer and I am not satisfied, you lose a nai," the soldier said, reaching for a pair of pliers.The boy just looked at him, now scared.He had just realized what would follow.He nodded and the soldier went on to ask his first question."Are you the one killing people around?," he puched a button on his watch and waited." No," the boy answered.The soldier then reached for the boys hand and plucked a nail.He screamed out with all his strength and the people in the cells kept quiet at ones.Onother scream followed and yet another...and another.The soldier then walked out wiping blood from his hands with a white towel.

Everybody was certain that the boy was dead, but I knew he wasn't.I could still feel his heartbeat, it was completely low but it was there.The soldier might have also thought he was dead and left him there.Soon some other two soldiers would carry him out and put him on their military vehicles.I followed it for a distance where it then stopped and the body was thrown off to thicket.Back in the camp, the soldier made his way to his superior, he saluted him with respect and then went on to tell him his findings."The boy may be b****y but I don't think he did it sir," he said with his hand still in the air.The Superior then went on ahead anf granted permission to the soldier to question the rest of the prisoners.

My turn came, I was the first amongst my group.Honestly I didn't understand why they had to beat up and t*****e the people.Some of the poor soul were soo shaken they even told of stupid things they deed while they were children.Yet the thoughtless men went on to beat and t*****e them.By the time it was my turn, the darkness had taken over.It was time to act, but first someone needed to learn a lesson.The two soldiers walked into our cage and took me by the shoulders, they dragged me across the then wet grass to the camp.The night was super quiet with people locked into their homes due to curfew.I could tell they were more scared by the military than the serial killer.

At the tent they made me sit on the same chair those before me had sat on.The place leaked of fear and me.Death was hovering around like a cloud.I could see the four reapers standing in the shadows, waiting, when they saw me, they made as if to leave, but I had no problem with them being there.It is their job after all.I just waved at them in acknowledgement and they moved a little bit further in the shadow.I then turned my attention to the tent.Blood from all the others had collected on the table, flowing down to the grass and eventually clotting.The stench was almost unbearable even for the other soldiers.Only the torturer was comfortable.

He started off just like he had done with the others, and then he went on to ask questions.The others left, the could not stand the sreaming and the blood.Whenever the t*****e began, they all walked out.I was counting on that.The people outside heard a scream, then another.The thought I would be dragged out dead like the others.Minutes later I had gotten my troop out of the place.We were seated at a bush nearby, waiting to see what would happen.We stayed there for about ten minutes before one of the other soldiers went in to check on their friend, but he didn't come back either.Later four others went in, this time round three came out shaking and dumbfounded by whatever they saw in there.

At first I didn't get it, but then I enhanced my senses and I saw it all.I thought it was the boy from earlier who was killing the people. I even could smell all the dead people on him.Whatever I saw in there was different.It was a Griffin.A protector of the weak and the forgotten.Someone must have summoned it, and I had a pretty good idea who.I remembered the boy and I listened in on him.His heart was still too slow but he was alive.I rushed to him before the others could notice I was gone but I was confronted by the griffin.Since I was not interested in fighting it, I explained myself and he let me help the boy.He transformed himself into a handsome African, American and watched as I put a drop of the clear fluid from the bottle.The special tear was proving to be more effective than I ever gave it credit for.In only a few seconds the boy was up and healed, even the nails were back.I helped him get back home and later took the Griffin back with me to the troop.They had noticed my absence by then and they thought the Griffin took me.

"Hello everyone you can call me miss Griffin," he has said as soon as we got there.I would have liked to ask questions but I didn't.I thought John would but he was too tired and too hungry to ask.There was a coldness between Miss Griffin and Geo for a moment but it went away with time, also another question that no one dared to ask.The day was over and so was the case.We told miss Griffin about our mission and he was more than happy to help.Now we only had three more left for us to fill the bunker.My hopes were beginning to raise again