CHRONICLES OF THE FOURTH HORSEMAN

ALICE

A story had hit the headline.A story that Duke thought I needed to see.A girl named Alice was in police custody for murder investigation.Three murders had happened in the last one week.Every time she was found within the scene of the crime.At first the detectives thought it was a coincidence.Then there was the second crime and her story for being at the scene was straight.I was in a club and she and her friends had sneaked from home to go enjoy.But then two days ago she was found asleep at an apartment where the owner was dead in the bathroom.That was it for the authorities and she was detained pending further investigation.From the look of it, it seemed pretty simple.But Duke had a feeling there was more to it than that.

The girl had woken up from a two weeks coma recently and she told stories of an impending doom.Her doctor said there was no sign of mental illness and people around her thought she was just having an aftermath.Some post trauma problems.After the killings they were convinced it was cult related.You know like how people predict the end of the world but then it doesn't happen and they decide to create theirs.She kept explaining to the police that she didn't commit the crimes but they didn't believe her.In one hand it was her word and on the other it was the overwhelming evidence.

Duke called me while at school and during lunch I rushed.The boys were having a hard time as it was balancing between training and school and I didn't plan on taking them into the field yet.I also weighed my decisions more because I couldn't risk making another stupid mistake just yet.The time i had for lunch was enough to go and do a quick check and know what was happening.The following day was Saturday and if the case wasn't solved during the day I would have to finish it the next day.I took Duke with me because a hunt took two.

We never planned on going the right way.How could we explain our visit in the first place.I airlifted Duke there and we started on our plan.I couldn't fly in blind and Duke couldn't take me in with him.He was clad in a shiny black suit and clear shades.He had a briefcase with him and we hoped that the police wouldn't check it thoroughly as it had fake papers.Duke went in all confident.He even looked hot from where i stood.He was to walk in, assess the place and report back so I could fly my way in.I crossed my fingers since I had no breath to hold.All he had to do was pretend he was on the phone as I could hear him all the way in there.He went through the security clearance and he was in.As he walked he fake talked on his phone and I followed him closely visualizing the place as he described it.At last he was inside the interrogation room with the girl.

I flew in carefully not to flip papers and books around with my wings.It was a crazy struggle but I got there.Upon arrival, the girl who was talking calmly to Duke went rogue."You its you from my dreams, you will take everybody and the world will be More....guards!...guards! get me out of here...she is going to take all of us...," She started to shout at the top of her lungs.I walked close to her and explained myself as first as I could.I told her I knew she was innocent and in was there to investigate what was really going on.I also promised to explain the end of the world crap later when everything was cool.Lucky for me she understood and stopped shouting.By that time however the guards were on the way and I could hear their footsteps as they approached.I played the invisibility trick and when they got in the just saw Duke.

" I was just kidding, I need some water," she said with a crazy laughter.One of the guards was a little mad and I knew he was thinking of slapping her but he couldn't.He fugured that would affect the case as a "lawyer" was there.The other guard went out and came back with water.The two then left and ones again it was just the three of us.I walked up closer and thanked her as I sat besides Duke.We were both more than ready to hear her story.

" Now, I am here to help you, but for me to do that, I am going to need you to tell me the truth and nothing but the truth, leave nothing out," said Duke in a soft low voice.We had discovered that the camera had gone on while I was still invisible and I couldn't go all visible again.I had to sit there in silence and just listen whenever I had something to ask I whispered on Duke's ears and sometime he could get spooked but , nothing suspicious.The girl started on her story and i wished I had some popcorn, the story was more or less like a movie,even Duke could attest to that.

"Two weeks ago, me and three of my friends went out for a hike and camping in woods.It had all started well and since it was not our first time we had permission to be there.we hiked during the day and came back to the tents before nightfall.Everything was cool and quiet at first.But then the third night everything changed.We could hear something out there and at first we made fun of it.But then it got much closer.With the moonlight we could see a huge shadow on the tent.We could not figure out what it was and we thought it was a bear or something but it seemed to be walking on two and one of my friends said that she could see horns.The noises went on for about an hour but then died out.

We were Soo scared and all that while we were quiet, coiled on one side holding each other tightly.When the noises died down we decided to stay on but quietly as we figured whatever was out there was waiting for is to go looking.We relaxed and before we knew it we all fell asleep.The next morning we woke up to a tent torn a little but we all seemed un harmed.We just parked our stuff and went back home even though our plans were stay there for two more days as we hiked and planted trees in the woods where someone had cut them down.At home we didn't explain the events to anybody as we didn't want them to think we were cowards.

That evening when taking a shower I discovered scratch marks on my shoulder.I just figured maybe I was scratched by some thorns during one of our hikes.I figured it was nothing.Later the next morning the marks were gone.I thought it was strange but then I conluded that there were no scratches at all and I was imagining it due to the torn tent I had seen the previous day.I went on with my day as usual.The day went on smoothly but then at the afternoon I started feeling general body weakness, about an hour later I felt a sweep of nausea followed by dizziness.I woke up two weeks later in a hospital bed.The craziest thing however was that during those two weeks i was living another life.I was in a world raged with all sorts of bad things.People were dropping dead in every corner, others were dying of hunger while others were being feasted on by creatures I have ever only read about or seen in movies and sci fi films.I saw the her in the midst of three others, she was laughing herself crazy as more and more people died, and her friends followed her lead.

After I woke up, I still could remember it and the doctors said it was my minds way of making sense of the fact that I was unconscious.A way for it to stay active.My family and friends laughed at me every time I talked about it and I had to stop.I went back to my normal life but it was not normal at all.I started missing time.Hours and hours that I couldn't explain.At times I could find myself finishing a task I never even knew when I started.Then I started finding myself in crime scenes.The three are just but a few I found myself at.There are others accidental and intentional scenes.Like the second last murder at the club.All I remember about that day was that I texted my friends and told them I won't be joining and went to sleel in my bed back at home.The next morning however I found myself asleep on a table in the club where me and the girls had planned to go to earlier.

I however have never found myself with b****y hands or clothes.None of my clothes are missing and I wake up every time with the clothes I had when the time loss started.I know from the deepest part of my heart that I am not a killer and neither have I ever killed something bigger than a cockroach in my life.I am innocent you have to believe me.Tell them I couldn't have killed those poor people,"

Of course I knew she was not the killer.I could smell the death of the dead person on the killer.From her I could smell nothing but he pure soul.In fact I had never seen one soo poor apart from Tom's.She was telling the truth.There was something about her though that did not feel right.Her smell was pure but it had a hint of something else.Something not entirely hers but I couldn't tell what.I whispered on Dukes ears to assure her that we were going to do everything possible to prove her innocence.But first we had to hit the books.

I flew out of the room while Duke walked.Ones outside we flew back to the bunker where Ophie was waiting eagerly.Ever since he was hurt by Hephas, he had developed a fear within him that he could not shake off.He looked pretty banged up and despite my plea to him to slow down he still kept on training the boys and himself.He was hitting the books hard and the way he carried himself around concerned me alot.The three were not yet ready to open up on what happened in there and I was still waiting on them to decide.Duke told Ophie of our visit and Ophie got up and took out a book.He handed over to Duke and later sat down and continued reading his own.

Duke and I were still not in good terms but he told me what he felt necessary.We had no clue what we were going after but we had a start.We were looking for a huge creature with horns but walked on two legs.A minotaur was the creature closest to the description.It was a huge creature with the head of a bull, body of s human, claws of a wolf and the tail of a bull.It was long ago worshipped as a God of vision and future.In most cases it showed its victims things to come, both those that could be changed and those that couldn't.It was not dangerous to humans but its attempt to help would sometimes cause trouble.It never gave the power to see the future to hurt but the help but the power had side effects.Most of its victims developed attachments to events or happenings, both negative and positive.Unfortunately, the girl Alice was attracted to violent occurrences.Like the deaths and the accidents.

Her subconscious knew all those things were going to happen and it was trying to stop them but without the coordination with the conscious part of her being it could not be helped.Now we could explain the blackouts and her being near the crime scenes.But we could not tell the authorities that.We needed to figure a way to disconnect her from the power.The only way we could do that was by finding the god that gave her the power and ask him to take it back, or at least some of it.

We all knew that was impossible as a gift once given the god could never take it back.The second option was next to impossible.Killing it.The only way it could be killed was by locating its heart and stabbing it with the god's own horn.Crazy hah! That wasn't all it.The minotaur kept its heart hidden inside a living, growing wood where only if knew.Finding it would be the hard part task.There was also no way to slow it down so we could cut its horn.Not to mention that only weapons made of diamond could cut through its fresh.

We had not delt with a reature that strong or powerful before.Even worse the creature itself meant no harm to the humans.Were we really supposed to kill it?I wasn't sure whether killing it was a good idea.After all we needed beings like those to help us in coming war.After thinking about it for a while, we decided to approach the it first and ask peacefully.For this one we needed all able hands out there and I we had to take Tom and John with us.

Evening came and John and Tom were off from school.I had to fly them to an flo those days to save on time.I also had a job to go to.I didn't like the fact that I had to deal with all that but I am an Angel and we don't feel exhaustion.I picked up the boys and brought them back to the bunker.The were still not talking to me and I had to leave Ophie to fill them in on the next days task.John was happy and excited while Tom was confused but ready.Before going to work I moved all our belongings to our new home and nearly arranged them.Larry had left most of her furniture and books but the house still had some space to put our own.I took the masters bedroom just the fun of watching the boys go crazy over it.It felt good to watch them get angry over little stuff.

After the quick work I went to work.It was not the busiest day as we had lost a few customers to a new cafe opposite.As I worked, My thoughts were fixed at the case.I kept thinking about Alice and her cursed blessing.On one hand, she could see the world unlike anybody else.On the other, her ability was making people think she was crazy while others thought she had joined a cult.If only they could listen to her, a lot of deaths could be prevevented.But people don't believe in what they can't prove.She was being shunned left and right by both her friends and family.And she was now behind bars about to be charged with murder.She had no way to prove her innocence and no one was willing to listen to her crazy talk.At that moment I realized there was a way to prove her innocence.I couldn't wait for morning to come.