The Order of The Covenant

Chapter 1: New Awakening

The Order of The Covenant

Chapter 1:

New Awakening

The air was stale. Her knees were scuffed from the cold hard concrete. Her arms numb as they were permanently wrapped around the book. It's leather pressed firmly against her chest. She knew that she should close her eyes. That she should look away. Then she felt the nail that crawled under her chin. It was then she looked into those eyes. Those mesmerizing lavender eyes. The breath of fermented grapes filled her senses as the woman spoke. Her words fell from her lips in wine-scented italics. "I always get what I want, and this is no different. Now, you will give me what I want, or I will pry it from your dead little arms. Understood?"

"Don't listen to her, pumpkin."

"Awe, pumpkin," the Asian woman said mockingly.

"Sweetie, listen to daddy. She can't hurt you."

"I can and I will." She retorted calmly and mockingly. She walked towards the center of the sigil on the floor surrounded by candles. Her silk robe fell to the concert, revealing her body covered in a tattoo. The candles painted her porcelain-like skin in an orange glow as the flickering flames danced. Otherwise, it was dark and couldn't see far as the exterior walls that surrounded them. So Victoria didn't know if it was a trick of the light or her movement, but she could almost swear that the tattoo on the lady's back came to life. The woman looked over her shoulder, and the menacing shadows upon her wicked face sent chills down her spine.

"I will not only hurt you. I will take everything from you." The Asian woman brandished a knife strapped to her thigh. Along the outer edges of the sigil and candles on the floor were the three.

Mother.

Father.

And daughter.

The parents were shackled and chained to her left and right. A triangle in which the Asian woman stood center of.

"Victoria, don't listen to her. She can't do anything to you," the father firmly said.

The Asian woman walked over to the father, bound by his wrists and ankles. With a single gesture, he was suspended in the air, seething and struggling with all his might. The chains jerked tight with no signs of slack. The woman walked calmly towards him with that devilish grin. She caressed the blade over his chest as she went to hold his chin and leaned in for a kiss, but he jerked away.

"Now, Thomas, is that any way to treat a woman?" She glanced over her shoulder at his wife. "I mean, after all the fun we had together."

"Get away from him, you b***h!" Thomas' wife swung her left arm, snapping the chain free and coiling around the woman's neck. She gripped the chain and jerked, sending the woman flying off her feet and onto her back. Elizabeth then dragged her across the sigil on the floor. She quickly wrapped her legs around the neck of the woman on the floor in a triangle chokehold, the back of her knee just under the woman's chin.

With her fingers tucked between the chain and her neck, she uttered, "Mmm, kinky." just before she flicked her wrist. Embers sparked from the broken chain and quickly materialized links, reassembling it back together. Elizabeth was violently jerked back and suspended in the air like her husband. The woman laid there like a coiled cobra for a second, looking at her unfazed before she got up and gave a sideways glance. "I like foreplay as much as the next girl, and you have conviction, I give you that, Elizabeth." She stood up and walked over to her as the chains remained red hot like coals in a fire. She softly wrapped her hand around Elizabeth's neck, slowly caressing as she made her way to the back of her head, and gripped a fistful of her hair. "See, you and I... We could have been so much more." She leaned in and whispered in her ear. "It's a shame, really, to waste such potential." For a second as she held her face over her shoulder, a sense of sensitivity washed over her that Elizabeth could hear in her voice just before the cold steel pierced Elizabeth's stomach. The blade hilt deep before it was dragged across her torso.

"Elizabeth!" the husband shouted.

"Mom!" Victoria cried out.

"Look away, Victoria, look away," Thomas said.

Releasing Elizabeth's hair, the woman reached deep into her wound and pulled.

"Yes, pumpkin..." She tilted her head with a pouty face. " Look away, but heed my words: I will get what I want. Give me that book, and I will think about sparing you."

"Tanaka, this is between you and me. Leave her out of this." Thomas stared the woman down. " What do you even think you are capable of using it for. No one has been able to translate it for centuries."

"Perhaps I just want it on my nightstand for some light reading. Relinquish the tome. Give it to me, and I will even bring Elizabeth back. You can have your family." With a hand full of his wife's innards, Lady Tanaka nonchalantly gestured her hand and said, " Just look away and let me have my book." Tanaka said.

"You know I can't do that. Even if you did bring her back, she would never be the same," Thomas hopelessly uttered, his words exasperated as he felt reason slip from every fiber of his being.

"What's wrong, Thomas? Giving up so soon? Where's your holy armor now? Your power in your Lord and Savior?" Tanaka taunted, knowing he had no ground here. No one was there to back him up. A useless vessel for a prejudiced society and a tool nonetheless she thought to herself.

"If you're so fearless, then why did you have to chain me?" Thomas retorted.

Lady Tanaka sashayed her way to Thomas with his wife's intestines in one hand and her knife in the other. Its metal surface gleamed in the fire as she passed Victoria. She placed the pale, bloody rope of flesh around his neck and pulled him close. "Because I want you to know who's in control. Every tug you can't shake. The cold steel around your wrists. The limit to your movement. I want you to remember, you are here because I orchestrated every facet of your demise to open your eyes to how hopeless it is to ever challenge someone greater than yourself. You, your faith, your brotherhood for the past hundred years could never stand up to me. I will end you here in front of your daughter, then take that last tome in my possession, and there's nothing you can do to stop me." Tanaka paused and looked at his daughter with a malevolent grin. "Then I'll brand your daughter as one of my own. Wouldn't want her talents to go to waste, now would we?" She turned her evil gaze upon Thomas, only to be shocked at what she found.

Thomas' face was seething red. His neck was swollen twice its natural size. His veins protruding. In the time it took her to turn and see the look in his eyes that read pure madness, he snapped the chain and broke the shackle around his neck, then headbutted her in the face. Tanaka stumbled back. Her vision turned red. Blood trailed down from the crown of her head like a waterfall, covering her face. With the back of her hand, she wiped her face off, then swiftly backhanded Thomas in the face.

" Come on. WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR? Do it!"

Tanaka didn't waste another second before impaling his throat with her blade. Then the chains pulled taught till his arms were pulled out of their sockets and legs ripped at the mid of his thighs.

A surge of energy guised from the two corpses like a gale of wind, sending Tanaka's hair flailing. Confused in the chaos by the light and energy that surrounded them and blew the candles out. The winds from opposite ends of the sigil collided into a violent cyclone that channeled with such might. Slowly it gravitated and vanished as if siphoned into a vortex over the child. The only light left sat kneeling on the concrete, with the tome tightly gripped in her arms. Her long red hair slowly drifted till it completely stood on end, vibrantly fluttering like a flickering flame.

A beacon in the darkness.

Lady Tanaka, cautious at first, panicked and rushed over to the girl in hopes of retrieving the tome. "Give me the grimoire." Lady Tanaka's arm stretched out but struggled to get closer. Victoria, fixed, sat kneeling there with the book in her hand as Lady Tanaka trudged slowly, attempted to snatch the book. The force repelled her harder the closer she got. It was almost within her grasp, yet she couldn't lay a finger on it. Then suddenly a burst of light from Victoria expelled like a dying star. A nova of energy radiated and sent Lady Tanaka flying, her backside collided against the wall just before her body collapsed on the floor.

The light faded from around Victoria. Exhausted, she passed out on the concrete with the book tucked under her.

"NYPD! Nobody move!" The police stormed in, their flashlights panning left and right across the warehouse. They rushed in to find the bodies suspended on chains.

The captain walked in and found the sigil on the floor.

Another officer rushed in and found the girl. She motioned for another officer to come and attend to the girl. She knelt down and calmly spoke to her. "Hey sweetie, my name is Ashley Brown. I'm a police officer..." The girl raised her head. "Tori? What are you—" Before she could even get an answer, the other officer came to the call. Ashley was so grief-stricken, she was speechless.

"Come with me, you can sit in the car. I've got a blanket if you're cold." The officer said as his voice trailed off. " I can let you play with the lights if you would like." He was a new officer. Ashley was normally aggravated with how newbies would often over compensate or try so hard when they first start, but she couldn't feel safer knowing that she was in good hands right now. Especially after having to wrap her head around what she was about to see.

The captain called out, "Officer Brown, have you ever seen anything like this?"

Ashley stood there, shocked in disbelief. She did everything she could to fight back the fireball of tears in her throat.

"Is something wrong, Officer Brown?"

After a deep breath, "They are Elizabeth and Thomas Shaltz, sir. I grew up with her." She remembered the day Elizabeth left. It was the day she called to tell her that she was moving back she wanted to remember the most. It was the same day she gave her the news that she was going to be a mother. She was so excited.

"My God. I'm sorry, Ashley." He looked down at his feet as if to find the words to say. He just couldn't stand to see his best officer break down in front of him. It was like watching one of his own children get hurt. "Look, uh, we will finish up here. Forensics will be here in a second anyway. You know how they are about contaminating the crime scene and all that. Just go make sure the girl is safe. We got it from here."

With watering red eyes, she gave a nod and turned away from the horrific scene to put the horrible nightmare behind her. Yet, a cold chill settled over her body, knowing that not only she but also Victoria would be haunted by this for life.

Ashley walked out to a brigade of squad cars to find Victoria in the back seat. The door opened with her partner knelt in front of her.

"Thank you," she said. He turned back and nodded before he left. Ashley noticed she was holding a book. It was almost the size of her, she thought to herself. She's holding on to it for dear life. "What's that you've got there?" Victoria sat there silently. Ashley didn't want to push. "You remember me, right?" Victoria nodded. "I grew up with your mom when we were little, like you." She reached her hand out, "Come on. You'll be safe with me. We've got to get you home."

Ashley drove with Victoria in the passenger seat, knocked out, with that book still in her arms. She began to slow down as she approached the driveway. Another set of headlights approached and pulled in behind her. Ashley got out of the car as the man behind her got out of his older Volvo.

Instantly, the man looked wide-eyed in panic. "Honey, are you okay?" The man asked.

"Yes, I'm fine." She stood there as he held her close. She could feel his heart racing against her chest. She turned to look at her patrol car. "It's Victoria."

"Elizabeth's daughter? Elizabeth and Thomas were murdered tonight at Tanaka Bay Industries."

"Oh God." Omar gasped.

Another set of lights pulled up. Ashley looked to her side to find another patrol car.

"He's here to watch over us as we take care of Victoria for the night." She waved at the officer.

"Okay. I'm going to grab my bags. I'll meet you inside."

Ashley gave him a kiss. "Thank you, Omar. It means a lot."

He could tell it was taking a toll on her. The patrol car might have been meant for Victoria, but she needed someone to help keep her from falling apart. To hold her close and make it through the night. He walked around the front of his car to the passenger seat, opened the door, and retrieved his satchel with his laptop and the overnight bag in the floorboard. As he made his way into the house, Ashley was just coming back down the stairs after putting Victoria to bed.

They retreated to the dining room where they sat and discussed what they could do. Ashley didn't want to see Victoria placed into foster care. She had heard terrible stories of children going to homes with abusive parents, growing up with social issues due to trauma.

"I remember when Elizabeth called me, telling me that she was coming back home. She told me that she had some news she couldn't wait to share with me. I was there at the hospital when she had Victoria and held her. There's no way I could lose her to some broken system and pretend everything is okay," Ashley said.

Omar reached out and placed his hand on hers. "I understand you completely. I'll pick up a few extra projects along the way and do what I can to help. Maybe I can call my friend. He and his wife couldn't have a child together and adopted his niece when his sister lost custody. I'll see what steps we need to take." He gave her hand a squeeze. "But for now, you need to get some rest."

"I'm going to check on Victoria."

"Okay. I'll set up the couch for you."

Omar walked into the living room. He couldn't help but see the pictures above the fireplace. Thomas even kept pictures of the two of them from when they went camping together. Thomas was never the type to have a lot of friends or talk much about what he did, but he could always tell that he was a good, honest man that you could count on and enjoyed being around him. He even helped him during difficult times when he was scared to open up. Omar put the picture back on the mantle and looked for the sheets and blanket in the linen closet when he heard Ashley.

"Omar!"

He quickly rushed up the stairs to find Ashley in the room. The lights were on, the sheets pulled back from the bed, and the window opened with the curtain blowing in the wind.

The sky was a marmalade of pink, orange, and lavenders. The streets were revving to life as steam rose from the sewer grates. Victoria wandered out from the train station on Time Sq and 42 St. She has been down here many times but never without her parents. She knew that she could not stay and put her mom's friend in danger. She was too nice of a person and wasn't about to watch it happen to someone else. With her small pink backpack strapped over one shoulder, she kept it tucked under her arm. The familiar frame of the tome pressed firmly into her ribs.

The world was a big place and even bigger to her, considering the obvious. Unsure of what parels she would have to face, she was certain if she stayed, more people would die and eventually even her. She didn't completely understand why things had to happen to her family. She wasn't sure as to why someone would even want with such a big book with just some weird scribbles and pictures in it. But if there was one thing she was sure of, her parents said to keep it safe and that's what she was going to do.