Hunting The Dark Side

Chapter 9: Hatred and Betrayal

After her trail of thought, she looked at Jackson and decided to believe the 'angel' inside her instead of her 'devil’.

“So you are saying, what? That Leo shot me? He would never do that to me! When you were ever in the changing type trouble he never shot you, he would have done something like knock you out, but he would never hurt you, so why would he hurt me? I don't understand, he wouldn't, would he?”

She looked down, totally confused, she couldn't handle what she had just been told. She still couldn’t understand why he would do it, there was no logic behind it. She looked from Jackson to Dominic then she turned around swiftly and ran out of the double doors, out of the examining room and found her way out of the secret organisation by simply following the signs which had EXIT in bold written on it, she made several turns left and right bumping into people as she went by, each time she looked back to apologise. She skidded around one final corner bumping into a male doctor.

“Sorry, excuse me.” She spoke hurriedly, about to move passed him until he spoke back.

“Sapphire? What are you doing back here?” Dr Lincoln questioned.

Sapphire looked at him a little confused, “How do you know me? I am fine, my brother just being over protective.”

Lincoln looked over Sapphire’s’ shoulder, “You brother? Where is he exactly?”

Sapphire grunted, “Somewhere back there, now if you excuse me I need air to wrap my head around this.”

She walked around the doctor and around another corner then saw the ladders to ground. She climbed the ladder gritting her teeth, as she felt a shot of pain in her abdomen.

“Why haven’t you healed yet?” She muttered to herself. She saw a small wall, she decided to walk towards on it and sat down, putting her head in her hands, tears streaming down her face, feeling betrayed and hurt.

She felt her body start to tremble uncontrollably. She looked at her hands as her betrayal turned into anger. Rage. Here hands began to ripple, her bones began to change before her, soon her nails turning into claws about two inches long and her fingers starting to grow fur.

Sapphire's eyes widened with shock. She thought she had total control over her 'condition', but then again she hadn’t felt this sort of pain in a long time. She closed her eyes and took a couple of deep breaths.

She heard Jackson starting to walk through the corridors to find her, she heard the water flowing below her through the drains, she could hear the birds flying above her, then suddenly she heard it louder than anything else around her, the heartbeat of her brother coming towards her. It was racing, was he scared or nervous? She couldn't quite figure it out but it was annoying her.

For some reason she just listened to it as it gradually started to slow down then she couldn't take it anymore so her eyes flew open, seeing Jackson looking at her with concern. She looked down at her hands, shocked, hoping with all her heart that she had gone back to normal, when she looked at her hands and she sighed with relief when she saw that her hands had returned to their normal selves so she just flexed her hands into fists then straight again.

Jackson finally spoke. “Are you OK? I mean you didn't punch a wall or something, did you? You didn't hurt your hand at all, did you? You’re flexing it like you are in pain or something.”

Sapphire moved her hands by her sides. “No, my hands are fine, thank you, I am hurt is what I am, I mean emotionally not physically, like I said if it was you trying to bite me he wouldn't have dared to shoot you but he shoots me, I mean what does that say? In fact, let's not do any heart to hearts, let's just concentrate on the hunt, I really don't care what you two really think of me right now.”

Jackson looked at her in shock, not expecting that at all. “Sapphire, come on, that was a bit-” Sapphire cut in with a harsh tone, “I said no, Jackson! We have people to save and I'd rather do it before one of my brothers tries to kill me again. Now are you driving or am I?”

Jackson turned to look for his car then, remembering that Dominic drove them, he sighed deeply. “We came in Dominic's car; he will have to drive us back.” He hesitated before going inside, saying, “I'll go and get him, see if he has time to drive us back to your place.”

Sapphire shook her head, “No, I'll go and get him, I'm sure he will drive us since he drove us here.” She went inside to find Dominic, Jackson staying outside, sighing deeply. Sapphire looked around, shouting Dominic's names She walked the same way in as she came out and he happened to be in the same room looking at the computer of her results still. “Dominic, there you are, could you do me a favour please? Take me home and take Jackson wherever it is he wants to go?”

He looked up, startled. “I didn't even hear you come in but yeah, sure, come on, I'll take you home.” He looked at Sapphire and took a chance.

“Listen, don't take what Leo did to you out on Jackson, that isn't fair, Jackson just wants to be close to you again like a family, I can tell that you all used to be a close family.” He struggled with what he wanted to say, then just simply said, “I guess what I am trying to say is that if you need someone to talk to about what happened or what is happening now, then you can come talk to me. I mean, you won't have many people to speak to about your family business, do you?”

Sapphire looked at him and smiled slightly. When did he turn so caring? He used to be such a bossy person, can someone change so fast? She nodded. “No, I don't have anyone to talk to about my family at all, thanks Dominic, I will keep that in mind. Come on, let’s go.”

Dominic nodded and the both of them headed out of the room and into the corridors, walking side by side till they get to the exit and Sapphire looked around for Jackson, he was nowhere to be seen. “Oh come on, I really cannot be arsed for this shit.” Then she shouted, “Jackson, come on, I don't have time for your jokes, we are not kids anymore.”

When there was no reply and no sound around them Sapphire started to worry, her mind going crazy full of thoughts; Where is he? He wouldn’t run away at a time like this at a time like this, which means, she closed her eyes and concentrated, she gets low, her knees bent, and she was on the balls of her feet as she puts the palm of her hand on the ground, she used all her senses that was given to her, sound and scent she using mostly, her brothers scent was clearly here, along with a whole load of other humans, workers at this place.

Dominic watched her, frowning with total confusion, “Sapphire, how is this going-” but he was silenced as Sapphire held her hand up in a command to stop right there and just said in a soft tone, “I'm trying to concentrate.”

As she sniffs and shuffles through all the scents, one scent suddenly sticks out like a sore thumb. The smell of pure evil. Her eyes flashed open like a predator’s would, saying with poison in her voice, “Someone took him, who would take him? Zombies kill as soon as they see something to eat.”

Dominic looked at Sapphire in complete astonishment. “How do you know he was taken? All you did was close your eyes.”

“I was using my senses, they enhance when your adrenaline is pumping, can you not smell it? Just trust me, OK? I have been on many hunts, which means…”

“What? Sapphire, it means what?” Dominic looks more confused trying to smell the same thing that Sapphire seemed to smell, but he didn’t know what he was sniffing for so he just gave up.

“Oh, no. No... we aren't just hunting zombies, we are hunting some other creature as well, a smart one.” She put her head in her hands, mumbling to herself, “Think. Think. Think,” Seconds went by and as realisation drew over Sapphire she looked up with disbelief on her face.

“Why aren't you telling me what is going on? You know something, I can tell by your face,” he said, growing angry, not used to being out of the loop; in fact, he was used to being in charge of the whole situation. What could be so bad that she is reacting like this, nothing can surely be this bad. It was annoying for him just to sit back and let other people deal with something, he wanted in and if Sapphire's brother had been taken… God only knows how Sapphire knew that he was taken, maybe they were a close family and they could feel when their family members are in danger, he didn't know but it was a way to find out more about what was going on and what more there was in the world.

Then a voice at the back of his mind was saying, you know that isn't true, don't you? You want to help save Sapphire's brother so that it will look like you're the hero and then she might see you for who you really are, because you are a softy when it comes to women.

“I think it is a demon that we are dealing with, they are the only creatures that are smart enough to take someone hostage and not just kill on the scene, plus they are able to just come and go without leaving a trace.” She got mad at herself and the demon., “For God’s sake, how am I meant to kill this demon, I haven't even trapped one in fourteen years never mind killed one, it was hard enough with Jackson's help never mind without it... if I had just let him go in to get you like he was going to, then everything would be OK because I would be there and he would know but I have no idea what to do because I am useless at this which is why I left them to it, I was dead weight.”

Dominic looked at Sapphire speechless. “Demons? Demons exist?”

Sapphire looked at him as if he was stupid, “Yes, each demon has a different job, one seemed to have been given the job to mess with the Humington’s, which is a bad idea.”

“Because you are hunters? You’ll be able to kill it?” Dominic questions still in shock.

“Umm, yes I will be able to kill it when I remember how to do it, I am a bit rusty on demons, there haven’t been demons in Newcastle for years.” Sapphire confessed.

“Well, I guess you would start by trying to remember how to trap a demon, then find him and find Jackson. Why don't you call Leo? He will know what to do, right? I mean he has been hunting too which means that he will remember everything, maybe he can re-teach you what there is to know.”

“You expect me to go and ask for his help after he just nearly killed me? No, I can remember how to trap them, it's just hard to get them where you want them. We need to head to mine, I’ve got a couple of knives that can kill demons. My brothers say there is no such thing as a knife that kills demons but I made one, well I made three actually and they don't know about it, so you're the first person that I have told about it. I'd rather that you didn't tell anyone about it, not without my permission anyways.”

“So what did you do before you made these... weapons? I mean there must have been a way before that if you lot killed every one you encountered.”

“They use Latin, it is quite a long exorcism. When we get to my place I will give you the book that we read it from if you like.”

Dominic smiled and nodded. “I'd like that, yeah, thanks. We best get going.” Without saying another word, they both got into Dominic's car, buckling themselves in, then Dominic drove off back through the single road till they hit the main road then he sped off to Sapphire's house and parked up behind her car. Sapphire unbuckled herself then got out of the car and went to her front door, unlocking it.

She walked inside and Grace ran to her. “Oh my gosh, you're OK? I mean I saw the mess when I came back from work and…” She looked behind Sapphire. “And you have company, guy company at that.”

Sapphire rolled her eyes. “Grace, this is Dominic, he is a friend of mine and right now he is helping me to find my brother. Speaking of my brothers where is my other brother?”

“Oh, is that who that guy was? He went to your room, I tried to stop him but he was saying you would have let him go in if you were here so I couldn't really stop him.”

“Well that's Leo for you, it's OK, you wouldn't have been able to stop him even if you tried.”

Leo ran down the stairs. “Oh my... Sapphire, you’re OK? You’re alive? Oh I am so sorry; it was an automatic reaction thing.” Acting expecting to see Jackson with her.

“Leo, we don't have time for apologies. My room, Leo, Dominic, you too, we’ve got things to talk about.” Sapphire got all serious, which worried Leo, but both of them did as they were told and they both headed upstairs to her room. Sapphire followed them and shut the door tight behind them. “Leo, Jackson was taken by what I think is a demon, I have no idea how powerful this demon is because I didn't see it. There were no tracks though and every other creature that we have come across leaves tracks so that made me ninety percent sure that it was a demon.” She explained to Leo what he missed as she opened her secret room. She walked inside, looking on her weapon rack where there were knives, guns, other blades and tracking machines. She picked up the three demon knives, then the Latin Demon book that Dominic wanted. “Here you go, Dominic, that book you wanted to borrow for exorcising a demon, and here is one of those knives I told you about.”

Dominic smiled, takes the knife then starts to flicking through the book. “Thanks, I'll have a good -”

He was cut off by Leo saying, “Why are you giving him a knife? No knife in the world can kill a demon. It is impossible for a demon to be killed by a knife, it has to be by Latin.”

“Leo, just trust me, OK? These knives will do the job that is needed to kill a demon, I made them myself by hand.” She looked at Dominic and could tell by his face he couldn't understand a word of it so she added, “And Dominic, I translated all the important parts and wrote them on a piece of paper slipped against the correct page with a symbol next to them so you know where to read from.”

Dominic looked at her, slightly embarrassed. “Err, thanks, I'll need that.” He flicked slowly through it and found the part that he needed, which was the Exorcism page. He read it as best as he could, and he could translate the basics of what the page read.

“Quam exorcismi a daemone?

“Repeat verbis sequentibus. Oculis nigris Daemonis cadet et cecidimus et nigris fumus aure, vel ore nares.

“Exorcizamus te, omnis immundus spiritus omnis satanica potestas, omnis incursio infernalis adversarii, omnis legio, omnis congregatio et secta diabolica. Ergo draco maledicte et omnis legio diabolica adjuramus te. cessa decipere humanas creaturas, eisque aeternae Perditionis venenum propinare. Vade, Satana, inventor et magister omnis fallaciae, hostis humanae salutis. Humiliare sub potenti manu dei, contremisce et effuge, invocato a nobis sancto et terribili nomine, quem inferi tremunt.”

After reading the Latin version a couple of times, Dominic looked at the little piece of paper that was slid between the pages and it had the translation that Sapphire had done for people like him that could not understand Latin. Well, that is what he guessed anyways because it was obvious that she knew Latin for her to translate it like this. The translation read:

“How to Exorcise a Demon?

Repeat the following words, black eyes of the devil will fall and will fade and be black smoke rising from the ear, mouth or your nose, collect in a ball of smoke then escape the area.

“Exorcise you, every unclean spirit every satanic power, every incursion infernal adversary, every legion assemblies and sects. Thus, cursed demon and every diabolical legion, we adjure you. Stop deceiving human creatures, to them the poison of eternal Perdition. Go away, Satan, inventor and master all deceit, enemy of man's salvation.

Humble yourself under the mighty hand of God, tremble and flee when we invoke the Holy and terrible name; of Jesus.”

Leo was still arguing about the knife, “We are not taking these fake knives that will never kill a thing, you are making things up like you always do, let me do my job!” He hissed as she tried to make him look bad.

“Why don’t you just take one, just in case? We don’t know how many demons there are, and stabbing them is a lot easier than trying to get them all in a devil’s trap.” Sapphire questioned getting pissed off at him.

“Who do you think you are? Making up stuff trying to make yourself look good, we are not risking Jackson’s life over some fake knives you made!” Leo yelled protective of Jackson.

“You do not have the right to talk about risking lives, you risked my life!”

“I would do it all again! I would kill you to protect Jackson any day of the week, you were going to bite him, you were going to turn your own flesh and blood.” He spat in reply.

“I was gaining control! Have you ever fought a virus like that huh? No, I bet not! You’re an evil bastard that just looks after yourself, after all, we all know if it wasn’t for Jackson you would be in the ground.”