Chapter Twenty-Four

Shelly, Garret,Amanda,Lucas, Emily, and the Black Widow regroup outside Elder Sarah’s castle and make their way back to Ed’s bookstore, unaware of Nathan’s deeds. Nathan left Ed broken and battered in his bookstore. The Widow gets to a point where she can see the bookstore in sight, or where she should be able to. Instead she sees a bright red light. Her hands cover her mouth and tears fill her eyes. Garret holds Amanda in his arms to comfort her, and Lucas hugs Amanda’s leg to hide his face. They run to the shop and see Nathan sitting in a chair, reading a book titled “The Art of War” outside of the bookstore. Ed’s body nowhere in sight.

“Where is he?” yells Garret, still crying.

“Who?” asks Nathan putting the book down, pretending to be innocent.

“I swear to the Gods you’ll pay Nathan!” yells Garret, drawing his knife from his pocket.

“Garret, don’t.”says Emily holding Garret back.

“The old man was in my way.” says Nathan, standing from the chair.

“He was just an old man.” says Garret, dropping to his knees over the loss of his grandfather.

“He was an old man who got between me and the Widow.” says Nathan pointing to the Black Widow trying to hide in the back of the group.

“She’s a person, not a piece of property.” says Shelly defending the Widow.

“That’s just it, she isn’t a person. She’s a Pagan, and her soul is my property.” says Nathan.

We had a deal Widow.” continues Nathan.

“You had no right to kill Ed, you selfish b*****d. The deal was.” says the Widow stopping dead in her track of thought.

“What was the deal Widow? Why don’t you tell everyone what our deal was?” asks Nathan.

The Widow’s group of friends begin to turn and look at the young girl standing the in the back of the group. A lone Necromancer, facing her peers and nightmares.

“I didn’t make any deal.” says the Widow, stepping from behind the group.

“But you did. In the book shop. You said that if your little plan to overthrow Sarah didn’t work you would come with me. Time to pay up.” says Nathan, getting angry reaching for the Widow’s wrist.

“Let me go.” says the Widow pulling her wrist back resisting his grab.

“Hey stop it!” yells Garret pushing Nathan away from the Widow.

“Who do you think you are?” says Nathan, falling back onto his hind end.

Nathan stands back up and walks over to the burning building and picks up a steel rod. The heat doesn’t bother the Lord of Hell, if it surprises anyone. He sizes up the rod and looks back at Garret.

“Nathan, what are you doing?” asks Garret.

“I plan to cut your head clean off your body.” says Nathan with a cackle.

“Nathan!” yells Amanda, trying to get him to walk away from the fight, with Lucas hugging her inner thigh and crying.

“I suggest you listen to the girl and walk away. All of you.” says Nathan looking at the group of people.

“You think we would abandon a friend like that?” asks Emily, watching Garret out of the corner of her eye. Garret, letting his friends cause a distraction tries to find something to fight back with. Knowing he needs to be able to at least slow Nathan’s attack.

“Nathan, please let me be. I don’t want to go with you.” says the Widow, pleading for her freedom.

“Holy s**t!” yells Garret, also grabbing a steel rod from the flames, burning his hands.

Garret rolls in pain, his hands charred black from just the few seconds he held it. Nathan smiles and walks over to Garret’s pain filled body. Garret’s back arches in pain and he sits up on his knees to try and relieve the pressure on his back. Nathan squats down to be eye level with Garret.

“Your luck has run out.” whispers Nathan into Garret’s ear as he uses the rod to stand back up.

Nathan takes two steps back and swings the rod like a baseball bat right into Garret’s head, knocking  it off of his body.  Amanda screams and drops to her knees holding Lucas. She hugs Lucas with everything she has, hoping Nathan doesn’t take him next. Lucas is not blood to Amanda,but Amanda helped Garret raise her boyfriend’s younger brother. Lucas means just as much to Amanda, as Garret did to Amanda.Shelly and Emily scream and look away. The Widow runs to Garret’s side trying to put his head back on his body to try and bring him back to life.

“No, Garret. No, I’m so sorry. Please come back.” says the Widow crying, unstoppable tears while holding Garret’s hand.

“If you promise not kill anymore of them. I’ll go.” says the Widow.

“Widow don’t!” yells Shelly.

“You have a deal.” says Nathan reaching his hand out.