The Society

Sticky, why did she feel sticky? Her senses were overwhelmed with everything; at least that's the best she could describe it. Her stomach clenched as she felt the need to release the contents of her stomach. She was searching for something; she just wasn't quite sure what. She was running and could feel pain in her leg and smell the iron more prominently. "Tell me where the book is at!" a gunshot.

Beeping. Lights that were too bright and uncomfortable. It made her nauseated; where was she? Oh right, she was at St. Marks Hospital receiving a transplant. She'd received the call that a gunshot victim had been an organ donor and that she was next on the list. She'd been waiting to hear those words for the last two years. She would be on anti-rejection medications.

She'd almost completely forgotten the dream by the time they'd released her from inpatient ICU. She was glad to be breathing without the oxygen machine and was ready to get the IV out of her hand. Ecstatic when they said she was discharged.

Lexi would feel the panic with each dream. She would always see a black leather-bound notebook and places like alleyways and buildings. Lexi would see a farmhouse surrounded by trees that seemed to be full of life despite the moss-covered farmhouses' cryptic decay. She always woke up gasping for breath.

It wasn't until she was walking back home from the store she recognized the alleyway. Lexi felt her feet gravitate towards the eerily empty right-hand side; in the dumpster were remnants of crime scene tape.

There was also a mysterious dark spot on the concrete and flashes with a white mask marked with grey symbols.

The man was holding a gun, "Tell me where the book is at!"

"It's been hidden. Somewhere you'll never find it. No one's getting the book. No one is giving it to you. It's over Drystan, nothing can bring her back. Not even the book. It doesn't work like that. It wouldn't be the same."

"Just tell me where the book is at!"

"I can't. You know that. It's sacred, protected."

"You've used it for the wrong reasons, Ansel."

"There's a reason the society chose me."

"They're foolish. The book is meant to do extraordinary things." The man he called Drystan looked wild like he'd been scheming for a while.

"It's powerful, too powerful for the likes of you and for many others." Ansel's voice was calm. It didn't waiver at all.

"You'll regret this," Drystan pondered as he cocked the gun, "all you have to do is tell me where the book is at." Ansel didn't move or speak, just simply looked at the man in front of him and the gun he was holding.

Lexi was witnessing the murder that took place. The murder of the person's kidney she had received, someone cleared their throat, and Lexi walked towards the opening towards the street to see the woman who had made the noise.

"Did they ever catch the guy?" the woman looked dumbfounded as if that wasn't quite the response she had expected.

The woman fidgeted with her blue crystal bracelet. Its deep indigo was laced with gold flecks of pyrite and had symbols that closely resembled the gray symbols on the white mask she'd seen in her daydreams. Ansel has said something about the society? Was this woman part of some secret society? The same symbols the man displayed on his mask etched into the shining stone of her bracelet.

"No, unfortunately not." a lady whose voice dripped in honey. "Heard it was a fight over a lady."

Wrong. Do not listen to her. There was a voice in her head as she tried to shake the thoughts, noticing the voice was distinctly male. "I never heard anything on the news?"

"You wouldn't have, not in these parts. Things like this tend to go unnoticed here." A slight mist was enveloping them as a steady drizzle began to fall from the somber sky.

Lexi felt her shirt's fabric starting to cling to her as the intensity of the mist picked up, and the rain fell harder. "I guess I'll get going." She gave one last look at the lady's bracelet before forcing her legs to walk back to her house.

Her heart was beating rapidly, and she wasn't entirely sure what she'd gotten herself into, but she knew the lady with the lapis lazuli bracelet was connected to the guy from the dream.

She took a deep breath and opened her laptop, doing a quick search for the name Ansel and shooting victim. No headlines, not even a shooting news article. She kept clicking and searching. Finally, she found it, an obituary for Ansel, Lincoln. He was twenty-seven, only a few years older than she. She couldn't stop her lip trembling as she touched her scar where they'd given her the kidney, his kidney, Lincoln Ansel's kidney. She clicked on the picture on the obituary page; a sandy blonde-haired man stared back at her with a lopsided smirk.

His necklace had a symbol, one of the same ones from the bracelet and the mask. It was a square, with the sides protruding downward, and Lexi thought it to be a rune, searching the internet for runes and meanings. Turns out it was used for a place of safety. Lincoln had said something about the society choosing him to protect the book.

What could be so intriguing about this book, to cause someone to choose murder? She knew the last name of the man who'd done it, the one who'd shot Lincoln Ansel.

She shook her head and started tapping her temples, trying to reset her thinking. She had no control over the thoughts flooding her brain. Wood floors with a thin layer of dust as Ansel lifted up a floorboard hidden under a tattered woven rug and placed a small black notebook in it- embedded in the cover's leather was an x. Leaving the house, they got in a black car. It was nighttime, but she managed to see the street sign that read Judson St.

She sighed as the clock said three in the morning, she was exhausted, but she still jotted down the name of the street sign to check it out in the morning.

That's precisely what she did after her morning routine; she entered the street into the maps on her GPS, choosing the scenic route. She pulled onto the street laced with blackthorn trees. She came to a fork in the road, closing her eyes and breathing into her rising anxiety. Right, go right. So she did.

She approached the farmhouse and creaked open the door. She saw the rug was no longer on the floorboard, and the notebook was gone.

A click, the sound of a gun clicking more specifically, "Who are you and what do you know?"

"I, I don't know anything."

"You knew where the notebook was."

"It's not there, anymore? So it was real?"

"Of course, it's real; how do you know about it?"

"I know who would want to steal it."

"How?"

"Ansel, he was shot, right?"

"That was never released; his family doesn't even know that. How do you know that?"

"I'm pretty sure that my kidney came from him; I've been getting dreams that led me to the alleyway where he was shot. I met a lady with the same runes that the man who shot Ansel had on his mask. He said something about a society."

"There's a reward for credible information." He whispered, "What's his name?"

"What's your name?" Lexi asked.

"I have no name, not yet." She turned to see the face that had spoken to her, only to see a white mask with baby blue runes carved into it. "I can take you to see the council if you'd like?"

Troy. Call him Troy. "Troy?"

The man looked at her as if holding back something, "Ansel?"

"No, Lexi. Ansel's kidney." She lifted her shirt to reveal a fresh but healing scar.

"I'm his brother; this is our family's farmhouse. The book was taken sometime last night."

"It's Drystan. The name of the guy is Drystan."

"Drystan is a council member and has been for a little while."

"He murdered Lincoln when he refused to tell him the book's whereabouts."

"There's a safe person when one council member passes. Your lady friend you met, she was that safe person."

"What do they have in common?"

"One's power-hungry, and one's heartbroken. Drystan just lost his wife. She passed a few weeks ago, sudden and tragic."

"This book, what does it do?"

"The notebook allows whatever is written to manifest. It's incredibly dangerous, especially with someone who is lacking in judgment calls."

"Is there a higher council?"

"It's for emergencies. You are not a member; they won't speak with you."

"Even given the circumstances?"

"Let me make some calls," He removed his mask, same features as Lincoln just a little more baby-faced, "I hope you know what you're talking about; I could lose everything, including my life. Your life."

Do it. "Just do it."

He hit a contact, "I have a situation, it's kind of odd, and I need the main council. I need a meeting with a plus one." silence for a moment. "It deals with the murder of Lincoln Ansel."

He looked grim, nervous. "They're coming. Be prepared, don't speak unless spoken to."

It didn't take much longer than she'd expected when they strolled in unbothered; Troy had placed his mask back on.

"What is so dire?"

"I met this girl, came looking for the book. She had a kidney transplant, and she claims it was Ansel's kidney."

"Fascinating, avenging death from beyond the grave?" A feminine voice spoke directly in front of Lexi, her runes pink.

"I know who murdered Ansel. It was Drystan. He was arguing about the book and shot him."

"You know this for sure?"

"The dreams led me to the alleyway, to this farmhouse. I'm sure."

Daisies and yellow roses, say it. "Daisies and yellow roses."

"Excuse me?"

"Daisies and yellow roses, he told me to say it. Sometimes I get his voice in my head. It's weird."

"Open investigations on the council members and find the book." The lady ordered, "And Troy, make sure she gets home. You don't mind him riding with you? We will send for him."

"I guess you're riding with me."

"We'll be in contact."

The ride was uneasy and tense, "I really hope you're right."

"I'd offer you to come in, but most of the time, I like to wait for the second date to do that." Lexi joked as they arrived at her apartment; Troy gave a small smile.

"They followed us, so there's no need for me to wait anyway," He gave her a once over after opening her door for her, "I'm sure we'll see each other again soon." He watched her go inside before disappearing into the black van that had followed them from the farmhouse.

Two weeks, she hadn't heard anything from the society. She'd typed up her own version of a report, compiled documents, and jumped when someone knocked. She opened the door up with the chain still on, "I told you I'd see you again."

She closed the door slightly to unlatch the chain, "I come bearing gifts, may I come in?"

"Uhh, sure."

He handed her a check, a check for twenty-thousand dollars. "I told you there was a reward," He paused. "And there's this," he handed her a letter, a letter from the society, a letter of acceptance.

"What are you going to use the money for?"

"To finish paying off my medical bills and pay up on my anti-rejection meds."

"I guess I should go?" Troy beamed down at her.

"You could stay?" she mustered up the courage to utter.

"I'll be back soon." then he was off, leaving her with the letter from the society.