Dnaleri

Ch-18

It didn’t take long for the falcon to find Rebecca. In fact, as soon as they had gotten to the police station and had told the police what had happened, the falcon came and landed outside the window. Rebecca had a horrible sinking feeling that made the hairs on her arms stand up. The rain had finally stopped so she grabbed her crutches, hobbled outside, and approached the bird cautiously. Only when she removed the parchment did the falcon move to wash its wings. Rebecca opened up the letter and read it aloud to Penny and Heather.

“‘Dear Rebecca,

I know that this letter will find you in no time so I’ll get straight to the point. I have your boyfriend as a captive, and I know exactly what he is. I have ways of harming him if you don’t come to the old church. I’ll be waiting.

Winston.’”

“What are you going to do?” Heather whispered. Rebecca stared at the parchment. He knew what Jacob was? How could that be? There was only one way out of this, she had to save him. He had saved her, now it was her turn.

“I’m going.” She whispered at last.

“No! I’m not letting you go straight into the hands of a murderer.” Penny shouted, grabbing Rebecca by the shoulders.

“But Penny, if I don’t go, he’ll hurt Jacob. I can’t let that happen, not if I can save him.” She whispered to her. She was scared, but what choice did she have?

“I’ll come with you.” Heather said with sheer determination. Rebecca let go of Penny and gazed at her best friend in horror.

“There’s no way I’m letting my best friend get herself killed because of me.” Rebecca replied strongly, locking her eyes with Heather’s.

“And you think that I’m just going to sit back and do nothing? Leaving you behind was the hardest thing I had ever done. You’re not ever going to be alone again .” Heather responded, squeezing her hands. Silence fell on the three women as they looked at each other, trying to think of something to say.

“If you two are determined, then I guess there’s no stopping you.” Penny said, putting her hands on her hips. She reached into her pocket and drew out a small silver key.

“Here Rebecca, take this.” She said, handing it to the young woman. “There’s a secret cabinet in the kitchen under the sink. You’ll find what you need to help Jacob.” Rebecca bit her lip as her eyes started to sting with tears. She knew it was hard for her foster mother to let her go do this. “Just promise me you’ll be careful.” She whispered. Rebecca nodded, not saying a word and hugged her tightly.

“Now you must hurry, the police might be getting suspicious.” And she gave the keys to the car to Heather and kissed them goodbye and good luck and said if she doesn’t hear from them by night fall she would send the police. But before they set off, Rebecca wrote back to Winston saying that she was going to put an end to this, and that she wanted Jacob unharmed.

At the church, Winston received the letter and smiled. He had known she was tough; she was her father’s daughter after all. He turned to his captive grinning and said,

“I have to admit, I’m impressed by your girlfriend. She’s ordered me to have you unharmed.” He laughed.

Jacob gritted his teeth as anger and fear swirled inside his chest in twisting energy. Tamara hadn’t stopped Rebecca from putting herself in danger and unless he could find the energy to go tangible and get free of his bounds, there’s no way she will survive. He loved Rebecca more than anything, and now she was going to be taken away from him.

“So, what game shall we play, hmm?” Winston pulled out a long cloth and tied it around Jacob’s mouth, silencing his future screams as the evil man tortured him to pass the time. But no matter what Winston did, the real torture was the idea of Rebecca falling into the sorcerer’s hands and him helpless to save her.

‘Please, please don’t come for me.’ Jacob pleaded.

*************

It was a ten minute drive to the church from the house, not giving Rebecca and Heather much time to think of a plan for any kind of ambush. They drove in silence and Rebecca glanced at the Swis-army knife she’d gotten from the secret cabinet Penny had told them about, sitting in the cup holder. They’d also found a pistol with a few boxes of ammunition, now fully loaded and hidden under Heather’s shirt. Rebecca’s mind raced as she imagined what Winston had planned for them. Her worst fear was if he tortured Jacob. Rebecca felt a chill go up her spine when she thought of what Winston was doing to him.

“Rebecca, are you okay?” Heather asked in a worried tone, putting her hand on Rebecca’s. Rebecca nodded and took deep breaths to slow her wildly beating heart. Heather squeezed her hand and decided not to talk about it. She knew if she talked about something Rebecca was worried about, she would regret it. She didn’t have time to talk about it anyway, they had reached the church.

Slowly, they got out of the car and started for the door, weapons close at hand but still out of sight. Rebecca decided to leave her crutches in the car, she could stand for a while without them. They took careful steps, looking around and making sure nothing would jump out. The setting sun made it harder to see, so they moved more quickly. But they didn’t realize that their hunter was watching from a high window, aiming a loaded rifle. Jacob sat bound hand and foot to a spell-bound chair which was bolted to the floor. He tried in vain to get loose but the spells in the ropes restrained his ability to tangible himself, the Dark Magic biting through his clothes and leaving painful marks.

Winston turned to his struggling prey and smiled. “Don’t worry boy, I’m not going to shoot them… yet. I’m just making sure they came alone.” And he turned back to his targets to find that they had entered the church. “Time to see how smart witted they really are.” he cackled. He raced quietly down the stairs, and looked around the corner. They were in place. He pulled a long rope, cut it, and two huge chandeliers came crashing down.