Chapter 9 Calling Card
Calling Card
Simon
“Is this a joke?” Ariel asked with a voice full of sarcasm.
I got her because I was right there with her. What in the actual fuck did we walk into here?
“There’s nothing,” I murmured.
“Not exactly,” Trenton replied.
I looked over the space again, this time with a critical eye. If my brother saw something that I didn’t then I needed to pay better attention.
The space wasn’t large but it was deep and slightly bigger than a one stall garage. There was nothing in here but a large area rug spread out in the center of the room on the floor. It wasn’t even a nice rug either. It was a light gray and covered in a whole lot of really disgusting looking stains.
I didn’t understand why anyone would hold onto it when they could just chuck that sucker right in the trash where it belonged.
I didn’t see anything on my second look around the room besides the dirty rug. There wasn’t even an empty box shoved in a corner somewhere. Not even a pile of trash laying around.
I didn’t understand why someone would waste the time or the space for some dirty ass rug even a homeless person would leave in the trash where he found it.
Trenton walked over to the rug and crouched down. He grabbed the edge of it and began rolling it up.
“This place is starting to give me a really bad vibe,” Ariel whispered to me.
Fuck.
That was the worst thing she could have said.
I grabbed her by the arm and dragged her further into the unit and out of the open doorway where her back was vulnerable. And it far from sucked to have her closer to my brother.
I moved back closer to the door so I could see out into the parking lot. I scanned the area and thankfully found nothing out of the ordinary.
Just because I didn’t see anything didn't mean there wasn’t anything there. If Ariel had a bad feeling then I was going to take that shit very seriously. She’d never been wrong before.
“Oh no, is that what I think it is?” Ariel’s words came out in whispered horror and had me whipping around so fast I almost gave myself whiplash.
“Fuck,” I breathed out in my own version of a horrified whisper.
The removal of the rug had revealed a pentagram on the cement floor.
This shit was never good and when it was hidden away in random places like this instead of someone’s sacred place it usually spelled trouble ahead. People only had these things outside of their personal space when they were used for bad, bad things no one should ever be dabbling in.
If the Council was still around this was something we would have been forced to contact them about it so they could investigate.
With no more Council around we’d usually move down the list to the next person. Which would he Rain now that he no longer had to hide his presence from the Council. And we’d just promised Ariel we wouldn’t get her dad involved if we could help it.
Outside of learning we’d come here searching for something that had belonged to his sister without telling him I wasn’t so sure how this would actually hurt him.
But this was bizarre and we’d have to tell someone because Vivian hadn’t been a witch, to my knowledge, and it was obvious she’d been in contact with one for some reason.
I didn’t even know the reason but I knew enough just looking at the design on the floor to be nervous.
Trenton pulled out his phone and snapped a bunch of pictures of the pentagram form every different angle. He stuck his phone back into his pocket and covered the floor back up with the rug. All nice and tidy like it hadn’t been disturbed in the first place.
He stood up and motioned towards the open doorway. I ushered Ariel outside and crowded her while I got her in the backseat of the SUV and waited by the passenger door for my brother to lock everything up.
I scanned the parking lot one last time before climbing back into the vehicle after Trenton got in behind the wheel. The parking lot was the same as it had been when I’d checked it last.
But this place didn’t feel safe anymore. It had been tainted by the black magic hidden beneath that dirty rug. And I needed to get Ariel far, far away from this place. I hoped my brother agreed with me that she would not be coming back to this place ever again.
We’d brought her here with the hopes of her being able to finally get some closure or something from the dead bitch who’d raised her after ripping her away from her loving parents.
We’d accomplished nothing of the sort and were now leaving with more questions than answers. And didn’t that just suck.
Simon and I were both extra vigilant on the way back to the hotel. There was nothing out of the ordinary.
Ariel remained silent but it wasn’t like before. She wasn’t hiding from anything. But she was very much present and alert.
We made it back to the hotel without any issues and my brother and I ushered Ariel inside like she was a celebrity and we were her personal bodyguards.
I guess in the witch community that’s exactly what she was and we really were her bodyguards. We just had something more to lose if something happened to her because of the soul deep connection we shared with her.
When we made it up to our room I immediately knew something was wrong before Trenton even swiped his card through the reader.
“Brother,” I growled out in warning.
“I feel it too,” he growled right back. “You stay out here while I clear the room. Don’t fucking take your eyes off of her.”
He didn’t have to tell me twice. I just wished he didn’t have to walk into the unknown by himself without me at his side to back him up if he needed me.
But Ariel came first. She always came first.
He was in the room for eighty-two seconds. I counted each and every single second in my head,
Ariel had just grabbed ahold of my hand and intertwined our fingers when he opened the door and peeked out in the hallway.
“There’s no one here now but someone was inside the room and left a calling card for us.
I don’t trust that they won’t be back or didn’t leave any surprises around the room.
We’re not staying here and I don’t want her in the room at all.
Stay out here while I grab our shit and then we’ll figure out where we’re staying when we get in the car. ”
The door shut once again and Ariel looked at me with huge eyes.
“Calling card?” she asked hesitantly.
I squeezed her hand but didn’t respond. I didn’t know any more than she did.
We had to wait. And waiting sucked.