Chapter 16
Chapter Sixteen
Eric Hewlett
My obligations to the House of Eights just grew trickier, because Bizzy can’t know the truth. But I saw it in her eyes when she left. She's not going to let this go.
I can’t lose her. I’m spending the rest of my life by her side.
Aaron shakes his head at me where he’s sprawled on the couch. “Don’t even think about it. If you tell her any part of it… you know what happens.”
“You could ease up on her. She thinks you hate her.”
“I’m just joking around.”
“I don’t think you’ve ever been funny.”
The clock has started. The painting is gone.
It has to be linked.
“Back to what I was saying before your girlfriend interrupted. We’ve both had nightmares. Robert might be right about four members betraying the rest of us. And that painting means something.”
“Like what?”
“Why does Bizzy care about it so much?”
How do I convey to him that, like my swimming and his family’s fucked-up legacy, she’s obsessed with it? It just pulls her into the House’s business. Because like other secrets under lock and key, The Divinities, the painting, the legacy, it’s all part of what we’re meant to protect.
He sighs before getting up and pulling on his shirt. “Come on. We’re going to pay JJ a visit.”
Joshua Jay Getty, one of the House of Eights members, is well-versed on The Divinities. His passion for art is only eclipsed by Bizzy’s.
“It’s a little late…”
But I go along anyway. His apartment is over a coffee shop a couple of blocks away.
The entire walk there, Aaron ribs me about Biz before getting serious.
He stops me before we ring JJ’s bell. “Trust me on this, don’t let Bizzy get involved with the House of Eights. Keep her as far from it as possible.”
His warning isn’t necessary.
When it comes to her, I’ll protect her any way I can.
JJ answers the door, grumbling as he lets us in.
Aaron takes the lead. I’m not sure what was time-sensitive enough that we had to come here at this hour.
“Alright, JJ, I think it’s time we let Eric in on our secret.”
What in the hell is he talking about?
The two exchange a look, assessing whether they need to tell me. I don’t like this. Why are my two closest friends keeping secrets from me?
Aaron helps himself to a beer, absently plucking at some of the strings on JJ’s guitar. JJ starts and stops his explanation.
Never patient, Aaron intercedes. “We had to keep this from you because it concerns Elizabeth. You’re not the least bit unbiased about her.”
“That’s where you’re starting this?” JJ asks.
“Rob and I have been working on a cipher we found buried on campus. We spent two years trying to figure out what it belonged to. Then Bizzy… whether she knew it or not, gave me the idea.” He pauses.
“Where could a hidden message be found? It would have to be something significant… important to either Rockefeller or Amherst.”
“The painting?” I take the beer Aaron hands me.
JJ waves us into his bedroom, where something large is covered by a sheet against the wall. My stomach sinks. He’d never… would he?
Carefully removing his flannel sheet, he reveals The Divinities painting.
“You stole the painting?!”
“Fucking hell, Eric, announce it to the world why don’t you?” Aaron whispers harshly.
Then questions pour out of me in a quieter urgency. “How did you get it out of the chapel? Do you know how much this is worth? You’re going to get caught, you know that, right? What the hell were you thinking? Where did the replica come from?”
“I’ll tell you, but could you chill out? Sit down, man.”
JJ pushes me toward the bed, pacing in front of us, hands steepled like he’s trying to keep himself together.
“Birman, Rob, and I got into the chapel with a stolen Regent’s key. Used an emptied-out cleaning cart. The duplicate was already purchased by the university years ago for display. I knew where to find it in storage at Regents Hall…”
“And yes, I know what it’s worth. We needed it, though.”
I realize I’m holding my breath when Aaron elbows me, mouthing, “Relax.” Hard to do when I find out what other members of the House have been doing behind my back. What the hell does my girlfriend have to do with this other than a vague suggestion?
“And Biz?”
“You’re not going to like this,” JJ says, shaking his head.
“We had a hunch,” Aaron says, “because of some research Rob had done. In the past, when members of the House were having dreams, we were being ‘activated,’ so to speak, to do something.”
JJ cuts in. “We started piecing together what we were seeing in them.”
“But we needed to test a theory.”
“You’re speaking in riddles right now.” My voice rises. “What the fuck is going on?”
Aaron smirks, “Well, talking about riddles…”
“Not yet,” JJ says sharply.
Then he proceeds to tell me that they were able to tell from their dreams that the House has to protect a dark-haired woman named Elizabeth.
She is connected to The Divinities, but they aren’t sure how.
Immediately, JJ thought of Biz, knowing her love of the painting.
When she spotted that it wasn’t the real painting, it confirmed her connection for them.
“Wait… wait. How did you know she’d go back to look at it?”
“Come on, you know Biz. Of course she’d go back.” JJ rolls his eyes at me.
“So, this cipher you were talking about, is it linked to The Divinities?”
JJ brightens while pulling a notebook from his nightstand. “Yes. This is what Aaron was talking about. It’s a poem, but it reads like a treasure map… or a riddle?”
“How many people know about this now?” For a group of people tasked with secrecy, this knowledge seems to be spreading more than I like. “Anyone outside the House?”
“Us, Rob, Birman… Biz may be figuring something out.”
My heart seizes. She’s the only one besides House members getting involved. A deep sense of doom settles in.
Not my Biz. Not the girl I love more than anyone.
He hands me the scrawled message decoded with the cipher. “The back side of the painting had symbols in all four corners.”
It reads:
Time, never ending, forces unseen
The Sentinels four, in font of green,
Likeness shrouded for protection, an echo from the past
Heed warnings, harken, don’t look back
Two steps from the angel on the mezzanine, coal black
Water runs pristine
Eight in the House will intervene.
When the jaws of time open wide
Mouths not to speak, clues to guide
Destruction marches forward, a veiled threat to all
To break the cycle, to stop the fall
Eternal Triad can end evil untold
Because time, never ending, salvation will uphold
Sacrifice the one, deny the four, kneel the Sentinels, the eight to fight.
Smother the darkness, shed the light.
My mind grabs onto “Jaws of time” ... the clock in the Sanctum has skulls whose jaws opened when the clock started running again. “What do we do with this?” I shake the notebook at JJ. “It doesn’t tell us much.”
“That's what we need to figure out,” Aaron adds.
“Leave Biz out of this, please.” Even if the intent is to unscramble this screwy cipher message, her involvement will rip her from me. I know it will.
“Bizzy knows a lot about The Divinities. What if she is the only one who can crack this riddle?” Aaron asks, his eyes narrowed.
There has to be another way. JJ, Rob, and Birman got this far… now Aaron and I can help. No. She has to stay out of it.
Standing up, I hand the notebook back to JJ. “She’s already suspicious. If you tell her anything or ask her about the painting, it pulls her in deeper. She’s your friend… do you really want to jeopardize her safety that way?”
“You have a point,” JJ admits.
“She’s already involved,” Aaron says, scratching his neck. “No way she lets this go.”
A surge of anger grips me as I point at my roommate. “Because you told me about the painting knowing I’d tell her. If I lose her… if something happens to her, it’ll be your fault.”