Chapter Three #3
And the weirdest thing for everyone who didn’t work with Avalon before was that they didn’t flinch.
Not with pentagram necklaces.
Not with their ghosts going MIA.
Not with anything.
That told them a lot about the two people, and how much they dealt with things like this.
That was wild in itself. A normal person would think all of this was absolute bullshit. That told them all that they’d seen some shit while working with Avalon Carter.
When Lucian was done catching everyone up to date on what happened the last couple of days, he shared what happened to Lonnie Jackson, who had been the cops’ number one suspect, and finally Wynter.
Jagger whistled.
“You guys have a mess here. It sounds like this psychic killer has a head start on all of you. He’s watched you, and he’s found all of your weaknesses.”
Yes, yes, he had.
Lucian knew most of what it found about him had to be harvested from the static. He was always watched there, but he never suspected it was malicious.
Until now.
Maura agreed.
“It sounds like this is the epicenter of some wild shit that is about to go out of control. If you have a bunch of psychics here, working magick, and shit, it’s going to draw evil right to it.”
Exactly.
Salem was the home of all things bizarre, insane, and downright full of bullshit.
Or so Julian believed.
“And now it knows Genesis is here,” Lucian said. “Now it’s going to realize all three of us are together, and that’s going to make us bigger targets.”
Avalon was to the point.
“We have a little time. It takes a great deal of psychic energy to take a life like it’s doing. It’s assault on Ridge’s wife will keep it from doing it again, for a little while.”
Or so she hoped.
“As for us being targets, I kept her gift hidden and helped mask her so it couldn’t chip away at us.
When I realized that that darkness had found her, I had to get her out of Utah.
It sensed her there, and it was moving in.
Everything happens for a reason. It was no accident that Tori and Bishop found the bodies there, and it unfolded. ”
Tori believed in Fate.
But she didn’t like this.
Any of it.
Now, her family was in danger. Beckett was burned out, Genesis was a target, Lucian couldn’t go deep, and they had witches in their family who had cast spells to protect them. Now, she had to worry about them too.
“Are Raven and Booth in danger?” she asked. “If it hates witches, which is what we believe, will it come for them? Their energy is all over this place, and us. They are protecting us.”
This was going to be an answer they didn’t like.
Avalon nodded.
“It will come for anyone who helps hunt it. This was what it didn’t want to happen. It didn’t want us to be here together. It will continue to try to weed us out, in order to make us weak.”
Julian was curious.
“Can we find this person and…stop him?”
That was the point.
“Before coming here, I was trying to handle this from California. I was trying to find a way to manage it in the static. I was looking to find who it was, but they’re good at hiding behind a psychic wall. The static is endless. It’s got no beginning and no end.”
That reminded Genesis of something.
“Purgatory,” Genesis said. “Is that what the static is?”
Avalon considered it.
She wished it was as simple as that, so she tried to help them understand.
“Kind of, if you are Catholic and that’s your belief.
Buddhists call it Niraya. Judaism has a term for it, too.
It’s called Gehenom. Pagans will refer to that place as Hades.
Purgatory is a term that differs across religions.
For me, it’s the static. It’s the intermediary place.
For Lucian, it’s the same. He’s not particularly religious. ”
He sighed.
“I’m willing to become religious real fast if we can pray to something to make this stop.”
Julian agreed there.
Avalon was honest.
“What this is…he’s not spawned. He’s not a family man, teaching his child how to do this and carry on.”
Oh, they didn’t like that.
Cops knew that killers liked to train the next generation of killer to perpetuate the cycle.
“We can’t let that happen,” Tori said.
Oh, she was aware.
“For now, we’re good. I don’t feel an offspring yet. We need to make sure that never happens, or this will continue on. He’ll teach it hate, like he was taught, and before we know it, the next generation of psychics will have no peace.”
Well, they didn’t want that.
Evil shouldn’t be allowed to keep expanding. God knew they saw enough of it in their lives.
“I know this is all weird to all of you and not normally what you deal with, but it’s completely normal to us,” she said, pointing at Lucian, Bishop, and the Armstrongs.
Well, that was neither here nor there, and Tori knew it.
“If it’s here, we have to handle it. I’d like to keep my dead, and my gift,” she admitted.
It was safe to say they all did.
Avalon was honest.
“Unfortunately, it became too much for just me to handle. I needed Lucian, and I’m going to need Genesis. It’s too close for comfort.”
Yeah, tell Josh about it.
He’d been mostly silent.
Until now.
“It’s not getting Gennie. That’s not fucking happening. I don’t care what I have to do to keep her safe. Let’s find it and make sure it can’t keep coming back to bite everyone here in the ass!”
Yeah, that sounded like the best option, now that they understood it was all connected. Before, they only had bits and pieces. Now, they had the bigger picture, and Littlemoon Investigations dealt with the odd and crazy.
That was their bread and butter.
Avalon was honest.
“That is my hope. That all of us together can find him. We psychics can’t do it alone. We need all of your gifts, psychic and research-related.”
Jagger was curious.
“So, you’ve always known this would happen?” he asked.
She shrugged.
“It’s always been a possibility. We’ve hunted and found others who tried to hurt psychics and people. Like Brianna. Like Lucian. The Phoenix Files were created to save psychics from dying. This is the same thing. If it fails, bad things are going to happen.”
None of them wanted to know what those bad things would be.
REALLY.
To reassure her, Nate cuddled his wife into his side.
“I’ve got you, Baby,” he said. “We’ll find this person and save the three of you.”
When Tori opened her mouth, Avalon went there.
“Call her. If it makes you feel better, talk to her. Better yet,” she said, pausing out of the blue.
And it didn’t take long.
That’s when the big screen across from the couches came on, and there was a very familiar face there.
Elizabeth.
That was unexpected.
Holy.
Shit.
Julian stared and couldn’t believe it. Yeah, he was psychic, but he wasn’t Avalon Carter psychic.
Clearly.
“Well, it seems that I’ve been summoned. Oh, and Avalon, I really hate that shit. How many times do I have to ask you just send a text like every other person in the world?” she asked. “It’s weird.”
Oh, she knew it was.
That was why she did it.
Instead of arguing, she laughed.
“I missed you, too, Elizabeth. I need you.”
And that said it all.
Elizabeth knew the shit was about to hit the fan if Oracle was Oracling.