Preternatural Prophecy Chapter 16

The sun rose over the earth. This flaming ball chased the vampires back into the darkest regions they could find. They fled into their castles where the light could not penetrate. Anywhere it could penetrate was instantly covered up so no vampire would die from sun exposure.

Aiden sat on his throne. He was moody this day. He had not slept for some time because of the loss of all his men. Half his army had been decimated because of that infernal old woman. She was a god all right but not the kind that the foolish trio thought she was. Aiden knew the truth about the old woman. He would keep that to himself though. No need for those three idiots to know what the old woman was really planning. Aiden had taken his own measures to make sure that the old woman did not interfere with his own plans. Even though she was a god did not mean that she did not have weaknesses. She was just one more super being to be eradicated when he was done taking over the world.

Aiden had lost his two most trusted advisors and soldiers to these three nuisances. Delano and his wife had been valuable to him in his quest for world domination. Aiden grieved over these two deaths. How these three had survived the massive army that had attacked them was beyond him though. Aiden could find no way to accept it. The only plausible solution was that the old woman was working her magic on them and he would not be able to permanently kill them.

He would have to poison them at the same time in order to finally be rid of them. That was the only way. Not even the old woman could save them from that. Aiden called up his assassins. He told them what to do. They bowed to him and dissipated.

Wendel sat up. Memories swept through his mind. Wendel’s head pounded. Tatiana and Laurel stared at him. Wendel rubbed his hands together. He was freezing. He couldn’t remember what had happened. One minute he was looking into Tatiana’s eyes and he remembered his past. The next he was sitting on a table.

Tatiana rushed over and hugged him. “Wendel! Thank the gods that we have found you!” She held him tighter. Wendel smiled and shrugged. He hugged back relishing the feeling of her in his arms.

Laurel stared at them. Mixed emotions sloshed around in her body. Anger and love felt intertwined in her heart. Laurel looked away from her sister. She bushed a bang out of her eye and remembered her own past. A lone tear swept down her face.

“Good, you three are all in the same place again. Everyone please take a seat.” Laurel turned around to see the old woman standing in the entrance to the cave. Laurel was on her in a flash. Laurel pressed her short sword to the old woman’s throat.

“No more games you old hag! This ends now. I want answers!” Laurel screamed at her. The old woman stared at Laurel. Laurel stared right back. Laurel’s icy eyes pierced the old woman’s cool demeanor. The old woman’s eyes were pitch black with fear. She never thought that Laurel would attack her.

“Fine, you three have earned at least this much. What do you three wish to know?” The old woman asked.

            “Why were we the ones that were chosen out of everyone else? Why couldn’t it be someone else?” Laurel asked

            “You three were chosen because each of you had a skill that the team needed. Laurel, you are bold. Tatiana is caring. Wendel is smart. This makes for a dangerous combination when put together as a team. You three are the best match that we could find.” The old woman replied.

            “Who are we?” Tatiana asked.

            “You are Laurel, Tatiana, and Wendel.” The old woman replied.

            “No, you said we could find. Who is we?” Tatiana asked sharply.

            “We are the collective gods. There are many of us. The vampires are getting too strong so we decided to destroy them by using the ones that they are trying to control.”

            “So we are just play toys to you?” Wendel responded.

            “Not at all. You three are the ones that will save the human race.”

            “And what about me? I will die too.”

            “Yes, Wendel you will. I already told you that two of you would die on this journey. So far none of you have died, well permanently.” The old woman snickered at her own joke. Laurel pushed the sword against her throat harder.

            “Who else will die?”

            “That is something I do not even know. That is beyond my control. If you die then you die. I can only save you so many times before you have to die. I cannot prevent two of you from dying either. It is set in stone that two of you will die.”

            “Who are all these people that keep showing up out of nowhere? How do they play into all of this?”

            “We know that not all humans can prevent their own death and complete a task by themselves. We send them to help you. Others came by because fate dictates that they come. Haru was sent by us. All the soldiers he brought with him were purely luck. We had no clue that he would have so many fighters. That army that Aiden had brought with him that day would have killed you three for sure. Then the prophecy would have been proven false.”

            “Wait, so the prophecy can be stopped?”

            “Yes it can. But it would set in stone another prophecy. It would set in stone one of human condemnation. There are only two ways out of this. One is where all the humans are killed. The other is where all vampires are destroyed.”

            “What do we do with this brimstone blade thing? Do we just kill every single vampire that comes into our path with it and that’s how we complete this prophecy?” Laurel asked.

            “Now that would be redundant and slow. No, all you need to do is plunge it into the original vampire to destroy the rest of them.” The old woman replied. Laurel pulled away a little bit.

            “Original vampire? Do you mean the original Aiden?”

            “No. Aiden was not the first vampire. He was just the most powerful. The original vampire was a female. She was the weakest of them all. By killing her all the other vampires will be destroyed.”

            “Along with Wendel…” Tatiana said dismally.

            “Yes, along with our beloved Wendel. But remember one of you will also be joining him in the afterlife.”

            “But what about Haru? He already died for this. Does he not count towards the two deaths?” Laurel asked.

            “No, he does not. It must be two willing martyrs. Haru would have died anyways. Delano would have killed him long before if you three had not shown up and the gods had intervened. He was meant to die before you three even arrived at the village in which he lived. But because of the god’s help he survived.”

            “How do you play into all of this?” Wendel asked.

            “I am here to protect you three. Without my help you would have been killed.”

            “That is great. We thank you for your help. But now you will die.” Laurel smiled evilly and slit her throat. The old woman gasped and her hands flew to her neck. She grasped her neck. Blood soaked through her fingers.

            “Just remember what you have done when this does not go as you planned.” The old woman said before falling to her knees. The blood that poured from her wound was a purple color. She unclasped her hands from her neck and stared at her palms. She looked up into the corner.

            Aiden walked out of the darkness. He chuckled and blew a fake kiss towards the old woman. Aiden moved smoothly towards her. He bent down right in her face. “I found you out you old fool. I knew you were tricking them from the start. I’ve been watching you and updating them on your moves. We have been working together for awhile against you now. Now you die. You’ve given us all the answers we need to beat the gods. And since we know now that you can die, I am sure that we will relay this to my troops who will take great pleasure in killing the rest of you so called ‘Gods’. I know where you all reside and I know that you will not die easily but I am willing to kill every last one myself if I need to.” The old woman gasped and reached out with anger in her eyes. The old woman façade disappeared and a gold woman appeared. The god’s complexion gleamed in the sunlight. Her hair floated around. A bright aura was emitted from her skin.

            The golden god let out a screech. It stood up reaching above eight feet. Aiden looked up at her with a grin. “You have disgraced me Aiden. I put you back together. I gave you a new life. Why have you forsaken me?” It demanded.

            “You have been playing with people. You have been costing me innocent lives.” Aiden smiled as the golden god screamed in pain. A bolt stuck out of the front of its chest. The tip stuck out through its rib cage. Wendel nocked another arrow from behind her and shot it through her back. The golden god sunk down. Gold tears ran down her face.

            “So close to the gods reclaiming the worlds. So, so close. Why couldn’t everything have gone according to plan?”

            “You got too power hungry you fool. You will die now. I hope you enjoyed your time on earth. Now you spend the rest of eternity in the afterworld,” Aiden said, drawing his vampiric dagger. He jammed it straight into its skull. The golden god screamed in pain. It writhed around for a minute then dissipated.

            “Thank you Aiden for telling us before it was too late.” Wendel said placing his hand on Aiden’s shoulder. Aiden turned and smirked.

            “You three are welcome. Unfortunately if you have not noticed there is still a war going on out there. It will take time for peace to set in between vampires and humans. Vampires will need blood but it can come from animals. Maybe we will all become farmers.” Aiden smiled. “I am just glad that all this killing is over and that we are done being tricked. As we speak my own private assassins are eliminating the last three gods that walk this earth. For some time I have been ridding them of this world. That is why the old woman wanted you to kill me so badly. The other three gods had no idea what she was actually doing. They thought she was trying to procure peace between us. We would kill them all the time but they would keep coming back time after time. I got sick of them dodging my attacks so I decided to send an army after them. The old woman wiped it off the map in an instant. The only way to kill her was to trick her.

            “The time is now to make peace. Come we will all gather in the towns and show people that we can get along. There is only one way to stop this war and killing is not the answer. We must show everyone that higher powers were at play in making us do this. Now we must go. And I leave you with these words before going to my own territory. You saw that there were overwhelming odds against you and you still fought. You are the most brave I have seen. Anyone could have done that but it took a brave person to accept the task.” Aiden turned around and turned into a shadow.

Wendel smiled. Tears ran down Tatiana’s face. Laurel smiled. This was finally over. No more fighting and no more hatred. The old woman had tricked them all. Tatiana ran up to Wendel and grasped him tightly around the waist. She stood on her toes and kissed him fully on the lips. Wendel wrapped his arms around her and held her tightly. Laurel stepped off to the side with a tear falling from her eye. She took her sword and silently slit her throat.