DESCENDED

A BURGER

Amariah hands Sebastian a worn black leather book with ancient writing on it. But she hesitates before letting it go.

"Do I need to tell you how important this is?" She asks him. "How important she is?"

"You need to trust me Amariah. I know better than anyone how important she is. And I will protect her with my life," he promises her.

"You do know I'm still standing here, right?"

They both glance in my direction, but apparently, I'm invisible. Because they go back to discussing a plan of action while they escort me back to my room. Liz and Crystal jump up when we walk in like we've startled them somehow.

"There she is," Liz sighs. "We were worried we might've lost you again."

I highly doubt that...

Ignoring them, Amariah fills them in on what's happened.

"Sebastian believes Angelique may be one of the Descended. And I want you all to work around the clock to help her regain her memory. And you need to be prepared for battle."

"Are you serious?" Liz scoffs. "She can barely walk and chew gum at the same time."

Can too...

"Each of you take a journal and read through it as fast as you can," Sebastian instructs. "In the meantime, we have something we need to do."

He leaves the room, taking Amariah with him. And leaves me alone with Liz and Crystal, who quickly pour themselves into my father's journals. Grabbing one for myself, I open it and do the same.

"So far, I've found nothing," Liz sighs a minute later. Tossing one of the journals to the side.

"Me either," Crystal does the same.

Every five minutes they're tossing a journal to the side. They're going through them faster than I can keep up. Until eventually, the only journal left is the journal I'm reading. And part of me wonders if they even read them.

Sebastian never went through my father's journals this fast.

Annoyed, I block out their complaining and focus on the last pages of my father's journal. Only, when I get to it, something falls out and I pick it up.

I unravel what looks like a small scroll and scrawled upon it is my family tree. It leads all the way to the times before Christ, and as I'm following it, astonished by how detailed it is, Liz snatches it out of my hands.

"Holy mackerel!" She exclaims. Smacking Crystal on the arm.

Eyes glued to the scroll, they both study it. That's when I notice the journal's last page is thicker than the rest. So, while they examine the scroll, I carefully peel back the edges of the page to take it apart.

That's where I find another letter.

It's addressed to whomever finds it. With the author instructing whoever finds it to take it to one of my ancestors. And at the bottom of the letter, there are several numbers. But I don't know what these numbers mean.

"Do those numbers mean anything to you?" Crystal asks.

"No." I shake my head.

"What's this?" Liz points to the bottom of the letter.

"An address... it looks like an address."

Crystal hurries over to a computer and types the address into the search engine. But no such address exists. Determined, she grabs me by the arm, and practically drags me to Amariah who summons a boy from the boys' side to come help us.