The Beacon -Paul Lahote 2-

Chapter 34

They were flashes—short glimpses into the past.

Mavis was standing in a cottage somewhere deep in the woods. It was illuminated by candles. There was screaming from a baby and a woman kneeling in front of her. Mavis noticed a circle created by candles.

The vision became fuzzy. The lights above her shined through. "Focus," Dr. Claus Everton spoke. He looked down at her. "What do you remember?" Mavis was sweating. Her body was tied down to the old hospital bed. "Focus, Mavis. What was she trying to accomplish?"

The amps on her head were pulsing, sending waves of electricity into her brain. "I don't remember."

"You do," Claus said. "This was the night that changed everything. You need to remember."

The vision reappeared in her mind. Mavis was back in the cottage. She approached the woman from the back door. There was a drill beside her leg. The woman was chanting in a language she didn't know. The child was screaming. Mavis slowly walked closer.

"What do you see?" His voice broke through the dream.

She blinked a few times. "A baby."

"Good," Clause changed the amps. The pulsing became louder. Her back arched off the bed—a pained gasp passing through her lips. "Focus on the woman. What is she saying?"

"I don't know."

Claus leaned closer. "It's there. You just have to listen."

Mavis closes her eyes, focusing on her words. The woman was chanting in English now. "See the Spirits of the light," she repeated the words. "Give me a sign on the awakening. Please give me a sign from the darkness within. For is she plagued by death? Is she the one chosen to speak with the world of darkness?"

She opened her eyes, the hospital room returning. Mavis turned her head to look at Claus, her lips parted. "Keep going." Mavis fell back into the vision. "Focus."

Mavis walked closer to the woman. The floor creaked under her weight. The woman looked up, a horrified expression on her face. Mavis was standing in the darkness, the shadows covering her face. "No," she said. "No, not her." The woman could see her. "She can not be the one. She can not be the one!" The woman stared at Mavis. "You can not have her! I will free her from these demons! She will not become what her mother is." The woman looked around for something. "One strike kills the Banshee, but two will kill her." The woman looked back up. "I will kill the Banshee." She pushed the drill away. The woman was looking for something else. "I have seen the demons in her head. She will be freed."

"Excuse me." A voice said. Mavis looked up to see Alice standing in the doorway.

"Who are you," she shrieked. "What are you doing here?"

Alice looked at the baby. "What did you do?"

Mavis blinked a few times. This was the night Alice found her in the woods. This was the night she was rescued. "This was the night." She was back in the hospital room. "The night Alice found me, but it wasn't a rescue." Mavis thought they were saving her from a madwoman. That wasn't the case. Her Aunt was trying to save her. They were wrong.

He looked back at her. "But why you? Why would they choose you?" Mavis had no idea what he was talking about. Claus was holding a journal. He was frantically writing something down. "The day of the awakening. They were right." Mavis stared at him. Her body was exhausted. Everything hurt. "It was right in front of me all along. Tell me, Mavis. Was there a man in the room?"

"I don't know."

Claus changed the frequency on the machine. Mavis cried out in pain. "Look again!"

She gasped. The vision from her past entered her mind once more. "She's got the same demons inside her head. I've seen them. I have to kill her too, before-" it was the old woman speaking.

Mavis looked around the room. "Before what?" It was Alice. Her eyes found something in the corner of the room. It was a man.

"Yes," Mavis gasped. "Yes." There was a man there. He was dead.

Claus tapped his lip. "A mortal lover and the Banshee. Why didn't I see it before?"

Mavis felt a tear roll down her cheek. "Why are you doing this?" Claus pulled a box out from under the bed. "Why do you care about what happened to me?"

"Because," he said. "I've been searching for you. The true Banshee." Mavis didn't understand. "A true omen of death."

"Why?" What did he want with her?

Claus stood up with the box in his hands. "I've searched my entire life for the Banshee who could answer my question. Many tried, but they all failed." Mavis watched as he opened the box. He pulled something out. It was a drill. "But you are the one." He killed every other Banshee there was. He killed them all.

Mavis stared at the drill, a sinking feeling forming in her gut at the sight. She knew what was coming. "No."

"You recognize this?" He held up the drill. "Don't worry. We aren't there yet." Mavis winced again. The pressure in her skull was almost unbearable. "I know." He spoke with empathy in his voice. "Soon, the voices will be free. It's the only way." It was the only way he could get the answer to his question. "The voices need to be released to become clear. Things have to get worse before they get better." But they wouldn't get better for her.

"All of this," she cried. "To answer a question?"

Claus nodded. "Did you know fear is one of the most paralyzing feelings? Everyone fears something. Death is tricky. The unknowns are the worst part. What happens after you die? That's what I want to know." She tilted her head back. "Do you fear it, Mavis? Do you fear death?"

"No." She did not fear death.

He sighed, "you will. They always do in the end." Claus moved closer. "But this time, I will get my answer."

Mavis cried out as the sounds in her skull became too much. "My friends," she breathed through the pain. "Are they going to die because of me?" He didn't respond. She let out a pained laugh. "They were never going to die, were they?" They were never in trouble. She was.

Claus smiled at her. "Frequencies in an open mind can be changed, tainted with false fears."

Her eyes began to blur. "No, no." It was all by design—all of it. Claus had a fear of death so powerful he sought out Banshees in search of an answer for his fears. It drove him to the point of insanity, but that didn't stop him. He killed every single Banshee looking for one powerful enough to get his answer.

He did everything to get his answer. Mavis felt like a fool. He never wanted to help her with Melissa. He wanted to gain her favor and trust. It worked. She was dumb enough to believe in him. She trusted him. Claus knew Mavis wouldn't listen to him. He knew she would open the door into her mind. It was what he wanted the entire time. He wanted her.

Claus knew Mavis feared losing her loved ones the most. She had always feared being the destruction of her family and friends. He played into that fear somehow and fully made her believe she would kill everyone. Mavis wasn't exactly sure how he managed to do it. There was something about frequencies. The truth was, it didn't matter. They were never in danger, and now they weren't even looking for her.

Claus did everything he did out of fear. He feared dying so much he didn't care who he had to kill in order to ease that feeling. Deep down, Mavis knew she couldn't provide him with an answer. There wasn't an answer to that. Death is death. It just happens. The story ends. Mavis was starting to feel her story was coming to an end. Claus would kill her in order to find the answer to his question.