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Death Keeps Knocking On My Door </3
I was walking to the school library to get some studying in because I can't seem to write my dead parents a letter. Once a year for Remembrance Day, we're asked to write letters to our lost loved ones, we sign our names, fold them up, and scatter them throughout the cemetery and all I haven't been able to write anything and everything I do write feels wrong.
I smile when I see Rafael and Hope as I walked down the hall towards them. "Cassie?" Rafael asks and I look over my shoulder and see a girl standing at the end of the hallway. "Raf." She said. "Cassie? Isn't that your..." I said. "My girlfriend." He said and walking pass me and over to his ex and pulling her into a hug.
-
While Raf was taking care of his now alive girlfriend, Hope and I went downstairs to the cells where we are keeping the new monster. Apparently he's the one who been raising bodies. "Dr. Saltzman." I said stepping into the room. "Oh, there you are, lovely girl. I was wondering if you'd come visit me again. And with a friend." He says and I stepped in front of her blocking his view of Hope and he laughs.
"How's your other friend the one I saw you with earlier , trying to steal an illicit peek at me?" He said. "As we speak, he's having an emotional reunion with his dead girlfriend." I say with a sarcastic smile. "I assume we have you to thank?" Hope asked. "Poor dear. Her spirit was clinging to him like a vine in winter. It took barely any effort. Just a little wrinkle of the nose, and poof. Young love reborn. You're lucky that's all i did. The way you've treated a man of my stature, you should be ashamed." He said.
"Literally nobody knows who you are." Alaric said leaving the cell. "I'll check on Raf." He said and walked passed us. "If you want an end to this misery, simply bring me the knife and I'll be on my way." He said. "Not a chance, freak." I said and grab Hope hand and follow Alaric out. "I take it things aren't going well?" Hope asked sarcastically. "He's a diva." He said and I laughed slightly. "So what's the plan?" I asked. "I know you don't want to give over the knife, but we can't have him raising the lost loved ones of ever person in this school." Hope says.
"I will handle it. I have questions that need answers." Alaric said. "Okay, well, I'm not sure your methods are the most effective." Hope says and I sighed. "Hope, I said I will handle it." He said. "We'll if he brings my dead mother back, I'm going down there and personally ripping his head off his shoulders." I said with sass laced in my voice. "Just stay away from him." He says before turning around and heading towards Raf and his girlfriend. "We're not listening, are we?" I asked and she shakes her head. "Nope." She said and takes my hand and we walk back.
-
"Find anything yet?" Hope asked Dorian as he reached for a book. "Necromancy is everywhere in occult literature. It's a form of sorcery that dates back to Ancient Greece, It involves the ability to communicate with and raise the dead. But there's nothing about a specific necromancer, so whoever this dude is, he's been erased from history like every other monster that comes looking for the knife." He said climbing down the latter.
"Is there any way to stop him from being back dead people? Because it's kinda becoming a thing." I said following behind him. "I'll look into it, but tomorrow's my day off, so it might take a minute." He said. "Evil never takes a holiday, Dorian." Hope said.
"Well, every year on Remembrance Day, I do. I write my letters, pack my lunch and I head to the cemetery and ring that bell in honor of my dead family. So for the next 24 hour, ask Dr. Saltzman." Dorian said and we nod. "Fair. But I'm worried about him. Do you think he's okay?" I asked. "I think after the week he's had, needs a nap. And a therapist. Maybe even a vacation of his own." Dorian laughs slightly.
"Take these for me would you?" He asked handing off the books to Hope. "Yeah." She said. "Thanks." He said and we leave the library. We got around the corner and see Alaric still talking to Raf so Hope talked me into going down to talk to the monster alone and of course I couldn't say no.
-
"Ah. You have a powerful scent of death on you two."He says before we entered the room. " it's quite lovely, really." He said and I rolled my eyes and leaned against the wall. "I thought maybe we could talk." Hope said and unlocked his chains. "Such a puny creature dares to dalliance with the almighty Necromancer?" He asked. "Well here's the thing about that. You don't exist." I say. "I won't fall for your mind games." He said. "This isn't a game. Let me lay it out for you. You died, you were in a dark place for what felt like an eternity, until suddenly, you were pulled into the light with a singular, inexplicable mission to retrieve a knife." Hope said.
"Do continue." He says. " It's been the same with all the creatures that came before you." Hope said. "A dragon, a gargoyle, an Arachne, a dryad." I listed off. "Bah. Such creatures exist only in fiction." He says and I shake my head. "No. They've been erased from history and so have you." I said and he laughs. "That's preposterous. I'm world-renowned. People tremble at the sound of my name." He says. "Do you see any of us trembling?" I asked with another eye roll. "Don't believe us? Read up." Hope said and handing him the books.
"No! No! No! No!" The Necromancer shouted , after he read the book he started screaming and throwing thing around. Alaric was right he's such a diva. "A lifetime's work, my legacy, reduced to something as-as pitiful as a brand of sorcery? Where I am barely a footnote? Who's responsible for this vile affront?" He asked. "That's what I'm hopping you can help us figure out." Hope says. He grunts before picking up the chair and sits down. "Well, then, I'm all ears."
-
"If you want to get to the bottom of this, we need to know who's communicating with you." I said now sitting in front of him, Hope next to me. "No one's communicating with me. My mind is a steel trap." He said. "But you knew to resurrect Dr. Saltzman's dead fiancée right after he mentioned her to the dryad. That's why he had questions. It can't be a coincidence. You're all coming after the same thing, communicating in the some way, so who's pulling the strings?" Hope asked.
"I am no puppet." He shouts and stands up. "And I thought my mother was the biggest diva I knew." I mutter and Hope bits down a smile. "It's less a voice, more an instinct. I simply know things." He says walking around the cell. "Like you know you're here to retrieve a knife and return it to a place called Malivore." Hope says. "If i return the knife to Malivore, I will be free." He says. "Of what?" Hope asked. "The blackness. The void. The empty oblivion." He says and I groan and stand up.
"Do you ever just say things once? And more importantly, do you know how to get there?" I asked. "Only that the knife will lead me." He said and Hope stood next to me and holds up book to him showing him a symbol she grew. "I'm assuming you know this symbol?" She asks. "It is the sign of the worst existential nightmare. The ultimate hell. The-" He says. "You're doing it again. Focus. What does it mean?" I asked. "That symbol represents what you say has happened to me. It means no one remembers you. No one celebrates you. No one mourns you. Loosely translated, it means permanent death." He says
