End of Grace

Chapter 7: The Aftermath

  "Hello? Mannie? What's that sound? Hello?" Aaron had picked her call but now he couldn't hear anything that was going on, he hung up and tried calling her again but this time it went straight to voicemail. "What's wrong?" Jackal looked over at him, he could always tell when Aaron was bothered, he couldn't hide it from them. It was always so clear, "Mannie called but now she's not picking up. I heard some ruckus but I wasn't sure what it could be." He explained to him, his expression changed completely. "Just go, us three can find the pages, just leave us the map." Rory said to them, he had overheard their conversation. "Better to be right than wrong, right?" He told them, Aaron shrugged at Jackal, he didn't hesitate and the two left after handing the map to Rory.
"We have to keep moving forward." He said to the group, they did so. "I think I found it." Jezebel said, she pointed at a monument, it was a man and a woman, the man had the body of a snake and four arms, next to him were two smaller creatures that resembled goats but didn't quite look like them. The woman had the body of a centaur and two heads, her arms carried two spiers. "It's gotta be in there, we have to find a way in, any ideas?" Rory asked, he was staring at the statues, perhaps they were a clue?

"Has she not picked up her phone yet?" Jackal asked Aaron, he nodded his head and dialed the number once more, after a few more seconds it went back into voice mail. "She's not picking up, let's hurry." He said Jackal stepped on the pedal and zoomed past other cars.
"That might leave a scar." Mannie had finally woken up, she brushed the glass from her legs and arms, she got up clutching the side of her waist which she felt a stinging pain. "Leo! He's–he's gone...fuck." She ran down back to the basement, Jason was also awake now but not Daniel, she went down. "Come on, wake up." He shook him slightly, he jerked awake. "Hey! It's fine now, relax." Jason assured him, even though nothing was fine, Leo was gone and Balthazar had gotten what he wanted. The ritual would be soon in motion, unless they found that book and found him. "Guys!" It was Jackal's voice, it sounded like it always sounded, rough and low, this time it had urgency in it, he was worried. "What happened here? Are you guys okay?" Aaron came afterwards, the place was a mess, everything had been thrown from one place to another, it was as if an earthquake had shaken up the place.
"He took Leo! We have to do something." Mannie alerted them, with this revelation they only knew they had a certain amount of time before it was too late. "Daniel, are you okay?" Aaron went over to him as Jason helped him up, he seemed alright. "Yes, don't worry about me." They had to figure things out quickly, they had to get in contact with the others and tell them to hurry up.

"Look up there, it seems to be the opening." Rosaline said, she pointed to the right of them, it was a crooked opening, the top had jagged-like teeth and the inside was completely dark, they would need some light, luckily Rosaline had a flashlight with her. "Good job, let's go." Lilith congratulated Rosaline, she didn't know how to feel about this so she just shrugged it off.
They entered the cave, the small light from Rosalind's flashlight illuminated as much as it could. Each side she slightly lit, would show different markings and pictures of men and women. They all seem to represent some sort of creature, from ancient to modern, from trusting to mischievous, they all no matter where they came from seem to have a story with this cave, and so must Balthazar.
"If you look closely at the pictures you can see that they are in fact glass casings, on the other side there's an item that belongs to them." Jezebel explained, she was right there was something in there, if Balthazar's book was here, would that mean he also had a casing just like the rest? "Where would Balthazar's be?" Rory said, he sounded like he was rushing them but they understood the situation, if Balthazar managed to pull off this ritual and the sisters were brought back then it would mean a lot of trouble not just for the underworld but the entire world as well. "Let's start looking then, we don't have a lot of time, and God knows what Balthazar will do just to get his hands on Leo." Lilith said Rory didn't like that she said that, he didn't like that at all.