The Book of Dema

CHAPTER FIFTEEN + Don't Forget About Me

It was a mild night that found Tyler and Josh sitting on a fallen log at the edge of a hiking trail. Antonio, the spokesman for the Third Circle had texted a time and location the day before. As Tyler had promised, when the Third Circle was ready, he and Josh would accompany them on the door hunt. Tyler adjusted his Skeleton sweatshirt, loosening the string that pulled the hood shut and pushed the sleeves up to his elbows. He looked into the dark, waiting for the vehicles he knew were somewhere in the dark approaching the site.

The Third Circle had recorded very little activity in the weeks since the last Clique meeting. Sean hadn't been sure where they'd found this latest Numan target. He had gone into the records at least four times checking again and again for evidence this hunt was real. His search had shown that Reddit requests from this zone had been minimal.Tyler had been concerned enough about this outing to ask Debbie to look into the Numan's current list for the entire region. She had confirmed they had three marks they were trying to draw through, but she was unable to provide any more information.

The trust problem with the Third Circle had continued to grow. Communication between them and Sean had broken down. He had been working with Antonio since the Second Circle had rescued him from his doors and assumed that the rapport they had built was real. But now he was wracked with doubt about his positive reports to Tyler about Antonio's progress. It was true that Antonio carried a great deal of anger towards the Numan. They had taken his sister, and then they had come for him. The Second Circle found a Numan squad intent on taking the brother as well. It had taken more than three hours to wreck all of their doors that night. Three of the Second Circle team members had been stunned, though lost no one. Had the Numan not spoken of capturing his sister during the encounter, he would have never made the connection. But once he realized the Numan were responsible for his family's suffering, the revenge fever took fire. As he put his own circle together, that flame began to spread. In just a short time, the entire Third Circle was demanding a more aggressive approach to dealing with the Numan, all fueled by Antonio's growing intent to avenge his sister. Sean and Tyler had handed him his weapon: the members of his team.

"These plans will do you no good," Tyler had told them. Antonio's passionate insistence had taken him by surprise at the Clique meeting. He had been impertinent, full of some intent that would undermine Tyler's strategy. Since the meeting, Tyler worried something was developing. Josh and Debbie agreed that caution was warranted.

In the weeks since the meeting, Antonio had gone completely silent. And then just yesterday he began to communicate again. His text came like an olive branch to Tyler who assumed he might never hear from the team again. The message had instead led to a fifteen minute phone call between the two. Antonio sounded different this time, more measured and more cautious. He was respectful and deferential. Tyler noticed the change immediately, though Antonio offered nothing to explain it. Perhaps the team had decided a prudence wait was a better strategy than an impetuous rush into the fire.

Josh, for his part, was wary. He did not like door hunting with unfamiliar teams. He had been out with several, easy outings before the Numan started changing their tactics. Things were complicated enough now that the idea of heading out with a team with an agenda disturbed him.

The two sat on the log for a long eighteen minutes. Finally, as the moon dipped behind a bank of clouds, a set of headlights shone down the park's rock-covered drive.

"Looks like they're here," Tyler said, standing and brushing the log's grime from his pants.

"Probably should be ready for anything," Josh said. His yellow axe was leaning against the log next to him. He put his hand on the top of the axe head and pushed himself to his feet, watching the vehicle illuminate the darkened trail head. It came to a stop in front of him, and five members of the Third Circle climbed out. Antonio, in the back of the group, stepped into the car's lights and nodded at Tyler and Josh. They nodded back.