Attached [Rewritten Version]

24. Truth

Saturday, October 22nd, 2016

They all sat in silence the next day, to in shock from the revelations done by their parents the previous evening. For most of the night, Sid's father had been around him, as apparently he too functioned as some sort of barrier to the entity due to his angelic blood. Why Sid would be its main target while being an Angel, was beyond anyone. It would've made far more sense for it to target Edward, who apparently was human, like Cory, while Sid was a half-Angel and Davy and Annika were three-quarters of an Angel, and wiccan.

Which was all too new, too much, too weird, for them to discuss that morning.

For most of the night, his mother—wiccan—had been out meeting with the local coven, of which not only Davy and Annika's mother was a part, but Amber's too. Amber and Annika would be able to use magic. Amber apparently already could. She already knew; she wasn't surprised at all.

But that morning, when she finally joined them in Sid's bedroom, there were no more secrets. Everything was out in the open, and the second she closed the door, Annika fired away.

"How long have you known? Why didn't you tell us after the boys went in the woods? We could've asked for help from our parents and—"

Amber silenced her by holding op a hand, pinching her nose with the other. "I found out last week. It's not like I'm much more ahead in this than any of you are. And I wasn't even all too sure, until my parents confirmed it this morning. I didn't exactly ask them if it was normal that I thought I could do magic. I thought I was just losing my mind."

"For that, you would need a mind to begin with," Davy joked, getting a glare from Cory and Amber in return. "Sorry," he mumbled while his face turned red.

"Well, now what?" Sid mumbled, tired from a lack of sleep, "Do they know what we're dealing with? How to solve it?"

"All I know, is that they think it's related to Baywick, so that isn't anything new to us either. For the past hundred or so years, the coven, with the help of some Angels and even the Fae, have tried to stop the cycles, but no matter what they did, they couldn't prevent it from happening."

"I heard mom and dad complain how the Archangels still haven't bothered getting involved in it. Apparently, it isn't seen as a major issue when kids get killed every other week," Annika added sarcastically. "But I'm not sure how things work to begin with. Like, if it's normal for the Archangels to even bother all too much with life on Earth."

"What would they be dealing with that is more important? A war, perhaps?" Cory started scribbling down everything he learned, "But honestly, I'd say it's closer to the truth they simply don't bother."

Angela suddenly popped up in the room, looking victorious.

"What?" Sid asked, since he had sent her on a mission to eavesdrop on their parents and gather as much information as possible.

But all she did, was point towards the door, and seconds later, a knock sounded and his mother opened the door. "We would like to talk to all of you downstairs."

In silence, sharing looks, they all filed out of the room, down the stairs, and towards the living room. Janet and Carlo—Annika and Davy's parents—were seated on the couch, while Samuel and Maya were seated at the table, bend over a book that looked like it had seen better days.

"It's safe to say you guys have had some idea about what exactly was going on, seeing Davy, Cory and Sid all witnessed events in the woods themselves. We think it's also safe to say you have done research," Janet spoke as soon as they all sat down. "Are we right?"

"Obviously," Amber agreed with a nod, "we've been trying to find out what exactly it is, and where it came from, hoping it would help us figure out how to stop it from bothering Sid."

The adults all nodded, and Carlo took Cory's notes when he handed them to him, diving into the notebook in silence.

"We think it might be an echo," Olivia said, looking at Sid, "one heck of an evil one."

"This particular one is tied to the woods, and seeing the patterns and cycles, we suspect it might be an echo of Baywick himself," Harold continued, gesturing at Sid, "sadly, we have not been able to locate Baywick's remains, which we would need in order to finish the echo too."

"He burned to death," Amber cut him short, "and burning a body is a way to end echo's, right?"

Harold nodded and shook his head in the same time, "Salting and burning a body. Just burning it doesn't do much. We need whatever is left, salt it, and then burn it again."

It remained silent while Cory watched Carlo going over their notes, Davy was nervously biting a nail, and Amber and Annika shared a long contemplating look.

"His body is in the basement of Hunter's lodge," Sid softly spoke. "And I don't think this things is Baywick, or his echo."

"Do tell," Janet gestured for him to continue, and Sid was caught by surprise at how serious they took their words. He had kind of expected them to tell them they were too young, and they needed to let them handle everything. Instead, they wanted to share information. See if they missed anything, or if they had a new puzzle piece.

"This entity, what you assume is an echo, is always... there. Somewhere. Well, not right now, but most of the time. Angela is here too. She's the ghost who's protecting me by basically shadowing me. She saved us from worse in the woods too. But there's... another entity. And I believe it to be Baywick. Angie herself said he is always near the entity."

"You have another ghost around you?" Davy asked in surprise, "You never told us that."

"I think it's trying to communicate with me, but it's sort of held back by the entity. I dream things, the nightmares, and the more I pay attention to the details, the clearer it becomes that whenever it's a dream, Baywick finds a body of a hunter. Whenever it's a nightmare, Baywick is the one shooting the hunter. I think they're both projecting memories into my dreams, and the entity is corrupting the real ones. I really feel like this thing isn't Baywick. I really think Baywick was innocent and he still might be trying to protect the forest, the people in it, like he had done all his life up until those murders started. It was just too off character for him to suddenly go around and randomly kill a few hunters."

"And, looking at the things you see in your dreams, who could be the actual killer?"

"I never see the actual murder."

It remained silent for a while, while everyone was overthinking everything they knew. They talked a bit more about details, like the killings, the cycles, even the fact there was dark magic present in the woods. But they were quick to realise they all got stuck on the same question; who else?