Things of Legend

Chapter 03: Hidden Secrets

"You can sleep here tonight," the priest explained, showing Chad and Dixon a pair of small cots in the spare room of his home. "According to what Kairos said, there are defensive wards everywhere in town, on doors, fence posts, and even carved into the floors and ceiling beams. We thought they were only decorative, and when they got old, we had craftsmen replicate the original designs because we thought the symbols too beautiful to be lost. Little did we know they were there to protect us."

"You're not the only one who was unaware about things," Chad reminded, his eyes downcast as his hands clenched into fists.

"Tomorrow, I recommend you get in your car and get as far from here as possible," the priest told them while taking extra blankets from a dresser and placing one on each cot.

"Demons don't have a range," Dixon pointed out. "What would be the use in leaving? It would follow us. There's no getting away from this thing."

"He's right," Chad agreed. "We're going to have to fight."

"How?" the priest asked. "Exorcisms are used to drive a demon out of a host body, but I don't know how you handle a demon physically in our world."

"That holy order Kairos mentioned did," Chad reasoned.

"None of them are still around," Dixon countered.

"They don't have to be," Chad said. "They left the wards on the town, so obviously they planned for the possibility of evil being fought here again. Otherwise, they would've removed all of the engravings. Perhaps, they may have left something else behind too, books, scrolls, or instructions on how to imprison or kill the demon if it escapes."

"I think it's possible," the priest agreed. "We'll start in the town archives first thing tomorrow."

Chad stretched out on the cot, but he couldn't sleep. The thought of what he and Dixon had set loose upon the world, and might be waiting to kill them outside, kept his mind formulating terrifying possibilities. After hours of staring at the ceiling, exhaustion finally overcame him, and Chad fell asleep. His rest was short lived as shouting woke him.

Grabbing Dixon by the arm and hauling his friend up from his own cot, Chad hurried to the door. When the door opened outside, it was as bright as day because one of the buildings of the small town was completely engulfed in orange flames.

Citizens were gathered in a line between the town well and the burning building, handing buckets of water down the line to throw on the fire. Leading the efforts was the priest. Chad and Dixon ran to him as he was almost the only one in town they knew.

"What happened?" Chad asked.

"No one knows," the priest replied. "But, we can guess what was responsible. This was the town archives."

"The demon knew the records might be there and burned it down to keep us from them," Chad theorized aloud.

"It's a pretty good guess," the priest confirmed, throwing another bucket of water on the fire.

Twenty minutes passed before the locals managed to get the fire under control. The archives were a total loss. Every book had been burnt and reduced to cinders and ash, none had been spared.

"It's hopeless now," Dixon said. "If any knowledge was left about how to stop the demon, it's been destroyed."

"Not quite," Kairos disagreed. He'd been on the fire line with everyone else and set down an empty bucket he was carrying. "The records you need were never in the town archives. I have them. Come with me."

Chad, Dixon, and the priest followed Kairos to his home, a small cottage near the edge of town.

"Pardon me," Chad said to the priest. "In all the confusion of recent events, I don't recall hearing your name."