Wes walked me into the old wooden cabin located in a forest of Virginia. The place looked deserted like it had been abandoned a long time ago. Though the running water on the stove left me to think otherwise. "Hello?" Wes called. It was quiet until multiple guns were pulled out and pointed at our heads. I threw my hands up, thinking that Wes had gotten me into another ambush.
"Sam?" The voice said sounding familiar. I squinted my eyes, as he pulled off his hoodie. It was none other than the first Samuel Johns, my father.
I sighed in relief and lowered my hands. "Dad?" I said. He grabbed me into a hug. "You're smothering me," I told him feeling like suffocated.
He let me go smiling, "Sorry we just thought that you were dead."
"No, just frozen in ice," I said nonchalantly. "And you're too old to pull off a hoodie."
"Your attitude is one thing I didn't miss." he said with a smile.
Jacob walked up to me as if he was looking at a ghost. "The prodigy" he said with a smile, "I see you've returned him to us Wesley"
"Did he also tell you about how he put me there?" I said with anger.
"Yeah, and at least I came back," Wes said trying to defend himself.
"Although I love the idea of Wes getting the retribution that he deserves, we don't have time to fight," Jacob said. "A united front is what we need in order to stop Dr. Shlein"
I crossed my arms, "What's been happening ever since I left?" I asked. "Emphasis on Chris"
They both looked away. "You guys are worrying me," I said.
"He went AWOL" my father explained. "Said he was destined for greater things. Then left"
"I don't understand," I said.
Wes huffed at me, "what do you not understand are you deaf?" I he said. "He didn't want to work with you any longer. This irrelevant reminiscing is getting us no answers." Wes said.
"He's right." My father said. "What we need to do is find a way to stop Schlein."
"You worked with him the most, what is his secret weapon? " I asked.
"He likes the ancient history. Specifically the study of the occult. He's obsessed with the idea of dark magic." He answered.
"Does anything specific stand out?" I asked.
"Yeah actually" he said. "He uses relics"
"Relics?" I said with a chuckle. "He's powerful because of old jewelry."
"It's easy for you to be so ignorant because you have but one brain cell." He bit back.
I stepped up to him, but my uncle held me back. "Let him finish," he said.
"I've been in his graces for a while. Long enough to know that these relics are anything but normal jewelry. They bend air, water, and even reality. It makes him very powerful."
"If that's what charges him then why don't we just take the tacky jewelry from him, and call it a day?" I asked.
"Because he's hidden them all over the damn globe, Smarticus." he answered.
"How does he have so much power of he isn't even near the relics?" I asked.
Wes paused for a moment. "I don't know" he continued.
"You don't know?" I repeated.
"It was on the tip of my tongue," He said. "I don't remember"
My father looked him in the eye, and sighed in disappointment, "And may he have a relic for memory?" He asked.
"That smug son of a gun" He answered."He wiped my brain of any information I had on him."
I took my father's gun and pointed it at him, "Then you're of no use to us" I said to him.
Wes chuckled, "We both know your mind isn't capable of pulling that trigger." he said.
I lowered the gun feeling powerless to the compulsion his older brother had me on. "Your whole family has been a pain in my ass for a long time now"
"My family?" he repeated. I'd forgotten he was ignorant to his origins.
"Ice boy" Jacob called, "What would happen if, I don't know, we came into possession of one of those relics?"
Wes thought for a second then spoke, "When I was working with him he let me hold a relic once, and it enhanced my powers." he said, "If you were to get your hands on a relic, then we could stand a chance."
"Great," I said, "So how do we find one of them"
"Did you happen to forget the part when he wiped my memory?" he asked rhetorically.
"Well maybe if you were smart enough to write things down you wouldn't be in this predicament," I said.
"Wait, " he said holding up his finger at me, "Get me a pen, and paper. I remember the clues he left himself in case he wanted to go find them."
Jacob left and came back with a small notebook, and a pen. Wes began writing down the clues, and he spoke it out loud. "The first relic lies beyond this life, in the house of the living. Deep in the Mastaba"
"That could be any house," I said with frustration. "And what the heck is a Mastaba?"
"Anyone good at riddles?" Jacob asked.
"I happen to know someone who might be, " My father said. "Professor Eddie Gibbons, he happens to live in Virginia actually, a professor at the University of Virginia forty miles from here."
"Well, shall I go fetch him then?" I asked. He nodded, and I ran as fast as I could. It took me longer, but in five minutes I was in the middle of a college campus. Everyone was staring at me in awe. Probably shouldn't have run into a crowd like that.
I walked up to someone with their jaw nearly scraping the sidewalk in amazement. "Do you know a professor named Eddie Gibbons?" I tried. He didn't answer me, instead he fainted.
I sighed annoyed. "You looking for Mr. Gibbons?" a voice said behind me.
I spun around, "Yes, can you help?" I asked hoping to speed the process along.
"Maybe, depending on who's asking" He said to me.
"Samuel Johns is asking" I answered.
His smile turned into a more concerned look. "You must be his son" He said. "You look just like him"
"Yeah, am I supposed to know you?"
"Yes, since you are looking for me." He answered. "I'm Edward, or Eddie Gibbons"
