The Afterlife

Chapter Two: The French Alchemist

"France/Paris: December 2018"

Nicholas Flamel knew there was trouble when he heard the knocks on his door. "Open the door alchemist we know you are in here." said a male voice behind the door; he was speaking french very badly making it clear that he was a foreigner.

A few people knew that the tavern named after Nicholas Flamel was actually run by Nicholas Flamel himself. He knew the one who was knocking on his door and he knew that he was one of the few people who knew about him; in other words  the knocks on his door were indeed very bad news.

"I told you not to come here ever again, I don't know why you people don't listen." Nicholas said softly without opening the door, actually he had an idea about why they had not listened and it was another nightmare that the alchemist didn't want to face, but he knew very well that he didn't have a choice and the presence of these people clarified that pretty well.

"Listen, it is no longer safe here, the gates of the underworld have been opened again." a different female voice said only repeating what the alchemists already knew.

Nicholas was old and he looked it; his hair was mostly gray and it was the same for his long beard. He was not bulky with muscle but quite tall and his  deep blue eyes tended to instill fear in his enemies. Not to mention his alchemy; a great power that only him and his wife held. He wasn't afraid of much, mostly because there was not much he couldn't handle, He had already died once so he didn't fear death among all other things. Yet even with all of this there was one thing that even he was afraid of, and as things were turning out he was fated to face it whether he wanted it or not, but for now he had to focus on surviving a little longer so he opened the door and the twins got in.

They looked quite pitiful; bloody faces, torn clothes also strained with blood, the boy had a good chunk of his coat torn off and the girl was no better.

"You definitely don't look great do you?..." the alchemist said with fake concern which the twins perceived quite easily. They walked across the room and sat on the  soft cushioned sofas in the living room as the alchemist closed the door behind them "...mind telling me who did that to you?"

"T'was Sigurd the Snake in the eye himself, guess you know what that means." The boy twin said with the grin that always drove Nicholas mad in the bad sense of the term, but it was true that he knew what it meant;

"The underworld has decided to move to the next stage and we are the only ones standing in the way so naturally they want to speed up the judgement." The alchemist said calmly his eyes gazing on the two teenagers sitting on his sofas with their blood stained clothes. "Sorry to ask you this but can you tell me your names again?" The alchemist asked with a nervous smile.

"You really are an old man, I'm sure I'm going to tell you this for the  four hundredth time in the last four hundred years" the girl twin complained "I'm Evelyn and my brother is Ivan, now please don't ask that question again for at least a hundred years okay?"

"First of all I am perfectly able to say my name myself, second of all basing on the way things are turning out I don't think we will survive another hundred years." The boy twin Ivan said still with his grin which didn't add up to what he had said. "Come on, no matter how many times we kill them they'll just be sending more and they will be stronger than the previous ones; we can't hold them forever."

"We can't die now though, you know what'll happen if we do", Evelyn said with a twinge of sadness in her voice but her expression was unreadable. "Plus, there was that boy in London..."

"You didn't come here to cry over your fate did you?", the alchemist snapped at the twins interrupting Evelyn's sentence. "Look, I don't want to die too, not yet. I want to live another few hundred years with my wife and I'll do whatever I can for that to happen; even if it means fighting those people myself so can we talk about the plan now?"

"First of all we have to know how many of us are still alive. It is better if we are in groups so that it can be easier for us to defend ourselves. " Evelyn got up and paced around the room in small steps. "Do you know where the others live?"

"There is no way I can be in the same group as you." The alchemist said quickly and Ivan chuckled. "He's right, an old man can slow us down."

"What did you just say you..." Nicholas started to say in disbelief but Evelyn cut him off. "We don't have time to argue, it's better if we leave this place now; it won't be long till they find it."

Ivan stood up and moved near his sister, "And we need a bath and something else to wear; I wouldn't like to be seen by Parisian girls wearing these rugs."

"Come on stupid none of them knows you" his sister replied with a sarcastic smile.

"No but they will. Now alchemist can we get clothes? "

Nicholas had not seen the twins in a long time, but they surely hadn't changed a bit.

"I believe there is a magic word for someone to give you something" the alchemist teased.

"Oh, please." Evelyn said quickly.

"Sorry but not you."

It took a while for Ivan to understand what was happening. "Oh no there is no way I'm saying that."

"No please, no bath, no clothes and that's that.", this time the alchemist had a wide hysterical grin which he hadn't had for a century, he realised that only few things in this world and the next were better  than pissing off the twin.

"Don't be such a dumbass, just say the word; it's not like it will kill you or something" Evelyn chided.

Thirty minutes later the twins were all clothed up and ready to go; Evelyn had changed into black tank top, a short black skirt and black leggings, her brother wore a simple black hoodie, black jeans and black shoes for which didn't know the type.

"You people have a thing for black don't you? " the said when he saw them.

"I can't believe I said that word for this..." Ivan complained, but his sister punched him on the arm as she always did when he said something stupid. "Come on that wasn't so bad, besides these clothes are perfect, where did you get the hoodie anyway?"

"There is another one in the closet, take it but don't forget to close the door" Evelyn ran off before the alchemist could finish his sentence and soon she came back wearing a hoodie matching his brother's.

"Where's Perenelle anyway?" Ivan asked suddenly finding it strange that the alchemist was not with his wife, he had never seen that before.

"She's gone out for a walk." Nicholas said uneasily suddenly finding something interesting on the floor. "I think we'll have to wait for her for a while."

"No need." The twins said in unison and suddenly Perenelle Flamel broke into the room. "Nicholas we have to go. Oh, hi twins" she said without her usual smile which was quite creepy.

"How did you know she was...?" Nicholas faced the twins.

"Smell, fear, things like that" Ivan said as if it was just natural.

"They are everywhere, patrolling the city it's only a matter of time till they find this place. We have to leave as fast as possible."

"Who are they?"

"The sons of Ragnar. Apparently Sigurd is dead so they are really pissed off"

"Guilty." The twins said in unison once again.

Nicholas moved around the room filling a backpack with objects and books that Ivan assumed were essential to their survival.

"Why in the world are you packing comic books?" Perenelle asked in disbelief.

Nicholas looked at her and simply smiled. "You wouldn't believe the knowledge in these things."

"You're right, I can't believe it, now can we go?"

Evelyn moved towards Perenelle and spoke in her ear; "I hope we stay alive enough so we can talk about our boy troubles, you should have seen Ivan today saying 'please' to Nicholas,  his expression was just priceless."

"Wow, Ivan said that to Nicholas?" Perenelle asked in visible awe. "The world is really ending isn't it? "