Ageless War

Seventeen || The Evil Within

Ira Costello

Unknown

Thursday, January 30th, 1944

11:54 pm

"Ollie, it's them." I paced back and forth nervously.

"I know mate, calm down," Ollie said, his hand resting on the side of my arm.

"Did you hear her? Boudreaux. She said her last name was Boudreaux."

"Listen, I know what you're thinking, but the last of the Boudreaux coven was killed off in 1898. It's a coincidence," Adaline said as she glanced around nervously, worried the others would come looking for us.

There was that word again. It had become commonplace, an easy explanation.

"Yeah? Just like the note was a coincidence?" I snapped.

You're still thinking about that?"

"Fuck— yes Ollie I'm still thinking about it!" I exploded but stopped myself from continuing to yell. "Things haven't been right since we got to Colorado. Something going on right under our noses; I can feel it. And now with a goddamn Boudreaux showing up—two of them—we can't afford to keep writing everything off as coincidence."

Adaline looked like she was going to be sick, but she nodded. "I... I agree with Ira. Too much has happened..." Something about the way she said it made me wonder if she was referring to something entirely different than our witch problem or the note.

"Did you see the way she looked at my ring, Ollie?" I asked, sucking in a breath of frigid air. "She knew. She knows. They both do."

I could see the fear beginning to form on Ollie's face as well, but he continued playing the devil's advocate. "Even if they are witches, that doesn't mean they will automatically be gunning for blood, mate."

"Ollie, this feud is older than you, and it is older than me. You've never met a Boudreaux. They don't just gun for blood, they rip it from you." I ground my teeth together. "Aleksander used to hunt them for sport, which really doesn't help our case."

"You're not Aleksander."

"I was his Ripper protégé for decades, and that's close enough."

"But you're not anymore," Adaline suddenly blurted. "You're you, and you are a good person, Ira."

I shut my eyes, wanting to be done with conversation and free of the stress that continued to get chained and shackled to my neck with every passing second. I dropped to my knees, crouching as I rubbed my temples. "Let's just try our best to avoid them. Infamous Boudreaux or not, we don't need any other humans to look after. We need to focus on the ones that matter."

"You mean Joseph," Ollie remarked, chuckling a little.

"Yes, but I also mean Kenneth and Harper." Silence hung in the air as I left one distinct name out. After a few seconds, I finally spoke again, "And Everett."

"Mate... he might be..."

"I know, but he hasn't ripped anyone's throat out so let's air on the side of he's still human."

"And if he's not, at least we have some witches at our doorstep with some powerful ancestors to make us the fanciest daylight ring there is," Ollie announced, trying to joke about our growing number of problems.

"Some pissed of ancestors you mean," Adaline piped up, "and pissed off at us, I'd like to add." She was much paler than normal, and her hands shook whenever she took them from the warmth of her pockets. I didn't remember her ever being cold before.