The Journal [A Sequel To Maya's Diary]

Chapter Twenty-nine

I turned around, making sure no-one heard what she had just told me. Gretta before the birth of my children, sought that I was properly attended to. I didn't just understand why.

She took her time and personally insisted on nursing me all through the while and now she took one of my babies at birth and she's just coming over to tell me now?

"I don't understand. You laid my dead daughter in my arms."

"I replaced her. I did what I had to do," I noticed her accent again. Her voice was a bit low and I strained my ears to get some words right.

"Why? Why go through so much for people you barely knew?" I asked quite concerned.

She cleared her dried throat and bit her lower lip. I noticed her turning uncomfortably on the chair she sat. She squeezed her dress and soaked it with her wet palms. She too was scared.

"I felt I was attached somehow, but mostly because I didn't want to let the Arch have their way. I know about everything too."

I gasped and looked around hoping no-one saw us. Fortunately, everyone was busy on their desks. I turned back at her and looked intently.

"Why are you here?" I asked.

"Eva has been sick. I have ran series of tests and taken her to different hospitals all to no avail," she stopped with an emphasis on the word avail.

I rubbed my temple in discomfort as she continued, "she keeps having these dreams..."

"...about a man in black?"

"Yes!"

"Carly does too. Is this some twin sickness?" I asked.

"I think it's more than that," she replied handing out a squeezed paper slightly turned brown. "Look," she finished and stared at me.

I took the squeezed paper and unfolded it. I straightened the folded ends and looked at the inscription of the Arch at the top. I shot her one look before reading further down, it spoke about the curse of the Xiamen twins who were supposedly the first twins sacrificed for the ritual.

"It says here one twin has to die else they will both suffer terrifying agony?" I read out loud.

"We need to kill one," she said sobbing.

"No th..there has to be something else that could be done. I'll get back to you. No-one has to know about this," I pleaded and bade her well as she left.

I walked around the office and sat back then standing up, I begged Tom to stand in for me while I left. I was heading to the Alabama Police Department. Surely Edward should have a thing or two to say.

"I don't have anything to say about this," he bluntly replied when I asked him.

He had been dragged by the security warden who stood behind the glass frame separating the both of us. I held on to my own end of the telephone and he did too while we spoke.

The Arch members turned against him when he would not turn in any of the twin girls and took him to jail. Or at least that's how I learned he landed in the jail. He looks a bit hardened with multiple scars over his face and unshaven stubble on his jaw. His eyes were sunken due to poor nutrition and his grey uniform wrapped a larger portion of his torso in.

"You know you do. Our daughter Eva is terribly sick and Carly has been having these bad dreams. You were once a member so there must be something you can tell me that would help," I protested.

"They would both die eventually if one is not sacrificed. In the order of the Xiamen twins."

"Are you just going to give up on them?"

"There is one way though; if you disembody the whole cult, you destroy the ritual. Kill the mayor," he whispered and my eyes broadened. "Find a way to get it done."

"Time up!" The warden called from within and seized Edward into the cell.

•••

"Let me get this straight, You need my help? Bargaining with the devil, this must be important," Annabelle replied sauntering around the dinning in Edward's house.

"Please Annabelle, my children are in trouble. Your nieces," I said emphatically hoping that last part softened her. "You escaped from the Arch, how?"

"That is something I wouldn't wish for my enemies," she replied with a fallen countenance. "There is something else though that could help. This is the necklace of Vixen, it has protected me since childhood. It would protect the children too now. Since there is only one of them here, the other would be protected too, by virtue of the twins jinx."

"What is that?"

"Another long topic for another day."

"Thank you!" I managed to say.

"Don't thank me yet, pray the spell works. If I help you now, it means you owe me something in future."

"Anything for the safety of my children," I replied anxious as I saw Annabelle mix up something she called the right concoction for Eva's sickness which Carly was to drink. I was nervous at the disgusting sight of the viscous black liquid.

"You know I once had a child with Manuel before we parted ways," she spoke up.

"I didn't know that," I replied worried. "Where is he now?" I added.

"The Arch killed him. That is what the Arch does; kill anyone in their way."

"I'm so sorry."

"Don't be... I have enough reason to offer my help."

She handed over the concoction along side the Necklace of Vixen as she rightfully called it and I left thanking her over and over.

••••

"You said you have something for me? Why exactly should I listen to you. You left the family," Diana spoke up whilst a smoke of incense clouded the air she was in.

"I left for a good cause and if you know any better, you'd listen to what I have to say," Annabelle shot back.

"What can you possibly have that I'd be needing?"

"Information.... Alliance. Maya's twin daughters are alive. Eva wasn't killed, she's still alive and I know where she is."

"What would you be needing in return?" Diana fired back. Her lips smacked as she spoke.

"I want you to help me kill the Mayor."

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