Bloodlines: The Occultist

Chapter 1

Ebony, Delilah, Amoret and Pandora Nash are all sisters. Just looking at them, you'd think they were just ordinary girls. Ebony is the oldest at 34 and she has wavy Auburn hair that goes to the middle of her back and grey eyes like ashes and smoke blowing in the wind coming from a fire that burned everything to the ground. She has a scar across her right temple. Then there is Amoret, who is Ebony's twin, with wavy violet hair that goes down to her tailbone, and her eyes were like smoke coming from a burning fire; grey and full of heat. She has a scar on the left side of her chest. Pandora, 31, has straight, shoulder length ash brown hair and green eyes that bring the earth back to life after a ruthless cold. She has a scar between her eyebrows. And last was Delilah, 19, with the curliest royal blue hair that went to just her shoulder blades and her eyes were the color of milk chocolate edged with a deep woodland-green. Delilah has a scar in the middle of her back.
        The Nash sisters look normal on the outside, but they are so far from normal. To put it to you simply, they're paranormal hunters. Now, that doesn't seem too abnormal, right? Well, how many paranormal hunters do you know are Vampires? Okay, so, Ebony and Amoret are 334, Pandora is 331, and Delilah is 319  but, it's all in the details, am I right? But, they're not the kinds of vampires that movies, books, and TV shows make them out to be. In fact, don't even bring up those kinds of vampires, or they may just risk their health and bite you. See, blood from living beings is poisonous to them, they can only drink from humans who have been dead for at least 10 years, and they can't have animal blood. They've each got a power that they all decided could be used for good, so they made it their eternal mission to take out evil; whether that comes in the form of a human, monster or anything else. Delilah has the gift of telekinesis, Amoret can control people's emotions, Ebony can see the future and Pandora has telepathy. Though their gifts can absolutely be a nuisance at times, they have proven to be quite useful during hunts and frankly, during arguments with one another. So, buckle up, because the Nash journey is a bumpy one, and you're coming along for the ride.

                                                Joshua Tree, California                                        
"Hey, guys. I may have found us a case." Ebony said as she approached her sisters as they were eating breakfast. "What's up?" Amoret asked. "There's an abandoned house just about an hour south of here in Angelus Oaks. Anyone who's been seen walking in, has never walked out. Literally, no one. So, there's no telling if there's any bodies or anything like that. I say we check it out." She explained. "Oh, yeah, sure, Ebony. Let's go into a house that no one has ever made it out of, with no idea whatsoever what's in there. Are you sure you're the oldest?" Pandora said. "Calm down, Pandora. We're vampires, it's a bit harder to kill us than a regular human." Delilah told her. "Thank you, Delilah." Ebony said as she rolled her eyes at Pandora. They're not normal, they aren't human, Ebony really doubted that whatever is in there will be able to even remotely harm them, let alone kill them. And Ebony didn't know why, maybe it's nothing, but something in her 324 years told her that they need to go check this place out. And if it turns out to be nothing, then it turns out to be nothing. But, she really doesnt think it will. Besides, why was Pandora suddenly so cautious? It's not like this would be the first time they've gone into a building where humans haven't made it out. They've looked into other things based on a lot less. Basically, if anything at all seems off, they look into it. "Okay, fine. Is there anything at all that we do know about this building, or the history behind it, or anything?" Pandora asked. "Only that it belonged to a serial killer occultist 30 years ago. It's been quiet since he got locked up until recently so, I'm thinking someone or something woke up one of his victims." "Alright. Let's finish eating and hit the road." Amoret said. "I'm going to go pack." Ebony said and left her sisters. None of the Nash's can sit still, but Ebony is especially always on the go. Their mother always said that Ebony could do anything, except nothing. "She's so weird." Delilah said. "Didn't we just wrap up a job like 2 days ago? Why can't she just give it a rest for a bit?" Pandora said. "Because, Ebony can't handle sitting still. Besides, there definitely is something going on with that house." Delilah said. Whether the other 2  wanted to admit it or not, Delilah and Ebony were right; when people walk into a house, they usually walk back out. So, they needed to check it out. They could pretend that Ebony never even brought it to their attention but, their conscious wouldn't let them. If people are getting hurt or killed or who knows what else, the Nash's need to step up and put an end to it. Even if that means working cases back to back sometimes.
       Let's pause for a moment. The sisters were all trained as hunters the minute they became 13 by their mother. Except for Delilah; their mother, Aldiytha, died shortly after giving birth to Delilah, so she was trained by her sisters. Delilah always felt that it was her fault that their mother died, which is why their father, Venus, abandoned them. And try as her sisters might, she never allowed that burden to be lifted from her. She decided to use the pain she felt to become the best hunter in the world, surpassing any other hunter you may come across. At this point you're probably wondering why the girls were trained to be hunters. That's because their grandfather was probably the most evil creature to ever walk this earth; he was so powerful and caused so much terror that anyone who knew him or knows of him don't dare speak his name, including Ebony, Amoret, Pandora and Delilah. Though, you deserve to know his name; Alerot the Magnificent. And magnificent he was, but not in the good way. He reigned terror, caused so much death, destruction and torture to innocent beings, so much so that Aldiytha couldn't take it anymore, and murdered him. It was actually not too long after she had married Venus that she decided, for the sake of the planet earth (and all other planets, for that matter) that her father needed to be taken out. Of course, she was the only one living who knew how to do it. She kept putting it off, however. Evil as Alerot was, he was her father, nonetheless. And, Aldiytha couldn't help but feel at the time that if she murdered her own father, wouldn't that make her as bad as him? It was Venus when finally convinced her that it needed to be done, that he refused to have a family with that man around, and told her that it was Alerot or him. She, of course, had to time everything perfectly, and get her husband's help. So, on the night of her father's 1367th birthday, Aldiytha and Venus snuck up to his room. With catlike speed and precision, Venus grabbed his head and held it steady, while Alerot's own daughter cut his head off from his neck clean. What scared her about that night was not that she killed her father, but that she felt no remorse or guilt for doing so, and she knew she would not miss him. As Alerot the Magnificent's head lay at her feet, she vowed then and there that she would make it her life's mission to rid the world of evil. And when the twins were born, she knew she had to pass on what she knew, should the time come that she was no longer walking the earth. And she knew that possibility was a great one. Because, even though her father's reign of terror on humans had come to a permanent halt, there were many monsters who held him in high respect, and were angry and vengeful towards her. So, her and her daughters were quite often on the run until she was so sure she had gotten rid of every monster who would be looking to avenge her father's death. The sisters are still able to call upon her in times of great despair, but, we'll talk about that later. So, now you know how our great heroines ended up where they are now.
      Ebony was so excited that her sisters agreed to go on this hunt that she packed all of their bags for them. However, there wasn't much packing involved, as they always had a bag with the necessities packed. She knew they were exhausted, she was, too. But this was obviously right up their alley. As Ebony was packing, however, she felt a sickening pit in her stomach. The more she thought about possibly going up against a serial killer spirit, the more nervous she got. Believe it or not, serial killer spirits are something totally new to them, they've never gone up against one before. On top of that, something just didn't feel right. She felt like she found this case a little too easily. But, it shouldn't unnerve her that this was easy to find, she thought, right? Ebony shook the feeling from her. She assumed she was just being paranoid and the overprotective big sister. Which, she had every right to be. The Nash sisters, Ebony in particular, have experienced too much heartache and death. She has managed to continue living her life despite everyone she's lost but, if any of her sisters were taken from her, she wouldn't be able to go on living. She would die herself. She was strong, but she knew she couldn't handle losing anyone else. She knew that if this hunt took a nasty turn, she would protect her sisters at all cost. She shook the thoughts from her mind, took a second to pull herself together, then brought the bags out to the living room and rejoined her sisters at the table, seeing that Delilah already had her laptop out. "Already on top of it, Delilah? We raised you well." Ebony said proudly. Though she could tell instantly from Delilah's hurt expression that this was not the right thing to say. Although Ebony, Amoret and Pandora knew that Delilah was grateful to them for raising her and teaching her everything they knew, they also knew that it had to have hurt Delilah to be the only one to not have been raised by their mom. And although they are able to summon her, it's not the same thing. "Have you found anything yet, Delilah?" Amoret asked, and Ebony was grateful that she changed the subject. "Are you talking about the house that's on Manzanita Ave? 23382?" Delilah asked Ebony. "Let me see." Ebony said, scooting over to get a look at Delilah's screen. There was an old newspaper clipping bearing a picture of a 3-story log cabin that appeared to have no other houses around it, bearing the headline Occultist Serial Killer Identified and Detained. "That seems like the one." Ebony confirmed. "Okay. So, this house did belong to Porter Ashby. He was convicted in 1988 for the kidnapping, torture and murder of 12 females, all aging between 12 and 16, and he was put to death 5 years later by lethal injection. When the police searched his house after he was taken into custody, everything seemed normal until they hit the basement. He had a giant pentagram burned into his floor-" "I'm sorry, did you just say burned?" Pandora asked, clearly slightly disturbed. "Yes, burned. There were also tarot cards, a human skull, along with other various bones, human and animal, jars filled with blood and other human organs-" "Human organs?" Pandora interrupted again, now looking as though she may see her breakfast for a second time. "Yes! Now can I please finish?" Delilah asked, very clearly annoyed. "Yeah, sorry. I promise I won't interrupt anymore." Pandora promised. "Thank you. It also had various satanic markings all around the wall. None of the bodies were recovered." Delilah finished. Her sisters stared at her, clearly wanting to speak up, but not daring to interrupt her again. "I'm done." Delilah told them. They all looked at each other; unsure of who should start, or where to start. "Okay so, why were none of the bodies discovered? The police had to have searched the place top to bottom." Ebony began. "He was an occultist. It's likely he did something with the bodies." Delilah pointed out. "Whatever he had left of the bodies, if he had anything left, is probably hidden in the walls or under the floorboards." Amoret added. "You would think they would've torn the house down." Pandora said. "There's gotta be a reason it wasn't torn down. We have to find out why he chose his victims, and see if we can find out who the last people to make it out of that house were. If spirits were awakened, they were obviously the ones to do it." Ebony said, already determining the first steps that they needed to take. It's often the twins who determine the first steps to take, what to research and who to talk to, and Delilah and Pandora were just fine with that. They preferred the action side of the hunter life and were bored with all of the technical parts. They're very much the attack first and ask questions later type of girls, whereas Ebony and Amoret very much like to have things planned out and to know, as much as possible, what they were getting themselves into. "Okay, girls. Let's move out." Delilah ordered. They moved their stuff into their car, a black 2019 Acura RDX. Amoret got into the driver's seat, with Delilah in the passenger seat and Pandora and Ebony in the back, and they took off. "So, I was thinking we divide and conquer; 2 of us can go figure out why he chose his victims and the other 2 can go try to figure out who the last people to walk out of the house were." Delilah said as they began driving. "I call trying to figure out why he chose his victims." Ebony instantly said. "I want to do that, too." Pandora said. "Great. So, Pandora and I will go try to figure out why the house wasn't torn down and you and Berlin can go look for those people." Ebony said. Delilah and Amoret looked at each other, then simply shrugged. Whether that was what they wanted to do or not, they knew better than to argue with Ebony over something so minuscule. Besides, as far as they were concerned, they got the far easier job. "Fine by me." Delilah said. "I'm good with that." Amoretagreed. The tension in the air became heavy and almost a little dark almost instantly. Ebony, Pandora and Delilah couldn't figure out why at first. "Amoret! Will you stop doing that?" Delilah demanded. Fortunately or unfortunately, however you choose to look at it; the sister's powers work on each other. "I didn't do that one on purpose, I swear!" Amoret insisted. "But, you guys know that we may need her help with this one." Amoret added. The other 3 groaned. "Look, I'm still mad at mom, too. But, if it comes down to it, we need to summon her." Berlin's sisters looked at each other, clearly annoyed that they knew she was right. "I hate it when you're right." Pandora said. "But, we are not summoning her until and if we hit a dead end. Agreed?" Ebony said. There was a moment of silence as the other 3 exchanged awkward glances. "Agreed." Amoret said. "Agreed." Pandora said. They all looked at Delilah. "Delilah?" Ebony pushed. Delilah ran her hand over her shirt, right over her right rib, where her Unalome tattoo that she got with her sisters rested. "Agreed." She mumbled. Her sisters couldn't tell if her mumbled response meant that she didn't want to contact their mom at all, or if she thought that only contacting her if they met a dead end was too extreme. Regardless, Ebony was just glad that they agreed. After the last incident, the last thing that Ebony wanted to do was summon their mother again. However, she would do it if it would be the only way to save lives. She just hoped with everything she had that it wouldn't come down to that. Because if she saw her mother again, she knows she would say something she would regret. Ebony didn't want to tell her sisters that she had a bad feeling about this case, because she didn't want to worry them. She was probably just getting worn out. How much different could this case possibly be from all of the others? Granted, no one case is exactly the same but, I'm sure you get the picture. "So, Amoret, just drop Pandora and I off at the library and then you two head to the scene." Ebony suggested. "Yes, ma'am." Berlin said. The rest of the drive was spent in silence as each of the sisters planned, in their heads, the way they wanted to attack this hunt. Amoret thought that the best way was to show Porter's victims respect and reverence in hopes that that would be the best way of putting them back to rest. Ebony thought that maybe they ought to burn the house, and in turn likely the bones of the victims, to the ground. At this point, she was convinced that was the only way to put an end to all of this. Pandora truly believed that they needed to find the insensitive brats who awakened his victims, bring them back to the house and demand they apologize. Delilah thought, as much as she didn't like it, that their mother may be the only one to get the unrestful, vengeful spirits to move on. Amoret dropped Pandora and Ebony off at the library, then took off.
       Now that they were at the library, Ebony was wondering if it might have been better to start off at the police station. Surely there was an officer still there who worked the case who knows what the connection was? They walked up to a librarian in her mid to early 30s, with strawberry blonde hair in such a tight bun it had to have given her a headache. Her head was buried in a computer. Pandora cleared her throat to get her attention. She looked up at them, but said nothing. "Hello, ma'am. We're Criminal Justice students over at Stanford and we're doing a research paper on the Porter Ashby case. We were wondering if you had anything that could help us?" Pandora asked, the words rolling so smoothly off her tongue that no one would guess she was lying through her teeth. The librarian's lips pursed together so tightly they almost disappeared. She said nothing but gestured for them to follow her. They followed her all the way to the back of the library to a section that clearly had not been touched in years. "Anything you want to know about the Ashby murders, his conviction and sentence, the victims, all of that, will be here." The librarian informed them. She looked the girls up and down, clearly suspicious. "You said you two attend Stanford. You from California?" "No. We were born in Venice, but were raised in Oregon." Ebony said instantly. The librarian raised her eyebrow, then left without saying another word. Ebony and Pandora turned their backs to her. "Did you get a really weird feeling from her?" Ebony asked. "I'm sure this subject is touchy for everyone around here. No one ever thinks that something like this could happen in their town, and especially not a town so small." Pandora said and she began to look for what files she wanted to go over first. "If there's one thing I've learned; it's the small towns you gotta watch out for." Ebony said, pulling out a file labeled Porter Ashby, sitting down at the table, seeing that Pandora had picked a file labeled Noelle Hope Murray, and getting to work.