We Stand Against Evil

Acknowledgements Huge thanks to my amazing beta readers who never fail to make me smile with their positive comments about my work. They are simply amazing. And of course, to my amazing readers for your continued support. I couldn’t do it without you. Chapter 1 ‘I’ve just got this horrible feeling that we're travelling to the wrong place,' sighed Lana rather too loudly as she gazed out of the aeroplane’s window, seeing nothing but thick, fluffy clouds beneath them and blue sky above. 'Eleanor told me she was in Canada, Sis. She's not usually wrong,' Emma said, fidgeting with her long dark hair. 'Yeah I know,’ she replied quietly, sitting back in the seat before continuing, ‘But I just have this really weird feeling deep in my stomach and these kinds of feelings aren't normally wrong. Are they?' 'I guess not. Look, just go and tell Declan,’ Emma muttered under her breath before closing her eyes and turning away from her sister. 'Are you alright, Emma?’ Lana asked. 'Yeah, why wouldn't I be?’ she answered with her eyes still closed. 'You're just not yourself, you know?' ‘Yeah, whatever, I'm going to sleep. Go and talk to Declan.’ Lana raised her eyebrows and fumbled with her seatbelt, eventually undoing it. Standing up, she scanned the seats around her until she spotted Declan who was talking quietly to Aria and Marlene. 'Hey Lana,' Aria smiled. 'Are you okay?' Nodding, Lana leaned against the seat, 'A bit worried about Emma though.' 'What do you mean?' asked Declan as they all glanced over to look at her sister. 'She's not herself. I mean really not herself. She sounds more like me and that's never a good thing, is it?’ Declan raised his eyebrows, ’She'll be okay. She's still adjusting to what happened. It's not easy getting over killing someone,' Declan added in a whisper, glancing around at the strangers surrounding them. Marlene nodded, grimacing slightly as she continued to watch the goth girl in the seat up ahead of them. 'Would you like me to talk to her?' 'She said she's going to sleep, but maybe later?' Marlene nodded. 'There's something else though,' Lana added. 'What's up?' Declan asked, concerned. 'I just keep getting this feeling that we're going to the wrong place.’ 'What do you mean? One of your gifted feelings?' Lana nodded. 'You don't think Eleanor is in Canada?' Aria asked. 'I'm not sure. I just have this weird feeling about Scotland.' 'Scotland?' Declan said loudly. 'That's weird. Eleanor definitely said Canada.' 'I know, which is why I'm so confused. My feelings are usually right. I don't get it.' 'Well, we're flying to Calgary right now, there's not much we can do to change that.' Lana nodded and sighed, 'I don't understand why we couldn't have used the private jet again and then we could have just turned it around.' Declan dropped his head to one side, 'We've already talked about this Lana. Eleanor left strict instructions about what we should do in the event of anything happening to her, especially when it concerns the Skulls. We have to keep things under the radar which means we have no choice but to use limited resources. We don't know how much Madge knows so by flying economy under false aliases, we've got a better chance of finding her.' 'Not if we're flying to the wrong country,' Lana exclaimed, crossing her arms like a naughty child. ‘Look, I know you're angry about so many things but we have to do this properly. It's what Eleanor wanted.' 'What? That all of our friends should stay in England?' 'Oh c'mon, Lana. We've been over this too. Most of the Watchers in your class were not given permission by their families to fly all the way over to Canada, anyway.’ 'And Barber? He's an adult,' she pouted. Marlene smiled and placed her hand on top of the teenager's. 'Barber is needed in London to help protect the students. As a Watcher yourself, surely you must understand that?' Lana sighed, 'Yes of course I do. Sorry, I'm just worried.' Declan smiled, 'We know. But,’ he lowered his voice to a whisper, ‘your boyfriend is a pretty strong vampire. He can take care of himself,’ he sniggered before adding, ‘Everything is going to be fine, Lana.’ His wrinkled forehead, however, said something else entirely. oOo 'Hey,' Lana said, watching her sister slowly open her eyes as the plane finally came to a smooth halt on the tarmac. 'Hey, she yawned. 'Are we here?' Lana nodded, 'Calgary airport.' 'What did Declan say?' 'The usual.' 'And your feeling about Scotland?' Lana shrugged, 'We're in Alberta now. Not much we can do about it. Here,' she said, handing Emma her thick purple winter coat from the overhead locker. 'Thanks. It looks pretty cold out there.' They both looked out of the window and saw a blanket of snow on either side of the runway, twinkling in the bright sunlight. 'Yeah, loads of snow,' Lana sighed, before adding. 'I feel so awful.' ‘ Don ’t you feel very well?’ asked Emma. ‘I feel fine. I just feel awful about this whole situation.’ ‘I don’t follow you, Lana,’ said Emma. ‘ We are the only ones that came to find her. It's not right. We should have the entire Watcher population out here searching for her.’ Emma groaned and plonked herself back on the seat while they waited for the other travellers to start leaving the aircraft. 'They have their reasons, we have to respect them.' 'We don't have to b****y like them though,' Lana said loudly, glancing backwards at Declan and the others, before delving into her handbag to find her lipstick. Emma looked at her and pouted. 'You're right, we don't.' 'I just don't get it.' 'What?' asked Emma, getting a little exasperated. 'Why us? Why did they only choose the two of us to come with them? And why Aria and Marlene? Why not some of the others? Why couldn't Barber come? There's loads of other Watchers and Guardians to look after things in London and the rest of England for that matter? And why... why not your Diarmuid?' 'Diarmuid's mum said no. Simple as that.' 'It wasn't just his mum, Em, and you know it. They didn't let a lot of kids stop their studies to come and help.' 'It was mostly their parents though, really,’ Emma replied. ‘Their parents are worried as hell.’ ‘And ours weren’t?’ stated Lana. ‘Mum and Dad didn’t want us to come either but we made it quite clear there was no way in hell we weren’t coming. The others could’ve done the same. They could have taken a stand, right?’ Emma lifted her eyebrows, ‘It’s not as simple as that, Sis. The other parents aren’t as close to Declan like ours are. Declan saved Dad’s life before, remember? They’re like best mates. I reckon that’s the main reason they let us come, because they know that Declan would lay down his life to save us. Plus, they know what Praxos means to us. They know what Eleanor means to us.’ 'Maybe,' Lana sighed. 'Why us though?' 'Because Eleanor left strict instructions that if anything should happen, she wanted both of you to help us,' Declan said as he approached them from behind, making them both jump. 'Really?' Emma's eyes lit up. Declan nodded, 'Girls, you must realise by now that you've both got something special going on. You're stronger than the majority of the Watchers that we know, adults included. Eleanor believes in you. She believes you will set us free.' 'Set us free?' Lana whispered. 'What does that mean?' Declan shrugged ever so slightly, 'We're not entirely sure ourselves. Eleanor wrote it in a letter that Wilbur was keeping safe, only to be opened in the event of something happening to her.' 'What else did it say, Declan?' whispered Emma. All the seats in front of them were now empty and a small queue was developing behind them. 'Oh sorry mate,' Declan said, moving out the way of a tall Chinese man who had cleared his throat, clearly trying to get their attention. He nodded respectfully as he passed. 'Look, I'll tell you more later. Let's just get off this plane first and sort ourselves out. Just...,' he pushed his hair back off his face, ‘…just… stop worrying. It's gonna be okay.' Lana glanced at Emma and they both smiled, albeit with tight lips. 'Now c'mon, let's get out of here.' Chapter 2 'Wow, it really is beautiful,' sighed Lana. 'I wish we were here under different circumstances, though,’ she said, shivering as she zipped her coat right up to her chin. 'So this is Banff?' Emma said as she stepped out of the car and looked around at the warmly dressed people milling around. 'It's pretty.' 'Yes it is,' Aria smiled. 'It's a wonderful place for a holiday. Shame that's not why we're here though. This was one of the places John and I were planning to visit one day.’ Her voice cracked and she cleared her throat. Looking away, she bit her lip before turning back to them. ‘ Come on, let's head inside. Declan's already grabbed the bags,' she smiled as the girls followed her indoors. 'Well this is cozy,' Marlene said as she put the kettle on to make some tea and busied herself in the small open plan kitchen. 'So what happens now, Declan?' asked Lana. 'Is there a plan? Can you tell us more about the letter?' 'Come and sit down girls,' he ushered them onto the large old leather couch that faced the kitchen and then sat down on the armchair beside them. ‘There’s not an awful lot that you need to concern yourselves with right now girls. But if you must know, she left me instructions on running Praxos in London in the event of her dea..,’ he stopped for a second, ‘… of something happening to her. But she did say that if something happened and she went missing, she was adamant that you both, the Morgan sisters, were to come and help find her. In the letter she told me how important you both are to Praxos - but I already knew that of course,’ he looked up and smiled. ‘And that she wanted you to work with us to find her.’ ‘But what about this whole setting us free business?’ asked Lana. Declan looked up at Aria and Marlene, ‘We don’t really understand what she means but she underlined it in her letter, so it’s obviously something important.’ Everyone was silent for a moment before Lana piped up, ‘So what now? What’s our next move?’ Declan stood up. Leaning against the fireplace, he sighed. 'What's the matter, Declan?' Emma asked, knowing something wasn't quite right. 'Well, here's the thing,’ he eventually replied, turning to face them. ‘We don't have any clues at the moment. All of our research seems to have come against a brick wall.' Emma's eyes open wide, 'You mean all we're going on are our visions?’ Declan slowly nodded. 'But why?' Lana asked loudly. 'Let me guess,' Emma said somewhat bitterly. 'Because Eleanor told you to?' 'Pretty much. Look Emma, your vision with Eleanor was a strong one. You actually talked to her and she told you to come here. We're simply following that lead.' 'And then what?' 'Then we wait.’ 'But waiting might be too late,' Emma yelled. 'She said they didn't have much time. She said to hurry.' 'Which is why we flew here immediately,' Marlene answered as she placed a few cups of tea on the coffee table in front of them. 'But what if that was wrong?' Lana said, exasperated. 'I told you it didn't feel right. I told you I think there's something going on with Scotland. What if she's there? What if John's there?' Aria leaned against the inner archway that led to the bedrooms beyond, crossing her arms. 'We have to go on what Eleanor told Emma, Lana. It makes more sense. Why would Madge go to Scotland? Eleanor specifically said Canada and that's where we are now. We need you to work together to get down to detail. We need you to tell us what's next. We're counting on you.' Emma burst into tears and ran out of the room. 'See?' Lana said. 'She just killed a man and now you're putting all this pressure on her to stop two more people from dying. Declan, this is...this is... this is crazy,' Lana seethed, standing up abruptly. But when she got to where Aria stood, she stopped and let out a deep breath. Closing her eyes, she dropped her head backwards and took another deep breath before turning around. 'I'm sorry,' she whispered. Declan smiled, his nostrils flaring slightly while he rubbed his chin, 'It's okay. I get it. I really do, mate and I'm sorry that this is all on you and your sister. It isn't fair but you are all we've got right now. Everyone and everything else has turned up nothing. I wish it was different, Lana, I really do but I believe in you both. Big time. I know you can do this,' he nodded. 'But you have to believe in yourselves too.' 'I'll go and speak to Emma,' she said, turning. 'No need. She heard me,’ Declan smiled. Emma gingerly appeared from the hallway wiping the tears from her eyes. 'I'm going to need some water.’