Untold Truth

#2 Broken Doll (Part 4)

“Tyler said that he had ever been in contact with Austin before so it won’t take us long before we find the book.” Elyssa looked through her bag for her phone to call Tyler. To no avail, he wasn’t picking up. “Now what?” She turned to Alec.

“Now we wait. You have been rushing here and there all day just to find this book that isn’t even your family’s heirloom.”

That was when Elyssa realized that she had forgotten something. “Crap the flower. I forgot all about it.”

Alec gave her a puzzled look. “The flower?”

“Skylar told me about this other witch, one of Poseidon’s lovers and she told me that with the flower still lost in limbo or somewhere in the Jones’ mansion, it would trigger the end of the world to happen.”

“How exactly is that even possible?” Alec was still as clueless as ever.

“By some mythology, after she had given birth to her children, the demi-god children gave their mother the powers. And because she was already practicing witchcraft, she had been given the absolute power to control mind and matter. But since she wasn’t a Goddess, she was short-lived and died after giving birth to the third child, also known as the Angel of Death.”

While Elyssa was explaining to Alec, someone else was listening, lurking in the shadows. She could feel the person’s presence so she immediately went into defense mode but the moment the place had gotten silent, the person came out of the shadows and Elyssa used her powers to blast it at him. To no avail, he was immune to her powers. “Who are you? And how are you-”

Before she could finish, he immediately replied, “You really do ask too many questions, now don’t you? - Let’s cut to the chase, okay? You want to find a missing book from Hell and we want to find the stolen crystal rose from Atlantis. And since you already forgot about finding the flower, we would help you find the book first since you have no idea where to start searching for the rose.”

“How are you doing that?” Elyssa gave him a serious look. 

“I’m just like you but just part demon. I also have the ability to read minds so yeah.”

Just as she listened to his voice she realized who he was, “Zachery?”

“Now that we have finally gotten the introduction dealt with, now we better deal with the one problem at hand. - Retrieving the book to reverse the spell that Angelica has placed on your sister.”

“Stay out of my head.” Elyssa warned him. Just then Skylar and Carson came with Tyler. “So what have you found out?” She said in a worrying tone, trying to keep her gaze away from Zac. 

“What are they doing here?” He realized that this mission was too personal to involve two merpeople who barely knew anything about the human world.

“Larissa has brought havoc to Atlantis and with the current situation that my brothers who have been curse with a aging spell, my father sent me to Coaratis against my will so I had no choice.” Aria sighed.

“What did Larissa threaten your father with that caused him to send you somewhere when he is the one who has to protect you from her at all cause?” Skylar started to get worried. 

“He didn’t tell me. But I did hear something about taking someone’s life in exchange for the stolen rose.” She started pacing about. “What would we do if he took his life in exchange for the rose. I can’t bear to see our lives spared while he has to take the burden for Cody’s actions.”

Carson stepped in. “That’s the thing. The life that is taken has to be pure which means that dad isn’t under that category. The soul has to be something that has never sinned at all. And because there are no other merpeople more pure than the two of you”- indicating to Aria, “there is no other prey better than the two of you.”

“How come I’m the only one that Larissa wants?”

“Your heart still contains the purity that Aaron and  I don’t. There is nothing pure about the two of us because the purity is all gone. That gives me an idea.” He said looking at Skylar. “It’s a long shot but I think the only way to fool Larissa until we find a way out of this situation.”

“What are you babbling about?” Tyler asked him. 

“What I’m saying is that the fact that the two of them look exactly alike, there is no way that Larissa can tell the difference. It would then buy us enough time to find the rose to bring it back before Larissa and her army attacks.”

“Wait. Are you saying to use your girlfriend as bait? Don’t you think that she’s already got a lot on her plate? She has already been to hell and back just to save the world from herself.”

“Yeah, I know. But she’s our only shot at defeating Larissa especially when we don’t even have the flower at the moment.” Carson protested. “I mean like she has both powers from the demon realm and mermaid realm.”

“Whatever it is, you have to make sure that no harm is brought upon her.” Tyler sounded very protective of Skylar’s well-being. “If Skylar is hurt in any way, you are to blame. - So about Austin, there might be a slight chance that he is currently on the run from the police so we might have a little trouble finding his antiques.” He said to Elyssa. 

“There’s only one way to find out.” Elyssa went on to take the lead and brought them to the place where they were supposed to find Austin. “You said he lives here?” She turned Tyler while looking at the shack to which he nodded his head. “Well it looks like someone is home.” - indicating to the lights which were on.

“Do we have a plan? - Because I doubt this mundane can understand any of us if we tell him what we want it for.”, said Alec.

“He isn’t really a mundane. There’s a reason why he collects specific types of antiques, especially demonic relics.” Tyler protested.

“Then we can deal with him the same way we deal with other rogue demons.” Alec continued to march in front of Elyssa. 

Before he could march in the door, Elyssa grabbed him by his shoulders. “Whoa, hold on he may be a demon but he’s still one of us. Don’t let the fact that we hunt rogue demons cloud your judgement that we are still one of them too.”

The moment he looked into her eyes, he saw a piece of himself that he couldn’t see on his own. He nodded his head and let Elyssa through. “Do we know anything else about him?” She turned to Tyler.

“No. He left Hell behind years before you came to the human world so I also have no idea what his demon name is. There is no trace of his existence before he came to the human world.”

“Then we’ll deal with him the way that we deal with mundanes. I know one thing about demons; they all have a way of dealing and bribing humans to think that their way is the only way. So Alec, can you manage to pretend to be a little more mundane as it is the only way we could possibly get hold of the book.”

The moment they got into the store, Skylar could see what all the fuss was about. She saw nothing but an ordinary man sitting at the counter welcoming them in. “Don’t let his looks deceive you.” Carson whispered into her ear. She squinched her eyes to try to see, surpassing all the demon glamour. She slowly stripped the glamour off of the man and what she saw scared her; replacing the blunt teeth were incisors matched with his eyes glowed like rubies, dripping off those incisors were toxic venom. The counter also looked different once the glamour was off, along the edge of the counter was a line of bones that were hung like icicles during a winter day. However some still have blood dripping off of it. The walls were decorated with claw marks and chandeliers of actual bones of his victims. Skylar hid behind Carson like she was a little child.

They all pretended that they didn’t know who he was and treated him like he was one of the mundanes. “Hey, we're here in search of a very old book. It is a lost book that my boyfriend here accidentally sold off to someone else.”, Elyssa acted.

“What type of book is it? I have all kinds of books from ancient Greek to modern particulars.” Austin treated all his customers the same as he would like to be treated. Though he was really a demon, he always wanted to be treated like a human so he put up the act and controlled his anger so that he wouldn't end up scaring his customers away. He turned around to search the shelves behind him. The moment he stood up, Skylar saw a sloppy tail like a snake’s from his back down. She wondered how Carson and the rest were used to this and the fact that the room which used to have the smell of candles was replaced with a foul odour of the mix of blood and death. He laid a few books on the counter top each with a different cover. 

Elyssa took a glimpse at all of the covers and said, “None of these will do. You see, this book had been in my family lineage for centuries and the moment my boyfriend gave it away, I was devastated.” She continued on with her fake accent while Alec tried to keep up. “If only he had been a little more careful then I would not have to face my parents about the missing book.”

“Now. Now. There is no need to make a scene, babe.” Alec tried to comfort her. “I’m sure that the book is somewhere in this store.” He continued to give the salesman a desperate look as a sign that he should pick up the pace. 

“No, there isn’t a thing in this world that you could do right.”, Elyssa continued to bury her face in her hands. 

“I didn’t have to do this but-” He got down to her level and pulled out a box. And before opening the box, he said, “Elyssa Cruise, I’d loved you from the moon and back and the feeling you give me when you walk into a room - Breathlessness - I had never felt that way about anyone else-” 

Elyssa gasped because she had not expected any of this especially when she asked him to act a little more mundane. This was definitely not mundane but what else could she aspect out of someone who had been trained to fight his whole life. 

While Alec opened the box, Austin shouted to stop the two of them, “Stop! - My shop is not good enough for the two of you to be having this proposal.”

“But there is no better time.” Alec faked an English man accent. “And it is really necessary-”

“I may look like someone who doesn’t know a thing about this but, proposing in a shop like this? Come on I think I know a place that I can take the two of you to. It is far better than this dump.”

They were astonished that he even called his shop a dump. Elyssa and Alec followed him elsewhere while Skylar, Carson and Tyler continued to search the many shelves that crowd up the store. “Well at least Alec knows everyone’s Achilles’ heel - Proposing at the wrong time and wrong place. - Let’s just hope that the two lovebirds keep Austin busy long enough.”, said Tyler. 

As they continued to search they realized that there was a book that stood out but was placed out of the human sight. “Hey guys, what’s this?” Skylar picked up the book that caught her sight. The pages were already yellow and it’s cover was covered with claw marks. 

Upon getting hold of the book, Tyler realized what it was. “I know this book. It couldn’t be. How did it end up here?” His mind was blocked up with various questions. The moment he opened the book - which he had a feeling that he shouldn’t - he was shocked to see what he had seen.