chapter 1

Prologue

 

I am neither the hunted nor the huntress, but a mediator between both sides. Since I have turned fourteen, things have been… different. When I was growing up I had no idea of my fate, my destiny. I could not have contemplated the role I would take on in keeping the underworld at bay.

 

This is my story, and I plan to tell it from the beginning, from the ‘accident’. I know that I must tell you everything, because if I don’t, you will not understand, and my knowledge and doings will not be recorded for others who partake in my career. So let me begin my story of how I, Kathleen, came face to face with a decision that would change the lives of many forever.

Chapter 1

 

“Tell me a story, Papa!” the young girl said. She was only seven, but from the day she could talk, she always asked to hear one of her father’s stories.

“ What shall it be tonight,” asked her father, “ adventure, magic, or shall I read one of my books to you?”

“ Read me the one about the man who had to protect his town from demons!” A woman entered the room.

“Robin, those books were not meant for someone as young as Kathleen. Anyway, we all know that the only book we need to worry about is the Bible. Right, Kathleen? My little Kitty.”

“ I know, mother, but just this once? It will be the last story! I promise.”

 

Kathleen came back to reality as the sun’s rays started to slip into the windows of her parent’s bedroom. She had spent the night there remembering the few memories she had of her family. She got up from the chair she had been sitting in and wiped the dust off of her clothes. As she walked out the door she noticed, as she did most nights, the stain of blood by the bed. They had found her mother there. She was reaching for the Bible she always kept on the nightstand. Kathleen ignored the prickly bumps forming up and down her body and walked toward the back door of the old house. Her father’s bloodstain greeted her as she entered the hall. “ Oh, Papa. What happened to you?” she whispered while stepping over the stain and blessed herself with the sign of the cross twice. It was believed that doing so would ward off curses. Of course, Kathleen didn’t believe such nonsense, but she wasn’t going to contradict the village elders. Besides, she did have a strange feeling as she quietly walked out the back door. She was never comfortable with people calling her childhood home cursed, but it did have an upside. The house had been left the exact same way it had been found that morning seven years ago. She wasn’t actually supposed to be inside. No one was aloud in, but in a way, it made her feel closer to solving the mystery of her parent’s death.

 

The priest, Father Curry, rattled on and on in early mass that morning. Since it was the anniversary of her parent’s death, he always had a long sermon to commemorate them. Though she appreciated it, Kathleen wasn’t paying attention. She kept going over the few memories she had in her head. It might have been that she was trying to find an answer to a question that didn’t exist, but she felt her parents had left her clues to their deaths and their former lives. She felt that they were trying to tell her something, knowing very well that she might not catch on for some time. It was like they knew that they were going to die some day, but they never imagined it would be as soon as it had been.

 

She jumped up suddenly. “ The Bible!” she yelled. Then she realized were she was. She looked around at the blank faces staring at her, some of which she knew, and others about her age who had been taken in by the church. She looked around at the questioning looks from the choir because she had just interrupted their song with her sudden outburst. Of course, it wasn’t that hard to interrupt the choir because it was so small, but still, she felt terrible. She excused herself and quickly left the church. She prayed to God that there was something in her mother’s Bible to explain everything. She wanted an explanation or a clue. She rushed toward her former house, not caring who saw her enter its ‘cursed’ walls. She was so determined and distracted that she did not realize that Father had abruptly ended mass after her outburst and was following her, doing his best to keep up.

 

She burst into the front door of her childhood home, she had been in a rush to get there, but once she opened the door, she could hardly breathe. Could the answer be so close? She walked into her parent’s bedroom. She stared at the bible sitting on her mother’s nightstand. Torn between excitement and fear, she reverently reached out and grabbed the book. She flipped through the pages, but nothing. No note with an explanation of why everything about their former lives was a secret, no letter or will of some kind resided there either. Disappointed, but not deterred, she sat there thinking for a while. “ Maybe it is not this Bible. Maybe it is some other Bible, “ she said to herself. So she wen about the task of searching through the rooms for any other bibles her parents might have kept.

 

By now, Father Curry was outside of the house. As he struggled with the decision of helping Kathleen or letting her find what she was searching for on her own, he went around the back of the house. He did care what people would say if he entered a cursed house. Him being a priest, it most likely would not go over well. It was thought by most of the people in the village that if you went into the house, then you would be cursed as well. No one knew exactly what the curse was, but it would have dire consequences, they were sure. Once he came within a few feet of the back door, he realized that he should obey the wishes of her late parents and not help her. She was, after all, a smart girl. If she did not find the letter today, then it would be soon.

 

Kathleen was getting frustrated and trying not to let her temper get the better of her, she calmly sat down to think. But her thoughts were soon disrupted by her Aunt Clare’s voice coming from outside the house. Kathleen winced. She sounded angry. Kathleen walked out the door to find Father Curry and her aunt. She actually wasn’t really her aunt. She was just a lady who had volunteered to take Kathleen in when her parents were murdered. She was a nice lady at least. She really did care for Kathleen, as well, but sometimes, just like Kathleen, she let her temper get the best of her. “Where have you been?” she said in her high pitched voice. She sounded as if she was trying to constrain herself in front of father, but a lot of good that was doing. “ You were not in your bed this morning and when I go looking for you, someone said you ran out of church and right into this house as if the devil were calling for you!” Kathleen did see how it could look that way, but she did no care what other people thought. Unfortunately her aunt did. “ How do you think that makes me look? Like a helper of the devil?”

“ I am sure no one pays attention to any rumors like that Ms. Clare,” said Father. “ The girl was simply looking for answers which I am sure she has found. Am I right, Kitty?” She really liked the way Father Curry called her Kitty. It reminded her of her mother. Shaking her head to answer his question, Father looked as disappointed as she felt. “ I just don’t know what to do with you, Kathleen. You had me worried sick!” continued Aunt Clare.

“ May I talk with her, Ms. Clare?” asked Father. Her aunt nodded in agreement. Kathleen was relieved. Father Curry could be stern sometimes, but he would understand her reasons for bursting out of church.

 

“ So you did not find what you were looking for,” he said.

“No, but I am so close! I can feel it!” she replied. She did not think that it was strange that he knew what she was looking for. She often talked with Father and figured that she had told him about what she was looking for at some time or another. “ I think that it has something to do with a bible or it is in a bible, but there is only one bible that our family used and there was nothing there”

“ Only one?”

“Well, yes. I mean except for the one in the church that you read from during mass, but…” she paused and a look of hope formed on her face. “ Father!”

“ Yes, my child?”

“Where do you keep the Bible that you read from in mass?”

“ In the room behind the altar, but why?” Though he knew why, he agreed that he would not interfere in helping her find it.

“ Please excuse me, Father!” and she ran off toward the church. Father Curry kept his pace and smiled to himself. Maybe he had given her a small hint, but she practically got it herself. Besides, he could not stand the look of sorrow in her eyes any longer.

 

Kathleen ran through the unlocked doors of the church and up to the altar. She half bowed to the cross as she ran around it to the back room. She found that she was filled with excitement again, but this time she didn’t want to get her hopes up as she had done earlier today. She slowly opened the door and walked across the room to a stand that help the large Bible. She forced herself to breathe slowly as she flipped through the pages. As she came closer to the end, her heart began to sink. Could there really be nothing there? As the last page turned, her heart seemed to stop. There, wedged in between the last page and the binding of the book, was an envelope with her name written across the front. Hands shaking, she took the envelope and sat down in a nearby chair. Her name was written in her father’s hand. She could tell. She took the letter from inside and opened it carefully. She read:

 

Our little Kitty,

 

If you are reading this, then I am truly sorry. I am comforted though, that you have found this. I am sure that you are in good hands and you have grown to be a beautiful and intelligent woman. It is most likely that you have been searching for this for some time now. You always wanted answers when you were younger. Once, you told me that if there was a question, there would always be an answer. Well, here is your answer Kitty.

 

Before you were born, your mother and I were part of a special group in the church called The Order of Angels. We, and many other brave men and women, had the job of keeping people safe from the evils of the world. You are probably thinking along the lines of a holy army of some sort, but this was different. We did not fight wars, but kept them from happening. Peacekeepers might be a good term for what we were. But we were not peacekeepers between humans, but between humans and other creatures. “ What creatures?” is your next question. Am I right? While you heard tales of vampires and werewolves and such to keep you out of the woods, people like your mother and I were fighting them. Well, we were fighting them until both sides realized that neither could win. We made a treaty with them. They would not harm us, and we would not harm them. Demons on the other hand, were creatures that could not be dealt with in such a way. Since Demons are the creatures that do the devil’s bidding, there is only one way to deal with them, and that is destroying them. So after the great treaty was made, most of the work that the Order of Angles did was exorcisms and keeping the peace.

 

I know that this seems unreal or too much to comprehend, but it is as true as I am dead right now. Your mother and I both knew that our work would eventually lead to death, but death is inevitable. I am sorry for your pain. I hope that this letter gave you the answers that you were looking for. Father Curry has agreed to look out for you. He will guide you through any problems that may come up in your life. He also has the answers to any questions that I KNOW you have. Be safe. Your mother and I love more then you know.

With Deepest Affection,

Your Father

 

She let the tears slide down her cheeks. She had found the answer she had been looking for, but as her father had said, it seemed too unreal. How could this be? Was this some sort of joke? At that moment, Father Curry walked in. With one look at his face, Kathleen knew that what the letter in her hand said was true.

 

“So you have finally found the letter. I knew that it would happen soon,” said the father.

“You knew? Every time I came to you crying or asking questions, you actually had the answers. You could have told me everything!” She had trusted him. In a way she felt betrayed.

“ I was told I could not interfere. Your parents said that they wanted you to find it on your own.”

“ I am sorry, Father. I should be thankful for this letter, but it just isn’t enough. Though, I suppose nothing except having them back would seem like enough.”

“ I cannot relate to the feelings that you speak of, but I have heard all this before. Most of the children taken in by the church are here because of such losses.”

 

Author's Note

ignore grammer i just want to see what you think