The Adventures of Emily Tual Book Four: The Rising
Chapter Fourteen

That evening, Emily and James were walking home from the library. They had spent most of the day trying to learn as much as they could about the Camazot from what different religions and myths had on the creature. They were quite different with how the beast came to exist but they all agreed that it symbolized death and destruction. Emily wasn’t surprised there. She knew that the beast would kill Audrey if the Man with the German Accent succeeded with the sacrifice. Emily wondered how the Darkness had gotten such a monster to serve her. It would make more sense for the Camazot to be in charge. It was after all considered a god by each religion that worshipped it.

Emily had tried to replace as many pictures of the beast as she could but most of them were paintings done by people trying to show different images of the beast in their own styles, copies of stone wall etchings and of course ridiculous animated drawings. None of the pictures seemed to capture the terrifying image that her book had and none of them gave her visions of what was to come. Emily remembered what Gabriel had said about Walt’s movie nearly releasing the beast from its prison. She wondered if the Camazot had tried to escape each time someone made a picture of it. She remembered reading how it was supposed to be a sign that the end of the world was coming. If that was true, then something must have been happening around the time that Walt had created Fantasia.

Emily didn’t know that much about the early days of Disney but she knew that around that time, there was a war happening. She also knew that roughly in the same time era, maybe before the movie came out, Anastasia was made an orphan and, according to Audrey, was thought to be the Chosen One. Was it just a coincidence that the Camazot tried to use Fantasia to escape after Anastasia had gone missing from the normal world?

“Don’t worry Emily. I’m sure we’ll save Audrey before she is sacrificed to the Camazot.” James said.

Emily looked up at him. James seemed so sure. “We don’t even know where the Camazot was sealed away.” Emily reminded him. “The Magician does though so he can easily disappear with Audrey and we won’t know where they went until it’s too late.”

James took his phone out and brought up Fantasia. “We might not know where it is but I’m willing to bet that Walt found out when he was making his movie.” He told Emily.

“Bald Mountain?” Emily asked. “James, that place is just made up.” How could a fictional place be a prison? It didn’t make any sense to her. James kept reading information. He pressed a button and froze. Emily frowned. “James, what is it?” She asked him. James turned her phone to him. Emily read what he had found. “Night on Bald Mountain music was originally written by Modest Mussorgsky, a Russian composer who was inspired by literary works and legend.” She looked at James and that was when it hit her with what James was saying. “Bald Mountain is in Russia?” She asked. It made sense now that she thought about it. Russia was where the Great War had happened and where the Darkness had been defeated by her ancestor.

James looked at his phone. “Walt had no idea how close he was to releasing the Camazot.” He said. “I’m willing to bet the only reason it didn’t work was because he took a name that humans gave the Camazot. If he had used the real name, the Camazot would have been able to escape.” That was when he found the location that Bald Mountain would be in.

The way James said that bothered Emily. James made it sound like normal humans were ignorant and stupid. She wondered if it was because he was immortal that he felt like that. “James?” Emily asked in a soft voice. James looked at her. Emily took a breath before continuing. “Do you hate humanity?” Emily asked.

James shook his head and sat down on a bench. “I don’t hate humans.” He told Emily. He felt Emily sit next to him. “I just don’t always approve of what they do because I see what they claim wouldn’t happen when they begin projects. Humans’ lives are so fleeting compared to Gabriel and my immortal lives.” James explained. “Sometimes I wonder if it’s worth it all when he and I fight against the Darkness and the Black Hand.”

“What makes you remember that it is?” Emily asked.

James looked at her and took Emily’s hand in his. Emily looked down at their hands before she looked back up at him. “When I spend time with people like you.” James answered. “People who haven’t been corrupted or tainted like the rest of humanity.”

That made Emily think of something else. “Who exactly made you all immortal?” She asked James.

James looked away. “It was after the final battle. Gabriel, Jasper and I were standing over Seraphina’s dying body. Gabriel ordered Jasper and me to hunt down Victor. When we couldn’t replace him, we went back to Gabriel. On the way, we felt something overcome us. By the time we found Gabriel, Gabriel told us that we were immortal and we were to replace Seraphina’s heir to defeat the Darkness.” He answered. He knew it didn’t exactly answer Emily’s question but he honestly wasn’t sure how to answer it. He only had Gabriel’s word to go on.

They heard people approaching them. Emily looked up and nearly groaned out loud. “It’s Griffin and his friends.” She told James. “We need to get going so we don’t waste time.” The last thing she wanted to deal with was Griffin trying to force her to be his girlfriend. The two of them stood up and turned to walk away when they saw more of Griffin’s friends walking towards them. Emily looked at James. “What are we going to do now?” She asked James.

“Emily, get away from him!” Griffin shouted. He didn’t like seeing Emily and James being so close to each other. “He and I are going to have a rematch.” Griffin marched up to James and jabbed a finger into his chest. “You cheated last time we were about to fight and I demand a rematch.”

James simply glared at Griffin. “We don’t have time for this.” He told Griffin. “A friend of ours is missing and we need to replace her.”

Griffin and his friends laughed. “Nice try but it isn’t going to work.” Griffin told James. “Your dad has given me permission to do this.”

James frowned. His father? James didn’t know who his father was. The closest thing to a father he had was Gabriel but Gabriel had been with him, Emily and the others most of the day. Gabriel though wouldn’t order something like this. He realized who had told Griffin to do this. “You’re being tricked into doing this Griffin.” James said. “We don’t have to fight.”

That was when Griffin slugged James right in the face, sending James to the ground. “We do have to fight.” Griffin said. “I want to prove that I’m the one who deserves Emily.” With that, Griffin kicked James in the stomach.

Emily screamed. This had to stop. She pushed Griffin away but before she could do anything else, two of Griffin’s friends grabbed her by the arms and pulled her back.

Griffin glared at Emily. “Keep her back!” He shouted at his friends before he turned back to James. “Come on! You and me right now.” He kicked James again in the stomach.

James looked up at Emily. He knew that with one simple spell, he could turn Griffin and his friends into bugs and squish them under his foot. He could turn them to dust easily. He had enough magic to do that. He knew though that Emily would never forgive him for hurting others like Griffin. Emily didn’t want to see him become like the Man with the German Accent or the other evil Black Hands. James began muttering a spell to heal his bruises when Griffin kicked him in the face, sending James rolling into the road. He heard a vehicle horn honking before he got hit by a vehicle. The last thing he heard was Emily screaming.

From his perch, a crow watched the whole scene go down before cawing. The crow flew away from the accident and flew to a motel. It pecked at a window. The window opened and the crow flew in. Inside the room was the Man with the German Accent, Virginia Dare and a still unconscious Audrey. The crow flew to the Man with the German Accent’s shoulder and cawed once in his ear. The Man with the German Accent smiled wickedly.

Virginia Dare stood up. “What did he say?” She asked.

The Man with the German Accent looked at Virginia Dare. “James won’t be a problem for us anymore.” He answered. “Griffin has served his purpose.” The Man with the German Accent looked at the unconscious Audrey. “Two down, a few more to go before Emily is ours for the taking.” He couldn’t help but laugh as he said that.

At the scene of the accident, Emily watched James being put on a stretcher by two hospital workers. She was holding herself. She had called for an ambulance and had given the police officers her statement. Griffin and his lackeys had fled the scene as soon as James had gotten run over by the truck. The hospital workers had said James was still alive but they weren’t sure if he would recover.

Emily could hear her dad talking to the police officers. She had called him as soon as she had gotten the chance. He sounded very angry and she could hear him complaining about Griffin harassing her a lot. She seriously doubted the police would do much about it. Griffin’s dad was a police officer. He would just claim that Emily was just blaming Griffin to avoid admitting that she was the reason James had gotten hit by the truck.

Emily felt light headed and crouched down. She didn’t feel good. The knowledge that this had happened right before James was about to tell her whatever it was he had found made her feel like this hadn’t been a coincidence. Somehow Griffin had known where she and James would be. She remembered what Griffin had said. That James’s father had ordered the hit on James. James had said that Griffin had been set up. Did James know who the man was that really ordered the hit? The only person she could think of that would do that would be…the Man with the German Accent.

Emily looked up as she heard Delaney, Rachel and Savannah join her. “What happened?” Savannah asked.

Delaney looked at the ambulance pulling away before noticing that James was gone. “Where is James?” She asked.

Emily pointed at the ambulance. “Griffin caused him to fall in front of a driving truck and he was hit badly.” She answered in a soft voice as tears came to her eyes. She looked at her cousins and sister. “The Magician did this to James.”

The other three looked at each other. “There is no way that is a coincidence.” Delaney said. “First Audrey is kidnapped and now James is hospitalized? He’s trying to get you alone.”

That didn’t make any of them feel safe. Emily realized that Delaney was right. It was just a matter of time before Delaney, Elizabeth and Rachel were hurt or killed. She knew that the Man with the German Accent would kill Gabriel for sure as revenge. She would be alone sooner or later. She just was worried about when that would be. The statue’s words came back to her mind. First, it was sixteen and now it was fifteen. What was it counting down to? What did the statue know that she didn’t?