Twenty-Three

Bobby

"Is there anything else you can tell us?" Cole asked Anna.

"No. I had no idea he was willing to do something like this or that he had the ability or the power. But there is something else I want to show you." She stood and walked down the hall to one of the doors. "Over here."

Cole and I stood and walked to where she stood with her hand on the knob. "This was his room. I haven't changed anything," she said before opening the door.

I sucked in a shocked breath as the three of us walked in. Every wall was painted in a mural. It started on one wall with the road out front of the house, then on another wall was a man on the road. On closer inspection I would have sworn it was Cole. The next wall was bolt after bolt of blue lightning hitting the man and him being knocked backward. The last photo was another man standing over the one on the ground, but it wasn't me. "Who is that?" I pointed at the figure who stood holding his arms above his head. His dark hair covered his face, but I knew he wasn't anyone I'd met.

"That's Nox," Anna said.

"So, this is a mural of him giving Cole the power, then taking it away?"

"I believe so," Anna said, and walked closer to the last picture. There was no furniture in the room, only a small desk that was covered with piles of notebooks and bottles and jars of different things. None of which looked familiar.

I opened one of the notebooks, but it was blank. "Did he write down anything?" I asked.

"Not that I've found. I doubt he would have written down what he did or how he did it. I don't even know how he started learning to do the rituals he was doing or when it took a turn to the dark powers. If he was following directions or just coming up with things off the top of his head, I just don't know." She scanned the room, and her hard exterior gave way to a vulnerability; I saw her as an aunt who had lost a nephew to something she didn't understand.

I opened another notebook, and this one was full of writing, but all of it was line after line with the same five words. With a flash of blue . "Look at this," I said, and showed the two of them.

"This might sound harsh, but did Nox have mental illness?"

Anna thought about Cole's question before answering while I walked around the room and looked at the painting more closely. What I had thought was dark paint outlining the bolts of lightning was actually very small meticulous writing. "Did you notice this?" I asked, before Anna could answer Cole.

Both of them leaned closer to the wall. "What is it?" Cole asked.

"If I had to guess I'd say it's the spell he used to call the blue lightning," Anna said. "See this?" Her work hardened hands traced a passage that I would have missed. All of it was written so small as it followed the outline of the lightning, making it hard to read if you didn't pay attention.

"This is a spell?" I asked.

"I have learned that it's not so much which words you use, but how you use them. I think this was his plan. It looks like it details all the steps he took to make it all happen. But it's not in any order that I can see," Anna said as she leaned over to get a better look. "This isn't the same as the poem, this is all the steps he took." She pointed to one part that was low on the wall. "This is where he started making sacrifices to any dark power that was willing to help him."

"Do you mind if I take some photos of this?" I asked.

"Bobby, I want you to do whatever you can to help Cole. I don't want either of you to get hurt over what my nephew did. I'd also recommend you put some protection in your own houses. Nox won't stop. If he's started reaching out to Cole in his sleep, it's probably just the beginning."

I took a few pictures and tried to get as much of the writing as I could. It was interwoven into the image and not easy to see, but once I knew what I was looking for it was easier. "It looks like it starts at the bottom and the more he wrote the higher up the wall he wrote it."

"Why would he write it all down?" Cole asked.

"Probably for proof that he actually did it," Anna said. "Anything he did that had to do with dark magic, he made sure someone knew. I think that's why he involved your parents. He knew they were not involved in the dark arts, but he wanted to show them what he could do. His ego may have also contributed to his demise. To answer your question about mental illness, as far as I know it had nothing to do with that. He had a genus IQ and instead of using it in a positive way, he decided to do all he could to obtain a power that he obviously could not control."

"We'll find out all we can. Are you safe here?" Cole asked.

Anna smiled at him. "I'm fine. There's nothing he can do to me that he hasn't already tried. Plus, he can't affect my thoughts. I'm not sure why but he was never able to use any influence over me. I keep the house warded so he knows he's not welcome here, but even if his energy could enter the house, he could not touch me."

"You're sure?" I asked.

"Yes. You two need to worry about yourselves. Especially you, Cole. He won't stop trying to get that power from you. No matter what the cost for either of you. He was obsessed when he was alive, and now that he's not I think that obsession is all that remains. He won't stop, Cole. Not until he's taken over your body or destroyed all that's left of himself."

"I'll be careful," Cole said.

"I wasn't kidding when I said you should put some protection on your house." She picked up one of the notebooks and scribbled a few images into it while we watched. "Use these. Put them near doors and windows. They'll keep your thoughts safe and keep him out of your space. Remember, he can only get to you if you let him. He doesn't have a physical form and that does weaken him in some ways, but it makes him stronger in others."

"Thank you, and we'll let you know what we find out from the mural," I said. The two of us walked back out to the door.

"Good luck, boys," Anna said, and as soon as we were on the porch she closed the door behind us.

We got back into the car, and before we left, I noticed her looking at us through the window. Her demeanor was completely different than what we'd seen when we were inside. If I had to guess, she looked terrified.

"Let's go back to my house and see if we can figure out more about the mural," Cole said and started the engine.