A heavy silence hung over the group and a feeling of mutual failure as they watched the presentation. The camera crew that had shown up to the event caught the entire thing and managed to get it into the mainstream news overnight it seemed.
“This scene came from our team in the field, a halloween party turned into a shocking reveal.” The anchor explained while the master bedroom would come into view with the camera solely focusing on the rune and Joseph.
It seemed some post editing had been done to make the room look brighter and more colourful which Mitch thought was a strange choice, who would want to make something like this look edited?
Once again Lara was depicted as activating the rune, though her face was blurred out for obvious reasons. When Joseph took her to the side and proclaimed her as another with the potential and placed his hands atop the rune once again.
The room was soon engulfed in a light that eventually faded after a few moments. This was where the anchor began once more “This is claimed to be a supernatural occurrence according to the party goers.”
The scene cut to an interview with some of those who attended with their faces blurred out. “There is clearly something magic about what happened here.” the first younger man stated.
“There was something about the light.. When it touched you, I felt something” the next woman added.
Eventually even though he was blurred, Mitch could recognise Shaun being interviewed with Emma. “This was real magic, there's something more going on here.” He stated as if it were a hard proven fact.
“Seeing it is nothing like feeling the wave of warmth once it happened.” Emma added, their voices having been distorted for the sake of privacy.
“This looks like some form of light show to me.” The first anchor said as they replayed the clip of the light washing over the room “If you look at this, it looks very fake and almost CGI”
The interviews continued with everyone talking of the feeling that occurred to them once the light had engulfed the room. The anchors continued to debate the validity of the ‘viral video’.
“What do we do now..?” Mitch asked quietly, looking to Jasper who had spent the drive home quieter than he had ever been. Jasper sat with his arms crossed, closing his eyes and letting out a deep sigh after a few moments of silence. “I don’t know just yet.” Was all he replied.
Mitch was taken aback that Jasper didn’t seem to have a plan for this one. He always had a plan, even if it wasn't the best. “I see…” He responded, continuing to watch the news broadcast.
“This all looks a bit sketchy, don’t you think?” The anchor asked as the clip ended “It looks more like a cult than anything to me. Strange lights and people claiming to have been blessed?”
“I get a more televangelist feel from this, someone exploiting others' beliefs.” the second anchor replied, at least adding some form of deniability so other viewers may think that this is also a scam.
The topic was dropped as fast as it was brought up with the news continuing on. Jasper turned off the television once they moved on and finally leaned forward from his position “I need to ask Rin a few questions. But I feel that the film crew was sent by the family.”
“Why would you think that?” Mitch asked, standing up from the seat.
“They get on the news the next day with no issues finding a spot. Something like this would get dismissed quickly if there wasn’t any string pulling involved.” He began to explain, standing with him and walking to the kitchen door. “They put it on TV to make it look like another scam like those televangelists they mentioned. Quickest way to get someone discredited.”
“So we just wait for Rin to get back to us?” Mitch asked, disheartened at the idea of more waiting while this seems to be gaining traction.
He took a moment of silence to message the group where he put in “Saw you two on TV, nerds!” specifically marking Shaun and Emma with the message so they got a popup notification for it.
He wasn’t expecting an instant reply since they were out late for the party. He glanced at the group with everyone from the weekend classes and felt he had been far more distant than usual with them down to everything that was going on.
Though now wasn’t the time for distractions, he closed his phone once more and turned his gaze to Jasper who simply nodded at him after some time of thought “I think we should just observe for the moment. I will place a call soon, you try and squeeze any information out of your friends without arousing suspicion. Perhaps you could also visit Lara and see how she is doing.”
They had spent some time talking to her the night before where she detailed everything that had happened, from the spirit she felt below which turned out to be some minor imp that was attracted to the mana of what they could only assume was Joseph activating the rune during a practice run of the event upstairs.
She had also detailed that everyone in the room had become almost catatonic for a while. They claimed that they felt the magic in the air, which wasn’t surprising since even the most magically inept person could feel the effects of a nearby rune if it was powerful enough and something designed to capture a spirit for a brief time was a rather powerful one.
He had decided to go visit her so he grabbed his jacket and shoulder bag he kept around just in case he picked up anything along the way. “I’ll see you later then.” Mitch said with a wave before he went out.
It was a strange feeling to see the streets so… Normal? Such a world breaking discovery had made its way onto television but everything was running as normal as it would if it hadn’t.
People went about their days as if nothing had ever happened which could only lead him to think “Is this the power of the family?” But even he knew no one had that kind of power. All he could chalk it up to was what Jasper said, that this was due to making the group look like a form of cult which would completely discredit it to anyone who wasn’t there to feel the effects of the ‘divine light’ as some may call it.
After a short walk he made it to the apartments and made his way up to the third floor where she lived, knocking on the door and waiting once more. He heard her shuffle inside for some time before she eventually opened the door. “Morning…” she said sleepily as she stood in her pyjamas. The apartment was aglow with that light that only was achieved by direct sunlight hitting curtains and seeping partly through them.
“Morning.” Mitch replied, rummaging through his bag to give her one of the myriad of energy potions that Jasper had stocked up. “Wanted to come see how you were doing.”
She stepped aside and welcomed him inside where they soon sat at the single table in the kitchen which had become their unofficial meeting place at this point. “You feeling good?” He asked her out of concern, it was a rather difficult night dealing with being amidst the fray during the presentation.
“I’m good, just a little shaken up is all.” she responded in a rather meek tone.
Mitch nodded and allowed her some time to relax before he said “Care to go over last night with me again?”
“Of course.” she nodded, fixing herself so she was sitting upright across from him.
“Well, there was the spirit below at first.” She began, recounting the event of the imp that Jasper had dealt with below “That didn’t last long. Then there was the rune upstairs.” She seemed rather troubled remembering the entire event. “I tried to prove him wrong but that was when it got strange…”
She leaned back in her chair and stared at the roof recalling what happened “He claimed I was like him, and had the ‘power’ too. Then he activated it.” She leaned forward and returned her gaze to Mitch as she leaned on her elbows “A rune activating just feels different, even those people who don’t tap into the natural magic around them can feel when something like that is set off.”
“The people looked rather transfixed when the aura engulfed them.” Mitch nodded along, drumming his fingers along the table.
“He came to me after the event, he grabbed my hands and told me that he wanted me to come back and learn from him to use my powers.” She sighed, shuddering at the idea of him touching her again without consent.
“If you are uncomfortable with this…” Mitch tried to assure, not sure how to find the right words to describe what he wanted to say.
“No, I agreed. I’m too deep into this anyway.” She explained, giving him a rather worried smile “I appreciate the concern though.”
He nodded quietly in response, clenching his fist as the words refused to come to mind. “What happened next?” He asked after a short silence.
“Well when the camera was shut off the party continued. He kept approaching me and trying to take my hand. No matter how many times I refused or moved away he would reach out again.”
“This guy sounds like one hell of a creep… It sucks you have to be the one to deal with him.” He sighed in response, slumping into his chair.
“Well I assume he wouldn’t be this hands on with you or Jasper.” She said with a short laugh and hint of a smile “We can use this creepiness to our advantage.”
“Only if you are okay with being uncomfortable like that.” Mitch quickly responded. “I understand if you wa-”
Lara cut him off this time and said “If I wanted out I would have said it. It is uncomfortable, yes, but it helps us in the long run.”
“Alright..” He grumbled, struggling to accept that she would be okay with this but he had to trust her word.
“Everyone was very quiet during the rest of the party.” She continued, keeping a small smile on her face to ease tension. “Everyone sort of mingled with very little conversation while the interviews went on. He talked to me about coming and joining him in private which I very politely declined.” Judging by how she stated the last point Mitch assumed she was in fact, not very polite about it.
“How did he take the denial?” he asked, he saw the effort she was putting in so he sat upright once more and fixed his posture.
“About as well as he handles anything. Theatrics took over and he strung me a story that my powers should not be wasted.” Charcoal made his way to the top of the table where she would give him pets as she talked. The small kitten curled up on the table by Lara and Mitch couldn’t help but feel a little jealous as the cat seemed to flee whenever he tried to get close.
“I did, however…” Lara continued once she placed a hand on the kitten's head. “Agree to talk with him one on one at the next event that happens.”
“Who knows when that will be…” Mitch replied, clasping his hands together atop the table. “I can’t help but be worried about this. I have friends involved now.”
“They seemed to be having a good time last night, even after what had happened. One of them had basically forced himself to the front row of the viewing.”
You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.
“Shaun.” Mitch laughed weakly, his concern only rising. “He has always been a big fan of the supernatural since even before I met him.”
“Best you keep an eye out then.” She sighed in response.
“I plan to keep them safe.”
Monday morning was a pain as always, not only did he get next to no sleep from spending the night laying in bed talking with Joel and Saoirse over the phone but he was out of energy drinks since he gave the last one he had to Lara yesterday.
Sometimes he wished he could just leave school all together with the work he does for the family. If he lived in Dublin he could have gone to a family specific school that taught normal subjects along with the weekend class course material.
Though if he was up there he wouldn’t have been able to meet Shaun and Emma, along with he would probably have been worked to the bone with the amount of jobs they must have in the capital.
While he approached the lunch table after his morning classes the first thing he would hear was “You look like shit, you okay?” Shaun seemed rather concerned, in his own, blunt way.
“I’m alive.” He chuckled, waving the two down before sitting at the bench and rummaging through his bag for his lunch. “Just stayed up too late last night.”
“Looks like you haven’t slept in weeks.” Emma added, leaning over the table to look at him “I didn’t even know bags could get bags.”
“No need to worry, I assure you” He replied with a large grin across his face “I knew the consequences of staying up late.”
Once the two shared a glance and returned to their lunch of sandwiches and a can of soft drink usually he finally decided to say “So, saw you on the news. What did it feel like?”
Mitch was taken aback at how uncomfortable Shaun looked at the question, he expected him to be more than happy to gush about being right when it came to the legitimacy of the group.
“I don’t even know how to begin to describe the feeling.” Shaun said after a moment's silence, staring at his food. It made sense to Mitch, after all no normal person has ever experienced the flow of magic through them other than the natural amount every living creature passively had.
“Everyone seemed pretty damn convinced on the news that it was real, but it looked pretty fake.” He continued, trying to place any form of a seed of doubt into them so they might abandon this some time soon.
“It was real!” Emma shockingly burst out, looking at Mitch with a gaze that filled him with a form of disappointment. “You were always against this…” He thought, but he couldn’t say that directly to her.
Mitch was rather taken aback by the outburst but nodded at her and held up his hands “Woah, calm down.” He promptly responded “What makes it real?”
“You weren’t there” she said, leaning on the table while the few stares from her outburst slowly turned away.
“What would being there change about it?” he asked. He had gotten used to acting by this point so it was almost second nature to just lie to his friends, something that always made him feel bad but it had to be done.
“When it happened, you could just feel it.” Shaun explained while Emma quietly ate. “That light wasn’t natural… It just ran through your body.”
That was when the case took a suddenly harsh turn for the worst, once again the tacky funeral tone would ring from his friends phones. Though this time, it was more than just two instances of the tone rang; he heard at least three more instances of it coming from around the hall.
His heart suddenly sank and his face ran pale before he turned his attention around the room to others who were currently checking their phones, presumably reading whatever batshit insane message Joseph had posted this time.
Others having the tone wasn’t the only thing about today that would cause alarm as Shaun seemed quite troubled reading the message where he nudged at Emma to show her his screen.
“What's up?” Mitch asked once he turned his attention to them once more. “Can’t say I’ve ever seen you this serious looking.”
“Hey, I look serious sometimes!” Shaun defended himself before he read the post once more and explained “P.Normal wants another meeting, this time he says people are attacking him for showing the truth.”
He turned his phone to show Mitch the screen where the post had a header of “WE ARE IN DANGER!” The body of the text consisted of his usual theatrics and big words that barely even worked in the context he put them in.
The worrying part was near the end of the post where he talked about some attacks being made by the media on his character because of the truth he had brought to light. “People are already trying to claim what we saw as fake, and that I am abusing people's trust in me. Once again the media proves that it works for the highest bidder and works to suppress any information that the government doesn’t want us to know!”
He continued to ramble in circles for some time about the suppression of information before he ended it with “With the recent news and attempts at my character I believe that an attempt on my life will be made like many before me who worked to expose the truth. My death should serve as a message to all those who follow me; Don’t let the truth be suppressed! I am not, and never will be, suicidal!”
“He’s getting radical…” Mitch thought as he struggled to keep a straight face. “Sounds like he is a bit unhinged.” He replied to Shaun after he had finished reading “Not sure how you jump from being called a fraud on TV to there is going to be an assassination attempt on your life.”
“He makes some sense though.” Shaun responded after some time of thought “Anyone who talks like this eventually winds up dead under mysterious circumstances.”
“You can't tell me you believe this!” Mitch almost pleaded with the two in as calm a tone as he could muster. “He is clearly drawing lines with an empty pen.”
The two shared a concerned look for some time before they read the post again. “I feel like he is right Mitch.” Emma timidly replied. “You weren’t there.”
“Oh if I could just tell you…” crossed Mitch’s mind. He knew there was nothing to be said at this point without throwing away everything they had worked for. “This is a conspiracy theory” he replied aloud this time.
With that the bell loudly rang which signalled the end of lunch.
Everyone began to pack up and it was the first time they did not share a goodbye once lunch ended. Mitch shared a sad gaze with them, though it was only for a brief moment before they turned away and returned to class.
It hurt far more than any injury he had sustained on the job to watch his friends walk away in such a sorry state. “Nice one Mitch…” he thought, returning to his own classes.
He was left to wallow in his thoughts until he went back to Jasper's house after school had ended. He couldn’t help but feel that this had now begun to spiral out of control. Joseph had not only the money to do what he wanted, but now he had influence over a group of people.
When he rang the bell he was greeted with the usual response from Jasper. “People always say onions are the only vegetable to make you cry.”
“Not now.” Mitch quickly responded “We have an emergency.”
There was no reply but after a few moments the gate began to open. Once inside he threw his bag to the side aggressively and followed Jasper into the dining room where they took the usual seats. “A message was sent out to the group today.” Mitch began. He had no time to waste now and his attitude showed it.
“Lara told me about it.” Jasper nodded, leaning onto the table “But you knowing about it, means your friends know about it.”
“They seem to believe him.”
Jasper audibly groaned and pinched the ridge of his nose while he thought. “This sounds like the beginning of a real life cult.”
“It certainly is the beginning of one.” Mitch replied, leaning back and staring at the roof thinking back on the faces that they had given him before they left. “From the looks of it, my friends are going to be deep in it.”
“I asked Lara to keep us updated. She will be over to visit soon.”
“What plan of action can we even come up with at this point?” Mitch asked, his mind clouded by more than doubt at the moment. He was scared. Scared for the safety of his friends.
“Get your head out of the clouds” Jasper said sternly, leaning over to shake him slightly “Your worry can be used as a reason to do better, don’t let it be the reason you fail.”
“Alright…” He replied, checking his phone a few moments after where he found there were no new messages in the group chat which was uncommon for them. He spent a moment typing out “Hey, sorry about lunch.” and hit send with a more heavy heart, fearing their response, or lack thereof.
He wanted desperately to just tell them, to type out a whole 5 page essay about why this is a bad idea and why they need to distance themselves from this man. But he also on the other hand knew that if he did tell them they would have their life be essentially forfeit to the family.
Jasper let him silently deal with what he needed to and checked on his documents they had been filling out the last few weeks.
After some time Lara would have arrived and was let into the dining room by Sophia. “Anyone want a mug of tea?” she asked as she held the door open for Lara.
“No thank you, sugar.” Jasper replied, though giving her a warm smile.
She nodded and smiled back before closing the door behind her. “Afternoon guys. I imagine you know about the post, Mitch?” Lara asked as she took her seat, looking exhausted with some bags under her eyes. She put her hand out to scritch at Spooky who had been resting atop the table, but let out a little sad gasp when her fingers sunk through the spirit.
“Yeah, I was there when the message was put out. That’s what I have some troubling news about.” Mitch responded, leaning forward out of his trance to lean on the table.
He needed a moment to clarify how to put this into words. Jasper and Lara watched eagerly to hear what he had to say. “You know that dumb tone it plays when he posts?” He asked which got a nod from the two and a general grunt of acknowledgement “Well, usually I just heard that from Emma and Shaun, but today I heard quite a few other phones in the lunch hall ring out with it. More people are looking at him.”
There was a serious shift in tone as Jasper pulled out a pen to get to writing. “That is very bad news indeed, I thought people were discrediting him.”
“Some would watch him just to see what he does next.” Mitch tried to reason “So not all of them truly believe him.”
Lara looked more concerned than anything “ If he’s growing that makes his latest post even worse.”
“He posted again?” Mitch asked, almost jumping forward in his seat “What did he say?”
“I got a message personally.” she said as she put her phone down, spinning it around to let him read the screen upright.
He hastily leaned in to read the private message which stated “Hello Lara! I hope you do not mind that I send this message, but I remember that you had the potential that I have and I would like to extend my hand to you for some personal training in how to use it. I plan to invite a few who I feel have the potential to come to the hotel close to Carlow this coming week where I will have a private room paid for all guests. I do hope you consider this offer and reply to me when you come to a conclusion!” Completed with a signature of the P.Normal blog “certified” Joseph.
“Invitations to a private event again, does this guy ever know when to quit?” Mitch asked, finding it hard to hide his annoyance at his persistence. “We have to do something before this gets out of hand.”
“One could argue it is already out of control.” Jasper bluntly stated, having taken the phone and was currently reading through the message himself.
“What do you think we should do?” Lara asked, specifically turning her attention to Jasper “I feel I should probably just accept it so I can keep an eye on them.”
“You can't be serious.” Mitch replied “That’s like walking to the lion's den alone!”
“What better option do we have?” Jasper asked once he put the phone down. “We will have someone on the inside, It’s the best way to monitor them.”
“Yeah, but he’s really creepy and this could be actually dangerous.” Mitch responded, looking to Lara in hopes she agreed though she didn’t seem sold.
“I think It’s best I go in.” She added with a half smile of assurance “I will have Jasper here to come get me if anything goes wrong.”
“But I won't even be here to help!” Mitch continued in his argument, having agreed to a week-long study session in Dublin which his parents agreed to and informed the school of his upcoming absence.
“Don’t worry Mitch.” Jasper said confidently “I will be watching over her, and if anything happens I will intervene.”
There was little he could say to that and eventually bit his tongue and sat back “Fine.” he huffed, pouting childishly as he couldn’t help but imagine the awful things that would go on in there.
“Now now, no need to be so upset” Jasper chuckled, toying with his wedding ring once again “You are going to be getting personal training for the family festival, and some time with your cousins. Even you admitted it has been a while since you have seen them.”
“I’ll be sure to keep you updated.” Lara assured him.
“Be sure to change our names on your phone too, just in case they get paranoid.” Jasper added “You’ll need to be prepared to bolt if anything bad starts.”
While they continued to talk plans for how to deal with if anything went wrong Mitch laid his head back against the chair and thought about what he needed to pack and where to go for the week long bootcamp as they could call it. They needed to do it somewhere private due to the nature of what they would be practising.
He checked his phone again while he already felt he was left out of the planning stage since he wasn’t going to be here. There was still no reply within the group with Emma and Shaun but Joel had messaged their group chat with “Any news about where the camp is?”
“No idea, I guess we will get a call or something soon about it.” Mitch quickly typed out and stood up from the table. “Well, if you don't need me I’ll head back home and prepare.”
Jasper simply nodded in his direction and said “We will sort out how to deal with this meeting then. You go and get ready, the camp won’t be easy.”
“Oh I can imagine…” Mitch replied, leaving through the kitchen door.