TAKING SIDES

1.

August 1st, 2018.

Early evening and Majella Smith has arrived at a house she has never been to before. In her left hand is a piece of paper with an address written upon it. She already knows she has arrived at the right place though she checks the address on the paper against the GPS on her phone and indeed they match.

The house, a typical no-go zone that one should not go to once requested to come under mysterious circumstances. It more than looks to be the place someone would be lured to, the place to be taken out to by a movie quality bad guy. It is the one place you shouldn't go to yet here she is ... and she has come alone.

A battle is coming, the newest round of battles in the war to start and end all wars. Born of Darkness and unwilling to comply leaves room for only one-way forwards and ever since the Ball Majella had been lax about moving forward, she has been lax with reason and remains so for the weeks to come but in this moment, she has some time to at least go investigate on some level and this is what has brought her to where she currently is, that plus a delivery of a hand written note. As it is in this moment, it has been one week since that Ball took place.

Her hopes or rather reserved expectation is to possibly speak with someone by the name David Roux. He apparently is an older brother of fellow daughter of Darkness, Ruby Roux. This David Roux may or may not have answers for Majella; he may have thoughts or suggestions as to what she can do with moving forwards in life from here on in. Whatever comes, can it be expected? Can it be trusted?

This could very well be some sort of trap too and seeing this building from the outside certainly has her thinking this way. How far can she trust her non-blood sisters? How strong is the blood relationship of a brother and sister? Should Majella have come here alone? Is her life possibly in danger? Such a thought could be dismissed given her circumstances, taking such for granted can be where the biggest mistakes lay waiting.

Majella has an ability to see harm coming in others, harm that may just be pain or harm that could go from a permanent injury or harm as serious as death. The harm could be imminent, it could be far off. She does not need to be in the presence of the recipient, nor does she need to know the recipient, visions of pain, disability and death have always come to her. She can choose to forewarn that recipient with whom she knows is in danger or she can choose to do nothing. It is completely at her discretion so long as she is in a position to connect.

Sometimes there is a compulsion to help as there had been with boxer Paul Malone and Majella has no qualms about that. She, however, will not always be forewarned of incoming pain in others and she cannot control within whom she can see it either.

The most unfortunate part perhaps of her gift is that she cannot foresee her own future pain so if she were to be in trouble, if she is about to walk herself into danger then she has no unnaturally heightened alarm system to tell her to turn around and walk away. Of course, she could always just do that, turn around and walk away but in doing this she could be walking away from information she could possibly use to her advantage.

This building she has come to, it is clear, even from the outside, that it is run down. It is in a poor state, and to think that someone may live here? Maybe there isn't anyone living here, maybe there is, Majella has already knocked upon the front door before she becomes fully aware of the poor condition the door is in. The knock on its own too has an impact. The door is not locked and if it were then it could easily be opened without a key.

The framework is weak and splintered. Insects, possibly termites, begin to show themselves and quickly begin to spread right across the door and frame. Majella takes a step back and briefly considers another route into the house. No one is going to answer her knock, she is fairly sure of that and if there are answers to be gained then she cannot simply walk away.

Having knocked on that door, a slight gap has opened but not enough of a gap to move through to gain access to the inside. Insects, termites or other, are not going to deter her from moving inside. A slight push and in she goes, past those front door termites.

'Hello' she calls out expecting someone to be here, most likely David Roux, if there is no one around to answer a reply then why is Majella here?

If the Ball was an outing of sorts, which in fact was the actual purpose of the event or part of the purpose at least, then being here in this place apparently on her own, is in a way the opposite of an outing. And if this place for some reason were to become a prison, then that would hinder a heck of a lot. If there is one person who may be in the middle of everything that is then that would be Majella whether she would want that or not, she is born of evil with a purpose of her own choosing in life to go against said evil.

Take Majella out of the equation and you may destroy Light's greatest asset, but you also destroy, to some degree at least, the Devil's best laid plans, his best opportunity to date for victory. So luring Majella to a place by herself with an intention of doing her harm will do nothing for no one other than those who enjoy observing the infliction of pain in others but then again ... nothing is for nothing's sake.

'Hello' she calls out again having moved further into this decrepit building she has come into, still there is no reply.

Decrepit as a word for this place is a nicety. It is dark, dank, dull and horrid in here. Electricity possibly hasn't passed through anything in this building in quite some time and most likely would not be functional in any way in this house in its current condition.

The smell within this place is a rancid one; it emanates from the ground or even bellow the ground. The smell is one of death and there are bugs here of all sorts covering almost every square inch of the place, many are feeding on death, rodents and the likes feeding on the corpses of a couple of cats and even a dog, a rather large one at that.

The sight of the dog being fed upon makes Majella dry heave and brings about thoughts of a boy named Arthur Billingsworth. He can't be here, can he? Is he still stalking her? Majella certainly hopes not. He caused her enough grief in the past. Despite whatever thoughts come and whatever shape this place happens to be in she doesn't leave. At that too, she wants something to happen, she'd rather not have come here only for what she has already seen. She wants answers and wants them badly enough she may be willing to experience some amount of pain to get those answers.

'I can't allow you to kill her ...' a male voice soon speaks from a position hidden in shadow.

Majella turns then takes a step backwards and away from the owner of that voice ... 'excuse me?'

'That's to be the solution, isn't it?'

'A solution to what?'

'Really? You must have been considering it. You want to fight your father ... how do think you will be successful? By throwing a party of your own ... huh?'

'Are you David?'

'Yes ...'

'Why have you led me here? You cannot kill me ... you must know this.'

'So, you have been giving it some thought?'

'Of course, ...'

'I ... am not here to harm you but to make a promise. My sister, no matter what she has become, is and always will be my sister. I will defend her to my own detriment if necessary.'

Majella does not know how to respond to this. David, having not come into full view, steps back further into shadow and darkness but before he is to depart, he has one more thing to say.

'You can do the one thing that will ensure your own victory ... give in and follow Darkness himself.'

'Never' Majella replies needing no time to think about a response.

'Good. In one way I hoped you would respond like this but in another ... I am not of Darkness, despite my current use of shadow; I will not do his bidding ... still ... I do have a sister. I am responsible for her and I will protect her the best I can ...'