Mary came over to Emy’s house hoping to get some fashion advice and also to go over the program with her. “I want everything to go as planned,” She kept on saying.

“Sometimes I wonder why you worry so much. Then I realized, you are just programmed that way. First, it’s your dress then the party. Chill, it will go as planned. It has to.” Emy assured. Placing her palms on Mary's while sitting on the bed.

Mary felt a little at ease, she folded the piece of paper and kept it inside her purse. Breaking their conversation was Mrs. Garrick walking into Emy's room.

“Emy, honey, your dad and I will like to see you briefly.” Rebecca voiced “I’m sorry Mary.” She apologized for the interruption.

“It's alright, Mrs. Garrick.” Mary told her, smiling

“Excuse me; I need to help in another fashion disaster. They’ve been all about what to wear to the O’Donnell’s party since morning.” Emy said, laughing so easily.

“I understand, I’ll see you tomorrow.” Mary told her friend "Now, I need to hurry to Andrew's. He messaged me an hour earlier; he requested to see me." Mary got up from the bed and straightened her Green, printed skirt.

"Alright, just be careful, you know it's late." Emy only earned a wide smile from her friend. She gave her a quick hug and saw her through the front door. After waving good night to Mary, she hurried straight into her parent’s room.

“What is so important?” Emy asked crisply as she walked in. She noticed two Fiends standing behind the door when she  stepped in and her parents were seated on the brown leather couch in their bedroom.

Both Fiends acknowledged Emy and one of them reported “The curators has Gabriel’s body”

“Good, that was my plan. If I wanted him dead, I wouldn’t have sent him to the woods, now would i?” she asked rhetorically, making her way to the single brown leather couch opposite the one Rebecca and Gearge sat on.

“But that was not what we talked about.” George argued.

“I don’t know what we talked about, all I know is, we got what we wanted. The key. He has to see how we take over.”

“I believe you still have a soft spot for him.” Rebecca, not mincing her words, asserted.

“True but, that has nothing to do with the plan.” Emy replied convincingly

Rebecca and George fixed their gaze on each other for a while. Rebecca knew that Emy's actions, ignorance or mistake as Rebecca would love to address it, was going to lead to a very risky consequences. Which, if not managed, could ruin decades of planning.

George felt the same way but doing something to prevent such was a better solution. “We need clean blood for the ritual tomorrow.” George said.

“Roe has it taken care of.” Emy smiled. Knowing their fear, she chose to not talk about it.

||****||

“How is he?” Adams asked immediately Wayne Jackson walked out of the room Gabriel was laid.

“He’s as good as dead. All the revival spells we performed on him were nugatory.” He explained hopelessly.

His attention drifted to the sound of footsteps coming towards their direction. He turned to see who it belonged to then saw it was Gem's.

interrupting the gentlemen, she said  “Wayne, please, I’d like to talk with you.”

“Excuse me.” Wayne politely gestured to Adams and walked out of the hallway with Gem.

“What is it?” He asked her as soon as they were alone.

“Something did not feel right at Julie’s house. I know Roe took Gabriel's identity but her husband, something felt wrong about him. I could feel it when he came close to me.” She told him.

“Are you ok? Did he hurt you?” Wayne asked instinctively. He was so protective of Gem and just couldn't help it. His hands rested on her shoulders, spinning her gently to check for any injury. Then, held her jaw to check for any on her neck and face.

“No, no. I'm fine.” She tried to assure him amidst his daddy attitude while putting his hands off her.

Wayne let out a long sigh of relief “Julie might be in trouble.” He said with one hand holding his chin.

“I fear that too.”

“We’ll go there first thing tomorrow.” He promised her.

||****||

Gabriel. landed on his kneel as Luzmi dropped them off from their executive ride.

“I hate it when you do that.” Gabriel whined as he struggled to stand.

“You’ll get used to it.” Luzmi managed a smile.

“Where are we now?”

“Walk with me.” Luzmi announced leading the way.

“Like I have a choice.” Gabriel followed, regardless.

“We are in the underground floor of the TIME museum.” Luzmi informed Gabriel.

“This doesn’t look like the underground of anything, it’s so big.” Gabriel admired, rolling his eyes around to take in the splendor of it rare artistry.

“It’s the Curators Den.”

“I thought we are supposed to be looking for my body, what are we doing here?” Gabriel asked, confused. Never understanding the intentions of the old man.

“Your body was brought here. You should be lucky; you have people that care about you.”

They walked through the hallway. It was all white and gold. the floor was covered with white marble, the railings on the flight of stairs were coated with gold so also was the chandeliers and light holders. Even some antediluvan objects which caught Gabriel's eyes, were also polished gold. Gabriel was lost in the beauty of this place and dared not pretend otherwise.

He stopped at the wall of past leaders of the curators, there were more than a thousand past leaders hung on the wall. “How long have we existed as  curators?” Gab asked, trying to be inclusive enough.

“We?” Luzmi repeated ridiculously “What makes you think you are or were a curator?”

“I don’t know, Julie said you—”

Cutting Gabriel off, “Julie said this, Julie said that, Julie said whatever!” Luzmi yelled “I wish your mother was alive long enough to have taught you the necessary skills.”

“Are you insinuating that Julie lied to me?”

“No I’m saying she didn’t know the whole truth, she only told you what she knew.” Luzmi explained “We existed, even before the curators. We gave the curators a reason to be the keepers of the golden key. After I took the key from the castle, I had to keep it safe so, the first curators were formed. We taught them the skills and bestowed on them the gift they needed to perform their duty.” Luzmi took his gaze from Gabriel to the wall.

Gabriel moved his eyes to the top but didn’t find Luzmi name on the wall.

Just as if Luzmi read his mind, he replied “The curators are the keepers and we are the balance. We have to exist for the world's sake and their job is to make sure we exist. We and the key are one. When you have the staff, it will all come back to you and you will understand your purpose.”

Gabriel made no silly jokes this time. The situation was more dire than he’d imagined.
He turned, only to find Luzmi standing in front of a closed door.

“Hey, what’s in there?” Gabriel asked in a low tone as if anyone would hear if he spoke loud enough.

“It’s a ‘who’ not a ‘what’” He replied. Looking at Gabriel, he added “You are in there. If you go through this door, you will reunite with your body.”

“Will I still be able to see you?” Gabriel asked. In the short time with their travels together, Gabriel had grew a bit attached to the old man and his temper.

“No.” Luzmi puffed “We are from the same body; I’m only a suppressed memory. You don’t have to miss me much, I’m always with you.”

Gabriel smiled. In  as much as he wanted to deny it, he felt less alone in his complicated world with Luzmi at his side. Now, he was more than motivated to find the staff.

“Listen; before you go in, we need to figure out where the staff would be.” Luzmi recommended.

______________________________________

||****||

Words (1371)