The Everborn - Nicholas Grabowsky [129]
If this was the case, the result of such a contrivance, then another factor stood to reason: any other Magdalene could come to her and she could let them in on her little secret. Perhaps she would hold the power to release them to become free and reinstated Watchmaid again, if all they would do was to but come to her and swear their allegiance.
Hey, an army of vengeance-seeking ex-Magdalene nowWatchmaids exempt from the traditional rules....
Under Salvatia’s leadership, they could very well rule the physical world.
What a vision. It took centuries to develop.
And it all depended upon whether or not Simon was in the mood to help her. She could only manipulate his life so much....
It took five years for Simon to ultimately give in to a plan and to make an attempt to follow through with it.
That, and it took five years for his consent to coincide with enough circumstances to make it happen...as usual, at the right place and at the right time....
***
As far as Simon understood it, the plan, on the night of its execution, was supposed to have been this:
He and the creature, which called herself Salvatia were to quietly make an entrance into the Erlandson residence together. Salvatia would simply step through the back door, materialize on the door’s other side, and open it for her cohort. Andrew Erlandson himself was, according to Salvatia’s keen foresight and intuition, guaranteed to be fast asleep beneath his warm and cozy Galactica spaceship squadron bedcovers. His mother and stepfather were to be fast asleep in the master bedroom. Bari, lastly, was suspected to be anywhere.
Salvatia was to subdue Bari in an anticipated confrontation and effort to restrain her long enough for Simon to do Andrew in with a retractable razor...Simon’s weapon of choice; too noisy with a gun...and besides, no one could scream with a slit throat.
The next step in the plan was to do away with Andrew’s mother and stepfather in the same manner, so that for the benefit of the Simon and Salvatia duo no stone was left unturned. There were other reasons, unsaid reasons, why Salvatia insisted on their deaths. Simon presumed that if this was indeed his brother and mother whose lives they were to take, the deaths of everyone in the household would close the door to any emotional curiosities plaguing Simon since day one. Salvatia did not want Simon turning sentimental on her...before, during, or after their dark deed.
Then why did she bother telling Simon that this was his brother and mother in the first place?
Salvatia had always seen to it that Simon would never get close enough to the real truth beforehand and went one step further in making sure his interests were kept to a minimum. This was not to be a family reunion here. It was imperative that Simon retained a physical and emotional distance.
This was all very confusing, even for a young man primed for murder and the supposed unbelievable results to follow. What held Simon in check were those supposed unbelievable results, the unspeakable freedom for both him and the Magdalene afterwards, and they were just enough to numb any embedded desires that a young man would have to uncover the secrets of where he once belonged.
But soon after he entered the house through the rear doorway and emerged quietly into the kitchen, making his way into the nebulous shadows of the expanse of living room, a deep familiarity struck him.
He’d been here before.
He withdrew a penlight from his jacket pocket and clicked the button that turned it on. Its beam was bright but narrow. Simon flashed it upon the fluffy red and green pillows of a couch and a love seat, upon a wooden coffee table he was inches away from knocking against